Monday, January 31, 2011

Key to My Heart and Better Get Better!

Happy Monday! I cannot believe that it is the last day of January! We've had so much time off from school because of snow that this month went by in the blink of an eye! February isn't looking much better weather wise either. We are expecting at least two feet of the fluffery stuff starting tomorrow morning! TWO more FEET! ACK! Good thing I'm not the one that does most of the shoveling...lol!

I have two cards to share with you today. I needed another Valentine card so I decided to try the My Favorite Things Recipe for Love Guest Designer contest again. You can find all of the details here. I started off with the MFT a' la mode set called Key to My Heart. This sweetie is colored up with Copic Markers (E000, E00, E11, E25, E29, E40, R20, R30, R32, R35, Y21, and Y26) and then I sewed on a panel of Papertrey Ink Berry Sorbet. To follow the recipe, I used Quite Contrary paper from My Mind's Eye for the one patterned paper, Berry Sorbet and Aqua Mist for the two card stock colors, and my three embellishments are Berry Sorbet Ribbon and Buttons and a little key charm that I found in my stash. I also added a piece of Berry Sorbet that I ran through my 'Bug with the MFT Die-namics Little Open Scallop Strip die on the bottom of the patterned paper. A little paper piercing on the top and the bottom of the card finishes this Valentine off.

My next card follows the My Favorite Things sketch from last Wednesday. You can find the sketch and all of the details about playing along right here. This time I used one of my Pure Innocence stamps from MFT. This precious little one and the sentiment are from the Better Get Better set. She is colored up with Copic Markers (C3, E000, E00, E11, E33, E35, E37, G20, G21, R20, R81, R83, and R85) and then cut out and then added to an embossed circle of Stampin' Up's Pink Pirourette. I then layered that onto a piece of Chocolate Chip that I ran through my 'Bug with the MFT Die-namics Dainty Lace Doily Die. The patterned paper is from Memory Box and I sewed that panel onto a layer of Chocolate Chip and then attached that to a Pink Pirourette card base. The chocolate satin ribbon is from Michaels. This card is for our school nurse. She is having some neck and back troubles, so I thought that this might help her feel a little bit better.

Thank you so much for visiting with me today. Enjoy the rest of your evening and try to stay warm...Toodles! :D

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Love You With All My Heart

Good Morning Friends! My card for today is for the My Favorite Things Guest Designer Contest. If you'd like to play along too, you can find all of the details here. The theme this month is called A Recipe for Love. The challenge is to make a card or project fitting the following recipe...use a Valentine's theme (check), use One Patterned Paper (check), Two Card Stock Colors (check, check), and Three Embellishments (check, check, check). Here are all of the ingredients that I used for my creation. I started off with the MFT stamp set called Love You With All My Heart. This little Valentine girl is colored up with Copic Markers (BG11, BG13, BG18, E000, E00, E11, E25, E27, E29, R20, R27, R29, and R39). The one patterned paper that I used was from the Alphabet Soup collection for girls by My Mind's Eye. The two card stock colors are from Papertrey Ink (Aqua Mist and Pure Poppy) and the three embellishments that I used were red grosgrain ribbon, a PTI button, and some Baker's Twine. I wasn't sure if the little heart that I made with my Hearts a Plenty Die-namics counted as an embellishment or not, but I added it anyway. The circle and scalloped circle were made with my Nesties and I added some zig zag stitching around the circle to give it a little bit of extra interest.

Thank you for taking the time to stop by for a visit. I hope that you are enjoying your weekend. I'll be back tomorrow to share my card for the My Favorite Things sketch. See you then...Toodles! :D

Friday, January 28, 2011

Best wishes on your Birthday!

Happy Friday Friends! As I promised yesterday, I'm back today with this week's Blogger's Challenge (Birthday theme) and I also used some of my forgetten stamps for Forgotten Stamp Friday. If you'd like to play along too, you can just click on the challenge links above.

This is actually a CASE of a card that my wonderful friend Clara made. You can find her card here. The flower stamp is from the Peeking Posies set from Hero Arts. It is a favorite of mine and one of the first stamp sets that I bought when I started stamping. I fell in love with the set when Trudee Sauer would create such beautiful cards with it. I haven't used it in forever though. The sentiment is from Elzybells (sadly, they are out of business). I purchased this stamp over the summer and was thrilled to get some ink on it. The flower is colored up with Copic Markers (G21, G82, R22, R24, Y21, and Y32) and I added some Star Dust Stickles to make it sparkle. The image is paired up with Stampin' Up's Cameo Coral, Certainly Celery, and some retired SU designer paper. The yellow polka dotted paper is from Bo-Bunny. The buttons were made with the SU Button die in Cameo Coral. (I really like everything to match...lol!)

Thanks so much for visiting with me today! Stay warm...Toodles!

Thursday, January 27, 2011

You Warm My Heart

Hello Friends! It's another snowy day here in New England! "No School" for us today! I've been doing some cleaning and organizing. It's always fun to find things that you forgot you had or misplaced. Today's treasures included a spool of American Crafts ribbon and some patterned paper that I had picked up at Target (K&Company's Happy Holiday) awhile back. I decided to take a little break from the cleaning to put these finds to good use and this is what I came up with.

One of the Tuesday Challenges from The Cat's Pajamas Rubber Stamps this month is to use a TCP stamp that has a heart or the word love on it. You can find all of the details here. I just LOVE this Big Bear stamp from their holiday release and I thought that he would be great to use for any of the winter months. I gave him a scarf made from a piece of the ribbon that I found and I think that he works perfectly with the sentiment from the Like You a Latte set. I seem to have caught the "Must Sew on My Card" sickness...lol! So, I did some zig zag stitches everywhere that I could and I used the TCP Icing CutUps on the pink strip on the bottom. I love how you can change the look of this die cut just by turning it around.

It's time to finish cleaning and my little one is ready to head back out in the snow which means that I'm going out too! I'll be back tomorrow with this week's Blogger's Challenge and Forgotten Stamp Friday. Thanks so much for stopping by for a visit! Stay warm and toasty...Toodles! :D

Monday, January 24, 2011

Peek-a-Boo!

Hello Friends! I told you that I'd be back today. Hope that you had a wonderful Monday! It is quite cold here in New England, but it was still a great day. I was able to finally finish up my card for the My Favorite Things Wednesday Stamp Club. You can find the sketch and all of the details over on the MFT blog. The link is here. My image and sentiment are from the MFT Peek-a-Boo set. (Thanks for letting me borrow her Linda. She is so sweet!) She is colored up with Copic Markers (E000, E00, E11, E25, E29, E40, R20, R22, and R24) and her dress is paper pieced. All of the patterned papers on this card are from the Alphabet Soup girls collection from My Mind's Eye. I sewed all of the layers together and I added a little heart shape that I made with my MFT Hearts A Plenty Die-namic. A few Papertrey Ink buttons finish up this one. Thanks so much for visiting with me tonight...Toodles! :D

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Enjoy the Ride!

Happy Sunday Friends! I'm a little late for Friday's Blogger's Challenge (Patterned Paper) and Jessie's Forgotten Stamp Friday challenge, but now that we have finished digging out from last Friday's snow storm, here's my post. My forgotten stamp is this delightful little rabbit and his scooter from The Cat's Pajama's. The set is called Joyride and you can find it here. I've colored my image up with Copic Markers (C0, C1, C3, C5, C7, E31, E33, R27, R29, Y11, Y21, Y35 and the Colorless Blender.) All of the patterned papers are from the Thrift Shop collection from October Afternoon. If fact these colors are from this past Tuesday's TCP Color Challenge (Red, Black, Kraft and/or White, and Yellow.) You can find all of the details about this challenge right here on Alma's Blog. Along with my TCP stamps, I used one of the TCP CutUps called Icing. (I can't seem to find it on the TCP site at the moment, but I'm sure that it'll be back soon.) Instead of using the end of the die cut with all of the icing loops, I turned it around and showed the end with the open scallops. I LOVE the different looks! The layers are sewed to pieces of black and then mounted to a square, kraft card base. My layout is from Jen Del Muro's January Sketch For You To Try. You can find her sketch right here. Now, if you'd like to play along with any of these challenges, you have all of the links. If you would like to play along with this week's Blogger's Challenge, you can add your link to the blog hop on Lisa's blog here. Thanks so very much for stopping by for a visit. I'll see you tomorrow...Toodles! :D

Saturday, January 15, 2011

My Morning With Joanne Basile!

I have had a splendid day! This morning, I went to Right at Home Scrapbooking to take another class with the FABULOUS Joanne Basile. I took one of her classes a couple of months ago and had such a good time. I learned quite a few things too, so I couldn't wait for today's class. Miraculously, it didn't snow...lol! It almost always snows when I sign up to do anything crafty, but this time the weather was great, except for being cold. I thought that I'd share what we made today. All of the Die-namics die cuts and stamps are from My Favorite Things. This first card has My Mind's Eye papers and Joanne was sweet enough to sew the border around the main layer for all of us ahead of time! Didn't I tell you she was FABULOUS!


This card uses papers from The Girl's Paperie. Joanne doesn't mind if we change things up a little bit, so for this card, I used the green polka dotted side of the paper instead of the red brocade side. I LOVE the extra little punch of color.

Here is the last card that we made. This image is so delightful and I even gave this little one blond hair! I'm a brunette so I usually give the little girls that I stamp brown hair unless I know that the card is going to someone blond or a red head. I changed this card up a bit as well. The felt scalloped strip was supposed to go vertically on the left hand side of the card, but then I tried it in the middle of the card horizontally, and well that is where it stayed! I added the button when I got home to go with all of that glorious glitter on the heart.


I hope that you enjoyed your day and were able to have some fun too! Thanks so much for visiting with me! Enjoy the rest of the long weekend...Toodles! :D

Friday, January 14, 2011

It's Friday!


Today's card is for this week's Blogger's Challenge (it's a sketch). I really think that Jessica's idea for "Forgotten Stamp Friday" is fantastic, so I found a stamp that is at least six month's old so that I could combine the two. Here is a picture of the sketch if you'd like to give it a try as well.

I started off with my "Forgotten Stamp". Her name is Rosie Posy and she is from Lili of the Valley. You can find her right here. Like my other LOTV stamps, she arrived last March in my birthday package to myself. Sadly, she has never seen ink. That is, until now! I paired this little sweetie with some Quite Contrary papers from My Mind's Eye. (Thanks Joanne! I just had to pull out my papers after I saw you use some of yours. You can see Joanne's darling creation here.) Her vest is paper pieced and she is colored up with Copic Markers (BG000, E000, E11, E25, E27, R20, R81, R83, R85, Y32, Y35, YG63, YG67, and the Colorless Blender.) The Pink Pirouette panel was embossed in my Cuttlebug with my Swiss Dots embossing folder. All of the panels were layered with black. Then I added some Star Dust Stickles to her bouquet, a Papertrey Ink black button. and some Baker's Twine from Niki's etsy shop to finish this one up.

Thanks so much for stopping by for a visit today! I'm really looking forward to tomorrow. I'm fortunate enough to be heading to Right at Home Scrapbooking for another fabulous class with Joanne Basile! I had such a good time at Joanne's last class. I'm sure that this one will be just as wonderful! Enjoy your weekend...Toodles! :D

ETA: We are trying something new over at the Blogger's Challenge. If you would like to play along with our challenge, you may link your creation below and you'll also get to see what everyone else has come up with. Hope that you can join in the fun! :D


Wednesday, January 12, 2011

It's a Snow Day!

Now, you are probably looking at my card and thinking, "Alright Kimberly...where's the snow? I don't see any snow on this card!" I'm not going completely bonkers. All of the snow is outside (almost two feet of the fluffery stuff)! My banner from this post did the trick, and we had our first snow day off from school!!

My card is for today's My Favorite Things Wednesday Stamp Club. It is now a sketch challenge each week. You can find the sketch and all of the details here. It was nice to do the challenge on the actual day that it was posted! My main image is one of the My Favorite Thing a' la modes. You can find her right here. (She is even in stock!!) I colored her up with my Copic Markers (B0000, B41, B45, C3, E000, E11, E33, E35, and E40) and paper pieced the cake. All of the patterned papers are from Melissa Frances' Kitschy Kitchen collection. The Pear Pizazz paper and ribbon are from Stampin' Up. I had so much fun with my sewing machine today. I even sewed on the half circle (insert shocked face!!) I keep practicing, and it is so nice (or shall I say "sew nice"...lol) when it turns out the way that I envision it! My sentiment flag was made with my die from Lil' Inker Designs. The buttons are from my stash and the green Baker's Twine is from Niki Estes' etsy shop. I added some Stardust Stickles to the frosting on the cake to finish this one off.

My little one has just come in from making a snow fort with Daddy and is looking for some hot chocolate. I'm off to take care of that request and to check on my pot of homemade chicken noodle soup. Thanks so much for visiting. Stay safe and warm...Toodles! :D

Sunday, January 9, 2011

I Love You With All My Heart

Happy Sunday Everyone! I hope that you had a wonderful weekend. It was a fun day of card making here. Last weekend, I spent some time with my friend Linda and she let me use her new Pure Innocence set from My Favorite Things. It is called, "Love You With All My Heart". It seems to be out of stock at the moment, but I'm sure that it will be available again very soon. And speaking of My Favorite Things, have you seen how they're changing things up for their Wednesday Stamp Club? They are still going to have a $15 prize for new MFT goodies each week, but the challenge each week will be a sketch. How exciting is that! You can find the sketch and all of the other details here.

My sweet little girl is colored with Copic Markers (BG000, BG10, BG72, E000, E11, E25, E27, E40, E53, and R20) and her dress and heart are paper pieced with some Tickled Pink papers from My Favorite Things. In fact, all of the printed papers are from that collection. The scallops were made with the MFT Jumbo Scallop Die-namic and all of the layers were sewed together with my Janome Sew Mini. The ovals were made with my Nesties. I added some buttons and string for my finishing touches.

Thanks so much for stopping by for visit! Have a Happy Monday...Toodles! :D

Friday, January 7, 2011

A Few Challenges Rolled into One!

Happy Friday! I combined a few challenges for today's card. I started with Jen Del Muro's Sketch For You to Try. You can find Jen's creation and the sketch right here. This week's Blogger's Challenge is a color challenge (Brown, Green, and Yellow). You can find a list of the players here. Then I came across another challenge during my blog hopping travels. Jessica Rone has a new challenge over on her blog on Fridays called, "Forgotten Stamp Friday". Basically, you find a stamp that you haven't used in the past six months and give it a little love. What a great idea! You can find all of the details for that challenge here.

So here is my sweet bear from Lili of the Valley. I bought it last March as a birthday gift to myself and I used it last April. When I saw this week's Blogger's Challenge colors, I thought of this fuzzy little guy and his huge flower. He is colored up with Copic Markers (B21, B23, E29, E33, E35, E37, R29, Y21, Y35, YG63, and YG67). I paired him up with a green layer of October Afternoon paper, a piece of yellow Cosmo Cricket paper, and some Stampin' Up Chocolate Chip paper. My sewing machine was also used on each layer. The sentiment is from the Pure Innocence Flurry of Love set from My Favorite Things. (It seems to be out of stock at the moment.) To make the sentiment flag, I used my new die from Lil' Inker Designs. Oh me, oh my!!! I love this thing! Thanks so much Laura! It is wonderful to work with! The button is from my stash and I added a double thread of Chocolate Baker's Twine to finish this one up.

Thanks so much for visiting with me! I'm in the midst of cleaning up my stamping room, but I should be back with another creation this weekend. See you then...Toodles! :D

Sunday, January 2, 2011

It's a Banner Year!

Happy New Year everyone! Here it is...the last night of our holiday break from school! It will be fun to head back to school tomorrow to see all of my students and colleagues, but it is always nice to have some time off. Our next day off will be when we get some of the white fluffery stuff... something that my whole family enjoys. In fact, we were fortunate to spend this vacation enjoying some ice skating, snow shoeing, and sledding. Now you can see where my inspiration for the banner came from. When I saw the My Favorite Things Guest Designer Challenge was called "It's a Banner Year", I decided to give it a try and make one. You can find all of the details about the MFT contest here. This was a lot of fun to make and something that I think I'll do for each season. (Please click on the photographs for a better view.) Our home doesn't have a fireplace mantle to hang the banner on, so I thought that the hutch in the dinning room would work well. Here is a close up shot so you can see all of the wintery details.

The banner is made from some Bo Bunny polka dotted paper that I cut into circles with my Nesties. Each circle with a letter (Tag Sale Alphabet for the Cuttlebug) has a MFT Jumbo Ric Rac Die-namic strip of Certainly Celery and some MFT Die-namic snowflakes (out of stock at the moment) that I added some buttons and Baker's Twine to. My darling image is from My Favorite Things. It is called Wyatt Just Chillin' and it's colored up with Copic Markers (BG000, BG72, BG78, C3, C5, E000, E11, E35, R20, R29, and Black). The snowflakes and pompoms on the hats have some Star Dust Stickles to make everything sparkle. I used some wide red grosgrain ribbon to hold the banner pieces together. There you have it...my very first banner. I hope you like it! Thanks so much for stopping in for a visit tonight...Toodles! :D