Inky Button - Ink Along With Me

3 French Hens?

Good Afternoon Sistahs!

I can't believe it's almost December!  Seriously!  I have been so incredibly busy with school that November just slipped right on by me.  I know I usually only post in the mornings, but I finally got settled enough to stamp today, so I'm posting my creation.  Over at The Planet they are hosting the 12 Days of Christmas, and today is Day 3.  Three French Hens.  Well, I don't have hens, but I do have chicks, so I decided to draw little berets on them and call them French.  *giggle

I had to keep it simple since I have a mountain of laundry to finish from our Thanksgiving in the mountains.  What to you think?  You likey?  If you have the time, you should BLOP on over to The Planet and play along! If you want your card to be displayed with the others, be sure to use the tag 12day3.  (Just like that, lowercase letters and no spaces.)

Don't Forget!  Tomorrow is Kitchen Sink Day!!  I have another super simple card to show you.  

Happy Stampin'

On The First Day of Christmas...

Good Morning Sistahs!

...my true love gave to me: A Partridge In A Pear TREE.  Yep, that's the theme today over at Papercraft Planet.  Kitchen Sink is hosting Day 1 of the 12 Days of Christmas Festivities.  Your challenge, (and mine,) is to create a card using a TREE.  Well, there isn't a Kitchen Sink Tree Set per se, so I had to think outside the box and this is what I came up with...

That's right sistahs, a tree o'bells.  And what glorious bells they are.  IMHO *giggle.  I love a challenge like this, especially because it shows the versatility of Kitchen Sink Stamps.  I mean seriously, did you ever imagine that you had a tree right in front of you, hiding in the 3-Step Bells set? 

So here's the deal, play along with us because you can win some fabulous prizes.  There are 12 Whole Days of prizes, so the more you play, the better your chances are of winning.  So pop on over to Paper Craft Planet and check out all the fun!!  

Don't forget to see what all the rest of the Fabulous Kitchen Sink Crew has created:

Maria Colosimo

Nicole Cooke

Tammy Hershberger

Dee Jackson

Julie Masse

Lynn McAuley

Lori Tecler

Happy Stampin'

Kitchen Sink Crew Challenge #2

Good Morning Sistahs!

Happy Monday everyone!  I am SO EXCITED to host the Kitchen Sink Challenge this week!  I love playing with inspiration challenges, and so this week I decided to find a *kitchen* for the Kitchen.  And did I managed to find one gorgeous kitchen!  I was Blopping around and found myself on Elsie Flannigan's Blog.  Now, I'm not a scrapbooker at all, but I absolutely LOVE visiting her blog.  I love her sense of style, and choice of colors.  Anyway, as I was there, she had the most gorgeous kitchen posted on her blog for that day.  I followed the link from the photo to her friend Rachel Denbow's Blog and had to get permission to use her photo. After receiving her permission to post, I was so excited to use her kitchen as inspiration for today's challenge.  So my friends, without further ado, I give you the:

*Kitchen for the Kitchen Challenge*

 

Isn't it delish?! I mean seriously.  These colors are fabulous!  I fell in love with the colors, but also love all the textures, patterns, and clean, simple lines of it all.  How could one not be inspired?!?

Here's the challenge:

Use this photo to inspire you to create a card, an altered item, anything your heart desires!

Once you've created your piece, post a link to your art on our group page over at Paper Craft Planet on the Kitchen Sink Challenge #2 thread.

You don't have to use Kitchen Sink Stamps, but if you do, you can be entered into the What's Cookin' Contest to win fabulous prizes.

It's that simple!

Here's my take on the challenge: (click the photo for a larger view)

Can you tell what inspired me?   

In the event that you might want MORE inspiration, check out more of Rachel's beautiful photos on flickr. (She has an etsy shop too.)

Don't forge to check out all the other creations by our AMAZING Crew!

Maria Colosimo

Nicole Cooke

Tammy Hershberger

Dee Jackson

Julie Masse

Lynn McAuley

Lori Tecler

I hope you have been as inspired as I was, and I can't wait to see what you create.

Happy Stampin'

Keep It Simple

Good Morning Sistahs!

Yesterday was day two of my 29 Days of Giving Challenge, and I must say I'm enjoying myself!  The teacher I normally work with went with his family to Mexico for their Thanksgiving Holiday leaving me with one of our favorite substitute teachers.  Well, I decided I would buy her a breakfast bagel from Einstein Bagels and surprise her.  Unfortunately she had already eaten, so she asked me to give it to someone else.  So I walked down the hall to the art/gym teacher's room and surprised him with breakfast.  He's such a wonderful guy who always offers to bring back lunch for me when he ventures out.  What a wonderful way to surprise him.  He's so nice he even offered to share half of it with me.  Wonderful!

Now, onto the good stuff.  Here's a card I created with the girls for stamp club.  We kept this one nice and simple.

The girls loved popping up the frosting on dimensionals, and adding the stickles to the sprinkles.  I was a little sad to see the Soft Sky retire, but I love the way it looks with pink.

I'm off to play with Taylor's Cupcake Challenge, and Amy R's Friday Sketch Challenge.  I'm also preparing for my very own challenge for Monday Morning Kitchen Sink Day!  You are going to love it!

Happy Stampin'

I've committed myself!

Good Morning Sistahs, 

Yes, it's true, I've committed myself.  To the 29 Days of Gift Giving Challenge!  For those of you who know me, you know I love to put peace and love out into the world, because I am a firm believer that what you put out into the world comes back to you 10-fold.  So this is the perfect challenge for me.  It's not the giving that I'm going to find challenging, but the 29 consecutive days part that might be tricky.  I contemplated starting a separate blog for the challenge, but for right now, I think I'm going to keep it here.  There are so many things that I make, that just sit around waiting to be mailed, or given, or even stamped for that matter, that I feel that this will be a good sounding board.

My Stampin' Sistah Pheebs turned me onto the Challenge.  I was the lucky recipient of her first gift.  What was it you ask?  Why....rubbah of course.  She was so kind as to give me the Ronald McDonald set from the Fall/Winter Stampin' Up! Catalog.  When she told me about her 29 day challenge I knew I wanted to play along.

I signed up late Wednesday night, and decided my giving would officially begin on Thursday.  I went to sleep feeling all the excitement in the world, wondering what I was going to do for my first gift, and who was going to be my first recipient.  Thursday would surely be a great day!

DAY 1

So, I woke up Thursday morning and got ready for work.  As I was opening the garage door to go out to start my car, I was a little startled to see that there was a thick layer of ice on my car windshield.  This of course is never a good thing because I usually only leave myself enough time to get in the car and go, I didn't budget for some heavy-duty ice scraping.  So, I started the car so the defroster could do it's thing while I was trying to scrape my windows.  Well, my loving son, didn't want me to scrape so he grabbed the scraper from the back and started de-icing my windows.  Isn't he a doll?  Well, I was waiting, I realized my hubby was running a little behind too, and decided I would start his car for him, and scrape his windows so he wouldn't have to.  I ran into the house, grabbed the spare keys, started the car, and started scraping.  Not only were his windows nice and clear, but his car was nice and toasty too.  Only after I got into my own car did I realize that I had already given a gift for the day and it wasn't even 7:00 am.  Isn't that awesome?!?!  It was such a beautiful way to start my day!  I had such a super wonderful feeling that I carried with me all day.

Since I've decided to post my giving here, I would feel horrible if I didn't share some cards with you too.  So here is my card for the day:

The sentiment isn't as far to the right as I would have liked for it to have been, but I love it anyway.  Amy Rysavy's Friday Sketch challenge was to create a one layer card using any embellishments you wanted.  This is what I came up with.  Something nice and simple with not too much fuss.  Waddaya think? I think I'm going to have to mass produce these puppies. *wink

Thanks for listening to all my babble, and if you would like to join me on this new gift giving adventure, please do so!  I have a feeling that you'll begin to notice all the wonderful things you are putting into the world, and that your blessings will become more evident.

Happy Stampin' & Giving, 

Why do we Blurf?

Good Morning Sistahs!

Today is just a random day for me.  I've been busy working on some fun projects, but nothing I can share just yet.  So in the mean time, I'll post what I can, and share some random thoughts with you.  *wink

So I was talking with my BFF Dars, and I was asking why it's called Blurfing?!  I mean, I understand, Blog + Surfing = Blurfing.  But, to me it sounds like something a cat does when it's coughing up a hair ball, or the noises my dog makes when he's chasing rabbits in his sleep.  So with a little bit of thought, and a captive audience, I am beginning my movement of no longer Blurfing, and instead, I'd like to introduce to you: BLOPPING!  It sounds so happy, so jolly, so lively!  Let's BLOP!  Can you hear the song?  Let's BLOP again, like we did last summer!  Let's BLOP again, like we did last year.  Okay, I can admit it, I'm getting carried away.  *giggle  When I get home and I'm trying to catch up on all the blogs I LOVE, I don't say I'm going to surf on over to Nicole's Blog, I say," I'm gonna HOP on over and check out what's going on."  Whadda think?  Think it'll catch on?  

Okay, enough of my random thoughts, here's another card I made for Taylor's Challenge.  It's not my favorite, but it's not my least favorite so I thought I'd share it with you anyway.  

Can you tell which color combo is my favorite?  I'm such a sucker for the Aqua and Red these days.  Fear not, I'm sure Chocolate will be back in order soon.  

Thanks for reading my babble!  I hope you all have a fabulously fun Thursday.

Oh, and I've started something new, I can't wait to tell you all about it tomorrow!

Happy Stampin'

Kitchen Sink Day!

Good Morning Sistahs!

It's Monday!  And do you know what that means?  That's right, it's Kitchen Sink Day!  And what a beautiful day it is.  I have actually spent most of my weekend hanging out with family, friends and stamping.  It feels like forever since I've played along with Taylor's Cupcake Challenge, so I decided that I wanted to celebrate Kitchen Sink Day by using Taylor's Cupcake Sketch.  

I have to start off by telling you, that this set is probably one of my favorite, absolutely must-have sets.  I am loving every single stamp and the images that you create are hands-down the best.  So if you're looking for a fabulous new set, head on over to Kitchen Sink Stamps and buy 3-Step Holly & Mistletoe.  

Here's my interpretation of Taylor's Sketch using my fav stamps:

The inside says..."for holiday smooches!"  Isn't that adorable?  I mean seriously! And doesn't that bow look so flippin' real!!  I LOVE IT!  

I loved playing along with this challenge and feel a little more like myself.  I made another card using this sketch, but this one is by far my favorite.

Now that you've seen my creation, head on over and see the fab projects the rest of the crew has created! 

Maria Colosimo

Nicole Cooke

Tammy Hershberger

Julie Masse

Lynn McAuley

Lori Tecler

Oh, and be sure you come on back next Monday, because I'm hosting our next challenge!  It's a fun one, you won't want to miss!

'Tis The Season Recipe

Stamps: Kitchen Sink: 3-Step Holly & Mistletoe

Paper: SU!: Soft Sky, Whisper White & PTI: Pure Poppy

Ink: Holly - 1. Certainly Celery 2. Garden Green 3. Handsome Hunter

Mistletoe - 1. Soft Sky 2. Certainly Celery 3. Wild Wasabi

Sentiment - Pure Poppy

Accessories: Rhinestones, Glossy Accents, Foam Squares, D'vine Swirls CB Folder, SU! Ticket Corner Punch

Happy Stampin'

Kitchen Sink Crew Challenge #1

Good Morning Sistahs!

Today is the first of the Kitchen Sink Crew Challenges!  Every two weeks a different Crew Member will post a new challenge!  This week is Maria's (the Queen of the Kitchen) week, and her challenge is:

*Silver & Gold*

The first think that popped into my head when I heard the challenge was the song from the Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer TV show that is always on during the holiday season.  "Silver and Gold, Silver and Gold."  (and then I don't know any of the other words.)  Anyway, I knew I was going to use the new 3-Step Bells set because I always see bells in both silver and gold!  Now, here comes the hard part...picking a card to make.  Well, I was rummaging through my craft room, (heaven forbid I actually clean it,) and I found the nugget tin I had ordered about 6 months ago and decided I was going to use the tin for this challenge.  (I know, I NEVER use items like this and here I am two weeks in a row and not a card to be made with these new fabulous sets.)  So please forgive me, I promise to have a card next week.  Take a peek at my project and let me know what you think!

 

So here's the story about this project, (because there's always a story right?!?!)  I had the hardest time deciding which papers to use for these darn nuggets.  I have some fabulous sparkly red adhesive paper and then...nothing.  I had nothing to go with it.  Then I found out that the store that is near me stopped carrying some of the other papers I wanted, then they were also out of the other colors of sparkly papers.  No silver OR gold.  Then I went to another store and finally found the glitter paper, but once I got it home, all it did was shed huge chunks of glitter all over me, my desk and the carpet.  So then I decided to go for some DP and be done with it.  Well, this paper was fabulous, but let me tell you, that was the least of my problems.  

So the silver bells...well...I couldn't find any darn colors that were light enough to make it look like an actual silver bell.  So I turned to my fellow Crew members and saw that most of them were using Going Grey.  Sweet!  I run down to my stamp room and do I have Going Grey?  No!  Of COURSE I don't have it.  So I got back out to my LSS and they don't have any Grey ink.  I ended up going to yet another store and found Tim Holtz's Weathered Wood which worked well.  However, once I put those bells next to my papers, it looked HORRIBLE!  DOH!  So, I decided to go for the blue hues so that it didn't clash as much.  (I hope that's not cheating.)  Okay, I'm done babbling.

So here's the part where I ask you to play along with us!! 

For all the details visit Maria's Blog.  And if you don't have Kitchen Sink Stamps that's okay!  You can still play!

Now, go check out the gorgeous cards all the other crew members created:

Maria Colosimo

Nicole Cooke

Tammy Hershberger

Dee Jackson

Julie Masse

Lynn McAuley

Lori Tecler

Silver Bells Recipe:

Ink for the Bells: SU! - 1.) Soft Sky (stamped off once)  2.) Soft Sky  3.) Bordering Blue (stamped off once)  4.) Bordering Blue  5.) Basic Gray

Ink for Sentiment: Encore Silver

Paper: Whisper White & DP

Accessories: Nugget Tin, Silver Cord, Dimensionals, Glue Dots

I can't wait to see all the fabulous things you create!

Happy Stampin'

A Little Bella Love

Good Morning Sistahs!

Whew, what a fun few days this has been!  Thank you all for your warm wishes and words of support.  It means the world to me that you all have taken the time to leave comments here and validate my work.  Okay, enough with the mushy stuff, on with the card.

You know how I LOVE everyone over at Scrapbook Destination, well, it was that time of the month again...and I'm so excited to show you one of the cards we made at Frenzy. For the past few months I've been using Copics to color in the Bellas, however, this month I decided to stray from my Copics and head for the Pencils. 

Behold Snowbunnybella...

Now, the technique I used for this cards is not my own, it came from the fabulous Jan Tinklenberg and her detailed tutorial can be found here. (If you scroll down past the few recipe cards you'll find the tutorial.)  I love the pastel-y look you get when you use the pencils like this.  All the gals at the Frenzy did a superb job coloring her with this technique.

Here is a close-up of the coloring...

I added the flocking to her fur trim to give her that extra special touch.

I also have to give a shout out to all the fabulous gals at Scrapbook Destination.  There were so many beautiful cards created on Saturday, that I cannot believe anyone would miss a Frenzy. Mark your calendar for next month's Frenzy...December 6th.

Thank you Rachel for the Supertape!  You really know how to make a girl feel loved.  

Happy Stampin'

If The Shoe Fits...

Good Morning Sistahs!

All the excitement from yesterday's announcement hasn't worn off yet.  All the gals in the Sink have given me the warmest welcome and I'm so thrilled to post my latest creation as part of the Kitchen Sink Sneak Peek.  I absolutely LOVE this new stamp set 3-Step Poinsettia.  (The other set being released tomorrow is called 3-Step Bells.)  I'll be using the Bells on my next project.  Yay! 

I hardly ever decide to make non-card items but I couldn't figure out how I wanted to show off this set.  Finally, my a-ha moment came to me and I knew what I wanted to make...a shoe!  Now the template for this shoe is not my own.  I found it in a Paper Crafts Magazine about 2 years ago for Halloween.  It's supposed to be a witch's shoe, but I knew I could make it work for the holidays.  (I also think it would be great for bride's maids and weddings and any other fun occasion.  

I present to you, my Poinsettia Shoe...

Can I tell you how difficult it was to find a DP to go with my colors and actually look cute in a shoe?  Geez.  I went through every single sheet of DP I had, (and I found some pretty neat papers I have been hoarding.  *giggle)  I think I like the one I finally ended up using.  A little bit o' shimmer goes a long way.  

Here's a close-up of the poinsettia...

I know it looks like there is goo all over the flower, but it's only some Glossy Accents.  It adds some nice dimension to the flower, but wasn't completely dry when I took the photo.  If you look real close you can see where I used Spica pens to add a little extra glimmer to the flower and leaves.

I had so much fun creating this shoe and I know you're going to love the other creations made by the rest of the crew.  Please stop by and see what they've done with these beautiful images.

Maria Colosimo

Nicole Cooke

Tammy Hershberger

Dee Jackson

Julie Masse

Lynn McAuley

Lori Tecler

Poinsettia Shoe Recipe:

Stamps: Kitchen Sink Stamps - 3-Step Poinsettia

Paper: Making Memories DP, PTI - Pure Poppy Cardstock

Ink: Poinsettia - 1) Summer Sun, 2) Pumpkin Pie, 3) Pure Poppy, 4) Red Riding Hood, 5) Black

Leaves - 1) Certainly Celery 2) Garden Green 3) Handsome Hunter 4) Black

Accessories: Spica Glitter Pens, Rhinestones, Dimensionals

Hope you have a wonderful week!

Happy Stampin'