Bella Tucker - Sending Hugs

Have 4th of July. I can't believe I have been blogging all week (I surprise myself sometimes). Jim and I have no plans for today since we have to go back to work tomorrow, but there will be fireworks at our nearby park (1-2 miles from our house) and we can see it clearly from my backyard. We have been watching the fireworks from my backyard for the last 5 years (since we moved into our house).

Per my blog yesterday, I briefly wrote about Bella's story. I am so sadden to read about her story. Erin, a fellower crafter is having a Bella card blog hop with a grand prize. My side bar has Bella's blog hop. Please flood Bella with tons of cards. The links to Bella's story are in my yesterday's post. Here is my card for Bella. I am sending her lots of hugs and keeping her and her family in my prayers. I used The Greeting Farm stamp and made it sparkly by adding stickles. You can't see the sparkles in this photo, but IRL, it is really sparkly. The sketch is from Sketch Saturday and the color inspiration is red, blue, and white (USA flag) to celebrate Independence Day.

I am so happy I won the top 3 award at Stamptacular Sunday Challenge with this card. I am so happy to be back stamping and crafting and is taking this hobby more seriously, but I am still undecided if I should try out for guest designer teams as it is a big commitment and I don't know if I am free to make weekly projects and if my projects are good enough. I will see after this month as I will be going on vacation from July 14 - July 24. I need a little R&R. Thanks for visiting my blog.

Challenges :

Sketch Saturday: Sketch #110

Stamp Something: Colors of your flag

Raise the Bar: Challenge#25 - colors of your flag

Crazy 4 Challeng: Ribbons

Stampavie & More: Challenge #101 - Sparkling

2 Sisters: Challenge#1 - Anything Goes

Card Deeds:

Stamps: The Greeting Farm, PTI outside sentiment, Hero Arts inside sentiment

Inks: Momento Tuxedo Black, Brillance Coral, Copic Markers

Papers: PTI, Big Memory dp

Embellishments: stars, stickles, ribbon, button, floss thread, pearls (color w/copic to match), nestabilities die

Party Cats

I am thinking of sending this card to my brother for his birthday this month. I just loves cats. On the side bar is a blog hop for Bella, a 8 yr old girl who is very became very sick during Easter and had to lost all four of her limbs. Click on the side bar to get to the blog hop and Stamp Something Challenge is also having a prize if you make a card to send to Bella. This is it for now, I need go to Petco to get cat food and treats for my cats and give litter to the shelter. Have a wonderful weekend.
Challenges:
Stamp with Fun: Challenge 65-Birthday
Paper Sundaes: Challenge 24 - Birthday

Card Deeds:
Stamps: Whipper Snapper, Hero Arts
Ink: Onyx Black, Tombow markers
Paper: GinaK pure luxury white & black, watercolor paper, DCWV dp
Embellishment: Nestabilities tag, twine

Have a Special Day

I am so please with myself that I am making time to be in my crafting room this week. I am starting my weekend early, every Friday is my day off, but that is the day to do doctor appts, run errands, and etc that I am unable to do during Monday - Thursday. There are tons of birthdays (friends and families) coming up. I made this for my nephew who is turning 13 the end of July. Hmm, maybe this this card is too childish for him since he is a teen now and loves video games, computer games, and sports. I have younger nephews, maybe I will give this card to them instead of my 13 yr old nephew.

I was able to play along with a few challenges this week. The sketch is from Sketch Saturday. This stamp is from High Hopes. I have to admit, this is the first card I made with High Hopes. I have always adore their stamps for years ago, but just recently started to purchase them because shipping took forever back then since they decided to just sell to retailers, so I got them from Stamp and Create, they got some really great stamps and embellishments. The paper I used is Basic Grey, Max and Whiskers. I love the masculine colors and I loves animals, so this is a win/win paper for me. I put some crystal lacquer ona few of the water drops. Off course I used my copic markers to color this image. I really need to get more copics for my collection, but I feel like I am neglecting all my other coloring mediums like my coloring pencils and watercoloring.

Thanks for stopping by, have a wonderful 4th of the July. Be safe.

Challenges:

Sketch Saturday: Sketch 109

High Hopes: Challenge 82: Super Star

Paper sundaes: Challenge 24: Happy Birthday

Simon Says: Check it out!

A Spoonfull of Sugar: Challenge 110: Animal Crackers

Stamp with Fun: Challenge 65: Birthdays

Card Deeds:

Stamps: High Hopes, Hero Arts star and sentiment

Papers: PTI, DCWV, Basic Grey Max and Whiskers

Inks: Momento Tuxedo Black, Adirondack Espresso, Copic markers

Embellishments: star punch, star buttons, crystal lacquer, floss threads, inkssential white opaque pen

World Cup & Weekly Crafting Challenges

I haven't been playing the weekly challenges lately because I was away at Las Vegas last weekend and had to catch up at work. I can't believe June is almost over. I seems like June just started yesterday, but obviously the weather tells me otherwise as the weather is HOT (extremely hot) nowadays. Next weekend will be fourth of July and Jim and I will be BBQing over at our friend's house. Have a wonderful fourth of July if I don't get to blog next weekend.

I got to play yesterday, so this is what I made, a card for my co-worker who LOVES soccer especially since the World Cup is on for a whole month. I am not really into any sports. My co-worker must be sad that both of his favorite teams lost (US and Mexico) and will not be playing for the championship. I made this card representing the US soccer team, can't you tell by the colors. I made the red strips all sparkly, with this new product called Glitter Ritz, it is from UK. I got this product at my LSS, but you can buy them at Ellen Houston , they glitter doesn't come off once you burnish it with your fingers, it feels like velvet. You can read about this product at Ellen Houston's blog. This stuff is expensive, but the little bottle lasts a long time. I colored this Wags n' Whiskers (WnW) soccer boy image with my copic markers. Added some stars from Hero Arts (stamped and cut out) and a star charm. The floss on the star charm are left over stitching floss from my cross-stitching projects I made awhile back. I need to get back into cross-stitching, that is also a very relaxing, but time consuming hobby.

Challenges:

Papertake Weekly: Sketch #43

Crafty Creations: Challenge 73: We want to see you Shine

Stamptacular Sunday: Challenge 65: Stars & Stripes

Cute Card Thursday: Challenge 118: Reuse, Renew, Recycle

Stamp and Create: Challenge 2: Charms

Card Deeds:

Stamps: Wags n' Whiskers, Hero Arts

Paper: Bazzill paper, PTI pure poppy, George Pacific white , unknown dp

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Marvy Cherry and Blue, copic markers

Embellishments: Glitter Ritz, star charm

Northwoods Stamp

Happy Memorial Day. Thank you to all the service men and women. I have been busy the last couple of months and done some stamping now and then, but not much. Relatives been visiting for the last couple of months (a week here and there). Jim has been busy with continuing educational courses and had been travelling for the last two weekends in a row. He is home this weekend, but has couple of more course to take, but likely it is in town.

I made some thank you cards for some friends for helping to take care of our cats when we were out of town couple of weeks ago. I forgot to photograph them as I was in a hurry to finish up the cards, so I can give it to them. I did take a picture of this card. The stamp is Northwoods. There samples are just georgeous. I got this and other Northwoods stamps for my LSS because I saw their samples. I tried to case theirs, but I think I am still missing some of the glitter. I used Martha Stewart crystal fine glitter, but it is not that glittery. Northwoods have lots of beautiful floral, nature, animal stamps. I just love their stamps, but its seems like it is hard to color because of all the details. I used prisma color pencil on this card. Their samples are usually watercolored with Tombow markers. This card can be anything from sympathy to birthday to anything you want. I stamped a generic sentiment (stamp: Hero Arts) on there as I don't know who I want to give this to yet. The inside is blank for now until I know who I am giving this too.

Challenge Submission:

Cute Card Thursday: Challenge #114 - No Designer Paper

Deeds:

Stamps: Northwoods, Hero Arts

Ink: Versa Fine Onyx black, Momento Tuxedo Black,

Paper: white, magenta, DCVW lime green, PTI chocolate brown for the base

Accessories: Prisma color pencils, prima flowers, stickles on the flowers, Martha Stewart crystal fine glitter, glue pen

TECC30 - Seize the Cupcake

I came back last week from California. I enjoyed my time with my family. I didn't haven't time to play, so I didn't blog for 2 weeks now. This week I was able to play with my stamps. This week's Hero Arts blog challenge is "birthday", so I went out and purchase some Hero Arts stamps including this cupcake set. I started to do Hero Arts birthday challenge when I saw Taylor's weekly sketch challenge. I decided to combine the two challenges together. This is a birthday card done with Taylor's card sketch. I enjoy reading Taylor's blog (Taylored Expressions). This week's sketch is TECC30.

I finally play with my House Mouse stamp. I replaced the flower with the Hero Arts cupcake stamp. I added buttons and stickles on the cupcake. I love how this card turned out.

This is the second Hero Arts "birthday" project I made. The Acetate Treat Box is Monday's SCS new technique challenge, TLC182. I was having some problems with the box measurements. It didn't turn out as good as I would have liked, but this is a nice try. I will definitely do this box again. It was so easy to make, but time consuming to put everything together. The camera shot of this box isn't great. I can't seem to capture all the details like the pearls on the roses and the little blings on the cupcake. This cupcake stamp is from Hero Arts. The dp is SEI and the scalloped edge is from Martha Stewart edge punch.

I made couple more cards which I will show later this week. I purchased those stamps for a while now, but haven't used it. I don't think I like these stamps that much now. I was inspired by the sample cards made by these stamps, but mines didn't turn out as beautiful as the samples. I guess this is what marketing and advertising does...makes people like me buy the product.

Purse Card for Audrey's Birthday

I found this designer pattern paper (dp) months ago. This is from Basic Grey called "Sultry". It is so pretty and vibrant.... look at the colors, so so pretty. I made this today for Audrey's 3rd birthday. She is turn 3 this month and her birtday party is this Sunday. I thought this will be so fun for her as she is starting to like all things "girlie" as I have been told by grandmother (my mom). She can actually carry this around her arm like a real purse, but can't put anything in it. The closureof made by having 2 magnets which are adhered under the light pink paper, invisible to the eye but it helps to close the card.

After finding this dp, I thought it will look so nice for the Hero Arts color challenge. I pick the hot pink, lime green, and soft pink color combo. These dp just have all those colors. I added the "A" which is from Hero Arts clear Alphabet stamp set and that is also Audrey's initial. The stamps inside the cards are all from Hero Arts.

Recipe:
Stamps: Hero Arts alphabets, happy birthday, flower
Ink: Color box: pink & lime green; Onxy Versafine
Paper: Basic Grey sultry pattern pattern, light pink, sparkling lime green, white
Embellishments: Prima flower, Memories brad, cuttlebug swiss dots embossed folder, ribbons, and Basic Grey magnets

I got "Honorable Mention" on Hero Art Challenge

Remember this card from last week. I got tons of comments last week on SCS, the most I have even got since I joined SCS. This morning I went on the Hero Arts blog like I usually do to learn new techniques and card inspirations from them. This is a fabulous site. I entered in last week's challenge with my butterfly card and I got "Honorable Mention", check my card out on the Hero Arts' blog! I can't believe it when I saw my card displayed on their blog. Wow, I never won a contest (technically I didn't win, but I felt like I won). I don't know anything about art designs, let alone the basic such as color scheme which is this week's challenge, but I am consistly learning.

I have a few things to do before going to California for a whole week of fun and relaxation time with my family. I am visiting my family and see my parents retired as they are getting ready to move out of their store, V&W Liquors, which they own for over 24 years now. This store will no longer be called V&W Liquors after the change of ownership. How sad I feel that this is the end of a legacy for this store. It had the same name over 3 ownerships (my parents being the last owners) and now no more V&W Liquors. It will be my last time seeing the place from the inside and packing up and going through all the memories as I sort through all my things (things to keep, throw away, or donate). This is going to be a bitter-sweet week as there were so many memories of this place as I have lived there most of my life, 20 years, before moving to Arizona. All my childhood memories is from that place. I will be taking my camera back home to get lot of photos. This will be a very memorable week for me and I am glad everything turn out this way where I am going home to see my parents retired and last time to see my childhood place.

So much has happened to me and DH this past 6 months since. DH was kind enough to let me to take a little break from this stress while he has to go to work and to take care of our cats next week while I am gone.

SC187, WT177 Challenges

I got woken up early (before 6AM) this morning by my orange tabby. I decided to do some stamping this morning since I didn't stamp last night. I combined yesterday's SCS sketch challenge (SC187) and today's "Ways to Use" challenge (WT177) and this week's Hero Arts challenge "Amazing" . Julia S. from SCS made my day by having today's challenge. Guess what the challenge is.... "Scrap-It". I was just telling myself to use as much of my scraps as possible throughout this week. Well, this challenge surely made my day. All the papers are scrap papers on this card are from my scrap basket... I have a humongous pile. I pull out my cuttlebug today, for it has been collecting dust. The sentiment (the only stamping I did for this card) is from Hero Arts so that qualify it for the Hero Arts challenge... cheesy, but hey, a challenge is a challenge and I am going to give it to Nick, the LSS owner I ALWAYS go to. She is a talented, creative, and amazing woman. She's my creative inspiration, if it wasn't for her, I won't be addicted, but fulfilling hobby. Is this suppose to be good or bad? It is totally good for me, but bad for my pocket book. Maybe I will make another card for the Hero Arts challenge later this week. I am so excited for this Saturday's VMAA party. See my blog below to join in the fun.

Recipe:

Stamp: Hero Art

Ink: Stazon timber brown

Paper: white, pink, brown, blue pearl, dp, vellum dp

Accessories: Cuttlebug, embossing folders and die, dew drops, and crystal

Another Dottie Card

Today I am at the clinic. Here's another card I made with my favorite tools right now which are white inkssential pen and the cuttlebug. This is also inspired by the Hero Arts Monday challenge of using "flowers". The sketch is from one of SCS Wednesday sketch challenge (I think this was from 2 weeks ago). I finally open my new prima flowers which I purchased from Michaels a couple of weeks ago with the 50% coupon. Nothing beats a good saving. The sparkling lime green cs is from Doodlebug. I got this from the "Color Me Happy" swap I participated on SCS in which we choose our favorite color or color combo and the we can shopping for our "Color Me Happy" sister. My colors were lime green and purple. I got some cool things. I better start to play with them.

Its been relatively quiet this past weekend since the boys are back in California. DH and I just stayed home because the Arizona summer is officially HERE! This weekend, it hit over 100 degrees. We have started to turn on the AC. We didn't go outside except to go to the supermarket to stock up on sodas because its on sale (5 for $12). DH consumes about 4 -5 cans a day.

Recipe:

Stamp: Hero Arts and A Muse sentiment

Ink: Brillance Graphite and Coral inks

Paper: white, lime green, pink, and red cs

Accessories: Cuttlebug and swiss dot embossing folder, white inkssential pen ,prima flowers, dew drops

Dottie Flower Day

I have been having trouble sleeping these few days. Mainly, it is because my cats are playing around our bedroom and the other thing is my stomach hasn't been feeling so well (I kept having cramps).

After a whole week of not creating, I finally found my mojo to play with my stamps again. This is inspired by The Hero Arts Club Blog, Monday's challenge. This week's challenge is to play with "flowers". I used Hero Arts stamps, "friendship writing" and "sunflower blossom". My favorite part is embossing with my cuttlebug and pulling out my white inkssential pen and made dots on the cs. This was pretty simple, but it brought back my creativity again.

Tomorrow is Gina K Designs May new stamps release and the sneak peeks so far have been awesome. Gina is such a generous person, so check out her blog as she is giving away some of the new stamps. The release party is tomorrow night at SCS. Be sure to check it out if you have time.

Recipe

Stamp: Hero Arts - friendship writing and sunflower blossom

Ink: Brilliance Graphite Black, Marvy yellow, brilliant yellow, and brown inks

Paper: DCVW yellow and brown cs and My Eye's Mind dp

Accessories: cuttlebug, versamark pen, sponge, sand paper, white inkssential pen, and ribbons

Another Red, White, and Black

Happy Friday. I made this combining SCS Wednesday's sketch challenge (SC174) and Thursday's ways to use it challenge (WT164, All Ruffled Up). This card looks like the 2 way card below, but can't resist the faux cross stitching (done with my magic white pen) eventhough I did not use the paper piercer (too lazy). I made a mom's day card. I don't really like the pleats I made on the side, thus I added a ribbon to make it less noticable. Another Now, I need to make a few more mother's day cards to make. SCS Friday's Limited Supplies challenge (LS166, Spotlight on Circles). I love making circles. I definite do for this challenge. I only own circle punches, I really need to buy a curvy or other circle cutting machine, so cutting circles, ovals, and other shapes will be a breeze instead of the old fashion way which is trace and cut with scissors. I am over my crafting budget; wait, do I have a crafting budget, DH doesn't impose and doesn't know what I purchase except when the credit card bill comes and I need money to pay for the bill. I really need a paying job to feed my addiction.

Have a wonderful weekend. I feel like BBQing, but we don't even have a BBQ grill and our backyard is still bare except for the 8 palm trees and the weeds (trying to get it under control). Can you believe we have been living in our house for 3 years and still no backyard landscaping done and probably won't have it done for another 2 years. We did our front yard because the HOA requires us to do it and we didn't have it done until 6 months after we move in. I accept all donations to help speed up the process of getting my backyard landscaped. LOL

Recipe:
Stamps: Hero Arts and unknown clear acrylic "Happy Mother's Day"
Ink: Memories Black dye ink and Marvy Crimson Lake ink
Paper: White, Black, and Red cs and white tissue paper
Accessories: Marvy scalloped oval punches, ribbon, inkessential white pen, black pen, ribbon, red copic spica pen

Card Holder Box

I am so productive today. I finished a card holder box which I am filling it with some cards I already made. I am planning to give it to a few people as gifts. I think I can put about 5 or 6 cards inside the box for other people to use for "Thank you" or "Birthday" or just a quick "Hi". I got the box template from A Muse Addict Message Borad by Geeta Sugg. She made it to hold A Amuse cards which is 41/2 x 4 1/2 but standard A2 cards are 41/4 x 5 1/2, so I change the measurements to fit my cards. I stamped the red cardstock with Brillance Black ink pad and embossed it with clear embossing powder (ep). The stamps are from Hero Arts BG Silhouette on the bottom half of the box and the cover is a stamp from Stampendous. I used the round corner punch. I added velcro so you can open and close the box and velcro was the cheapest way to make closers. This was actually quite easy. No embellishment on this one as this was my first one, maybe the next time.

I made this card to go into the card holder box. I decided to do some simple cards. I got this stamp yesterday at Stamp Works. The stamp is from Inkadinkado. Another silhouette stamp. The sihouette stamps are ready popular right now. Almost everything stamp company has a few that just came out. I just stamped the image 3 times in 3 different colors (Marvy ink pads), but 2 of the colors are so much similar, you probably can't see it here. I stamped the butterfly a couple of times, cutted them out, added rhinestones on them, and sticked them on the card. I also used my paper piercing tool to make some holes on the bottom where the birthday sentiment is, but you probably can see them, but as a butterfly trail.

This is all for today. I have some more cards I have to make on a few more challenges on SCS.

See you later this week. Have a good work week.

Acetate Collage Cards

Happy Wednesday, I stayed up late yesterday to get a sneak peek of the Gina K's new stamps. They are fabulous and I love Gina's new line concept, love the stories behind the cards and stamps. Can't wait till mid-night, April 10th to view the stamps in her online store.

I will be heading off to Xpedex in Tempe to see what I can grab as they are discounting their craft department. They are a paper store, but I go their to buy their stamps and inks. They have the best price in town. I am SOoooo SAD they will no longer sell the craft items, but I guess it will be good for my pocketbook. I am wondering if I can use my 20% off card in addition to the 30% sale they are having. This will be an AWESOME bargain if they do. I will have to see when I go there after this blog entry.

Now onto my cards. Yesterday, I was playing the Hero Arts Blog weekly challenge. I combined last week's challenge of using acetate and this week's challenge of using collages. I used the Hero Arts collage stamps and swirls. This is actually the first time a made an acetate card, so thanks Hero Art for the challenge to get me to try a new techniques and to use my acetate/transparency paper and glitter mist. I brayered the white glossy using the kaleidacolor ink pad with a brayer and stamped the collage image stamp with black dye ink. I stamped twice and cutted our the butterfly so I can pop it up. Color the butterfly with the gold copic spica pen. Currently, I only have that color. Stamped the swirl around the edges of the acetate.

This one I also used Monday's Try a New Technique, on SCS, TLC163, Stacked Ribbon as the Hero Arts acetate and collage challenge. I so love to play with my cuttlebug. I embossed the front card with the embossed swirl folder. I stamped the collage in white stazon on acetate and then stamped again in the brayered white glossy paper in black dye ink. I just layer the acetate on top of the glossy paper and attached crystal brads to hold them together. I popped the word "Create". I layered the ribbons with black on the bottom and multi-color on the top. I got those ribbons for $1 dollar and the embossed swirl folder for 1/2 off at Michaels, they are having a huge craft blow out this week.

Thanks for looking, now off to Xpedex to see what I can grab.