ENABLER ALERT!

Hambo is having a huge sale just in time for Labor Day! PLUS if you're the first person from your state to place an order, you get an EXTRA discount! Monica is including all of Hambo's best sellers and never before discounted items!

What are you waiting for? You only have until midnight on September 2nd! Hop on over to Hambo and get all the details by clicking here.

Are you still here??

Look Ma - No stamps!

Ahhhh....so nice to be back online again. I've been sitting here for the last two hours sipping my champagne and getting my new laptop all set up. (see explanation in my previous post)

So, without further ado. Here's Lauren's Saturday Sketch! Interesting sketch eh?

Are you feeling inspired yet?

Here's what I came up with. This was the quickest card that I've made in a long time AND I didn't even use one stamp on it! *gasp*

As soon as I saw this paper by BasicGrey, I immediately thought of these adorable owls I picked up at Michaels a while back. There were 5 of them in a package for $1, so of course I couldn't resist.


I hope this has inspired you to create your own masterpiece with Lauren's sketch.

Be sure to check out what the rest of the design team did!

Alicia, Dawn, Kim, Kirsten, Kristy, Maria & Tamara

Until Monday...

#@#WTF@#^**!!!!!!!!

My computer totally crashed today and I can assure you that tomorrow it will be flying out of the 2nd story window of my workshop! I can't believe how stressed out and frustrated I got when I couldn't even get my computer to turn on. It's amazing how much we rely on technology and how helpless we can feel when it's not working correctly.

Long story short - I freaked... my husband left for an hour....when he came home he had a brand new laptop for me and a bottle of my favorite champagne!! Woo-hoo! I'm thinking he's a keeper!

For any of you who have e-mailed me in the last 24 hours, you'll have to resend it and give me a few days to get back to you. Other than that, things should be going smoothly again. (fingers crossed!)

I'll be back at midnight with a first look at Lauren's Saturday sketch.

My first "official" layout

Have you ever wanted to throw your computer out the window?! I'm getting very close to that point (I've done it before and I'll do it again!) I've definitely had a love/hate relationship with technology lately.

Can anyone out there recommend a great laptop? I'd really like to get myself one, but I'm totally clueless. I'd love any tips and recommendations that you may have.

Okay...enough computer crap!


Let's get to the reason why you stopped by!

Some of you may know that on Tuesday night I had my first Design Team meeting at Green Tangerines. I'll be making two-page layout samples for the store using all of the yummy new products that roll in.

For my first homework assignment, I decided to check out the products in the school section. There were SO many great papers and embellishments to choose from! My eyes went straight to the "School Zone" line by Moxxie! I love that they have a different patterned paper for each grade - how fun! I also grabbed the matching sticker sheet and buttons and then I was off to create!

Here are the two layouts that I came up with.

It's been months since I've scrapbooked, so go easy on me.

For this one, I used the Kindergarten paper by Moxxie and "First Day of School" by Reminisce.

For the other half of the layout, I used the Second grade paper by Moxxie.

For those of you that are local, be sure to run over to Green Tangerines and check out all of the goodies that have come in from CHA!

Thanks so much for stopping by. I have the best blog readers ever! You guys are the best!

I'll be back later today with a new recipe to Fool Your Family!

Dreams du jour

Here's a card that I made at a stamp club earlier this month. It's the same layout as the card in my previous post.

We used Stampin Up's new Riding Hood Red and Kiwi Kiss cardstock with the delicious Bella Rose paper collection. I'm not real big on floral papers, but this collection is just beautiful. The colors are great and I am loving all of the polka dot patterns that come with it. In other news, I had my first official design team meeting at Green Tangerines last night, so I'll have a layout to share with you tomorrow.
Until then...
hugs,

Sweet baby girl

My friend just had a sweet baby girl last week and this is the card that I made for her and her husband. I used Rose Red for the card base because it matched my yummy BasicGrey paper so well. Both patterns are from the "Infuse" line.

My selection of baby stamps is VERY limited, however I recently got a new one during Stampin Up's last Sale-A-Bration. I just love this image from the "So Many Scallops" set. It's not too goo-goo gaa-gaa, if you know what I mean.
I used my Summer Sun, Cameo Coral and Chocolate Chip markers on the image and then sponged the edges with Creamy Caramel.

The scalloped circle is attached to the front of the card with a dimensional on the bottom edge. That way it holds down the Close to Cocoa panel above it, keeping the card closed.


Thanks for stopping by!

The little things...

I needed a masculine thank you card, so I decided to go with Not Quite Navy and Chocolate Chip for my main colors.

I used my favorite flourish stamp from Inkadinkado to spiffy up the sentiment panel. Then I sponged around the edges with Creamy Caramel.

The background was Versamarked with the retired Print Pattern by SU and the sentiment is from a set in the last mini catalog called "Full of Life". I was SO happy to see that this set had been added to the new catty, because it's one of my favorites. There's a great sentiment for practically every occasion.

To cover the border of where the two cardstock colors overlap, I used some of the medium width twill tape. I cut it in half and frayed the edges (I was experimenting). To finish off my "manly" card, I added some large copper brads to the corners.
Thanks for popping by! I'll be back tomorrow.
Hugs,

She likes me! She really likes me!

Sorry for the late post today! Family drama....

So guess what?

Monica over at Hambo asked me to be part of her permanent design team! I've been doing guest design work for her this month, and was totally shocked and flattered when she invited me to come play along on an ongoing basis. Thanks SO much Monica! I'm really looking forward to being a part of the Hambo team!

Speaking of Hambo, here are two more cards to share. Is it just me or does this little kitty look like she's had WAY too much catnip??

It's always really tricky for me to use a small image as the focal point on a card. I decided to stamp out this little cutie twice and mount her on some scalloped circles. I used a needle and thread to add some dimension to the yarn ball that kitty is playing with.

Here's another one...
For the yarn balls, I punched out 1" circles and wrapped them with thread.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Hugs,

Sketch Time!

Here's Lauren's sketch for today!

Are you inspired yet?

Here's what I came up with...

All of the paper is from the Far East paper pack by Die Cuts With a View.
Are you inspired yet?
Be sure to check out what Lauren, Alicia, Dawn, Kim, Kirsten, Kristy, Maria and Tamara did too!

Now get off the computer and go create something!

Fool your family Friday!

With football season right around the corner, I thought this recipe would be a great one to try.

Salsa Dip

1 cup canned refried black or kidney beans

1 cup salsa

4 oz. reduced fat cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup carrot puree

1 Tablespoon of taco seasoning

In a medium bowl, combine the beans, salsa, cream cheese, carrot puree and taco seasoning. Serve at room temperature or heat in the microwave for 1 minute.

Serve with a bowl of raw veggies, tortilla chips or tacos.

Counting down the days...

In our house, we use paper chains to countdown the days for special events. We've had one hanging on our front door for the last 37 days to track the number of days left before my little one started Kindergarten.

I made this card for my daughter to send to her Kindergarten teacher over summer vacation. On the inside my daughter wrote, "I'm counting down the days until Kindergarten."
The main panels of patterned paper on the front are by Luxe designs. I found them in the clearance bin at my local scrapbook store and just loved the colors. The mini paper chain and paper pieced dress are from SU's Bali Breeze collection. Oh, and I can't forget about that cute little girl in the middle of everything. She's from SU's "All in the Family" set.

Hope this made you smile. Have a happy day.

Don't forget to come back tomorrow to see Lauren's new sketch.

One giant leap...

Kristina's back this week with an interesting color challenge. Black, gray, white and a fourth color of our choice.
I decided to go with green. It's been kind of a stressful day, so I thought I'd have a little fun with my entry for tonight. The frog and space suit images are from Pink Cat Studio.
The little fly in the background is from Meer Image.

Here's how I made the card into the "rocket-ish" shape.

Cut three pieces of cardstock to 4" x 4" and score on the diagonal of each one.
Fold on score lines
Then take two of the pieces and fit them together this way.
You'll get a shape like this.

Attach the third piece the same way to the others.


I'll be back tomorrow with Lauren's new sketch!

Class Project #3

"Boatloads of Love" was one of the first sets I bought from last years new catalog. It's such a fun and unique set that has three sentiments for three totally different occasions.

For my class earlier this month, I thought it would be cute to make a pouch with lifesavers. Get it? A boat....lifesavers? I thought the project worked perfectly with the phrase "I'm pulling for you".

I used the paper piecing technique for parts of the boat and the water. Most of the gals in my class had never used this technique before so it was fun to watch them play and really make the image their own.
Here's a side view of the pouch inside. I used a clear envelope and filled it with 15 wintergreen lifesavers. I couldn't believe my luck when I found a 3 pound bag of them at WalMart for $7!
Want to make a goodie pouch of your own? Come on....you know you do! It's super easy.

First cut a piece of cardstock to 4 1/4" x 11" and score it at 4 1/2" and 6 1/2".
For the top of the pouch, cut a coordinating piece of cardstock to 4 1/4" x 2" and score at 1". I used the spiral punch on the front edge of my topper.
Hope this was helpful. If any of you make one, don't forget to link it up here so I can see it too!
Cheers,

Oh my gosh....Oh my gosh...Oh my gosh...

I'm getting published in the May 2009 issue of Card Maker magazine! Sooooo exciting! Getting published was one of my goals for this year. The magazine won't be out until 2009, but it still counts right?!


As some of you may know, I'm the guest designer over at Hambo for the month of August. If you get a chance, be sure to pop over there and take a look around. LOTS of cute stuff!

For today's card, I used the frog stamp and the cute sentiment that goes with it. It's kind of hard to read in the photo, but the sentiment says "Time's fun when you're having flies!" My daughter is in the "frog class" at her school, so this little cutie was a must have for me.

You never know when a large plastic fly will come in handy for your next crafty project...

I'll be back tomorrow with the third project that I did at my class earlier this month. Until then...