Full Bloom

Hi there! This is for this week's My Favorite Thing Sketch Challenge. I haven't got to play this one in a couple of weeks and am happy to be giving you a little preview of one of the new sets that is going to be released this Wednesday. This set is called Can you dig it?. So super cute. Perfect for you or you gardening friends. I really love wheelbarrows so you know I adore this set. I really have no explanation for the wheelbarrow thing, I don't garden and I don't like to push them around. Once again I pulled out my watercolor pencils and an aquapen for the coloring here. I stamped the wheelbarrow 2 times and cut one out and popped it up on dimensionals. I did the same thing with the little flower. The watering can was stamped once and cut out. For the setiment I cut a strip of white paper 3/4" wide and used my corner rounder on the edges. I used Ranger Ditress ink for all the distressing.

Thanks for stamping by!

Laura~

Park Bench

Happy Sunday! I went MIA and I have not explanation for it, but I do have a few things to share since last post; 1 card and some other ramblings. First the card...this started out as Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge. As you can see it clearly is not the sketch. I really wanted to use the bench and have had this image in my head since I got the set (Time for You, SU!) I didn't have a tree stamp that was the right size so I ended up drawing one. If you remember from a few posts back, I do have an aversion to drawing from a trama I suffered in 6th grade, which involved a sketch of a dog. I really can't talk about it... deep breaths...ok I'm better now.... I drew the tree and colored the whole thing with watercolor pencils and an aquapen. I didn't want to take away from the image with a lot of embellishments so I kept just a few layers and the ribbon. The sentiment is from one of those little $1 stamps from Michaels, perfect! Please be kind with your comments and the whole drawing thing....

As you might remember, I went to see Elton John on Wednesday night. If you are an Elton John fan I would suggest you stop reading right now, if you continue reading please accept my apologies. At best, his concert was boring and unimaginative; at worst it was base and crude. There I said it and I feel free. I am not going to spend a ton of energy on this, I just expected more from an iconic singer/songwriter who commented on and help shape an era. If we had not been at the concert as guests of a person my husband does business with, I would have walked out. I had lunch with a wonderful friend of mine (hi Justine!) on Thursday and she has run into people that felt the same way about the show, too bad I hadn't talked to them before I said yes to the tickets:(

This as nothing to do with anything, except that I had an almost religious experience at lunch on Friday and thought I would share. A new shopping district has opened in Las Vegas call Town Square right on Las Vegas Blvd. It is an outdoor venue with shops and restaurants and a park for the kids to play in and a movie theater. A Tommy Bahama cafe opened there and I went with my little redhead to try it out on Friday. I ordered the Saba Steak Salad. This was the description for it: Marinated and char-grilled tenderloin medallions served over a bed of fresh mixed greens tossed with tamarind vinagarette. Garnished with grilled potatoes, vine-ripened roma tomatoes, shiitake chips and garlic ailoli. mmmmmmmm, give me a minute please. Thanks. I think that this might very well be a written description of heaven. If you are ever in Vegas, I will meet you at Tommy Bahama's:) Till then my friends, have a wonderful weekend!

Thanks for stamping by!

Laura~

Green Butterfly

Good afternoon! Remind me what all that blather was about yesterday...something about keeping it simple. Have I told you I have spring fever and am not really myself. Well, this certainly was not simple. But I LOVE it! I think this is super sweet. I used the ribbon (purchased from Michael's) as the color inspiration and today's sketch at SCS for the layout. I also tried that very cool technique from last week, inking the cuttlebug folder, hello! What a cool look that gives to a project. This really just involved some stamping and cutting and piercing. Let me know if you have any specific questions....I am off to see Elton John and his Red Piano. Catch you all tomorrow!

*edit* The butterfly was from a set that I got at the $1 spot at Target.

Thanks for stamping by!

Laura~

The quality of the day...

I was blurfing yesterday and stopped by Lauren's blog My Time. Her challenge this week is to do a one layer card. I really like the idea of toning my cards down a little. I can add layers just as well as the next stamper, but I will confess, it takes me a really long time to put cards like that together. Some days I feel a bit more productive if I can get several really nice cards done than one outta control card. I find also that these less embellished card are more my style. I really get caught up sometimes in the whole game of I need to add more to a card so it will get noticed. I know I addressed this a couple of posts back, but I really don't think I am the only one that feels this way. Don't worry I am not going to go to only one layer cards, I have way too much stuff to do this all the time:)

I used the stamps from Artfully Asian (SU!) for this card. I stamped the leaves in close to cocoa on watercolor paper and used my blender pen and close to cocoa ink and mellow moss ink pad to color them in. I stamped the flowering branch in choc chip and colored the flowers with ruby red and a blender pen. For the leaves I used old olive. I used Ranger Distress Ink to lightly ink the edges of the card and I distressed the bottom edge. The sentiment is from The Art of Life (SU!)

Thanks for stamping by!

Laura~

Home & Heart

A new magazine has hit the newsstands and you HAVE to go grab a copy! It is called Home & Heart and it is beautiful magazine filled with inspiration for your everyday life and for special occasions, made from all sorts of things including paper, hello! Now you may be wondering why I am demanding (ummm, urging) you to go get a copy. Well it turns out I have a project that was accepted for publication in the August '08 issue of Home & Heart, woohoo! Needless to say I had to see what this magazine was all about if I am going to have something in it. I already knew it had to be of the highest quality (they chose something that I made, wink, lol). Really, I am so excited, I just love the philosophy of making everday special by just paying some extra attention and spending just a little time. I know many of us papercrafters subscribe to that philosophy, that's why we do what we do. Stephanie is the soul of this special magazine, go visit her blog and check out some of her fabulous doodles. So that concludes my unpaid endorsement for the day:) I haven't played with any stamps yet today, too busy pouring over every inch of Home & Heart.


Thanks for stamping by!
Laura~

Everyday Gifts

I hope everyone is enjoying a beautiful Easter. I got a minute to play the featured stamper challenge. I chose this card to case from Amy Sheffer's wonderful gallery. I changed the colors, the stamp and the added stiching instead of paper piercing. I love the Zen feel of this card and it completely captures my mood today. The image was stamped on Papertrey white cs with choc chip ink. I colored it with a blender pen and ink pads and then added a little more depth with my watercolor pencils. I also traced over the image with my chocolate chip SU! marker. The ribbon is from Mike's and the slide is from SU! Hodgepodge.

Thanks for stamping by!

Laura

(Hi Cheryl and Melissa...my peeps in Streator!!!)

Enjoy

Happy Saturday! I started working on this card yesterday afternoon and kept getting distracted, man do I have spring fever in the worst way, I have the attention span of a gnat right now. I have been taking my new puppy for lots of walks. Thanks to all of you who suggested names, my kids are REFUSING to let me give him a new name, they think the one he came with is just fine. I will keep you posted:) Thanks also for your birthday wishes. My kids had a sleepover last night so my darling husband took me to Roy's, yum! I got my molten chocolate lava cake, woohoo! Two birthday dinners, you can't beat that!

On to the card. This is for Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge. I was very happy to ink this set up, it makes me smile. Many times I can't quite capture sparkle on a card. I think this time is looks like I went totally overboard with sparkle, don't you love it! I stamped the image with Black StazOn on Papertrey white cs and colored the bike with watercolor pencils and a blender pen. The tires and the doodles were done with a sparkly silver Sakura Pen. I then added Crystal Stickles. The flower and the black bookplate are from Heidi Swapp. I was going to do a few more cards for the limited supply challenge, but again no attention span, I really have to get it together. Have a beautiful Easter weekend my stamping friends.

Thanks for stamping by!

Laura

New Puppy

Hi everyone! I haven't had a chance to stamp at all this week. We got a new addition to our family so I thought I would introduce him to you and also I want to ask for your help. This is Smokey our new furry friend. We got him from our local rescue shelter. They told us he is a Heinz 57 bully mix. I don't like his name. Please help. The folks at the shelter named him, they had no information about him other than they think he is a victim of the Foreclosure Crisis. As people lose their homes they are leaving parts of their families behind. It is tragic on many levels, but he seems to really like his new home with us. He is a sweet boy with a wonderful disposition. Do you have any ideas? I cannot tell you why I don't like his name, I just don't and he doesn't respond to it so it won't be a big deal to start calling him by another name.

Another year...

So today is my birthday and every year around this time I get a little bent on cleaning and getting my stuff in order. It has to do more with spring fever than with my birthday but you know I had to mention it in the interest of full disclosure:) I am 38 and really pretty happy with how things are progressing with my life. A few gray hairs, a few scars and a few extra pounds, but life is sooo good, I am not going to complain. In fact, I am going to go to my favorite Thai place for dinner and have a glass of wine and go looking for a big piece of chocolate cake! Wish me luck.

Thanks for stamping by!

Laura

And the winner is...

Cheryl from Engineered Expressions was the random drawing winner of my blog bling giveaway! Congratulations Cheryl! This is what Cheryl did for her chance to win...I LOVE pay it forwards!!! I am sending 40 homemade cards to Cards For Troops. I did this in January as well and felt so good about it that I had to do it again! Thanks! Cheryl KVDI

I love the whole cards to troops because it gets paid forward once more when a loved one from home gets the card in the mail. Thanks to all that played.

We adopted a dog from a local rescue shelter yesterday, so I don't know how much stamping I will get done in the next couple of days on top of that my kids are on spring break, arrrrgghhh:) Maybe I will post of few pics of our new family member in a little bit.

Thanks for stamping by!
Laura~

While I was away..

This weekend I went to a town about an hour north of Las Vegas called Mesquite. Two Creative Memories Consultants organize the event which consists of 26 hours of scrapbooking time in a ballroom at the hotel we stay at. We had 71 women attend this time! They have been doing this twice a year for over six years now. I try to go whenever I can, but haven't been doing much scrapbooking the last several times. I would rather play with stamps, kwim? My darling husband still thinks I scrapbook....so I bring a scrapbook that I did several trips ago and when I come home I show it to him and say "Look what I did!" LOL. (People from Streator who read this...you know who you are....you cannot tell him about this).

I brought a few sketch challenges to get caught up on the first card was for the MFT Sketch Challenge posted a week ago and the second was for Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge. For both cards I used Cosmo Cricket paper and My Favortite Things Stamps. The bunny, chick and flower are from Eggstra Special and the flowers behind the bunny are from the brand new Punch a Bunch set. To get the super soft look on the flowers I stamped the image in versamark and used my chalks and a sponge applicator to add color. I also used the faux stitching technique on that card.

Don't forget you still have a couple hours to enter to win one of my baskets, see previous post.

Thanks for stamping by!

Laura

30k and counting...woohoo!

When I wasn't looking today my hit counter went over 30,000! WOW, I know that this is not a big deal for some and in the grand scheme of things this really isn't anything to write home about, but I have had so much fun in my blogging adventure. So let's celebrate!!! As you all know nothing is ever free. So to win the blog bling this time around you are going to have to do a little work. A couple of weeks ago my oldest was complaining of a toothache. Just the day before he had ripped one of his baby teeth out of his mouth (he's 12, need I say anything else). I gave him some pain reliever and pretty much told him to stop being a big ol' baby. Yes, as a matter of fact I am trying to win a mother of the year award. The next morning I sent him off to school and told him if it got any worse to go to the nurse. After lunch I got the call from the nurse saying he really needed to get checked out. I called his regular dentist but she was in surgery and couldn't see him until the next day. By now my son was pretty much in tears from the pain. I stopped by a new dentists office close to my house and asked if they could see him right away. The Dr. came right out and said of course he would see him. It turns out he had gotten an infection where the tooth had come out. The Dr. got us the necessary prescriptions and called not once, but twice over the next several days to make sure Chris was doing alright. I was totally blown away by the exceptional, courteous care we received that I baked the Dr. some cookies and brought him a thank you card.



This is where the challenge comes in to win this fabulous blog bling. I am challenging you to pay it forward by surprising someone who normally wouldn't expect it with a little treat. You'll notice that I did not get crazy with the bucket. I put some tissue paper in the bottom added a little crinkle paper and some homemade cookies. Your projects just need to make the recipient feel special. I believe the world would be a much nicer place if thing like this were done more often. All you need to do is link a picture or leave a message on this post telling me what you did and you will be entered to win one of my baskets along with a few other goodies (5 sheets of Cosmo Cricket paper, 2 sets of clear stamps and 2 chipboard sliders)

Tomorrow, I am going out of town for the weekend. I won't be able to check on your progress until I get back. I will use a random number generator to select a winner on Monday at 2:00p Pacific time. I know that's a quick turnaround, but the challenge isn't that hard and I want to try to get the lucky winner her basket for Easter! Good luck my blogging buddies! Have a wonderful weekend!

Thanks for stamping by!

Laura

Kindness

Hi there...I have been out of blogging land for a few days and not stamping either. I have really been enjoying the warm weather here and have been doing a little spring cleaning. I also must confess that since Sunday I have been full-on OBSESSED with Confessions of a Pioneer Woman Blog. Thanks Julie. The link I included goes directly to the ongoing posts of the story she is recounting of how she met and fell in love with her cowboy. She is honest, witty and just plain lovable and I think you will also enjoy the beautiful pictures she takes of her like on their ranch. Tell me what you think!

This card is for the weekly sketch challenge at SCS. I inked up my new Always SU! set for this card. I got the card done and almost started over thinking that I should add more layers, but I really like the sort of Zen like feel this card has going. That really doesn't go over so well in the SCS gallery, but I gotta be me:) I stamped the card base with the background stamp from Oh, So Lovely with Versamark. The background on the river rock panels was stamped multiple times for the lighter shades. The bird was stamped on white cs with close to cocoa and chocolate chip using the rock and roll method. The circle was cut from vellum cs and distressed with the distressing tool and lighly sponged with choc chip ink.

I am aproaching 30K hits and really want to thank you all (because of the basket tutorial, I got 18k hits in just 4 weeks...hello!) I have an idea and am going to try to get it together today and post it in a little while so check back.

I need to go have lunch... I AM HUNGRY. Thanks for stamping by!

Laura~

Toy's Sketch Challenge

Good morning! I made this card to play along with a weekly sketch challenge that Toy is doing. Thanks, Toy, for a great sketch. I hadn't use this image yet from MFT's Eggstra Special and it was really about time. To color the image, I use a VersaMark pen and pastel chalks. I love the soft look they give and I think it really goes well with the Cosmo Cricket DP. I used my Cuttlebug for the flowers and added some itty bitty buttons.

I am going to go out in a little bit to take another walk. This day is starting out much like yesterday, I hope it continues to go that way and I wish the same for you. Some of you have mentioned snow so I will enjoy the gorgeous weather here for you:)

Thanks for stamping by!

Laura

Life is so freakin' wonderful!

Do you ever have one of those days that is so completely perfect you just want to hold on to it for all its worth...well I am smack dab in the middle of one of those days and thought it would be fun to share. I don't have any cards to share with you just yet maybe later...I plan on just letting this next few hours just take care of themselves, I have a habit of really trying to contol every single little thing and I miss other things because of that, but I will talk more about that in a few minutes.

Yesterday I was tagged by Michelle at Stamps, Paper, Scissors and Donkey Smiles. Stop by and check out her super fun blog. Thanks for the tag Michelle! This is the tag to tell 7 things about yourself. I have done this 2 times before and was pretty vanilla about it so I am going to try to me more chocolate, dark chocolate, thank you very much! Here we go....

1. When I was in 6th grade art class, we were given the assignment of drawing a dog from a picture of a pencil drawn dog. From my point of view, my classmates were DaVinci while I was decidedly not and was, in fact, painfully devoid of any artistic ability whatsoever. That really shaped who I thought I was and was not for the next 10 years or so. I decided I should stick with things that were more concrete, like business and anything that kept me far from drawings of dogs

2. I mention #1 because for ten years of my life I was a cake decorator in a shop that my mom owned and while I was a fantastic cake decorator, I still didn't consider myself to be an artist or artistic, for that matter.

3 Just a random other thing is that for about 18 months when I was in college I worked for the ad agency that coined the phrase "What happens in Vegas...stays in Vegas" I am not saying I am proud of that, just stating a fact.

4. I mentioned #2 because for the first time in my life, because of all the wonderful support of this fabulous stamping community, I feel like I am a creative artistic person! I mean I never thought anything I made would be considered for not one, but two different national paper magazines. And also that I had it in me to win a design contest. Getting involved in SCS and having my own blog has just opened a window to a world I never thought I would even come close to fitting into.

6. My all time favorite movies are, in not particular order....The Princess Bride, Heart & Souls, The Iron Giant, Better off Dead and more recently The Holiday. (Please don't judge:)

7. I have said this before, but it is worth repeating. I have a little coffee, chocolate and wine every single day! (No, I am not 400lbs and I am not an alcoholic:)

So now I have to tag other blogs. Well I still have the same circle of blogging friends and I am sure they don't want me to tag them yet again. I did however discover just yesterday a new blogger that I am smitten with, her name is Katie, My Paper Haven. She has a such an easy elegant style, I think you should go take a look! If you want to play and have your blog listed here, just leave a comment and I would be happy to oblige!

Ok, so onto the other stuff that is really making me completely happy today. First, a brand new Micheal's store opened today just 3.3 miles from my house and I was literally the second customer in the store (some guy came out of nowhere to be the 1st person to walk in) I was the first paying customer:) Go me! You now know where I will be on any given day. So the second thing is the weather today, it is 66 degrees out and the birds are singing and the bees are buzzing and the trees are blooming and my little girl wanted to go for a walk. I grabbed my camera and headed out the door. Normally I wouldn't take my camera, but this morning before my walk I checked in on Julie's Blog, Paper Truffles and she said that she was geeking over this blog called Confessions of a Pioneer Women. Well I will tell you what, I have a new place to visit frequently, go check it out and tell me what you think! Once you visit that you will probably understand why I had to bring my camera! You probably didn't know I could be so chatty without a card to show!

We have these trees in Las Vegas called Flowering Plums, I thought for a long time they were Cherry Blossoms. The flowers bloom for a very short amount of time and are they gorgeous when they do! Here's a few pictures of some of them and of the gorgeous scenery I get to look at when I walk around the 2 mile loop that goes around my neighborhood. Just before I sat down to do this entry I took my daughter to Cold Stone Ice Cream, I had a cup of vanilla bean with caramel, chocolate, Oreo cookie, and pecans mixed in. I enjoyed every single bite and didn't feel guilty about it, not even for a second. Life is so freakin' fabulous!

Thanks for stamping by!

Laura

Sweet Chick

Hi there! This is for Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge. I love this sketch, it's a great way to use up scraps of paper. I am trying to get some Easter cards done, even though I really need birthday cards. So many cards to do, so little time:) The paper, ribbon and the frame are from Cosmo Cricket, the very fun box I got from QVC. Did any of you get it? The chick and the flower (from My Favorite Things, Eggsta Special) were both stamped with black classic ink and colored with colored pencils. I cut the flower and attached it to the outside of the frame, 'cause it wouldn't fit on the inside and there was no way I wasn't using the frame!

I am so happy it's Friday and the weather is gorgeous here! I am going for a walk later, but first I am going to Michael's to get MORE stuff, lol! I really need glue sticks and a new blade for my trimmer. I am going to try and be good, wish me luck!

Thanks for stamping by!

Laura~

Elegant MFT cake

Hello! This is my submission for My Favorite Guest Designer Challenge, April. Ever since I got this stamp set I have wanted to do a card like this with the cake, I thought it would make a really elegant wedding card. This is pretty close to what I had in my head so I am thrilled. There is some stiff competition this month, but I had so much fun being the guest designer for March that I wanted to try and win again. I will keep you posted.

I used 2 shades of cream cardstock (I would love to tell you from where, but it's just paper out of my stash) and vellum card stock trimmed with a deckle edge Fiskar blade. I stamped the cake twice on cream cardstock with Versamark and embossed with white ep. I colored one in with Creamy Caramel ink and a blender pen and cut it out. I cut the other piece with an oval Nestability and stamped and embossed the base of the cake. I ran a panel of cream through my Cuttlebug with a textile embossing folder and added the vellum behind it. Finally, I added the ribbon, the flowers and pearls from Marcella by K and distressed the right edge a bit. Wish me luck!

I want to give a quick shout out to my BIL's girlfriend, Melissa...who has been stalking my blog! Hey girl, how's the weather in Illinois?

Thanks for stamping by!

Laura~

If friends were flowers...

I'd pick you. Here you go my friends, another sneak peek at the new MFT set Punch a Bunch. I thought a watercolor look would be pretty for this, so I stamped the flowers repeatedly with Versamark and colored them with pastels (rose red, regal rose). I added a some extra greenery with the brush side of a Versamarker and colored that also with pastels (always artichoke). I finished by cutting a few extra flowers and adding a dot of white to the center with a gel pen. The paper and ribbon is from Cosmo Cricket (the stash I got from QVC). Don't forget the big release party is tonight...check the MFT forum at SCS. You could be the next guest designer!

Thanks for stamping by!

Laura~

Bloomin' Wonderful!

Well, thank ya'll so much for your comments on the Howdy card. How fun!!! Well here's a little peek at another new set from MFT called Punch a Bunch, designed to be used with your scalloped punches or Nestabilities. This is for the today's color challenge...wild wasabi, purely pomegranate and so saffron. I am still not feeling 100%, but I will survive:) After last week's color challenge nearly did me in, I was almost afraid to try this week's in my weakened state. It still took me a looooonnnnnggg time, but I am happy with the end result. This is going to a little girl who had some major surgery recently. I am sending it through Kelly (emmiestamps) who requested the RAK. For this card I stamped the flowers with classic ink and colored them with my SU! markers and then added some Crystal Effects for a little pop! The flowers were stamped on a separate sheet of cardstock and then trimmed as a bunch. I used my Crop a Dile for the embossed circles and my Nestabilities for the ovals. The faux stitching is done with a white gel pen.

Thanks so much for stamping by and for all your well wishes, you guys make me happy!

Laura!

Howdy

Wednesday is the the day that you can get the brand new stamp sets from My Favorite Things...yippy kiyay! Here's a little sneak peek for you. This set is so much fun, I combined it with one of the stamps from SU's True Friend. For the background, I stamped the the cactus onto watercolor paper and then used my watercolor pencils and a blender pen to create the sunset. Then used Ranger Ink Brushed Corduroy and a sponge dauber around the edge. The small flowers are cut from the decorative bandana paper and one was layered on cut outs from True Friend. The braided fiber is some that I have had in my stash for awhile.

I started coming down with the crud yesterday, my throat hurts and I can barely keep my head off the desk...hopefully I can still get some prime stamping time in:) Have a great day!

Thanks for stamping by!

Laura~