8.31.2012

Many Thanks - Be Inspired #10

It's time for a brand new Be Inspired Challenge over at The Alley Way Stamps and I LOVE this one!!! The colors, the patterns, it's all just super fabulous. Just say'n.


I used the fabulous Cover Ups set for this fun card! Check out this great inspiration photo!!!


Isn't that just fabulous?! Seriously. K. So, I used the zig zag stamp from Cover Ups and then I added a couple of fabulous border stickers from SRM Press for the sentiment and the fun orange swirl! I love combining stickers and stamps to create fun designs! That super fabulous chevron flair is from Bossy Joscie! (Yup! She has a shop. She is awesome. Go buy some flair. Kthnkxbye.)

Many Thanks

Now..head over to The Alley Way, create a card based on the inspiration and link it up for your chance to win free stamps!
I am linking this up to the Repetition Challenge in the Moxie Fab World!

Happy FRIDAY, FOLKS!!!! It's time for a LONG WEEKEND!!!! YAY!!!!!


8.30.2012

Shine On with the Tami Mayberry Blog Hop!

***This is my second post of the day! I'd love for you to check out the previous one, showing off my CASADIA card, too! Thanks for visiting! ***


Welcome to the Tami Mayberry Design Team blog hop!  We are so excited to share some super fab creations using Tami's AMAZING stamps!!!!  If you came from Regina's blog, you are already on your way!  If not, you *might* just want to hop on back to Tami's blog to start at the beginning!  It's pretty awesome.  Just say'n.


Here is the card I created for today's hop! I am seriously HEAD OVER HEELS in love with Tami's newest release, Lighthearted Wishes! For reals, you guys! AWESOME. STAMP. SET. Just say'n. Wanna see? K. Here you go! Don't say I didn't warn you!


I KNOW, RIGHT?! Totally. Just say'n. AND...to make things even MORE AWESOMER (Yup...I totally just said that. K. Moving on....) Gina K. Designs is having a super fantabulous Labor Day sale this weekend so you can get them ON SALE!!! Woot! Wooooooot!!!! You can check out all of the sale details on the Gina K. blog!

Shine On (detail)

I am also linking my Shine On card up to the Repetition Challenge in the Moxie Fab World. Why? Because I am actually sort of in love with this card and I want to share it!!! YAY!!!! I mean, really? What could be better than LOTS of fabulous light bulbs AND the bestest sentiment ever written? K. That's why. Thanks for asking!!! Tee-hee!

Now...as for that blog hop, here is the full list in case you get lost!

Tami Mayberry
Jamie Cripps
Regina Hardy
Jennifer Ingle You Are HERE!
Lalo Ik
Donna Bowman

As for the rest of your day, well, my friends... Shine On!

Shine On (straight on)

Jingle Out!

Casadia

CASE + IDEA = CASADIA! It's totally a word.  Well, at least it is now!  All because the fabulous Wida had a fabulous idea and a bunch of other fabulous people jumped on THAT bandwagon super quick!  Me...I'm just another fabulous bandwagon jumper at your service!  HA!

Here's how it works.   Jennifer Rzasa decided to CASE this gorgeous card created by the fabulous Laura Bassan:


Here is Jennifer's card:


Then Wida Cased Jennifer's card and came up with this:


Then Shirley (sorry, I don't have her blog address) came up with this based on Wida's card.


Amy Cased Shirley's card and came up with this:


Lorena cased Amy's card and came up with this:


And then Ashley CASED Lorena's card and came up with this one:


And then Lalo jumped in and CASED Ashley's card and came up with this:


And from Lalo's card, Julie came up with this...


And THAT, my friends, is where I stepped in! I CASED Julie's card! I was inspired by the colors a LOT! I just love the kraft, black and red combo! I also really liked the white heat embossing on the black, so I went with that, as well, along with the bit of red baker's twine. Here is the card I came up with!


YAY!!!! Seriously. This was so much fun and I love looking at how the train started and where it is now! Thanks, Wida, for being pretty much BRILLIANT!

I am also linking this one up to the CAS-Fridays Banners and Flags Challenge! You know, seeing as it's pretty bannerific and all! Have a fabulous Thursday, folks!

Jingle Out!

8.29.2012

Simon Says: Find a Beautiful Place and Get Lost!

*** This is my second post for today! Don't forget to see the one prior to this for a fun announcement and my WOYWW fun! ***

It's time for another fabulous Simon Says Stamp Challenge and you know what that means! That means YOU could win a $50 Voucher to the Simon Says Stamp Store! I KNOW, RIGHT?!


And this time around it is an EASY ONE, too! ANYTHING GOES! Yup! That's right! It's an Anything Goes challenge so you have NO excuse not to link up! The Simon Says Stamp Challenge Design Team is using some fun Hero Arts products this week. Here is the card I created for the Anything Goes Challenge!

Let's Find a Beautiful Place

I used the Hero Arts Joy Ride stamp set along with the Hero Arts Wonderful World stamp set on my card. The cute brad is from the Amy Tangerine Collection from American Crafts. The paper is from the Echo Park Everyday Eclectic Collection. I LOVE that collection!!!! For reals, you guys. love.it. Just say'n.

Let's Find a Beautiful Place (detail)

So now it's YOUR turn! Create anything you want and link it up to the Simon Says Stamp Challenge blog for your chance to win a $50 voucher to the Simon Says Stamp Superstore!





You can find the supplies I used to create this card via the links below!





Let's Celebrate with Some Martinis! {WOYWW}

I have a very exciting announcement to make! I am now officially a member of the PSA Essentials Design Team! I will be serving the role of card maker on the team...seems like a good fit to me, what do you think? YAY!!! I am so VERY excited to be joining this amazing group of creative bloggers! You can see the announcement over on the PSA Stamp Camp Blog!


AND...it just so happens that this week is also the PSA Essentials and May Arts collaboration week and you can see my super fun tutorial for these Martini Glass Charms over on the May Arts blog!

DSCN8823

I look forward to sharing LOTS of fabulous PSA Essentials projects with you over the next year! So excited!!!

AND... for those who came to see my workspace, well, the room is ready to show off entirely yet, but I have been working, nonetheless, so here is the current state of my desk!

WOYWW 29 August 2012

You can see in the background that there are still things scattered on the floor waiting for homes, be that furniture that I just bought at IKEA and need to build or the table that got covered with random stuff during the unpacking process, or... well, you know how it goes. However, I did get a super fun shade for my daylight bulb at IKEA! It's like a giant paper pillow!!! I love it! SO FUN!

Paper Pillow Lighting fixture from IKEA

I DID think about stamping it, but I'm too scared of ruining it or of it casting shadows if I stamp on it, so....it's going to stay fabulously white! And I'm totally cool with that. Just say'n.

Jingle Out!

8.28.2012

Live the Life of Your Dreams

You know what. While not every part of my life is what I would call dream-worthy, I can say that I am very fortunate and blessed to be able to do something that I truly love. I work on a lot of design teams and, for the last six months, I've had the honor of Coordinating the Skipping Stones Design DT. I am a seriously lucky girl. This is the stuff dreams are made of! But, today, I close the door on one of those dreams to pursue others. Today is my final post as a Skipping Stones Design DT member and as the SSD Design Team Coordinator, as well. I am sad. BUT...this was my decision and I do feel it is the right one at this time. I LOVE Skipping Stones and I certainly won't be a stranger! Heather does amazing work and I wouldn't miss it for the world! So...that being said, I decided to go a bit sappy for this post, so please forgive me, as you may be drenched in it by the end of it all! HA!

See, here's the thing...many many moons ago sometime back in 2010, I was asked to be a guest designer for SSD. I had known Heather from back when we both lived in Colorado (funny...neither of us do now! LOL!) and I was already in love with her super fun stamps! When asked which stamps I wanted to use, I instantly fell in love with her quirky bra sets and, of course, Healing Wings. I say "of, course" because if you've followed my SSD posts you know that Healing Wings is my absolute FAVORITE SSD set of all time! I just love it! I loved it then and I love it now! Here is the first card I created for SSD using, of course, Healing Wings!

Live the Life of Your Dreams

Yup. That's an old one! LOL! I've evolved in style a great deal since I made this card. So, I decided it would only be right to pull out that very same favorite stamp set and apply it to the sketch challenge for this week. I used the exact same stamps - but this one is a little more the Jingle you know and love now! LOL!

Live the Life of Your Dreams

Yup. Same stamps. Same designer. A long couple of years in between the two! LOL! I love this card!!!!

Live the Life of Your Dreams (detail)

So there you have it. My first SSD card as a designer, and my last. I do hope you will play along with the sketch challenge this week! I'm also entering this card into the Movement Challenge in the Moxie Fab World. I just love how the eye can easily move from left to right by starting with the grey ribbon tab on the left (May Arts, of course!), to the central focal point image, to the grey ribbon tab on the bottom right. Nice and easy flow!

I hope you have a super fabulous Tuesday and I hope this post wasn't too sappy for you. I just felt the need to share my feelings a bit. *sigh* Now...what great adventure might be coming next, do you think???? *insert HUGE grin here!***

8.27.2012

Thanks a Bunch for THAT Road Rage Adventure!

Okay, so that's a loaded title. HAHAHA! Let's start with the Thanks A Bunch part and then I can tell you my story... Yes. I have a story to tell today!

First, a card!

Thanks a Bunch

I created this card based on the August Sketch from The Craft's Meow. I just love the sketch and had a lot of fun using three different The Craft's Meow Stamp Sets. I used Lovely Labels 14, Stitched Flowers, and Stitched Sentiments.

And here is the sketch that it came from.


I am also entering this in the Focal Point Challenge in the Moxie Fab World. I feel like all elements in this card come down to that right hand corner of focal point cuteness!

Thanks a Bunch (detail 1)

I fussy cut the fern so that I could have it partially behind the frame and then pop it out to really stand out on the front of the card. I love doing this with fun frames on cards! The beautiful ribbon is May Arts.

Thanks a Bunch (detail 2)

And now, for the story. Road Rage. I now know just how real it is, as last night we ended up at the Police Station after becoming genuine victims of a road rage incident. For reals, you guys. WICKED CRAZY SCARY STUFF!

Here's what happened...

We were on our way from Target to the pizza place to pick up a pizza we ordered for dinner. We exit off the highway (The new area where we live is ALL ABOUT the highways - they are everywhere and pretty much super necessary to get around.) and move onto the on ramp. All of the sudden there is a Honda Accord about two inches from our bumper. And that might be generous! This guy was REALLY close! So close, I actually said to The Hubbums, "Wow! That guy is like crazy close to you right now!" While looking I could see his hand waving and gesturing out the sunroof. I couldn't see it, but The Hubbums said that his OTHER hand was doing the same out the driver's side window...leaving exactly ZERO hands on the wheel of the vehicle, which, mind you, is still two inches from our bumper.

So...that's pretty scary to begin with. Sean continues to drive at appropriate speeds for the road we are getting onto. The guy starts SCREAMING from his car - I have no idea what he was saying, as our windows were up and, quite frankly, I don't think I want to know what he was saying. Then, once we are on the road, something hits our rear window (The Hubbums drives a Mini Cooper.). He had thrown something at the car. No clue what it was, but it hit the rear windshield and made a thunking sound. That was also very scary. Then the guy speeds up, comes up beside us and throws something ELSE - A soda bottle - full - at the driver's side. It hits the door. Thank GOODNESS the window was shut because I'm pretty sure he would have aimed from Sean's head! It left a rather substantial bottom-of-bottle-shaped dent in the door of the car.

So...at this point, this guy is extremely dangerous. He has verbally threatened us, well, at least, I don't think he was screaming really nice things at the top of his lungs. AND...he has proven an intent to harm. And, as I said, he threw that while passing us. Well, he wasn't content to just keep going at this point. And, I was already on the phone with 911 as he STOPPED his car in the middle of the road, blocking us from getting by (there was some on coming traffic so going around him would have been VERY dangerous at this point) and he GETS OUT OF THE CAR.

Yes. I am scared. I'm not going to lie. We had no idea what this guy was thinking at this point. He approached the car, screaming the whole way, and, ended up on MY side (the passenger side) of the vehicle where he proceeded to PUNCH the window beside my head. I was on the call with the Police at this point and I'm quite sure they heard just how concerned I was. Just say'n. He punched it hard enough that there was skin on the window this morning. For reals. Actually, thinking about it, I'm guessing his hand is in a rather substantial amount of pain this morning. That HAD to hurt! And I am REALLY glad I never even considered opening my window because with as angry as this guy was, I'm not convinced he wouldn't have hit me. Seriously, you guys...I don't even want to think about it, but it is/was so scary!

He got back into his car and then tried to BACK THE CAR into us. I know he was thinking he could say it was our fault for 'rear ending' his car, but at that point I was already talking to the Police, so they would have known exactly what happened. He kept moving his car forward and then backward again.

He progressed down the road a bit further, and, come to find out, we were getting closer and closer to the Police Station. The dispatcher on the phone gave me directions to the Police Station and we pretty much screamed into that parking lot. (Remember, we just moved, so we didn't know the station was there.) At that point, Sean had noticed flags and started driving toward them since that's usually a sign of some kind of authority. So, we arrived at the police station and the officers were on their way out the door when the other driver, who had conveniently passed the Police Station, decided to turn around and join us there! I thought for SURE he was history, so I was pretty surprised he followed us into the station parking lot!

He pulls up RIGHT NEXT TO US - driver's side, gets out of the car and immediately starts SCREAMING at the Officer! Well. That's one way to handle it.

He got all up in on officer's face right off the bat and that officer got all up in his face right back at him. Due to the screaming two more officers (two had originally come out to meet us) pretty much appeared out of nowhere to help deescalate the situation. At that point, we had four officers around, we were standing in front of the Police Station, every officer was fully armed and geared up (and I mean FULLY! We moved from the city to the burbs and I NEVER saw a Police Officer wearing as much gear as these guys were in the city! It was kind of weird, but at that moment, I was REALLY GLAD!). One very nice female officer came over to talk to us. She gave us a minute to stop looking all buggy eyed and asked what happened. Another officer, after calming the other guy down, asked the same of him. We never had to talk to him and I am REALLY glad about that. Our two cars were between us the entire time and he left several minutes before we did, which made me feel a bit more comfortable that he wouldn't follow us again, but I was still nervous. Heck...I was nervous driving to work this morning!

So...as it currently stands, we are waiting on the Police Report, but it looks like some kind of charges will be filed. We don't know what yet. We will have to go to court to tell our side of the story to get it all resolved and get the damage to the car repaired.

When asked why this all happened. Apparently he told the officer that we had cut him off on the highway. We didn't. If we did, we totally didn't mean to, but seriously...this guy didn't appear in the rear view mirror until we were already on the on ramp and he was suddenly two inches from our bumper.

AND...even if we had cut him off...seriously? This is how you react to that? I drive a LOT. I used to drive 100 miles a day to get to work and back (thankfully that is much less now! YAY!). If I assaulted people every single time I got cut off, I wouldn't have time to WORK, for goodness sake! That is simply not an acceptable reaction under ANY circumstances!

So...that's what happened. I'm writing it all down because I'll have to recount it again in court and I figured this was a good way to tell the story.

AND...Road Rage is real. It isn't a joke. I never knew it could be like this until now. This didn't happen in a city, a rough area, or any place that would be marked as dangerous...it happened in your average suburban American town - not far from the Police Station at that! Be careful out there and don't take these things lightly. I fear for what could have happened and I'm very grateful that this man wasn't armed with anything other than his vehicle and a couple of soda bottles.

Road Rage isn't a joke. It's real. And people can get very hurt or even killed. I was SO impressed with the defensive driving skills of my husband! I would have likely wrecked my car in that situation. It was NOT easy to evade this guy AND be slightly freaked out at the same time all while your wife is pretty much yelling into the phone at the emergency dispatcher trying to give them the location and 'play by play' action over the phone.

Be Safe.

Jingle Out.

8.25.2012

A WHALE of a Challenge!

Wow. I am such a dork. HA! But, FOR REALS, who could possibly resist using THAT title, when presenting THIS card? Ready?

Wait for it...


Wishing You a Whale of a Great Birthday!

BAZINGA! Just say'n.

We have a brand new Design Team Challenge over at Gourmet Rubber Stamps and this time it is all about SHAPES! Not necessarily shaped cards, although, that is, of course, welcome, but also using shapes ON the card designs. I chose to do a bit of both with my Whale of a Card! (NO! I WILL NOT quit doing that. I like it. So there!) I created a scalloped circle card using my Spellbinder's dies and then paper pieced those squares to give the whale a quilted look! I love how cute he turned out!

Whale of a Great Birthday (detail)

I used the adorable Merry Marine set for my card! I love this set! It is just TOO CUTE!!!

Head on over to the Gourmet Rubber Stamps blog to check out what the other designers have created and be INSPIRED!

8.24.2012

Gourmet Rubber Stamps Recipe Time!

Well, this is fun! It was my turn to create the Recipe Sketch over at Gourmet Rubber Stamps this week! Here is the sketch I created:


And here is the fun card I created using the Pack Your Bags Diners set!

A Good Traveler

I layered Studio Calico paper on the background of the card and then adhered an inked tag with a bit of May Arts burlap ribbon stapled to the top. I then stamped the image and sentiment from Pack Your Bags, inked them, and adhered them to the tag. A bit of May Arts burlap string comes together in a few colors to finish the card.

A Good Traveler (details)

Go ahead and make a card based on this sketch and upload it to the Gourmet Rubber Stamps Facebook page! We would love to see it!

Thank Moo!

Sometimes, a bit of punny goodness is just what one needs to brighten the day a little!  So...keeping that in mind...please don't roll your eyes TOO much when you see this one.  Just say'n.  LOL!

Thank Moo!


Tee-hee!  Isn't it fun?  That adorable cow is from The Alley Way Stamps Cover Ups set!  I created the sentiment using the Alphabet Soup set!  TOO fun!  A bit of washi tape and some doodling was all I added to finish up the card!

Thank Moo (detail)


Happy Friday, folks!

8.23.2012

Jack and Stars

Yup. That's what I'm calling this one.  'Cause I think it's fun, that's why!  HA!  You guys, seriously, I'm starting to get REALLY excited about Halloween!  I LOVE IT!!!!  When Gourmet Rubber Stamps came out with this amazing Invite to Fright set I knew it would be an instant favorite!!!  Just LOOK at that Jack-o'-Lantern!!!!

Jack and Stars Halloween


I went with red and woodgrain papers from the Authentique Carefree 6x6 pad.  While the colors aren't necessarily traditional, I think they work really well for Halloween!  The awesome stars are the Studio Calico  Wood Veneer Tiny Stars!  OMG!!!!  I am SO IN LOVE with these things!!!  I spritzed them with Glimmer Mist to add both color and shimmer!  *LOVE!*  I wrapped May Arts burlap string and finished it off with a simple bow!

Jack and Stars Halloween (detail)


I am also linking this up to the Assymetry Challenge in the Moxie Fab World!

Have a SPOOKTAKULAR Thursday, folks!  (Yup.  I totally just said that.  And I'm totally standing behind it.  HA!  Just say'n.)

Jingle Out!