Blue Carnation Damask - My Time Made Easy Pretty Pattern Sketch #25

Hello everyone!  It's time for another My Time Made Easy Pretty Pattern Sketch Challenge.   I really, really like this week's sketch for it's versatility. 

For my card, I chose to go with a brighter blue theme using turquoise as my main color base.  After downloading the Be Dazzled digital image set and breaking it a part, I printed off the framed flowers twice so I could pop one of the flowers up later.  After everything was colored, and my Dainty Damask digital paper was done printing, I pulled out some silk bridal cake flowers (seriously? on a cake?) I found on clearance at Walmart to frame the carnations with and added a small white pre-made bow.  Once that was done, and my one carnation popped up, I added some Tim Holtz scattered straw distress stickles to the centers of the digital flowers and I was done.  Total time for preparation and assembly: 20-25 minutes tops.  You have to love those digital images and papers.

That's all for today.  Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.


Stamps: MTME Digital Be Dazzled
Ink: None
Card Stock: White, Stampin Up! Tempting Turquoise, MTME Dainty Damask Digital Paper
Accessories: Prismacolor Markers, Computer, Printer, Silk White Bridal Flowers, Brads, Brow, Glue Dots, Pop Dots

Ladybugs And Teapots - MMTPT161

Hello!!  Happy Monday. ;)  It's time for another Mothermark Teapot Tuesday Challenge.  This week our Destination Station is Julesanne who had extensive back surgery today and she loves ladybugs.  So our challenge was to make cards with lots of ladybugs on them.

For my card, I dusted off some Die Cuts With A View cut textured layer card stock and combined it with some retired Stampin Up! old olive card stock and ink.  For my images, I pulled out my well loved Stampin Up! Inspired By Nature set and dusted off my Papertrey Ink sets Little Lady and Green Thumb and decided to show them some "love".  I inked up my Inspired By Nature stamp using Stampin Up! markers for the flowers/leaves and then an old olive ink pad for the grass.  Once those were all stamped, I stamped a few more flowers onto scrap so saffron card stock to cut out and pop up later.  Then using various memento inks, I overstamped the ladybugs and some additional flowers for color.

Thanks for stopping by today.  Have a great week!!!


Stamps: Stampin Up! Inspired By Nature, PTI Little Lady, Green Thumb
Ink: Stampin Up! Old Olive, Memento Rose Bud/Rhubarb Steak/Grape Jelly Inks
Card Stock: Stampin Up! Old Olive, So Saffron Scrap, DCWV Textured Layer Stack
Accessories: Stampin Up! Markers, Pop Dots

Welcome Fall Swap

I just love fall.  The colors seem more beautiful for some reason, the air a bit more crisper, the temperature starts to get a bit more cooler (no more triple digits) and in Central California it's Harvest Time!!  So, in celebration, Mark's Finest Papers is holding a Speedy The Cat Fall Card Swap.  I was in the birthday swap and had such a blast, I joined the Summer swap and now the Fall swap. 

For my swap cards, I chose my favorite fall color combination: Stampin Up! Really Rust (why was it retired?), Old Olive, and More Mustard.  Instead of stamping my images on plain vanilla card stock, I used Mark's Finest Papers Corn Husk card stock.  I'm finding I like the texture and how Koh-I-Noor wood less pencils color and blend on this card stock.  Fantastic!!

Once I had decided on my card stock colors, I pulled out my All Aboard and Welcome Home stamp sets.  After stamping my All Aboard train station image four times, I pulled out the Koh-I-Noor pencils and got to work, using the prismacolor blending marker as I needed to.  When I finally got to coloring the trees, I had to pull out five (5) different pencils to obtain the shading I wanted for the leaves and then colored spritzed an old olive marker over the entire image.  After all of the layering was done for my main image, I then pulled out a cuttlebug Autumn embossing folder and ran the card portion through my Big Shot before sponging Stampin Up! really rust ink over the raised wording.  Finally pulling out the "There's no place like Home" saying from the Welcome Home set, I stamped my saying also onto Corn Husk card stock and layered it before color spritzing an old olive marker over it. 

For my final touches, I punched out some large and small leaves using a large Marvy punch and a small EK Success punch, then sponging ink, rolled up the edges of the large leaves with a quilling tool and adhering them with glue dots.  Here's a close up of the detailed section.

There's still plenty of time for you to come join us in the Speedy The Cat Fall Card Swap.  Just make sure you've joined Speedy TV to sign up for it.  If you haven't joined yet, what are you waiting for??  There's lots of inspiration, friends, and videos/tutorials at Speedy TV.  The swap is due September 30th and the sooner you get signed up in the forum, the sooner you can get your swaps done.  By the way, all participants of the Speedy The Cat Fall Swap receive a free mini stamp set courtesy of Faith.  Isn't she the greatest??

Thanks for stopping by today.  Have a great day.


Stamps:  MFP Welcome Home, All Aboard
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin Up! Really Rust, Old Olive, More Mustard
Card Stock: MFP Corn Husk, Stampin Up! Really Rust, Old Olive, More Mustard
Accessories: Koh-I-Noor Wood less Pencils, Prismacolor Blender Marker, SU Old Olive Brads, Glue Dots, Cuttlebug Autumn Embossing Folder, Big Shot, Color Spritzing Tool, Stampin Up! Old Olive Marker, Sponges, Marvy Leaf Punch, EK Success Leaf Punch, Quilling Tool

Clean And Simple Stamping By Understanding Blue

Second post today.  If you're looking for my Inspiration Challenge post, please scroll down one post.

I had another night of difficulty sleeping, so I decided to check into Splitcoast's Featured Stamper challenge.  This week's featured gallery is Lydia Fiedler also known as Understand Blue.  For my inspiration from her gallery, I chose her Drunk Moped from May's VSN using alcohol inks. 

I have found when I'm printing digital images, I have lots of strips of card stock left over that I could make smaller cards from.  So, I pulled out two of these strips, folded them in half, and stamped them both using Mark's Finest Papers retired Lady Serene and Speedy the Cat's Friends.  Once my images were stamped, I colored both using Lyra jumbo pencils and some Stampin Up! woodless pencils with a prismacolor blender marker.

Now isn't this cat saying the cutest??  Not to mention so appropriate for my household.  It seems the cats and the dog run this place.  All my family does is wait on them hand and foot. ;)

I decided to use a clean and simple technique on both cards, only allowing some small gold Stampendous Class-A-Peel stickers to highlight the teapot and teacup. 

Thanks for stopping by today.  Have a great day.

Stamps: MFP Lady Serene, Speedy The Cat's Friends

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black

Card Stock: White

Accessories: Lyra Jumbo Pencils, Stampin Up! Woodless Pencils, Prismacolor Blender Marker, Stampendous Class-A-Peel Stickers

Urbanrose Inspration Stamping - SCS IC299

It's been a while since I've done an Inspiration challenge over on Splitcoaststampers.com and this week's challenge just begged to be tried.  We were to create something inspired by either the attached Urbanrose Etsy Store or from one of the samples provided from the store.  I chose two of the provided samples since I was having a hard time sleeping Friday night/Saturday morning. 

For my first card, I chose to go with a simple design to try and highlight some of the colors in the K&Company designer paper.  After stamping my images from the Welcome Home set from Mark's Finest Papers in memento rich cocoa on Corn Husk card stock, I simply layered it onto Stampin Up! riding hood red, old olive and really rust card stock scraps.  Now since I wanted matching riding hood red brads, and didn't have any, I made my own by using a mini hole punch and adhering the punched pieces using a Martha Stewart 2-way glue pen.  Nifty and a great way to make sure one always has brads to match.  For the final touch, I wrapped some Autumn colored ribbon around the spine of the card.

My second card came together much easier for some reason. I pulled out some Basic Gray Kioshi designer paper and allowed that to determine the colors for my card stock and coloring.   I stamped the Mark's Finest Papers retired Believe In You crane in memento tuxedo black in on white card stock and then colored with Koh-I-Noor woodless pencils with a prismacolor blender marker.  Once my layering  was completed, I once again made my own brads using scrap Stampin Up! baja breeze card stock before adding some white fiber ribbon and some retired Stampin Up! felt fusion flowers to finish everything off.  I'm pretty happy with both cards since they were made with no sleep in a 24hr period.

Thanks for stopping by.  Have a great day.

Stamps: MFP Believe In You, Welcome Home

Card Stock: White, MFP Corn Husk, Stampin Up! Riding Hood Red, Old Olive, Really Rust, Baja Breeze, Mauve Mist, MFT Bubblegum

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Memento Rich Cocoa, Stampin Up! Bashful Blue

Accessories: Prismacolor Blender Marker, Koh-I-Noor Pencils, Fiber Ribbon, Glue Dots, Mini Hole Punch, Stipple Brush, Stampin Up! Felt Fusion, Brads

Will You Bee Mine? - My Time Made Easy Pretty Pattern Sketch #24 - A Week In Review

Welcome to another My Time Made Easy Pretty Pattern Sketch Challenge.  This week, we are having another "week in review" looking back at sketches 7-12.  I chose to use Sketch #9 for my card and paired it with the Bee-Loved Digital Images. 

Once I had my digital images printed off (flipping one of the bees the opposite direction), I decided to also print off the sunflowers from the Bee Mine digital paper collection.  After I colored my images with prismacolor markers, and lightly stippled Stampin Up! bashful blue around the edges, I added some small prima flowers, gem stickers, ribbon, and brads to finish everything off.  When I added my image panel, instead of placing it straight like the sketch, I added it at an angle instead for a little different look.

Thanks for stopping by today.  Have a great day.

Stamps: MTME Bee-Loved Digital Stamps

Ink: Stampin Up! Bashful Blue

Card Stock: White, Stampin Up! Ballet Blue, Barely Banana, MTME Bee Mine Digital Paper

Accessories: Prismacolor Markers, Stipple Brush, Primas, Glue Dots, Gem Stickers, Brads, Ribbon, Computer, Printer

Vintage Popcorn - My Time Made Easy Pretty Pattern Sketch #23

Hello and welcome to another My Time Made Easy Pretty Pattern Sketch Challenge.  For this week's sketch, I chose to go with another vintage theme and pulled out my Night At The Movies digital images and colored up the vintage popcorn cart paired with Movie Tickets Digital Designer Paper. 

Once my coloring was done, and card assembled, I altered the sketch just a tad by adding some silk flowers to the bottom of the card before tackling the inside.

For the inside, I added one of the Night At The Movies sayings, a vintage popcorn box and some strips of Movie Tickets digital designer paper for the bottom of the card.

Thanks for stopping by today.  If you haven't played in one of the My Time Made Easy Pretty Pattern Sketch Challenges, you really should join us.  Come on!  Join in the fun and you just might win some prizes along the way.

Stamps: MTME Night At The Movies Digital Stamps
Card Stock: MTME Movie Tickets Digital Designer Paper, Stampin Up! Riding Hood Red, White, Sage Shadow
Accessories: Prismacolor Markers, Brads, Color Spritzer Tool, Stampin Up! So Saffron Marker, Silk Flowers, Glue Dots,

August Blast From The Past Blog Hop - Hoppin & Stampin In The Dark By Flashlight

Hello again!  It's time for another Taylored Expressions Blast From The Past Blog Hop.  I bet you're wondering about the title of my post today.  Well this last Saturday night/Sunday morning, we lost power for over 2 1/2 hrs (2:30 - 5:00 am) in what was still 90 degree weather and with another migraine (rolls eyes).  For those of you that live in Central to Northern California, you know what that means...no power = no air conditioner = no sleep: even at oh-dark-thirty with the front door open and the screen door locked.  So I grabbed a flashlight, a battery operated mini floodlight and found my way to my stamp table in the dark.  Fortunately, I had already chosen my stamp set and stamped my images.

After pulling out my dusty Stampin Up! wood less pencils, I colored the dress form and sewing machine and then outlined them with a light gray prismacolor marker before layering.  Taking my Maya Road chipboard pieces and some Stampin Up! craft spots, I "colored" the chipboard pieces by using the direct to paper technique and then colored again using the matching marker on the sides.  Once the chipboard dress form was dry, I took the saying from TE's Sew Happy set, inked it in PTI dark chocolate ink and stamped the saying over the dress form.

Once everything was totally dry, I pulled out some Making Memories ribbon I've had for over 5 years and have been afraid to use since I liked it so much and began assembling my card still by flashlight.  Now, other than the card being crooked, and a few other things being slightly crooked, I think the whole thing came out ok considering the circumstances it was made under.  Under normal circumstances, I would have finished in 30min or less, however, with no power, working with a migraine, and working by flashlight/mini mag light it took the entire 2 1/2 hrs we were without power.

Make sure you stop by all of the participating blogs today for additional eye candy and don't forget to leave some love.






Thanks for stopping by.  Have a great day.



Stamps: TE Sew Happy
Card Stock: Stampin Up! Cameo Coral, Vanilla, October Afternoon Thrift Shop
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin Up! Spots: Craft Cameo Coral, Close To Cocoa Craft, Old Olive Craft, Ruby Red Craft
Accessories: Stampin Up! Wood less Pencils, Color Spritzer Tool, Maya Road Chipboard Pieces, Primas, Ribbon, Stampendous Class-A-Peel Stickers, Ribbon, Pop Dots, Mini Circle Punch, Mini Pop Dots, Prismacolor Gray Marker

Back To School!

Second post today.  If you're looking for my Wednesday Stamp Club post, please scroll down one posting.  Thanks.



Back to school.   It's the most....wonderful time.....of the year.......

Ahhhh, back to school.  A time for good cheer for parents since the kiddos are gone & occupied during the day again.  A time for kids to complain about having to get up early and go to bed early.  A time to sign papers similar to the papers you signed at the beginning of last school year. 

To celebrate the occasion, I dusted off retired MFT Back To School Who's That Girl set and Punny Farm sets and paired them with some Stephanie Fizer Digital School Designer Paper.    Once my images were stamped with memento tuxedo black onto MFT Cream Perfect Panels, I then colored the images with prismacolor markers before cutting out the ones I had planned to put onto a desk and also the teacher's hat.  Now, since there are no desks with any of the MFT school sets, I had to make my own by using the Just My Type Die-Namic, and then modify the "paper" coming out of the typewriter to create the desk and the legs.  Taking a white gel pen, I then wrote the days class assignments onto the "black board" before layering and adding the vintage brads.

For the final touches on the outside, I pulled out my Perfect Petal Trio Die-Namic, distressed the flowers before adding them, and then added some retired Sheltering Tree grossgrain ribbon before attacking the inside of the card. 

For that, I needed my trusting MS Word program and a sense of humor.  After typing my saying and printing it out on Stampin Up! so saffron card stock, I layered that onto the same Stephanie Fizer Digital School Designer Paper. 

Thanks for stopping by today.  Have a great day.


Stamps: MFT Back To School Who's That Girl, Punny Farm
Card Stock: MFT Cream Perfect Panel, Stephanie Fizer Digital School Designer Paper, Stampin Up! So Saffron, Close To Cocoa Scrap
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin Up! Creamy Caramel
Accessories: Prismacolor Markers, Brads, Big Shot, Die-Namics, Stipple Brush, MS Word, Computer, Printer, Ribbon, White Gel Pen, Glue Dots

A Vintage Message - Wednesday Stamp Club

Hello and welcome.  This last weekend I had a couple of hours where I felt pretty good from the migraines and was able to get some stamping done, so I dusted off some of my MFT sets and got to work using the sets and the Die-namics. 

For last week's Wednesday Stamp Club over on Splitcoaststampers, I decided to finally ink up the Just My Type Stamp & Die-Namic Set that's been collecting dust around here and paired it up with some vintage GinaK digital background paper I've had sitting around.  Once my image was die cut, stamped and stippled in brown inks, I die cut the center border Scallop Die-Namic and stamped the images over it and the remaining borders before stippling caramel ink over those.  For my final touch, I used the Perfect Petal Trio Die-Namic to cut some flowers, scrunched them up to "age" them, and then stippled caramel ink all over those as well before layering.  Presto!!!  Easy peasy!!

Thanks for stopping by today.  Have a great day.


Stamps: MFT Just My Type Stamp & Die-Namic Set, Stampin Up! Petite Patterns
Card Stock: White, Stampin Up! Creamy Caramel, Close To Cocoa Scrap, Basic Grey Scrap, Creamy Caramel Scrap, GinaK Digital Designer Paper
Ink: PTI Dark Chocolate, Stampin Up! Creamy Caramel
Accessories: Stipple Brush, Pop Dots, MFT Die-Namics, Vintage Brads, Big Shot

Owl Always Love You - My Time Made Easy Pretty Pattern Sketch #22

Hello again.  It's time for another My Time Made Easy Pretty Pattern Sketch challenge.  This week's challenge is another one of my favorites, not only because it's easy to do with another migraine, but it's so versatile. 

For my card this week, I chose to use the digital version of Critters With Heart paired with the Cute Critters digital paper.  By the way - these just happen to be some of the first sets and digital papers released by My Time Made Easy!  Unfortunately, I've only made one or two cards using these images for some silly reason.  They are so cute so go figure!

After breaking apart, and resizing the owl to a larger format, I added the saying and printed out my image to color.  Once the coloring was done, I dusted off my Coluzzle and cut out the image and matching black layer before adding the digital paper layered onto black, then riding hood red.  Once again I played the rebel this week and moved the sketch around a bit for suit my card, but still kept the basic elements.  After adding the buttons, I decided to dust off some white mulberry paper hearts I bought at Michael's several years ago and never opened, then stippled red ink over the tops before adding to my card.  Presto!!!  Easy peasy!!

I hope to see you this week for My Time Made Easy Pretty Pattern Sketch challenge.  Thanks for stopping by today.  Have a great day.


Stamps: MTME Digital Critters With Heart
Card Stock: MTME Digital Cute Critters Designer Paper, White, Riding Hood Red, Black
Ink: Riding Hood Red
Accessories: Prismacolor Markers, Computer, Printer, Stipple Brush, Buttons, Floss, Mulberry Paper Hearts, Glue Dots, Coluzzel

Fluttering By - My Time Made Easy Pretty Pattern Sketch #21

Hello again.  Sorry for the delays in between posts.  I'm still having migraine issues and I'm having to stamp when my head isn't sore enough for my eyes to open however, blog posts end up suffering a bit.

It's Thursday and time for another My Time Made Easy Pretty Pattern Sketch challenge.  This week's sketch is an easy one, however, your focus should be on creating a background using your My Time Made Easy stamps.  I chose to use the Chase Your Dreams digital image with the All A Flutter stamp set.  The All A Flutter set is used to make my background by stamping one of the butterflies and one saying in alternating rows diagonally.

Once my digital image was colored and stippled, I layered and popped up the image using Michael's pop dots and then added some bling to the flowers, butterflies, and girl's dress & hairbands.  I did the same with the saying, just without all of the bling using only brads.  For my final touches, I added some lavender velvet ribbon I had bought on clearance at Michael's a year or so ago in the $1 section and some primas with a bling center.

My card also works for the Dare To Get Dirty Knightrone Challenge using 3 different types of embellishments on a card. 

Thanks for stopping by today.  I hope you join us this week for the My Time Made Easy Pretty Pattern Sketch challenge.



Stamps: MTME All A Flutter, Chast Your Dreams Digital Image
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin Up! Lovely Lilac, Bashful Blue
Card Stock: White, Stampin Up! Lovely Lilac, Pretty In Pink, Green Galore, Lavender Lace
Accessories: Prismacolor Markers, Computer, Printer, Stipple Brush, Bling, Pop Dots, Ribbon, Primas, Brads