Male Perspective...

Hi all! Happy Tuesday evening to you.  Hope everyone enjoyed their Memorial Day Weekend.  It was a nice relaxing one for me and my Darling Hubby & former Marine, well actually once a Marine, always a Marine,  Semper Fi!  So you know we raised a glass or two in honor of our troops... 8-)
I decided my project for the long weekend would be to work on Father's Day cards.  Sounds pretty simple right??? LOL..  Let me tell you, masculine cards have never been my forte.. Well, this time I was armed with several idea examples, lots of fabulous Masculine looking DP's, my new Father's Day Cricut Cartridge and was feeling pretty confident, until I ran my ideas by my Darling Hubby... Well, seems I was not as close to the mark as I thought... LOL.. Note to self, it's always good to get the male perspective on cards meant for Men... 8-)  Well,  after listening to his thoughts and doing a little tweaking to my initial ideas, This is what we came up with.

Well, according to my Darling Hubby, for masculine cards, embellishments should be used sparingly and not a bunch of different ones all together, better to stick with just one or two... Keep it simple and use Masculine patterns and colors.. Geometric shapes are best. 

Don't know if this helps anyone else out there in Blogland, but it was very helpful to me.. As I have always been a bit apprehensive when it came to making masculine cards, so much so, that I would just go out and purchase one instead... Isn't that just terrible..? lol  Well, looks like I won't be doing that anymore! 8-)  

And, I must say that after getting the initial layout all worked out and the Hubby approved selection of embossing folders, DP's and embellishments all picked out, these cards came together pretty quickly and easily..   I started by embossing my card bases with my CB and various embossing folders and then sponging on a bit of Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink for shading / emphasis. I also inked the edges of my dp's as well  to create a more muted / antiqued look.  The focal pieces of my cards were all cut using my Cricut and the Father's Day cartridge. Talk about a life saver of a cartridge! Lol.  My next step will be to pick a Masculine appropriate image and color it up using the same principals, but that's for another post..lol. To finish my cards up I added MS's punched zig-zag borders and minimal embellishments..  And Voila! There you have it my Hubby Approved Father's Day cards.. Now to make one up special for him that he hasn't seen yet.. 8-)

Hope you all are enjoying the rest of your evening and thanks so much for stopping by!

I Need Coffee by K 'n K Designs

Hi all, and a very Happy Monday to you!  I'm back with another Fabulous Stamps R Us Challenge! Yay!  Today's Challenge theme is Pets R Us and our wonderful Sponsor is K 'n K Designs!  Katlyn of K 'n K, has put together a very generous prize package for one lucky winner, so I hope you will stop by and join in the fun.  K 'n K's Images are soo Adorable, I wished I could take them all home with me..lol  But after much debate, I settle on this Darling set called "Let Your Heart Catch Up", I just couldn't resist this fuzzy little fellow.  Oh, and do make sure to stop by the Stamps R Us Blog to take a peek at the rest of the fabulously talented DT's darling creations... 8-)

My Sweet Fuzzy Fellow was printed up onto Flourishes Classic White and colored up with my Trusty Copics.  I inked the edges with some Antique Linen Distress ink and added a nice little embossed edge with my Score Pal.  I matted up my fuzzy friend using my Deckled Rectangle Nesties and some fantastic digi DP by Polka Dot Pixels featured at Two Peas in a Bucket, and popped him up with some dimensionals.  For my BG I used various dps from the same digi set, they just seemed so perfect for my K 'n K sentiment.  To finish it all up, I added a couple of sweet Hero Arts paper flowers, a cute little button form my stash and a bit of hemp cord tied up in a bow.

Hope you all have a Fabulous day & thanks so much for dropping by! 8-)

Happy Birthday!

Hi all! Happy Sunday to you.  Hope you are all enjoying your Memorial Day Weekend.  Today I have a quick little just for fun post! Imagine that, lol, no challenge or anything, just for fun... Today I just wanted to share one of my latest creations, a sweet little Birthday card.

I just had to break out my sweet Little Bunny Love image from Di's Digi Downloads again, he' just so darned cute with his darling over-alls & pretty bouquet.. I thought what an adorable image for a Birthday card.  Well, I printed him up onto Flourishes Classic White and then colored him up with my trusty Copics.  I did a little paper piecing again for his little overalls using some fantastic denim digi DP by Betsy Tuma featured at Two Peas in a Bucket and added some shading with my Copics and a white Pismacolor pencil.  I matted up my adorable little bunny using my Scalloped Rectangle Nesties with some dark purple CS from my stash and popped him up with some dimensionals.  For my BG I stamped my card base with Hero Arts Large Canvas Stripes with white frost pigment ink and chose a combination of more dark purple CS from my stash and DP from Basic Grey's fabulous Keoshi Collection pack. My Flourishes Sentiment was stamped with Dusty Concord Distress Ink onto a layered little eyelet circle that I made up with my Eyelet Circles Nesties set and then popped it up with some dimensionals. To finish it all up I just added some sweet adhesive pearls to the the bouquet, a little Stickles to bling up the darling butterflies wings, a bit of ribbon from my stash, a button and some hemp cord to tie it all up.

Hope you all enjoy the rest of your Memorial Day festivities & thanks so much for stopping in. 8-)

Thank You..

Hi all!  Happy Thursday to you!  If you have been following my blog, I am sooo sorry I have been MIA this past week.  I've had a few things going on plus my Birthday was last week and my Darling Hubby took me away to Celebrate.  That was the nicest surprise ever! 8-)  Then When I got home I finally opened my Etsy Shop! Yay! Very exciting! Kind of my Birthday Present to myself.  So Please feel free to stop by my Shop and check it out, I'd love to know what you think and if you have any comments or suggestions, I am all ears. lol  And lastly, I was determined to get caught up and finish a few projects that were almost finished but not quiet... Any of you out there in Blogland know what I mean?? lol and have a few partially finished cards on your crafting table, that you just keep putting off for different card projects that take priority.. Well I did, and I got them all finished up. Yay! 8-)

For todays post, I thought I'd play along with the Fabulous Ladies of CR84FN and their latest Color Challenge #29! What gorgeous colors they have this week, I tell ya! Couldn't help but play along! 8-) Plus it gave me the perfect excuse to try out my new lights and light tent that just arrived this past Monday.  I had  a bit of trouble with the tent and my camera, So I will wait to use that when my Darling Hubby is home and we can use his awesome digital camera instead.  However, using just the lights with their diffuser covers worked fabulously.  Let me tell you, they really made a huge difference in the quality of my pictures.  Wow, very exciting! 8-)  I just have to give a big shout out of thanks to my friend, the Wonderfully talented, Miss Sue Lelli who recommended them to me.  Thank you Sue! 8-)

I stamped my favorite Flourishes Gerber Daisy's onto Flourishes Classic White with Memento Tuxedo black and did a bit of masking to add a cute little butterfly from the same set.  I  colored them up with my trusty Copics using a few of the Copic Collections grouped by Flourishes.  I embossed my kraft BG with the help of an embossing folder and my Cuttlebug.  Then I put a nice little embossed edge on my image with my Score Pal and matted it up with a combination of plum and light plum CS from my stash and some  beautiful digi DP from Sassy Designs; a recommendation by my friend and DT Coordinator over at Stamps R Us, the Fabulously talented, Miss Jan Hunnicutt.  Thanks Jan!  Sassy Designs is having a huge sale right now, only a dollar a set! SO if you like digi DP, go and check them out before the sale ends....   ~Now to add some bling to my cute little Butterfly, I used Star Dust Stickels & after that dried a bit, I stamped my Impression Obsession sentiment right below my sweet Gerber Daisy bouquet  using Memento Rich Coco.  And that's just about it, I added some ivory seem binding from my stash, attached a fun little plum button with a bit of hemp cord, popped up my main image with some dimensionals and added a few pearls to finish it all up.  And that makes three for the series.. I previously made one in sunny golden yellow shades, that you may well remember, but I also created another one in gorgeous shades of pink for my Darling Hubby's Mom. 

Hope you all have a fabulous day & thanks so much for visiting! 8-) 

The Earth Laughs in Flowers...

Hi all!  Happy Wednesday to you!  Well it's still rainy and gloomy here, so I thought I would play along with a couple of fun cheerful challenges to brighten my spirits.. And hopefully yours too.. 8-)

For today's Post I chose to play along with The Sweet Stop Sketch Challenge #108 and Flourishes Timeless Tuesday Challenge #118 To use this Gorgeous Topiary created by Julia Sandvoss at The Craft Mom as this weeks inspiration. 

Well, during the process of deciding on the Various DP's and sentiments for my creation, I discovered I had no sentiment stamps that would work with the this weeks Sweet Stop Sketch, at least not the way I wanted them to anyway..lol  So I actually typed this quote out on my trusty lap top and printed it up on some white CS form my stash.  I inked the edges of my Quote with pinky peach pigment ink, added a nice little embossed edge with my Score Pal, matted it up with pink CS from my stash and popped it up with dimensionals.  For my BG I chose a combination of more pink CS from my stash and some fabulous DP from K&Co.  My darling little butterfly's were cut with my Cricut using the Potpourri cartridge and then blinged up with a few gems and a touch of Star Dust Stickles for their wings.  To finish up my happy little creation, I added a bit of ribbon, pretty prima flowers and a fun little gem for my flowers center. 8-)

Hope you all enjoy your day & Thanks so much for stopping by! 

Feel Better Soon...

Hi all!  Happy Tuesday to you!  The weather's been wonky again here,  a couple of days ago it was beautiful, sunny and in the 80's and the past couple of days it's been in the mid to upper 50's, a bit cloudy & drizzley. Jut the type of weather patterns that get everyone catching cold..So I thought I best start working on some get well cards just in case, since my supply has been depleted from the last go around, lol... I also thought why not join the CR84FN color challenge #28 as well while I was at it... 8-)

Thought I would try my hand out today with a card that no coloring was required.  It always takes, what seems to me as forever to color up my images, don't get me wrong, I love love love to color, but I often wonder  if everyone else takes as long as I do..lol.. Then I think, no Shannon it's just you who takes forever..LOL.. I have been told that I may just be a bit overly critical of myself & my creations... But, I still wonder some times...   

 I started off by stamping my card base with my IO Dots CAC ( love those things! must get more of them) using Color Box pigment ink in White Frost and I stamped my upper BG panel with Hero Arts Flower Pattern using Scattered Straw distress ink and then inked the edges.  My large Die cuts were created with my Cricut and the new Elegant Edges cartridge using a combo of yellow CS from my stash and Some fun dp from Basic Grey. Let me tell you, I Love this new Cricut cartridge! I can tell that it's going to be my new go to cartridge for sure.  My IO sentiment was stamped with Memento Rich Coco onto a fabulous Nesties Grommet tag and lightly sponged with Scattered Straw distress ink and popped up with a few dimensionals after threading my off-white seem binding ribbon through so I could tie it all up with a pretty bow. To finish up my cheery little get well card I added a few Prima paper flowers and some fun little buttons. And lastly, I have to tell you, I know I said this was going to be a no coloring required card, well, I fibbed a little..lol.. I actually had to color up my pretty paper flowers and some of the stripes on my dp with my trusty Copics, so everything would match the challenge color scheme... 8-)  

Hope you are enjoying your Tuesday & thanks so much for dropping by!

Little Bunny Love By Di's Digi Downloads..

Hi all and Happy Monday to you!  I have some really super exciting news to share with everyone today!! I have been asked to join the wonderfully talented DT over at Stamps R Us!!  Hurray!! I am soooo excited and honored to have been asked to join such a warm wonderful and terrificly talented group of ladies!  I am so doing my happy dance right now! 8-)
If you are not familiar with the Stamps R US Challenge Blog, you must go and check it out!  It's a bi-weekly challenge blog and the challenges begin on Mondays. Today's Challenge theme is Going Digi and our wonderful Sponsor is Di's Digi Downloads!!  Di has a very generous prize package for the lucky winner, so I hope you will stop by & join in the fun.  Let me tell you Di's Images are so darned adorable it was really difficult for all of us to choose which ones we would use for our DT creations.  Be sure to head on over to the Stamps R Us Blog to take a peek at what the rest of the fabulously talented DT has created to inspire you! 8-)

My darling Little Bunny Love image was printed up onto Flourishes Classic White and colored up with my trusty Copics.  I did a little paper piecing for his little overalls using some fantastic denim digi DP by Betsy Tuma featured at Two Peas in a Bucket and added some shading with my Copics and a white Pismacolor pencil.  I matted up my adorable little bunny using my Scalloped Rectangle Nesties with some pink CS from my stash and popped it up with some dimensionals.  For my BG I chose a combination of  DP from Basic Grey's gorgeous Porcelain Collection pack and added a happy little border with my MS daisy border punch. To finish it all up I just added some sweet adhesive pearls to the the bouquet, a little Stickles to bling up the darling butterflies wings, a bit of ribbon from my stash, a button and some hemp cord to tie it all up.  And Voila!  There you have it, my Very first Stamps R US DT Challenge card! Yay! 8-)

Hope you all have a fabulous week & thanks so much for visiting today! 

All Things Grow With Love...

Hi all & Happy Friday to you!  I am so happy that blogger is finally back up and running again, I've been wanting to post this ever since late evening of the 11th lol... Thought to myself, Hurray, I will be ahead of the game this week, but, apparently Blogger had other plans, oh well...  I did managed to get a bunch of other stuff done, that was on my list of things to do in the meantime, so at least no time was wasted. 8-)

Well, for today's post I chose to play along with a few challenges, Mojo Monday #190, The Color Throwdown #141 and Flourishes Timeless Tuesday #117, where Anything Goes..  See, if I had been able to post late Wednesday night, I would have really been ahead of the game this week! Lol Oh well, at least I'm not rushing to get them in at the last moment, for a change..8-)

I stamped my Flourishes image onto Flourishes Classic White with Memento Tuxedo Black and colored it up with my trusty Copics.  I matted up my lovely little garden image with a fun Deckled Rectangle Nestie, using Hero Arts Blush CS.  For my BG I stamped the Hero Arts La Letter stamp with Straw Distress ink onto Hero Arts Sunshine CS and added some gorgeous DP from K&Co to the bottom of my card.  To finish it all up I just added a bit of ribbon from my stash, a couple of pretty little Prima paper flowers, buttons and some hemp cord.  And there you have it, pretty easy peasy, huh? 8-)  

Hope you all have a fabulous weekend & thanks so much for stopping by! 8-)

Celebrate!

Hi all, and to all the Mom's out in Blogland, hope you have enjoyed your Mother's Day weekend.  It's been a very busy weekend for me, had to work early Friday evening and early Saturday evening as well, definitely put the time crunch on last minute mother's day creations and my challenge card here, so I am once again rushing to get it posted in time, lol. 8-)

For this Mother's Day evening post, I chose to play along with The Color Throwdown Challenge #140, The Sweet Stop Sketch Challenge #107 and Impression Obsessions Challenge to use your favorite IO image.  My favorite Impression Obsession image was the image that started it all... Well, started it all with regards to my stamping journey anyway lol.  I saw this fabulous image in an advertisement while browsing thru a friends Home Arts Magazine and was instantly hooked. LOL I just had to have it. 8-)  From that point forward, I have been a huge fan of IO stamps and everything you see here has come to pass from that one pivotal moment, including the evolution of my card creations, the many techniques learned, the never ending crafty purchases, the wonderful friends made, not to mention, the creation of this very blog itself...  And all because of a stamps set I just had to have.. LOL Pretty cool huh? Anyway, on to my favorite Impression Obsession image...

I stamped my adorable Birthday-tini image and sentiment from the IO clear stamps set # CL203 Birthday Cakes, by artist Leigh Hannan on to Flourishes Classic Ivory using Memento Tuxedo Black and heat embossed it with Stampendous EP.  I colored up my image with my trusty Copics and matted it up with a combination of kraft and brown CS from my stash and some adorable DP from Prima's Sweet Fairy collection.  I used my Cricut  and the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge to cut my ovals and embossed my kraft oval with my CB using the Swiss Dot embossing folder to add a little texture. I used my MS border punch on both sides of my fun, decorative DP band that I placed down the center on the diagonal.  I inked my edges with some MS pink pigment ink and put a nice little embossed edge on my Birthday-tini panel using my Score Pal and popped it up with some dimensionals.  And that's pretty much it... I added some sweet little pearls at the base of my Martini glass, a darling little prima paper flower, some buttons, a bit of baker's twine, and lastly, a touch of Stickles to the candle flame for a bit of sparkle to finish it all up.

Happy Mother's Day to all the mom's out there & thanks so much for dropping by. 8-)

For You...

Hi all!  Hope you are having a fabulous day out there in Blogland.  Well, I finally have things here at home, for the most part, back to some semblance of normal after returning from a wonderfully long & super fun vacation.  It was a bit difficult to get my head back in the game so to speak... I had to find my Mojo again..lol & I figured what better way to do that then to join in a couple of challenges. 8-)

I chose Flourishes Bring Back Beautiful, Flowers Challenge and CR84FN Color Challenge #26 to get the old Mojo flowing again lol.  And you know, I think they did the trick! 8-)

I stamped my favorite Flourishes Gerber Daisy's onto Flourishes Classic White with Memento Tuxedo black and did a bit of masking to add a cute little butterfly from the same set.  I  colored them up with my trusty Copics using a few of the Copic Collections grouped by Flourishes.  I embossed my kraft BG with the help of an embossing folder and my Cuttlebug.  Then I put a nice little embossed edge on my image with my Score Pal and matted it up with a combination of yellow and gold CS from my stash and some  beautiful digi DP from Anita Richards featured at Two Peas in a Bucket.  I used Star Dust Stickels to add some bling to my cute little butterfly & stamped my Impression Obsession sentiment right below my sweet Gerber Daisy bouquet  using Memento Rich Coco.  And that's just about it, I added some ivory seem binding from my stash, attached a fun little golden yellow button with a bit of hemp cord, popped up my main image with some dimensionals and added a few pearls to finish it all up.  Yay!  So good to be back and creating again! 

Hope you all have a fabulous day & thanks so much for visiting with me today! 8-) 

Home Again, Home Again & a Bug A Boo Shout out too!

Hi All!  Well we are finally back from our vacation and though it was an Absolutely Fabulous time, it's always so nice to come home!  8-)  Since today, I still have much unpacking and laundry to do before I get to play with my inks, papers and stamps, I am just posting a super quick shout out for Bug A Boo Stamps. Hope you all get a chance to check it out and join in all the fun and prizes! 8-)

New Bug A Boo Store!!!

Jodie has worked so hard to get the new store up and running. She has worked many late nights to get this done and She Did it!!! We now present the new and improved new Bugaboo Store! Before you run to check it out we have some important info to share with you!

The link to the new store link is http://bugaboostamps.3dcartstores.com/ !

Please note this will change back to the Bugaboo address in a few days we will alert you when this happens and remind you to change your links. We apologize for this minor inconvenience but trust me with the new store it is worth it!

First off for the month of May everything is 50 % off! So now is a great time to stock up. With the grand re-opening of the store we are offering up some wonderful prize packages for our loyal followers! You could be the winner of a $10 Gift Certificate, a $20 Gift Certificate, or you could be the lucky winner who gets 7 free images every month for the rest of 2011! That means you could be one of the lucky 8 winners!

To add to the excitement Jodie had just told me that every order placed in May will have their name placed in the pot for a chance to win one of five $20 gift certificates that she will be giving away at the end of the month!

How can you win you ask?? Simply make sure you are a follower, create a post with the Bugaboo info above and then add your name to the inlinkz below. You can grab the code from in linkz and your followers can also add their name from your blog but tell them to follow the rules check out the blog! This will stay up until May 7th at 7am!

You can add our inlinkz to your blog so that anyone can sign up and help us spread the word, please click on link below and they will give you the code you need to add to your post. Very easy! get the InLinkz code Don't forget, add a post and sign up below it is that easy!!!