What a day!

Yesterday was one of those weird days! You know the kind that has good and not so good moments, then just turns pretty good, and then... Well it was an up and down day with the way the boys were behaving yesterday then they just were good as gold and we were having a nice day. So good that while they napped I FINALLY was able to get into the dungeon and get a LO done! I am SOOO proud of myself because every month I say I am going to do the My Mind's Eye sketch and I never get to it or get it finished and uploaded in time! So this month I did it right away and I am happy with how quick it came together and the end result! This month the challenge was to use the sketch the word HOPE and it must be at least 80% MME products! Easy enough I have my precious stash of MME that is calling my name!

For this LO I used the So Sophie and Quite Contrary lines. And that bracket of to the side of the photo-its cut from the bottom of the piece of paper! The So Sophie line has these cute brackets that show the paper that is on the opposite side on the paper. They just beg to be used! Everything is MME except the Thickers-I really want to find the MME version of Thickers they look AWESOME!

So after dinner we finally were able to get outside (the heat and humidity is near 100 here!) and the boys were playing kick ball in the backyard and the ball was kicked under an arborvitae tree and Joseph went to get it, well there must be a yellow jacket hive in there because he started screaming that he got stung by a bee! He said he picked up the ball and the bee was on his finger! My poor baby! : ( Given how allergic everyone in my family is to bee stings I was worried! But thankfully he is doing just fine today! What a way to end our day!

Well off to do the fun household chores of cleaning bathrooms, doing dishes and folding laundry! Someday just maybe I can have a maid! LOL!!!

TFL!

Valerie

Happy Belated Mother's Day!

Well after spending ALL of Mother's Day and part of yesterday recovering from a migraine I am back to show you the creations I have created!

First up is a card I made for a friend to give her mom for Mother's Day. It is made with the GORGEOUS BoBunny Jazmyn papers and icandy! It was SO much fun to just go to town and create this card! I used a Martha Stewart Eyelet border punch, Making memories Flutter letters as well as Bazzill and Cordination cardstock to make this.

Next up I tried my hand at making some canvas creations as gifts for my mom and grandmother. My mom's is first and it was a learning process with it as to what works and doesn't, but overall I am happy with the end result excecpt for the picture-I wish I would have "antiqued" it. To make this I sprayed the canvas with Glimmer Mist and Shimmerz Spritz to give the background a warmer feel and give it some shimmer. The pattern paper and die cut is My Mind's Eye Andrea Victoria, Thickers, Lace from Hobby Lobby, and some Prima bling!

Next is the canvas I made for my grandmother. I again sprayed hers with Glimmer Mist and Shimmerz Spritz. For this picture when I printed it at home my ink was running low and I was not happy with the quality of the black and white photo. So I decided to get creative and try something new. I grabbed my Caramel Alcohol ink and cut a piece of felt, I squirted some ink on the felt and began gently rubbing the ink over the photo. I was nervous but quickly relieved to see the results I was hoping for. My photo looked like it was a very old picture. The color of the ink worked great with the colors of the My Mind's Eye Andrea Victoria paper! I added some Prima Bling, flowers, and leaves that I sanded slightly and added some of the Caramel alcohol ink too as well to help them coordinate with the paper as well. To finish off the page I used Basic Grey chipboard letters and colored them with Butterscotch alcohol ink. I just wish I wasn't in such a hurry and took a better picture of these! I guess I will need to go over to their house and steal some better pics!

Next up are the cards for Paper Popsicles this week! The theme is flowers this week, so be sure to head on over and check out everyone's creations! And don't forget for each new creation you make during the month you will be entered into the drawing for that YUMMY Martha Stewart glitter!

For this watering can shaped card (which is the FREEBIE this week!) I used Basic Grey Kioshi paper and sanded the edges to get the white outline, Maya Road flower ribbon, Making Memories glitter letter stickers and Prima flowers which I sprayed with Shimmerz Spritz in Bubblegum. I just LOVE the shimmer that was added to the flowers!

I think this card is just so pretty and everytime I look at it I think Wedding Shower invite! Well with both of my brothers engaged I have to start planning these things in my head! I just think the postage with those flowers on it would be crazy!

Next is my digi image card. I colored the image with the good old Copic markers, the pattern paper is Pink Paislee, Maya Road flower ribbon, Zva creative crystals, and cardstock from DCWV and Cordinations.

Well I hope all the mommies had a good Mother's Day and everyone enjoyed today's eye candy! I will be back with more soon!

TFL!

Valerie

How about some more cards?

First up I have some super fun projects I made using some Prima products.

I just LOVE the way this card turned out! The cardstock is Coordinations, pattern paper My Mind's Eye, the packaging card from the Prima flowers, Prima flowers and leaves-which I used Alcohol ink on to tint with some brown, Maya Road lace and the sentimanet is from My Mind's Eye.

Next is this fun tag I made using the cardboard packaging I saved, I inked that with Distress inks to bring out the colors in the pattern paper. The pattern paper is from Prima, and I cut the edges off of another Prima package to embellish with and I used Prima flowers and a leaf. The pom pom trim is Maya Road and of course Thickers!

This last card is made with Making Memories and My Mind's Eye pattern paper, Rusty Pickle stickers, jute and Prima say it with crystals bat.Next up its all about buttons at Paper Popsicles this week so here is my card I made with the new Basic Grey Kioshi paper and Coordinations and Bazzill Blingz cardstock.And the shape card I used this week is the layer cake. I used the new Basc grey Max and whiskers pattern paper, Prima flowers which I inked with alcohol ink to pick up the colors in the paper, buttons from my stash and DoodleBug rub-ons. The Max and whiskers line is really not just for pet pages and you can see this pretty flower paper is not pet at all!

Don't forget to play along this month at Paper Popsicles as the prize this month is a Martha Stewart Glitter multi pack!!! Check it out here!

TFL!

Valerie

EYE CANDY!!

OK so I have been BUSY creating and haven't been blogging! OOPS!! Sorry! So here are my latest creations for your viewing pleasure! : )

First up its ALL about MOM this week at Paper Popsicles! I worked with the super cute High Heel Shaped card that you can get right here. The first thing I thought when I saw this shoe was Carrie Bradshaw and Sex in The City, so I decided it needed to look super cool and blingy! I to make the shoe out of glitter paper, so I grabbed some Die Cuts With A View Glitter paper and traced the shoe onto it and cut it out. (I will say DCWV glitter paper is nice as the glitter is sealed and is not messy, but I do prefer the blingy shine of the DoodleBug sugarcoated paper better) I then made the heel of the shoe out of some DoodleBug Flocked black paper and glued that onto the shoe. At this point the shoe seemed to be missing something so I decided to sand the edges of the shoe and reveal the white core of the glitter paper. (TIP do this step BEFORE adding the flocked heel! I had to clean all the dust off the heel) Next I used a SEI gem and Making Memories glitter letters to add the sentiment.

Just think of all the fun cards you can create with this shape! I am thinking of making cards for my girlfriends as an invite to go see the new Sex and the City movie!

Next up is the digi image I got to work with -this cute mom and her "babies"! This image can be purchased right here! The image is colored with Copic markers, and I used Cordinations cardstock, Pink Paislee pattern paper, and I used my Martha Stewart loopy loop border punch. The ribbon is Making Memories with a ribbon charm from Maya Road. The sentiment is written with DoodleBug rub-ons, and both the sentiment and image are raised with Helmar zap dots.

Next up is a layout I made for the BoBunny sketch last week. I forgot to upload in time for the contest, but here is my layout. I used the new BoBunny Paradise line and created this from one of the ads they had posted to create from. Everything is BoBunny.

And YES I even made my own "flower" with BoBunny Double Dot ribbon! I created the flower and then for the center I decided to use a sea shell I cut from the BoBunny paper. This was SO quick and easy to make! I am sure you will be seeing more of these! ; )This is a layout I created for the My Mind's Eye challenge, and well I forgot one part of the challenge and therefore couldn't enter it! : ( Oh well! But I had fun creating it, and that is one more layout done! LOL! It didn't photograph well, but on the Basic Grey chipboard letters(which I used alcohol inks to color) I used a stamp with the same circles as the pattern paper and Versamarked the image onto the letters to bring the circles to the letters as well. I used My Mind's Eye paper and journaling card, Basic Grey chipboard letters, Ranger lettuce alcohol ink, Making Memories sticker letters and a Martha Stewart border punch.

With Mother's Day fast approaching I decided to get started on some more cards to give to the "moms"! I was excited to play with the new Basic Grey Kioshi paper so I made this card with the paper as well as a Basic Grey Opaline flower embellishment. I used Cordinations cardstock, My Mind's Eye ink, Kaiser pearls and Sheer Creations ribbon to finish off this card.

You know you have gotten into a creating groove when you lay in bed at night and think of ways you could have improved what you did! That's what happened to me last night! LOL! I was laying bed and thought of some more things I want to add to this card, so I am sure you will be seeing a similar version of this card with modifications! LOL!

And for my last creation today another card! I found these gorgeous Prima flowers and knew I wanted to make a card with them, then as I was walking around the LSS looking for paper to use with them I happened to look down and see them against this piece of the Basic Grey Kioshi and found my paper! LOVE when that happens! LOL! So I used Basic Grey paper, Cordinations cardstock, Prima flowers, My Mind's Eye ink (I must say that the 2 color wheels I have of this ink is FABULOUS and I ALWAYS find the color I need!) Basic Grey Opaline embellishments (I cut the green swirls off of flowers) and Kaiser pearls.I decided that the flowers could use a little something, so I grabbed my good old Stickles and added a little bit of Stickles on the edges of some of the flower petals. I just love the little extra shine to grab your eyes! (Sorry this picture is kind of blurry I just realized I didn't change the setting on the camera! Maybe if the sun comes out I can retake this one!)

So there you have my recent eye candy! : ) I hope you enjoyed it!

OH! I almost forgot! Did you get your FREEBIE from Paper Popsicles this week???? If not be sure to head on over here to get it today! Don't forget this FREEBIE is only till Friday! And DON'T FORGET to enter your projects by Friday to be entered into the April drawing for ALL those letter stickers!!!

Well off to create my new version of that pink card! ; )

Have a GREAT Day!

TFL!

Valerie

What a weekend!

I'm not even sure I know what happened to it! Amazing how sometimes you blink and then think WOW where did the last couple days go? That is what I am thinking today!

First is it was my week to post at Midnight Oil and with opening day of baseball this past Monday I decided to break out some of the yummy baseball products they have and make a fun layout for some T-Ball pictures of the boys! Be sure to head on over here and check out my project!

Well I had these ready to post on Thursday and just never made it to posting them!

So next is a layout I made for the Paper Popsicles Birthday layout challenge using a sketch from Scrap That!. I had this pattern paper for a while now and never used it so I pulled it out along with the Jenni Bowlin Bingo cards! I used Bazzill cardstock, DoodleBug letters & numbers, various Thickers, Pink Paislee chipboard and some of the fun new Helmar adhesives I just got-Zapdots, Premium Craft glue and Quickfix adhesive runner! LOVE adhesive that works and is high quality! Next I made a card and welcome sign for my Brother and his fiance's new house. I used this super cute house shaped card template from Paper Popsicles and cut the card out of Kaiser Kraft paper, outlined the roof with Maya Road ric rac and the chimney with Maya Road pom pom ribbon. The flowers along the bottom are also Maya Road. I stamped a sentiment on a piece of My Mind's Eye paper and inked it with Distress ink. Again I had fun using the Helmar adhesives for this project-I am LOVING how well the Craft Glue works with the ribbon!For the welcome sign I used a wooden sign I had bought at the $1.00 store and I used Making Memories Acrylic paint in Manilla to paint the sides and covered the front of the sign with My Mind's Eye Bella Bella French Flea Market paper. I used Crackle paint to cover Basic Grey chipboard letters and then rubbed Distress ink over the letters. I added Prima flowers and bling and tied a BoBunny ribbon to hang it with. I hope that they will enjoy this and that it welcomes happiness into their new home!

Well that's it for tonight! Stayed tuned for some fun projects at Paper Popsicles this week-our theme is sewing! Maybe that's why its so hard to type tonight! LOL!!

TFL!

Valerie

FREEBIE!

So have you grabbed your FREEBIE at Paper Popsicles yet? If not what are you waiting for?!! TODAY is the LAST day to get the FREEBIE! Just look what I did with mine. I copied the freebie into my Print Shop program and then added a rounded rectangle outline around the image and then added lines and and made my own vacation journaling card! I colored the image with Copic markers and inked the edges. You could also print on pattern paper, colored cardstock or use one of the mists available and mist the background of the card as well. For my LO I used my favorite My Mind's Eye Abbey Road Beep Beep pp, perfectly matching Co'rdinations cs, die cuts and brads. I also used the good old Thickers- LOVE the new smaller ones!

Today on the Paper Popsicles blog there are several of the DT projects featured and yup one of my cards is up there today! : ) Click here to go check it and all the others out!



Well I suppose I should get going we need to do groceries and the boys have some duplicate toys they got for their birthday they want to exchange. But I hate to disturb them right now-they are playing school! Nicholas is the teacher and Joseph is the teacher-it is HILARIOUS listening to them right now! So sad they are growing up SO FAST!

Well TFL!
Valerie

Where to start???

I have SO much to share today I am unsure where to begin!!!

So I guess I will start with my babies! The boys turned 5 this past Sunday! I can't believe how fast time is going! It seems like not that long ago we were sharing our good news with everyone! Hard to believe that they went from this:

Joseph

Nicholas
to this!

I am SO thankful EVERYDAY for their health and happiness!

So next on my list is the news I have to share! First up I have 2 cards that were picked up by SNR for their next issue! So make sure to check that out!

Next is I made the new Paper Popsicles design team working with the Cheeky Radish digital images and the Paper Popsicles shaped card templates! It is SO exciting to be working with Melissa, Lynda and Tricia again! So make sure you come on over and grab this week's ADORABLE bunny image FREEBIE and participate in this week's theme Easter! And one more fun and exciting thing to do- grab the house shaped template and make an animal house and join in on the challenge for a fun RAK on the SNR card universe site! I can't wait to see what you create!

And lastly for today is some eye candy! I made this LO for the week 4 challenge at the House of Serendipity contest. I made it again last week! YEAH!! But I must admit this week is a scary week as it is a team event and we have to guess the correct # to make it on to the next week or we will ALL be eliminated!!!

I used some of my favorite My Mind's Eye Abbey Road Beep Beep for this LO and added some Tim Holtz tickets, Thickers and MM mini letters.

Oh! I almost forgot have you been to the MOSD blog lately? I did my post last week so make sure to head on over and check it out!

Well I better start to get ready I have to go into work early today!

TFL! And go play along with the fun Paper Popsicle challenges!

Valerie

Love is in the air!!!

I just LOVE Valentine's Day! It is one of my favorite holidays! A day dedicated to love and making sure the person you love is spoiled and knows how much you love them! Pretty colors and lots of hearts and pretties! I guess being the only female in my house the chance to go wild with girlie things is just too much! LOL!

Here is a card I created for the Cheecky Radish SNR Card Universe challenge. I never got it posted on time, but had lots of fun making it! I used the heart shaped card from the Paper Popsicles store, Basic Grey Bittersweet paper, Coordinations cardstock, Pink Paislee letters, My Mind's Eye ink, Martha Stewart border punch, circle punch (for scallop around the heart), DoodleBug mini rub-ons and my Cricut to cut the heart.

And for the next card I was able to use the weekly card sketch from Serendipity Scrapbooks and created a sympathy card for my future Sister-in-Law who lost an aunt whom she was very close with(the reason I was not able to post my card yesterday)

I used My Mind's Eye Andrea Victoria paper and die cuts, cs from stash and embossed one piece with my CuttleBug, and I got this neat stamp from Hobby Lobby that has a saying for the front and the inside sentiment all on the same stamp!

And since I just love these cuties I am posting my projects from the Midnight Oil blog this month!

Be sure to head on over to the blog for more information on these!

Well my little monster is NOT taking a nap so I better go and try and get him to sleep!

TFL!

Valerie

Another Card

So Cheeky Radish Digital stamps which are sold in the Paper Popsicles store has a site set up with Scrapbook News and Review Magazine The Card Universe. You should head on over and join in on all the fun! For their first week they are giving away this adorable image and they had a contest of creating a card with the image to win 3 bottles of Shimerz! So I made this card with my favorite My Mind's Eye Colorful Christmas pattern paper, DCWV cardstock and one piece I embossed with the CuttleBug Swiss Dots folder, I used the EK Success snowflake border punch and the little snowflakes that were left over from the punch I attached with tiny cut up pieces of pop dots, the letters are from Making Memories, and the digital image Elizabeth in her coat is colored with Copic markers I outlined the trim with white flocking and traced her hat tie with Sakura black glaze pen. I also used a January week #4 card sketch from Serendipity Scrapbooks as the sketch for this card. Gotta love when you can combine like this!
And guess what?! I was drawn as the winner this week! I was SO surprised! So make sure to head on over and join!

TFL!
Till Next Time!
Valerie

Catch Up Time!

Sorry I have been neglecting the blog lately! But I am back with a whole bunch of things!

First off I did the My Mind's Eye blog challenge this month, and had so much fun using the fabulous sketch!

Next up is the Paper Popsicles blog card sketch. Another great one by Tricia!
And my card using some of my favorite My Mind's Eye Christmas paper!

Then there is the Paper Popsicles Thursday Layout sketch by Lynda this week.
And here is my take of the sketch using some Sassafrass paper.

{I just LOVE the smile on his face}

And here is my layout from last week's sketch. Some more My Mind's Eye! Are you noticing a trend yet??????

And then here are a couple layouts I did for an online crop Scraptacular had last week! It was a GREAT kick start to get back into scrappy mode!

{Yes you're right that IS more My Mind's Eye! I have pulled out my stash and I am actually using it! I never want to use my favorite paper, but after a couple pieces got bent corners I decided I better start before it gets ruined!}

Well I hope you have enjoyed the eye candy and I hope to see you play along with the Paper Popsicles sketches!

TFL!

Valerie