Whiff of Joy....and Early christmas....

OK so I have had these images for a bit now. and just wasn't sure what to do with them.....But since I am growing my copic collection why not start there! I used Retired Riding hood Red, creamy carmel and garden green. I used my nesties for the points. I was trying to make a bit of a poinsettia....I sponged the edges with chocolate chip. I love making 5x5 square cards....to me a lot of images just look "right" on that size. especially with the nesties and how I made this image the huge focal point of the card. The white cuttlebugged paper is SUPER sparkly and came that way in a Christmas pack I bought at Joannes last year. I might as well start making Christmas and holiday themed cards now so I can try to use some of the loot I started hoarding last year and NEVER used!

Whiff of Joy is actually holding a Guest Designer challenge now and This is what I designed to enter. Their stamps are fabulous and honestly I have been secretly drooling over them for MONTHS! Head over to This blog for more info about the call!

Lovely Elephants

I love these elephants. They are super cute!!!! I colored them with my copics and love how it turned out. I noticed I have been ignoring my ribbon lately so I wanted to add some on. I made a smaller card. this is 4x4 square. This would be great to accompany a gift and you can make your own envelope it's so small!

Au Revoir Fire Cracker Designs!

Well my lovely ladies this is the final Blog hop for the current Firecracker Designs team. {sniff, sniff} I was so blessed to have been working with such talented ladies (ahem, dirty dozen member anyone) as well as ladies that work on many design teams and shared their wonderful experience. I was also blessed for this to be my first design team. It made me realize how much I love this and how one day I want this to be ALL that I do. I couldn't be where I am today without Pam! She took a chance on me and I definitely grew as a papercrafter.

Now the Blog Hop Deets. The theme is "The 2008-2009 FCD design team says good-bye!"

My card used Fly-Butterflies. I used the new 09-10 in colors rich razzleberry. I think this is my very favorite color EVER!!! I also used my glue pad and some glitter over the entire stamped image.....Glitter is now everywhere! I now know why I rarely use it no matter how much I love the look!!!

I love this sentiment. It reminds us not to be afraid of change. This is perfect as one chapter in all of our lives is over but we must be open to change. That is huge for me since I am sooooo not liking change.

This is a “circular blog hop” where the only beginning is wherever you start!! You will know you are at the end of your blog hop when you’ve come back to the blog you’ve started from! (It’s not a huge circle…so it should be easy to remember where you started.)

The winner will be chosen from a mystery blog hostess that we don’t even know who it will be until the hop is over…so that’s why you’ll want to leave a comment on EVERY blog, so you don’t miss out!

**To find out if you’ve won… you will be contacted by Pamela via e-mail (so be sure to leave it with your comment.) and you can also find out on Pamela’s blog after the blog hop ends on Mon, August 31st at 8:00 PM (EST).**

Now, to continue the circle, you will need to hop on over to Heather
and keep going until you’ve come back to where you’ve started! Thanks so much for playing along with us and we hope you have a great time!

What!?! You want more goodies? Oh, Ok, you've twisted my arm. Go and make a HUGE purchase (add in some yummy shimmerz and flowersoft for me please) and save 25% off your entire purchase (excluding magazine subscriptions).

Pam has decided to have a Scavenger hunt for the 25% off on your entire order (excluding magazine orders please), coupon code!!!!!!!! !!!!! Your letter from my blog is T.

Surprise!

Two posts in one day! I know you are all surprised:) Well it is my birthday and I am spending the day doing what I love best....Card making! Hubby is working today and when he gets home we are having a wonderful seafood dinner and he is taking me to see the time travelers wife cause I have been wanting to see that for awhile!

I have one more Firecracker Designs card to show you before the blog hop tomorrow morning.

My camera is horrible at picking up pretty sparkly things. I embossed the sentiment and butterfly using embossing powder with glitter in it. Also on the DP the white stripes are actual glitter. I am really on a glitter kick....Hint hint for tomorrow :)

OK...OK...Enough of the pastels

For some reason my usually lonely versamark pad has been getting a workout. I love the pastels as a color choice. As you can tell I did 2 cards recently with pastels and they look different. I go back and forth on what pastels I use. I do own my stampin up ones but I also own ones by Pebble that have shimmer and also another set that has different shades from stampin up. Sometimes variety is key:)

This card is using the grass set from Dog Gone Stamps: I used 2 different stamps to create this scene in versamark. I then just dabbed my chalk over it to create the colors. It is hard to tell in the picture but this chalk is the shimmery one and it has quite a bit of shimmer on the card.

Hope you enjoy!

Kraft and butterflies.....a perfect mix

OK so I saw this over on Shannon Teubner's blog. And I thought her card was great so I totally Cased it. Changed the image, colors and punch.

I love how this turned out!!!!! I used really rust and stipples the ink onto the stamped image and distressed the paper. I totally will make more of these to have some on hand cards. it really was easy and fast but doesn't look rushed.

I LOVE Butterflies.....

I think they are so beautiful and majestic! Every time I see one it just makes me soooo happy.

This is a set I had to have that Pam has had for awhile and I had to have it to show as my last Firecracker set.

It is hard to tell in the picture but the butterflies are stamped on Shimmery white cardstock. Which I love to pair with navy cardstock!

DT Submission for The Pixie Cottage

These are some cards you may have seen in the past. These are 3 of my favorite cards to submit:

This was created with 2 of my favorite colors, Certainly Celery and Lavender. I used MFT.

This was created with Stamping Bella. I love how primas just add to the image. Copics were used for this image.

This Card also used MFT. I love buttons. I also used ghost images which add that little something

You can find their DT call here

Happy Birthday!!!

I love this stamp, It reminds me of my little guy spike. And I can imagine him doing this same thing. I colored the image with my copics and used momento ink. I also used some clear baubles and zip dry glue. The image is from Dog Gone Stamps. I love their images and they are super fun to color no matter what medium you use! My two favorite mediums right now is copics and pastels. You will be seeing those a lot!!!!

Seahorse Pastels

Well I have a bit of an announcement to make!!!! I am now on the Dog Gone Stamps Design Team. They have absolutely wonderful stamps! This is one of their great designs. The Seahorse was stamped with versamark and then I dabbed the chalk color on it. the color around the seahorse is the chalk rubbed onto the paper.

I thought this would make a really nice masculine card which is SOOOO hard to do!

My Wedding Day!

Ok So I was married May 10th of this year at the Beautiful Kenwood Farms and Gardens in Kenwood, CA. It is just outside of Sonoma.

This was my beautiful cake. My mom did it! I loved how it was simple but wasn't too simple :)

I had 3 Bridesmaids.....this is me with 2 of them and my ring bearer. He was soooo great! He was really nervous but he did an awesome job!!!

This was Me after we got the dress on. I wore my grandma's ring on my necklace since she had passed away I wanted a piece of her with me. I truly believe she had a hand in making sure Nick and I found each other.

This is me and my adorable ring bearer!

This is us at the alter. My best friend whom I've known since 8th grade was ordained just so he could perform our ceremony. It was such a wonderful touch!

This is our first kiss!

We were so happy and it was such a perfect day. Looking back I realized I stressed over too many details that didn't even matter.

Hope you enjoyed the quick detour! Thanks for stopping by :)

3 more days...

To get your submission in for the Firecracker Design Team. It has been reduced to a 6 month term to accommodate more schedules. You don't have to use Firecracker Design Stamps on your submission art. She just wants to see what wonderful work you can do!

Visit Pam's Blog for more details!

SCS Sketch Challenge!

WOO HOO! I actually did a sketch challenge! This is last weeks sketch. It was really fun to do. I was having a hard time cause I wanted to use the smaller stamps but I did not want to create a scene with them. I used Pretty in pink and Going grey and some retired SU design paper. I love the sentiments with this set. super fun to use!!!

Simple Sally card

I wanted to use some papertrey card stock and DP that I have been hoarding for almost a year. I need to use it! I wanted something simple so I made just a simple outside and decorated the inside which is something I rarely do. I used cameo coral ink from Stampin Up.

I love how the colors just make a nice simple note card. I am thinking about making more and then making a cute box to make a gift set. I think that would be so great with this set. I used these baubles I've been hoarding and it adds such a cute dimension. I used zip dry glue. Holy moly this dries instantly with such strength!!!!! I LOVE it :)

This is how the inside looks. With enough space to write your own message.

A Legend...

This week a legend passed away. A man that inspired so many through his wonderful movies. This is a man that made the "dork" cool.

He gave us a girl from the wrong side of the tracks....and Ducky

He gave us "Jake Ryan"

"You see us as you want to see us... in the simplest terms and the most convenient definitions. You see us as a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess and a criminal."

"Bueller...Bueller...Bueller"
John Hughes! You are a great man and a genius. Thank you for all you have given and your movies will live on. Generation to generation!

Let's veg....

Sometimes there is nothing better to do but just lay on the couch with a bunch of chick flicks and just "veg" I love it. Not all the time but when you have been sooooo busy and then to just be able to relax is the best!

This is another card I made using Sally's garden of weedin'. I colored her with my copics and used SU Bashful Blue to stipple the clouds. I have these awesome cloud stencils that are great!!!

This is a 5x5 square card. This is one of my favorite cards to make cause everything just fits perfect and doesn't feel squished to me.

MFT Challenge...Gingham!

OMG.....this was hard for me but OH so much fun to make.

I ran the DP through my cuttlebug with the argyle folder to give it some deffinition. I drew the concrete and colored the image with copics. I also stippled using a lot of bashful blue and very lightly some going grey to make the stormy look. I actually cut my sentiment down so now all four words are seperate stamps. I have yet to decide if this was a good move but it worked for this card :)

Last "Breathe"

Well I was going through some cards I had made and realized I hadn't shown you my last card I made with the just breathe set. This one was fun to use. Although this card fought me every step of the way. I had this image and believe me the card didn't turn out exactly the way I imagined :)

I stamped pink stazeon on the acetate to place over the water colored girl image. the sentiment was embossed.