BLOG CANDY WINNER!!

I cannot believe it has been over a week since my last post! It is a busy time around the house. My son was away at camp this week, and I planned too much into this week, and little of it was card-making. Starting next week my work schedule is changing from 12 hours to 32 hours while I help out the office until they hire a replacement for my co-worker, who has moved to North Carolina. Not sure how much crafting time I will be having...I may start getting a little loopy from withdrawal!
My husband and I took a whirlwind trip to Maine on Thursday to visit our favorite beach. It doesn't look like we will make our usual annual week-long trip there this year, as my Dad is getting a little too forgetful to leave home by himself for that long, and I have no siblings, so no one else to share the duty. Popham Beach in Maine soothes my soul and rejuvenates me, and it was glorious to be there, even if it was a really LONG day on the road! I'll try to post a picture soon.

Anyway, the moment has come to award blog candy. I must thank everyone who entered...I so much enjoyed your comments, and am thrilled that you liked my cards. Here she is:

Comment number 3 was posted by Rene of the blog Simply Cute.

Congratulations Rene!!

Contact me and send me your snail mail address,
and I will get your goodies off to you on Tuesday.

My plan is to get some posts made ahead, so things don't fall apart while my work schedule increases. Thanks for stopping by...your comments and your blogs are all an inspiration to me.

Don't Faint...No Tilda Today!

Ok, Ok, I promise I'm fine! Once in a while I can make a card without a Tilda! My son starts to worry too, says it's weird to see my cards without "that girl on them!" Boys!
Anyway, I came upon a new (to me) challenge blog today called Crazy 4 Challenges, and their theme was red, black and white. The DT cards were so adorable, I decided to go whip up one of my own! In addition, I found that the Basic Grey challenge is gingham, so I will enter there too!

CHALLENGES:
C4C45--red, white, black
Basic Grey Challenge--gingham

This kitty is an old stamp from Stamp Oasis,
which I haven't used in a great while.

I had a very productive Tuesday...3 cards posted yesterday,
plus I made this one too...saved it for today!

I hope you like it...not sure what will come next, I have to work today and Friday, plus I have a going away party for a dear friend and co-worker who is moving to North Carolina.
I am really going to miss her.

Dare to Be Sassy Challenge #28

Here is my card for the
Sassy Studios Design Challenge #28:

The Bathtub Lady is one of the images I won at

the Sassy Studios Challenge last week, and I couldn't wait to use her!
The sketch is from the week #28 challenge.
The gorgeous background is from K & Company.
Flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts.
Ribbon from my stash.
Enjoy! is a Stampin' Up! sentiment.
Colored with Copics, Stickled the bubbles!

I have also entered this card in the
Totally Gorjuss Challenge--water

What fun I have with these Sassy ladies!

A Second Tilda for the Day

When I made the Chocolate Tilda, I had originally planned to use the card for the Just Magnolia challenge, but I got carried away with the flowers, so I didn't quite make the recipe. Means I needed to make another card! This morning I sat at my desk, looked at the challenges that I could meet, and this is the card I came up with:

CHALLENGES:

Just Magnolia--recipe: 3 flowers, 2 papers, one ribbon
PaperTake Weekly--In the Garden
Colour Create Challenge--baby pink, peach and black
Paper Romance Challenge (PRC#6)--glitter

I also used the sketch from
last week's PaperTake Weekly Challenge.

Thanks for dropping by my blog.
If you haven't entered for my blog candy,
click the link at the top of the page for details!

Summer Card

The son of my best friend has a birthday coming up next week, so I made this card for him. I am also entering it in a couple of challenges.

CHALLENGES:
Sweet Sketch Wednesday--sketch
Cute Card Thursday--School's Out!
Creative Inspirations--On the Move
Stamp Something--recipe: one ribbon, one image, one DP


The designer paper is from the DCWV mat stack called "Summer Dreams"
The penguins, music notes, and sentiment are all Stampin' Up!
The lace ribbon is from my stash.
Colored everything with my Copic markers,
and inked the sky and grass with Distress Ink.


Inside

Worked on the chocolate creation...just waiting for
the Stickles to dry...come back Tuesday!

Hugs to all of you readers!

Fiftieth Birthday Card

Later this month, my sweet hubby is reaching the half century mark. I have made this card in his honor, for a couple of challenges. It was fun and glittery!

CHALLENGES:

Magnolia-licious Highlites--Folding Pop-Up Card
Magnolia Down Under-- One for the Boys
PaperPlay Thursday--Your Number's Up!

This Edwin is supposed to be holding a butterfly net, but I always seem to make him different! He is called "Chasing Edwin" and is available from the Magnolia-licious Store.
I made up the "newspaper" in Microsoft Word, the candles are from Stampin' Up, colored everything with my Copics, and the flame on the candles is Star Dust Stickles. That stuff should come by the gallon!

Here is a side view, so you can get a sense of the pop-up construction.
There is a great tutorial on the Magnolia-licious Highlites challenge blog,
from Splitcoast Stampers that makes it really easy.

My honey thought the card was quite fun!
Next I am working on chocolatey...

Recipe Card--Ice Cream Layer Cake

If you participated in the summer recipe card swap on the Magnolia-licious blog, and you want to be surprised, don't read this post!

It has been horrendously hot here in the Northeast for the past week, and being made out of chocolate, I don't do well in the heat! This is a yummy recipe that even the kids can make! It is messy no matter what, and that makes it look oh so tasty! I am sorry that I was not able to make this calorie-free, but feel like a little kid and enjoy!! That is just what Tilda did, and she inspired me to use ice cream colors for this card.

The papers are from SEI, "Claire." I like my recipe cards to have a fairly slim profile so they can slip into a plastic sleeve, so I added some old buttons, and paper flowers, plus the yummy pink velvet ribbon! If I could have glued on sprinkles, I would have done that too!


Thanks for stopping---I hope you checked out my blog candy in the sidebar!

BLOG CANDY TIME at MAKING STUFF DAILY!

This has been an amazingly awesome week for me, and I want to celebrate with all of you! I am posting the invitation today and I will announce a blog candy winner on Saturday July 24th.

Here is what you need to do:

1. Become a follower of Making Stuff Daily(if you already follow my blog, you are done with step 1)

2. Add a comment at the end of this post before 12 midnight EDT on July 24th, 2010.

That's all you have to do! Well, check back to see if you are a winner!

Here are the goodies you can win:

Pass the word------and good luck!

Tomorrow, I have a recipe card to share!

What a Wonderful Day!

I was so thrilled to be asked to be Guest DT on A Gem of a Challenge blog for this month, and my day got better from there! When I went to their blog to see the challenge and all the DT cards, I found out I was one of their Top 5 Gems for the June Challenge! I love the blinkie they gave me!

THEN......

I was hopping around to other blogs I follow, and for my second surprise of the day, I found that one of my cards was a winner at Sassy Studio Designs!! I am overwhelmed at all this good news!

I'm thinking this calls for some blog candy...stay tuned!

Guest DT for "A Gem of a Challenge"

I have been bursting at the seams

to let you all in on my exciting news, and today is the day!

Amanda and Janet invited me to be Guest DT for the
July challenge at "A Gem of a Challenge" Blog.

On this card I had the opportunity to use Pink Gem's "Daisy" the cow for their fun birthday sketch. Daisy is a digi-stamp, so I was able to change her size and do a mirror image of her to create a whole herd of partying cows!

Happy Birthday, Amanda!

Here are the ingredients for the card:
Daisy digi-stamp from Pink Gems Designs
Papers:
Red glitter cardstock--Reminisce "Shimmering Rubies"
Yellow cardstock embossed with glossy flowers--unknown
Solid black-Bazzill Basics
White and black floral--made with a Stampin' Up Stamp
Yellow polka dots--Bo-Bunny's Back to Backs
Bright green swirl--Bo-Bunny's Back to Backs

I dressed up the "cow-girls" with black diamond Stickles
on their spots,silver on their bells,
and I made hand-drawn little party hats to match their bows.
The balloons (inside and outside) are from Karen Foster Designs.


The stars are a Sizzix die cut, and the swirls are a Marvey punch.
The assorted rhinestones are from my stash.


This unusual view is looking down on the card,
to show all the dimension---lots of foam mounting tape!



The cow-girls get their close-up!
Now let's look at the inside:


Green paper--K &Co. "Poppy Seed Lime Star Stripes"
Cow paper--Reminisce "Cowprint"
Red gingham ribbon--my stash
Sentiments were computer generated using a
free font from Dafont.com, called
"Sunshine Poppy."
"For you"--Stampin' Up!
The scalloped squares were cut with my Nestabilities dies.

There you have it!
I hope you check out Pink Gem Designs...they "design and stock a wide range of cute and whimsical polymer craft stamps and down loadable digi-stamps"
as well as other crafting essentials!

I can't wait to see your take on the Gem of a Challenge sketch--
you could be a Top Gem!

Kickin' It For Michelle

Thanks to Paola, one of the DT members for A Spoonfull of Sugar Challenge blog, I learned today of Michelle Oatman, a fellow crafter and blogger, who suffered a frightening accident a couple of weeks ago. A Spoonfull of Sugar has devoted their challenge to Michelle this week, looking for crafters to send Michelle cards and well wishes. Whimsy Stamps has a free digi-stamp in honor of Michelle as well. That is the stamp I used for my card.





Michelle, this card is for you. It will be heading out in the mail tomorrow, full of my prayers and good wishes for a safe recovery, so you can get back to what you love.

Please head over to ASoS blog, see the great cards, and all the fabulous prizes that so many companies have offered in honor of Michelle. Add a card of your own to Michelle. You can visit her blog at http://donkeysmiles.blogspot.com.

Criss-cross card

This is the first time I have done a criss-cross card, and I loved it! I am so grateful to the team at the Just Magnolia Challenge blog for presenting this fun card to make.

Challenges:
Just Magnolia Challenge Blog--criss-cross card
Stamp Something Challenge--colors of your flag
Magnolia Down Under Challenge--use of newspaper

If you have never made a criss-cross card, there is a link to a fabulous tutorial on the Just Magnolia Blog. It is very simple, yet quite dramatic.

This is the outside of the card.
It forms an envelope for the inside portion.
This Tilda image is a gift from a friend,
but she is on my wish list for my next order
from Diana Crick at the Magnolia-licious Store.

I made the inside of the card to look like a little clipboard.
I really adore the red, white and blue colors together!

Thanks for stopping by!

Google and Blogger have been having issues with comment moderation.
I hope it was only for one post, and doesn't affect my whole blog!

Please come back on Thursday...
I promise a fun card, and I have news to share!

Christmas in July

Welcome to the new week! We are fortunate here in the States, today is the official Fourth of July holiday---meaning the day you get off of work---a bonus holiday, so to speak!
I have been working on a couple of cards, and this Christmas-themed card is one of them.

Challenges:
Fussy and Fancy--Christmas in July
CLP Monthly Challenge--sketch
Papertake Weekly--stitching
Stamptacular Challenge--aperture (window)
Paperplay Thursday--card for child
I had planned this for the challenge at A Spoonful of Sugar (animal), but they changed the submission deadline, and I didn't know it until it was too late.

Anyway, this was a fun card to make, sitting in the air conditioning of my craft nook on a sultry hot July fourth! I love how my die cutter made the window, and I was able to do a monochrome scheme with my papers and my Copics.
Of course I Stickled around the window frame with "Star Dust."
The sentiment stamps are both from Stampin Up!
I love the patterned paper from Momenta--"The Story of Us."
The snowflakes were stamped with Weathered Wood Distress Ink, and the image was stamped with Memento, Tuxedo Black.
The brads came from my stash.


I jazzed up the inside, as a little surprise when you open the card:


This Tilda stamp should be available from the Magnolia-licious Store--the puppy is not Magnolia, he is from Stampcraft.
Tomorrow I have a red, white and blue themed card, using the criss-cross style for the Just Magnolia challenge. Please come back and check it out!

Chocolate and Peanut Butter--A Match Made in Heaven!

With the cool spell we have been enjoying here this week, my teenage son agreed that is was a good time for me to do some baking. It is true that teenage boys eat quite a bit, and sometimes mine is finding it hard to fill that empty spot. Winnie the Pooh could do it with honey; my son needs something more substantial but still sweet.
When I started contemplating all the options for recipes, peanut butter chips tapped me on the shoulder. Then they started banging me on the head (so subtle!). If you haven't seen them, peanut butter chips look like chocolate chips, only peanut butter flavored. Basically the tastiest little blobs of fat and sugar ever to be flavored with peanut butter!
I did a search on Google, and came upon a website called "Evil Shenanigans." (From the name, I have a feeling this is going to be a place I return to more than once.)

What I found there was a recipe for
Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip
Bundt Cake.

Perfect.

Here is the result:

Now see the cake right before it hits your mouth, and it's rich, choco-peanut-butter goodness caresses your tongue, and this morsel melds with you at a molecular level to become a part of you forever:

Now you know why the blog is called Evil Shenanigans.

If you feel you cannot rest until you eat this, CLICK HERE.

Disclaimer:
I take no responsibility what-so-ever
for any untoward consequences of your actions.

I've Been Published!

I hope the weather is as glorious where you are as it is here in Connecticut! I am not much for heat and humidity, and today is my perfect summer day (though many would not feel it summery if a sweater is involved!) It is sunny, breezy, dry and the temps have hovered around 72 degrees.

In a word, AWESOME!

Anyway, on to the exciting news!
If you don't know about the new magazine, Through the Craft Room Door, click HERE and check into it. It is the work of Suzanne Dean and Marti Wils, and is available in both print version or digital. I was lucky to subscribe when it first started, and in the July/August 2010 issue, they have published one of my cards! This is a first for me, and I am so grateful to Suzanne and Marti for finding my work "fit to print!"
I wish I could share the card, but that cannot happen until September. Please check out Suzanne's blog Scrapbitz and Marti's blog Pez-a-Doodle for some awesome inspiration, tutorials and so much more.

Stay tuned, because I have more cards and more news coming during the next week.