Stamp giveaway at Die Cuts R Us

Hey, You have to hurry on this one! Claudia, at Die Cuts R Us is giving away this cute stamp set designed by Jessica (one of the talented ladies on her design team), but you only have until Sunday, September 13th at 11:59PM PST to enter. Be sure to mark the first week in October on your calendars for Claudia's copic sale - She will be offering the copic ciao markers at an incredible deal! I've ordered from her, and her customer service is great! Be sure to check it out!

Cricut celebrates it's 100th cartridge!

To celebrate this milestone, Provocraft, the makers of Cricut are giving away 100 cartridges over the next 5 weeks. So, are you curious to know what the 100th cartridge is? The amazing Winter Woodland. I would love to win this cartridge! Go to the Cricut Message board to enter. Good luck!

The Great Escape

This is contest entry for those crazy folks at TodaysMama and Cricut. Be sure to check out Cricut's cool new cartridges and the chance at $30,000 in travel for you and your friends at the Great Gypsy Escape site!

Great Escape Meme
1. If you could escape to anywhere in the world where would it be?
Tuscany
2. What song do you play when you are by yourself in the car?
Annie's Song (What can I say, I'm a hopeless romantic! and slightly sentimental)
3. If you had a night to yourself, and money was no object, what would you do?
Spend the night being pampered at the Grove Park Inn Spa
4. What is your guilty pleasure?
Creme Brulee
5. What is the farthest place you have traveled away from your home?
California
6. Last book that you couldn't put down?
The 8th Confession (I must confess, I can't read often, because, I can never put a book down)
7. When you want to escape into another time, what movie do you watch?
Fried Green Tomatoes
8. What is your favorite local escape?
Pisgah National Forest
9. How do you escape on a budget?
Plan a picnic and enjoy the gorgeous area that I live in - it's really not hard to escape around here.
Best food you've ever had while on vacation.
The Legal Tender in Lame, NM or Eastside Cafe in Austin, TX

I made it! My 13th challenge in 4 days!

So, my husband has had to eat leftovers since Saturday, and my house is a complete disaster area, but this is my final card for the 13 challenges for the Taylored Expressions Birthday Bash! I really wasn't sure that I would get these all done, but I am so happy to say that I did. I wish everyone at Taylored Expressions a very happy 1st birthday!

Paper piecing

This is my first attempt at paper piecing. I stamped the butterfly on the hot pink (on the backside) then cut it out. I stamped the image again on the patterned paper and cut it and glued to the pink layer. I have to say, this technique really made me appreciate my cricut!

Beach Card

This is a sketch from Taylored Expressions Birthday Bash. I was going to do something really quick, and then remembered this EK Success punch that I had that would be great for a beach card. I punched it and then used Distress embossing powder in old paper, to look and feel like sand. I was really pleased with the results, and am sure I will use this technique again.

Inspired by circles

So this was the first challenge posted at Taylored Expressions Birthday Bash - but one of my last cards to make! The challenge was to be inspired by the picture provided. When I looked at this photo, I just noticed all the circles. So, that was the start for my card. I also was inspired by the colors, and the scalloped edge of the cake stand. It's kind of fun to look at something that has nothing to do with cardmaking and be inspired.

Tweet Tweet

I love all of the bird imagery that is available for paper crafting! For this card, I used a tile topper from Technique Tuesday. I inked the branches and the bird. I then stamped the bird with flourishes in white daisy ink, and sprinkled it with Martha Stewart glitter. I love the shabby look of this card!

Welcome Back

This next card was a real challenge for me in several ways. The color challenge from Taylored Expressions Birthday Bash, was to use teal, medium rose and medium sunflower. These are colors that I rarely work with (I really have a hard time working with yellow, and it seems that every challenge I'm running across wants some shade of yellow!) The 2nd challenge was for the Stampin Sisters in Christ, and it was to make a card for back to school. I don't have any children, so this one did not come so easy,either. But I decided to make my composition paper with a border die, yellow cs and blue stamped lines. I also decided to make a 3-d pencil out of rolled paper. It's kind of a simple card, but sometimes, those are the ones I struggle with the most!

Daisy card

I love coloring with my new copics! I just finished this Daisy Card, using a stamp set from Flourishes. The sketch is a challenge from the Taylored Designs Birthday Bash. On the ivory, I used Smooch Gold Lame to color the edges of the paper. I stitched the border around the yellow cs. Can you feel fall in the air?

Jeans card

I got this really cute denim stamp set awhile back from CTMH, and have never used it - so today was the day to play. I stitched around the pocket and the decorative stitching as well. I made a note for the back pocket using a punch from EK Success to mimic composition paper.

New challenge site + CANDY

I want to help spread the word of a new challenge site - Saturday Spotlight with Hidden Potential To help people find this site, they are giving away some awesome candy. Go check it out - I think these weekly challenges will be really fun!

Paper tole flowers

I have never tried paper tole, but I have to tell you, I love it! For this layout, I stamped the nasturtiums 3 times - once on my background paper, and twice on cardstock. I colored the images with my copics, and cut out the flowers and leaves and adhered them with dimensionals. I cut the two flowers out for a 3rd layer and it really popped! This was a great technique for this stamp set, because I let the small vines just be on the first layer, so I didn't have to cut them out any. I'm sure I will be trying this one again.

Cuttlebug Spot Challenge #46

Celebrate Education was the challenge this week. I made a very girly clipboard, that would certainly make taking notes much more fun (or at least that's the idea!)

More cards for the Taylored Expressions Birthday Bash

So, I am clicking away on the 13 challenges at Taylored Expressions, and have two more for you. The first one (Challenge #4) was a color challenge- to use Intense Kiwi, Nautical Blue Light and Sunflowers Medium. So here was my take on the challenge (and this was a good challenge for me, because, these are colors I generally don't work with).

The 2nd challenge I finished tonight was challenge #12 - to use buttons as your key embellishment. I tried to think of a really unexpected way to use buttons and decided to make my jack-o-lantern with one. I first stamped my image, colored it, cut it out, and covered it with liquid glass to attach my clear button. I think it turned out really cute!

It's Birthday time at the Cuttlebug Challenge!

Everyone is invited to create your party theme, and this week, the challenge is to make your invitation for the party. Since the next birthday on my list is my husband's, I decided to plan a romantic party for two. The shapes were all cut using my cricut (words - Teardrop, cake - ACY, strawberries from Indie Art).I embossed the strawberries using the Swiss dots folder, and made the chocolate using my Martha Stewart drippy goo punch.

If you love stickles...

You need to head over to Scraps 4 Fun blog and enter to win some great blog candy, stickles, Peachy Keen stamps, Cuttlebug embossing folders, and other great goodies! Just follow the instructions on her site for a chance to win.