Independent Stampin Up! Demonstrator since 2007
Welcome to my little ole' stamping blog! I'm so glad that you stopped by! I have lots of creative things to share with you with the occasional life post thrown in! Come on in, relax and stay awhile! :)

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

CCC2

Hello there! Happy Tuesday! Hope that everyone has had a great day! Not sure how it happened or when it happened, but somewhere along the way I have managed to lose a day! I went to bed thinking it was only the 29th and woke up to realize it is actually the 31st! Yikes!! That means my CCC#2 is due today! Here are the details:

1 - Use SCS Card Sketch 180
2 - Use pink and brown color combo
3 - Include a flower on your card, it can be in your DP, a brad, die cut, prima, etc.
4 - Use the image of your choice.

This was an awesome challenge (Thanks Tracey!!!) I just LOVE, LOVE, LOVE pink and brown together! And flower embellishments...don't even get me started! LOL I really enjoyed making this card!




I used my Cuttlebug embossing flower folder and my Nestabilities for the background pieces and added little white dots to the background image panel! That little detail really adds to the finished look! I colored the image with markers to get multiple colors and popped it up on pop dots to add dimension! It is much prettier in real life!

Recipe:
Paper: SU! Pink Pirouette, Close to Cocoa, Very Vanilla and Baja Breeze
Stamps: SU! Pocket Silhouettes
Ink: Misc markers
Extras: Pink ribbon, white gel pen, flower embellishment, sparkle bling, pop dots


Ok, I am off! I have oodles of swaps to work on tonight! Wish me luck! I will be back soon! Have a great night everyone! : )

AnnMarie

Friday, March 27, 2009

Sympathy cards and a gray rainy day...

Hey everyone! It is another gray, rainy day here! Makes me sleepy! Does make for a good crafting mood though! : )

I am sad to say that in the last couple of weeks I have had many friends who have lost someone close to them. It always makes me feel so sad to know that people are hurting and going through such hard times. I have made several sympathy cards and wanted to share one of them here with you. When I make a card I try to put so much heart and love into it, but when it comes time to fill in the middle I am usually at a loss for words. I find it tough to express how sad I feel for them, so it is important to me that the card speaks for itself! : )



Recipe:
Stamps: SU! Still Life Stems and Sincere Salutations
Paper: SU! Wild Wasabi and Sahara Sand
Ink: SU! Old Olive
Extras: SU! Very Vanilla ribbon and Dazzling Diamonds

Ok! I am off! Lots to do today! Hope that you are having a wonderful Friday!
Be back soon! : )

AnnMarie

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Hey there everyone! : )

Hope that this Wednesday finds you happy and doing well! : ) Anyone else getting rain? It started raining here today and they are calling for rain through Sunday! That is going to make my daily walk awfully soggy! Big grin!

I have a couple of things to share with you today! The first one is another page in the Chunky Scavenger Hunt swap that I am working on! The theme for this page was 'something purple'. My purple was the ink that I used! I used one of my very favorite stamps of all time for the image! She is from Rubber Stampede and I think she is just beautiful! I stamped her onto Pale Plum card stock with Almost Amethyst ink. I drew a grid behind her with a deeper purple color and added some green dots sporadically around the grid. Then I took a strip of vellum and crumpled it up and then smoothed it out and adhered it to the side. I found the dangly bling at Wal Mart over a year ago on clearance (SCORE!!!) for .25! I cut it apart and sewed it on with purple thread. I also sewed on the earring which came from the craft section at Wal Mart too! It came in a long stand and I just took one single piece off and attached a piece of the dangly bling to it to pull the whole page together! I added some clear sparkle to the edge and called it finished! I am really enjoying working on this project! I cannot wait to get the whole book assembled!

Here is page 2:




I also have a card to share! I needed a pick me up card for a friend and this little lady seemed like the best choice! She is so happy looking and just begs for a smile! I used happy spring colors and lots of polka dots! I am hoping that it brought a smile to her face!

Here she is:



Hope that you all have a wonderful night! Be back soon! : )

AnnMarie

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Winter LOTW

Hello! I have been working on some of my swaps today and wanted to share my Letter 'N' with you! These are so much fun because you can whip them right out and they eventually turn into whole words! LOL They make great titles for scrapbook pages! I made the letter n in Winter and will send it to the hostess (Hiya Susan!) who will in turn send me back all of the letters in the word made by different people! : ) It is really a fun swap! : )

I used colors that looked and felt like winter to me! Soft blue and white with some sparkle bling on the snowflake! I used a darker blue for the 'N' so it would stand out! Did I mention how much fun these were to make?! : )

I am going to keep this brief! I am off to bed! I hope that everyone has a wonderful night/day! : )




Recipe:
Paper: SU! Soft Sky, Brilliant Blue and Whisper White
Extras: Snowflake punch, Stickles, Gold Brads and ribbon

AnnMarie

Monday, March 16, 2009

Chunky Scavenger Hunt Book Swap Page #1

Hello, hello, hello! How is everyone?! It is stiiiiiiill raining here! LOL I am not sure if it is ever going to stop! I must admit that the bleak, cool, grey weather has sparked some creativity in me though! I have been working on some of the many (many, many, many...I am hooked!!) swaps that I am in! I just LOVE productivity!

I am super excited about this project!!! It is called the Chunky Scavenger Hunt Book Swap! I signed up for 2 spots which in real time equals 12 4 X 4 pages (front and back!). The really, really cool thing about this project is that the pages need to be more 'artsy' than scrapbook-y!! That means not only stepping out of my comfort zone, but leaping!!! I am very comfortable with neat clean lines. Lots of symmetry and match-y match-y colors! This book begs for just the opposite! There is a list of items that have to be incorporated into these pages and the chunkier the better! Postage Stamps, sand paper, coins, washers, the color purple etc...Stuff is supposed to dangle from the sides and poke out of the bottom! The girls that have signed up so far all have amazing talent! I was super intimidated to do a page and after staring at the picture I chose and my blank pages for over a week I finally took the leap! This is my first page and it uses text from a book as it's scavenger hunt item! I chalked my edges to make them look antique-y and added a string of pearls to her neck and some chunky flowers! I used words from a magazine add also and mounted them on a color to tie in the color in her dress and the flowers! I made a dangley thing to hang from the edge from some misc beads from my collection! I have to admit that I was pretty pleased with it! I am looking really forward to the next page! : )

I will be back soon! Have a wonderful day! : )



AnnMarie

Sunday, March 15, 2009

CCC1

This card is for the very first challenge for my new blogging group called the Crafty Critter's! The challenge was to use a critter (very fitting!) and the colors green and yellow! I knew I needed a card that just screamed Spring! Well what do you think?! I am in love with this little lady! She is just so cute and to me it looks like those open arms are welcoming Spring in! I took my yellow and ran it through my crimper one way and then the next. It gave me a corduroy kind of look and feel! I used my SU! Spiral punch to make holes in the top and stamped flowers on the bottom of the yellow and the base of my green! I added a touch of Stickle sparkle to the center of each flower and mounted this sweet little lady on a square punched from the pink mega punch! I added three bridal flowers with some lovely shades of pink dew drops in each of their centers! I pop dotted the square and then the little lady! I used my water color pencils to color her in! I felt like it turned out to be a pretty dang happy card! LOL

Hope that you have had a wonderful weekend! I plan to spend the rest of the evening working on the many, many swaps I have signed up for over at SplitCoast! I hope to have more crafty goodness to share with you soon! : )

Have a wonderful night!




Recipe:
Paper: SU! Yo-Yo Yellow, Whisper White and Wild Wasabi
Ink: SU! Chocolate Chip, Old Olive and water color pencils
Stamps: Whipper Snapper Designs Little Lady and Mike's Dollar Stamps
Extras: Mauve bridal flowers, Pink Dew Drops, Pop dots, Stickles, Crimper and misc punches

AnnMarie

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Altered Book!

I committed to participating in an altered book swap with some of the girlies from my WLG! I was very intimidated at first because I was not sure how it really worked! Then when I received the first book (Hiya Susan!!!) I was in awe! She did such an amazing job with her book...but then I was REALLY intimidated! LOL The way it works is that you find a book and alter it to fit your theme. She called her book the "Altered Me" book and changed the cover and many of the inside pages before passing it on. As the first recipient I altered several of the pages and then passed it on. It is a really cool concept! Well, now it was time for me to start my own! I went to the library and found a book that was on the for sale bookshelf. It is a book of movie quotes and is supposed to be used as a crazy Eight question kind of thing! You ask it a question and flip it open to a page that feels 'right' and there you are supposed to find your answer! Fun! I asked the book a question and was thrilled with my quoted answer, but it didn't seem to work as well for the rest of my family! LOL Anyhow, I put off starting this book because I thought it was going to be really hard, but it wasn't hard at all! In fact, it just started flowing! I decided I was going to call my new book 'Embrace Change'. I was pleased with the title because I am going through some changes in my life and it sounded like a clever and appropriate title! Well after all the brainstorming to come up with the name I didn't even wind up putting a title on the cover! LOL I altered the cover and cracked open the book! I whipped out several pages and decided that this has been one of my favorite projects of all time! I will be putting it in the mail today and cannot wait to get it back and see what all of my wonderful friends have added to it! I have also decided that I am going to do another one and fill it all myself...just when the mood hits! I am going to treat it like a journal/scrapbook! You should try one! : )

Here is the cover of my first altered book! The picture doesn't really capture the sparkle and pretty colors, but I wanted to share it anyhow!

Have a great day! : )




AnnMarie

Monday, March 9, 2009

More LOTW's!

These letter of the word swaps are so much fun!! I have signed up for several and cannot wait to get the full words back! I worked on beach letters and picnic letters this weekend! I wanted the beach letters to look authentic so I stamped the sand with sea shells! I tore the paper and Dazzling Diamond-ed the edges! I layered two pieces to make it look thick and added the letter between the layers! I made water and added a happy sunshine and some birds! I was so excited with the way these turned out! I signed up for two different swaps and used the same layout for each!

I wanted to make the picnic letter look yummy and so I thought of my favorite picnic food first thing! Watermelon...yummmm! I drew on seeds and layered the red on the green. I took a bite out of each piece using a hole punch x 3! I stapled a ribbon and added some tiny bling to the edges of the c. These were really fun to make! : )

Hope that you are having a great Monday! : )




Recipe:
Paper: SU! Sahara Sand, Brilliant Blue, Soft Sky, Yo Yo Yellow, Garden Green and Real Red
Stamps: Sea Shell stamp
Extras: White gel pen, Basic Black marker, Pop dots, Dazzling Diamonds, ribbon, hole punch, C punch, A punch, large tag punch, circle punches, bling


AnnMarie

Thursday, March 5, 2009

A purse ful of love and thank yous!

Happy Thursday everyone! : ) I wanted to share a thank you purse that I made for a very special friend! Her name is Joann and she is such a wonderful, sweet person! She is mom to one of my very good buddies (also a total sweetheart!) Recently Jo sent me a book that chronicled a very fun weekend we all spent together at a scrapping convention! She had it made from all of our pictures! The book was a total surprise and I cannot tell you how many times I have flipped through it! I just LOVE it!! It brought back so many wonderful memories! I wanted to do a little something for her to let her know how much she and the book mean to me, so I crafted up this little purse and filled it with Hershey's cheesecake filled kisses! Yummmmmmm-y!! I used a Timeless Template for the pattern. I added her name to the front using my JustRite stamps and added some flower and gem sparkle bling! It just gooshes girlie! Love that! Hope she likes it! : )




Recipe:
Paper: SU! Creamy Caramel, Wild Wasabi and Making Memories Springtime
Stamps: Just Rite Stamps
Ink: SU! Pretty in Pink
Extras: Circle Nesties, White gel pen, Sparkle gems, flowers form Micheals and square green brads

AnnMarie

Monday, March 2, 2009

Happy snow day!

We were soooo excited to finally get some snow!! This is our first real snow of the season and so we were all out playing in it!! Thought I would share a photo of hubby and a couple of the kids trying to sled down a hill! If you look closely you can see two of our fur babies trying to get in on the action! So much fun! Happy snow day to you!!



AnnMarie

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Crafty Critter Blogger Group! : )

I am sooooo excited to say that I have been invited to a brand spankin' new blogger group! It is made up of 12 ladies who all want to share our creations and become better friends! We are called the Crafty Critter Bloggers (how cute is the name?!) and I cannot wait to get started! There will be challenges and all sorts of fun things that will go along with it! I am looking very forward to belonging to this great group of ladies! Thanks for having me gals! Let the fun begin! :)



AnnMarie