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Sunday, February 27, 2011

Lasting Memories Challenge #27

Good evening all -


Well, I've definately had an eventful last 6 days. As most of you know I was in a dart tournament this last week. It was the South Dakota State Tournament. The biggest tournament in the United States or so we were told. It was crazy busy. Wednesday I threw doubles with my friend Ray. We threw very well together and placed 4th in the D Division. (Since I made some money, I got a State Tournament shirt). Wow, it was a lot of work, but we had a blast. Thursday morning I threw singles in the K Division. Let's not talk about that one. LOL I really didn't even show up, well I did, but I didn't throw worth a darn. Friday morning then we had our Team event in the H Division and that wasn't any better than the day before. We didn't make it out of pods. Bummer. Neither one of us (4 person team) could get on the same page.  Oh well, more practice for next year I guess.  Saturday my DH's team started their pod play, (also a 4 person team event) and they played for 15 hours.  They had to come back this morning for another round of bracket play and placed 9th thru 12th in their AA Division.  There are only 2 weeks left of this season and then darts will be done until August. I'm not sure I will be playing summer darts; there are just too many things to do when the weather is nice. We will see.

Okay, enough about my social life and onto this week's challenge over at Lasting Memories. I've really enjoyed doing these challenges and challenging myself to use up my stash and scraps. I am kinda making a dent into some of my things and finding things I didn't even know I had.  Is that a good or a bad thing?  This week's challenge was a Sketch. I don't do very well on sketches, but I am pleased with my layout.


After my DD had my granddaughter I went and stayed with them for 3 weeks. Draven, my grandson, sure loved being the big brother, and I've titled my page "Brother's Love".


I don't know what paper I used because I have so much of it and I really don't keep track very well of where I purchased it or what company it comes from. I have a lot of miscellaneous paper too. The Brother's Love frame I cut out of SCAL and I am not sure where I got it from either, but I loved the heart bordering. I faux stitched with a white gel pen to make it pop off the page a little and then also popdotted it for some lift. I then ran the title block through my printer.  I found this little white heart in my button's stash and used it instead of the "O".

The other red heart and the two other buttons, which matched the paper perfectly, were also from my stash. Funny how you can find things that just make it belong. I added some simple red/white/blue ribbon to the bottom with the journaling tag and there you have it.



I hope you've enjoyed my layout for this week's challenge and I look forward to any and all comments.  Even if you want to give me some pointers on how I could have added or changed something I really look forward to hearing from you.  Remember, no comment is a bad comment.


As always, have a good day and god bless.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Festive Fridays 2-25

Good Day all -

Welcome all to another Festive Fridays. If you are new to us, sit back, grab a cup of coffee, relax and enjoy some wonderful Christmas Cards. Yes, I did say Christmas. Festive Fridays will be every other Friday with samples of Christmas cards. This way, you can be making your cards all year long and you will avoid the mad rush when you could be enjoying the Christmas Season. You should have just come from Debbie. If you stumbled upon this post you can go back to Terri and start at the beginning. I will also have a complete list of the Festive Friday hop at the end of this post in case you get lost along the way.

Today I used my gypsy to create my card.  I know there are alot of christmas trees on different carts, but I made my own using only the George cart.  I wanted to challenge myself a little and by that mean I created a file instead of using a premade christmas tree file.  All I did was made 4 rounded triangles at different widths and heights and welded them together plus a rectangle of 1 x 1.11 for the tree trunk.  I then copied the welded tree and pasted it and flipped it.  I then welded the two trees together to make the base of the card.  I cut that at 4.25 by 10 making it a 4.25 by 5 card.  I then cut the  four triangles out again in two different shades of green and adhered them to the base.  I used my ATG gun and glued the trunk and the first layer on; the remaining three triangles I layered using pop dots to give it dimension.  I also cut a star out of yellow cardstock at 1.12 x 1.  I added a gold star brad and then used my gold glitter glue around the brad to make it shiny and pop a bit.  I added the "lights" by using my imaginisce.  I love my I-Rock.  I stamped "December 25th" using a stamp by Hampton Art that I had received in a swap.  It's a 6 sentiment stamp set and I love it.  You will probably see this stamp set throughout most of my cards this year.  Now ... I turned this card into a "Gift Card".  I added a strip of paper to the inside of the card and adhered it on the 3 sides so you can slip cash into it.  The card was not made wide enough for a gift card, however that could be easily adjusted.  This is such an easy card to make.  I really think it turned out super cute and would love to hear what you think.  Thanks again for following along our Festive Fridays hop and I hope I have inspired you to make a "Gift Card".  If you would like the gypsy file, please leave me a comment with your email addy and I will send it as soon as possible.


You could easily stamp another sentiment or anything you wish on the "pocket" to the inside.

I hope you enjoyd my card and now your next stop will be Yolonda

Here is a complete lineup for all the next stops in case you get lost along the way:
Brenda Lee Burfeind (That's me)

As always, have a great day and god bless








Sunday, February 20, 2011

Bella's 1st Birthday - Lasting Memory Challenge

Good evening all,


So here I am again one more time for today...maybe. LOL I've been having so much fun in my "room" today. Wow, 2 cards (only 1 posted because the other one is for Festive Fridays here this coming friday), 4 little matchbooks and now a scrapbook page layout. When I have a day like this, I should schedule my postings instead of posting all on one day...nah. Ok, so here we go:

This weeks challenge over at Lasting Memories is reduce, re-use and recycle your scraps or something you have laying around that you could incorporate onto your layout! So, I took this challenge a bit too literal. Let me explain...

We celebrated my granddaughter, Bella's first birthday in January (her birthday is December 31st). I made cupcakes and cupcake wrappers. I also made a banner with her name on it and a frog for her cake. Actually, you can see the post banner and pictures. So when this challenge came up and it said reduce, reuse and recycle...(I stopped reading through) your scraps or something you have laying around that you could incorporate onto your layout I came up with this idea. LOL

I reduced the banner I made originally, and I reused - recycled the frog pick and cupcake wrapper on the layout itself. So technically I did follow the rules of the challenge by reducing my stash also. I had all these paper scraps leftover from the projects that I had made. I am now officially out of the beautiful green silver glittery paper. I hope you enjoy my layout and would love any comments you might want to leave. 



As always, have a great day and god bless.

One Match at a Time

Good Afternoon my crafty friends,

This is my second post of the day and what a day it's been.  The weather is still pretty nasty outside and I am still in my craft room.  Yeah!!!  It's been so long and I am so full of ideas.  As some of you know, I will be playing in a dart tournament come this Wednesday.  The first day I will be throwing a doubles tournament with one of my friends.  He is actually on my DH's team, but we partnered up for this tournament.  We should do well.  Thursday then I will be throwing in the singles tournament...not so sure about that one.  Then on Friday we start our team tournament.  I throw darts on Monday nights with 2 others gal and one guy.  I always try to make something for each member of my team for encouragement.  Many years ago I was throwing with a different team and I made this matchbooks for them.  This year I made them again for my current team using their favorite colors.  It's just a little something to remind everyone we are here just to have fun and to take it "One Match at a Time". 

The darts I cut at 2 x .46 out of SCAL using a dart image I took off the web.  I cut the matchbook at 2 1/4 by 5 and scored at 2 inches and again at 4 1/2 inches.  I stapled the flap with a staple matching the cardstock.  I then adhered the darts inside to look like matches.  I typed the sentiment "One Match at a Time" in word and backed the label with black.  Cute huh?  I thought so.  Anyway, it's just a little something for my team.  Wish us luck.

As always, have a great day and god bless!

Wedding Card - Challenge Entry

Happy Sunday to all and especially to me...


I was supposed to work today and I don't have to....YEAH!!! You know what that means, right? I will be in my craft room ALL day. We have such terrible weather right now. So far today we've had - rain, sleet, ice, snow, rain, thunder, lightning, more rain, sleet and snow. UGH. Okay, enough about the weather report, here is my project.

I am entering this card into two challenges this week. MorethanFavors Wacky Wednesday challenge this week is weddings.  Kristal over at Kandrewdesigns also has a challenge and that is using a stamped image and adding any textile to it. PERFECT combination. My personal challenge is using everything out of my stash. I do not buy anything for any of the challenges I am entering. So here we go...

I had received this stamped image a LOOONNG time ago through a wedding swap so I can't even tell you what the stamp is. The swapper had stamped in on some beautiful ivory card stock and embossed it with teeny, tiny butterflies. Sure wish I knew what type of embossing folder this was...it's beautiful. I took the image and backed it with some blue-black card stock. Love it. I had some tulle and pearls on a string left over from the wedding favors I had made for my DD wedding. I adhered the tulle using some glue dots and then made a tulle flower. Kristal showed us how to make them here.  Since my flower needed to be small it didn't work as well so I just gathered it and used a few glue dots to keep it together.  I think it worked just fine.  I will be making some of her flowers for another challenge I have coming up though.  I also didn't have any blue tulle, so I just ran a piece of the white tulle over an ink pad and made it myself. Needless to say, my fingers are smurf like now, but it worked. LOL. I then shaped the pearls on a string into a heart shape and attached that to the white tulle. Attached the tulle flower onto that and added a blue rhinestone for the center and viola, a beautiful textile addition to the wedding dress.


I also had a small heart charm in my stash and added a blue ribbon for some extra embellishment.


I hope you enjoyed my card as much as I have enjoyed making it. I love entering challenges because it gets my creativity flowing, plus every challenge I enter I use up my stash. Leave me a comment and give me your ideas of how you use up your stash.

As always, have a great day and god bless.

Friday, February 18, 2011

Layout Favorites and challenge entries

Good evening all,

With all that has been going on personally and blogginy (is that a word?) I have been very overwhelmed.  As most of you know I participated (posted) in a huge blog hop over the weekend at Kandrew's blog.  It was fun fabulous.  I have also been working my butt off at my "real" job because I need a week off for the State dart tournament next week.  I know, you are all feeling so very sorry for me.  LOL  Really, I take my darts very seriously and this is the biggest tournament I will be participating in this year.  I am very excited, but very nervous also, so if you wanna cross your fingers for me for a little bit that would be nice.  Thanks.

Anyway, through this giant blog hop I gained many followers and have found some new challenges to participate in.  Kristal has a challenge right now for Memory Miser and you could win the Pack Your Bags cartridge.  This is her only stipulation:  All you have to do is think of a A to Z project! What is that? Anything you want it to be as long as it has some type of Alphabet theme (think LETTERS, alphabet blocks, word stamps, letter diecuts, letter stickers, you name it--totally open to your interpretation)  It can be any project using any materials you like!  I also found a new site during this hop that is all about scrapbook challenges.  Nothing but scrapbooking.  Maybe this will help me get back on track with my scrapbooks.  I very rarely post my pages because most of them are very personal to me and I don't feel too comfortable posting them.  I found this site for some scrapbook challenges and this week's challenge was PINK, RED, WHITE.  Oh so my favorite colors, plus BLUE.  SO, this is my page and I am entering it into both challenges.


Everything on this page is from my stash.  I had some miscellaneous alpha stickers so I backed them with some simple RED squares to spell out FAVORITES.  I love the RED, WHITE and BLUE.  Some of you remember a post about my dining room.  It's all decorated in red, white and blue motif.  The flag you see in the picture is a wall hanging and you are supposed to put each state's quarters where the stars would go.  I also love the color pink and this rose in the picture was one my husband had given to me on our anniversary.  I took a picture of another rose and cut it out and placed it on the bottom left corner.  I added some real blue jean scraps and a buckle from some overalls I cut apart and backed the picture with a scrap of material also.  I then added the word ROSES in REDWHITE and BLUE stickers.  The word AND is backed with some flag stickers and overlayed with some epoxy bubbles.  I really don't know what else to call them.  This layout is very personal to me and I really love the way it came together.  I did not use my cricut on this page at all.  WOW!!! 

As always, have a great day and god bless the RED, WHITE and BLUE and PINK roses

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

50 States Blog Hop WINNER

Hello all,

I am so sorry that I haven't chosen a winner until now...I really don't have a great excuse except that I am on the 15th day in a row of a 22 day stretch working.  I know I have said that I have a pretty boring "real" job, but boring is sometimes worse than being slammed.  At least it is for me.  When I get home at night all I want to do is eat dinner, veg in front of the tv for a while and go NIGHT NIGHT.  Can you tell I have a 1 year old in the house...Night, night!!!  LOL  So first I wanna thank Kristal over at Kandrewdesigns for such an honor to be able to participate in her YEARLY blog hop.  She only hosts a blog hop once a year and she goes all out.  (I only found out yesterday that her WONDERFUL husband is her blog sponsor)  How cool is that?  So therefore, did you know that each one of us who participated in her hop showing off our STATE is getting a My Pink Stamper set?  How wonderful is that, Thank you Mr. KANDREW!  OH YEAH.  (I would have done it anyway).  Kristal has been such a good "friend".  She has such awesome files and she really knows her stuff.  I love her files.  REALLY I DO!!!  She was one of my first followers and has been very supportive of my blog.  SECOND I want to thank all of my NEW followers.  You were all so very kind!!!  I was so touched by all of your comments.  SERIOUSLY.  I have my blog set up to monitor all comments, they then come to my email which is linked to my Droid and guess what, my phone was blowing up constantly.  Meaning I had to read EACH and EVERYONE's comments (which I enjoyed tremendously) and I had to publish each and every one I read (which I was more than grateful for).  You are all so GREAT, your comments were wonderful and I hope that you all keep following me and commenting, (ever once in a while) on my blog.  THANK YOU!!!  Ok, if you have read this far down you are more than deserving for some more blog candy.  Before I started this hop I had 92 followers and at the end I had 207.  WOW!!!  So, I am going to do some more blog candy.  Leave a comment here saying anything you would like and become a follower (if you aren't already) you will be elligible for one entry.  Post my blog candy on your blog and leave a comment that you did that and you will get another entry.  To get one more opportunity for the blog candy, grab my blinkie and post it to your sidebar and leave a comment that you did so.  The giveaway for this will be a brand new I-ROCK.    I love mine and thought you all might love one also.  Ok, ok, you have all been very patient and now onto the winner of the Houndstooth cuddlebug folder and the Mt. Rushmore refrigerator magnet IS:

#53 Scrappy Jackie: SAID
These projects are soooo classy and beautiful.... Great job! Thanks for telling us about North Dakota... I am from West Michigan and this winter it has been interresting... We are always a little warmer than you guys... along the lake. but the snow and how deep it is and the ice hanging from the buildings... it is so strange and different. I keep reminding my boys when they say it is cold that it is colder in NorthDakota and Canada... I have not seen it quite like this ever. Hang in there... I have been promised by my husband that this winter will end soon... we'll have to see. Thanks for the hop! pjritsema at gmail dot com


Scrappy Jackie - please email me your snail mail addy and I will get this out to you ASAP.  And yes, South Dakota was at 47 degrees today, so hopefully we are out of the below zeros.

As always, have a great day and god bless.

Friday, February 11, 2011

50 States Blog Hop



***If you are looking for the Festive Friday's Blog Hop, please scroll down to next post***



A Big Cricut Hello & Chirp to each of you! Welcome to the Cricky Across the 50 Blog Hop hosted by K Andrew of Getting Cricky!  If you are here from RHODE ISLAND
Karel Jennings of One by One the Flamingos are Stealing my Sanity http://karelj.blogspot.com/ then you are in the right spot. If you just arrived here and would like to start from the beginning please go to KAndrew's Getting Cricky!  For this blog hop K Andrew is celebrating her big move across the country with a big road trip, and of course this hop across the 50 states! She has asked us all to post a little bit about the state we are representing, and then to post our Favorite Craft Project. I am representing the state of South Dakota
I have lived in South Dakota for 15 years after moving from Minnesota.  The state's population is 819,761 people.  I live in Sioux Falls and our population is approximately 160,000.  Our capital is located in Pierre and is approximately 3 hours from us.  We live on the east side of the State, but travel to Rapid City area a couple of times a year.  Rapid City area is best known for Mt. Rushmore, the Bad Lands and Crazy Horse,  all very popular tourist attractions.  Our state bird is the ring necked pheasant and a popular hunting fowl.  South Dakota's population doubles in early fall and mid winter for hunting.  We've survived the wrath of Dick Cheney's hunting abilities.  LOL  Ted Nugent has also graced our presence for this adventure. 

Another popular attraction is located in Sturgis.  If you like motorcycles, especially Harley Davidsons you must come to visit us in August.  We have the biggest motorcycle ralley in the United States.  Again, celebrities like Jay Leno, Kidd Rock, Guns and Roses and Ozzy Osbourne come to visit us during our ralley. 

Our weather changes very dramatically.  One day it can be 5 degrees below zero in the winter and the next day it might be 35 above.  This winter has been one of the coldest I can remember.  We can get up to 8 inches of snow in one day and start to melt the next, but not this year.  It has been extremely cold this year.  We haven't received the most snow fall, but the cold is almost too much to bear at times.  Our summers are fairly normal.  The average temperature is 80 degrees, great for fishing, canoeing and swimming.  Our family loves to camp and South Dakota has many state and private campgrounds.  It is a very popular thing for families to do and you really must plan your camping weekends in advance.  The campgrounds fill up very fast with South Dakotans and neighboring state visitors.

I hope you have enjoyed your virtual visit into South Dakota and if you ever do plan on visiting for real, give me a shout and I will do my best to accomodate you with attractions to visit.

Kristal has asked us to show you our most favorite project in the last year.  Here is mine:








Harli and Mike
 This is my past project that I am most proud of.  I don't only paper craft.  I love etching and usingvinyl.  My daughter got married last June and asked me to do all the decorations.  I pretty much made everything for the wedding.  I glass etched all of her stemware and all the table mirrors.  I also made all the party favors and balloons.  My mom made all the flowers.  I love the way all the things turned out and I hope you have enjoyed your stay here.

BLOG CANDY:  I will be giving the Houndstooth cuddlebug folder and a Mt. Rushmore magnet away.  Then you can tell all your friends you got the magnet by visiting South Dakota via a blog post.  Please become a follower (and I will follow you back) and leave a comment.  ALSO Please make sure to leave comments on all of the blogs for a chance to win several different Grand Prizes on Getting Cricky's blog, from these great companies (I will send you a list)!



Next stop on the hop is TENNESSEE Shannon Lefew of My Scrappy Creations http://shannonleffew.blogspot.com/ (Next Stop)

Here is the complete list of the blog hop in case you get lost, but you can always go back to Getting Cricky also and start from there.  Have a wonderful day and enjoy the hop.

ALABAMA
Tanya of Scrappy Scavenger http://www.scrappyscavenger.blogspot.com/

ARIZONA
Renee Kowalchik of KoolChik Crafts http://koolchikcrafts.blogspot.com/

ARKANSAS
Teela Young of Coffee24Tea http://coffee24tea.blogspot.com/

CALIFORNIA
Jess Marin of My Scrap Diary http://www.myscrapdiary-jess.blogspot.com/
Nicolette Simpson of Beyond Scrapin http://www.beyondscrapin.blogspot.com/

COLORADO
Jennifer Anderson of Scrappin Lil Turtle http://creativearmywife.blogspot.com/
Amy Courchaine of Scrapbooking, Card Making, and Living with Fibro http://lv2scrapandfibrofacts.blogspot.com/

DELEWARE
Meagan Jarjabka of Beyond Paper Designs http://beyondpaperdesigns.blogspot.com/
Peggy Brustman of CeltikGirlCreations http://www.celtikgirlcreations.blogspot.com/

FLORIDA
Stephanie Hedderick of Always Crafting http://www.alwayscrafting.com/

GEORGIA
Brenda Haskin of Simply Bren is Having too much fun http://simplybrenhavingfun.blogspot.com/

ILLINOIS
Lori Brown of Saving My… http://savingmine.blogspot.com/

INDIANA
Angela Urell of Creative Crafting http://creativecraftin.blogspot.com/

LOUISIANA
Darlene Saucier of Simple Southern Blessings http://www.talesoftayandbay.blogspot.com/

MAINE
Karen Madden of Lilac and Lupines http://lilacsandlupines.blogspot.com/

MARYLAND
Karen Turner of Midlife Mysteries & Masterpieces http://www.midlifemysteries.com/

MASSACHUSSETTS
Andrea Fogleman of Scraplity http://www.scrapality.com/

MINNESOTA
Krystal Gibson of Krystal’s Kreativity http://www.krystalskreativity.blogspot.com/
Jenny Johnson of Paper Crafting Crazy Me http://www.papercraftingcrazyme.blogspot.com/

MISSOURI
Kathy Northup of I Love My Crazy Life http://ilovemycrazylife.blogspot.com/

MONTANA
Kathy Floen of The Beautiful Life http://kathy-thebeautifullife.blogspot.com/

NEBRASKA
Gloria Sleeper of Oma’s Crafts http://www.omascrafts.blogspot.com/

NEW HAMPSHIRE
Kristal of Getting Cricky http://www.kandrewdesigns.blogspot.com/

NEW MEXICO
Brynn Thornburgh of Flair and Frills http://www.flairandfrillscreativity.blogspot.com/

NEW YORK
Erin Span of I am SpantastiKreations http://www.spantastikreations.blogspot.com/

NORTH CAROLINA
Amy Westray of redwolfSCRAPS http://www.redwolfscraps.com/

OHIO
Patricia Logan of MDN Creates http://www.triciatreasure.blogspot.com/
Joe, Carol, Joe, and Betty of CreateNCraft at http://www.createncraft.com/

OREGON
Rebecca Maddux of Crafting with Becka http://www.creationswithbecka.blogspot.com/

PENNSYLVANIA
Midori Vasquez of Scraps for Me http://www.scrapsforme.blogspot.com/

RHODE ISLAND
Karel Jennings of One by One the Flamingos are Stealing my Sanity http://karelj.blogspot.com/

SOUTH DAKOTA
Brenda Burffrau of Creativity is a State of Mind http://createbyburffrau.blogspot.com/ (You are here)

TENNESSEE
Shannon Lefew of My Scrappy Creations http://shannonleffew.blogspot.com/ (Next Stop)

TEXAS
Kista Orr of Scrapaleupagus at http://scrapaleupagus.blogspot.com/

UTAH
Kathy of Creative Cutter at http://www.creativecutter.org/

VIRGINIA
Chris Hanselmaan of Chris' Crafty Creations from the Corner http://scrappinchris.blogspot.com/

WASHINGTON
Mariam Satchell of Purple Lily Studio http://www.mariamsatchell.blogspot.com/

WISCONSIN
Janice Wilson of Stamping with Janice http://www.stampingwithjanice.blogspot.com/

WYOMING
Jamie Larsen of Baby Jayden’s Mommy http://babyjaydensmommy.blogspot.com/
Lindsay Loo of Lindsay Loo Designs http://www.lindsayloodesignz.blogspot.com/

END: Getting Cricky with K Andrew http://www.kandrewdesigns.blogspot.com/





Thursday, February 10, 2011

Festive Friday 2-11

Welcome all to another Festive Fridays. If you are new to us, sit back, grab a cup of coffee, relax and enjoy some wonderful Christmas Cards. Yes, I did say Christmas. Festive Fridays will be every other Friday with samples of Christmas cards. This way, you can be making your cards all year long and you will avoid the mad rush when you could be enjoying the Christmas Season. You should have just come from Debbie. If you stumbled upon this post you can go back to Terri and start at the beginning. I will also have a complete list of the Festive Friday hop at the end of this post in case you get lost along the way.


Recipe:
5.5 x 4.25 card base (cream)
5.25 x 4 layer (green)
2 layer (white)
2 layer (burgundy w/snowflake design)
Ribbon
1.5 x 9 rosette (green)
Snowflake brad
Stamps (My Pink Stamper - Winter Punnies) - snowflake and Warmest Winter Wishes
Silver inkpad



This is probably the easiest and versatile card you can make.  It's not necessarily just a Christmas Card, you could use it for a Thank You card also. 
I hope you enjoy hopping through all the Christmas card ideas and hope to see you in two weeks. 
I am planning a much more elaborate card for you next time.
 
I hope you enjoyd my card and now your next stop will be Yolonda

Here is a complete lineup for all the next stops in case you get lost along the way:  
 
Brenda Lee Burfeind (That's me)
Yolonda
Katie
cRaft gaRdeN



Saturday, February 5, 2011

Valentine Treats

Good day all -

So I wanted to quickly post a valentine treat I made for my son's class.  Remember the treats bags I made (you can see them here)?  Well, he thinks they are too girlie and doesn't want to take them to school.  So back to the drawing board I went.  I have been scouring blogs looking for the right valentine and just hadn't come up with anything.  I stopped at my favorite Dollar Tree yesterday afternoon after work and found bags of sixlets.  They come in a tube and there are approximately 18 in each bag.  I had a brilliant idea.  I had seen someone somewhere using them for arms and legs...6 bags later and my SCAL and cri-kits and a little ATG action and this is what I made. 


The face is from Kandrewdesigns.  I purchased them from her a while back because I didn't have any face stamps and they were really reasonably priced.  Someday I will break down and purchase a stamp set...but these work just as well and I love using the cri-kits.  Besides, what I most like about digi stamps is that you can change the size to whatever you need unlike real stamp sets.  For instance I cut the hearts in SCAL at 3 inches and downsized the faces to match just the top half of the heart...do you get what I am getting at?  If I had regular stamp sets, the faces might be too small or too big, depending on the project.  Anyway, just wanted to share these valentines with you and he did say that these will work and he will take them to school.  LOL

As always, have a great day and god bless

Winner

Good day crafties

I have a winner for the Valentine Wreath guest design posting

#3 Debican - please email me your address so I can get this in the mail as soon as possible.

thanks all for visiting my blog and leaving comments.  We all know that is what we blog for.  I see I have 78 followers.  Next stop 100 and I will have some blog candy.

As always, have a great day and god bless

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Heart Card - Tuesday Challenge

Good afternoon again!!!

Wow, another post today.  Scroll down for Wacky Wednesday challenge.

Momo over at Made by Momo has her bi-weekly challenge up.  You had to use Hot Pink, Black and White with a twist.  You had to incorporate a heart in the project.  I made a scalloped heart shaped card in SCAL.  I got the base 5 inches in black cardstock.  Then I layered it with a scalloped heart in hot pink cut at 4.75 inches with circles cut out of it, kinda has a doily affect.  Then another scalloped heart in white cut at 3.5 inches and topped with another scalloped heart in hot pink cut at 3.25 inches.  I ran the last layer through my cuddlebug using the hearts folder from sizzix.  I then inked direct to paper with white inkpad on the raised parts of the embossing.  My i-rock came in handy for this project.  Using the white pearl imaginsce I placed them within the cutout cirlces on the pink layer.  Again, another personal challenge, I used my scraps and stash.  Wooohooo I am on a roll.  LOL

As always, have a great day and god bless.

Sympathy Card - WWC

Hi again

Today is Wacky Wednesday Challenge over at More than Favors and it's another color challenge with Blue, White and Yellow.  I like color challenges because I don't always think outside the box.  I am staying on with my own challenge as using my scraps and stash also.  Today I made this sympathy card for my aunt's mom who passed away a couple of days ago.

The "With Sympathy" was cut at 2.5 out of the Jasmine Cart and shadowed with a sparkly blue cardstock.  The yellow flowers I've had in my stash forever.  I am not partial to the color yellow and have not found a need to use them until now.  I used "skittles" that I made myself with glue sticks and alcohol inks for the center of the flowers.  I stamped with white ink on baby blue paper this cool background.  Just used a standard blue ribbon and tied a bow.  Again, these challenges are for me personally so that I have an opportunity to "HAVE" to use my stash.  LOL

Thanks for looking and as always, have a great day and god bless.

Magnet Board Repurposed

Good day everyone

Today's posting is about repurposing.  As many of you know, I work in a Casino.  I love my job, but it can be pretty boring at times too.  I can do a lot of thinking there  LOL  Since I have gotten my gypsy, I spend many hours at work creating.  A couple of weeks ago, while at work, I was cleaning out one of our storage rooms and found these neat metal thingies.  I wasn't sure what they were for, but knew I could find a purpose for them.  I asked my manager and she said:  "What do you want them for, go ahead."  I guess they are for cashregister trays and we don't use them.  I explained I wanted to make a magnet board.  This is what it looked like before...


and this is what it looks like now.  I really like it alot.  It was very simple.  First I mod podged the scrapbook paper to it, but it didn't take...not sure why.  It became wrinkled and had airpockets.  Oh well, I scraped all the paper off and started over.  I adhered the scrapbook paper down with doublesided tape in a few places.  Then I took clear contact paper ($1 at the dollar tree) and cut it just a bit bigger than the metal tablet.  I placed that over the scrapbook papers and mitered the corners.  I made this cute flower and used one of my "homemade skittles" for the center.  Love this color combination.  Then I took some "groundwire" (my son-in-law works for a cable tv company and lets me go shopping in his truck for scraps)  LOL and made a hook to hang the magnet board.  I made some magnets out of those glass globs with scrapbook paper adhered to the back and viola  My magnetboard.



Rose distressed



Total cost:  Around $2 with the cost of contact paper and the scrapbook papers. I love repurposing things and really like this idea.  Let me know what you think.

As always, have a great day and god bless

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Butterfly Gatefold Birthday Card

Good day all -

Today I want to share a gorgeous card I made.  At least I think it's gorgeous.  LOL  I am my own worst critic, but I REALLY love this card.  So much so that I am having a hard time giving it away.  Ha, ha.  No seriously, I made this card for my mom whose birthday is in two weeks.  I so totally cannot take credit for this card at all, since I cardlifted it from Momo.  She made a card over at More Than Favors for the Wacky Wednesday Challange using this beautiful butterfly.  I will not be entering this card in the challenge since I totally duplicated it.  When I saw it I knew I wanted to make one also.  Then I've been learning alot about the gypsy from Sheila over at She's a Sassy Lady.  She does these awesome videos for learning the gypsy and I've been following along with her instructions.  LOVE IT.  Anyhow, she had a tutorial on how to make a gatefold card.  I know, not that difficult, but using both ideas I came up with this.  Please go visit these three sites and give them some blog love and become a follower if you aren't already.  Now onto my card:


Recipe
Brown card stock 11 x 5 (measured with the butterfly welded) (scored at 2.5 and 7.5)
White card stock cut at 2 panels at 2 x 4.75 and 1 panel at 4.75 x 4.75
 2 shades of Pink carstock 
2 shades of Green cardstock
Rhinestones (colored pink and green)
Stamp (butterfly wishes)
Stamp (Birthday Blessings)
Wire

ATG
Zip Dry Glue
Velcro (for closure)
Rock Princess Cart

I started with a 10 x 5 card base on my gypsy mat and welded the shadow butterfly to the card base.  This gave it a cut of 11 x 5.  I cut the butterfly from the Rock Princess cart 2.5 x 3 and it's coordinating layers.  I only adhered the center of the butterfly to the green cardstock to make it 3D.  I cut the butterflies antennas off and added silver wire and curled it a bit.  I added the sentiment "Butterfly wishes" to the bottom of the front panel.  I added rhinestones that I colored myself to match the butterfly and adhered them to the front of the top and bottom right panel.  Inside I placed the white panels and stamped "Birthday Blessings".  I am really totally thrilled with this card.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.  Thanks for looking.



As always, have a great day and god bless.

Guest Designer at ... Giveaway

Good day all,

Guess what...I am a guest designer over at http://www.carsonscricutcreations.blogspot.com/.  About a month ago I received an email from Georgiana asking me if I would be interested in being a guest designer and create a Valentine project.  OOOH YEAH!!!  Really, I screamed that when I read her email.  Thank goodness noone was in the house that day.  My family already thinks I am weird enough.  They really do not understand my crafting addiction. If this is your first time visiting my blog, please use the "subscribe to email" button on the right sidebar so you won't miss a posting.  If you would like, I would love it if you became a stalker follower. Hehehe. Anywhoooo thanks so much for joining me today and now without further ado....

I purchased a round foam shape at Michaels. I wanted a heart one, but they were all out of stock. Really? I had some red/white polka dot tissue paper lying around and knew that would be the perfect combination. I modpodged the tissue paper to the foam shape.
That went pretty quick.  I did let it dry overnight and it became very hard and glossy.  Love it.  Then I used my gypsy and just cut a lot of different shapes. 













I used A Child's Year and Gypsy Font for my letters.  Mixed and match them.  I used Gypsy Wanderings, Paisley and Wedding Solutions for the other items.  It was kind fun using a bunch of different carts at once.  I normally only use one or two different carts at a time. 

The banner was cut at 7.4 by 2.5 using white cardstock from the Wedding cart.  I inked around it in red and then used a heart stamp I got from the dollar bin at Michaels to randomly stamp the hearts on it.  I really like the way it turned out. 




I added a lot of rhinestones here and there to give it some bling.  I love the bling, bling.  LOL 





The 3 hearts pins I just added for some dimension. I have no idea where they came from but they came to good use. 

















 I had this awesome ribbon that says "Happy Valentines Day" and used just one secion of it. 











 I hope you enjoyed my project and if you would become a follower and leave a comment I will be giving one lucky winner 24 inches of this awesome ribbon and two cuts.  I will pick a winner on the 3rd and ship it out right away so you have it in time for your Valentine's project.


As always, have a great day and god bless.