Whiff of Joy blog candy!

I can't tell you how many times I have built a shopping cart at the Whiff of Joy webstore... only to sigh and say, "Maybe next payday!" I have a lot of fun building shopping carts at my favorite online stores, but if I were to actually purchase as much stuff as I dream of, my hubby would take away my wallet and change all the credit card numbers!
But now, I (and you, and a million others, I'm sure!) have a chance to WIN the NEW Whiff Of Joy Summer Stamp Kit! Yay! I love chances to win! So, here is what you have to do to enter:

• Grab the above banner and put it on your sidebar with a link to the Whiff of Joy webstore.
• Write a post on your blog letting people know about the candy.
• Go back to Katherine's Blog and leave a link to your post in the Mr. Linky Widget.The candy is open until May 1st, so what are you waiting for???

(cut and pasted that from Carisa's blog -thanks dear!)

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And, while you're in the mood for blog candy, or Boot Loot - go check out Marie's blog and wish her daughter a happy 6th birthday!

So, go, now, enter and good luck!

SSC #3 - Black & White plus 1

Happy Sunday everyone! Time for another Stamptacular Sunday Challenge!

This week our theme is "Black & White plus 1", so whatever you create must only use black, white and one other color! I know the wonderful design team has come up with some amazing projects to show you and I hope that you will pop over to their blogs and leave them some love as well! You can find links to every one of them on my sidebar.

Here is my "B & W + 1" for you!

I actually timed this post to show up this morning... but it didn't work! Sorry it's late..one of these days I'll figure it out!! :)

Stampin' Up! Basic Black, Pretty in Pink and Whisper White cardstock, and Scallop Border Punch. Patterned paper from the Daisy Bucket Wedding Collection. Ribbon from Sweet Callie's stash and slide from my stash. Image colored with Copic Skin White and Pale Pink and Diamond Stickles.

The Girls in Seattle!

Just wanted to share a quick photo with you of my girls who joined me at the Seattle regional seminar!

My Mom, Cauleen, is here as well as Jackie, on of my Stampin' Up! downlines, and her daughter Nicole (next to me in the bottom row) and 5 more of Jackie and I's favorite customers. Jackie's Mom, Donna also joined us, but had to leave early, before we snapped this group photo.

A great time was had by all!

Again, photos of swaps and projects to come! I have to go get my Mommy packed for her trip to California to visit her Sisters.

Have a great night!

Stampin' Up! Regional Seminar in Seattle!

Oh, so much fun!! This is the first time I've ever attended a Stampin' Up! sponsored event and I was super excited! Now I want to attend convention as soon as possible, too! Everyone there was so nice and friendly! I learned lots of new techniques and tricks using products I already own! I came home with so many beautiful swaps and everyone seemed to love my popsicles! I even ran into another demonstrator from Kennewick, so hopefully we will be able to meet up and get some stamping done together!

Aside from hanging out with my Mom, Jackie (one of my downlines) and 6 of our favorite customers (yes, there were 9 in our group! WeeHaw!), I have to say that the best part of my afternoon was meeting Shelli Gardner (C0-Founder & CEO), live and in person and getting photos with her!
More pictures to come!!! I've got pictures of projects, swaps and more friends that I want to share with you, so stay tuned!

Easter Sunday

This is my second post of the night, be sure to scroll down to find my latest project...

We hope that everyone had a wonderful Easter! I had to work that weekend, but I managed to get in the hospital Egg Hunt and Easter Basket joys before I left for work. I put together a slideshow to share with you of photos that I took over the weekend. Enjoy!

Stampin' Up! Swaps

I am so excited to be going to the Stampin' Up! Regional Seminar in Seattle tomorrow! My Mom will be going as my guest and one of my downline will be going as well, with a few of her customers joining her! It is sure to be a fun-filled day!
I finally finished up my swaps for the event and I cannot wait to come home with a bag full of wonderful ideas!
I got this idea from SplitcoastStampers and from bloghopping and on YouTube. I saw this project in lots of places and I loved the idea so I ran with it.
Oh, and by the way - I made over 100 of these cute little popsicles!!

SSC #2 - "This is for the Birds!"

Hi everyone! It's Sunday again! Time for another Stamptacular Sunday Challenge!

The theme this week is "This is for the Birds!" - your projects need to have a bird on them.. somewhere, anywhere! The Design Team and I had a lot of fun playing with the birds this week! Please go visit the other DT members and let them know how much you love their amazing creations! You can always find their links on my sidebar.

I am so excited for this weeks challenge, I just recently got the Good Friend stamp set from Stampin' Up! and I just love it! Also, I learned how to make this really cute A2 box, that fits standard sized cards! It's super easy and I think the set turned out super cute! I hope you like it too!

So, be sure to go check out the Stamptacular Sunday Challenge Blog and create a card, box, bag, scrapbook page or anything else that has a bird on it! Don't forget to use something stamped! And remember, if you participate in 3 challenges a month, you'll be eligible for a Guest Designer spot on our Design Team!

All products used from Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted: Good Friend stamp set, Kiwi Kiss cardstock, Pacific Point cardstock, Whisper White cardstock, Pacific Point classic ink, Pumpkin Pie classic ink, Scallop Border punch, Dimensionals. Patterned paper from DCWV, Cuttlebug embossing folder "Bloom Dots", Diamond Stickles, Martha Stewart Rhinestones.

You're A Catch!

When I sat down this afternoon to make a card (or two or three or twelve), I had a picture in my head..

Let's just say that this wasn't it. This is the only card I got done this afternoon. A friend appeared online and we ended up chatting and I got distracted.. (Friends don't let friends craft while chatting?).. Anyway - enough babbling, onto the card.

I saw this paper while I was digging through my stash the other day and I set it on top of my table, so that I would remember to use it soon, because it was C.U.T.E.! So, today I grabbed my Stampin' Up! Pacific Point and Tangerine Tango textured cardstock and this fishy paper. I also grabbed 2 fishy stamp sets, and opted for my (Mom's) Sushi Party set by Stampendous. I love this set! I picked the sketch from Stamps & Smiles sketch #9, the current challenge. And this is what I came up with.

The flower.... hmmm... the flower started out as a charm with silver cording.. that didn't work. Then it became a fishy shaped brad, cute but the fish was orange, and an orange brad on orange cardstock didn't work either... then I tried the orange fishy brad on the blue flower and that just seemed wrong to me... so I layered the flower, added a pearl and some waterfall Stickles and done. Stickles save the day... AGAIN!

It's still not my favorite card, but it fits the sketch and I'm sure it will make a cute card for someone, someday!

Thanks for stopping by! Next time maybe I'll have something more impressive to show you! Hahaha!

New Beginnings - SSC#1

WooHoo! The Stamptacular Sunday Challenge Blog is up and running! With Challenge #1 posted, I am just bouncing off the walls with excitement! I can't wait to see all the wonderful submissions that you send in! Remember, there is a chance to win prizes and of course, the honor of winning a Guest Designer Spot with me and the rest of our amazing Design Team!

Our first challenge is New Beginnings - appropriate, don't you think?

When I thought of New Beginnings, I though of two things... New Baby and New House. When I got down to my craft room to work on this project, my baby blue cardstock was calling to me, so I went with New Baby. I hope you like this project and I hope that it and the other Design Team projects inspire you to participate in the challenge!

I have created a cute little gift bag for a new baby. This is such a simple project that turned out so cute, I will definitely remember it next time I need a gift! The bag is made from a white lunch sack, that I trimmed down just a bit and attached the decorated cardstock front and back to. Then I cut strips of cardstock and used glue dots to attach them to the inside of the bag to create handles. A touch of tissue paper and, Viola! Instant gift sack!
I used Stampin' Up! cardstock, designer series paper and Just B stamp set. I added some ribbon from my scrap box. I cut and embossed the sentiment with my Oval and Scallop Oval Nesties. The cute little Duckie was found at Michael's.

It's Almost Time!!

Only a few more days!!! Are you as excited as I am? Our first challenge is ready to post on Sunday, April 5th! As part of the Design Team, I already have my first project done and I can't wait to share it with you! You will be able to see it on the Stamptacular Sunday Challenge Blog first thing Sunday morning! The details on what I used to make it will be posted here on Sunday as well!

All of us on the Design Team look forward to seeing your beautiful projects every week! The more you participate, the better your chances are of winning a Guest Designer spot! You can find more details on how to win, by visiting the blog. We will also have prizes offered up by wonderful sponsors for winners of challenges!

I've already seen many of my friends names on the Followers list (and I love each and every one of you!!) And I hope to see many of your names listed on our challenge submissions! I can't wait to see what everyone creates!

Join us on Sunday for "Grand Opening" games, fun and prizes!!

You only have to contain your excitement for 3 more days! I know you can do it!

See you on Stamptacular Sunday!

My Beautiful Bellas!

I love my Bellas! Who doesn't love their Bellas? Just look at those smiles, that hair, the poses that show all that attitude with style and flair! Bellas Rock! And I love my Bellas!

So, here are a few cards that I made with my precious, beautiful Bellas!

This first one is for the Bella Sketch Challenge over at SplitcoastStampers.. I've never entered this challenge, so I'll have to figure out how to submit it (gallery, maybe?) but, of course, I'll put it here for you all to enjoy!
This second card is for the challenge in the Addicted 2 Bellas group over at CafeMom. This is an older MojoMonday sketch (I think it's #70).
(Can anyone explain to me why MwahBella only has one sleeve?)

Both cards use stamps from Stamping Bella, DCWV Spring Stack and Spring MatStack, and Whisper White cardstock. I colored Bella with my Stampin' Up! markers and my Skin White Copic. I added some Diamond Stickles to iPodaBella's sweater. I used my Pinking Circle Nesties with MwahBella.

My Hero!

When I saw that Hero Ian was on sale at The Greeting Farm the other day, I couldn't resist! He's been on my wish list for a while now.. and now he's mine! All Mine! Whoah!
So, I made this card, no sketch, no challenge... just because I really wanted to color my new stamp!
I really like this card.. it's simple, to the point and not to frilly, so it's great for the guys, too!I colored Ian with my Copics, popped his AK and the sentiments on Stampin' Up! dimensionals, trimmed the corners with my corner rounder (did a little funky trickery on that!), added some awesome camo ribbon that I found in Callie's ribbon jar and added some little black doo-dads. Whisper White cardstock, and DCWV Spring MatStack.

The Scary Mojo Monday card...

When Callie showed me the sketch for this weeks Mojo Monday card... it scared me! I can't tell you why.. but I honestly didn't think that I would get it done! So, I did a few other cards first... and kept looking at that sketch, trying to figure it out and muster up the bravery to give it a try... finally, it came to me! I borrowed Easter Riley and some more of Callie's new Spring Stack patterned paper, and came up with this:
I colored Easter Riley with my Stampin' Up! markers. I used DCWV Spring Stack and Spring Matpack. I cut out my sentiment (unknown) with my Pinking Circle Nesties. Ribbon and cardstock from the scrap stash.

Fun at Callie's House!

It's spring break at Emily's preschool this week and I was stumped as to what to do to keep her entertained for a whole week when it's too cold and wet to go out to play and there's not many place to go around here to play inside... so I decided that this would be a great time to drive over to Idaho to visit my wonderful CafeMom friend, Callie!

So, the kids and I hit the road Monday morning with no real plan other than to get there and see how things go! I packed up a few of my crafty things, a project that I was working on and my Chocolate Cappuccino Cupcakes that I had made for Sweet Callie! After a long drive, made longer by some car sickness problems in the back seat (Poor Em, she's ok now and did great on the way home!) We made it to Idaho and met up with Callie! We followed her out to her tiny little farm town and for the next 2 days, we hid out inside while the snow fell outside! We watched the kids go crazy, chatted, ate, talked, laughed and stamped! We had so much fun! Callie is the sweetest, most wonderfullest friend ever! And I am so glad that we live within driving distance so that we can get together again!

This post and the ones above and below it, show some of the cards that I made while I was there and the kids were busy watching movies! I got a chance to use some of Callies wonderful stamps, like Charlie here. Isn't he the cutest? You can find him at www.cleardollarstamps.com and he is always up to something fun! Here he is prancing through the daisies on a warm spring day (what I was wishing for while watching the snow fall...) I made this Charlie card for The Sugar Bowl challenge this week which is to make a Spring or Easter card... this card will be going in the mail soon, as it is an Easter card for someone special... I actually made 2 of these, so they are for 2 someone specials! I hope they like it!

(Ah well, guess I should read the rules.. For the Sugar Bowl Challenge, you must use a Sugar Nellie stamp.... this is the second time I've tried to make a card for this group and not been able to manage the rules... they have lots of rules.. it's all supposed to be fun, isn't it???)

I used Charlie Daisy and colored him with my Stampin' Up! markers and some Diamond Stickles on the Daisies.. the patterened paper is from the Spring Stack and the cardstock, mulberry, ribbon and flowers are from Sweet Callie's stash.

Card Patterns - Sketch #8

WooHoo! Here I am, 2 weeks in a row, with a submission for Card Patterns! Yay, me! I kinda think this card needs something, but that's probably just me being picky... I mean, really, it's got a Bella, a puppy, sparkle and shine... what more could it possible need?
This card features PuppyBella by Stamping Bella, DCWF Pet Stack, Cuttlebug Friends embossing folder, Classic Circle Nesties and cardstock from Sweet Callies stash! Bella and her friend are colored with Stampin' Up! markers and a Skin White Copic.