Spring time for Flourishes

Over on Flourishes Blog today its all about the Signs of Spring. Well Flourishes might have some spring weather but here in Washington State we have yet to see it. ha! Today we are showing you some springy designs with the stamp set Signs of Spring. This is a rich Easter card with the deep purple color. I wanted to go a little on the rich side with this creation. The oval frame was made using Spellinders Classic Ovals. A few pearls around the border and a backdrop of lace and ribbon. Easy peasy Easter card. And since we all are show casing Signs of Spring, it is on sale through this weekend. No code needed as it is already adjusted in the store through Sunday. Happy Shopping! Check out the creations from the Design Team:
Christine
Cindy
Julie
Dawn
Danielle
Barbara
Tammy
Sharon
Jan Marie

For You Allison

This is a card for a fellow stampers daughter, Allison. She is currently needing a little encouragement right now and I asked if I could make a card for her. This is the adorable Miss Anya Bags that I got a few weeks ago and I am just now inking her up. I love her pigtails. As a kid I had long brown hair that was in pigtails all the time. It doesn't get any cuter than this. I started this sketch out for the Greeting Farm Sketch on Saturday and I got my cuts wrong so I just went with it. ha! I do like how this turned out. Vibrant and cheerful, hopefully will make Allison smile a bit today. Thanks for checking in with me today. Have a wonderful day!

HMF 116 Let's Party

Welcome to the House Mouse and Friends Challenge #116 Let's Party. ha! This weeks challenge is brought to us by Dorte. Our Sponsors are House-Mouse Designs and Di's Digi Downloads. With prizes of A $25 House Mouse Designs Gift Card and $10 voucher to Di's Digi Downloads shop. Make sure to link your creations back over on the HMF blog.

I am in need of some birthday cards so that is my party favor today. What a hoot this house mouse is called Pop-ular Fun. I think the one sleeping won't think its so fun, but his friend sure does. Look at that grin. hee hee Adorable! This sketch is from CardPatterns 158. I liked this layout a lot. Now I think my one panel is a bit shorter than the sketch so hopefully I am not in trouble with the shorter panel. :0) The oval lace doilies I found in my stash were perfect for the oval pattern on the sketch. Turned out to be a fun birthday card I think.
Remember to link your creations over on the House Mouse Designs *Hand Stamped By Me* gallery so everyone can see your creations at House Mouse Designs. Thanks for stopping in with me today. Have a wonderful day!

Featured Stamper Challenge Team

This week's Featured Stamper FS268 is Dreams Do Come True. Some changed to the challenge as Cindy is stepping down for a new job she took. In her place is a new FS Team consisting of Judy, Bridget, Julie and myself. This is going to be so fun and exciting!
Take one of your own creations and CASE yourself! Yep everyone is this weeks FS. Here is my original card that I am casing. I kept the layout and stamp set and changed the rest. I used a different ribbon, colors, coloring and didn't have as much sparkle for the snow. The stamp set is called Worship the Lord from ODBD. I really like this one so much more. The holly wreath on the door and the green are perfect for the Dirty Dozen Alumni Christmas challenge, to think green. Create a Christmas creation with green in mind such as Mistletoe, holly and ivy or even just the color green. Anyone can play along just put the keyword SCSCCMAR12 for us to find your creations.


Have a great day!

Every Crafters Nightmare

Last night I spent about 2 hours cleaning out the top drawer on my stamping desk. I needed to clean, purge, toss and just get down and dirty with this drawer and I did. Boy does it feel good to have that done. Yet look what I found in cleaning out this drawer? Every stampers nightmare... stamped images! Look at that stack! For some reason or another we will stamp out an image to use for a creation and either change our mind, get busy with something else, or just plain decide it doesn't fit. So it gets tossed to the side and saved for another day. Well that day is TODAY! No I am not going to use these all today, ha! However I am going to try and pull from this stack of images and create with them so I can get this stack down to a more manageable stack. Starting with this pile on the right as they have already been colored and some even matted. Should make for some quick cards atleast on those.
My challenge to YOU is.... what is your stack of images like? Post a photo and leave me a link here to find your *nightmare*! Soccer was cold this morning, we lost which makes the cold weather even more dreary when the game was over. Kids played hard though, we have hot chocolate almost ready so I better get in there. Then I am off to create with this pile for the afternoon! Whohooo!!! Have a great day!

Flourishes Friday

Happy Friday! Our science fair was last night and it turned out fabulous. One of my boys received the Teachers Choice Award for the grade. We are so EXCITED! The boards and projects all the kids worked on were wonderful. It is great to see all the creativity of the kids and see what each one researched. Thankfully it is all done though. ha! Soccer is just about done also so maybe then I can have a little more stamping time. :0) Today is Flourishes Free for All Friday. We all get to show you a creation with our new release from last week. If you haven't ordered your stamp sets yet you still have a little bit of time to get in on our New Release Bundle at 10% off. Time is running out so hurry!

My creation is using the beautiful Magnolias. I mentioned before that I really enjoy coloring this months sets and I wasn't kidding. They truly are beautiful and so fun to color. Since time is short lately this is another easy peasy card. The copic collections I used are Sky collection and Spring Greens. If you haven't checked out all the new laces we received in you won't want to wait. I have added a bit to my card today with the lovely velvet trim. Check out the new Candi I used, these are out of the Iced pack. Make for great embelishments! Voila that is my creation.

Be sure to stop in with the girls today and see their creations today:
Christine
Cindy
Julie
Dawn
Danielle
Barbara
Tammy
Sharon
Jan Marie

Totally Stampalicious MooVelous Blog Hop

Welcome to Totally Stampalicious March Blog Hop and New Release! If you just came from Angel's Blog you are in the right place. If you are just joining us, head back on over to the TS Blog to start your hopping.
We are super excited to share another round of stamps from our witty, hilarious and just plain ol' adorable Bugaboo Line by artist Jodie Mackrell of Bugaboo Digi Stamps!
We have FOUR BRAND NEW SETS for you tonight and they are all available NOW at Totally Stampalicious!! As always we want you to play along in our Release Blog Hop so we're going to give away some PRIZES!!!
1st Prize - All FOUR New Stamp Sets
2nd Prize - $15 Gift Certificate
3rd Prize - $5 Gift Certificate
All you gotta do is comment your way through the hop and YOU could be a lucky winner!!!Don't forget that Totally Stampalicious also has an awesome promotion going on right now!
Stampalicious Dessert Menu
Level 1 - Vanilla Ice Cream - Buy 5 Get 1 Free
Add 5 items to your shopping cart and then enter the code VANILLA
Level 2 - Strawberry Shortcake - Buy 8 Get 2 Free
Add 8 items to your shopping cart and then enter the code STRAWBERRY
Level 3 - Triple Layer Chocolate Cake - Buy 11 Get 3 Free
Add 11 items to your cart and then enter the code CHOCOLATE

The adorable set I am going to show you is called Moo-Vealous Bobble Farm. These two animals are so darn CUTE! My first one is a thank ewe card. ha! Very easy peasy with a fun shaped frame. Got some new lace in the other day and thought it went well with my little lamb.

I have to say that the cow is my favorite. DH even laughed when he saw him, just so cute with the grass in his mouth. hee hee Fun slim style card for this one. My cow is popped up on dimensionals after I cut him out. Again some new lace added to this one as well.

Your next hop is over on to JoAnn's Blog. Thanks for hopping along and happy shopping!

WT366 Take Care

The Ways To Use It Challenge last week was Who Let The Dogs Out, found HERE. What a hoot that song is. I pulled out my Whipper Snapper for this challenge as he is so darn adorable! This is called Harry the dog. This is very simple and for a good reason. I am sending this to a good friend of ours dad who just had another surgery done on his foot. I think he could use a simple little smile today. Sio I kept the focus on his adorable face. hee hee Besides easy peasy cards are what I am better at. ha!
Be sure to check back tomorrow evening for Totally Stampalicious New Release and BLOG HOP! Hope you have a great day!

Soldiers Deck of Cards

Very cool! Have a wonderful day!

Love One Another

I hope you had a great weekend. We finished up the sciene projects and they give the presentations today to the class. They are ready and looking awesome. So proud of the work they did, not to mention the work DH and I did to help. ha! My new set from Close To My Heart arrived and finally got to ink it up. This set is called He Is Risen. Beautiful set that I am glad I ordered. Ofcourse this lamb was perfect to go with the beautiful Pat prima's she made me. These I added a pearl center to and some pearls to the corners. The frame is made with Spellbinders Classic Ovals SM and popped that up on dimensionals. I really like how this turned out. Thanks for stopping in and have a great day!

Dirty Dozen Gift Set

I don't have anything new today that I made as we worked on Science Projects all day yesterday after the soccer games. I have to tell you I was beat mentally from the projects. ha! We got them done, and I am as thrilled as the boys are.

Since this is my last month on the Dirty Dozen. I thought I would share with you a few of my projects. But first, I really have enjoyed the last 6 months with the girls. Talk about going by fast! Seems like just the other day Lydia asked me to be Dirty. Thank you so much Lydia!
Here is one of the projects I made the first month I was Dirty.This is a gift set that I made for a very special person. Here is the cards in the box. I also made a bookmark and recovered a notepad. The box I painted and covered the inside with the paper as well so when she is done with all the goodies she has a wonderful little box for other goodies.
All the stamps are from Clear Dollar Stamps. Single scriptures on each item. This beautiful paper I found at the local craft store and really loved the earthy feel to the flowers and colors. An easy gift set and it looks like you spent a ton on it. Our little secret. hee hee Thanks for stopping in with me today!

Flourishes Magnolias...

Flourishes March Release is in store now! If there was any month to purchase all the sets I would have to say this would be one of them. I really can't decide which set I like the most.
A few last minute reminders:
**Your chance to win our entire release is by playing in our Pinter-inspiration challenge.
**Be sure to visit and comment on each of the designers blog today, you might be our MYSTERY BLOGGER
**The New Release Bundle includes all the March Stamp sets for a discounted price of 10% off.
**New 1,2,3 Create Kit called Pretty In Pink is available in limited quantities. Don't miss yours!

My creation today is springy and simple. The doilies that I mentioned I purchased are great but for a standard card sorta big. So I cut mine in half and added a bit of twine/trim combo and a charm to the end. These Magnolias are gorgeous and so fun to color. They really do sooth the mind when you are working with them. Fabulous set to have in your collection. Hope you have a great weekend and Happy Shopping!
Be sure to check out the creations from our Design Team:
Christine
Cindy
Julie
Dawn
Danielle
Barbara
Tammy
Sharon
Beate
Heather

Botanical Bookplates Vol. 1

Welcome to day 2 of Flourishes March release. Today we have a few goodies to show you.First being the new set called Botanical Bookplates Vol 1.
With our new Botanical Bookplates Vol 1 set we have a new Tailor-made die called Classic Bookplates Template Die exclusively through Flourishes.
My creation is pretty straight foward. This is one of the larger images in Botanical Bookplates Vol 1. I used the Spellbinders Classic Circles for the base. Added some of our new Laurel Venise Lace in white with some pleated pink ribbon underneath. Had to add some jewels to the background I mean what is a card without some bling. ha!
Be sure to check out the creations from the Design Team:
Christine
Cindy
Julie
Dawn
Danielle
Barbara
Tammy
Sharon
Beate
A few reminders for the release:
**Your chance to win our entire release is by playing in our Pinter-inspiration challenge.
**Be sure to visit and comment on each of the designers blog today, you might be our MYSTERY BLOGGER
**The New Release Bundle includes all the March Stamp sets for a discounted price of 10% off.
**New 1,2,3 Create Kit called Pretty In Pink is available in limited quantities. Don't miss yours!
**Lastly check back at Noon Central for our Noon Challenge and your chance to win the set of the day!

Flourishes Round and Round Noon Challenge

Whohoo it is time for Flourishes Noon challenge, Round and Round! Be sure to link your round creation back over on Flourishes Blog for your chance at winning the set of the day called Mother's Words of Wisdom.

This was such a fun challenge as I have been making round cards like a mad woman lately. They are totally FUN! This is a large one as I used Spellbinders Grand Circles for my card. These doilies were at the LSS for super cheap so I bought a package of them. My flowers are colored using Copic Collections


A few reminders about our release:
**Your chance to win our entire release is by playing in our Pinter-inspiration challenge.
**The New Release Bundle includes all the March Stamp sets for a discounted price of 10% off.
**New 1,2,3 Create Kit called Pretty In Pink is available in limited quantities. Don't miss yours!
See what the other design team members did with the challenge:
Christine Okken
Cindy Lawrence
Dawn Burnworth
Sharon Doolittle

Hope you get to play along in our Noon Round and Round Challenge! See you back here tomorrow!

Mother's Words of Wisdom

Welcome to day 1 of Flourishes Brand new release! This month's sets are beautiful and you really won't want to miss anything we are showing you. Flourishes has all new goodies in the store from Spellbinders, embellishments, papers and ribbons the list goes on and on!
A few reminders about our release:
**Your chance to win our entire release is by playing in our Pinter-inspiration challenge.
**Be sure to visit and comment on each of the designers blog today, you might be our MYSTERY BLOGGER
**The New Release Bundle includes all the March Stamp sets for a discounted price of 10% off.
**New 1,2,3 Create Kit called Pretty In Pink is available in limited quantities. Don't miss yours!
**Lastly check back at Noon Central for our Noon Challenge and your chance to win the set of the day!
Now introducing Mother's Words of Wisdom!

This has to be one of my all new favorite wreaths. I truly have enjoyed coloring this wreath and you will be seeing alot more cards coming with it. hee hee In fact check back over on SCS Tomorrow at my gallery post HERE for one where I used the wreath. The flowers are colored using Copic Collections:

I really like showing a lot of images with white on white as then it really grabs the colors and you really get an idea of what the image looks like. Ofcourse it looks all clean and classy also. ha! These fun new Iced Candi Gems make for a great accent along with my little ribbon tab. Be sure to check out the creations from the Design Team today:
Christine
Cindy
Julie
Dawn
Danielle
Barbara
Tammy
Sharon
Beate

HMF #115 Inspiration Challenge

On the House Mouse and Friends Blog Challenge today Lorraine has an inspiration piece for this weeks challenge. Our sponsors this week are: Simon Says Stamp and Sweet Stamps Shop
PRIZES are a $25 Gift Certificate to Simon Says Stamp and a $10 Gift Certificate to Sweet Stamp Store.
Don't forget to upload your House Mouse Creations to the Hand Stamped By Me gallery on the House Mouse Site found HERE! The House Mouse Designs would love to have your work added to the gallery.

For the life of me I could not get the Inspiration photo to save on my computer. So please head on over the House Mouse and Friends Blog Challenge to see the photo. It is of some yummy cupcakes! The chocolate and the blue frostings were my inspiration. For the first time ever I have used a stick pin on my card. GASP! I know it is not as elegant as some have done but I do like how it turned out with the bow. I want to say thank you to America for sending me the goodies so I could make the pin for my creation today also! :0) This is Sleeping in the Crocus from House Mouse and one of my favorites. Yes I do say my favorites a lot when it comes to House Mouse but I can't help it. ha! Used my Spellbinders Classic Circles to make my frame that I popped up on dimensionals. Viola a simple and sweet card for any occasion. Thanks for stopping in today. Be sure to check back on Wednesday as Flourishes Sneak Peeks start for March Release.

Pinter-Inspriation challenge

Happy Friday! Last month, we let the cat out of the bag and told you that once in a while we'd usher in what we called a Pinter-inspiration challenge. We're getting on the Pinterest bandwagon and even have a Flourishes page HERE showing not only all of our sets but cards and techniques that inspire us! So, today's Pinter-inspiration is one inspired by the website Design Seeds. Here's a peek at what they do!!!
They take an image and then, produce a color palette taken from the gorgeous photo! You'll have to check out their website HERE for their literal daily inspiration! I could literally spend hours on their site!
HOW TO PLAY! So, do you want a chance to win Flourishes entire March Release? All you need to do is be inspired by the color palette above and use it in a creation! Once you are done, just link up here using the inlinkz widget and you will be in the running. You have until Friday, March 16th at 5PM EST to enter! Use Flourishes stamps if you have them, but if you don't -- play along anyway -- you would win some! The winner will receive all three sets and our new Tailor-made die that will be unveiled in our newest release starting NEXT WEDNESDAY! If you upload to Splitcoaststampers, don't forget to use the keyword MAR12PIN! Good Luck!

For my creation I used two shades of purple and one of the green. I really like this site for a color scheme I plan to go there a lot more. This flower is from With Gratitude, I really do enjoy coloring these flowers. Still have some of my new edge scraps left so I added that with some solid wrinkled white ribbon to tie off my bow. Fairly simple and easy going today. The house has been busy so easy peasy is great for me. ha! Hope you can play along with us. Be sure to check out the other designers creations today:
Christine
Cindy
Julie
Dawn
Danielle
Barbara
Tammy
Sharon

Sweet sweet Ava

Today is Stampalicious Thursday over on the TS Blog. Angel is our host with a fun tutorial for you. Be sure to check it out. Made a quick and easy card using Ava Flowers. She makes me smile she is so sweet an innocent looking. Went a little on the girl girl side with all the pink but it will be perfect for a last minute card if I need one. Added a few jewels and voila.

It has been busy at our house lately as soccer started up and with practices stamping time is limited again. Yesterday I had sometime so I am getting ahead on a few things. Tried a few new dishes just haven't had time to post about them. Don't worry I wil make sure to share the really good ones with you. ha! Hope you have a great day!

What is a *Fan*

Today is D-day in the football world or atleast that is the way it feels. It is official today that Peyton Manning is leaving the Indianapolis Colts football team. For you non football fans out there you won't get this post and will probably skip over it and I can get that. However I am a fan of football from every aspect of the game. I get excited and sad all in one weekend sometimes. ha! Last night my DH showed me the links of non official but official if you will leaks on Manning making it official. Honestly I actually did cry a little. Now hear me out, not that I am a complete dork here. I was sad and like with most things I take to heart all things I love and adore. So for me this was actually very sad news. Manning is a wonderful player, but he is also a wonderful person of character. Do I know him personally, no. Can I gleam from what he says to people in interviews on and off camera. Can I gleam from what his friends and family say about him as a person and his actions speak louder than words, yes. In this regard I feel as if yes I know a bit about him. I see his struggles on the field and I see his dedication to make changes to see the cheers when things are positive.

This lead to the question my DH was asking me all along in the "Will he return and will you still be a Colts fan is he leaves" question. I knew full heartly that he was coming back, and I thought it would be with the Colts. Turns out I was wrong, which leads me to a very hard decision. Will I stay a Colts Fan. This lead into why did I become a Colts fan to begin with. I mean I live across the map for crying out loud, I have never even been to Indy. HA! A little back ground for those of you still reading :0) In middle school and a bit of high school I was a Chicago Bears fan (not a word Dawn hee hee) and I loved the Bears. Walter Peyton was awesome and Coach Ditka was so cool. When Walter Peyton retired on his last game and they lost I was done with football. Mostly because I think I got into boys and being a teen. Anyways, over the years I watched some football mostly the Super Bowl and barely kept up with that team had who etc. I was a girl after all. ha In my 20's I started to get back into watching more football and taking an interest again in the teams. When DH and I found out we were having twins I was excited. To find out it was boys that sealed the deal. I knew I had to find the team I wanted to support and cheer again because when they are older they will want a mom who knows football. This is coming from my DH mom who thinks they have bases in FB. I did not want to be *that* mom ya know.

I thought no way I could do Seahawks, they just have not had the best of years even if I am from their home state. I just couldn't do it. Basically it boiled down to I want a team that has intergrity and something I can say with head held high they are a good example for the boys as a team and people. Not saying they are perfect, but a good example. I won't even go into the non good example teams out there. So Tony Dungy came to be the Colts coach in 2002. Now if you know anything about him he is a man of intergrity and honor. Perfect! Didn't hurt that the Colts had Manning, he is awesome.
After a little bit more thought, I chose the Colts. Some think this is odd and what is this crazy girl thinking but I picked and they were my team. What a team they have been over the years. I have grown to appreciate the game and the time and energy they put into this game for my entertainment. My break from the world for a few hours to just sit and (enjoy) most of the time on Sunday's. Learned that you can be in the spotlight and have honor and really show that not all players are alike as a team and individuals.

Now all the babbling as you are thinking has got you to wonder why post this? Well because DH got me to thinking a lot about if I am going to stay a Colts fan or will I pull a shared loved for teams as DS has done. One of the twins is a huge Green bay Fan but also a Brett Farve fan. So he had divided team love when he retired. Ofcourse he has grown to embrace Rodgers like a mad man. DH wonders will I embrace this same fate as him or stick to being a true Colts Fan. I am not sure I can embrace this Luck fellow right now. It is nothing against him, I have not a clue about the guy. What about the others that I like so much Clark? Saturday? Wayne? Vineterri? Addai the list goes on. So right now I am in limbo and watching all the news media doesn't help any. The only thing you might really giggle at is my other DS said "well he might come to Seattle (which is his team) and they could use a quality player as Manning" How sweet is that? I leave you with this if anyone is still reading, I love the game regardless! It is good to have a passion about something even if its not stamping! ;0) I hope you have a great day!