I Thank My Lucky Stars For You

Hi, guys!  Today's card came about after I had a spray ink mishap! I was trying to use my Dylusions Spray inks on one of my stencils, but it bled underneath the stencils (too much ink!).  I loved the colors and HATE to waste anything.  So I decided to punch stars out of the papers, and loved how they looked.  I embossed the card with the Cuttlebug Star embossing folder and placed some of the punched stars in the centers of the embossed ones.

I thought the sentiment by Hero Arts is perfect for this card.  I used Jelly Roll pens to color the stars on the sentiment. This is a clean and simple-looking card and I enjoyed turning my mishap into a fun card! 

How do you save your bloopers?

Until next time!

Martha Stewart Never Fails Me!

Hi, guys! Hope all is well!  This weekend was one filled with friends, and barbecues.  With that comes lots of food.  My husband and I were invited to a barbecue on Sunday and I was asked to bring appetizers.  I thought about what I should bring and settled on two tasty appetizers from Martha Stewart's site.  You may not know this about me, but I have been a big fan of hers for decades and my mom would even call me "Martha" when I would be cooking or baking (or molding my butter into shapes. Yes, I have done that!).

I thought I would share these very simple tasty appetizers with you so you can have them at the ready should you need something yummy to make!

The first one is Bacon-Wrapped Potatoes.  These guys are so easy and so delicious.

I made Martha's Lemon Aioli to dip these yummy treats in.  Not a drop was wasted. Note: I only used 1 tablespoon of lemon juice.  It was perfect and not too tart for people who are not necessarily lemon fans.


The next appetizer I made were Sausage Cheddar Balls.  I made Martha's as so many of the other recipes I have have too much flour or biscuit mix in them.  Martha's was perfect and not boxed.

I warn you, these things are addicting.  My hubby had to take them out of my reach so that I would stop munching on them.

Usually I am sharing my crafts, but I like to think that sharing my other hobbies (cooking, baking, or even gardening) will give you a glimpse into what makes me ... well, ME!

Hope you give these snacks a try sometime!

Off to get my fingers INKY!

Until next time!

WOYWW #222- Bundle of Joy (House Mouse Baby Card)

Hi, guys! Hope everyone is having a great day! Since it is Wednesday, I am sharing what is on my work desk with you!  Thank you to Julia for all the desk-hopping fun!

You will see that I am working on a baby card for a co-worker's baby shower.  She is having a baby boy, and I went with this adorable House Mouse image.

I had out a lot of dies trying to figure out what would work the best to frame this cute little guy.

Lots of papers to choose from, and lots of blue buttons to sort through.

I thought I would include a picture of the finished card so you could see how it turned out. Cute, right?

Looking forward to visiting a lot of desks today, and seeing what everyone is working on!  I highly recommend you join in the desk-snooping fun!  Just pay a visit to the Stamping-Ground for all the details!

Until next time!

Happy 10th Wedding Anniversary (Tin / Aluminum)

Hi, guys! Hope all is well!  Today I am sharing a card I made for my friend Ruth.  She and her hubby are celebrating their 10th wedding anniversary and she asked if I could make Joe a special card.  She told me that this anniversary is the tin/aluminum anniversary, so I wanted to incorporate some metal elements.

Ruth loves to see how my cards are made, and I normally just share a picture of the card, with the exception of Wednesday when I take shots of my desk.  So today, I am sharing a few pics of my process to make Joe his card.

I used Ranger's metal sheets to make the hearts.  I love using these sheets as they look great but don't add bulk or weight to my cards. I used Tim Holtz Distress paint to paint the numbers 10 to turn them metallic.

I embossed the hearts and the metal sheet background paper using Tim Holtz embossing folders.  I used Distress Ink in Black Soot to tone down some of the shine.

Here is the final card!  I am very happy with the way it turned out, but more importantly, Ruth loved it!

I can't wait to hear if Joe likes it!  Wishing them both a very Happy Anniversary and many more years of happiness!!

Until next time!

WOYWW#221 - Prima Mixed Media Doll Birthday Card

Hi, guys! Hope all is well! Wednesday is here again, so I am sharing what is on my work desk with you!  A special thank you to Julia of Stamping-Ground for this desk hopping (snooping) fun!  I look forward to this each week as I love to see what others are working on!

Today I was asked to make a last minute birthday card for a friend's granddaughter.  She wanted it personalized with her name on it.  I thought I would use one of my Prima Mixed Media Dolls for it as the girl is 9 years old.   I love paper piecing their clothes! Reminds me of playing with paper dolls as a girl!

Finally, the finished card:

Thank you for stopping in today!  I always enjoy your visits, and hope to visit with a lot of you today!

Enjoy the week ahead, and find time to enjoy something you love! I hope this week I am able to spend a lot more time creating as it has been so busy lately with summer fun!

Until next time!

Birthday Wishes For Two Special Nieces

Hi, guys! Hope all is well! My two nieces celebrated their birthdays last week while on vacation.  I cannot wait to celebrate with them soon, so I made a pair of cards for them!

My niece Amanda is 9 and is the ultimate girly-girl.  I sorted through my stash and found this fun girl image by Stampavie/Suzi Blu that I thought would be perfect for her.  Amanda has very long dark brown hair and loves to wear dresses, etc.  I heat embossed the birthday greeting with white embossing powder both on the outside and inside of the card.  I like the contrast against the kraft card. This is a very large card as this image is very large and wouldn't fit on my standard A2 Card.  The flower was actually a very light pink one, but I added Distress Ink to the tips to mimic the patterned paper.  When I was married my new cousin-in-law glued a bunch of fabric flowers to her gift, and me, being me, took them all off and saved them in a jar and love to use them on my cards and other crafts.

For Grace, who is 6, I decided to use the Tea Party set by My Favorite Things.  The little girl reminds me of her.  Both Grace and Amanda love to come and have tea parties at my house, and have them together at home all the time.  This set is fun as I got to stamp a fun table setting and paper pieced the tablecloth.  For both these cards I used Kelly Purkey Alphabet Stickers to note their ages.  I received those stickers in my monthly card kit from Simon Says Stamp and thought it would be a good use for them.  I am not one to use many stickers on my cards, but they are subtle enough for me!

Hope you have a fabulous weekend!  We have a weekend filled with concerts, barbecues and friends!

Until next time!

WOYWW#220 / August 2013 Tim Holtz Tag - Harry Potter Inspired

Hi, guys! Hope all is well! Today is Wednesday, so that means I am sharing what is on my work desk with you! Thank you to Julia for this fun desk hopping (snooping) fun! Last week you may recall I was sorting through my Tim Holtz stamps and supplies to prepare to make my August 2013 Tag.  You will see I used a lot of distress products on this tag.  Distress Stains, Distress Inks, and even my Distress Markers. 

When I was looking at Tim's travel set and spotted the train, my mind went directly to Harry Potter!  It reminded me of the Hogwarts Express.  I am a big Harry Potter fan, so I decided to make a tag with that theme. Hedwig the owl is even represented in his cage.  In the story, the train arrives/departs from a magical track #9 3/4.  The large alpha stickers by Tim were fun to use to add that to the tag. The ribbon was stained in the colors of Gryffindor (one of the 4 houses of Hogwarts).  The tag this month is the GIANT size #12.

Lots of inky fun, and now the clean-up begins!  I hope to visit with as many of you as I can today.  Thanks so much for visiting me (and my desk!) today!  Until next week!