You're not old...

A quick post to share a birthday card I made last week using MFT's Die-namics Just My Type Die & stamp set along with a strip of my favorite paper from Cosmo Cricket--Circa 1934! I'm getting down to snips and strips of that paper, so I must order more, but you know how that goes--it's hard to stop buying at one little 6x6 pad of paper!

Lots to do today, so that's all the chit-chat I've got time for today. Thanks for stopping by!
~Amy

Birthday sMOOches!

I decided to try my hand at a Paper Smooches card this morning using Birthday Buddies and Chubby Chums, along with one of the SPARKS Challenge Sketches. I have to tell you a little about the inspiration for this card...his name is George and he's my 3 (soon to be 4) year old son. George.LOVES.cows! Luckily my husband and I both grew up on dairy farms and have easy access to both of our family farms, so George gets his fill of cows. In fact, we're housing two calves right now, one of which George will be showing at our county fair next month in the Little Dairymen division.

Ok, so that being said, when I looked at the sketch, I instantly saw a barn (red), silo (fawn/gray) and grass in the future of this card which also went along with one of the color combinations from the SPARK challenge: fawn, red, black and kiwi.  I added scored lines on the 'silo' and 'barn' and then added white stips to the barn door to further cement the whole 'barn' idea...following? Instead of a traditional birthday gift, I stamped the gift stamp from Santa Paws, and changed it into a bale of hay...cause, duh, cows love hay, right?!

I'm headed over to the Paper Smooches blog to link up my card for the August GD challenge and the SPARKS challenge...I've seen some awesome things over there, so you just might want to check it out, too! Last, but not least...this is my second post today, so if you're interested, just keep-a-scrollin'!
~Amy

Let's Fly Away with Sun Country!

No...this isn't a shameless plug for Sun Country Airlines! It's a little birthday treat I made for my dearest cousin and best friend, Jane, who just happens to work at the corporate office of Sun Country. Last week was her birthday week (here in WI, we like to take up an entire week for our birthday...pfff, what's one single day when you can stretch out the festivities for a week?!), so after making her that cute little PI Popping By card, I just had to make her a little bingo card to hang up in her 'workspace'.

There are so many goodies going on here, so I'll list them in bullet-style to keep it nice and neat!

• Take Off stamp set from The Cat's Pajamas which totally inspired the whole darn bingo card (!)
• CutUps Cloud Border die (duh...match made in airline heaven)
• Blueberry Divine Twine (perfect match with the Sun Country color scheme...another 'duh')
• MFT Die-namics You Move Me & stamp set
• PTI Masculine Motifs, Alpha-blocks and Polka Dots Basics II
• Sketch inspired by this rockin' card by my sweet friend, Leigh O'Brien

Ok, there you have it! Thanks for stopping by today, and please stop back for more goodies this week...
~Amy

TCP Tuesday 168: Color Challenge

Tori Wild is this week's TCP Tuesday Hostess with the Mostest and she's got a yummo color challenge for us: watermelon red, grass green and pumpkin! I decided to go quite literal with the colors and created a fun little watermelon boat. Here's where I have to confess that I was so smitten with this card of Jess Witty's that I pretty much stole her idea for my watermelon boat!

I've incorporated two stamp sets and three CutUps dies from The Cat's Pajamas in my card. When you have such great summer-fun dies to work with, why not triple up on 'em, right?! Here's the triple scoop:

• CutUps Cloud Border 
• CutUps Wave
• CutUps Pennant (small and large) trimmed down to work as 'sails' for my watermelon sail boat
• 'Smile' (LOVE that sentiment) from Kick Some Grass
• Watermelon seeds using single splash/drip stamp from Ship Happens

 I really hope you get a chance to play along with this fun summer color challenge this week! I'll leave you with a graphic of the colors for your mouth-watering pleasure! ~Amy

Popping By to Celebrate {SFYTT}!

Sometimes a gift idea and stamp set just happen to be a perfect match, and that's just what fell into my lap last week as I shopped for my best friend, Jane's birthday gift. Jane and I have a fun little habit of quoting our favorite movie lines...sometimes I think we subconsciously create situations just so we can throw in a line or two! Whatever the case may be, I decided to give her a stack of our favorite movies along with a few boxes of movie candy, all tied up in a red and white striped ribbon. This is where it gets good...I had just happened to have ordered MFT's Popping By along with the Die-namics Filmstrip die (this is as predictable as an 'average' movie)...add in superfast shipping from MFT and I have my stamp set and die in hand, just in time to create the perfect movie themed card for Jane's birthday gift. Cool, huh?!

Because Jane is pretty darn important in my life, I thought her card was definitely worthy of some of my absolute favorite paper (6x6 Cosmo Cricket Circa 1934). I've also used Jen's July SFYTT, a birthday sentiment from PTI, and Cherry Divine Twine from The Cat's Pajamas.

I even finished off the inside with a sentiment bearing ticket using a couple different Pure Innocence sets...

I hope you've enjoyed my rambling and the card! Stop in again this week because I've got a few things to share that I've made over the last few weeks and just haven't found the time to blog about.
~Amy

TCP Tuesday 167: Take Off!

Julie is this week's hostess with the mostess and she's challenged us to skip the Copics and watercolor our images this week. I chose to use the newly released set, Take Off. It was a bit of a challenge to watercolor some of the smaller areas, so I ended up coloring in the rims of his sunglasses with a fine tip marker, but the rest of his body is bona fide watercoloring along with a wee bit of paper piecing on the wing!

Last but not least is a bit of orange Divine Twine wrapped around our CutUps cloud border die...can't get enough of those two things!

Be sure to check out Julie's blog for all the swanky details of this week's TCP Tuesday challenge and have a swanky day!
~Amy

Happy Birthday Fishes!

This card makes me giggle as do most of Kim Hughes' images because they're just so darn fun! I've combined Kim's Paper Smooches set, Birthday Buddies, with a personal photo of my son George and our sweet niece, Brea. George and Brea had a little fishing fun and are actually holding fish in the picture that they caught, so I decided to have a little fun with the it and added Copic colored fish from Birthday Buddies. You'll also notice a little woodgrain impression using my beloved PTI impression plate and a fun CutUps Big Pinking edge available from The Cat's Pajamas.

Thanks for stopping by today!
Amy

Inspirational TCP Tuesday 166!

This week's TCP Tuesday challenge is of the {inspiration}-al nature, brought to us by fellow Cat Packer, Jen del Muro. The inspiration piece is filled with lots of sweet birthday things in pinks and browns, so I pulled out the newly released set, Away We Go, and got to work! I paired my Copic colored image with papers from My Mind's Eye Tickled Pink and CutUps Cloud Border and Big Scallop dies, also available from The Cat's Pajamas.

Here's a look at Jen's inspiration piece...

Hope you find time to play along...never know when you could be the next Swanky Stamper, recipient of some Cat Cash or the Pick of the Litter! Check out Jen's blog for all the swanky details!
~Amy

Rollin' with the JiFFy Girls!

So, I have to tell you I've had some great 'highs' in my career as a stamper gal, and what I'm about to share with you ranks right up at the tippy top. I'm an official JiFFy Girl!! Mind you, I'm not a braggart by nature, but when something like this comes along, I just have to sit back and thank my lucky stars for an opportunity to hang with the likes of Carole Burrage, Michele Boyer and Lori Craig! And...on top of that, super-stamper-stars Christina Fischer and Jody Morrow are also joining the ranks of JiFFy Girls alongside moi...fun stuff, huh?!

This is how the JiFFy Girls do their biz-ness: each month (or so) one of the girls picks the paper, another girl chooses image(s) to work with, and then we get to work in our stamping room/studio/store, etc. and post our creations on the same day! This month, we're featuring the adorable Spiffy Scooters set from Paper Smooches by Kim Hughes (JiFFy alumni) along with yummy Graphic 45 Bohemian Floral paper (Le Cirque Collection). I used a little paper pleating to create a little road for my Copic colored Vespa and tied it with a couple rounds of DMC black floss. I thought I needed a few lighter colored touches with the darker patterned paper atop my black card base, so I added the sentiment stamped on vanilla cardstock and balanced it out with a vanilla scallop beneath the 'road' using my CutUps Big Scallop die.

I can't wait to see what the girls have done with their special paper and stamps, so let's 'scooter' on over and see!

Carole

Michele
Lori

Jody

Christina

Have a great day~Amy