You Are Appreciated!

Each year local businesses in the school district where I work put together a little 'Welcome Back' package for our staff and I was asked to make thank you notes for our little care packages. Here's what I came up in a 5x7 size that will hold all of our signatures.

The sentiments are Kim Hughes' Making the Grade,  and the apple is part of Kerri Bradford's This & That: School digi kit. I love that you can take bits and pieces of Kerri's kits for card making or scrapping...so darn versatile and affordable! I wanted to keep this card quick and simple as there are a million and one things to be done this week, and I'm pretty darn happy with this CAS card!

I'll be back tomorrow with a fun little blog hop for YNS, so stay tuned!
~Amy

Season's Greetings {SFYTT}!

Is this a great sketch, or what?! I love all the possibilities for patterned paper layers, embellishments, depth and texture! Here's what I came up with using Taylored Expressions Snow Day Project Pantry Kit, The Cat's Pajamas CutUps Pennant die and a sentiment from Kim Hughes' Christmas Critters set.

This is the first time I've ordered Taylor's Pantry Kits, and I tell you what--I love them! All of the guess work is done for you--the card stock matches the patterned paper, and there are cute cute embellishments and ribbon included. Can I tell you how many hours I've spent trying to find the "perfect match" to some of my patterned papers?! I will definitely be ordering more from the TE Pantry! Ü

Let's see what the rest of the SFYTT crew has done with today's sketch, shall we?!

Jen del Muro & Lesa Smaligo

Amy Sheffer
Amber Hight
Carole Burrage
Jenn Diercks
Jodi Collins
Kelly Lunceford
Megan Lock
Sony Christoph
Susan Liles

We Love "The Bee"!

My daughter is starring as Rona Lisa Perretti in her high school's Spring play, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, so I'm dedicating this week's SFYTT to her! Once again, I took advantage of two wonderful "bee" stamp sets from CHF: Sweet Bee and The Birds and The Bees (Kim Hughes Collection), and a paired them with a partial page from a discarded dictionary and some yummy Cosmo Cricket paper (Early Bird).

I added a few Tiny Twinkles to the crown and sparkly letters that spell out "t-h-e" to jazz up the central circle layer at bit. Here's a close up shot...

Let's buzz on over and see what the rest of the SFYTT crew has this week:

Jen del Muro & Angie Tieman
Megan Lock
Jenn Diercks
Amber Hight
Amy Sheffer
Kelly Lunceford
Leigh O'Brien
Susan Liles

Have a great weekend!
~Amy

welcome home {SFYTT}

Happy Saturday, everyone! I'm here with the final SFYTT for February, but don't worry, there will be more coming in March. Before we leave February though, remember to play along with the sketch and link your card to Jen's slideshow to be eligible for her super dee-duper prize package and for your chance to be a future monthly guest designer for Jen's SFYTT challenges. Ok, let's get on with the sketch and then my take on it...

I decided to combine a few things that I love: October Afternoon paper (Farm Fresh), anything felt (tree top and bird wing), buttons (PTI), and Kim Hughes images (The Landing Pad tree trunk). Oh, I almost forgot--the discarded dictionary page...love the script stamps, printed papers and the real stuff! The sentiment is from PTI, another place I love! I hope my card brings you a little hope for Spring to soon arrive in your neck of the woods...

Ready for more inspiration? Here's the crew...
Jen del Muro & Mona Pendleton
Amy Sheffer
Kelly Lunceford
Leigh O'Brien
Susan Liles

Have a good one!
~Amy

valentine, I {heart} you...SFYTT

Hopefully you all tuned in last week for the big comeback of our weekly SFYTT and were able to participate for your chance to win Jen's super duper prize package! Each time you play along with the sketch and link your creation to Jen's blog, you'll have a chance to not only win the prize package (over $200 worth of amazing stamping stuff), you'll also be eligible to become Jen's Guest Designer of the Month...fun stuff!

I'm not head over heels in love with my card, but I've got DH and little George waiting to get on with the day, so I had to be satisfied. I kept telling George that if he sat behind me on my chair while I was stamping, I might mess up and then I'd have to start all over, and then it would take me even longer finish...I think I was subconsciously hoping that I'd have to start all over, but I didn't. That George...he's such a good helper at the sewing machine, at my stamp table, and he's recently taken an interest in my Big Shot as well...uffda, he's busy!

Ok, now that you've seen what I did with the sketch, let's mosey on over to see what Jen & Mona, Kelly, Amy, Susan and Leigh have come up with.

Stamps: Polka Dot Basics II (PTI); The Birds and the Bees (Kim Hughes, CHF)
Paper: discarded dictionary, October Afternoon, Cosmo Cricket (Early Bird)
Embellishments: button, linen thread, heart die (SU!), scallop edge punch (SU!), Aqua Mist grosgrain (PTI)

A Sketch-y Ketchup...

...a little play on words for you today. I thought "ketchup" would be a fun way to title this post that is all about me catching up on this week's overdue sketch challenges. First up is my TCP Tuesday card based on a sketch by our hipster hostess with the mostest this week, Jen del Muro. And, wudda-ya-know...my second card is this week's SFYTT card, also created by Jen! I don't know where she gets all her royal sketchiness, but she has really stretched my stamping skillz as a result (thanks, Jen)!

TCP image and sentiment from You Sick Thing paired with a SU! snowflake, Cosmo Cricket Early Bird paper and buttons by Foo-fa-la...

My SFYTT card using a sweet Kim Hughes snowman, tree and snowflakes, along with a PTI sentiment and K&Co. papers...

Here's a little detail shot of the paper piecing, buttons and bling...

Click here to see Jen's TCP Tuesday post with all the deets...

Click on the names below to see the SFYTT team's cards...
Jen & Kim (December guest designer)
Amy
Kelly
Leigh
(Susan is off to FL for Christmas, so look for her in 2010)

Thanks for stopping by to "ketchup" with me!
Amy

hey dude!

I {heart} Kim Hughes and all of her adorably fun images! I realized how long it had been since I'd inked up any of my KH images and chose this hilarious frog prince and sentiment from her Little Guy set and matched it up with this week's sketch challenge over at Splitcoast (SC246). It's a great sketch, one that I'll be using again and again!

The legs and belly of mr. frog are paper pieced using scraps of Ripe Avocado (PTI) and retired Kiwi Kiss (SU!). To give his belly a little depth and blend the two greens, I sponged around his belly (a sponge bath of sorts, ha!) with my PTI Vintage Touch inking system, using the darker of the two inks. His eyes and crown are colored in with watercolor pencils with bits of a Stardust Gelly Roll pen on his crown tips and toes. Although it's hard to see, the Kiwi layer is dry embossed with an argyle-like plate, the same one I used on my TCP Tuesday card posted yesterday.

Thanks for stopping by today, it was great having you!