Best Friend

My friend Barb is one of those best friends who'd do just anything for you and your family. She's also a dog lover to the core, so this one's for you, Barb! I'm actually home with George today because he's on the mend from a case of tonsilitis, and wouldn't you know, Barb offered to pick up George's birthday cake for me--see, I told she's like that!

I used this week's SCS Wednesday sketch challenge (#245) along with a sweet lil' dog stamp I've had for ages (Stamp Craft). I stamped and layered him three times for added dimension, and so he wouldn't get lost among all the yummy colors and patterns of this CTMH Perfect Day paper. Sentiment is a combo of Amazing to Zany (best) and Mega Mixed Messages (friend).

Gotta run, birthday preparations to do and hubby's home, so I'm sure he's wondering how in the heck I have time to be stamping!

Happy {belated} Birthday, Anders!

My sweet and tough nephew, Anders, turned 11 on September 4th, and I'm finally getting around to making his birthday card. He actually got his birthday gift last May, so at least it wasn't late! We'll be celebrating Anders' birthday along with George's this Saturday (eeek, I'm spinning in circles with so many things to do and don't know where to start...as I sit here blogging, aaaack!).

I was so inspired by Kelly's All Star SFYTT card last weekend and used it as my inspiration piece/starting point. Thanks for your never-ending inspiration, Kelly!

I've had this football textured paper for quite some time and was so excited to finally use a piece of it again. I paired it with PTI's Perfect Plum and Kraft card stock, with accents of black (Purple is our town's school color, thus the Perfect Plum choice). I loved how Kelly used the patterned paper and numbers to create the football field, and since I didn't have the same paper in purple, I simply scored lines every 1/2" and then stamped my numbers using PTI's Fresh Alpha.

My All Star set from PTI had yet to see ink, and I've had it for months, so I was sooo pleased that it worked out so well here. The chipboard letters are from Basic Gray and are actually lower case L's, but I think they work just fine to create an "11". I feel like I'm rambling, so I'll wrap this up, but I just want to point out the star in the circle/number cluster area. I somehow wanted to incorporate the happy birthday sentiment from SU!'s Amazing to Zany, and couldn't find the right spot, so I stamped it repeatedly on a purple scrap and then punched it out with my SU! small star punch. I think it's my favorite part of the cluster!

Thanks for hanging with me through all my chatter today!

ETA: I set this to post tomorrow (Thursday), so I'm not quite sure why it's showing up today?? Please scroll down to see my previous post from today with a fun TCP Tuesday sketch!

TCP Tuesday Sketch

If you follow along with our TCP Tuesday challenges, you already know about the fun sketch that Leigh presented yesterday. My card today uses TCP's You Sick Thing, in the colors: turquoise, red, chocolate and kraft. The chick and soup bowl are paper pieced and highlighted with a bit of Sahara Sand ink for shadowing, as well as some Polka Dot Basics 2 dots on the bowl. I hand drew steam lines with a Sakura Gelly Roll Stardust pen and then pierced each of the steam lines for a little extra sumpin'. The sentiment is stamped, cut and supposed to follow the steam lines, just for fun. Patterned paper is from Bo Bunny Press, Raspberrie Red by Jan Lanoy.

I had so much fun with Leigh's sketch that I also made an American Art Stamp card using one of my hilarious Emerson Quillin images, Single Bar, with a reversed masked cuppa, stamped with PTI's Polka Dot Basics 2 in Eggplant Envy. A bit of added texture with a SU! embossing plate (Texturz Backrounds 1) and a trio of PTI's Perfect Plum buttons and ribbon finish out the extras.

I hope you can find a little time to play along with the TCP Tuesday challenge this week. If you do, please link your upload to Leigh's blog post, and/or use the keyword: TCPTUES75 at SCS or PCP. Thanks for stopping by today!

welcome {sweet pea}

I decided to make a bit of a nontraditional baby card using Cosmo Cricket's Early Bird paper collection, Papertrey Ink's Green Thumb set along with SU!'s Warm Words. The baby peas, if you will, are stamped in Real Red ink and then covered with glitter adhered with a mini glue dot. The 'sweet pea' sentiment is tied on with a black button and button twine, both from PTI.

I told DH to give me 15 minutes of "me time" for a quick blog post, so I'm going to keep it short today. Hope you're all enjoying a relaxing Labor Day, for those USA readers popping in today!

Nuts About You {SFYTT)!

I'm just nuts about Fall, so I've been anxious to dive into this new 8x8 Fall paper from Recollections that I picked up at Michael's a few weeks ago. I paired it with The Cat's Pajamas Happy Camper for today's SFYTT. BTW, I just love this sketch and hope you do too, so much so that you come and play along with us this week. If you do, make sure to use keyword: SFYTT if you upload over at SCS, and/or leave a link to your blog over at Jen's.

Just a couple of details include a paper pieced squirrel, highlighted with a bit of added color using my friend, Jackie's Copics (I really need those Copics); a highlighted acorn using a clear bubble sticker; and a fun button topped medallion for the sketch required embellishment.

Let's see what the rest of the gang has been up to, because I'm sure we'll be NUTS over their creations:

Jen & September Guest Designer (I won't spill the beans, or should I say, acorns?!)
Amy
Kelly
Susan

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great Labor Day weekend!

Mojo Monday Halloween

I've combined this week's Mojo Monday sketch with an adorable image from American Art Stamp called Cat by Robin Pickens. I also added a sentiment from their Halloween 2 cling set, cutting each word separately to form the rectangle layer of the sketch. Once I started doing things in three's, I couldn't stop! There are 3 buttons representing the horizontal layer; 3 circles forming the main image layer (I'm counting the button as a circle); 3 mini black dots on kitty's belly; 3 larger black dots on the corner; and 3 medium black dots to the left of the sentiment as called for in the sketch.

Thanks for stopping by today, and be sure to pop over to the American Art Stamp blog for more inspiration using their eclectic line of stamps!

TCP Tuesday Witchful Thinking

I just giggle whenever I look at the expression on this frog's face; Alma got it just right! If the frog's expression isn't funny enough, pairing it with this sentiment is an out right one-two punch, in my opinion. Check out the entire Fright Night set at The Cat's Pajamas.

Miss Witch and her cauldron are stamped in Palette Noir Black ink on Kraft card stock and colored with watercolor pencils, blended with a blender pen. Even though it's hard to see in the picture, there are sparkles added here and there with a Sakura Gelly Roll pen. Mr. Frog (or in this case Mr. Wrong) is stamped on a scrap of the patterned paper (Recollections Halloween pad) and then highlighted here and there with a couple deeper shades of green colored pencils. Lastly, buttons are also from TCP, found right here!

Be sure to stop at Jen's blog for all the TCP Tuesday deets, and come out and play if you have time this week! If you do, leave a link to your blog post or SCS or PCP upload over at Jen's blog.