My Stamping Heaven

Making a Scene with Magnolia Stamps

2012-02-04T07:00:00.000-05:00

I received a very exciting email this week that sent me over the moon- the lovely and very talented Frances from the Crazy 4 Challenges blog asked if I would like to join their team....OKAY! I have used their challenges many times to kickstart my mojo and the ladies on the team are ones I have long admired so that fact that I am now 'hob knobbing' with this bunch of 'crazies' is amazing news! Yippeeeeeeee!!!!!

When Frances asked when I would like to jump in of course I said 'Right Away Thank you Very Much' I mean- you would have too right! I had no idea that in a few hours the horrid flu would come knocking on my door and wipe me out this week- taking ten lbs with it so I can't totally complain. Even though I probably could have gotten a pass if I had asked due to being sick- NO WAY. This girl badly needed some crafting time plus the challenge is so fun!

The Lovely Lynda is the challenge hostess for this month and she is asking us to 'Make A Scene'. Something I am very very good at. Could probably teach lessons actually. Now I have never made a scene on a card before but in real life- it is a skill ;).

My stamping bff Sarah had me try her Magnolia stamps a few months ago and I was not really into them but I stamped the shop window and Tilda with her shopping bags (under duress I might add). I coloured her hair....and was hooked. I have since purchased an alarming amount of Magnolia stamps just based on colouring her hair all the while shaking my fist in the air and yelling 'Drat you Sarah!'. Since I can apparently take full blame for her copic marker obsession I guess it fair.

I coloured in these images to match my paper and then kept the rest of the card simple so the focus was on the 'scene'. That was of course decided after I filled my desk with a mountain of various flowers and doodads to only sweep them off in a huff. I found this sweet Stamping Bella sentiment I had bought years before and using a spellbinder shape made price tag of sorts. I also added Tim Holtz rock candy stickles to the brick and her shopping bags. Honestly I had no idea what it does at the time that I added it but I can say I do like the effect when it was all dry. I also figured if Tim made it- it is probably good hee hee!

So please take a moment after muddling through my long winded post today to hop on over to the Crazy for Challenges blog and see the full deets and the AMAZING samples they have made. Seriously amazing- like I need to pull up my socks to hang with these ladies kind of amazing. Gulp. hee hee!

Alright- you deserve a nice hot cuppa after reading all that babble and extraneous use of "" symbols..Have an amazing day!

cheers! Andi

Playing with Hero Arts and Color Me Creative

2012-02-01T18:06:00.000-05:00

I love this card. Love it. The fact that I made it is just a bonus. Loooooovvvee it. Might have something to do with my addiction to hot drinks and donuts.

I wanted something fun and funky for my 3rd contribution for Color Me Creative DT posts and when this Hero Arts set hit SGD I had visions of sugar plums dancing in my head. Actually it was double chocolate donuts, jelly donuts, French crullers and my fave chocolate walnut crunches dancing in my head hee hee!

So with this 'Have a Donut' set in my hands I stamped the images in Memento tuxedo black to get them ready for my copics. I then used the following copic colours to keep it simple:

R-24, 27, 29, 39

E-23, 25, 27, 29, 33, 35, 50

WG-3

I used my scor-buddy to add dimension to my white card by scoring just around the inside of the card. I have been seeing this more and more on cards especially with the resurgence lately of the clean and simple card style which I am trying to do along with my over the top cards I still love doing lol.

If you are unfamiliar with the CMC (Color Me Creative) site I talk about click here to be introduced to a colorers dream haven! We have tons of online courses for you to take and lots of fun amazing like minded crafters who love to chat it up and give each other suggestions and support. Come and join us!!

Cheers, Andi

Things are looking frosty over at the Color Me Creative challenge group!

2012-01-30T21:06:00.002-05:00

Brrr...Baby it's cold outside.

Our Boss Lady Suzanne challenged us to make cold and frosty cards using some ca-ute Lily of the Valley images. Well that says silver, grey and blue to me! I dug out some of this season's winter paper by Echo Park called Winter Park. To get my frosty snowflake trim under my image I used the Tim Holtz die 'Snow Flurries on the Edge' and some clear packing I had saved. I actually made a quick picture tutorial that I will share in another post.

Lily of the Valley gave us some amazing images to work with- thank you!!! I was already in love with their whimsical images and this cutie sealed the deal. He is called 'Ski Jump' and has seriously inspired this girl on a mad LOTV shopping spree!!

Did you know that there are cool prizes for playing along with us at CMC? This challenge's prize is from Lily of the Valley!!!! I wish I could enter!! There is still a few days to play along with us and we would love to have some more entries! Click here to visit us and read the full challenge deets!

We are having more High Hopes challenges each month- and this one has me seeing PINK!!

2012-01-30T07:00:00.001-05:00

I am so happy to share that we are increasing the amount of times we throw down the challenge gauntlet over at the HHS challenge blog! This is great news for those of you like me that typically use challenges as a 'springboard' for my creativity...or those of us who love to win prizes!! I have to admit to being in that category too hee hee!

The lovely Anna has challenged us to see Pink..Pink and more Pink on your HHS challenge entries. Not a problem for this cool cat...that would be me ;)

I inked up the sweet Dino-mite stamp that was released Winter 2010 along with other perfect for Valentine's Day images. Or just to tell someone that you kinda like them images hee hee. I won't go on and on again today about how much I love using Red and Pink together...let's just say my face hurts from all the goofy smiling I was doing while crafting this cutie. I also used some of my new Doodlebug Sweet Cakes papers, a button, some twine and a whole sheet of pink candy dots!! Which means the dots alone cost me about $5- that is how much I was committed to this pink and red creation. At least I can finally say I used something up too- instead of the room full of hoarded materials that I own. Yep- one sheet of candy dots down- 1200 to go!!! LMBO!! Sounds like a good reason to buy more me thinks ;).

We would love for you to join us on this pinkest of pinks challenge. Click here for the full challenge deets and to see the gorgeous crafts my fellow HHS Divas have made to help get the inspiration train rolling!

Cheers, Andi

Sending Love Letters with help from High Hopes

2012-01-25T08:00:00.000-05:00

Any excuse to use Red and Pink together is fine by me! And with High Hopes current challenge of making Valentine's Day cards I am in pinky red heaven!

I inked up Love Letter sentiment and Love Letter Mailbox for the challenge as I hadn't used them previously and for the life of me couldn't figure out why! I also used some of bright pink copics that I am also sure I hadn't used before but they match the colours wonderfully in the Doodlebug Design Sweet Cakes papers that I used. I am so hoarding this paper! I also used a Marianne Designs new embossing and cutting folder called 'Romantic' to add texture to my white card.

If you feel like making some Valentine's along with us we would love for you to play along!

Cheers, Andi

Cozy Gilli is keeping warm during the current Winter Gilli challenge..

2012-01-25T07:00:00.001-05:00

Popping in here with my Winter Gilli Challenge card. I inked up my fave Cozy Gilli and her snuggly for my inspiration as I just adore being wrapped up in something warm with a hot cuppa tea in one card. I coloured Gilli with my copies and I tried blonde hair for a change from my usual brown hair. I used Y23, YR21 and YR23. Not too bad! I will have to use this colour combo again.

I hope this helps get your inspiration going for our current challenge. If you don't feel like making a card for that cold icy stuff that floats down from the sky think warm like I did!

Don't forget to link up your challenge cards over at the House of Gilli challenge blog so that you can have a chance to win some yummy Gilli stamps of your own!

Cheers, Andi

Quick cards playing with Perfect Pearls

2012-01-21T09:00:00.001-05:00

I just wanted to share 2 examples of the cards we made on a previous Product Talk session (aka Therapy Thursdays) where we played with Perfect Pearls over at SGD.

To make this card we first stamped our image using Kaiser Crafts cute butterfly stamp in Versamark ink. We then took our perfect pearls and gently brushed a SMALL amount of the pigment onto the image. We found it best to work with one colour at a time and put it where we wanted it before moving onto the next colour. Once done you then take the larger brush that is included in the kit and brush to remove the excess pigment around the image.

An important tip is that you should just use a light hand when applying the pigment as you don't want to grind it into the fibers of the paper and therefore leave a colour 'cast' around the image. As well I like to seal my images. In this case we used Goosebumps spray to seal and add texture to our cards yet you can also just use a mini mister and water to set your design. Love that!

One of the fun things about perfect pearls is how versatile the colours are. I used the exact same colours on each card yet based on what colour of card stock I used they looked completely different. I did also have an example on white paper but I gave that one to my partner in the A-Team the fantastic Anja.

So here is another 'what's old is new again' tool that many of us have in our craft supply. Dig it out and see what fun it us to play with pigments!

Of course if you don't already have Perfect Pearls you know SGD has you covered!

Cheers, Andrea

My cards using SGD's Jan Card Kit

2012-01-14T20:47:00.000-05:00

I just love the challenge of getting a mix/match of papers and some stamps to see what I can come up with to help customers make cards with SGD's monthly card kits. Here are the two cards I designed.

The first card is using one of Unity's Itty Bitty stamps called 'Life is so good'. And instead of copics this time I added colour to my image using stickles! I used Stardust, Fruit Punch and Christmas red. I also stamped the image using my absolute have ink for detailed stamps- Versafine in Onyx black.

My second card I used one of my fave Unity Itty Bitty stamps "Just Be You". It may be my fave cause I have the matching shirt from Unity that the amazing Angela gave me last time I saw her. I love it! And let's face it- we all need a reminder from time to time that we should stay true to yourself and who you are instead of being who you think people want you to be. I know I have been guilty of that myself. I should probably get it tattooed on my hand to remind myself of that lol!

I inked up the papers in the kit with some of the Mixed Media ink in Leather by Donna Salzar. It takes a bit to dry so be warned that you either want to set it aside or use a heat gun to dry it faster.

I am really happy with my cards using this kit and I hope it helps inspire you too!

Cheers! Andrea

My first Gilli challenge card of 2012

2012-01-11T08:00:00.000-05:00

Hello! Happy New Year!

Andi here with my entry for the anything goes challenge. I love making Valentine's day cards and here is the first one I have made for the year so far. I used Lil Gilli Girly for my card and coloured her up with my copies. I used some of my MME valentine's day papers and hearts everywhere! I love using pink and red together and wore it frequently as a colour combo when I was younger. I still remember how upset and depressed I was when I was told you couldn't wear those two colours together as they 'clashed'. I think those rules may have gone out the window as I frequently see that colour combo all the time now! I gave Lil Gilli a blue outfit to help the image 'pop' on the card- I hope you like it!

Don't forget there is still lots of time to play along with our ANYTHING GOES challenge so link up to win some yummy Gilli stamps! You can find all the challenge deets over at the House of Gilli!

Hugs, Andi xo

Gilli stamps challenge- Blue and glittery

2011-12-28T07:00:00.002-05:00

Feels like forever and a day since I have posted on my blog sharing one of my crafty creations. I have been so busy enjoying family and friends during this holiday season- I hope you have been too!

I have to share that I did get one big prezzie from the hubby that I really wanted- a vagabond!!! That's right- the electric die cutting machine from Lord Tim of Holtz himself....ahhh bliss! Yep no more turning of the hand in a clockwise manner for me- now just a push of the button and zip my die cuts are done. One happy crafter right here!

On to my reason for posting today- it is time for a brand new challenge over at the House of Gilli blog and it is my turn to be the hostess with the mostest. We are challenging you to use the colour BLUE and to make your project SPARKLE! So get out those blue papers and embellishments and pour on the glitter. Everything is better with glitter ;).

I made a tag for my project today to go onto one of the many wine bottles that get passed around during the holiday season. I rarely drink wine anymore due to acid reflux (ugh) but my friends are still winos so this gift is perfect as we hang out and enjoy each other's company.

I used some of the new Echo Park paper for my tag and a die shape from Lord Tim of Holtz to get my tag shape. I added some ribbon and die cut out some snowflakes on glitter paper to add lots of bling. For my Gilli stamp I used her home- I love this cute and versatile house stamp! The opposite side of the tag reads 'From our house to yours- May this be a wonderous holiday season'.

If you would like to win lots of Gilli stamp goodies come on and play with us over at H.O.G. and maybe you will be our next lucky winner!

Cheers! Andi

Nellie Snellen and I want to wish Suzanne Dean a Merry Christmas

2011-12-19T12:54:00.001-05:00

*Please click on the picture for a much closer view- thanks*

Merry Christmas Suzanne!

I am so blessed to be part of Suzanne's CMC design team and apparently I am not the only one who feels this way as the whole lot of us are posting cards from last week up till Christmas so that she can have some virtual cards to look at each day- kinda like a card Advent calendar lol.

I met Suzanne a few years ago on a design team we were both on then in person at CHA 2 years ago. I was intimidated until the first 3 seconds were over when we found we had teen girls the same age and could commiserate...I mean share the drama's that ensue while teen girls are in the house. In case they are reading this we love you girls hee hee! And her humour- bang on with mine. In fact we knew instantly we would need bail money if we ever hung out together as we both have the knack for having trouble find us where ever we go. You know when you meet someone and instantly just feel comfortable with them- that's me and Suzanne- I feel like I have known her for years and all we do is laugh. And guzzle cherry coke together. Now she can actually buy cherry coke whenever she wants and I can't here in Canada so that does create some tension in our friendship..... Plus she mentions drinking it a lot which sets my jealous teeth on edge lmbo!!! Suzanne is a very warm, big hearted and honest person and SO MUCH FUN! Truly- to know her is to love her. And I do xoxoxo

Now on to my card. I am in freakin' LOVE with the new Nellie Snellen stamps over at SGD. Seriously- I am a sucker for a cute stamp. I am using today Dawn Hokey Pokey and coloured her up using my copics, some Smooch Snickerdoodle and Moonlight colours, diamond stickles and twinkling clouds fluff which is made of white flocking and glitter. I also used a big flower which was a mistake when you are trying to mail a card!!! Suzanne- don't be shocked if it arrives with a different..flat flower..lmbo!!!

I hope you enjoyed my Suzanne card today. I just love that sassy girl!

Cheers, Andi

Cozy Gilli in Red and Gold

2011-12-14T07:00:00.001-05:00

I would like to own a red Snuggi. Any colour Snuggi actually. I am frequently chilled and gave up on looking cool long ago in favour of fuzzy clothes and socks. And wearing pj pants and any time of the day if I don't have to go out. I bet some of you are reading this right now in your pj pants- go you! hee hee

The current challenge over at the House of Gilli blog is to add the colours Red and Gold to your card. Well I actually have been a red colouring phase so this was easy for me to be inspired by. I have to first say that when using red copics I ALWAYS use copic Express it paper. I am a heavy handed colourer and it doesn't bleed at all. None. If any colour is outside of the lines it is because I coloured outside of the lines- cause isn't that what makes life fun? ;)

I used Cozy Gilli and some DCWV paper I had been hoarding but let's face it used both the challenge colours so it was time to let it go. Bye bye gorgeous paper- I will miss you.... Oh wait- it is not like I actually send any of my cards so it can go on my display board for me to look at even more often. Score! ;)

Click here to read the challenge details and to see all of the delicious eye candy the DT has been posting to inspire you.

If you don't have any Gilli stamps yet you don't need to use them to join us in our challenge but if you want to buy some you can find them at Stamping and Scrapbooking online store here.

Time for me to pour another cup of tea and try to get some relaxing in today. And maybe..just maybe...even get some more crafting done today.

Cheers, Andrea

Copics used:

Hair- E25, 27, 29, 49

Skin- E000, 00, 11, R01, R20

Mug- Y23, 26, 28, glaze pen, glitter pen

Snuggi- R24, 27, 29 and C5 over the R29 to deepen the shading

Ground- W1, 3, 5

Outline- BG10

Magnolia- Yoga Tilda- challenge card and who wants to win a Cricut Mini, Kindle, gift cards and digi stamps??

2011-12-12T22:41:00.000-05:00

I am actually posting a Magnolia card for the first time in years! My stamping Bff Sarah has got me into the same stamps I swore I never needed to own. I think I have 12 of them now in a very short period of time. I have to wonder why I ever bother deciding I am not getting into something when all it means is I fall head over heels at some point lol!

Here are the current CMC challenge deets- I would play along with this incredible challenge that Suzanne has put together to raise money for such a wonderful cause! See below:

NEW CHALLENGE #33 will run until January 5th!
SO THIS RUNS FOR 1 MONTH!

Your challenge this time is all about

** HOLIDAY JOY--in Golds. Creams & Whites**

Show your holiday joy with sparkling colors of GOLD, CREAM & WHITE!

(yes you can use some other colors like hair/skin/etc but the majority of colors should be Gold, Cream & Whites)

For this Challenge we have LOTS OF PRIZES!!

AND A WAY TO DONATE TO A WONDERFUL CHARITY!!

WHAT YOU CAN WIN:

-1 person will win a NEW Provocraft CRICUT MINI machine

-1 person will win a NEW KINDLE E-READER

-1 person will win a $50 Gift Cert. to SCACD

-1 person will win a $25 Gift Cert. to the Paper Temptress

-1 person will win 5 digis from Tiffany Doodles and a $15 Gift Cert to 7 Kids College Fund and a Gilli Gift Bag

HOW TO PLAY:

4 different ways to enter

-Enter up to (2) TWO projects into the link system below by Jan. 5th

-Enter (1) one project into the BookEndz Challenge

-Donate a $3-5 donation to the Charity below for 1 entry

-Donate anything over $10 to the Charity and get 2 entries

OUR CHARITY:

Reading is Fundamental is the charity I have chosen to sponsor this season. As you all know I am an avid reader and it amongst my very favorite things to do in my spare time. I truly believe that literacy and reading opens up many doors in life for everyone. Not only can you find joy in books but it opens your eyes to other cultures, places and people that is so worthwhile. And just the fact that a huge part of life involves being able to read--to get through school, get a great job and navigate through life. For me teaching children to read early on in life is a MUST yet so many children are not provided with the basic materials to learn to read. So this charity is a non-profit that provides books to children and opportunities to bring literacy into areas that need it!

Click here to be taken to the challenge site to read more about the month long initiative and also to donate if you choose.

I am also entering my Tilda in the following challenges:

Magnolia Down Under- Lost and Found- my doily

The sketchy challenges- sketch

Cute Card Thursday- Anything goes

I am really happy with how my Tilda turned out. I have to admit I put off creating for this challenge for awhile as I had no idea how to pull it off and it turned out to be soooo much easier than I had thought! I used the following colours:

Skin- E0000, E000, E00, E11, R01, R20

Hair- YR20, YR21, YR23 and E35 over the YR23 area then more of the yellow over top of the brown just to deepen it up. Thank you Sarah for that suggestion!

Yoga Pants- E50, E51, E53

Shirt- E40, E41

Ground-W1, W3, W5

I hope you get a chance to play along with some of these challenges too!

Cheers, Andrea

Paper Smooches and Touch Twin markers- warm caffeine wishes

2011-12-11T00:33:00.002-05:00

I had sooo much fun finally getting a chance to play with my beloved Paper Smooches stamps. I have been a huge Kim Hughes stamp fan for years and when she opened her own company I was crazy happy. Seriously- new stamps bring out rainbows on a sunny day for me hee hee.

I was busy playing with our new puppy when I realized that it was literally hours away from the Touch Twin color challenge closing so I had to get to work and put the puppy down! Truthfully I am only usually inspired by tight deadlines so this worked great for me :)

I am working to do some nice clean and simple cards and I am really pleased with how this cutie came out. I used the Paper Smooches set 'Hot Concoctions'. I mean- who can resist a mug that smiles?

I based my colour scheme on the Touch Twin challenge below:

Perfect colour combo for some warm liquid caffeiney goodness!

I hope you get a chance to sneak in some crafty time this weekend too!

Cheers! Andrea

CMC is challenging you to do funky coloured hair

2011-12-08T07:00:00.002-05:00

*Please click on my card for a closer look at the detail*

Our fearless leader Suzanne Dean has really thought of a fun challenge for us over at the CMC copic challenge group. Simply Betty stamps is our challenge sponsor and let us on the DT pick a digi to play with and instantly I fell head over heels in love with Romance Annie. You still have Thursday and part of Friday to play along with us- it is so much fun!!!

I am also entering my card into the following challenges:

Diva's by design- Anything goes

I brake for challenges- vintage

To get Annie's 'sultry yet playful' pink hair I used the R80's spectrum. Love those colours. I carried them into her shawl and also used E50's in her skirt to get that vintage satin look. I have to say I am in love with my card! She will be a hard one to part with. I will have to make sure she goes to someone who crafts and will love her as much as I do hee hee.

Cheers, Andi

Gilli stamps and flourishes- I took the easy way out with this challenge lol!

2011-11-30T07:00:00.004-05:00

*Please click on the picture for a closer view*

Today I am sharing my card for our current Gilli stamps challenge hosted by Melanie- flourishes! Now I have to admit I feel like I cheated as I chose paper that had flourishes hee hee. You can see them in the bottom left of the card and also below my sweet flying bird. I am obviously in need of some flourish dies ;).

I used the lovely Lady Gilli on my card tonight and gave her a satin evening dress to go with my elegant card. I coloured her dress using the following copic colours- BG70, 72, 75, 78. I then added some crystal lacquer I had on hand to give it that satin sheen I just love. I had a satin shirt in the early 90's..it was in style then to be fair...and I just loved the way it felt against my skin and I like to imagine she is also enjoying the smooth silkiness of her evening dress.

My card layout comes from one of my FAVE sketch sites- CPS blog. They are one of my absolute first sites I check whenever I need a sketch- love them!

Well that's all for me today. I hope this helps to inspire you along with the other DT eye candy we have posted so that you play along with our current challenge over at the House of Gilli challenge blog. We would love for you to join us!!

Cheers, Andi

Lady Gilli stamp from Gilli Stamps

Papers used- My Mind's Eye Lost and Found- Portabello Road 6x6

Kraft and black cardstock

doily shapes from my friend Anja xo

self adhesive pearls

Tim Holtz distress ink- Old paper

CC Designs Amy R collection- 'Live laugh love' from Love-ly sentiment set

Copics- E0000, 000, 00, 11, 23, 25, 27, 29, 40, 42, 43

BG70, 72, 75, 78

R01, 20

HHS is 'counting down' to the end of the year

2011-11-29T07:00:00.000-05:00

Today I am sharing my last challenge card for High Hopes Stamps for 2011! We typically take the month of December off to spend more time in the spirit of the season and with our loved ones- love that High Hopes thinks of us and wants us to get the most out of this magical holiday season :).

My stamping bff Sarah is the hostess with the mostest for this last challenge of the year and she wants us to count it down! She is asking that we add numbers to your card or make a card for a specific date.

If you don't have a number on your card, please state what "date" the card is for. You can find more of the challenge deets here at the challenge blog and also lots of inspiration from the DT on how to play along with this fun challenge.

I decided to ink up the super cute 'Peeking Baby bunny' stamp along with a cute HHS Happy Birthday sentiment to make a 2nd birthday card. I used my copics and pencils to colour the images and some versatile baby paper from the Simple Stories 6x6. I added glaze on parts as well to help make it pop. To finish it off I used some of my beloved twine and a button. Is anyone else addicted to coloured baker's twine like I am? I seriously want huge spools of all colours at my finger tips as don't ever want to run out!

I hope you liked my simple card today. Have a crafty day!
Cheers, Andi

Birthday card using Sweet Stamp shop stamps!

2011-11-21T09:00:00.001-05:00

One of my newest addictions are the stamps over at the Sweet Stamp Shop and their uber adorable owner Nicole. I fell in love with them at their very first release with their Gnome set- Had.To.Have!

This set -Scootin' by- was one I kept looking at each time I was at their website but I wasn't sure how I would use it. Funny enough it is the very first set I have used out of the ones I now own hee hee. My sweet nephew had his 5th birthday the other day and since he keeps all the cards his Auntie gives him so I wanted to make him something special. Shaker card it is!

I stamped this image multiple times on my white paper and my patterned papers. I cut out different parts of the scooter and paper pieced them. I used my grey copics for the wheels and the horn and then stamped the clouds in blue ink. I used a card template I had leftover from a past project and stamped part of the sentiment on the white tag and the 'happy birthday' right underneath it. Clean and simple! OhEmGee- was that ever hard for me to do! Look at all that space that is not covered by bling or stamped images. I made a pact to myself to try getting back to my stamping roots and mix it up and do some cards 'old school style' lol. I am happy with how it turned out and I am even happier with my Scooter stamp set purchase - craft spending justified!

Hope you have a great Monday!

Cheers, Andi

Stamping Bella Christmas Card featuring circle Snowman

2011-11-19T16:28:00.001-05:00

**Please click on the picture for a bigger view**

Sharing today the second card club members are making with their Nov card kit. It is using the Stamping Bella Snowman circle stamp. I paired this adorable stamp up with some Authentique Christmas paper and some kraft Maya road snowflakes. To add some shine and bling I used my new glitter by Twinklets and it is GORGEOUS. Sheila has in some stunning new pearls and gems from Prima that have different facets and honestly I think I bought a pack in almost every colour- they are so beautiful! I used the pearl ones on this card- love!!!

One more Christmas card made and a basquillion to go! How are you coming along with your Christmas card making?

Cheers, Andrea

Angel Gilli in Monochromatic style

2011-11-16T07:00:00.000-05:00

Today I am sharing a card I made with Angel Gilli to play along with the current monochromatic challenge over at the House of Gilli blog. I have to admit I haven't done many cards in this style so to keep it simple I only used my copics from the E colour family.

Her wings are 40, 41, 43

Hair is 29, 35, 37

Face 0000, 000, 00, 11 and 91 for the cheeks

Her dress was colored using E's I hadn't used before so I felt good finally being able to justify buying them tee hee! They were 70, 71, 74, 77. They look almost purple don't you think?

I outlined her in E 50 to give her an angelic glow

What co ours do you think you will use to play along with our monochromatic challenge?

Happy crafting, Andi

High Hopes stamps is playing with Snow...

2011-11-15T07:00:00.001-05:00

Welcome back to another High Hopes stamps challenge and this time HHS is asking you to make a craft with snowflakes. It can be punched out shapes, snowflakes on your patterned paper, stamped..etc. Anyway you would like to incorporate it into your project.

I used an older stamp called Cup of Cheer as I love hot drinks and quite frankly it begged me to use it. I couldn't resist ;). I paired it with the Cookies and Cocoa script and stamped it directly over my coloured image. In hindsight I would have moved it down more so that the sentiment was closer to the bottom of the mug but honestly I was so worried about having it be severely crooked or smeared that I didn't give much thought to placement at the time lol! I also used some of my new Kaiser Craft patterned paper in non-traditional Christmas colours. My paper has snowflakes, I used punched out shapes and a sweet charm. I think I am covered for this challenge hee hee.

My card sketch today comes from Jen Del Muro's November sketch over at her blog- thanks Jen!

To see more snowy inspiration hop on over to the HHS challenge blog where you can also see the details on how you can play to win some new High Hopes stamps rubber. Good luck!

Cheers, Andrea

Color Me Creative Classroom are playing with Mermaids and a blog candy alert!

2011-11-12T15:05:00.003-05:00

I love mermaids. Love. Did anyone else try to swim with their legs together to mimic a tail? I couldn't have been the only one ;).

The CMC DT got to play with the lovely Michelle Perkett images this time around. She has beautifully drawn digi stamps which are actually on sale Today (Saturday) at 50% off! I am just starting to build my collection of digis so these help me get more for my money...cause let's face it I won't spend less ....it allows me to buy more hee hee!

I coloured this beauty up with my copics and spent a very long time on her tail. I wanted to give a textured multi-coloured look to her and I am happy with the final results! I used only dots to colour it up and started out with it just blue then after looking at it and realizing it was missing something I went back and added some greens. Here are the colours I used on her tail:

BG11, 13, 15, 18

G20, 24

I also added some diamond dust stickles also just with dots to continue with the textured look.

Hop on over to the CMC site to play along with our colouring challenge where you can win prizes and join us at a guest DT member! Also there are lots of classes available which a few of my friends have taken and said they highly recommend them. I am signing up for a few myself- specifically on how to colour magnolia stamps I think.

My card is based on a sketch at Card Patterns. They have a new one up today to play along with.

I am also entering my card into the following challenges:

Alphabet challenge blog- under the sea

Card Mad Fairy- add texture

2 sisters challenges- anything goes

Moving along with the times- Fairy Tale cards

Blog Candy alert!

My stamping BFF Sarah Kipling has wrote a hilarious tongue in cheek blog post about her drawer stuffed full of stamps. We seem to share the same buying obsession and I am so proud that she is trying to thin out this drawer...so that we can buy more obviously hee hee!

She is a fairly new blogger so she is looking to add more friends/followers. Click here to visit her post to see how you can win all these amazing stamps!

Well that's it for me today. It is the middle of the afternoon so it is about time to go get showered and look productive.

Have a great weekend! Andrea

'lil Gilli Girly stamp is helping me reuse and recycle!

2011-11-08T07:00:00.002-05:00

I really enjoy colouring my Gilli stamps and this uber cute 'lil Gilli girly stamp was the perfect size to help me out with the Recycle challenge we had.

I had these leftover papers from a card I made that I was going to throw most of them away as they were too small for the card size I typically make. I then had the idea to make a mini card and so my sweet little Gilli stamp works perfectly for when you need a small stamp for a small card.

I also used this button which I had saved from another project that I was getting rid of. Sometimes my ever present cup of tea spills on my craft area from my cats leaping around and if I have left my cards out...well sometimes tea stained is not the look I am going for so out they go. I have started to take off ribbon, buttons, brads etc to be reused even though it is not like I don't own tons..I just hate throwing out a perfectly good item that could be re-purposed. I am really happy with how my card from scraps turned out and the Fall colours are perfect for this time of year before the snow starts. Which could be any day now lol.

Anytime you would like to play along with us Gilli girls we would love to have you over at our challenge blog. You could even win some sweet Gilli stamps of your own!

Cheers, Andi

SGD Stamping Bella Card kits and Unity decorated Grab bags

2011-11-05T15:31:00.002-04:00

Andrea here on this sunny Saturday!

I wanted to share a picture of the November card kit contents and one of my completed cards. They are all packaged up and ready to go but we are awaiting the stamps for the kit from our supplier- kind of an important part of the kit lol!!! I have been itching to share this card for a few weeks now and just can't wait anymore as I love this crazy reindeer from Stamping Bella!

I used some of my Bo bunny paper from the kit to make up this card so I matched my colouring to the colours in the paper. I will include what copics I think compliment it well in the card kit instructions to help make it easy for those of you who like to match like me :)

In this month's kit we also provide cricut cut sentiments for your cards- brilliant!!! It was Sheila's idea and the reason I am sharing that is because Lori and Kim had to cut them all out and I guess they were ready to wring my neck after hee hee!!!!! So again it was SHEILA'S great idea and we appreciate the hard work as they are amazing!!! Thanks ladies!!!

Keep an eye out for the second card from the kit and also for the kits to go on sale because once they sell out they can not be reordered.

Thank you to Susan who sent me this picture so I could share it with you. It was taken by her cell phone and I think it did a pretty good job!

This is a picture of the grab bag that attendees of the punch a bunch class this weekend will be receiving. I made these up for Sheila using the Unity stamps for the Simple Stories kit generations. I just love this set!!! I especially love the doilies and they are so hot right now in the crafting world. The set even came with the sentiment you see below the SGD. Now the SGD stamped on here was using monograms from Just rite Stampers. Look Anja- I used your fave stamps! hee hee. This bag is so packed full of good stuff I am insanely jealous I am not going to the class and getting one!

Well that's enough from me today. I hope you have a wonderful day ladies!

Cheers, Andrea

High Hopes Stamps challenge- Anything High Hopes!

2011-11-01T07:00:00.004-04:00

This week's challenge over at the HHS challenge blog is an easy one- create anything using any High Hopes Stamps images. Sweet! I used this opportunity to stroll down memory lane and use Candi the Tooth Fairy which is an older image.

Candi is coloured with Touch Twin markers as I had an opportunity to try them out while hanging out with my friend Vicki Garrett. I wanted to be able to try them and give opinions on them as I try to have knowledge on colouring mediums as best as I can as part of the CMC design team as we help others by giving colouring tips and inspiration. I have to report that there is a learning curve for me whenever I try to use a different type of marker. I always start out as if I just learned to colour for the first time lol!!! I found that the Touch Twin markers really flowed across the page and easily saturated my page to help me with blending. I love the result I got with them and hope that when I get some of my own that I am able to colour as well with them as I can with my copics. I used some of the new Webster's pages Christmas paper in the fun purple, pink and green colours to match the bright colours of my image. It's funny because purple is my fave colour yet I have a brutal time crafting with it!! I think it is because purple can have cold or warm undertones and I spend ages looking through my supplies to see what I have that matches my project as least close enough. I may have to sort all my stash by colours and then by the tone of the colour.....hmmm...we both know that is likely to never happen hee hee. I would like it done- I wonder if I can pay someone to do it for me lol!!!

Before popping over to the HHS Challenge blog to see what the rest of the DT has cooked up to get your inspiration stirring check out the High Hopes Stamps sale below on Fairy Tale images (I have linked it for you- just click on the name of the stamp)- gotta love a good sale!!!

November Monthly Special on now until Nov 7th.

R-093 Fearless Knight

R-092 Castle

F-149 For My Princess

D-097 Lilly Pads

F-148 Duck Family

R-091 Reflecting Pond

G-232 Frog Prince

G-231 Leapfrogs

G-237 Kissy Face Frog

C-047 Kiss Me

K-042 Sitting Princess

H-181 Crown/Wand 2 Pc. Set

M-039 Rock Wall

S-104 Unicorn

H-180 Mushroom One

H-182 Mushroom Two

Cheers! Andi

Color Me Creative Classroom is making cards for the boys

2011-10-31T18:20:00.001-04:00

Happy Halloween!!!!!

I am not sharing a Halloween card today as I can't wait to share the card I made as part of the CMC design team sponsored by Mo's Digital Pencil images this week.

For my card I used Video Boy with the long shaggy hair as he completely reminds me of my nephew Riley- before he shaved his head that is lol.

I challenged myself to just colour the image the way I wanted without matching it to paper as I typically do. I found it hard to do without having a guide but also freeing at the same time. It was nice just sitting there colouring willy nilly without any rules hee hee. What I found to be the most beneficial to stretching my boundaries in this way is that I felt free to use as many copics and colours as I wanted. I had no idea how I was stifling myself by just using the copics I picked out in advance that matched my patterned paper. Try it yourself next time you colour and let me know how it goes. You may be as pleasantly surprised as I was!

Speaking of colouring- Suzanne just shared that there are new copic online classes available. Here are the descriptions:

COPIC CLASS 5:

For those that have been asking me for the PAST year to create a Copic Class 5 wellllll I am working on it currently! It will debut the first week of November and you can pre-register for a little bit of a deal now until Nov. 5th! I had hoped to be done with it by Halloween but I have to have some procedures done that may prevent me from having everything ready by then. Most of the Class Description is up at the site under the Class Info/Pricing Tab and the Supply List has yet to be determined. I am using 60% digi stamps and the rest will be rubber stamps for the class---but as always you use what you have on hand, I don't feel that anyone HAS to use the same image as me. But all the images will be listed and linked very soon along with the Copic Colors I use.

MAGNOLIA COPIC CLASS 2 by Mindy Baxter:

Mindy has created another fantastic Copic Class using those cute Magnolia Stamps. This class will cover coloring images with different light sources at different times of day. If you didn't take Mindy's other class you are missing out---she's a fantastic instructor and has printable materials for you as well to follow along. Her class will DEBUT Friday, October 14th and you can register now. All invites to the class will go out on Friday! See her full class description at the CMC Classroom by hovering over the Class Info Tab at top of site!

As always when you take any class at CMC you get 1 full year to access the class and its materials!

Visit Color Me Creative Classroom at: http://scrapbitzcopics.ning.com/?xg_source=msg_mes_network

In addition to this card being part of the CMC copic challenge I am also entering it into the following challenges:

Charisma Cards Challenge- Anything goes
Crafty Purple Frog challenges- Sparkles (used glitter pen on the chip bag, pop can and game remote)
Make it Monday challenge- Anything goes
Simon Says Stamps Challenge- Anything goes
Mark's Finest Papers- use your scraps (card was made of leftover bits from a card kit)

I love Mineral Love organic and vegan makeup!!!

2011-10-30T12:11:00.002-04:00

I typically only share my crafty ventures on my blog but I have found that many of my crafty friends also share a few of my other favourite things in life so I have decided to branch out once in awhile and also do some reviews on makeup and books and fave products that I have tried as I have found I have really enjoyed reading them on my friend's blogs as well. I hope you enjoy it too!

I stumbled onto Mineral Love's etsy store while looking for more loose eyeshadow powders. I had found a few different sellers but Mineral Love's product selection as well as their donation of sales to an animal shelter really pulled me in their direction over the others. I am so glad that happened! I have gotten to know Tricia Mack the owner and she is adorable and gives hands down some of the best customer service I have ever experienced!

First- her eyeshadows

I ordered the small size pots of a few different colours and they come in sweet clear pots with black lids. It doesn't look like a lot in the container when it arrives but don't let that fool you! You use sooo little to get a rich colour that my pots still look barely touched. I found this a great solution for me as I wanted to get lots of different colours to try for the best price. As I have found some favourites- like chocolate frosting- I will order them in the full size pots when I need to re-order.

You get a strong colour just by using the powder straight out of the jar and onto your eyelid. I lightly touch my brush to the loose shadows then swirl it around the lid to cover my brush and apply. This gives a nice colour and you can make it soft or dark by adding more or less.

To make your colour POP Tricia recommends putting some of the eyeshadow into the lid and adding a drop or two of the magic mixing medium she offers. It turns into a paste and you apply that to your eyes for a dramatic eye coverage and bold colours. I use this technique called 'Foiling' when I am going out at night and a more vibrant colour is what I am looking for. My eyes are my best feature and Tricia's eyeshadows never fail to get me compliments from men and women when I go out. Sweet!!!

Now- her customer service

I asked Tricia if she could recommend some colours for me and I sent her a picture of me so that she could see my colouring. She made some great recommendations and to my surprise she also included some small baggies with different colours than the ones I ordered to try that she thought would compliment me. And she was right of course! I have added the colour Jennifer to my fave list and wear it often. She puts your jars into this sweet black lace bag and also includes a wonderful handwritten note with your order. How amazing is that!!! As well she includes an instruction sheet to use with your Magic Mixing Medium so that you know right away how to get the best results.

Additionally- Tricia is so personable!! I joined her Mineral Love facebook page and she frequently has fun giveaways and also lets her customers know if she will be setting up shop somewhere that local clients can come out to see her. I have also found out that we share the same birthday!! So of course we are basically twins separated at birth! She has also blown me away by asking me what my fave colour is so she can make an eyeshadow for me and call it Andi. Seriously- how can you compete with that service!

Overall- using loose shadows was new to me when I first started this new journey but I have quickly come to use them with the same ease that I use my compact ones. I have found a shop and seller that I know I will continue to use and support for years to come.

If you decide to try Mineral Love for yourself please let Tricia know that I sent you! I won't be getting anything for it but I just want her to know how much I appreciate the fabulous personable customer service that she provides!

I love to SMASH things!!!

2011-10-29T19:56:00.000-04:00

Here is my post from over at SGD's blog today....it's smashing good fun!

SGD has the sooo popular Smash Books in stock in many of the different colours. Which is good and bad for me.

Good- they come in different colours. I like different colours.

Bad- the different coloured books are different on the inside so of course I need each one.

Or is that maybe another good thing? hee Hee.

I have to tell you about how popular Smash books are not only with us crafty peeps but also for kids and teens. I bought these books for my 2 daughters. One likes to craft..one not soooo much. Well they are both onto their second books as they are so full if they put anything else in it may explode! We have bought some for their friends and it has proven to be just as popular with anyone we have given it to. I think it is because it is old school scrapbooking as shown in the video above. They cut out their 'Cody Simpson' and 'Justin Bieber' pictures from their magazines and fill the books with their fave pictures. They smash in all their movie tickets, pamphlets from places we've visited, restaurant menus, doodles, good notes from teachers and notes from friends. Instead of the collectables that used to float around in bags and drawers they have a place in their book to treasure forever.

My oldest recently had a birthday party and 2 of her friends brought their Smash books to the party so they could add to it as the party progressed. I DID NOT MAKE THEM DO THIS! Even though it is something I could totally see myself suggesting to the kids hee hee. They smashed in flyers from the spa we went too and parts of their gift bags. Girls after my own heart.

I am sharing this story because I am so surprised at how amazing these books are for birthday and Christmas gifts. The books and the add-ons you can buy are so inexpensive that you can grab a few items to get them on their way- starting with smashing some of their birthday cards right into their book :).

Click here to find SGD's supply of Smashie goodness for Smashaholics like me-

Smashbook gallery

Here are some pics from my Smash book and my basket of Smashie goodness. I have to admit I fight not to 'organize' my page and just freely put items in. I keep reminding myself- this is not a beauty pageant- just smash it in!!!

Smash books- I'm not sure who came up with the idea at K&Company but I thank you.....I love you actually....I hope that this doesn't make things awkward...but I really love you...Smash books make my life brighter and free. Bliss...

Have a smashing day- Andrea

Meet my new bestie- Carrie. Carrie the Copic Case

2011-10-22T10:33:00.002-04:00

**Here is my post over at Scrappin' Great Deals blog**

I would like to introduce you to Carrie- my copic case. She and I are new besties and we are getting along fast and furious. I first saw these online through a store ad and couldn't even find other pictures online. I emailed Sheila instantly blathering about a new case that I needed now...now...NOW!

Thankfully she was able to tell me they were already on their way to SGD.

She 'may' have stretched the truth slightly so that I wouldn't give myself a new hernia with the conniption I was having but it did calm me down lol!!!

I wasn't sure I would like it. I currently have them in order in an acrylic case which made it easy to find a certain colour but other than that..... well it doesn't travel well and it has spilled on me on more than a few occasions. Since I frequently enjoy colouring with friends portability is important to me.

I have to say I have tested it out and it is working great for me. I used it over at Sarah's house and had no problem grabbing the right colours quickly and clean up was a cinch compared to me putting it off because it meant re-organizing them over and over again. Time to leave..well I just closed the lid and zipped it up! I filled 5 cups with my markers and the 6th one I put my glitter pens and most commonly used refills. I also had room to slip my memento ink pad, some stamps and a stamp block in my case.

Sarah had to get a case too and I am happy to share that after I teased her with photos of mine that she now has one of her own. She was so excited to get it home and fill it up. I got an email from her titled- "Copic Case- A Cautionary tale" and the following pictures...

This is the email I sent back to Sarah after seeing these pictures- 'Sarah- before I forget...the copic cases are not meant to go on their side'. Hahahahahahaha

Sarah wanted me to share she has now recuperated from the copic incident of 2011 and all the markers have been found and put in the case. She may have a few more gray hairs than what she woke up with the morning before but all is well in the end.

I have also seen pictures of the new copic case with the 36 wallets packed inside- you can get 216 markers in the case with room left over for refills or paper.

I found this on Marianne Walker's blog who works for copic- If you use the hard shell cases like Marianne did in the picture above, you can fit about 288 markers.

I do find this to be the best option out there for me and when colouring with Sarah last night she agreed that we had no trouble finding our markers quickly even though we were used to having them in exact order. So the chaos of them all in soft cups helter skelter didn't impede us as much as we were worried it would. As well we kept exclaiming about how quick clean up was with us just sticking them back in the cups- love!!!

I hope you enjoyed this review and Sarah's word to the wise- Andi

My first Color Me Creative first official copic post.....yippee!!

2011-10-19T17:38:00.000-04:00

I am so excited to do my first 'official' post as part of Suzanne Dean's Color Me Creative Classroom DT! I am honoured to part of a great group of uber talented ladies who love colouring just as much as I do. We joined the group in the beginning of September so I have had a chance to chat up the ladies for quite awhile before our posts started. It really makes for a comfortable family feel already! I have to admit it was tough keeping this secret for so long especially with all the Suzanne Dean fans at SGD due to her amazing copic classes.

For our Oct 14th challenge we used Halloween colors and images from our generous sponsor Glitterbabe digi stamps. I chose the sweet kitty on the broom as I have a soft spot for all things kitty related. Probably due to my 2 fuzzy wuzzy's that keep me company all day long. I also included a pic of the markers I used, feel free to click on the pic to make it larger and easier to read.

You will see on the top of my blog new tabs and you can find the CMC DT names under the Design Team's tab. Please take a moment and stop by their blogs to see how great the ladies work is that I have the pleasure of creating with.

Speaking of kitties....here are some pics. The top 2 pics are of our youngest cat who is absolutely bizarre and the last pic is of our oldest kitty- the "normal" one who is biting my hair to try and get at my bobby pin. Yep that's the normal one!

Cheers! Andi

HHS is playing with ribbon, lace or twine..oh my!

2011-10-18T07:00:00.000-04:00

Happy Tuesday everyone! Today over at the High Hopes Challenge blog we are asking you to use Ribbon, Lace or Twine on your HHS creation. Easy Peasy for this gal!

I used one of the new snowmen from the Sept release called Christmas Joy Snowy and coloured him up with my copics. I then used some Christmas paper I grabbed last year from Webster's Pages which ended up matching the copics I used. See...my constant shopping comes in handy when it turns out I was lucky to have picked this up last year and have it around for this year hee hee. I added some of my red and white twine from the Twinery and a Christmas Tree charm I received from my friend across the pond Elaine from her shop. I finished the card off with some spritzes of Frost shimmer spray and voila!

One more Christmas card down....a basquillion more to go lol.

So if you are looking for some amazing mojo inspiring creations look no further than the HHS challenge blog and see what the rest of the DT has made.

Cheers! Andi

La Blanche stamped card

2011-10-15T07:15:00.003-04:00

Hello!! I just wanted to share with you my post today over at the SGD blog using La Blanche stamps and coloured using the technique shown in the video. I hope you enjoy it and have a wonderful day!

Andrea here on this Saturday morning with the second card you can make with the Oct card kit. Today's card uses some of Prima's gorgeous Printery papers...I have some 12x12 in my stash along with the 6x6 pack..love the vintage look. Again this card uses a La Blanche stamp and in this month's card kit you will have received 3 pieces of the La Blanche specialty paper to try out the technique seen in the video above. On my card I stopped after the distress inks and didn't use the Ultra Thick Embossing Powder (UTEE) but it does add a really nice effect.

I share this often on my personal blog about my love of mice stamps. Not real ones...just stamps or cute mice stuffed animals so this stamp was one I had been eyeing for awhile. I coloured it up with my distress inks and a one of my Fantastix colouring tools. After he was coloured I spritzed water onto my image using my mini mister and then blotted it with a paper towel before turning my heat gun on it to really set it. Once I had that done I put it together and as a finishing touch I spritzed it with some shimmer spray in the handy portable tubes that are included in this month's kit. I am not sure if you can make it out in the picture but it has an amazing sparkle to it! I am not sure if vintage cards are supposed to sparkle but they sure do in my world hee hee!!!!

I have to share that my hubby actually really liked this card as well and even took the time to compliment it without me asking first. Actually what he said was "Oh cool, I really like your Rat card". snicker!!! Of course I corrected him and told him it is a mouse actually and he just smirked. Boys!!!

I hope you get some crafty time in today and if you want to grab one of this month's kit you may want to act fast as very few were made this month outside of the club members.

Cheers! Andrea

Playing with Gilli and Halloween

2011-10-13T07:00:00.000-04:00

Gilli challenge #18 is to use at least 3 of the following colours- purple, orange, green, black and white. I used all of them...Let's face it, my paper from DCWV made it easy.

The first thing I did was colour up Lady Gilli and give her fun purple hair. I then paper pieced her dress using some paper from Authentique then added glitter to really make it pop and look all shiny- web like. I then grabbed my Martha Steward spooky fence punch to add more dimension to the card. I was pretty lucky though- this page had the fun swirls and house already on it. There really wasn't much else to add or I would have been covering it up. I did add a sentiment from the same DCWV paper pack and then some punched bats. Anja made me buy the punch a bunch tool kit awhile back and I used it for the first time tonight to deboss my bats and make them pop. All right Anja- you were right..I love it hee hee. Last but not least some fun googlie eyes went into the windows of the house to give it some more 'monster' vibe. I found them while cleaning and sorting my crafty crap. It's like Christmas sometimes when I do that- finding all the things I had misplaced and forgotten about hee hee!

I hope you get some crafty time in today and can play along with us over at the Gilli challenge blog. Tune in tomorrow for my first post as part of the Color Me Creative Classroom DT with Suzanne Dean!

Scrappin' Great Deals is proud to support Operation Julie's smile

2011-10-07T08:00:00.001-04:00

I am so glad that you joined us on this amazing blog hop for Operation Julie’s Smile. If you came here from I {heart} paper's blog, then you are in the right spot. If not, you may want to start from the beginning at the Sweet Stamp Shop’s blog and take your time. You have ALL WEEKEND to hop with us and win prizes! If you get lost along the way or with a hop this big there are bound to be breaks in the hops so pop on back to the amazing Sweet Stamps Blog to get your bearings.

Quick share about my card today before I leave you to read how this amazing hop came together. My card is one of the cards you can make with the Oct SGD card kit featuring La Blanche stamps. I will be sharing the second card tomorrow on my blog and the store's blog on Saturday. I called Sheila to tell her about this amazing hop to help a fellow crafter I had come to know online and she instantly wanted to help as well. Sheila generously donated two $50 gift cards to her store to help raise funds. How sweet is she! She doesn't even know Julie but immediately felt for her situation and wanted to help out in any way she could. I am so proud to represent SGD and Sheila's non stop kindness for her fellow man on this hop. I apologize now for the wonky text settings, I can't figure out how to fix it lol!!! Of course for those of you who know me something wonky is part of my regular day hee hee.

“The creative blogging community is coming together this weekend to help one of our friends, Julie Ranae. You may know her as the Design Team Coordinator for many wonderful companies from bakers twine, die cuts, rubber stamps and more. What many people don’t know about Julie Ranae is that she has had some pretty major dental surgeries in her lifetime due to medication she had to take as a child. It was in her plans to think about having all of her teeth replaced at some point in the next 5 years, a decision that was pretty easy to plan out. But then it happened…she chipped her front teeth on a weekend a month ago. The dentist told her there was no way to save them & that it was his recommendation that she give in and have them all her teeth removed soon, but for that day, they needed to get her front teeth done so her gums could begin to heal. He said he would 'work out payments with her to have ALL this work done...but when she called to make her appt for the first step of impressions, they told her the amount of money that was needed and that the 'payments' applied only to the two teeth that were extracted that day. Her husband Paul was with her & that too, was his understanding as well. So this is how she has found herself in this situation…Needing at least $4000 to get started and another $3000 to finish the process…a total of $7000.

Nicole Rixon, owner of Sweet Stamp Shop put together this benefit after finding out about this situation and before Julie Ranae knew it, it took flight!

Because she is an event organizer by trade, she has taken on the job of organizing all of the blogs in this hop as her way of ‘working overtime’ for what she needs, the same as if she were able to work overtime at an outside job to pay for the work to be done.

It is the goal of all of these generous friends & sponsors to help make this situation more do-able for our friend so that she can share a brand new smile with all of us soon.

If there is anything you can do to help with a financial donation, there is a donation button ready for you to click. Any amount is appreciated and ALL DONATIONS will be eligible for prizes from our sponsor pool of over $2500.

I hope you enjoyed your stop here on the hop! The next stop is Allison’s blog. Make sure you leave a comment here before you go so that you can have a chance at the amazing prizes up for grabs and if you can, please make a donation so we can help bring back a new smile for our friend

High Hopes Stamps Halloween Treat Bag and a SALE...

2011-10-04T10:27:00.003-04:00

Time for another HHS bi-weekly challenge and this one is delish!!! We are asking you to make a treat bag- a Halloween one if you can. Yummmmmm!

I used one of my fave stamps from last Fall's release Angel Bear Ghost Costume. I don't know what it is about it but I colour this one up over and over again. Love it! I coloured him up with my copics and I even used some of my florescent copic colours. I really like them but rarely do they work with the image I am doing. Of course Halloween is the time when all rules go out the window and fun colouring gets to happen! I also used spider paper from an older DCWV paper pack to make my bag topper.

Halloween is a big deal at my house. My hubby treats it like Christmas. He starts looking up ways to make our house scary well before the big day and when the stuff starts to hit the shelves he has me there with him while he oooh's and aaahhh's over the most grotesque things. Gargoyles and rubber slimy eyeballs bring my man such joy...me- not so much. But I get Christmas so I can't complain hee hee.

Now for the sale info....enabler alert!

This sale is only available directly through the High Hopes Website.The first week of each month, High Hopes has a special sale on certain stamps.

High Hopes Stamps is located in South Western Ontario, surrounded by farm land. This time of year we love that many of our local farmers put up roadside stands selling the best of their crops. Every year we stock up on fresh peaches and cream corn to freeze, Zucchini to make into loaves of bread to freeze, and Blueberries, Apples and Peaches to can. Canning the fruits, and making and canning homemade salsa is a fall tradition that our family has had for years. We also love to go to the Fairs to see what other folks are making, and baking!

Being in that "Farm Fresh" mood,
we thought we would bring back some of our old favorite farm images for this month's
20% off sale!
(unmounted rubber stamps)
To see the images on sale, just put in the code word "Octsale" in the search box on the catalog page at the High Hopes website, orclick here.

Here is also a list of stamps that are on sale this week...

M-044 Three pane Farm Animals
T-065 Funny Farm
R-106 Farm Background
S-120 Maribelle Cow
S-119 Farmer Clem
H-189 Brewster
Q-060 Buddy the Goat
R-107 Miss Peggy
F-165 "Everywhere an Oink Oink"
R-110 Odie Dog
R-108 She-Baa Sheep
E-158 "Here a moo"
E-159 "Everywhere a Moo"
F-164 "Eee Aye Oh"

If you'd like to see some samples made by the DT go here.

I hope you enjoyed my spooky share today and don't forget to hop on over to our challenge blog to read the full deets and see the other AMAZING treats the HHS Diva's have cooked up for you.

Cheers, Andi

2011-09-24T07:00:00.001-04:00

**Don't forget to day is our Garage Sale at SGD! Come and find amazing deals on craft items. Saturday and Sunday only!**

I have to admit I feel so happy each and every time I look at this card. I am not sure what I love more about it..the look and colours or how darn fast it was made lol!

I showed how to make this card at one of our Therapy Thursday sessions. If you haven't been to one yet come and join us at our next one! They are each Thursday at 1pm and we either show you how to use a product we carry or sometimes we just make fun crafts. The ladies that join us are a hoot!!

Okay back to this happy card. I used one of the MFT stamp and die sets called 'You Move Me'. I have to admit when I just looked at it I was completely underwhelmed. Sheila wanted me to try it out on a Thursday as they were new to our store and Sarah was going crazy over them. So of course I had to try it. Cut out my shape..stamped my sentiment in the fun font using black Versafine and voila! Head over heels in love! We actually sold out of them after using them with the ladies on a Thursday but luckily now have more in stock.

My card base is Patina Bazzill and Sunbeam Bazzill for my yellow layer. I used both sides of the 'Home Tweet Home' paper from My Little Shoe Box. I think I am going to have to grab some more to hoard in my stash lol! The moon and clouds were cut out of white Bazzill using the dies included in the stamp set then stickled. I stamped some stars from the set using Versafine again and added some twine to finish it up.

At how often this card makes me happy- I think I have to keep it in my craftroom all to myself hee hee!

Off to the Garage Sale I go! Andi

HHS Release day is here- yippee!

2011-09-22T00:01:00.003-04:00

Welcome to the High Hopes stamps new release hop! If you are already hopping along you would have arrived from Karen's blog. Doesn't she have mad colouring skills!! She blows my mind! If you haven't started yet grab a cuppa and jump over to my good friend Jeanne's blog. I aspire to rock the clean and simple look like Jeanne does instead of all my bling. She really knows how to pull it all together. All stamps are now available to purchase- yippee!

On to today's card. When I first saw this image of Santa as a moon I have to admit I scratched my head. Whenever I am not sure of how I would use an image the first thing I do is challenge myself to colour it up and figure it out.
I found a great sketch over at the CPS sketch blog and it really helped me get my ideas going. I knew I wanted Santa overlooking something and then I finally found some MME die cuts of trees and knew I had hit the jackpot! I coloured up my Santa Moon- added stickles to his beard. Cause obviously Moon Santa would have a twinkly beard right! I assembled my card and it still needed something so I used the 'Merry Christmas' sentiment from HHS as I just loved the big fun font.

Soooo..what do you think? I have to admit I love it! I am really happy I played with this image instead of letting my baffled mind shy away from it. I am so pleased with how it turned out and I hope it also got your mind spinning with possibilities.

To continue the hop next up is Anna. Anna is another one who makes the best clean and simple cards. I am always checking out her work and her tutorials- she rocks! In fact I think she may even have a tutorial for you today- love that she does that!
Don't forget to leave a comment at every DT member blogs as we will be awarding new stamps to a lucky commenter. The hop challenge is open until Sat at midnight EST so you have lots of time to enjoy all the HHS creations on your way!

Have a Crafty day! Andi

High Hopes Sneak Peeks Day 2

2011-09-21T07:00:00.017-04:00

**If you are here for my Gilli challenge card please scroll down, thank you!**

So it is only Wednesday and this is my 5th post of the week- kerazy!!!! I have been giving myself lots of crafty therapy time and it shows in how many cards I have made. Love it!

For today's sneak peek card I used Santa and his list and again went a little crazy with my Christmas stash of paper and accessories.I coloured Santa up with my copic markers then cut him our using one of my nestabilities. I added some silver stretchy cord to my card to help give it a festive feel. Nothing says Christmas like lots of cards with gold and silver stretchy cord hee hee! He could also have been my card for our current 'Home for the Holiday's' challenge. It will be going until Oct so you still have lots of time to join us!

My sketch today came from the Card Patterns challenge blog- another fave of mine. I am also submitting Santa over at the Twin Touch marker challenge blog. I am curious about these markers and figured I should try to win some to see what they are all about! Pop on over if you want to enter too.

Want some more eye candy? Oh and don't forget our 'Spread the Word' contest. Pop on over to the HHS challenge blog for all this and more- woot woot!

Cheers, Andi

My Gilli challenge card- let's emboss!

2011-09-21T06:30:00.002-04:00

Last night I was partying hard with the Gilli ladies as we were celebrating Gilli's 1st birthday. Anary was giving away amazing goodies! If you missed it don't worry- there is still lots of birthday fun to be had! If you haven't commented on my Gilli house post click here to see it and leave a comment to win. Hop over to the DT blogs to comment on their Gilli homes to win as well. Lots of prizes to be had!

After the wild party and meeting a girl named Tina who gives me a run for my money at being naughty (Hi Tina!!) I needed to rest up and so Cozy Gilli came out with me to help make my challenge card. Anary sent us all on the DT some of the new Authentique papers from a few different lines- Thanks so much Anary! I used sheets from the Journey Line on my card today. After colouring Gilli with my copics and using my new fave hair colour combo (E25, 33, 50) I paper pieced her Snuggli and then ran it through my swiss dots cuttlebug folder. Sheila at SGD has her copics on sale right now at 25% off- time to stock up!

As I am sketch challenged I used the CPS sketch to make my card and embossed my side panels as well. I actually also cut out Gilli using my rectangle Nestabilities but I didn't have much luck running it through a second time to emboss it. I always chop off part of the paper. Oh well. At least I was able to trim it down and save it. Otherwise I would have hid the mistake with some fancy flower and ribbon placement hee hee!

I am also entering my Gilli card over at the Twin Touch challenge blog. I want to try those markers!!!

For more Gilli birthday celebrations and also awesome DT embossed samples to get your inspiration flowing visit the House of Gilli blog today!

Cheers! Andi

Quick Unity KOTM card to share

2011-09-20T19:58:00.001-04:00

**If you are looking for my High Hopes post or my Gilli Post please scroll down**

Just wanted to pop on and share a quick card I made today to play along with the Play Date cafe and the Unity KOTM sketch challenge. I am totally lying though- it seriously took me hours. No joke. Let's just say this in card number 12 before I got one I liked hee hee. Mojo didn't want to play nice today but I got the upper hand hee hee.

I stamped my KOTM image in versamark then embossed it in white embossing powder. I flipped the triangle on the sketch so that I could have the colours showing I wanted to highlight my soft purple paper.

Well that's all for me tonight- hope you are having a relaxing day! Andi

Day One of High Hopes Stamps Sneaky Peekies!

2011-09-20T07:00:00.001-04:00

Not only is it challenge day for HHS but it is also day one of sneak peeks before their new release this Thursday and it is amazing!

Today's challenge is 'Home for the Holidays' and I coloured up my lil mousie with bright colours to match my bright Christmas paper. I love how he is waiting eagerly for Santa to come. I coloured him with my copics and matched him up with the paper from My Mind's Eye. I know it came out a few years ago but I think you can still get it. I bought tons of it and now I am making myself use some of it lol. I am going to admit something that will probably not surprise you- I usually create my cards the night before a deadline. It just works for me- if I do it earlier I just spin in my chair with no mojo. Except this time...I have ALL MY RELEASE CARDS DONE. All of them! I just loved this release so much and had so much fun colouring them that I went nuts! You will see what I mean when you see them all. I also listened to Sarah McLachlan all day long- her Christmas songs- to get me in the mood. Perfect way to spend a rainy day me thinks!

My card layout today came from my friend Jen's blog- Deconstructing Sketch. I am HOPELESS when it comes to creating without a sketch. My cards all look the same otherwise hee hee. She posts a new one each Thursday so I get fresh inspiration every week. Love that!

If you want to play along with us and win some new HHS rubber hop on over here to the challenge blog. You will also get to see all the DT creations and all of them are with the new release.

Hope you have a fabulous crafty kinda day! Andi

Gilli New Release Blog Hop- Gilli has a home!

2011-09-19T06:00:00.005-04:00

Welcome to the House of Gilli design team hop! You just came from visiting the House of Gilli blog! Isn’t Gilli’s house a cool place? Now it is my turn to let you into my house!

During this hop leave some love in each place you drop by including this one. One person will be chosen randomly from the comments to win a GC for some Gilli's! So spread the word and come have fun with us!

For my special Gilli home today I coloured it up in what I think of as Cottage colours. I used creams, yellows and blues. My copic colours are - B91, 93, 95, 97, 99..E50, 51, 53..YR20, 21, 23...C0, 2 and of course some glaze and glitter to make my window's shine. I also used some Stampin' Up paper that I received last year and have been hoarding due to it's prettiness. I also used some of my precious SU paper clips and a silver flower. My last touch was some yellow twine to bring more sunshine to Gilli's home. I like to think Gilli would have a warm and welcoming home and I hope I got that across with my colours!

The nice thing is that this hop will last a whole week (09/19-29), so you have time to come for a visit anytime ! We will be waiting! Grab a cuppa tea and hop with me.

Oh I almost forgot…if you would like to have your own “House” read on! This stamp will be sold exclusively from our shop and can be ordered by emailing Anary who is the amazing owner of Gilli stamps. Please email her at gillishop@anary.com.

You may be wondering...who am I visiting next? Well- grab a refill if you are like me and need one already then pop on over to Ann's blog.

Cheers! Andi

Card for a Quinceañera....

2011-09-17T07:00:00.001-04:00

Today is my day to post over at the SGD blog and I wanted to share the card I made for the Quinceañera my oldest attended last Saturday for one of her friends. This is a very special birthday party as it is typically held by Latin American families when their daughter turns 15 to celebrate her leaving her childhood behind and beginning the next phase of her life as a woman.

It is a formal celebration so my daughter got to dress up in her 'fancy' clothes and wear heels. I wanted to make her a fancy shiny card to match her dress and after being inspired by Anja's card on the SGD blog a few week's ago I got busy.

I used the Butterfly kisses embossing folder by Craft Concepts and blinged up the butterflies on the top half of her card to symbolize her entering her womanhood. I hope she liked it!

I hope she liked the card and I am glad I remembered to take a picture of it before it was given away lol!!

Have a crafty day! Andi

She's getting married!

2011-09-10T07:00:00.001-04:00

I am so excited today because one of my close friends is getting married! Tanya is one of my favourite people and this wedding is probably one I will bawl my eyes out at lol. I am extremely blessed to have a met some amazing ladies at work and the six of us became fast friends. We have been there for each other during the good times and the bad and Tanya is one of the best listeners and supporters any of us could ever have. Yep- I am going to cry.

Tanya's wedding also represents a milestone for me. I started a weight loss journey on May 31st and buying a new dress for her wedding was one of my mini goals on my way to reach my goal weight. Well I am so proud to share that I am down 4 dress sizes now! I actually could even fit in to the next size down but it was tight. Yippee!! I can't wait to get all prettied up and hang out with my group of gals and watch our friend start a new chapter in her life. In my sexy dress of course hee hee!

I used a stamp set called Wedded Bliss from Flourishes. I have been buying quite a few of their stamps in the last few months as they are great to colour and their solid image ones have been nice too. Plus they include lots of amazing sentiments. I paired it with some of my new 6x6 paper from MME called Lost and Found 2 Blush. I used black bazzill for the base, some SU pink satin ribbon and sprayed Pearl glimmer mist all over it to give it a beautiful sparkle. Even my hubby loved it!

Well I better go and start getting ready for TK's big day. I hope you have a wonderful day too!

Lady Gilli Easel Card

2011-09-07T07:00:00.000-04:00

I am excited to share my second Gilli creation with you all. We were challenged to make a Gilli easel card with flowers. I have to admit I got carried away and totally forgot the flower part. Luckily I still needed to make my 'door stopper' for my easel so I used the Tim Holtz mini paper rosettes die and created the black flower shown here. Really really makes these flowers so fast and easy to create. I added a button from Tessa Ann Designs- one of my guilty pleasures. Notice another one by Lady Gilli herself...she deserved it lol!

I added folds to her dress by using R89 as my darkest colour and marked out where I wanted my folds. From there I worked from dark to light using R85, R83 and R81. I coloured her hair using E25, E29 and E31. This is my newest fave colour combo as I almost always colour brunettes. I have no idea why...probably because it reminds me of chocolate lmbo!!

One of the things I like about the Gilli stamps is that their eyes are just white ovals so that you can make them look in whatever direction you want. One of these days I will do a 'scene' so I can have a few of them looking at each other. If you want to purchase Gilli stamps you can find them at Stampingscrapping.com and you can see tons of inspiration and challenges over at the House of Gilli blog. The nice thing about their challenges is that you don't need to use a Gilli to win but if you do you get extra chances! So if you don't have a Gilli yet this may be a good way to start your collection.

I am off to teach a class today so I had better get my groove on. Hope you all have a fun productive Wednesday!

Cheers, Andi

It's back to school time with High Hopes Stamps

2011-09-06T07:00:00.002-04:00

The challenge being issued by this week is to have a 'back to school' theme with your HHS creations. I happen to love school supplies and any paper that reminds me of school paper, graph paper, etc so this was fun!

I used an older image from High Hopes Stamps by the artist Meljen called Mushroom Mouse. I enjoyed her whimsical style and if you do not have any of her stamps from her HHS line now is the time! For the first week of September all MelJen stamps at High Hopes are 20% off! Click here to read more about it and this week's challenge. Oh and also to welcome our two new Guest Divas Heidi and Sarah. Welcome ladies!!!

Now- in looking at my card you may think that the colouring is a bit 'off' for me. Well.....I tried to watercolour it. Yikes. It took me hours longer than expected. Hours. I used to watercolour years ago but haven't touched them since I got my first copic markers. I grabbed 2 packages of the Letraset Aquamarkers to try out and to be honest I have not got to my comfortable place yet. I think I need to watch many more online videos. I just could not get used to the markers being so dry. I wonder if my paper was too thick? I ended up grabbing my old Tombow markers and blowing the dust off them to use in addition to the Aquamarkers. All in all it's not too bad for a first attempt in probably 4 years. My card layout came from Card Positioning systems. I am sooo addicted to their fun layouts. I honestly would be lost without them at times I think!

We have also joined Facebook and we are excited to already have some followers! Come on over and join us and we will be giving away even more free rubbah to celebrate our new group. You can find it here.

Well, I am off to take the kid's to school today. They are actually excited about going back and seeing their friends but admit they are already dreading day 2 lol!!!!

Hope you have a great day, Andi

Playing with Stamping Bella, Mo Manning and SGD Card kits

2011-09-03T10:35:00.000-04:00

How fun is this guy!!!!!

This month's SGD Card kit being released on Sept 7th is all about Mo Manning and Stamping Bella. I had soooo much fun colouring up these images. One thing I also want to mention is that along side of my golfer image is a stitched look that I made using a fantastic new punch by Fiskars called Stitches Border Punch. The lazy crafter in me rejoiced at this super fast and easy tool to use!

This luscious lady is called Smooches and she cracks me up! I used the card sketches included in the kit to base my card layouts on. The kit also included paper by Kaiser Craft and Echo Park along with lots of card candy to embellish them.

I want to thank Sarah Kipling for also creating with Smooches and the kit for me this month. I hope she had fun! Remember these kits are limited because once they are gone..that's it. This girl isn't making any more of them hee hee.

Enjoy your weekend everyone! School starts next week here for the kids so we are loving these last few days and squeezing the last bit of Summer out of it.

Cheers, Andi

Copic colours used:

Golfer- E000, E00, E11, YG95, YG97, YG99, YG25, YG61, YG63, YG67, E50, E51, E53, RV13, RV25, YR12, YR16, YR18, BG10, C0, C1, E44, E47

Smooches- BG10, 11, 13, 18, E0000, 000, 00, R20, YR12, 14, 16, 18 (I then used my blender pen to add squiggly lines in her hair to add waves), C7, 9. The ground was dotted using W0, 1, 3.

Kraftin' Kimmie stamps and a fun Halloween card

2011-08-29T13:33:00.000-04:00

Happy Monday everyone! We are starting the back to school countdown at our house. One more week till I get to choose the music and tv shows during the day- yippee! One thing that my kids enjoy about Fall coming is that Halloween is not too long after back to school time. Probably because we celebrate it for most of October lol! My hubby is obsessed with scary things and scary movies and quite honestly it creeps me out. I prefer the cutesy Halloween images but I am not allowed to help decorate. Sigh. So instead I make fun Halloween cards for my family and friends as many of them have this holiday as their fave too.

I made this card this past weekend while at my fave store SGD during the crop and I used the KKS stamp Kreepy Kitty and coloured him orange so that I could use the Echo Park sticker "Beware of black cats" as a tongue in cheek kinda thing. It made me laugh anyway lol! I also used more of the Echo Park stickers and 6x6 papers from the Apothecary line that my black cat sticker came from. I then added clear glaze using my clear Viva decor pen to add texture to my images and card. Love that pen as it dries so much quicker than other thick glazes. My moon is paper pieced with this shimmery thick plastic paper that has an opal sheen in real life. I am saving it to also use on fairy wings in the future.

I even went crazy and decorated the inside of the card- whoa settle down there Andrea!! Yep- I was full of tea and feeling wild lmbo! I used the matching KKS sentiment and more stickers from the EP pack.

I am also entering this card in the following challenges:

Tuesday Throwdown- Dimension and texture (my bat and sticker labels)

The Poodles Parlour- Anything goes

The Pink Elephant Challenge blog (TPE 114) - Paper Piecing (my shimmery moon)

Hope you get to have a crafty day! Andi

My new DT role for Gilli stamps!

2011-08-24T04:00:00.000-04:00

I am so excited to share that I am now part of the Gilli stamps design team! I was introduced to them at CHA from my partner in crime Suzanne Dean and I just instantly fell in love with Anary the owner and her whimsical images. I threw myself around kicking and screaming until she agreed to let me play with her stamps hee hee! Seriously- when she emailed me after we met and asked me if I wanted to join I was over the moon! She has some amazing Gilli images that I really enjoy colouring.

Today is my first post over at the House of Gilli challenge blog. If you already have some Gilli stamps and wish to play along pop on over and upload your card featuring the sketch above. I used Fairy 2 Gilli on my card and coloured it with my copics using the new techniques I learned from Suzanne Dean. Let's just say it was like relearning how to colour all over again. This image is my first time using my new mad copic skills and I am happy with how she turned out. I changed the sketch slightly to move the embellishments from below the image panel to have her holding flowers instead. Want to know why?? For those of you who know me whenever I cut out an image, paper piece, creative placement of embellishments, etc. it means that Andrea messed up.

Can you see it?

Look closely at her thighs...yep she has blue thighs. Not.on.purpose.

It seems that when I used an extreme amount of blue ink on her dress that I apparently grabbed some with my skin colour and smeared it all around. Of course I did. And no matter what I tried I couldn't erase it or blend it in. So..she gets a pretty bouquet hee hee!

So pop on over to the House of Gilli blog to see more creations. Feel free to leave a comment on my post today telling Anary how awesome I am. I will pay you..lmbo!!!!

Cheers, Andi

High Hopes Challenge- use Fall colours...gasp

2011-08-23T07:00:00.000-04:00

This week's challenge by HHS is to use Fall colours on your card. I have to admit it took me aback a bit but I prepared myself for the challenge by burning an apple crisp scented candle and within minutes I was ready for apple cider and pumpkin patches. On my card today I used the cute "Teddy for Tea" stamp and the "me n you" sentiment. If it is about tea I love it. Tea granny anyone hee hee! I used my beloved stash of Kaiser Craft Peachy Keen 6x6 paper and followed a sketch posted by the Card Positioning System's blog. A layout challenged girl's best friend let me tell you!

Even though if you are like me and hanging on to Summer as best as you can this is a fun challenge to do! I love Fall colours all year round and they are great to colour up. Come on and join us over at the High Hopes Stamps challenge blog and play along. You can do it...I swear it won't make Fall come any faster lol!

High Hopes Stamps and Farmville together equals one cute card...

2011-08-09T07:00:00.003-04:00

I haven't posted much at all this Summer as we have been SOOOOO busy with the kids at home that is has been crazy! Except for cleaning my craft room to organize my newest crafty purchases I haven't done much creating at all. While I missed it I have to say it was a good break for my mojo. Playing with the kids helped me relax and find my creative outlets again.

Which leads me to the inspiration for my High Hopes Stamps challenge card.......

Farmville

I have a secret....I am addicted to playing Farmville. It is actually not much of a secret as those who know me have teased me endlessly about it. I have tried to stop...tried to walk away but dang it they keep coming up with new challenges and cute new virtual animals and my farm just reels me back in. My kids tell strangers that I love my 2-D chickens more than them. I don't of course...but let's hope I never have to choose ;). I have also made some really cool Farming friends- Cathy, Luane, Vilma, Cindy, Nancy....just to name a few. Oh and I can't forget my newest gaming buddy Chris 'Sparklepuff' Diedrich- this card is in honour of all of you.

I spent a long time colouring up this older HHS image- Clarabelle and Riley- and it felt sooo good to have my markers back in my hands. I even cracked out the pencils and OMS to try my hand at decent grass. Not too shabby for a first time! I also included a pic of the copics I used at the bottom of this post for those of you who are interested.

This week's challenge is so easy anyone can play along! The challenge is to use anything High Hopes. Maybe you want to make a Farmville card like me? Or perhaps a Cityville, Mafia Wars or Treasure Isle card lmbo!!! Come on over to the High Hopes Stamps challenge blog to see some fantastic cards from the HHS Divas and also to add your card to our challenge.

Y'all come back now- ye hear! Andi

Whipper Snapper stamps- another fun card

2011-07-16T14:43:00.000-04:00

Just wanted to pop on and share another of my Whipper Snapper creations. Isn't this little cutie just adorable! I am such a sucker for critter stamps. I coloured him up with my copics of course and used my fave colour purple as my inspiration.

I hope you are all having a fab Saturday. We are having a garage sale today so I am off to convince people they need to take my stuff to their home to help reduce the clutter in mine lol!!

Cheers, Andrea

High Hopes Stamps is having fun in the sun...

2011-07-12T07:00:00.002-04:00

I hope you are all having an amazing summer so far! I have to say we have had some awesome weather here and I have even put on a swimsuit for the first time in years lol. Most days are a perfect mix of heat with warm evenings making even a stay indoors girl like me take my cuppa outside to enjoy the colours and sounds of Summer.

High Hopes Stamps is back with a challenge and it is to Have Fun In The Sun. Not hard to find inspiration at all, just have to look out a window! In honour of my BIL's birthday today I have coloured up Surf Scene Dudley. Now I needed to make the card without any frills or bling for my BIL so I decided to make it postcard style. I think he will like it!

To read the full rules about how to play along with us and win some free rubber pop on over to the HHS challenge blog but you may want to bring a cold drink before feasting your eyes on all the hot summer fun!

Cheers, Andi

An oldie but a goodie- Happy Canada Day!!!!

2011-07-01T14:01:00.000-04:00

I made this card and shared it for last year's Canada Day but since I love it here it is again! Just like summer TV today is a rerun hee hee! I used High Hopes Team Canada stamp and their Happy Canada Day sentiment.

Even though I have nothing special planned for myself today except spending it in my craftroom (family is out of town celebrating) I feel like there is a happy energy all around. I am a VERY proud Canadian and I am so happy that I was born in this incredible Country. What I also love is that I can just sit outside tonight and all around me in the sky will be incredible fireworks brightening the night sky celebrating how lucky we are to be Canadian.

I also wanted to share that one of my fave blogs to visit Pretty Pressings by Claudia Rose is having a Christmas in July blog candy offering. Pop on over to check it out and wish her all the best as she is recovering from surgery. I encourage you to take some time to look around at her past posts- holy carp eye candy! Her creations blow my mind! If you scroll down the right hand side of her blog to her categories she has 71 tutorials she shared! Love that!

I would love to hear about your Canada celebration today so feel free to leave me a comment. Maybe you will give me an idea as to how we will celebrate next year lol!! And don't forget to be safe!

Cheers Hosers! (another dose of Canadiana hee hee) Andi

High Hopes Stamps .... Thank you Card challenge

2011-06-28T07:00:00.002-04:00

Time for the High Hopes Stamps bi-weekly challenge! Lynne has challenged us to make Thank you cards. And so I made a Thank You gift bag. Please don't take this personally Lynne- I am prone to rebelling ;). In all seriousness I started thinking about saying Thank you and giving handmade gifts is a great way to say it. So why not a cute bag to give it in? I am going to fill this bag with some seeds and gardening gloves to say Thank you to a special someone in my life. My husband. Who I hope takes the big hint and works on the garden this week hee hee. No seriously it is for my youngest daughter's teacher.

I used the versatile stamp- Friendship Seed Pack set- to jazz up my plain ole kraft bag. I coloured up it with copics to match my Kaiser Craft paper. I used some of the matching paper to put in the centre of the image and fancy cut out some of the flowers from the design and popped them up a few layers. Some matching tissue and Voila! A perfect bag for my Thank you gift.

For more Thankfully calorie free eye candy pop on over to the HHS challenge blog to see what the Diva's have created for you.

Cheers- and thanks for stopping by- Andi

Whipper Snapper Stamps- Hat-Bee Birthday!!

2011-06-25T11:26:00.000-04:00

I just love this Whipper Snapper Stamp! While I am scared silly of bees in real life after being stung many times I love the cute ones that Whipper Snapper has to colour up! Oh and I also like the bees in that movie- The Bee Movie. I almost felt bad for stealing their honey after that movie...but I luvs honey so I figured I won't kill them and they can share their honey. Compromise.

Sorry it has been soooo quiet on here lately. As I had mentioned previously I have really pared down some aspects of my life as I have lots of busy stuff going on personally and my blogging got sidelined for a bit too. But there is no excuse today not to post as I am sitting here on my laptop playing Farmville and drinking tea so I figured I should start posting the TONS of cards I have made that I haven't shared yet. Like this Whipper Snapper one. Sigh- I luvs Whipper Snapper. Just needed to say it again.

School is almost out for my girls. My oldest has one exam left on Monday then she is finished Gr. 9. I will be sooo glad to put that year behind her. She is much more comfortable now in H.S. and I wouldn't say she is looking forward to Gr. 10 because she prefers not being at school but she isn't dreading it lol. My youngest...my baby is in her last week of Gr. 6 and looking forward to Gr. 7. I am in COMPLETE denial. She is just a baby! I am so not good with letting her grow up. She even brushes her hair now everyday without being nagged and chooses her outfits and accessories the night before so she is styling at school. I never thought I would miss the days of me saying 'You can't go to school with your hair all scraggly and those clothes are already 2 days old- go change! And for the love of Pete- have you brushed your teeth yet?". Now my baby is fully styled every day to the teeth.

I think I am going to start pushing down on the tops of their heads each day to make them stop growing. While I can still reach it that is- those kids are going to be tall!

Well here is hoping your day is better than the weather here. Cold and drizzly are not how we like to start Summer. Sounds like a day for the craft studio.

Cheers, Andi

Copic Tutorial and High Hopes Stamps challenge....

2011-06-14T07:00:00.042-04:00

Good Morning!!!! Oops- hope that wasn't too loud and made your spill your tea lol! I have to admit I am feeling a bit peppy blogging about this bright card. And I used some primary colours- sooo not me and I like it! It's making me have an extra skip in my step today. And I may also be feeling extra smug because I have a tutorial to share too. Yep- I better stop all this self-congratulating because my head is now so big it is bobbling around on my neck like one of those bobblehead statues hee hee. Okay back down to earth ;0).

Today's HHS challenge to use Stars and Stripes on your card. Could be a patriotic card for my neighbours across the way. Or could just have stars or stripes. As long as you are using a High Hopes stamps image on your creation and stars/stripes somewhere you are all good! Click here to pop on over to the HHS Challenge blog to read the full details and see more eye candy from the Divas!

Copic Tutorial- Mottled skin great for scaly things

First stamp your image using your preferred copic paper and ink. I used the Copic X-press it paper and Tuxedo Black Memento ink. My stamped image is Tubby Dragon from the most recent release. I let the image dry for about 20 minutes before colouring it. Probably longer than necessary but I didn't want it to bleed in my fancy tutorial pictures lol.

You will need the following Copic markers if you want to use the exact same colours I did- G40, G82, G85, G94, G99. Of course you don't have to use the same colours I did- feel free to experiment!

Taking your G40 marker cover your dragon with dots all over the body where you want the green to show. I left his horns and belly green free.

Next up grab your G82 and cover the body in the same areas but not completely so that you can still see the G40 showing through. This will give it a fun mottled look instead of just one colour in this area. After adding your G82 go over the same area again with your G40 to blend the colours.

Now we are going to give our image more depth by adding shading. I will be the first to admit I am not the best at knowing where to add it so use your eye and start where you would imagine the body to be darker in spots. It may help to put an object on your table under the same light you are using to get a better idea. Take your G85 and start dotting your shaded spots. I extend it quite a way into my already coloured areas as I will be adding more colours for depth and I want to give myself room. You can see the difference in the picture below.

Grab your G94 marker and add more dots in the same area you just put your G85. I typically put it up to half of the G85 dotted area. Looking below you can see it is darker in the shaded areas where I used G85 and G94.

Now I am going to add my darkest dots using G99. I am just putting a thin layer of dots into the same area I just added the G94. This will deepen your shadows and make them flow.

Last step! Now using your first colour G40 you are going to do nice big squishy dots and colour over the entire area to blend all the colours. I dotted and dotted then dotted some more until happy!

Now you are ready to colour the rest of your image! I added glitter to his belly and horns by dotting my Sakura stardust glitter gel pen and quickly blending the dots with my finger. I recommend just doing a small area at a time as it dries really quickly then won't blend. I find doing it this way just adds a sheen of sparkle instead of covering over what you just coloured with the silver glitter if you use the pen directly on your image. I also added some glossy glaze over my dragon (which was still wet at the time of the picture so it's cloudy) and a Viva Decor pen in Ice White pearl for the foamy bubbles.

I hope you find this a faster way to colour so that you don't find time 'draggin'!! Hee Hee, sorry couldn't resist! ;)

My Card samples for the June SGD Card kit

2011-06-10T14:22:00.000-04:00

I had so much fun picking out what was going to be in this month's kit and playing with all the goodies. Seriously- these cards pretty much made themselves!!! All those pretty colours- they sing to my soul. I know- pretty sappy but art really is food for my soul- it is why I create. How about you? What is one of the reasons you create? Plus there is nothing like getting all inky either from markers or paint- soothes me better than any massage oil. Oi- may be too much info hee hee but I am SURE you know just what I am talking about.

Click here to be taken to SGD's Card Kits. I got the idea to make these kits way back from my old days as a Stampin' Up demo. I was always making up kits and classes for my customers and while some like to take the same ideas and make it their own others like to make it exactly like mine. Exactly. If I said to use whatever colours they wanted- nope- they wanted to use the same ones I did. So I have changed up these kits the past 2 months. I have given sketches to follow and created samples from those sketches. I have also mentioned all items I used including the ink colours. And the feedback has been amazing!!! Thank you so much to all of you who have taken the time to give your feedback- more than we have ever received! And honestly- what a compliment to have people want to make it just like me- makes me *blush*. So thank you! And for those of you who are like me and see rules as just something that makes me want to do the complete opposite there are tons of bits and baubles for your own creations. And please feel free to share them with me!

Well that's enough from me right now. My freshly painted watercolour pages are now dry and it is time for me to learn how to play with the Cinch machine. I applied Gesso to my pages to prime them for my very first Art Journal. Squee!! So excited! My friend Lori is going to help me get started and I am so pumped! I took pictures along the way so I can share it with you. Unless of course it turns out to be an epic fail hee hee!

Cheers! Andi

My last Kraftin' Kimmie stamps Design Team post....

2011-06-04T07:00:00.004-04:00

This week's KKS challenge is to 'cut it out' and use paper piecing on your KKS image. I used Carole for my card with her super cute running gear. I would like to think it is from LuLu Lemon- just because one day I would love to have some schnazzy gear from there. I paper pieced both her shirt and her capris and added some copics to the paper just to add some dimension. I am more than a little pleased with myself because I made this card using older scraps of paper from a card kit that I found in my massive pile of scraps. I have been forcing myself to use some of my older supplies...so that I can justify getting more new ones of course! hee hee. I made her cheeks really rosy due to her brisk run. If I was colouring my face while running it of course would be completely beet red hee hee. For more details on this week's challenge and more lovely eye candy don't forget you can pop on over to the KKS blog for all you'll need.

Now on to my attention grabbing title of this post. I want to thank Kimmie and all the Krafty Girls for such an amazing time on the KKS Design Team. I have a busy next few months ahead of me and needed to pare down my responsibilities so that I can focus on my family and the craziness ahead. It was a difficult decision and I still wonder if I made the right one. It will be hard leaving such a fun caring group of talented ladies and I am sure we will still keep in touch. I have been blessed to build some great friendships and support systems with this group that I will always treasure. Of course you will still see KKS creations on my bloggy- I absolutely LOVE KKS stamps and will still be inking them up with glee month after month.

So raise your mug of tea with me and say 'Cheers' to some of the best and most talented ladies I have ever had the pleasure of getting to know.

Andrea xo

Blog candy Winnah!!!!! Is it you????

2011-06-04T00:32:00.000-04:00

Thank you so very very much to all of you who played along for a chance to win my blog candy! I loved reading all of the sweet comments. I used random.org to pick the winner for me. The winner is.......................................................................................................

Brenna said...

that is the cutest ribbon!! i haven't been able to find that ribbon in my hometown, that would be fantastic to win! tfs
brenna
rbanderson@live.ca

May 22, 2011 4:58 PM

Congratulations Brenna!!!! Please email me at ajmurdock@hotmail.com with your mailing address and I will get this in the post for you! It may take a wee bit longer than normal due to the strike but fingers crossed it comes quickly.

I will be posting more candy soon as I found more goodies to give away so stay tuned!!

High Hopes Stamps challenge- Here Kitty Kitty kitty....

2011-05-31T07:00:00.002-04:00

Happy Tuesday!!!!

Today High Hopes Stamps is challenging you to make a card featuring your fave pet or animal. Please please please don't tell Molly my dog but cat's are my fave. I think Molly actually knows that because she acts more like a cat than a dog most of the time...mind you my cats think they are dogs. Which is of course normal in my household hee hee. I coloured up Peeking Kitty and Get Well Soon sign with my copics and used a small piece of one of my MME Lime Tart papers. I wanted my card to be clean and simple to focus on the images and their colours. I like how it turned out and I think I am going to try to make more CAS cards!

To see more purrfectly done samples hop on over to the HHS challenge blog. Ha ha...that was punny ;).

Have a great day, Andi

KKS has us in stitches!

2011-05-28T07:00:00.000-04:00

**Please click here to enter my blog candy!**

I have to admit something...I have been a huge fan of craft-lebrity Carol Burrage for many many years. I find her smart, witty and craftlicious. She frequently has me snorting my tea out of my nose while I read her blog posts. Yep I have loved her from afar for many a year..until this week that is. Now my love for her is tarnished just slightly because Carol is in charge of this week's challenge and we have been asked to HAND STITCH somewhere on our creations. Oh my..not one of my strengths and frankly this challenge had me pulling a full on temper tantrum. I still want your autograph Carol but I need to give it a few weeks ;).

Yep it all started out good. I grabbed my Sew Easy and put on what looked like a fairly simple zigzag piercing head and pierced my paper. Then I tried to sew it. Turns out I had no flippen idea at.all. how to do the stitches. None. My Family studies teacher would be having a bird if she knew that! I think she is still upset about getting applesauce in the face in the infamous blender incident. I would like to state on the record that I did tell her the lid wasn't fastened on properly but she was sooo frustrated with me and my lack of cooking skills she just yelled over and over again to just turn it on..so I did and then ducked and she didn't..and got a face full of ground apple. Yikes..scary at the time but oh so funny hee hee.

Sorry..back to the Sew Easy story. I was so lost I hopped in my car to drive to SGD to see my Thursday ladies clutching my pierced paper. I immediately laid down on the floor and started screaming for help while using my heels to push myself in a circle on the floor. After trying to ignore me with little success they offered to help by sewing it for me. Hee Hee. I am terrible! Now..they pulled a fast one on me and only sewed halfway around the paper and much to my chagrin insisted I had to learn how to finish it. Thankfully they had the patience of a saint and I learned how to do the zigzag stitch and finished my sewing. I stamped up Rosabelle and matched up my colours to the Graphic 45 paper I was using. I have to admit it felt great to be good at colouring after the sewing incident hee hee.

Carole...I forgive you.

Now to see MUCH BETTER hand stitched samples hop on over to the KKS challenge blog and to also read the full 'play to win' deets.

Yours in stitches..Andi

Kraftin' Kimmie stamps is playing with CPS!

2011-05-25T22:16:00.001-04:00

**Please click here to enter my blog candy- just a few days left!**

One of my fave challenge blogs Card Positioning Systems is playing along with Kraftin' Kimmie stamps. I have included the sketch below so you can play along too and win some KKS stamps- schweet! I used one of my fave of the new releases- Tori. Seriously how cute is she with that playful puppy! I had some Parisian themed paper and for some reason I just had to put them together. Probably because I watched a documentary recently about how in Paris they take their pooches everywhere, even into restaurants! I coloured her up with my copics to match the paper and the only embellie I really added was the bow. I figured the paper was so pretty and of course Tori was stealing the show so there was no need for more bling hee hee!

So grab your inks and papers and come play along with us!

Cheers, Andi

Blog Candy Alert!!!!

2011-05-22T15:06:00.002-04:00

Blog candy time!!!

I haven't given any away in ages and I meant to do it for my 40th birthday celebration but I totally forgot...must be old age ;). So instead this is just to say thank you to all of you who come and visit me at my little corner in cyberspace. I always read and appreciate each and every comment as well :).

This candy will be open until Sunday May 29th and the winner will be shared the next day.

Here are some goodies that I would love to share with you!

* 4 Buttons Provided by Tessa Ann Designs- my FAVE button shop some of her custom made polymer buttons. I adore her creations! Thanks Tessa

* 3 Free uber cute High Hopes Stamps provided by Tina and Bethany from HHS. Thanks ladies- I adore HHS stamps and have sooo much fun colouring them.

*1 Magnolia cling mount stamp

* 1 role of this delicious rose blossom ribbon from American Crafts. I bought oodles of them!

*1 cute SU stamp I won at a Breast Cancer fundraiser by my friend Lisa Burns.

I am cleaning out my craft room and finding lots of unopened items so the pot may grow. I know I need to purge but it is so hard lol!!

How to win:

- leave a comment on this post for one ballot

-become a follower or if you are already a follower leave a second comment ' with the words 'current or new follower'

-if you spread the news via any online source please leave another comment with the link of where you shared it so it can be verified if that is the winning comment chosen.

This is opened to worldwide!

Thank you so much for reading my blog and please know I appreciate each and every one of you xo

Cheers, Andi

KKS weekly challenge- be like the cool kids and start 'texting'!

2011-05-21T07:00:00.004-04:00

This week's Kraftin' Kimmie stamps challenge is to have text on your card. You can put a sentiment on the front of your card design or use patterned paper with words. Easy peasy! I used some of my fun new MME paper from the Lime Twist collection which has a sweet page with chat balloons. Perfect! I feel like my sweet girl is saying hello to Spring. This cute lil stamp is called Spring Friends and is by the new KKS artist Cheryl Alger. I paper pieced her dress with more of the MME papers then coloured her up to match. I also used some of my precious Tessa Ann Designs buttons......they are soooo drool worthy! Using them just means I have to buy more right lol!

For more texted creations pop on over to the KKS challenge blog to see this week's challenge details to play along with us and see more lovely creations from the fab DT!!

Cheers, Andi

High Hopes Stamps Challenge time- get out your 3D glasses!

2011-05-17T07:00:00.002-04:00

Time for another fun High Hopes Stamps challenge and this week it is to make a 3D item! Lots of great items you can make- sour cream containers, altered jars, recipe packets, gift bags or decorate a journal like I did.

I used the Annie Block stamp and coloured her up with my copics. I used Neenah paper but next time I will bring out my X-press It paper because my reds bled very badly and the old white gel pen had to come out to cover some mistakes. And the black 'frame' was to cover more red bleeding hee hee. I am all about soldiering on and covering up as best as you can. I used some MME paper Bloom and Grow and I think it was called from a few years back and the matching tag, flower and trim. I love when it is all matchy match :)

To see more 3D goodness hop on over to the HHS Challenge blog and think up some cool ideas to play along with us. We would love to have you join in!

It's finally time for the May KKS release!

2011-05-15T01:00:00.001-04:00

Today Kraftin’ Kimmie Stamps is releasing their new MAY stamps!

If you have been playing along with us this week you saw that we have a new line of stamps by Cheryl Alger, some RAWKIN' sporty girls from Annie and more cutie patootie dress up kids from Steven. Additionally, KKS is also introducing a new line of quotes called Scripture Quotes to help fill your collection with all you need to make the perfect cards.

I played with 'Nurse Nellie' from Steven's line of dress up kids as I have a few nurses in my family. And trust me their medical knowledge is kept up to date not only for their job but also to take care of all their large family as we CONSTANTLY go to them with our questions. In fact my daughters often make me call their Auntie Tara to tell her they are sick and to see what she recommends to make them feel better. It's not enough that it is also what mommy mentioned because that wasn't good enough. But if Auntie Tara says it as well then its the perfect way to handle it hee hee! So Tara and Angie- this card's for you. Thank you to our 2 sister Nurses for all you do to take care of your favourite hypochondriacs xoxo.

So today while you move from blog to blog not only will you enjoy some amazing eye candy with the new images from the Krafty Girls we also have joining us some very special Krafty Guests. Yep, we have tons of samples made to whet your appetite and help enable you to get some of the new images...or all of them...no judging here ladies lol!!!

To start from the beginning, just head over to the Kraftin’ Kimmie Challenge Blog! If you have already been beeboppin' around your next stop after me is the uber cool Melanie. As you hop from blog to blog, be sure to leave a comment at each and every stop because some lucky stampers will win packages of stamps from the new release!! And when you’re done hoppin’, be sure to head over to the Kraftin’ Kimmie shop, because ALL the new images are NOW available!

Cheers, Andi

KKS Girls rAwK this week's preview and challenge!!!!!!!

2011-05-14T07:00:00.002-04:00

Girls just wanna have fu-un...ooohhh girls just wannna have fuuunnnn... Just singing some old skool Cyndi Lauper this Sat morn because I know that GIRL'S Rock! We are ALL strong and powerful individuals and I think we need to celebrate that fact with a challenge!! So to play along with this week's KKS challenge let's make cards featuring GIRLS....and if you'd like to go one step further, make a card for a girlfriend and celebrate her strengths....or send her some encouragement! Let's support each other!!

For more 'rawkin' girls head on over to the KKS challenge blog to see more previews of Annie's new images while we celebrate women with this week's challenge.

So ROCK ON SISTA'S!!!

Cheers, Andi

Day 3 of KKS sneak peeks!

2011-05-13T13:58:00.001-04:00

Today we are sharing sneak peeks from Steven Leary's May 2011 KKS collection. Phew that was a mouthful! I totally had to colour up this cute little piggytailed girl with her kitty as I am one of those crazy cat ladies myself. I have 2 cats and a dog who thinks she's a cat. They rule our house and you often see the cats in our windows when you drive by. I coloured her up with my copics to match some misc. papers I had collected over the years featuring cats (of course) and some of my hoarded cat themed buttons and words. I also collect cat stamps. I am kinda worried that I will wear cat themed sweaters when I am older and have pictures of them in my wallet- all 20 of them- but I have made my friends promise to not let me get to that point lol! I even have one of my fur babies beside me all curled up right now as I write this post. sigh...nothing like a soft kitty belly which I think this cutie in the image is showing us that her cat's belly needs to be scratched too. Whether they want it scratched or not ;P

Come back tomorrow for more sneak peeks and in the meantime pop over to the KKS challenge blog to see what DT members are sharing sneak peeks today now that blogger is back online.

Cheers, Andi

Who has Kraftin' Kimmie sneaky peeky's...ME!

2011-05-11T07:00:00.004-04:00

Today marks the first day of Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps sneak peeks before the big release on Sunday. Today the DT is sharing cards made with stamps from a BRAND SPANKING NEW KKS ARTIST...Cheryl! Here is the 'official' welcome blurb :)

Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps is thrilled to introduce a new artist to the mix....her name is Cheryl Alger! You may recognize her name from Sassy Cheryl's where she creates digital art. Cheryl is creating a brand NEW line of images, specifically for Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps! These stamps will ONLY be available at Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps and ONLY as unmounted rubber stamps! Now here's a bit about Cheryl!

I grew up outside of Staunton, Virginia, but now live in the Richmond, Virginia. I absolutely LOVE to draw and always carry a small sketchbook with me in case inspiration strikes me while I'm out and about.

I have been creating digital art now for about 12 years now and have licensed my work to companies such as Kohl's, Hobby Lobby and Shopko, among others, for over eight years. I started creating digital images about two years ago. It's been a lifelong dream to become a working artist, and besides deadlines, I LOVE everything about what I do! It really helps that I have a very supportive husband and son (they also can be my biggest critics! I have to admit, I LOVE my job!

**be sure to leave comments on all the blogs because one lucky winner will receive the whole set of Cheryl's new stamps and Kimmie will announce the winner in Thursday's post! Cool!!**

To see who is sharing sneak peeks today featuring Cheryl's images hop on over to the KKS challenge blog!

Cheers! Andi

KKS Weekly Challenge Kraftin' with Kraft!

2011-05-07T07:00:00.001-04:00

Today's challenge is right up there as one of my fave's. Make your KKS creation with Kraft paper. I went nuts. Not only did I use kraft paper as my base and around my image but I also found some new FancyPants papers in a 6x6 pack that have the kraft colour all through it. Drooool. I also used one of my fave KKS stamps and its from the very first release- Charlotte. Love her and her twisty hair and quirky expression.

Just a quick post from me today- tackling cleaning my craft studio- ugh. Basically so I can justify that I need more supplies hee hee!

For the full challenge deets pop on over to the KKS challenge blog and also to see some beautiful Krafty Kraft creations. Don't forget there is a HUGE National Scrapbook sale at KKS stamps- more for your money- gotta love it!

My Stamping Heaven

Making a Scene with Magnolia Stamps

Playing with Hero Arts and Color Me Creative

Things are looking frosty over at the Color Me Creative challenge group!

We are having more High Hopes challenges each month- and this one has me seeing PINK!!

Sending Love Letters with help from High Hopes

Cozy Gilli is keeping warm during the current Winter Gilli challenge..

Quick cards playing with Perfect Pearls

My cards using SGD's Jan Card Kit

My first Gilli challenge card of 2012

Gilli stamps challenge- Blue and glittery

Nellie Snellen and I want to wish Suzanne Dean a Merry Christmas

Cozy Gilli in Red and Gold

Magnolia- Yoga Tilda- challenge card and who wants to win a Cricut Mini, Kindle, gift cards and digi stamps??

Paper Smooches and Touch Twin markers- warm caffeine wishes

CMC is challenging you to do funky coloured hair

Gilli stamps and flourishes- I took the easy way out with this challenge lol!

HHS is 'counting down' to the end of the year

Birthday card using Sweet Stamp shop stamps!

Stamping Bella Christmas Card featuring circle Snowman

Angel Gilli in Monochromatic style

High Hopes stamps is playing with Snow...

Color Me Creative Classroom are playing with Mermaids and a blog candy alert!

'lil Gilli Girly stamp is helping me reuse and recycle!

SGD Stamping Bella Card kits and Unity decorated Grab bags

High Hopes Stamps challenge- Anything High Hopes!

Color Me Creative Classroom is making cards for the boys

I love Mineral Love organic and vegan makeup!!!

I love to SMASH things!!!

Meet my new bestie- Carrie. Carrie the Copic Case

My first Color Me Creative first official copic post.....yippee!!

HHS is playing with ribbon, lace or twine..oh my!

La Blanche stamped card

Playing with Gilli and Halloween

Scrappin' Great Deals is proud to support Operation Julie's smile

High Hopes Stamps Halloween Treat Bag and a SALE...

HHS Release day is here- yippee!

High Hopes Sneak Peeks Day 2

My Gilli challenge card- let's emboss!

Quick Unity KOTM card to share

Day One of High Hopes Stamps Sneaky Peekies!

Gilli New Release Blog Hop- Gilli has a home!

Card for a Quinceañera....

She's getting married!

Lady Gilli Easel Card

It's back to school time with High Hopes Stamps

Playing with Stamping Bella, Mo Manning and SGD Card kits

Kraftin' Kimmie stamps and a fun Halloween card

My new DT role for Gilli stamps!

High Hopes Challenge- use Fall colours...*gasp*

High Hopes Stamps and Farmville together equals one cute card...

Whipper Snapper stamps- another fun card

High Hopes Stamps is having fun in the sun...

An oldie but a goodie- Happy Canada Day!!!!

High Hopes Stamps .... Thank you Card challenge

Whipper Snapper Stamps- Hat-Bee Birthday!!

Copic Tutorial and High Hopes Stamps challenge....

My Card samples for the June SGD Card kit

My last Kraftin' Kimmie stamps Design Team post....

Blog candy Winnah!!!!! Is it you????

High Hopes Stamps challenge- Here Kitty Kitty kitty....

KKS has us in stitches!

Kraftin' Kimmie stamps is playing with CPS!

Blog Candy Alert!!!!

KKS weekly challenge- be like the cool kids and start 'texting'!

High Hopes Stamps Challenge time- get out your 3D glasses!

It's finally time for the May KKS release!

KKS Girls rAwK this week's preview and challenge!!!!!!!

Day 3 of KKS sneak peeks!

Who has Kraftin' Kimmie sneaky peeky's...ME!

KKS Weekly Challenge Kraftin' with Kraft!

High Hopes Challenge- use Fall colours...gasp