It's JiFFy Time

 **This is a prescheduled post.  I am currently out of town for Bill's family reunion**

Hi everyone!  I have a fun post for you all today.  The gals over from the JiFFy challenge (which stands for Just for Fun) have invited me to play along in their challenge this month!  Every month one of the JiFFY girls chooses the paper and another chooses the image and they are sent to the group.  The challenge is they never know what they’re getting until they arrive.  It’s always a surprise!  I am SUPER excited to play along this month -thanks girls!

This month Michele sent everyone the amazing "Shabby Flower" double sided paper by The Girl's Paperie.  LOVE this paper, one side has soft pink flowers and the other is the trendy notebook paper print.  Carole chose to send out the uber cute Surfer Girl by Elzybells.  Man, I haven't played with Elzy in quite awhile -what FUN.  Perfect choices ladies!!

I colored the image with Copic markers and added tiny little bling on the surf board flowers. The sticker letters are Tiny Type from Cosmo Cricket, too cute!  I was happy to have another chance to use them.

Be sure to check out the other JiFFy girls to see what they did with the same paper and image!

Michele Boyer

Lori Craig
Carole Burrage
Kim Hughes
Julie Campbell (will be posting later this weekend)
Alli Miles

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a great day!

Card Deets:

Stamps - Surfer Girl (Elzybells)
Ink - Memento tuxedo black, Vintage Photo (for sponging)
Paper - kraft and aqua mist (PTI) and Shabby Flower PP (The Girl's Paperie)
Accessories - Jute String, Athena Flowers Skylight and Painterly Petals Hudrangeas (Prima Marketing), copic markers, misc gems, Tiny Type stickers (Cosmo Cricket), sponge

Three GREAT companies, one GREAT cause

If you haven't heard, there's a fantastic benefit sale going on this weekend! Many of you know that Eric Liles, husband of our stamping sister Susan Liles, has been battling a very aggressive form of cancer the past few months. Susan's cheery, upbeat attitude during this ordeal has been such an inspiration. Behind that, however, is the worry of such a diagnosis, not to mention the worry over mounting medical bills, especially with Eric now out of sick leave at work.

Here's how you can help! Three amazing companies that Susan designs for, My Favorite Things, The Cat's Pajamas, and Verve Stamps, have teamed up for a fundraiser to benefit the Liles family. You save 10% store wide with all three companies, and as you shop, the Liles family benefits by receiving a portion of all weekend sales revenue. It's a win-win! Use coupon code SUSIEQ at My Favorite Things. No code needed at The Cat's Pajamas and Verve. The sale runs from today, Friday, June 18, through Sunday, June 20.

Susan's sister and and a good friend have also set up a donate button on Susan's blog if you'd prefer to make an outright donation.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great evening.

Ippity Stamps back in stock

Hi everyone!  A quick post to let you all know I received my shipment and all the Ippity Stamps are back in stock!  Here are a couple favorites!!

You can find all the details on purchasing and shipping Ippity Stamps on my Ippity Sales blog.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!!

A favorite summer memory

Hi everyone!  I have a couple cards to share today for the Gina K Designs June Illustrator challenge.  This month's theme was to make something that represents a favorite summer memory.

I grew up on a small ranch in Southern Oregon, and all of my relatives lived in the SF bay area.  So, almost every summer my sister and I got to visit Grandma and Grandpa!!  Here is a picture of me and my sister, Nicky (I am on the left) sitting on my grandma's back porch.  Our trips were amazing, I  remember the first time we rode on an escalator, WOW -that was a BIG deal!! 

Anyway, my Grandma June always sat on her couch.  You see, she was ill and not very mobile, so she had her "spot" on the couch (which was the entire thing, LOL!).  I can still remember doing crossword puzzles with her.  To this day, couches reminds me of my Grandma June.  I lost my Grandma 16 years ago, and still think of her all the time.  These cards are for her.

This card uses the Fine Furnishings Additions stamp set, illustrated by Nina Brackett, and papers from the Pink Paislee, 365 pack.  This card uses the sketch from Card Patterns #68, which is sponsored by Gina K Designs this week!!

This card also uses the Fine Furnishings Additions stamp set, illustrated by Nina Brackett, and papers from Cosmo Cricket, Early Bird AND follows a favorite layout of mine!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Card Deets:

Stamps - Fine Furnishings Additions
Ink - Spring Moss, Pure Poppy, Dark Chocolate (PTI)
Cardstock- Vintage Cream, Dark Chocolate (PTI)
Pattern Paper - 365 (Pink Paislee), Early Bird (Cosmo Cricket)
Accessories - 1.5" striped grosgrain, Jute cording, wrinkled ribbon and Score-Tape (all Stamp Simply Ribbon store), Rhinestones (Kaiser), swiss dots EF, Prima Flower, scallop trim border punch (SU!), Copic Markers

Here is a picture of me with my horse, Sunshine.  We were at a 4-H show.  I think I was 13.  OK, enough with the old pictures!!

Couple sympathy cards and some BRAKs

Hi everyone!  Well, believe it or not, I am close to being done with the 60 card order!  WHEW!  I had almost 1/2 in my stash and another 5 or so that I could modify to fit a category or two.  I am down to: 1 sympathy, 3 congrats, 2 encouragement cards left to make!! 

Here are a couple sympathy cards I made last night.  They both use the same paper pack from Kaisercraft, Devonshire with simple embellishments.

OH, AND TODAY IS MY BIRTHDAY!!

I have several RAK birthday cards to share with you all.  This stamping community of ours is so amazing.  I am constantly amazed by the generosity and friendship of us stampers!  Thank you girls for thinking of me and sending me happy mail!!

This one is from Kelly Landers, LOVE this amazing clear card.  It's hard to photograph, but it is stunning!

This one is from Kathy Jones.  How did she know Cosmobella was my very FIRST Bella I bought and remains to this day my favorite?  And, she included some yellow pearls that I seem to go through like water!

This one is from Collette Landwer.  I love this stunning Asian card.  Amazing coloring!

This one is from Pam Moore.  She is queen of shabby/eclectic art stamping.  Look at the amazing vintage goodies she sent me?  Trim, material samples, and look as those bright pink buttons!  Just gorgeous!

This one is from Anne Harada.  What a lovely card complete with trim, flowers and pearls!  AND she sent me a package of gold foil flourish stickers.  How beautiful!

Again- thank you, THANK YOU, thank you, girls!  

Well, thanks for stopping by and have a great day!!

60 WHAT?

Please scroll down for my Stamp Simply Sweet Smells of Summer blog hop, or click here.

Hi everyone!  OK, so my sister emails me a couple days ago and lets me know her office manager wants to buy a couple cards to keep on hand for general occasions.  I think, "oh wow, this is cool" and direct her to my Etsy store.  Several hours I get an email from the office manager and she asks for 60 CARDS!!  Holy smokes!  60?!?  They want 10 each of sympathy, congratulations, baby, thank you, encouragement and blank any occasion.

WHOA!  Don't get me wrong, I don't mind the "cha-ching", cause there ARE a few stamp sets I have had my eye on for awhile, but I now have a WHOLE LOTTA cards to make in the next 2 weeks.  They all need to be done before my DH's family reunion at the end of June and then my kitchen remodel.  SOOOO, quick and cute cards are on the docket for the foreseeable future!  LOL!

Here are my first batch.  First up, I used the Embellish Magazine Labels Color challenge to make this Congrats card:

Next up are a trio of cards using PTI's Dawn's Color Couture (vol. 4-6) and Fillable Frame #4 die.  I just LOVE these, it makes making cutie cards a SNAP!  The layout of these was inspired from Heather Nichols' set of cards here.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

1 thank you
1 congrats
1 encouragement
1 any occasion
-56 to go!

Featured Stamper and an Ippity Trio

Hi everyone!  Short post today, got lots to do!!  I have a couple cards to share.  First up is a card I made for the SCS Featured Stamper challenge.  This week, we honor nikkischmaltz. She has a fabulous gallery and I chose this cutie card to case.

I heat embossed the branch image with white EP and added a couple flower sequins for flowers. The PP is Just Chillin' Girl from Making Memories and the sentiment is from Signature Greetings from PTI.

Next up, I have a trio of CAS note cards.  Awhile ago I bought some Hero Hues folded card packages.  I bought them in Reds and Blues.  I rediscovered them when I did my stamping area clean up -BONUS!!  I haven't had much a chance to play with the Ippity set, The Simple Things, so I busted it out! 

Here is my favorite of the trio:

Here is another:

This one uses this week's FTL93 layout:

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!!

Card deets:

Stamps - Signature greetings, turning a new leaf (both PTI)
Ink - black, versamark
Paper - white, Just chillin' girl (MM)
Accessories - white ep, double stitched ribbon (PTI), single embossed curve punch (EK Success), flower cupped sequins, bird punch and corner rounder (SU!)

Card Deets (trio):

Stamps - The Simple things, Everyday Greetings (Clearly Wordsworth, for last sentiment)
Ink - Kiwi Kiss, Pacific Point, black
Paper - White, Sea Folded Cards (Hero Arts)
Accessories - Oregon Raindrops in Aqua and Kiwi, misc rhinestones, ruler, black pen

Viva La Verve

Hi everyone!  It's the weekend and it couldn't have come sooner around here!  Been super busy doing nothing it seems.  How does that happen?  LOL!

I have a Viva La Verve challenge card to share today.  My card uses the new set, Happy Days.  You know, this set is a "creeper" meaning it sorta creeped up on me as my GO TO set!  LOL!  Love it!

The bright pinks and yellows on the inspiration picture led me directly to the DeLovely papers, from Cosmo Cricket.  The felt flower and leaves are from Creative Cafe.

Here is the sketch and inspiration picture for the challenge. 

Update on my remodel:  Well, the weather here in Portland has RUINED our plans of doing our new driveway in June.  You see, we are drowning in rain over here!  My concrete guy informed me we absolutely CAN NOT pour concrete when it's raining.  Sigh... Looks like I will now be doing he driveway in August.  The Kitchen remodel is still set for July.  Yes, I am doing one at a time.  Otherwise I would need to be committed!  LOL!

AND, I have been playing around with a couple digital blog kits with some help from my friend, Maureen.  Check out my new banner and sidebar buttons!  

Card Deets:

Stamps - Happy Days
Ink - Raspberry fizz, Black
Paper - white, black and raspberry fizz cardstock, DeLovely 6x6 pad (Cosmo)
Accessories - felt flowers, swiss dots EF, yellow rhinestones, Scallop trim border punch

Embellish hop winner, featured stamper and one just for fun

Hi everyone!  I am happy to let you know that my blog was one of the 4 that were chosen for a winner for the Embellish Magazine Blog hop!!

Congrats Silke!!  Head on over to the Embellish Magazine blog for details on how to claim your Premier Issue Subscription!

I also have some cards to share today.  If you saw my last blog post, you know I have been doing some major cleaning of my stamping area.  Yep, I am still at it and WHEW!  It really feels good to clean things out, have room to move around, and actually SEE what I have. 

I found a couple packs of HOTP Stacked Daisy Silver sticker packs that I got from CHA and never used AND some felt trim packages from Kaisercraft I bought months ago!  I still haven't found my PayPal key card yet, but I'm still looking!

So, I just HAD to try out the stickers, I used them on a couple 3x3 note cards for the SCS Featured Stamper challenge.  This week we honored, Scoopy.  I just love her CAS style and I cased this cute little card. The flowers are the silver stickers. I colored them in with copic markers. The sentiment is from Verve, Accent Notes.

Next up, I made this trio of 3x3 note cards cased from the same cute little card.  This time,  I used the Now and Always set from Ippity Stamps. I colored the flower stamp with my SU markers and used the same sentiment from Accent Notes.

All of these note cards were super easy and fast to make.  I used my square nesties and it went really fast!

My next card was just for fun!  I finally had a chance to bust out the A Little Buggy set by Ippity.  I love this set, but I actually found it a bit challenging to use.  The tall tree-thingy image is pretty tall and it took awhile to figure out how I was gonna use it.  For the sentiment, I used my PTI ink cubes and inked it up with 3 different colors.  Remember those old Kaleidoscope ink pads from SU?  This turned out kind of like that!  The letter stickers are called Tiny Type from Cosmo Cricket -I see them everywhere and just had to get me some.  We stampers are like that, huh?!

Oh and just as I was finishing up my card, I got distracted and matted my Raspberry Fizz panel  CROOKED onto my image panel!  See the top left side?  UGH!  I am such a picky stamper, this kind of thing really drives me crazy.  I almost threw the whole darn thing AWAY!!  Oh well, it truly is handmade, right?

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a great day!

Card Deets (note cards):

Stamps - Accent Notes, Now and Always
Ink - black
Cardstock - white, raspberry fizz, spring rain, brocade blue
Accessories - square nesties, Dazzle stickers, misc pearls and rhinestones, copic markers

Card Deets (happy birthday):

Stamps - A Little Buggy
Ink - raspberry fizz, spring moss, Hawaiian shores, aqua mist, dark chocolate
Cardstock - white, kraft, Hawaiian shores, raspberry fizz
Accessories - Jute string in natural, scallop trim punch and beautiful butterfly embosslit (SU!), aqua rhinestones, tiny letter stickers