Happy Friday!!! Dont’ miss your chance at MYTIME MAIL!!! Click ——->HERE

I have tona to babble about, as I feel like Im on the phone sharing with a girlfriend. If you aren’t into the BLAH BLAH BLAH-scroll down to the cool Lauren’s Loot Bag.

I JUST got back from the dentist. I havent been in 10 years! HATE that place and would rather give birth again than go to the dentist-seriously! Id even take a PAP Smear over it.

After x-rays and whatnot I now remember WHY I hate the dentist-I have 11 cavities! HOLY CRAP! How many teeth are in our head? 32-and 11 of mine of ruined! After being told I have that many cavities I was then complimented that I have beautiful teeth, lots of protective enamel blah blah blah then told had I actually had my twice yearly cleaning Id be fabulous. Slapped on the wrist told to fix my cavities and keep up with cleaning and I will keep the pearly coffee yellows my whole life! LOL!

I was also asked how on earth I am even eatting due to one major cavity on my left side. Guess when you have given birth to 3 children and your daughter has Cancer some things just take a back seat and pain has a whole new meaning! OK sorry I have to make light that this 10 year avoidance is going to cost me over $2,000, as I also learned our dental cover more than ___________(insert whatever word you wish).

Let me say that I have enjoyed reading all your comments. Looks like alot of you NEED more stamp time 😀 AND you all need to post your creations MORE, and dont be afraid to participate in challenges. Its alot of fun and helps you grow as a stamper!

I am also happy to read I’m not the only hoarder of my stamped little treasures of art. I did feel more alone in the fact that Im not a good person and sends lots of RAK’s and just because cards. Its not that I dont have “peep’s” who would love it! I just never do it.

Upon reading the comments I found the site Cards For Cancer. I decided to take my Hoarded treasures and help a cause! I am sending them there! I have to go through my box- (make sure they are appropriate ones) but will post the photo of all the goodies I send there this weekend orsometime next week. We will see what our family Labor Day weekend has planned as to my free MYTIME.

Have any of you considered doing that?

Let me clarify that my intent for the questions was not to guilt you into purging. I just love hearing about my readers, and then this link popped up and there I was PMing someone about what they do!

Obviously I love to help in whatever avenue my stamping can make a difference-donating cards for cause, Alexa’s stamp set, Make A Wish set, YOU NAME IT. Last Christmas I donated a bunch of cards (over 1,000)  to Davids House for families of sick children. Anyway-wanted to share that with you.

NOW BACK TO THE GOODS

Well I thought it would be fun to share this idea I had while attempting a card that went WRONG! Its cool how a bad thing can be turned so good.

I decided it would be come a bag holder, due to the flap style. Since the idea was for Halloween treat bags I like to call it Lauren’s Loot 😀 With the help of my Scor-Pal, it was really easy to whip up. Love the crisp and profession score I get.

These came out cute, and were really fast and easy to make. I’m thinking this is the Halloween Lott bags my kids classes are going to receive.

 Spooky Delight

This is the front view. The Ghost image by C.C. Designs (Halloween set releasing tomorrow) was actually stamped on white glitter paper by DCWV. The “moon” is a piece of banana cardstock punched with a 1 1/4 circle, and does have a Sakura glitter pen run along the edges. Sorry for the blurry photo.

The stars paper was a perfect cover for my bag front. Its the Rock Star stack also by DCWV.

Click the thumbnails to view images larger.

 View from side so you can see its a bag cover

 Other side, flap open. The image is adhered to the flap portion so it open. THe image on the flap weighs it down so it stays closed.

DIRECTIONS

1)Take a white lunch sack or other bag, can cut down top to size.

     In this case my bag is 3 1/2 wide by 4 inches high.

2) Cut base from cardstock or patterned cardstock. It should be a bit wider all around the bag.

      My example measures 4 1/4 x 6 1/2.

3) Score at 1 1/2 inches for the flap.

4) Use redline tape and adhere bag to base. Cover front of bag with piece of coordinating cardstock

DONE!!

Here is a supah cute sample for a shower Lauren’s Loot bag. This could be baby or bridal shower. Endless possibilities!

 Shower Time

This one is cool cause the flap slided under the ribbon-so you can fit ALOT of goodies in there!

 Side view    other side view bag full   Bag open

Well I hope you liked this idea, and if you attempt it please share a link to it for us! Very easy to do, especially for mass producing.

I’d love to hear what you think of my samples.

TOMORROW I announce the MYTIME MAIL winner, and have my Sketch Challenge. So for those who haven’t done any now is a great time to start!

August is close to over. My little Amber started school today! It was SO CUTE. I will post photos/Smilebox Creation most likely Tuesday since the kids will ALL be in school that day, and Noah hasn’t started yet. HAPPY TIMES. 

Well I finally got my copies of CARDS magazine! I’m on page 72! I have a card in there using Dino-Mite ! It is the first time I have been in this particular magazine.

So I figured it was time for some MYTIME MAIL! Anyone want these goodies?

Its the August issue of CARDS, my favorite Martha Stewart Glitter in black (perfect for Halloween stuff) and a cute acrylic set set by MSE. The total value of this is over $30. All you have to do is reply to this post!

I want you to tell me the following:

How often do you stamp? (I try to stamp daily, but if not daily several times a week)

Do you stamp with ideas in mind or just let the mojo flow? (let mojo flow, unless I have something I need to get done like a b-day card or whatnot)

Do you send cards out often? Or hoard them? (I need to get better about sending cards!!! I hoard most of them, unless there is an occasion. I always mean to send them, but never do. I HATE the P.O.)

Do you do any challenges? Like on SCS or blogs. (I try to do as many as I can, but dont always get to it. I found it very helpful in my early days of stamping)

Thats it! I just wanna hear about your stamp habits. EASY! Cant wait to see what everyone has to say.

I WILL POST THE WINNER SATURDAY WITH MY SKETCH CHALLENGE!

OK Now for our regular blog post………..

Well I was quiet exctied to be chosen as the inspiration for the Sketch Challenge!

I decided to make the time to do another one-only I used my NEW! Paper Trey  set called Beautiful Blooms. I have been having SO MUCH fun with that set. You will see all my samples VERY soon.

 Because Blooms

I really like how the Cuttlebugworks with this set. Its nice to have alot of uses for things I spent ALOT of money on. I LOVE my Cuttlebug, but dont use the DIE cut ones, as much as the embossing ones, so this was great. It used the Flowers#1 die.

I was inspired by my new paper by Scenic Route the Brighton collection. The colors are gorgeous. So that was my starting point.

I had this idea to use the flower in the set-as a sort of bug. Thats what that stamp looked like to me! LOL! Anyone else see it? The 2 green eyes, the legs, and wings???

The sentiment is from Paper Trey’s first set Paper Tray.

Anyway so that is what I chose to do. Lots of bling of course. The white cardstock is also Paper Trey. Ink and ribbon is from Stampin Up!

I wanted a anytime card so that was why I chose this sentiment. Sometimes you want to send a card Just Because!

OK if you didn’t get the bug before, maybe you will now!

 Bugs and Blooms

On this one I made the wings 3D using vellum. It reminds me of a June Bug. I dont know. This paper is by Rob & Bob Studio. Its a Slab Ive had FOREVER!!! The colors really worked for my vision.

This card started out to be the Sketch, but then morphed into a new card. All the same-I love it.

Purple is my FAVORITE color and I love when I incorporate it into stamping. I dont use it as much as I should.

The images were colored with my Copic Markers. Bug have added stickels. The flowers are done with the CB die, and the ribbon is Martha Stewart. An again-more rhinestone stickers!!! LOVE those things.

I like this card too cause you can see how you may start with a sketch for “inspiration”, then it totally changes into something else using same/similar elements. How fun!!

I still have my panel with ribbon, and my square panel. I flipped it onto the side, and re-oriented all of it! LOL!

Tomorrow I have quite the awesome post! I designed the cutest little bag idea, and would love to share it with you! Im doing these for my children’s class for Halloween. WAY cute, WAY easy  and FAST! Those are KEY to mass producing anything. Plus if the little kids rip them to shreds it wont be as painful!

OK maybe Ill just do cupcakes instead! LOL!

See you tomorrow.

I’m tired! I have so much to share but not much energy. So this post isnt the most “cheery” one you will ever read. The week is catching up to me and I feel a bit overwhelmed with “To Do’s”. NOT good for the mojo.

Today was my daughter Alexa’s first day back to school. The first FULL day ever! I guess she seemed tired at the end of the day, but did well. Once she got home she must have got a second wind cause there was no sign of exhaustion. My baby is growing up.

On the other hand-How nice to have part of the day be quieter.

I got alot done today, but will share that stuff over the next couple of days.

Today I have lots of sneak peeks to share.

Are you ready? I hope so, cause I have another post ready to go for tomorrow.

Well I suppose I will start with this one!

 Shower of Wishes

This is a card I made for my friend Tracey. It was for her Virtual Baby Shower. I made it using the Shower Time set by MFT Stamps. Only a couple days left till you get to order it!

The umbrella and bkgd layer is vellum cardstock  stamped using Behind the Scenes with Brilliance ink. The umbrella is cut, and embossed with my stylus.

I got the paper from Michaels. It went perfect with this set!!

Big Surprise

 This card was done using the New! High Hellos set by Lizzie Anne (due out September 10th). I was inspired by some patterned paper (unsure who makes it-sorry) for my colors.

I made the paper into a larger gift by tying around some paper strips to look like ribbon. That was FUN! I never used paper as ribbon before. You should try it.

Well Wishes

 I made this card for Bethany’s mother.

I had this idea in my head for a while, and now was the perfect time to execute it. Her mother was diagnosed with Cancer. Obviously a situation I unfortunately understand first hand, having my own daughter currently fighting Leukemia.

My heart broke as I read Bethany’s post.

Anyway-this is the card I made special for her. I hope to pop it in the mail tomorrow. I think its cheery, and a nice design for a Thinking of You type thing.

The Wishing Well is from Gina K’s  Make A Wish stamp set. $7 from the sale of every set benefits the Make A Wish Foundation. Its such a great cause for a super sweet set.

I used my little primas to fill the well. As a kid we had a well like this in our backyard.

I love them. I had one in my yard, at our house, but someone ran it over! Needless to say I didn’t get another one.

All my images are colored with my Copic Markers.

Stay tuned tomorrow-I have MYTIME MAIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And some Paper Trey samples 😀

Todays post I have 2 things to share. One is a card using Shower Time byMFT Stamps. This set is due out for release September 1st. Its really cute.

Kim is also releasing the clear paint cans, ready to be altered, which you get a super cool “bundle” of things, which includes her favorite 48 Prismacolor pencils, Pebbles click eraser, sanding block, and of course a selection of blending stumps-all for only $75.

She is having a SPECIAL this month where each purchase of this bundle, will include the SHOWER TIME set FREE!!!!!!!!!!!  LOOKIE——–> HERE How cool!

If you are unsure if the Prismacolor pencils “match up” to the Crayola and Rose Art-well Gina K tested them! You can find that ——->HERE at Craft Critique.

So lets start with the paint can.

 Fairy Wishes for you.

I love the Princess Birthday set. This was the immediate set I thought of for creating a tin. Perfect ofr a little girl! The sentiment is from Bundles of Bouquet’s.

How cute is this to put a gift in (or store your Prismacolor pencils)?

I stamped the Fairy then used my coluzzel to cut around her. I LOVE images going outside the box., or um, oval! LOL! I just placed some Lily Kate Basic Grey cardstock in the can. I also used it for the lid, and her dress. The lid is a branch pattern, that I applied stickles to the flower centers. LOVE to paper piece too! See her dress! She was colored and stickles (strawberry) were added to the wings.

Ribbon is from Stampin Up! And Martha Stewart. The star is a bling sticker by A Muse.

Someone asked me yesterday where I buy my bling stickers. I get ALOT of them from the Michaels dollar bin! Others I get from online stores like eP. I also as said above use A Muse ones-but they are TINY so not as often as the others. Even Target sells them. BUY alot! I buy them constantly and its one of my most used products. LOVE THEM! Martha Stewart carries them as well-but in honesty they are little pricey.

Now onto my card.

Since I figured you will see ALOT using the MAIN image of the set (girl holding umbrella-GENIUS idea KIM!) I figured I’d do one with the little images. I love using smaller images to create a card.

This on was VERY simple.

 Shower of Flowers

I just aligned the flowers on my clear block (how nice is it that I can SEE what I’m doing!), and used my makers to color them. Stamped in a row-and 4 minutes later this entire card was D-O-N-E!

I intentionally left it blank. Im really bad about sending cards, so wanted to keep one ON HAND for any occasion.

The flowers are punched vellum cardstock using one of my many Martha Stewart punches. I then used some colorbox chalk ink, to brush the edges. Stampin Up Spring Bouquet punch is the smaller flower in the center. BLING always completes the project 😀

The ribbon is by American Crafts. I got it at Michaels. They sold it in a bigger single roll! WAHOOOO!

The colors are cameo (or guava?? so similar I can barely tell anymore) and Chocolate Chip.

Thanks for looking.

More here tomorrow!

Well, I want to start off by saying thank you to all of you for the awesome and sweet comments on my SmileBox creations :D. Your well wishes are so appreciated. Made our day!

I appreciate everyone who comments and checks in. So again-thanks.

I have SO much stuff to share it’s ridiculous! But I have to keep you wanting to come back-so am going to do it all a little at a time.

I had a happy mail day today let me tell you :D. I got lots of new goodies that you will see over the next couple days, including my much awaited Paper Trey!! WAHOOOO!

Another new set came! Its by C.C. Designs, and is being released VERY SOON! Its a Halloween set. When I saw this particular image in the set I was ecstatic! I thought it was super cute!!!

What little girl has NOT been a cat for Halloween? Its a must do at least once right?

It reminded me of this picture I have of Alexa at 3 years old.

She was just starting to walk on her own (hence the wide wobbly gait and look in the photo!) and it was her first school party. I had her wear black turtle neck, and pants. I had sewn on a feather boa for her tail-which she did manage to rip off by the end of the party.

 I made the little pumpkin bag she is holding for her as well as her 22 classmates. I put everyones anme on each bag. You may remember my post a while back about doing things for school. This was one of the many things I’ve done. Lesson learned as the kids tried to peel their names off the bags. EEK! I wanted to die.

Anyway-isnt she cute?

I also have this photo of ME at 4 years old as a cat.

 My mom made my costume. Much more creative than Alexa’s one I whipped together.

I think Amber will have to be cat this Halloween to go along with the tradition! Then Ill have to make a SmileBox creation of the 3 of us! I’ll have to ask my mom is she was ever a cat at this age! Then I will need the photo.

OK OK I know you are here to see the cat card! Who really cares where my love for the stamp originated, and all the blah, blah blah right? All I can say is this set is totally adorable. I’m honestly not a huge Halloween fan, but all the cute sets that have been released by everyone are really swaying me to creating more in that theme.

 Purrfect Halloween!

Is she not the cutest cat evah? I had to use flock on her so she is nice and fuzzy! Doesn’t she look like Alexa’s old photo?

I loved the bright non-traditional colors that this Salsa paper byJunkitz allowed me to create.

The pumpkin and sentiment are also from the set.

I cut the mouth out from the pumpkin, and layered some cardstock behind it. I also colored with my glitter pens so more sparkle and depth-

I had to add the layer of glitter paper by DCWV!

The stitched ribbon is May Arts. Love it all!

So there you have my Purrfect Halloween card.

I also created some other cool stuff that I will share tomorrow. It will be using some more NEW Releases!!

Let me know what YOU have for cool Halloween traditions. Share a cool recipe or a fun event or story! I totally LOVE hearing from you all. I always laugh when you share your funny stories. I’d even love to hear what you think your kids will be for Halloween.

As always thanks for reading 😀

Here is another post with 2 designs using Sneak Peeks! I chose Ooh La La for this peek for you.

I love PARIS themed items. Jason and I went to Paris years ago, and it was simply gorgeous! We only had our photos developed for that trip-not on  digital, which is a bummer cause they are just gorgeous, and they would fit my post here perfectly!

I love pink, gray, and black with white. Such a Froufrou color combo that fits this whimsical theme. My first sample has no pink, but the other one does.

Here is the first one

 Je t’amie

Does anyone know what that means?

I dont! But it sounds pretty!

I used by Basic Gray by SU! I am head over heels in love with that gray color. LOVE IT!

I stamped the bottom of my card base with Daisy Dots. I used the gray ink for the solid flower, and then Brilliance graphite black for the out line flower images. That is my primary black ink these days. I love it because when used with myCopic markers , it doesn’t smudge. Its also great for my acrylic stamps since its a thicker pigment ink, I never get sloppy coverage. White craft ink was used for the swirly centers of the flowers.

I also switched to using ONLY Paper Trey Ink white cardstock. Its top quality, and takes ink like a dream. Its also WHITE! I mean really white. You put it next to SU! White and the results are shocking! Plus it feels thicker-yes its possible!

I layered my images with vellum cardstock. Sometimes you want the layer to be very subtle and not overpower the images. Since I have 2 small images as my main focus, I had to keep the attention there, rather than over power them with a high contrast layer. Make sense??

Again I slanted my images (Im so stuck on this for some reason) for interest. 

I added some Prima’s from Isabelle’s Secret collection. They were really perfect. More adhesive rhinestones for the centers.

The gray taffeta ribbon is a gorgeous color, and tied this card off perfectly 😀 I colored the Eiffel Tower with a Sakura glitter pen. Perfect amount of sparkle.

 Bonjour!

OK I know what this one means! LOL!

I stamped the framed image twice. Once on the card base, and the other time on the white.

Trimmed out the frame, and stamped/colored my tower. <y white singlo gel pen added some color to the corners. Another Isabelle secrets prima (looks like lace) to the corner.

Bling on the flower and tower are sweet little touches.

This would be a great card for alot of goodbye reasons! New job, taking a trip (which you could make it a ticket holder!!!) moving-whatever. Sometimes goodbye cards need to be kept “LIGHT”. Meaning not all sad or serious.

It could even be I miss you for a friend or other person in your life.

Well thats it for today. Tomorrow I have more sneak peeks.

Check HERE for a MFT peek at what’s to come on the first! I will share a container I made for the promotion soon.

Whip out your wallets ladies!

All That Scraps is having a sale THIS weekend ONLY!

Check it out HERE!

While you are there dont miss the NEW items! Im off to fill my cart. I cant turn down a sale 😀

Well, I got my High Hellos in from Lizzie Anne! Its a NEW Release that will be made available on September 10th! You can see those sets HERE.

While I was engrossed in inking my new sets, my kids decided to have some fun of their own.

Noah found a way to jam a toy into the fridge water dispenser-so that it would continuously keep pouring water out onto the floor. I guess that Spiderman car has more than one use afterall!

As it pooled on the floor, they stripped down to their undies, and began their version of a slip-n-slide across the kitchen floor.

I heard lots of giggling (from my stamp room downstairs)and knew something wasnt right! If they are HAPPY theres a PROBLEM.

I ran upstairs to see a HUGE puddle in the kitchen (along with my entire floor soaking wet) and Alexa was in the process of sliding across the floor on her butt as I emerged.

Lets say I was NOT happy. The look on their faces was priceless. I didnt even utter a word before they began scattering to grab paper towels to clean it up. 3 SOAKING wet kids in their underwear, sliding around frantically for something to whip up the mess. It looked like they hoped I had still not noticed.

They sat in time out for ONE hour-without a peep! That showed me they knew what they did was WAY wrong!

What a way to put a road block on the MOJO!

Back to my Lizzie Anne sets……………I had to share that.

I am in LOVE with them all. I began working with High Hello’s and seriously could NOT stop! I made alot of samples but for now will only share this one. Keep checking back to see more this week.

I decided for my Saturday Sketch that this would be perfect!

I hope you like it. I was very happy with how it turned out. Especially since the colors are so not my usual combo.

I LOVE layering-but keeping the layers nice and clean-not too overdone. You can really KILL a card by over doing it. Its good to know when to S-T-O-P!

Click the sketch to view larger

 This is a perfect one for the taller images you may not know what to do with.

Topiary Thoughts

 I really loved this one. It was the first card done from my set. I made it yesterday morning.

I used this awesome Strano ribbon in 5/8 Petal. It gave me this combo of Pretty in Pink, Rose Red, Not Quite Navy, Celery and Artichoke! Who would have thought? Not me.

I need more of their ribbon-seriously gorgeous. I love how I tied the bow. I didnt have enough ribbon left to make a knot so thats how I improvised. Just used my linen thread.

The tree was colored with my Copic Markers, and then some Sakura glitter pens. I added green stickles to the outter lines of the topiary. The key was not to fuss with how it was colored. I just swirled my markers in various greens around in circles like the image-DONE.

I love the sentiments in that set cause they are so interchangable with all the images-too fun! Im on a huge Prima kick. I cant NOT use them these days-that and rhinestone stickers! YIKES! I hope I get out of that rut. All this PRIMA purging is so hard.

Well I hope you like the sketch and have time to try it out! Put a link here so we can all see it OK!

Enjoy the weekend, and if you have a funny kid story I’d love to hear it. Maybe it will make me feel better 😀

They are only little for so long I guess.

Well today Im sharing a super fast card.

I decided on this one today because Green Grass Stamps has a New Release set that is on SALE!!! So check it out! PLUS its a great fast and simple layout for you to try.

I am also stamping like a MAD woman and dont have time to go into alot of the blah, blah, blah today!

I got some yet to be released images that I need to get inking on! Just wait till you see these new sets!

I am working on Green Grass, and New Releases from MFT stamps, Lizzie Anne Designs, and awaiting images from C.C. Designs. Among the other things I haven’t even listed.

Lets not forget tomorrow is Sketch day!

Throw in my article for the Craft Critique and there ya have my day.

While its crazy, its hard to call this “work”. I love every minute of it 😀

This card uses the the love image from the set True Love by Green Grass. I love this paper and strategically cut it so that the circle was the floral center. I love doing little panels. Tied off with a Martha Stewart ribbon, and DONE! Supah easy!

Paper is a stack by K & co.

Thanks for looking.

Click to play | Make your own Smilebox

You may be able to tell that I drag holidays and special occassions on as long as possible! LOL!

I think celebrating happy times is important. Our Wedding/Honeymoon was one of the happiest times of my life.

My Mom always made a big deal of Birthdays and other holidays so I think thats where it comes from. They are milestones in which we mark the changes in our life. The good and the bad.

I am extatic because I really do have an amazing husband and father for my children. We have such a great relationship. One that I would be jealous of if I weren’t in it! LOL!

I hope my children find in a partner what Jason and I have together.

Jason has really supported and respected my aspirations as a wife, mother, friend and stamper.

We have been through alot together. And I think the key is we have leaned on each other through it all.

I’m just so happy to have been able to document our special day using this Smilebox. It only took maybe 20 minutes. Picking my photos was the LONG part.

So far we both look pretty much the same. I hope to say the same in 10 more years!

HISTORY-We eloped to Hawaii to get married. We decided to spend money on ourselves as oppose to a huge Wedding that feeds 100 people for 6 hours of fun. We had a videographer-so we have  video of our ceremony (my kids love to watch it), and a photographer.

It felt like we were the only 2 people on the face of the earth.

We got married on a private beach, and after our ceremony we went to a Tradional Hawaiian Luau. At the Luau we were treated like ROYATLY! Still in our Wedding Attire. We got special seating, a first wedding dance in front of everyone, traditional Hawaiian Wedding cake-not as good as our wedding cake! LOL! We also  got a private canoe ride through the Polynesian Cultural Center.  We saw traditional Hula dancers, and flame throwers. Its was an amazing expierience-far better than a reception would have been.

We then spent 2 weeks following our ceremony traveling a crusieship and island hopping around Hawaii. Its was the most magical, and amazing time.

My favorite part of our wedding ceremony was Jason being SO STRESSED about having the rings! He kept checking and checking. He was paranoid about it.

When we arrived the Priest told us “Whatever you do, don’t drop the Wedding Rings.” “This sand is like quicksand, and if you drop it you will never find it”

We began our cereomy……………

During our vows, it came to the rings. Jason quickly realized forgot to bring them down to the archway! He left them in their box up on the beach. Once the camera cut, so he could retrieve them, he came back to restart our vows.

Vows begin again……………..

Jason got the ring from his pocket, then dropped it in the sand! It was HILARIOUS!

When we got our wedding video I thought for sure there was no way of patching it up, but the guy did, seamlessly. I almost wished he left that part in, as it was so funny. Poor Jason.

I’d love to hear a wedding story from you! It can be yours or anyone else you know. Whatever you want to share.

Thanks for watching my SmileBox creation. I hope you get to try one. Its alot of fun.