A nice little surprise

A few weeks ago I got an email saying I had won a surprise giveaway from Katlyn at K'nK Designs.  I'm so sad that she is closing up shop at the end of this month, but before she closes, she wanted to do a giveaway to one of her followers. She didn't publicize it, she just secretly did it, and I was the lucky recipient.  

She sent a wonderful stack of papers, some cute little crocheted flowers that she made, and best of all, a stack of some of her K'nK images.   Juniper the bunny is my favorite of her characters so she made sure to include lots of him.   Now, I've had a couple of super blog buddies that have sent me some wonderful "care packages" full of goodies, but I have never heard of anyone doing a secret giveaway like this.   How fun!  I was really taken by surprise.  

If you're an animal lover and not familiar with Katlyn's work there's still a few days left to go to her store & purchase some of her adorable images, (plus she's having a great sale.)   So if you've never visited, here's the store link.  K'nK Designs and please tell her Tami B sent you.

I don't have a card ready with any of the images she sent yet, but this is made with some of the papers from the stack.

I don't think she will see this but if by chance she does.  THANKS Katlyn >hugs to you, Kolar & Juniper.

HOnEy pOp PaPer...fun, fun, fun

I've been dying to try this stuff out ever since I saw it over a year ago I just never could get my hands on any, but I finally did.  (I just wish I had bought more when I had the chance.)  

A cheery little hello

Just playing around with some OLD, and I do mean OLD scrapbooking stuff.  I have been really drawn to projects I've been seeing lately that use rainbow colors &/or gradients, so that's what really got me started on this card, and while I never had any use for these zigzag die cuts before,(they've been stuck on a shelf for several years) well, now that "Chevrons" are so popular, ta-da.

Cuttlebug embossing folder (tiny hearts), Zigzag die cuts are from Creative Memories from about 100 years ago.

Wishing you

Sunshine & Smiles

Love & Laughter

Tweet Easter

I don't know about where you are but we almost got to 90 degrees one afternoon this past week and it's only Mid-March!  This summer is going to be insufferable I'm afraid.  Anyway, here's a little card to at least pretend we're having a Spring and not jumping straight to Summer.  This is for the What If Wednesday Sketch Challenge over at The House that Stamps Built.

Stamps are by Studio G

Have a wonderful week!

The House that Stamps Built Challenge

Last month I told y'all about going to the Stamp Scrap Art Tour in Columbia and what a good time I had, and about all the fun new companies and "things" I discovered.  One of these companies was Repeat Impressions.  I bought 2 sets of their Waterfall (or what they call "Flip") stamps.  I also discovered their blog The House that Stamps Built, from which they host challenges every week.  The challenges run for 2 weeks each and vary in theme.  Well, I tend to get excited when I discover new things and so I made a card, now get this... 3 weeks ago, to enter for last week's challenge, only to forget to post it & when I did remember it, I was 5 hours too late.  Not this week!  The theme for this challenge is "Spring using Pastel Colors."

The image I used on this card is a digi stamp I colored last year when I just started using Copics.  I think I had maybe 10 or 12 markers at the time.  I never used the image because I made a rookie mistake... I printed it a little too big.  (I printed a lot of digis too big when I first started using them.  Anybody else do that???)  You can see it fills up this A2 size card with little room for anything else. 

Digi Stamp by Sliekje, colored with Copics, and die cuts made using Spellbinders.

Below is the card I made for the challenge that ended last week.  It was a very nice CAS sketch challenge, just what I like and yes, there is that darn leprechaun stamp again.  It's the only St Paddy's day image stamp I've got, so "sorry."

Image Stamp is by Inkadinkadoo, sentiment stamp is by Studio G, and the embossing folder, which you can barely see, is by Lifestyle Crafts (formerly Quickutz)

Here's just a little sneak peak of some of the Flip stamps by Repeat Impressions.  More about these to come later.

Until then, wishing you....

Sunshine and Smiles,

Love and Laughter

Charlie Brown & the Gang Blog Hop

Who doesn't love Snoopy?

I"m so glad you've stopped by today.  If you're starting out the hop with me, make sure to go all the way around because you don't want to miss any of the wonderful projects the ladies have put together, and there may be candy involved too.  If you want to start at the beginning and hop like that, see the line up below.

Charles (as the character Marci would call him) is such a simple, no frills kinda guy, so that's how I kept my cards, clean and simple.  

This first card was copied from Chari Moss (Little Miss Littleness.)  Does anyone remember the t-shirts that looked like this and were popular years ago?

inside sentiment:  Sorry I missed your birthday

This next version was the one I actually made first, but decided I wanted to make the zig zag bolder.

inside sentiment reads: "You're how old?!"

 I love Snoopy so I had to include him....(had to use a back-up camera, so please excuse the poor photography.)

inside sentiment reads: "to say HI"

 And finally....does anyone else see a big omission in this stamp besides me?

inside sentiment reads: "time to do the Happy Dance"

  

I really love Peanuts, in fact one of my Christmas trees I put up every year is nothing but Peanuts.

Thanks for stopping by today.  You're next stop is Kimberly

Kari - http://purplefuntastickcreations.blogspot.com/

1. Susan - http://susanascorner.blogspot.com/
2. Amy - http://www.lovetocrop.com/
3. Christel - http://onescrappinsista.blogspot.com
4. Lisa - http://handmadewithlove-lisa.blogspot.com/
5. Shannon -  http://shannonleffew.blogspot.com/
6. Tami-http://tamiscraftconnection.blogspot.com ME
7. Kimberly ~ http://scrappingrookie.blogspot.com NEXT
8. Colleen - http://www.cbcscrapbooking.blogspot.com
9. Vicki - http://scrapbookingcreationsbyvicki.blogspot.com/
10. Lynne - http://slasewcraftiness.blogspot.com/
11. Edwina- http://edwinascreations.blogspot.com/

Make it a good day for someone 

and it'll come back to you

A fun new find & a challenge

I told y'all a few days ago about going this past weekend to the Stamp Scrap Art Tour in Columbia, SC and one of my new finds is a company called Repeat Impressions.  I went bonkers for their "Flip" card stamp sets.  These are stamps sets made for Waterfall cards which are not just cute and easy to make, but people in general love to receive them because they're fun.  Here are the 2 sets I got & I plan to get at least one more. 

Last night I was checking out their website and Facebook page and found their blog also The House that Stamps Built.   They have a couple of challenges going on and I wanted to join in so the card below is for their What if Wednesday Sketch Challenge- F812.  The only problem was that it has to be posted by 5:00 today.  That gave me 2 hours to get home from work, get the card made and post this (which will probably be the longest/hardest part of the process with my old dinosaur of a computer.) 

I spent the day yesterday cutting and mounting the 2 sets I bought so as soon as I can get some cards whipped up with them I'll put 'em up.   OOoo!, 4:40, only 20 mins. left, so bye for now. 

Helping Heal the Hurt

In my last post I told you about a special project I was involved in that had to do with a tragedy that has fallen on our quite little town.  Actually, it is a tragedy that unbelievably struck us not once, but twice in a 6 week period.  Two of our city police officers have been shot and killed in the line of duty.  Both of these officers grew up here in Aiken and both of them, as well as their families were and are very much loved and highly thought of in this community.

The loss of one was almost incomprehensible but then to have it happen again just 6 weeks later was a shock that still has us reeling and that no one can quite believe.  
The outpouring of love and support from the community, while it can do little to ease the pain that these families and fellow law enforcement colleagues are feeling, will hopefully give them at least a feeling of encouragement and a small acknowledgement of how much we appreciate their sacrifices.

There have been numerous fundraisers and benefits held in the past few weeks with more planned in the coming weeks, but the one activity I was able to be a part of was thru my church and we called it "Buckets of Hope".  Last week, all 155 employees of the Aiken Department of Public Safety received a 5 gallon bucket STUFFED to the rim with all kinds of things donated by the people and businesses of the surrounding area.   We also have collected cards for each of the 155,  and these will be delivered this coming week as a kind of follow-up, just to let them know we are still thinking of them, praying for them, and appreciate what they do.  From what I understand, the overall favorite item in the buckets (& there was some good stuff in there let me tell you) but the one thing we kept hearing comments on were the notes and letters written by children that were included, so while our cards may not measure up to the kids' cards & letters, hopefully they will convey the message all the same. 

 

If you have someone in your family that is in law enforcement or any branch of our armed forces, please give them a hug for me if you can and tell them I said THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart, and a hug and thank you to you too.

Can I come sleep over at your house --

Cause I don't want to sleep in the doghouse tonight!

I was so bad today.  I went to a Stamp/ Scrap Art Tour show in Columbia, SC and had a blast, but I did way too much damage too.  I was kidding about having to sleep in the doghouse because my sweet hubby doesn't say a word about my buying craft supplies, but the guilt when I go overboard like today is what eats me up, (at least until I start playing with all my new stuff.) 

My haul for today

I got a friend of mine to go with me to the show and as soon as we walk up to the doors to go in, she recognizes a lady who lives just down the street from her, Carol was the lady's name.  Well Carol is a card-maker too, and she expressed just what I've been whining about for a year and half now, "There is no one around me that makes cards or at least I can't find them if they're out there," and here we are in the same town!  She gave me her blog name and I'm going to check it out as soon as I finish this post.  I'm so excited to find a fellow card-maker right here in Aiken and get this, this is the second one in 2 weeks!  So my wish of finding some local craft buddies may be finally coming true at long last, plus, I am in the beginning stages of starting a new card-making/paper crafting group at my church.  More about that later.

I haven't been on here in a while but I have been crafting.  If you can stick with this post (it's gonna be a little bit long 'cause I've got a lot of lost time to make up for) but if you can stick with it, I need some input on a project below.  We'll get to that in a minute.  

Here we go.

vinyl on glass wall hanging for my daughter (an idea she found on Pinterest--go figure)

Yarn wreath I saw on Pinterest, but I made mine small so it can be a candle ring

*What I can't decide is whether to put tiny flowers in it or small Easter Eggs, or both.  What do you think?

Of course I've been making cards, below are just a few.  I've actually been working on a special project that I'll tell you about later because it deserves a special post of it's own.  It has to do with a horrible tragedy that struck our little town and about our community showing appreciation to our public safety department employees.

(Waiting for some bronze brads to finish embellishing these two.)

I made several Valentine's cards but who wants to see those now- (nobody.)  I just wanted to show this one because it uses a digi I got from Cre8tive Hands.  She puts out some really cute free digis.  Check her out.

Birthday card for one of the nephews (the only little one left in the family.)  I think this penguin is "Dexter" by Bugaboo if you know or if I"m wrong please tell me.

 

 

I CAN NOT wait to show you some of the things I got today in more detail- that is if you want to see them.  I'll be posting them over the next couple of days.  I got some new "things" to try out which always excites me, so I hope you'll come back soon.  Have a wonderful weekend everyone! 

Wishing you 

Sunshine and Smiles

Love and Laughter

What's on your list?

 I've come to realize there is just no getting ahead, or even just slightly caught up in the crafting world when it comes to those magically infinite things we call our wishlists.   Every time I think I"m getting close to paring my list way down, badaboom, new release &/or CHA time!   Have you seen all the cool new stuff that's coming out?!  Not to mention the things we have only been given teasing little sneak peeks of. 

So, what's on your list?  Inquiring minds want to know..... 

No really, I DO want to know.  (I may have missed something that I need to go check out, he,he.) 

Me?  Well, I'm always wanting more Lawn Fawn stamps, and of course there are tons of new paper lines coming out and new Spellbinders dies that I want to get my hands on.  Luckily I haven't really seen any new  machines that I think I've just got to have.

Speaking of Lawn Fawn, I whipped up a card for Lawnscaping Challenge #26: Winter Wonderland

sets used- LF: Ornate Ornaments and Winter Bunny, Hero Arts: Thinking of You

This is one of those times that I am totally baffled by the way this photographed.  There is very subtle inking around the frame of blue and lavendar, but in this pic it looks like dark blue blotches. 
I have got to invest in some kind of photo editing software!  Any suggestions, and please keep in mind, I am a total dunce when it comes to computers.
Have a great rest of the week everyone.  (I really do hope you'll tell me what's been added to your lists.)