Core-dinations and a bit of Ruby

Good morning friends! I hope that you're having a great Thursday! Today is one of the most wonderful Thursdays on record for the Allen family! Our shipment from Germany is being delivered and unloaded to our house as I type! We have been in the States since April 6th, and w/o our stuff for a few days before that....I'm so excited for more options in my wardrobe!! Living out of suitcases has been...exciting:).

I'm not sure if you are all signed up to get the SCS weekly inkling? If not, you can go to the home page and sign up for a weekly inkling newsletter. It's a fun load of info that comes to your inbox every Wednesday. Yesterday the product focus team did a review on Core-dinations paper(did I share the excitement that I was asked to be part of that team? If not, I was and it is SO fun!). It is super cool paper! If you'd like to read what the team had to say you can go here and read all about this great paper product!

This little box set is one of the projects I added to the gallery to show how fun this paper is! I made this set for a girlfriend that has been so supportive and helpful in our stressful last month or so! I used the core-dinations vintage paper-isn't it fun!? I used my Big Shot to make the Box #2. The inside of the box is a beautiful green--and as you sand the textured side of the paper, the green core comes through...LOVE it! I added some chocolate covered cinnimon bears--one of her favorites! I added a band of chocolate chip cardstock to the box and then tied a pretty bow and attached the ribbon to the cardstock strip

For the little 3x3 card, I used the vintage paper also. A strip of chocolate chip cardstock made a perfect home for my little sweet sentiment! It is a rub-on from the Chit Chat rub-on set. I made a home for my little button ensamble with a 1" circle punch of the vintage paper. I chose the smooth darker green side and attache it to my chocolate chip strip. I added a couple of buttons, one clear circle and a chocolate chip flower from the coco-latte button dish.

It was a fun and quick little "something" to share with my friend who just made my days easier! Isn't it a blessing to have friends like that!?

Ok, I have to tell share so funny things my baby did today.--Thank you in advance for indulging me! My baby Ruby, who is already 15 months old(how dare she grow up!), is so funny! For starters she is the best sleeper! She sleeps from 7-7 and just rocks at the bed time stuff. So, I was a little surprised when she woke up at 12:30 this am and wouldn't stop crying. I went in her room to see what was the matter. She was looking at her shoes--and wanted me to put them on her! So, I put her shoes on, gave her a bottle, and she went back to sleep. She was so happy to wake up with her shoes on! She LOVES them! I love her shoes too...her very frist pair of Chucks!

Aren't they cute!? She won't let me take them off...and now she even sleeps in them!

This morning I wasn't running like crazy (yea) and had time to make a myself a yummy breakfast-satued red pepper, tomoto, black beans and egg whites. Now, she does love eating red peppers, cucumber, and the like. However, I was laughing as I sat down to eat, she climbed right up on my lap and started eating my eggs! She couldn't get enough beans or peppers! It cracked me up!! She is a great eater--but my food is no longer just "my" food! I guess my other kids help themselves to my plate--but only very rarely. I just thought I was safe eating alone at the table today!:) Not so!

Hope you have a wonderful day! Thanks so much for stopping by!

Love You!

Hello friends! I hope your day is as bright and sunny as it is here in Seattle! Yep, it's bright and sunny in May in Seattle! What a beautful thing! I'm just stopping by for a quickie...wanted to say hey before I'll be gone for a few days! Do you know what today is? The day before the movers bring the sea container to our house...so almost like Christmas Eve! My kids were SO excited to make that connection this morning, they'll get all their toys tomorrow...we are all so excited!

So I was at Joann's in Bountiful, Utah a few weeks ago and found a GREAT stack of paper! Yes, I am a paper-holic! I freely admit it! Back to my story. I found this great stack of paper from DCWV--it's called Recycled. It's full of great designs/colors/texture...way fun! So, I had a coupon and I'm so happy I picked it up! I've had a great time playing with it!

I loved this woodgrain paper-it feels so good! I wanted to use that as my main layer, so I attached it to a ww cardbase and then looked for some great paper to pair with it! I love these little birds! Yes, I'm a huge bird fan right now too!

I cut my bird strip of paper and then a piece of Ridinghood Red cardstock. I scalloped the Ridinghood Red with my scallop border punch and then attached bird paper to my scallop. Next came my ribbon. I used my Old Olive 5/8" grosgrain. Instead of making the ruffles come "forward" I stapled them "up and down." After attaching my ribbon, I attached the scallop/bird/ribbon panel to my woodgrain paper.

I love this "love you" stamp from Technique Tuesday. It is one of Ali Edwards stamps and it is quickly becoming a favorite! I stamped it with Chocolate Chip ink onto WW cardstock. I used my 1 3/4" circle punch to punch a perfect circle! Next, a scrap of Ridinghood Red cardstock made it's way through the Big Shot, accompanied by a scallop circle nestability. I ran the scallop circle through the Big Shot again with my silicone mat to emboss it. I attache the circle to the scallop circle and attached it to my card with dimensionals.

I wanted few little "interest points" so I punced a few circles out of some coordinating paper-and added them to the card. I also added a Coco Latte button...yum!

Just a quick note to tell my girlfriend that I'm so thankful for all the help she's been during our crazy transition time!:)

Hope you have a great day! Thanks so much for stopping by!:)

Happy Memorial Day!

Good morning Friends! I hope you are having a wonderful weekend! We're enjoying beautiful weather and hope for a great day!:) I thought I'd just pop in for a few minutes and share a fun b.day card I just finished.

I used some of my favorite things...Rubons, print pack dsp, clear buttons, scallop edge punch and of course 5/8" ribbon! -this Happy Birthday and gift are from the hostess level 3 bundle. I love the fun font of the sentiments in this set...super fun! Another favorite, Regal Rose paper--this dsp is from the level 1 hostess dsp paper pack. I think this print is super fun!
I started with a whisper white card base and then added my regal rose dsp layer. I scalloped a strip of chocolate chip cardstock with my scallop edge punch and attached it to my card. You all know I'm a bit stuck on ribbon ruffles! I used some 1/2" scor tape to attach my regal rose ribbon. Next came my cute Happy Birthday rub-ons! I love the immediate cute factor of rub-ons! I added a little gift rub-on to a large square clear button. I took a closer detail photo for you to see it up closer.
I've got a super cute friend in mind for this super cute and happy card! It sure turned out fun!

I hope you have a wonderful day and take a few minutes to remember the wonderful men and women who have served so freely to ensure that we (in the United States) have the freedom the Founding Fathers fought so hard for! I'm so thankful for their sacrifices! I'm glad for a day set aside to help me remember them!

Thanks so much for stopping by! Make it a great one!

Sketch 229

Hello Friends! I hope you are all doing well! Today the weather is perfect! Not a cloud in the sky! Don't you love days like that!? I'm especially thankful, we moved back to Seattle to enjoy the wetest month of May in about 60 years!:) But the rain sure does make for a beautiful place to live! So, I'm welcoming the blue sky!

I was happy to get a chance to playalong with the SCS sketch challenge this week. Here is my sample for SC229. It is a great sketch and very easy to play along with!
I recently found this great paper by KI memories. I simply LOVE Amy Butler paper! I'm quite a sucker for it! It looks awesome and feels just as delightful! I love the combinations of color, prints etc., so here are some fun papers to share!

I started with my patterend paper today. After making the decision about what cardstock I had to coordinate with, I was set. With the sketch in hand, this card came together very quickly. My patterned paper was cut and attached to my Kiwi Kiss card.

I stamped the beautiful bird from the "Always" stamp set in basic gray ink-onto Very Vanilla cardstock. I used my stamj to line up my sentiment just right, it from the Sweet Little Sentiments hostess stamp set. I stamed my sentiment with Kiwi Kiss ink. I mounted my bird image on some Basic Gray cardstock and then again on Pink Pirouette. The image was then mounted on my card with dimensionals.

I used my boho flower and 3/4" circle punchs to make me some fun little additions. I love the Kiwi Kiss buttons...they are so delicious! I used one right on top of my largest flower. The other flowers were just mounted on a contrasting circle punch.

I'm really excited to get myself all moved in...we're down to days...YEA!! Thanks so much for stopping by today! I hope you make it wonderful!:)

Because Nice Matters

Hello Friends! I hope you are having as beautiful day in your neighborhood as I am having today! The sky is blue, the birds are chirping, I've had time to stamp today...pefection! I love days like today! Yes, I've got to run to Costco, and do a cuple of other things, but while my baby sleeps, laundry is going, and I've had a lot of fun!

This card is one that I made for a fun new friend. We have a wonderful neighbor who is from Florence, Italy(one of our FAVORITE destinations ever!). She brought us a delicious cake yesterday, and I felt compelled to make her a little something too! I made her a cute little notebook that coordinates with this card.

I found this beautiful paper by Making Memories and is called Whimsy...isn't it just delicious!? The color combinations are just fantastic...and the patterns are all supurb! The paper pack came with a few die-cut shapes/frames/etc., loads of joy!
My card started with a Bashful Blue card base--I love that color so much!! I laid down my first block of patterned paper-then added 1/2" strips to the top and bottom of the paisley paper. I uesd two different patterns for the 1/2" strips-which was hard for me! But the papers work together so well, I love the result! I cut a track for my ribbon in the fold of the card with my hobby blade-and then tied my chocoalte chip 5/8" ribbon around the card.

The damask image frame is a die-cut that came with the paper. I attached some chocolate chip cardstock to the back of the frame and attached it to my card with dimensionals. I stamped the "because nice matters" sentiment in chocolate chip ink on vanilla cardstock and then punched it with my large oval punch. I made a scallop oval frame with some bashful blue cardstock and my scallop oval punch. The great apricot flower also coordinates with the paper line( I love coordination!). I added a chocolate chip brad to the center of the flower, attached it with a dimensional and that finished up my card.

We just learned that our shipment from Germany just cleared customs!:) We're going to be getting our shipment delivered Thursday and Friday of next week...YEA!! Yes, there was much rejoicing! I've got a few things ready to share, so hopefully I'll be able to pop in at least every other day!

Have a fantastic day--thanks so much for stopping by!

So Grateful For You

Hey friends! I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend! We just got home from church, my husband is getting lunch ready and my baby is alseep...so I've got a few minutes to share! This weekend has been fantastic weather...74 degrees and beauty all around! The sun sure does something to increase my happy factor!

I had a few minutes to play Friday night...I had a great time! I am finding myself in the need of several thank you cards-we've had an outpouring of support and help in our house projects and we are so thankful for all our great friends!! So, I thought I might start on my stack of thank you cards!

This card was made with some new products...and I can't wait to get more use of my new toys! I got some new nestabilities-Peony and Dahlia flowers! They are so cute and super fun! I used them to make my Peony's for this card. My card base was made with some core-dinations cardstock. The chocolate side is a great textured cardstock and then other side of the chocolate is the minty green color. I used a small strip of the chocoalte paper and turned it over for my "mint chocoalte chip" strip across the card. My white and choclate peonys took a trip through the Big Shot in the peony nestabilities...fun! The brown peony also took a trip through the Big Shot with my flower Impressabilities --and got the great embossed detail! I took a sanding block and sanded the embossed flower, and you can see the great core of the cardstock--isn't that awesome!?

My regal rose 5/8" ribbon was attached with 1/2" scor-tape. I laid a strip of scor-tape across the card and then made a few "ruffles" with my ribbonn, then laid the rest of the ribbon flat. I added my flowers to the card with dimensionals. I added my rub-on sentiment from the Chit Chat rub-on set--which always has the perfect sentiments--I might add!

The finishing touch of this card was my little circle embelishment. I punched a 1" circle from the core-dinations paper and used the minty side. Next my 3/4" circle punch went to work and punched out some regal rose paper-from the SU level 1 print pack. I mounted my clear button on top of the regal rose paper--and then attached it to the mint circle.

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope that you all have a great day! Make it a good one!:)

Hello!

Hi Friends! I hope that you are all doing well! We've been up to our eyeballs in paint/new flooring/carpet/light fixtures/etc!:) I feel like I haven't been home for weeks! I'm so excited that all this updating is happenig to our house--but I can't even tell you how excited I am for it to be FINISHED!!:)

I wanted to share a quickie. This bouquet of flower pens and this card are a Project of the Month I did for LAD. It was in the newsletter, and there are step by step instructions here.
I hope you are all enjoying your spring weather! We've had record breaking rain the last few days, isn't that wonderful!;) I'm so excited for the sun to shine!!

I have to run, but wanted to pop in and say hello and thank you all for being patient with me! This moving bit has taken a bit more than I had anticipated!:) I'll be back soon! Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!!

LAD sketch 77

Hi Friends! I hope you are all doing well! So, I thought I was "ready to stamp" and have time to do it, but the getting ready to get back into our house is proving a bit more than I anticipated...so, I'll get here when I can the next few weeks, but I know daily won't happen...so thank you for being patient!

This is my card for the LAD sketch this week. I acutally have had it sitting here for a few days, but the rain and poor lighting in my appartment have kept me from a good photo to share!:) So, here it is!
I used my "Sweet Treats" and "Everyday Sayings" stamp sets from the new LAD release. I started with my gumball machine. I stamped it in close to cocoa ink, then colored the image with my SU markers. I used pink passion and pixie pink for the gumballs and the handle, then close to creamy caramel and chocolate chip for the rest of the detail on the gumball machine. I mounted the image on creamy caramel and pink passion cardstock.

My card base is chocolate chip and the polka dot layer of paper is a LAD polka dot digital paper. I mounted the gumball machine image on my card and then the sentiment. The sentiment was stapmed with my SAMJ to get the placement just how I wanted. The stamp is origionally horizontal--not stacked like I have it. I wanted to add the sentiment in a circle--so I used my SAMJ and it came out perfect!(Don't be afraid of that tool!) Using my 1 1/4" circle punch, I punched out the sentiment, then added a 1 3/8" creamy caramel circle and a chocolate chip scallop circle. I mounted it with dimensionals to my card and added the button from the Latte Collection with a mini glue dot.

I wanted a little more "umph", so I added some larger "gumballs", 3/4" chocolate chip, 1 3/8" pink passion, and 1" pixie pink . For the final piece of the card, I added glossy accents over the gumballs to make it look like shiny glass--and it does!:) I had to be patient to wait for it to dry, but it was sorth the wait! I think the photo doesn't do justice to the "glass," it does look great in real life!:)

Thanks for stopping by friends! Hope you are doing well! I'll check in soon!! Have a great one!

Impressibilites by Spellbinders

Hi friends! I am alive! We're finally kind of getting settled...kind of! We learned that the boat with our goods is on it's way through the Panama Canal! Yippy, it's getting closer!! I've been running like a crazy woman...but now I've got myself ready to get stampin' again...YEA! Since I was MIA last week, I decided to post three cards today! I've had a great time working with the new Impressabilites from Spellbinders! They are such a fun new product! If you love Nestabilities, you'll LOVE the Impressibilities too!

Here are few fun ways to use them! For this first card, I acutally cut what I wanted out of the stencil. How fun is that!? I love that you can use either the whole stencil or just cut out pieces! Fun, fun, fun! I started out embossing the baja breeze paper--which is actually the back side of patterned paper-the back of the design I used for the accordian flower(paper by amy butler). I ran it through the Wizard Die Cut Machine, and was SO excited to see how perfect this embossed image was! It was just what I wanted! Next, I made my cardbase from Kiwi Kiss cardstock, then added a chocoate chip layer and then put my embossed paper down.

I made my flower by cutting a 1x12" strip of patterned paper and scored it at every 1/2". I folded it like a fan and then used sticky strip to attach the ends and made a circle. I pushed the inner edge of the circle together, and as it came together, this lovely little flower was born! I used some sticky strip to attatch it to my card--and it helped keep the center together. I used sticky strip on my button to keep the center together too! The rubon is from the Chit Chat rubon set.

This next card was really fun! I love this patterned paper by Amy Butler--can you tell!? It's my perfect color combination!! I started my card by cutting the white square with my Nestabilites--and Wizard die cut machine. After it was cut, I embossed with my Impressabilities. I left the square in the metal die and then added my flower Impressabilites and tan embossing mat and ran it through the Wizard again. Perfection! I know you can't see the embossing that clearly in the photo-but it looks so cool!! I mounted my embossed layer on some chocolate chip cardstock and then added my rubon(also from the Chit Chat rub-on pack).

My card is a chocolate chip base with a simpler layer of beautiful paper. Before I added my patterned paper to the card base, I added my baja breeze ribbon to the top. I tied my ribbon into a bow-while attached to the spool-and then wrapped the ribbon across the front and secured it under the patterned paper. On the left side of the card, I've attached the bow with some glue dots, so it's not going anywhere.

I wanted a little "somethin', somethin' to add to my white panel. I looked at my embossed image and had a light bulb moment! I cut up one of my Impressibilities! They are so delicate and fragile, it was really easy to cut out just what I wanted! I added the metal accent with some mini glue dots...LOVE it!! **I'd say for sure to buy 2 Impressibilites when you buy them, then you'll have some to cut up and some to keep whole!**
For this last card, I used my Label One Nestabilites. I cut the image first, left it in the metal die and then ran it through the Wizard again with my Impressibilities! Isn't that fun!? As I've been typing this post, I noticed that today I am more fond of the "debossed" look, I didn't use the embossed side but the debossed side! So, I ran the ridinghood red paper through the Wizard with the label one also. My chocoalte chip layer was "debossed" with using the whole Impressibilites--which is awesome because it covers a whole card front!

I added my ribbon to my debossed chocolate chip layer, then added it to my ridinghood red card base. I added my "label" to my card with dimensionals-a perfect fit over the ribbon! I added the sentiment-yep, from the Chit Chat rubon set-and then added some punched out butterflies. The ridinghood red one was punched from some of embossed "scrap" and then the other from chocolate chip cardstock.

Thanks for sticking with me through the long post! I've missed being able to share and am glad to be back! Hope you are all doing well! Have a great one! Thanks for stopping by