My New Toy

This is my new toy I got yesterday for cross-training and an eventual triathlon, a Felt FW40 road bike. I brought her home last night so I haven't had a chance to ride her yet, I've just been ooohing and aaahing over her and can't wait to take her out for a test spin tonight! I've also been training for this: Pasadena Marathon I'm only doing the 1/2 marathon and I managed to get my hubby to sign up with me too! He's afraid that he'll get left behind, but I reassured him that I won't be leaving him in the dust and we'll be great at motivating eachother throughout the course. This is the first year that Pasadena is hosting a marathon so I thought it would be a great experience and it's close to home to boot. On a different note, I've been doing some cardmaking but have been too lazy to take photos and upload them! After I work out, I eat dinner then poop out around 9:30pm and then it's just too late to do anything productive. If I didn't have to sleep, I could get so much more done

Words to Live By

"Run when you can, walk when you have to, crawl if you must, just never give up." - Dean Karnazes, runner and author of Ultramarathon Man

Fashionista Card

I made this everyday card for a fashionista. The stamps are from Michael's $1 bin and I stamped them onto scrap pieces of paper and then cut them out and used dimensional foam dots to pop them up. The ribbon is also from Michael's and I cut the scalloped squares using my Cricut Mini Monograms cartridge (it sure comes in handy!) and I used a Creative Memories dual square punch for the image and matte. The little yellow jewels are Robin's Nest Dew Drops. I made the little dots around the perimeter of the card with a Sharpie white poster paint pen. TFL!

Jump Start on Halloween

I'm reminded that Halloween is just around the corner when I can go to my local Walmart or Target and see aisles and aisles of Halloween candy! I'm not sure who decided to pack Swedish Fish in mini bags for my consumption, but they need to hide them from me! And with the assorted Hershey's Miniatures, I am in candy heaven :) Yum... Anyhoo, I decided to get started on some Halloween cards since I think I only made two last year! I made these 5in X 5in cards using the Stampin' Up Batty for You set and Sandy Lion and BoBunny papers.

Sketch Book

I bought this little 3.5"x5" sketch book some time ago and have been slowly adding card sketches to it. I decided to alter it with all K&Co pp scraps. I cut the scallop part with my scallop edge scissors and the letters are QK Studio Skinni Mini.

Caardvarks Music Theme Challenge

I created two cards for the Caardvarks music theme card challenge because I had two different ideas floating around in my head! The top card is inspired by that song, Rock Steady by Gwen Stefani and I made using Pink Paislee stamps that I stamped in Brilliance Graphite Black on Bazzill cs and then I cut out the components of each skull and popped them up on dimensionals. I free handed and cut out the arrow, traced it in white gel pen and also handcut the scallops at the bottom of the card. I even used some very old Making Memories rub-on letters and Quickutz Abigail. The pp is Cherry Arte. I made the bottom card using Chatterbox, American Crafts, and Scenic Route pp. The stamp is from Pink Paislee (formerly Pink.Sugar.Pop). The letter stickers are Basic Grey and the letter rubons are TLC Quik Letters. The red rhinestone is from a bag of assorted rhinestones that I bought. Thanks for looking!

Taylored Expressions Cupcake Challenge #30

This is my entry for Taylor's weekly sketch challenge. I decided to get a jumpstart on some Christmas cards so I used an Elzybells stamp that I colored in with Copic markers. I added some lime green Stickles to the tree and some dimensional snow writer stuff for the girls' hat, collars and gloves. The border stamp is from 7gypsies and stamped in Brilliance Graphite Black. The pp is from a holiday DCWV stack. The sugar coated brads are from Doodlebug and the ribbon is from Michael's. Thanks for looking!

Chipboard Date Book

I've been slowly trying to break out of my "normal" creating box and trying different styles. I made this dates to remember book with bright colors in mind and lots of little elements. The book measures 3.5"x8" and I cut it out of chipboard. I used American Crafts, Rusty Pickle, My Mind's Eye and K&Co pp. I made the scalloped rectangle on the cover using my Provo Craft scallop scissors that I haven't touched in years! The dates type is QK Fiesta (I love that type!) and in the lower right corner is a green Hambly screenprint. The little letter stickers are Provo Craft. I hand cut some flowers from a sheet of Me & My Big ideas paper and popped them up on dimensionals. I used my Cricut Mini Monograms cartridge to create the scalloped tabs for the pages and just used Microsoft Word to make the monthly date lists where I can keep track of birthdays, anniversaries, etc.

Vintage Card

I handcut the trees on this larger 5x7 card and used K&Co pp. The border punch is from Martha Stewart and I cut the border into segments so that I could pop the section in front of the trees up on dimensionals. The corner punch in the upper right corner is Marvy and the thanks type is QK Zoe. Thanks for looking!

Hoppy Birthday

My dad and I both love frogs so for his birthday this weekend I made him this card with the Cuttlebug frog die. I glued little googlie eyes on the frog to make him look more playful :) The paper is DCWV and I embossed the paper behind the frog with a Cuttlebug embossing folder. The letters were cut out of QK Moxie and Calvin.

Simple

I lifted the design for the card from a manufacturer's blog, I just can't remember which one! Anyway, I used some new pp from a Me & My Big Ideas stack, the stamp is A Muse and I cut out the scallop part and used a circle punch to create the embellishments plus some cord and eyelets. It's a little too simple looking for me, but I figured I can always make another with more "stuff" on it later!

Shabby Chic Card

This is my first attempt at a shabby chic type of card. I used a bunch of mismatched scraps and sewed around parts of the card. I cut the brackets out after tracing them off of a chipboard piece (I tend to use the chipboard pieces as templates instead of actually USING them, just like the scallops at the bottom of the card!). I used an art paragraph text stamp from Purple Onion Designs to stamp over the paper flowers and then sewed them on with embroidery floss and buttons. The sentiment is QK Lucy. Thanks for looking!

Smile Card

This card was fun to make because of its size and the colors and elements I chose to use. It's only 4"X7" but the fun part was putting all the little details together. I punched out a circle in the bottom right corner and layered some scraps in there with a little flower. I covered a chipboard frame in cardstock and layered it over another scrap. The font is Sizzlits Tina Thinks You're Cute. I cut out the fluorish in the same color as the cardstock background to create a different look and then wanted it to pop out a little more so I used some Lime Green Stickles on it. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out since I didn't really pre-plan the design, it just kinda came to me as I started matching up the scrap papers.

Hello!

I've been trying to use up my large pile of scraps so I've been mixing and matching some crazy patterned papers to come up with what I think is a cute combination. I used all scraps on this hello card. The hello sentiment is QK Bright and the brackets are also QK. I used the paisley Cuttlebug embossing folder for the solid black background. The hello is filled with Stardust Stickles. Thanks for looking!

Eat, Live and Be Merry!

I made this card with an Art Impressions stamp that I colored in with Twinkling H2Os after I heat embossed the image in black. I handwrote the "eat, live and be" part and the "merry" is the Sizzlit font Tina Thinks You're Cute. It's hard to tell in the photo but the windows of the cafe are filled in with Prisma Ultra Fine Glitter.