Happy Monday...errrr...I Mean Happy Tuesday!

Happy Tuesday!  Is anyone else confused this week??  With the long holiday weekend we had here in the US, I keep thinking it is Monday.  I remembered at the last second this morning and rushed to get my daughter to school for Running club.  My two older sons are having half days this week.  They go for a full day today and then only until 11am the rest of the week.  Lucky them!! lol

I have my oldest son home sick again today.  He has been sick all weekend and he stayed home last Friday.  You know they are sick when they come home, lie down and fall asleep for hours in the living room.  We took him to the doctor yesterday and he is on antibiotics and some other medication.  Hopefully he will start feeling better soon.

My hubby flew off to Colorado this morning and won't be home until either Friday or Saturday.  My brother is still here visiting and we are really enjoying having him here.  He is really great with the kids and they love him to death.  It was kind of funny the other night because my 4 year old was putting stickers on him and he just sat there patiently letting her.  She even put one on the face of his watch!!  He had to rush in and show me afterwards.

 
I have a project to share with you and I have reminders for you to go join in on the stamp set giveaways here on my blog (ends at midnight tonight PST!!) and also over at Crafter's Companion USA Challenge Blog. (ends Thursday 8pm PST) And don't forget to join in the Anything Goes Challenge at Crafter's Companion USA Challenge Blog!!!!

First my project. (well I guess technically now that I have already given you the reminders, my project is actually second! LOL)  Anyway, on to my project.

With all of the fun new stamp sets that have been coming out I have never really gotten the chance to use the Winter S.W.A.L.K. sets enough.  These are the perfect sets to own because they are winter themed so that you can use them over and over for months to come.  And the images are gorgeous and fun to color. 

I decided to color the S.W.A.L.K. Winter - LOVE YOU stamp set with my Spectrum Noir markers.  Those two kids are just so super adorable.  Since I was making a Valentines Day card I tried to keep my color palette in reds, pinks and greys to match the Echo Park - Yours Truly papers I chose to use.  I fussy cut the colored images out and then used double-sided adhesive foam circles to adhere them because I wanted to give the card a bit more dimension.  I did the same thing with the sticker I used for my sentiment. 

I was lucky enough to get this gorgeous hearts punch set for Christmas from my mother.  Yes, she spoiled me!! LOL  Isn't that punched hearts edge just the prettiest thing??   Don't you just love Martha Stewart Punches??

Speaking of punches, my darling brother helped me out by hanging up these curtain rods on my wall.  I saw this idea for punch storage somewhere and have been dying to try it out.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it!!!  And I love my brother for getting it up on the wall for me.  What do you think??  Now I just need to figure out what to do with the punches that don't work on the rods.

Isn't it totally AWESOME!!! I have them hanging over my kids computer desk in my scrap room.  It is so nice to be able to have them up off the table and all easily visible.  I can't rave about it enough.  But I guess I can since this is the end of the post.....lol  

Hope the rest of your day is wonderful!! 

GIVEAWAY GIVEAWAY GIVEAWAY!!!

I wanted let you know the exciting news....we are giving away one of our brand spanking new stamp sets this week on the Crafter's Companion USA Challenge Blog!. The stamp we are giving away is the new Art-Kure - Tewksbury stamp set. These stamps give the feeling of a timeless Britain. The giveaway is open to all US residents. To enter to win you will just need to leave a comment on the post on the Crafter's Companion USA Challenge Blog. (not on this blog post)  The giveaway is open until 8pm PST Thursday, January 19th. We will post the winner on Friday the 20th. So please stop back by the CCC Blog to see if you have won.

ALSO if you haven't already signed up for my stamp set blog candy giveaways here on my blog you better hurry up and do so because they end on WEDNESDAY the 18th!!!! 

 So what are you waiting for???  GO sign up now for both candies!!!!!!!!

We Survived

Well, I guess we survived Friday the 13th!  I didn't even realize it was Friday the 13th until I started blog hopping tonight!  LOL  Did any good scary movies come out? 

It is late, I'm tired and I'm not sure why but I switched over to the new blogger so I'm trying it out.  Probably the wrong time to check things out but what can I say.  This post will be short. 

I am going to post a picture now of some swans and their babies...

Random I know...lol 

Weird post but I will do another one when I wake up in the morning.  Night!

Friendship Friday

Question Of The Week

What do you love most about blogging?

I love the community of blogging. I love the friendships I've made and the inspiration I've gotten from followers and other bloggers. I really enjoy learning about and from other people. I would never have realized a little more than a year ago how much this would come to mean to me.

If you are interested in joining in on this blog hop here is where you go: http://www.create-with-joy.com/2012/01/friendship-friday.html

BLOG CANDY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi there!!

How about a giveaway!??! I would like to give away a few Humphrey the Elephant stamp sets.

If you win you must immediately make something with your new stamp and enter it in the Crafter's Companion USA Challenge Blog January Anything Goes Challenge!! LOL (soooooo not kidding!! ha)

I have 3 stamp sets to give away so I will draw 3 winners, one for each set.

Stamp set #1 "Humphrey" Stamp Set

Stamp set #2 "Friends Forever" Stamp Set

Stamp set #3 "Birthday Conga" Stamp Set

This Blog Candy starts today and I will pick the winners on Wednesday, January 18th. So you have one week to enter.

1. Leave a comment telling me which stamp set you like and why.

2. Link back from your blog. (either on your sidebar or in a post)

3. Follow me if you want.

That's all you have to do. Please be sure to either leave me a way to contact you or check back next Wednesday to see if you have won. I will pick a new winner on THURSDAY (January 19th) if you do not contact me on Wednesday. I want to get these babies in the mail to you ASAP!!!

Spread the word!!

Now....want to see a card I made yesterday?

I made it for Fia's Get Sketchy Challenge at Sketches4all. http://sketchesforyou.ning.com/group/getsketchy/forum/topics/january-1st-sketch

She has a really cute Pagemaps sketch for you to use. I used some more fun paper that I bought while I was in Oklahoma and have been itching to use. This is by TaDa Creative Studios - Bountiful Bloom Snippets & Clippets. (I think that is the name of the line and not just one of the papers) I hadn't heard of this company before but the paper is yummy looking and is a good weight double sided paper.

I colored my clear bling with my Copic Markers to customize the color. (again) I used some ribbon from my stash and some of my Stickles. What do you think?? I think it is fairly clean and simple. I like it.

Okay, enough for today. See you tomorrow.

Red, Black and White

This week is going by pretty quickly for me for some reason. I can't believe it is almost Wednesday! I'm not sure why I'm commenting on it...? lol Do you feel like this week is flying by??

I was lucky enough to scrap a bit today. I made two cards. I am going to share one with you. One is still drying...well the Stickles on it is still drying.

I decided that I have put off posting a new card challenge at Sketches4all long enough so I pulled out a cool Pagemaps sketch and got to work. I used some YUMMY new EP - Yours Truly paper that I bought while I was still in Oklahoma. I've been itching to use it but haven't found the time to do it. Well...now I have. ha

If you get crazy you can come join in on the challenge Here. It ends on January 23rd. You just have to use this cute sketch:

I've been told that bold prints are IN this spring...... So I used the hounds tooth pattern along with the circle paper. They seem really bold to me! I tried to stick with Red, White and Black on my card. I punched out the black circles and added the sweet little red heart stickers. I layered the sentiment sticker on some black card stock too. It is attached with Pop dots to give some added dimension to the card. I used one of my new edge punches. I love those hearts! The large bling that I found in my stash was red to start with but the pretty scroll bling was clear. I colored it with my copics to match. I LOVE that I can do that!

I think it is a fun card. It is bright and happy. Have you started working on those Valentines Cards? This one doesn't have to be for Valentines Day but it could be. I really love this line of paper because most of the papers are in Valentines colors (i.e. red, pink, black, grey) but the patterns are versatile enough to use any time of the year. There are stripes, hounds tooth, circles, flowers etc. It is just totally yummy!

I am entering this card in a couple of challenges:

The Pink Elephant - Hearts http://thepinkelephantchallenge.blogspot.com/

The Squirrel and The Fox - Something New (my edge punch)http://thesquirrelandthefox.blogspot.com/

Sparkles Forum Challenge - Anything but Christmas http://sparklesforumchallenges.blogspot.com/

Tip Top Tuesday challenge - Anything Goes http://toptiptuesday.blogspot.com/2012/01/challenge-67-anything-goes.html

Simply Create Too - Layers http://simplycreatetoo.blogspot.com/

Just Tracys Crafts - Love is in the air http://justtracyscraftschallenge.blogspot.com/

Truly, Madly, Crafty - Anything Goes http://trulymadlycraftychallenges.blogspot.com/

UnstampaBelles - Anything Goes http://unstampabelleschallenges.blogspot.com/

Cupcake Craftroom - Anything Goes http://cupcakecraftroom.blogspot.com/

Joanna Sheen - Celebration http://joannasheenchallenge.blogspot.com/2012/01/happy-new-year-and-new-challenge.html

Gingerloft Challenge - Anything Goes http://www.gingerloftchallenge.blogspot.com/

Karens Doodles Challenge - Love http://karensdoodleschallengeblog.blogspot.com/

Heart Song Inspirations - Border Punches http://heartsonginspirations.blogspot.com/

I was lucky to be able to use a new stamp set that is coming out next week at Crafter's Companion. http://www.crafterscompanion.com/ Here is a sneak peak at their Kanji Stamps. I was excited when I saw the new line of stamps. I immediately heard a bell go off in my head that said, "make a layout Stacy"!! lol No, really the bell said that to me....LMAO (jk) I have this great photo of my kids that I took last fall of all of them in gorgeous asian outfits that I had custom made for them in China when we were there adopting our 5th child. That sounds so much fancier than it really is. Denise (my bff) and I found this little hole in the wall while we were out exploring and they custom make outfits, purses and so much more. They sew it up very quickly and it is very inexpensive. So we bought some for our kids.

Anyway, I took the photo and never made a layout with it. These Kanji words were the perfect thing to go on this layout. I stamped them out on vellum to give them the feel of painted rice paper. I layered them on card stock and attached them with bronze brads.

I struggled with this lay out because I kept wanted to add stuff and it really just needed to be clean and simple. Once I realized that and just focused on the photo and the Kanji banner it came together quickly. I was lucky to have that bronze heart in my stash and also the red, orange and black fiber trim. They just went so perfectly.

So there you go. Two project to dazzle you today!! LOL Thanks for stopping by!!

Sketches4all Layout Challenge and GDT For February

Hello there Sketches4all Fans!!

The Design Team Sketch Layout Challenge just started on January 8th and the RAK is a 6x6 Paper pad from Echo Park Happy Days!!

This includes some very, very pretty paper and some thickers!! It a fun and easy sketch by Moma.

The challenge ends on Jan. 31st at midnight!

Sketches4all is also looking for a Guest Design Team member for February and the winner will receive a Nikki Sivils kit donated by Nikki!!!! You can find the details at Sketches4all under special events!!

Go check it out!!