Sick day....Yuk!

....Well more like a couple of days of not feeling so hot!!   Needless to say I have not been doing much in my craft room, but did manage to make it to a fun Card Class yesterday at my LSS!   I had felt better yesterday, but now feel kind of queasy again!

      I think I need a nice day of extra rest and that's my plan for today!  I am HOPING tomorrow will be a  better day and I can find lots of time to create!   I miss being in my craft room and would much rather be crafting than feeling so Yuk.....

   Hoping you are all feeling well and that you all have a wonderful week!    See you in another day or so and praying this 'Bug' leaves me alone!!

Sad Day...Happy Day...Very HAPPY DAY!!

   One of those days that is full of happy and sad.  The sad part actually started late yesterday when I started feeling really lousy.   I am not sure if I had a touch of a stomach bug or even possible a gall bladder attack, but boy did it come on fast and did I ever feel awful.  I ended up going to bed halfway through the Football game and fell asleep, only to wake up at the end to find out my team had won!!  Go PATS!!!    As much as I was happy about that, my stomach was still feeling awful and I could not get back to sleep or even feel comfy.  I ended up getting up and took some Pepto and went back to bed.  Needless to say, I did not sleep well and even woke up still feeling pretty lousy.  On a happy note, as the day has moved along I am feeling better, the pain is now gone and the nausea is much improved!   I had some crackers and tea and that seemed to help!   Phew!!

    Today is also a bittersweet day over at the CAS Class as this is our final day and I know I'll miss it.  I've had withdrawal from each of the classes and know that this week will be no different.   I am, however, very excited to about the new class which will be in March.  It's going to a HUGE hit and if you happen to like Tim Holtz, you'll want to be join in, as he will be teaching in March!  Woohoo!!  I was also thrilled to find out that I was one of the very lucky winners in this class and I won $30 worth of Stamps from Purple Onion Designs!   Can you say HAPPY!!   Yippee!!

    Imagine my happiness when I read this news on the class site this morning --

 
   Finally, we have Lisa Haines who wins $30 worth of stamps from Purple Onion Designs. Purple Onionhas some fabulous unmounted rubber stamps – all high quality and unique. We LOVE their alphabets!  Be sure to check out their blog HERE.   They have a great design team.

  I want to say THANK YOU again to Jennifer, Kristina and Julie for a fantastic class.  My thanks also goes out to Simon Says Stamp and Ellen Hutson for being class sponsors and for the great discounts they gave to all the students!!

  And now, I'd like to thank Purple Onion Designs for their prize too!   I'm very excited and have already been over to the blog to check out the adorable stamps!!   I have a feeling it's a store I'll visit often, as they have a wonderful variety of great stamps!!

  And back to more HAPPY things I have two new cards to share today and the first one, was actually once I had started yesterday.  It's based on this week's Sketch over at Operation Write Home's Stars and Stamps Blog.

   And I also have one more which was created for this week's CAS Challenge over at The Outlawz.  Our challenge this week was to create a CAS Style card to to use something NEW!  I decided to create my card with the awesome Card Kit I bought last week from Simon Says Stamp.  It's one of the new monthly card kits that are now being designed by Kristina Werner and offered by subscription at SSS!!   

      I am so happy that I'm now feeling better and that my day keeps getting happier and happier.  My mail lady was here while I was working on this post and I had three wonderful HAPPY Mail packages today.  The first was a pretty Hero Arts Stamp that I had been wishing for last week, after it was used one day in Class.   I lucked out and found it (brand new) on eBay for only $8.25!!  

     
And in the second package was my wonderful new Copics!   Woohoo!  I am very excited to be adding the newest release to my collection and LOVE that it has two new Purple shades!!!   Special thanks to Ashley at iCopic for shipping them out so fast!   You ROCK!!

   And my last wonderful goodie package is my most recent order from Simon Say Stamps!  I've had such great service from their have totally loved shopping at the store, during our CAS Class.   I bought the newest Corner Chomper to add to my collection, along with a cute little date stamp and I'm planning to use my Smash Book. 

  What a FUN and HAPPY day this has turned out to be and tomorrow should also be really awesome, as I'm heading to my LSS (Absolutely Everything) for the Monthly Card Club, which is a new card-making class I enrolled in for the Winter Months!!    Happiness is such a nice feeling!!

A snowy Saturday!

...Today is a very typical January day here in New England and it's also another snowy day, but luckily the snow is very light and we should not have more than a few inches.  We have had such a mild winter and the snowfall has been very low and I truly hope it stays that way.  This will probably be one of the first times that we will actually need to shovel, and that's wonderful, to me.

  It's also another day that I can spend working on craft projects, and that too makes it a great day for me.  I have two new cards to share today and both were created and inspired by new challenges.

   My first card was created for the brand new challenge over at Lily Pad Cards.  This challenge is Virginia's Challenge #1 and it's a photo inspiration challenge.  I copied over a picture of the inspiration photo hoping it will inspire you to join along!

   For all the details, please hop on over the the Lily Pad blog HERE!!

   I also want to once again say Congratulations to the newest members of the Design Team and was very excited to see some familiar faces!   I'm very happy for everyone and hope you all have a great time.  I've been a big Fan of Vicky and Lily Pad for some time and really enjoy the blog!!  :)

   I had a few ideas right away for my card, but my first card ended up being a bust.  I had used an old stamp, but the design simply did not work out as I hoped.  Needless to stay that card need was finished and is now in my recycle bin.   I am also not loving this card, but I do think it came out better than my first attempt and that's why I decided to submit it.

     After I finished that card, I head over to The Outlawz Group to see what new challenge they had today and as it turned today's Paper a la Mode Challenge, was to created a CAS Style Valentine.  Perfect for me, after having been in the CAS Class for the past two week.   I found that this card was actually much easier and in the end, I actually like this one much better!   I'll bet you will too.

   As you can see I made another beaded stick pin for this card and can't wait to see what I end up receiving from the swap.  I sent off my pins last week and most of the participants also have theirs in.   I also made a couple more, to have on hand and have them in my little Pink Cushion.

  And now I am off to see what other fun challenge I can find today!  I am already missing CAS Class and not having their daily email in my in-box.  I do want to say special thanks to Kristina, Jennifer and Julie for another awesome class.  I'll be looking forward to your next class and know it'll be wonderful.   Good Luck to everyone who is in the class, I can't wait to find out who wins all the wonderful prizes that will be given out.  I would love to see some of my friends win !   Good Luck!!

 

.....Wonderful week...!!

  This week has been one of the best weeks that I've had in awhile.  I've felt pretty good all week and had a fabulous time participating the CAS Class.  The downside is that the class wraps up on Monday and will be over and that's always the sad part.   Not only, has it been a fun and very inspirational class, it's also been the perfect way to to get through the cold days of January.

   I did not have a chance to start working on the new inspiration from class today, but I really did love the ideas and hope to work on them this weekend.   I totally LOVED the wonderful set of cards that Julie Ebersole shared in her Video today and you can bet it's a design that I want to try.  She used a really pretty embossing folder and it's one I had never seen before.  Luckily, the girls share links to all the supplies they use and I found it in stock at Ellen Hutson's store and ordered it for my collection.  I love that Ellen is one of the sponsors and truly think it's a bonus to have the discount codes.   It's also been an added plus to have Julie as one of the teacher's in this class.   She is such a joy and I've really found I love her style and her wonderful sense of humor.  All of her videos are fun and they always make me smile.

    After catching up on paperwork, paying bills and filing our taxes, I didn't have too much time to create, but I am very happy those tasks are done and I can now have the whole weekend to create.  We are expecting more snow, so it's the perfect time to stay home and spend time in my craft room.  As long as we don't lose the power, I'll be very happy.   I also really want to spend some more time in the CAS Classroom and maybe even do a bit more shopping to take advantage of the awesome discount codes, we have from class.

    My first card today is for new Copic Coloring Challenge over at The Outlawz and this week's challenges is called "Girls Only" and theme is to create a call that is definitely feminine in some way.   I started with a cute floral image from Bugaboo that I colored with my Copics.  I also wanted to use it in a clean and simple card, so I did not add a lot of extra detail.  I simply rounder the corners of the colored image and then created a card base that matched with Bazzill Swiss Dot Cardstock.  I added a small contrast element and then simply tied on a matching bow.

   I also finished up another small card and this once is for the new CAS Challenge that is being hosted at Crafting by Designs.   This week we were challenge to create a CAS style card and it had to include either four circles or four squares.  At first, I thought about making another Valentine type card and was going to incorporate some hearts, but after seeing I was not the only one with that idea, I decided to use scalloped square and to also start with a square card base.   It came out to be a cute little Thank You card!

  And now I am off to see what else is sitting on my desk.  Whenever I find a challenge that I want to join, I always print out a page with all the details and keep it on my craft desk.  Right now, I am caught up with the ones I had hoped to do, so it's time to start on some brand new ideas.   I think I'm going to heard over to the Hero Arts blog for some inspiration!

  Have a great night, and as always --- Happy Crafting!

Another LOVE filled day!!

   I was up bright and early this morning even though I had planned to sleep in.  But...when you forget to shut off your alarm, chances are you're going to wake up.  And it's even worse when you remember that your phone (which I use for my alarm clock), is in your pocketbook and not on your night stand.  Yup, that was the start to my day and since I had to actually get up to shut it off....I was up!  Grrrrr!!   I guess in some ways it was good to get up early as I had all my chores done early, giving me lots of time to make these new cards.
    My first card was created for a Sketch Challenge over at Creating by Designs.  We have a special Guest Designer for this month and Heide inspired me to create a Sympathy Card, something we all find a  bit of a challenge to make.  I find that they are often the one card I will still buy.  This one, however I will be using and sadly I have to send it out today.   My thanks to Heide for sharing the sketch and her inspiration.

  My next card was also created for a Sketch Challenge and this one is being hosted over at The Outlawz Group.   I knew right away that I wanted to make another Valentine Card and the sketch seemed to be perfect.  I also wanted to practice making a CAS Card and really have learned so many wonderful tips for the CAS Class.   Here is my card which was very easy and fun to make!

   After I had these cards done I was very excited to break out my brand new Card Kit which I had ordered from Simon Say Stamp.  They are now working with Kristina Werner to put out a month card kit and I was one of the very lucky crafters who bought the February Kit before it sold out.   Mine arrived yesterday and I was so excited to see everything it contained.  Yippee!   I'm also very excited to have subscribed to the next kit and will look forward to these awesome kits arriving in my mailbox every month.

   If you are a fan of Kristina and would love to get in on these kits, I highly suggest you head over to SSS and buy in for the next kit.   If I remember correctly the February kits sold out on the very first day!!  Oh and for anyone who was not able to buy the February Kit, those crafters will receive the wonderful set of Tim's Seasonal Distress Inks as a BONUS in their March Kit.  For all the details on subscribing to future kits, you'll find a Q & A, HERE!!

    All three of these card were created with products in the kit.  Other than a few scraps, everything on each card came from the February Kit.  It even has it's own little Heart Punch, a cute little Stamp set, and all the ribbons, bling and embellishments.   There is also a inspiration sheet included with ideas for six cards and I used that for each of these.   I totally LOVE this and I'm so happy I signed up and subscribed.  Speical thanks to Heidi (Simon Says Stamps) and Kristina, for working together to bring these kits tp the market!   They ROCK!!

    These are the first of my kit cards and these three were all inspired by Kristina --

  If you like these cards and if you are a fan of Kristina, as I am, I think you'll be very happy to subscribe to the kits.  I know I am and I'm very excited to share some of my cards in the Gallery today over at the CAS Class.   My next project today is to work on a card based on today's new ideas.   It'll be fun and in a totally different theme, as I try to color up some gorgeous Spring inspired images.   I loved the new new Hero Arts Stamp that both Kristina and Jennifer used today, it's this awesome image (NOTE:  This image was copied over from the Hero Arts Blog).

    I also thought for sure I had it, but I don't, which is a bummer, as I wanted to color it right up after seeing their cards.  For now, I'll work with another floral image and will buy this from my LSS, when I go to class on Tuesday.    It's gorgeous and the cards they made use it were ALL awesome.   I love to colors these types of stamps with my Copics and that's exactly what I plan to do!

  Oh, and speaking of Copics, I was thrilled to find out last night that the brand new set is now in and shipping out from iCopic.  My set has already shipped and I can hardly wait to color with them. The new colors are some of my favorites and I know they'll be awesome for Spring!!  Yippee!!    Here is a copy fo the chart that I shared from iCopic's website and this is a link if you want to add them to your collection!

   I'm off now to search one more time and make sure I do not have this stamp, hidden away.  The last thing I need to do is buy another duplicate!   I did that again this past weekend and already have one stamp to return on Tuesday.   This is what happens when you do not have a good catalog system, something I am slowly working on putting together.  My first step was to sort out my stamps by type and company and I do have that done.  I now have ALL my Hero Arts Clings and Clear Stamps all combined in two large bins.  All my larger background and wood stamps are in my hanging organizers.  It's a big project, but is helping me to easily find what I need and know exactly where to look.    If you have any wonderful ideas on how you catalog your stamps -- Please share!!