Sundays with Crissy - color combo

Hi everyone! Friday the 13th -- eeeek --- I'm pretty sure I shouldn't risk going to work today. It would be much safer to hang out at home :)

So today is my day to post over at Sundays with Crissy. The theme this month is Favorite Color Combo. You've GOT to be kidding! I can only pick one?? Well I'll tell you what I did -- seriously, I listed 5 different combos --- & did "eeny meeny miney mo" LOL. I asked my boys to pick one of the 5 combos & they just rolled their eyes, so I had to do it! And pink & green won! Not just any green though -- it MUST be some shade of olive green :)

Is this not the cutest lil dragon you have ever seen?? This is Baby Dragon & I've used this cutie quite a few times, it makes a very unique, very CUTE baby card! But I have to tell you what I did --- or didn't do, as is the case. I had the cutest eensy weensy pink flower -- I mean this flower is TINY, & I added an even teenier rhinestone in the middle. I set it right by my image so I wouldn't forget to put it on her head. And I JUST NOW realized as I'm uploading my pictures, that after spending so much time fussing with my card I FORGOT to add the flower. I am so sad, that flower MADE the whole card! But it is late & this post is due in just a few hours so I must get over it & move on. I will HAVE to remember to add it before I list the card for sale though **sniffle**

Ok so if that's the worst thing that happened to me today, I've had a pretty good day, right? LOL Anyway, I decided to use a bunch of scraps for this card so I picked a few different Basic Grey pads & found some lonely strips, put them all together & what do you know, they made a pretty good background! 

I kept the rest pretty simple -- since the TEENY FLOWER was supposed to MAKE the whole card, sigh. ok, get over it, Michelle!

I did sparkle up her nuk -- & see her little pink nails? LOL --- well you know I DO have boys, I gotta spruce up my girlie images :)

Be sure to check out the rest of the gang's projects at Sundays with Crissy & heck, post a card while you're there!  

I am also entering this card into the following challenges:

Bunny Zoe's Crafts -- Ribbon/Twine

Make It Monday -- Always Anything Goes

Tomorrow is the last day of my kids Spring Break, so I'm leaving work a bit early & we're heading to Kenosha to visit the Jelly Belly Store! It's not the actual factory, but we do get a tour of the warehouse & some fun samples! I've never been there so I'm really looking forward to it. Of course, I'll be posting pics :)

**don't forget to comment on THIS POST for a chance at some paper I bought for myself, but decided I really didn't need, so I'm giving away**

+++EDIT +++

OK ---- you knew I was going to do it --- I was NOT going to sleep until I got a photo of Baby with her flower, lol --- see, isn't this SO much cuter? 

Ahhhhhh now I can sleep......

Sundays with Crissy - Animals

Hello all, happy 13th!! I love the 13th of the month, because that's my day to post over at Sundays with Crissy! This month's theme is Animals -- we want to see you use any animal on your card or project.

I know I've mentioned once or twice that I was on the High Hopes design team with the fabuloso Crissy Armstrong. Did I happen to mention how long we were on the team together? 3 years! 3 years!!! Which means every time she released new images, I got them. Do you know how much RUBBER that is?? And do you know how much of that rubber was in the shape of an ANIMAL?

While I am eternally grateful for my time on the team, & all that rubber --- my point is that it makes picking an image out each month impossible. An animal. ONE animal? Well I guess I could have made it a party & picked more than one. But after going through every single image I own, I decided on She-Baa Sheep. Because 1) it's an animal, 2) it's a great image for Easter, & 3) *she hadn't seen ink before* shhhhhhh...that one's a secret!

I colored She-Baa ( I just love that name) with my Copics -- practice, practice, practice -- one of these days I will be as comfortable with my Copics as I am with my pencils. This actually didn't turn out too badly --- I used lots of dots hoping to get the woolly effect. I stamped the image in gray Memento instead of black, since my plan was to keep the card a bit simpler & softer than my usual.

I added lots of Stickles on her bow, the flowers, & around the edges of the layers, just like my glitter idol Kim. Surely you know Kim, she's the master! The papers are SU's Basic Gray, Blush Blossom, & Cryogen Shimmery White (which is also what I stamped the image onto). It even probably would have looked better without the flowers -- but I just can't ever help myself, it's like an internal force -- one minute the flowers were in their jars, the next they were all glittered up & glued onto my card!

I do hope you'll join us at Sundays with Crissy -- the challenge goes the whole month so you still have lots of time to enter!!

Thanks so much for visiting me!! I hope you have a great week -- it's definitely spring here in Wisconsin (I know!! It's only March!) so I know I'll have a great one!

Sundays with Crissy ~ Happy Birthday

Hello & welcome to my day at Sundays with Crissy! Our theme this month is birthdays ~ so come join us & post your birthday card or project!

For my card today I used Retired Raymond & It 's Your Day sentiment from High Hopes. I colored Raymond with colored pencils, AFTER tossing the one I colored with Copics. That one was a major fail. It's really an ongoing learning process for me. The papers are K&Co Julianne & Basic Grey Pyrus. I kept the card fairly simple since it's a MAN card -- no flowers on this one -- just a bit of raffia & some brads (brads that I thought to add AFTER putting the card together). 

Please check out all the talent over at Sundays with Crissy ~ & definitely post your birthday card or project over there! 

Have a super week!

Sundays with Crissy ~ Beating the Blues!

Hello all, happy Friday the 13th! Eek! Wish I didn't have to leave the house today -- think they'd understand if I took an "unlucky" day at work? 


Today is my day to post my card for Sundays with Crissy. This month's theme is "Beat the Mid-Winter Blues" -- which is quite open to interpretation :)

Well right away, this is the image that popped into my head. One of my very favorite High Hopes images -- "Time Well Spent". I had intended to color the image with pencils so I stamped it onto regular ole GP paper. But then I decided on Copics -- which was more of a challenge than usual because I really don't like this paper for Copics. I usually use Papertrey. But now I hear there are MANY awesome papers available for use with Copics & as much as I'd like to test them out, I've been really good with not spending anything on crafts -- so I will have to make do. Anyway, I kept the card pretty simple -- papers are Basic Grey Pyrus -- added some twine & a flower -- YES a flower  -- it's a MANLY flower -- with a button. And twine. Manly. 

Be sure to visit us this month at Sundays With Crissy & be sure to link up your project -- you could win some free digi's!

Hope you have a fabulous weekend! We got lots of snow here in Wisconsin -- FINALLY! I really wanted it for Christmas but better late than never. Funny thing is, the day before the snow came -- my husband cut the grass!! We had temps in the 50's! Crazy midwest weather......

Sundays with Crissy challenge #24 - Anything Goes!

Yep, it's our favorite challenge this month at Sundays with Crissy -- there is no excuse not to join in -- it's Anything Goes!

So here is the card that took me a while to get done .....

I ADORE penguins & I especially ADORE Crissy penguins! I *squealed* when I saw this new Whimsy Stamps image (I did! Ask her! She heard me all the way from Canada!) Snowman & Penguins. I will eventually own ALL of her penguin images -- right now my printer is wonky & won't print just black & white. I think it's an all-in-one type cartridge -- but something must be out of alignment because it comes out with eensy weensy specks of color where there should be only black. I tried printing in greyscale & black & white, neither helped :( Maybe Santa will bring me a nice NEW printer for Xmas :)

Anyway, I colored the image with pencils -- then did something totally funky & stupid with the background. I hated how it looked & I *knew* I shouldn't have tried it. Don't you hate when that happens? It looks like an easy image to color but for some reason it took me a LONG time. So --instead of trying to print it again, & coloring it again, I did the dreaded cutting-the-image-out deal -- & sponged the background paper before popping it on there. The papers are Bazzill, & Basic Grey Jovial & Wassail. The sentiment is from one of those cute little clear stamp packs from Michael's. I used a Snow Writer pen to edge the main layer & can I just say I HATE that thing, lol. It kept clogging up & the only way to get it to work was to wash the cap in hot water -- I'd get maybe one side done & it would clog again. Sheesh no wonder it takes me so long to make a card!

I wish I'd gotten a close up of the snowball the penguin is holding -- it's all.....SNOWY -- but I was a bit rushed taking the photos -- I always think about stuff like that AFTER I put away the light box, camera, tripod, lights --

Be sure to check out the other artists over at Sundays with Crissy!

I really hope you all are further along with your holiday preps than I am. I have some presents bought, nothing wrapped. No cookies baked. But we have been doing some fun stuff. Aside from the Midnight Magic last weekend (pictures HERE) we went to Candy Cane Lane on Saturday night, which is a subdivision in which all the neighbors try to out-light & out-decorate the others. They've been doing this for as long as I can remember & the place is so popular now -- it's bumper to bumper every night, as we found out Saturday! We weren't really dressed for the weather but next year we will definitely bundle up, park the car & WALK it! We could have walked it 3 times in the time it took us to drive! I will have a few pics tomorrow.

And yesterday we went to my husband's work party. He's been there 18 years & we've never attended a Christmas party. But when I found out where it was this year I insisted we go. It was at Discovery World, which is a tech/science type totally hands on museum. SO much fun. I will also have pics of that as soon as I sort through all 82. Don't worry, I won't post all 82, lol

Thanks so much for visiting!!!

Non-traditional Christmas colors

Hello & happy Sunday to you! I know my posts seem fewer & farther between these days -- lol -- my spare time gets to be less & less each week -- & with the holidays coming -- oh boy -- I don't even want to think about it!

This week's challenge at Sundays with Crissy is to make a Christmas card using non-traditional colors. That wasn't the hard part -- the hard part was trying to pick an image from the HEAPS of Crissy images that I own! I finally decided on Herald Angel from High Hopes. I envisioned her in pink & yellow & I think it turned out ok -- although my photos stink. It was quite rainy & dreary here in Wisconsin this week so getting a picture in natural light was quite a challenge.

She's colored with Copic markers -- papers are K&Company -- lots of Glamour Dust on her wings -- & a big ole cheescloth bow to finish it off. What, no flowers? Nope, I kept it pretty simple this time. And I guess this would be my very first Christmas card of the year. I'm not behind at all. Not at allllll.....

I hope you all have a great Sunday -- a bit windy here but it's supposed to be 60 so I'm not complaining!! Thank you so much for visiting me :)

Sundays with Crissy -- Thanksgiving

Hello & happy 13th!! The theme this month over at Sundays with Crissy is Thanks/Thanksgiving. I have dug into my High Hopes rubber archives once again..



How CUTE is this turkey? This is Tom's Plea & he makes me giggle every time. He's colored with pencils & Goo Gone -- I printed the sentiment on the computer & used my new-to-me Magnolia Doohickey tag die thing to cut it out. Papers are Basic Grey Indian Summer -- a few Primas here -- a few Dew Drops there --



I hope you join us over at the Sundays with Crissy blog -if you do you get the chance to win 5 free digis!! Read SARAH'S POST for all the details!

And....believe it or not... I am ahead of the game this time & this card is already in my Etsy shop!! That never happens till weeks later! Click HERE to find the listing :)


Soooooo....my older son turned 13 yesterday. Sigh....and last night we were cleaning out our cabinet that our tv sits on because they ran out of room for all their Wii games....and he actually wants me to GET RID OF all his old Blue's Clues, Little Bear & Pooh vcr tapes!! Can you believe it?? I just don't think I'm ready.....come to think of it, I'm not ready for ANY of this.....it's going to be a looooong 10 years, lol. Seriously though, he's a GREAT kid & lately he has done nothing but help me around the house & yard. I know we're going to have our ups & downs ....it wouldn't be right if we didn't.....but please let there be more ups than downs!

Thanks for visiting!

Sundays with Crissy - Lenny

Oh, how I am loving being on the Sundays with Crissy team -- so talented & so darn sweet!! So it seems appropriate that the challenge this week is FRIENDSHIP.



I used another High Hopes image for my card - shocking, I know. This is Lenny's Love Me Nots. I stamped the image onto SU's Naturals Ivory -- which I love but always forget I have -- & colored it with Prisma pencils & Goo Gone. The papers are K&Co McKenna, I added some Stickles & used one of my newer Nesties for the frame. The sentiment is also from High Hopes.





Come join us in the fun at Sundays with Crissy -- what's so extra fun about this challenge blog is that instead of everyone posting at once, we are all scattered throughout the month. So there's something new to look at every couple of days :)

I hope you've had a great start to the week. My Monday was pretty ok, as far as Mondays go. Still trying to get back into a routine with the crazy early hour that I'm up. I'm SO wanting to make fall & Halloween cards -- my very favorite to make -- & I just haven't found the time yet. Hoping to before the season comes & goes, lol!

Sundays with Crissy - Choppers Chilaxin'

Hello all & happy Saturday!!

I am so excited to share the news with you all -- I am a proud new member of the Sundays with Crissy team! I have not been shy about telling you all how much I *love* Crissy -- as a person and as an artist. She is my favoritest. We worked together on the High Hopes team for quite a long time & I was devastated when she stepped down. Well now we are back together & I couldn't be happier! Except --- **GASP** -- the first theme was to make a SIMPLE card. Simple?? What? I had to look it up in the stamper's dictionary! I just don't DO simple!





While I *love* all of Crissy's current designs, I am partial to the High Hopes images she drew. I do plan on using some of her newer images -- as you saw in my post HERE -- but I will also be using lots of the High Hopes so expect lots of blasts from the past! For my first card I really reached into the archives -- Choppers Chilaxin -- I think this is one of the first stamps I received from HH & it's always been one of my favorites. I stamped him onto Cryogen White (love the shimmer) & colored him with my Copic markers. I *had* to add the matching sentiment of course. Added some scored lines around the image & voila -- a simple card. I had to then hide it so I wouldn't add anything more to it. I'm lucky I found it to take the photos!





Hope you can see the Stickles I added to the water -- & a bit of clear glaze to his lemonade & sunglasses.

Thanks again to Crissy for allowing me to be part of your team!


Well I am off to get some errands done -- we were at the State Fair yesterday ALL DAY -- a total of 12 hours -- I am exhausted & way behind on everything. School starts soon -- in fact my son has his open house for middle school Tuesday -- & I haven't bought so much as an eraser! Lots to do -- LOVE this time of year :)