Fabulous Riding Rood Friend! TECC65

Another Cupcake Challenge from Taylored Expessions (TECC65) using Riding Hood Red, and Pink Pirouette. What are we gonna do when those colors retire in a few short months? I love them paired with the Bella Rose paper. This card also used the "Friendly Words" jumbo wheel, and the new set "Oval All" and scalloped oval punch. There is a double layer of the scallop border, the one underneath is "Riding Hood Red" and the one on top with the "Friendly Words" wheel using R.H.R. ink. The final touches: Pink Pirouette ribbon, and some paper piercing in the corners. Thanks for another fabulous sketch Taylor! This week was so full of birthday celebrations, preparation for our children's choir musical at church (which happens next Sunday, May 3, which I direct), and a potluck dinner for single moms, that I wasn't sure I was going to be able to squeeze in some stamping time or not..... Yeah for stamping! A weekend without stamping is never a good weekend! I just wish the weekend could be longer, don't you???

Happy Birthday Sweet Emily

Yesterday was my daughter Emily's 17th Birthday! For those of you who know Emily, you know what a delight she is. She is beautiful both inside and out, she is helpful, kind, passionate about life, music, theater, dance, math :) Spanish, coffee, Chipotle, Jesus, her friends, her friends, and her friends! I had a blast planning some special surprises for her birthday, and loved making her this card. She LOVES the beach, just learned to surf over spring break, has a teal and beach "theme" in her bedroom, so I loved how all this came together. (Starting with the scrapbook sticker from Tall Mouse.) The base of the card is a full sheet of 8 1/2 x 11 "Lovely Lilac", then layered with Tempting Turquoise, and Whisper White. The blue hawaiin paper is called "Aloha Chic" from Star Fish & Dreams. The Happy Birthday sticker is from "Me & My Big Ideas" and it is layered on top of an oval cut from Yo Yo Yellow, and then layered on Lovely Lilac. This is the first time I've tried putting gems all around an oval scallop like this, but I've seen Taylor and Jami do it all the time, so I had to try it.

Not fun! I tried both self stick jewels and tiny taylor twinkles, but not having really good tweezers made it quite a challenge! Three flowers were stamped with the flower from "Do The Hula" (retired SU!) using Lovely Lilac, Tempting Turquoise, and Cool Caribbean Ink, cut out and mounted with dimentionals, and highlighted with a stardust pen. Some bright turquoise ribbon adds the finishing touch!

Here are a few more birthday pictures... I surprised her at school at lunch time with pizza for her and her friends and some giant balloons. She was pretty surprised at the balloons, and because she got to carry them around with her the rest of the afternoon at school, she said everyone wished her a happy birthday for the rest of the day, even people she didn't know! Bonus happiness!

This picture needs a tiny bit of explanation. No, she doesn't still play with dolls, but next week, she is starring as "Sharpay" in High School Musical at her school, Lakewood High School. (May 1,2,7,9 if you're interested!) So my little neice Grace, who is 4 years old, thought Emily should have a SHARPAY DOLL, complete with a singing microphone. Of course, I agree! That's my mom next to Emily last night at PF Changs, where we had a very yummy dinner before rushing over to Disneyland for a quick visit. It was a full, and very fun day. Happy Birthday Sweet Em! You are an amazing young lady, and I couldn't be more proud to be your mom!

Two "Challenging Cards"

Since Emily was on Spring Break this past week, I took a few days off myself, and in between driving her to her friends' houses, or shopping for "Sharpay" outfits for her upcoming show "High School Musical," and some major house cleaning (I guess you'd call it reorganizing) I was actually able to do some "Splitcoast Challenges!" I haven't been able to do those in a long time!

The first one was the color challenge.... CC214.... Bordering Blue, So Saffron, and Pink Piriouette). When I laid all 3 colors out on my desk, they made me think "Baby Card."

The background of the card is stamped with the dots and daisy background stamp, using pink pirouette ink. The scallop is made with the fiskars "Threading Water" border punch, and the saffron layer is scalloped on the edge with scalloped scissors, and then "poked" with a paper piercer. The giraffe is stamped double and popped up with tiny pieces of foam tape, and tied around "her" neck with pink gingham. Three little buttons from my huge collection of buttons and some saffron grossgrain ribbon add the finishing touches.

Deets: Cardstock (all SU!) Pink Pirouette, So Saffron, Bordering Blue, Whisper White, Threading Water Punch and scalloped scissors (Fiskars), Buttons, floss (DMC) Saffron Grossgrain Ribbon (SU!) Paper Piercer, Dimentionals, Pink Gingham Ribbon.

The next challenge was the "Sketch Challenge" (SC224)

This was a little difficult because I couldn't find a large/ tall image that would fit the layout exactly, so I turned it on its side. The 2 stripes in the layout are "mimicked" with the saffron layer covered with the black ribbon layer. Black and Saffron are great together, don't you agree? The bird is a RUB-ON! Cool, huh! It's a little hard to photograph though.
The deets: Black and Saffron Cardstock (SU), Saffron Designer Paper, BasicGrey Periphery Rub-ons, Ticket Corner punch, black micron pen, dimentionals, silver heart charm, black organdy ribbon, saffron colored yarn.

When did these kids become grownups?

Here is the picture I took of Stephen and Emily
right before we left for church last Sunday (Easter/ April 12). What is amazing is that less than a year ago, Emily was about 6 inches taller than Stephen. For those of you who have known Stephen his whole life, or at least most of it, can attest to the fact that he has drastically changed in appearance! Stephen had to leave to go back to Indiana right after church on Sunday, so we didn't have a very traditional day (didn't do a lunch or anything... in fact, Stephen and I ate California Pizza Kitchen at the airport and Emily at Pick Up Stix with her girlfriend Sharday!)

Church was amazing and glorious, our choir and orchestra was phenominal, Brent presented the gospel so powerfully, and it was so great to be in church with my kids and my mom. I hated to see Stephen leave again, but summer will be here before we know it and he'll be back again! :)

A Word From Romans 12

This is my card for this week's Taylored Expressions Cupcake Challenge. This is a great layout for so many images. I had this sheet of flowers already water colored with the set "In Full Bloom" (on Very Vanilla paper... which turns out YUMMY!) The colors used are Saffron, Regal Rose, Chocolate Chip, and Vanilla cardstock (SU!) and Regal Rose DP. The flowers and bees are outlined in glaze pen, the edges of the Bible Verse are distressed with the edge of my scissors, and then a piece of Saffron ribbon is attached with a silver swirl clip. This is such a simple, yet profound verse of Scripture. I've had my share of hardships and afflictions in life, but nothing compared to many other friends I know. And obviously nothing compared to the people Paul was writing this letter to when he penned these words through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. But this verse gives such basic instructions... by JOYFUL in hope, PATIENT in affliction, and FAITHFUL in prayer. If we did those 3 simple things each day, I think our lives would be transormed! :)

Happy Easter!

I needed to make a few Easter Card yesterday, so I was happy to see Taylor's quick, easy, and simple layout featured this week on Taylored Expressions. This is Cupcake Challenge #63. Where has the time gone??? The image is from a RAK I received from Joy and Daisy at eclecticPaperie. I think it's from Stampendous. Isn't that the sweetest little bunny? The DP (from DCWV) provided the inspiration for all the colors I used: Certain Celery, Bashful Blue, Regal Rose, and Lovely Lilac. The blue twill is from Taylor's store, and the coloring is done mostly with markers, and a little bit of aquapainters. The buttons are from my big stash of buttons. I also added a little bit of Sakura Glaze pen to the flowers and Stardust pen to the border around the image.

We're on our way to our Youth Pastor's wedding this afternoon which is being held at the Japanese Gardens at Long Beach State. I'll be back later to share the wedding card I made for he and his bride. In the meantime, have a wonderful Easter weekend! He Is Risen! He Is Risen Indeed!!!!!

Pomegranate Wish

This is probably the quickest easiest card I've ever made... or at least in a very long time. It helps when you are provide with the sketch, (Thanks to Taylor and her weekly Cupcake Sketch Challenge!) and helps even more when you are using a little bit (or a lot) of designer paper. I've had this beautiful "Making Memories" paper, called "Maddi Paisley" for a very long time because I'm always drawn to peaches and corals... I loved the fact that it looked so great with Purly Pomegranate (an 08 in-color from SU!), plus it looked like it was MADE to go with Groovy Guava. The "Whimsey" wheel is wheeled with Groovy Guava ink onto the G.G. layer, and then the designer paper is mounted onto P.P. squares. Isn't that yummy?

The butterfly from "Garden Whimsey" is stamped twice, cut out once with a coluzzle, and then just the butterfly is cut out with scissors and mounted on top of the first butterfly with the wings bent up just a tiny little bit. I also tried something new for the scallops around the butterfly circle. I refuse to buy "nestabilities" and other big "wish list" items until I'm out of debt for a large expense I had to make last year, so I keep playing around with things I already have to get the same look. This is the corner rounder punch used to go all the way around the pomegranate layer to get the scalloped look. A little time consuming, and not "perfect" but hey, it's a handmade one of a kind piece of art, right???

Final details: Star Dust Stickles, white brads, "Small Script" stamp in the corner, paper pierceing "swirly thing" in the upper right hand corner (I drew it on a piece of paper and then pierced on top of that as my pattern onto the Groovy Guava layer), and glaze pen on the butterfly antaenna.

Here's one more card that doesn't need much explanation... just that is uses DCWV "Nana's Kids" Paper that I am in love with!

Lovin Me Some Baja Breeze

Baja Breeze (from SU!) is such a peaceful, warm, relaxing color... and since I can't go to Baja in person, I'll just have to stick to using it on my cards! Cardstock is Baja Breeze and Basic Gray. This flower stamp is from Stampendous; and it is water colored with an aquapainter using Baja Breeze stamp pad. The circles are cut with a coluzzle, and the scalloped edge around the flower image and the oval image at the bottom are cut by hand with scalloped fiskars scissons. The thank you image (rub on) and the designer paper are both from the SU "Hand Drawn Bundle." And for the finishing touches: 2 prima flowers, a rhinestone brad, some basic gray ribbon (from Fabric Barn) some paper piercing around the edge of the cirlce image, and some Taylor's Tiny Twinkles in the middle of the flower. (Click here for a link to Taylor's Store.) Thanks for stopping by today for a look. My son just arrived this morning for his Spring Break visit, so I'm looking forward to hanging out with him this week (not to mention a few days off work!) I'm sure I'll get some stamping in somehow! Have a great weekend!