My Favorite Cutie Pie

Last month My Favorite Things introduced a new line of stamps called "Pure Innocence" by Heather Ellis. They were an instant hit with me and with all the other MFT junkies. Well, I predict that this month's release of PI stamps are going to be equally well received and I recommend that you be ready to shop as soon as the releases go on sale on Wednesday night. That way you will have plenty of time to whip up some Christmas cards with the ever adorable "Merry KISSmas" set you see being used here.

This month there are four new PI sets. If you didn't get here from Kim's blog then when you're done here click on the link and head on over there. Everyday during the sneak peeks, at 11:00 AM Kim will post a list of links to all the sites that have sneak peeks and if you visit everyone you are likely to see all four of the sets.

For both cards I stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black and colored them with copics. On the first card I paper pieced PI's jacket and scarf with a scrap of Making Memories "Meg Narrow Stripe" dp. I used a strip of that paper on the inside of the card too. The edge of the paper is sponged with VersaMagic "Spring Pansy". The cs mat and card base are from SU. The dp is Basic Grey's Wassail, on top of that there's some purple mesh from SU (thank you to good buddy Eileen for that gift which looks so cute here). On top of that there's snowflake ribbon, one of them is in the upper right corner too. The felt snowflakes are from Creative Impressions. There's Glitzy Glitter on the snowman for highlights. His nose and buttons are stickles, so are the red berries and the pompoms on PI's hat. The white mat on the inside is punched with the EK Success Snowflake border punch.

For the second card I went a little more country looking by distressing it. I haven't been doing much of that lately and I miss it. I know a lot of stampers have a hard time ripping and tearing their beautiful papers but once you try it, it becomes sort of therapeutic. Besides roughing up the edges they are sponged with a blue ink, but I forgot to write down what color is is, it's very similar to the color of the scalloped mat which is from DCWV neutrals. The oval and scalloped oval were punched out with Spellbinder's Nestibilities, the ribbon slider is also from Spellbinders. The green cs is from DCWV neutrals too. There are stickles on the pompoms, the berries, the snowman's nose and buttons and there's Glitzy Glitter on his edges. The snowflake dp is from My Mind's Eye Christmas pad. The snowflake bling in the upper right corner is from Hero Arts.
Don't forget to click the pink ribbon before you go and then head back to Kim's blog for some more peeks.

An Apple for the Teacher

It's that time of the month again, no, not that time, it's time for the MFT Guest Designer Challenge. This month the challenge is being hosted by Kathy and Bar and they're challenging us to get Krafty. So we need to use Kraft in our card or project. At first I just made a gift card with a belly band with the Pure Innocence "Apple for You" stamp set. It turned out pretty cute.

I thought that if I were going to give this to a teacher I would probably want to have a little token gift to go along with it. At first I was thinking some chocolates, maybe in the shape of an apple but then I got the idea of a bottle of Sparking Cider and so I made a bottle hanger to go on the neck of a bottle. I know there are some Appletini fans amongst the MFT junkies, you could put this hanger on a bottle of vodka too. Heck you can put it on any bottle.

So here are the deets: The image is stamped on MFT Perfect Panels with Memento Tuxedo Black and colored with copics. The barrette, shoes and apple have a SU Glossy effects on them. The dp is from the Cosmo Cricket "Nutmeg" pad. It's used to paper piece the dress, and for the front of the gift card and the bottom of the pocket on the hanger. The edge of the Perfect Panel is sponged with Ranger "Scattered Straw" and the edges of the do are sponged with Ranger "Spiced Marmalade". The yellow cs mats are from DCWV neutrals and the bases of the cards and hanger are SU kraft cs. The edge of the gift card is punched with the SU eyelet lace border punch. The circles and ovals are cut with nestibilities. In the corners of the dp on the gift card and on the hanger there are orange gemstones from Hero Arts. Just a little bit of bling to dress it up.

I'm not a teacher but I'd be happy getting this for a present.

Thanks for visiting, please come back again. Your comments make my day.

Sneak Peaks - Day2

Welcome MFT junkies. If you're looking for sneak peaks you're in the right place. Here's the newest Flopsey - "Truffles Flopsey". I think he may just be the cutest Flopsey yet. Next Wednesday, December 2, MFT will be releasing this stamp set (and several other killer sets - you're gonna want them all) so mark your calendar, the release party will start at 8:00 PM EST on the MFT forum on Splitcoast Stampers, you can get to the party by clicking here. If you go there now you can read some info about the party, about the fabulous prizes that will be given away, info about the sneak peeks and of course you can just chat with us MFT Junkies.

For today's sneak peek I decided to make a card but I hope you'll keep coming back here because I have another project made with this stamp for another day. I can't give it all up right away, I want you to come back and visit, again and again.

For this card I used a sketch from an MFT Sketch Challenge. There were 100 sketches posted by Cindy Haffner and Frances Byrne and you can find a master list of them by clicking here. If you're a follower of my blog you know that I plan to do something with all one hundred of them and furthermore I have thrown down the gauntlet and challenged Bonnie (another MFT junkie) to see which one of us would get them done first. We've been slacking but I'm back at it Bonnie, so you better get cracking.

This sketch is MFTSC34. Flopsey and the sentiment are stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black and colored with copics. The box of truffles was stamped a second time, colored, dusted with glitter, cut out and popped up on dimensionals. The image and the mat were cut with nestibilities. The edges of the papers were sponged with Ranger "Tattered Rose". Both sides of the dp "True Love" by Moxie was used. The edges of the light side of the dp and white cs were sponged with Ranger "Tattered Rose". The pink cs for the mat and red card stock base are from MFT, this card stock is nice and heavy. The white borders were punched with the Martha Stewart "Lacey Heart" border punch. The sentiment and its mat were punched with SU oval and scalloped oval punches. and the gingham ribbon is also from MFT.

I really like the way this card turned out, I hope you like it too.

If you like seeing the sneak peeks and want to see more stop over at Kim's blog on My Favorite Things. Everyday at 11AM EST she's posting a list of all the bloggers that are posting a card or project for the day's sneaks. You should go, you'll like what you see.

Before you leave, click on the pink ribbon.

Will Work for Stamps

I will work for stamps, oh yes I will, and I am supery dupery excited to work for My Favorite Things this week as a December Guest Design Team Member. If you've been following my blog you know that I love, love, love My Favorite Things so being asked if I would like to do this is the equivalent of being asked if I want to keep breathing this month. Hmmm...let me think on this for one billionith of a second. YES, YES, YES, I wanted to be on the team, so for the next few days you are going to be treated to cards and projects that I've made with the FABULOUS, stamp sets that are going to be released next Wednesday by My Favorite Things.

The first set that's being sneaked is "Love at First Sight". In my head I keep calling it "Love at First Bite" because there's a couple stamps that are of open boxes of candy and then one big yummy truffle. I like to make pins with stamped images. It's so simple to do. All you need is a stamp you love, a pin for the back, some markers, some strong cardstock and Crystal Effects (from Stampin' Up) or Ranger's Glossy Effects. Others have used UTEE but I haven't tried that yet. Point is you want something to seal them up, hold a pin on the back and make the image nice and shiney. So I made pins of the small candy box and the truffle. They are stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black on white card stock and colored with copics. Before I cut it out I adhered it to a piece of black card stock, so that the two layers were cut at the same time and would be exactly the same. Then the front is coated with the glossy accents, usually I put some glitter on it at this point but for this pin in order to get more control of where the glitter went I put it on a couple of the candy pieces before the glossy accents went on it. You need to put it aside for a couple hours (overnight is even better) to dry and then you flip it over and apply the glossy accents to the back and put the pin on. For the pin I made of the big truffle I put a pearl heart on it. You can see the heart in the picture it just doesn't look like a heart in the pic. These pins are going to be presents so I made little tin holders for them. The tins came from a craft supply store, I think they were made by Wilton, and they are in section for supplies to make party favors. The ones I got come in a pack of about 25 and I'm already on my second container, did I mention that I like to make pins? For the container lids I just stamped the image again, punched it and a scalloped mat out with SU punches. The images are colored like the pins and then adhered to the tin tops. A little MFT Spring collection ribbon was tied around the top rim. On the inside some paper slivers make a little nest for the pin. They are a darling present, easy to make, inexpensive and they look great.


My second project with this set of stamps is a photo frame. This is another inexpensive project. To start with I picked up a magnetic frame in the $1 bin at a craft store. I do love to find cheap stuff that can be altered. I almost forgot to take a photo of it before I covered it, so in the photo you can see some of the red tape I used to adhere my designer paper "Be Mine" by Reminisce. I stamped the sentiment "Puppy Love" in Memento Lady Bug, a yummy red ink that Kim gave me with one of my orders. Lots of times there's a gift for the first 50 orders at a release so you might want to get over there quick as a bunny on Wednesday night, but I digress...The sentiment and mat were punched with SU oval and scalloped oval punches. The doggies were stamped with Memento tuxedo black and colored with copics and some stickles on the hearts. The ovals were punched with Nestibilities. Lastly the buttony bow was made with ribbon from the $1 bin. That buttony bow is a neat little trick I learned from the MFT design team. They have brilliant ideas and they share them. You all probably know I have cats so if you're wondering, that whacky doggie in the picture is Tommy, a very active Jack Russell Terrier, he belongs to my buddy Rosie and this is going to be a present for her - I'm sure she has some better pictures of Tommy and her other baby Mickalah to put in the frame but I didn't have any other funny doggie pics.


This stamp set also has a girl stamp in it and some other sentiments. It will be great for Valentine's Day cards, scrap book pages and projects but you don't have to limit yourself to just that holiday. Personally I like candy all year long, and I love doggies all year long too.


If you didn't come here by way of Kim's blog you should know that some of my favorite stampers have also been asked to be on the team this month and you just have to go visit their blogs to see what they have made. They may not have a sneak peek post for every day but they have fab blogs just the same, well worth checking out. First of all there's Megan Lock. I have sent you to see her work before. She is just fabulous AND she just won the My Favorite Things "So You Think You Can Stamp" contest and she's been asked to be the newest member of the MFT design team. Then there's Kelli Jo. She was one of the finalists so she's no slack either, she had one heck of a final project with coffee as a theme. She's also one of the funniest people in blogland. Kerry J was also a finalist and no slouch in the talent department. For her project she made a scrapbook of the WTG (Who's That Girl) on tour as a winner of the "So You Think You Can Dance" contest. She used WTG stamps as photos and used towns that the tour actually visit. Another fabulous stamper and finalist in the contest is Julie. She made an outrageous box that I would love to copy but it requires lots of work and attention to detail. So I will just admire how cool it looks. Then there's Bonnie, Lisa and Erin, they may not have made it to the finals (but then neither did I) they are all terrific stampers with great ideas. I follow all their blogs and can guarantee you'll like what you see. You should probably favorite all these sites too cause over the next couple days they are gonna have sneaks to show off and you aren't going to want to miss any of them.

Let It Snow

Let It Snow, anywhere but here. Yeah, it's pretty and delicate but it's also cold, wet and nuisance for driving and parking around here.

Enough of my complaining how about the I switch to the card, that's really why you keep coming back.

This stamp is from Impression Obsession. When I buy them from the website I get them unmounted so it doesn't have a name on it and at the moment I'm drawing a blank, but I think it's a Leigh Hannan.

This card is for a few challenges. One of my favorite challenges is Crazy 4 Challenges. This week it's a sketch. So I had my stamp and my layout next I needed a color scheme so I went to the Scrapmaster's Paradise Color Combo Challenge #24. This week the colors are Bashful Blue, Real Red and Certainly Celery. Luckily for me I recently picked up a sheet of Imaginisce "Polar Expressions" double sided paper which as that color scheme. (Unluckily for me, when I went to post this I discovered it was last week's challenge ). I used both sides for this card. The Bizzy Becs Creatalicious Challenge #4 is to make something for Christmas and to include snowflakes and lots of glitter. Lastly, the Allsort's Week 28 Challenge is to take your inspirations from a Christmas Carol or a Song Title. The sentiment on this card is "Let It Snow" which is a Christmas Carol, which sends shivers down my spine every time I hear it. Kind of like the snow makes me shiver, ok, I said I wasn't gonna complain anymore so I'll just give you the rest of the deets.
The snowflake and the stamp mats were made with Spellbinders nestibilities and die cuts. The chunky glitter is from The Cat's Pajama. The image was stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black on Georgia Pacific cs and colored with copics, with stickles for highlights. The light blue pearls in the corners are Crystal Stickers. The paper edges were brushed with Ranger's Distressed Straw. The tag is a Martha Stewart punch. The blue cs is DCWV and the green (certainly celery) cs is from SU.
Thanks for visiting, I hope you come back. I don't know if I'll be posting again before Thanksgiving so I'm wishing you all a great Turkey day. Enjoy your friends and families.
Please click on the pink ribbon before you leave.

Mazie's At the Beach

I wish I were at the beach too.

When I got home tonight there was a little surprise for me in my mailbox. Mazie just got here from Shirley's 2 Girls. Last week I won my choice of any stamp for participating in the sketch challenge. I realize it's Thanksgiving and I should be stamping cornucopias, but I can barely spell that, forget about stamping it. Heck, I'm dreaming of sunnier times and Mazie was just screaming for me to pick her.

And Mazie was just in time to get inked up for the Shirley 's 2 Girls sketch challenge #34. S2G sketch challenges have a twist and the twist this week is to use rick rack. I've had this rick rack for a long time and am glad I finally got around to using it. I tweaked the sketch a little by using a rectangle where the circle should be and a split circle where the split rectangle should be.

Here's the rest of the deets, the dp is from a Me and My Big Ideas pack. The image was stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black and colored with copics. There are stickles on the sand, the sun and flower centers. The edges of the white cs are sponged with Ranger Spiced Marmalade and the corners have Pebbles Candy Dots. They really do look like candy dots.

So a big thanks to Shirley's 2 Girls for the prize and the badge.

Thanks for stopping by, please come back again and don't forget to click on the pink ribbon.

Sprinkles Goes Skating

You know what I hate, I hate when I can't figure out how to edit my photos so that the pink looks pink, cause the center bar on this card is a really nice almost hot pink. I think this card stock is from the SU in colors, maybe mambo melon? So if you have access to a color swatch for this year's in colors check it out, it's a much nicer color in real life.

So why do I care so much about how this color looks. The pic of the card is pretty decent overall. All the neato glitzy glitter on it doesn't show that well but maybe if you click on it to enlarge it, you'll be able to see the glitter but clicking won't change the color. Well, I care because this week at The Cat's Pajama's the challenge is a color inspiration based on this hat from the LL Bean catalogue. Cute hat, I'd wear it. I love the blue in it and the background is a yummy chocolate.

So I've got my first challenge picked out, and if you've been here before you know that I'm going to look for some others to combine with it. I like to do a sketch challenge, so I've picked the SSSC45 from the Sweetest Thing. For this layout I picked the skater cat Sprinkle as the center element and wanted to use glitzy glitter with it so I pulled out the Martha Stewart "Icicles" border punch. I added a couple embellishments. I just got the Spellbinder's "Create a Flake 1" set and had to use it. It works well with this layout, the colors and the stamp. Using the glitter and snowflakes makes it work for the Bizzy Bec's Creatalicious Challenge #4 to make something for Christmas, include snowflakes and lots of sparkle/glitter. Lastly, the Pile It On Challenge #25 is to use Rub Ons. The twist with Pile It On is to do at least one more challenge which is already covered. I was going to stamp something Christmasy in the sentiment area but since PIO is rub ons I pulled out a package from Close To My Heart and picked two snowflakes the the work "friend". Guess that will work.

The rest of the deets are: the edges of the circles are sponged with VersaMagic "Sea Breeze", the image is stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black; the snowflake bling is from Hero Arts, the dp is KI Memories "Alpine Fashion", the blue card stocks are DCWV, the card base is brown cs from Nicole. When the card base is a dark color like chocolate it's difficult to write a message on it so I put a piece of white card stock inside. This time I added a couple strips of the blue and pink card stock that was used on the exterior of the card. The white card stock was punched with the EK Success snowflake border punch to go along with the wintry, snowy theme.

Thanks for visiting, I hope you'll come back again. I know this is going to be a busy week for everyone but I've been working on some special cards and projects. So I know I'll have lots ready to go next weekend, hopefully I'll be able to get a something posted before then. But just in case, I wish you all a happy holiday. I hope you spend the day surrounded by people you love, but whatever your circumstances spend a little time being thankful. Surely, if you are reading this you have much to be grateful for. Happy Thanksgiving, and by the way, you are one of the many things I have to be thankful for.

Deck the Howls

I haven't howled in a couple weeks so it's about time I participated in a Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge. I've been checking in to see the sketches and what the design team is up to, there is always something to make the visit worth while. Between blog candy give aways, blog hops and technique tips there's they keep me entertained, but as you may know I am easily amused.

This week Priscilla asked for Christmas cards, so I used one of my new stamps from Impression Obsession. I think it's called Holiday Topiary. It was so much fun to color it with copics and then ice it up with stickles.

Since I was making a Christmas card I used the Tuesday Taggers Colour (oh so British, can't you hear that great accent - hey I'm from Joisey, any accent sounds better than us) Challenge to use red, gold and green. They said they are going easy on us and I have to agree, and participate.

The last challenge I'm doing is the Crafty Creations Challenge to use metal or metallic finishes. One of the design elements in the sketch was a star hanging off a flower embellishment in the lower left. I happen to have a package of stars that I've been wanting to use so here it is. You want to click on the photo to enlarge it so that you can see the star. It's hanging of the brad that's attached to the red gingham bow.

Here's the rest of the deets: The paper is Basic Grey Figgy Pudding, the cs is DCWV neutrals, the gingham ribbon is My Favorite Things, the star is Blue Moon Beads, the brad is Making Memories Jumbo Pebble Brads, the edges are sponged with Ranger "Worn Lipstick". Lots of stickles on the image.

Thanks for visiting. come back again and don't forget to click on the Pink Ribbon. And if I may be so bold as to say it, don't listen to idiots who say 40 is too young for a mammogram. Follow your head and heart, talk to your doctor, your friends, your mother - but do not listen to statisticians, your breast health is not a numbers game.

One Suave Dog Got Mojo

Is that not the sharpest dog you've ever seen? He is one suave dude with his chocolatini. I just had to have this stamp. It's from the latest release at the Cat's Pajamas. I was lucky enough to be picked as last month's Swanky Stamper which means I received a $25 credit to spend on anything in the online store. So a big thank you very much to Alma for the lovely prize and the great honor of being "Swanky", it's quite a thrill. The way I stalked the mailbox waiting for my order to be delivered you would have thought I was expecting the cure to cancer. As soon as it got here I had to make this card for last week's the Cat's Pajama's challenge to make a Holiday card. Since you have to the end of the month to post your challenge I really didn't have to be so impatient but I'm like a kid at Christmas when it comes to stamps. And I can't wait to post this on Alma's blog because she has a cool slide show of the cards submitted. I like to see the cards people make for the different challenges but sometimes I just want to keep clicking on all the names, well Alma has the cool slide show so you can just sit back and watch as the cards are displayed. Very Cool!

So I knew I wanted to use this stamp and for a holiday card so I looked for some other challenges for my next direction and I checked out the Color Throwdown. This week's challenge #69 is to use Chocolate, cream and dark red, olive is optional. So I pulled out some Basic Grey papers. For my layout I turned to the Mojo Monday Challenge week 113 sketch challenge. With those three challenges as my guide the card went together pretty quickly. It's almost a bonus that I get to enter this card in the Simon Says Challenge this week which is "Animal Antics". I bet this dog would consider himself way above antics, he's much to cool but he isn't getting a say in this.

Here's the deets - The cs is from DCWV neutrals, the crossbar dp is BG "Cranberry Sauce", the dotted mat is from the BG Porcelain collection and paper on that mat is BG "Tree Lot". The paper edges are sponged with Ranger "Peeled Paint". The shapes were cut with Spellbinders nestibilities. The "Cheers" punch is from Martha Stewart, the ribbon around it is from the MFT Chocolate Kiss collection. The image and sentiment are stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black and the image is colored with copics. The berries are covered with stickles. The bling around the sentiment is from Heide Swapp.

I have a lot of fun making my cards and a lot of fun reading your comments so thanks for visiting. Will you please click the pink ribbon before you leave.

Baby First

Here are two stamps I inked up for the first time. They're a onesie and a blank postage stamp from the MFT "Baby First" set. It's a great set of stamps with lots of images to choose from. I've forgotten some of those images and have to pull the set out every now and then to see what's in it. In fact, my buddy Pam a card using this acetate sheet in our LSS. The card had this really cute lambie stamped on it. Pam wanted to recreate the card and asked to buy the stamp, the saleswoman said they didn't have it but that it was from MFT. So when I got home I went on line and ordered it. Later I went to look for something to stamp and discovered that I already had the stamp. So I surprised Pam with a present of the set. We both picked up the "Onesie" acetate sheet (by Hambly). I never asked if Pam made the card but my acetate has sat in my stash since then, until I saw the Crazy for Challenges C4C11 post this weekend to create a card or project using acetate. So I made a little baby card. This is perfect timing because I need to send a present out to someone who recently had a little girl. She is the most precious thing.

The other details on the card are it's stamped on an MFT perfect panel in Memento tuxedo Black and colored with copics. I don't remember who the brads are from and the yellow cs is DCWV neutrals.

Thanks for visiting, please come back again. Don't forget to click the pink ribbon.

A Blog Award

Hello there! Today I received a blog award from my sweet friend ERIN! Thank you Erin for thinking of me!!!







The Rules are: Pass this award on to five people, post on their blog to let them know you have left this award for them. And then answer a list of questions in one word! so here goes:
1. Where is your mobile?...purse
2. Your hair?... short
3. Your Mother?... deceased
4. Your Father?... deceased
5. Your favorite food?... pasta
6. Your Dream last night?... forgotten
7. Your Fav Drink?...dietpepsi
8. Your Dream?... retirement
9. What room are you in?...office
10. Your Hobby?... papercrafts
11. Fear?... confinement
12. Where do you want to be in 5 years?... Florida
13. Where were you last night?... craftcave
14. Something that you aren't?... thin
15. Muffins... avoiding
16. Wish List Item?... peace
17. Where did you grow up?... Joisey
18. Last thing you did?... phonecall
19. What are you wearing?... Obsession
20. Your TV?... home
21. Pets?... kitties
22. Friends?... bestest
23. Mood?... content
24. Life?... blessed
25. Missing someone?... mom
26. Vehicle?... audi
27. Something you're not wearing?...makeup
28. Fav store?...Scraptasia
29. Fav Colour?... pink
30. When was last time you laughed?... today
31. Last time you cried?... yesterday
32. Best Friend?... hmmmm
33. One place that i go to over n over? AC Moore
34. Facebook?... rarely
35. Fav place to eat? Brooklyn Diner
And now I am going to pass this along to some of my blogging friends!
Bonnie, Jody, Melody, Joanne, and Bar! Have a STAMPTASTIC day!

It's Your Birthday - Eat Cake

It's Your Birthday - Eat Cake! I've been writing that on the inside of cards lately. I wonder if anyone has that as a sentiment on a stamp, if they don't they should. I know I'd buy it and shouldn't that be reason enough to make it.

The sentiment on this card is "What you eat standing up...doesn't count". If only... We can dream and speaking of dream, I have a wire word "dream" with a couple little beads on it. I've had it for a long time and I planned to use it on this card. It would have been perfect for the Shirley's 2 Girls Sketch Challenge #33 with a twist and this week's twist is to use wire on your card, so you can see how I would have liked to use it on this card. I looked several times in all the places that I would have expected it to be and finally gave up and used a round clip from SU instead. This stamp is the "Cake Baker" from S2G, perfect for a birthday card or any occasion that calls for cake. Heck I think waking up in the morning is a good enough occasion for cake which means I can get a lot of use out of this stamp.

I wanted to dress up the cross piece with some borders. This week the LaLa Land challenge #12 is "getting punchy". To dress up the edges I used Fiskar's Effervescence (don't think for one minute I can spell that on my own, if I didn't copy it down I'd just say I can't remember it's name). The other punch is the EK Success "Candle". Those EK Success punches are neat because they close very flat and are so easy to store. The corners of the paper the image is stamped on and its mat were punched with a corner rounder punch from Creative Memories. The sentiment and its mat were punched with nestibilities. The little tag was punched with a Martha Stewart punch.

The baker and the sentiment were both stamped in Memento black. The baker was colored with copics and her jacket was paper pieced. That paper is from KI Memories. The other paper didn't have any identifier on it.

Thanks for visiting. I hope you'll come back again.

Lazy Daisy Cake

That's right a recipe, and not for a card but for a cake. Did you think you clicked on the wrong link? Well, tomorrow morning I going to go to an SCS Shoebox Swap. We're all bringing something and I'm bringing Lazy Daisy Cake. I figured I'd type it up here and if anyone wants the recipe they can find it here. It's a lot easier to write down your website 20 times, than to write down the recipe. This is a cake my mom used to make all the time. She was a great cook and an excellent baker, there was always something freshly baked in our house and all my friends were familiar with her skills and knew where to look to see what the day's treat was.
This cake is made in a "lasagna" pan, basically a 13 x 9 x 2 incher.

Lazy Daisy Cake
1 cup Milk
2 tbsp unsalted butter
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups sifted unbleached all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Topping
6 tbsp (3/4 stick) of butter
1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp (packed) brown sugar
1 can (4 oz) coconut -NOTE: my mother always had this I can never find it so I just use the bagged stuff, about a cup will do
1 /4 cup milk
1 tbsp vanilla extract

1.) Preheat over to 350, butter and flour the pan.
2.) In a small pot heat the mile and butter till scalding, don't let it boil.
3.) In a large bowl beat the eggs, add the sugar and beat till thick and foamy, slowly add the milk mixture and the vanilla.
4.) Sift flour, baking powder and salt together. Slowly beat this into the egg mixture. Pour the batter into the pan. The batter is not thick like a cake mix, it's a little on the loose side.
5.) Bake for about 30 minutes, test with toothpick. Cool slightly in pan.
6.) Prepare topping by melting butter in saucepan, add brown sugar, and milk. Stir in coconut and vanilla.
&.) Spread the mixture over the top of the cake and place it under the broiler about 4" away from the flame and broil till the topping starts to bubble. Move as necessary to get topping evenly browned. Don't walk away because the topping can go from toasted to burnt in the blink of an eye.

During the summer my father's family used to get together at my Uncle Joe's house on the weekends. He had a built in pool which was a really big deal when we were kids. My father had 3 brothers and 4 sisters, I think there were 27 cousins but the number was in flux, and almost everyone one of us and maybe some of our friends were at my uncles having a blast. They used to cook full dinners for us and my mother always made a cake or cookies to take and this cake was so popular with my cousins that to this day when we have a get together someone will ask me if I can bring it.
This cake was also a favorite of my father. He especially loved the toasted coconut topping, so did I. He worked nights and lots of times when he came home he'd have a snack, while the rest of were sleeping. It used to bug my mother, not that he ate the cake but when she wasn't around cutting it for him, he would break of the top so that she'd find a chunk of cake with the top ripped off it in the pan. One day I saw the pan on the counter, the cake was usually almost as tall as the pan and this time the cake was really low in the pan, it was just about an inch high. So I asked my mother what happened to the cake, and she said "I finally figured out that if I half the recipe your father won't mess up the cake". Geez, she was smart.

Give the recipe a try, it's a real old fashioned one, but it's really good.
Thanks for visiting, I hope you'll come back again, and hey, don't forget to click on the ribbon.

A Charlie Brown Tree

It's week 6 of the MFT "So You Think You Can Stamp" challenges. This is the last week to be able to win a place in the finals. There will be six finalists who will get teamed up with a member of the design team to work on the final challenge. The winner will receive all the new stamp releases from MFT from December till May. That's quite a big honking prize and you'd have to be carzy not to like it, or not interested in stamps. Are there people out there who aren't interested in stamps? Doesn't seem possible, but I digress.

The dance this week is Krumping. Not exactly my generation but the instructions were "Bling It Out - Make It Shout". Now that speaks to me, I like bling and that I can do.

While I was out shopping I spotted this Charlie Brown Christmas tree. I thought it would be the perfect tree to take along to Florida. We don't have any decorations there and it will be nice to have this there. We won't get there till 12/23 and I don't want to have to do a lot of work, it's time to be on vacation and take it nice and easy. Setting up this tree will only take a couple of minutes to put it up and very little time to put it away.

For the MFT challenge I made some decoration with bing to hang on the tree. The first ornament is made from MFT Chocolate Kiss paper, there are 6 scalloped circles made with the SU punch. There are 2 different papers. After you punch then out you fold them in half and adhere them to each other. Before you adhere the lost circle closed you drop in your thread hanger. Most of the glass beads and pearls you see on the cords have glass beads and crystals hanging from the threads.

For the heart shaped ornament on the left I stamped the candy canes from the MFT "Cool Yule" stamp set. It's popped up on white card stock that was embossed with the tiny dots folder. The pink stripes are covered with stickles. The cs was cut out with nestibilities. This ornament has an adorable bead on top. If you click on the picture you may be able to see it better. The other ornament is the snowflake from the "Baby, It's Cold Outside" set. It's stamped in Versamark and embossed with silver powder. Lots of pink bling on the embossed white cs.

The polar bear is last but certainly not least. He's so cute I had to make three of him. He's from the "Cool Yule" set. For each ornament I stamped him twice and cut one out. Then I made the scarves for him. He's got a little bit of copics color on his paws, nose and cheeks. He was stamped twice for each ornament. One of the bears is cut out and then the paper pieced scarf is added. Also for his image I added some white glitter. The red cs is from DCWV and is cut with a nestibilities. There's another scalloped circle on the back made with the same paper as his scarf.

It's very late and I starting to fall asleep so I may have neglected some details. let me know if I've made any glaring mistakes and I'll correct it.

Thanks for visiting.

The First of the Quints

Please allow me to introduce Pure Innocence. She is from the cutest new line of stamps from My Favorite Things. The line was just released last week and already three of the five images have sold out. You can see why, she's cuter than cute. Even though all the images are of the same girl I've taken to calling them the quints and I think I will be using them a lot.

Can you tell that this is an over the door hanger? If you have a child anything like my darling daughter you have jackets laying all over the place, except where you want them to be. So I picked up some over the door hangers and thought they could use some spiffing up, and maybe just maybe my DD would actually use it. Well, it's not likely but I can dream.

Of course when I make something I have to have a challenge or two to work with. For tonight's effort I used the Cupcake Craft Challenge #64 - Snow Much Fun. Oh you cupcakers, I am so not a snow person but I can get my head into putting it on paper. This little doesn't appear to mind the snow, and one of the other stamps has her with lots of snowballs piled in her arms, so maybe I'll be visiting the Cupcake gals again this week.

The other challenge this is for is the Tuesday Taggers - No Patterned Paper. Since this isn't a card it was actually pretty easy no to use patterned paper. I love patterned paper and just made a purchase of a some nice holiday papers that I would love to use with this stamp and just may.

I hope you like my little coat hanger, after all, you're more likely to like it than my daughter.

Thanks for visiting, please click the pink ribbon before you go, it's a good thing.

Kraft and Pink and Bling Oh My!

I just love this Shirley's 2 Girls stamp, she's so me. I hate housework. Except that for some strange reason I like to do laundry, it's a tactile thing, I like the feel of different fabrics and the smell of clean clothes. I actually like the smell of chlorine. But I consider this just a bizarre quirk that someday I may overcome.

I was itching to get this stamp set inky. So for this week's Shirley's 2 Girls sketch challenge #32 I used the "Housework" stamp. S2G has a weekly sketch challenge with a twist, this week it's to use a paper bag or kraft. I love to combine challenges when I can. For this card there were two other challenges that screamed to be used on this card. The LaLa Land challenge to use PINK. The other challenge that had to be used is the Allsort's challenge to BRING OUT YOUR BLING. By the way, the challenge blogs used capital letters for both of those challenges but I gotta say, those two things are worth yelling about.

I've been using a lot of kraft lately so I just pulled out another sheet and then I looked for some papers that had pink in them. I love this plaid paper by Crush and the dotted paper by KI isn't too shabby either. The kraft cs is from SU and the pink cs is DCWV. I pulled out my MFT hot fix crystals and put the tiny little ones on the bg of the image and them some pink crystals in the corners of the kraft mat. The flower is Prima. There's another pink crystal in the center of the floss bow that's tied to the button. The paper edges were punched with the Fiskar's Upper Crest boder punch and the corners of the kraft mat were done with an SU corner punch.

I do like the way the bling looks on this card and I am partial to the pink hat, I may have to make myself a hat like this one.

Thanks for visiting, I hope you'll come back again.

So You Think You Can Dance- Week 5

The challenge for So You Think You Can Dance Week 5 is the Contemporary, Fresh and modern, think clean lines and simple style. I've been thinking about this challenge since I read it on Wednesday. We're down to two challenges before the 6 finalists are challenged one last time so I wanted something really good but that clean simple can be the kiss of death to my thought processes. For some reason I had elegant stuck in my head and I had a whole different card ready to go and then I re-read the criteria and had to cancel that card, at least for now. So I was back to drawing board. In the meantime I had about a dozen other challenges meandering around in my head. The one I most wanted to try my hand at is the Crazy for Challenges Week 10 - Make an Easel Card. This type of card has been popping up a lot lately in the card blog world and I think they look fantastic. If you haven't seen what the design team at Crazy for Challenges cooked up this week click the link and you'll see what I'm talking about. I didn't know if I would be able to use it with the MFT card but it was on my mind. I decided to go through my MFT stamps to see if anything would jump out. The search criteria was for something modern with clean and simple lines. I had a couple sets put on the side as having potential but the minute I looked the "Grow Love, Plant a Tree" set I knew this was the stamp set to use. I recently purchased a Cosmo Cricket Nutmeg collection pad and knew that was the paper to use. I also remembered that the color challenge Fashionista #10 at If the Shoe Fits is to use Orange, Kreme and Kraft. I love creamsicles and any dessert with orange and vanilla is a-okay in my book so I had to, just had to do this challenge and the main color in the papers is orange. So I used a piece of SU kraft cs for the base and used a white mat and tag. I didn't want to use bling or border punches, to keep it simple but I thought it needed a little something more that just the tree so I used a Martha Stewart punch to make a tag and hung it off some SU twine. The card has an autumn feel to it so I wrote the quintessential fall sentiment "give thanks" on it and that's the Simon Says challenge - Give Thanks. I popped the tree up on dimensionals and cut out a leaf to pop up on the tree. The white mat is also mounted on dimensionals. Since I still have a couple of the leaf buttons that is the perfect "stopper" for the easel card. And it turns out that the Pile It On challenge #23 is to use a Leaf or Leaves, so the leaf button and the paper with leaves that the tree is pieced with are perfect. I stamped the sentiment with SU Close to Cocoa and embossed it with clear powder.

I hope you enjoyed your visit, and that you'll keep your fingers crossed for me, I'd sure like to be one of the six finalists in the MFT challenge.

Don't forget to click on the pink ribbon, you know why.

Everything Old Is New Again

Back in the 1960's there was the first Earth Day and it was all about conservation. Eventually it became recycling and now we're going green so even that's been recycled. No cynicism here, just saying...I'm all for finding new uses for things instead of tossing them in the garbage. I've got an aunt who's close to 90 and she worked with pre-school kids for years, I gotta tell ya, she found uses for stuff that I would never have thought of. One time she made a wreath out of the plastic that holds six packs of soda cans together. It looked really good. That's my aunt Josephine and she's till crafting.
This week's CCEE Stampers' challenge is to alter something and coincidentally my boss gave me a tin. She knows I like to make stuff so she gives me nice boxes and tins instead of throwing them out. So I decided to make something for her with it. I didn't know what to do with it so I checked out some other challenges and picked my color scheme from the the Color Dare #41 challenge to use Very Vanilla, Bermuda Bay and Soft Suede. That's a color combo I like a lot. One of my newest toys is a set of Just Right monogram stamps and fonts and I wanted to play with it so that's what I did. I made the monogram of her last initial to use on the lid. It's stamped with Versamark on white cs and embossed with gold powder and punched out with a SU circle punch. After that I used Blossom Nestibilities to punch out cs in the Color Dare colors with the bottom layer punched with a circle die. Each layer is mounted on dimensionals. A strip of Soft Suede ribbon is attached to the lid's rim. The bottom of the tin is covered with dp from the Crate Paper Prudence Collection. It wasn't wide enough to go entirely around the tin but amazingly the pattern matched up when the small piece was cut to fit the remaining section. Whoa, was that cool. I don't where I got the idea to make the bookmarks, but I made three out of large paper clips I had on hand. The backing scalloped circle is made with a SU scalloped circle punch.

This worked up pretty quickly and easily. I think just about anyone would like the tin and you can fill it with anything, the clips are a nice inexpensive filler. You can change the stamped image to something cutesy and put hair clips and ribbons for a little girl. How about a fish stamp and put some fishing flies in it for a guy. If you put your mind to it you can make a gift for just about anyone with this size tin. How about something for one of your stamping buddies? You can fit a stamp in it, or brads or both. Now that's a gift I'd like to receive.

Thanks for visiting, I hope you come back again.

Don't forget to click on the pink ribbon, it's a simple thing to do and it's a good thing. Get some good karma going, just click on it.

Get Your Mojo Out

This card is for a few challenges. The first one is the Mojo Monday sketch challenge #111. While you don't have to follow sketches exactly I usually like to stay close to it. So for this one I looked for a stamp that would look good in a square. I also wanted to use a stamp I haven't inked up yet and I wanted it to be good for another challenge, the OCC challenge , an inspiration challenge to use something vintage or vintage inspired. For vintage I turn to the Crafty Secrets stamps, this one is from the "Sweet Kids" set.

The Stampin' B's challenge #30 is to make a Thanksgiving or Autumn card.

For the vintage look I prefer to use my SU Watercolors and to use them sparingly. Because of the watercolors it's stamped in Stazon Brown on SU confetti white cs. The mat was punched with a Nestibilities from DCWV Neutrals cs. The image is popped up on dimensionals. The dp is from Cosmo Cricket. I used a leaf button and some leaf gems for embellishments. The edges of the papers are brushed with CTMH Dessert Sand.

Thank you for stopping by, I hope you'll come back again.

Howdy Pardner

Most days when I log on I visit this blog and go through the challenges on my sidebar and make a note of them so that when I sit down to make a card or project I have some ideas of things to do. So I visited the sites and made my notes and then I went to my e-mail and I got one from Jody Morrow from Confessions of a Ribbon Addict blog asking "Is this you?", so I clicked on the link Jody sent me and Dang! I was the Swanky Stamper for November! I know I've said this before but I have to repeat it, it's a really big thrill to see your card posted like that. I would have seen it eventually because I like to check out the Swanky Stamper page but I have to thank Jody for getting me there today, and of course a big thanks to Alma, I'm very thrilled to be a Swanky Stamper.

So it's TCP Tuesday, and Leigh is the Hostess with the Mostess for this week's The Cat's Pajama Challenge. This week TCPTUES83 is a sketch challenge. I pulled out my Cat's Pajamas stamps to start the process and decided upon the "It's a Western Thing" set because I need some birthday cards. It may be hard to believe but I don't have a lot of birthday cards on hand. This one will be good for a boy or a girl, maybe even an adult.

When I decided to use this stamp set I knew I had a bandanna print paper scrap so I dug it out, the maker's name is gone, the other papers are also scraps but the striped one used for the bottom layer is"Memorable Stripes" from My Mind's Eye . The cs mats are from DCWV neutrals. It's stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black and colored with copics, the edges were brushed with Ranger Scattered Straw and Shabby Shutters. The stars are Darice self stick gems. The plaid paper was punched with an SU spiral border punch. The star and sentiment were stamped in Versamark and embossed with gold powder.

This week the Paper Cutz #15 challenge is to make a project using stars so I'll post this to that challenge too.

Thanks for visiting, I hope you liked what you've seen and will come back again.

Don't forget to click on the pink ribbon in the sidebar.

Color Throwdown for a Cause

While I was posting my last card I linked it to the Crafty Creations Challenge blog. While I was there I read about a young girl who was the victim of a terrible act of violence. She was "lucky" enough to survive but her mother was murdered. She's only eleven years old and she's recovering. The four teens who were arrested for the horrendous crime said they picked her home because it was in a secluded spot.

The DT over at Crafty Creations were touched by the young girls story and are having a card drive for her. If you can join in and send her a card it'll be appreciated and Crafty Creations will include you in a drawing for some nice prizes. Personally I'd send a card even if they didn't make that offer. If your interested click on this link to get the details.

I wanted to make a card specific to this child. One of her interests is biking so I grabbed the K & Co. "Daydream" dp pad because I remembered there was a paper with bicycles on it and I had a stamp I got on e-bay, the info on it is Graphic rubber Stamp, No Hollywood, Calif. Good luck finding another one of these. Since the dp had a lot of blue in it I used the colors from the Color Throwdown #66 challenge to use Elegant Eggplant (the mat around the stamped image), Bordering Blue, the mat around the dp and Rich Razzleberry, the card base and the wavy ribbons I made using the EK Success "Dotted Wave" border punch. The stamped image and the mat were cut out with Nestibilities.

If enough stampers send out cards of hope and well wishes as random acts of kindness maybe we can balance out the bad karma of the random acts of violence. I believe there are enough of us to do it. So if you stop by here maybe you can spread the word on your blog and let your friends know about it.

As always, I am terribly grateful for all the kind words you leave me, thanks for stopping by.

Since I posted this entry I have found that there is a blog hop Stamp Something for Jaimie. Many of the over 60 participants are overing blog candy for your comments. If you have time to make a card or are interested in making a donation for her please click on the link. Anything you can do would be great.

An Autumn Pin

I am a jewelry snob. I don't wear a lot of jewelry but I prefer it to be gold. I like diamonds and amethysts with my gold, sapphires will work too. I usually wear a wedding ring, earrings, sometimes a watch. On special occasions I have a few other things that I'll put on. I also have a few pieces of costume jewelry but I don't go crazy for the stuff because I'm not big on accessorizing. I know you can make an old outfit look different if you spice it up with your jewelry and scarves but I'm just not that into it. HOWEVER, I do like to throw pins on my jackets and I like to have seasonal pins which tend to be costume jewelry. Awhile ago my SU demonstrator (if you don't have an SU demonstrator go visit her, you'll like her -Hey, Cyndy, how are ya!?) taught a bunch of us to make pins using stamps and Crystal Effects. I've made a few of them over the years. A couple weeks ago I made a strawberry pin and that got me into the groove again. It came out so nice that I decided to make an Autumn pin. I've made a couple extra in case I need a birthday present or maybe I will use them on my Thanksgiving table. I think the "Give Thanks" card could be used as a place setting (I know that's not the word I'm looking for but you know what I mean, you put the name of the person who's supposed to sit there on it - this getting old really does stink, I really miss my brain cells). In the picture I have one pin mounted on the card and I placed another one next to it so you could get the idea that the pin will come off the card. I wore one to work and it was a big success. I gotta say, it's a big bang for the buck, you know it costs next to nothing to make. If you're an avid stamper you probably have most of the supplies on hand, you just might need to go to your craft store for the pin to put on back.

They are very easy to make, you stamp the image, color it in, and give it a backing of black cs. If you want it to be a little dimensional, which I did, you stamp it a second time, color the part you want to give dimension to and cut that part out. For this stamp it's the acorns on the ends, I cut out a second of each and affixed them to the whole stamped image with SU Crystal Effects. you can use Ranger Glossy Accents if you don't have the SU product. I've used both products and they both work well. After you attach the pieces you cover it with the Crystal Effects and sprinkle some glitter on to give it a little extra shine and let it sit for an hour or so to dry. Then you flip it over and apply the Crystal Effects to the back and affix your pin to it. Once it's dry it's ready to wear and let me tell you people will be surprised to find out it's made from paper.

So here's the challenges it can go in. The Pink Elephant #39 a color challenge to use brown, yellow, neutral and a color of your choice, my choice was to use some red for the color of the fallen leaves. The Macabre Monday Challenge #012 is to make something Garishly Glittered. Well I don't think it's very garish but it's got glitter on it. Then there's the Stampin'B's challenge #30 to make a Thanksgiving card (oh, and they say the main purpose is to have fun - well yeah, I love doing this stuff, this is fun - I getta get out more often and not just to AC Moore). The Crafty Creations Challenge #39 is the theme Thanksgiving/Gratitude. Lastly the Simon Says challenge is All That Sparkles and the glitter and Crystal Effects make it sparkly plus I used clear embossing powder on the sentiment to get a little shine there too.

So here's the rest of the details: the stamp is "Acorns" from Hero Arts, the sentiment stamp is "Holiday Best" from SU and is stamped in Close to Cocoa. The die cut is "top note" from SU and is with DCWV Neutrals cs and the yellow card base is DCWV also. I don't know what the leaves DP is.

Thanks for visiting. I hope you liked what you saw and will come visit again.

Don't forget to click on the pink ribbon, the girls will appreciate it.

Dreams Take Flight

papers because of the blues in it. They also work with the colors of the Scrapmaster's Paradise Color Combos #21 challenge to use Creamy Carmel, Real Red and Bravo Burgundy. The bottom mat (I'm hoping that Kate considers mats borders) is bravo burgundy, the dotted dp mat is real red and the mat with the stamped stars is creamy caramel. The card need another element and a ribbon with a buttony bow in red satin tied it up nicely and fits the La-La Land Crafts Challenge #10 to use ribbon.

So this card got to be in a lot more challenges than I expected but I love when that happens.

I have a couple other things to share with you all. I made a couple other things this weekend but it's too late to post them now so come back again, I've got a neat autumn pin and some cards, cards, gee what a surprise.

Thanks for visiting, I hope you come back again. Before you leave please click on the pink ribbon, cause even though Breast Cancer Awareness Month is over, unfortunately Breast Cancer isn't.

Thanks for visiting.