Thursdays with Lindsay

Good Morning! I have a late post today because my kids were home yesterday and I didn't get anything done! Oh well, I enjoyed the day.

Today's Thursdays with Lindsay card is from a tutorial I followed on SCS for a recessed card. When I first watched the video I thought to myself that I would never do that card. Then I watched again. I've had a few chats with my friend Joni and we've been talking about "raising the bar" in our crafting. So with her words echoing in my head, I decided to try the card and I love it!! It's a bit crooked, but that's OK.


I featured her set called Leaf Prints that she released several weeks ago. She is releasing a new set today, but what I wanted to do with it, I needed more time then what I had. And this fit a couple of challenges. The first challenge is for The Pink Elephant with a theme this week of being thankful. The other challenge is from The Color Dare to use Chocolate Chip, Bashful Blue and Really Rust. A color combo I don't think I would've ever put together on my own. This photo doesn't do the ribbon justice - it's a very rich rust color ribbon that I hoard as much as possible. There's not a lot of embellishment because I wanted to keep it clean and simple and I wanted to be sure the leaf print paper wasn't hidden - it's too pretty to cover up.

Be sure to visit Lindsay for today's release and freebie. Don't forget to visit the rest of the team to see what lovely treasures they have to share with you today.

Thanks for stopping by.

MyGrafico Challenge Wednesday

Hi there! Quick post today - the kids are home from school. Happy Veterans Day!

Go check out the MyGrafico Challenge blog for all the fun details and to see the prize in full - this is a really cute digi-stamp set! Monday's challenge was to add stitching. But now we've got an awesome sketch from Marvelous Mary. Here's the sketch:


And here's my card:

I'm not sure if you remember me saying the other day about Hollyanne's Friday Feature that she reminded me of a stamp set I have... well in the set are these great stitching stamps. How easy can this be?! This sock monkey is too cute and I really stepped outside my comfort zone and put this bold red with these cooler shades of blue. So not like me and I so like the results. I hope you do, too. Give it a try and be sure to link up so we can see.

Oh! And there's only a few more days left to apply for the design team. It's been a pleasure and so much fun to have been on this team. You will love it!

Thanks for stopping by!

Baby it's cold outside...

** This is my second post for today, please scroll down for Tuesday Morning Sketches. **

Have I ever told you that I am such a sucker for snowmen? Well, I am! Winter and I get along only so-so. I don't like being cold, but I love the snow covered Rocky Mountains. I love the powdery snow that glistens like diamonds when the sun is shining, not great snow for building a snowman, but beautiful to look at! But I don't like ice! That's what we get a lot of out here in WV, ice - not much snow. But there's nothing more heartwarming than a snowman built by children's hands with such love and detail.


I love this snowman from Inktegrity. It's part of the Little Helper set that released last week. I just had to play along with a couple of great challenges... First challenge was the sketch from JUGs - great fun! The second challenge is from Digital Tuesday which is to create a holiday greetings card and what better way to greet the holidays then to start singing a favorite Christmas song of my Mom's. The snowflakes I found when googling coloring pages.

I hope you like my card - thanks for the second visit.

Tuesday Morning Sketches

Good Morning! The card I have to share with you today is from my challenge blog, Tuesday Morning Sketches. If you've never visited, you really should. I have fun sketches (in my humble opinion) and GREAT sponsors!! Prizes every week!

Here's the sketch that we're playing with this week....

And here is what I created using an adorable stamp from The Pixie Cottage...


Make sure you click on the photo so you get a better look at the detail. I created this card by first cutting the brown circle base using my Coluzzle big circles template. I also added doodles with this really cool template from Chatterbox that I think I added dimension to the "center of the flower." The image is colored with Copics. The sentiment is from Unity. My son looked at my card and said that bear doesn't look like he's feeling very blessed with all those mice on him. I laughed and said he's blessed with all these friends! OK, then I punched out 1 3/8" circles and ran them thru the Cuttlebug with the Distressed folder. I sponged each circle with Summer Sun ink and then adhered to the back of the card. Then to secure and finish the back, I cut a big circle and adhered over the little circles.

I'm also very excited that my sketch works with Humble Pie's challenge, too, to create a round card.

I hope you enjoyed my card and I really hope to see you over at my challenge blog.

Sunshine Monday

Good Morning Everyone! Happy Monday to you. I hope you had a wonderful weekend.

Today is Sunshine Monday and let me tell you - I had a hard time getting my project done because I kept having to slap hands away from it!


Everyone wanted to steal the m&ms! I dressed up a frappucino bottle and filled it with mint chocolate m&ms. I used All I Want for Christmas is... stamp - my intention was to leave this altered bottle for Santa instead of the usual milk and cookies. It's not going to last past tonight! I colored the image with copics, then layered on a Garden Green mat to match the boy's coat.


Here's a close-up of the top of the bottle. I created my own paper bow and then just added a little collar around the neck of the bottle. I chose this paper because it tied in the brown color around the lid so this made it a very quick and easy project.

I also have a couple of announcements. First of all, Sunshine & Giggles has a new home! Janice has been hard at work setting up a new blog that has some great new features! Be sure to check it out. Follow the blog and sign up for the newsletter so you stay up on everything that Janice is doing. Another announcement to share, sadly, December is approaching very quickly and the end of December marks the end of the current Design Team's term. So Janice is on the look-out for some really awesome designers for the next term. So if you're interested, be sure to check out the blog for all the details on how to apply. Janice is the sweetest lady and I will miss designing for her.

Thanks for stopping by. Now go visit Janice and the rest of the team to see what great ideas they have waiting to share with you.

Relax & Unwind...

Good Morning! Words to live by - Relax & Unwind. We all need to do that everyday! I normally don't post on Sundays but I didn't get back in the craft room yesterday, well, not until last night anyway.

This is just a quick post for a card I made for All That Scraps challenge for this week, which is to pull out an old set. Well, I do have one old set but mostly my stamps are newer. I was organizing some stuff last night and was looking at the card kits I'd received in swaps and there to my pleasant surprise was kit containing images from My Rubber Duckie. Cute set! So I decided to actually USE a kit (instead of collecting them) and I used the awesome sketch from The Sweet Stop.

I hope you like it - I had a lot of fun with it!



Have a pleasant day! I'm off to start laundry. Yippee.

Digi-Scrapbooking Day!

Hi all - quick post today to tell you that today is Digi-Scrapbooking Day and to celebrate MyGrafico is having a 25% off sale! All your favorites... Dilek... Mujka... ReviDevi and Lindsay's Stamp Stuff - just to name a few. Go on over and stock up! I saw some really cute Christmas sets I want in my collection!

OK - might be back later with another post if I can get into my craft room today.

Hugs, Mel