Another Year, Another Birthday Card

Fun challenge to do a birthday card at Stampin' B's Design Challenge Blog. I chose some rubber stamps by The {Stamps} Of Life. The clear stamp set is called "late4Bday." I would say this is a fast and easy card but adhering all those punched daisies stopped it from being "fast." :) I had not used that punch in so long! I liked the way the white daisies looked on the yellow cardstock though. :) The small black brads are by The Paper Studio and the cardstock is Stampin'Up! Thanks for stopping by. After a long busy day, I am headed to bed to start a new book. I am starting "The Passage" by Justin Cronin. It's been a while since I've read a "scary" book but this one has been getting good reviews. I'll let you know tomorrow if I had to sleep with the lights on. Wink. :)

Life Is Sweet Cupcake Card

Sharing a card I did for the {Cupcake Inspirations} challenge. Here is this week's photo inspiration:

That is one yummy looking cupcake....almost too pretty to eat. :)

I used the Sizzix Bigz XL Die/Card and Pocket Cupcake on my card. The rubber stamps are by Hampton Art. I put the bottom of the cupcake in the Fiskars paper crimper to make it look like a "real" cupcake. :) The dotted Swiss cardstock is by Bazzzill. The square buttons are some ancient ones by Making Memories that I have had in my stash a long time. Since this cupcake has yellow flowers, I have to share another yellow flower with you.

My oldest daughter bought a package of dwarf sunflower seeds which she planted in the house. Misted them every day until they came up and then transplanted them outside in a large flower pot. We have have such fun watching "our" sunflower come up. It has got two blooms and this is the first one to show us it's beautiful face.
This photo is the second day's bloom. I had never thought about growing sunflowers on the patio. Next year, I want to have several pots of them. :) Thanks for stopping by. Hope you have enjoyed my "flower show." :)

Thank You Teacher Card

It seems like the summer is flying by. I took my youngest daughter "back to school" shopping last week. She'll be starting back in a couple of weeks. It only seemed fitting that I do the challenge over at Paper Sundaes which is a "back to school" one. :) The apple image is a rubber stamp by Hampton Art. The checkerboard border is a punch by Martha Stewart. The checkerboard ribbon is some by Mary Englebreit that I found at Michael's. The ric rac is by Wright's and the sentiment is a Dymo label. Simple card but I was happy with the results. :)

I got the new magazine called Card Style a few days ago. I've always had a hard time deciding what style I leaned towards since I seem to do them all. But since looking at this magazine and studying my last few cards, I "think" I might be a "fun and cute" cardmaker with a little"clean and graphic" thrown in. Course the next card I make might be a "shabby chic and vintage" (you know how I love to take a vintage image and make it funny). There needs to be a "fun and vintage" category just for ME. :) What is your style? Thanks for stopping by and stay cool (which means staying inside at my house!) :)

Life Is For Giving Card

I was intrigued by the sketch at 2 Sketches 4 You this week and wanted to give it a try. :) The patterned paper and stickers are by Little Yellow Bicycle (Clothesline Collection). The butterfly stamp is by Hampton Art. The ribbon is by American Crafts and the pearls are by Hero Arts. I am a very tired but happy mom tonight. I took my youngest daughter "back to school" shopping and we found everything she needed with this one trip. It meant a long day (in awful heat of getting in and out of the car a lot) but we did it! If I wasn't so tired, I would be doing the "happy dance." :) Not only did we get it done, we found great sales and managed to save lots of money. I was even able to "sneak" in Hobby Lobby for a few minutes. I wanted to get a copy of the new "Card Style" magazine. Found it and got to use a 40% off coupon too. When we got home, I checked my email and got more good news. My eClips by Sizzix will be delivered tomorrow by FedEx (You'll be hearing more about that later)! I've been waiting on this "baby" for months! All in all ...... a very good day! :) Thanks for stopping by.

The {Stamps} Of Life Polka Dot Challenge

This week's challenge is to use polka dots somewhere on your card.

Please feel free to play along with us!

If you are playing along with The {Stamps} of Life stamps or digital images
please upload to the gallery on the site HERE with the keyword TSOLD14. Please link to one of our blogs so we can see your stuff! Our challenge this week is "Polka Dots!" (TSOLD14) - Use polka dots somewhere on your card. The players this week besides me are:
Joana Studer
Deb Felts
Vicki Garrett
Jeanne Streiff
Emily Niehaus

Here is my polka dot creation. It uses the following clear stamp sets: late4Bday, Quick2Border and Back2Basics.


Can you believe how fast July is going? My youngest daughter informed me yesterday that it is time to go "back to school" shopping! She has band camp coming up for a couple of weeks and then school will be starting back soon after. Should be a great time for sales but I'm afraid of melting out in this heat. :) Thanks for stopping by and stay cool (not easy where I live at the moment). :)

The Photo-Synthesis Blog

There is a new challenge blog coming. It is called The Photo-Synthesis Challenge and the first challenge will begin August 2nd. It sounds like a fun new challenge blog (and you know how I love those.) :) There is a design team call out too so you might want to check that out. The cards I'm sharing today are for that call. There are some pretty photos posted and you are supposed to use those for your inspiration. I ended up doing a card for two of the photos. So without further ado, here are my entries for the the Photo-Synthesis design team call. :) Cross your fingers, toes and eyes (ouch) for me! :) Here are my cards based on this photo:


This card features some pretty new stamps by Hampton Art that I recently got. The ribbon is some I found at Michael's. The brackets are a punch by The Paper Studio.
The red bow is from a package I found at Hobby Lobby and was my last one. I need to buy some of those...so handy. :)

I used the same set of stamps by Hampton Art on this one. It also has some pretty red flowers by Prima Marketing plus a border punch by EK Success.

Again the same stamp set by Hampton Art plus I used the flower border punch by EK Success. (Love this punch!) :) Not sure where I found this smaller striped ribbon. So what do you think....do my cards remind you of the photo? :)
Now for the second photo that I made another entry for.


This card has patterned papers by Cosmo Cricket (DeLovely Collection). The flowers are by Prima Marketing and the flower button brads are by Karen Foster Design. That's it for today. I hope you are staying cool. It's not that easy where I live these days. We had a little rain this afternoon while the sun was shining. I went outside and felt like I had been "hit" with the humidity and heat. We had takeout from Subway tonight. I just couldn't bring myself to turn on the stove/oven. Any excuse is a good one for not cooking in my book. Wink, wink. Thanks for stopping by and visit again soon.

Butterfly Thank You Card

I joined the EtsyInspired Challenge this week and made this card. It was inspired by the photo below. The current shop at Etsy to "inspire" for this challenge was Otavia Brown's. I could go broke there for sure as I love vintage things (especially Depression Glass). :) The papers are by Diecuts With A View and all the stamps are by Hampton Art. The scalloped border is a punch by EK Success. The pearls are by KaiserCraft.

One last thing to share before I get busy for the day (lots and lots of fun things like laundry....wink). :) There is a Christmas In July blog hop going on for Creative Cuts and More at Diecut Divas. There is an awesome prize package so I'm sure you'll want to check it out. Guess I better get busy.....I don't think the housework "fairy" came last night. :)

Birthday Numbers Card

After being outside in the heat a lot yesterday, I managed to stay inside where that glorious air-conditioning is running. :) I managed to find a few minutes to play in my craft studio too. The card has numbers and will fit Paper Play's "Your Number's Up" challenge. Charmisa Cardz has a challenge called "Watch The Birdie" going on and I used a Hampton Art birdcage stamp (that happens to be holding two birds). I used the colors for the Play Date Cafe challenge (Provence France/colors photo). Finally the challenge at Pile It Up (#26) is to use your favorite things which I managed to do. My favorite things are: rubber stamping, cardstock, rub-ons, any and all scallops, bows, pearls and sewing (on cards only....that's the only thing I sew). :) All the stamps are by Hampton Art, border punches by EK Success and the rub-on is by Royal & Langnickel. The diecut numbers are by Sizzix. I also used chalks by Pebbles to color in the stamped birdcage.

It was so hot in my area today! How hot you ask? It was so hot that my hummingbirds were not even flying to eat at their feeders I have set up around my house. I saw fewer today than in a long time. I was hoping to stay inside most of the day but had to make a run to the grocery store, post office, etc. I almost wanted to climb in one of the freezers at the grocery store (think that might have been frowned upon though....wink!) Thanks for stopping by!

Color Throwdown 100th Color Challenge

My card today is for the Color Throwdown 100th Challenge. The colors for this 100th challenge were Regal Rose, Certainly Celery, Real Red and Baja Breeze. I used a butterfly and sentiment stamp by Hampton Art. The ink pads and cardstock are by Stampin'Up! The ribbon is by Little Yellow Bicycle and the black rhinestones are by KaiserCraft. The pretty scalloped border was made with a punch by EK Success. Congratulations, Color Throwdown...here's to your next 100! :)

Have you been staying cool? I wish I could say I have but I was out in the heat twice today. I bought some flowers yesterday and they needed planting so I planned to get up early to beat the heat. Didn't happen and by the time I got all the inside things done, it was twelve o'clock. So I decided to go out and plant them during the hottest part of the day. How's that for living on the edge? :) Remember I live in the South and it might be in the 90's but the heat index is much higher. I did cheat a little though, I put on my bathing suit. (The flowers were going in the back yard and no one would "see" me). When I got hot I either used the water hose or got in the pool. Got the flowers planted without suffering a heat stroke no less and went back in the glorious air conditioning where I took a bath and dressed for the day. Fixed a late lunch and got up in my craft room to play when my hubby got home wanting to know if I would help outside getting a new fountain put together. I couldn't say no (although I wanted to....wink). So out I go back in the heat and this time no swimsuit on. We got the new fountain up and running but boy oh boy was it hot! Back in the house I go for bath #2 of the day and to fix a hot meal for our dinner muttering the whole time, "thank heavens for air conditioning and fans!!!!" Thanks for stopping my and listening to my "hot" words. :) Stay cool!

Blog Hop

Are you ready for some fun? I know I am. Welcome to my blog and The {Stamps} of Life and Flower Soft blog hop. The two company's design teams are playing together for this hop!

As you make your way through the hop make sure you comment on each and every post. There will be 6 prize winners chosen randomly among the blogs....

3 prize packages from Flower Soft and 3 stamp sets from The {Stamps} Of Life!!!! The prize winners will be announced on the Flower Soft blog and The {Stamps} Of Life blog on Wednesday July 14th. Good luck! :)


I can't tell you how much fun I had playing with the Flower Soft. This was my first time to try it and I love it! I'm going to have to "invest" in some more colors of it! :) My card uses the new July stamp release called "summer4fun" by The {Stamps} Of Life. I'm always looking at my stamps trying to "think outside the box." So I used the beach ball images in this set to create "blooms". I was trying to do a sort of cactus flower. :) The sentiment is from the "banners4all" set. The Flower Soft colors I used on my card were Raspberry Fizz and Sage (both were the Ultra Fine). So how do you like my beachball "flowers???" :)

Want even more inspiration? Do you like video tutorials? Make sure and check out both The {Stamps} Of Life and Flower Soft TV for weekly videos, specials and product news.

Now it's time to hop and comment for your chance to win!
The Flower Soft Blog
Jeanne Streiff
Jacque Beddingfield
Deb Felts
Beverly Sizemore (you made it here)
Linda Beeson
Joana Studer
Rose Ann Reynolds
Laura Williams
Vicki Garrett
Tami Mayberry
Debbie Seyer
Gini Cagle
Stephanie Barnard

Don't forget to comment here for a chance to win the great prize from Flower Soft and The {Stamps} Of Life. Thanks for stopping by and visit again soon. :)

The {Stamps} Of Life July Release

I hope your summer is off to a grand start. It is hot, hot, hot in my neck of the woods which means it is the perfect weather for air-conditioning and rubber stamping! :) The first of the month also means it is time for The {Stamps} Of Life's new release. If you have not checked out these stamps, you are missing out on some fun plus a bargain. :) This month's release is a really good one called summer4fun and is pictured above. Below are some samples I've made with it. Be sure to check out the large flower card. I made it using the surf board image. :)





That's it for me today. I have a million things to do today so better get started. Thanks for stopping by. :)