Sneak Peek Day 4: Free with Three "Framed Greetings"

Hello! Welcome back to our final sneak preview before the party starts tonight! This morning we are sharing this month's Free with Three set "Framed Greetings", what card wouldn't look better with this gorgeous label on it?

I used Basic Grey Marjolaine for my background and took my colors from it, something I really like about this label is the thick and thin stripes, they give you space to add your own colors in between if you wish to match your patterned papers, isn't that a fun way to add color? But of course the stripes will looks beautiful stamped in one color, too... :)
TIP: If you want to add a fancy mat behind the label but don't have a pendant die, try making one from two Fancy Tags die cuts, this black print is also Marjolaine. Cardstock is Pure Luxury White and Black Onyx, 5/8" stitched ribbon and adhesive pearls to embellish.

Please go see more ideas for these "Framed Greetings" from our talented design team!

AJ Otto

Carolyn King

Cathy Tidwell

Deb Felts

Donna Baker

Emily Giovanni

Gina K

Giovana Smith

Janice Whiting

Jennie Harper

Lee Murphy

Melanie Muenchinger (you are here, thanks for visting!)

Michelle Woerner

Suzanne Dean

Theresa Momber

Tina Gilliland

Valerie Stangle

Vicki Dutcher

See you at the release party tonight, 7PM CST on StampTV! Hope you have enjoyed the previews so far this week!

Super Fun Deal, Have to Share!! (Expires Friday!)

Do you like free money? How about getting paid to work out? I know that sounds impossible, but I saw a really fun product being offered at 50% off on Mamapedia (Sweet Deals) yesterday and wanted to pass it on to you, since you order it online, you can get it no matter where you live, it's not a local voucher. It's called the S2H Replay Activity Tracker, (click on that link to see the deal and read more about it) a cute little sports watch that records your daily activity in 15 minute intervals and gives you a code to add 60 points for an hour of exercise to your Switch2Health account online, up to one hour per day. Accumulate points to get gift cards to Barnes n Noble, Lowes and more! That's music to my ears! Rewards are posted so you can see what you'd want to work towards. I bought one and I think I'm going to get them for my kids today, too, they also have Toys r Us, Blockbuster etc. What a fun way to get small rewards and measure your activity! Until I came down with my cold last week, I was going to the gym everyday for 3 weeks straight. If I'd had the Replay I could have gotten $10 to spend on Amazon.com or Fandango (and I wouldn't have been tempted sometimes to cut my work out off like I did at 45 minutes)! That might not sound like much, but it's better than nothing and I like that you're not rewarding yourself for working out with food! :) Plus, the money back for that would already cover the cost of the watch with this half off deal!

I know I always do better sticking with a fitness routine if I have small rewards along the way, and this way I won't have to pay for them myself! Also will motivate me to pick up the weights while I am watching TV to earn another 15 minutes, I like you don't have to do it all at once, too, they thought of everything. :) See what you think! I look forward to receiving mine (what color should I get?!) and really glad signed up for Mamapedia a few weeks ago or I wouldn't know about this program. Think my kids will love it! They don't have any problem being active, but how fun for them to track this themselves and earn their own rewards. One other cute feature i have to mention: the watch show a smilie :) when you've been active, a frownie :( when you haven't...so don't go upsetting your Replay!! :)

Oh! By the way, mentioning my kids, Mamapedia also has a program that donates 5% of EVERY purchase to the school of your choice, so now that I've logged in my children's school, the school automatically gets 5% whenever I buy a deal. Nice! I like!

I would love to know what YOU think of the S2H Replay or if you've heard about it before/or maybe even have one!

Will be back with an OWH post and pics from William's birthday Sunday. Poor little guy is home sick with fever today and I still have this cold. Yuck. I am just so thankful we were able to enjoy his party Sunday before he got this.

Sneak Peek Day 2: "Little Critters" and "Chocolate Bunnies"

Welcome back! On our second day of previews, the hop gets hoppier with "Little Critters" and "Chocolate Bunnies"! First up is Theresa Momber's beautifully drawn "Little Critters", they are storybook magical, with lots of little elements to help you create adorable scenes around the critters! I heart this little froggie and mushroom!


These prints reminded me a of a spotty frog and FLIES, hee hee! :) I sponged some Vvid Brick ink over the heart die before removing it to make the greeting pop.

Cardstock: Pure Luxury Soft Sand, Black Onyx, White, Basic Grey Marjolaine, Copics on Frog and Ranger Antique Linen and Peeled Paint Distressing Ink for stamping ferns and sponging, Nestabilities Scalloped Heart Die

Next up we have "Chocolate Bunnies", illustrated by Asela Hopkins! How sweet for Easter! These really take me back to my childhood, what hunt or Easter Basket is complete without a little chocolate bunny (or two)?? She drew several to give you different shapes and expressions, I added some pink Copic to the cheek (coloring right over the brown) of this shy, blushing (loving!) bunny...

TIP: Stamp bunny in brown before coloring with brown shades.

Cardstock Pure Luxury Innocent Pink, Chocolate Brown, Basic Grey Nook and Pantry (I use this paper on my cake card last week, looks like I did a lot more work than I actually did!) Fancy Tag Die, Copics, Basic Grey Glazed Brad.


Please see more samples for each of these sets from our talented team!

• AJ Otto
  

Asela Hopkins (Ilustrator of "Chocolate Bunnies")

Carolina Buchting

Carolyn King

Cathy Tidwell

Colleen Schaan

Deb Felts

Donna Baker

Emily Giovanni

Gina K

Giovana Smith

Janice Whiting

Jennie Harper

Lee Murphy

Melanie Muenchinger (you are here, thank you for visiting!!)

Michelle Woerner

Suzanne Dean

Theresa Momber (Illustrator of "Little Critters")

Tina Gilliland

Vicki Dutcher

Have fun hopping today! See you tomorrow for an Operation Write Home update!

Sneak Peek Day 1: "Spring Basket" and "Basket Blessings"

Hello! Welcome to the first day of our Gina K Designs sneak peeks! I am thrilled to preview TWO new sets I illustrated this month: "Spring Basket" and "Basket Blessings"! The "Spring Basket" set contains smaller versions of your favorite springy images from "A Year of Flowers" (which you will LOVE mixing with your larger blossoms!), plus bunches of flowers (no need to mask!) and a beautiful basket to put them in!

Cardstock: Gina K Pure Luxury Grass Green, Innocent Pink, White, and Basic Grey Sugar Rush

There are endless ways to customize the basket to suit your taste and layout! (I couldn't resist sharing several, see how much fun I've been having playing already??) Crop it in half to create TWO shallow baskets (which I did on my sample above, using just the top half), handles or no handles, trim the sides to eliminate the fluted shape, or drop in a pretty "liner"! All the images you see below are from these two new sets! And I know you will find many other images in your stamp collection that will be super cute inside as well! ;)

This next sample I used just the chicks and eggs (one image) and a greeting, both from "Basket Blessings". I wanted to show you that all these basket "fillers" are FULL images, NOT just the top halves to go above the basket. This gives you a lot more versatility so you can use these images by themselves.

Cardstock: Gina K Pure Luxury Wild Dandelion, Grass Green, Bubblegum Pink, Ocean Mist, White, and Basic Grey Lemonade; Spellbinders Petite Scalloped Border, Petite Classic and Scalloped Ovals; Pure Luxury 5/8" Gingham

I am so excited to show you the full sets on Thursday and more samples with each and paired together! These images and greetings will take you way past Spring and the basket is SO easy to color, I'll share how after our peeks are over this week, so stay tuned! :)


Please check out more of our designers blogs for inspiration with these two sets!

Carolina Buchting

Carolyn King

Cathy Tidwell

Deb Felts

Donna Baker

Emily Giovanni

Gina K

Giovana Smith

Janice Whiting

Jennie Harper

Lee Murphy

Melanie Muenchinger (Illustrator of Spring Basket and Basket Blessings, you are here, thanks for visiting!)

Nina Brackett

Theresa Momber

Tina Gilliland

Valerie Stangle

Vicki Dutcher

Thank you again for stopping by! More peeks tomorrow!

Pray, Love, Peace

Another card from Trena Brannon today, and another one coming up! I love how she used three pairs of hands on this one and colored different skin tones!
The words inside each of the hands are from "Where Your Heart Is" and "Inspiration Mosaic", together these three little words convey such a positive, hopeful message!

The stamped uncolored hands are a perfect way to "bring the outside in", along with this message from "Hope is Faith" (you can also find this sentiment in my "Hand in Hand" set.

Hope this inspires, I know it does me, and I have a LOT of cards I need to make with this set (along with other holiday cards I already have) to send to Operation Write Home, will be sharing on Wednesday how we did, thanks for all of your orders and support of this set, OWH will be getting LOTS of cards for the troops!!!!

Full Disclosure

I feel a little disingenuous now, after reading all your sweet, sweet comments about how radiant I looked after giving birth: I have to admit those pics were hours after when we brought Jonathan in to meet him (and all the blood had come back to my face, feeling well enough to touch up my makeup for pics change out of my hospital gown into some silk jammies!) Here I am just a couple minutes after the birth...


I WAS fortunate enough to have a very short labor (3 hours, woo hoo!) in the middle of the day 2 1/2 weeks before he was due, so I'd been awake and already "made up" (makeup) before my water broke. After my first son Jonathan's delivery, I didn't fare so well, looked positively g r e e n ! (and threw up all night)

Here's a recent pic I love of him, from last season's soccer, my little man:



He asked me yesterday after I picked him up from school (I guess he'd spent his birthday morning contemplating his existence, what a little thinker!): "Mama, why did God make me?" My answer: "Because there had never been anyone like you. He made you to be a brother for Jonathan, a joy to me and daddy, a delight to your grandparents and relatives, a friend to everyone you meet, and to do great things in the world with all your gifts and talents and work for God. You are so special!" He was happy with that answer. :)

Thank you again for visiting and your comments! (My voice is almost gone today, so I have a feeling my hosting duties tomorrow at the party will be smile and wave, smile and wave...) Gotta run to pick up the ginormous cake from Costco! Hugs!

6 years ago today...

a little angel named William was born! :)

More about our big day and about William later this weekend, he and I both have such bad colds and I am struggling to improve before the big party Sunday (and we have some gifts form our family party tonight to put together!)

Are you ready for sneak peeks?? They're almost here!

How Fabulous!!

I received this beautiful card in the mail from Nicole, who wanted to thank me for the "A Year of Borders" set she won, how sweet!!

I absolutley love how she cut the little groupings of butterflies to adhere them to the wavy curve she made from the black gathered ribbon, isn't that beautiful? I gotta try this! DP is Basic Grey Curio, lovin these colors and lovin' the glitter! The circle design is so pretty and punching out the negative butterfleis to bring the black and design around the top is the perfect touch!

Thanks, again, Nicole! No, YOU are fabulous!! :)

Time to Cowgirl Up

So back in the fall, I thought both boys being at school 35 hours week would mean a very different life for me: one that would allow time to always have a clean house, errands done, stamping finished, PLUS leisure time to learn a new language, pick up an instrument, cook like a Master Chef, write a novel, maybe take an occasional nap, and have a grand adventure at least once a week. (Yeah, right, I know) Well! In reality, not so much. BUT, I DID buy a great Groupon (do you get YOUR Groupon??) in September to Bel Canto Farms for two private riding lessons, it's about a 45 minute drive south of me. I looked at my voucher the other day and whoops! It was going to expire in three weeks!! (Where did the last 6 months ago??) So I had to hightail it down to the farm and cross at least ONE adventure off my list!

Here I am after my lesson with Archie (he looks great, I look super puffy in three layers, it was CHILLY that day!) It was English riding, I had never tried before, so I got to sit on the elegant tiny saddle (no horn) and wear the cute helmet (no cowboy hat today!) Vickie, my teacher, was a great instructor, and, she was REALLY impressed with how well I did, that was just so unexpected and awesome to hear! :) Will be going back next week for round 2!

(I am walking like a cowgirl now too, and was instructed (before the lesson even started!) I would need to take a long hot bath tonight and drink a glass of red wine, gotta do what your teacher says! I like being a good student!!)

What adventures await YOU, I want to know! (I HAVE learned one other new thing, will share soon!) :)

Happy Birthday, Gina K!

Welcome to our design team's virtual birthday party today honoring Gina of Gina K Designs! Our team has everything we'll need to make it the biggest birthday blowout possible! You should be coming from Lee's blog (hop starts at Carolyn's, but you can join in anywhere and make your way around) Now it wouldn't be a birthday party without... the CAKE! So that's my contribution today!

I found the sliding three tiered cake concept for this card in the book "Interactive Cards" (I've mentioned this book (which includes several of my designs as well) on my blog before), cake card sample in the book is made by Alice Golden. I changed up the colors, patterns and several of the details, but it was really fun to make! I used Pure Luxury White for the base layers. This card took quite some time, but as you know, very special people are worth it! ;)

After adding some pretty Basic Grey Nook and Pantry DP (the striped deocarative elements on these pages made it so easy to create a fancy decorated and layered look!) and greetings from "Candles on Your Cake", I made the little pull for the tippy top using the cake image from the most recent Stamp TV Kit "Sent with Love, the layers were perfect for the look I wanted to create today.

I stamped "birthday girl" in Rich Cocoa onto Pure Luxury White and die cut it with a Beaded Circle, sponging pink ink on before removing the die. I stamped two little flowers from the "Candles on your Cake" set, too and layered it onto a Petite Scalloped Circle I cut from the solid distressed brown DP in this same Basic Grey pack.

I used the Threading Water punch on the DP to make the scalloped tops and adhesive pearls in various sizes to accent the papers.
Another fun this about this pull design is that you can pull the layers up askew so they look like those wonky tiered fantasy cakes, like something out of Dr. Seuss, isn't that cool?

Now please go see what AJ is bringing to the party! Hope you are enjoying your hop, and we are so glad you could join us in the festivities! After you are finished hopping along, don't forget to head on over to Gina's Blog and wish her a Happy Birthday. TWO lucky commenters will receive a party favor---a FREE stamp set!

PS My son William, who turns 6 on Friday, fell in love with this card. When I was photographing it, he said, "It says "Happy birthday!"" "No, I corrected, "it actually says "birthday girl", sweetie." He was crushed to find out it wasn't for HIM. So I will be making a "boy" version of this card (he wants red, orange, white, green, light blue, yellow and black! oh my!), will share with you soon! ;)

STV Sketch Spotlight 12

Hello and happy Monday! Time for another Sketch Spotlight, here is my interpretation of the sketch, using my "Mugs and Kisses" set.
DP layers and cup is paper pieced with Basic Grey Nook and Pantry, (used E43 to shade the cup and E57 and E77 to color the coffe inside) Cardstock is Gina K Pure Luxury White, Innocent Pink and Chocolate Brown (this layer is embossed with Cuttlebug Scrollwork folder). Mug and sweet and popped up for dimension and I sponged the Beaded Oval die with pink ink.

I used my scraps to decorate the inside and flap of the envelope. I used the tiny stamps from my set to create "coffee plus sugar equals love!" Write in your own + and = with a coordinating marker...

Be sure to sue the tag STVSKSP12 when you upload your new creation using this sketch to the STV gallery. I hope you participate and best of luck winning some free stamps!

Fun stuff this week, thanks for stopping by today, see you tomorrow!!

SNOW!

Well, in answer to our prayer, we got our snow! (in answer to the kids prayers, no school on Friday!!) It was only an inch, but enough to have fun in. Most melted by late afternoon, except for patches in the shade.
We were amazed at how our pond almost completely froze over, except for an area where the water was flowing by the waterfall. Our poor koi I wanted to crochet them some hats! Here are our little "frogs", snow covered in a huddle

Paul got a huge mirror out the attic to try to redirect the sunlight onto the surface, now it looks like a bunch of choppy icebergs floating around...

I have a few more pics with William and Paul and snowball wars, plus one humble "snow angel", but these didn't turn out that well, I had to use my camera phone.

I hope you have a terrific weekend! Enjoy being indoors if YOUR snow is keeping you home bound! Stamping anyone?

STV Color Spotlight 11

Happy Friday!! Time for a new Color Spotlight Challenge with these beautiful Pure Luxury hues!!
On the coldest day here in years I decided it was time to get some butterflies, Spring IS on its way! :) I made this sample with "Fun Year Round", and my butterflies from "A Beautiful Life" and "A Year of Borders".
I started stamping the frame onto White and then stamping in some of the butterfly border, masking some of the circles, but letting them overlap the circles in other areas. Next I colored in some of the butterflies and areas in and around the circles in R02 and YR16. On the butterflies I added YR18 and R83, R85 for contrast. I used 100 Copic in the corners.

I layered these die cut circles over this large flower from The Paper Studio and added a few cut out butterflies covered with Stickles, adhered with pop dots.

This card makes me happy, I hope it does you! :)

Be sure to use the tag STVCSP11 when you upload your creation with this color combo to the STV gallery for a chance to win a free set of stamps from Gina K Designs!

Come on, SNOW!!!

Yeah, I know those of you who are buried right now are rolling your eyes that we are praying for some, but we haven't had any snow yet this winter, and this front is probably our last hope. My boys are foaming out the mouth at the prospect there might be 2 inches in the morning (60% chance) so I'm just really hoping they'll get to see a little bit, have a chance to play!!

This afternoon we made these fun snowball cupcakes in anticipation (AND to soften the blow tomorrow if there's none, "hey, who wants a CUPCAKE?!") William got to decorate one like this after Christmas at the cutest little cooking shop here in town "Kids Cook", so I decided today we'd make our own. The different textures and flavors are really fun, and the popcorn is such a novelty and adds a nice salty crunch. Love how unexpected that topping is!

Make a white or yellow cupcake from boxed mix and decorate with a tub of vanilla frosting. Add popcorn first (one mini microwave bag was just right for all the cupcakes), pressing gently into the frosting to stick, leaving some room for the other toppings. Next, add marshmallows, and finally white chocolate chips in the spaces in between. Voila! Snowball cupcake! To make it even more festive, add some of the little edible silver balls, we used these at Kids Cook for sparkle, but I didn't have any. Hope your kids (and you!) enjoy this kicked up cupcake!

A 'Priceless" Design

I have the honor and pleasure of sharing this beautiful design today using "Where Your Heart Is" from Trena Brannon! (Trena is a long time follower of my blog) Sweet and "priceless"!
I love how she cropped down this Kindred Dads "With Daddy's help" biking image and framed the hands around the smiling face to capture a memorable, priceless moment! (greeting is from "The Best Things In Life") What an awesome card with this be for a child's birthday, achievement, or of course, Father's Day love the dad on the inside!

Thanks for sharing your talent and unique spin on this set with us today, Trena! be sure to visit her blog and leave her some love!