I love a challenge!

One of my favorite websites is Splitcoaststampers (SCS)...they have tutorials, galleries of gorgeous cards, forums to talk about anything stamping...and well, anything at all really. I could spend HOURS there.  Another fun fact is their Community Manager is my dear friend Lydia.
This past Friday was a Mini Virtual Stamp Night (VSN) on Splitcoaststampers! There is a new challenge every hour and you usually have a time limit in which to work.  I have a love/hate relationship with parameters like that...but honestly I get more done when I'm trying to rush through it in 45 minutes. SO FUN!!! So I played this weekend, but only really liked 2 of my finished products and wanted to share them with you.

This first card required quite a bit... it was a sketch challenge (meaning we follow the original design/sketch of the card), needed to have a punched flower, the only stamped item could be the sentiment and we had to use the following colors: Red, Pink, Green (I used Stampin' Up's Cherry Cobbler, Pink Pirouette and Kiwi Kiss).

My flower is made from using a Sizzix Bigz die-- Beauty Bloom (made from a retired SU Designer Series Paper that has GLITTER on it! SQUEEE!) and anchored with a very vanilla brad. The sentiment is from Stampin' Up! In A Word set. That awesome wavy punch is an EK Success border punch. Me likey!

This card was for the Entwined Hearts Challenge...at least 2 images had to "entwine" and they should be hearts if we had them. Here I used Stampin' Up! sets SweatHeart and I{Heart} Hearts in the following SU colors: So Saffron, Melon Mambo, Bermuda Bay, Pumpkin Pie and Real Red.

I've been out of the Stampin' Up realm for a few months...took a little time "off" to work on other things, but plan to pick that part of my business back up in February--along with Stamp Club (SQUEEEEE) and classes again! YAY!!! Very excited!

Hope you're surviving the Cedar Pollen storm we're experiencing here.  I'm STILL not 100% Pfffth. Allergies.

Thanks for stopping my and seeing my stampy goodness! 

a true friend....

Last weekend I got to spend some time with my bestest friend from high school EVAH! Stephanie and I hadn't seen each other in 13 years and it was like no time whatsoever had passed....the minute I walked in the door of her GORGEOUS home (at 11 pm!) we just started catching up....until almost 4 am!


She and I met way back in 1984..... my family moved from San Diego, California to Waco, Texas. I began my freshman year in high school in Waco, Texas after living several years in California. I was a girl with short-short hair, did NOT carry a purse, didn't wear jeans, or ropers or listen to country music. In Central Texas. Freshman Year. Yeah, it was awkward. Culture shock.


I share all this to say...awkward, weirdo me then met Stephanie...who made my few years in Central Texas the best EVAH. We consistently had more fun than should be allowed--getting in trouble for laughing in Physical Science, and volleyball practice...and youth group lunches....(until I moved to Corpus Christi halfway through my junior year in high school.)  And we've stayed good friends all this time.

She's one of the funniest people I know. So, knowing me and my crazy laugh....I laugh a LOT when I'm with her.

So much fun. And I'm so grateful to have had last weekend with her! THANK YOU STEPH!!

One of the things I got to do last weekend was attend the Stamp, Scrap and Art Tour in Mesquite--and Steph came with me so I could show her a bit of my obession--stamping! I bought some new Nestabilities, and irreverant stamps that I'll show off in future stampy goodness.  But for now...here are a couple of cards...

First, from one of Stampin' Up's Simply Sent Card Kits:

I love that glitter...and these kits are great when you just want a quick card...all the elements are there, you don't really have to think about it and the kits even include a stampin' spot (mini stamp pad) along with all the embellishments! Awesomeness.

This card was fun to make. Well....I can say that now that it's done and super cute....but WHILE I was making it I was thinking "another step? more cutting? ugh" because this card takes some time...embossing the background, softening and wrinkling cardstock so you can peel apart the layers for the "suede" look, cutting by hand tiny flowers, brads, ribbon etc etc etc...you get the picture. However, once it's all in place it totally made me SQUEEEE!!!!

(All supplies from Stampin' Up)

Thanks for stopping by...come back again soon!

XOXO

Something to think about.

I received this as an email today. And it is too good NOT to share via my blog!  Stampy goodness is coming, I promise....so in the meantime...enjoy this. I did!!!!

TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED THE
1930s, '40s, '50s, '60s and '70s!!
First, we survived being born to mothers who may have smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant.
They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.
Then, after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-based paints.
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, locks on doors or cabinets, And, when we rode our bikes, we had baseball caps, not helmets, on our heads.
As infants and children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, no booster seats, no seat belts, no air bags, bald tires and sometimes no brakes..
Riding in the back of a pick- up truck on a warm day was always a special treat.
We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle.
We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle, and no one actually died from this.
We ate cupcakes, white bread, real butter, and bacon. We drank Kool-Aid made with real white sugar. And we weren't overweight.

WHY?

Because we were always outside playing...that's why!
We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.
No one was able to reach us all day.
--And, we were OKAY..
We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride them down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes..
After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

WE HAD FRIENDS
And we went outside and found them!
We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth...and there were no lawsuits from those accidents.
We would get spankings with wooden spoons, switches, ping-pong paddles, or just a bare hand, and no one would call child services to report abuse.
We ate worms, and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.
We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls, and -although we were told it would happen- we did not put out very many eyes.
We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them.


Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment.
Imagine that!!
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of.
They actually sided with the law!

These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers, and inventors ever.
The past 50 to 85 years have seen an explosion of innovation and new ideas.
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.


If YOU are one of those born between 1925-1975, CONGRATULATIONS!

You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids before the lawyers and the government regulated so much of our lives for our own good.


While you are at it, forward it to your kids, so they will know how brave and lucky their parents were.

Toning it down just a bit...

Do you notice that you don't have an instant migraine when you look at my blog page now? Yeah, me too. I'm suffering from the worst Cedar allergy/sinus headache EVAH and thought I'd begin 2011 by toning things down a bit. The white still complements my awesome blog header that Lydia designed for me...and now I don't feel the need to wear sunglasses when reading my blog page.

Enjoy...and I hope the chemical wonders of this world are keeping your Cedar Fever at bay....they are for me!