Strawberry Girl

I had some time to create today! TPE153 has a great inspiration photo that I love. Makes me think of a refreshing summer with its popsicles, strawberries, and grapefruit. Yummy! Click on the inspiration photo to visit The Pink Elephant's challenge.

Here is my card using this photo as inspiration, MFTWSC77 for the sketch, and F4A122 for the added piercing.

Supplies: MFT Pure Innocence, Swissdots Embossing Folder, copic markers, SU ribbon, Papertrey Kraft paper, white paper, dp?, piercer, glue dots



Off to create more! Have a lovely day!

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A Little Brunch with the Deconstructed Sketch #55

I love this sketch! I really adored Jen's sample for her sketch as well. Click on the sketch to go to her post and see her super cute card with a sweet Greeting Farm image!

Here is my card using her sketch. I hope to give it to one of my female soccer-playing friends or their daughters.

Supplies: Cardstock: kraft, white, and Basic Grey Shine On designer paper, Ink- Stampin Up close to Cocoa, Memento Tuxedo Black, Stamps: The Greeting Farm Anya & Because of You sentiments, Other: twine, star punch, copic markers

Here is the inside with the sentiment showing...

 I made myself a little brunch this morning! It is similiar to Vietnamese summer rolls. Well this is a breakfast version that I have eaten ever since I was a little girl. I put some green onion, cilantro, basil, green tomato, eggs, and bacon onto my rice paper. I rolled it up and dipped into some yummy Nước mắm pha sauce.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you have a fantastic day!

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Summer Break!!

I am so glad it is summer break! I have had a long and somewhat challenging year! Last week was officially my first week off... and I did nothing!! So today seemed like a great day to get back into stamping and creating. Thanks to Papertrey's Make it Monday #69 challenge, I was able to easily put this one together quickly. However, trying to figure out my new Photoshop CS6 is more work than I want to put in! What kind of photo editing software are you using?

I used one of my favorite go to sets from Papertrey Ink: Life. I happened to have some fun crinkly brown ribbon from leftover chocolate packaging on my table... I just had to use it! Here's a close up view of my card:

Here is the inspiration sketch I used:

Splitcoaststampers and Papertrey Ink have been my go to places for inspiration back into the crafting world. Now that I have been away for a while from the crafting scene, I wonder what are some great places for inspiration? What blogs or challenges do you like to visit??

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With a Little Bit of Time

I thought after Labor Day things would settle down for me, and I could play more in my craft room. However, it has not calmed down, especially with my work. Last Tuesday, my 20th student entered my class. He is one who needs more love and attention. Lucky for me, I have such a sweet class that they are so helpful in his adjustment. This week, I will hopefully be interviewing some great candidates to be my co-teacher in my classroom. Once hired, we will be getting more students. I am excited for this experience, as I have not co-taught before. I have had college interns, but not with another teacher. I'm sure at first, I will be busy helping my new teacher and students get acquainted. Then I think it will be smooth sailing and I may even have more time to craft!! :0)

In addition, my sister is moving to St. Louis! I got to see her and my nephew last night before their big drive up north. I am sad that she and her family are moving further away, but happy that she has found a job. I guess there will be some future visits there.

Today, I went to the TGF site and saw that they are having a white challenge. I am super happy that they have made some changes on their site. Instead of posting only in their gallery, we can post on Splitcoaststampers or on our blogs. I had a little bit of time to play this morning, and made a MFT card for the current sketch challenge. (I will post it in my Splitcoaststampers Gallery.) After I made my MFT card, I made this one for the Farm Fresh Friday challenge:

I received this TGF Snuggle and TGF Because of You sentiments in the mail a couple of days ago. This image was on sale and I could not resist. It reminds me of my childhood, as I had a white bunny that I snuggled with. I have a difficult time just using white, so I added some hair color, skin color, and pink to my image. I added white flocking to the bunny, cuttlebugged with Swissdots, and scored with my Score-pal for texture. I also used a glitter pen on the girl's nightgown, but it does not show up here. My heart snaps were oldies that I had since my scrapbooking days! Yeah for me for finally using them after all those years!

Thanks for visiting! Remember to take time to enjoy the moment!

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I (heart) 2 stamp September Sketch

Last week, I received my Stampin Up order. I got some ribbons, Turtle & Co. stamp set, and cardstock. For this particular card, I used Papertrey's kraft cardstock, Bazill's copic paper, SU's Pool Party, and SU's Lucky Limeade. I love earth tone colors, especially of the kraft, blue, and green together. I used I (heart) 2 stamp September sketch to put this together. Such a fun sketch!!

Supplies used: Papertrey's kraft cardstock, Bazill's copic paper, SU Pool Party cardstock, SU Lucky Limeade cardstock, SU Turtle & Co. stamp set, corner rounder punch, Circle Nestabilities, SU Baja Blue ink, sponge, copic markers, white gel pen, google eyes

I will be sending this one out to my friend, Peggy, who had a birthday in August! Usually I remember to call. This year, I got caught up with the beginning of the school year activities. Happy Wednesday!

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SSSC#133

I got to use one of my freebies from my shopping spree at MFT boutique a couple weekends for this sketch challenge. I still have a few more to use that I have not inked up yet. This roller skating Pure Innocence girl makes me think of last May when one of my friends had a skating party for her 30th birthday. She had a "13 Going on 30" theme. I think I will send this to her, to let her know I am thinking of her during our busy beginning of the school year. She is a kindergarten teacher too.

Supplies Used: Black cardstock, MME Lime Twist dp, MFT Pure Innocence Roll With It stamp set, MFT dienamics, copic markers, Nestabilities circles, black brads, white gel pen, glitter gel pen

Happy Tuesday!

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Papertrey's Make It Monday #31 & Pink Elephant #115

My first weeks of kindergarten have been exhausting. With this extra day off today, I am feeling human again! I browsed the web and participated in a few challenges. This one is for Papertrey's Make it Monday #31, Creating Backgrounds with Non-Background Stamps. I used my new Papertrey set, Baby Button Bits stamp set. I received this set over the summer when I was a lucky winner of one of Papertrey's Make it Monday challenges. I used the sentiment as my background stamp. I stamped it in SU 's Old Olive and Baha Blue. I also sponged the edges of my panels to soften them.

The Pink Elephant is also having a sketch challenge, TPE#115 which I used for this card. I made a new size (for me) that I learned from Colleen Schaan. It's 3.25" X 5.5". I really like it, and will be using it more often. Here's a close up of the rolled flower. I punched a circle from one of my Stampin Up circle punches. Then I just cut a swirly inside. There are tutorials out on the web to do this. I know that My Favorite Things also makes dies for a rolled flower.

I hope you are enjoying your Labor Day weekend!!

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Fluttering Butterflies

Today, I had time to create two cards. One this morning that I posted on Splitcoaststampers and one this afternoon for The Pink Elephant Challenge #111. The theme was to use butterflies! I love butterflies. I also used Verve's AUG2011 Week 2 sketch.

It has been a very busy week back at school. I have met my new batch of cute little kindergarteners. My husband has been very supportive, as I have warned him of this time of year. He made an Indian dinner for us on Wednesday. He brought sunflowers home on Thursday. On Friday, he came to my classroom and brought me some bubble tea. Then he moved and rehooked some computers for me. We even went out for a dinner and movie! Now he's off doing some grocery shopping, as I get caught up. (Love you honey!)

Tomorrow will be the first day of school! I am excited about the new year with my new students and new administration. It should be a good year!

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Monday's Polka Dotted Mug

I created this coffee card thinking mainly of Papertrey's Make it Monday #26: Decreasing Apertures . There is a video tutorial at Nichole's blog showing how to use different dies to make a window. I also was inspired by Splitcoaststamper's Inspiration Challenge #296. At the site there are pictures of pink napkins with white polka dots. With Papertrey's Warm Happiness polka dotted mug, Warm Happiness Too sentiment, and Warm Happiness Dies to match, I made something to go with the browns in my cards. This also fits DTGD11leigh_obrien challenge at Splitcoaststampers to use several dies.

Here is a look through the front window into the inside of the card.

I think I will be working on some more DTGD11 challenges today over at Splitcoaststampers. Then later tonight, I will be going with my hubby to an Ethiopian restaurant to meet up with his brother and hopefully my sister and her little family!! Have a wonderful day!

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OTWC #58

I love photo collages, especially ones related to wedding inspirations. Seeing these OTWC collages reminds me of the one I made last year for my wedding. I will have to share that sometime in the future. Kim has another beautiful picture collage for OTWC#58. Here it is:

I was inspired by the blue and coral colors. I used Stampin Up's retired colors: Buckaroo Blue and Groovy Guava as my blue and coral. My layout was inspired by Sweet Sunday's Sketch #128. I was also inspired by three Splitcoaststamper's DTGD challenges: use handmade stitching, piercing, and inking up a cupcake.
Here's my Cupcake Turtle card:

Today is my last official day of summer! Back to work on Monday! I love the beginning of a school year, but will  miss my carefree summers. Have a wonderful weekend!

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The Pink Elephant #110 Challenge

I already posted this at the Splitcoaststampers site, but could not get it to link up for TPE110. This is the sketch:

I loved the samples from the TPE team. Here's my entry inspired from this sketch and their samples. I made mine into an easel card. There is a great tutorial on Splitcoaststampers.

I used the turtle and sentiment from Papertrey's Tiny Treats: Birthday. There are lots of challenges going on at Splitcoaststampers. I am working on incorporating them into my creations. One has to be a fan club member to participate. Click HERE for more information there.



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Papertrey's Polaroid 2-Step Masking

Earlier this week, I found out that Nichole Heady posted a challenge for Papertrey's Polaroid 2-Step Masking. Apparently, she has had these Monday challenges going on and this particular one is #21. A video tutorial  using this technique can be found here at her Inspired Papertrey blog. If you had not had a chance to visit her blog, you should check it out! I love her style and have learned so much from her tutorials.

I ended up making two cards this past week using this technique inspired by the tutorial. The first one uses Papertrey's Butterfly Kisses. This is one of my first stamp sets bought from Papertrey. I happen to love butterflies, so it was enticing!

The second one uses Papertrey's Wise Owl, Life, and Out on a Limb. I also have no self control when it comes to owls.
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I hope everyone has a Happy July 4th weekend!!

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