I Still Ruff You

Hey there, folks! As you might have noticed, I took a little break. Getting ready for Valentine's Day and a few large orders in my Etsy shop have kept me very busy. I am back with a cute card and some pretty big news (for me anyway) so I hope it was worth the wait. First, the card. It is one last one before the "big day" on Sunday. I think it is going to be a Valentine for my hubby and then I can remove the inner sentiment and sell it as an all occasion love card throughout the year. Wanna see?

And a look at the inside...

When I saw the dog stamp in the store, I immediately put it in my basket because it was just flippin adorable. That long "hot dog" body just cracked me up. He very quickly ended up on a card too. There aren't very many images that are really wide and not very tall so this one lent itself to a different kind of arrangement. I really had fun working with it.

The paper I used is an old one from my stash. I have had it for a long time. I decided to pull out a stitch border stamp and let me tell you how much I LOVE the white glaze pen that I used to darken up the stamped lines as well as make faux stitching around the circle. That is the greatest pen! It will be my go-to opaque white pen. As far as the rest of my materials, I will finish up with a supply list below. How about my news?

Well, after much thought, I have decided to become a Stampin Up demonstrator. I know that more people are walking away from this title than are embracing it but it is something I have wanted to do for a while and the few barriers that were in front of me have been addressed. I am VERY excited about this decision. I have always loved their products and order as many as my wallet can handle so it was a natural progression to arrive at this decision. I will still blog often but my content will change a little. I hope that you will continue to stop by here often for inspiration and creative motivation. My plan for the future is to bring you fresh new ways to use the products that many of us already know and love. So, I hope I have your interest as well as your support and I look forward to sharing my new path with you here. Wish me luck!

My fingers are tired so I am going to finish up with my supply list and a sincere wish for a fabulous Valentine's Day weekend. We are getting some snowy goodness down here in the sunny south so I plan to enjoy every minute of it with my family. Happy Valentine's Day!

Papers- Bo Bunny Wild Berry Red Dot; Imagination Project Woof; lt blue CS from DCWV spring matstack 2009; dk blue CS from Hobby Lobby. Stamps- Penny Black Romantic Dog; HOTP stamped stitches; Hero Arts Little Valentine's Day. Inks- Memento Tuxedo Black; Colorbox frost white. Tools- EK deco scallop edger; Marvy clever lever 2.5in circle punch; SU word window punch; WRMK corner chomper; piercer & mat; ANM mini bone punch. Embellishments- JHB #23090 bone buttons; ribbon fx wine taffeta ribbon; MM stitches in teal;. Pens- Copic (R81, E33, B0000); Zig (coffee, kiwi, spice, aubergine); SU (brocade blue); Spica ( sky blue, lavender); Sakura white glaze pen. Sketch- Tammy Fielder 5-9-09. Font- 18pt kids.

Girlfriends Rock

Hi guys! I haven't had the stamping time I would have hoped for lately so I have pulled out an older creation that never made it here when I finished it. I am happy to say that I have been working on a custom order for a girl that found me on Etsy. I was thrilled to get her message stating that she had ordered from me before and now wanted me to make her some thank you tags for her own Etsy shop. Yay! I love my repeat customers! So, as soon as I finish her large order, I will be back in force. After all, there are way too many Valentine's Day and spring cards to be made right now!

Anyway, back to today's card. It is one of those old standbys that some of us make from time to time. It doesn't involve anything new, fancy, or intricate. I pulled out a paper combo that I loved and went from there. I used a really cute stamp by Penny Black and some of those dreamy Penny Lane papers by MME. Now that I mention that paper, if you have a Hobby Lobby near you, they have introduced an economy line of MME papers that are printed on regular weight paper (versus card stock weight) and only on one side. It makes them oh so much cheaper and with the great sales at HL, you can get them for a steal.

So, how about a photo? Here ya go!

As I often do, I printed (Font: CAC One Seventy 20pt) the sentiment in Word because I wanted a sentiment that I don't have a stamp for in my vast jumble of little wood blocks. The image and the sentiment are stamped/printed on Neenah Classic Crest Natural White. The sketch came from the Verve Challenges for their October Release week (VSOCT09B). It seems that I type that tidbit of info quite a bit lately. I made so many cards that week and the sketches were just fabulous. The ribbon is a May Arts grosgrain and I colored the image with my Copics.

I want you to have a great weekend and I hope to see you back next week after I finish that Etsy order. I will have lots of new things to show here so please drop by. And while you're at it, I would love to see a comment about what you think of my posts now and then. I recently changed the settings regarding comments so I hope to have made the process easier. Buh-bye!

Happy Holidays... Snowman Style

Hi guys! I hope the weekend was great for you wherever you are. I hope you got lots of time to do what you pleased and found no worries along the way. I have a card to show you today. I didn't make it this weekend. I was just to busy! I made it back in October for the Verve Release party Challenges and just have not gotten around to posting it here. I hope you like it!

This card uses the sketch called VSOCT09A. There were 5 sketches that week and this one was the first of the series. I found it to be a tough one to work with considering that tag area that overlaps the focal point area. What I love though is that snowman! This is one of my favorite images. It is by Penny Black and I saw it used last year on another blog so I just ran right out to find one. I ended up ordering it online and paying wayyy too much for him. Oh well! He's a cutie and I bet I have already gotten my money's worth. I used Nesties to cut the scalloped square behind the image and the pale plum panel is embossed with a Cuttlebug folder.

I didn't bother snapping a photo of the inside because it doesn't have any sentiment but it is decorated to match the front of the card. I used scraps and left plenty of room for a hand written message. To me, that is one of the benefits of making and sending hand made cards...they can say whatever you want them to say!

I have abusy day planned so I am off for now. I will be back with a few more holiday cards that I haven't had time to show you just yet. Have a great Monday!

Papers- EK Art Blanche Winter Dot; Gina K Pure Luxury CS; SU Perfect Plum & Pale Plum CS. Stamps- Penny Black Warm & Cold; Hero Arts Sunny Happy Holidays. Inks- Memento Tuxedo black; Tim Holtz faded jeans distress ink. Tools- Nestie Scalloped Square (sm); Nestie Ribbon Tags Trio; Paper Studio snowflake punch; Marvy circ punch (2.5in); CB snowflakes emb folder. Embellishments- American Crafts ribbon (silver baby); Dress it Up Blue Snowflake buttons; MM silver metallic stitches. Pens- Copics (N1, N3, B93, B97, E44); Zig (pure orange); SU (Perfect Plum, Pale Plum); Sakura (Clear Stardust, Blue Metallic). Sketch- VSOCT09A.