Shaun the Sheep Birthday Card

Good morning! After a wonderful, busy day yesterday, we are off today to a birthday party for our 4 year old grandson. He is a Shaun the Sheep lover...watches him all the time on Netflix when he is over...between Shaun the Sheep and Thomas I am not sure which is his favorite but I made his birthday card with Thomas last year, so this year I chose Shaun. I found the image as a free coloring page. The kite had some kind of a face inside it and I removed it and put the number 4 inside (with Photoshop). Lots of green going on as that is his favorite color! The green mat border was created with Martha Stewart punch around the page punch. The cloud background I created in Photoshop as well with some brushes. I am tickled with how it came out...hope he is too.
I have to tell you part of our day yesterday was spent watching this grandson's soccer game...it was such a joy to watch all these little ones play! I almost forgot what it was like when my children were little! Anyhooo, my grandson is quite the ham...when he saw me standing on the sidelines with the camera, oh boy did he start showing off! Here is a pic I captured as he was running after the ball and waving at Grandma...priceless!

Of course Grandma told him to watch the ball, but throughout the game he continued to show off for us! LOL what a blessing to have grandchildren! And I mentioned that our littlest grandson, Baby Dax was baptised yesterday...what a beautiful child he is and now he is a child of God. I am so thankful!

Well it was just a beautiful day yesterday! I know today will be fun as well so I better get my rear in gear and get ready. I hope your day is filled with joy and thank you for letting me share a little bit of my joy with you! Thank you for stopping by!
HUGS!
Vicki

FSS Emma the Mermaid

Happy Monday...a little late! I have been working so hard to create a birthday card for my little grandaughter who will be 3 at the end of this month. Finally after deciding to try the center step card design I then chose to use the FSS Emma the Mermaid Colored set to create my card...This was a blast! The set comes with all the png files you need to create a scene...as well as an underwater scene background and the underwater paper! And is that mermaid to die for??? LOL my husband says the mermaid looks just like our sweet girl! You have to go check out this set...it is superb and has so many possibilities! I used one of my new nestability dies...Ribbon Banners...to cut out the computer generated sentiment. Of course I had to add some stickles for some bling! Here is a look at the inside....the sentiment was created with JustRite alphabet sets. And that fish with the balloons...was just perfect for birthday cards!

I used one of my Martha Stewart punches for the mat here...thought it looked like bubbles! I am pleased with this style of card and think I will make some more...there are so many possibilities. Well, I am going to get off this computer for the night...I hope you all had a wonderful day today and got lots of play time in! I will be by to see what you have been up to...have some coffee ready! LOL...thanks so much for taking the time to leave me some love...it is truly appreciated.

HUGS!
Vicki

Birthday Card Request

Hello! It has been crazy for me the last week...put in a lot of time for work over the weekend so that really put the damper on playing with my new LYNX! BUT, I had a birthday card request from my neighbor. She had a picture of her mother and herself that she wanted me to frame and put on a card...here is the card I came up with:

I had decided to try my hand at an easel card. Let me give you a few deets about the card...the frame is one that I cut on my new cutter...created by Paulo. He has the most awesome cut files on his web site...if you have a cutter and are interested, please pay him a visit and leave some love! The sentiment was computer generated and cut out with one of the Fancy Tags from Spellbinders. The bling on the front of the card and on the inside had been purchased from Big Lots...Colorbok adhesive flourishes...2 came in a package for a buck...I think I am going to go back for more of those! Also on the front of my card you will see the cute little hummingbird...that is an image from FSS...Wee Hummingbird Colored...isn't he just the cutest? On the inside of my card, I used various Martha Stewart punches to create some interest, added some more of those flourishes and another of the Wee Hummingbirds. LOL now, I have to create an envelope for this card! It is 5 1/2 square so I don't have anything that size...wish me luck! Well I want to thank you for stopping in...and a special thanks to those who leave some love! I hope you had a wonderful day today and tomorrow will be just as grand! I plan to do some visiting tomorrow and will surely check up on all of you! Thanks again!

HUGS!
Vicki

Long Absence

Hello! I am sorry for my long absence. I have been struggling with many many overwhelming issues over the past few months...but am glad to say, I am doing better and beginning to feel like myself again. I lost a dear friend about 3 weeks ago...we were very close and although she was very ill, her passing was a little unexpected. I am thankful she is home with our Lord and no longer suffering but do miss her horribly. And to go to the other side of the spectrum, I am so happy to have become a grandmother again on March 31! We have a new baby to love on...Mom and baby are doing well. I now have a new staff person at work that is working out very well...he is taking a lot of the stress off my shoulders that has burdened me for almost a year. So....life is looking up, and I will be posting again...maybe not real often at first but surely at least a few times a week. I hope you all have not given up on me...

I do have a card to share with you! On Sunday we celebrated our grandson Collin's birthday. He was 2! My gosh how time flies. What a fun day we had. So here is the card I created for my special boy!

The card is a 5x7 in size...I created the 2 in Make the Cut...and used my glitter pens to write the "a sweet grandson" rather than cut it out. Make the Cut is an awesome software as it lets us work with layers...I am not an expert at it...but am working hard at learning it! The corners on the background papers were created with a Martha Stewart punch. The Happy Birthday sentiment was cut out with a Nestie. I hope you like my creation...and if anyone is interested in the Make the Cut file, drop me an email...I would be glad to share it in mtc or svg format! My next post, I will be showing off some vinyl wall art I created for our new grandbaby's wall! Please come back to see me! Thanks again for your patience while I healed....I will be out to see all of you who leave me love! I missed visiting and promise to get out to see what all of you have been up to! Bless you all!

HUGS!
Vicki

Glitterbabe's Challenge #27

Well, I am back today with my first Glitterbabe's Challenge of the new year! I am so excited to be back on track! The Challenge for this week is to use ANY Glitterbabe image...just be certain to add that BLING! AND this week we have one awesome Guest Designer...Vicki from Stamped Smiles...Please be sure to check out her creation...I am excited to see it as well...she is quite a designer! For my creation this week I chose to use Glitterbabe's Envelope Bear. I added the hearts to the image using brushes in photoshop...and the sentiment was computer generated as well. The white layer has been embossed with a Sizzix embossing folder and then edged on the bottom with the Martha Stewart Heart Punch. For my BLING, I added Crystal Effects to the hearts and dusted them with glitter, added some awesome red lace and those sweet flowers....both from Piazzaz Aplenty...the leaves for the flowers were created using a Martha Stewart punch as well. Please be sure to check out the other lovely creations that my fellow Glitterbugs have designed on the Challenge blog...we would love for you to play along this week...get your bling on girls! Thanks so much for stopping in to see me today and I hope you enjoyed my creation! I will be by to see you soon!

Hugs!

Vicki

Autumn Blessings

Good morning!! And it is Glitterbabe Challenge day! Our challenge this week is sponsored by Jennifer at JLJ Designs. Please stop by and check out her shop and images! Thanks so much for sponsoring us Jennifer! The winner of this weeks challenge will get three...yes THREE digi images and a paper pack from her store! Be sure to include your BLING as that is the main requirement from Glitterbabe! We were also challenged to frame the image we used. I chose to use the pumpkin image....printed it in 3 sizes...colored with copic markers and layered it. For my frame, I created a ring of leaves. I used the Martha Stewart leaf punch to create my leaves and punched them out of glittered card stock for my bling. I stamped and embossed my sentiment on a Spellbinders tag and added a couple of buttons. I received an awesome assortment of fall colored buttons from my daughter in law...I just couldn't wait to use them. Thanks so much Melissa! Well that is all for me for today, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for hanging with me during my absence! I will be out to see all of you later on today to see what you have been up to! Have a blessed day!

HUGS!
Vicki

Squigglfly Challenge

Hello again!! Well we are off to another wonderful week! And to start this week off, I have a card for you that I created for the Squigglefly Challenge this week. Our taks this week was to create a masculine card. Ohhhhh I struggole so hard with masculine cards...that definitely is my weakness. BUT...I did need to make a birthday card for my oldest son so what better reason to create than that? I used the Shy Bear Billboard image as I thought that image gave me lots of white space to put my sentiment! I created the sentiment in Photoshop. After coloring the image with my copics and clipping the corners with an MS punch, I matted the image on Papertrey paper...I love their paper. Well off to work....hope your day is a beautiful one! Thanks so much for stopping in and I will catch you all a little later!

HUGS!

Vicki

New Glitterbabe Challenge

Happy Thursday! And welcome to a new Glitterbabe Challenge! Our challenge today is sponsored by Robyn's Fetish...we were given a choice of 4 images to use and the card must contain 2 flowers. Of course I fell in love with the bird image...colored it with copics, added a computer generated sentiment and stippled a little light blue on the background. I used sticker flowers...and yeah there are two flowers on the card...and I also added a sticker butterfly. I used a Martha Stewart punch to punch around the image and mounted it on some SU paper that I had leftover from another project. I am a little disappointed in my card this week...but I will do better next week...some days I am just off! Well I am off to work...thanks so much for coming by to see me...have a fantabulous day.

HUGS!

Vicki

Sympathy Card Giveaway

Hello ladies! Well today's card was my "play" card this week! And...I will be giving this card away to one of my commenters! Yep, if you are interested in winning this card, leave me some love by Friday morn and I will pick a random winner around noon on Friday. This card was created using an SU stamp set called Thoughts and Prayers...the sentiment was stamped in Momento Rich Cocoa and the tree was actually double stamped with Momento Bamboo Leaves and Rich Cocoa. The paper was punched with my new MS around the page Eyelet Lace....I think it turned out really serene and pretty. Added a ribbon from my stash. I used the new Papertrey Ink paper that I mentioned I just got for the card base and the brown liner. I hope you enjoyed your visit today....be sure to leave a comment on this post so you have a chance to win the card! Thanks so much for stopping by! Have a glorious day today!

HUGS,

Vicki

All My Love

Good morning! BRRRR it is frigid cold again here in the Valley! Mother Nature is just letting us know that winter is NOT over yet even though most of us are impatiently awaiting spring! Well last night I got a couple of new cards made with some of Tracey's new images at the Stamping Boutique. If you have not been to the Boutique lately, be sure to stop on over to see all the new cute images Tracey has added....they are simply awesome and what's more...she is having a SALE! Yep, 35% off! You can check out the deets here! Today's card is for Stef's Sketch Challenge. Once I printed the image, I colored it with copic markers and added a little bling with a red Sakura glitter pen. And oh my, I bought my first bottle of crystal effects and am really loving it...notice the rose and the bow are accented with it? I know it has been around for a while but it is new to me and I am excited...you will probably see it on a lot of my upcoming projects. I love dimension. Also the image was trimmed out with one of my new MS punches. The senitment was computer generated and cut out using Spellbinders Labels...added some ribbon and voila! I sure hope you stop on over to see what the other DT ladies have created and join in the fun! Remember....there is a prize for one lucky winner! Well hope you all have a great day today and as always I thank you so much for stopping in to see me....it means a lot to me and I treasure all of you and your comments. Hope to see you again soon and I will be by to do some visiting with you a little later on today.

HUGS!
Vicki

The Stamping Boutique "I have a dream" Challenge

Good morning! Welcome the the 2nd challenge at the Stamping Boutique for 2010....this challenge was to create a card using any Stamping Boutique image and use the phrase "I have a dream" for inspiration. This was a fun challenge because I knew a perfect image from the store that I wanted to use...this is the Twirling Girl image...is she awesome or what? I added the background to the image using photoshop brushes for the sky and the grass...colored the young lady with copics. The saying on the card I had found online one time and wrote it down just in case I could ever use it...I thought it fit this challenge perfectly! What do you think? Dream Big is from JustRite Stamps and cut out using the circle nesities...I used the MS loopy punch, some ribbon and the Dots embossing folder from Sizzix to add some dimension to the card. Why not stop by and play with us? We would love to see what you create. Hope you have a great day and thanks for stopping by to see what I have been up to!
HUGS!
Vicki

Just Because

Good morning! Oh my gosh it is so cold today! I just wanted to stay home in bed this morning but I am up and going. Today's card uses another cute little Audrey image from The Stamping Boutique...isn't she a cutie? Tracey makes these images so easy to color...I was afraid of coloring the hair at first but the shading is just perfect...all you have to do is color! I cut the image out and sat it on an oval nestie. The paper is from a paperstack from DCWV...and I used my new MS Loop punch as well. The sentiment was stamped with a JustRite stamp. If you haven't been to The Stamping Boutique for a while, head on over there to see all the new images released by Tracey and Stef...they are awesome. Well, I am off to work! Have a great day today! Thanks again for stopping by!

HUGS,
Vicki

Love

Well, I am hoping everyone's holiday was wonderful! I am trying to get back into the blogging groove...I received a lot of new crafting items for Christmas that I want to play with but the last 2 days I have been a little off....now my hubby would say I am ALWAYS off LOL! Anywhoooo, my card today was created using a new punch that I received from my sweet friend Stef...it is the Martha Stewart Loop punch set...which contained both the corner punch as well as the border punch. Really cool punch! The image I used on my card is one of The Stamping Boutique's new images called Audrey Saving Her Love...isn't this the most awesome image?I colored her with Copic markers....used a little chalk for the background. Added some brown ribbon....really like brown and pink together. Thanks for stopping by to see me today...I promise to get my rear in gear and come visit you very soon.

HUGS!
Vicki

Martha Stewart Merry Xmas

Hello everyone! Well I worked all day yesterday making cards...and this one was my fav! BUT, the little bugger was a LOT of work! I got the Martha Stewart branch punch last year at the end of the season real reasonable and never really used it but to cut out some test branches in 3 different shades of green...and put the branches in a bag to sit for a year! Today when I was going through some stuff, I found them and decided I better use them up...so here is what I designed with them! I first drew in my swirly design so I had a pattern to glue the branches to. Then I glued the branches down in random pattern added some red stickles and some clear glitter to them and voila! I am sooooo happy with this card. Then I just finished off my swirly with some green Stickles and added the sentiment which was from the dollar bin at Michaels. I hope you enjoyed looking at this one as much as I enjoyed creating it! I know I mentioned that I was going to work on my cricut yesterday and I did...I have some cricut cards for you during the week. Thanks to each and every one of you for coming to see me and leaving me such nice comments...you keep me going! Have a great Monday and I will be off to see you later today.

HUGS!
Vicki

Joy to the World

Happy Hump Day! Today's card is a little out of the ordinary for xmas...purple is not a typical xmas color but I thought maybe with the gold I could make it look Christmasy. :) And my stamp...I really struggled with coloring it cause of the solid area...if I used red ink...the whole Santa would have been in red...didn't really want that so I thought what about just leaving it black and white? So that is what I did and added some Diamond Stickles to Santa's suit to give the card some bling and a Stardust GellyRoll gold glitter pen was used on the stars to brighten them up. I used a Martha S punch on my center layer and stamped the snowflakes using a Studio g stamp I had purchased from JoAnn Fabrics last winter. Of course, you know me...I HAD to add some embossing...I used the Sizzix Dots embossing folder. This was a fun card to make and I may have gotten carried away on my layers but I do like how it turned out. Well off to clean my house for Thanksgiving! Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving...I know I am very thankful for my blogging friends...bless you for stopping by!

Hugs!!!

Vicki

Need a Lift?

Happy Wednesday morning to all! I hope your week has been going good and you are doing well. For the card today, I decided to try my hand at another challenge at Squiqqlefly. Squigglefly has a boatload of awesome digital stamps and this week they have offered a freebie to play with. I used it for my card...isn't the image adorable? I colored the image with Copics markers and although you can't see the "bling", I used Sakura Gelly Roll Stardust pens...these are an amazing way to add a little glimmer to your projects without all the mess. The edges of the paper the image is stamped on were punched and embossed using one of the Fiskars corner punches. I added a border strip that was cut using an MS punch. My sentiment was computer generated. The Challenge rules were to use yellow and a pop up on your card...well because in my haste I did not fully read the rules, I didn't use a pop up...so, I will make another card for the challenge. Hope you enjoyed your visit today...I will be visiting you too later on in the day. Thanks for stopping by!

Hugs!!!

Vicki

Celebrate

Hello again! Well we are back home again after our two week vacation. It is nice to go but always nice to come home again too. And we were wonderfully surprised by our son and daughter in law...they brought dinner to us last night! And of course we got to see two of our beautiful grandchildren...what a nice homecoming! I plan to try my hand at some cards using some of my pics from vacation in the near future but for today, I have a card that I created for a "celebration". The inspiration for this card was from Friendship & Sunshine card in Paper Creations Summer 2009 Magazine. The card base was created from Stampin' Up paper...the white paper again is my favorite embossing paper...Beckett. The brushed silver paper is from American Crafts Christmas Foil pack that I purchased from Hobby Lobby. The sentiment stamp is from Stampin' Up. The embossing at the bottom of the card is the Cuttlebug Two Frills embossing folder. To add a little "bling" to the card I used Stickles. The lace edge was created using the Martha Stewart Lace Edge punch.

Thanks for visiting me today and staying with me while I took a small vacation. I plan to post much more frequently now I am back home! Have a great day today.

Another Birthday Card

Well it seems like I am stuck on Birthday cards! But here is another one anyway! This card's base was the paper I love so much (Beckett). The outside edges of the card base were scored with the Scor Pal. The blue paper is from Coredinations and it was embossed with the Swiss Dots Cuttlebug folder and sanded. I so love this paper too! I then used one of my Martha Stewart punches (Lattice I believe it was called) to edge out the blue card stock. The heart was again cut out using the Beckett paper and embossed with the Birds and Swirls Cuttlebug folder. I used the Scalloped Hearts Nestabilities to cut the heart. I used a watercolor marker that I had in my stash to lightly shade the embossed area of the heart...the ribbon was from my stash too. Thanks for stopping by to visit and I hope your day was as beautiful as mine was! Thanks for stopping by to visit me!

My First Cricut Card Design

Hello all...hope you had a wonderful weekend. We had quite a bit of rain here today so I had a good reason to stay inside and play! Tonight, I tried my hand at creating my own design in Design Studio. A week or so ago, I took the Basic Cards class offered by Diane and Jen at http://letmeshowyouhowtodothat.blogspot.com/. If you have not checked out their web site, do so...they are have several classes to choose from and give you a wealth of information. Those girls ROCK! For my card, I used one of the aperture cards from the Beyond Birthdays cartridge and welded a couple of images from the Storybook cartridge in the window. Once the card base was cut, I used the Martha Stewart Lace punch to fancy up the front a little and then embossed the card front with the Cuttlebug hearts folder. The paper used on my card was from Stampin Up as well as the ink for the sentiment. The Hello stamp was from the dollar bin at Michael's...got to love those dollar stamps! Well, that's it for now. Take care.

Vicki

Hello! I hope the weekend is going well for everyone. Today's card I had tried my hand at using Prisma Color pencils and odorless mineral spirits. Many stampers use Gamsol for this technique but I have not been able to find that in our area. I have a way to go on learning how to use shading but I am fairly happy with how this card turned out. Thanks for stopping by today.

Paper: assorted card stock on hand

Stamp: SU for greeting and Martha Stewart for the bird stamp

Tools: Prisma Color Pencils, Nestabilities, Eyelets