Happy Groundhog's Day!

Shadow or no shadow....that is the question! I'm sure I won't hear the answer that I'm hoping for. In case you're wondering why in the world I've made a card for Groundhog's Day, it's because I live a little over an hour from Punxytawney - home of the famous prognosticator, Phil. I make a card for my dad every year because groundhogs are his nemesis - he's needed to make countless repairs to wiring in his car because the varmits love to chew the wires. This year's card wished him 6 more weeks of unchewed wires!

I found this image from Shirley's 2 Girls last year and was so excited to finally ink it up!


Details:
Stamps - Groundhog (Shirley's 2 Girls)
Ink - Tuxedo Black (Memento); Copics
Paper - white, Pure Poppy (PTI), Old Olive (SU!); pattern paper (My Minds Eye)
Accessories - buttons (PTI), button twine (PTI), border punch (SU!), ribbon (American Crafts)

Shirley's 2 Girls

It's been awhile since I've played along with a Shirley's 2 Girls Twisted Thursdays challenge, so when I got an invitation to join their SNR Card Universe group I knew I wanted to join the group and the weekly fun! This week's challenge had me creating a card based on the provided sketch and to throw in some polka dots - if you been here before, you've probably noticed that I like polka dots :)

Here's what I came up with using the S2G What's New set. I wish I would have used my ticket corner punch in the corners, but it was already glued down when I thought of it.



Well....this is going to be a short post. I'm working on a bunch of projects which I hope to show you next week, so be sure to stop back in!


Details:
Stamps - What's New (Shirley's 2 Girls)
Ink - Tuxedo Black (Memento); Copics (B05, E33, E35, R27)
Paper - Green Galore, white, blue & polka dot (DCWV Spring Matstack)
Accessories - blue satin ribbon (Offray), red pearls, Nestabilities (circle & pinking circle), Swiss Dots embossing folder

Twisted Thursday on Thursday!!

It's Thursday and I completed the Shirley's 2 Girls Twisted Thursday Challenge right away this week! Wahoo!! I'm having so much fun with my DCWV Grade School stack - the papers are so bright and fun! Perfect for the many thank-you's I need for my students throughout the year :)

This week's challenge was to add ribbon to the sketch. Check out all the details on Karolyn's blog and be sure to enter your creation in hopes to receive some $$ from Shirley's 2 Girls. There stamps are a great quality besides being absolutely adorable!!

I did sway from the original sketch a bit, and I added the half scallop circle and left off a sentiment on the cover. I tried to place a sentiment a few places, but they all seemed to compete with the DP that has print all over it.



Details:
Stamps - Shirley's 2 Girls Kite
Ink - StazOn black
Paper - DCWV Grade School stack, Cricut green & gold, SU black, HP white
Accessories - Zig Brushables markers, ribbon (Michaels), popdots, Nestabilities scallop circle die, paper piercer


Thanks for stopping by!!

Twisted Sunday??

I got my Shirleys2Girls stamps in the mail about a week ago, and they are SOOOO nice!!! This week, they are hosting two challenges: Twisted Thursday and the 222 Challenge. Be sure to check them out. I won the 222 Challenge last month and got $22 to spend on their terrific stamps!

Here's the card I made for the Twisted Thursday challenge. Karolyn posted this great sketch and the twist was to add flowers or buttons.



I used the What's New set with some fun DP from the DCWV Grade School stack. Isn't Domino the cutest dog!!!


Details:
Stamps - Shirleys2Girls' What's New
Paper - DCWV Grade School stack, Cricut yellow, white
Ink - StazOn black
Accessories - buttons, ribbon (Michael's), circle punch


Thanks for stopping by!!

It's Been A Long Time

Last week was such a hectic week - the combination of school and commitments after work left little stamp time and left me exhausted!! It was great to get together with the Greensburg SCS group on Saturday - I made some cute bunny nuggets that I'll try to post one day this week.

Getting together with other stampers is great - except for one thing...my need (ahem..wish) list gets BIGGER and BIGGER. Mandy and Shayla created adorable cards using the Funny Farm $1 stamps from Michaels. I was beside myself when our Michaels was sold out. Luckily, I found some at a Michaels in Pittsburgh today and created this card for the Shirleys2Girls Twisted Thursday challenge using the cow. Special thanks to Mandy and Shayla for the inspiration!!



This week's twist was to add piercing to the provided sketch, which I add to the top and bottom of one layer. I used Prismacolor watercolor pencils and a blender pen to create the background of the cow. The cow's head is also popped out.


Details:
Stamps - Studio G Cow (Michaels $1 Bin), Raindrop Backgroung (Hero Arts)
Paper - DCWV DP (Grade School stack); SU Real Red, Basic Black, Yoyo Yellow, white
Ink - SU Real Red, black
Accessories - Pop dots, Prismacolor watercolor pencils, paper piercer, black gingham ribbon


Thanks for stopping by!!

Whew!!

It's been a busy past few days. I went to Harrisburg on Friday with my student who advanced in the state finals at MathCounts, a national problem-solving competition. We had a nice time, especially when he was able to watch Pitt in the first round of NCAA basketball that night during dinner. My ankle is still hurting, but the swelling has significantly reduced. The 3 1/2 hour trip to Harrisburg didn't help, but I made sure to ice and elevate it every night.

I also finally got my taxes done - this has been my goal the past three weekends. With my mom in the hospital and my ankle sprain, I had to put them on the back burner. I filled out the forms, and they're ready to mail. I tried e-filing them, but the H&R Block site was being a pain and wouldn't allow me to create an account :( ...you know, the sooner I get my refund means the sooner I get stamping goodies.

Okay enough small talk....I got my Shirley's 2 Girls Twisted Thursday challenge done just in time. You can check out the challenge over at Karolyn's site - Paper Therapy. This week's challenge provided a FREE image to print out and use!!! WAHOO!! To twist it up, players needed to add hardware to their cards (that followed the provided sketch).

Here's my card. Isn't the mouse so cute!! I can't wait to get my S2G stamps!! I used my new EK Success border punch (lines & dots) on the Real Red paper. I think this is going to become one of my favorites. The great DP is from a new DCWV stack (The Green Stack) that I picked up last weekend at JoAnn's. I added some eyelets as my hardware to the mousie's flowers.



Here's the inside of the card. I printed out a sweet saying that I found on Denny's Poems and Quotes site and embellished it with coordinating paper from the front of the card.


Details:
Image - Shirley's 2 Girls
Paper - Real Red, Old Olive, DP (DCWV Green Stack), white
Accessories - SU markers, Brushables markers, eyelets, ribbon, EK Success border punch (lines & dots), SU punch (Photo Corners)


Thanks for stopping by!!!

Happy Day and Sketch Gone Awry

Yahoo!!! I won the 222 Challenge over at Shirley's 2 Girls!! Be sure to check out their Twisted Thursday challenge and the 222 challenge for next month (which will be posted on the 2nd Tuesday). I'm so excited to pick out $22 worth of stamps as my prize. I have a feeling I'll be adding to my order because there are a bunch that I *need* :)

While watching Role Models (<- racy, but hysterical), I started working on this week's SCS sketch challenge. I wanted to use these carrot images in the background, but I wasn't happy with how it looked. So...I scrapped the sketch idea and went with my own, and I'm pretty pleased with how the card turned out.



I was excited to use this new DP from the DCWV grade school mat stack - there are so many cute designs!!

Details:
Stamps - Michael's $1 stamps
Paper - DCWV DP & blue, Pumpkin Pie, white
Ink - black
Accessories - Brushables markers, snaps, ribbon

Thanks for stopping by!!!

222 Challenge

Finally...here's my little spring purse for the Shirley's 2 Girls 222 monthly challenge. Be sure to check out the challenge here and their adorable stamps. Living about 1 hour from Punxytawney, PA (home of Phil), I love the Groundhog's Day images!! The ladies were thinking spring and requested a spring creation through the use of their adorable purse template.



When I think of spring, I definitely think of critters. Even though I find frog images so cute, I can't stand the real thing!! I swear I have a crazy phobia toward frogs - the slime, the bulging eyes and throat, the possibility of a jumping frog landing on my foot...ugh!!

I created this little purse for the guidance counselor at my school who's workin like a mad woman this week - it's state standardized testing week in PA (double ugh!!). It's a lot to manage, so I tucked in a few pieces of chocolate to help her get through the tough moments.

I was worried that I wasn't going to get it completed in time. I fell late Saturday night - a moment of gracefulness :) - and according to the ER on Sunday morning, I sprained my ankle. Luckily, I'm doing much better and I put a chair in the craft room to elevate my foot while I worked on this little number.



The template was incredibly easy to use. I printed mine out on white cardstock, cut it out, and then covered it with DP. Since I'm not a talented Xacto Knife user, I cut out the handles on my BigKick using the circle Nestabilities. They worked out beautifully. The sentiment I added was printed from Microsoft Word - the font was Mia's Scribblings. In case you're wondering, I love fonts and I find most of mine at dafont.com. Feel free to drop me a line if you need help downloaded new fonts on your computer.

Details:
Stamps: Colorbok Friendly Forest
Paper: DP, Real Red, white
Ink: Glorious Green
Accessories: buttons, ribbon, Nestabilities, Word Window punch

Twisted Thursday

Shirleys2Girls is hosting their first Twisted Thursday challenge. For now, the challenges will be sketch challenges with a 'twist' - this week's was to add scallops to the sketch. They're even offering up yummy goodies to one randomly chosen participant!!!

Here's the sketch:



and my card:



I wanted to make a St. Patrick's Day card that didn't scream leprechauns and four-leaf clovers. I'm SOOO happy with how this turned out!! I found this Irish wish online:

Wishing you a rainbow
For sunlight after showers—
Miles and miles of Irish smiles
For golden happy hours—
Shamrocks at your doorway
For luck and laughter too,
And a host of friends that never ends
Each day your whole life through!

-then printed it on cardstock. There are so many beautiful blessings or wishes that would work wonderfully, but I really liked this one. I may even make a few of these because I can't decide who I will send it to :)


Details:
Paper - DP (Signature Suite by Jen Wilson - Earthtone Stripes), Old Olive, Groovy Guava, River Rock, white
Ink - Old Olive
Accessories - felt heart (JoAnn's), ribbon (Michael's), Cuttlebug embossing folder (Swiss Dots), copper brads, button, Fiskars border punch (Treading Water), thread/sewing machine, computer generated saying (Bookworm font), Nestabilities


Thanks for stopping by!!