A month...really???

Yes, it's been a month since my last post on my blog. I feel horrible. I love having my blog, love sharing my projects, love just letting you all into a tiny bit of my life. Well....my life has been a bit different the past 2 months and unfortunetly I haven't been able to be very crafty. I will show you why.....

This is where I did my Christmas cards! Okay so at least I have a table and I'm not having to work off the floor BUT...do you see that red bucket??? That is the ONLY stamp supplies I have with me (besides my copics). It's very hard to be creative when you have such a small amount of supplies but of course I thought I'd be without my stuff weeks...not MONTHS!!! And it's hard to travel with a lot of stuff sooooo.....this is why I haven't been crafting other than my Christmas cards!



Here is a picture of our family. We normally send a picture with the cards but this year I didn't have time to get a picture, get prints made and sent here and then sent out so.....Merry Christmas!!!

Just don't look at my hubby's STERN face

I promise to be back soon with some pictures of our tree this year. Yes, even though we are in TLF (temp. living facility) we still got a tree from a friend and made our decorations.

Thank you so much to all my cyber and IRL friends. You all mean so much to us and have been so thoughtful and caring and keeping us in your prayers and we really do appreciate it!

Hidden

I wish I could be "hidden" right now! But Hidden is the name of this image. This image is from The Stamping Boutique's Enchatment line I am in love with pretty much anything with wings, especially fairies, angels, pixies and such so this line is sooooooo me!

I made this card for a one of my Paper Princess Sisters'. We did a little gift exchange and this is what I sent her with her gifts. I was very proud of this card and I did it while sitting in the middle of an empty room on the floor after the movers came and took all our stuff :(

Looks like fun huh??!!!

We are still in TLF on base. My husband did not pass his PT test on Tues. he should have, he could have but the stress and negative thinking got the best of him so we are still waiting. Now it's up to the wing commander to decide our future with the military if there will be any!

So....we will be spending Thanksgiving here but have made plans to spend it with some friends here which is just fine with us. We have gotten used to the military being our family so this is no different then any other holiday for us except we were SUPPOSE to be spending the holiday with our family this year.

OH OH OH.....How could I forget...have you noticed my new blog layout? It's great isn't it? I am surrounded by some really fabulous people in my life and my BF Kelly did this for me...in fact I have dubbed her my blog designer because she knows alllllll the in's and out's of this stuff she even know's what all that jibberish letters and numbers and symbols means...so Thank You Kelly!

On to the card........

 

Materials used:

Image: TSB

CS: SU!

DP: ?? (from my scraps)

Buttons: SU!

Sentiment: SU!

Copics

Spica pens

Challenges Entered:

Fab n Funky~#49~forget me not....I have had this image since I joined TSB and this was the first time using it.

Digital Tuesday Challenge~#85~anything with wings

Stamp Something~November Digi Day

I'm here...I'm here!!

My oh my! The past week has been a whirlwind and not in a good way! We are sitting in our hotel, thinking we are going to be getting on a plane and low and behold the AF tell's us that not only will that NOT be happening but we will NOT be going to Guam either. So we are going to be here in Germany for another 30 days until my husband can PT test....the whole reason this all started...he failed his last one by 8 sit-ups. So we are kind of in limbo right now, our time in our hotel is up tomorrow morning and they STILL haven't decided if we are going to stay in the hotel or be moved off base to temp housing. Talk about STRESSSSSSSSSS!!! And since Guam has been taken from us they have picked out base stateside for us...we are now going to be going to Mountain Home Idaho...pending the outcome of my husbands PT of course.

I do have something to share with you. This is going to be my Christmas card this year...if I can get motivated to work on them...I mean it's not like I have much else to do right????

Used in this card is all SU! items:

Challenges Entered:

Paper Sundaes: #43~let it snow



Workshop

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

AND

A SPECIAL SHOT OUT TO MY BF

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MELANIE!!!

This was my last workshop here in Germany with my friends. I love the girls I got to hang out with one last time for some stamping fun. It's just such a shame that I met them so late....4 years with them would have made my time here much more fun and bareable!!!!

Here are the projects from our fun morning!

This is a little photo holder we made. Super simple but super cute right?

Items used:

office clip

round SU! punch

oval SU! punch

SU! DP

early espresso ink

??modern punch SU!?? (is this the right name for that punch?)

wow..that picture is bad!!! We did watercoloring with this card. I hadn't done that in a LONG time and had so much fun with it. The girls did too, is super simple and so much different the using markers. All items of course are SU!

A treat bag!!! I found a tutorial on youtube for this! The folds were kind of confusing but having it on youtube I could stop, go back and replay as many times as I needed to get it right!!

This is one of the gifts I made for the workshop. I filled it with buttons and brads, ribbon and a free shipping card!!!

Another quick and easy project.....just used a frap bottle!!

My decorated table!! Do you notice a project that I didn't add to my post today???? Well come back tomorrow to see it...it's part of my post for the Critter DT!!!

Paper Princess Blog Challenge

I have a fabulous group of girls in a blog group that Melanie and I put together and it's much more then just a blog group....it's a group of women that have the common interest in crafting but also in enjoying the company of other women. We have become such a close group and I love each and every one of these girls. We were doing a little challenge and this month our hostesses Melina and AnnMarie decided to do punch art. If you've never seen AnnMaries punch art...your truely missing out because she comes up with some awesome creations (with the help sometimes of other bloggers and such...that's the beauty of blogs) so for this challenge she really came through...I mean look at this poodle...hello....it's the most bling bling pooch I've ever seen! This picture is pretty crappy...doesn't do the pup much justice!!!!

I promise next week or so I will have some pictures of our empty house for you! Then maybe you all will feel bad for me...my stamping conditions are less than acceptable to my personal standards....just wait till you see...LOL!!!!

Top 5

I'm a little late posting this and not because I'm not totally honored but because it's been crazy busy here! BUT....I made the top 5 over at MelJen's Designs last week.!!! Wooohoooo!!! I was so excited when she posted a comment on my blgo saying I had made it!

She is our sponsor over at The Critter Sketch Challenge blog this month so I suggest you all grab yourself some of her images...she even has freebies, join us in our challenges this month and double your chances at winning some of her FABULOUS images!!!

The Stamping Boutique Digi Day on PCP

I wanted to invite all of  you to our second TSB digi day on PCP! Here are the details and a link:

PCP Digi Day




Last month was our first time doing a digi image day on PCP and it went soooo well that we are doing it again, and again and again!!! We will officially be holding digi day each month on PCP. We had a great turn out and had such a blast.



This month's theme for digi day is going to be Digi's in Pink! Yep...that's right, we are going to support Breast Cancer Awareness month for our digi day this go round. I promise you will have fun, meet some new people, chat with the ones you already know, play some games, maybe get a freebie, and get to play in some great challenges for chances to win images from The Stamping Boutique.



Important Details:

~Where~The Stamping Boutique PCP forum

~When~Saturday Oct. 16th

~Time~2-4pm EST

~What to bring~fast typing fingers and your crafting mojo

Critter Monday

It's a new week for the Critter Sketch Challenge Blog so of course there is a new challenge. It's also a new month for us so we have a new sponsor. Our sponsor this month is MelJens Designs. Have you ever been over to their challenge blog? If not, please take some time to check it out. She has some really great images over there, they have a new challenge each week and every week the have a new freebie...who doesn't like freebies???? I know I do!!!
The image I used today is actually from MelJens.
This week, actually all month over at the Critter Sketch Challenge Blog we are doing sketches so if you are in need of some help putting a card together, hop on over, look at the sketch, make your card or even scrapbook page and then link it to the blog for a chance to win a great prize from MelJens at the end of the month!

Materials used:
DP & CS~SU!
Image~MelJens~tutusweet
SU! Brads
Kaisercraft and Imaginance flowers
Dots from Stamping Bella
Sentiment~SU!
Copic Markers

Challenges Entered:
MelJens Designs~Monocromatic and no glitter
~MelJens is sponsoring OWH (operation write home) a wonderful organization that sends handmade cards to soldiers who are defending our freedom. I love this organization and what it stands for because I have had my husband deploy several times and have heard of some guys never receiving a single thing from anyone there entire time there....that to me is heartbreaking and I have taken it upon myself to make sure that everyone my husband is deployed with always gets a card (if not two) while he's deployed. I know what OWH cards are doing for these guys...brightening their day and making their time there a bit more bareable. So go over and check out the link and more information!
Pollycraft Monday~#64 anything goes
Stamp, scrap, and doodle Saturdays~open

Critter Monday!

Happy Monday everyone! I hope that you all are having a great start to your week.
Today over at the Critter Sketch Challenge Blog there is a new weekly challenge. It's a sketch challenge this week. This is the last week for our sponsor Sew Many Cards so if you'd like a chance to win a prize from them...go over to the challenge blog and make a project with the sketch.

Materials used:
Image~Sew Many Cards
CS~SU!
SU~punch
Sentiment~SU!
brads
Kaisercraft pearls
copics

Challenges Entered:
PaperTake Weekly~animal magic
stickles

TSB baby shower cards

I have been selling some of my cards on our local yardsale site for our base and I have been having a lot of requests for baby shower cards so I decided to make a few up to have on hand!
I just love this sketch!!
The image I used for these cards cand be purchased over at The Stamping Boutique store...on my sidebar!!!

Materials used:
Image~The Stamping Boutique
DP~DCWV
Copic markers
stickles
SU~ punches
CS~SU!
Sentiment~SU!
Twine SU!

Challenges Entered:
Crazy for Challenges~C4C56~BLING
The Pink Elephant~TPE84~color aqua, DP and embellishment of choice
Inspirational Card Sketches~#83~sketch....awesome sketch!!!

Workshop give-aways...and some blog candy!

During my SU! workshop I had a few give-aways. I don't know what happened to the pictures of the mugs I made (rubbed-on) (wow....that doesn't sound too good huh!!! LOL) but I did make some mugs too and a few candles! But here are the other two projects I made.

Big clothes Pin
I took it apart, spray painted it with white spray paint, decopauged (sp) the two sides then layed the DP over the sides. Waited for it to dry, cut it out with an xacto knife, put it back together and added some ribbon an punched butterflies....SIMPLE!!!


These are the regular sized clothes pins I did. I made a set of them. Same process as above but I used the MS brand decopauge for these and it was crappy (sorry MS....I normally LOVE her stuff) so it didn't dry very well and when I cut them out it didn't go very well so I kind of took some brown ink around the edges to give it a distressed look since the edges of my paper looked that way anyway, added some handmade flowers and DONE!


I put them in a baggie and made this cutey little bag topper and that was it!

THE BLOG CANDY!!!
My blogging friend will be celebrating her birthday next month and is offering up some AWESOME blog candy...do you see all this? Click on the picture to get to her blog to see how YOU can be entered to win this fab prize!!!

Paper Princess Blog Group Challenge

Hey everyone! I hope you all are having a good start to your week. It's 2pm here and so far so good for me! Today is the day that our blog group on splitcoast Paper Princess' all show off their cards from our monthly kit challenge! This month Colleen put our groups together. I just love this sweet little girl. I didn't end up with enough room on the front so the saying went on the inside!!! I'm not very happy with my coloring either. I put this together at a crop and I was doing more talking then working so this was the ONLY thing in 4 hours that I got accomplished!!! LOL!

Mystery Hostess Prize

You have all seen the pictures from my first workshop and here is the gift I gave to the "mystery" hostess from the workshop.

I mad this purse for her and filled it with the cards below and envelopes.

The purse was super easy to make. I found a tutorial on Youtube and cut all the pieces from my cricut. I added some of the SU! rhinestones, SU! ribbon, and made the center piece from an SU! hostess set and some punches!

 

I can't decide if the butterfly or the bird card is my favorite. The mystery hostess LOVED it!
Don't forget today at 2pm EST TSB is having it's very first digi day on PCP. I'd love for you to hop on over and hang out for a bit, play a game, do some challenges and earn a chance to win some free digis!
http://www.papercraftplanet.com/events/the-stamping-boutique-digi

AND~~~The answer to the question about what is wrong with one of my cards from the workshop...I think someone may have answered it right, I can't remember BUT...it's the sayings, I used the "hello" stamp from that set and also the "merci" stamp thinking that merci was French for hello....drrrrr....I mean I know it doesn't, it means thank-you but for some reason since they were in there together I just wasn't thinking and someone at the workshop pointed it out to me....ugh....embarressed!!! And as you can see....I did the same thing for the hostess card!!!!

Digi Day on PCP...hosted By The Stamping Boutique...and none other than ME!!

We are having our very first digi day with PCP and I would love for all of you to join in the fun. Here is the link  TSB Digi Day when you go into the page on the right hand side it will ask you to RSVP...once you do that you will be able to post comments. So.....are you all coming? I hope so...you need to go over and look at some of the creations that some of the girls have put together....I know you'll want to play along then!!!

The Stamping Boutique Digi Image Day on PCP

We at the Stamping Boutique have decided to try something new here on PCP with you all...how does a digital image day sound to you? This will be our very first time doing this with PCP and are super excited, so excited that Tracey has been working hard to put together an awesome winter image release just in time for our first digi day with you all.

Think back to when you were little...what was your favorite game? I"m not talking about computer games or video games...I'm talking about good old fashion family night fun board kind of game. I ask this question because not only because this is the theme for our very first digi image day but also because the theme for the image release is Candy Land Winter. I know I have you interested now....you can't even imagine what fabulous images she has come up with so you will have to join us to see for yourself. Some lucky winner will actually win the entire release so be sure to take a look at the details below and mark your calanders. Here are the details:

The Stamping Boutique Digi Image Day

Theme: Game Night (Candy Land Winter)

Where: on PCP at The Stamping Boutique group page

When: September 18th, Saturday

Time: 2PM to 4PM

What to Bring: your crafting supplies

What will be supplied: free new release images, lots of great chatter and prizes

How to join in the fun: become a memeber of The Stamping Boutique here on PCP (and the main blog too if you want) and on the day of the digi image day I will have a discussion set up just for us to chat and get the challenges so when your there just stop by and say hello so I know your ready to play!

I am super excited about this and I hope that you all will join us for the fun. I can guarentee you are going to LOVE this new set of images from Tracey. We will be doing 3 challenges and playing 1 game...so you have 4 chances to win some awesome prizes from The Stamping Boutique

Critter Monday

It's Monday which means it's Critter time! You need to join us over at the Critter Sketch Challenge Blog this week for a great challenge. The challenge this week is school...any project you want to make as long as it's school related. Our sponsor this month is Sew Many Cards which has a ton of wonderful imags and a challenge blog I'm sure they'd love for you to join.

For the challenge I decided to do a card. I thought this would be a great card for your child when he did good on a hard test or had a good report card or just finished off the school year well.

Materials used:

Image~Dustin Pike~Dragon Looking

Ribbon~random

DP~DCWV

CS~SU!

Sentiment~Stamping Bella

Copics

buttons

SU! punches

SU! ink

Challenges entered:

Sketch Saturday~#120~sketch

Pollycraft Monday~#61 autum colors

Fab N Funky Challenges~#39 whatever

9/11 Blog Hop

Do you remember where you were when you heard about the towers? I do...I was in Guam. It was the middle of the night and my husband wakes me up to look at the TV and I was still half asleep not really understanding what was happening...very quickly it all became very real.
Being a military wife I am very proud to be an American and very proud of what my husband does for his country on a daily basis. I am honored to be part of this blog hop and I hope that you will continue to go through all the girls projects today and remember those that we have lost, those that are currently fighting, and those that have fought in the past.

Collette


Christy

Debbie

Genevieve

April

Stacie

Lorie

Marie

Jenn R.

Jan

Jenn M.

Amanda



The Stamping Boutique

The Stamping Boutique is doing a joint hop with OWH...please be sure to hop over there and check out their site, they do a lot of good and bring smiles to many many military members with all the fabulous donated cards that they sent to the troops. For some troops, unfortunetly, this is the only mail the may receive while being deployed fighting for your freedom!

Operation Write Home

My First Workshop

Last weekend I did my very first SU! workshop EVER. I have been using SU! products for about 10 years now and began selling it or being a "hobby demo" when I got to Germany but never really had the desire to do workshops...I wouldn't say didn't have the desire...just didn't feel I had the "network" and honestly didn't want to do the work to establish one. But anyway...I decided I'd have a little workshop because I met a girl that was really into SU! (Kim ;) ) and card making so I thought at my Pampered Chef party I'd do a little workshop too.

Here are the projects we did:

Goodie Bag Topper...super simple and everyone really loved making the flowers...I was surprised by that!

Here is the first card we made....since we are in Europe and most of us have been to Paris I thought this would be a cute card to do.

And My personal favorite and it seemed to be a it with everyone else too! I just love the butterflies and the new SU! rhinestones...I can't seem to get enough of them!!!

Now that you've seen all the projects can you tell me what is wrong with one of them? I didn't even realize the mistake until someone pointed it out to me at the party...do you know how embarressed I was...OMGosh...I could have crawled under the table. So...what's the mistake???

I'll let you all know in my next post to give you all time to respond so stay tuned!!

Critter Monday

Happy Monday everyone! I hope everyone had a nice weekend. Ours was good dispite all the rain! This is the rainy season in Germany even though if you ask me...it's always the rainy season in Germany!! It rains every single day forever it seems....it's been so far 2 weeks...and this week is nothing but rain also! UGH! BUT....we have just 2 short months until we leave, go back to Pa. to visit our family and friends and then head to Guam! So the countdown is definetly on!

This is the last week for our sponsor Limelight over at The Critter Challenge Blog so please go over and join our challenge this week for chance to win a prize from them! Our challenge this week is to create a fall card. Not too hard and it's certainly feeling like fall here...not only is it raining but it's freezing...I have the heat on!!!!

Materials used:

SU! CS

Image~Riley~Riley pumpkin

Copics

DP~DCWV

SU! twine

Sentiment~SU!

K&Company Brad

Challenges Entered:

The Sweet Stop~71 sketch

Totally PaperCrafts~#31~clean and simple

Fab n Funky~#37 recipe 3 papers, 2 embellishments, 1 image

Stampin for the Weekend~#45~anything goes

VOTING TIME!!!!

Some of us girls in our blogging group The Paper Princess Sisters decided to enter a cute little competition on PWCO. It's called the ultimate summer challenge. Each day we were given a different challenge and had to make a project with that challenge. Now the voting has started. We would love for you to hop on over to the site and vote for us! You actually get 3 votes per catagoy so you can pick your top 3 favs in each! Here is what my group came up with for each of the challenges:

Moira~inspiration challenge

Melanie~technique Challenge

April (me)~sketch challenge

Nancy~Color challenge

Please hop over and vote for us:   PWCOUSC You have until the 28th so go go go!!! Thank you!

Kit Challenge

Wow...our little blog group decided, thanks to Melina, that we were going to do a little competition. We split those that wanted to participate into two groups. Each group has one of it's members each month pick a theme for that month and make kits according to that theme to send to the rest of it's group memebers. Then we all need to make cards with those kits and then post them on our blogs on a certain day...today is that day!

This month was Melanie and I's month...I can't wait to see what her group did for kits. Our theme was sizzling summer. I decided for my group to go a different route with the theme and decided to use one of my fabulous Sweet Pea stamps (that I purchased at Paper Jewels). I have had a few of these images for a while now and have been to intimidated by them to give them a try but I figured....it's time to try the image and make everyone else in my group try it too...LOL! So this is my take on sizzling summer!

Materials used:

Image~Sweet Pea~Rising Flame

Sentiment~Stamping Bella

CS~SU!

Ribbon~SU!

Copics

Stickles

SU! ink

Challenges Entered:

Totally Paper Crafts~#30~summery (my interpertation of summery...hot)

Papertake Weekly Challenge~#46 sketch

The Stamping Boutique

I had so much fun making this card. Isn't KK soooo cute! She's from The Stamping Boutique and I just LOVE her! I wish my picture was better...not sure  what is going on with this picture but it almost seems blurry.
The sun is finally trying to peak through the dreariness of the day. Thank goodness. I can't take another day of gloom here! I'm hoping to spend some time at my table today because I have a ton of things to get done. Next Saturday I'm doing my very first SU! workshop...I haven't even decided on my projects yet let alone figure out my goody bag/box situation.

Materials used:
Image~The Stamping Boutique
Sentiment~Stamping Bella
SU! ribbon
SU! CS and DP
MS punch
copics
spica pens
eyelets

Challenges Entered:
TSB~monthly competition
Fab n Funky~#36~flower power (flowers in DP)
The Pink Elephant~#80~ribbon and sparkles