The 12 Kits of Christmas: April 2012

Round 4 of the most fun group I am a part of!! Wondering what in the world I'm talking about? Check out my first post here which explains everything. I created these early this month since I was on vacation for 1/2 the month, so I've been holding on to these cards so long and have been itching to show them off! This month's kit was created by Marybeth, and look at all the supplies she sent!

Well it has been my goal to create at least 4 cards with each kit, but Marybeth sent enough to create 6, and I STILL had supplies left over too! So without further ado, here are my creations:

And here they are all lined up together:

These are not supplies that I would have chosen for myself, but that is why I love this group so much, it makes me step out of my comfort zone and try new things, that I end up loving! Everything I used was from her kit except for the cardstock bases, the Hawaiian Shores ribbon, the twine on the lamppost card, and the Nestabilities die I used on the sentiment card. So which card do you like the best? I like the first one with the bright Hawaiian shores and the sweet little girls. Wondering where these supplies came from? Well, Marybeth sent along a list.

Stamps: Girls: Stampendous, Wise Men: Paper Inspiration, Lamppost: Inkadinkado

Dies: Memory Box: Star of Wonder, Country Landscape, Frostyville Border, Jinglebell Border, and Holly Vine, Papertrey Ink: In the Meadow, Spellbinders: Banner Ribbons

Paper: Carcstock: PTI, Minds Eye: The Paper Studio from Hobby Lobby

Ribbon or twine: Decorative trim from Hobby Lobby, Glitter Eyelash from Martha Stewart

Randon Bling: Hobby Lobby

Okay, you must be pumped up to see what everyone else was able to create...I know I am!

Suzanne: thecardyard

Cathy: EmptyNestCrafter

Joyce: Cards-by-the-Sea

Kim: CupcakesCardsandKim

Amy: Stamp-n-Paradise

Kara: KandRDesigns

Sharron: OnPapillionWings

Marybeth: Marybeth's Time for Paper

Jeanne: AKeptLife

Jessica: The Paper Parade

Christina: SeaGlass&Sentiments

Renee: ItsAPatchworkLife

April Market Street Block Party & FMS #32

Well, tomorrow is back to work after a wonderful two week vacation! We traveled down to FL in our camper and spent time with most of our family. Phillip and I are both from FL, so all of our family is still down there (we live in MA now). I made this card for his grandparents. For a few nights we stayed at the Highlands Hammock State Park with 3 generations of Davises all in a row with our campers. It was a lot of fun.

This card uses Market Street Stamps. I'm playing along with this month's Block Party.

And also with this week's Freshly Made Sketches Challenge:

Are these marshmallows not the cutest? We did roast them over the fire one night. Did you know they sell flavored ones now? I got coconut and let me tell you a coconut marshmallow s'more with dark chocolate and chocolate graham crackers is divine!

 I Just love this adorable little camper. All stamps and the sentiment are from MSS. The woodgrain paper is from Amuse. The ribbon is from SU, and the double ended banner die is from PTI (and so is the cardstock). Images were colored with Copics.

And now a few pics from our trip. I put many more on FB, but here are a few cute shots:

These first two pictures are at the Highlands Hammock campground. We took a nice long walk with the dogs and took some pics in front of this cool tree. That is my mother and father in law with us in the pics.

My mom is the photographer, so I don't have any pics of me and my nephew Liam (whose first birthday party we were able to attend while we were there!) or my parents yet, as those photos are on her camera. But I was able to snag this cute shot of me and my 6 month old niece, Autumn :)

And on the last night there I got this photo of my SIL, Whitney, on the left and my sister, Jamie, on the right.

We had such a great time, but boy did it go by so fast! Every single day we had plans, so I'm glad we got back on Friday so we could have a couple days of rest before going back to work. After getting to spend time with my family, I now miss them terribly, though. To end on a funny note, though, after living in the camper for two weeks, everything in our house seems so incredibly huge! 

Freshly Made Sketches #30

My nephew Liam's first birthday is next week! Wow, I can't believe he's one already. And he's having a dinosaur birthday party, so this adorable little PS dino was the perfect stamp for his card!

I used this week's Freshly Made Sketches sketch:

The "1" and the "st" are from PTI along with the cardstock and the patterned paper. The circle was cut from Nestabilities. The city scape, road, and dino are from Paper Smooches. The "Birthday" sentiment is also from Paper Smooches.

I also have a dinosaur hat I knitted for him, a stuffed triceratops, and one of my favorite movies as a kid, "The Land Before Time." I think he'll like his dino themed gift :)

Paper Smooches Sparks

Time for some SPARKS! I never would have created a card like this before seeing the inspiration photo, but I love how modern it turned out, and the orange accents make this card the perfect anniversary card for my sister's 5th (her favorite color is orange). Check it out:

Here's the inspiration photo from this Sparks challenge:

The ink is all from SU. I used Taken w/Teal and Dusty Durango. The black is Memento.

The satin bow is PTI Hawaiian Shores and the rolled flowers were made for me by my stampin' friend, Gerry, out of PTI Canyon Clay and Aqua Mist felt. Aren't they so pretty??

The card base is PTI Aqua Mist, and all sentiments are from a mixture of 3 different PS Sentiment sets (my collection has grown a bit ;)

There's still time to play, so why don't you check it out, too? Thanks for stopping by!

Retro Sketches #6

What better way to say thank you for an Easter present than with a Carrot card?? Check out these cute Paper Smooches carrots I used on this week's Retro Sketches challenge:

Here's the sketch from this week, and how cool that it is from my blogging friend, Lynn, who I actually met at last year's PTI Stamp-a-Faire!

The sentiment is also from PS, and the banner die is from PTI. The patterned paper is from K&Co. and the cardstock from PTI. The twine is two different colors from The Twinery.

Hope you had a good start to your week :)

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter, everyone! I hope that the Easter bunny filled your baskets full of crafty goodies...and a chocolate bunny for good measure :) I hope you are getting to spend time with families and enjoying delicious food. Here's a look at the Easter cards I created for my girlfriends...using Paper Smooches, of course :)

I designed and made 8 of these cards in an hour...a record for me! I now know that Clean and Simple is the way to go when creating multiples ;) I paper pieced the chick with some SU DSP and used Copics to color in the beak and feet.

The chick and sentiment are both from PS Chubby Chums, the patterned paper is all from SU DSP, the half & half die and cardstock are from PTI and the twine is from the Twinery. The corduroy button is from SU.

Here's a look at the group of them before I mailed them out :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Retro Sketches #5

I've been on a roll with Paper Smooches Stamps on Retro Sketches Challenges, so I figured why stop now? Here's my newest card for Retro Sketches:

Here's the sketch for this week:

I used Paper Smooches Metropolis stamps on this card (cityscape, fireworks, cab, sentiment, road, traffic light) SU patterned paper, PTI ribbon, button, and cardstock.

There's still time to play along, so go check it out yourself, here. Thanks for stopping by!

Make It Monday #59

This week's Make it Monday challenge was to use Computer Generated Sentiments on Diecuts. You should definitely watch the video, I don't know why I never thought of Erin's technique using the negative from the die for perfect cutting placement! I'll definitely be going back to that in the future. Here is the Easter card I created:

And the computer generated sentiment on the jar label die:

So I used Mega Mat Stack #3 and Layerz Mat Stack #3. I used Aqua Mist Gingham paper, Spring Moss, and Harvest Gold paper (and saddle stitched ribbon).

The jar is from the Friendship Jar set and the bunny is from the Spring Fillers set. The grass punch is from Martha Stewart and the pinking border die is from PTI.