Crafty Steels is looking for new fans on their facebook.  They are at 19,000 now and will be giving away 20 CraftySteals.com totes filled with all kinds of awesome supplies.  Head over there now and become a fan.

It's Another Sketch!

This is the sketch to follow for this weeks challange at Scrap Tiffany.

And this is the card that I created for this sketch.

Beautiful, Beauty, Beauties

What does beauty mean to you? Beauty is the theme for today at Scrap Tiffany. I think of a butterfly when I think of beauty. The changes it goes through to become the beauty it will be. So colorful and graceful in it's mature body.

The butterfly is cut from the Tim Holtz Die, Fanciful Flight. I embossed the lacy out side layer to give it some more dimention. On the body I used black puff paint and added just a pinch of gold glitter. I tore the three sides of the front cover in all layers. The inside of the card was covered with the darker patterend paper so that it would show through when the card is closed which added to the lacy layers.

"A Beautiful Life" is a sticker that I put onto chipboard to give it more strength and dimention.

Visit Scrap Tiffany and see what the other design team members have created to express "Beauty" to them.

Sports.......that means baseball around here!

I picked up this stamp set at an Angel Company home party.  I have a grandson and a granddaughter that have played ball and another grandson that will start his first year of T-Ball this year.  This set really caught my eye because it had both girls and boys.  I colored the image with Copic markers with help from my grandson, Nolan, on what colors everything should be.  I made the baseball by sewing the stitching on (not a very good baseball stitcher) and then gluing the cardstock circle onto chipboard.  I then added Diamond Glaze on top and let it dry overnight.

I found this ribbon at JoAnn's the other day and it was just perfect for this card.  I don't know any little boy or girl that after playing sports isn't a little dirty so I just had to add a little distressing ink to the image and also on the ribbon.

Join us at Scrap Tiffany and see what you can come up with using Sports for the theme.  I've already seen some of the other design teams projects and they are great.  Check them out at Scrap Tiffany.

What.....snow in Longview?

 We got a little bit of snow last night but it had all melted by noon.  Then, around 2:30, more snow rolled in and kept coming down for around three hours.  Kia is not a snow dog!  He said it was way too cold outside for his little feet.

A little snow doean't keep the birds away.  It may have piled up on the bottom  but they kept the top foot rests cleared off.

Metal and Wire and All My Love

I love adding the unexpected to a card and metal, wire and beads are things I always have on hand.  I have a lot to celebrate this week and this card was made for my husband.  He is my forever Valentine on the 14th.  Our anniversary is Feb. 15th and we are celebrating 13 years together.  To top it off, his birthday on Feb 17th.  Yes, he planned the wedding date so it was easy for him to remember.  Still, he can never remember how many years we have been married.  He finally framed the marriage license and hung it in our bedroom so he can quickly check it out.

I have always loved red and black together for a guys Valentine.  I used regular foil to frame the black card stock.  I had the grungeboard hearts in my stash and and ran them both through my Cuttlebug and then used red distress ink on them.  I then dipped the edges into black embossing powder to give them an edge that stands out a bit.  I wrapped the hearts with wire adding beads and twisted the wire. 

The bead letters make the sentiment for the card and the lower ones are framed in a metal frame held onto the card with heart brads.  I got the little silver metal hearts with a bundh of eyelets and brads at a garage sale last summer.  Even though it is a guys card I added lace to highlight the hearts so they stand out a little more.

Check out Scrap Tiffany for more inspiration when using Metal and Wire.

I love you, Jerry!  You are the best and my Forever Valentine.

Caribbean Cruise

Just returned last Sunday from a really great Caribbean Cruise.  It was 81 degrees every morning and only rose up to around 85 so the weather was perfect.  I totally froze on Monday all day.  I think I finally have gotten used to the 40/50 degrees here now.

St. Thomas was great and got a new David Yurman bracelet.  I really love his designs.

We went on a tour of the island of Antigua.

My mothers first cruise!!!  I think she really liked it.  She had a lot of fun with our waiter DeDe.  He was so funny.

This week has been tough.  My husband walks around the house looking for the buffet line and the Chocolate Melting Cake.  I don't know how I'm going to go from 12,000 calories to the normal 1,200 that I should be eating.  We are already looking into where we want to go next.  This was our second cruise to the E. Caribbean and I would go back again anytime. 

Following the Sketch

Design team member, Bev, with Scrap Tiffany gave us this sketch to follow for the month.  It is always a little challanging to use a scrapbook layout sketch and fit it all on to a card but I always love a challange.

And this is what I came up with using the above sketch

January 17th is my son, AJ's, 28th birthday.  For the life of me I can't figure out how he could possibly be that old.  This is his birthday card.  As everyone that follows my blog has probably figured out by now I'm not good at listing all the different papers and punches that I use.  I don't have a favorite manufacturer and I have never been a name dropper for anything.  I like the paper that fits my fancy at the time.  If I'm going to scraplift from someone else I'm not going to use the same paper they do anyway.

I hope AJ likes his card but he is a guy that will enjoy what is inside the card much more than the card itself.

Scraplift From A New Design Team Member

This is the card I used for my scraplift.  It was made by Brenda who is joining the Scrap Tiffany design team today.  I really liked everything she had going on with this card and I could make it into a birthday card for my step-daughter, Sarah, who has a birthday on January 31st.

I had this really great snowflake paper in this yummy tan and white.  I matched it with some cardstock in the same color and added a little Graphic 45 paper scallop.  The large snowflake I picked up a while back in Big Lots because it just looked like a great embellishment for a snowy card.  The other snowflakes I cut on my Cricut Expression.  On the small snowflake I put on gems with my iRock and then added some matching glitter.  For the embellishments in the upper right corner I dotted Stickles in brown and added the dew drops on top giving them a little glitter and brown color.

Thanks, Brenda, for a great card to scraplift! 

Goodbye 2010

This week we are saying goodbye to 2010 and ringing in 2011 at Scrap Tiffany.  This card design was scraplifted, but for the life of me I can't find out who the original designer was.  While I am blog hopping I like to save cards that catch my eye.  I have a file set up for "Cute Card Ideas" and in the beginning I didn't save any information with the picture.  I have changed that now and try to get the information saved so I can give credit to the original designer.

Along with the new year we are welcoming new additions to the Scrap Tiffany Design Team.  The designers that are serving another term are:

Sheri

                                                                              Kristi
                                                                              Michelle
                                                                              Katie
                                                                              Kay
                                                                              Jennifer
                                                                              Abby
                                                                              Norazah
                                                                              Summer

The new additions to the Scrap Tiffany design team are listed below with links to their blogs.  Visit all of the new designers and you will travel the world, France, Australia, Israel and all over the United States.

                                                                               Yolanda
                                                                               Rebecca
                                                                               Gaby
                                                                               Dale
                                                                               Brenda
                                                                               Christina
                                                                               Sophie
                                                                               Krischelle
                                                                               Yelena
                                                                               Alecia
                                                                               Bev
                                                                               Renee
                                                                               Danielle
                                                                               Wendi
                                                                                Kellie



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Boys, Boys, Boys, it's All About Boys!

 It's All About Boys at Scrap Tiffany this week.  My grandson will be five on January 26th and he loves Buzz Lightyear.  I think he will really be happy with his birthday card.  I found the stickers at Michaels the other day.

Girl Power

A fun card today celebrating "Girl Power".  Since I waited until the last minute to make this card it is a simple card but it still took some time to make.  I love the Zebra stripe paper and have used it mostly on girly cards.  I'm not sure where I'll find more of it because this was the last of it.

I cut the lettering from Cricut's Lyrical Letters which is one of my newer cartridges.  The exclimation mark is chipboard covered with the Zebra stripe paper.  I've had this felt flower in my stash for a long time and it just seemed to fit the card.