Kick up your heels birthday

I made this card about 10 days ago using I think a Sketch for You to Try Sketch (I don't remember anymore!) The boot is from an unreleased Squigglefly set called "Textile Fashion" and the sentiment from "Fashion Sentiments" both by Nina Brackett. The metallic dots at foil.

I have a journalism degree and in my youth I wanted to be a writer. This week I have an article due for Craft Critique and at work I'm drafting letters and writing some other stuff. I may go to an all picture format here on my blog to give myself a break!

My Girl

For this week's Squigglefly Challenge we need to use blue and green as the predominant colors. I chose "Kiss a Toad" by Angela Donato as my image. I was terrified of frogs and toads as a little girl so I give this little girl chops!

Have you read the Twilight books? I read the first and part of the second but I gave up. Every character in the story is either oblivious or obsessed. Plus the fact that the whole concept of werewolves and vampires is ridiculous too. I won't be renting the movies either ;)

"Oh how... different, Heather"

Meet Chirpy from Sunshine's Stamps. This week on the Sunshine's Stamps SNR group the challenge is to create a shaped (not square or rectangular) card. The design team was further challenged to use Chirpy on their card. I went for a hexagon (template created on a recycled cereal box using a compass) with a second hexagonal layer. I opted for very bold colors and the whole thing is a different type of look for me and I'm not sure it works and thus my title ;)

Surf's up birthday girl!

This card features a new image called Boogie Board Girl from Squigglefly, unfortunately she wasn't part of this week's release. Her brother/ boyfriend/ Ken want to be has been released- that image is Surfer Boy and was also drawn by Jackie Matthews.

The one thing I noticed about these images- especially Surfer Boy- is that the surfboard can easily be isolated and cut our separately and turned into a coffin for Halloween. (Remember, I am the one who has the cool holiday card ideas out of season!)

Join Squigglefly for some awesome fun! We're having a digital stamp fest the entire month of May, and for a limited time, you can pre-order all 31 new digital stamps for just $30. That's less than .99 cents an image!

• When Will My Items Be Delivered?
  On May 1st, everyone who has pre-ordered will be sent a link to download the first image of One-a-Day in May. You can use that same link to download your additional images. One new image will be added to your downloads every day in May.
• What Do I Get?
  You get the same great Squigglefly quality images you find in the store. Each day, you'll have a new image to download and play with!

Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs

As soon as I saw Coo Coo (Sunshine Stamps), I have been obsessed with creating a card that said "Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs"! I even bought some brown pom poms to be the Cocoa Puffs. Only my daughter needed them for her moose diorama, so I gave them to her, sacrificing mother that I am. Tonight I decided to make the card anyway.

I should have posted this last night but we had a minor medical malady yesterday. My daughter and I went on a playdate at a neighbor's house. Shortly after we arrived the kids had a jump off the swing contest and my daughter landed on her wrist. Long story short- we left and spent the afternoon at urgent care having it X-rayed. Thanks goodness it wasn't fractured, just a painful sprain.

On a happier note my husband returned from a business trip last night. On the way home he stopped at Trader Joe's and bought all of our favorites in multiples (4 boxes of cereal, 3 bottles of mustard, etc.) which should tide us over until we make another run there this summer. At one time we were lucky enough to live near one- fun, fun, fun!

Squigglefly Rewind

Welcome to Squigglefly Rewind- some of the Squigglefly design team has taken some classic (previously released) images, and used them to create some fresh new looks! Check out my sidebar for the blogs of my teammates.

For my casual, denim themed card, I used "Impatience comes to those who must wait", designed by company co-owner, Chesney Young. Wouldn't this be a perfect thinking of you card for an expectant mother or bride to be? I love this quote!

The sketch is from Splitcoaststampers (SCS277)- and is perfect for a quote!

Happy Birthday Kim

Kim Rhead, one of our Squigglefly DT leaders had a birthday yesterday and for our weekly challenge #45 she asked us to make pink birthday cards. Since pink is my favorite color it was incredibly easy to use "Cupcake Delight" from artist Diane Carubia. I added a bow and made a girl mouse!

Tomorrow the fun continues. We are having Squigglefly Rewind, featuring some the DT's favorite images used in new ways. The team's blog roll is in my sidebar.

And lastly, Craft Critique is having a giveaway. Leave a comment on the Eco Green Crafts vendor reviews for a chance to win a 10 color paint set. Eco Green Crafts was founded by Julia Andrus (sigh- love her work) and "All of Eco Green Crafts' paint, ink, and glue products are non-toxic, have low or no volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and are made without solvents or chemicals." Imagine- being able to paint and not have to worry about what you are breathing?

Welcome Spring (and doodles!)

This card uses Pretty Tulips a new Squigglefly image by artist Robin Willis. I LOVE tulips so as soon as I received the image this week I was excited for this release. Tulips and daisies are my favorite flowers. The doodling in the corners is for Squigglefly Challenge #44- Doodling. The team did some great projects this week.

For years I thought adding buttons to cards was the ultimate dorkdom. You would rarely catch me adding buttons to my cards (unless it was a DT challenge). Until a month or so ago when they had packages of plain white buttons on sale at JoAnn's... I bought some and realized how easy it is to color them with markers. Adhere with a mini glue dot and you're done!

And the excitement never ends- we are off to grocery shop! Later this afternoon we'll probably watch an episode of Emergency! (Season 6) on DVD. This is my husband's FAVORITE show of all time and it can be quite entertaining to see his "enthusiasm" as he watches. LOL

After the cows have been tipped or is that tipsy?

Happy Saturday! Today Squigglefly had a new release. The images in this card are actually an "Inside Outs" set released a few weeks ago by company co-owner Chesney Young. I love the open spaces in the images so you can add details to your sky or grass. The best part of the set is that you get both the outside and inside images for your card. No more blank emptiness when you open the card!

My daughter got new carpet installed in her room early today. My husband returned from his business trip to Denver late last night so I knew that the installers would arrive EARLY- and they did. My only regret is that I didn't bet money on it. I would have won a bundle!

You'll NEVER see a design team card like this EVER

How many design team card have you ever seen where the artist put a slash through the image? I'm trying to sell that pie image from Sunshine's Stamps and here I've stamped a "Just-Say-No" slash sign (gg designs) on top of it!

This is actually an encouragement card for a friend who is losing weight.

My husband is on a trip so I have had some extra time to read before bedtime. Monday I finished a Karen Kingsbury book, some weird novel about a chick in the witness protection program last night and this evening I read 1/2 of Melissa Gilbert's biography. Melissa played Laura on Little House on the Prairie (her brother played Willie Oleson!) and sadly she had a typical Hollywood childhood.

Sunshine's Stamps SNR Challenge #2

A confession- I'm behind, backlogged, overworked and understaffed, etc...

Seriously, we had a buy weekend and a few unexpected twists (the home of one of my husband's coworkers was damaged in a 2 alarm fire, I have a stomach virus and my husband surprised me with news that he was leaving on a business trip today). So... I was busy...

So onto the the challenge...

Sunshine's Stamps is sponsoring a challenge in their SNR group. The challenge is to create a birthday themed card which uses a fancy fold. The design team was further challenged to showcase the Happy Chick image. I love when we do this because I get so many ideas from my teammates. I opted for a simple gatefold card (I NEED a Scorpal so I can do some funky cool double pocket cards). Additionally, I wanted a more masculine style card so I used bolder striped cardstock and minimal embellishments.

OK who am I kidding- I ALWAYS use minimal embellishments- that is just me... I hate to hide my images under stuff... just my personal style... I don't wear a lot of jewelry and I don't like tons of knick knacks in my house... so that goes along with minimal frou frou on my cards.

Yesterday Squigglefly had a new release and you'll see artwork this week featuring some of the new images. (That is polite speak for me admitting I used image that haven't been released yet on the above card.) The dress is from the Textile Fashion collection and sentiment from Fashion Sentiments collection, all images created by artist Nina Brackett.

The sketch is Jen del Muro's weekly SFYTT. I love Jen's sketches because they are so clean and they really inspire me to create with them. I did alter Jen's sketch by putting my focal image in a rectangle rather than the circle.

I also have challenges for Squigglefly and Sunshine stamps that you will see soon.... really soon ;)

Banana Creme Pie

Happy Wednesday! Last week Christina, the owner of Sunshine's Stamps, asked the design team to pick a new image. I chose Pumpkin Pie Slice which was released at Thanksgiving. (This is why you don't want me on your design team- I pick out of season stamps as my inspiration!) Tonight I've made banana creme pie and also some strawberry pie (which you'll see soon.) I've kept it simple and added a sentiment from PTI.

It is good to be back after my brief blog-cation. I am trying to catch up leaving comment love.

Tomorrow night is open house at my daughter's school. Her class had to write reports on their favorite animal. I guess I don't have to tell you what animal she picked! I need to take a picture of the diorama that she created- she did such a good job. I "donated" some Stickles, pom poms and some other stuff for her forest. Last minute daughter actually got the project done Saturday and turned it in Monday- a full 24 hours EARLY. If you know my daughter this was an accomplishment. I won't mention that her father and I have been bugging her about the project for weeks. Beginning Friday we threatened to cancel our special Saturday evening movie night if she didn't begin diorama production Saturday morning. We love movie night as much as she does so we were really glad when she got her butt in gear. When her Dad took her to school Monday morning her teacher was impressed-- hope she gets an A. She also had to write a report. The description of the mating habits of moose was classic. I'll be posting a few choice excerpts when she gets her report back.

A few weeks ago I fell in love with some really cute dress images (Sew Fabulous) designed for Squigglefly by Nina Brackett. I was very excited to learn this week that Nina has now designed a whole wardrobe- including shoes and a set of accompanying sentiments. If you liked those dresses you NEED these sets too.

You can see the latest release HERE.

May I state for the record, that I colored the 3 PURPLE buttons, which came from the same pack, with the same purple metallic marker. Yet in the photo 2 of them appear blue. Ah the mysteries of digital photography! I used my SRX metallic markers which are PERFECT for coloring plastic stuff. I wish I had colored white plastic buttons with them when I wrote my review in January. But of course I discovered this later.

Have a wonderful Easter weekend. We are going to enjoy the sunshine today and a family dinner tomorrow.