Another Sneaky Peeky from High Hopes Stamps!

More Kitties!!!

This adorable new stamp coming soon from High Hopes stamps is called Cat Trio. I coloured these cuties up to match my paper and to give them a 'folky' feel. I'm not exactly sure why I coloured my bird green with a blue beak- it was supposed to be the other way around but I like how my mistake looks in the finished product!

We have lots more cute cards to share today leading up to our new release hop on Friday. Click here to go to the HHS challenge blog to see more eye candy! While you are there don't forget to read more about our Design Team call- we are looking for more talented ladies to join us!

Cheers! Andrea

Unity and Webster's Page- A match made in Girly Heaven...

(please scroll down for my High Hopes Stamps new release post)

Unity and Webster's Pages

Girl Land

umm....swoon!

This girly-girl is in HEAVEN!!

and I will be in Heaven even more so when my stamps and papers arrive from this special partnering.....

Ink will fly

To celebrate this amazing release Unity and Webster's pages both have give-aways on their blog. 

Two chances to win!

To enter you just need to go to:

the Unity Blog

Webster's Pages Blog

and leave comments on each. 

That's it!

On the Unity blog today through Friday you will be able to see some gorgeous DT creations using this lush paper and the must have Unity stamps to go along with them. 

Do you want to see the stamps? Of course you do! I have posted 2 of them below and to see the rest just pop on over to the Unity blog!

Enjoy!

High Hopes Stamps Challenge and Day 1 of sneak peeks!

Lots of exciting things happening today at this little blog of mine! First thing to share is our new challenge over at the HHS challenge blog- Anything goes! Gotta love nice and easy ones like that. I know I do lol!

And not only do we have a nice and easy challenge for you to play along with but it is also Day 1 of sneak peeks for our June release!!! I love having sneaky peeky's to share. 

I am a huge fan of kitty stamps- huge. I collect them along with tea stamps. Cats and tea stamps- yep I see a crazy cat lady in my future lol! This release has new kitty stamps and I am over the moon! 

For my card today I used Kitty Tag and Pocket 3. I had actually coloured the pocket originally and then when I went to put my card together I decided I wanted to paper piece it instead and I love how it turned out! After colouring up Felix (my name for him) and adding him to my pocket I found this charm that actually was included in an order from our very own Lacey. I think I need to get some more from her ;).

Hop on over to the HHS challenge blog today to see more sneak peeks and our challenge details. And also see Monday's post about our Design Team call! Click here to read more about that. I encourage you all to apply- it is such a great team to be on! 

Have a great day! Andrea

C4C - One layer cards - Yikes!!!

First- sorry my blog didn't post this yesterday. I guess Blogger was enjoying the sun or needed more caffeine lol!

Barb for her last challenge of the month over at C4C had us all freaking out- create a one layer card. So that is basically just a card base. My word is that hard for me! As I sat at my craft table throwing out project after project I wondered how this was so challenging when after all when I started cardmaking years ago with Stampin' Up I did one layer cards all the time!!!! I guess I have come to rely on pretty layers. Now in fairness you can add embellishments- just no more paper. 

Here are my attempts that I felt were up to sharing hee hee! I embossed my first one with a cool frame and stamped a lovely lady inside of it that I just received from Michele Boyer- I love her!!! I dug out my pan pastels and added a touch of colour to her eyes, lips and cheeks. I actually really like the retro look on this one. Reminds me of my Aunt's barbie collection I used to play with when I was little when it was all white, black and pink. 

My second card also uses stamps from Michele- love them too!- and with my love of hot drinks this one was easier to do. I added some gingham ribbon I recently bought while on a shopping trip with my friends Anja and Bella. I hope Anja likes the look of this ribbon because I convinced her she needed to buy many rolls of it in different colours hee hee!!

So what do you think? What to give it a try along with us over at Crazy for Challenges? It is nice to keep things CAS once in awhile!

Color Me Creative Blog hop with Saturated Canary!

Welcome to a special Color Me Creative Challenge Blog Hop!

 The Design Team has put together some fabulous creations using Saturated Canary’s  digital images to kick-start the CMC Summer Sale! 

Starting May 25th thru August 24th all CMC Classes will be on sale and bundled classes will be on special too...see the CMC Classroom for more details! It’s a fabulous time to take advantage of classes and once you sign up you get a full year in each of the classes you register for...but you can also buy them now and SAVE them to start this fall...you 1 year term does not start until you sign into a class.

We hope you hop along with the CMC DT today to see all the fabulous creations and be inspired! If you leave comments along the way on the DT blogs you will be entered to win some fabulous prizes including a Free CMC Copic Online Class, a $20 Gift Certificate to SCACD and a $20 Gift Certificate to 7 Kids College Fund! We hope you enjoy the hop and thank you for joining us today. Be sure to stop over and check out all the classes offered at CMC! 

If you are already hopping along you would have arrived from Suzanne's blog. Here is my creation for the hop:

I received the gorgeous Whispy image and I am head over heels in love with her sweetness. I used the colour combo of pink and green and of course she needed beautiful red hair to set off her outfit! I kept my card design simple to keep the focus on the image. I did use the current sketch at Jen Delmuro's blog- I {heart} to stamp. Thanks for the sketch inspiration Jen! My finishing touch was to add lots and lots of glitter. I seriously couldn't stop ha ha!! 

Now for more Saturated Canary inspiration hop on over to Shelby's blog to see what she has created today!

Happy Hopping!! Andi

C4C- Happy Birthday Barbara!!!

All the crazies over at the Crazy 4 Challenges blog want to wish our very own super talented Barbara a very happy birthday! We would actually love it if you would help us make her day special by joining us in this week's challenge- make a birthday card. We even have a great sponsor to give away a prize to one of our lucky players- Your Next Stamp. Fun!

I made an easel card using an older High Hopes image and challenged myself to only use scraps of patterned paper as my card size is so small -  4" square. I then got lost oohing and aahing over all the lovely paper I had forgotten about in my stash but kept the last 7 years. So happy I packed it up and moved it with me instead of getting rid of it. My hubby wasn't as happy while moving it..I should obviously show him how lovely this card turned out and he will clearly agree that it was all worth it. lol!!

I hope you can join us this week and I also hope Barbara has an AMAZINGLY AWESOMESAUCE birthday!!! Click here to go to the blog and see all the eye candy to inspire you!

Cheers, Andrea

Gilli Challenge- Embossing

Today it's my turn to play along with our current challenge- Embossing! I still had Gilli's house on my craft table from the last challenge (that tells you the state of my craft room hee hee) and I got this sweet and simple card idea as soon as I picked it up!

I tried this card idea on a A2 size card (4.25x5.50) but it didn't work at all. Something seemed off and I realized that with the shape of Gilli's house she needed a square card- with rounded corners obviously ;). It worked perfectly!

When using embossing powder it is important to prime your paper first so that you don't have a million little bits of  your embossing powder everywhere to take away from the clean look of the card. I used a little pouch called an embossing buddy and wiped it all over my card. Be warned if you are using coloured cardstock it can leave a white powdery film on your paper so use a gentle touch. This eliminates the static of the paper and releases the embossing powder except where you want it to stay. For my ink I prefer to use Versamark watermark ink in clear. I ink up my stamp and firmly press it to the paper. I then used some detail embossing powder and pour it over my paper. Don't worry about how much you use as you can pour almost all of it back into your container. When you pick up your card the powder should only stay where you have put the ink. I give a light tap to my paper to further release any random bits that may be trying to sneak onto my card. You take your embossing gun to heat the powder and then watch the magic happen! All these years and I still enjoy watching that powder melt lol!

I added a sentiment as this card is intended for someone moving into their new home- it certainly would be a special day! I added a touch of ribbon and then whimsy hit me and I cut out some cloud shapes. I ran it through my Xyron sticker maker to add adhesive then I added white fluff and glitter to my clouds to make it pop out from the white card base. 

To play along with our current challenge click here to go to the House of Gilli blog and join us! You don't have to use a Gilli stamp to qualify and if you win you will get some Gilli goodies of your own! Good luck!

Cheers- Andrea

CMC current challenge - Anything goes!

The current challenge over at the CMC challenge group is 'Anything goes!'. How fun and easy is that! And our sponsor is the oh so cool 'Some Odd Girl' stamps so you can win some whimsical stamps just for doing anything you want on your card. Well you do have to colour with alcohol based markers but other than that it is pretty open. Click here to read all the deets and see the amazing samples by the DT for inspiration. These ladies are so talented!

My card today is actually featuring a much loved image that I coloured with Suzanne's tutelage. I love love love how she turned out! Suzanne loves to push me out of my comfort zone and try different things with my markers. So fun! I made this card bright and cheery just like Suzanne. Not that I am sending it to her- forget that! It is going in my sample book hee hee!!!

Are you like me and love to colour images but forget to use them on your creations? Why not dig them out and use them like I did today! Now you have a full card to show off hee hee!

Cheers, Andrea

CMC- Love this stamp from Spesch Images!

Spesch stamps sponsored a challenge over at the Color Me Creative website and we got to choose an image to play with. I chose this cute called Loves me Not in the Stamps by Sylvia category. 

I coloured her up with my copics (of course) and tried a few different colour combos before this one turned out the best. It was actually a combo given by a fellow DT member and I am so grateful she shared it cause it is perfect! Sadly...I didn't write it down. Doh!!!! I will have to fiddle around with my copics till I remember which ones it was. Sigh! I always think- 'that's brilliant- I will remember that'...and I don't. Yet I fool myself time and time again hee hee. 

I will be posting another card tomorrow for the current CMC challenge which is anything goes! So basically anything you colour with alcohol based markers is good to go! Click here to check out the deets on how to share your creation with us! 

Cheers, Andi

Crazy 4 Challenges- photo inspiration

Today we have a photo inspiration for your creations over at the Crazy 4 Challenges blog. You can take anything you want from the photo- circles, the colours, a 'country' vibe...where ever your creativity flows!

I decided to pick up on the circle elements of the card and used one of my Sizzix dies to create my card base. I then used one of my circle spellbinders to give me a circle to work within to help with my button placement. I wanted them in a rough circle and the spellbinder really helped to keep the form I needed. 

I hope you find some creative inspiration in our photo today. And don't forget to pop over and see the amazing different directions the DT took from the photo. Also please join us in wishing Lynda farewell as she spends more time with her family and a warm welcome to the newest Crazy Betty White!!

Cheers, Andrea 

HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT! I can't believe it but....

I'm a Unity girl. 

did I just write that...wow...

it's true- look at my watermark in the bottom left corner of my photo.

Wow. 

For any of you who read my blog my love of Unity stamps comes as no surprise as I do mention it frequently lol! I found them online 4 years ago and fell head over heels for their stamps and the people behind the scenes. In all this time they have remained at the very top of my list of favourite stamp companies. With all the different styles for stampers and scrapbookers you could always find something that made you instantly think of so many projects you could create with that image. For me- our love at first sight started with the Quote bundle pack.  I got those stamps and immediately I was impressed by the quality of the rubber and the etched image. 

I can't even tell you how many of their stamps I own...a thousand? I'm not even sure I am exaggerating lol!!!! I would count them but some things are better left unknown hee hee. At least for my hubby's sake ;). As for the Unity peeps...well...they are so amazing, sweet and helpful that it just makes the fact that they keep sharing beautiful creations just the icing on the cake. I even have a Unity tshirt that I wear all the time. Hmmm...I am feeling a bit like an obsessed fan or a stalker admitting to all of this lol! Good thing I am harmless. 

Okay...I just deleted 3 paragraphs of me gushing and rambling. Let's just say I could throw up and cry at the same time right now. In a good way. 

In other news...

Today is NSD!!! Yep it is National Scrapbooking Day!! And shockingly I scrapbooked in honour of it! It has been years since I made a page and it was fun! I used some great word stamps from the Unity April SMAK kit and a fantastic sketch by the talented Angie Blom. You can use this sketch and play along with Unity today while you celebrate NSD hopefully with some craft time. To read more about the sketch and deets click here to go to the Unity blog. 

And the sale....Unity sure does know how to do a sale to make it hard to say no to some new rubber:

Phew....I feel so much better since I got to actually share this huge secret. Thanks for reading my rambles today and Happy National Scrapbook Day!!

Hope your weekend is fabulous!

Cheers, Andrea 

C4C- Saturday Challenge time!

This week's challenge at Crazy 4 Challenges is to have your creation reflect gardening or the outdoors. I took the add flowered paper and flowers route as they made me think of pretty Spring gardens. This challenge is so fun because really- the only limit here is your imagination! You can do gardening stamps, flower stamps, fishing or boating stamps or stickers, etc. 

I used a stamp from Kaiser Craft which could be about anything. Birthdays, job promotions, wedding days, you get the idea. I love having 'generic' cards on hand because I am always realizing 10 mins before I have to go somewhere that perhaps a card is needed. I added some new paper from Prima that is just stunning! It has lush colours in its flower pattern. Love love love it! This card really pulled itself together and I think I may have to use this design again!

I hope you can play along with us this week over at Crazy for Challenges and help us bring the outdoors to your crafty creations!

Cheers, Andrea

Color Me Creative DT wants to wish Suzanne Dean a Happy Birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUZANNE!!!

SURPRISE!!

The Color Me Creative Design Team has a secret!!!  Today we are hopping along to wish our fearless leader, Suzanne Dean, a VERY happy birthday!!!  Suzanne is the owner/creator of the Color Me Creative site and, as many of you know, teaches her Copic classes online and on the road!  She is one busy momma and we thought we'd take time to wish her a happy day and hope she gets to sit with her Cherry Coke and donuts (ya, a fav combination of hers!) and relax a bit today and enjoy the hop!

Each of us decided it would be fun to remember Suzanne today in "typical Suzanne" style!  Our creations will either help remember a "funny travel moment" with Suzanne or... share a secret about Suzanne.  Ha!!!  Bet she didn't see this coming!!! LOL 

Here is what I created today....

My card for this special hop features an image we received from a challenge sponsor- I brake for Stamps- from their humorous seniors line. They are hilarious! And some are a bit scary tee hee. I chose this image because Suzanne loves Zebras and these pants are hilarious! Also because Suzanne is full of life and fun just like this ole gal. I did NOT choose this image to tell Suzanne that she is getting old..no way! The main reason being is that she is a few years younger than me so there is no way I would tell her she is getting old..cause this girl sure isn't lol! I also added lots of bling because she sparkles too. 

I met Suzanne 'online' on a DT before I met her in person. And both ways confirmed my overall impression- she rocks. Yep- totally. We met in person for the first time at CHA a few years back and immediately bonded over the fact we had daughters around the same age that were going through interesting mood swings. And we were scared together hee hee. I think we were hugging and crying within minutes of swapping teen hormone war stories. **Edited to add that of course our girls are absolute sweethearts now. Especially if they are reading this ;) **

One of the biggest things I admire about Suzanne is how she knows how to live life to the fullest! Rarely..and I mean rarely does a week go by where she isn't travelling somewhere! It doesn't even phase me anymore when she says she is jetting off to somewhere awesome. I have even stopped asking for a present each time! Last year she  even came to my neck of the woods and I joined her and some mutual friends for dinner at a small town restaurant. The night was spent laughing non stop! We may not be allowed back to that same place after the ruckus we caused hee hee! Suzanne has a dry quick wit that keeps me in stitches. In fact I laughed so much that night I was sweating. Seriously! She laughed at me...I laughed at her...and we both laughed at Sheila (our friend who may or may not have been drinking). Even with all the challenges life has given Suzanne she demonstrates how to pick yourself up and move forward and embrace the adventure to the fullest. She is not only a hilarious fun person but also an amazing motivational speaker. Attend one of her classes and you know exactly what I am talking about. She really is one in a million. Which honestly- Thank God for that because that girl has the most bizarre things happen to one person on every one of her trips lol!!!! 

Okay, enough from me. Love you Suzanne and HAPPY BIRTHDAY! 

Now hop on over to the rest of the DT's sites to see what they are sharing about Suzanne.  ;-)

Tina Gilliland

Brook Guinn

Anary Baumgarth

Melanie LaBelle

Marie Gamber

Ruby McGuire

Pat St. Martin

Jenn Cochran

Michele Spera

Sandie Dunne

Dana Joy

Steph Lee

Suzanne Foard

Andi Murdock (Me!)

Shelby Goolsby

Renkata Pacheva

High hopes stamps challenge- We are getting wild with Animals!

Everybody loves MARINELAND!

I not sure how many of you hear the Marineland commercial over and over again all Summer long but we sure do here in Ontario. I don't think there are many Ontarions who do NOT know the lyrics to that commercial. I don't think it has changed in years. And I love it hee hee. And when the last line is being sung on the tv we all shout it out at the top of our lungs in this house. Not sure why...just cause it makes us laugh. Just like this card- I mean look at that happy whale. He obviously just ate a lot of Plankton or something. 

This week's HHS challenge is to go wild for Animals. I went with the wet kind myself and used this oldie but a goodie- Spoutin' Off. I even spent 20 mins digging through my craft clutter to find my old white puffy pen so that I could froth up the water spouting out of his blowhole. He is so worth it. 

What HHS animal stamp do you have in your collection that you go wild for? Come play along with us at the HHS challenge blog and you could win some free rubber! 

Off to do more crafting today so that's all from me!

Cheers- Andrea