• Fall Turquoise!

    Wow! It's late! I had intended all day to get a card made and a blog post done and here it is almost 11:00 at night! Why do Saturdays go by so quickly? Hmmmm. We were around the house today and I've been working on design team projects and generally hanging out in the craft studio. It's been a nice day. I just finished this card and wanted to share it right away! It has a twist for Fall….Turquoise! I never would have thought to use turquoise with all the Fall colors, but I was inspired by this fun patterned paper collection!

     

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    The papers are from Imaginisce! The orange is Pumpkin Pie from Stampin' Up and the turquoise is Hawaiian Shores from Papertrey Ink. Isn't this yummy together? No stamping on this project…I just used the paper!

     
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    I'm not a bow person…I was so psyched with how this one came out! It might be the best bow ever! Hahahaha. I used some brown Baker's twine and an orange button in the center.

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    I added a pretty little pennant in the corner. I cut circles out of the patterned paper…

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    I think this is just a happy, cheery card for the season!

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    Did you get crafty today? I hope you're having a nice weekend!

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  • Caramel Apples for Fall…

    Hi friends! Today I'm not posting a card…I'm posting some food fun! This past weekend I got a bee in my bonnet to make some fancy schmancy caramel apples. I was trying them out to see if they were something I could make to bring to work for Halloween. Well…before I get too deep into this post I will tell you two things. One, they were FREAKING delicious! Two, I will never be making them again! It was a total sticky, gooey, chocolately, caramely mess that took all day! I will have to think of some other treat to bring to work! Have you ever seen THESE?  A few years ago someone gave us some of these and they were the most decadent and yummy creations. So, Miss Wanda thought she could make them at home and save fifty bucks! I now know they are worth every penny! Okay, on to the food fun…

    You need nice pretty green granny smith apples, caramels, chocolate chips and mini chocolate chips. Sounds easy so far right?

     

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    Unwrap all the caramels (have the DH do this part) and put them in a pan with a tiny bit of water and melt them very slowly, stirring a lot! This part will turn into cement later!

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    It takes quite a long time to turn to molten lava…but be slow about it. If you burn it, the entire thing is ruined! I would say it took at least 10-15 minutes.

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    To dip the apples, I put them right into the pan on the stove and then used a spoon to spread the caramel over the apples. Be sure to let it run off for a while or you will get giant puddles of caramel on your wax paper. (This was my second attempt).

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    Put them in the fridge right away to chill the caramel and harden it. I left them in the fridge for about an hour and then double dipped them in caramel again. It seemed too thin with just one coat.  Put them back in the fridge for another hour….

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    Now the chocolate! Melt semi sweet or milk chocolate in the microwave on low – stirring a lot also. I dipped the apples right into the container and spooned the chocolate over them. Then put mini chocolate chips on the apples! YAY!

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    Then you put them back in the fridge for another couple of hours….

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    And then go and read a stamping magazine and take a nap…and wait to eat the yummy apples…. 

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    Finally! Here is the finished product all gussied up for my photo shoot! MMMMMMM…. They are not quite as shiny when they come out of the fridge. But that's okay.

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    And…about five seconds after this photo was taken, these pieces were GONE!  So delicious! If you have more patience than I do – you should try it!

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    What is your favorite Fall recipe? If you have one to share, leave me a link…I would love that! Have a wonderful weekend everyone! Thanks for stopping by my blog!
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  • A Simple Thank You…

    Hi! How are you? I hope you are having a fantastic week! Have you seen the full moon? Wowza. The moon has been huge here, and the sky is very colorful…making for some very spooky nights, and very pretty mornings. Mornings aren't really my dealio, but since I'm up anyway it's nice to see the pretty sky! Anyhoo…on to a card! Remember a couple of weeks back when my work laptop died and had to be brought back to life by the (super) nice IT guy? Well, I wanted to make him a card to go with a big batch of cookies. He's a guy, and I don't really know him that well, so I wanted to keep it simple. Here's what I came up with:

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    The leaf was stamped in a pretty bamboo green pigment ink and then stamped off a second time underneath the first image. That's all! I matched it to some nice bazzill cardstock in a matching color.

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    The leaf stamp is from Impression Obsession and the sentiment is from Hero Arts. I mounted the focal point paper onto a kraft card base and added some twine. The sentiment is stamped in brown for a more earthy feeling.

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    Here's a neato trick for putting any kind of twine, thread or thin ribbon – make a tiny half circle with your punch and then it will stay put!

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    And…now…I would like to unveil Mr. Buddy's 2011 Fall Portrait! I think he's looking quite debonair in this photo…don't you?

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    Have a wonderful day everyone! And, as always, thank you so much for stopping by here!  

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  • Never Forget…

    Hello Bloggy Friends. Today is a special day in our Nation's history, and of course the anniversary of  9-11 has been on my mind. Probably on your mind too. I thought it would be a good day to post some patriotic cards. I made them to share with the "Cards for the Troops" project that my friends and I support. I sat down to make them last week and focused on the meaning and the message. These are straight from the heart.

     

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    These Adirondack Inks are the perfect shades for vintage Americana. I bought that sentiment stamp from PSX in 2001. I wish they were still in business, don't you? The main stamp set I used is from Close To My Heart. It's such a great set!

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    The papers are from a neat paper collection that K & Company put out this year on 4th of July. The stickers and banner are from that same collection. I embossed the stars with a Cuttlebug Folder on some nice, crisp, blue Bazzill paper.  

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    Here's another card and this time I used some manilla tags and distressed them just a bit before putting on those cool letter stickers. Red, White and Blue forever – indeed!  

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    I love the Kraft paper with the Denim and Cranberry shades… 

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    I can hardly believe it's been ten years since 9-11. I remember that day so clearly…every detail. I'm sure we all do. Where I live it was 6:00am and I was getting ready for work and I had the news on the TV in our bedroom. I stood there transfixed for a while and saw the towers fall. Somehow, everyone showed up for work at my office. At the time there were about 100 people in my office. We just watched tv all day together in silence. Not one phone rang that day. No business was done. It just didn't matter.

    I feel like I became a different person on 9-11. More grateful for each morning, more grateful for each kiss goodbye from the hubs, more grateful to experience one more day in this crazy world. I think about it often actually. We were about to fly to Boston to get married on Cape Cod, and we went back and forth about whether or not to go or stay home. At first we weren't even sure if there would be any flights. We'd been planning for a year for our wedding and honeymoon. We decided to go, and what we found 3000 miles from home were Americans being kind and loving to one another. People helped us out and people were gentle and not so much in a hurry. Collectively it seemed we all were trying to process what had happened.

    It turned out to be a special trip. We were in the place where our country began – New England. Flags proudly flying everywhere. Flags on everything. There was so much pride. I remember the Post Office in Salem, Mass where there must have been at least 25 flags all flying together. Flags on cars, on boats, on buildings, on people… I hope that on this anniversary we can put forth that same spirit and love one another and our Country. So,today I say…United We Stand and God Bless America!

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  • Wishing you a beautiful Autumn!

    HELLO!! I'm back today with another Autumn card to share! I am really getting in the Fall spirit in the craft room! Trying to make lots of fun Fall projects before I make the switch over to Halloween stuff. Have you been "doing" Fall yet? I have everything all dumped out on the counter so I can see it…leaves and apples and acorns… Today's card is a punchy project with just a little stamping thrown in. I hope you like it! 

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    I started out by grabbing a few coordinating papers in a unified color scheme. Cherry Cobbler red from Stampin' Up is one of my favorite colors of all time and it's perfect for Fall. I cut out nine kraft circles to fit on a 5×5 inch square card. Then, I just got out the punches and made a bunch of images. I laid them out on my work table until I got just the right combination…then glued everything together. I edged the circles and the smaller images with a bit of distress ink too. 

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    The inside was stamped with the cool plaid stamp from Hero Arts.  

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    The sentiment is a favorite from Amuse stamps and I put it on a cool Nestabilities banner! I popped it up on some foam tape over the center.  

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    I hope you are having a beautiful Autumn so far!  

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  • Five!

    Hello there! I have been dying to share this card with you! It's a very special card I made for my friend Stephanie, who is the owner of Paper Garden here in Sac-town! On Saturday I posted about attending her Five Year Anniversary celebration, and today I'm posting the card I made for her to celebrate the occasion. This card was made with lots of love and it may be my most favorite-est card ever! I love how it came together exactly how I pictured it in my mind. It's spark-a-lay, pretty, and festive (and heavy) all at the same time! I hope you like it too.

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    I wanted a fresh and cheery color palette and I started with the pretty light green gingham. I like the pop of red with it – and I chose that because of the red buds in the patterned paper. Just a bit of red…not too much.  

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    The whole card idea started with that chipboad number 5. I put a layer of cream craft paint on it, and then FOUR layers of Martha Stewart Green Agate craft glitter! BLING! I needed something sturdy to mount it on. At first I just made the rosette. But then I kept adding layers and layers to it with my Nestabilities. Here's how it ended up…. 

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    The little pennant is easy-peasy to make. Cut a 1/2 inch strip of paper and glue it around a stick pin. Cut the ends like a flag! There you have it! I added a tiny butterfly punch later. The pins are from the sewing section at Michael's!

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    The Happy Anniversary sentiment is from an Amuse set that was from about five years ago. I love that stamp set. The paper with the sentiment is raised up on foam tape over the rest of the card.  

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    You just know I had to add some pearls to this, right? I mean, c'mon!  

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    YUM!  HAPPY ANNIVERSARY Stephanie and Paper Garden!

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    I have a little bit of news to share today too! One of my cards is in a magazine for the first time EVER! My Moka Taylor Z-fold card caught the eye of one of the editors of Papercraft Inspirations and they put it in their monthly feature about cards on blogs! How cool is that?? I'm so excited! The magazine is the largest card magazine in the UK. They sell it at Barnes and Noble but the October issue hasn't hit America yet! I'll be stalking it for sure. Yay!  

    Thank you for coming by my blog today! I hope you are having a fabulous week so far!

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  • Labor Day Weekend 2011

    Hi! Are you having a fun Labor Day Weekend!? I sure hope you are having fun in the sun with your friends and loved ones. We have been having a lovely weekend so far…so much so that I wanted to share with you! This post has a ton of pictures and some of this and some of that. I'll put the card pictures first in case that's what you came to see! I have some funny pictures of Buddy too – since I know his fans have been waiting for some new pix of that handsome devil! Thanks for coming by today. Here goes nothin'….

    This weekend was the Five Year Anniversary celebration of the Paper Garden Boutique and Dave Brethauer came back to see us in Sac-town to celebrate in style. I never miss a chance to hang out at PG or to take a class with Dave. Dave also designed a line of stamps just for the Paper Garden! That is very cool! I bought them…of course! Hee hee. Beautiful flowers and sayings…

    Whenever Dave comes to town,  I like to make him a card using his stamps…you know he is the owner/designer for Memory Box Stamps. His Autumn Collage image is a total favorite so I used that to make him this card:

     

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    I cut out the center of a piece of paper using my Nesties and then later mounted it over the top of a cream piece of cardstock with the stamped image. I think the tone on tone of the kraft helps keep it masculine.  

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    Here is the beautiful stamp. Instead of stamping in black, I used dark brown. I stamped a second image and colored the leaves to cut out to add on the outside of my frame.  

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    Colored pencils did the trick for this card… 

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    Here are three of the lovely ladies from Paper Garden! Chelsea, Stephanie and Kelly! They make me happy!  Aren't they beautiful?

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     Here's Dave in the classroom! A full house, as usual…

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    This is one of the cards we made in class… 

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     And here's another one…This is one of the flower images he designed for the store…

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    Okay…so you thought my day was over??? After the festivites at Paper Garden, we drove to the bay area to watch the opening game of College Football Season! YAYAYAYAYAY! I am a die hard fan for my school and we go to games whenever we can. This year, our stadium is being renovated. The old girl was built in 1921 and she needed retro-fitting and updating. This is how she currently looks:  

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    Well, as you can see, ain't no football happening there this year! Yikes! So, all of our games are being played in San Francisco. The game yesterday was played at Candlestick Park (home of the 49ers). It was weird to see the stadium all painted for us instead of the 49ers! I've been to a million games there before, but never like this! Ha. It was a gorgeous day for opening the season!  

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    This made the trip even better! At least for right now, we are undefeated! We win some and we lose more, but I love my Bears no matter what. Great start to the season!

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    We had planned to stop on the way home and take night pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge and the city. It was SOOOO foggy that you couldn't even SEE the bridge! We'll have to save that for another time. We did manage to take a few pix of the Palace of Fine Arts though. It was gorgeous at night!  

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    Today was time for Mr. Buddy to have a bath and a comb-out. Kind of a kitty spa day if you will. He got his nails trimmed and then a lovely warm bath, followed by a warm towel, a style, and a nap in the sun. I thought it would be fun to share some comparison pictures with you guys! Okay, so here's Buddy in 2007 in our kitchen sink…. 

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    And here's Buddy today in our kitchen sink! OMG.  

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    2007….. 

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    Today! I would say he grew just a bit! Um, yeah, like 17 pounds!!!! He's not really mad, just cold. But, we put the towels in the dryer for him so he can be toasty when he gets out.

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    I hope you enjoy the rest of your long weekend! HUGS!  

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  • It’s the most wonderful time of the year!

    Hi everybody! Happy Labor Day Weekend! I bet you're looking at my blog post title and thinking "that girl has lost her mind, it's not Christmas!" Well, for me, Fall is the most wonderful time of the year! I LOVE IT! Everything about it! So, September 1st, you don't have to tell me twice to get in the mood. Pumpkins, leaves, cooler evenings, apples, sweaters, college football, Thanksgiving….YAY! So, as of today, I'm switching over to sharing Fall projects. and…a Fall blog banner! I took that photo on our honeymoon! Are you a Fall person?

    Today's card has been rolling around in my head for some time now. Ever since I saw THIS AMAZING CARD on the cover of Cards Magazine a while back – June I think. Did you see this card? Ooh la la. I pinned it to my card inspirations board over at Pinterest and have been wanting to make my own version. Welp, today's that day! I knew that I wanted to make a sunflower in shades of gold and yellow for more of that Autumn feel. I ended up cutting out a bazillion (technical crafty term) petals and then I made a few variations of the same concept.

    Here's the first one…I stitched the edges of this one and the circle in the center is smaller than the other ones. Some gorgeous chocolate brown ribbon too…

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    This is how it started….All my yellow scraps and my Cuttlebug…

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    Um, yeah, I cut them out ONE At A TIME! I think I got some sort of repetitive motion injury! Just kidding! It took a while, though.

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    A pile o' petals!

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    I tried laying them out all different ways to see how it would look best.

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    After I made the first one, I decided that the center needed to be larger – like a sunflower. After I cut out the center from Kraft, I used distress ink and the cool Hero Arts Plaid background stamp to add some interest.

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    Here is the version most like the inspiration card!

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    Which version do you like best? I'm still deciding! What a fun project! I hope you are doing lots of fun things this first weekend of Fall! Have a wonderful day. Thanks for coming by to see me. More Fall projects to come…

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  • Taylored Expressions September Release Day!

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    TE Release Day! 

    • All of the new products are now available for purchase! Check out the Fresh Out of the Oven Department for all the goodies!
    • More projects from the Baker's Dozen to inspire you. Just follow the link list below!
    • FREE Party Favor with every order! Every order placed between Thursday, September 1st at 8 am PST and Monday, September 5th at 10 pm PST will receive a FREE Party Favor ranging in value from $2.50 – $10.00. These are all fun products from the TE Store. We'll chose a favor for you based on the amount of your order. If your order total is over $100 (before shipping and tax) you will also receive the Sweet Party Petite stamp set as our FREE gift to you! The set will NOT appear on your order, but we promise to include it in your shipment!
    • One more chance to win… head on over to our forum on SCS and tell us your favorite stamp set from this release. We'll be choosing one person to win their favorite set FREE! You have until Sunday, September 4th at 6 pm PST to enter to win.

     

    Here's my card to share for today! I used the amazingly fun Build a Treats Borders stamps again and this time I made a nice big ice cream cone! There are so many fun things to do with this set! I love mint chocolate chip ice cream and that's what inspired my color choices.

     

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    Can you see that I used the super cool Musical Swirls TE Impression plate to emboss my background kraft cardstock? It feels very ice cream shop-y to me! I added a pretty pink rhinestone cherry to the top of that cone!

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    The Build A Treat & Build Borders set was concepted by our very own Sankari Wegman!  I gave lots of details about this set and the matching dies on Monday's post. Better yet…pop on over to the Taylored Expressions Store and check 'em all out! (After you finish reading my post of course!) hahaha.

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    LOVING the new 6 x 6 paper packs from My Mind's Eye Lost and Found 2 Collection. They come in four yummy colors and I used the "Rosy" color pad for my card today. These 6×6 packs are perfect for us card makers. Taylor ordered all of them – so you're sure to find one in your favorite color.

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    Now, the stamps come in a border, but that doesn't mean you have to use them that way! I inked and stamped one of the cones and then stamped a bunch of scoops. I made the top one different for effect. I can think of a million ways to use these products. 

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    As always, it's been a pleasure to hang out with you this week and share the new products with you. It's always a fun time and a whirlwind of activity! Now, get to shopping! :-) Don't forget to scope out more ideas in the TE Gallery. You can search by stamp set or designer!

    Thank you so very much for joining in the fun this week with the Taylored Expressions Release! Here are the links to the rest of the projects for today:  

  • Taylored Expressions September Sneak Peeks Day 3!

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    September Birthday Bash and Release

    • At Taylored Expressions we are celebrating our 3rd Birthday and you are invited to our Birthday Bash!
    • Sneak peeks Monday through Wednesday – lots of fun eye candy and
      inspiration!
    • All of the new products will be available for purchase on Thursday,
      September 1st at 8 am PST      . You'll find it all in the Fresh out of the Oven Department at the Taylored Expressions Store.
    • Every order placed Thursday – Monday will include a FREE Party Favor.
    • To celebrate our 3rd Birthday, you have 3 WAYS TO WIN!

    1. Help Spread the Word! Grab our Birthday Badge from Taylor's
    blog and post it on your blog for the week. Then come back
    and leave a comment with a link to your blog to let us know you're
    spreading the word. You will be entered into a drawing for a $25 TE gift
    certificate.

    2. Join us on Facebook for an early reveal of all the new stamp
    sets Wednesday night beginning at approximately 6 pm PST. You will have until 8pm PST that night to comment to enter to win each new set.

    3. Join us in our SCS Forum for a contest that will begin Thursday morning.
    In the meantime you can see Baker's Dozen sneak peeks there and chat with us!

    Hellooooooo friends! How have you been enjoying Sneak Peeks Week so far? I hope you've been having fun with us! Today I have my second Halloween Project to share. I used the new Spooky A La Carte Stamp to make a cool card with lime green! The bats and the Happy Halloween sentiment are from the Moka Tabitha set.  

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    I colored my image in with a few shades of cool grey Copic tones and then added the hint of lime green to keep it creepy. I love this color green! I found some matching lime green blings too!  

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    I cut out my main image with a Nestability and then used grey ink to make a border inside, next to the words.  

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    Are you LOVING that Impression plate? This is the other side – Spiderwebs! Pure Halloween awesomeness! This is one of my favorite new toys!  Here's a close up for you!

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    Spooky A la Carte is a single stamp. There are lots of new Word A la Cartes this month and the are all designed for the Whimsical Wishes stamp line by Nancy McKinney. Great for cards, scrapbooking, seasonal home decor and more! 

    Moka Tabitha – for all the Halloween fans, it just doesn’t get cuter than this gal! Moka line by Nancy McKinney. Petite Stamp sets come on a 3" x 5.5" full color sturdy storage panel – this set has 5 images/sentiments. I used the bat and the saying from this set today! 

    Okay, we're getting close to Release Day! Please go hop around and see what everyone else has to share with you today!