Lolly

Hello All,

This past October, our beloved boxer Denny passed away from stomach cancer.  It has been difficult to adjust without him; he was the sweetest, most gentle, easy-going, and well-behaved dog we have ever had.  He was smart and eager to learn but he could be equally goofy and would make us laugh with his antics.  Despite his circumstances, he always wanted to be beside us.  Dan and I miss him terribly.   I'm not sure I will get another dog but I know I'll never have another Denny. 

In March, my sister mentioned she was fostering a cat that was at least part Himalayan.  The rescue she volunteers for had brought in several outdoor cats to be neutered/spayed and when she saw this gorgeous girl, she brought her home to foster.  This is the picture my sister sent me.

I showed the picture to Dan and we started talking about the possibility of adopting her.   Ultimately, our hearts were ready.  We adopted Lolly on April 19, 2019.  She is the sweetest, most gentle, easy-going cat I have ever had.  She is delightfully curious and actually comes to me when I call her name!  This is her first picture in her forever home:

Those eyes!  She gets along with everybody.  She uses her paws to pat my hand so I'll pet her --it is the sweetest gesture and melts my heart every. single. time. 

Lolly, just chilling (and cuddling) while we watch Netflix!

Our vet said overall she is in good health, is probably 3 or 4 years of age, and she's already had a litter of kittens.  Sweet girl; I wish she could tell me what she's been through.  She did have to be treated for infections in both her ears and she has crystals in her urine.  Luckily, she does not have bladder stones and the crystals can be dissolved with a special diet.  So far, she seems to like her prescription food and I'm keeping my fingers crossed she continues to eat it! 

She may or may not be a little spoiled ;)  But, for the joy she brought back to us, she deserves it.


   

Kraftin' Kimmie Release Day!

Woohoo! It's finally here!!

Today we are celebrating the spooky release of ALL of t Kraftin' Kimmie's NEW September
stamps!

ALL FOUR new sets are NOW available in the Krafty Shop!

So let's have a big happy hop around the design team blogs and check them all out in action! Grab a nice hot beverage, sit back and relax while you hop around and enjoy all the amazing creations!!

First up is GRIM GRETCHEN...

....then DEVILISH DEBORAH....

and ELECTRIC EVELYN!

Lastly we showed you the fabulous MINI MONSTERS yesterday!!! Eeeeee!

ALL the new sets are available now individually BUT if you HAVE to have it ALL, we also have our September Gimme Kimmies Kit which includes all FOUR of the new sets together and at a discount! But only for a limited time and while supplies last!

Happy hoppin' and happy shoppin!!

I am so excited to be a guest on this release!  Here are my cards featuring Grim Gretchen.

I couldn't resist making a scene card featuring this cute reaper as a trick-or-treater:

Can you imagine opening the door?  Ha ha ha - but don't worry:

and finally, I couldn't help but color her again with her matching gloves.

Your next stop is The Purple Hippo!

Witch Way Is the Candy?

Hello All!  When I first saw this sweet image, it had already been discontinued.  Even though I figured it was a long shot, I cannot tell you how many I checked eBay to see if anyone had listed her .  Of course, no such luck :(  But then, on my day off from work --which is a glorious occasion in itself LOL!--and as I was catching up on my blog reading list, I saw a post that My Favorite Things was going to re-release her!!!! (Witch Way is the Candy?)  I know had to be the first person to place my order - LOL!

I absolutely *love* her and the rest of the stamp set is pretty adorable too.   Here are the products and details for the card:
I used W7, W5, and W3 for the hat, cape, and boots and YR18, YR16, and YR12 for the dress.  Her hair and cat are colored with
C9, C7, and C5
Banner for the sentiment - Mama Elephant Tags A Lot  and that single sparkling clear little sequin is from Pretty Pink Posh
Little spider - Mama Elephant Bootastic.  He was stamped on black cardstock with Versamark ink and embossed with Ranger orange embossing powder
Buffalo Check printed paper - Authentique Bewitched
Candy Corn printed paper - American Crafts Bootiful Nights
Card Frame - Mama Elephant Madison Avenue
Card - Paper Trey Ink Cardstock

Yay! for the upcoming long weekend!  I'm planning to be in the craft room.  Whatever your plans, I hope you have a wonderful time :)

Unicorns and Pumpkins, Yes Please!

Summer is winding down and pretty soon the busy season will begin at work so I am enjoying playing with my Halloween and fall-themed stamps before the hustle and bustle.  I found these super cute Darcie's stamps with the neat tin pin embellies from Ellen Hutson and love they combine my favorite Halloween icon with my favorite mythical one!

I created the background using spiced marmalade and wilted violet Distress Oxide inks and a cloud stencil from My Favorite Things. The image was colored with copics and I love how the fluorescent copic makes the pumpkin's face glow!  The sentiment was embossed on a vellum cloud with purple embossing powder (even though it looks blue in the pic).

I used to stock up- and by stock up I mean hoard-bling but now I'm all about the sequins!  Here's my new favorite storage in my craft room:

Acrylic nail polish racks and bead storage containers make the most perfect sequin storage!  Oh and I found an acrylic cart at HomeGoods to organize my clear stamps:

With the help of a laminator and some letter stickers, I created my own dividers.  Full disclosure, I needed two of these carts to hold all the stamps and luckily, HomeGoods had another cart in a style close enough to this one to work!  I only had to revise my dividers a little to accommodate it.  You can see a little bit of it in the pic below but let's face it, the star of the show is my napping Lily!

Isn't she sooo cute!  I can forget about sharing the chair with her - she's totally claimed it.   She is my favorite!

Have a great weekend!

Shark Week!

In observance of one of my favorite summertime events - Shark Week! - I put together this cute pop-up box card to celebrate.  I am not certain how long Shark Week has been around but I was first introduced to it while vacationing with my sister and her family at the OBX in 2008.  One evening, after a glorious day of sun, sand and surf at the beach, we settled in for a little movie time.  When we switched on the TV, up popped the Discovery Channel's "SHARK WEEK!" ...and from that moment forward, a Shark Week fan was born :) Sharks are frightening and fascinating to this open-water phobe.   So watching hours of sharks sharks sharks - and sharks is the perfect way to reinforce all my irrational fears ;)  Thanks, Jaws - LOL! 

Here is the outside of the card:

when it pops open, here's what you see:

I used the Lawn Fawn Scallop Box Card Pop Up dies to create the card and then embellished it with Avery Elle Hello Chum, Lawn Fawn Duh Nuh (I love it just for the name - LOL!),  Neat and Tangled, and Hero Arts stamps.  The following elements came from Etsy shops:  sunny background paper digi paper from  Scrapbook Gems , the buoy and SHARK sentiment from  Emily Peterson Studio and the cute seagull digi is from Pattiescreations. The printed paper

I added dimension to the waves in the background as well as the splashes beneath the shark with Marvy Uchida snow pen.

Here's a look from the side.

Have a great week!

Lawn Fawn Magic Color Slider Die Card

I'm going to post a video and hopefully it works.

I made a card using the Lawn Fawn Magic Color Slider die and it turned out so cute!  

Here are the supplies I used:

Lawn Fawn Magic Slider die
Lawn Fawn Push Here stamp set
Love Cynthia Mermaid Kisses stamp set (color slider colored with copics)
My Favorite Things Mermazing stamp set
craft plastic
Staz On ink
Memento ink
Papertrey ink cardstock
assorted sequins

Have a great week!

Some Bunny

Hello All,

Easter is just around the corner so I'm sharing a card I made using the Close to My Heart stamp set of the month (I think February 2017), called Easter Bunny:

I *love* this little bunny!  I stamped her with Memento tuxedo black ink and colored her with copics.  Her Sunday-best dress is paper-pieced :)  The sentiment is from the stamp set as well. It's stamped with Versamark ink and heat embossed with Ranger white super fine embossing powder. The *gorgeous* digital paper is from the Etsy shop, Grepic.  It's called, "antique flowers."  I am obsessed with it!  The blush flowers look amazing with the Stampin' Up blush cardstock.  It's die cut with a Mama Elephant dies, the scalloped circle and frame from the All prettied up set.

The inside holds another sentiment from the stamp set and I fussy cut a few flowers from the digi paper:

The paper peony is from the Giant Flowers Cricut cartridge.  I have been playing around with them and this is one of the practice ones as I *finally* discovered -- after making half of dozen of them - if I doubled up on all the petal pieces, including the center, they are fuller and are actually quite pretty! Peonies are my favorite so the plan is for a whole bouquet of doubled-petaled ones.  They are just a tad time-consuming so I am pacing myself.

I am in training again for work this week and next.  It's a whole lot of information to cram into 2 weeks so I'm really hoping for some quality craft room time this weekend!  If not, I'm pretty sure my brain will explode - LOL!  

Have a great week!