Hearts and Flowers

Good Morning Everyone!

I hope everyone is having a happy start to their weekend. Mine has been productive already this morning; but now I intend to just relax and curl up with my book for as long as the kids are occupied (and my oldest is still asleep!) I actually have, not one; but two cards to share with you today! I know, right?! I actually managed to get both of these done yesterday whilst the kids were at school; but didn't have a chance to get them posted.
In other news, I am a little sad to report that none of my cards were selected for Paper Crafts Stamp It 9 call. I was a little discouraged; but I know I'm not the only one either. I thought about going and ahead and sharing what I submitted; but I think I'm going to just hang on to them for a little longer. I haven't quite decided if I want to submit them for Stamping Royalty or not. The competition for getting published is stiff, that's for sure!

Anyhow, enough of my sob story, let's get to these cards!! The first one is for the 2nd Week of Viva La Verve. (I did the 1st one last week; but I haven't uploaded it to my SCS gallery yet.) I have really been liking the look of lots of white space and the dry embossing on white as well. I really wanted to keep this card pretty simply, so I chose a color palette of Enchanted Evening, White and Hawaiian Shores. The sentiment is a Plain Jane from Verve and the "xoxo" at the bottom is a little stamp found in Verve's "Tag Time" Set. The flowers, are of course, from Prima. In the photo, the center flower looks cream; but it's actually white.
 Challenges for this card:

ATC&Cards with Attitude: Flowers
Bloggers Challenge: In Bloom
Allsorts Challenge: Free and Easy February

Now, on to the second card! This one is for February's SFYTT challenge (In case you don't know what that stands for it's Sketch for You to Try!) What a fun sketch this was and easy to work with. I decided to make a card that I can send to my hubby later since he will be gone for a while longer yet. I  took this picture outside and well, you know me...always taking crooked pictures! Anyhow... I used Kraft, Dark Chocolate,  White and Ruby Red for this card. The heart stamps and the sentiments are from Hero Arts "Year Round Sentiment" set. Not a whole lot really to talk about this card. It's really as simple as it looks!


Challenges for this card:

Card Crafter's Circle: Valentine's or Hearts/ Love
Crafty Ann's Challenge: Love is in the Air
Phindy's Place: Circles
2 Sisters Challenge: I heart you
Craft Your Days Away : Get Stitchy


Have a great day everyone and enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Hero Arts February Challenge.

Hi Everyone!

Just a very quick post to share a card that I've made for the Hero Arts February Challenge. This is my first time entering the monthly contest challenge and to be honest, I really didn't decide until this morning. I woke up this morning planning to work on yesterday's Mojo Monday sketch and my mind just sort of veered off in another direction. I always like to get involved with challenges and contests as often as I can. Not because I'm some great stamper worthy of prizes and rewards (although that would obviously be nice!); but because I think being involved with the various challenges and competitions that are out there forces me to really push myself as it relates to creating. It makes me take the extra mile with a card such as inking the edges with distress ink as I did with this card. It gives me the courage to pull apart a card and re -vamp it if it "just doesn't quite look right" For example, I pulled this card apart 3 times before getting it to how I wanted it to be. After all, if it isn't satisfactory to me, how can I expect someone else to think it is? I am very fortunate that right now I have 3 children who are all in school every day and right now I'm not working, so I have the time to spend doing this hobby I enjoy so much. That will change soon I know, and when it does, I'll put all my "toys" away like a good girl and accept my responsibilities. Until then, however, I will continue to stamp all my cares away!!
For this challenge, I tried to combine elements of each theme for the challenge: The Sketch, The Friendship Theme and using Diecuts. I used two sets of Hero Arts stamps: Classic Fabric Design and Live Life.
Thanks for stopping by and visiting me today, my play time is all over for today; and now I am going to go do something at least a little bit worthy of my title as "Domestic Goddess"
Have a great day, my crafty friends! I'll see y'all tomorrow (with Mojo Monday sketch!)

Just Because Mojo

Hi Everyone!

I have been super busy behind the blogging scenes creating lots of fun cards. Some I am going to be sharing with you here, some over at SCS and some you'll just have to wait to see hopefully in a magazine a little later! For now, however I want to share my card for this week's Mojo Monday sketch. This was such a fun and easy sketch to work with. I used Simply Chartreuse, some Light Blue and Vanilla Cream. The piece of pattern paper is from Basic Grey: Sweet Threads. What's funny is I just realized that I completely covered up the scalloped border piece I put across the center! Oh well...Lol! The sentiment and stamp are from Verve's "Sweet Treats" set. I distressed the edges and added some Broken China and Peeled Paint Distress Inks to the edges.

That's all for me today. Have a good afternoon and I'll see you all as soon as I can!

I did find some challenges to link this little creation to:

Craft Your Days Away: Distress
Crazy4 Challenges: Layer it on
One Stop Craft Challenge: Stitching
Stamp, Scrap and Doodle: Anything Goes
Pile it on: Just Because
Sentimental Sundays: Dry Embossing
Truly Madly Crafty: Anything Goes
The Crazy Challenge: Flowers
Lollipop Crafts: Anything Goes
My Craft Spot: Anything Goes
365 Cards: Simply Stated

Mojo Monday Smile

Hi Everyone!

Very quick post today to share this week's Mojo Monday card.  I have to be honest, the photo makes me kinda like it more than I thought I did when I looked at the original! It doesn't look too shabby.

I have lots going on crafty wise and have been busy. I am really trying to get some cards published. Since I can't share anything that I am putting in for submission,  I'm not sure how much blogging I'll be doing over the next few weeks.

So for now, I just ask that you wish me a little good luck and I'll see you again as soon as I can!