Woohoo, Yippee, hooray and yay!!!

If you have been following my blog for the last several months, you would have noticed that most of my posts were entries for the Inky Paws challenge. I was lucky enough to be a winner several times.

 So I was over the moon excited when I recieved an e-mail from Newton's mom Jen Jackson, at Newton's Nook Stamps, asking if I wanted to join the Inky Paws challenge team.

My tenure starts with challenge #76 on Monday July 9th.  I am submitting this card to Inkspiration for their photo challenge.

 My card for the challenge is very reflective of my mood today!! YAY!!

I used a slew of stamp sets for this very CAS card. I just sponged some ink in a swirl and added the dots from the Whispering Pines set . My Pinkie girl is from Newton Loves Coffee. I just cut away the coffee press and added the cocktail from Cocktail Mixer. That is one of the best things about Newton's Nook, I can really mix and match my sets to get the most bang for my buck. Lastly i embellished with some Neuvo drops.

The sentiments are from Cocktail Mixer and Birthday Essentials.

So woohoo, yippee, hooray and YAY!! Head over to Inky Paws  look  for me on the DT for challenge 76!! Don't forget the challenge at Inkspiration !!

Colorful crafty friends!!

Is there anything better than crafty friends? I have a core group of crafty peeps. We try to get together to craft a few times a year. We always have a crafting weekend in the Pocono mountains in Pennsylvania each summer. 

I arrive a day ahead with my buddy Pat and we get the house ready for the rest of the crew. We spend the weekend crafting. There is usually a card swap, a class and everyone contributes a stamping tip through out the weekend. There is stamping going on at 6 in the morning until midnight.

We only stop for sustenance and a trip to get ice cream cones.

 The weekend is always a blast. Good food, great music, awesome art, good times and crafty best friends!!

I always send a card out to the group a week before the weekend to pump everyone up. I think this will be the card that goes out.

I found a very old wooden stamp from Invoke Arts, back when I was dabbling in artsy fartsy stamping. When I saw the "rainbow" challenge at Addicted to CAS, the idea of how to show this very old stamp some ink and love came to me.

And hey isn't Less or More have a challenge with the theme of friendship going on for just a few more hours!! I am getting this entry in just under the wire.

All I can say is if you read this in time, head on over to either sites, see what others have created and join in the fun!!

It's all about the presents!!

Hey Everyone!! Who doesn't love a present? But even better who doesnt love LOTS of presents?!!!? I am all about presents. I love to get them and I love to give them!!

 Inky Paws is having a color challenge and it is some of my fav colors! Green (the most beautiful color in the world!!), blue, yellow and white.

As I was riffling through my Newton's Nook stamps, I pulled out a Christmas set that I thought-this I can work with! Newton's Christmas Cuddles Think outside of the box with your stamps- (literally, Newton is peeking out from the box!!) The stamps in this set made the perfect birthday card, I just added the sentiments from Newton's Birthday Bash. I cut apart the sentiment "let the cat out of the bag" to just "let the cat out". These are just some ways to stretch your stamps.

I based my card on a recent technique from Jennifer Maguire. I do not have the dies for Christmas Cuddles, so I fussy cut the card. 

 
I hid the inside sentiment behind Newton, so there would be a surprize waiting for you inside. I used my copics to color.

Since the front of the card seemed kinda bare to me I added the paper scrap strip and then added one to the inside to tie everything together.

Head on over Inky Paws! Check out what the DT and others have come up with!! 

so tweet.....

Getting back into the school groove. I spent the morning with homework and tweeted myself to playing along with the sketch challenge over at Inky Paws! I have to say I am really enjoying these particular challenges lately. 

The team over at Inky Paws manages to create sketches that appeal to my CAS creativity. Not always easy with a sketch.

Today's card uses Newton's Toucan Party set.  This has been one of my "go to" sets. 

I put a nice big googly eye on my toucan to add a bit of whimsey. Everyone needs whimsey!! 

Head over to Inky Paws and see what the DT and others came up with.  

Warm wishes and cold brews!

Hey everyone! Just about missed the deadline for the button challenge over at Inky Paws!! 

Last week I was visiting my brother and his wife at the Delaware beaches.  It rained for the 5 days I was there. The sun came out when I was in the car coming home!! I still had a great time though. We took lots of walks in the woods.

You can't tell from the picture, but there is a bald eagle in the tree. Amazing!!

We also took a brewery tour at Dogfish Head brewery. They are one of the original breweries that set the craft beer movement in motion.

The tour ended with a flight of brews. Perfect to warm your heart and head on one of those rainy days.

I woke up early to work on the card I had in mind for the challenge before I am off to doctor appointments and school. (yes, it is that time again!!)

Buttons, that was a tough one. Thank goodness I never got rid of my button stash from 15 or more years ago. It seemed back in the late 90"s maybe we were putting buttons on everything.

After much thought, it came to me snow!! The rest of the card fell together. 

You still have time to join in the button fun over at Inky Paws. I sure would like to see what you all do also!!

Flowers and friendship

I have been on a kick lately where I grab one stamp and try to use it as many ways as I can. Today I pulled out an old wooded stamp from Hero Arts. (I betcha some of you don't even own a wooden stamp!!- talk about old school!!) I paired it with the stitches cover plate from Ellen Hutson. Something old and some thing new. 

I felt it needed one other element, so I added the butterfly. The saying could is from one of my favorite sentiment sets-  Penny Black's Friendship. 

I am submitting this card to the challenge at Time Out. They have an inspiration quote for the challenge.

When the card was done I added glitter with my nuvo aqua shimmer pen. 

Lots of folks are playing along, so head over to Time Out for some awesome inspiration!! 

Cat Scratch Baking

Hi folks!! Guess what?!!? No more school for this girl until May 21!! Yipeeeeeeee!!!! So to kick off my mini vacation I joined in the fun over at Inky Paws!! They are having a color challenge.And they couldn't have picked more awesome colors than they did! Green (the most beautiful color in the world!!), orchid, violet and periwinkle blue. 

 These are great colors, but I have to admit they area bit tough to match up with copics. I love my copics, I really do, but the selection of purples leaves a bit to be desired.

 

It didn't stop me though. I made do. For today's card I used Newton loves cake. The 4 tiered cake called for the challenge colors. ikeptNewton in a neutral gray so as not to distract from the cake. And isn't everything better with glitter and bling? So I added some glitter to the cake and bling.

Loved how this card turned out. Head over to Inky Paws and check out what the DT and others created.

As much as I would love to stay in and stamp, gotta head out and enjoy one the best days we have had all year here in Pennsylvania.