It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood!!!

I wanted to get these uploaded right away this morning, and since I'm running late, I'll be back later on to add to/edit this post.
Until then......have a wonderful morning, everyone!!!

MFT Times Three!

These little trick-or-treaters are one of my all-time favorite images to stamp with! Halloween is my very favorite holiday. I don't get into the macabre, evil part of the holiday, but I do really enjoy the fun, scary part. It's so much fun decorating the house with 'haunting' things, putting pumpkins everywhere, both inside and outside of our house, and getting ready for the little ones to come to our door asking for goodies. My hubby and I have even been known to get dressed in costumes to hand out treats to the kids----all in good fun! Needless to say, making Halloween-themed cards is great fun for me too! Even though the temps are nearing the 100's right now, my mind is already wandering toward the cool, Fall evenings and anxious for the smell of burning leaves.

I have to admit, I've had this set (Hare for the Holidays, by MFT) for quite some time, and have never used this image. When I finally got this DP, I just couldn't resist pairing up the oranges and greens with this little guy. He's such a cutie! This card turned out to be approximately 4.5 inches square---a nice little size for jotting down a quick note just to say 'Hi'. Everything about the card is pretty self-explanatory, I think.


I found this DP and fell in love with the light blue and chocolate swirls. I decided to use my 'Meet Me at the Cafe' set by My Favorite Things, as it has been neglected too much, and was feeling a bit lonely.The awning is propped up on dimensionals on the lower edge, with the upper edge glued down, to give it an angle to make it appear more realistic. These little ladies are having a wonderful afternoon, sitting and catching up on all the things going on in their lives. Oh, if I could only look this good when I go out to meet my friends for lunch!!:-)I created a Ribbon Blossom---again--I guess when I get ribbon in my hands, it's inevitable that I'm going to have add one to my cards. I just can't help myself! I guess everyone has that special 'something' that they just have to put on their creations.....and a Ribbon Blossom is mine.I hope you like this---thanks so much for looking. Have a wonderful day, everyone!!

A Lovely Little Treat & one or two more things....

Sorry for the long absence----again----life seems to have a way of getting in the way of my best intentions! Oh well, I'm spending a lot of quality time with my two sons & my hubby, but Mommy still needs some 'me' time, ya' know?!?!
I've got some new things to show you----I hope you like them.

Here's a really bright card that I made with MFT's 'Rain or Shine' set. I love coloring this little gal and her dog....and I'd love to have my own pair of those adorable little polka dot boots!! Wouldn't they be fun to wear?!?!
I used an old sketch that Beate posted on her blog quite a while ago. It's really one of my favorite sketches...the circles are a great way to add some of the smaller images in stamp sets, and yet it still leaves plent of room to add your own touch with embellishments. Had to add my Ribbon Blossom, of course....to me, a card isn't finished if it doesn't have one on it!!! Guess that's just my 'signature' touch!!

I finally broke down and ordered this SU set---I just love the images in it, and they're SO great to color with Copics---I love the shading & dimension they give. I used my new Martha Stuart butterfly punch, too, and scattering the tiny butterflies around was a great way to add a special touch to the card. This ended up to be a pretty large card, and it's really thick---so I guess I should prepare myself for a shock when I find out the cost of postage to mail it!

This creation is something that I created for Kim at My Favorite Things. (I made 10 of these, so I hope she really likes them!!) To create the 'pretend' lollipops, I used several circle punches, plus double-stacked dimensionals and thick glue dots. The plastic cover around the lollipop is just the package that my dimensional squares come in----the first time I created on of these, I had just used up a pack of dimensionals, and was about to toss the plastic bag, when a light bulb went off in my head and I tried it on for size. It fit perfectly, so now I save these packages just for this reason. (I go through a TON of dimensionals--probably an average of 40 or more for a card, so I have plenty of these plastic packages lying around. I never throw anything away, I usually recycle it in some way and find a use for it.)

Well, should go for now. My youngest son has his last baseball game this morning, and I'm running a little behind schedule. Have a great day, everybody!!!

Pulling for You----MFT Release Party Wed. night!!!

This is an adorable new character, available from My Favorite Things, as of tonight (Wed.). Such a cute lil' guy, pushing his cart filled to the brim with yummy carrots! This is a really nice-sized image for watercoloring or using your Copics----a lot of fun to work with!!MFT is turning 2, and Kim is turning 40, and there are new stamps to see----what awesome reasons to celebrate!!There are some really fun things going on during the release party in the MFT forum tonight, in honor of MFT's 2nd birthday, and Kim's 40th birthday---so be sure to join us to see what all the excitement is about! (And wish Kim & MFT 'happy birthday'!!) Hope to see you there!!

Stamps: Pulling for You by My Favorite Things.
Paper: Papertrey white, Pumpkin Pie, Certainly Celery, Scenic Route DP.
Ink: Pumpkin Pie, Certainly Celery, Old Olive.
Accessories: Ticket corner punch, brads, Nestabilities, Copic markers, ribbon, dimensionals, sponge daubers.

Lavender.....by Annie LaPoint

This is another gorgeous Annie LaPoint image called 'Lavender', available from My Favorite Things. These detailed images really come to life as you're coloring them in---so cool to see! I've used Copics to color this image, but I'm anxious to see how using chalks will look, too. (First I've got to dust off my chalks though--can't remember the last time I used them!)

Hopefully, I can get more cards uploaded today---I tried all day yesterday to get things uploaded, but for some reason Blogger was giving me fits! Very frustrating!

Back later with some more good stuff.....have a great morning, everyone!!

It's June 19th?!? Already?!?!

I can't believe how fast this summer is flying by. To me, it always seems that once we hit July 4th, summer is over in the blink of an eye. I can't believe we're already near the end of June! We love to go camping during the summer, and we've finally gotten everyone's schedules coordinated for next weekend. I can't wait! While I love a lot of things about summer, I'm not a fan of 100-degree temps with 90% humidity, so all it takes is one or two days like that and I'm cranking up the central air and waiting for Fall to get here. Fall just happens to be my very favorite time of year, though, and there's nothing like throwing on my favorite old sweatshirt a faded pair of jeans, going for a hike through the timber, picking out pumpkins, or bundling up in a fuzzy blanket on a Friday night and drinking hot chocolate to keep warm during the local Varsity football game.

Our summer schedules will be slowing down a little bit, as my oldest son just finished Driver's Ed classes. My youngest son is in the middle of his baseball season, so I'll definitely still be a taxi-driver for a few more weeks. He really enjoys baseball, and it's a 'good' kind of busy. Their friends come over to hang out every day, so our house is usually pretty full. Pre-teen & teenage boys' stomachs are bottomless pits, I swear, and we're going through a ton of pizza, snacks and pop. It's a good thing the grocery store is only 5 blocks away!

I have a bunch of new cards to share with you today, but for some reason, Blogger isn't letting me upload more than one photo. I'll add the other cards in a separate post and see if that works.

This card uses 'Take a Break', one of the new 'MFT Presents' images by Annie LaPoint. It's wonderful to see these beautifully detailed images come to life as you color them in. Be sure to check them out at http://www.mftstamps.com/ .

The flowers in the bathtub remind me of lilacs--my all-time favorite flower. Every time I see or smell lilacs I'm reminded of my late Grandmother. I remember spending the night at her house when I was a little girl, snuggled up in line-dried, fresh, cool sheets, with a cool, lilac-scented breeze blowing in the window next to the bed. Grandma's house always smelled SO good----because of the wonderful things she used to cook and bake for us, and from the lilacs and other flowers surrounding her house. She's been gone for almost twenty years and I still think of her almost every day.

Since the flowers were colored to look like lilacs, I decided to try to make the card look sort of vintage and aged. I used cocoa ink and a distressing tool to 'age' the edges of some of the layers. I used my watercolor brush to gave the DP a faint 'wash' of creamy caramel ink.

I need to run---my youngest son's baseball practice starts in a few minutes, and I still need to find the cap he insists on wearing today.

Have a wonderful day!!

Yummy, yummy, in my tummy!! An MFTeaser & some great news!!!

Sorry for such a LONG absence (again!)....this summer started out busy, and it doesn't show any sign of letting up anytime soon. (Driver's Ed. classes, baseball, guitar lessons, general 'stuff'....ahhh, the fun never ends!) I'll bet you can all relate, huh?

This month is a VERY exciting release for MFT!! These sets are some of my favorite sets EVER, and I had a ton of fun playing with them! Reserve some computer time on Wednesday evening---you're not going to want to miss these sets---I guarantee it!

When I saw this set for the first time, I immediately thought of this DP--the colors just screamed 'ice cream' to me. Wouldn't an ice cream cone like this taste wonderful? I know the colors aren't exactly right, but, for some reason, the colors remind me of my cousin's birthday parties when we were children. Every single year, she had Neopolitan ice cream to go with her birthday cake. Of course, being the birthday girl, she got a gigantic bowl of ice cream, and a piece of cake the size of a dinner plate, while the rest of us got a teeny spoonful of ice cream and a little sliver of cake.....sharing was NOT her strong point. (Of course, that could be why she weighed over 200 pounds by age 10, huh?) Too much information?? Probably... :-)

My Favorite Things (http://www.mftstamps.com/) is having a New Release Cocktail Party on Wednesday, June 4 from 9-11 p.m. Eastern time. LOTS of fun (and a surprise release) is planned including finding out how YOU can be the next MFT Guest Designer. Head over to the MFT forum on http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/ to find out all the details and we hope to see you there on Wednesday night.

In addition to this month's awesome releases, Kim will be making some exciting announcements and filling you in on the latest MFT news. Be sure not to miss it--we'd love to have you join us!!

Card info:

Stamps: Here's the Scoop-My Favorite Things.
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Pretty in Pink, Green Galore, Papertrey white, Paper Studio DP.
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Pretty in Pink, Green Galore, Versafine Onyx Black.
Accessories: Copic markers, ticket corner punch, Cuttlebug & Swiss dots embossing folder, brads, ribbon, sponge daubers, dimensionals.