Your A Sweetie

It is New Year’s Eve and I am enjoying a quiet evening at home.  Well, not really quiet – lots of fireworks going off around us and my poor dog is shaking at my side.  Thought I would add a quick card before the year ends.

Earlier this month I created a card for our Stamp Club Swap with the theme of child’s birthday.  Since I had to make twelve of these for the swap, I kept it fairly simple.  Yesterday was both my girls’ birthday (go here for the details on this) so I decided to revamp this card and make them something a little more detailed and sparkly.

I changed the shape of the card to a square and added more layers.  The large purple scalloped square, the small white scalloped squares, and the pink squares were all cut out using Spellbinder Nestabilities. 

I used Swirl Cupcake and You're a Sweetie!, both from Sparkle N Sprinkle.  These can be purchased individually or together is Set 374 - Sweet Treats.  I stamped them on a white circle and then layered them on a scalloped circle cut out of sticker paper using a Spellbinder die.  I added Lacy Lilac glitter on both the scalloped circle edges and also on strips of "Tear-ific" Tape.

Happy Birthday, girls!!!

E. Marie

This card is entered in the following challenges:

Top Tip Challenge #66 - Anything Goes

The Pixie Cottage Challenge #101 - Someone Special

Crafty Cardmakers Challenge #58 - Use It Three Times   

Clearly Inspired Challenge #42 (CIC42) – Birthday

Charisma Cardz Challenge #50 – Anything Goes    

Paper Sundaes Challenge #100 - Celebrate

Simon Says Stamps Challenge - Anything Goes

Crafts and Me Christmas Bumper Challenge #66 Part 1 - Anything Goes

Everybody Art Challenge #173 – Anything Goes
DYSU Challenge #52 - Rainbow of Colors

A Year In Review Blog Hop

With 2011 coming to an end, we have a tendency to look back over the year and review everything that has happened, both the good and the bad.  Karin, one of my fellow Sparkle N Sprinkle designers, is have a Year In Review Blog Hop at With an “I” for Paper so I have reviewed the last twelve months on my blog and I am going to share with you my 12 favorite cards for 2011. 

Being a designer for Sparkle N Sprinkle the last six months has been an honor and so much fun, so I want to share my favorite cards using SNS stamps and products first.

 

Tri-fold card using Fancy Butterflies.

  

        Bird Swirl Set                                       Easter Chicks Set combinded with

                                                                  Spellbinders' 2010 Heirloom Ornaments.

 

Shaker Ornament using Playful Pengies and Tis The Season sets combinded with Spellbinders' 2010 Heirloom Ornaments.

My next cards use stamps from Our Daily Bread Designs.  When I first started to enter their challenges, I borrowed a stamp from a friend and had to be very creative with this one image to meet the various challenges.  I was really thrilled to be asked to be a guest designer for two months this summer.  Here are a few of my favorites.

 As You Graduate and Faith sets. 

     

        

Card Holder and a set of cards using Scripture Series 2 and Scrolly Borders

A side-step card using Scripture Series 2, Scrolly Borders, and Happy Birthday sets from ODBD.  I added a Garden Oval Topper, Fushia Mix, and Ultra-Fine Sage from Flower Soft.

  

  

         

Holiday Easel Card using Serve the Lord and His Gift stamp sets and Crocheted Circle Die from ODBD and 2010 Heirloom Ornaments, Standard Circles, and Layered Poinsettia dies from Spellbinders.

The remaining favorites use stamps from various companies whose challenges I try to enter as often as I have time. 

I have collected House Mouse stamps for years because they are just tooo cute and irresistible.

Another one of my favorite companies is Impression Obsession.

    

My final card used stamps from JustRite .

This was my first Center Step card and one of the first cards I won a challenge with.

 I hope you enjoyed reviewing these favorites.  I would love if you left me a comment, letting me know which of my favorites is your favorite and why.  Also, don't forget to go here to find links to other blogs that are participating.

One last item - in reviewing my blog I realized that I totally forgot about my one year blogiversary.  I plan to combine this with a celebration of another year to come in January.  Watch for this because I will be offering some candy.

E. Marie

Merry Christmas

This is a bit late but our day didn’t quite go as planned.  Right after I posted last night, my daughter, Trisha, told me she was feeling very ill.  I had to run out to the only store that was open to get her some medicine,  but right after she took it she began to throw up.  Her stomach was really hurting and after five hours of constant vomiting, we headed to the emergency room.  We were very luck that there were hardly any other emergencies and we only had to wait around fifteen minutes.  They ran some tests, gave her medicine to settle her stomach, and gave her fluids through an IV since she was already very dehydrated.   They could not find anything wrong and decided that it must be food poisoning.  As relieved as we were that there was nothing seriously wrong, we were not sure their diagnosis was correct since we had all eaten the same things all day.  We came home at 7:00 this morning and crawled into bed.  She is better now but very weak.

Needless to say, our day was a bit different.  We slept in and decided to skip the Christmas dinner.  We will enjoy our meal tomorrow.  We did spend a nice time together in front of the tree, reading about the birth of Christ in the book of Luke, and opening gifts.   Sarah’s boyfriend, Brett, joined us.  Now Trisha is sleeping, again, and Sarah and Brett are busy playing with her new Wacom Create Tablet.  I am relaxing and enjoying my first cup of coffee from my new Mr. Coffee Single Serve Brewing System (made by Keurig).  I have wanted one of these for a long time so was very grateful to my daughters for giving me this.

Well, it is time to make all my Christmas calls to family members, since my parents and siblings all live far away.  I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas day, hopefully a little calmer than ours.

E. Marie

The Joys of Christmas Eve

Well, the house is decorated, the shopping is done, and today we just laid low and finished last minute details.  I had a few gifts left to wrap and the girls decided they wanted to do some baking.  Since they are both pretty much on their own they think they know it all, but after leaving them on their own in the kitchen, they finally came and asked for help.  The terms “cream the butter” and “sift the flour” were a bit confusing for them but after a little explanation and demoing, they did amazing.

Then came the decorating. 

   

They always get creative and humorous when they get together and it was just fun to watch.  After a while they begged me to come help finish and it went very quickly. 

We have a family tradition of making a cookie call a peppernuts.  You have to roll out the dough, snip it into bite size pieces, and bake.  It takes a long time and is pretty messy so the girls decided they would rather make another favorite cookie that my husband’s mother made every Christmas.  It is a delicious molasses cookie, and though we had never made them ourselves, the girls did a great job and my husband was thrilled.

Well, the baking is done, though I will probably still throw together some fudge.  Now for another family tradition – putting together a jigsaw puzzle.

Hope you are enjoying your time with family and friends as much as we are.  Have a wonderful Christmas!!

E. Marie

Then All The Trees...

Sorry I haven’t been around for a while.  I made a quick trip to Memphis, TN to deliver a car to my daughter and had a wonderful time visiting with her.  I met her new boyfriend and he was very nice.  I also delivered a huge fake tree that I rescued before it was thrown out and she and her roommates were thrilled.  So were their two little kittens who immediately climbed to the top, knocking it to the ground and breaking the stand.  We finally found a new stand to hold it up but I am not sure how long that will last with those silly little critters.  My husband joined us the next day and we headed back a day later.  I went to work on Monday but must have picked up a bug and ended up in bed for two days.  Not the best time to be sick with all the extra activity at school and getting things ready at home for the holidays so I have been playing catch up.  Now that school is out for a few weeks and my Christmas cards are in the mail, I couldn’t resist heading to my craft room to make this card that I have been thinking about for quite a while.

This card was created using a technique that I had recently been told about, though I did make a few adjustments to meet my needs.  The original instructions said to use Versamark ink to stamp images but I used an embossing folder to add a few trees and ran my Versamarker over the embossed images.  The background is sponged twice with two different green inks and spritzed with water to give it a snowy look.  I layered this on green and added it to a white card base.

I used a die cut tree and used SNS Brushable Glue to add Twinkling Clouds Sparkle N Soft.  After it dried I added more along the top of the branches and layered it on the front of the card.

For the sentiment I used Then all trees… from Sparkle N Sprinkle and cut it out with a Spellbinder label die.  I layered this on top of two holly scrolls covered with Sparkle N Sprinkle's Lady Luck glitter and popped this up on the card with foam tape.

To get detailed instructions on how to make this card you can go here.

I experimented with this technique a bit and tried using cardstock that had a smooth coated surface but wasn’t glossy.  The background came out a bit different and I decided to add more glitter around the embossed tree using a glue pen.  I thought it was pretty but still liked the more subtle, snowy look of my first card.

Thank you for taking the time in your busy schedules to stop by.

E. Marie

This card is entered in the following challenges:

Totally Stampalicious – Sparkle

Top Tip Tuesday Challenge #65 – Anything Christmas

Stampin Sisters In Christ Challenge #120 –Christian Image and/or Sentiment (True Meaning of Christmas)

Paper Play Challenge Week #50 – Christmas

One Stop Craft Challenge Week #162 – Christmas Sparkle

Kaboodle Doodle Challenge #98 – Oh Christmas Tree

Fussy and Fancy Challenge #52 - Monochromatic and Sparkle

4 Crafty Chicks Crazy Egg Challenge #68 - Christmas Card

DYSU Challenge #50 - Winter

Delightful Sketches Weekly Challenge – Anything Goes

Crafty Creations Challenge #148 – Embossing and Glitter

Crafts and Me Challenge #65 – Christmas

Catch The Bug Challenge – Baby, It’s Cold Outside

Bling It On December Challenge #10 – Christmas

Stampin For The Weekend Challenge #22 – Christmas

Speedy the Cat's Friends Challenge Week 86~~Make a Christmas Card

Everybody Art Challenge #173 – Everything Goes/Anything Goes

Our Daily Bread Designs Shining the Light ODBDSLC89 - "NOEL" Word Play (N-Nestabilities, O-outside, E-embossing, L-layers)

Aifactory Challenges Challenge #99 - Christmas Theme

Love, Faith, Hope

This is the sketch for the December monthly sketch challenge at the Sparkle N Sprinkle blog.  Make sure you visit the blog to get all the details.  You have the whole month to enter and the winner receives a stamp set of their choice.

Here is my card to give you some inspiration.

I started with this delightful image from Sparkle N Sprinkle’s Hope Love Faith Stampette Set, embossed with Log Cabin embossing powder.  I added Bridal glitter to the snow and Fire Engine Red glitter to the berries.  The words were embossed with Winter White embossing powder and cut out with a Spellbinder Classic Oval die.  I popped them up on top of a sparkly border of pine created with a punch and Meadow Spark glitter.  The green background layer is embossed with an embossing folder and more glitter added on the edges.

Don’t forget to check out the samples from other design team members here.

E. Marie

This card is entered in the following challenges:

Totally Papercrafts Challenge 94 – Christmas

Stamptacular Sunday Challenge #140 – Anything Christmas

Phindy's Place Challenge #83 - A Sprinkling of Snow

Ooh La La Challenge #94 - Lots of Sparkle

Kaboodle Doodle Challenge #95 – Bundle Up for Winter

Incy Wincy Designs Challenge #122 – Trees

Crazy 4 Challenges C4C115 – Snow

Craft Your Passion Challenge #86 – Tis the Season (anything holiday or winter related)

Crafty Catz Weekly Challenge #110 – Snowmen

Aifactory Challenge #98 - Something Red

Totally Gorjuss Challenge #108 – Sparkle

Stampin For The Weekend Challenge #21 – Friends

Simon Says Stamp and Show Challenge - Show Some Stars!

Simon Says Stamps Challenge – Anything Goes

The Pink Elephant TPE127 – Color Inspiration Photo Challenge

Crafty Creations Challenge #146 – Photo Inspiration Challenge