Phew! {Catches breath}

October is such a crazy month for me! I am working on all kinds of projects and this happens to be the beginning of birthday season! Last Sunday Todd and I went to Boston with friends to meet up with some high school friends. We went to the Patriot/Ravens game and really had a great time. Although I am a Giants fan, we really enjoyed watching the game. Todd was able to get 29th row - FIFTY yard line seats. I could smell Randy Moss (and he sure stinks)....just kidding! He did pretty good! We cheered for the home team (because we wanted to get out of there alive!). We enjoyed watching Tom Brady!
Wednesday, Victoria turned 10 and I turned 25 (well, Bella said I could be 25 this year, I am really a smidge older than that).
-- here she is with Grandma and Grandpa just before we left for dinner and a concert (Keith Urban and Sugarland). We were lucky enough to be sitting in the section where Keith came and sang (once in front of us on the floor, once a few rows behind us at the end of our aisle!).





It's fire safety week here in NY - firefighters have been visiting the school and at preschool - we went to visit the firehouse! Fun stuff! They even had a blood hound (search dog). Sophie called it a bloody murder dog....Maybe she watches too much tv!?!?!



Friday, I surprised the girls with tickets to David Cook. He came to a local club and there were many crazed fans (older women) who refused to let the girls move in front of them (it was a standing room only show). There were very few young girls there (which surprised me) ad one woman actually made a comment about my parental judgement because I brought the girls to the show. She told me there would be a mosh pit and they would get injured (really? David Cook?)....some of the women (who I can only describe as the Cougar crowd) were vicious. We ended up going to the side of the room where the was a half wall. The other side of the wall had all the equipment and the side of the stage. The sweetest security guard took pity on their height disadvantage.....so he brought the three girls over to the other side of the half wall....and then escorted them to the front row, side of the stage...where they had the best seats in the house. When David (who rocked the house) finished and walked off the stage with his band....the girls were handed the drum sticks and guitar picks from the set! Needless to say, there was no mosh pit....but we did walk away with lots of memories....

FS140 {Glowbug}

This card was made for Todd's business partner, Scott who turned 40 yesterday. I decided to take {Chris' card} and change some of the elements - I liked the Halloween, but not Halloween theme - so I kept that! I used a white base and dry pressure embossed it with the swiss dots folder. Then I spritzed and sponged it - spritzing with coffee glimmer mist and sponging with dark chocolate ink. I cut the designer paper with some decorative edge scissors and sponged that with dark chocolate ink. I took a piece of kraft paper and dry pressure embossed that with the birds folder and spritzed it with the coffee glimmer mist. those layers sparkle AMAZING!!!! A scalloped circle (sponged w. chocolate ink) and another kraft layer punched with the marvy circle punch. I spritzed it with coffee and walnut gold glimmer mist. I took a small piece of summer sun paper, punched it with a small circle punch, then placed it on the edge of the large marvy circle. I colored that with copics to give it some dimension. The owl was colored with copics as well. I took a scrap piece of chocolate chip paper and trimmed it to look like a branch. Owl is attached with a foam square. Who is 40? sentiment printed on the computer and trimmed by hand and Happy Bird-day! sentiment punched with the word window punch. Ribbon is scrap ribbon from my stash and button (rustic) from PTI has twine threaded through center.

Phew!



stamps: swinging by (Papertrey Ink)
paper: kraft, white, designer paper, chocolate chip, summer sun
ink: black, copics
misc: button, punches, decorative scissors, dimensionals , twine, ribbon,

FS138: She's OH! so fancy!!!

That lady I call Nancy.......aka NancyRuth!


This week's featured stamper is NancyRuth! I used {this denim blue} card as the inspiration for my card. I liked the card and the simplicity of it - very clean, focusing on the main image. I started with a 5x5 base which I covered with a piece of black cardstock, embossed with the swiss dots folder. I spritzed the black with glimmer mist and it *REALLY* sparkles in real life!

I changed the card by adding a layer of designer paper (that I had in my stash). I also layered the main image and the sentiment.

The main image is colored with copics, then the outfits were fluffed with purple, green and orange sparkle fluff!
I used the word window punch on the sentiment and then layered it on some orange which I punched with the martha stewart edge punch on each end. Finally, I added some stickles to the star (on the hat) and the cobwebs.


Stamps: Witch To Wear {Our Craft Lounge}
paper: Black, designer paper (unknown source), white, orchid op, only orange, glimmer mist, swiss dots
ink: black, copics
misc: punches, sparkle fluff (purple, orange, green), stickles, glimmer mist, swiss dots folder

FS137: Tankgrl

I used this {CC197} card of Heather's to create my CASE card this week.

Heather's colors (Kiwi, Baha Breeze, Basic Grey) were one of the things I changed. I used smokey shadow, enchanted evening and some designer paper from Papertrey ink. I eliminated the piercing at the top, changed the brads to dew drops and used a different stamp set (changing it to a holiday card with the new Papertrey ink Winter Swirls stamp set).

Starting with a smokey shadow base, an enchanted evening layer.... then I stamped on the soft stone paper (my first time using it -- it's very nice). I used enchanted evening ink and the large snowflake from Winter Swirls on the bottom half of the soft stone. I used the martha stewart edge punch on the designer paper, then tied a satin enchanted eveing ribbon in a knot around the papers.

A scalloped square was stamped with the sentiment in fresh snow ink, then I stamped the tree from Winter Swirls in the enchanted evening ink, trimmed it out and adhered it to the scalloped square with dimensionals. I added a few of the pearl dew drops on the tree and in the top corner of the card (in place of the brads Heather used).

Stamps: Winter Swirls (Papertrey Ink)
ink: enchanted evening, fresh snow
paper: enchanted evening, smokey shadow, soft snow, designer paper
misc: dew drops (pearl), scalloped square, dimensonals, enchanted evening ribbon (satin), Martha stewart edge punch

Busy Week!

What a busy week!
Winter Swirls stamp set released -- Copic Review article published (here) this week on the 14th -- Xavier started Kindergarten, Sophie started preschool...and swim team started this week! Then tomorrow night I have Open house at the Elementary school (I am PTA president).... I also started the Maggie Homes photography course this week. I finally catch a break Friday with a nice night out with Todd in New York City to see Wicked (this will be my second time seeing it).

thought I would share one of my favorite pictures from this week -- hope to learn how to take better shots with this course!

Have a great rest of the week if I cannot check in before the Featured Stamper challenge card this weekend!

Winter Swirls!

The Winter Swirls stamp set is now available at Papertrey Ink!








Did you see all the fun samples on Nichole and Becky's blogs yesterday? OMW! Those two can make paper and ink take on a life of it's own!!!

Nicole's samples

Becky's samples

The design team has really outdone itself with the September releases! I love how they select different colors and elements and layers to create the most amazingly detailed projects....

Check them ALL out:

• Debbie
• Betsy
• Dawn
• Geny
  Pine
• Lauren
• Lisa
  Melissa
• Mish
• Niki and
• Teri

Thank you EVERYONE for your support! It means the world to me!

Sneak Peek Sample 4: Winter Swirls......

Here is another sneak peek of Winter Swirls! I had this great photo of Isabella from a project she did last year and I realized that I needed to turn it into a scrapbook page. The Winter Swirls set made for a perfect accent with the beautiful color papers.

I started with an 8x8 piece of enchanted evening cardstock. I used enchanted evening ink with a variety of the snowflakes from the set. I used a strip of stampers select white, scallop edge punched and placed it under the piece of oceans tide. The sentiment and mittens are stamped in enchanted evening ink. I also used Journaling Lines in oceans tides ink on the scalloped oval to create a journal tag for the page.

The buttons were tied with some of the rustic button twine. The journal box was adhered to the page with dimentionals....writing with a blue sakura stardust gel pen.

This is my finished page....

So the big sneak peeks from Nichole and Becky on Monday! Then the big release party in the forum later that night! OOOHhhhh! I am so excited!!!!


All supplies © Papertrey Ink (unless otherwise noted)
stamps: Winter Swirls (available 9/15), journaling lines
paper: enchanted evening, oceans tides, stampers select white
ink: enchanted evening, oceans tides
misc: enchanted evening buttons, rustic button twine, dimensionals, scalloped oval punch, scalloped edge punch (SU!), blue sakura stardust gel pen