About Me

My photo
Carlisle, Pennsylvania
I am a stay at home mom..now that is! February 19th, 2007 I was involved in a car accident while on vacation in Florida. I awoke in ICU to find out that my only two children Annemarie age 3 and Michael age 5 did not make it. Scrapbooking became such a big part of my life. It helped fill a void that I desperately needed to fill. Our therapist suggested that I take up scrapbooking as a way to memorialize my children, little did she know! So I took that and ran with it.I became obsessed with scrapping and took over the second largest room in my house. Because of my injuries I couldn't go out and get a job, I just scrapped!I printed out 2,000 photos and my journey began. I have made albums for family members and layouts to decorate my craft room. We thought we were done having kids but who expected this tragedy??? I just gave birth in June 2009 to two beautiful baby girls Mia Anne and Gianna Marie named after their brother and sister.I swore that I would keep up with their albums so I won't become overwhelmed so we will see how that works out! My profile picture is the last family picture that was taken of all of us.

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Make a Wish!






This is an adorable image is from Dustin Pike. I used this for the Rosie-D's Lemon, Lime and ribbon challenge.

I used the sketch from Inspirational Card Sketch.

Creative Card Crew Strings attached challenge. I printed the stamp out twice and cut out the balloon and used pop up dots for dimension. I then cut out twine and used my exacto knife to make a slit in the turtles hand to tuck the twine into.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Come Sail Away!


This was a card that I made that I had to follow a sketch. It will be featured in an Ezine shortly...details to follow!

I used the adorable digi image from Doodle Palace. Unfortunately "Last Minute Lisa" struck again and I literally submitted it minutes before the deadline. So of course I had no time to fix my errors and I am mad at myself for that but OH WELL lesson learned I guess!

This card is for the Allsorts Child Challenge.

Monday, November 16, 2009

Home for the Holidays - Doodle Palace



Here is an image that is due to be released at Doodle Palace this week. I just love it!! I can feel the warmth coming from this card :)Okay it is late so I am a bit wacky but it does have that cozy feel to it and makes me look forward to warming up by the fire. I added lots of bling to the card by using glitter and stickles. I also popped up the image with pop dots for more dimension which you really can't make out in the photo. This is a wonderful image to own!

I entered this card into the following challenges:

Sweet Sketch
Crafty Creations Snow Challenge
Cute Card Thursday Glitter Me Silly Challenge
Cupcake CraftDigital Image challenge
Magical Crafts FortnightlyRecipe challenge

This Week's Digital Inc Challenge




This week over at Digital-Ink Cothey are having a really fun sketch challenge with an adorable digi stamp up for grabs to the winner. Below is my take on the sketch using an adorable Teddy Bear by Stamping Dragon. This stamp is a must have addition to your collection. He can be used for virtually anything from Birthdays, Get Well's, Thinking of you, etc. etc....plus he is super cute! I cut him out and popped him up with mounting dots which you really can't see in the photos.

Make sure you stop on by Digital-Ink Co blog and enter this weeks challenge...Remember you gotta be in it to win it!

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Fall trees!


When I saw the challenge over at Color Throwdown I thought to myself "there is no way I can do something with that!" and I figured I was stumped and going to move on. But then I sat down and realized the key word here...CHALLENGE so I put my thinking cap on and got to work. I wasn't sure what I was going to do and those colors just spoke FALL to me so I took out my Close to My Heart Treetops stamp set and went to work. I wasn't sure how the colors were going to look together so I tried it out. This was my first try at it and I was like Hot diggity dog they do work! I put it aside to complete today when I woke up and planned to stamp it all over again to get a perfect stamp. BUt I decided to keep my trial set even though it is a little uneven and such because..well nothing in life is perfect and my stamping certainly is not! This is a very clean and simple card that can be used for many different occassions.

Supplies used:

Stampin Up Inks: Really Red, Only Orange, & So Saffron ( I didn't have Crushed Curry and this was the closest I had)
Sizzix embossing folder
twine
buttons
Bazzill cardstock

The sketch was for the 2RedBananas Challenge, the color theme was for the Color Throwdown challenge, and the embossing was for the Corrosive Challenge

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Nativty Scene Christmas Card


When I saw this stamp from Lil Diva Stamps I fell in love. I just want to pinch their chubby checks! I think I am going to go back and make the lamb fluffy but for now I am leaving it as is since I already thought it would be a good idea to make some changes and I ended up ruining it so I need to WALK AWAY! The coloring looks awful in the picture but in person it is much nicer. My batteries in the camera are going dead so the pics came out horrible.

I used the sketch from Stamp, Scrap & Doodle challenge. The other challenges I submitted this card to are:

Digital Tuesday's Holiday Wishes Challenge
A Spoon Full of Sugar Create a Scene challenge
Charisma Cardz Merry & Bright challenge

Friday, November 13, 2009

Gate fold card, altered can & goodie box!





This was a card that I had started a couple of days ago for the Stamp, Scrap & doodle special folds challenge. But of course "Last Minute Lisa" struck again and waited to last minute..literally! I put the whole card together and wrote my message on the inside. I then decided to sew the edges but my machine jammed and left all of these holes in it and it was not a pretty pattern so I had to think quick (while cursing myself the whole time)and put some brown adhesive ribbon to hide the marks. I then stamped a tree on the outside but didn't like the way it came out so I tried to cover it up...and well that didn't work so well. Then I accidentally deleted the photos of the inside of the card and I already sent it out so unfortunately this was all I was left with!!! aRGGHHH
I put to eyelets in the center of the cards and threaded some very special ribbon to tie the card closed. The card was for a very, very special friend on her birthday and it drives her nuts that I don't measure. I use my fingers to measure sometimes!!! So on the inside of the card I put little arrows showing all the areas that I measured just for her! So her gift was that I measured actually (which if you knew her would make her very happy!) and the special treasure I threw in there was the special ribbon to tie the card closed. It was ribbon that I used for my daughters piggie tails...that in itself is worth a million bucks and trust me, just anybody doesn't get it!
Plus the whole challenge to myself was to use my scraps from the gift I made her from one of my many formula cans to put in her craft room to hold her pens, tools etc. I even tried to impress her more with a "MEASURED" gift box that I filled with some goodies. All of this was stuffed inside the can and shipped off to her. I know it isn't much but I wanted her to know that I loved her enough to actually measure for her! The box and the can are for the Pollycraft Monday CHallenge. The band slips off the box and it opens to reveal its treasures!

Monday, November 9, 2009

BRRR...Wishing you a Beary Merry Christmas






Getting in gear for Christmas with this card....well I am trying to anyway!! I used the image from Doodle Palace to complete this card. I printed out the image and trimmed it, colored it with Prismacolor pencils, accented it with liquid applique and then popped it up with mounting squares. I cut out the snowflake in different layers, colored it with DecoColor liquid silver then covered each layer with glittler & finished it off with a gem. What you really can't tell in the photo is that I alternated with blue glitter and white glitter on the different layers. I also embossed the mating with of course my newest edition to my ever expanding craft room...my Cuttlebug.

Doodle Palace I went with the primary colors
Inspirational Card Sketch I used the sketch from this challenge/
Crafty Creations pull out challenge
Cute Card ThursdayPrimary colors challenge
SPCCcolor challenge
Stamp SomethingRecipe challenge - ribbon, 2 papers, 3 embellishments
Creative Card Crew Ribbon & Gem challenge
AllsortsBling challenge

I am Giddy like a school girl!


I know, I know but I can't help it but I am so excited!! I was asked to be a guest designer at Digital-Ink Co which of course I was honored to do. This week the challenge was "Quotes" so I found this quote which I just loved and had some rocketship DP to pair up with the digi stamp by Lil' Diva Stamps. The quote reads "Shoot for the Moon. Even if you miss, you will land among the stars."

Well I am off to work on the challenge for next week!

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Thanksgiving card



I have decided to send out some Thanksgiving cards to let my family know how much I love them and they mean to me. I have a wonderful, wonderful extended family that have been by my side thru the worst time of my life...and they continue to do so thru now a happy time in my life. I christened the girls and some of my familiy members drove over 5 hours and stayed in a hotel to be there.

SO when I saw the challenge over at Sheetload of Cards I knew it was perfect. I hate to measure things..actually I am afraid of the ruler actually but it gives you all the dimensions to make several cards at once. It kinda idiot proofs cardmaking..which is what I need! What is even greater is that these cards fit into a business size envelope. It is a very simple card but one I hope my family members will appreciate. I plan on writing a really nice note in there..especially since these are very late!

These cards fit:

Sheetload of Cards November Challenge

Mojo Monday Sketch challenge

Bitten By The Bug "Thankful" Challenge. I cut out the branches from Storybook in 3".

Friday, November 6, 2009

I finally got to use my Cuttlebug!



I have wanted to get the Cuttlebug for sometime for the embossing folders. I used to have to do it the "old fashion" way. I bought it about a week ago and I just haven't gotten around to using it. It is amazing how much detail it adds with simply a turn of the wheel! I used the distressed stripes embossing folder.

I do alot of baking year round actually so I assume people will defintely be expecting some goodies from me this holiday season. So this card will come in handy when I pair it up with some fresh goodies from my kitchen.

This image as well as the sentiment is from Nina May over at There's Magic in the Air. Nina gives away free images weekly so you can enter her contest so stop on by & snag the image while you can...don't forget to leave a "Thanks" comment and show her some love!!

This card fits some great challenges so if you have time, make sure to stop on by these blogs to enter and snoop around..or shall I say Blurfing..a new term that I just learned ~ For those who are like me and had no idea what that meant it means blog surfing...makes sense!

Sketch Saturday Sketch challenge

There's Magic in the Air I used Nina's image as well as her sentiment.

2Red Bananascolor challenge

SPCCColor challenge

Kaboodle Doodles Fall theme challenge

The Cuttlebug Spot Give Thanks challenge

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

A perfect example why I love blogging!



I put this card together this morning using several challenges rolled into one.
This is an example of one of my favorite things about "blogland". I would of never thought of putting several elements of this card together if it wasn't for the challenges. This is a great universal card to have in your stash.

This card was for:

CardPaterns Sketch Callenge

The Pink Elephant Color Challenge

Stamptacular Sunday Friendship Challenge

One Stop Craft Text Challenge

Saturday Spotlight "in So Many Words" challenge

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Santa Paws is coming to town!









I came across this paper that was cut for a project that I never finished (hmmm, imagine that!). I thought it would be fun to use that paper up and get it out of my wonderfully HUGE scrap paper bins. This stamp is a sneak peak from Doodle Palace that will be released Wednesday. It has a cute dog having some Christmas Fun sneaking a peak to see what Santa Paws left him in his stocking. What's great about this stamp, you can cut out the dog and use him for any holiday/occassion. I designed a matching ornament to go with the card. My friend Kim sent me my DoodleBug Crushed Velvet flock that I couldn't find over here so I just had to find a way to use it on this card. I added it to the puppies ears, nose and I even put it on the dog bones to give it a little texture. Used Stickles, glitter and liquid applique on the stocking and Pointsettas. I also used oodles of mounting squares to give the Pointsetta & stocking dimension. The ornament can be given has a gift to hang on a tree, door knob or even around a gift. I went out and bought the Bowdabara thinga-ma-jig since I am severly bow challenged and well...to make a funny story short, I returned it to the store today! Guess I am back to being Bow challenged! Guess it is a good thing that I have slip on shoes!

This card completes several challenges:

Magical Crafts Fortnightly Christmas Card & Ornament challenge

Digital Tuesdays Challenge. I tried to make the flowers stand out on the card and the ornament by adding several layers and curling the edges upwards and downwards.

Digital Ink color challenge

Creative Craft X-Mas challenge

Penny's Paper-Craft Winter Theme Challenge