A Very Peachy Birthday Wish

Right now I should be wrapping, baking, cleaning just to name a few but I wanted to sneak in with a VERY MERRY BIRTHDAY WISH for someone who I am proud to call a friend, Mrs. Kathy J. from Peachy Keen Stamps.  My card started out completely different and I was ready to scrap it all together but I was determined to finish it.  I am starting my New Years resolution early!!  At least this one will be a fun one to stick to.  

The shape of the card is an album file I bought from the Silhouette store which I believe was created by Lori Whitlock.  The stamps I used were PKS-241 Happy Birthday Kids (the cupcake) and the December stamp of the month kit for the candles and sentiment.  Today is the last day to wish Kathy a very happy and merry birthday.  Click HERE to join in the fun.  Happy Birthday Kathy!!!!

I will see you in the New Year.  My New Years resolution is to go back to my happy place and do my crafting.  I have been away from it so long I miss it.  This is the time of year that is bad for me so I usually don't know what way is up.  I have taken the time to spend it with my family and my lovely little ladies.  They truly are the wind beneath my wind and the reason I keep on walking.  I wish you all a very Happy, Safe and Healthy New Year.

Be Thankful

Hello Everyone!  There is a new challenge over at the Sisterhood of Crafters with a great sponsor.  We are getting in the spirit of the holidays and asking you to share with us your Thanksgiving inspired projects.  I ran out of time (story of my life) so I only have these quick and simple little gifts bags to share with you.  I had such a blast making them that I came up with a few more versions of them.  I ended up giving them to my girls classmates at school for their little Thanksgiving feast and they loved them.  All the kids were squirreled away in the corners ripping them open.  Even know they were simple, it still pained me to see the stamped images thrown in the trash.  I know, I'm ridiculous...just can't help it!

The stamps on these are from Peachy Keen Stamps and Stampin' Up!  The big pumpkin with the flourish on it I got from Michael's for $1.  The card stock is just some various scraps I had laying around that I matched up to have fall colors in it.

Peachy Keen's "BE THANKFUL" blog hop

Hello everyone!  Welcome to this stop on the PKS Be Thankful Blog hop.  I hope you are having fun so far looking at all the amazing creations by the current and Alumni PKS Design team members.  If you came here from the ever so talented Vivienne's  blog then you are right on track.  If not click HERE to start at the beginning.  Trust me, you don't want to miss anything.  What is a blog hop without prizes.... Three lucky winners have the chance to win a $50 gift certificate to the Peachy Keen store.  You have until Sunday the 11th to leave a comment on all the stops on the blog.  It is important to leave comments on every blog because the winners will be chosen randomly from all the designers (past and Present).

I bought this little paper mache recipe box from Hobby Lobby.  It was $3 which I thought was a great price, but then I went up to the register and found out it was half off...that's even better!!  For under $4 and some little elbow grease I made a cute little gift for someone.  And that someone was ME! LOL Since food is such a big deal on Thanksgiving as is certain recipes I decided to make a special box to keep them in. And one day hand them down to one of my girls.  Now it doesn't have to be used as Thanksgiving themed but I thought I would use it as that. I used last month's PKS October 2012 Stamp of the month kit.  Oh my this kit has soooo many possibilities!  I never saw a cuter turkey!

I also whipped these up using the same October SOTM kit.  I got these bags from the dollar store and wrapped some assorted Hershey Nuggets in DP.  I kept it simple since I was making so many but these will be used instead of place cards on Thanksgiving.  One will be at each plate setting.  Almost like a little favor, I thought a cute way to say "Thanks!".

I could of kept on going making things with just this one kit but I had to stop myself.  If you don't have this kit, get it you won't be disappointed! TRUST ME...lol

Now hop on over to HEATHER's blog and see what eye candy she has for you.  Such a brilliant and clever idea!!

BLOG HOP ORDER:

 Peachy Keen Stamps Blog -- http://peachykeenstamps.blogspot.com/

Amanda Bodine -- http://amandascraftsandmore.blogspot.com/

Nikki Foraker -- http://scrappinnavywife.blogspot.com/

Raven Baca -- http://love4stamps.blogspot.com/

Glorajean Beardall -- http://glorascrafts.blogspot.com/

Ruthie Nixon -- http://septemberninth.blogspot.com/

Melissa Haas -- http://doxiemeldesigns.blogspot.com/

Joanna Bandelin -- http://www.scrap-making.blogspot.com/

Jennie Garcia  -- http://earthyscrap.blogspot.com/

Michelle Criswell -- http://www.scrappinwithmybug.com/

Saundra Rega -- http://luvscrappingtogether.blogspot.com/

Kim Score -- http://www.paperpunchaddiction.com/

Heidi Anne Giebel --http://gotscraps.blogspot.com/ 

Samantha Casey -- http://samanthacasey.blogspot.com/

Janice Wilson -- http://stampingwithjanice.blogspot.com/

Vivienne Holden -- http://www.craftinghaven.blogspot.com/

Lisa Buttafuoco -- http://www.our2angelsinheaven.blogspot.com/ ++YOU ARE HERE ++

Heather Hoffman -- http://housesbuiltofcards.blogspot.com/

Leanne Garner -- http://www.createdbyleanne.blogspot.com/

Amy Crockett -- http://www.scrappingmommy.com/

Cristina Garcia -- http://www.craftingwithcristina.com/

Lorie Souther -- http://thethinkinspot.blogspot.com/

Tune in for another great HOP!

A Peachy Halloween/Fall Blog Hop!

Hello everyone and welcome to the huge combined PKS Halloween/Fall Blog hop.  If you have come here from the talented Sandra's blog then you are right on track.  If not, you can start from the beginning HERE.  Trust me, this is a Huge hop and you don't want to miss a thing.  Another reason you don't want to miss anybody on the hop is the prizes!!  There will be a total of $150 in prizes given out along the way.  There will be one $50 Gift Certificate and four (4) $25 Gift Certificates to the Peachy Keen store.  But you have to leave a comment on every stop along the hop in order to be eligible.  5 of the current and past designers will be chosen to give the prizes away.  We don't even know who it is yet, so that is why it is important to visit everybody!  If you get lost along the way, scroll to the bottom and I will include the blog hop list.

Now onto my projects!  This one started out as a cute reversible door hanging for Halloween and Fall using the September Stamp of the Month kit.  I have been a member since the beginning, (actually I think I missed the first one or two) and I LOVE it!  I love being surprised on what Peachy cuteness Kathy has come up with now!!  For complete details on how this works you can click HERE if you are interested in the SOTM kit.  But in summary you get automatically billed once a month and an adorable stamp set shows up at your door.  They can also be purchased separately but at a higher price then kit members get them.  And the stamp sets are HHHUUGGGEEE with endless possibilities. 

Like I said, mine started off as a door hanging but then I ran to  my favorite store Target and as always went thru the Dollar Spot and saw these foam wreathes.  A light bulb went off in my head and since my mind is always working and never concentrating I switched projects halfway thru.  Each SOTM kit comes with a free set of SVG files that match the stamp set so you don't have to cut around the stamp.  OMG what a blessing for sure!!!  A little heads up, if you are using Make the Cut the DPI needs to be set at 72!  I basically broke the images apart and made sheets of each leaf that I wanted by duplicating and filling the page.  Easy Peesy!  Then I picked a few colors I wanted to use and stamped away while I was on the phone.  It went a lot quicker than I thought.  I inked up each leaf with a coordinating TH Distress Ink and simply glued them on with a hot glue gun pretty randomly and then filled in the blanks.  And WAALLAA a nice little door wreath for a $1 thanks to Peachy Keen stamps!  Perfect for gifts to let friends and family members know how much you appreciate them this Fall season!!!

Next I used PK-637 Lisa Jean Halloween  to whip up this cute card.  I stamped the image directly onto the DP then layered it with paper piecing and coloring of my Prisma Color pencils.  I added some fibers under her hat for her hair and some liquid applique to the "pot" for some bubble affects.  As I was coloring I found this tag on my ever so neat and clean craft table (NOT!!) and decided to stamp on that and add it to the card.

I don't want to keep you hoppers any longer!  You have lots to see.  Now hop on over to Leanne's blog to see what amazing and adorable creation she has cooked up!  Winners will be announce Saturday at 6a.m. CST on the PKS blog.  Good luck ladies and happy hopping!!

BLOG HOP ORDER:

Peachy Keen Stamps Blog -- http://www.peachykeenstamps.blogspot.com/

DoBea Alberts -- http://www.dobeaalberts.blogspot.com/

Nikki Foraker -- http://scrappinnavywife.blogspot.com/

Saundra Rega -- http://luvscrappingtogether.blogspot.com/

Lisa Buttafuoco -- http://www.our2angelsinheaven.blogspot.com/ ** YOU ARE HERE **

Leanne Garner -- http://www.createdbyleanne.blogspot.com/

Heidi Giebel -- http://gotscraps.blogspot.com/

Vivienne Holden -- http://www.craftinghaven.blogspot.com/

Melissa Haas -- http://doxiemeldesigns.blogspot.com/

Raven Baca -- http://love4stamps.blogspot.com/

Samantha Casey -- http://www.samanthacasey.blogspot.com/

Michelle Criswell -- http://www.scrappinwithmybug.com/

Kristi Bennett -- http://littlepapersprinkles.blogspot.com/

Kim Score -- http://www.paperpunchaddiction.com/

Emma Aguilar -- http://www.creativetimeforme.com/

Amanda Bodine -- http://amandascraftsandmore.blogspot.com/

Glorajean Beardall -- http://glorascrafts.blogspot.com/

Erin Lee Schreiner -- http://www.erinleecreative.com/

Lauren Brewer --  http://laurenscreative.com/

Janice Wilson -- http://www.stampingwithjanice.blogspot.com/

Amy Crockett -- http://www.scrappingmommy.com/

Cristina Garcia -- http://www.craftingwithcristina.com/

Joanna Bandeline -- http://scrap-making.blogspot.com/

Jennie Garcia -- http://earthyscrap.blogspot.com/

Ruthie Nixon -- http://www.septemberninth.blogspot.com/

Heather Hoffman -- http://housesbuiltofcards.blogspot.com/

Kathy Jakopovich-- http://www.peachykeenstamps-kathy.blogspot.com/

Lorie Souther -- http://thethinkinspot.blogspot.com/

Come Join the Fun!

No Stamps allowed!

I never would of thought that I would have so much fun with this challenge!  Over at the Sisterhood of Crafters we are hosting another super fun challenge to help you get to using your stash!  For the next two weeks we want to see what you can create using no stamps at all.  Yep, no rubber, acrylic or Digital stamps allowed.  I grabbed my scraps and this package of K&Company die cuts that I had bought on clearance for like $1.99 ions ago but I tend to forget about them.  I simply just looked for things that would work and made these two cards.  There are probably at least over 100 more die cuts in there so I could of just kept on going.  I would of been able to make quite a bit of cards for under $5.00.  It was fun but I had to make myself stop or I would of bored you to death with pictures.

This is what I came up with:

Now lets see what you can dig up in your craft room!  Don't forget to share it with us at the Sisterhood so we all can be inspired!

A fond farewell blog hop :(

Good morning friends, and welcome to Angelica's Fond Farewell Blog Hop.  If you arrived here from the talented Amy's blog , you are hopping along in just the right order, but if you started here on my blog, then you will want to go back to the beginning to the Peachy Keen Stamps blog, because you're not going to want to miss one single crafty creation.

I personally know that the decision to leave the "orchard " must have not been an easy one for her to make. So I wanted to make a card that would give her some support as well as love. I decided to use a stamp set (PK-225 Happy Flowers and Cheerful Phrases I didn't realize until typing up this post that they no longer sell that stamp set... :( Sorry!) that I picked up when I was in WI meeting everyone in the PKS family last year. 

I had so many ideas but decided to keep things bright and cheery..at least try to anyway. After it taking me FOREVER to actually mail out her birthday card and gift from the last hop we did for Angelica, I wanted to keep this card flat so I could mail it right away!!

What is a hop without some prizes right??? Here is why it is very important to make sure to visit and comment on every blog in the hop. Four (4) lucky winners will get a chance to win a $20 Gift Certificate to the Peachy Keen Store!! Yeppers... $20 bucks to buy whatever stamps your little heart desires. IMPORTANT.... in order to be eligible to win you need to have left a comment on every blog in the hop, including the PKS blog. Four of the designers, past and present will be picked to choose a winner.  You have until Tuesday the 11th to leave a comment. The winners will be picked Tuesday morning and announced on the PKS blog so to be on the safe side I would try to finish and leave all the comments by Monday night!

The exciting part is that we don't even know yet who it will be out of all of us that will be giving out the gift certificates. So sit back, have some fun and help us send Angelica off with lots of love and support!

I want to wish her the very best of everything on her new and exciting journey!!!! Good luck Angelica!

The next stop on the hop is my dear ol' PKS DT member Heidi. You will definitely want to see what she has cooked up.

Below you will find the blog hop order as well as some info and mini Bio on Angelica.

Angelica Suarez has served as the Design Team/Marketing coordinator for Peachy Keen Stamps, for the past three years, and as many of you may have read from her post here a few days ago, she has made the difficult decision to leave her position here at Peachy Keen for a new and exciting opportunity in the printing industry, which is near and dear to her heart. It's a bittersweet celebration for us, as we are sad to see her go, but we know that she will be a tremendous success in this new venture, and we couldn't be happier for her. 

It is for this reason that those of us who have had been blessed to work with Angelica have come together to bid her a fond farewell and share some special creations that we have made to let her know how much she means to us, how much we have enjoyed working with her, how much we are going to miss her and that we wish her all the best.

* BLOG HOP ORDER*

Peachy Keen Stamps Blog -- http://www.peachykeenstamps.blogspot.com/

Kathy Jakopovich-- http://www.peachykeenstamps-kathy.blogspot.com/

Kristi Bennett-- http://littlepapersprinkles.blogspot.com/

Amanda Bodine-- http://amandascraftsandmore.blogspot.com/

Emma Aguilar-- http://www.creativetimeforme.com/

Jennie Garcia -- http://earthyscrap.blogspot.com/

Lauren Brewer -- http://laurenscreative.com/

Janice Wilson -- http://www.stampingwithjanice.blogspot.com/

Heather Hoffman -- http://housesbuiltofcards.blogspot.com/

Amy Crockett -- http://www.scrappingmommy.com/

Lisa Buttafuoco -- http://www.our2angelsinheaven.blogspot.com/ ---- YOU ARE HERE!

Heidi Giebel -- http://gotscraps.blogspot.com/

Nikki Foraker -- http://scrappinnavywife.blogspot.com/

Raven Bacca -- http://love4stamps.blogspot.com/

Ruthie Nixon -- http://www.septemberninth.blogspot.com/

Melissa Haas -- http://doxiemeldesigns.blogspot.com/

Saundra Rega -- http://luvscrappingtogether.blogspot.com/

Vivienne Holden - http://www.craftinghaven.blogspot.com/

Michelle Criswell www.scrappinwithmybug.com

Cristina Garcia -- http://www.craftingwithcristina.com/

Dobea Alberts -- http://www.dobeaalberts.blogspot.com/

Glorajean Beardall -- http://glorascrafts.blogspot.com/

Erin Lee Schreiner -- http://www.erinleecreative.com/

Samantha Casey -- http://www.samanthacasey.blogspot.com/

Lorie Souther -- http://thethinkinspot.blogspot.com/

Sympathy cards

Sympathy cards....These are the cards that everyone hates to make but everyone needs.  It is the circle of life but it just stinks having to send these out.  I am on a kick to use up my scraps, well let me rephrase that since I will never use up all my scraps in this life time.  I am on a kick making cards using my scraps.  This week at the Sisterhood of Crafters we are having a challenge to you all to show us your sympathy cards.  I went into my stash and found some small scraps and this is what I came up with.  The sentiment is from Stampin' Up! and punches from EK Success.  Even my ribbon was a small scrap!

I hope you stop on by and play along with us over at the Sisterhood.  Have a great day!

Don't Worry, Be Happy!

I had a little time to play with my new Peachy Keen July Stamp of the Month club set.  I am just starting to get back into my craft room and have some fun.  The last cards that I have been making I have been using my scraps which is so much fun to do sometimes.  The only problem is that I get back into saving everything because I find uses for even the littlest pieces of paper!!  Kinda a catch 22.

There is a new challenge over at the PKS Challenge blog that ends today.  The challenge had a Pop up theme.  I first cut a scrap piece of white cards stock down and stamped the sun and mountain in the center.  Then I stamped it again to cut out the sun face and gave it a cute little face that was included in the SOM kit and popped that up.  I again stamped it onto the green scrap and cut the mountain shape out with my knife just following the hill "scape" on the actual stamp.  Found some blue scrap paper and made clouds out of that and figured it would be cute to stamp the sentiment in the clouds.  They are also from the PKS July SOM kit.  It is a simple card but it could be used for a get well or just about anything.  Plus this card means that much less scraps in my scrap draws!! That's the part I love the most!!  Can't wait to play with my August SOM kit..stay tuned :) 

Have a great day AND Don't worry, Be Happy!

Tag your it!

Hello ladies and gents!  I have a great challenge to share with you that I am hosting over at the Sisterhood of Crafters.  We are asking you to create a tag..yep that's it!  I love making tags.  I wish I could of made more for this challenge but I didn't want to bore you :)

First I made these two tags with the same design but a different sentiment using PaperTrey Ink stamps and a script background stamp that I don't know who made.  Next I made this tag for the PKS color challenge.  I took a big plastic cauldron and filled it with candy.  Then I added some tissue paper to make it look like "smoke".  To make the tag I used a nestie for the frame and some various Haloween themed paper.  The adorable Frankenstein is from  PKS-634 Frankly....  I distressed it a bit with Tim Holtz Distress inks.
For the last tag I made this one with scraps laying around and my PaperTrey Ink stamp set and Mat stack die.

I'm BACK! Have you missed me??

So I have taken some time off from crafting.  Not intended but with so much going on it just didn't happen.  Then I decided to clean (yikes) my craft room.  I took a very long time to do that since I ripped it apart.  It is not completely done yet but I couldn't take how clean it was so I had to come in and mess it up some what to make it feel like home!! LOL!  I even redid my craft closet. Then I also haven't had internet on my computer in my craft room.  Just on my Ipad and it wouldn't let me load any pictures because I needed Flashplayer.  But hopefully all is now good and I can continue on crafting.

I figured it would be fitting to come back with a project using my PKS Stamps since that is how I started in blog land.  This weeks PKS challenge is a color challenge.  For some reason at first glance I saw Fall and Halloween colors. I picked this paper pad up on my trip to WI and PKS Headquarters. This may sound silly but I "hoard" my good papers and I hate using them.  I don't have craft store by me except for the commercial ones. Since I made this for myself and not a card that someone would just throw away, I SPLURGED! Teehhee

 I will be posting one of my projects today and they other on Wednesday for the new Sisterhood of Crafters challenge I will be hosting.

Click on photos to enlarge them :)

Here is my project that I came up with.  I started with a chipboard album that I decided to make into some home decor for my house.  Fall is my favorite time of the year.  I think it is just the gorgeous colors and the warm comfy feeling I get when I think of fall.  It was hard to picture this since it is almost 30 inches long.  One the back of this album I will be putting pictures of fall memories, adding a new one every year.  Certain elements I raised with mounting tape but it is hard to see in the picture.  I should of taken a close up of the letters because I was happy with how they came out.  I used several left over chipboard letters.  I painted them with Tim Holtz Distress paint in Vintage Photo.  I inked them up with coordinating TH Distress ink but still didn't like the look. I checked out my stash and found some wood stain.  That was the finish I was looking for.  Up close they have the crackled look of wood.

I colored my adorable Scarecrows with my Prismacolor pencils and Copic markers as well as some paper piecing.  Itty Bitty paper piecing mind you.  The paper pad is called Autumn Splendor by We R Memory Keepers.

Below is a list of stamps I used to complete this project.

PKKO-06 Scarecrow Boy PKS Cut Outs (die)

PKS-06 Scarecrow Boy stamp

PKKO-05 Scarecrow Girl PKS die

PKS-05 Scarecrow Girl stamp 

PK-647 Faceless Fall Fun - for the pumpkins

It feels good to be crafting again.  I feel whole...maybe that is what has been missing.  Tune in Wednesday for another project of mine for the PKS color challenge.

May Flowers

I don't know about where you are but I thought the saying was APRIL SHOWERS...bring May Flowers!  it hasn't stopped raining.  Then one day it is super gorgeous and I have the central air on and next time I have the heat on!  Not sure what is going on with Mother Nature but she needs to make up her mind!!! LOL

Over at the Sisterhood of Crafters we have a new challenge for you all.  The challenge is to create a project with flowers on it (has to have at least one flower).  I pulled out my PaperTrey Ink stamps which I haven't used in ages.  

For this card I grabbed an extra die cut from PT's Mat Stack dies.  I stamped the huge bunch of flowers from their Jar Fillers set so it will just show up in the corner and highlighted it with my Copics.

 This one was made with an extra SVG cut that was to big.  I cut off the top and bottom to fit on the card and I simply created this card with whatever I could reach on my craft desk.  The flower is a sticker from Basic Grey and the background stamp is ALL MESHED up from Shabby Chic Stamps.  Sentiment is from PaperTrey Ink.