My two little piggies

Hello Everyone! I hope you are all enjoying the increasingly beautiful weather everyday. What a treat from the cold and dreary days!!

It is time again for a new sketch challenge over at Peachy Keen Stamps. I decided to do a layout to follow the sketch. I thought that PK-202 Tubby Time would be perfect for a bath picture of my twins. First because there are two pigs in the tub on the stamp and second I call them my little piggies all the time. After getting halfway done with the whole thing I realized I didn't have a picture that would be appropriate to put on a blog of the two of them together so I had to switch gears. My daughter Mia gained the nick name Piglet when she was born because every time she cried she would snort. It was to cute and toooo adorable. I wanted to stay with the pig theme for the layout so I used PK-201 Pig Peeker and face package instead. I just love all the "Peekers" from PKS!!

I stamped the pigs on two different types of patterned paper. I used Copics and my Prismacolor pencils to color/accent my little piggies as well as Liquid Glass from CTMH. For the sentiments I used some chipboard letters which I inked up with Stampin Up! Early Espresso ink. Next I covered them with Versamarker and Ultra Thick Embossing Powder to make it pop a little.

I wanted to jazz up the ribbon on the bottom a little bit so I just folded it over at random intervals and hot glued it down. I inked up the edges of the DP with Tim Holtz Frayed Burlap Distressing Ink.

Now on for some exciting news!!!!!!!!!! Keep your eyes peeled for a new PKS Spring Blog Hop to celebrate a HUGE new stamp release. You won't want to miss this one...trust me!!!! Once again Kathy over at Peachy Keen Stamps out did herself.

Do You need some help Organizing??? Plus some exciting news!

Hello My Name is Lisa and I am a hoarder.. Yes a hoarder of anything paper, stickers, card stock, ribbon and OH MY BUTTONS!! I love me some buttons. The problem is you go in my craft room and you can not move. I have to climb, fight and crawl by way to even find a spot to craft. Give me 5 ingredients and I will whip you up an amazing meal, ask me to be organized and I will just crumble and cry like a little school girl. My hoarding issue wouldn't be so bad if I was organized. So I am on a new mission to get organized. I found a wonderful website that will help me not only get organized but to get organized in style!!

AV Thing In Its Place is an online website that has some gorgeous storage units at reasonable prices. I love the fact that shipping is included. I had to grab a paper bag because I was hyperventilating at all the choices. I decided to start off with something that I can use to hang in front of my main craft desk to keep all the things that I need at in hands reach. This is the piece that I decided on:

I am counting down the days until it gets here. For the first time I can't wait to start organizing. What is even better??? All the crafting storage is 15% off until March 20th. You can click the button on the sidebar to get to the site and check out all the choices. When you check out all you have to do is put the coupon code

2angels-15 to get the 15% off.

The sale ends shortly so don't miss out!!

Rumor has it that I maybe giving away the same unit that I ordered. How flippin' fabulous is that??? Once I get the unit in I will review it and post my pics to let you know what I think of it. Don't forget to check back for the reviews and the pictures as well as the details on how you can get your chance to win one of these.

Sketch time with a twist at Peachy Keen Stamps

Hello Everyone! Hopefully by the time this posts I will be feeling better. Everyone around me has been sick but I thought I was skating thru unharmed..until today that is. So excuse the short post but I am crying to get back into my comfy bed.

For this challenge we have a great sketch to follow over at Peachy Keen Stamps. But there is a twist to bring on the BLING!! Yes Bling it up!! For this challenge I used some Blingified paper which I know it is hard to make out in the photo. I also used some rhinestones, liquid glass, Stickles, and Martha Stewart glitter. I smooshed the glue while tying down the ribbon because I didn't wait long enough for it to dry..OOPPPSSS!!

The adorable little Ducky is from PK-266 Duck Dolls. I can not get enough of this adorable Ducky!! He is to darn cute. I used a die for the mating and wanted to have a flat image so it would be easy to mail. I stamped the Duckie directly onto the mat but it looked so plain. I grabbed my spanking new Grid stamp from Market Street Stamps. I stamped the duck on scrap paper and roughly cut him out. I them covered the good image with the scrap piece and stamped the grid over it and WAALLLAAAA an instant background!! I wanted my duckie to "jump" out a bit so I covered him in liquid glass after I colored him in with my Copics and Stickles.

Okay you all...I sure hope you play along with us this week. Now I am off to La La Land!!

OOHH I can't take it anymore!! Here's some more Grid

Okay I am so bad. The joke in the family is me at Christmas time. I can't wait to exchange gifts and I am usually trying to talk people into opening their gifts early. My husband and I barely ever make it to Christmas for the gift exchange. I just can't contain the excitement.

I was planning on releasing a couple more each day of projects that I made using my
Perfectly Pretty Grid. Well I have no will power so I am gonna post all the projects that are done today!! I am so bad!! But it was so much fun trying to see what I came up with. Besides on Friday Market Street Stamps is set to release a whole bunch of new stamps!!!! Yipee I have my eye on a couple already that I simply must obtain! Check out the vintage wallpaper background stamp...tell me that stamp does not have endless possibilities!!!

Okay now remember my challenge to myself was to use only Market Street Stamps and scraps. I can't tell you how fun this was. I had to literally force myself to stop because I have 2 other background stamps that I purchased that I want to showcase. Not to mention Friday's release!

On this card there is no Dp used. I used the Perfectly Pretty Grid and distressed the corners. I wanted some sort of decoration in the corners and that was a tough one because I have a few Market Street Stamps but none that would fit the bill. And since my challenge to myself was to only use Market Street Stamps I had to get creative. I took what was meant to be the water shooting up from the whales spout out of the Ocean Fun Stamp set and stamped it in the corners. I had a whole bunch of K&Company die cuts so I decided to use those on this card. Then I added some mounting dots for dimension and lace trim.

Next we have a super fun and easy card that I just love. The pictures really do not show it justice! I took some Hawaiian Shores cardstock from PaperTrey Ink and stamped the Perfectly Grid stamp in white over it and distressed the corners. I had some leftover mats on my desk that I had cut out with some PTI dies as well as some hearts that were extra from a Valentine's project I was doing. It looked nice bright and sunny so I grabbed my Ain't no Sunshine set from Market Street stamps. I stamped it in different colors and popped it up on mounting dots for dimension. This was super easy and alot of fun to make. That's how you know you have a good stamp..when they do all the work and make things look good for you!!

Next I had a leftover bus from an altered composition book that I did. I wanted to make a "Great job" card for a school age child. I put the flower on the card to see what it would look like and walked away. In that time it became permanent and I wanted to scream!!! I tried to take it off but it ruined the cardstock. I wasn't going to even show the card because I didn't like how it looked but I said the heck with it. There are no mistakes when something is handmade right??? HAHA I wish!
The focus was the bus anyway and that came out super cute. I used CTMH Liquid Glass for the windows to give it that glassy look.

Next week I will be showcasing some more of my fabulous Market Street Stamps. I just can't stop....... I challenge you all to see what you can do with one stamp and your scraps..really it's fun you should try it!

Using Market Street Stamps at the Sisterhood

I don't know about any of you but I constantly make up challenges for myself while crafting. For some reason I get a kick out of it and it forces me to see what I can do.
Well the other day I received my order of Market Street Stamps that I placed. I was blown out of the water first by how quickly it got to me but then I opened the package and simply fell in love. I ordered three of their background stamps and could NOT believe how fabulous they were. They were HUGE!!!!! One of the bad things for me using background stamps is matching up the design if I need to do a large area. Well with the stamps from Market Street Stamps I don't have to worry about that. The background stamp coveres an A2 (4 1/4 x 5 1/2) sized card perfectly with room to spare!! I couldn't wait to start playing with them but then I realized that I didn't have a block big enough to fit the stamp. BUT NO FEAR HERE!! On Market Street Stamps blog there is a tutorial how to use the stamps without blocks. You can click HERE to see that tutorial. I used my Scor-Mat and it worked PERFECTLY!!

In today's world we are all so quick to complain when something is wrong or to our disliking. Very few people actually will call a company or a store manager when they are delighted with the product or service. So I decided I am going to do just that. This is where challenging myself comes in. I wanted to share how awesome these stamps are with everybody. I challenged myself to only use Market Street Stamps and scraps...nothing new..

There is a great challenge this week over at The Sisterhood of Crafters. This is a great way to use up some of your stash. The challenge is to use Ribbon & Brads on your project. Starting with this challenge I decided to do a little "Shout out" about Market Street Stamps and on how happy I am with their stamps. Also to show how one stamp can be so versatile and used for sooooo many projects/ideas. I just saw their sneak peak of a new release called "Vintage Wallpaper" so I know I will have to add that one to my cart...SHHHHH!

Ok so on to my challenge to myself & The Sisterhood of Crafters. The first stamp I decided to showcase this week was Perfectly Pretty Grid background stamp. This card was a simple card that I came up with using what I could reach on my desk. I used my favorite cardstock from PaperTrey Ink in Dark Chocolate. Next I stamped the Grid with Versamarker ink and Ultra thick embossing powder. Found some scrap pieces of paper also within my reach (sigh..I am not a neat crafter) and some rub-ons. I also had a container of flowers I was gonna use on another project but never did. They were kinda bland so I stamped the flower in red with the Grid background stamp to jazz it up a bit. Added the brad and ribbon for the challenge over at the Sisterhood and I was done. Easy Peasy! I love stamps that do that!!





I am did another project using scrap paper within my reach. I stamped the grid onto some yucky DP that I had on my desk and punched it out with my scallop punch to make a beautiful flower! I didn't like the paper before but now I just lllooovvveee it!
Plus I used up more of my scraps!! YIPPEE!!

Tune in tomorrow to see some more fun projects I used with my Perfectly Pretty Grid stamp. After that I have 2 more background stamps to showcase...Is it wrong to be having so much fun??????

Sketch time at Peachy Keen Stamps!!

I get inspired daily by things around me, especially my girls clothing. My daughter has these adorable pajamas that I just love the color combination of. Every time I see her wearing it I just fall in love with the colors and say to myself "I need to do something with those colors" but I never have. These are colors I normally wouldn't do. I had enough of the procrastination so I just did it. There is alot of dimension to this card which you can not really see unfortunately but I am hoping that you get the idea.

The challenge at Peachy Keen Stamps was to follow a sketch. I wanted to challenge myself not to use any designer papers and to use only scraps. So for the background I used several different sizes of circle stamps from the PK-276 Flower Center set. I stamped it in Versamarker ink then white embossing powder. All of my mats were cut out using my Cricut. For the center images I used one of my favorite sets PK-08 Hot Cocoa. To make the designs on the mugs I used the "XO" symbol from PK-277 Vivienne and Friends, and the heart as well as the adorable face is from
PK-280 Valentine Sweets. I used my Prismacolored pencils and my Copics to color them in. I added some CTMH Liquid Glass to the inside of the cups and the outside of two of them. I made this card to go with a little packet of loose tea that my friend loves as a thank you. I wanted to have the tea wrapped up to show you but I ran out of time.

I hope that you come on down and play with us in this challenge. I can't wait to see your take on the sketch!

Quickest card ever!

Okay I literally did this card in about 20 minutes if that. I used all scraps. I made this card for the PapterTrey Ink anniversary "Mega" challenge.

I only had a few minutes which I thought I was just gonna have a game plan on what I was gonna do. I shocked myself when I actually completed the card. I know it isn't anything fancy but in person it is so much cuter. One of my favorite things about PaperTrey Ink is the matching dies to their stamp sets. They are defintely a must! It takes no planning if you have it all. Simply just roll, stamp and glue..WALLAAA a card!

The stamps, dies and card stock are from PaperTrey Ink. The DP is from October Afternoon.

Just For You Tag - PaperTrey Ink

Here is a quick tag that I made up to tie to some goodies, add to a card or to a bottle of wine. You can even add this to a card front. This tag is very versatile for any occassion. The buttons are from PaperTrey Ink as well as the stamp set. For the tag, I used the 2008 Holiday Tags Collection. I also added a bunch of pop dots for dimension.

I'm Late, I'm Late....

Oh my craziness!! Sorry that this is getting posted now but we were having issues yesterday with the server so I was waiting to release my post. Today I had to run around crazy on errands and the post that I thought was done wasn't even written!!! YIKES! So today you will get two posts in one.

First this week over at Peachy Keen Stamps Challenge blog there is a great sketch. I was so excited when I saw this sketch because it fit perfect for an idea that I have been wanting to do. My original theme was going to be a "rainbow" theme for the pictures I have of the double rainbows that seem to appear on my angels in heavens birthdays. But once I started doing the sketch I (totally have attention disorder) I completely changed the whole thing and came up with this. I used PKS-450 Wide-Eyed Kids Face Assortment in the largest size that comes on the set. For the crawling babies I used the New Arrival cartridge and Plantin Schoolbook for the font. Papers are October Afternoon. As many of you know I am in LLLLLLLLLLOOOVVEE with buttons. So much that I hate to actually use them because I don't want to part with them. But since this layout is for my little miracles I splurged. When my friend saw the layout her first words out of her mouth were "WOW Lisa, you splurged...you actually used your buttons!" All of my buttons are from PaperTrey Ink.

Next over at The Sisterhood of Crafters we would love to see your Valentine's Day creations. The shame with this picture is that you can't see the dimension of all the layers on this card. I made this with scraps that I had on my table but you know what, I kinda like the way it came out. Simple but cute!



You have two weeks to play along with each challenge so I hope you come and play along with us and share in the fun!!

New Challenge & Guest Design Team Call !!!!

Hello from my snowed in craft room! Actually the snow isn't that bad yet but it is our first significant snow fall this year and since I live in Pennsylvania I consider that pretty darn good. School is canceled but I can still see some grass in places. So I have declared it a Pajama wearing day. I am making some homemade soup and some homemade bread to set the mood of just chilling'!

This week over at The Sisterhood of Crafters we have an easy peasy challenge for you all. The theme is "ANYTHING GOES" so it is pretty much everything and anything your crafty little brain can dream up. AND the exciting part is that we are having an open Guest Designer call. We are looking for a few Crafty women who want to have some fun. It would be for a one month term which is 2 projects. All you have to do is put GDT next to your name on your challenge entry. I will be picking a few out and contacting the winners directly. I will let you know the two challenges you will be responsible for once you get picked so you will have plenty of time to create. Right now it is purely for fun and to get your creations out into blog world. We had a great response to our last challenge and hope that is the case on this one to. If you would love to be a Guest Designer and join us for some fun please submit your requests to us over at The Sisterhood of Crafters. Our challenges run for two weeks so you have some time!

I needed a card for a friend that is going through some tough times with her Mom being sick so I wanted to keep it simple. This is what I came up with.

I stamped the flowers in Versamarker then embossed with with clear embossing powder for a clean and simple look. Very dainty and delicate I think.

Blog Hop Winner & New PKS Challenge

Hello Everyone! Sorry I am late in posting the winner but I have been busy going from Dr. to Dr. Today was my last one so I hope that is it for awhile!.

First the winner of the adorable PKS stamp set from the Valentine's Blog Hop is.....


Trisha said...
Fabulous. I love the mice. I love all the coloring also. Feels like when I was a kid (many millions of years ago.) Thanks for sharing and the chance to win. I am a follower. patnbobcuddy at gmail dot com

Trisha please contact me within 3 days to collect your prize. Congratulations!!

This week we have a challenge with a twist over at Peachy Keen Stamps Challenge blog. The challenge was to follow a sketch but the twist was to do a monochromatic card. I started doing an adorable card and halfway through forgot about the monochromatic thing so I had to start over. No biggie but I did decide that I am not very good at monochromatic cards..chuckle!

Here is my card:



Because I had to start over I didn't have that much time to perfect my card. I am not crazy how I colored it but hey it's handmade right??? For this card I did lots of sewing, used Stampin Up! double sided Love paper and used my PKS-280 Valentine Sweets set. I colored it in with Copics and Spica Glitter pens. I know it is hard to see that because the pictures were taken late at night and the picture stinks but trust me..the glitter is there! I then sprayed it with Glimmer Mist which almost gave it a fuzzy look. I popped up another heart to cover up something I wasn't happy with. To cut it out I used my Nesties for the mat.

I hope you hop on over and play along with our challenge this week. I would love to see some more examples of monochromatic so I can learn a lesson or two!

Doing the Valentine's Day Hippity Hop!

Hello EVERYONE!!! By now you have seen all the adorable stamps that have been released. Are they not the cutest things ever?? Kathy surely does make it easy to come up with some adorable cards by just using her stamps!! Now if only I could have a ounce of her talent so I can color them in like a pro! I know I'm not perfect but I have a blast coloring them in. Reminds me when I was little coloring with crayons.

The stamp set I was given to work with was PK-281 Valentine Cupids. This is also the set I will be giving away (see information at the end of this post).

I used the smaller of the adorable mouse cupids so I could use it as a cupcake topper. I made some homemade chocolate cupcakes with double chocolate, sour cream, pudding..etc etc and made a yummy Chocolate ganache out of chopped chocolate and heavy cream. I then drizzled it with melted white chocolate to finish it off. I was going to make a card to go with this but with all of my doctor appointments this week I didn't have the time.

Other supplies I used for this cupcake topper were:

PaperTrey Ink Die

Copics

Stickles

White Gel Pen

Stampin Up Pastels

Stampin Up Ink

Now hop on over to Angelica's blog to finish the hop.

In case you got lost along with way or just arrived here below is the complete blog hop order. Don't forget to leave a comment on each post because every DT member is giving a

way the stamp set they designed with.

*** In order to win this stamp set all you have to do is leave a comment on this post. I will announce the winner and you will have 3 days to get in touch with me. If I don't hear from you, I will pick another winner. **

Peachy Keen Blog

Kathy

Viv

Kim

Lorie

Heidi

Janice

Joanna

Nikki

Erin

Emma

Ruthie

Samantha

Lisa - You are here
Angelica

Wanna take a sneaky peaky of some fabulous fun??

OHHHHHH MYYYYY GOOODNEESSSSS! Wait to you see what is in store for you. Peachy Keen has released some over the top adorable stamp sets. We are celebrating with a blog hop on Friday 1/20. The sneak peaks started yesterday on the PKS Challenge blog. Today is another wave of sneak peaks to dazzle your retinas!! Both Design teams have come together in another celebration of these wonderful stamps. Here is my sneak peak of the stamp set I will be using. Make sure to tune in tomorrow at 7pm CST for the blog hop lift off!! As usual each design team was given a stamp set to use and an extra one to give away on their blog. So there will be oodles of chances to win one of the many new stamp sets. I already have my favorite!

My Forever Snow Angel

I am on a scrapbook layout binge. Once I start, it is hard to stop. Good thing I don't do drugs or gamble because I go overboard. I think I do a lot of layouts of my children when I start to miss them so much it hurts. It is my way of visiting them and remembering the good times we had. It is nearing the anniversary of their deaths so I guess there will be lots of layouts coming your way! I love doing them but then I feel bad that I haven't really done any for the twins. Once February passes maybe I will be able to squeeze some in. I just gotta get them printed out!!!

Once I saw the sketch over at Simon Says Stamps and the theme of snow over at Creative Belli Challenge for some reason I thought instantly of these pictures. These were some of the last pictures taken on my children. They were playing in only maybe 2 inches of snow but they thought it was the best thing in the world. I am gonna do another page with the other photos but for now I just wanted to keep this as a main picture.

The challenge over at Fantabulous Cricut is to use winter warmies..something related to clothing you would wear in the snow. I cut out my mittens from Simply Charmed I believe. I didn't like the way the layer for the bottom cut out so I hand cut it then flocked it with white flocking. I used my PKS-460 Happy Lash Assortment for the faces. I used the biggest one that comes in the set which I believe is the 1 3/8" size. I covered it in liquid glass from CTMH and added a metal token to the mittens also from CTMH.
And of course the picture of my daughter for the Cutie Patootie challenge over at
Paperplay. The papers are from October Afternoon. I added oodles of Stickles to the snowflakes on the paper to make them stand out more. One of my resolutions is to use up old stuff so I grabbed these chipboard letters that I bought years ago and added some stickles to that. Boy it felt good to use up some of my ol' stash I tell ya!I had some rhinestones leftover from the Shopping page so I stuck whatever I had on this page to complete it. Hope you like it!! Stay tuned for the page that will go with this one!

Challenges, Challenges & more challenges

Oh boy, I can't even remember the last challenge I entered a project into. I had some free time and rather than clean I decided to make a project or two :) I mean who wants to clean anyway????

First this week over at The Sisterhood of Crafters we are back from a much needed break with a great challenge. We have switched it to having challenges bi-weekly on our blog so you will have 2 weeks to complete a project. The challenge this week is to make a Happy Birthday project and since you can never have to many of those cards in your stash I hope you stop on in and play along!.

I bought these stamps from Scrappy Moms Stamps awhile back and I have been dying to use the Lettuce Wish you a Happy Birthday sentiment. I am also trying to use items that I have had for awhile but never used so I took out my Freshly Picked Cricut cartridge to cut out the lettuce. I do not own (..sniff..) the cartridge they are using this week for their challenge so I had to come up with something different. For the face I used one of my favorite stamp sets PK-490 Everyday Character Faces from Peachy Keen.

I haven't done a challenge in ions and even though my craft room is in total disarray I managed to find a spot big enough to put my layout paper down. It felt good to do a challenge again and amazing enough I actually had the time to do it. Again, dust unfortunately will be there tomorrow so there is no rush..LOL

I decided to start with some of my fellow DT members challenges. Angelica & Erin are on my Peachy Keen design team and they have started up a new challenge called Music Mondays. Each week they take turns hosting the challenge and this week is Erin's turn over at Erin Lee Creative
This week the song is by Ray LaMontagne..You are the best thing. I of course automatically thought of my children since they are and always will be the most important thing in my life. Having Mommy & Me days with my daughter Annemarie will be memories I will cherish for ever and ever. Instantly I thought of doing a scrapbook layout showcasing the only pictures I have of our trips. My other fellow DT member Kim always has the best sketches for layouts so I stopped on by her blog
Sketches In Thyme to see what awesome sketch she had for me to get my creative juices flowing. I am in lllloooooooovvvveee with the paper from October Afternoon and I just got some for Christmas along with an ATG gun and other goodies so I had to use them. I brought out some chipboard pieces that I got a long time ago and decided to use those. I gotta tell you I wish I would of used them right away because I would have returned them..they are JUNK!!! Never saw anything so flimsy and junky but I am trying to use up my old stuff so I made them work. I covered them in Tim Holtz Frayed Burlap.

I entered this into the following challenges as well:

Top Tip Tuesday - Anything Goes
Cupcake Craft Challenge - Something New
Pile It On Children
Creative Cottage Something New
Crafty Catz - Food & Drink
Craft Your Days Away Anything Goes

I'm back...with a Peachy New challenge!

I can't believe it has almost been a month since I have last posted. But the holidays are usually pretty hard for me to deal with. I do not take on to much of anything so I don't overwhelm myself. I actually just spent it around the house and hanging out with my family. I am trying to get my craft room in order. I did get halfway there and I just stopped. My intentions was to get it going before I started up again but that didn't happen. We are expecting our first snowfall of the winter today so maybe I will have the time to do it!!

I did manage to squeeze into a little space to make room for the new challenge this week over at Peachy Keen Stamps. Here is the sketch we had to follow:

And this is what I came up with:

One of my resolutions to myself is to use stuff that I haven't used in awhile. For this challenge I pulled out PK-275 Faceless Flowers Petal Pointed set. This is such a great set to have in your collection of stamps because you can use it for almost any occasion...Sympathy cards, Thinking of you, Happy Birthday, Congrats..etc etc. There are several different sizes on this size. I used the smallest size to fit my 5x5 inch card. I stamped the image of each flower twice then stamped the outline image of the flower in a darker color. next I cut each flower out and popped up each layer with a mounting dot. For the center I added a small button for a little pizazz. I used my Nesties to cut out the scalloped circle mats. For the sentiment I used PK-414 Bite Me Ginger.."Sorry to Hear you are not feeling well". This was a great card to add to my collection because I always need these. I am actually happy to be in the crafting saddle again. I got some goodies from Santa that I can't wait to use. I look forward to sharing them with you all!

Make sure you stop by and check out all the wonderful eye candy that my fellow DT members came up with.!!

I wish you all a very happy, healthy, prosperous but most of all SAFE 2011! And of course Lots and Lots of crafting time!!!

Wishing Kathy a Very, Very Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you.....boy you are all very lucky that I am typing this and you don't have to witness me singing this in person!! Today I would like to wish my friend Kathy J. owner of Peachy Keen Stamps a HAPPY, HAPPY Birthday!!!! We are having a Surprise Birthday Blog Hop in her honor. We have managed to keep this a secret from her and even recruited some more people to help us celebrate (the complete blog hop list is below.) Make sure you stop at all of the stops along the way and trust me you won't be sorry. Many participants are giving away prizes to celebrate Kathy's birthday. On top of that random comments will be picked from all comments left on all of the blog stops along the way to win some of Kathy's favorite crafting items!! How cool is that??????????

I had the pleasure of "meeting" Kathy several years ago and I just knew right away she would be someone I would treasure as a friend! She is just such a wonderful person. Very giving, generous, thoughtful and down right a blast to talk to.. I made her something that I was going to share with you all today but because I didn't get it into the mail on time I don't want to spoil it and have her see it before she gets it. It's been rough around here to say the least so I had to come up with something else for the hop.

I used Peachy Keen Cottage Cutz Peach Die for the main image. I also used the Peachy Keen Happy Bird Die for the arms on the peach. I was trying to make the peach look like it was holding the cupcake from the PK-241 Happy Birthday Kids set. I glued it down wrong but when I tried to remove it, it had already left a mark so I left it. I absolutely adore the new
PK-461 Happy Lashes stamp set so I decided to use that as the face for the peach.

I will be also picking a random comment here to win a "Surprise" Prize!!! All you have to do is leave a comment on this post with a way for me to get in touch with you.

Below is the complete list of the blog hop in case you get lost along with way.

Now from here make sure you hop on over to

Jessica B.'s blog http://thatzuneek.blogspot.com/ to continue with

Kathy's Birthday Bash Blog Hop!

Angelica & Adrianne - http://www.handmadebyangelica.com/
Viv - http://craftinghaven.blogspot.com/
Kim - http://www.paperpunchaddiction.com/
Lorie - http://www.thethinkinspot.blogspot.com/
Heidi - http://gotscraps.blogspot.com/
Janice - http://stampingwithjanice.blogspot.com/
Joanna - http://scrap-making.blogspot.com/
Nikki - http://scrappinnavywife.blogspot.com/
Erin - http://www.erinleecreative.com/
Emma - http://www.creativetimeforme.com/
Ruthie - http://septemberninth.blogspot.com/
Samantha - http://samanthacasey.blogspot.com/
Lisa - http://our2angelsinheaven.blogspot.com/ - You are here!
Jessica B. - http://thatzuneek.blogspot.com/
Abby - http://www.scrapbookaholicbyabby.com/
Gaby - http://www.gabycreates.com/
Linda- http://www.krazyquilling.com/
Dobea - http://dobeaalberts.blogspot.com/
Theresa - http://www.thescrapbookingqueen.com/
Jessica K. - http://thecreativestamperspot.blogspot.com/
Glorajean - http://glorascrafts.blogspot.com/
Liz - http://skittles-and-scrapbooks.blogspot.com/
Jessica M.- http://www.kinderstampo.com/
Jenny - http://www.crazyaboutcricut.blogspot.com/
Kimmy - http://scrappinwithkimmy.blogspot.com/
Sandra - http://365daysofcricut.blogspot.com/
Sarah - http://www.pinkcricut.com/
Mandy - http://stamping4u.blogspot.com/
Lauren - http://laurenscraps.blogspot.com/
Raven - http://love4stamps.blogspot.com/
Janis - http://pausedreamenjoy.blogspot.com/
Momo - http://madebymomo.blogspot.com/
Paula - http://morethanfavors.blogspot.com/
Corri - http://www.buglvr.blogspot.com/

Embossing with Peachy Keen

Hello Everyone! I hope everyone is having fun getting ready for the holidays.

This week over at Peachy Keen Stamps Challenge blog we have a fun challenge for you and it's an easy one! All you have to do on your project is use an embossing technique. It could be dry embossing or heat embossing. I used red embossing powder on the sentiment. I then cut out the peppermint background paper with my Cuttlebug and dry embossed that. I also stamped the images with Versamark and heat embossed with black powder. I like the lines it gives me when I emboss the images first.

I started early on this project but halfway thru I just lost my Mojo. Maybe if I am good Santa will bring it back to me. I had designed the front on design studio for days to look like a gingerbread house. Then I changed gears to make it look like a bakery but then I just scrapped everything because I ran out of time.

This is a recipe box that I got the idea from Following the Paper Trail. But I changed it up a bit and used paper bags. Sorry the pictures aren't the greatest but my batteries were dying.

I used the new adorable PK-416 Lorie & Al Gingerbread set. There are so many different stamps with this set and they are to darn adorable!! On my next one I make I am going to put pull tabs on the cards with the little bowls, mittens and utensils. Great holiday gift for the baker in your life!

Encouraging words Peachy Keen Style!

There was a saying that I saw awhile back and for some reason I just loved it. After what all I have been through it really comes into play now. So when we were given the challenge of making a card over at Peachy Keen Stamps with encouragement as a theme this was the first thing that popped into my head. The saying is:

"When life gives you lemons...make lemonade".

I have heard it .."when God gives you lemons.." also but either way works for me. In that case I need to see up a lemonade stand on the corner because I will be making lemonade for a VERY VERY long time. But I figured that if I will be forced to make lemonade for the rest of my life I am going to make it the best darn lemonade I can! We can not control sometimes what life gives us. We have to take it and deal with it no matter what. Your life is what you make out of it. Not that I asked to be dealt the hand I was dealt but I was. Now it is up to me to make the best I can out of it.

I came up with this card. This was as encouraging of a statement that I could think of. Even when things look really bad, somehow, somewhere there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

I loved the color scheme on this paper. I know the sentiment is hard to see in the photo (sorry!). I was "encouraged" to actually weld something in my design studio. I took a scallop tag and welded it into a card.

I added Liquid glass to the lemondade glass but it doesn't show up very well in the photo. For my stamps I used PK-460 Happy Lashes Assortment. The size I used on the lemons was the 1 3/8" which is the biggest one that comes in the package.

I sure hope you come on by and play along with us this week. There are some AMAZING prizes to be won!

What are you Thankful for?

Fall is my favorite time of the year. I just love the colors the "light" (and I stress light) chill in the air. It is also the season of "Thanks". Many of you may not celebrate Thanksgiving but you of course are Thankful for something. The challenge over at the challenge over at the The Sisterhood of Crafters this week is about being thankful. Even with the hard times I have gone thru I know I am blessed and very thankful for many things.
Why don't you stop on by The Sisterhood of Crafters this week and share your "Thankful" or Thanksgiving inspired project. Maybe even share your thoughts on what you are most thankful for.

Here is a quick card that I came up with that I will give to my neighbors attached to some baked goods. I had to keep it simple since I was making so many of them but I will dress it up when I attach it.



Hope to see you over at the Sisterhood!

My Peachy New Winner!

Thank you all for hopping along with us to celebrate the November releases over at Peachy Keen Stamps. I wanted to log on to pick the winner of the PK-331 Our 2 Angels In Heaven stamp set. I also wanted to take a moment to thank each and everyone of you for your beautiful comments. I would love to email you all directly but my little girlie goo's tell me that I do not have the available time to take off in order for me to do that! LOL But I read everyone of them and they were very touching and comforting. So please accept this big ol' cyber hug from me!

Now on to the winner of the PK-331 Our 2 Angels In Heaven stamp set.

Drumroll please ...........................

And the winner is:

SueNJ said...
Lisa, your card and story touched my heart! I am now a follower and would like to share this on my blog as well. Being a preschool Sunday School teacher makes your strength resonate. May you be blessed beyond measure for your compassion and wonderful spirit.Happy Scrappin'Sue B

It's finally HERE!!! Let's hear it for Peachy Keen!

Can you tell how excited I am??? I have been counting down the minutes till I could see all my fellow DT's projects with these great stamps. I have only seen the sneak peaks just like you all. And just by the little tidbits I know they are going to be great. Since you all probably have seen most of them along the hop, you know what I am talking about!! I unfortunately haven't been able to play with all of them yet and I am DYING to!!! sigh...

As you know along the hop each DT member has a stamp set that they made a project with for this release. They will also be giving that stamp set away (the one that they created the project with). If you count them you will have 14...yes 14 chances at winning one of these great sets.

Now on to my stamp set! Awhile back Kathy from Peachy Keen Stamps called me and told me that she has designed a stamp set of two angels in memory of my children who passed away in a tragic car accident Feb. 19, 2007 at the ages of 3 & 5. It has been a horrible struggle to deal with this loss but when someone does something kind like this I am just blown away. Of course I was crying like a baby (much like I am doing now ). She also knew that I sell things to help raise money for several children's charities ever since my kids passed away. So not only did she design the set in honor of my children she is donating $15 of the sale of this stamp set to the charity of my choice. I will be picking the Make-A-Wish foundation to help grant children's wishes that are extremely ill. What is great about this, is that I have already spoken to the Chapter in my area and I will be able to know the story on the child (hopefully more than one)and the wish we were able to grant. I can't imagine what goes on in a child's head when they are facing such a horrible battle but I can see the smile on their face when they get their wish fulfilled. Not only will they have forever memories, their families will to. No parent should ever have to see their child suffer.

The stamp set was lovingly named PK-331 Our 2 Angels In Heaven . This is the stamp set that I used and will be giving away as well. PLEASE forward the information on about the stamp set PK-331 Our 2 Angels In Heaven to anyone you think maybe interested since the profits from this set will be donated to charity. It would put a smile in my heart if we were able to grant a terminally ill child's wish. Thank you all in advance for you support!!!

Unfortunately when I made my card showcasing this stamp I wasn't feeling so well. That made me feel worse that I didn't do a good job, especially on such a special set but I promise to try better next time.

Here is the set. As you can see, it comes with a bunch of great sentiments so you can use this year round.

In case you get lost, here is the order of the blog hop.

Peachy Keen Blog

Kathy

Viv

Kim

Lorie

Heidi

Janice

Joanna

Nikki

Erin

Emma

Ruthie

Samantha

Lisa - You are here

Angelica

All you have to do to win this beautiful stamp set is leave a comment on this post. I will pick the winner by random on the 15th of November. You will have 3 days to contact me to claim your prize, if I don't hear from you another winner will be chosen.

SUPER SUPER SPECIAL PEACHY KEEN SNEAK PEAK

OH My Word! Everytime I think I have my favorite PKS Stamp I get blown away by new ones that Kathy has drawn up. Just wait...Just wait till you see these November releases!!! They are just tooooo cute! I just wanna pinch their checks!! There are so many great and different ideas that you can do with each one. They are not just for the holidays.

There is something also VERY VERY SPECIAL going to be released tomorrow and I can't wait to share that with you. It is extremely close to my heart and I have known about it but I haven't been able to share it with you. It had me in tears (sniff, sniff as I am now)..OK can't say anymore...You will have to tune in tomorrow for the full story. But for now here is a little sneak peak.

To see all of the sneak peaks you can click on the banner to the right on my sidebar. You are going to be blown away with what all the PEACHES from the Orchard have been working on with the new releases!! You won't wanna miss the Blog Hop tomorrow because there is OOOODDDLLEESS of fun stuff to win. Peachy Keen just has the best blog hops. Not only do you get some amazing inspiration you have so many chances to win. Don't forget to shine your shoes tonight for the hop tomorrow!! Remember you got to be in it to win it!!!!!!!

Sugar and Spice and everything nice!

Hello Everyone! Sorry for this late post but I have been dealing with a situation that has been brought to our attention this morning. I plan on posting it tomorrow because people need to be AWARE of people like this in Blogland!! It is disgusting that people would do this. So tune in later or tomorrow for the news.

On to the good stuff! There is a new challenge over at Peachy Keen Stamps Challenge blog. For this challenge we had to follow this sketch below. I started out with a layout and had it almost done. But time got away from me and in my twisted mind I thought it was easier to start all over on something else.

Here is the sketch.



And this is what I came up with.




The supplies I used were:
PK-411 Lil' Gingerbreads and phrases - for the sentiment
PK-406 Sugar 'n Spice Ginger Girl
October Afternoon DP
Papertrey Ink Kraft Card Stock
Papertrey Ink Pure Poppy ribbon
Prismacolor pencils
StazOn ink
white gel pen
Liquid applique
Martha Stewart border Punch

A Boo-Rific Challenge!!!

Okay so Halloween is my favorite holidays to make things for so when I noticed the Challenge over at the The Sisterhood Crafters was going to be a Halloween inspired project I got all excited. But then reality set in, life got in the way, and my twins got 4 shots each (of course I was home alone with them while hubby got to work). So sadly all I could come up with is a card which is unusual for me. I found these scraps while cleaning my room and I decided to try to make something with them. The stamps I used were from the $1 bin at A.C. Moore last year. I used CTMH liquid glass on the moon which is hard to see in the picture. The card looks much better in person, for some reason it was really hard to get a picture of it. Hey...at least I used some scraps that I started for another project right??? hahahaha


It is my week to host the challenge at The Sisterhood Crafters so please stop on by and show us some Halloweeney Love!

Wrapping it Up Peachy Keen Style

Hello Everyone! I have been M.I.A lately from blog land and haven't crafted in weeks ..sigh :( My kids birthdays in heaven just passed and I haven't had the mojo to do anything. But I did some retail therapy to help me get back into the groove and I am helping that will help with some of my new crafty goodies!!

This week over at Peachy Keen Stamps Challenge blog we have a super fun challenge for you!! We are asking you all to make a project by creating elements used in wrapping a gift. Ideas for elements are: tags, gift wrap, gift card holders, and note cards etc.

I decided to do a Stationary box for a friend of mine. She never gets Christmas cards out because of lack of time & she complains about the price of stamps. So as a little gift and a bit of a chuckle I am sending her this box filled of stamps, cards, tags and little cards as well as a little note pad. After seeing this pic I am gonna spruce up the inside a bit with some personalizing for her but in case she is reading this I don't want her to know it is for her!

This box contains 4 of each style ~ A6 sized cards, 3X3 cards and tags. The little pocket on the bottom right is where I will put the stamps. To make the image on the front of the box I used PK-019 What's so Funny Snowman. I took the tree & snowflakes from that set also to do the 3X3 cards. For the A6 cards I used the snowman from PK-327 Winter Peekers. I just love how cute those images are!!!! It is hard to see in the pictures but I used dimensionals to give it some depth.

The other supplies I used are:

Paper - Figgy Pudding by Basic Grey
Copics
Prismacolor pencils
Glitter
Stickles
Glimmer Mist
Nestabilities
White Gel Pen
Stampin Up Ink
Tinsel Glitter by Marth Stewart
Twine from Papertrey Ink
and a few other items I am not sure of the names
I hope you come along and play with us over at thePeachy Keen Stamps Challenge blog with this super fun & cute challenge! See you there!!

Blog Hop Winner & New Challenge

Thank you all for some great comments. I read each one and I really enjoyed your stories. I laughed because I was in awe of the creativity of Mom's. I also had some of the same costumes that you all had and I just loved it.

Okay now onto the winner of the Peacy Keen Stamp set that I am giving away.

Drumroll please..............

CONGRATULATIONS GLORA of http://glorascrafts.blogspot.com/!!!

You have one Lisa Jean Halloween Stamp set coming your way. You have one week to contact me with your mailing information so I can get your prize out to you.

Now onto the new challenge over at Peachy Keen Stamps!! This challenge we were asked to make a project inspired by the month of October. My neighbors boys are my adopted family and they love anything spooky, gory etc. I came up with this door hanging for them to hang on their play room door. I took pictures of it and showed it two different ways. I was going to leave it like this originally

But then I thought it was not going to be scary enough for them so I added a couple more monsters & blood. I had a lot of fun making this for them. I designed it on my Design Studio.

The supplies I used were:

Cricut Catridges: Mini Monsters, Happy Hauntings, Plantin Schoolbook

Peachy Keen Stamps:

PK-630 Nikkity Knack Cat Gang

PK-634 Frankly...

PK-692 Monster Mash Assortment

PK-690 Make A Monster Face Assorment