You're Invited......

Occasion: Paper Cupcakes "Tea Party Sketch Blog Hop"

Where: Starting on the Paper Cupcakes Challegnge Blog you can find here

When: August 11th - 18th

No need to RSVP just come and have fun, collect the sketches, enjoy the projects and as always have fun along the way!

We look forward to sharing some love, good conversation and of course a nice cup of tea!

So help us spread the word and grab the icon below, paste it on you sidebar on your blog, link it back to the challenge blog... blog about it, share it with your friends and followers and most importantly don't forget to come back and enjoy yourself!



Since I have been busy busy drawing all new releases for this hop I have not had much time to do the challenge for this week over at Paper Cupcakes, but I love to join in when I can. So, since I seem to have everything out and have a small breather here I decided to make a few cards today the first one for the challenge over at Paper Cupcakes. Nilla Berglie brought us this weeks challenge and it was create a card using the thought of "Strawberries & Cream" and the freebie image by Paper Cupcakes "Party Cake". So, here is my creation. I actually have some cream color on my cake, but you really can't see that too much in this picture. I used mostly my Bic Mark-its to color my cake. Made my layer flower, Martha Steward punch for the leaves and marvy punch for my little dragon fly. The pp is DCWV. I added the punch of green color, because I love the green top to strawberries and thought it would set off the red and pinks and the cream and white. Really pretty simple, but I loved how it turned out.



The second card I made was using the image by Paper Cupcakes "Summer Swim". I wanted it to be bright, cheerful and sunny. I used my Bic-Mark-its to color the image, chalk for my soft sky. My sun is on a pop-up dot and I wish I would have placed the chick on one as well, but oh well... the rest I think you can figure out! I think it one turned out super cute as well, or maybe it is just it feels good to be making something so it all looks good to me! lol



Well, I have one more, but I have to send it out to someone and will post it after they have received it. So, guess that is it for today, hope you are staying cool. Have a great weekend!

Extra, Extra... Read all about it..........

Wow, what can I say, but time just does not stand still or slow down for me! These days have just flown by!

First I want to say good-bye to some of my designers that needed a break or needed to move. I have felt very blessed to have had all these wonderfully talented ladies share with us over these months. BIG thanks goes out to Kim McDonald, Olga Jewell, Selma Stevenson and Sue Walsh! I will truly miss your beautiful works of art here on my blog, but everyone can still check out their blogs! You can find all the past designer's blog links on my side bar over at TMITA/PCC.

Now let's welcome a new set of wonderfully talented ladies as well as our new Designer's to our team:

Amber Hillman
Dru Cabral
Gloria Westerman
Patti Painter
Marie Bridgeman
Melanie Newby

and the rest of our team:

Jessie Fitz Henry
Nilla Berglie
Patti Nelson
Pat Pedder

I feel very blessed to have all these talented ladies!!

Some of these ladies will be joining us this coming Monday and everyone will be here on July 26th, so don't miss out! Like I said our challenges will resume Monday, July 19th.

So you wonder what I have been doing all this time away. Well, I have been working really hard and I decided I needed to have a "Tea Party" with all my friends out there in cyber space! So I have planned for August 11th (not July 28th I have changed my date, I needed to wait for all the tea to arrive) something you won't want to miss out on! A "Tea Party Blog Hop"! The hop will be showcasing new images made just for this hop... just for your personal viewing and of course they are all "Tea Party" related! How fun is that? AND not only that.... Each blog will have a sketch on it as well so plan on attending/hopping our "Tea Party, Sketch Blog Hop"!

Also, on a down note regarding the Paper Cupcake site. We are experencing some major difficulities with the check out and purchasing when it comes to being Global. I have received several notices of not being able to check out. Please know we are working on this diligently. We have been working on this for about 2 weeks now and needless to say it is very frustrating. We are hoping it will be working soon

Alrighty, Now don't forget to tune back in on this coming Magical Monday July 19th when we will be back in the swing of things! Now I must head for bed, because 1:11 seems like a great number to head that way! ((ugh... not really)

OK.. Thanks for stopping by and have a Magical Day!

Magical Monday - PCC image & Box/Bag/Container

This week's challenge over at TMITA/PCC is brought to us by Olga Jewell. She wanted us to use a Paper Cupcake's image and showcase it on a box or container. I made this cute little birthday box that you could tuck some special candy treats in that I think could be used for a treat box for school or for a special party. The image I used was called "Birthday Cupcake" and I colored it with my Bic-Mark-its. I added some cat's eye ink on the edges of my card stock box and then I also used some rub-ons for the word "celebrate". I stamped my big candle which is a stamp by Hero Arts, but I only used one candle of the five that are actually on the stamp. I added some Stickles to my image's hat and some to the candle's flame and a few stars, as well as the top scallop on my box. I placed my image on pop-up dots. Added some red fiber and thought it looked completed. I also added a big red flower on the other side of the box, but failed to take a picture of it, but it is centered on that side.




This is my youngest son who is six, who so wanted to make a special box too. So, we kind of created together which was fun, because I wasn't doing it late at night which seems to been the case so much lately.


He too used a Paper Cupcake image which was "Teddy Bear Sunday" and colored it with Bic Mark-its as well. I think he is quite creative!



He added 3 felt flowers on the one side and punched some holes and added a variety of fibers for extra fun.



He added on big pink paper punched flower on the other side as well and some more fibers through some more punched holes. Didn't he do an awesome job?! It is so festive!



It was quite the creative Sunday afternoon over here while my dear husband stained the barn in the humid hot part of day... yeah I would rather be creating! :O)

You can find the template for this cute little box here at my friend's Helen's blog. I actually made my box bigger. I brought it up on my computer just to view it and them made it bigger to fit a 12x12 and I actually traced it onto paper from my computer screen and then move the image down to be able to copy the whole image. Our boxes stand about 4 inches tall and about 3 1/4 inches across when folded up into the box.

So, have a great week and can't wait to see what all of you come up with!

Let's get spotty...

Well, this week just flew by like all the rest, but Eric and I went on a mini trip to Niagara Falls, Allegany State Park and hit a few wineries on the way back. I must say I so needed it and totally enjoyed it. Although, the weekend hours have flown by with business as well, but all good. Spent yesterday with 4 girlfriends at one of their lake homes, just a girls day out. I left early and got back late at night. Sunday I spent most of the day at my brother's and we celebrated Father's Day with both sides of their family. I had a great weekend, but I am so ready to just crash in bed. My house is a pit of a mess, have tons of laundry and now this card mess ta-boot.

So, with that all said.... this is the challenge brought to us by Pat Pedder for this week's challenge over at TMITA/PCC. It was a "let's get spotty" challenge. I used some spots on my white card stock with my embossing folder and then my pp and bow also have spots. I kept this fairly simple because I made it upon getting home tonight and well, I think you know simple is good when you are tired! :O) I colored my image with my colored pencils.



OK... off to get my little A-man to bed as well as me... have a great week!

Magical Monday - PCC Image & Monochromatic

Here is my card for this weeks challenge brought to us by Patti Nelson.... I am running around like a mad women getting ready to leave for a week without any children and just my hubbie. So, this is very last minute on the way out....

My image is from Paper Cupcakes and you can find the challenge at TMITA/PCC. I color my image with my color pencils and did my monochromatic theme all in purples. Well, that's all this mad women is going to write today... I will catch you next Monday, in the mean time have a great week!!



OK... it's almost a week later and not sure why my pic did not post and just gave you a blank box, but just got home and now we are on our way out for another hour drive to pick Morgan up from camp! ((( ugh.. back to like as norm! )) :o)

Magical Monday - Sketch Challenge

This week's challenge over at TMITA/PCC is brought to us by Jessie Fitz Henry, which was a sketch. The first 2 cards using "Catch of the Day" which was a freebie to go along with the challenge are for the challenge. I used my Bic Mark-its to color my image.




This following image is called "Snails with Sign" original name I know, but naming the images I find hard to do, HA, so that's the kind of name ya get when I can't think of anything cutsie!



I actually did these 2 cards for Nilla's inspirational challenge from that pic of really pretty flowers. I used the colors and I loved how these 2 cards turned out, but I have been so busy I just never got around to photographing them and did last week, but then never posted them. The first image is called "Penguin with Cupcake" and the second one "Painted Cat". All colored with my Bic Mark-its.

Magical Monday - Summer Inspiration

Oooops! I accidently posted my card on the wrong blog!!!! ugh.... now it is in the correct place.

This is my card for the Summer inspiration challenge over at TMITA. Kim McDonald gave us a poster to go by and I was inspired by the sky, trellis and the dock. My card is pretty simple, but here it is again 11:00PM on Sunday which happens to be a holiday weekend as well in the USA. I have been extremely busy and my design team has been more then patient with me waiting for me to upload my new images that I have not yet accomplish to date. :o/ With that large job coming to and end, softball, baseball, school ending for Avery, Morgan vomiting on Thursday/Friday this week, Nathan's graduation and then his graduation party yesterday which consumed the full day and attending other open houses I must say these last 2 months have been more then crazy for me. SOOOO... I really do think after a few days even with the kids all out of school I should be back on track in a much more normal way with my days. Well, that is what I am hoping and praying for.

So... back to my card. I used my cuddle bug to make my dock, Martha Stewart's punch to make my trellis and I chalked my clouds in the back ground and I just drew that tree and colored it with my Bic mark-its. Added some buttons and a bow; my computer generated sentiment and called it complete. It was fairly quick once I knew what I wanted to do. I partially cut my image out on the bottom and left the top attached where I chalked the sky. Well, that's it for now, not feeling so great at the moment so I am now headed for my bed and I think I might even sleep in for a bit with tomorrow still being the holiday!

Anything but a card....

Patti Nelson brings us this weeks challenge over at TMITA/PCC. It was to make anything but a card with a birthday theme. I decided to make another candy bar wrapper. This one more for a boy. The colors seem a bit off here in my picture. All the blues are in the larger piece of paper, but you really can't see that very well. The ribbons are actually a bit brighter in blue, but they look really dark here, probably because I am taking the pic late in the evening. So, oh well... it really looks like it all goes much better in real life. Sometimes things just photograph that way!



This week has flown by and I hope to have new images uploaded this week. Our second graduated today and his party is this coming weekend. I hope things slow down for me after this weekend has past. So.. have great day and I am always thankful for you comments!

Be Inspired Challenge

The challenge over at TMITA/PCC is a "Be Inspired" challenge brought to us by Nilla Berglie this week. She found a beautiful picture that you can see here. I was inspired by the colors and loved the dark vase and bright pinks and greens. I decided to use the images by Paper Cupcakes that were: "Flower Teapot" and "Raspberry Tart". I wanted my teapot to look in color like the vase and then I carried the green and pinks into the flowers on the teapot and the raspberry tarts. I colored my images with my colored pencils and cut them all out and placed them all on a table top. The pp is Minds Eye. My sentiment is computer gernerated.



Well, thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful week!

Magical Monday - Clean & Simple

Happy Monday everyone! OK, I know people in general look at Mondays and don't usually connect happy with it, but hey you have to start your week sometime, so why not make it a happy one! This weeks challenge over at TMITA is brought to us by Sue Walsh. It was to make a clean and simple card. Clean and simple can sometimes challenge me, but I really love the card I made with this image "Softly Afloat" by Paper Cupcakes this week. The only thing I colored were the stems on my flowers. I printed the image once on white card stock, twice and orange card stock and once on yellow card stock. I then cut out the orange flowers twice and glue the first ones down, then placed the second ones on pop-up dots and then just glued down the yellow ones as well as my butterfly. Then I just matted the image and then placed that on a larger mat, tied my pretty green ribbon on and it called it clean, simple and complete. The sentiment is computer generated and the font is Santa's Sleigh, which is one of my faves!

This week has just flown by and my time seems like I have no time. I have worked on mural type work all week during the days and the evenings have been consumed with softball and baseball games and practice. I will be working again this week on my work and hopefully will finish it up by the end of the week. We froze on Saturday during the games, it was really cold and there were high winds which made it twice as cold. I took like five blankets for the girls to keep warm with since they were in shorts (I was wearing my winter coat with gloves). I lost a blanket and my cell phone in the process of getting back to the car, but the day ended with good news both were returned to me hours later which made me quite happy. I had a nice Mother's day, attended church, went out to lunch, came home and took a nap, called my mom and made my card for today and will head for bed early since I have to head out for work in the morning.



So, have a great Monday and thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to stop by and visit me!

This weeks challenge is brought to us by Olga Jewell this week over at TMITA/PCC. It was to follow a sketch, which I love to do, but rarely do on my own. I used the image "Follow Me" and used a fun summery pp that was in my scraps. Kept it fairly clean and simple. Colored with my Bic Mark-its. Well, this past week zoomed by super fast and the next 2 weeks I will be working on putting some paint on some walls for some designs I did for a church, so I will be away during the days and I am sure busy when home as usual.



So, thanks for stopping by and now I am headed for bed just short of mid-night. Thanks for stopping by I hope to get by some of your blogs soon, so please forgive me if I haven't been by to visit, believe me I certainly miss stopping by and enjoying all your inspirations! Have a Magical Monday, or at least a good one anyway!

Magical Monday - Anything Goes

This is the card I made for the challenge over at TMITA/PCC. The free image this week is called "Easter Lilies" from Paper Cupcakes. I cut my image out and mounted it on black card stock. I colored my image with my color pencils only. The pp was from some scraps. I stamped my sentiment which is by Stampabilities and then I punched holes for all the ribbons and then tied them all on.



I think this turned fairly striking with the color combo. I almost always get the designer's projects before I do mine and I always open them up and always love them all and I'm always inspired by them as well and then sometimes it makes it hard for me to look at the image with my own perspective on how I might approach it. I love this image and think it is really versatile and love what the designer's all did with it. So, make sure you go by and check them out, because they are all so lovely as always!

Now, more on the personal side, baseball & softball season has officially started here in the Midwest. I don't even want to imagine how much more will be added to our schedule because of it too. With 2 of them playing we can pretty much kiss every Saturday day good-by and a few week nights as well, for practice and week night games. The one thing with Avery's game, I certainly can take my drawing pad or a good book, because let's just say, there is not a lot of action going on with the 5 & 6 year olds except tossing dirt into the wind or tackling each other and making a pile to get the ball when it is hit. Although, it can be interesting/funny to watch at times. One little boy on Saturday that was on second ran back to first instead of third, then onto third base, then onto the pitcher's mound, then back to third and the around the pitcher's mound again then back to first. I would say he was quite in his own little world of base running. Oh, and he was on our team too! :O) Morgan has not had her first game yet, but they will be much more interesting to watch. She is quite the little ball player and catcher. So, here are pics of our 2 players. Aren't they just the cutest? It was opening day with the parade, so needless to say we were there all day, well running back and forth. The parade was at 8:30, our game at 3:00 and practice for the other at 5:00. Crazy crazy, I only hope we can keep up with it all!




Well, thanks for stopping by and I always love your company and if you took time to read all this, I truly am blessed! Have a great Monday and here's to another week in my world! :O)

Magical Monday - Recipe Challenge

This week's challenge over at There's Magic In the Air with Paper Cupcake Stamps is a recipe challenge brought to us by Kim McDonald. If you would like to see the recipe you can find it and the challenge blog here. I used the image "My Cup of Tea" by Paper Cupcakes. I used my Bic Mark-its to color it and well, I am pretty sure as simple as it is you can figure the rest of it out! :O) This was a really quick and simple card to make and I am positive I made it in less than an half an hour; including the coloring. I think it is cute and will make a perfect girlfriend kind of card.



Well, that's it for me for this posting. I might just get to bed before 11:00PM tonight which will be such a blessing! Well, take time to smell the coffee today and if you don't like coffee try some of the spring flowers! :O) Thanks for stopping by today! I always enjoy your company!

Color Combo Challenge

This week's challenge over at TMITA/PCC is brought to us by Nilla Berglie. She asked us to use colors blue, green and white as the main theme for our project. I started making my project at 10:30PM tonight and it is now 11:40PM and needless to say I am past ready to go to bed. I had the large chocolate bar that I bought myself for Easter, but have not gotten around to eating it, so I decided to make it into a treat for someone else and save myself from absorbing the calories! Of course this was a fairly easy and quick project to do and I also thought it turned out cute and I will have it on hand for a upcoming treat for a friend or to go with a birthday gift for one of my kids. OR maybe I will slide off the wrapper really nicely and set it aside and eat the chocolate THEN just purchase another one and slide it back on when I need it! So, what would you do???? :O)



OK.. off to bed with me now! Maybe I will dream of eating my chocolate bar in my sleep then I won't have the urge to eat it tomorrow!

Magical Monday - Spring Challenge: 3-D flowers & Leaves

This week over at TMITA/PCC Selma Stevenson brings us our challenge which is a Spring challenge and using 3-D flowers and leaves. This is the card I made for that challenge. The image is by Paper Cupcakes and is called "Mossed Topped Birdhouse". I used scrap paper for my background and my flowers I punched and kept simple like the flowers in the pattern paper. I love this orange and green together and though my card turned out pretty springy and cheery. I colored my image with my Bic Mark-its. The sentiment is computer generated.



Thought I would save some time and also post these 2 layouts I did for challenges over at Scrapbook.com that I am in a group with. It seems like since I started this digital image journey I don't seem to be scrapping as much as I would like to, I always try to get in these 2 challenges every month. Usually just under the wire, but I love both of them and I so love to scrap my pictures and memories.

This first one is pictures of all four of my children's baby pictures and pictures of how they look right now. The challenge to this lo was suppose to be something on time. This is what I came up with. Fairly simple, but I so love how it turned out.



This one is a lo of our cat Storm. We have had him just about a year now and he is just a lovely cat with a great personality and very loving. I rarely get great shots of him, because he is black for one and when ever I use a flash he always closes his eyes. These were some great ones taken of him shortly after we got him. He was a stray where my daughter worked and she snuck him in late one evening and needless to say we all fell in love with him. The challenge here was to use some masking which I used at the bottom of the lo. I used a piece of paper that was punched for my mask and also to use something that was green, which were my leaves in the flowers.


I hope everyone had a lovely Easter Sunday. The weather was just beautiful here for once and the day was just lovely. Thanks for stopping by and big thanks if you left me some lovins! Have a spring filled day!

Magical Monday - Let's make a basket!

This is my project for TMITA/PPC blog. Sue Welsh brings use this week's challenge of making a paper basket or altering one. I made my own and did my own thing. I made a template which you can find in this post.

For my basket I started with a double sided 12x12 patterned piece of paper. I used the 2 scalloped nestability for the top flap found on each side that is white. I cut these in half and then placed them around all four sides. Before placing them on the sides I punched holes in the scallops to give it more of an eyelet lace look. I wove my basket with the other side of the patterned paper (see instructions below). I gathered lace the length of my handle and glued it on and placed the ribbon on top of that and attached my handle after the basket was put together. I added the tiny pink poms poms around the top edge and then added the pretty bows to each side of the handle. I placed an image on each side and then layered flowers on the other two as well. I found that cute little pink humming bird at Michael's and thought it would be so pretty sitting on the handle and found the cute fuzzy chicks at Hobby Lobby which I might add that Avery just loved!



I also made my first side step card to go with my little basket. I carried the theme of the basket to the card. I have seen these type of cards many times and I have always loved the ones I have seen so I gave it a try. The end result was much smaller then I expected, but I was still pleased with the card. You can find the instructions for this card here.



Quick Woven Basket Tutorial:

This is a picture how I divided my paper and of the lines I cut to make this quick woven paper basket. The finished basket ends up measuring 4x4 square.


1. Start with either a 12x12 piece of card stock or a doubled sided piece of atterned paper.

2. Score into nine 4x4 inch squares.

3. Cut along the lines that say cut (4 times the middle squares). They measure one inch each across. This will be the part you weave with the other paper.

4. (Note) The flaps/squares on each corner will fold inward to be the inside of your basket. The lines that don't say cut will be the lines you fold.

5. Cut 16, 1x4 inch pieces of paper that you want to weave with. I used the other side of my patterned paper. You will need 4 strips for each side.

6. Weave each side. Pay close attention with the first woven piece when moving on to the second side, because if you are using a different color or another pp you will want it to be alternated on the next flap so the weave looks like it is carried on the next side when you close up the basket. (does that make sense?)

7. After all sides are woven, glue all the ends on those pieces to secure them in place. (do this on both sides of the paper; inside and outside).

8. Now fold the flaps upward to start forming your basket and the large squares found on the corners that were not woven fold in so that they become the inside of the basket. I placed glue on the flaps before folding in so I could hold them in place while the adhered. I always use Aleene's quick dry tacky glue, it adheres really quickly... I love that stuff. Do that on all four sides.

9. This is where I cut 2 large scalloped nestibilities and cut them in half and used them for the top edge of the basket under the pink pom poms. You of course could finish off your basket however you want.

10. Cut handle the desired length that you would like. I cut mine about 1x11. I glued mine to the basket as well, but you could certainly attach with brads or ribbons or anything creative. I glued on my gathered lace and let it dry before attaching it to my basket.

11. Embellish however you want, have fun!

I think this would make a fun project for a child. If a younger child did this you could make all the cuts for them and let them do the weaving and gluing. These would also be fun to make and maybe place some spring flowers in and give as a gift if you were visiting someone on Easter Sunday as well.

I had a lot making my basket and card! My children are on spring break this week, so I imagine this week will fly by!!

If you want to check out my store for some more great images, please stop by Paper Cupcakes and check out the new images that just arrived~ you can find them HERE.

So, I say... have an "Eggs-traordinary" day!!