CAS Sprinkled Expressions Shamrock

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Hey y'all. Just a quick post here as it's already after 9pm. Silly me I was working on the card I originally had planned to post today, last night but forgot to take pictures so obviously couldn't post earlier today. Then I came home today and got busy making more cards and mounting stamps and the time just got away from me.

This card is really a step out of the box for me. Which all things considered is kind of funny when you see the card. It's a one layer, Clean and Simple card and it's the first card of it's kind on this blog and the first card I truthfully think I've ever made on my own. Just really not my style.

I know you've probably seen this shamrock done before with this stamp set, but I think I did it just a little differently.

Here's my card-

I started with a base of Whisper White. I used my Stamp-A-Ma-Jig to position the heart from the Sprinkled Expression Stamp set and stamped it 4 times in Garden Green. I then used my Stampin Write Marker in Garden Green to freehand the stem and I sponged the edges of the c/s in the same color.

I used my Two-Way Glue Pen and some Dazzling Diamonds to outline the hearts and to fill in all of the white hearts "negative space" and the front of my card was done. I rocked my stamp ever-so-slightly on my last stamp and left a tiny mark and truthfully wouldn't have kept this card for my blog except my paper-cutter is dull from cutting my magnet sheets and isn't cutting cleanly and it was less stressful for me to leave that mark than to cut more paper. LOL! No, really, you have no idea how unhappy I am that that mark is there. :'(

Here's the inside-

A simple greeting from Teeny Tiny Wishes in Garden Green and the edges sponged in the same color and I thought I was done. At least I tried to be, went to take the picture and everything. But, you know how I like to have the inside be as pretty as the outside, so it was back to the design table (today known as the dining room table) Three little left over hearts and a left over scrap of c/s, some Tombow and voila a pretty little shamrock to make my inside pretty too.

WOW! I think that's just about the quickest  post with pics and everything, that I've ever done!

If you liked today's card, I would love it if you left me a comment. It's great when I get to hear from you! Also, if you liked today's card, please feel free to +1 or Pin it. I've added the buttons to my side-bar for your convenience. Friends and Followers are also welcome. :)

Ok, I hope to see you back tomorrow. I've got a really pretty card for you. Pics are all taken and everything, I promise!

Till next time-

Remember, Life isn't about Waiting for the storm to pass, but learning to Dance in the rain.

Be Safe,
Shan Pin It

End of the Week Technique # 24- A Paisley Petal Make & Take "De-Construct"

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Hey y'all. Happy Humpday! I missed you guys yesterday! But I was non-stop literally from 8:30am until 10:30pm.

I have a new card for you today and a question.

Do you ever look at other designers cards (or sites) and think "I wonder how long it took them to make that card" or "I wonder how many attempts it took to get that just right?"

Maybe I'm alone in thinking I'm the only one who doesn't make a card "Blog Perfect" on the first try, but I doubt it. I'm sure I'm not the only Scaredy Cat who has failed to produce the "Perfect" card on the first go round. In fact I have 2 cards at home that took multiple tries to turn out "right". In working and re-working the first one, I came up with the initial design for this card which then evolved into the final design.

I will show the other cards evolution on another post. I will also start keeping track of these "evolutions" so I can show them in future posts. Sometimes people say "I got my inspiration from X" but it's hard to know how they got form X to Y to Z. I'll show you how I got there. Then you can let me know if you think it's helpful, or interesting or not.

Here's today's finished card-

Paisley Petal, Mixed Bunch Punch Make and Take

I did this card recently, as a Make & Take, for a team meeting. I have to admit I was a little nervous because it was the first Make & Take I had done for my team, but it was well received. I really love that Paisley Petal DSP and I couldn't believe when I went to use it that I hadn't even opened the pack yet. I'm one of those people that Loves their DSP but just doesn't use it enough. SMH! And this card uses my ALL-Time Favorite Color Island Indigo! Love it!

So- By now (if you've read any of my posts at all) you know I've got a little OCD problem when it comes to stamping. And also, I hate to throw out usable scraps of cardstock or DSP. After all, You just never know when you might be able to use them for punches or making those cards where you use strips of cardstock to make patterns you know.... I just can't. So I keep the scraps in a folder with the packet of c/s so they're all together and there you go. But if it weren't for keeping scraps, well we wouldn't have this pretty little card.

In the process of making my swap card, which underwent multiple changes, I ended up using an Edgelet in the final design here-

This made this weeks EWT So Very Easy! 

You see that big open cut-away space formed by using the Edgelet? It gives you a nice piece with beautiful decorative edges....

Of course, I couldn't just throw away that "Huge" scrap of c/s. Oh No! And as I looked at it and turned it, I began to think that the decorative edges might look good on a card, framing some DSP... and so it turns out they did.

I cut a piece of Paisley Petals DSP (I think it's 7 x 2 1/2 it was a month ago), Tombowed it down and then Tombowed the two Island Indigo pieces down on top of it. I then simply flipped it over and trimmed the DSP over-hang with my paper-snips. It needed more. So, back to the drawing board or in this case the Big Shot-

I repeated the process this time running my scraps through the Big Shot with the Adorning Accents folder that coordinated with the Edgelet. Now we were cooking with Crisco! Love that combo!

***For the EWT-After a little playing around I discovered you could, depending on how much DSP you wanted to show, change the size of your borders. For the size I have, I cut squares that I believe were 6x4 to go with my DSP of 7 x 2 1/2. Use a piece of grid paper and lay it out on an old card front to check your sizes. You can make it any size you'd like. It's your card, Personalize it to make it uniquely yours!***

Then, I punched two flowers with the Mixed Bunch Punch, one with Island Indigo and one from a coordinating DSP. I sponged the edges of both with Island Indigo and then ran them through the Big Shot with the Petals-a-Plenty Embossing Folder. I used my Bone Folder to curl the edges up to give the edges some dimension and staggered the petals when I layered them so you could see both layers. I used Mini-Glue Dots to adhere them to each other and to the Island Indigo layer.

I stamped the sentiment from Petite Pairs, what a great set, in Island Indigo on Whisper White and used the Modern Label Punch to Punch it out. I then sponged it with Island Indigo, gave it a little dimension by curving it with the edge of my paper snips and tucked the edge under the flower and secured it with a Mini-Glue Dot and the Front was done.

Here's the inside-

Very simple- Whisper White edged with Island Indigo. The sentiment is the rest of the one from the front. The flower is from Fabulous Florets. I thought it coordinated well with the flowers on the front.

So that's how my card evolved... from a Swap Card Scrap, to a card that had potential that is now in the "it's got to be fixed-up pile" (cause you know I couldn't just throw it away, right?) to the finished product that went with me to the team meeting for people to see as they made their cards.

What do you think? About the card? About the idea for this as a blog topic? Yea, Nea, Maybea? :) LOLOL

At any rate, I hope I have inspired you to try something new today, maybe with some old scraps.

If you liked today's card, I would love it if you left me a comment. It's great when I get to hear from you! Also, if you liked today's card, please feel free to +1 or Pin it. I've added the buttons to my side-bar for your convenience. Friends and Followers are also welcome. :)

If you need supplies to make your own cards, you can shop in my ONLINE STORE 24/7.
Today's Card Recipe-
Cardstock- Island Indigo, Whisper White, Paisley Petals DSP
Ink-Island Indigo Classic Ink
Stamps- Petite Pairs, Fabulous Florets
Big Shot-Edgelet, Adorning Accent Embossing Folder, Petals-a-Plenty Embossing Folder
Punches- Mixed Bunch, Modern Label
Accessories- Mini-Glue Dots, Sponges, Tombow

Well, that's all I have for you today. I hope you have a great day. I hope to see you back tomorrow.

Till next time-

Remember- Life isn't about Waiting for the storm to pass, it's about learning to Dance in the rain

Be Safe,
Shan

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MDS Monday - St Patrick's Day - Utah Diva's MDS Challenge/My Challenge #14

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Hey y'all. Happy Monday! I hope you all had a Fabulous weekend! I got to spend the weekend with my Amazing BF so my weekend was beyond compare! Hope yours was half as good!

I did manage to squeeze in just a little time (ok a couple of hours if I'm being totally honest) for the Utah Divas MDS Monday Challenge for something "St. Patrick's Day" or "Going Green". I went with St. Patrick's Day. Now, normally I wouldn't count this as my challenge for the week since I do a MDS Monday every week anyway, but this card was pretty involved with the punch work, so I'm going to count it as this weeks challenge card. I may still do another one, in fact there's one I'm looking at doing, but for now this one is "the one". I hope you like it. :)

Here's today's card-

AUGH! I just noticed as I posted this that somehow during all my manipulating I had dropped my white layer down and it's not even! DOUBLE AUGH! OK, so you guys are my friends and will just pretend like you don't really notice that right, and I'll go home tonight and adjust it. So Sorry. SMH!

Anyways, other than that do you love it? I love how it turned out! My daughter was looking at it while I was making it and I had all the oval punches out on the white background (for the stems) and she said I don't see any shamrocks! LOL

I thought it would be nice to have a bunch of regular shamrocks and one 4-leaf clover thrown in there just for luck.

Just in case you're wondering how I made the stems, here's what you need to do-
1- Make 2 oval punches. Take the first one down to the size you would like the length of your stem to be.
2- Fill it in with color you would like your "stem" to be. I used Garden Green.
3- Take your next punch and fill it in with the color of the layer your "stem" is on. Here I used Whisper White.
4 - Take that oval down in size so that it's close to the same size as your "stem" oval. Use the "Bring Forward" function so that you will be able to place it on front of the "stem" piece. Move it into place and rotate it until you have just the portion showing that you want. Voila! Instant stem! :)
Hope this helps.

I then punched out 19 small hearts 3 each for the regular shamrocks and one for the 4 leaf-clover, re-sized them so each clover's hearts were at least similar in size to the ones next to it and then filled it in with Garden Green color.

Here's the inside of the card-

I always loved this saying, but never knew it was attributed to St. Patrick until last night. I just knew it had to go on my card.

You know I like a little pretty on the inside of my card but I have to say I was so tired of adding punches and re-sizing and re-positioning that I actually considered (for a Hot-Minute!) not making another one for the inside, but then I thought, "How could I not make one for the inside to go with that beautiful saying?". So, back to the punch, re-size, re-position, fill. Then I lightened the opacity to 60% and my card was done.

So, you see, that's why, with all the planning and everything I'm calling this my challenge card of the week. :)

Well, that's all I have for today. I hope I've inspired you to try something new today. If you'd like to play with MDS and create something fun too, remember we're offering a FREE 30day trial of our Fabulous MDS at No-Risk to you. You can check it out at my ONLINE STORE where you can shop 24/7.

If you liked today's card, I would love it if you left me a comment. It's great when I get to hear from you! Also, if you liked today's card, please feel free to +1 or Pin it. I've added the buttons to my side-bar for your convenience. Friends and Followers are also welcome. :)

Till next time-

Remember- Life isn't about Waiting for the storm to pass, but learning to Dance in the rain.

Be Safe,
Shan Pin It

End of the Week Technique 23 - Adorning Accent/Edgelets Holder

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Hey y'all. Happy Thursday! One more day to go till the weekend. Woo-Hoo! Are you as excited as I am? I've got two shipments that Mr. Ups is supposed to bring tomorrow (I had a fail when it came to order placing, but if all goes just right I may not even get to play with them, and I will be all right with that. What! Say it's not so! I know, right! How can that possibly be? Well, I may actually get to spend the weekend with my BF for some long overdue quality time. Due to his schedule (why does that word just not look right) and mine, and the fact that I've been so sick we have just not had time to spend good QT together recently. I will give up up stamping time for good quality face and snuggle time, I have to admit it. I'mma sucker for him. He makes me a big ole pile of mush. :)

Are you ready for today's project? I know I posted a DVD case project yesterday, and there may be something out like this, but I haven't seen it. Of course I haven't been on Pinterest in A Hot Minute! No, Seriously! I think it's been about 3 weeks since they changed the settings at work. :( But when I get my "New" I-Pad next week (what a silly name, why are they calling it that, what happens next when they get a new one, will it be the "Newer I-Pad", Seriously) At least I'll be able to access it while I'm commuting and on the go and what-not. :) Any-ways, it may be out there, but I don't believe I've seen it anywhere.

So, I had somewhere to keep my Framelets and I wanted somewhere to keep my Edgelets and Adorning Accents and keep them together. So, I decided to use one of Clear Mount Cases for this. Here's what I came up with-

I mounted the Edgelets the same way as the Framelets except instead of cutting the Magnet sheet at 6.5 x 5, I cut it ant 6.5 x 4 7/8. This made it so much easier to center it without worrying about getting too close to the edges. Perfect fit! I put them on the left hand side.

Here's a close-up of my Adorning Accent Pocket-

Isn't it sweet? I used our All-New Summer Smooches DSP. It's a little Sneak-Peek from our upcoming 2012-2013 Catalog, but you can get it now along with a cute stamp set, coordinating, fabric, seam binding and more. Don't wait too long though it's only available this month, and then you have to wait like everyone else. You don't want to have to do that do you?, No, of course not, so shoot me an e-mail or go to my website already, but after you finish here of course. :) I took a piece of DSP that was 10 x 5 initially. I say initially, because I decided that I needed a little more for the fold-over so I added about another 1 1/2 inches to it, scored of course on my Simply Scored. You can make your pocket as deep as you'd like. When I first laid all my folders out they looked like they'd lie side by side with no problem but in the end that didn't happen. However, even with the center one stacked like it is, it's not tight and there is no pull or tension on the pocket at all.

I secured the sides with Sticky Strip. I was concerned about there being enough room for the 3 folders to lie next to each other side by side with it full width even though it looked like it was possible on the grid paper during planning, so I trimmed it down just a wee bit.

*TIP* - Whenever you are doing any project where you expect there might be tension, use Sticky Strip, not SNAIL, or Tombow. This will ensure the longevity of your project.

I tied a length of Baja Breeze Seam Binding Ribbon around the fold-over flap and tied in a bow and then secured the edge of the flap down as well with Sticky Strip. I used a Mini-Glue Dot behind the center of my bow to help keep it from flopping over. To secure my pocket inside my case I used 4 Mini-Glue Dots strategically placed in the pattern of my DSP. It's barely noticeable. See-

I've enlarged this shot really big so you can see them. There are 2. One on the Purple flower in the Orange Vase in the upper left hand corner and one on the Orange flower in the Turquoise Vase in the upper right hand corner.

I will most likely try and do a MDS DVD Case Cover in this print and then it won't be an issue but until I manage that I think this is a pretty good fix.

Some of you may have noticed I had an extra scalloped Edgetlet that was shorter than the normal edgelets in the first picture. If you're wondering, that was an Oooops! :) I mounted my Edgelets on cutting mats early on, due to my OCD need for everything being centered and perfectly aligned etc. and my Edgelet came somehow cut just a wee bit long and the edge was just slightly off the mat. Once when I ran it through my Big Shot it hit the edge as it went through and it bent. Totally my bad. At any rate, not really fixable. But by that time I was seeing a lot of demonstrators doing cute cards with their other edgelet going down the side of cards and what not so I was excited about having another one of those anyways. There was no way I wanted to unstick my perfectly mounted one from it's board as it was working so well. So that's why there are 3 edgelets in the case instead of 2.

Well, I hope you liked today's project. I hope it inspired you to try something new. This was a really Quick and Easy project and it's a really useful one too. It's great for organizing, and really can't we all use a bit of organizing? After all, if we can condense our stamping supplies into a smaller space, that then means we have more room for more stamping supplies. Am I right or AM I RIGHT!?!

I won't be back tomorrow as I'm going to a stampcamp tonight with my DD. So, I hope to see you back here next Monday with a new MDS Monday project.

If you need supplies to make your own cards or projects- You can shop 24/7 in my ONLINE STORE.

If you liked today's project, I would love it if you left me a comment. It's great when I get to hear from you! Also, if you liked today's project, please feel free to +1 or Pin it. I've added the buttons to my side-bar for your convenience. Friends and Followers are also welcome. :)

I hope you have a fabulous weekend full of Family, Friends and of course time for stamping and creativity.

Till next time-

Remember- Life isn't about Waiting for the storm to pass, it's about learning to Dance in the rain.
Be Safe,
Shan Pin It

Framelet Holder OOOPS & Tips

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Hey y'all. Happy Humpday! I hope y'all are having a great week. I'm looking forward to a beautiful day and the news release this afternoon about the new I-Pad 3. Since I'm not getting an I-phone till the 5 comes out in the fall I really hope the rumors are true and Siri's on this. How stinking cute is she? Anyway, I'll find out at 1. So excited!

Well, no card for you today. I went home yesterday and was dealing with computer issues again. :( They are mostly resolved, I think. But it didn't leave me much time to sit down and make cards. However at around 10 as I was straightening up I saw my magnets and CD cases and thought I could at least put those together real quick. So I did. Kinda-Sorta-Mostly-No, I did.

Look closely at the inside Left edge towards the center

Now I know, that statistically, most of the people that read these blogs are, sadly, other demonstrators and you have seen this many times but I'm posting it here for a couple of reasons.

1- For those few people that may not be demonstrators, I hope you're out there and maybe just maybe, I'm lucky enough that you've stumbled across my humble little blog. Or, even for those demonstrators that have seen it but haven't yet tried this, maybe this will save you some frustration.

2 - You'll find the following TIPS helpful. I know it would have been helpful for me and would have saved me a magnet sheet and a CD case.

Our Magnet strips come 14" x 5" and they are EXTREMELY STICKY!!!!!! I used a piece of grid paper to measure the inside of my case and to be honest as I'm not at home right now I can't remember, it's either 6 or 6.5". I think it's 6.5". I used my regular paper cutter to cut the magnet sheets however I had to flip it over and cut it from the back to cut through the backing paper. Don't worry about the 5" side it fits just fine. If you're real worried about your centering abilities you could trim an extra 1/8 inch off but that's all I would trim.

*Post-Publish Edit - The Magnet sheets are 13 x 6 I cut mine at 6.5 x 5 so that leaves you a 1 inch strip of magnet from the side to use in another project later. In a project I did the next night, I made my sheets 6.5 x 4 7/8 and the fit was PERFECT no worries about hitting either side. This is the size I highly recommend. :)

*TIP 1* - Position your Magnet strip carefully, center it at the bottom of the case with the backing on. Remove the backing by pulling it up and laying the magnet down, similar to the way you would lay down one of our Decor Elements or a Rub On, smoothing the magnet as you go. Trust me on this. If you just lay the magnet down and it's not in the right place you are not going to get it back up.

If you look at the magnet sheet on the left side, the one with Label Framelts, you can see that it's all the way up against the edge in the center. Ask me how well it closes? Barely, and with much forcing and it will be getting re-done at some point. (Not the magnet the whole case)  Luckily, neither the magnet sheets or CD cases are very expensive, but if you know me and my OCD, and my unwilling-ness to spend money where I don't have to I will force it to close until it breaks which I'm sure will not take long because I messed up. :( So please learn from my mistakes.

By the same token- if you place it too far to the outside it will catch on the curved lip of the case. Ask me how I know. That time I was lucky enough to be able to "muscle" it up off the case. Yes, I felt like Hercules.

*TIP 2* - Although I have seen some cases with smaller widths of magnets in their cases, presumably to save money, or resources, I chose to use the whole width. I still had 2 strips of magnets left over from this original piece of magnet and more in the original purchase pack. Here's why I chose to do so. Our Framelets are very thin pieces of metal and they are new so we don't have any history with them to go by. My concern is that if I put just a strip in the middle and have no support on the edges I could potentially subject them to warping. While I believe Sizzix materials to be of very High Quality and that SU would stand behind my purchases, why would I want to be without them for any length of time if they were in fact to become damaged in any way?

*TIP 3* - When placing your Framelets on your magnet sheets, remember to place them cutting edges down. Our magnet sheets are very strong and if you place them flat side down you will find it very hard to get them back up. :) When you place them cutting side down the cutting edge will give you a little raised area to get your finger under and you will be able to lift them off without any difficulty at all.

Well, that's all I have for you today. I hope you have found this information helpful in some small way. If you liked today's project, I would love it if you left me a comment. It's great when I get to hear from you! Also, if you liked today's project, please feel free to +1 or Pin it. I've added the buttons to my side-bar for your convenience. Friends and Followers are also welcome. :)

I have something new for you tomorrow, so I hope to see you back then.

Till next time,

Remember, Life isn't about Waiting for the storm to pass, it's about learning to Dance in the rain.

Be Safe,
Shan Pin It

A Small Summer Smooches Sneak Peak - SFF 030212- My Challenge #13

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Hey y'all.Happy Tuesday. I hope your day is going good. It's so cold here in the DMV and I have to say I'm looking forward to the near 70's they say is coming in the next few days. However they say another cold front is following for the weekend. I wish the weather would make up it's mind!

Want to know what not in doubt? My plans for this card. Yep. Love it when that happens. And as so rarely happenes lately, no one on the design team had come up with this idea. I was so excited! YEA!!!!!

Here's my card-

Here's the Sketch Frenzy Friday sketch-

I started with a base of Early Espresso. Next came a layer of DSP from the Everyday Enchantment from our Sale-A-Bration line. This is only the second time I've used it. Up until last week it was my least favorite design but now I'm really kind of liking it. Too bad it's only around until the end of the month. :(

For my flower vase I used one of the vases from a new stamp set in the Summer Smooches Set (I'm having a moment right now and can't remember the name... something blooms). I inked it up with my Pool Party Stampin Write Marker and Stamped it on my piece of Very Vanilla c/s. The stem and leaves are actually from one of the other vases in the same set but I liked them better for the flower I was going to use. I stamped them with Wild Wasabi Stampin Write Markers. The Flower is from the Fresh Vintage set and was colored with Poppy Parade and Calypso Coral Stampin Write Markers. I used my Stamp-A-Ma-Jig to ensure precise placement. I love that thing and really couldn't stamp without it. You have one in your stamping tool-kit right? I sure hope so. It's a must have! I sponged the edges with Crumb Cake and mounted it on a piece of Early Espresso c/s that was also sponged for a little dimension. These two pieces were then popped up with dimensionals.

For my little banner I inked up the first part of the sentiment from the stamp set For All You Do, with my Early Espresso Stampin Write Marker and stamped it on a scrap piece of Very Vanilla c/s which I then cut into a little flag. I then sponged the edges and using the edge of my paper snips gave the strip a little wave. A few Mini-Glue Dots is all it took to hold it firmly in place. But, I think my pretty embossed butterfly's look so much prettier so I used another Mini-Glue Dot to sit them right down on top of it so it looks like they're holding it down. :)

My only variance from the sketch is up in the corner. Instead of just putting a strip of lace across the corner I added a bow too. When I imagined the card that's how I saw it. I tried it without the bow, but it just seemed to be missing something so I had to stick it on there, so once again, Mini-Glue Dots to the rescue.

Here's the inside-

A very Clean and Simple inside. A little strange for me.

Want to know a little secret? I actually went to take this picture and realized that I had forgotten to put my little signature something pretty on the inside. " I was in a hurry to finish up... it was late and I was trying to spend a little quality time with my daughter before I went to bed (it was 10:30). Luckily, I remembered that when you use your Handy-Dandy Embosslets you got not 1 Butterfly but 5, so I ran back and got 1 of the unused butterflies, slapped some Tombow on him and Voila, instant little pretty!

The sentiment is the rest of the sentiment from For All You Do in Early Espresso, stamped on Very Vanilla. The edges are all sponged in Crumb Cake and my card is done.

What do you think? I hope you like it. I hope I have inspired you to try something new, whether it's trying a new challenge or using some DSP that's not necessarily your favorite.

If you need supplies to make your own cards you can shop in my ONLINE STORE 24/7.

Don't forget Sale-A-Bration ends at the end of this month. You still have time to get your FREE items. This is a great time to stock up on not only exclusive items but awesome catalog items as well.

If you liked today's card, I would love it if you left me a comment. It's great when I get to hear from you! Also, if you liked today's card, please feel free to +1 or Pin it. I've added the buttons to my side-bar for your convenience. Friends and Followers are also welcome. :)

Till next time-

Remember- Life isn't about Waiting for the storm to pass, it's about learning to Dance in the rain.

Be Safe,
Shan Pin It

MDS Monday- Happy Birthday Momma! - My Challenge 12

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Hey y'all. Happy Monday. I hope you all had a great weekend. I got a huge box from sweet Mr. Ups and had every intention of stamping the weekend away. And then life happened as it has a tendency to do, and I spent it, spending quality time with my daughter who just moved back home. We saw the Lorax (go see it, it's Amazing!), did some shopping, did some cleaning and organizing and then it came time to work on my MDS.

I think I have lamented plenty of times here that I am not the most computer savvy person. In fact me and technology, not a good mix in general, unless it's the medical kind or Lexus-Nexus, I did pretty good with the Law library. How I managed to get an A in my computer class was sheer determination, hard work and the fact that the professor gave us the majority of the answers on the first 2 tests. God Bless that man! I have in fact now killed 2 lap-tops, a net-book and 2 desk tops. At any rate, I had some issues with finding some of my downloaded material and updates (totally my issue) and spent the better part of about 4-5 hours over 2 evening dealing with this all in an effort to come up with today's post.

Toady's post is a very special post! It's my momma's 65th birthday.

Happy Birthday Momma! :)


I talked to her late last week and told her I was afraid I had waited to long and was trying to figure out how I was going to manage to get her card in her hand by today. I was thinking I was going to have to Priority Mail or Express Mail it to her. She said all she wanted was for me to make her a card and put it on my blog for everyone to see. She follows my blog and she thought that would be cool.

Well, I think she's the best, so I thought I'd surprise her and do her one better and give her two cards instead of one. So, I made two cards that I'm posting here, and then I'm e-mailing her the cards with a special message inside just for her.

Also, I told you guys last week I'm doing 2 challenges early since my best friend Jason will be here at the end of the month and I won't be stamping and won't be able to do my challenges those weeks. Both of these cards fit the Utah Diva's MDS Monday Challenge for last week of Anything Birthday or Use A Piece of Cake CD from Sale-A-Bration, so I submitted both of them to their site last night to qualify. Now my 2 challenges are caught up and I'm back to just my one challenge a week. :)Yea me!

Ok, so are you ready to see my momma's first card? Here it is-

I used Elements of Style and Messages for Mom. My Mom loves Humming Birds so I knew she would love this sweet little guy.

You know I have to have a pretty inside-

Another little Humming Bird this one getting a little sip from one of the flowers on the flower from the Element of Style flourish. The sentiment is from Messages for Mom.

Here's card #2-

The first card was more serious, so I wanted to give momma a fun card too. This one is from the Piece of Cake CD in the Sale-A-Bration Catalog. You can get it Free. Lots of Fun Stuff in it.

Here's the inside-

Those little pieces down the sides are "pieces of cake" how fun is that?

Well, what do you think? I hope she loves them as much as I loved designing them for her, but more importantly.... as much as I love her!

I hope I inspired you to try creating with MDS today. If you decide to try I would love to see what you make.

If you liked today's card, I would love it if you left me a comment. It's great when I get to hear from you! Also, if you liked today's card, please feel free to +1 or Pin it. I've added the buttons to my side-bar for your convenience. Friends and Followers are also welcome. :)


Thanks for stopping by!
Till next time-

Remember- Life is not about Waiting for the storm to pass, it's about learning to Dance in the rain.

Be Safe,
Shan Pin It