Happy Birthday MATT!

My son turned the big 27 yesterday! Yes, 27! Can you believe it? lol Well, he can't. He thinks he is getting old. Seriously. I don't know what that means for some of the rest of us. He had a celebration with some of his "bestest" friends. Naturally that meant, I had to tag along. I had to take pics! This one is Matt and "his boys".

Matt is on the far left, then Dustin, Blake and Brad. It's rough to be so old! lol Since Matt was feeling so old, I decided to make this card for him. I needed to assure him that he would not lack female companionship now that he is the big 2 7 !! So............................

He was thrilled! lol He actually thought it was pretty hilarious. I had fun making the card. The stamp is by River City Rubber Works. I used paper piecing to make it. In this case, I stamped the image 4 times, once on white paper, then on 2 pp by Cosmo Cricket, plus a greenish colored pp by ......I'm not sure who. I then cut out the dresses, each one from a different pp, and adhered them to the original image. I haven't really done much piecing. I would hate to do this if it were much more tedious. I even cut the pocketbook out of a separate piece. Of course Matt is worth it! Anyway, I attached "the girls" with pop dots for dimension. Oh yes, the fonts I used were by Scrapfonts.com. Then the bottom was a bright birthday sticker. Had to add a festive look somewhere! Inside I wrote a mushy message, of course, because I am so blessed to have such a wonderful son! Happy Birthday, Matt! I'll always love you!

Owen the Owl - I NEEDED Him!

Well, today I am posting a card I made that is for Samantha's Color Combo Challenge at SPCC (that is Scrapmaster's Paradise Color Combos!), and I also used this week's sketch at Caardvark's for their Challenge. Here are the yummy colors Samantha chose this week:

Aren't these adorable? I don't have any Stamping Up materials, except for some stamp sets that I love, so I was appalled at the lack of colors that were close enough to suit me in my stash! I did the best I could. Guess I need to put in an order to Stamping Up, huh? See, I NEED to shop. lol

I was fortunate to have Owen the Owl to help me out though. In case you think I've lost my mind, Owen is this adorable owl stamp made by Kim Hughes for Cornish Heritage Farms. I love all her stamps. Notice I keep saying I love certain stamps. I love SO MANY! I couldn't even begin to list them - well, you wouldn't want me to. Anyway, back to the subject at hand, I was able to color in Owen with colors that were pretty much on the money. Here is the sketch I used from Caardvarks. (Actually, the sketch originally came from Sheetload of Cards, FYI.)

So, here is my card. By the way, I colored in Owen with Copics and some colored pencils on the wings. I couldn't get the Mango color right for Owen's party hat (since I don't have many of those expensive Copics!), so I covered the pink Copics with Distress Stickles "Worn Lipstick". That gave some bling plus I was much happier with the color. Well, see what I mean:

See how cute Owen is? He looks great with Samantha's color choices! The sentiment is by Inkadinkado. The aqua paper is Basic Grey. The mango pp and all the flowers are Prima. The little flower brads are Making Memories and ribbon is SEI.

Be sure and have a look at SPCC. I have had a peek at some of the other cards for the challenge, and there are lots of talented artists out there! The site continues to grow, too! The list of entries keeps getting longer! Don't forget, Samantha is looking for a DT. Here is the link to the info about it. The call ends July 17th, so better hurry!

You Are Invited to my new ATC swap!

I am hosting a new ATC swap. You can sign up here and at here or Memories from the Attic.

But before I give you the info on the swap, I just wanted to explain the pic I have posted today. The lo I did yesterday for the challenge at SPCC just did not make me happy. This is pretty normal for me. I often finish a card or lo (especially lo's) and look at them the next day with a fresh eye. Then I change them. I decided this one had too many bright colors for the old photo. I also love to cluster embellies around a pic, but decided that there were so many that they just took away from the photo, instead of enhancing it. So I removed a lot of those, removed the word FAMILY and made a little element that I thought was more in keeping with photo. Then I went over the word POP with a brown marker to soften the bright green of those Martha Stewart letters. Also distressed the frame a little more. I like it much better. That is what I get for waiting until the last minute to do a challenge. This is twice I have had posts like this lately! lol

Back to the swap. a few of the girls at the Attic are ready to do another swap and have given me their ideas for the theme. So with that in mind, the theme for our next swap will be: BIRDS AND BUTTERFLIES! Any technique you want to use if fine. That will be totally up to you.

EVERYONE is invited to participate, even if you have not swapped with us before, and you don't have to be a member at the Attic. You can sign up here at my blog

This is a 3/3 swap as usual. By that I mean, make 3 ATCs and you will get 3 in return. You may make all of the ATCs basically the same, or you may make them all entirely different. Send them to me with a sase (self-addressed stamped envelope). Please put 2 stamps on the return envelope, as I usually add some extra packaging if you haven't already. I would hate to think anything happened to your ATCs in the mail! The cut off date to sign up or withdraw will be July 24th. Please get them to me by July 30.

Comment here or email me when you need my addy to send me your creations . I will email my address back to you. Also, when I get all of them, I would love to post pics of all of the ATCs here for everyone to enjoy if you don't mind! If you don't want yours posted, be sure and let me know!

Remember, newbies are welcome! I will be glad to help you in any way I can. Let me know if you have any questions.

Come on ladies and swap! ATCs are so much fun. There may even be a RAK involved if we get enough swappers. I am pondering that one and will let you know right away!

Scrapmaster's Paradise Color Combo Challenge 4

This week the color's for Samantha's challenge at Scrapmaster's Paradise Color Combo Blog are Glorious Green, Passion Pink and Sunny Yellow. I was so excited to have made it in the top 5 last week, so I thought I would give it a shot again. The photo I used for my lo is one of me sitting on my grandfather's lap when I was about 5 years old. This is going in the book of me/Bio of me album I am doing. The pp had all three colors. It is from my stash, and I'm not sure who made it. Flowers are from Prima, Queen & Co. and from a flower lei that cost $1. I just took it apart! lol The green alphas are from Martha Stewart. The O in "Pop" has a heart rhinestone that I adhered to it, but it didn't come out too clear in my slightly crooked pic! I did direct to paper stamping of the background cs to get the correct colors. The pink scalloped edges are by Doodlebug. I see Samantha's site is already growing. Remember, she is looking for a DT. Stop by and have a look, ladies!

Also wanted to add that I have been visiting Scrapbook Doodle again. I used to hang there all the time before I started designing for Memories from the Attic. Everyone there is just as sweet and crazy (great combo, huh? lol) as ever, even the newer girls that I don't know. Lots of talent there. Another great place you should visit!

Remember, if you go 2 posts back, the free digi stamps are still available until tomorrow. Grab them while they are still free by right clicking and then clicking save as. Go from there. I'll be glad to help if you need it!

Hope you had a wonderful holiday weekend, and thanks for stopping by.

Scrap'nArts Magazine

Just a quick post to tell you I was so excited to find out that I was one of the two people that won the prize for the June blog challenges for Scrap'nArts magazine! Yay! My entries are in the post below. I also made a new friend, Gwen, who was the other girl that won. She is very sweet and very talented. She had SO MANY awesome entries - you need to check out her blog and the Scrap'nArts Mag Blog. Both of those links are in my sidebar. I have a terrible time getting links in here to stay linked, so just link from my sidebar and you should end up at the right place!

If you have not subscribed to Scrap'nArts mag, you really should. They have a new look and if you look at their sneak peak, you will want to subscribe!

Also, thanks to you all that have contacted me about the free digi downloads in the post before this one. Anna hasn't been here yet to see her comments here, or at My Sketch World, or on my email. So if you haven't left a comment about the lovely fairy she drew by hand (completely her design - no copying!), please take a sec and do so. As I said before, at TWELVE, she is soooo excited and amazed that people like her art!

"Chip" the kitty cat and Anna's fairy will only be free until the 5th. Then off to my ETSY store they go! Just think - Chip was used on the card that won one of the Scrap'nArt's challenge! But Sam does not get to share my prize! No! lol

Thanks for stopping by and have a blessed day!

Free Cat Digital Stamp Download!

Hello everyone! Lots of things going on! First of all, Sam has drawn several new digital stamps for our ETSY store, Dreamer's Boutique. I am posting one of them, who we are calling "Chip, the Cat" (cause his pudgy cheeks look like a chipmunk's!), for you here as a FREE digital download until July 4th. After that you will find it for purchase in our ETSY store. I think you will agree that Sam did a great job on this! Remember that all you have to do to download this is right click on the image and click Save As.... Then save it in your pics, or wherever you like. All you do at that point is print it. If you want it larger or smaller than the original, you can change it in any photo software you have, or even in your printer program. You know, where you have the choice of printing full page, 8 x10, 5 x 7, wallet size etc. You do not have to know ANYTHING about digi scrapping to do this. Just print, cut it out and use it on your card or lo. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions, and I'll be glad to help you out

I used Chip the Cat to make this card to enter in the Scrap'nArts June challenge about using chalks on your card. I chalked most of the image of Chip the Cat. I did use the chalks with a water brush around the edges to help stay in the lines. I also chalked the background of the digital stamp, the background of the sentiment, and the bottom of the base card. I love using chalks. I haven't used them much lately, so I really appreciated the challenge!

I also did another June challenge for Scrap'nArts blog. This one was about using ripped paper on your card or lo for dimension. I combined this with a challenge for Lucy's Summer Cyber Crop at My Sketch World, where you had to use the word Summer in the title. This was actually Toni's challenge. So this lo, One Special Summer, fit both challenges. It is actually a photo of me when I was a little girl. What memories that photo brings back!

I have one more thing you must see. Sam's niece, Anna, who is not even a teenager yet, drew the most darling fairy! She obviously inherited Sam's talent. I was so impressed with her drawing that we are posting it in our ETSY shop as a digital stamp also. But for now I am posting it here for 2 days as ANOTHER FREE digital stamp for you. I think you will be as amazed as I! Please leave Anna some love! Looks like we have a future designer here! (Please leave Sam some love too - he gets all pouty. lol)

Thanks for stopping by and have a blessed day!