Wow! Its already Saturday! I just got this set from My Favorite Things called “You Take The Cake”. Its so cute! You can never have enough birthday image.  Kim at MFT stamps is hosting a contest! Check it out! You could win 3 FREE sets from her store. Way cool-

Now, its time for a sketch from my book! I am in love with this combo of colors, and challenge you to give them a try!

Blush Blossom, cool caribbean, cameo coral, certain celery.

Now for the sketch- Here is the original.

Now you can see a descent difference in that one and this one. YOU may not even see where the inspiration came from! LOL! But again, its all about inspiration, not always the exact CASE.

I moved the bow from the bottom to the top so it would look like a present. I then put the tag on the opposite side of where the flower was. Instead of a stitched layer at the top, I moved the interest to the bottom, by using my cuttlebug birthday corners. In the original the corners were pierced. I also used my cuttlebug for the tag. Since the stamps are clear it was easy peasy to make the sentiment stack, instead of being a line that says “Make a Wish”

I LOVE the acrylic frame. I got it at Michaels the other day, along with the ribbon. I though it was a perfect accent. In the original card I used a metal edge frame instead.

I hope you have fun trying it out- don’t forget to link it here so we can all see what you do with it!

Wow! I have had a CRAZY week. Design team stuff sure has been demanding lately, but- can I confess I LOVE every minute of it. Well almost every minute. I have been working on Christmas submissions! HELLO! I’m trying to get rid of the snow, and here I am stamping Christmas items and singing Walking in a Winter Wonderland! WHERE ARE MY FLOWER STAMPS!!!

So, in between submitting, I got an email from Christine yesterday telling me I was tagged! The goal is to write 7 things you want people to know about you!

So in no order I want to say

1) I love my SCS peeps, loyal PSF’s and readers. I am addicted to browsing SCS! BADLY! First thing I do in the AM (after I sip my coffee, and last thing I do before bed-well sometimes)

 I have met SO MANY amazing people through stamping. You are all like family to me in some ways. Thanks for checking in regularly and ALL the kind words you send me. I enjoy learning about each of YOU as well, so instead of me tagging someone else- I tag YOU!

IF you want MYTIME MAIL you need to respond to this post, by telling me 7 things about YOU! I will pick a random winner Sunday evening at 7pm eastern time.

2) I have a shopping/stamping addiciton. Seriously. I am an online shopping addict! It runs in my family. I love to get mail-not just any mail, happy mail. If I realize I dont have anything coming I panic! Then hit submit somewhere. I love waiting for my goodies. I think thats why I shop so much. And no Mr. Brown is not HOT, nor is my mailman. And since most days I run in the shower just before dinner I would say its definitely not because I want to run into ANYONE! LOL!

3) I have a “touch” of OCD. While my house is not the most spotless, I will notice if the littlest thing is out of place. Turn my salt shaker a hair, and I will notice-ask my husband. I wish it wasn’t true but I inherited it from my mother. Although I have RELAXED alot! Its still hard to shake. Thanks mom! My son Noah has it too! GREAT! I have to make sure the4 house is clean several times a day. CRAZY! I vacuum at least twice-

4) I wear mostly black and brown. I have no idea why. I just notice that I do. Open my closet, and its full of black and brown. And jeans. I only wear jeans- Maybe because its slimming!

5) I haven’t cut my hair (besides a trim) since I was 12! My hair has been long since then. Never shorter than a few inches past the middle of my back. Usually its to my waist. I look awful with short hair. My hair was long-to my waist when I was 12, my mom chopped it to my shoulder, and LAYERED it! OMG! That year of photos makes me cringe! That day I swore my hair would NEVER be short again! And it hasn’t. Also another FUN fact-my hair was straight till my mom chopped it off! After that it got curly! (IMAGINE: short, layers curly hair-oh the horror) Now I have naturally curly long hair. It also got darker as I got older, and now I dye it! Yes I admit it I dye it-so what!

6) If I could eat anywhere it would be at either TGIFridays or Olive Garden! Im so not high maintenance. I LOVE both of those places. One of my most favorite food I NEVER get to have is Greek vegetables! OMG! Love them! I also love italian food, and seafood. Since meeting Jason I rarely get any seafood!

7) I use to bite my nails as a child. My dad always said it was so gross and no guy would ever date me if I kept biting my nails. He offered to pay me $250 if I stopped for 2 weeks, and grew just a little white on my nails. I could not bite ONE single nail. I was so motivated for the money that I did it! AND he actually paid me! Since that time I have not bitten my nails! I do however, pick at the sides when Im upset-you know like hangnails-I know really gross and too much info. You should have seen my hangnails when Erik and I had court (my ex-mistake aka Alexa’s father) and when she was in the hospital! OMW!

STAY TUNED for tomorrow! Saturday Sketch challenge!

Your turn!

Now that “I” am offically a concept designer I thought it would benefit me to have some “professional” lighting. Part of the buisness is the ability to take an excellent photograph that captures the accurate colors, details and elements of your hard work (aka finished card or project). A poor photgraph can be the difference between a YES or a NO when submitting, or even posting online. I really didnt put much thought into my photos until about 6 months ago-maybe! When I noticed what I was drawn to cards/projects that had nice backdrops in their photos, not the excuse the cat sticking its head out of the lower right hand corner cards! LOL! So I began to try it, and VIOLA! You did too! LOL! You all began to comment more.

So, that brings me to this funky little set up you see here.

I was in contact with an editor from a magazine. She requested a few items from me (Can I get WAHOOOOO!), and I had a tight deadline. Well, by the time the project was done, my natural light was too! I take my photos by my window-so dreary days, and too much sun can cause MAJOR photo issues.

Anyway, once that happened I knew I needed something to take better photos. Lets face it people NO PROJECT looks good with your kitchen light and flash from your camera! Its like the OB-GYN. You dont mind getting naked in front of your significant other but you don’t want him seeeing you under the big’ol inspection light-KWIM? Sorry little off track-

I remembered some stampers discussing photo boxes and things like that a wile back, but they were like over $100! Um, yeah I have stamping stuff I need to buy this weekend so that was NOT an option!

So I hopped on Ebay! I found this photo box called a “soft box”. I paid $12.99!!! There are 4 color backdrops-white, black, blue, and red- included. It folds up all small, nice and neat, and goes into a bag. What they don’t tell you is HOW to fold that sucker back up. So since I opened it it stayed that way. I also cannot collapse those kid tents that pop up either. Must be the blonde in me. I also have NO PATIENCE for things like that.

There is also a front that velcro’s on, with a slot for you to put your cameral through.

What does that mean? No GLARE!!! I photographed a clear box, and had NO problem getting a perfect photo.

My photo shows HOW you set it up. I bought the lighting seperately. Also on Ebay for $10.95!!! Usually lighting looks like it will run you the big money-not so much the photo box. I got lucky cause a wman bought a photobox “kit” and didn’t need the lights!!!

 These prices were before shipping which was around $10 each. Now I have a professional “studio”. At like quater the cost of most. Plus saving myself the aggivation of no sun, and being able to take photos any time of day is priceless.

So, I finally got to design for fun! I kept thinking about Green Grass stamps, and thinking of things that “grow” lol! Im a weirdo I know! But thats ok.

How do my photos look? This is the first I can show using my new soft box! See this post if you are puzzled about what I am talkin about!

So this was what came to me. Growing blossom- The stamp set is of course by Green Grass stamps called Holy Tomoli-

You must go check their site because she has some IMPERFECT rubbah for a mega sale! LIMITED 3 so run! You get to see the imperfections, so there will be no surprises.

The sheets of rubber are HUGE! And well etched. You will NOT be disappointed. I put mine on a 81/2 x11 sticky sheet thingy-LOL! Cool storage option.

OK back to the card. Little spritz of color-and I’m done. Its funky, and I like it!

Who wants it? I dont send nearly enough cards, so I will send this card to a random selected winner on Sunday! It will be left blank for you to do whatever you wish (unless its submit it somewhere-that is not cool).

And next we have

Bold Butterfly

LOVE this Pristine paper by Paper Salon. SO it totally inspired this card-

Used the little flower to make the stem on my big flower using Ric Rac. The button are by SEI grandma’s attic. I had to put the little bird in the corner. I though it was so cute!

So who wants it? I dont send nearly enough cards out. Post a reply and I will randomly select someone to send this to. I will leave it blank for you to do what you wish (accept submit it for publication as your own-so not cool!). I may even put a goody inside-who knows!

Next up Happy bold butterfly

This is another card from Green Grass stamps- the Holy Tomoli set and Card Greetings. Which I love the greetings. OMG! Amazing!

Patterned paper is Mushrooms by Heidi Grace, and I LOVE it! It inspired my ultra fab-u-licious color combo that SCREAMS summer! And after all that Christmas in April stamping its just what I needed.

Colors- saffron, cameo, pumpkin, and my favorite celery!

Funny story real quick.

I place my zillionth order with eP, and my order arrived Monday. I open the box, and some versamagic ink pops out. Well, I did;t remember ordering any ink. So I go through the box, and realize OMG! This isn;t my stuff. So, I look at the packing slip and it has Chantel’s ( another scs dirty dozen designer) name on it!

So it wasn’t my order it was hers. Well, let me tell you once I had ALL this precious ink in my possession the thought of sending it back hurt too much to bare! So, I bought it! LOL! I emailed them and told them it was full of drool and I needed to keep it at home with me! LOL! And thats the ink you see used on both my cards posted here! LOL!

Thanks Chantel for ordering such gorgeous ink!

Ok, Ok…now back to the card. I must be lonely today cause I keep rambling.

For the butterfly I stamped it on the white base. Piece some patterned paper (white with flower side) in the wings. Then I stamped it again on acetate. I cut the butterfly out of the acetate, and ran it through my Xyron 900.

I adhered the paper (orange flower side) to the butterfly.

I soaked it in a bowl of warm water, then gently rubbed the paper off. The sticky part leaves a sheer layer of the paper on the image, so its like “stained glass”. See through pattern. I love butterflies, especially in “flight”.

So the wings are popped forward. Stamped again in celery for the body! The antennae are jewels by A Muse. I also used the Onare Piercing border I got from Ellen H’s store. It makes the perfect flutter trail.

The happy was stamped, then traced with the journaler point of my marker.

The flower is by Bazzill. I must say these are like my favorite assortment ever! I love Daisies. Check them out. You get a large container.

And I guess that sums up my creative process. I think for the stained glass technique BOLD and OPEN images are best!

This went postal today to a special friend who always makes me SO HAPPY!