Debi's Crazy Life;

Happy New Years everyone! I have lots and lots of exciting stuff to share with you. First, Kelley at Our Daily Bread Designs has decided to keep me on as a permanent member of the design team! You all know how happy that makes me! Stop by tomorrow for the first blog hop of the year and make sure you check out SplitCoastStampers newest member company . Secondly I have been asked to be Sweet 'n Sassy Digis January guest designer. My first post for them will be on Saturday. I have been very blessed in 2009 indeed and 2010 is looking very promising as well.

I hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas, I know that I enjoyed mine. We were blessed to have several extra children spend the holiday with us, due to a short term foster care placement. Somehow I managed to squeak out a couple of minutes of play time, which wasn't easy with 10 kids in the house, and I made this card for the Papertake Weekly challeng e this week. This weeks challenge is a sketch challenge. I changed the sketch a little bit to make it fit a standard A2 size card. This is a great sketch to highlight several different designer papers. The papers I used are from Basic Grey Sultry collection. I thought that these papers would go nicely with this adorable House Mouse stamp. I colored my image with Prismacolor pencils, blended with odorless mineral spirts and a blending stump. I added some retired Stampin' Up! ribbon in Kiwi Kiss and some Spare Parts white brads. The greeting is from the Stampin' Up! set Full of Life. Our sponsor this week is Simon Says Sta

At this time of year we always need thank you cards and this weeks Papertake Weekly challenge is just this, to make a thank you card. I whipped up this quick little thank you card using some lovely Cosmo Cricket paper that I picked up recently, a Stampin' Up! verse, some Prima flowers and the Mojo Monday sketch . What I used: SU Kind & Caring Thoughts baja breeze, confetti cream card stock Cosmo Cricket designer paper chocolate chip classic stamp pad old olive grosgrain ribbon Prima flowers half back pearls

I hope all is well with you. Once again I need to apologize for my late post. Woke up this morning with a terrible headache and just couldn't seem to get myself together enough to post. This weeks Anyone for Anya? challenge is to make one last Christmas card. Our sponsor is our own Caz and she has donated a fabulous prize so make sure you hop over to the blog and check it out.

Good morning all. Today being Tuesday means that it is time for another Papertake Weekly challenge. This weeks challenge is a sketch challenge. You can find the sketch below. I colored up my Ketto from Stamping Bella to match this My Mind's Eye designer paper using my Lyra colored pencils, blending with odorless mineral spirits and a blending stump. I then added a bit of sparkle with stickles.

Happy Sunday everyone. It is time for another Anyone for Anya? challenge . Sorry that I wasn't able to play along with last weeks challenge but my life has gotten, er, well challenging these last couple of week before Christmas. In my other life I work retail and have picked up a ton of hours lately. Today is likely to be my last day off before Christmas so I am trying to get all caught up. Anyway what you came her for is the card, right? So no more chit chat. The Anyone for Anya challenge is "Bling It On! ". Since we were challenged to add some bling I dragged out this really glittery My Mind's Eye designer paper and added a touch of rhinestones. All of Miss Anya's accessories have also had some glitter added to them. Our sponsor this week is: Make sure you hop over to the challenge blog and see what the rest of the team has done and join us and play along!

Welcome to the Bella Birthday Bash Blog Hop sponsored by Stamping Bella! If you've just happened upon my blog you really want to go back and start at the beginning at Bloggabella . I colored my Stamping Bella Turtle Tots birthday wishes image with Lyra colored pencils, blended with OMS and a blending stump. I added little touches of white, glitter and glaze with various different pens. The image is layered on old olive card stock then paper pierced. I used a baja breeze card body adding a bit of My Mind's Eye Abbey Road designer paper (using both sides of the paper) as well as a little strip of old olive. One strip of designer paper is punched with the EKSuccess wavy edge punch. I added a couple of Spare Parts white jumbo brads and a buttony bow. Three gift certificates for $100 in Bella Bucks will be hidden along the hop, but we're not telling you where so be sure to leave some love as you hop!!! Make sure you leave comments on every post so you have a chance to w

I picked up this super cute snowman image a couple of months ago at my local (ok sort of local, about 45 minutes away) stamp store. I thought he would be fun to use for this weeks Midnight Madness sketch challenge . In addition to the sketch we were to use something that flies. Well in my part of the world, snowflakes fly, though thankfully not much yet this season. What I used: Great Impressions snowman My Sentiments Exactly; one of a kind chocolate chip, whisper white, baja breeze card stock My Mind's Eye Breaking Free designer paper Memento black ink pad Lyra colored pencils, OMS and blending stump nesties jumbo brown brads

Stamping Bella's Show & Tell Challenge for December is to use a buttony bow. I am combining that with the Big Bella Birthday Bash contest , this is a winter birthday card NOT a Christmas card, honest. Just a simple little 4 1/4 x 4 1/4 inch square card. The polar bear Stamping Bella image is colored with Lyra colored pencils, and blended with OMS and a blending stump then cut out with a scalloped circle Nestie. I added touches of glitter with my Sukara glitter pen and flocking to the snow. My Mind's Eye Magnolia designer paper is layered on whisper white and riding hood red card stock and stitched on my sewing machine. I then added a fun buttony bow.

I seem to be suffering from another bout of insomnia tonight, the second in less then a week. Tonight I decided to deal with it by just getting up instead of laying there wide awake, tossing and turning. Since todays SplitCoastStampers sketch challeng e and the Color Throwdown challenge were both posted early I thought I would straighten up my office and play a bit. But before I show you what I did I wanted to share with you some lessons learned while late night stamping: 1. Double check that you are using the right paper. In the middle of the night they all look alike and Copic markers do NOT work well on very vanilla. 2. Always make sure your stickles are dry before you decide that just what your image needs is to be over stamped with a weathered background. Took me longer to pick all the glitter out of all the nooks and crannies then it did to make the whole card. 3. Measure TWICE before you cut, yes Dad you were right... 4. When you drop your glasses on the floor (because

If you are looking for the Our Daily Bread Design blog hop please scroll down to the post below this one or click here . I started this card this morning then got called into work and almost 12 hours later am finally able to finish it. I combined several challenges on this card. The color combination is from todays SplitCoastStampers color challenge; Very Black Suede . The second challenge is this weeks Mojo Monday sketch , I actually placed my ribbon where the verse panel should have been. And the third is the Stampin' Sisters in Christ challenge which was to have a "gift" some where on the card, hoping that the word gift works for them because it works for me! I stamped the poinsettia from the newly released Our Daily Bread Designs set His Gifts on vanilla card stock with soft suede ink, stamped off once first. I then sprayed the entire thing with Suede glimmer mist. After the mist dried (or more correctly, when I got home from work and kid activities) I stamped t

Good morning all! Welcome to the Our Daily Bread Designs November Release Blog Hop !!! If you came here from Becca Feeken's blog Amazing Paper Grace you are in the right place! If you just happened on to my blog and did not start at the Our Daily Bread Designs Blog you should go there now and start at the beginning. You really need to start at the beginning because along your journey you are going to find secret words hidden along the hop which you need to collect along with the name of each designer, make sure you comment on each one too. Then you will return to the ODBD blog and leave a comment that you have visited all the blogs. There you will find an email address to email your secret words to. Two lucky winners will win their choice of one free stamp set! Winners will be chosen by Random from the correct emails Grace receives by Dec 2 8PM EST . Now would you like to see a couple of projects made using the new release? Isn't that the most beautiful poinsettia ever???

Kraftin' Kimmie's is this weeks sponsor of the Papertake Weekly challenge . It is sketch week again, (the sketch is below) so I thought it would be fun to combine our challenge with Kimmie's weekly challenge which I do every week anyway because I am a big fan. Kimmie's challenge this week is entitled "Touchy Feely" and we are challenged to use lots of texture in our design. For my card I used one of Kraftin' Kimmie's newest images Small Talk from the Cindy and Mindy collection. I colored the main image with Copic markers (see I really am getting a little better with them) to match some Indian Summer Basic Grey designer paper. I added the matching glaze brads and some riding hood red and chocolate chip card stock. Each of the background layers were dry embossed with a different Cuttlebug embossing (swiss dot, textile, diamond) then sanded and sponged to highlight the texture. I added a fun ruffly ribbon and some touch of glaze to the main ima

Make sure you stop by tomorrow after 8:00 AM to join the bread basket for the December Our Daily Bread Designs New Release Blog Hop. There are certain to be some wonderful projects and if you play along you could win a prize

Good Morning all. It look like it is going to be a lovely day here today, though I have to work for a good portion of it, I will still get a chance to enjoy it later. Being Sunday morning it is time for another Anyone for Anya? challenge . This weeks challenge is a sketch challenge. My Miss Anya is colored with Copic markers. I am still getting the hang of my copics and suspect that I will never be as good with them as I am with colored pencils but I am getting better. She was colored to match this My Mind's Eye Signature Christmas and layered with a touch of true thyme and bravo burgundy card stock. I added a couple of thin burgundy ribbon to finish it off. this week's sketch... our sponsor! Please join us and play along this week and make sure you check out the rest of the design teams blog.

It has been a while since I had time to play along with a Bellarific Friday challenge but this week I found some time. This image is one of my stash of images I had colored ahead, I did this one with my limited selection of Copic markers. Unfortunately I seem to have misplaced the designer paper that I colored the image to match so I had to find a substitute, this piece from My Mind's Eye seemed to work. Truly I am not sure what I was thinking at all with this color combo but hey the image was colored so why not use it. In real life the ribbon matches the paper I played around with the lighting and nothing would change the way it photographs so you will have to use a bit of imagination. I of course did not have any brads that matched so I used some craft ink and clear embossing powder to make the brads this shocking pink. My Attitudy has a touch of glaze and glitter added to her glasses, bag and shoes. This second card is one I did weeks ago for another Bellarific Friday Chal

Happy Thanksgiving my friends! I hope you all have the opportunity to gather with friends and family today. I will be at my mother-in-laws with the whole family. Today I am thankful for many things; a loving God, my family, my husband and the children God has placed in our care, wonderful friends, a home that is nearly complete and mostly ours, a great church family, a small close knit community, the time to spend on my craft and the where withall to do so thanks to a fun part-time job. I managed to carve out a couple of moments this morning to put this card together for the SplitCoastStampers Ways to Use it challenge. The image is one that I colored experimenting with my Copic markers, to match this My Mind's Eye designer paper. I am a long, long, long way away from being competent with these markers but am determined to master them.

I have been on a mission this fall to rearrange my creative space. In my Stampin' Up! demo days I always had my Stampin' Up! stuff separated from the contraband but now those days are over and things needed to change. The biggest changes I wanted to make were to: 1. keep like things together, for example all the paper in one place, all the ribbon in another. 2. unmount most of my wood mounted stamps to conserve space 3. to have everything within reach but put away I function better creatively when everything is put away. My space is tiny, only 10 foot x 9 foot and I have to share the space with my washer, dry and large freezer, so every inch needs to be used to its best advantage and ruthlessly organized. Here is the view from the doorway. The walls are just a shade lighter then Ruby Red. You get a look at my main work area. The butcher block table used to reside in my parents home, I inherited it when they moved to Florida. In the far left corner tucked between the f

Avoiding everything I am supposed to be doing today and playing instead. I combined a couple of challenges on this card. The color combination; Pretty in Pink, Bermuda Bay, and Old Olive is todays SplitCoastStampers color challenge . The card layout is from the current Bella SCS sketch challeng e and I am also entering it in the Bella Birthday Bash contest. I colored this Ketto image a while ago to match some Basic Grey Urban Prairie paper and have just been waiting for the perfect time to make her into a card. Today was that day because the paper contains all the colors in the challenge. Ketto is colored with my favorite Lyra colored pencils blending with odorless mineral spirits and a blending stump. Hard to see in the picture but I also added some touches of glitter with a Sakura glitter pen and a bit of glaze with their glaze pen. This second card I did for the Lord Have Mercy sketch challenge . I can't say enough how much I love Mercy's sketches, the simplicity o

This weeks Papertake Weekly challenge is entitled "Cracked Christmas" . The challenge is to show us your favorite Christmas card. This weeks sponsor is: As I opened my design team package from the fabulous Kelley at Our Daily Bread Designs on Friday I was totally blown away by the beauty of the December releases (ODBD new release blog hop is Dec 1st)and had to immediately change what I was doing for todays challenge so that I could give you a little sneak peek. Isn't that one of the most beautiful images you have ever seen??? I was so excited by this image that I immediately stamped it and began coloring. Unfortunately I was so excited that I colored it without even thinking about what I was going to do with it once I had it colored. Usually when I create a card I start with the paper and card stock, or sketch, then paper and card stock. I then color the image to coordinate. Because I colored the image first I need to do some tweaking to get everything to work t

Sometimes your Mondays just need a little mojo, or at least mine do and when mine needs it, I head on over to the Mojo Monday sketch challeng e for a little bit of inspiration. Todays sketch is a wonderfully simple one. A great one I thought to highlight this really fun Sei designer paper that I have been hoarding all month. I thought I would combine the sketch challenge with this weeks Stamping Sisters in Christ challenge which is to make a card expressing thanks or thanksgiving. Rejoicing is thankgiving, right? What I used: Our Daily Bread Designs Christmas Verses navy and white SU card stock SU navy ink pad Sei designer paper EKSuccess wavy edge punch corner rounder rhinestone brad white satin ribbon