Debi's Crazy Life;

An unexpected day off today gave me a bit of time to play along with the sketch challenge over on SplitCoastStampers as well as this weeks Stampin' Sisters in Christ challenge , which is to use water. What I used: Our Daily Bread Designs Never Thirst SU kraft, vanilla, early espresso card stock 7 Gypsies Venice designer paper SU crumb cake, early espresso stamp pad vintage brads recycled string sponge

I actually found some time for a bit of stamping.  After cruising through all the fabulous challenges online for this week I decide to combine todays SplitCoastStampers sketch challenge with the Color Throwdown.  This weeks sketch was a fairly simple one, and I thought that this image from Our Daily Bread Designs would be well suited for it, combined with the colors; Baja Breeze, Melon Mambo and Pink Pirouette.  What do you think? What I used: Our Daily Bread Designs As You Graduate GP white, SU melon mambo, baja breeze, pink pirouette card stock SU ski slope (retired) designer paper Versafine onyx black SU baja breeze, pink pirouette markers clear embossing powder sponge Spellbinder label 10 Nestabilities SU pink pirouette striped ribbon

Hello and welcome to the Our Daily Bread Designs February Release Blog Hop ! If you arrived here from Grace Nywening's blog Th-INK-ing of You , you are in the right place! If not, you might want to start at the Our Daily Bread Designs blog to be sure you hop in the correct order, because we are having a Scripture Hop, and you will be collecting our Secret Scripture Words as you hop along, so you will want them in the order given! You have until Thurs. Feb 4th at 8:00PM EST to complete the requirements to be eligible to win. There will be THREE BLESSED WINNERS... who will each receive a $15.00 Gift Certificate to the Our Daily Bread designs Store to go toward the stamps of your choice! Winners will be randomly chosen from all the qualified entries. Here is what you need to do to be eligable to win: Hop from blog to blog in the order given below, writing down the secret words you will find clearly written in their post, and leaving a comment on each blog. Return to the Our Daily...

Enjoying the quiet at home this morning. I have a ton of stuff to do but I wanted to take the time to do the SplitCoastStampers sketch challenge and the Color Throwdown challenge before I run off to buy groceries and do errands then return to tackle the mountain of laundry that needs to be folded. **sigh** Some days ya just start to feel like Cinderella... Anyway this weeks Color Throwdown is a great color combo. So Saffron, Old Olive and Melon Mambo. The mambo kinda threw me at first until I found this Basic Grey Fusion designer paper in my stash which is olive with touches of melon mambo. I used Our Daily Bread Designs Baptism and Confirmation Verses stamp set and the swirly stamp from Stampin' Up!s Baroque Motifs. I used the swirl to soften the melon mambo, stamping over it with olive ink. I then ran the whole background layers through with the textile Cuttlebug embossing folder and sponged everything with a little bit of soft suede ink, to once again soften it. What...

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...

I am a happy girl today. I have spent quite a bit of time lately reorganizing my office. I have finally made the transition from Stampin' Up! business demo to hmmm not sure what the right word would be, artist (sounds kind of pretentious). I won't bore you with all the details today but be prepared because I will share some pictures next week. In celebration of my clean office I just had to sit down and create something. I won this adorable Oliver as blog candy from the last Kraftin' Kimmie's blog hop. I just think he is the cutest so I inked him up and colored him with my Lyra colored pencils, blending with OMS and a blending stump. I added a touch of glitter to the snow around his feet and a touch of glaze to his beak and feet. This weeks Kraftin' Kimmie's challenge is "Lots a Circles" if you look carefully one of my designer papers in a polka dot and the back ground paper has snowflakes that are circles as well. I also added 2 jumbo brads, ...

Between working yesterday and Ellie still being sick (and running her to the doctor) I didn't manage to finish my card for yesterdays SplitCoastStampers sketch challenge and the Color Throwdown until this morning. But it just still desperately needed something. No room for my fav embellishment ribbon, hmmm maybe brads, not sure, so I hit the web for inspiration. When I checked the SplitCoastStampers Ways to Use it challenge , which is to use something sticky, I had my answer, I have some sticky bling which I never use. Pulled it out and stuck it on, now my card isn't boring anymore. What do you think? What I used: Whiff of Joy stamps SU kraft, always artichoke, dusty durango, whisper white card stock Lyra colored pencils, OMS and blending stump sticky bling

I have been so super busy between games, practices and fundraisers for my 4 football players and cheerleaders and planning, prepping for and doing workshops and my last couple of events for Stampin' Up! that I literally haven't had a spare moment for myself in what feels like weeks. So after I got the laundry going and started a pot of soup for a quick dinner tonight, I decided to go have some me time. I decided to combine yesterdays color challenge from SplitCoastStampers, CC236: Whisper Pretty Soft Suede with todays sketch challenge . Love this pretty color combination, I knew it would go perfectly with the adorable Henry Celebrating Mouse from Whiff of Joy. And since I am on a mission to convince Katharina Frei that she really, really, really needs me on the Whiff of Joy design team one more card can't hurt, right? If you want to give it a try too, click on the Whiff of Joy button above. So what do you think? Is he the cutest or what? I colored him with my Lyra ...

I fear I have been once again suffering from a lack of mojo. I have no idea why. The time has been available to me but I have failed to take advantage of the opportunity. I have quite literally had the new designer paper, stamp set and punch that I used today for the last month and hadn't even OPENED them! Haven't a clue of what my problem is. Anyway, I forced myself into the office today. Pulled out todays sketch challenge and jumped in. Have to confess that I am not loving this but that is probably mostly my negative attitude. Hope you like it. I am now off to work off my ugly mood doing housework. What I used: Oval All Kiwi Kiss, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White card stock Walk in the Park designer paper Chocolate Chip classic ink pad Stampin' Write markers Large Oval punch, Scallop Oval punch, Scallop edge punch wide Chocolate Chip grosgrain ribbon

I know it has been awhile again since I posted but I am almost done with my Artisan Award projects and hope to go postal with them this weekend. Decided to take a break from that and household drudgery and play with todays sketch challenge and yesterdays color challenge from SplitCoastStampers. I have had this stamp set, Ever After, for a while now, I bought it to make some wedding cards but haven't had time to play with it before today. I thought it would work nicely with the Pirouette Pink, Riding Hood Red and Chocolate Chip color combination. Nothing very fancy or different on this card though I did sponge the edges of everything with chocolate chip ink. On the background I used one of the Stampin' Up! texture plates and sponged the texture a little bit to make it stand out more. The heart of the main image is inked with riding hood red classic ink then I ran a chocolate chip marker around the end before I stamped. What I used: Ever After stamp set Romance wheel Choco...

I am finally caught up. All my sneak peeks for this weekend are done, can barely wait until tomorrow to start showing you the fun stuff I have made with the Elzybell March releases. Make sure you check back tomorrow and all weekend long to see what I have been making instead of posting. Since my sneak peeks were all done I had a little spare time today so I played around with a couple of the SplitCoastStampers challenges. I used Wednesdays sketch challenge , though I flipped it and todays challenge to stamp green . The interpretation of green was left up to us. I did the obvious and used kiwi kiss for my green but I also used scraps from a card I made for this weekend. Using scraps is stamping green in my book. What I used: Elzybells Art Stamps teddy flowers Kiwi Kiss, Chocolate Chip card stock water color paper My Mind's Eye designer paper WWC and aquapainter ribbon ($ bin at Michaels)

I got a very late start today. Lots of freezing rain this morning delayed school for 2 hours which meant I had every kid in the neighborhood running around my house this morning. This was supposed to be one of my kid free days, didn't work out that way though. Even before I got the kiddos off to school I was on the phone with my upline who is at Leadership for Stampin' Up!, getting all the up to the moment details about the new Spring/Summer catalog. All I can say about that is that I can barely wait to get my copy into my hot little hands, my mastercard is going to be smokin'. Well probably just steaming a little bit until I manage to make some money but you know what I mean right? Well since I was thinking new catty, why not use Echoes of Kindness (yes, again) to do todays sketch challenge over on SplitCoastStampers. Nothing fancy on this one. Both backgrounds are designer paper from the Bella Rose collection. The two main images are both sponged with chocolate ...

Tomorrow is a new year. I don't know about you but the holidays always make me think about how grateful I am to have my family and friends and how incredibly blessed we have been. I also take a good close look at my life and what might need to change and what I need to do this year to meet my goals. And yes I am one of those annoying people that have a plan, a one year plan and a 4 year plan (4 years instead of 5 because hopefully my husband will be retiring from his law enforcement job in just under 4 years). I am not crazy about the whole goal thing but I find I function better with direction. This year I accomplished 3 out of 5 of my major goals, so today I am revising my list for the new year. I have to tell you that several of my goals for this year are creative in nature and should result in my having much more material to share with you. And speaking of stuff to share with you, this is what I did for todays splitcoast sketch challenge . You know how much I love new s...

Just a really quick card this morning before I head out to get some of my Christmas shopping done. It is missing something but my caffeine hasn't kicked in yet so please forgive me. What I used: a cardinal christmas basic black, real red, kraft card stock black stazon, real red classic stamp pads various re-inkers for watercoloring real red narrow grosgrain ribbon

I know I am a little rusty from not stamping in a while so this didn't come out exactly as I envisioned it but I will share it with you anyway. The owls are colored with Watercolor Wonder crayons and an aquapainter. What I used: Owl Together Now chocolate chip, kiwi kiss, whisper white card stock Urban Garden designer paper basic black, close cocoa classic ink watercolor wonder crayons and aquapainter kiwi kiss satin ribbon

The power is finally back on! Hurricanes are not usually a problem for us in Central New York but ever so often we get some freak weather like Ike brought us. Sunday night the wind was howling! Power went out in the middle of the storm and didn't get turned back on again until last night. I am not very good at stamping in the dark so I haven't gotten much stamping done lately but I did do a little bit today. What I used: Holy Triptych and Many Merry Messages stamp sets Basic Black, Going Grey, Riding Hood Red card stock Bella Rose designer paper Basic Black, Versamark stamp pads silver embossing powder and heat tool Stampin' Pastels and blender pens Riding Hood Red taffeta ribbon

It was love at first site for me with this stamp set, Flower Fancy, from the new Fall/Winter Stampin' Up! catalog. I love any two step stamp set anyway but the big happy flowers in this set just thrill me. I am sure you will be seeing a lot more of this stamp set from me in the future. My desk still had yesterdays scraps left out on it so most of the same supplies were used for todays card. What I used: Flower Fancy and Heard from the Heart stamp sets Paisley background stamp Basic Black, Kraft, Rose Red, Whisper White card stock Basic Black, Rose Red, Kiwi Kiss classic stamp pads basic black narrow grosgrain ribbon mat pack and piercing tool

I made this card using the second panel I made yesterday. It was made exactly the same way but I stamped this after yesterdays, without re-inking the stamp. I wanted the soft look so I also over stamped the image with canvas inked with close to cocoa (stamped off multiple times) and sponged the edges with close to cocoa. What I used: Inspired by Nature stamp set and Canvas background stamp Old Olive, Elegant Eggplant, Chocolate Chip and Whisper White card stock Elegant Eggplant, Old Olive, Taken with Teal, Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip classic ink pads Old Olive and Chocolate Chip Stampin' Write Markers Elegant Eggplant narrow grosgrain ribbon sponge

Continuing my farewell to the soon to be retiring sets. Today I used Artfully Asian. Such a sweet little set. I am not very good at the asian look but this little branch of flowers is so lovely. Really very simple little card, just a lot of layers. Nothing special just water colored the flowers. What I used: Artfully Asian stamp set Basic Black, Whisper White, textured Purely Pomegranate card stock Cutie Pie designer paper Basic Black classic ink pad Purely Pomegranate and Always Artichoke ink for water coloring aquapainter, ticket corner punch black gingham ribbon

My club hostess this month has requested that I teach the cracked glass technique, so I have been playing around with it. The supplies were on my counter and being lazy by nature I figured I would use the same stuff for today's sketch challenge . This is not the project that they will be doing but it will have some similarities. what I used: Blossoms Abound stamp set and Weathered background stamp Chocolate Chip, Vintage Violet, Always Artichoke, Very Vanilla card stock Creamy Caramel, Vintage Violet, Always Artichoke classic ink pads and a Versamark stamp pad glassy glaze embossing powder, sponge, vintage brads, stamp-a-m-jig how I did it: The first thing I did was ink the weathered background stamp with creamy caramel and stamp the background on the vintage violet background piece. Then with out reinking I stamped the same background on the piece of very vanilla. On the main image the lilacs are stamped in vintage violet and always artichoke. For the more solid of th...