Paint the Town

 Back with you and just a quick post to share this

month's brand new challenge over at 

Market Street Stamps.

I love the photo this color story is based on.

I chose to go rather CAS for this design team offering.

I used the brand new 'Grace' background and stamped it

in 'Slate' ink from A Muse Studio.  It's called tone-on-tone

as I stamped it directly on another shade of grey.

I used the same color for the sentiment and used

organza roses from Bo-Bunny & Maya Road.

The frame is from Sizzix.

For more great inspiration using these colors, make sure

to visit the Market Street Stamps blog!

Thoughts & Prayers Project Recipe:

Stamps: Grace from Market Street Stamps
Ink: Slate from A Muse Studio

Tools: Label die from Sizzix

Embellishments: Large Organza Rose from Bo-Bunny

Small Organza Rose from Maya Road

mini brads from Recollections

Sent with Love...

Happy Saturday!

This weekend is getting off to a terrific start

as it is the first day of the 

New Release Previews from

Four days featuring

  SEVEN BRAND NEW SETS

 with an opportunity to win each new release!

I adore my teammate Nina Brackett and always look forward
to her new stamp designs and today, we get a look at some
of the images from

'Lovely Labels 18' 

and 

'Sent With Love'

For the card above, I used images from both sets.  Here you
see JUST TWO of the beautiful labels images in the set...there
are SO MANY MORE!  The sentiment is from 'Sent With Love'
which is a set that has a very nostalgic feel.
I used the beautiful papers from Prima's 'Madeline
Collection for my 'wallpaper' base and stamped my images with the
beautiful, BEAUTIFUL inks from

A Muse Studio (available from my web store here)

in Ocean, Latte & Currant.
The rest of the embellishments are listed below.
It was just a matter of layering each element until you
have the design above.

Here is a look at another design using just images
from 'Sent With Love'....

See what I mean by the 'nostalgic' feel?!


As I said earlier, we have SEVEN...
 SEVEN

brand new sets coming your way!

Make sure you stop over at the

The Craft's Meow Blog

because there's a great giveaway going on
for both of these sets.

Leave a comment here and

let me know

which of these 'sneak peek' sets is your 

favorite so far!

So happy you came by and I hope you enjoy your day!

Loving Thoughts Project Recipe:

Designer Paper: Madeline from Prima
Stamps: Lovely Labels 18 & Sent with Love from The Craft's Meow
Ink: Ocean, Latte & Currant from A Muse Studio
Tools:  Labels 18 die from Spellbinders, Big Shot

Embellishments: Seam Binding from Sugar Lump Studios,
Texture Ribbon from John Lewis' (UK), Organza Rose from BoBunny
Pearl Flourish from Prima

Sent with Love Project Recipe:

Stamps: Sent with Love from The Craft's Meow

Ink: Ocean & Slate from A Muse Studio
Tools:  Fiskars Scalloped Border Punch 
Embellishments: Bakers Twine in Stone from The Twinery
Scalloped White Ribbon from Haute by American Crafts

Painting the Town with Market Street Stamps!

Yes...it has been awhile, hasn't it??!!!

I apologize for such a long absence from my blog.  

I've been in the

process of some pretty intensive dental work and 

have not been in my creative space for awhile.

I am happy to say though, 

that I have a perfect excuse to be back!!!!

It's time for the newest color challenge from

Market Street Stamps.

I love being on this design team.  

It's such a great group of women and so much talent.  

I know that has nothing to do with the challenge...

but it's true!!!

I love this set called 'Autumn Greetings'.

I especially love the stylized font of each

of the sentiments.

I adore the pumpkin and it's especially great if

you love to do paper-piecing.

Think of the possibilities!

We would LoVe for you to play along with us and

I can tell you that you will be

inspired

to do just that when you pop over to 

the Market Street Stamps blog

and check out the fab creations

by the rest of the talented design team!

So very glad you stopped by today.

I've missed you ......

Project Recipe: 
Designer Paper: Bo-Bunny
Stamps:  'Autumn Greeting' by Market Street Stamps  

Tools: Pumpkin Border punch by Martha Stewart

Embellishments: mini brads from Recollections

It's H{ippity} Hop Time with the NEW Fall Collection!

It's an exciting day to be sure!

It's the official release day of the

 2010 Fall Collection

from

Along with the release, we are also having an

Ippity New Release Blog Hop!

I encourage you to get over to the Ippity Blog

and check out the list of Ippity Chicks that are

participating in the Hop!

This first card was made with stamps from the brand new

'Cherish Your Dreams'

set from Ippity.

 I layered a variety of beautiful papers from Webster's Pages

on top of my base card and adorned the sentiment with

some of my favorite flowers from Prima & Bo-Bunny.

The top layer is woven through lines of baker's twine

from The Twinery.  If you haven't gotten on the

baker's twine bandwagon yet, you are gonna love it!

The second little creation comes courtesy of

the same Ippity set PLUS a set called

'Sing a New Song'.

I borrowed the little scalloped border to create

a small shelf for the Poppy Picture to sit on.

I used Cosmo Cricket's Circa 1934 Collection

for my 'wallpaper' and once again, The Twinery's

Baker's Twine completes the look as the

'picture hanger'.

Wanna see the entire collection?

Here you go.....

Your Price $22    (reg. $24)

Your Price $4.50   (reg. 6)

Your Price $16  (reg. $18)

Your Price $22   (reg. $24)

Your Price $22  (reg. $24)

Your Price $12   (reg. $10)

Your Price $16  (reg. $18)

Your Price $16   (reg. $18)

You can visit my

 Ippity Page Here.

if you would like to place an order with me.

I accept PayPal as well as money orders

from either Walmart or the USPS.

I would LOVE to be YOUR 

Ippity Chick!!!!!

Gettin' Sketchy & Waltzing All at the Same Time!

And how was your weekend?

Mine was nice as I had lots of time to be creative and

I am happy to say that that 'spark' I have been missing

of late seems to be returning.

It may be because Paul is in the middle of a week's

vacation and I am just more relaxed when he is home.

Speaking of which, since he is home, we have many

fall cleaning things on our list and tomorrow is

carpet-cleaning day.  So thought I would post a couple

of projects I made for challenges now because I

think Monday is going to be a 'smidge' on the busy side.

This first project is for 'Get Sketchy' #60.

What a fun and creative sketch to work with.
I turned mine a bit, but followed the sketch for sure : )

Featured here are 'quilt blocks' of DP from

Webster's Pages and K&Company.

The sentiment from My Mind's Eye and the felt ornament

is from Little Yellow Bicycle.

The satin ribbon is by Martha Stewart and I can't say

enough about the wonderful twine from The Twinery.

The color?  Maraschino.  Love it!

The next challenge I played along with is

Waltzingmouse Sketch #19

My creative friend Mona Pendleton is on the

DT over there and is always an inspiration.

Beautiful DP from the 'Meadowlark' collection by My Mind's Eye

and Bo-Bunny's 'Mama-Razzi' collection provide the

foundation for this card.  The ornament stamps are also from

My Mind's Eye.  I love that Prima jewel surrounded by

more twine from The Twinery, this time in 'Caribbean'.

These are two really 'challenging' challenges.

Are you up for it?

I sure appreciate you stopping by and taking a 

'peek' in The Open Window.

Don't forget, we are celebrating our

first anniversary over at

The Play Date Cafe!

We have a wonderful sponsor who's DT

will celebrating with us as well as our

returning DT alumni, including our very first

Private Blend Designer, Mona Pendleton.

Do you have the above badge on your blog?

Make sure you pop over to The PDCC,

get your badge and mark your calendar

for this Thursday, October 21st!

I am looking forward to a great week and I hope

you are as well.  See you very soon!

Birthday Fun Part One...SHOPPING!

I had such a great time shopping with my ever-so-patient husband and now it's time to share my bounty with you! I hardly know where to start, so I decided to go with the papers I am most excited about. I love vintage...retro...nostalgia...call it what you want. When Paul spotted these great papers from Graphic45 on the rack, he knew it would be ok to have me "drop everything to check these out!" (I love that he knows me THAT well!) They are fabulous, 2-sided patterned papers that harken 'back to the day', that's for sure. I cannot wait to start designing with these and I am SURE they will show up soon in a Friday Night Series.

Next up, the spookier, more macabre Halloween...'intellectual' Halloween. These papers are from the Spider's Web Collection for My Mind's Eye. I've already begun designing a card that I hope to share with you tomorrow. I love these upscale colors, don't you...something different, I think.

Of course with the spooky comes the cute and colorful. I found some great new Heidi Grace and Doodlebug Design for Halloween and then some really cute prints from Bo-Bunny for the general fall season. Vibrant colors are always a nice option when it comes to fall-color alternatives.

I had really been looking forward to seeing the new Eskimo Kisses Collection from Basic Grey and along the way, I found some terrific 'stuff' from Bo-Bunny, My Mind's Eye and one of my favorite companies, Fancy Pants Designs. I was definitely NOT disappointed! There are so many beautiful shades to work with for the holiday season, I really won't know where to start!
I think all in all, I bought around 75 new sheets of patterned papers and a variety of chipboard, die-cut and sticker sheets. What a great way to keep the birthday party going, huh!

I saved the stamps and accessories for last! My ribbon collection just went through the roof here! I just couldn't pass up alot of it, especially the Martha Stewart sets, as they were on clearance for $1.99 a set and the paper ribbons were .97 a package....Yeah, I know! Have you started working with Flower Soft yet? I bought 3 color varieties and some wire stems to make bouquets. This stuff is HUGE in the UK and much of Europe. I bought the English Cottage Peel-offs with a specific project in mind using the Flower Soft, so I will let you know how that works out. A great stamp set from October Afternoon and some much needed mushroom stamps from Hero Arts. I have been wanting to do some '70's-themed' cards and those will be perfect. A few $1 stamps thrown in there and some odds and ends and that's about it!

I have a few more photos to share with you of some 'crafty' gifts I received and a GIANT cupcake! But those will have to wait until tomorrow. In the meantime, I would love to know if you have indeed worked with Flower Soft....if so, what did you make? If not, is it something new to you?
Leave me a comment and let me know.

One more thing.....I can't thank you enough for the lovely birthday wishes I received over the course of the past week. It is so wonderful to be able to celebrate with this new community of friends that you have become.....it truly made me smile!

Here's to Jury Duty, Paula Deen and New Friends!

I know we have a bit of time before we NEED Halloween cards, but for those of you who make and sell your creations, you know it's never too early to start.
I had fun with all the rhinestones on this project. The tree is from Penny Black Rubber Stamps and the greeting is Inkadinkado. Bo-Bunny's Mango Luau Dude provides the backdrop for this 'not-so-very-scary card. You'll find this one available in my Etsy store.



So I made it through my day 'on-call' for jury duty. They were able to choose the jury from the first 35 names called, so the other 65 or so of us did not have to be interviewed, but we did have to stay until the day was complete. I know for most, we realize jury duty is a right and a privilege. I believe that the hardest part is knowing that you may have to spend hours on end in one room and never get the call. Oh, and did I mention that you have to do it with approximately 100 total strangers?! Well I must say that today ended up being a pretty good time for 7 or 8 of us. We got our 'party' started at 9am sharp and continued until we were dismissed at 3pm. This group of women entered the room not knowing a thing about one another, but after getting acquainted in the morning, having a fabulous lunch together(our waitress was the spitting image of Paula Deen) and waiting out the rest of the afternoon for our name to be called (and that only happened for one of us), we were scheduling our 'jury duty reunion' for one year from today.

None of these girls were stampers....but that may change. One asked about my workshops, and then they passed around my stamping magazines. The next thing I know, I have all of their email addresses for my next round of classes. In fact, they said they would stop by The Open Window and take a look in, so if you're there girls A BIG HELLO FROM ME! I had a great day getting to know a little bit about all of you and I hope you will stop by often!