Having a 'Date' With You !

Oh my goodness !

Day #3 is here already . . . one more to go.

In case you didn't have a chance to get to the post from

yesterday (my guest spot with Rubbernecker Stamps)

You still have time to visit to win...read the post HERE

I'd thought I would go ahead and share the finished card

because I truly do love these stamp sets . . .

I'm hoping to cover a little more ground with this post, but I'm

sure you know that to fit THREE YEARS of blogging memories

into 4 days is simply impossible.

By my calculations, it would take SIX YEARS because with every

post comes some sort of idea . . . thought . . . challenge . . .

Can you tell I love what I do ?

I hope so.

The truth is, many of us who get involved in the 'business' end of

designing, do spend more of our days creating and posts specifically

for those times.  It goes with the territory.

I've chosen to try and weave in personal stories along the way because

I know that is what brought some of you to my blog in the first place.

I didn't work for anyone or have a lot of projects to post . . .

Proof of that is to visit the month of June back in 2009

when I shared 'tiny' little photos 

(because I had NO idea how to edit them)

and when I finally learned a *little*, one of the first things 

I posted were photos I had taken of my three oldest grandsons.

Yep, those are three of the four from the photo I

posted on Day #1 of our party (HERE)

Baby Finn wasn't even a twinkle in his mom's eye at that time.

Yes . . . I know. I am STILL on the first month of blogging in '09.

So let's move it along.  I think you get it.

I LOVE TO SHARE 

ON MY BLOG ! ! !

Before we get to the next story, you KNOW I have to

give a shout out to some special people because let's face it . . .

as much as you are enjoying my posts (as you share with each note),

you are definitely lovin' the giveaways!

I am so excited about this upcoming week over at The Twinery

because we are teaming up with the uber-creative girls from

and look at what my friend Shemaine Smith arranged

for this anniversary celebration . . .

Make sure you plan to join us June 18-22 for so much fun

and inspiration using baker's twine & terrific scrapbooking elements

from My Little Shoebox.

To see all MLS has to offer, visit their website too!

Oh heck !  Let's do one more that has a story with it . . .

Last summer, I met someone who had become a dear friend

through blogging when I first met her as she joined the DT

over at The Twinery.  From there, I had the pleasure of meeting

up with her twice last summer at a consumer show & at CHA.

 

Angelica Suarez, owner of Market Street Stamps is one

of the sweetest ladies in the biz.  I have enjoyed our

friendship so much and have been so inspired by watching

her grow her stamp company to be one that people are in love with.

I had the blessing of being a part of their design team in 2011

and am so excited to see what is on the horizon for them.

Here are a few of my favorites created using MSS . . .

 With husband Jorge, they are a GREAT team !

Market Street Stamps are sharing a

for one of our winners during the celebration !

A big thanks to Angelica & Jorge & continued success to you both!

So I asked you to take your best guess on what this photo was . . .

I so enjoyed all of your answers, especially those who felt as

though they might be cheating because they 'copied off someone

elses paper while leaving their comment'  LOL

Yes, it was the very first challenge graphic for what would become

a HUGE part of my blogging life, 

The Play Date Cafe.

It's a big part of my life because of the time it takes to physically

work on it each week, but there is an even greater reason . . .

It became a huge part of my life because of the aMAZing friendships

I've made along the way.  We started The Play Date Cafe Challenge

back in October 2009 and what a journey it has been.

 It's beginnings were fairly primitive . . .

We didn't even have a separate blog set up for it, but before the first

week ended, we sure did !  The response what quite amazing 

and we will be celebrating our 3rd anniversary this October.

{YES . . . another fabulous party with lots of prizes & guests}

My bestie Sarah (you read about her on Friday's post) and I

partnered together to make the challenge happen.  We knew

we needed to find a small and talented team to work with us

and fill special 'roles' that we had.

You see, we wanted the PDCC to be more than just a

card-making challenge.  We wanted to encourage all types

of work and in recent months, we've even had cupcakes entered

into our challenges !

So we asked the very talented Alison Spellman & Sandra Kelly

to join our team.  Shortly after, Julie Campbell joined us as well.

As the challenge grew, we knew we wanted to create a 'designer position'

that was by invitation-only and the Private Blend Designer born.

This is a designer who we recognize (at the time they come on)

that they are designers who deserve a platform to share their work,

maybe have never been on a team before, but are really talented and

would add just the 'missing' piece to our own team.

Although our first designer was well on her way to becoming a

very popular designer & blogger, she still agreed to fill the role.

 Our first PBD was none other than my friend

Mona Pendleton of Cupcake's Creations.

Mona has gone on to represent some of the biggest companies in

the industry and has been featured in publications.

Paul and I had the pleasure of spending time with Mona & her husband Scott

a couple of summers ago during CHA in Chicago.

It was an blast to share coffee & great conversation.

Mona & I had spent hours on the phone in our early blogging

days and still enjoy sharing comments with one another.

From there, our PBD's have included:

Andrea Ewen, Colleen Dietrich, Julie Day, Stacy Rodriguez

and our current designer, Donna Bowman.

Even though the PDCC team changes from time to time,

we remain a family of friends.  We are currently having a

DT Call to add SEVEN NEW DESIGNERS to our team

and I KNOW they will become family as well.

Today we are blessed to have Jaclyn Miller as our

Color Story Coordinator.  She is the genius behind

the colors that bring us all together each week.

We are also home to the 'Color Splash' Challenge,

which has become a favorite by so many players.

It began week #15 and continues to this day.

Our very first 'splash' is featured in the graphic above

and was Black & White with a 'splash' of teal.

I want to thank each of the designers here who have been a

part of my life way beYOND The Play Date Cafe team:

Michele Gross
Andrea Ewen
Libby Hickson
Tracey Kuzniak
Fiona Shultz
Julie Campbell
Suzanne Czosek
Sandra Kelly
Lisa Somerville
Alison Spelman 

and our current team:

Savannah O'Gwynn

Ruby McGuire

Jaclyn Miller

Colleen Dietrich

Jinny Newlin

Denise January

Stacy Rodriguez

Alicia Thelin

Donna Bowman

 You will find a link to all the blogs of all these fantastic

designers over at The Play Date Cafe.

I hope you will take time to visit them & check out what

they are up to today!

BTW . . . we are not losing 7 designers : )

But you'll have to stay tuned to see what IS happening.

And of course, we would LOVE to see your submission for the Call.

So I mentioned that when we first started the challenge, we had

specific needs to be filled along with the idea of fabulous design-work.

Keep in mind, I barely knew how to edit my own photos back then!

I was extremely happy when Alison shared with me that she knew how

to do graphics & would be happy to do all of our color stories for us.

So each month, our designer chose the photo they wanted as the

inspiration for that week and Alison made them come to life !

Today, Alison runs her own stamp company called

The Alley Way Stamps and has generously offered our party

 $35 Shopping Spree

You can read all about the company and check out all of

their adorable stamp designs by visiting their website HERE

OK  . . .  while I know this post probably took you maybe a

minute or two to read through (not counting visiting the links),

it took me nearly two hours to write.

(My husband and daughter called for a few minutes of that time)

so it's time for me to take a break.

Tonight . . . I will be sharing a post that is all giveaways!

Yep . . . GIVEAWAYS !

So I'll let you know when that post goes live, but until then,

I hope you enjoyed your visit.

Tomorrow, I will be sharing a very special post which will include

some very special people and I hope you will make plans to

stop by for that too.  It will be the final day of the celebration

and of course, we will wrap it up with some pretty cool prizes as well!

Today . . . 

All you need to do to win any one of today's featured prizes

(from this post)

is to let me know this about The Play Date Cafe Challenge :

a.  it's NEW to you

b.  You've heard of it, but haven't had a chance to play 

c.  You play and LOVE it!

Thanks again for your visit!

A BIG thank you to:

My Little Shoebox
Market Street Stamps
The Alley Way Stamps

Home Is ...

I love this sentiment, don't you?

I love the colors that are on this card as well.

Thanks to this week's challenge over at....

Charcoal ..... Ash ..... Butter

It's such a popular combination of colors and I am

so glad that it was our challenge this week.

The perfect excuse for me to use my brand new stamps from  
Market Street Stamps.

This sweet little stamp set was really fun to play with and is a perfect

image to paper-piece.

I pulled out my 6x6 Authentique 'Blissful' pad and got to work.

It was as simple as that!

Are you up for the challenge?

We'd love to have you come play.

This week's sponsor is...

and it's a GREAT prize for our Cup of the Week!

Thank you so much for popping by...

ya know I love your visits!

Project Recipe: 

Patterned Paper:  Blissful by Authentique
Stamps: Neighborhood by Market Street Stamps 
Embellishments: gems from Recollections

Beautiful...EAD Design Team Blog Hop

This is a super-exciting day for me as it is my very first

post for EAD Designs and it just happens to be the....

If you've reached my blog by way of

Judith's from Jay Gee's Nook

then you are in the right spot indeed!

If not, this is a great time to pop over to the

EAD blog

and get started for a chance to win a

pretty fabby prize!

As I created this first project, I was truly inspired by

my daughter Mallory.  

She is a beautiful daughter and a wonderful

mother and I thought about her all the while I was making this card.

We all know that cameos are so trendy right now and I aDoRe the 

'Mini Cameo Frames' Rub-Ons from EAD. 
You can order them in your choice

of color and I thought the Deep Red would be
a beautiful alternative to the traditional black.

I also used EAD's 'Fancy Frames' Stickerz as my scroll frame around

the beautiful silhouette.  Stickerz are terrific because they are vinyl

and repositionable and so fun to work with.

The sentiment is from Market Street Stamps.

I love the sweet little pearl heart brads and thought they were a nice touch.

For something a little different....

I love anything vintage and this sweet little chair is from 'Vintage Furniture'.

Creating clean and simple is so easy with pieces of furniture.

You may recognize the sentiment as a Paper Smooches design.

It is!

It's from Kim Hughes designed for EAD and is a part of the

'Thinking of You Sentiments' collection.

Here are the sets I used today:

The next stop on the blog hop is...

Lauren's Creative

I have been enjoying some new directions in my

creative life recently and there are so many wonderful

things coming around the corner.

If you are new to my blog, thank you for coming by

and I hope you'll leave a quick comment so I know you were here.

I appreciate each and every visit and hope you'll come by again soon!

Beautiful & Thoughts of You Project Recipes: 

Stamps: Autumn Greetings by Market Street Stamps
Embellishments: Stickerz in Fancy Frames, 
Thinking of You Sentiments
Rub-Ons in Mini Cameo Frames all by EAD Designs
Pearl Heart brads from Recollections

Tools: Labels Ten die from Spellbinders, Big Shot
Corner Rounder punch by Fiskars

CAS-ual Fridays Joins the Market Street Block Party!

Taking another quick break from the holidays

because I've got an especially fun treat for you all!

This week the Girl Fridays of CAS-ual Fridays

are joining up with the fabulous designers of

Market Street Stamps in celebration of

their newest releases.

This week's Clean and Simple Challenge is...

Begin with a Clean and Simple idea

and incorporate Brown Paper and String

and you are good to go.

I love this sweet little button card from Cosmo Cricket's

Clementine Collection.  I thought it was the perfect backdrop for

this week's challenge using the new set

called 'Faith in You' from Market Street.

My 'string' is Mandarin bakers twine from The Twinery.

Along with the joint challenge, it is also

time over at MSS.

You can have a chance to be a guest designer with

our fabulous team, so make sure you check out all

the details over on the MSS Blog.

Hope you enjoyed your visit to The Open Window.

I know I enjoy hearing from you, so thank you

so much for stopping by!

Project Recipe:

Designer Paper: Clemetine from Cosmo Cricket
Stamps: Faith in You from Market Street Stamps

Embellishments: Die Cuts Clementine from Cosmo Cricket

Bakers Twine in Mandarin from The Twinery

Once we Believe...

 

Taking a break from holiday cards tonight to share a beautiful

new collection from Market Street Stamps.

 

It's New Release Preview Week and you are going to love

what is to come from all of the designers over at MSS.

These beautiful butterflies and sentiment are from the brand new

'Believing Butterfly' Collection.  

Butterflies are so trendy and I think are a perfect

alternative to hearts for Valentine cards.

For this card, I pulled out papers & embellishments from

Making Memories 'Je t'Adore' collection.

I embossed the butterflies and layered them for a dimensional effect.

I have a large collection of the heart lace border and never seem

to use it, so I am hoping to incorporate it on more cards this spring.

I hope you will join the designers of Market Street Stamps all week long

as we reveal the new stamp sets on offer.

So glad you came by....always nice to hear from you!

Project Recipe:

Designer Paper: Je t'Adore from Making Memories
Stamps: Believing Butterflies from Market Street Stamps

Embellishments: Die Cuts Je t'Adore from Making Memories
Vintage Heart Lace Border

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

Snow Flurry Greetings

Hope you are having a relaxing Saturday evening.

We have had nothing but rain and gray skies today,

but I assure you, it has been sunny at my work table

today as I have been preparing a couple of

projects for a tutorial I'll be sharing over at 

Market Street Stamps.

Until then....

I wanted to share with you a couple of projects I recently

completed.  One for the MSS Block Party and another for

the New Release Designer Showcase.

I am also entering these two cards over on the
CARDS blog for the Christmas card call.

This fun card features one of the newest backgrounds from MSS

called 'Flurries'.  I stamped it in 'Sky' ink from A Muse Studio

and simply used it as a background.

The sentiment is also from the new set 

'Essential Holiday Elegance'

and is a must have for the holiday season.

The fonts and sentiments are all so gorgeous.

The additional snowflake accent stamp is from 'Cool Cats'.

I love my newest set of die cuts from Spellbinders...Labels 18.

I used that as my frame and topped everything off with the

sweet fabric die cut from Little Yellow Bicycle's 'Twig' Collection.

If you are not familiar with the MSS Block Party, make sure you

pop on by and check out the details.

YOU could win a guest spot over on the MSS Blog!

 The card I shared as part of MSS's Designer Showcase...

 Staying with the same color scheme as the card above, as I

adore the designer papers from the Twig Collection by LYB.

I used the 2011 Heirloom Ornaments die from Spellbinders

and stamped the 'Flurries' background once again.

The sentiments, once again are from the Essential Holiday Elegance

set.  I really like the way the ornament shapes and

the snowflakes are 'mirrored' in the background paper.

I really hope you enjoyed this quick peek at a couple of fun

projects for the holidays.  I think it's always good to be able

to do cards that can be quick (once the design is there) and

these both fall under that category.

It would be wonderful if you would pop on over to the

Market Street Stamps Blog and check out the rest of

my teammates projects in the Designer Showcase.

So much inspiration indeed!

Happy Holidays Project Recipe:

Designer Paper: Twig from Little Yellow Bicycle
Stamps: Flurries, Essential Holiday Elegance
and Cool Cats all from Market Street Stamps
Ink: Sky & Slate from A Muse Studio
Tools:  Labels 18 die from Spellbinders, Big Shot

Embellishments: Fabric Favorites from Little Yellow Bicycle

Ornaments Project Recipe:

Designer Paper: Twig from Little Yellow Bicycle
Stamps: Flurries & Essential Holiday Elegance from Market Street Stamps

Ink: Sky & Slate from A Muse Studio

Tools:  2011 Heirloom Ornament die from Spellbinders, Big Shot

Embellishments: Silver cord from Making Memories

Snowflake Brads from The Paper Studio

Big Stamps...Small Spaces

Hi everyone!

I am happy to be sharing a couple of projects

with you today...well, sort of.

I am happy to be sharing over on the 

Market Street Stamps blog today and to see

the finished card above, you'll need to make

a visit over there...and I hope you will!

I love using background stamps with

'faux-paper-piecing'

and that's what I've done with these

projects.  The one above features...

 

The Gingham Background from MSS.

This one features...

The Cane Background from MSS.

 

 

I think we are so used to thinking about using BIG backgrounds

only as backgrounds...and obviously, they fit into small spaces too!

I used the fab 'Autumn Greetings' set which is where this

great pumpkin & sentiment come from.  A hand-cut banner and a couple

of die cuts later, and we are done!

I hope you will make a visit to

 

Market Street Stamps and check out today's post

for all the details of these projects.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

I know it's a very busy week for my U.S friends, so if you

have a sec, please say hello so I know you were here.

Project Recipe: 

Cardstock: Bazzill, American Crafts, Authentique
Stamps: Cane & Gingham Backgrounds, Celebrate Cake & Autumn Greetings
all by Market Street Stamps
Ink: Bubblegum & Orange from A Muse Studio
 Tools: Lacey Circles, Standard Circles  & Labels Four by Spellbinders
Corner Rounder by Fiskars

Embellishments: Gems & mini-brads from Recollections,
mini-roses from Maya Road