Out of Hybernation!

Hellllllllllllooooooooooooooooooo! Oh how I missed you guys (if there are any of you left that is, lol)! Every once in a while life has a way of telling you to slow down and focus on the things that are really important in life. That is what has been keeping me from hanging out with you for the 5 or so months. Now though I am back and better than ever! Well, maybe that's an exaggeration. I am back though!

I stamped for the first time in that 5 months on Friday {yes, you can feel sorry for me} and it felt soooo good! I stamped yesterday too and will be stamping today as well after I get home from church!

One of the cards I made yesterday was for my hubby who is turning 29 today {Happy Birthday Honey} and I wanted to make him something funny. Simple cards are always best for him because even though he appreciates my craftyness, a 5 minute card is not much different than a 50 minute card, ergo, he gets the 5 minute one! I'm pretty positive that was just a run on sentence. Anyway, here is my quick no layer card for my humorous hubby...


inside...



I had to handwrite the jackass part, lol. Mabe I should suggest it to Tracey to add to the next sentiment set! LOL

I really ended up liking the sky that I was just trying to fill in as a quick fix. I just took my blue Copic marker and made several lines across the paper letting it dry a minute or two and then added some more, and even more still. I like the streaky look of it. It would be great for water too.


Stamps: Doodle Factory Fairytale, DF Fairytale Sentiments Paper: white CS Ink: Palette Hybrid black Other: Copic markers, black pen


This was the first of my latest Starving Artistamps cards. Can you tell I was thinking of cupcakes? Well, day dreaming actually. {grin} The 'dreaming of' piece is popped up and I paper pieced the cupcake. Those adorable little hearts went perfectly as sprinkles. I picked them up at Wal-mart last week. I think I might go buy like 5 more packs because they are too cute!



Stamps: Simple Birthday (large) Starving Artistamps Paper: Cosmo Cricket Honey Pie, DCWV dark brown Ink: Palette Hybrid black Other: Sakura white gel pen, K&Co heart stickers


I have a super cute project to show you tomorrow! Hope to see you then! Thanks for stopping!

The wait is over...we have a winner!

I know most of you want to strangle me since I haven't gotten back in a timely manner and I don't blame you. So, I will let the suspense cease! The winner of the 3 sentiment sets from Starving Artistamps is...........

Lucky # 21!!

Dawn Mercedes!!!

Congrats Dawn! Shoot me an email and I will get your addy to Tracey over at SA to send your goodies out!

Thanks everyone for playing along!!

I hope you missed me, cause I have candy!

Well hello everyone! Long time no see! First off, I just want to say how much I missed all of you and missed posting this past month or so. However, my family needed it, and I think I did too.

Joe took some vacation time and ended up working it to get 18 days straight off. The first week we did yard work and re-did our chicken pen. The rest of the time we went to his mom and dad's camper at a lake about n hour away. We all fished and swam and ate out. It was nice. However, I was ready to come home.

Once we came home it was time for Joe to go back to work (for 3 days), and he did. Then he decided he wanted to take the rest of his vacation he had left and we ended up turning around and going back to the camper again. We fished, swam, and tried not to eat out. It was nice. We got home the day before yesterday and I am so glad to be back. The only internet we could get was on our phones and that tiny screen just doesn't fill in for the real thing!

So, in celebration of me being back to 'real life' I am offering up some yummy blog candy!!!

3 Sets of Starving Artistamps Sentiments!!

If you win, you will get the Boopie, Tropics #2, and Faith sentiment sets.






All you have to do is leave a comment here telling me why you love Doodle Factory! That's not so hard, huh? I will draw a random name on Monday morning (the 28th) and announce the winner.

Now I will leave you with some samples I made using the Tropics #2 sentiment set and the Tropics image set.

• STAMPS- Happy Birthday (Tropics #2), Moki (Tropics) - Starving Artistamps
• PAPER- Basic Grey Cupcake
• INK- Brilliance black
• OTHER- Copic markers, Marvy scallop punch, zig zag scissors, push pin, pop dots

• STAMPS- Buck-eye Bob, Treasure Chest (Tropics), Best Booty (Tropics #2 sentiments) - Starving Artistamps
• PAPER- Basic Grey Cupcake
• INK- Brilliance Black
• OTHER- Copic markers, Spica glitter pen, zig zag scissors, ribbon, pop dots
  

A close up of the shining treasure!



Well, hope you all have had a great summer so far! Have a great rest of the day!!! Thanks for stopping by!

Last Tea Party

Hey all! Today will be the last smARTworks Tea Party for the summer. It seems like everything is harder to keep up with when you just wanna be outside or are going on vacation. So, for our last party Trish told us to make a card using brown, white, and one other color. Oh yeah, and some sparkle too! I decided to add in pink. Here is my finished product...

• STAMPS- WD-36, Daisy Trio #1 (smARTworks)
  
• PAPER- Basic Grey
• INK- Versamagic Wheat, Colorbox Dark Brown
• OTHER- ribbon, sparkle brad, edge distresser, pop dot

Make sure you stop by and get your fill of the last round of everyone else's cards!
In the Works.....smARTworks
Mama Dini's Stamperia
Tah Dah!

I'll be back tomorrow with hopefully some new Doodle Factory stuff! I am on DF overload {in a good way of course} lately so that's probably all you will be seeing from me as far as Starving Artistamps is concerned. Tracey and I just finished up sentiments for the new Tropics set so she will probably be putting those in the store shortly. Keep your eye out for them! Hope you guys have a great day!!

You MUST check this out!

I want to say that I am so giddy right now! Tracey from Starving Artistamps just uploaded several new sets of sentiments onto the website.......and I helped create some!! Those of us on the Design Team kept asking for more sentiments so when she offered for us to make our own up I jumped at the chance! I racked my brain for about a month thinking of all of the phrases and words I'd like to be able to use and ended up spending about 6-8 hours on the phone with Tracey going over everything and choosing the fonts and editing the sheets. It was a long process but she is wonderful to work with (and for) and she has made me soooo happy!

I brainstormed all of the following sets and some words or phrases scattered about too!
Faith Sentiments
Urban Set #2
Most of Trick or Treat
Some of Holiday Greetings
Most of Casual Holiday Greetings
All About Easter
St. Patty's
4th of July
Some of All About Love
Most of Fairytale
Most of Country
Some of Bird Words
A couple of the Fresh and Funky Farm
Quirky {my fave set because it works perfectly with the Doodle Factory Creatures!}

Please just go take a peek if just to thrill me for a minute! If you decide you like anything then don't forget that you can use my code: heidis to get 10% off your whole order!!

Now, to share a few more of my Doodle Factory cards! This first one is one I made with the Fairytale set. I stamped the carriage and then masked it so I could have Princess Winifred riding along with her horse Favius. I brayered the BG with blue and purple to give it a sunset look. I also used my Copic Spica glitter marker on Favius' saddle and the accents on the carriage. I wanted to make it a 'thinking of you' card but didn't want to put a big sentiment across the top so I just cut out a thought bubble and had her thinking of 'you'!

• STAMPS- Favius, Princess Winifred, Carriage (DF Fairytale), tufts of grass (DF Country) (Starving Artistamps)
• PAPER- glossy white, Mellow Moss, Paper Trey white
• INK- Versamark, Brilliance black
• OTHER- Copic markers, Spica glitter marker, pop dots

• STAMPS- Doodle Factory Winter (Starving Artistamps)
• PAPER- blue, white
• INK- Brilliance black, Night of Navy, Versamagic Cloud White
• OTHER- Copic markers, ribbon, pop dots

Thanks for stopping by today! I will be running off hopefully today and finding a nice old dresser at a yard sale for the girls. I want an old one because they are usually made of REAL WOOD and not cheap sawdust. Wish me luck!! Have a great day and don't dwell on it being Friday the 13th!

P.S. My article on storage ran on Craft Critique ran a few days ago. Check it out and maybe it will help you solve a few ribbon or embellishment dilemmas!

P.P.S. THE NEW DOODLE FACTORY SET WAS JUST REVEALED ON THE SA BLOG! GO LOOK!!!!!!!

Super Samples!

Hello! Hello! Hello!!!!! I hope everyone is having a good summer so far! Anyone ready to send their kids back to school yet? {giggle} We have been soaking up the sun and taking care of business around here. We (and by we I mean me, lol) got our pool set up and the kids have been swimming in it just about every day since. It's just one of those vinyl ones that is about 4 ft tall and 16 ft across. It suits our needs! Anyway, I have also been purging lots of the stuff in our house. I just broke down our dining room table and reclining chair the day before yesterday and it's sitting in the back of Joe's truck ready to take in to the incinerator. Before that I took in one of our desks, our old grill, our old trash can, and Franklin's (may he rest in peace) cage. I also send a big load of yard sale stuff with my sister this past weekend when she came up with my mom. I told her just to keep the money made from it because all of it would be going to the Salvation Army anyway and she could really use it being a single mom of 3! We went to the Strawberry festival this past Saturday and we had a nice time. There weren't too many people there (normally you can't even squeeze through the crowds!) because we went immediately after we got a big storm. It was a little muddy but I'd way prefer having dirty feet then huge crowds!

On another note, I got my hair done last week and am now a semi-blonde instead of redhead. I like changing my hair every year or so because I get bored with it. It's still long but I'll probably chop it all off in the fall. Who knows! I am getting really tan too from working outside a lot with the garden and chickens. I mowed the grass today so that should help out too.

Okay, I think I've bored you enough with my silly details! Family does read this so I try to keep them a little up to date with the family stuff!

The following cards are all Queen Kat Designs! This past month I got to work with the Harlequin stamp set. Love It! It's now available for purchase and you can find it here. I also love the new sets that have been released this month! Be sure to check them out! I really loved the samples I made this month! Here they are.....

• STAMPS- Harlequin BG, Just Whalin' Around (QKD)
  
• PAPER- Certainly Celery, black
• INK- Brilliance black, Versamark
  
• OTHER- Copic markers, Cosmo Cricket rub ons, white Souffle pen, Nestabilities, scalloped edge scissors
  

• STAMPS- Harlequin BG (QKD)
  
• PAPER- pink, Chocolate Chip, white
• INK- Versamark
• OTHER- Cosmo Cricket rub ons, ribbon, button, rhinestones (the fab Lindsay sent me the button and some of the ribbon in a RAK package! Thanks girl!)
  

• STAMPS- Harlequin BG, Mini Circles set {retired} (QKD)
  
• PAPER- Paper Trey white, Cosmo Cricket
  
• INK- Versamagic Sage and Wheat, Cranberry Crisp
• OTHER- Chipboard heart and arrow, Cosmo Cricket rub ons (the word was BELIEVE but I cut it apart to make the word LIVE)
  

I really love the ribbon flower but I love the 'Live' one too! I was really happy with these!

Here are the new 'Take 3 Club' sets! Aren't they adorable! I love the bikini, flip flops, and Hula girl! Remember you can get a 10% discount on your order by using the code HK10 at checkout!


Want some more good news? YOU could be the net Design Team member for Queen Kat Designs!!! Vicki is looking for 3 new members for the next DT session! For all of the details check it out here on the QKD blog! The deadline is June 15th so hurry and apply!!

Well, I'm off to hopefully put our new grill together that Joe got for Father's day! We have had it for almost a week now and it's still in the box. I'm hoping it's not too complicated and I can get it together without his help! Wish me luck! Have a fantastic day everyone!!!!!

A Little non-Wednesday Tea

Alright so apparently I am on a roll of being late this week. I was all set to do my post for the smARTworks Tea Party yesterday but after the awful (and I mean awful) storms we had the night before last and yesterday morning, it left me without a dial tone on my phone which meant no internet too. So, even though I wanted to be here yesterday, I had to sit back and go an entire day without surfing anything! I'm surprised I'm alive today! {grin} Anyway, here I am!

It was my turn to do the challenge this time and I chose these colors for inspiration:


Here is my final take. The colors are a little bit brighter in my card but I think it's pretty cool.

• STAMPS- Sunshine Sayings (smARTworks)
• PAPER- Chocolate Chip, Certainly Celery, pink, white CS
• INK- Colorbox Dark Brown
• OTHER- buttons, flowers, Souffle white pen, push pin, Cuttlebug embossing folder, pop dots

Well, I'm off to finish painting the chicken coup! Hope you guys have a wonderful day!

A day late...anyone have a dollar?

Can't be a day late and a dollar short if you don't have any dollars right? lol Maybe I have some change in my purse. Anyway, yesterday was the QKD challenge and I had my project done and I was all ready to go until Blogger was acting wonky and wouldn't even load. I had lots to do yesterday and didn't get done with everything till late last night. Painting a chicken coup is not as easy as I thought it might be. So, here I am right now with yesterday's challenge. We were challenged to make something that wasn't a card! I stamped the skull from Happy Skullz set 5 times onto white shrink plastic, cut them out, colored the heart eyes (each one is a different color), and used my heat gun to shrink. I attached them to one of her bracelets with jump rings. The whole thing only took me about 25 minutes to do. She loves it too!

• STAMPS- Happy Skullz (Queen Kat Designs)
  
• PAPER- white shrink plastic
• INK- Stazon Jet Black
• OTHER- heat gun, Sharpie markers

Be sure to check out what the other gals posted yesterday! Click the links!
Juliet
Lindsay
Tanis
Penny
Toni


Thanks for stopping today and I hope you have a great day!!

My body hurts...

These past few weeks have been the most physically challenging ones I've had in a loooong time! But, they are almost over! Whew! My body hurts though and I have a serious sun burn from planting my watermelons, cantaloupe, and pumpkins. Everything is planted though so that is a relief. Now we just have to finish the chicken coup. Yes, we got chickens! Thirty 3 week old chicks and two 3 week old roosters. We are building a movable coup they won't make a big dirt pile where they will eat the grass. Every day or every other day we will be able to move it (it will be on wheels) so they can have fresh grass and we aren't left with any bare spots! It's like a big triangle and at the top will be there nests and roosts and at the bottom will be a fenced area that is directly on top of the grass. Once they get big enough to free range we will just let them out during the day and put them back in their coup at night to keep them away from predators. So far and quite surprisingly, the boys are my favorite. They actually let me pet them and hold them without freaking out. And before I tell you their names please take no offense as my kids helped name them. Little Bill and Pecker. I said Pecker to Joe jokingly and the kids loved it. It's so nice how kids can be so untainted by the world! Anyway, I will have a few pictures to share later this week, just haven't had time to edit them. We will have to thin our group down by about 20 by the time late fall gets here. Hopefully the kids get attached to the ones we are keeping!

Moving on to crafting now, I wanted to share a few more Doodle Factory cards I got done last week. Drumroll please....

I wanted to keep this one simple and obvious...

• STAMPS- House from DF Country, Alphabet, Stitches (Starving Artistamps)
• PAPER- Mellow Moss, white
• INK- Brilliance Black
• OTHER- Copic Markers

For this one I was channeling my inner layer-er. LOL

• STAMPS- Drake from DF Fairytale, Miss You from SSS Thanks (Starving Artistamps)
• PAPER- Basic Grey Archaic, white CS
• INK- Tim Holtz Tea Stain distress ink, Brilliance black
• OTHER- Nestabilities, Copic Markers, pop dots, sponge

I have some super cute QKD cards to share tomorrow! Be sure to stop back by to see them and get a glimpse at our chicks! Thanks for coming by today! Have a great day!

smARTworks is here for tea!

Today is another day for our smARTworks Tea Party! The big boss herself Susan gave us a sketch to try today....


This is my take on it. I know I extended the circles a little farther than the sketch but that's the beauty of a 'guideline' right?

STAMPS- Sunny Smiles, Combo Sentiments (smARTworks)
PAPER- The Slab
INK- Brilliance black ink
OTHER- Copic markers, buttons, pop dots

Be sure to check out the other Smart Cookies throughout the day!
In the Works.....smARTworks
Mama Dini's Stamperia
Tah Dah!

Well, as much as I'd love to stay and chat, I have to finish planting our sugar snap peas, green beans, carrots, and onions!! Oh, and did I mention we are thinking of getting chickens???? I think I'm gonna lose my mind! {grin}