donut cookies?

Yes, donut cookies. Aren’t they the cutest thing? I saw the idea on The Decorated Cookie. Way clever. And because I cannot eat donuts, this is a great solution! Well, maybe. Not perfect, but cute! (I cannot eat donuts ever since my gall bladder was removed right after the birth of the little man. Ugh. Sorry for the TMI.)

Now, The Decorated Cookie went all out and baked her own dough and made her own frosting. Normally I am all about that. But with as crazy as life has been, it was time to cheat! :) I used pre-made sugar cookie dough, you know, the already cut into squares kind. (yes, blushing a little bit) Once they were baked, I used a frosting tip to cut the hole in the center. And I found pre-made “royal icing” at Target. Warm it up and it pours out of a spout.

Add a few sprinkles while the icing is still warm. It takes about an hour to set up and then you can put the cookies in bags.

I want to thank Heather and the whole design team at Skipping Stones Design for letting me join in all their fun this month!

thanks for stopping by!

Supplies: Stamps (Skipping Stones Design-Birthday Donuts), Cardstock (Papertrey Ink), Ink (Palette), Copics, Spellbinders (Classic Scalloped Borderabilities Petite)

Winner!

Congrats to the winner of the two sets of Spellbinders dies!

Carol (HB) said...
Your senses must be on overload! I always think of sunshine when I see that inverted scallop circle set. And what's better than a card with a bunny & sunshine! :)
April 26, 2010 6:37 AM

Congrats, Carol! Please send me your address, using the email on the upper right side of the blog!!

Skipping Stones Designs: Week 4

Yum. I love donuts. But, I cannot eat them anymore. So, I will happily enjoy them by coloring these darling images from Skipping Stones Designs and the newest set, Birthday Donuts!!

This image was colored in with Copic markers. Remember to not let your images float in space, ground them with a shadow or line, or I guess, in this case, both. :) I used BV20 and BV23 to create the shadow underneath the donut. It adds a realness to the image, don’t you think?

Here is this week’s sketch, of course, based on the above card. Hop on over to the Skipping Stones blog to see what those fabulous ladies created! AND Heather announced this:

"The P.M. S. sale is going on now!
P.M.S. stands for Purchase More Stamps: the more you buy the more you save
Buy 1 stamp sets save 5% coupon code PMS1
Buy 2 stamp sets save 10% Coupon code PMS2
Buy 3 stamp sets save 15% Coupon Code PMS3
Buy 4 stamp sets save 20% Coupon code PMS4
Buy 5 stamp sets save 25% Coupon Code PMS5"

thanks for stopping by!

Supplies: Stamps (Skipping Stones Designs-Birthday Donuts), Patterned paper (Pebbles), Cardstock (Papertrey Ink, Bazzill), Twine (Martha Stewart), Ink (Memento Tuxedo Black, Palette Dark Chocolate), Spellbinders die templates (Classic Rectangles Large), Copics (E53, E55, E57, W3, R29, YR06, Y15, G07, B37, BV20, BV23)

Whew!

Whew! What a stretch of chaos it has been around here! It started off with me heading north to MN. I took the little man and we worked on getting some spring yard cleaning done. (We have been having great traffic through our house, but still waiting for an offer.) But the biggest reason we went north was to help my family get my grandma’s house ready to sell. She has moved into an apartment. Its tough. Her and grandpa built the house. I spent so much of my childhood there. And I lived there for two summers during college. I guess being so far away now, I am shielded from the reality of it. On the other hand, she does need to be in a place with lots of people and where someone can keep a closer eye on her. She is 90 and amazing, but still she’s 90.

Then it was back home and onto an airplane to sunny Arizona! Myself and the other Spellbinders design team members headed there for several days of learning, creating, staying up too late, and of course, getting spoiled by Stacey!

Look at that! Can you believe all the wonderful product we were given to work with? I know it was the second go-round for me, but it was still amazing!! Nothing like new dies and new product to get my lack of mojo moving!! Thank you so very much to all the generous companies!!!

Now I am back home and working on a couple of huge projects. Project number one being the July 2010 Stampendous catalog which will be coming out at CHA-S. AND the other one is a secret that is just ready to come bursting out!!! I can tell you that on May 6th all will be revealed, if I can keep it in that long.

SO, because I have been such a flake on my blog lately, and because I have so many wonderful products, I am giving away these two die sets; Inverted Scalloped Circles Large and Easter Fun. Leave me a comment telling me what you would create with either of these sets of dies.

You have until TUESDAY, APRIL 27 at 11:59 PM to leave a comment on this post. I will draw a winner on Wednesday morning and post the winner sometime later that day.

thanks for always stopping by!!

One other quick note: Check out the fun Saturday Sketch Challenge at the Stampendous blog! You have a chance to win some great product and to be inspired by some fun sketches!

Video Tutorial: Making a Shaped Card

Here is the direct link: VIDEO

Just a quick video on how to make a shaped card using Spellbinders™ die templates. The sky is the limit here, as this technique works with most of the shapes! Have fun creating and thanks for stopping by!

Skipping Stones Designs: Week 3

I just love the way this card turned out! I wanted to make a donut shaped card, but I had no idea it would be so easy. I used my Spellbinders™ Petite Ovals, both the large and small sets. The chocolate “frosting” got a hand cut bottom edge, after I die cut the oval. To add sprinkles, I used my Versamark Watermark pen to draw lines and added embossing powder. Too cute! Kind of messy, as the powder got everywhere. This is one situation where I would recommend using an Embossing Buddy (to remove static).

The newly released set, Birthday Donuts, from Skipping Stones Designs, that was used on this card, is SO cute! I love the funny sentiments and fabulously drawn images!! And its perfect for masculine or feminine cards!! Can’t say that too often about a stamp set!

This week’s sketch is to make a shaped card. Any shape! Have fun!! Stop back tomorrow for a video tutorial on making shaped cards. thanks for stopping by!

Supplies: Stamps (Skipping Stones Designs-Birthday Donuts), Ink (Palette Dark Chocolate, Palette Dark Chocolate), Cardstock (Papertrey Ink), Embossing Pen (Versamark Watermark), Embossing Powder (Stampendous), Spellbinders die templates (Petite Ovals Large and Small)

Organization

This is a scheduled post, as I am in Arizona at the Spellbinders design team retreat.

So many of you email and ask about how I organize my crafty space…well, things are a little upside down right now with life in the townhouse, but I will show you what I have going on and hopefully give you some ideas to help out your own space.

Let’s start with my junk on the table. :) I leave my often used tools right next to me. Sometimes the pile is larger…See the mug? On my first day of teaching, my hubby, who was barely my boyfriend then, sent me flowers in it. My dad knew he was the one the day I brought them home! :)

I store all my 12x12 paper in Cropper Hoppers. I have labeled the tabs with my Dymo label maker. Its easy for me to flip though the papers. The papers are organized by brand. Its just the way my brain works. Sorting by color just didn’t work for me.

The 6x6 and 8x8 paper pads are held up with a book end. Easy grabbing this way. Its also a great place to set my Spellbinders master mats. Putting my machine up there, its right in front of me, for easy grabbing.

This is new. I picked up this set of five drawers at Wal-Mart. The markers fit perfectly. In the top drawer are the refills, blending pens, and water brush with blending solution. As I slowly add more markers, I will get more drawers and spread out the colors.

More Wal-Mart buys here. These are in the home storage section. They are obviously labeled for CD storage. Perfect for all my Spellbinders dies. And they stack!

I keep all my dies and Nestabilities stored in CD cases. The magnets are pre-cut strips that are in packages in the crafting section of Wal-Mart. Three seems to do the trick. And when I have the small and large sets of squares, I put them both in the same case. One on the right and one on the left.

The S5 dies from Spellbinders, like Labels 8 here, do not fit in CD cases, but I found thin DVD cases that worked well.

Some of my stamps go into CD cases and storage boxes.

Others go into shower baskets from Target. These work well for my design teams. Easy to see and flip through.

And finally my cube ink storage…I picked up this magnet board at Michael’s years ago on super clearance. It has a lovely rooster on the other side. :)

On the back of each ink pad is a magnetic strip. The same ones I use for my dies.

This is the ink color chart that also has magnets on it. It sticks to the other side of the board and makes for easy reference.

I should mention that I have several rolling drawer carts underneath my craft table. They hold all my chipboard, large stamps, large ink pads, embossing powders, flock, and all other randomness.

There you have it. Not glamorous, not pretty, nothing fancy. I buy things inexpensively, cause let’s face it, we want to buy more stamps and paper. But they work. And my space is where I work. Everything is at my reach and in its place. :) thanks so much for stopping by!

if moms were flowers

This is a scheduled post. I am in Arizona at the Spellbinders design team retreat. :)

Here is a couple more cards from the Stampendous set, Hand of Friendship, that I told you about a little while ago. Not only does the set have friendship sentiments, but also ones for mom!

In the first card, you can see the border of flowers image. I stamped a leaf image separately and foam mounted them along the border.

And here is the hand image, for which the set is named. You can add any one of the flowers or flower bouquet images into the hand. With clear stamps, its very easy to do. In the effort to use one stamp set on each card, I used the Happy Mother’s Day sentiment with watermark ink on the turquoise background. A subtle way to add the holiday to the card.

Have a wonderful day and thanks for stopping by!

Supplies Pink Card: Stamps (Stampendous-Hand of Friendship), Cardstock (Bazzill) (Neenah Solar White), Ink (Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black), Ribbon (Offray), Copics (RV19, Rv29, B00, YG03, YG25, G07, YR04, Y13, Y15), Spellbinders die templates (Classic Rectangles Large, Classic Scalloped Rectangles Large)

Supplies Turquoise Card: Stamps (Stampendous-Hand of Friendship), Cardstock (Bazzill) (Neenah Solar White), Ink (Tsukineko-Memento Tuxedo Black, Versamark Watermark), Copics (E31, Bg10, BG13, BG15, Y13, Y15, YR04, YG03, YG25, G07), Spellbinders die templates (Classic Rectangles Large, Classic Scalloped Rectangles Large)

Skipping Stones Designs: Week 2

The images from Dandelion Dreams are so elegant and timeless. It really is a perfect set, one of those must-haves in your collection. The dandelions were stamped onto canvas that was cut with the Spellbinders™ die, Standard Tags. Another image from the set was stamped along the bottom onto the patterned paper. To achieve the lighter look, I inked up the image, stamped it onto a piece of scrap paper, and then stamped onto the patterned paper. Love the shadowy effect. The butterflies were stamped in black ink, cut out, and foam mounted to the card.

Here is this week’s sketch, based on my card above. Make sure and head over to the Skipping Stones blog to see what the rest of the ladies created!

Supplies: Stamps (Skipping Stones Designs-Dandelion Dreams), Patterned paper (Pink Paislee-Queen Bee 6x6), Ink (Stewart Superior Palette Charcoal, Noir), Ribbon (iheartpapers), Clear button (Hero Arts), Spellbinders die templates (Standard Tags)

AND I have a video tutorial about stamping on fabric. You can check it out HERE.

Video Tutorial: Stamping on Fabric:

I love this banner made using Pink Persimmon stamps. Fabric, and especially canvas, is very hot right now. And it is very easy to work with. The video tutorial covers how to stamp on fabric, including the ink, and a special tip on how to keep the edges from fraying. And while I use canvas, the tips apply to all fabric.

(use your imagination…wouldn’t this be darling hanging over a birthday table set-up, instead of my renter’s taupe walls? :))

Direct link to the video: STAMPING ON FABRIC

To tie all the banners together, I used my CropODile to create the holes. Its not perfect, but does clear enough to pass whatever ribbon, or in this case, twine you would want to pass through.

The felt “buttons” that are also at the joint were adhered to the banners and twine with Elmer’s Fabric and Paper glue. Love the stuff. It holds. And it works perfectly for fabric to paper.

Have fun stamping! thanks for stopping by!

Supplies: Stamps (Pink Persimmon-Vintage Cupcake, Banner Outline with Rosettes, Cute as a Button, Polka Dot Mushroom (for polka dots), Ink (Stewart Superior Palette Noir, Bella Rose), Fabric (Hancock Fabric Store), Felt (WalMart),Patterned paper (My Mind’s Eye Quite Contrary Little Boy Blue), Twine (Divine Twine), Buttons (Papertrey Ink), Gems (Hero Arts)

Skipping Stones Designs

I am so thrilled to announce that I am the guest designer this month at Skipping Stones Design!! Heather has stamps that range from hilarious, to darling, all the way to elegant. And, they are good quality stamps!! Thanks so much, Heather!!!

I stamped this butterfly from Healing Wings onto text patterned paper. I bent the wings upward and glued only the center of the butterfly down. I held it in place for a minute, but with the Tacky Glue from Elmer’s, it didn’t take long. The row of red pearl flowers are from Jenni Bowlin.

Part of my duties is bringing you a sketch to use this week and each week for the month (Tuesdays). Pop on over to the Skipping Stones blog and see what the rest of the ladies created with this one. I based this sketch on my card above. Have fun with it! thanks for stopping by!

Supplies: Stamps (Skipping Stones Designs-Healing Wings), Patterned paper (October Afternoon-Thrift Shop), Cardstock (Papertrey Ink-Rustic White, Pure Poppy), Ink (Clearsnap Colorbox Chalk Creamy Brown, Stewart Superior Palette Dark Chocolate, Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black), Gems (Jenni Bowlin)

Go To Sketches

Have you seen the latest special issue from Paper Crafts, called Go-To Sketches? Its a fantastic issue, full of sketches designed by the Go-To Gals. I am thrilled to have five projects in the issue, and I wanted to share one of them with you today.

Instead of making a card for this sketch, I made a Christmas banner. That is what is so cool about sketches, many ideas and uses for them.

Be sure and check out all the fun activities going on this week at Moxie Fab World and Paper Crafts Connections celebrating this issue’s release!

Have a wonderful week and thanks for stopping by!

Supplies: Stamps (Pink Persimmon-Big Banner with Rosettes), Patterned paper (Cosmo Cricket), Spellbinders die templates (Stars 5, Inverted Scalloped Circles Large), Chipboard (Basic Grey), Ink (Clearsnap Colorbox Chalk Creamy Brown), Ribbon (Michael’s) (this has better detail in the issue :))

Happy Easter

“He is not here; he has risen!” Luke 24:6

One of my favorite southern gospel songs was sung by a quartet that is no longer together, called Gold City. The song is called, “When He was on the Cross, I was on His Mind.” (written by Jake Hess)

“I'm not on an ego trip, I'm nothing on my own I've made mistakes and often fail,

Just common flesh and bone

But I'll prove someday of what I say, I'm of a special kind

When He was on the cross, I was on His mind

The look of love was on His face, the crown of thorns was on His head

The blood was on His scarlet robe, and painted it crimson red

His eyes were on the crowd that day, but He looked ahead in time

When He was on the cross, I was on His mind

Yes, He knew me, yes, He loved me

He whose glory made the heavens shine

So unworthy, but such mercy

When He was on the cross, I was on His mind.”

Layouts

I couldn’t help myself,I just had to share these layouts using the new line from Pink Paislee, called Queen Bee. There was a little peek here last week, because I reviewed the line for The Scrap Review. I haven’t been scrapbooking as much as I used to and I have a ton of photos. These photos are older, but ones I had yet to find the perfect papers to use.

The first one is my first Mother’s Day. My hubby took this photo at my parents. Its perfect. My little man not wanting to snuggle, but sit up and look around. And me wanting to hold him close. :)

The journaling reads, “No one blames you buddy. It was a rough start! We are glad you turned into our smiling, happy little man.” We called him Grumpy Gus for quite awhile. His birth was quite the ordeal, not because of him, but because I was so sick. I love this photo, no matter how cross he looks. The sunshine was coming in his room, my sister had just helped me give him a bath, and he was exactly one week old. And there is his best buddy, Puppers.

This layout shows the little man not too long after he started crawling. Hard to believe this was taken in September because it was so hot, we hid in the house, with all the curtains drawn, and the fans blowing. (you have to understand that in northern Minnesota, hot doesn't happen often) He was almost too warm in his onesie. I am also amazed at his face. His hemangioma (between his eyes) was at its largest, and the congenitive nevis (cheek) was at its lightest. Who knew how much that would change and affect his life?

Thanks for letting me share my layouts and my stories! I am sure my nostalgia is because this week started my new part of life; soccer mom. The little man started swimming lessons and soccer this week! Where did time go? When did he get so big? I might be a little sad, but so excited for him and all the new adventures he will have! And let's hope we meet some new friends in our new town. :) Have a wonderful weekend and thanks for stopping by!

Supplies: pretty much entirely Pink Paislee Queen Bee :)