Hero Arts 90-Minute Scramble

Hey there, everyone!

I had lots of fun today, playing along in the Hero Arts Flickr group's, 90-Minute Scramble! Karen was the host, and she did a wonderful job! She gave us the theme of stamping on patterned paper. This is something I don't do often enough, so that made it even more fun!

During the first half an hour, I had stamped the Hydrangea stamp onto two different pieces of patterned paper. I left one uncolored and colored the other. I ended up thinking both looked just awful, so I had to re-think the whole thing! Now I only had an hour. . . .

Here's what I finally ended up creating.


The Tea Flower was stamped and embossed on vellum, quickly colored and cut out. I stamped the True Friends background onto the glittery-dotted Doodlebug Design paper, using Tattered Rose distress ink. Then I just glued down the flower, stamped the sentiment and added that. Whew! You should have seen my desk at this point!

I realized I had a little time left and saw some cute Studio Calico paper on my desk, so I reached for a Hero Arts "Hi" and stamped it onto all the circles. Then added some string and a black pearl and that was it.



What started out to be a stamping disaster, ended up okay in the end. I always enjoy these scrambles!

Please stop back on Monday for a really fun and happy surprise, that you will ALL love! Thanks for your visit - it's always appreciated! :)

"Everything Happens at Once."

Do you ever say that?

There are a few times every year when "everything happens at once" for me. This past week has been one of those times. For awhile there, I felt like I was going to drown, but I've now come up for air, things are settling down, and I'm catching up. . .whew!

I've got some really fun things coming up here on the blog! One of them is on Monday, so please stop back then! Also, toward the end of this month, I have some exciting news to share! Something that is so cool, that is so fun, and that I am so excited for! I can't wait to share it with all of you!

Okay, I do have a card to show you today too. I've been lacking in the mojo department since coming down with a cold and cough a couple of weeks ago, but I've started to feel better, and I think it's slowly coming back. I was playing the other day with the Hero Arts, Newspaper Flower, using this month's challenge colors. Wasn't sure how I was going to add it to a card. Then I remembered a fabulous 6x6, Echo Park paper pack called, Yours Truly, that my sweet friend, Ivy sent to me. It's not only perfect for Valentine's day, it has most of the colors in it for the Hero Arts challenge too! Thanks again, Ivy - love each page!

Here's my card. I added the two tiny, purple hearts so ALL the colors for the challenge were used.


And here's a close up so you can see all the dimension I gave to the flower. The pretty pearl brad was in my RAK from Joy - love it! :)

Before I let you go, I also want to apologize for not being around the last day or two to comment or visit your blogs. I am not only getting ready for the fun things coming up on my blog, my son also has a friend coming to stay with us this weekend. His mom is a wonderful friend of mine! She is also a card maker and I can't wait to see her! Still getting the house clean for them, doing a little at a time. I should be back in full swing, visiting your blogs, after the weekend. I am planning on taking some time out to join in the Hero Arts Flickr group, 90-minute scramble on Saturday, just so I can keep the juices flowing and add to the mojo. Hope lots of you will play along too! Sweet Karen will be hosting!

Hope everyone has a great weekend! I'm off to clean a little more before getting a good night's sleep! Thanks so much for your visit! :)

A Look Back at 2011

Hi there!

Many of my blogging friends have been sharing their favorite cards from 2011, so I thought I'd share mine too. It really is fun to go back and look at all the cards I created last year. I have them in order here, from early in the year, to more recently, but not necessarily one for each month. I just picked some of my faves, and ones that I really had fun creating. So here we go!

Do you remember all the excitement when the Fabulous Flourish stamp was released? I stamped it twice for a shadow effect on this card.


I loved coloring these flowers from Flourishes, and making it look like they were growing up out of the snow!


Here's one of my favorite stamps from Hero Arts. You all know how much I love flowers, and these are just a joy to color!


I wanted to do something really fun with this Hero Arts, tree stamp. I do love the way this card turned out! I remember it was the end of our long and cold winter, and I was aching for some flowering trees.


Another one made with the Hero Arts Floral Garden stamp. I used a neat technique that Jennifer McGuire had shared on the Hero blog.


I don't stamp on patterned paper very often, and this card reminds me to do it more in the new year!


I loved taking out an older Hero Arts image, stamping it twice for a long card, and of course, coloring all those little flowers!


I LOVE the Pine Cone Wreath! This one took lots of time, cutting out each pine cone, and adhering them, to create some dimension. Another fun one to color!


Stamping, inking, distressing, embossing . . .it's all on this card.


I don't make cutesy cards very often either, but it was fun combining some Hero Arts with Penny Black, for a happy card!


This one was cool because I took out some Tim Holtz Fragments to play with. Love the way the ornaments looked after inking, stamping and embossing!


This card was shown on the Lily Pad Cards blog for my guest design spot. I used patterned paper again here . . . .yay! :)


And the last one I'll share is my silvery embossed, Christmas tags.

It's been a year full of learning, creating and just having fun playing with stamps and ink. I'm really looking forward to more of the same this year, and hopefully finding the courage to submit a card or two for publication - we'll see.

I want to thank all of you for your continued support and friendship in 2011! So many of you inspire me on a daily basis, and I am very grateful for that! Wishing everyone a happy and healthy new year, filled with creativity! :)