Bonjour!!!

Good Afternoon!!!!  I've always been fascinated with anything French,,,,,,I took 8 years of it in school, and I've been a travel agent and had the opportunity to go many times,,and I am totally in love with Paris!! And I was lucky enough to win the grand prize at Simon Says Stamp this past week and win 50.00 worth of goodies! I scored some Paris themed Just Rite stamps and SEVERAL Memory Box dies,,,,,,love them!

Today the mail came and I just had so much fun playing with stamps and dies!!!!  I knew I wanted to do another entry for the Justrite Friday Challenge, "Charm Me" so off I went to play with my new Justrite stamps, Au Revoir.

Here's what I came up with!

I created a little collage with several of the stamps in the set and added a pop of color with some red ink,,,,,,,,the dies I used for this card are spellbinders postage stamps and Romantic rectangles, and Memory box Lorelai Outline Leaf, Elegant Scrollwork, and Wrought Iron Gate.  I added a heart charm to a sheer black bow, and finished off with two stick pins and a sparkly button.

Here's a close up of the stamps and the bow cluster, including the heart charm,,,,,,

The inks I used to stamp with are ColorBox Cranberry, and Versafine Onyx Black and Vintage Sepia.

Thanks for  looking, and I hope you enjoyed the card!!!!

Sugar Creek Hollow!!!!!!!!!

Good Morning!!!!!!!! It's Saturday and time for a new Sugar Creek Hollow challenge!!!!!

And this week, our challenge is,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,


Black and White!!!!!

We want to see your black and white vintage, shabby chic and Primitive style cards in ONLY black and white. The image may be colored, but otherwise,,,,,,,,,we want ONLY black and white!!!

Here's my card!

I got this lovely image FREE from Free Vintage Digi Stamps and couldn't resist it! Pamela has the NICEST digi stamps, and they are ALL FREE! Pop on over there and see what you can find!

I colored this stunning image with the barest of copic color hints,,,,,I used R20 for the fan, lace and feathers, BG10 for the back ground and just a touch of YG 63 for the dress and hat, and E00 for skin tones.

My card base was cut from Romantic Rectangles,,,,,,,and I also used Romantic Rectangles for several of the card elements,,,,,,,I embossed the smallest with my Tim Holtz post card embossing folder and then stamped it with a little post mark stamp that I bought at Joann's. The patterned paper is more MME Lost and Found scraps!

A few pearls, and she's finished,,,,,,,,,,easy peasy and tons of fun! She measures about 5 inches X 3.25 inches, and is perfect for a little note card!

We have some more exciting news over at Sugar Creek Hollow this week!!!! Today, we are welcoming Liz and Yvonne to our Design Team!!!!! We are so excited to have them!! Congratulations, Ladies! I can't wait to see what beautiful things you create!

I hope you enjoyed the card, and thanks for looking! Now run right over to SCH and upload your black and white card! You might win a wonderful prize from Sugar Creek Hollow!

Sugar Creek Hollow!!!

YAY, it's Saturday!!!! And I really can't wait to see what you all come up with this week, because we have a challenge at Sugar Creek Hollow that was TOUGH for me! BUT many of you like it, so I am hoping to see some wonderful examples of,,,,,,,,,,,



STEAMPUNK!!!!!!!!

Here's mine! And I want to KISS Pamela over at Freevintagedigistamps.blogspot.com (button to the right) because she saved my LIFE with these images that I used on my card! ALL of them were from her! THANKS PAMELA!

I used MME paper for this, simply because it seemed to match SO WELL. I printed the images on my computer, and cut them with squares large, postage stamps and labels 3,,,,,inked them all up well and matted the whole thing on a black base.  I cut the watch with an old spellbinders set, Heritage,,,,,,,,a black velvet ribbon and knot,,,,,,,and she's done! I am really happy with the way it turned out!!!

So let's see what you can come up with! Run right over to SCH and load up a Steampunk card!

Thanks for looking!!!!! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Vintage Rose!

Good Afternoon!!!! I hope everyone is enjoying their Friday and has great plans for the weekend! DH and I are going to Disney World on Saturday for a few hours after he finishes working,,,,,,,,

I'm looking forward to that! I haven't forgotten about posting some Disney pics,,,,,I just forget every time I pull out the card reader and yank pics into my computer LOL. Making a note to do that now.

So today I have a card that features this GORGEOUS vintage rose digi stamp,,,,Pamela over at Free Vintage Digi Stamps posted it the other day, and I HAD to use it!!!! It's really stunning,,and Pamela is SO generous with her lovely images,,, I just love that it's ready for copics or watercolors!!!!

This card is super simple,,,,,,it's 5.5x5.5 (one of my favorite sizes),,,I colored the image with copics,,,the base is pink,,,,,I layered brown over that 1/4 inch smaller,,,and then this gorgeous light pink French newsprint on the top, and this gorgeous, really shabby chic looking pink stripes on the lower half. My focal point from the bottom up is Fleur de lis pendants, lacey ovals and ovals large,,,,,,,a bit of  lace that has these beautiful roses woven into the decoration, a few gems, a spiral rose on a bow and a stick pin, and it's all ready for my mother's friend, who's quite ill  in the hospital,,,,,,I used to babysit her children when I was a teenager,,,,,They're adults now, and I'm showing my age LOL.

so today,,,,I'm spreading the love (see button on my side bar for information on that movement).

Here's a close up of this stunning image!

You should run right over to Free Vintage Digi Stamps right away, because Pamela has the most gorgeous images,,,,,,,Thank you so much for all of them, Pamela!!!!

Thanks for looking, and have a wonderful weekend!!!!

A Sexy Little Valentine!!!!!

I don't generally do this type of card,,,,,in fact,,,it's pretty much NOT my style,,,,,,,buuuuuuuut,,,,I happened to win a couple images from Kenny K, and for some reason,,,,,this image (Sexy Cupid) stuck in my head as something kinda cute to give my DH for Valentines day,,,,,,,You can get this and many other cute digis from Kenny K here!

We can all dream LOL!

I used AGAIN my favorite paper Lost and Found by MME (I loved this stuff so much, I ended up buying a HUGE pad of it at HL,,,,,,the sheets are thin, but I didn't care,,,and that's saying something! I am normally quite picky about the thickness of my papers!)

I layered on this deep red paper over black and cream dots,,,,,I cut the edges of the card and the pp with nesties edgeabilities (classic Ric Rak) and then layered the whole over red and cream dots,,,,,,

the image was colored with copics,,,,,,not my best job, but black is a tough color to get right. And hair confounds me every single time,,,,,,,eh, practice makes perfect! I stickled her wings liberally and it has hints of gold in it,,,,,,which led me to dig out the very last (sob!) tiny piece of my gold mirror card and cut this key and heart lock. I believe the nesties set is called "Timeless Heritage", and I bought it YEARS ago before I knew I'd someday have almost 40 sets of nesties LOL. I do not think it's available any longer.

A few sticky gems and a small ribbon and she's finished!

Here's a close up of the image!

I think he'll like it,,,,,,,and get a kick out of the sentiment,,,,,,,, "We can all dream. Happy Valentines Day".

Thanks for looking, and I hope you enjoyed!

Happy Sunday!

So Valentines day is coming up QUICKLY! And I've been working on some Valentines Day cards in addition to my DT work. I've been meaning to blog since FRIDAY, but my computer is on the fritz, I've been using my husband's lappy, and I can't make his computer recognize my card reader. GAAH! (Not to mention, all my favorite challenges AND images are STORED in my computer!)

So, I finally figured this out on the FAMILY computer,,,,,my next goal is to find some of my fav challenges and work on those! LOL, I am so computer illiterate!

So today, I have a Valentines day card made with some old stand by paper,,,,,,yes, that would be MME Lost and Found! Love that stuff! The first thing I did was to punch the edge of my card with a MS punch (I wish she put the name of her punch ON the punch!)  No clue where this sentiment stamp came from, I think it was a dollar bin find at Joanns last year.  I've framed the sentiment with Nesties Postage stamps, Floral doily motifs, and standard squares large, the larger roses are spellbinders spiral blossoms 1. It's brand new, and I LOVE it. It took a bit of time and some staring at Amazing Paper Grace and Becca's roses before I figured out how to best roll them so that I could shape the outer edges, but I finally have roses that I love! Thanks, Becca!

The smaller roses are MFT mini rolled roses,,,,,they're so cute and great for tiny spots!  I tied a triple bow on my peg bow maker (Thanks again, Becca!), a few pearls, some lace and a heart charm, and she's done.

Here's a close up of the roses!

Thanks for looking, and I hope you enjoyed! And while I'm at it, I'm going to enter this into Sassy Cheryl's show me thursday challenge! I've missed her :(

So I screwed up,,,,,,,

Yep,,,big time. The birthday file I made a year or so ago that I thought was brilliant,,,,,,,,

isn't so brilliant if I misfile someone's birthday. Sigh.

Yep,,,,,filed a dear friend under December instead of November. I realized what had happened when I went digging for late December birthdays to make cards for. And found hers. Oh boy.

What's a girl to do???? Except maybe make the prettiest card she can and admit she's a dunce LOL.

So here you have it,,,,,,,yet again, some pretty MME paper (even when I TRY, I can't seem to stay away from it!), a nestie, a "sorry I missed your birthday" stamp. And three of the prettiest flowers I think I've ever made.

I've been playing around with rolled roses for a week or so, trying to get a specific look. And I think I finally got it. I've been asked twice already how to make them (it's so simple, it's ridiculous), so I'll see if I can't get a pictorial up here in the next few days. I wanted Spellbinders "spiral blossoms one", but at least until AFTER the holiday, anything that's 24 bucks is just going to have to wait. And I'm pretty happy with the way these turned out actually. Not sure I even want to spend 24 bucks for that flower now,,,,,,,,not when there's so many other dies I want,,,,,,,hm,,,,,,,

will have to think about that one LOL. Oh, and by the way,,,,,,,those leaves are really my poinsettia die,,,,cut in half LOL. I can't even leave the thing alone for birthday cards!

Hope you enjoyed the post,,,,,,,,,again, have a LOVELY Christmas, Hanukkah or whatever it is that you celebrate! And thanks for looking!

Beauty and the Beast!!!!!

Good morning, scrappy friends!!!!!

Well, here you have it,,,,,,Beauty and the Beast,,,,,,

The beast is the current state of my bathroom,,,,,E gads, it's disgusting! The previous owners had let the tub leak for months, and it created issues with the floor. they "fixed" the problem poorly, and it was a YEAR before we figured it out,,,we haven't used the tub in over a year, so it's going to be WONDERFUL to get a brand new bathroom,,,,,,,,until then,,,,THIS is my view LOL. As you can see, they are in the midst of tearing the flooring out,,,

In addition to this disgusting disaster, I have a card today that I finished last night (no WAY I'll be scrapping today with power tools and bath tubs tromping through my livingroom,,,,,

It's my mother's birthday in less than a week, so I need to get this baby in the mail. I'll also be entering this into the Penny Black and More challenge HERE! for a happy birthday card. In this challenge, you may use any stamp you'd like, but NO digi images.

I've used a fiskar's sentiment stamp from the Happy Birthday kit, and stamped it onto MME paper with versafine black onyx ink. some matting, a few gorgeous flowers made with my Create a Rose die out of this stunning MME paper (aren't you all glad it's NOT a poinsettia? LOL), a bow, some ribbon and a fancy corner embelly and it's' DONE. I hope my mother likes it,,,,

Happy Birthday, Mom. I love you!!!!!

AWESOME MME card challenge!!!!!

Good morning and happy friday to you all!!!!! Finishing up my challenges here so that I can get them out of the way before the weekend (hopefully!)

There is an AWESOME challenge over at the My Minds Eye blog that you MUST ENTER if you love MME paper as much as I do! You can find the challenge HERE!

The prize is an ENTIRE COLLECTION of the winner's choice!!!! I'd die and go to heaven!!!! Some stiff competition, though, so I did my best work,,,,,,and I'll keep my fingers crossed LOL.

So this card is almost entirely created out of MME Union Square paper,,,,,the very LAST bit of it I have,,,,,LOVED this paper! Following the sketch over on the blog, I have diecut the gorgeous Eifel Tower out of the Union Square paper, stamped a sentiment from Justrite near it and then layered it in black,,,,,,I cut them both with labels 4. I have then diecut two poinsettias out of MME paper from Union Square to place on either side of the eifel tower diecut. A couple of delicious layers with this paper, some border punching, TONS of inking with sepia ink (my FAVORITE!), a bow, some pearl pins and some bling, and it's done! I love love LOVE this card,,,,,,,it's Christmassy,,,,,but not overdone! My biggest problem,,,,,who to give it to? LOL, I might just save it and frame it, I love this paper so much! I'm just sorry it's gone :(

Not to worry though,,,,,I picked up two more pads of MME paper (Madison Ave and Market St) at HL, so I'm sure you'll be seeing more gorgeous MME paper on my cards,,,,,

probably today LOL.

If not, thanks for looking, and have a WONDERFUL weekend!

Clean and Simple,,,,,,,,,,,ME???

If you've been reading my blog for any length of time, you can be pretty sure of one thing,,,,,


Holly does not do clean and simple.


Until now.

You may never see this again,,,,,,,,but here it is,,,,a clean and simple card.

And no one is more surprised than I am,,,,,,,no one.

And I love it. Shock though that may be LOL.

I used my new Marianne Creatables poinsettia die to make three poinsettias, some gorgeous MME paper and a JustRite nature's nested sentiments stamp, and she's done.

I almost feel like I cheated. LOL.

I'd like to enter this into the addicted to stamps challenge,,,,theme of CHRISTMAS CARD. You can find this fun, twice a month challenge HERE!

Thanks for looking, and I hope you enjoyed!

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas,,,,,

Good afternooon! It's THURSDAY and it's almost over! One more day til the weekend! I have been having so much fun this week making cards, my mojo has really been in high gear,,,I feel badly dumping all these on you, but the more I make, the better I get, so on to the blog they go :)

I have today a card made with the absolutely DARLING image "Snow Day" by Mo Manning,,,,she had it up for 24 hours as a freebie, and I managed to snag it! (then I bought another one LOL, go figure! Oh well, 2 for the price of one, right??)

She's now three dollars (still a bargain) and you can get her HERE!

I colored her with copics, and used a TON of bling and glitter paper,,,,,,,she's really pretty!!!! I also used my nesties AND my new Marianne Creatables straight edge poinsettias that I had to order all the way from Great Britain,,,,fortunately, they didn't take 3 weeks to get here, but that was the LONGEST 12 days of my LIFE LOL. I wanted them badly!

I stamped some snowflakes in silver, because I wanted them to be very subtle, and I think they are,,,,i wonder if you can even SEE them LOL. The sentiment is a JustRite Christmas nested sentiments,,,,I love them, the fonts are always SO gorgeous!

I'm going to enter her in Mo's Thursday challenge, the theme of which is THE GREAT OUTDOORS, and you can find that HERE! She certainly LOOKS like she's having fun in the great outdoors!

I'm also going to enter her in the Stamtacular Sunday challenge. The theme is ANYTHING CHRISTMAS, and she's certainly very christmassy with her gorgeous sparkly poinsettia. It reminds me of how us children would rush outside on Christmas morning if there was fresh snow,,,,,then we'd run back in to open our stockings by the fire place! Who doesn't think Christmas when they see snow?

You can find the Stamptacular Sunday challenge HERE!

so come on over to one or both challenges, and finish up those holiday cards!!!!!

Have a great day, and thanks for looking!!!!!!!!!!

Love is in the Air,,,,

Hello!! I hope your week is going well so far. I have another card to share,,,,,,I'm sure I'll get back to doing some last minute Christmas cards, but I'm just feeling "Valentines Day" this week, I guess :)

And, I am LOVING my little 6x6 stack of MME Lost and Found Union Square paper! so many of the papers lend themselves to V-day, maybe that's why I'm in that mood :)

I'm using this ADORABLE image from Sliekje today,,,,,and best of all, ALL her digis are FREE! and she has SO many cute ones! So pop on over HERE to get some darling digi stamps for free!

I've colored the darling birds with copics, matted some Union Station paper, some pearls a stick pin and a bow, a fancy corner embellishment, and I LOVE how this turned out,,,,,,I love red and black together to begin with, but the addition of the beige and a touch of gold really makes it pop, I think. And it's all ready for one of my daughters for V-day!

AND it's all ready for the Party Time Tuesday challenge of ANYTHING GOES this week! You can find this incredibly super fun challenge HERE! Get moving and hurry up because they have some SUPER prizes from FABULOUS sponsors this week!

Hope you enjoyed the card! And thanks for looking!