Discover Your Wings...

Hey everyone!

I'm really excited about my post today because I am CELEBRATING my blog, The Whimsical Butterfly, and also, my brand NEW Blog, "Yeah, She Blogs..." a NON-crafty blog where you can hang out for random ramblings, inspiring quotes, marvelous mommy-hood, and even some yummy recipes.  I hope you'll join me.

The real reason I'm celebrating today is because I started re-arranging some blog elements for the new blog and updating this one and it occurred to me a few days ago that I somehow got over 200,000 visits without my noticing!   Well,  I mentioned it to my sweet hubby the other day and it just happened to be the same day him and I had discovered this new cupcake place in town, Biddy Bear cupcakes.  

I called to inquire about it and also was thinking that our boys' bday party is scheduled for the week that school gets out (they had their birthday back in March but are opting for a fun summer pool party ;)  Anyway, my hubs knows that I LOVE cupcakes and also knows that I'm SUPER duper picky about frosting-I don't like when its' too sweet or waxy or artificial tasting...but he decided to give it a go and um...can you say AMAZING???

Check out the detail on these ADORABLE crafty cupcakes that she came up with after talking to me and paying attention to what I do:

My sweet hubby brought these home and I swear the entire neighborhood heard me scream:

Look at these CUTE little buttons!  I have to say, I'm not a fan of fondant at ALL but it wasn't bad...I didn't eat the spools and thread, but I did much on a button or two ;)   Seriously, the frosting was light, airy, no aftertaste, and not sickeningly sweet -it was perfect.

Anyway, such a SWEET and FUN tribute to my crafty blog- I couldn't get OVER the handstamped fondant with "The Whimsical Butterfly" stamped in...is that not adorable?  I am one lucky girl, I am tellin' ya.  I just need another excuse to order cupcakes now, I think ;)   Seriously, she came up w/ the designs all on her own and I just adore them!

Lesley, the owner of Biddy Bear, serves the local Nashville area, but she DOES ship fondant "toppers" anywhere, so be sure to check out her blog and Facebook page and PLEASE tell her I sent you- they are just delicious!!!

Well, before I leave y'all, I DO have a crafty project I'm ready to share...be gentle...another mixed media frenzy I went into last night using Stamping Bella's "Spring Butterflies" by Balzer Designs!  I have been itching to ink these babies up but I finally decided that they belonged on this little 5x5 canvas that I prepped last week and was just so hesitant to start. I don't know why I get so nervous about this mixed media but for some reason I feel like this type of art lends itself 'deeper' into a person's soul/personality than a card does....does that make any sense?  Seriously, what do you guys think?

I'm looking forward to starting a new project with this mixed media art that involves a little challenge from Helmar...stay tuned for more info on that....and did you know that Stamping Bella carries Helmar products?  Talk about a match made in heaven.

Here's to 200,000 more views as I continue to DISCOVER my wings...and I hope you are doing the same! <3  

much love,

Jess...

Guess Who's on the Key Ingredients Blog today?...

Oh, wait, right.  Me! hee hee

I am SUPER excited about the project from Taylored Expressions that I am showcasing on The Key Ingredients Blog today-won't you join me over there to check it out?  Thank you!

Here's a little teaser of what you *might* see over there ;)

Have an AMAZING day, my friends!
~xoxo,

Awwww, Honey, you Baked....

Ok, I confess...I've seen the movie Clueless a time or two :)    If you've seen it, then you know what line I am talking about, LOL!

However, whether you've seen it or not, today's challenge over at Little Paper Shop's blog is a SWEET one...and Baked Goods are the theme!

Today is actually a bittersweet post for me, as it is my last as a Design Team Member for Little Paper Shop.   {deep breath...}  I am really excited about some things to come in 2010, but in order for me to make room for a few of those things, I sadly must say goodbye to this team of girls who I totally admire and respect, and to Julia, the owner, who I ADORE.

Julia was the VERY FIRST stamp company owner to take a chance on me as a Designer.  My blog had MAYBE 20 posts, I was designing for a very small store team and had only DREAMED that one day I'd be designing with the women I've had the privilege to.  Let's just say I was STUNNED when Julia had me start out as a Guest DT and back then Laura Fredrickson was on the team.  I felt like I had hit the "big time"....and I had.  I was totally floored when she asked me to stay on as a permanent DT member and then even moreso when she entrusted me with the role of DT Coordinator a little less than a year ago.  It's a lot of work and organization, but the payoff was delightful and I thank you SO much Julia for all that you have done for me, and I know that a lot of doors have opened up for me because of Little Paper Shop.

Yikes..I'm getting a little choked up here, guys.  It's one of those moments I guess :)  Anyway, my card today uses the Basic Grey Nook and Pantry DP and I did some paper piecing and added that super fun embroidered brad as the "cherry" of the cupcake.  The sentiment simply reads, THANK YOU.   This card is for ALL my LPS girlies.  I know this isn't good bye thankfully as I will definitely keep in touch with them, but still, I want to thank:

• Julia Betemps
• Allison Fillo
• Ann Kranitz
• Bonnie Sharp
• Cindy Haffner
• Heather Lee-Reppen
• Jennifer Greco
• Julie Lacey
• Pam Varnell
• Silvia Mabie

Well, I'll be back later with the Club Anya blog hop so stay tuned!  I am SOOO excited about this month's release and our hop is HUGE!  You won't want to miss it!

Cheers, tears, and heartfelt hugs,
Jess :)

Upside Down You're Turning Me...

Ha ha I don't know what made me think of that fab 70's song except for the fact that I did kinda flip this AWESOME sketch by Taylor Van Bruggen upside down for this particular card :)

Here's the sketch, TESC86, so you can see what I'm talking about:And here's my card:I used this cute {Jena Baking} digital image from Little Paper Shop as the main panel, and then inverted not only the sketch upside down, but the scallops, too to make my little awning. Do you ever have an idea that comes to you literally in the middle of the night? Funny, right? That's what happened to me last night and I got up first thing this morning to create this card. In addition to the scallops and main image for this sketch, I then added three brads in the place they'd be according to the sketch and used the middle one to "hang" my little cupcake sign (words from the {Sugar} set, also by Little Paper Shop).

Thanks for stopping by this evening! I know this is a SUPER liberal take on this fun sketch and it's a bit more difficult to "see" the sketch in this card but hey, when the ideas call, you answer them when ya can, right? Not to mention, I had the BEST time making this card and LOVE Taylor's sketches, so all in all it was a fun morning!

Well, I'll be back with another Little Paper Shop post tomorrow morning. Good night, friends!

Jessica ;)

A Little Friday Frosted Flair...

...Hey everyone!

***I know this is a CRAZY Friday as I have not one, not two, but THREE posts today, but thanks for stickin' with me and PLEASE, if you will, scroll down for my LPS Preview as well as my Farm Fresh Friday post from The Greeting Farm...there is SO much going on this week in cyber-stamping-space!***

Well, I am LOVING the September Kit of the Month from UNITY stamps, but while I have a few projects sitting right next to me here in the making, I realized that I never did get around to showing this little confection from last month!

You guys all know that next to butterflies, cupcakes are prob my next obsession and when I saw this sweet lil' stamp in the August kit I knew it had to be inked up!I followed a sketch and color combo from Taylored Expressions (Taylor is the ultimate cupcake lover!) Birthday Bash challenges and I really like how this one turned out, complete with Crystal Effects to make the cake plate shine like glass :)

Do you guys like cupcakes? Check out these links to two of my FAVE places....ever! One of them I am fortunate enough to be very close to...although that's not always a good thing, LOL!:

IVEYCake-Franklin, TN
and
CUPCAKE...in my beloved town of Charleston, SC.

If you guys ever get a chance to go to either of these places, well...you'll be pleased :)

Well, on that note...who wants to bake something today?! I'm gonna go finish up these projects I have with my SEPTEMBER Kit of the month...and OMGOSH have you guys SEEN the October one? Is it the 15th yet???

You'll see what I mean when you check it out HERE.

NEED IT NOW!



On that note, I'll leave you with a sweet thought for the day....I had a little bit of a trying day yesterday and remembered this quote...that just HAPPENS to be by someone named CUPCAKE Brown:

"Instead of asking WHY you had to do it, how about just thanking Him for safely bringing you THROUGH it."

Have a Flair-filled Friday, everyone! Before I get to the next post (below), I want to announce that COPIC WEEK is coming to DieCutsRUs! I will be doing some spotlighting this week over there to help celebrate DCRU's last HUGE Copic sale of the season...are you ready for this? How about some Copic Ciaos for 2.99 a marker?!? Can you say STEAL of a DEAL? Stay tuned and/or check out the link on my sidebar for more info coming this weekend :) You will NOT want to miss this!

LPSC32: You're Sweet...

...ok, so I'm typically a little Challenge "challenged". I guess I see things black and white and although there are SO many wonderful challenges out there, I rarely combine them...let alone more than two. I guess that's why my SCS page isn't the most popular, LOL, and that I always feel like there is so much more that I want to do out in the stamping world...

....well get a load of what happened with THIS. hee hee I'm so excited....This card combines not one...not two...but SEVEN challenges in one! Ha, can you tell I'm kinda giddy? I hope you'll scroll down to read about the other 6, but for now....

...Today is Little Paper Shop Monday and we have a SKETCH CHALLENGE for you today (see the above post). This is a SUPER fun sketch and I know I'll be using it again! Be sure to check out the LPS blog for all the info you need on playing along this week as there are weekly prizes and tons of fun to be had!

For more about my card, please scroll down to the next post...there is a LOT I am excited to show you about it!

We hope you'll play along this week and use LPSC32 as the keyword for SCS. Be sure to link your creation to the LPS blog, too so you can be eligible for a prize!

Hugs,
Jessica :)

Talk about playin' your CARDS right...

Hey! Thanks for stopping back to read more about my card today :)

So, in addition to my take on the sketch (*Please scroll above for my LPS Sketch post, thank you!!!), I was lucky enough to participate in the Taylored Expressions Birthday Bash challenges and wowza...there are 13 of them!

I love Taylored Expressions so much though, I was totally willing and about to hammer out 13 cards when I pulled up this week's LPS sketch and went, wait a minute...it says here you can "combine" them. Well WHAT is this combining stuff anyway?" I said to myself...and well, brace yourselves. Here's what I answered me, LOL: I ended up using SIX of them on this card!!!

TEBBDB: Donna Baker had a wonderful challenge to use paper piecing on our cards. I had a great little scrap leftover from the DP, so I used it for the cupcake wrapper :)

TEBBDM: Inspiration challenge. I was a bit stumped at first by this adorable photo that Denise Marzec chose as an inspiration piece. Denise is one of my favorite stampers so I didn't want to let her down! Mostly because I don't have a ton of orange paper that would complement pink and brown and to me the colors in the photo stood out more than anything. But, I found this piece of Basic Grey "sultry" DP and it had all the colors in the photo! Yay!

TEBBSW: Sankari Wegman had an awesome challenge to use Buttons as the main embellie...could this sketch be ANY more conducive to that? Rock on, people!

TEBBLS: Anyone who knows me knows that Laurie Schmidlin is one of my stamping idols...I LOVE her vintage style and she's a huge inspiration to me! Her challenge was to use distressing on our cards. Check. Love a little distressin' myself...as you will see TONS of this week on my blog ;)

TEBBJP: My sweet friend Jackie Pedro challenged us to use stitching somewhere on our cards, including faux stitching. Whew! Yeah, I don't own a machine, so faux it goes!

Last but not least, TEBBDE: Dawn Easton had a great challenge to use "Paper Tole". Although I haven't heard of it, I've done it before and you may have to. It's basically to stamp, layer and pop up the same image 3 times. Here's a closeup of what that looks like:Whew! Well I don't know about you, but I felt pretty good about being able to include all these! Thanks SO much for stopping by today and be sure to stop back later today for another challenge I completed for Cuppie's Bday bash! I can't wait!

Happy Stamping!
Jessica :)

LPS Monday: Some Sweet Stampin'...

Hey everyone!

Hope you had a great weekend! I had a migraine or some weird stress headache-y thing for most of it, but I'm glad to be blogging today and showing you a very sweet Card sketch from The Little Paper Shop!

Julia whipped up this sketch for us and I threw my own little twist on it for today's LPS Monday Challenge....use CUPCAKES! You can find out all the deets on the LPS blog as well as see some other "sweet" samples from the DT.

I used the newly released "Katie Cupcake" for today's challenge and she's atop about all the bling she can handle! I used Pink Poinsettia Shimmerz to paint the "frosting" and then while the paint was still wet, I had smudged a spot so in order to conceal that deal, I threw some MS crystal fine glitter on it and I actually love how it came out! Sometimes we can learn cool stuff from our stamping mistakes, huh? What do you guys think?

I had to make this card even "sweeter" by using my new DCWV SWEET Stack DP. Have you guys seen that paper? It's adorable! My mom and I went shopping at a JoAnn in Nashville and she treated me to a few new paper packs :) So much paper, not enough time, right? I LOVE this new stack though...Sweet indeed!

Be sure to stop by the LPS Blog today as there is always a fun challenge to enter with some sweet prizes, too!

Have a great Monday everyone!

A SWEET Twinkling Tuesday...(although the sketch left me with more aches than just my tooth!)

WHAT....a doozy!

You can NEVER underestimate the creative mind of a child! I am SO proud of my DD for making some of the greatest (and most CHALLENGING) sketches I've seen out there! This week's Twinkling Tuesday sketch was NO exception! Talk about ONE SWEET SKETCH!

I received my new Taylored Expressions stamps in the mail yesterday, and I have to say that I'm BEYOND impressed with her products and also her customer service. WOW! I ordered the stamps late Friday and received them in the mail on Monday! I wish I had that kind of luck with the PO...granted I don't send things priority too often but I've had a streak of really bad luck w/ things getting lost or coming like 2 weeks later...

Anyway, her Customer Service was impeccable. I can count on one hand how many times I've had "WOW" experiences and I must say I am lucky to work for some of those companies, and Taylored Expressions was no exception. In addition to her speedy shipping (like the wind!), I got a shipping refund via PayPal because I had over paid by a few dollars...can you believe that! So yes, not only are her stamps AMAZINGLY cute, but the whole experience was awesome and I will definitely be back for more! Thanks, Taylor!!!

My first two purchases were the new Fresh Flowers set, and this adorable set, Downtown Diva, which I used for today's card. I ADORE these little cuppies and just as equally the little storefronts in this new set. It's perfect for all-occasion and I couldn't WAIT to ink it up (and oh, did I mention the rubber is PINK?)

This week's Twinkling Tuesday sketch was DEFINITELY a challenge for me! I decided that given what I had to (ok, WANTED to) work with, I needed to flip it, first and foremost. I glued down my ribbon as the backdrop along with this adorable Doodlebug paper that I had leftover from Easter...love those glitter dots! I then chose a few images that I thought would work with the sketch being flipped and embellished just a tad and voila....a SWEET Twinkling Tuesday!''

The only thing missing from the sketch was the three little embellies on the left corner of her sketch which just weren't going to fit...however, if you think of the glitter dots on the paper as them, it totally fits! What do you guys think, do I get away with it? Hee hee...we'll see what Madelynn says when she gets home from school!

Be sure to check out the rest of the Twinkle Team's posts as well...They will Wow you, too! Links on my sidebar...check 'em out!

Well, be sure to stop by tomorrow for a Prettie Post and also for the Big ANYA release tomorrow night with our HUGE blog hoppin' BASH! You can SCROLL DOWN or click HERE for all the info :)

Thanks for reading and putting up wth my double-posting all week...I love it when you guys come by! Hugs! ~Jess :)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Hey everyone!

HAPPY 2009!

How did you all ring in the New Year? I stayed put right here in my toasty warm house, stamping the night away with some girlfriends online. There were challenges and games EVERYWHERE and it was a BLAST!

Soooo, that being said, you all KNOW what today is right? Yes, it's New Year's, but it's the release of our VERY FIRST CARD KIT at A Walk Down Memory Lane! Remember that little sneak peek I had for you the other day? Well, let me just REVEAL the cuteness now! Here it is, without further adieu...

Did I ALSO mention that today is the release of the COPIC CLUB at A Walk Down Memory Lane??? Click on the store link for more details, and just so you know, the colors are PERFECT for complementing the card kit! Here they are, the first of the club ( 6 markers per month for 6 months):

As if things couldn't get ANY better, you can add on whatever you want to the kit to make it your own! I chose these cute images from Stamping Bella which you can add on to your kit.

The store is FULL of new items, including the New Nestabilities, Distress Stickles, and TONS more! Talk about ONE stop shopping, right? I can't wait to get my next order..lots of goodies I'm waitin on to show you guys!

For now, I'll leave you with one more card from the AWESOME new kit, featuring paper from Pebbles, Inc., Boutique Brads from DoodleBug Designs, Bazzill Cardstock, envelopes, flowers from Imaginisce, and Chipboard stickers from Pebbles, too!

Hope to see you soon over at the A Walk Down Memory Lane DT blog and Gallery!

You never now what's going to inspire you when you click that mouse!

Have a great day, stamp something, and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Hugs,
Jessica :)

I scream...you scream...

I know, I know...it's getting colder out there. But that doesn't mean I love ice cream any less! In fact, now that I got this super cute stamp from Queen Kat Designs, I think I love it MORE!



I just wanted to share this quick card with you that I made using the Build A Sweet stamp set. I used the same sketch layout as I did in the post below. It's so fun to see how different a card can come out when using the same layout, isn't it?


I am POSITIVE that by now you must know I love cupcakes, so this set is TRULY the best of both worlds! You can build your own cupcakes OR ice cream cones...what could be SWEETER than that?



Add a bit of stickles, liquid applique, or liquid pearls and watch any sweets-themed stamp really come to life! That's my tip for the day... anyone else hungry? :)



Hugs,
RECIPE:
Cardstock: Archiver's Mint, Lavender Moon and Plum Pudding by Papertrey, Disney DP
Stamps: Build a Sweet by Queen Kat Designs
Ink: Plum Pudding by Papertrey
Accessories: Lavender Moon ribbon by Papertrey, Lavender and Stardust stickles, dimensionals

Everything's Prettier in Pink...(even if it's poison! LOL)

Hey everyone! It's going to be whirlwind of a weekend, but I wanted to post a quick card to kick off the weekend...kick it off with Cupcakes! (yum!)

I really wanted to play this week's sketch challenge issued by Pink Poison. Have you heard of them? You should definitely head on over to their website and check them out! They have SUPER cute stamps and other acessories, not to mention they are SUPER nice, too!

Unfortunately I just discovered this little gem of a company so I don't have any of their stamps to play with yet, however, this week's sketch intrigued me... I am not too savvy in the triangle department, I have decided. So, this sketch really allowed me to push my limits a bit and come up with something that I would be happy with. Turns out I was indeed happy with the way this came out, and I was really glad I played along.

I decided that since they have such a cute Cupcake stamp set (you better believe I have my eye on it!), I'd use a cupcake set for this card. Hope it looks good enough to eat! You should definitely head on over to Pink Poison and play the challenge!

So, what are your weekend plans? I hope you have a great one and that it includes some stamping! Make sure you head on over to the Paper Pretties site when you're done with the Pink Poison challenge (that' a LOT of P's! LOL)....Christie has a sneak peek of their new stamps coming out next week...and OH MY! is all I can say... I am in BIG trouble, everyone! ;) Hugs,

Recipe: Baja Breeze CS by Stampin Up, Spring Blossom DP, Sweet Blush and SS White by PapertreyINK

Stamps: Crazy for Cupcakes by SU, Hey there Cupcake by Stampendous

Ink: Baja Breeze by SU

Accessories: Sweet Blush Ribbon by PapertreyInk, Pearls, Stickles in stardust, Copic markers, Aquapainter by SU, dimensionals, Martha Stewart Doily lace punch

Paper Pretties Challenge...and some serious bling!

Hey all, how are you on this Thursday morning? I am cheery just thinking about how much fun I had making this card last night for the Paper Pretties monthly sketch challenge!

This little lady (AKA Cuppacakeabella by Stamping Bella) is quite a catch! I am new to Paper Pretties so I don't yet have their own line of stamps, but I loved the sketch and just had to play along! So, Bella got to come out and play :)

She is quite fabulous with her razzle dazzle and her bling, isn't she? I had SUCH a good time making this card. I will include the full recipe on the bottom of this post.

One thing I will say right now, is that I got to color tonight, not only using my beloved Pebbles Inc. shimmer chalks, but also my brand new COPIC MARKERS!! Did you HEAR me??? Yep, I finally took the plunge and boy, are they nice! So nice, in fact, that I'm gonna have to save my pennies and get some more! They definitely worthy of all the praise they've been getting on blogs all across the world!

Well, I'm gonna get going for now and leave you with this pink, girlie card to hopefully make you smile. Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you all have a cupcake for dessert today! LOL. Hugs,

Recipe:Bazzill Bubblegum paper, Scrapbook Walls 2sided DP in Villa Bouquet (Chatterbox), Papertrey Ink Stamper's Select CS in White, Papertrey Ink Spring Moss CS, SU Basic Brown ink, Papertrey Spring Moss ink for lightly sponging 2 pcs. of DP



Stamps: Cupcake Bella by Stamping Bella, Hey There Cupcake sent. by Stampendous



Accessories/Embellies/Tools: Papertrey Ink Sweet Blush Swiss Dot Ribbon, Hero Arts Pearls, Hero Arts rhinstones, The Paper Studio Jumbo Pearl brads and Med. Pearl brads, silk flowers by Imaginisce, Pebbles Inc. Shimmer Chalks, Copic Ciao markers

Bling-a-licious MOJO Monday!!!

Happy Monday, everyone!

I am so excited to be participating in my VERY FIRST Mojo Monday Challenge issued by Julee Tilman of Verve Stamps!

For this challenge, I followed her sketch to create the layers for this card, carefully choosing some really fun pink prints to reflect, well...ME! LOL!

I had SUCH a great time with this challenge I got a bit carried away with the bling but ya know, I personally feel that you can't have too much bling in MOST cases ;)

I used Berry Sorbet and Sweet Blush cardstocks, and chose two designer papers from the Papertrey "Pink Patterns" collection. Following the sketch, I placed the papers in line with Julee's sketch, adding Sweet Blush ribbon and also a few rhinestones to balance out the plainer pink area within the card.

I made it my own by adding a scalloped circle to showcase the ADORABLE cupcake image from Verve Stamps' Cupcake Affair...one of my favorite sets! Then, it was time to "frost" the cupcake :) Using Liquid Applique and Stickles, I frosted the cupcake. I also "blinged out" the little floral lacing underneath by adding small, delicate rhinestones to each flower. I also added a bit of bling to the flowers surrounding the cupcake and then "colored" the flowers in using Stickles.

I had so much fun using this sketch! As always, thanks so much for stopping by and I hope it looks good enough to eat!

Feelin' up to the Challenge...

Happy Sunday, everyone :) It's definitely an "IV Coffee" morning as I was up a weeeeee bit too late last night having a ton of fun participating in my first SCS Challenge!


This particular challenge was issued by Julee Tilman from Verve Stamps, one of my favorite places to shop!


Using a techinque called a One Sheet Wonder, the challege was to create 4 cards using a 6X6 reversible piece of designer paper. Julee provided the basic "sketch" and then the rest was up to the participant!


I've been waiting SOME TIME to use my new Cupcake Affair set by Verve, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity to pull it out of its crisp new packaging and go to town! All my cards were made using Dark Chocolate by Papertrey and a lovely shade of blue called "Pool", from the Yours Truly line at Archiver's stores. This new blue is VERY similar to the new Baja Breeze from Stampin Up!, so either would work fine, actually.


Sketch #1 was fun to use and I was happy with the way it turned out despite the fact that I wasn't sure about the "criss cross" layered paper. I'm not normally good with layouts such as these but I think the paper really made it easy to work with; it's SO pretty. All my cards were distressed using Brown Chalk ink to soften the edges of all the angles, etc.


My friend Heather and I have an expression that "Jamba makes everything better". Ever had a Jamba Juice? It's yummy! However, I have to admit that when I saw this saying "Cupcakes make everything better", I couldn't have agreed more!!! Too cute!


To "frost" this particular card I stamped the top of the cupcake with Baja Breeze ink and then used Stardust Stickles to really give it some "yum" factor LOL. Ribbon is Dark Chocolate by PTI.


The second card in the sketch was a bit simpler and I used the Beautiful You set from Verve, another one of my favorites. Actually, I think this IS my favorite set right now. I'm a quote girl, as many of you know, and this set is loaded with some wonderful sentiments! Also, I know I've said it before, but that flower is one of the prettiest I've seen and is amazing to work with. I used an "oldy but a goody" here, the Friendship sentiment from Stampin Up's Wonderful Words set.


The longer word seemed to balance out the rest of the card better. To color in the flower, I used my shimmer chalks from Pebbles Inc. and had a blast decorating the two flowers with a pearl and tiny rhinestone... a little bling never hurt anyone!




So, for the 3rd sketch, I went back to my beloved cupcakes. I decided to mat the DP strips to make them "pop" a bit more and then went for some color with the two different cupcakes. Again, I couldn't resist that sentiment, "Cupcakes make everything Better". It's a simple card, made to look ornate by Julee's sketch and is a great card even for a beginning stamper, i think. I topped the little cupcakes off with some stickles again. I just can't help myself now that I have found a medium to "get my glitter on" without the mess!


I decided that the top left corner was a little lonely so pulled out some pretty pearl embellishments for the finishing touches. What do you think?


For the fourth and final sketch, I decided to take the simple sketch and create a soft, subtle background so that the super-yummy cupcake could be in the spotlight without a doubt! Using the sketch, I added a soft satin ribbon to the left to sort of balance it out a bit first. I used the sentiment from the new Stampin UP! Crazy for Cupcakes set that I absolutely adore ( can you smell a theme going here? LOL).

To really make my sweet treat the focal point of the card, I decided to use Liquid Applique. It's one of my favorite things to use when using cupcake stamps, which I've been sort of leaning toward lately! All you do is put it on the image, heat it, and POOF! Yummy, 3D frosting!

I also used a bit of Waterfall stickles just to "sprinkle" a bit of extra love on this baby! I colored in the flowers with shimmer chalk from Pebbles, Inc. and then used several small rhinestones in each flower's center to really give it an extra bit of sparkle. Gotta love that sparkle!!!

I must say that I had the MOST fun doing this challenge! The best part is, there is a contest going for all who participate and some lucky gals will win some pretty awesome Verve loot from their upcoming release on Tuesday! Good luck to all, and hey, wish me a bit, too, will ya? ;)

Have a sweet day!

Cupcakes & Bling...two of my favorite things!

I had been waiting so long to give this card to it's rightful owner as a surprise that I almost FORGOT to show you guys:)

As this special recipient is a subscriber to the blog, you can see where my dilemma started.

Anyway, the time has come LOL. Ok, can I just say that I don't even know where this obession with cupcakes began, but it's almost as bad as my love of butterflies now!!! The only thing I can think of is back in April when we were in Charleston, SC on vacation and I stumbled upon this absolutely ADORABLE little bakery in downtown Charleston on historic King Street. The name? Appropriately titled "CUPCAKE". Oh my gosh, you HAVE to check them out as I give them MAD PROPS for being totally natural, homemade, and so stinkin' cute I can't even stand it!!! Hence, my love of cupcakes, already in the works, was officially "born".

Here we are a few months later, and my obsession grows stronger by the hour it seems! So, needless to say when I saw this stamp from Stamping Bella, I couldn't resist. I LOVE Bellas. It's just too bad they are out of the country, because postage can be killer. There was no saying no to this "Cupcakeabella", though, as I'm sure you can see why!

To make this card, I stamped the image w/ black StazOn. This also comes in handy for the sentiment (bottom right corner) as the bling paper can be tricky w/ regular dye based inks. To make this card super girly, I used HELLA bling LOL. Pearls and rhinestones from Hero Arts. I, of course, had to top off the "frosting" with Stickles. I believe the color shown here is Fruit Punch. The little flower blingy things were given to me by a VERY generous ATC Swapper that I hosted a few months back. Was very cool of her and I am going to have to find out where she got them as I'm almost out :(

To color in Bella's dress, I used metallic pigment ink w/ a dauber. However, I must show you my amazing find from Pebbles Inc.! They now make SHIMMER PEARLESCENT CHALKS, and it's rapidly becoming my new favorite for all things coloring! The best part is the no-fuss little "pom poms" that come in three sizes w/ this awesome and amazing little "crocodile teeth/grippy tool" (yes, I am a bit challenged in the description zone tonight...it's been a LOOOOONNNNGGG week!)

So, I will leave you with this cutie cupcake Bella and also, speaking of Pom poms....


This is my girl on her first Pom performance day last Sunday. I definitely had one of those proud "mom" moments this past weekend...magnify that 16X as I am not only Mom, but "Coach" for the next four months of our lives and so that pride was definitely carried over to ALL the girls when I saw how well they did. I think it's gonna be an awesome (and crazy!) season.

I have to say, though, I just beam over her. Over all of the kids, of course, but this was her day so I'll leave you with this.

Gotta go for now...unfortunately there have been SEVERAL new releases from some of my favorite stamp companies and it's causing quite the hole in my wallet...
so I better get to work on a card order I have tonight LOL! Take care and thanks for reading as always!



P.S.

For the question of the week, what is your favorite dessert or baked good?
Recipes encouraged :)

Stay tuned as my next post will have some "Blog Candy" for the VERY FIRST TIME!!! Can't wait!!!

I am also updating my "quote arsenal" and will be posting new and cool quotes after each post. Feel free to send them in and I'll send you a shout out!

"Making the decision to be a Mother is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body." ~Elizabeth Stone

Santa Tracker and other Miscellaneous Follies

DIEDRICH FAMILY FOLLIES-PART ONE!

Whew! WHAT A TRIP!!! I wasn't going to blog much about things other than stamping, etc...but after a few conversations with friends while on vacation, I was encouraged to do so...guess the Diedrich family follies are in high demand LOL! So, I will give the highlights over the next few days, time permitting...as we all know, it's right back to the grindstone...but this will let me re-live a few of the finer moments and who knows...maybe it will inspire me to write that book I've always wanted to one day...

My good friend Heather reminded me of the NorthPole.com "Live Santa Tracker" that shows exactly where Santa is riding in his sleigh all over the globe. She deemed our car the "Diedrich Shuttle" and said that we should have had a live feed of the "Diedrich tracker" this trip. Hindsight. Damn. Ah, well... better luck next year, right?

DAY ONE: Saturday, 4/12/08 We take off from Cary, IL about 4:30 CST and arrive in Richmond, KY for a quick night's sleep. Pretty uneventful. I will add a little shout-out to my favorite company, Papertrey Ink and say that I was VERY disappointed to be driving through Cincinnatti late at night or I'd have stopped by to ooh, ahh and say hey :)

DAY TWO: Sunday, 4/13/08 We arrive in our favorite place in the world, Charleston, South Carolina. The weather is beautiful, sunny and glorious. We stop for a few groceries and check into our hotel, where the kids immediately strip down and go for a swim...uneventful but we have arrived.

DAY THREE: Monday, 4/14/08 What the hell happened to the weather? WHY is it 65 in Charleston (CHS) and 75 in Chicago? Ok, clearly we went backwards... but the picture above shows that no matter how cold it is, kids love water and that's that. Judging by the looks of this picture, we know a good time was had...

DAY FOUR: Tuesday, 4/15/08. Bummer it's still in the sixties and now looking like rain. We accept that it's not going to be the best day for swimming so we decide to take Jack to Queen Anne's Revenge on Daniel Island in Charleston. This is a relatively new establishment that combines a restaurant w/ a Pirate Museum...what could be better for Jack??? Chicken and Blackbeard? Are you kidding me? Um, did I MENTION that Daniel Island is where we want to live???

While visiting we discovered that it is our DREAM neighborhood, so we visit the sales office and get some info, take the tour, etc. This was actually quite a load off my mind although I've been anxious about it everyday since. We now know where we want to live, so that is good...its getting there that will be the interesting part...

Just as an aside, I don't know why my son was insistent on making this face in so many pictures, but I'm sure that it will provide fun for years and years to come...

...and speaking of making faces....

...This one DEFINITELY speaks for itself LOL!

DAY FIVE: Wednesday 4/16/08. We drove out to Wadmalaw Island, about 20 miles from the city to visit America's only tea plantation now left standing and still producing teas. I must admit that I was a little disappointed when I found out that they were owned by Bigelow...I can't tell you why other than the fact that it's just kind of a big-chain, cheap tea company, I suppose. I guess I was envisioning something a tad more authentic or indigenous...At any rate, we learned a lot and got to tour the factory which was cool. We started out at the wilting beds, got to see how much was harvested and how long it took, toured the oxidation beds as well and then sampled some teas. I don't think the kids were thrilled with this either which surprised me because they really enjoy taking tours... I brought home some peach tea and we spent the rest of the day on the beach and at the pool...IT WAS FINALLY WARMING UP!!!

This definitely has to be one of my FAVORITE pictures from our trip. Just a candid shot of my two boys walking along the Folly Beach pier. They are so freaking cute together I can't stand it...

DAY SIX: Thursday 4/17/08. Probably the most relaxing (so, way, much needed!!!) day of our trip. We also discovered Carolina BBQ on this day...I know, I know...for as MANY times as we've been down here, who-da thunk it would have taken us so long! Did you know that Carolina sauce is actually yellow? Well, yellowish brown but that doesn't sound as appetizing LOL. It's more of a mustard-based sauce, and all I can say is although it's not very pretty, it's amaaaaazing! Thank you to Melvyn's BBQ on James Island for taking such good care of us and for having the freaking most awesome ( and cheap!) Banana pudding you've ever tasted!

It was about 75 this day and sunny-a perfect day to just hang by the beach and pool. Yet another candid shot of my beautiful girls that I just adore...

DAY SEVEN: Friday, 4/18/08. Last day in our beloved Charleston, although we stayed until about 4 in the afternoon.

One of the things we usually do on the last day is take a super-long walk and stroll the Battery, Charleston harbor, and take one more stroll through the Market. During our walk along the Battery, M and I stopped in front of our favorite PINK house :)

Didnt find much at the Market this trip...however we did find a hot sauce called "Jump up and Kiss me" that we really enjoyed, so took some of that home with us :) I also got a really pretty pair of earrings that are designed after the Charleston central park's gate. Charleston "gateway" jewelry is really popular at the Market. Chris and the kids also surprised me with a cute silver and enamel butterfly pendant too although I love my Tiffany one so much it's hard to take it off :( To be honest, the best gift I received was just the time I got to spend uninterrupted with my family in our favorite place.
Our "featured" merchant this trip is Dacuba's fine jewelry downtown at the Market.

I've gotten a lot of complements on the Charleston Gate earrings Chris got me so I thought I'd post a shoutout for them :) Mine are just like the toward the bottom right w/ the hooks only mine are just posts. I'm not a fan of hooks, actually. They fall out on me :( Mom loves the hooks so we got her a pair, too :)

Oooh-another cool thing we found this trip (although I kind of wish we hadn't LOL) is a new bakery called Cupcake. You guys HAVE to check them out! http://www.freshcupcakes.com/

AMAAAAAZING! These guys are fresh-baked daily and have more cupcake flavors than you can shake a stick at! I fell in love with the signage before I even got inside! They are ALL about pink, and ALL about cupcakes. That's the only item on the menu, just in a TON of cool flavors. We enjoyed the Red Velvet w cream cheese frosting the best although the plain black&white was just fine in our book as well. I took home a pink coffee mug that simply says "Cupcake, Charleston, SC". Just bottle up the cuteness and sell it why don't ya...actually, that's EXACTLY what they did :)

These are some happy faces, don't you think?

Well, although we always hate to leave, we had quite the agenda waiting for us and the best part was we didn't even know about all of it yet!

"Part Two" of this post (to follow asap :) is really where Santa Tracker comes in... can't wait to share more of our fabulous family follies later but for now I have a very busy day ahead of me...I know you're all on the edge of your seats! LOL

BY THE WAY: Would you believe I ONLY took 130 photos this trip??? I'm VERY proud of my ability to restrain myself LOL! (of course this will all be blown out of the water in June when we go to see the big Mouse... )

STAY TUNED FOR PART TWO, Y'ALL!