fresh & fun

Today is a BIG day! Our Craft Lounge’s new sets are released today and to celebrate that there will be a blog hop. Make sure you visit each blog and leave a comment. You can win one of the new sets on each blog!!! The blog hop ends at midnight CST.

You can win the set Love Notes on my blog. I love that set. The swirl, the backgrounds, the gorgeous hearts….I love them all.

For my sample, I created a matchbook candy holder. I missed making a sample for this great tutorial Theresa wrote during our Holiday Blitz. Surprise, surprise…..I used Chocolate Chip cardstock as my matchbook holder base. The edges were sponged with Walnut Stain ink.

The 2 1/4″ square of Sundress paper was distressed, sponged with Vintage photo ink and sewn to a 1/4″ bigger piece of Vanilla Cardstock that had been sponged as well. A 1 1/8″ x 1 1/2″ piece of Coastal - Curious Double Take paper was distressed, sponged and adhered to the left hand side. Small clear Kaiser Rhinestones were added. The layers were attached to the matchbook with Scor-Tape.

Cream Taffeta Ribbon was tied around the matchbook. Next I punched a scalloped circleout of Chocolate Chip cardstock and sponged the edges. I attached it over the ribbon and small paper piece with dimensionals. For the circle center, I stamped the solid background of Love Notes in second generation Vintage Photo, then added the script background in full Vintage Photo. I punched out a 1 3/8″ circle, distressed the edges and sponged them with Vintage Photo. Last I added a stitched edge.

I stamped the heart in Walnut Stain, cut it out, sponged it first with Fired Brick, then with Walnut Stain ink. I attached it with dimensionals over my circle, then added Crystal Effect and sprinkled Dazzling Diamond Glitter over it. The sentiment is from the new set The Journey. It was stamped in Walnut stain, punched out with the small oval punch and sponged with Vintage Photo ink.

I covered the side behind the pocket with Vanilla/Sundress layers that mirrored the ones on the front. The pocket was covered with a piece of Coastal - Curious Double Take paper. Three Clear Circle Rhinestone Bradshold the pocket to the matchbook (along with more Scor-Tape). I punched out a half circle out of the top of the pocket with the 3/4″ circle punch to make it easier to get to the chocolate.

The inside top flap was layered with a 2 3/4″ square of Very Vanilla cardstock. It had been sponged with Vintage Photo ink. The swirl from Love Notes was stamped randomly on the edges with the same ink. A 5/8″ x 2 3/4″ strip of the Coastal paper was added to the lower edge of the square and partly sewn on.

A small heart was stamped, colored and treated like the big heart in the front and adhered to the flap with dimensionals to finish it off. Please excuse the bad quality of my pictures. It was dark when I took them. I usually only photograph with natural light. But the last few days it was hard since it starting getting dark around 4:30 p.m. I miss the South!

Have fun blog hopping and checking out the other blogs.  Don’t forget to post at each blog for a chance to win! You can find a complete listing of the blogs on theOur Craft Lounge blog. Or check the list below!

Bird and Groom -Beth
Hang it Up Cupid - Carol, Vicki
Hearts & Hugs - Holly, Joy
The Journey - Charmaine
Life is - Amber
Love notes - Heather, me
Out for a spin - Pam
Fairy Dust is a must - Broni, Cami
Grandma’s Truffles - Val
Jungle Love - Deb, Kendra
Shamrock Blessings - Cindy
Sweet on you - Kisa
Wanted - Lila

Come back at 9:00 a.m. for another blog post. I know…ambitious me. I am in two blog hops today! Good luck with winning the OCL sets.

Hugs and smiles

Last week I crossed another 100,000 in blog visits. My counter got messed up sometime last month or so. It should be showing 3,200,000, but it doesn’t really matter! Thank you so much for always visiting my blog and leaving comments. I really appreciate it!

This time I will raffle away Spellbinders Holiday Cheer dies. All you have to do to enter the raffle is leave a comment under this post. One comment per person. I will pick the winner Tuesday around 2 p.m. EST .

 P.S.: If you are interested in how to use the Spellbinder dies, check this product focus on Splitcoaststampers. Tutorials are listed on the right side bar.

  Hugs and smiles

I missed too many milestone celebrations recently. I am almost at 2,800,000 hits and want to make sure I don’t miss this one. So I post a little early since are leaving for our trip to Germany on Wednesday morning.

To participate in the raffle, just add a comment under this post.

One comment per person please.

 I will pick a winner with the help from Random.org tomorrow afternoon.

Have a great weekend. Hugs and smiles

I am sorry I didn’t draw a name last night. Rick was working on the front door, banging around and making a lot of noise. My computer/stamp room is right there. So I hid in our bedroom watching the new show “Kings” (I think that’s what it was called)….and then I forgot! My bad!!!

Random.org picked #48 this time.

That’s Jamie Kaufman.

Thank you all who entered in the raffle. I will hold another one soon. I missed giving out candy for too many milestones.

Have a wonderful day!
Hugs and smiles

Personal Note:

I am not sure if and how much I can share this week.  I have a lot to do before we go on our Germany trip next week. I can’t believe we are leaving next week already. I hope we have good weather while we are there. We have so many little trips planned. We can’t wait.

This time I will give away a special edition of this Going Gourmet set from Our Craft Lounge.

It’s one of the prototypes. It doesn’t have the printed & colored images on it’s back.  The stamps are the same great quality .

I will also give away with it three Copic Ciao Markers:

BV02 Purple, B23 Phthalo Blue and R85 Rose Red.

To enter, just add a comment under this post. One comment per person, please.

I will pick a winner with Random.org Sunday night around 7 p.m. CST.

Good Luck!

P. S.: Stamp camp was so much fun! I think all the ladies had a great time too. All my cards had insides….so it took us a while. I don’t think anyone minded though.

Hugs and smiles

Our Craft Lounge is sweet enough to give one of each of their new CHA release sets away as blog candy. Check Cambria’s blog for a list of all blogs that give away a set today. You can see all the sets here.

I love to bake, so I thought the “Lovin’ from the Oven” would be the perfect set for me to give away.

Just add a comment to this post to enter the raffle.

One comment per person please!

I will determine the winner with help from random.org tomorrow at noon.

Good luck! Hugs and smiles

To participate in the challenge and be entered in the  raffle, make a card with this layout and upload it either to your blog, or to an online gallery. This time, because I just passed 2,400,000 hits on my blog, I will raffle away these goodies:

• Melanie Munchinger’s Just so hoppy  stamp set (Gina K.)
• CuttleBug Embossing Folder Number Collage
• Ribbon assortment

If you upload your card on SCS, put WSC64  (NO SPACE INBETWEEN WSC AND 64) in the keyword section. That way we can look at all of them at once!

Post a link to your card to this blog entry as a comment. Please add your entry# to it. Please only comment once per card. If you forget the entry number, it’s okay. I will fix it. Don’t post again. Only card entries will count for the raffle.

I will determine the winner with Random.org on Wednesday morning.

I saw this layout at in the new idea book and catalog on page 117. To see samples made with this sketch now, check out the blogs of

Cambria Turnbow

Charmaine Ikach

Jenn Balcer

Lori Craig

MaryJo Albright

Sharon Harnist

Have fun creating! I can’t wait to see what you come up with.

SCS submissions

I have a card request for you:
Laurie Schmidlin’s twelve year old daughter Ali is very sick. Could you please send her a get well card or a thinking of you card to Laurie? Laurie is such a wonderful person, my heart just goes out to her. If you don’t have Laurie’s address, please email me and I will send it to you.

My counter crept over the 2,300,000 mark. Crazy!!!

For this blog milestone I will be raffling away a  brand new unmounted Defining Alphabet!

To be entered into the raffle, just leave a comment.

I will be using random.org to determine a winner tomorrow morning around 9:00 a.m.

 Thank you all for visiting my blog! I am excited and flattered by each of your visits and comments.

Hugs and smiles

It’s that time again…..Yesterday I passed the 2,200,000 mark! Thank you all for being so sweet and visiting my blog! I really appreciate it.

This time I will raffle away a new and unmounted Define your Life set. I love that stamp set, even if I don’t use it often enough.

I will let random.org pick a winner on Thursday morning around 10:00 a.m.

Again….thank you so much for always checking in on me! Big cyber hugs!!!

My counter crossed the 1,800,000 mark today! Thank you so much for always visiting my blog. It is very humbling to know how many of you check in with me. To celebrate the mailstone I am raffling away a Unity Stamp set.

It is an unmounted set called Daisy Days.

To participate in the raffle, just post a comment under this blog entry.

Please add your entry number (comment numbers + 1).  One comment per person. If you see the number is messed up, please don’t post again or the numbers will just get messed up even more.

I will pick a winner sometime tomorrow afternoon with the help of random.org.

Personal Note:
I started working out again and went on a 2.6 mile walk after doing my workout with my neighbor. It feels good to work out again, although my muscles are screaming today. Last night I played cards with the kids. We only have a few termites last night. Thank goodness. I have been working on SCS work and checking out all the WSC entries so far and hadn’t had time to stamp yet. Sorry! I have no stamped project to share with you today.