Finally....the pics***edited to add***

Sorry that it has taken me so long to get ahold of these photos to share with all of you (they were on my sisters camera and she's horrible about downloading to her comp in a timely fashion). Plus, my mother-in-law was in town visiting all weekend so I was unable to post much of anything. I did get some cleaning done....why do I feel like I'm on an episode of Everybody Loves Raymond when she comes to stay with us? Anyone who watches the show understands what I mean. ;) Ok so here are the pics.....My Giant Cupcake cake.....I can't even begin to describe how moist this cake was. HOLY COW!!!! Next.....the cupcakes. ***EDIT*** I used 1 box of cake mix and filled each side with half of the mix. I baked it on 325 for 45 min (it's a dark pan so you need to reduce the heat a bit). Your cake halves will crown, you just take a cake leveler and slice off the crowns to make each side flat so they will fit together.
Can you believe I was asked to make a Giant cupcake AND cupcakes?!? Come on people!! Oh, oh and get this....they loved the Giant cupcake so much that it wasn't even cut until the day AFTER!!!! Luckily, it tasted amazing so I was happy....but I left the Easter festivities a little wounded. :( Ok last thing, these were probably over the top but stinkin cute none the less, eh?
I used a little Peep-shaped playdoh cutter to cut out little butter bunnies! Yes, I know, I'm WAY lame but I thought they'd be cute. ;)

Prettie Wednesday

There are very few things that I dislike in this world.....ok, that's a blatant lie. Let's start this again...there are very few things in the Craft world that I dislike, yes, that sounds much better. Chipboard just happens to be at the top of that short list. Oye! So the challenge was to create something using chipboard. We here you have it...cut, layer, stamp, glue...done. Nothing fancy, no tears, no sweat just simple. (seriously, I just wanted it over with) ;) I love the Pretties dearly and I'm sure they are all rolling their eyes while reading this but oh well....now the secret is out, I hate chipboard! *enter shocked face here*

On the upside, be sure to check out all the other Prettie blogs as I know a few of them actually enjoy this hideous embellishment. Plus their creations are always fabulous and perfect for casing! (hint, hint)

PTI Blog Hop

Hippity Hop, hippity hop....ok cheesy but when I first read "blog hop" that's what came to mind. So the challenge was to make ribbon the focal point of a card, I decided since a card is really a paper gift, it needed a bow.

I'm loving these new pinks...although my camera wants to fight me. Here is another shot of the same card with natural lighting, which luckily shows that the pinks do match. ;)

Prettie Polka Dots

First, the colors DO match in real life. I can't figure out why the camera won't pick up the pink hue in the paper or ink, but it picks up the ribbon....odd. Anyway, I used the new pinks from PTI that were released last week and I must tell you that I LOVE THEM! And this is coming from a die hard SU-products-only person. The paper is fabulous, the ink is GREAT....it looks like it'll be blotchy when you first stamp it (as do all dye inks) but once it's dry it's totally flawless!!

I needed a simple card for a friend who is going through a tough time right now. She loves pink and she loves polka dots so I decided to use them both! I adore the new Sassy Circles set from Paper Pretties (a total must-have), I used the background polka dots in Sweet Blush to create the background then I used the large oval to highlight the sentiment.

Happy Easter!!!

So this afternoon I finally used my giant cupcake pan that I just HAD to have (a year ago) and I can't wait to show you all how adorable it turned out!!! It's in the fridge right now so I promise to take a photo tomorrow before it gets cut into pieces. I wanted to wish everyone a wonderful Easter and I hope the 'little ones' in your family find the Golden Egg and fill their baskets!!! Oh there's a story behind that, don't you worry.

The Tale of the Golden Egg....
As children, my sister and I would wake up extra early on Easter morning to see if we could catch the Easter Bunny in the act of hiding all our eggs and filling up our baskets. But every year it seemed we were just a few minutes too late.....he was gone. We would sit on the couch, staring out the window, each of us trying to secretly map out where the eggs were and how we could get them first. Once the door opened, we were off! We would always hunt in the front yard first, now that I'm grown I realize it's because there's no shade in the front yard and by 10am the chocolate candy in each egg would be soup! There were the typical small colored eggs (of course), plus the real eggs we had dyed and set out for the Easter Bunny the night before. And each year there were two giant white eggs (with REALLY good candy) and one silver egg. The silver egg always had money inside and you can bet the fight was on when one of us found it first. But our Mother told us every year that the Easter Bunny leaves behind only one Golden Egg containing a $100 bill. He leaves it for someone very special who had been extra good that year. (anyone else think the Easter Bunny has a deal with Santa??) So each year we would hunt....and hunt....and hunt, searching for that Golden Egg. Around 4pm we would give up, sit down for dinner and finally pass out from exhaustion once the sugar left our systems.

I'd like to tell you that my sister and I loved hunting eggs together and we were two sweet, little girls who loved each other very much...but I'd be lying. We were monsters!!! Competitive, conniving, sneaky little sh*ts (pardon my language, but we were). We would steal eggs from each others baskets, knock over chairs along our path just to trip the other one up, empty out the eggs into our baskets and then place them back as if they hadn't been found. HORRIBLE! And every year it gets worse....oh yes, we still hunt!! And our hubbies assist in the criminal acts!! The Golden Egg is still at large, but someday...it will be found.

Oh sweet Bella...

I haven't posted any of my Bella creations in a while so I thought I would share my latest bella card. This color scheme was WAY out of my comfort zone but I'm actually quite pleased with the result. You can't see it in the photo but I added a little sparkle to her hat & the flower on her shirt with my Sakura glitter pens (love those).

~Prettie alert~
If you hadn't noticed, this weeks Prettie posting was missing from my blog. All the other Prettie girls were able to get theirs done and posted on Wednesday...but I'm far behind. So this weekend I shall be playing stamp-catch-up and post-office-catch-up. *lol* I've told the hubby there will be a "do not disturb" sign on the stamp room door this weekend....no house hunting, no shopping *gasp*, no going out to eat, no work, just stamping. Oh and Easter but that's only a few hours then I'll be back to work in my room with my sign up!!! ;)

Quick and fun

I made this quick card for my Stampers Club to show off the Chalkboarding technique. I absolutely LOVE this technique, I've decided. It meets all my "love" criteria...simple, quick, easy and cute. I used Pale Plum & Certainly Celery for my base card and Chocolate for the flower piece. I stamped the flower from the Live Your Dream SU set using White craft ink and then dabbed the chalk right onto the ink, you don't have to let it dry at all. Layer, add dimensionals, ticket punch and done!

At each club meeting I teach a new technique or card element and everyone has until the next club meeting to create their own card using what I taught. Those that do their "homework" and bring it to "class" (*lol*) get their name put into a jar and at the end of the meeting I draw one winner and they get some fun card-making goodies! So here are a few of the cards everyone made, aren't they just too cute!?! I adore my club gals and I SO look forward to each club meeting.

Sharing some cute cards

As I was cleaning my stamp room last night I ran across a small pile of cards that I set aside to post so I wanted to share them with you all since they are too stinkin' cute!

This adorable thank you card was from Dottie, I don't own any Elzybells but I'm starting to find myself drawn to them so I'm sure that will change here soon. ;)
This gorgeous butterfly card is from Charlie, it held my Sophia bookmark from the Prettie challenge two weeks ago. There are two layers of colored vellum on the butterfly, it looks so amazing in real life!

Lastly, I just received this fabulous Bella card from the Paper Pretties Bella swappers. This was made by JoAnn Williams and I just love it! JoAnn, I want some of that paper!!! ;)

Happy Green Day!!!!

I'm not Irish so I don't really celebrate St. Patty's Day but I must say that my best friend Margaret can't seem to get enough of the "green stuff". Everytime we're out shopping and see something with clovers, she MUST have it. She loves this holiday, aka excuse-for-drinking-green-beverages-and-eating-fattening-food-day, hmm perhaps I should be more interested in this holiday. ;) So I wish you ALL a Happy St Patty's because I know there are many Margarets out there that just LOVE this green day too!!! xoxoxo

It's a Prettie day today

It's Prettie Wednesday once again!!! Have you been browsing the Prettie blogs?? Well this time it was Jana's challenge to make something OTHER than a card. So what better thing to make than a notepad for all your lists?!? I am a woman of lists, I swear. Oddly, I write them down and then either forget where I put them or forget to take them with me when I need them. Anyone else like that??? ;)

I used the new Flutterbys & Sassy Circles stamp sets that were just released this past Sunday, they are just too cute. I haven't doodled in a while so I decided little miss Sophia was in need of a little doodling. I hope that Jana is a list maker like I am!

You're my Cupycake...

On the road trip down to Anaheim for CHA a few weeks ago, a funny thing happened....actually a LOT of funny things happened but I'm only going to highlight one at the moment. There were three of us on this little road adventure so we stocked up on snacks, gossip and music. When one got old we'd just flip to the next form of entertainment. We started with gossip, hit the snacks about an hour in and then as we were flying down the highway it was time for the tunes. The driver, aka Kate, has a fabulous man at home who kindly filled her iPhone with TONS of music so we would have plenty to rock out to. "Old McDonald?? *next* Bingo?!? *next* Itsy Bitsy SPIDER?!?!?! WHAT THE...????? **Insert various adjectives here** Oh, I guess I should have prefaced this with the fact that they have 4 children. He loaded the KIDS car tunes...WHOOPS! So thus, we were groovin to some mad Barney sing-a-longs on our road trip...ROCK ON!!!
So there was a point to that tale, there was one song on there that was so flippin cute. It was sung by a little girl, maybe 3 or 4 and she fumbled all over the words while singing it, which of course made it even cuter. "You're my cupycake-uddlebear-sweetie-eetie-umkin..." So now, whenever we see a "cupycake" we sing the tune and reminisce.

I fell in love with this set when I saw it on Taylors blog. I loved the look of the three cupycakes all together so I used her card for inspiration. I used SU Petals & Paisleys retired DP along with Rose Red & Pretty in Pink cardstock. The ink colors used were Rose Red, Pretty in Pink & Certainly Celery. I used Joanne's little slot/ribbon/knot trick to add a final touch. Hope you likes!

Groovy kinda of love...

I'm running on less than an hour of sleep so please ignore any typos or offbeat humor. ;) This was my "combo card" for SIYJ on Sunday night, my DH was insistent that I eat dinner at the table and spend at least 1 hour with him since he was leaving town Monday for work....so I missed the 2nd challenge, a monochromatic card. When I was allowed back in the stamp room I jumped right back on the computer and was able to make it in time for the sketch challenge so I decided to just do a monochromatic card for the sketch to make up for lost time. ;) The bonus is that I have now made my anniversary card for my DH so technically I'm ahead of the game for our 2 year anniversary in June!

Sunday in my Jammies

What better way to spend a Sunday than in your stamp room inking up new stamps while sporting your comfiest jammies!!

The first challenge was a One Layer Card. You'd think it would be easy but actually it's rather frustrating. There were some gorgeous cards made throughout the night so you should hop on over to the Prettie Forum and take a peek. :) I used my rectangle Nestabilities to emboss the front of the card. I have a set of die cut "insides" I keep just for masking purposes, so I grabbed my large rectangle one and placed that in the center and then inked up the new polka dots from Sassy Circles all around the border. This new set is fabulous, it has a random polka dot stamp, a two-line polka dot stamp, a large dot, an oval and a skinny oval. LOVE IT!! I used Brilliance Graphite Black for Sophia, and Copics to color her in. The white was achieved by using a blender pen with the white SU watercolor crayon. I love the look of white on kraft!!

Last night the new Cutie Pie was also revealed, Barb Guinan, you can view her winning card here. I just love how she colored the couple, too stinkin' cute! She will be receiving all the sets that were released last night FREE!!

Be sure to visit the other Prettie blogs to see the gorgeous creations they came up with for this challenge! More to be revealed throughout the week!! xoxo

Prettie Thursday?

I knew I forgot to do something yesterday.....it was Prettie Wednesday and I completely forgot to post my stripes. Every week one of the Pretties announces a challenge and last week it was my turn...use stripes!

This is also a sneak peek of the fabulous large oval in Sassy Circles coming out this Sunday...(perfect for grounding Sophia and Bella images). I had so much fun with these colors, they are very springy and I can't wait for the weather to warm up and flowers to start blooming. Well, until my allergies kick in then I'll just be miserable but hey, at least it'll be pretty outside! ;) This was the card I featured for my new card tutorial over on Paper Pretties....are you a member yet? Each month I will be making a card tutorial and sharing some insider stamping tips. Want to learn how to make the perfect scallop border? Need help with masking so there is no gap in your images? You should head over to Paper Pretties and sign up as a member so you can have access to these tutorials AND Stampin in your Jammies!!!

Don't forget, this Sunday night at 8pm EST the fun begins and two new sets will be released!!!

Traveling in style

Here is a sneak peek of one of this weekends new Pretties releases, Flutterby Sophia...isn't she just too cute?!?! Sophia travels with me everywhere...the bank, the supermarket, the scrapbook store and even to Los Angeles! I made the supplies for these luggage tags for each of the Prettie Girls. We stamped them together down at CHA, while in our jammies of course!

Be sure to check out the other Prettie girls blogs to see their sneak peeks as well. There will be two brand new sets released during Stampin' In Your Jammies on Sunday, March 9th and the party starts at 8pm EST, so don't miss it!!!

Ready for a Pajama Party?!?!

It's time for Stampin In Your Jammies!!!! This Sunday, March 9th at 8pm EST we'll be combining the release of the NEW Paper Pretties stamp sets with our monthly Pretties Pajama party!! If you've never attended a SIYJ before it's simple, just sign online at www.paperpretties.net, click on the link to the Forum and follow the trail to the Pajama Party! There will be three card challenges posted (one each hour) and you will have the entire hour to complete each of the challenges. Then you post your creation on the website before the end of the challenge hour to be eligible to win some fabulous prizes and free stamps!!!

Don't forget that also means another round of our Cutie Pie contest!!! Submit your cards made with either of our last two releases: Look Who's Perky, Sealed with a Kiss, Wade E. Bug, or Love Bugs to christie@paperpretties.net by the 8th of March and YOU could be our next Cutie Pie. The Cutie Pie will receive all the stamp sets from this release FREE!

So ladies, pick out your favorite snugglies for Sunday night and get your stamp supplies ready! ;)

Berries & Chocolate....mmmmm

Every thing's better with a little Chocolate, eh??? I'm on a dry embossing kick so hopefully you fall in love with it just as much as I have. :) I dry embossed the berries and sanded them lightly, then trimmed them out. I embossed the leaves and chocolate dipping sauce separately and then mounted them to the front of the berries. My computer was used to create the sentiment, "chocolate" is actually printed in brown to give it a bit more meaning. *lol* I sanded the edges of the red background paper as well, it's from a DCVW solid texture stack and because it's a white core card stock it works for the sanding technique. (I think a lot of people call it the denim technique) I simply used the outline of the template to create the square border, you can actually make any size border with any brass template. I see a tutorial in my future explaining that one. *lol* And lastly I mounted the berries using dimensionals, I always like to do that with dry embossed images to make them pop a little bit more. :) You likes??