To Gnome You is to Love You ...

Wow - where did the last month go? Holy cow it was a long haul there - not sure what I have been fighting but it knocked me off my feet with exhaustion trying to get over it!

Here is a little spring offering with the new Gnome Sweet Gnome Stamp Set - hopefully with my energy returning a wee bit at a time I will be able to carve out some more time in the craft room in the evenings and get back on top of blogging with everyone! 

Happy Stampin

Margaret

Superbowl 'Kissing' Distrations

I took advantage of the men being distracted by the big screen, cold beer and munchies today to spend much of the afternoon hiding in the 'women cave' aka my Crafting Corner ... who knew I would grow up craving to be sent to the corner for the afternoon???

So with my free time I spent this afternoon coming up with this wonderful offering of 'love' for my Technique Tuesday class this coming week .... with February being the Month of Love I thought we would revisit our KISSING techniques ;)

 The butterflies were 'kissed' in numerous ways from the stamped off kiss, uninked kiss and finally two toned kissing ... you cannot see it too well in the photo but the Upsy Daisy was kissed with some En Francis two toned kisses .... seriously who doesn't like some kissing such a cute and fun little technique?

My creation this week was inspired by the wonderful Sketch challenge over at 1{heart}2stamp .... hop on by and check out the wonderful inspirations from the Design Team and other bloggers!

 The color combo of Basic Black, Real Red, Regal Rose and Whisper White from over at ColourQ ... some wonderful inspirations go check them up too.

Happy Stampin'
Margaret

Rosette fun

Loving my new Rosettes Die  ... making the Rosettes is just so quick and easy - love the texture and detail they add to a card ... this card features the Take it to Heart Stamp set and the Short and Sweet sentiment set along with the Enchanted Elegance DSP from Sale-a-bration and the color combo of Poppy Parade, Chocolate Chip and Very Vanilla!

Happy Stampin'

Margaret 

Lost Mojo ...

Wow - what a week - not sure what is going around but I am exhausted and have had no energy and have been spending quiet time resting myself and by the end of the day just too wiped to think about blogging!

This was  card inspired by last weeks Mojo Monday which I made to share but with my tiredness - I missed the deadline but figure I can still share with all of you :)

Loving the couple on the bike image from the Take it Too Heart Set .. great for Valentines, Anniversary or just a 'because I love you' card!

Here was the sketch that inspired my layout ...

Happy Stampin'
Margaret

Inspired by Challenges

Nothing like a good challenge blog to get the creative juices flowing in the ole craft corner ... and this week has been full of a few ... I combined the Stamping 411 Color challenge of Island Indigo, Pool Party, Coral Calypso and Lucky Limeade with the Friday Mash Up use Pastels on a Birthday themed challenge and finished it up with the Just Us Girls layout sketch challenge to come up with the following offering!

 

The Inspired by Nature stamp is so fun to use the pastel chalks on ... the cone flowers just pop right off the page!

The new stamp set Take it to Heart has a little ribbon stamp that I just LOVE as a sentiment accent for a card. I can see myself using this on a scrapbooking layout too! 

The Loving Thoughts stamp set in the Occasions mini was designed to fit perfectly inside this which is awesome! However the other great thing about Stampin' Up is our coordinating products - cause it fits so many of our other sentiments neatly inside it as well so if you do not have the Loving Thoughts stamp set yet - not worries ... I used the Wish Big sentiment from Short and Sweet stamp set and added some pearl accents to balance it off.

The paper piercer is also a marvelous tool - my card felt a little 'lopsided' to me so I added some subtle paper piercings up in the corner - which helped to balance it out for my anal mind!

I am just loving this color palette of the Sale-abration Everyday Enchanted paper .... if you love it too you can earn it FREE with a $60 order as of January 24th or you can book a workshop during Sale-abration and you can earn hostess dollars AND free Sale-abration products ... win win! 

In the mean time hop on over to the following blogs and check out the wonderful offerings other card designers have come up with using these challenge inspirations!

The Friday Mashup

 Just us Girls

Stamping 411

Happy Stampin'
Margaret

Inspired to Peek ...

Another card where I was having fun playing with the 'Peekaboo Embossing' technique .... we made  this tonight at our Technique class using the Inspired by Nature stamp set and the Strips Embossing folder to look like a 'fence' with a garden behind it....brushed some Soft Suede along the raised strips to help with the illusion of the fence :)

Happy Stampin'
Margaret