Playing Catch-Up!

Wow... so sorry for my lack of blogging these days!  I have not made a post in over 2 weeks and I haven't really been reading or commenting on others blogs either these days, which makes for a pretty sad Andrea!  I just don't know how the time has been getting away from me.  Granted I have been working 40 hour weeks for the first time in nearly 5 years, so this in itself maybe reason enough!  I dearly miss my extra leisure time for crafting that's for sure! 

But anyway... I've also let my little giveaway from the SOUS blog hop get away from me.  I'm really sorry that I haven't posted a winner on here before now, but I won't make any excuses.  Shame on me! 

Okay, without any further wait... the winner is...

Please email me your addy at amuoct21 at aol dot com, Mickey's Craft World, and I would love to send you a package which will include this...

As for other stuff, today I had the pleasure of having a project featured on the Crafts Unleashed blog for Consumer Crafts.  Ya'll remember that Mother's Day is coming up shortly next month?  Well, I created an easy but elegant card for mom that is short on time and supplies.  I used my Cricut Sophisticated cart, some scraps of Core Essentials and DCWV Linen Collection patterned paper, the Martha Stewart Garden Gate edge punch and a Fleur De Lis emboss folder from Darice!

You can check out the blog post on Crafts Unleashed for more step-out shots and instructions of how I created the card!

Now, how would you like to win $700.00 worth of wonderful Core'dinations Cardstock and other fabulous scrappy stuff?  I mean who wouldn't want that kind of prize, right? 

You can enter to win right HERE!!  Good luck!  :)

A card for My Mind's Eye Blog Challenge #33!

Hello there!  I know this is kind of last minute posting this card tonight, even though I actually finished this one up at our girl's scrappy weekend last week!  I meant to get it posted earlier but THIS weekend was kind of a blur... why does it always seem like that? Really!  Anyway since the deadline for this MME blog card challenge is 12 midnight, I think I'm still pretty safe with about an hour to go!  So first, here's the card sketch...

and here is my card creation...

I used a mix of papers and a diecut from the Lime Twist and Lost and Found Two collections along with some Core'dinations Vintage cardstock, and Cricut cutting! 

The sweet heart chains and butterflies were all cut with the Teresa Collins Sophisticated cartridge... totally one of my all time faves! I really do love the soft Shabby Chic inspired designs of these MME papers!  Okay, that's all I really have to show for tonight's post but I will have some more cards and a layout to share that I also made at last weekend's scrappy get-together later in the week!  See ya then!

Sous Sketch for February 17th!

Hey there!  Yes, it is time for another SOUS sketch reveal, and I myself am a day late getting mine posted here, but all excuses aside, the 16th was my Birthday and I guess I was in party mode, lol!  Sorry to be tardy!  Anywho, we had a cool sketch to play around with this week, designed by our very own, Leah Schaeffer!

 

So, here is what I came up with...

I wish I could've captured a better photo of this page, because it certainly does no justice for the richness and texture of these gorgeous papers from Teresa Collin's, Christmas Home collection!  And I just loved these photos of my husband stringing the lights on our Christmas tree this past holiday.  The  TC line was perfect for creating this page with them! The background base for this page is a sheet of the black Tim Holtz Kraft cardstock from Core'dinations... a definite favorite in my cardstock stash.  If you haven't gotten yourself some Kraft Core yet, you really need to.  I'm tellin' ya, it's the best!  Here I debossed a Cuttlebug border along the bottom edge and sanded over it all to reveal the Kraft core.  I also scored along the other three edges and sanded them as well.

 (Ohh, and a side note, I believe this is the first project in a long time that I have NOT used my Cricut cutting on it in some way, shape or form! Are you all gasping, lol?? I really just may go cut some bits and pieces to add to this down the road. I do believe I need some Cricut flair on this somewhere!)

That's all I have to share for now, but I do hope you'll join us over at Stuck On U Sketches and show us how you can work the sketch too!  Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

More Cards For Week 2 of Card Sharks!

Good day!  Just finished up my last of the challenges for the week at the Nook, so I have two more cards to show you all for now! 

Here we go... Challenge #1 for week 2... BRIDGE!  This one will takes focus on the word "bridge" and the challenge is to create a card using an element that is wood theme or nails (items used to build a bridge).   

(Please click on item to view larger)

I knew right a way what I wanted to do for this, lol!  "Bridge Over Troubled Water" by Simon and Garfunkel has long been a favorite song of mine and I have been wanting to use the song lyrics somehow on a card or scrap page, so with BRIDGE being a focus here I thought it to be perfect timing! Of course I also added a piece of woodgrain patterned paper from MME (Stella Rose) into the mix for the boat diecut!  Some older "The Merry Days of Christmas" in Pajama Plaid, was used for the card base here and I cut out cloud shapes from some MME Lime Twist pp.  All these sweet Cricut cuts on the card came from the Give A Hoot cart! I also used a mix of Core Essentials, Vintage Core and some Jillian Spotted Core cardstock.

Next up is my card for the BINGO challenge! 

Easy peasy... just had to use some form of a grid on the card design! So I designed a grid by scoring the backside of a piece of Tim Holtz Kraft Core cardstock and sanding the front to reveal the embossing.  I also used some kraft colored Core from the Graphic 45 Signature Series and some Core Essentials in a light red.  I cut the "I" the heart and the "U" with the Designer's Calendar cart and the heart border from a scrap of "vintage" Tres Jolie MME pp using the TC Sophisticated cart.  Added some wood buttons from M's dollar spot with some Papertrey Ink twine to complete the look!

And one more item before I wrap this post up for the night...

not sure if ya'll have come across this huge giveaway or not on Birgit Koopsen's blog, but you may like to have a chance, and celebrate with Birgit for her upcoming Birthday in the process! ;)

Good Night and enjoy the rest of the holiday week festivities!  Happy Thanksgiving blessings to all!

A New Card... New Week of Challenges!

Today I thought about going out to do a bit of shopping, but then I thought twice and decided it would be much better to just stay home in the comfort of my pj's and do a little crafting.  And I am so glad I did.  Yesterday I had big plans to scrap and make cards but none of that happened because I was stricken with a ridiculous sinus headache that lasted ALL DAY LONG!  So today I am feeling much better and I seem to be back on track because I finished one of the three cards for the 2nd week's Card Sharks contest challenges at the Nook... Yay! 

So this challenge is called KINGS IN THE CORNER!  The challenge part is to create a card fit for royality!  I decided to make mine a Mother's Day themed version and went with the sentiment, "Mom, You Are My Queen Bee, Always".

I used the bee cut from the Sentimentals Cricut cart along with the Queen Bee phrase from Kate's ABCs.  I also added a lil' crown to the bee which I cut using the Teresa Collin's Sophisticated cart... a new favorite for sure! And the hexagon embossed cardstock is from the Core'dinations Pink Paislee Modern Prints collection... good stuff!  I also had fun using a mix of Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist and Glimmer Glaze within the hexagon shapes.  The beautiful papers and brad accents are all from the My Mind's Eye Lost & Found 2 collection and I also added a few tiny golden Kaiser pearl accents to the crown with Cosmo Cricket Tiny Type stickers to complete the sentiment. 

As always, thanks for stopping by and do enjoy the rest of your Sunday evening!  I'm off to start another challenge as I wait for the hubs to get home with our take-out pizza for dinner!  That's what I'm talkin' about!! ;)

My Core'dinations DT Into...

it's up today on the Core blog!  You can see it HERE!

For our first assignment/challenge we were to create an "all about me" page to go along with our dt profile introduction, so here is what I did...

For this I used some beautiful Teresa Collins Core Amour cardstock, "Posh Flowers" from the Prince and Princess collection. The photo itself, I printed out onto a sheet of Vanilla Cream Core Essentials cardstock.  I also did some sanding of the photo and spritzed on some Mister Huey's Calico Cream mist. The Large circle area of roses on the corner I painted on some sparkles with some Glimmer Glam paint in Chandelier and I painted the gray leaves green with Glimmer Mist spray. Those other roses are cut from Sassafras paper and I added pink glitter foam paint from DecoArt to those.  And there's also some pink Vintage Core used on here too for matting the photo.   I've also been playing around with one of my new favorite punches lately... the Plaid border punch from EK Success.  I used it here along the bottom edge of my photo because I thought it worked well with the look of the  woven texturing in the Teresa Collins Core Amour. 

I guess that's really all I have to share with you today.  It's Monday, so I've been doing a lot of catch-up chores from the weekend... got the laundry hanging on the line, and I am finishing up a DIY paint job that I started on our fireplace front this weekend.  It's coming along pretty good, so I'm satisfied.  I'll probably share pictures of all that sometime soon.  I've got so many rooms that I want to paint here at our house but I just hate the thought of actually putting it all into play.  DH has a week of vacation coming up in August so hopefully we can both kick it into full gear! Enjoy your week, everyone!