RiNNE'S BliSS

One of my Favorite Stamping Techniques.

2012-01-29T00:10:00.000-08:00

Happy Sunday, everyone!

Today's actually my Friday so TGIS! LOL! Welcome to another Christmas Card Challenge (Week 9)! We make Christmas cards all year long to make sure we've got more than enough come Holiday season. Please join in!

Week 9's challenge is to make a card using:

One of my favorite techniques is to stamp without black lines. Sometimes, when I want something more challenging, I do this. The result is a very soft image. Perfect for a vintage-themed card, don't ya think?

The trick is to use a light-colored ink. I used Haystack from Unity Stamp. The stamp is from The Greeting Farm (A Cheeky Christmas). The papers are from Graphic 45, and the stickers are from Love Elsie. Used a spica pen for her facial features. It sure was hard to blend without my usual black lines as guides but thinking outside the box is a must for me once in awhile.

Please visit the CCC blog for more info and inspiration! Hope you have a great rest of the week, and I'll see you back here soon! :)

Baby, Baby, Baby...Oh!

2012-01-27T19:14:00.000-08:00

(yes, that is the Justin Bieber song I'm singing, LOL!)

Hi everyone!

Hope you're all doing well. I, for one, am so glad that this week is coming to an end. It's been kind of a terrible week for me...very emotionally draining. But I'd rather not talk about it right now.

Just a quick post about this card I made for a friend and her new baby girl. Used Tiny Baby (SOG) and an old Basic Grey DPs, Jolee's stickers, and ribbon from my stash.

I am working this weekend so gotta keep this short. Hope you have a wonderful one!

Luv,

P.S. Am super jealous right now of all the people at CHA - the Craft and Hobby Association has a convention in L.A./Anaheim this weekend. One day, I'll go :). If any of you stamp company owners need volunteers, let me know.

Favorite Book Turned into a Movie at TGF.

2012-01-23T09:59:00.000-08:00

Hello, everybody!

I barely made it, but I decided to play along with The Greeting Farm's Customer Challenge at Splitcoaststampers- "A Night at the Bookstore."

I went with the Favorite Book Turned into A Movie and went with The Help. It was my favorite book last year. And I felt that the movie did the book some justice. If you haven't read it yet, I suggest you dive into this moving tale about this historic time. Despite some challenges, these women show a great lesson in humanity. They overcame adversity through friendship and love.

I chose Nurse Anya, Cheeky Cherry Pie, and a retired stamp called Hope and Grace Laundry (i think). I altered them a bit by taking off the nurse's cap and cutting Cheeky's hair. Pardon the uneven coloring of their faces as I do not own all of the Copics to do African American faces.

And yay, I got to use my scraps! The crinkled ribbon is home made by Amy.
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In other news, have you seen how I was picked to be on the SOG Customer Showcase? I FINALLY 'won' something at SOG, LOL. And I'm very grateful to Amy, who was actually the one who chose my card. Amy, thank you so much - you are probably my biggest supporter here!! For more info on my card, see this post.

Smooches!

Christmas Card Challenge - Coloring.

2012-01-22T00:10:00.000-08:00

Wow, can you all believe we are at the end of January already??

I sure can't. Wasn't it just Christmas yesterday? LOL!

Speaking of Christmas, I know it just passed! But it's never too early to start making those Holiday cards! What better way to get motivated and inspired than to join us weekly?

It's Week 8 over at the Christmas Card Challenges blog, and this week's challenge is:

Color with copics, colored pencils, even crayons!

Stamping an image and coloring it with my Copics is my usual card-making style. The trick was finding a stamp that was different and new for me, one that would take a lot of time to color. I finally got some nativity-themed ones, and this Sweet Nativity (Penny Black) one is from 123 Stitch.

I just love this image. They look so wholesome and cozy, and their facial expressions are right on. Love the curious animals all around. Super cute, right? :)

Hope you play along! See the CCC blog for the rules and more inspiration!

Tata!

Party in A Card

2012-01-17T01:30:00.000-08:00

Good morning, y'all!

Am finally getting to play with some stamps I won from TGF! This card features Simply Anya. She is such a beauty and so much fun to color!

I'm playing along with A Monday Funday Recipe {TGFM16}: sentiments.

My card is super girly, no? It's for one of my BFFs who said she didn't really want to celebrate her birthday. I don't know about you, but I'm BIG on celebrating my birthday. I mean, how often do we, as women, celebrate ourselves?? (sorry, don't mean to alienate the male readers out there). It's the one day of the year you can claim as your own. So what did I do for my friend here? Why, I went ALL OUT of course! :)

I call it "Party in a Card." Tee hee!

XO,

P.S. Most of the supplies are from House of 3s from Pink Paislee (the polka dotted paper was actually part of the packaging, the tag with flower on top, the cake sticker, the banner with sentiment, and the paper with numbers). The rest are from my stash. I colored her with Copics and stamped her using Memento Ink.

Family Currents.

2012-01-16T02:00:00.000-08:00

This little guy is 2 1/2 now. Learning so much in pre-school. Lots of new words. Does these cute karate-like moves with his arms/feet when watching Kung-Fu Panda! The other week though, I saw him pulling on each corner of his mouth and sticking his tongue out! Haha! Guess that comes with the territory!

MK loves his Thomas. Given to us by one of my dear friends, M. He sleeps hugging it every night.

Got this from Target when the Missoni line first opened up. It reminds me of how much I had wanted to decorate our house. With the stress of daily life, I've gotten away from that. This year, I plan to go back to my goal. I really want a beautifully-furnished but kid-friendly home. First on the agenda is buy some shelves. Second is to purge some stuff.

Still loving my accessories. You could tell what kind of crafter I am by my earrings, no? Embellishments, anyone? :) From Anthropologie, Museum of Modern Art, Betsey Johnson.

Current outfits: black pants and whatever top is clean. No make-up. Hair pulled back. *sighs*. I have a hair appointment this week to get my roots done. Need to get motivated to dressing like how I used to. Lots of lovely, feminine tops in my closet. Really need to work on myself. If only I wasn't so tired and busy all the time! But that, folks, is another story! Must do another post soon about how my One Little Word (Balance) is going.

Gilster is working hard at work and at home. Deserves something big! Had a chance to get him some SF 49er tickets for Christmas. Really regretting that I didn't. They're doing so well (wooot wooo, Super BOWL!!!!). And we've never been to a football game. I think G would've enjoyed this! If you ask him, he'll probably say, "but I hate crowds!" Oh, dear hubby!!

Mr. Drool Monster turned 6 months. I think we are finally over the sickies (*prays and crosses fingers*). He lost a bit of weight but is still getting cuter each day (me biased? never! lol!). Is more playful than ever. Does this cute little dance and not quite able to sit without support yet. Totally lights up when he sees Mommy or Daddy!

This pic is to show that cute clothes exist for little boys. They sure get harder to find as they grow older though!

Till the next 'currents,' thanks for reading!

P.S. All pics taken by Maria Grace Abuzman of Momentary Bliss during our family session, 11/11.

Flourishes.

2012-01-15T00:10:00.000-08:00

Top of the mornin' to ya!!!!

It's week # 7 at Christmas Card Challenges, and this week's challenge is flourishes!

I couldn't seem to find some of the bling flourishes I thought I had. Last year, I remember cutting one up to get individual blings so I may have run out! LOL! Instead I used this tag that I cut-out from Crate Paper. And then I realized that she kinda looked like this:

A deer head mounted on the wall! *gulp* YIKES! Totally unintentional! SOG's Deer Mae is too cute to be cut off like that!! LOL!

Hope you get to play along with us! I just keep thinking about how many Christmas cards I'll be able to give out by this year's Holiday Season. I try to use a different stamp brand each week. What also motivates me is new Design paper that are on sale right at this time! And call me biased by I think following each week's challenge is inspiring! Although the only rule we have is to make a new Christmas/ Hanukkah/ or winter-themed card. So won't you join in?? Pretty please? :)

Please visit the CCC blog for more info and more inspiration from the other DT members!

BTW, that's my sister and her Halloween costume last year. Pretty creative, eh?

Supplies Used:
CS- Bazzill. Neenah Solar White.
DP- American Crafts (Dear Lizzy).
Rub-ons and ribbons- KI Memories (Love, Elsie).
Tag- Crate Paper.
Bling- Bo Bunny.
Overlay- Hambly.
Ink- Copics and Memento Ink.
Stamps, image and sentiment- Some Odd Girl Deer Mae.

Talk to ya Later!

More Paper Child.

2012-01-13T00:55:00.000-08:00

Just a quick post to show you the fun that's going on in my craft room :).

I've been trying to design a new blog header, and I dabbled in the idea of doing the paper child thing again. Just grabbed the images I've colored in the last week and let them loose, LOL!

Not quite the effect I had in mind as the stamps are either too small or my boxes are too big. Hee hee! I may be asking help from my sis on this one, although she's quite busy helping plan a baby shower for one of her close friends.

Anyway, I hope y'all have a great weekend! I'll be working, but I'll see you back here on Sunday for CCC!

Peace out!

P.S. If you said, "I spy goodies from TGF, Paper Smooches, SOG, and SCRS/ Karber", you got it!!! You'll be seeing them again and more closed up too!

Whimsical & ecclectic.

2012-01-12T01:00:00.000-08:00

When I first saw the Noveau girls from Some Odd Girl, I knew I had to have them. Not only were they beautiful, they were so different from any of the stamps I own. And because they were inspired by a period of art history, they appealed to me even more.

I have always been into art as far back as I can remember. I recall preschool art projects that consisted of pencil sharpening bits glued on paper to make flowers. My mom taught me how to do figure drawings and faces. I always doodled borders and letter art in high school.

While I was envious of my childhood friends who took up dance and sports, I felt lucky enough to take part in art classes and piano lessons. I dreamed of majoring in graphic design but eventually gave in to my parents' insistence to take up something more financially 'stable' and 'practical.'

I love my nursing career and do not regret my decision. Yet there is always going to be a small part of me that long for the arts. I am very grateful for my hobbies of papercrafting, stamping, scrapbooking, and photography. I am blessed to live so close to so many amazing art museums. So even if I don't get to make art for a living, I sure am lucky to be able to include it in my life.

Anyway, I am digressing...

I finally got to work with my Noveau girls. I went all out with this first creation of Grow. To me, she looks part Marie-Antoinette-ish, part fairy tale princess. I pictured her in an exotic and lively forest full of wonderful creatures. Or walking in front of a big window in her fanciful castle.

There are a lot of elements mixed in here, and I love them all! Call it a whimsical & ecclectic card if you will :). To me, it's very artsy. The way all the leaves flourish and grow...lots of flowing lines and dynamic curves. A little bit like a modern art noveau style? Hee hee, not quite sure but I'd like to think so.

The stamped images that make up the inner borders are from Grow as well. I really like them because I used to always doodle something similar to those. The sentiment is from Bliss. The PP are both from Basic Grey. The leaf pins are from an old Taylored Expressions kit. The shiny leaves embellies are from a kit I won from Gauche Alchemy. The images are colored with my beloved Copics.

Thanks so much for visiting and reading my post!

CCC Week 6 - Lace

2012-01-08T00:10:00.000-08:00

Hello folks!

It's Sunday so it's time for another Christmas Card Challenge (Week 6). This week, it's all about lace:

I used a Rachelle Anne Miller image from Paper Works Company. It's really sad that company is now closed, but it really was best for its owners, Peggy and Mike. If you see a PWCO stamp here that I've used (or anywhere else) and you want it, let me know. I can get in contact with Peggy and ask if she still has some in stock.

I decided to go CAS to showcase the stamped image and my lace. The small square is slightly popped out. I really love this lace .. it's silver and a bit shiny. It is very elegant in person. And I'm glad I have a whole spool of it :).

Anyway, back to CCC. Please note that the only real rule is to create a new Christmas, Hanukkah, or Winter-related card. No back-linking please. Easy enough, don't ya think? If you link a card that does not follow these rules, your link will be eliminated. If you can, please use a Sparkle Creations image.

Please visit the blog to see more inspiration from the rest of the DT! Hope you join us!

Smooches,

Paper Child.

2012-01-07T11:09:00.000-08:00

Good Saturday morning, everyone!

I decided to play along with Some Odd Girl's Facebook Paper Child contest. To know more about what Paper Child is, read here.

These were pretty addicting! The ones of Tiny Baby weren't as creative as the ones of Believe. Still, I had a lot of fun trying to find 'photo locations' for my models!

Tee hee! I was flying around the house yesterday when I should've been taking a nap or cleaning. But I hadn't crafted in so long so I gave in to my 'craving.' :) Hey, it's better than eating the cake I just baked!

Oliver inspired my shots of Tiny Baby. At 6 months, he is already much more active than MK was at that age! So Tiny Baby is climbing all over the place, a dare devil at that!

Buwahahahahaha! This one cracks me up!!

And now, to channel my inner sexiness, I used Believe. LOL, Pardon me but I have been stuck in the house for a few days now tending to l'il sick ones and I have a bit of cabin fever. I'm dying to get dolled up & go out!!!

She is the ultimate femme fatale, isn't she? She decides to hang out in my jewelry stand.

And look, I have some Art Noveau-ish earrings! :) Believe is an image inspired by that period!

ROWWWWWRRRRR!!! Who knew a stamp could exude such sex appeal? Buwahahahaha!!!

Thanks for visiting! And y'know what's cool about these images? I can still make cards out of them :).

*Images colored with Copic markers.

XOXO,

Card for Royalty.

2012-01-06T15:58:00.000-08:00

Happy Friday, peeps!

I finally got a hold of my first La La Land stamp, and I love him! It's Prince Luka, and I think he's perfect for a birthday card for my Dad!

Now some of you might say that the image might not be 'sophisticated' enough for a senior man, but I disagree. Take a look at this picture:

You see, my dad would probably appreciate just about anything with his first grandson on it. Doesn't Mattie look like Luka? Of course, it's due to that 'bowl' haircut my father-in-law gave him with a flowbee on Christmas week....but that is another story!!!!! Mind you it was done without our permission!! *shakes head*. LOL!

I also thought the stamp was appropriate because my dad's last name (my maiden name) means 'Kings.' And he's always been proud of it and his heritage. I took it a little step further and colored the image using the colors of the Philippines, which is our native land. :)

I used the Deconstructed Sketch # 33.

I'm also entering it for Some Odd Girl's Bling it Up Challenge.

Have a wonderful weekend!

A Remembrance.

2012-01-05T09:20:00.000-08:00

Good morning, everyone!

I am doing pretty good with my goal of posting here three times a week. These last couple of weeks have been pretty difficult though as far as crafting and blogging as my two kiddies have been sick.

First, Mattie and now, Oli :(. In fact, I am home from work because Oliver still has a bad cough and fevers. The last two nights (& my hubby, the night before those) have been spent sleeping upright on our couch with the babe on my chest or in my arms. My back is killing me, especially since work has also been really busy.

But you gotta do what you have to do. In this case, I would just about do anything to have my baby back to his normal, jolly, healthy self. Holding him comforts him and allows him to breath better. I think he's starting his way to recovery though...cross your fingers.

Anyway, for my card today, I made a sympathy/ support card for someone dear to my heart. I have to warn you though that my post here will get more somber so I'd understand if you stop reading here.

I made this card to show sympathy but also hope to my darling friend who just had a miscarriage. She and her DH were trying for a short while, and was ecstatic when they got pregnant. Only the pregnancy was cut short and left my friend devastated.

I wanted to make her a card and fill it with words to make her feel better, even though I know that nothing I or anybody else could take the pain away. I also wanted to be there for her in another way for I had gone through the same thing years before.

I also suffered a miscarriage right after our wedding in 2008. I wrote about the loss vaguely in my post here so you may remember it if you had been following my blog for awhile.

It was hard for me to talk about it here. I was still grieving, and I also thought it shouldn't be discussed in such a public place. But now, years later, I have coped with it and would hope that my experience would somehow help another person.

How I longed to talk about with someone else. It's sort of a taboo topic. Some don't consider a pregnancy that early (mine was 6 weeks) a baby yet. People told me I was lucky that it happened early, that it was just 'mother nature,' that it was not meant to be. I know they meant well and that they were right. But it was still painful and horrible for me. At the time, there were a lot of couples having 'honeymoon babies' as well. I didn't even know how much we wanted a baby until we lost her/ him.

A colleague had shared her story with me a couple of years ago. She said letting balloons go helped. I also read about planting plants. I think giving it closure is easier when you do these things.

I got together with my dear friend, and we wrote letters to our angels. Mattie helped me by drawing around the paper. We tied them to the end of balloons that my friend bought.

I chose a paper that had stars because the event was altogether not a sad one for me. It symbolized hope for my friend and I, and sort of see-you-later. My friend believed in reincarnation. And we both believe in angels and that things happen for a reason.

We lit candles, and I said a prayer I found on the internet for my friend. It was also for me. We took pictures and let the balloons fly.

**Note: we found out later that these balloons were the wrong ones for this. They are not safe for the environment, and often go down and get tied to electric wires. What I really wanted to use were those tissue-paper lantern balloons that are lit up with candles - used in the movie "Tangled."

It was an emotional but joyous feeling to watch those balloons and letters fly. For me, I finally had some closure and was glad I got to memorialize the baby lost from my first pregnancy. I highly recommend doing this not just for miscarriages but for any type of loss you encounter.

My friend wrote me a note of thanks, and we will both cherish this day.

Thanks so much for listening. Hugs to you all!

Album Smooches.

2012-01-03T22:27:00.000-08:00

Hello!

Am slowly making my December Daily album! I know, I know...I'm late! But better late than never, right? :)

Lots of festivities and fun stuff last month. Wanted to journal/ document this lovely season.

I'd love to see yours so let me know if you'd made one!

Supplies-
Amy Tangerine mini book. Love Elsie stickers. Dear Lizzy poinsetta. Echo Park strip (*sings* a few of my favorite things!)

Smooches,

CCC Week 5 - be Thankful

2012-01-01T00:10:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! It's the first day of 2012, and for me, it's perfect that the goal at Christmas Card Challenges is to make a thank you Holiday/ winter card.

I had lots to be thankful for in 2011. A healthy family, a new baby, a rewarding career, my own craft room....

If you'd like to join us at CCC, pls see the blog for more details and other DT examples. Remember that the challenge is optional, just make a winter or Christmas-oriented card.

It becomes tricky after the Holidays. I'm sure that even I will be a little tired of making Christmas cards during the Spring. I came across some Nativity and more spiritual stamps on sale though. I'm excited about making more religious cards.

Just keep thinking about how many cards you'll have by Summer's end! I thought I made so many Holiday cards, but I ran out! Hoping it won't happen this year!

For my card, I used Rin and Snowman from Sparkles Creations. Except I altered it and took out the snowman :). And I've been on a violet phase lately. i really need to stop coloring my images in purple because it's so hard to find Design Paper that would match! If you know of any recent DPs that come in purple, lemme know please!

See you soon! Enjoy today!

New Year's Eve Thoughts on Xmas Cards, Bokeh, and Words.

2011-12-31T13:22:00.000-08:00

(Warning: Another long post aka saga).

I was really bummed out when I receive our Christmas cards in the mail this year. I got expedited shipping because I was procrastinating. I even got them on recycled paper to be more environmentally-conscious (& also because I love the look of Kraft). To my dismay, this was what it said:

The names are all wrong. Who are the Johnsons?? Grrr... In the end, I made light of the situation and even gave a few out. But I was still sad that we didn't have a fam card that i loved especially since we were now a family of four.

I get so many inspiration from the blogs I follow. Amy Tangerine mentioned this iPhone app (Red Stamp) where you could make a card from your phone and send it out via email or texts. I literally did this in ten minutes. I was so happy that I ended up sending a Holiday card afterall! :) And I totally love it even more!

I also got excited that I got to finally take successful heart and star-shaped bokeh!

I first saw them on Cathy's blog/ facebook. I think they look better with colored lights. I especially love the pic with her youngest daughter and the heart-shaped bokeh.

But I actually did these using this tutorial. I'm going to have to get colored Christmas lights and make other shapes!

And lastly, for the New Year....

Rather than making a resolution, I'd like to play along with One Little Word. It's my first time playing along.

In the words of Ali Edwards, the creator of this phenomenon:

A single word can be a powerful thing. It can be the ripple in the pond that changes everything. It can be sharp and biting or rich and soft and slow. From my own personal experience, it can be a catalyst for enriching your life.

In 2006, I began a tradition of choosing one word for myself each January - a word that I can focus on, meditate on, and reflect upon as I go about my daily life. My words have included play, peace, vitality, nurture, light, and story. These words have each become a part of my life in one way or another. They've been imbedded into who I am, and into who I'm becoming. They've been what I've needed (and didn't know I needed). They've helped me to breathe deeper, to see clearer, and to grow.

If I could choose one word that would sum up 2012, it would be BALANCE.

I would love to continue my stamping and blogging hobby, be a part of a couple more Design Teams and still be able to sleep, work, take care of my family. I would love to organize and clean more. I plan to buy more shelves to make up for the lack of closets and pantry in our home. This way, everything has a place to go. So keeping house while growing in my craft is a goal!

I would hope to save more money while still enjoying some of the luxuries in life that I've come to love -- nice family trips, designer purses (yes, I'm one of those, lol!), shopping, new stamps, and more Copics! I plan to budget every little expense and build up our savings again. This will probably mean only buying what I truly need in the stamping department and not having to shop for new clothes every time there's a party or Holiday coming along.

I would strive to cook healthier food and exercise more while still being able to eat some of my guilty pleasures. I would love to try juicing like my sis-in-law (who has lost so much weight) and Liz Kartchner. Have tried a veggie shake and actually liked it! I long to start loving working out again the way I used to with mountain biking, bikram yoga, even running on the treadmill. My hubby got the new Dance Central 2 so we'll see :). And I don't really want to deprive myself of what I like to eat: chocolate, fried food. Diets never work, and I believe the key is learning to take junk food in moderation.

Those are just some examples of my 'word.' I think in some ways, it sounds unattainable. That I'm reaching for too high of a goal... to want it all. But I think, too, that by starting small, I'll go far and be more determined.

Of course, throughout the year, I'll let you know how I'm coming along. I already have lay-outs that are forming in my brain as we speak :).

If you play along with OLW, I'd love to hear what your word is for this coming year!

Enjoy tonight and be safe, peeps!

My Top Favorites Rinne Creations of 2011...

2011-12-30T21:25:00.000-08:00

Of course, I just couldn't stop at 10 (or 11) for that matter! A bit picture-heavy, I hope you don't mind looking at 20 of them (sorry).

I love them because of the designs, the coloring, or even just because of the stamps themselves! I'd like to see your faves too!

The street vibe is pretty cool, don't ya think?

This was a Bachelorette card -- love that color combo and perfect retro elements!

I really like the simplicity of this card, although there were a lot of patterns as well. I think it's rad how a card tells a story!

She is such a cutie! And I adore that ribbon!

That shelf is such an awesome image -- and these PWCO stamps (as stuffed animals) remind me of my childhood!

These robots are the BEST and were the perfect stamps for this space-themed mini album! For my boys, of course!

Her hair coloring is pretty :) and this was the first time I used Authentique (stunning!).

Paper Smooches stamps are just the best for crisp and simple and funny cards!

The different textures were what I fell in love with. That cupcake frosting looks real and yummers! And the twine action is genius (I'm so modest today, lol!!!). :)

Super duper stellar stamps! And paired with October Afternoon papers? Radical!

I LOVE scenic cards and I adore how this one came together. So cozy! I also tried the no black lines stamping here!

I had to add a scrapbook LO here. Love this line from Echo Park. This page is so vibrant and fun, like my kiddies!

Josie (from Sweet November, CC Designs) is a cutie, and these pop-up flowers are so pretty!

Lovin' how the coloring of her dress folds came out! *pats myself on the back*

Turquoise + orange ... so unique and fresh, lovely color combo!

Gorgeous image for Halloween (who said they have to be scary?).

Am embracing clean and simple cards more. My fave part is the pop of colors!

Karber stamps are truly adorable. This card just makes me smile with delight!

Did a lot of black & white combo. This one is my fave because it's kind of ironic how it's set in paradise and I made it b&w. And of course, it's Hawaiian!

The trees made this card a little bit dark and allowed those little balls of light to shine through :).

Happy New Year's Eve, everyone!

Edward & Bella.

2011-12-29T23:50:00.001-08:00

Because of the whole Twilight movie hype last month, I wanted to make a card featuring Edward and Bella. There were so many new stamps, all were very cute! But my faves have to be the oldies-but-goodies from The Greeting Farm because Edward's hair is right on!! LOL!

I also entered this card for the DT call over at TGF. I didn't make it, and I'm ok with that because so far, I am loving the new Premiere Farmers -- their work is so stunning and their creativity is stellar!

I did a semi-scenic card here. I have been obsessed with woodsy-themes lately (see my other recent forest card here).

I mean, the woods is only appropriate right? A lot of my favorite scenes from the movies happened there. I wanted to make it ultra-romantic and also show my love of mixing patterns. I used floral and lacey elements along with linear and masculine colors.

The stamps are TGF's WS Camille and WS Edward. The papers are mostly from Basic Grey, and the beautiful flower on the top left corner was made by Cathy from Catshy Crafts.

Also, please take note! There's a special sale at Sparkle Creations!

Have an awesome day!

Merry Christmas, from our family to yours!

2011-12-25T00:10:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas, everyone!!

I hope that you are spending some joyous moments with your family and friends. When I was younger and single, our tradition was to stay up on Christmas Eve, eat and be merry with lots of fam, go to midnight mass, and open our presents! We sleep in and then party all over again. Eat and open more presents, and usually go to the movies.

Now that I'm married and with kids, not much has changed. We just have to make sure we visit my in-laws as well. Sometimes, we don't get to watch a movie on Christmas Day.

As it is Sunday, it's time for another Christmas Card Challenge - Week 3.

Here's my card:

It's of my family: my Dad, my Mom, my two sisters, and brother. We're either dressed in matching PJs (I've always wanted to do that!) or smiling in our Sunday Best for a family photo! :)

I altered the stamp to include my brother up top. In real life, my bro towers almost a foot over me...let's just pretend that he's standing on top of the chair here, shall we?

I used CC Designs The Group stamp. The papers and sticker are from American Crafts (Dear Lizzy). The ribbon is from KI Memories (Love, Elsie). The flower is homemade and bought from my LSS.

Won't you play along with our sketch for your Holiday cards? After today, I'm sure making winter-themed cards would be harder. Just think of all the Christmas cards you'll have by next year though? LOL! Please visit the CCC blog for more info!

I hope you all have a wonderful Holiday! Remember that Christmas is not just a day, but a state of mind! (love that quote!).

Faves for Christmas 2011

2011-12-23T17:06:00.000-08:00

Hi y'all! No crafty post today... although it's heavy with pics!

Just wanted to show you my favorite moments of the Holiday Season so far.

It includes new outings to a nearby Global Wonderland and the traditional trip to Union Square in San Francisco.

A lot are of my parents' decorations in their home (courtesy of my sis).

There's Mattie's Preschool concert and his first gift for me (awwww).

The homemade wreath on our front door was bought from Cathy's Etsy shop (Catshy Crafts). Isn't it stunning? I first 'met' Cathy on SisTV, and she is one talented gal! (Ignore the extra yarn hanging pls...I should've cut that part off!).

Then there are my fave decorations at home. Our homemade ornaments. 'Argyle' candles. Cool wrapping from my beloved Borders (miss this store :(). Mattie's projects. LOVE!

I really need to do a December Daily album. So busy though...maybe in January??

Are you all ready for Christmas? I'm not! :) LOL!

TGF 3rd Annual Customer Blog Hop

2011-12-19T08:00:00.000-08:00

****Please scroll down for the SOG Customer Blog Hop (the last four posts).****

Hello, hello, hello!

Wow! There sure is a lot of action in the blog world today! :)

The Greeting Farm is having their 3rd Annual Customer Blog Hop, and I'm joining in!

With over 65 participants, all the participants' links will be listed on the blog. So if you get lost along the way, just head on over there.

There are two categories for the projects: Holiday or non-Holiday (or even both!). I decided to go for the Non-Holiday one since I'm thinking most people would be creating something for Christmas. Y'all know how much I like to be different. I'm such a rebel, haha! LOL!

I used the TGF McSplendid Farm set -- I'm thinking that it may be retired? I love how quirky and whimsical the animals look. And I'm a sucker for scenic cards so I just had to make one :).

The stamps were colored with Copics. I used the Deconstructed Sketch No. 31. I distressed and inked up most of the edges. And used DPs from American Crafts (sky), Jillibean Soup (cornstalks), and Basic Grey (orange). Used Kraft paper for the CS and 'grass.' Included a strip of paper from an old book -- it was totally random that it included the words "great herds" :).

In addition to the two Grand Prizes that TGF will draw for the participants' creations, a random hopper will ALSO win the ENTIRE upcoming January Release! That's 6 sets in all- a HUGE prize...and the only way to win is by participating in the blog hop!

Ok, folks, thanks for visiting! Have fun hoppin'!

SOG Customer Blog Hop NT

2011-12-19T07:03:00.000-08:00

Hola! Here's another entry for the 2011 customer blog hop at SOG. This time, it's to make a card with non-traditional colors.

Because my style tend to be bright and cute-sy, I felt quite at home with this challenge. I'm pretty comfortable mixing up different color combinations, and non-traditional Christmas cards are one of my favorites!

For this creation, I used Tree Trimming Kaylee. She's having a blast decorating her awesome pink tree. It's a dream of mine to get a white Xmas tree or any other color besides green. One day, I'll do it & have lots of shiny ornaments!

Used Hambly and American Crafts (Dear Lizzy) rub-ons. The DPs are from My Mind's Eye and 2009. (yay for using my stash!).

Toot-a-loo!

SOG Customer Blog Hop Gift

2011-12-19T07:02:00.000-08:00

Hello, hello! For one of the categories of SOG's 2nd Annual Customer Blog Hop, we were to make a gift card holder or gift bag.

I decided to make a gift bag and challenge myself. Because I sometimes don't have a lot of time and sometimes craft in 'shifts,' I tend to stay away from projects that take too long to do. Surprisingly, this multi-dimensional paper project was fairly easy and fast. And isn't it super cute and functional? I first saw this gift bag at Janet's blog. The actual instructions could be found here.

I used a 12 x 12 double-sided patterned paper from Graphic 45. This brand is absolutely classic and retro, and I wanted to use something different for Deer Mae.

Anyway, the inside will show when the recipient opens it so it's nice to use DP. Plus, it's thinner than card stock so it'll be easier to fold and score.

I added chocolates in there, and tied it with Twine to stay closed. You can also use a velcro closure. I, then, decorated a strip of paper with the stamped image and some stickers from Bo Bunny to finish the front.

Hope you're all having a blast at the blog hop! Hope you enjoy all the different projects and styles! I find it truly inspiring!

SOG Customer Blog Hop White

2011-12-19T07:01:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone! Here's my card entry for the SOG's All White challenge at their 2nd Annual Customer Blog Hop.

All White cards can be super challenging for me! So I try to bring in lots of textures and dimensions, and since I don't own an embossing/ die-cutting machine, it could be difficult. Luckily, I've got punches, overlays, and ribbons to help :).

Doesn't HollyDay Gwen look absolutely astonishing with the white background? I couldn't help but take a picture of her with this package of a gingerbread house. She looks like she's playing outside in the snow....except she must be super cold, haha!

Thanks for visiting!

SOG Customer Blog Hop Men

2011-12-19T07:00:00.000-08:00

Good mornin,' everybody!

I worked the whole weekend, so I sure am happy to see Monday! Today, I've got several cards for you to see. I've got them all in separate posts. This way, it won't get too confusing (I hope), and it'll highlight each individual card!

It's time for Some Odd Girl's 2nd Annual Customer Blog Hop! There are four different challenges, and I've made up a creation for each one.

The first category is to make a Holiday card for Men. I used Deck the Halls Tobie and the penguin from Warm Wishes Tia.

I fell in love with this patterned paper from Prima -- it reminded me of the forest from the movie Avatar. C'mon now, which guy could resist Avatar? I love how this paper is non-traditional. It's a bit dark so the penguin and Tobie stand out even more in their bright clothes and merry disposition.

To show depth, I even cut out more of the 'tree trunks' and layered them:

Made my own sentiment and added the lace for some flair. Hey, men can like drama too once in a while, right? LOL!

See you (very) soon!

Jolly Elf

2011-12-18T00:10:00.000-08:00

Hello, hello, hello!

It's one week till Christmas!! Are you all ready?? I know I'm not! Where the heck did the time go? Seems like it just flew by these last couple of weeks!

Today, it's time for Christmas Card Challenges (Week 3)! Today's challenge is to use non-traditional colors!

I took out my beloved Elf Anya for this week. I paired her up with some design paper goodness from Crate Paper and Pink Paislee. The letters are from Bella Blvd, and the jeweled brads & tag sticker are from Echo Park.

Hope you get to play along! Pls visit the CCC Blog for more info!

I'm also using this card to play along with the Thursday Throwback (Holiday Edition) at the TGF blog.

In other news, Sarah of Serendipity Stamping has a great blog giveaway! Won't you help her get to 100 followers?

Toodles!

Cuties!

2011-12-14T17:00:00.000-08:00

I am not very good at taking pictures of scrapbook lay-outs. I'm too short to just take it from above when it's on the floor. The photographs are usually blurry or too washed out. I'm thinking that investing in a new camera lens would help. Although to tell you the truth, any excuse will do to spend more money on my photography, LOL!

Up there is my third lay-out from the class I took (taught by Amy Tangerine).

It features my and some of my college group's kids! The title is pretty generic, but if you look closely, I stamped the letters with some brown ink :). Cool how the pattern comes out, huh?

Hope you're all having fun during these few days left before the Holiday Season! There's so much I want to do but alas, time won't allow it. I wish there were 30 hours during the day this time of the year. Of course, only on my days off, not on :). Haha!

Hugs,

A Slice of the Good Life.

2011-12-13T00:00:00.000-08:00

When I took Amy T's class, I wasn't very prepared. I just grabbed a bunch of old pics and prayed that they would somehow fit the pages we were going to make.

I was pretty lucky because these photographs from a trip to paradise were perfect for the lay-out I had in mind. I didn't change much from Amy's original design because I really love how her page came out:

Sorry to blog and run! I must finish my Holiday shopping while I still have a chance! Hope you are all having a stellar day!

Life Is Good!

2011-12-12T00:00:00.000-08:00

Here's one of the four lay-outs I made at the class that Amy Tangerine taught.

I pretty much copied her design and sketch, but changed up the flowers and embellies.

Here's a pic of her LO:

The pic is of my two sisters and our friend, J. We had gone to Hawaii and was at a luau at sunset. The water was just beautiful and I just had to get a shot of it. I've been to four of the Hawaiian islands and I think the luau at Paradise Cove in Oahu is still my favorite.

The title of this page was perfect for the pic. I feel so grateful and blessed to be able to travel and see so many beautiful places! Can't wait to see more of the world :).

I love the colors of this page and the layering as well! I also loved incorporating fabric! So happy I'm getting to scrap :).

I plan to write a bit of journaling on the tag. I always forget to write the date and now when I look back on my older work, I have a hard time remembering when the picture was taken. If anything, I need to journal a bit on the back of the page.

Have a wonderful one!

CCC 2 & Winner of my Blog Candy!

2011-12-11T00:10:00.000-08:00

It's Sunday, folks, and you know what that means!

It's time for another Christmas Card Challenge - Week 2. This week, add some doodling to your card! Remember the challenge is optional, just make a new Christmas, Holiday, Hannukah, or Winter card to play along.

The doodling part is right up my alley. I tend to be on the cheap side when it comes to sentiments and just hand-write my own. I'm becoming better at buying/ using them though. To my Hawaiian friends, let me know if you know of a good internet site where I can find a Mele Kalikimaka stamp. (Merry Christmas in Hawaiian).

For my card, I doodled the strings for the ornaments and the sentiment. Hope you all join us at CCC!

Supplies:
Stamp- Karber Hawaii from SCRS.
DP- Echo Park. (from PWCO November Papercard Kit).

Here are the rest of the DTs:

Alanna
Anita
Brigitte
Candace
Corinne <-- You Are Here!
Katie
Margo
Pat
Peggy
Sparkle
Steph

-----------------------------

And the winner of my Craft Room ReDo Blog Candy is....

# 101 -- Christi Hicks!

I deleted double comments, and added the Mr. Linky's to the comments and used Random.Org. Sorry, I couldn't figure out how to copy the code for the random.org.

Christi, please email me your address! I'll get the Blog Candies plus lots of extras to you after the Holidays.

Thanks again for following and posting about my blog, everyone!

Meeting Amy Tangerine!

2011-12-10T00:00:00.000-08:00

Hi all!

It's been so long since I last took a scrapbooking class. I've definitely forgotten how fun it is and how I usually learn a lot.

When one of my favorite scrappers came to teach a class based on her wonderful new line, I knew I had to take it! I had pretty much been hoarding as much of the Amy Tangerine goodies (American Crafts) as I can afford. Thought it was time to use them. What better way than to learn from the designer herself?

I had gone through a lot in order to take her classes (don't ask), and I was feeling a bit under the weather. Am super elated that I got to come... it was very inspiring and I've learned techniques for both scrapping and card-making!

Here are my supplies and goodies. The classes were $60 each but you pretty much get it back in the items they provide.

Here's the lovely Amy holding up one of her lay-outs. I was a bit (ok, a LOT) star-struck! Haven't met one of my fave scrapbookers before. She was really nice and down-to-earth and oh-so-cute!

She showed us how to make her delightful lay-outs using our own photos and making the pages our own. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that she didn't measure anything. I'm like that 85% of the time. Her style is graphic but the layering is not always concise and purposeful (does that make sense?). I really like that style. I tend to make my cards in that way currently.

Here are a couple of Amy's LO's that we learned.

So happy that I got to take it with BFF'ers.

My favorite part of the class was learning how to make these flowers. I also loved incorporating sewing and fabric into my creations.

Here's the class.

Giddy here from meeting such a talented scrapping celebrity! I didn't get into her work until just about a year ago -- I wished I had sooner because before I was married and with kiddies, I always wished for some inspiration on scrapping lay-outs about friends, being young, partying, and traveling! But Amy T (& her style) is definitely someone everybody can relate to.

Amy also blogged about visiting the Bay Area in this post. You could see me in one of the pics! :)

Over the next week, I'll be sharing the lay-outs I created. I'm trying to post as much as I can so I hope you don't mind if I s-t-r-e-t-c-h this topic out. :) LOL!

Instead, here's a pic of my boys in the shirts from Amy's clothing company:

Should've taken the pic before they ate .. pardon the wrinkles and stains. What can you do? They're young and boys afterall! Haha!

My Blog Candy is now Closed!

2011-12-09T16:52:00.000-08:00

****Please click here for my SCRS Karber Fairy Stamp Set preview post. ***

****Please click here for my PWCO Recipe Challenge post. ***

Hi everyone!

Just a quick post to say that my Craft Room ReDo Blog Candy is now closed! I've reached my goal of 175 followers... 176 actually. I couldn't get to my blog earlier. I'll be announcing the winner this weekend. Thanks so much for visiting and reading my posts!

At closing, Mr. Linky was at # 89 which was Stu, and 94 comments (last one was Lucie Q.). I'll be checking the Mr. Linky if people did post it in their blog or side bar. Also, I'll be deleting double comments. Because I've been getting spammed lately, I always have to approve my comments. Sorry if that got people confused. :). Good-luck, everybody! And remember, I'll be shipping anywhere after the Holidays. Thanks again!

Peace out!

The End of my DT term at PWCO.

2011-12-09T08:00:00.000-08:00

****Please click HERE for my SCRS Karber Fairy preview post!****

Happy Friday mornin', ladies & gents!

This marks my last post for PaperWorks Company Design Team. :(

I will be forever grateful to Peggy -- this marked my first time designing for a widely-known stamp company full-time! I have enjoyed my 6-month term showcasing PWCO's oh-so-cute stamps while being able to feature my creations as inspiration for the fun challenges. I had a great time meeting other DT members while getting to work with some 'old' time bloggy friends (Tanya and Stephanie). I'm telling you, my Canadian peeps are super nice and talented! :)

Stephanie, thank you also for being such an awesome coordinator! You were always so supportive when I was panicking about making deadlines when I first gave birth and then later, when it was time to go back to work. And Peggy, thanks so very much for the generous packages of stamps and other goodies!

Anyway, enough blabbing and let's get to crafting! It's a Recipe Challenge Day. Today's goal is to use a snowman, two design papers, and snowflakes.

Here's my take:

I used A Little Haul of Cheer. This stamp is very cute, and he reminds me a little of my tater tot. Being from California, he has only seen / played with snow two times so I pretty much engraved those memories in my mind. LOL!

The two DPs are the: 1. snowflakes (green & white). 2. the stripes and larger snowflakes came as a strip. Both are from Echo Park and the PWCO November PaperCard Kit. The snowmen were cut from the same strip as well. The snowflakes are brads from an old Taylored Expressions' KI kit.

I created the clouds using a hand-cut cloud stencil and Tim Holtz Distressed Ink. The stamped image is colored with Copic markers. Please pardon the lopsided sentiment!

Remember, you don't have to use a PWCO image to play along. But if you do, you get a second chance at winning! See the PWCO blog for more info!

Have a wonderful weekend!

December Karber Preview

2011-12-08T21:00:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone! It's my last post as a DT member over at Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps. It was so much fun!! Thanks so much to Sparkle and Stephanie! The SCRS and Karber stamps are so adorable and delightful to work with!!

Today, we are previewing the December Karber Fairy Stamp set over at Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps. It's a clear acrylic set and it features an angel, a fairy, and a tooth fairy as well as two sentiments, a star, and clouds with a rainbow. Whew! You'll sure get a good deal for your money!

I'm showcasing the Angel, and I've colored her with Copics. I've made a scenic card using fabric papers from KI Memories (Love, Elsie). Pretty much everything here are from my stash including the ribbon and the brad -- feels good to use up my old stuff! :)

Be sure to visit all rest of the SCRS Karber designers for more peeks of the Karber Fairy Stamp set. Sparkle will be giving away the Fairy set to one lucky person! For a chance to win, you need to comment on all of the designer's blogs (list below). Then head on over to the SCRS blog and comment on the Karber Fairy post. You have until midnight EST each day to comment. The lucky winner will be announced the following day!

Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps Store
Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps Blog
Corinne Mercado
Kadie Ensley
Margie Cortina
Mary Johnson
Peggy Toole, Sponsorship Coordinator
Suzanne Bier, Newsletter Coordinator

Also, here's more info on the featured stamp of December:

In other Karber news, how would you like to win a Grand Calibur??

Buy a Karber digital stamp or a clear or rubber stamp from SCRS, and you'll be entered to win one! For more info, go to the Karber blog! Wow, I sure want one of those!

Have a wonderful day!

My First Christmas Card Challenge DT post.

2011-12-04T00:10:00.000-08:00

**** Please go HERE for my Craft Room ReDo Blog Candy. ****

Happy Sunday!

And welcome to my first ever Christmas Card Challenge post! CCC Week # 1 is to make a one-layer card.

Now, a clean and simple (CAS) card is not my usual style. In fact, I had to ask what was meant by a one-layer card, LOL (I know! Total loser!!!).

Once I found out, however, it wasn't as hard as I thought it'd be for someone who loves to layer and embellish like me. In fact, I've been dying to make this kind of card. Clean, white, minimal embellishments.

Here's my take:

I used one of the Gorguss girls, Little Heart, which I bought from ATS. I just love how Gorguss girls are so versatile and classic! I also used SOG's Deck the Halls Tobie for the stockings, sentiment, and candy cane stamps. The baker's twine is from Martha Stewart.

Remember that the only real RULE of the CCC blog is to make a new Christmas, Holiday, Hanukah, or Winter card. The challenges are totally optional. But no backlinking please! See the blog for more details and to link up your projects! Can't wait to see what you create, folks!

Here's a list of all the DT's blogs for more inspiration:

Alanna
Anita
Brigitte
Candace
Corinne <-- You Are Here!
Katie
Margo
Pat
Peggy
Sparkle
Steph

Tata!

Traditional Christmas

2011-12-02T08:00:00.000-08:00

**** Please go HERE for my Craft Room ReDo Blog Candy. ****

Happy Friday, folks!

For the next couple of weeks, I'll be showcasing PWCO's Recipe Challenges every Friday. You'll have the whole month to play! Today's recipe is a picture inspiration:

Here's my take using Card Patterns Sketch # 143:

I've decided to go the traditional route, and actually go with the reds, greens, and golds of the pic. I also liked the fireplace of the photo, so I went with the Season of Joy stamp. I just love that mantle up top. Such a great way to decorate for the Holidays! I don't think I've ever lived in a home with a mantle. Fireplace - yes. But never a mantle.

The papers I used were from Graphic 45. Do you see your name on Santa's "Nice" list? Hee hee! Mine's in there somewhere!! :)

The stickers & bling are from Bo Bunny. The ribbon is from KI Memories (Love, Elsie), and the strip down the right edge is from Authentique.

If you haven't yet checked out the Holiday stamps from PWCO/ RAM, they are truly adorable!!

Hope you all join in on the fun! Remember that you don't have to use a PaperWorks Co. stamp, but if you do, you get an extra entry!

Toodles!

Our 2011 Family Portraits

2011-12-01T00:00:00.000-08:00

**** Please go HERE for my Craft Room ReDo Blog Candy. ****

Remember this post?

Well, our family session is up at the Momentary Bliss Photography blog!

I was quite nervous because of the dang baby weight. But Grace was so nice and made me feel so comfortable! She got the shy tater tot to open up, and the grumpy hubby who doesn't like getting pics taken (but who married a ham!! lol!) to loosen up too! Good thing, Grace knew football!! heheheh!

I think that because she's a scrapbooker too, she got exactly what I wanted from a family session! Details, details, details! The more macro the photography, the better! The earrings shot, the wall decor photos, my kids' personalities...things I never communicated to her but that she got anyway. Love the pics, Grace!!

:)

Play & Fun with Family

2011-11-30T00:00:00.000-08:00

**** Please go HERE for my Craft Room ReDo Blog Candy. ****

Just a quickie card I made for my niece and nephew in Arizona. We usually spend our Thanksgiving together but couldn't this year.

Used a bunch of my scraps and kept it in an Autumn palette.

Have a great Tuesday!

Rin & Snowman

2011-11-28T21:00:00.000-08:00

**** Please go HERE for my Craft Room ReDo Blog Candy. ****

Hi, hi, hi!!

It's time for another Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps Challenge! Challenge # 69 is a sketch!

Remember that you have to use a SCRS image. You have two weeks to play. For more details, visit the blog. And for more inspiration, visit the Design team members for Week A (Week B will be showcasing the sketch next week):

Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps Store
Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps Blog
Alice Wertz
Corinne Mercado <--You are Here
Jen Shults, November Guest Designer
Kadie Ensley
Kim Yu
Shaela Odd

Supplies Used:
CS- Bazzill. Neenah Solar White.
DP- Echo Park. (obtained from PWCO's November PaperCard Kit).
Stickers- American Crafts (Dear Lizzy).
Misc.- Brads, Viva Pearl Pen.
Stamp- SCRS' Rin and Snowman.

Sorry, it's so short. It's back to work for me. I'll see you later on this week!

Hare's to Being the Beary Best of Friends!

2011-11-28T08:00:00.000-08:00

**** Please go HERE for my Craft Room ReDo Blog Candy. ****

Hi everyone!

It's my last post featuring the November PaperCard Kit from PaperWorks Company. Today, I decided to use the Beary Best of Friends stamp.

Now, you're probably wondering how they could have a picnic in the middle of winter? Well, for people like me who live in California, we never get snow. That may or may not be a good thing...it depends on how you look at it, LOL!

Let's pretend that they live in Southern California :). The holidays are about celebrating family and friends, and that is what the Bear and Hare are doing. They are having a grand ole celebration right in the forest! I decided to color the image as colorful as the papers from the kit. To balance it out, I kept the elements pretty simple.

Supplies:
CS- Bazzill. Neenah Solar White.
DP- Echo Park (from the November PaperCard Kit).
Ribbon- from the November PaperCard Kit.
Brads- Basic Grey (from the November PaperCard Kit).
Stamp- PWCO/ RAM's Beary Best of Friends

Hope you all have a fabulous Monday!

And so the weekend comes to an end...

2011-11-27T00:00:00.000-08:00

**** Please go HERE for my Craft Room ReDo Blog Candy. ****

Good morning, everyone!

Well, it's the last day of the Holiday weekend, and I'm a bit sad.

I always love this weekend because it's a time to be thankful, to be with family. It's not usually a big sit-down, formal dinner for our family so I never really feel stressed on Thanksgiving. I love that it also encompasses shopping for presents and putting up the Christmas tree (if I haven't already done so). Why, the local radio station even starts playing Xmas songs. I know that some people find that annoying, but I don't. LOL!

I also got some crafting done this weekend as my hubbster was off. Yippee!

I'm playing along with the Farm Fresh Blog's Monday Fun-Day: A Simple Sketch. It's done by my new bloggy friend, the wonderful Margie. I actually made it more CAS (I know, I know...so unlike me!!!).

I used Amelia from the TGF Ahoy set. I used up some stash for the DP- the black with polka dots is from KI Memories (Love, Elsie) and the main one is from Imagination Project.

I really like how I got to practice coloring pleats here :).

Hope you enjoy the rest of the day! I'll see you back here tomorrow!

CCC Announcement and Blog Hop

2011-11-26T00:10:00.000-08:00

**** Please go HERE for my Craft Room ReDo Blog Candy. ****

Happy Saturday morning, everyone! I've got some cool news today!

I can finally announce that:

Yup! I made it to Sparkle's Christmas Card Challenges Design Team! I start on the 4th of December, along with some other new ladies & some returning ones!

From our DT coordinator, Stephanie Castro:

"Now, we're doing this DT announcement a bit different. We have never had a blog hop at the CCC, and decided that we're going to announce everyone via blog hop. Almost like a scavenger hunt to find out who the new designers are. Fun, huh? What does that mean exactly? Well, it starts at the CCC blog, and then you're directed to the next blog, which happens to be all of the new, and some returning, designers blogs. Along the way, you'll get to know each of the new designers, as they share a project and tell you a bit about themselves. We have a few returning designers, and six new designers, along with 6 new guest designers. Don't forget to leave some blog love for each of them, as there will be one lucky winner of some cool Christmas goodies. I mean, what's a blog hop without some candy, right? :)"

Here's my blurb:

Hi everyone! I'm Corinne Mercado aka Corinne Reyes and aka Rinne in the blog world. I'm very excited & honored to be a DT member here. I started stamping back in the summer of 2009, but was a scrapbooker first, and have always been crafting for as long as I can remember!!

I'm a full time working mommy as a registered nurse - luckily, I'm able to do 12 hour shifts per day so I have many days off left in the week for crafting!! I've been married to the love of my life for three & a half years, and we've been blessed with two sons (ages 2 1/2 & almost 5 months). When I'm not cuddling with my boys, I love to sneak into my craft room and escape to the world of Copics, stamps and patterned paper!

I'm so very excited to be here! It's been a dream of mine to give out Christmas cards to all my friends & families! Now with CCC, I get to make them for our mailman, preschool teachers, and pediatrician too... all while having lots of fun, inspiration, and encouragement!! I hope you join us and I can't wait to see the Holiday cards you make throughout the year! :)

Ok, enough talking already! I made a card for this post and to play along with the CCC current challenge # 51 (Color Combo: Black & White).

I know you've been seeing a lot of black and white coloring from me! It's so much fun to do! I used Hula Girl Lucy and Santa, the palm tree, stocking and sentiment are from Stampin' Up! Don't they go perfectly together? :)

If you've arrived here from Candace's blog, then you're on the right path! If not, start here at the CCC blog. Check back every Sunday, that's when the new challenges are posted. Now, head on over to Katie's blog to continue!

Here are blog sites of all the DTs:

Alanna
Anita
Brigitte
Candace
Corinne <-- You Are Here!
Katie
Margo
Pat
Peggy
Sparkle -
Steph

It's so very nice to meet all of you!

P.S. It's so funny how in all of my Design Teams, the DT coordinators are named Stephanie!!!! Isn't that weird and cool?!! Stephanie Castro for CCC, Stephanie Kraft for SCRS, and Stephanie Jones for PWCO!

Happy Birthday & Black Friday

2011-11-25T07:33:00.000-08:00

**** Please go HERE for my Craft Room ReDo Blog Candy. ****

Hello everyone!

Hope everyone is full and warm and y'all had a nice Thanksgiving (at least for my American friends!).

I'm featuring a card I made for Amy (hope she already got it in the mail). Amy has been a great bloggy friend of mine, I met her shortly after I started stamping. I simply followed her amazing work and commented, and she started commenting on mine as well. She always encouraged me, gave tips, and shared her techniques. And when she got super HUGE in the blogging/ stamping world, she never forgot the little peeps, LOL! She always sent me cards/ gifts on special occassions! Thanks for being a wonderful friend, Amy!

I wanted to use a stamp that she didn't already own - Karber Bubble Millie from Sparkle Creations. Of course, I had to alter her hair to make it look like hers. :)

I paired her with some Cosmo Cricket (love that bubbles paper) & an old ribbon from my stash. The sentiment is from Paper Smooches. Love how this card is super happy!

I'm entering it for two challenges:

1. The Deconstructed Sketch # 28.
2. Birthday Sundaes Challenge # 36 - use old stash (that love ribbon).

Have a wonderful day, everyone!

I'm not braving the crowds for my usual Black Friday tradition but I'll be checking out stuff online! Anthropologie is 50% off their sale items up until 11 am, local time, online!

And speaking of Black Friday sales--

Hugs!

Becky the Bunny.

2011-11-21T08:00:00.000-08:00

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Hi everyone!

Happy Monday! It's time to show you all another way to feature a PWCO stamp in a Christmas card!

I do not yet own any of the beautiful Winter-themed stamps from PWCO, such as the RAM Xmas, but a lot of the stamps can be altered to fit in with the November PaperCard Kit!

The kit itself is just $11.99 and features lot of goodies from Echo Park! Such a great deal!

I dunno what possessed me into coloring Becky the Bunny Pepto-Bismol-ish, but she is super cute anyway, isn't she? I've been on a pink kick lately (no, I am not preggo with a baby girl! Although I do wish that but for much later on).

The DP is from Jillibean Soup. Pls ignore the crooked placements. I apologize as this isn't my best work. But I did this when my cold was full-blown, & didn't have a chance to re-do it. I cut out a beanie and a scarf from one of the penguins and gave them to Becky for her Holiday outfit :).

For the sketch, I followed Card Patterns Sketch 142.

Have a wonderful day!

Colorful Elf Tia

2011-11-20T20:29:00.000-08:00

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Whew...I made it!

Cutting it close, but I wanted another entry for the SOG Guest DT challenge.

The patterned papers are from Dear Lizzy (grey, American Crafts) and My Mind's Eye (colorful). I added some Viva pearl drops and a wide mesh-y ribbon from my stash. Since my other entry was black and white, I wanted this to be really full of color!

My BFF'ers, Jo, teased me the other day. She said that sometimes my stuff doesn't match when it comes to crafting. Well, sorry Jo, but phooey to that! For me, art doesn't have to be matchy-matchy all the time. Why, look at couture fashion. And Sarah Jessica Parker in Sex & the City.

So, in response, I think I sub-consciously colored Warm Wishes Tia in all these colors! Nothing matches, but she is bright and happy, and makes me smile nonetheless!

In fact, it wasn't too long ago that I learned that you add blue to make black hair even brighter. Or gray to make brown hair deeper. And caucasian skin has a purple tinge to it so add violet when coloring. See... these may not make sense to the lay person, but just opening up to different techniques allow you to learn lots of new tips!! Right, Jo? :)

And guess what, I was so worried that my card wouldn't show very well without sunlight but I kinda like how this turned out.

Hugs to all!

Sneak Peek of our fam session

2011-11-20T13:06:00.000-08:00

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Hello all!

Well, lots of happs over here in my neck of the woods.

But first, gotta tell you that the mojo is waaaaaaayy down... & i haven't really created much! That, plus I caught the nasty cold/ cough combo that's running around. I am actually home from work today, and have been very grateful for my DH who has let me nap for the past three hours.

Just a quickie post now to tell you about a recent family photo session that was done by the wonderful Maria Grace Abuzman. Here's a sneak peek:

Grace and I know each other from having gone to the same high school. She's also a good friend of my sister's. I've always admired her scrapbooking work, and for those of you who don't know her, she's pretty up there amongst the 'celebrity scrappers'! LOL! But what I really love about her is her photography! It's been a longtime dream of mine to have a session with her, and that dream finally came true last weekend!

What I love about her photography is her ability to capture the details! As a fellow scrapper, she knows how important a stolen glance is as well as the decor in the room. For example, I didn't have to ask her if she could take pics of the beloved prints I had up in my sons' room (I loved the whimsical style- they reminded me of the innocence of childhood). And without being told, she was snapping away at my collection of earrings that were delicately hanging from a jewelry stand I have cherished since I first saw it in a magazine!

Anyway, I can't speak of her talent enough, but the qualities of her photography are through the roof! Am very excited to see the rest of the pics!!!

Long Time, No Talk!

2011-11-16T14:00:00.000-08:00

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Hi all! Long time, no talk!

Am still trying to find my groove in the blog world so pardon me if I'm late commenting on your posts! :)

But I have a couple of days off and am hoping to catch up!

I never posted a Sunday FlashBack this week so I'm posting this lay-out that I never showcased on my blog (I did on SIS TV).

It was from 2006, the first time my then-bf-now-hubby and I went to Hawaii. This was scanned ....pardon the line you see going across!

Most of the supplies used were from Love, Elsie (KI Memories). Hope you're having a great day! I'm hoping to craft tomorrow!

Tonight, I'm planning to see Breaking Dawn with some of my besties and we're also having an early Holiday get2gether! Anybody else watching the midnight showing?

Hugs,

Team Oliver vs. Team Josh.

2011-11-14T21:00:00.000-08:00

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*Please scroll down for my PWCO post!*

Hello, hello, hello!

It's time for another Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps Challenge (#68). Today marks the first week of this challenge, and I'm part of the first group to showcase it.

Since Twilight's Breaking Dawn will be coming out this week in theaters, we thought we'd do our own version of Team Edward versus Team Jacob. That is, it'll be Team Oliver vs. Team Josh.

You can use your imagination to do whatever you wish provided that you use an Oliver or a Josh image.

Please see the SCRS blog for more details! Here's my take:

I had quite a ball doing this challenge as I am a BIG Twilight fan! I chose images that look as close to the characters of Edward and Jacob as possible -- Valentine Oliver and Street Corner Josh. Valentine Oliver is romantic so I thought he'd be a perfect Edward, although Edward would never wear that kind of hat, LOL! And Street Corner Josh is kinda cool, just like Jacob. I tried coloring them like the characters as well.

Lastly, I added these sentiments I got from Unity Stamps. They're perfect, don't ya think?

For more inspiration, please visit the blog and other DTs for Team A (the first group to do the challenge):

Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps Store
Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps Blog
Alice Wertz
Corinne Mercado
Jen Shults, November Guest Designer
Kadie Ensley
Kim Yu
Shaela Odd

Hope you get to play along!!! And who's watching the movie at midnight on Friday??? I am!! :)

Missing Ewe.

2011-11-14T08:00:00.000-08:00

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Good Monday mornin' to all!

Did you know that the November PWCO Paper Card Kit is chock full of Christmas-themed goodies?!! For just $11.99, you get lots and lots of DP, CS, brads, and ribbons? The primary brand is Echo Park's Holly Jolly Christmas!

I wanted to make a card that was bright and cutesy as the line. The papers I used are quite similar to the kit's, although I think the kit's is even more adorable!!

I also wanted to show how versatile the Barnyard Buddies are. Shelly the Sheep here depicts missing someone special at Christmas. I'm sure we can all relate to having at least one friend or family member away during the Holidays.

As most of my cards are 6x6, I wanted to try something a little bit different. This card is measured 3x3. It's also more CAS (clean and simple), at least from 'my' definition :). Both were a challenge for me!

And le sigh... (French because PWCO is based in Canada, LOL!!!!!).

I am a natural light kind of gal. I love to take pictures of my cards during the day, using sunlight as my source of light. But now, if I want to make my deadlines, I have to be able to craft and take pics any time of the day. The above pic was taken with my camera and its flash, as well as the fluorescent bulbs up above. I think I do need one of those bright LED lamps though. Does anybody have a recommendation as to which lamp I should buy?

BTW, I apologize if the above pic is a bit blurry!

Supplies-
DP- Jillibean Soup.
Stamp- PWCO's Barnyard Buddies & Sentiment.

Hugs!

I Just Called To Say "I Love You"

2011-11-12T20:34:00.000-08:00

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I am a Glutton for Punishment.

Here's my card entry for the December Guest DT over at the TGF Facebook page. It didn't make it but it was fun participating anyway.

Used Cheeky Chat as I haven't inked her up yet.

Ever been on a long-distanced relationship? My first two were. This card makes me wanna sing, "I just called to say I love You...." :)

Supplies Used:

CS- Bazzill. Neenah Solar White.
DP- Pink Paislee (house scene). American Crafts (city scene). Studio Calico tag (top part with lamp).
Sticker Sentiment- Bella Blvd.
Stickers- Echo Park (guy).
Rub-Ons- Love, Elsie (hearts, couch).

Eleven Eleven Eleven (at) Eleven Eleven.

2011-11-11T13:03:00.001-08:00

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Decided to play at Dear Lizzy's 11 11 11 @ 11:11 challenge:

I ran around the house like a mad woman!!! :)

I was on the computer and Mattie was nearby.

Ran to the family room where the babe was happily cooing to himself!

It's a dreary, rainy day.

My current project on the craft desk.

Eleven. Eleven. Eleven. at eleven:eleven.

November SCRS Karber Release

2011-11-10T21:00:00.000-08:00

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Hello everyone!!

It's Release Day over at Sparkle Creations, and I've got the newest clear stamps set from Karber to show you!!!

Oh, she is my favorite Karber yet!!! I just love Hawaii... it holds such a special place in my heart!

You get all five stamps shown (Karber Millie, sentiment, sun, pineapple, butterfly) plus a hibuscus flower image and another sentiment! Such a great deal!

I went all out and went 'cuteness overboard'!!! I think I may have just made up a term...I'll call it C.O.! :)

And you know what's even cooler? Some of the supplies were even bought in Hawaii!! The DP with the sunset and the rikrak. WoWoWoW! I bought said items three years ago during our honeymoon in Maui. I forgot the name of the scrapbook store though.

Be sure to visit all rest of the SCRS designers for more peeks of Karber Hawaii Kawaii Millie. Sparkle will be giving away Karber Hawaii Kawaii Millie to one lucky person! For a chance to win, you need to comment on all of the designer's blogs (list below). Then head on over to the SCRS blog and comment on the Karber post. You have until midnight EST each day to comment. The lucky winner will be announced the following day!

Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps Store
Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps Blog
Corinne Mercado
Kadie Ensley
Margie Cortina
Mary Johnson
Peggy Toole, Sponsorship Coordinator
Suzanne Bier, Newsletter Coordinator

Supplies:
CS- Bazzill Kraft. Neenah Solar White.
DP- Imaginisce (penguins). Wubie Prints (sunset). Misc (green).
Buri Tie RikRak- Makana's.
Stickers- Jolee's Boutique.
Sketch Used- The Deconstructed Sketch # 26

And this month's sale:

By the way, if you didn't know, "Mahalo" means "Thank You" in Hawaiian!

Mahalo for visiting :),

Nostalgic Momma.

2011-11-09T21:30:00.000-08:00

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Hi everyone!

So, whenever I finish coloring up my SOG stamps, I just swooooooon!!! I get happy with my other stamps too but with Some Odd Girl-ies, it happens every time!

They just make me smile, and I just love, love, love them!!!

And so I am trying out (yet again) for SOG's Guest DT call . Cross your fingers and wish me luck!!! :)

I colored up Momma Mae black and white because I've been on a nostalgic mood lately. Call it hormones or that I'm sentimental because I started working again. But I kinda miss being 'just a mommy' (such an important role).

The DP are from Basic Grey, and those cool laser-cut embellies are from Karen-Marie. They are pretty old but still such a wonderful treasure I found when I was cleaning out the ole craft room!

Have a wonderful one!!

My Little Piece of Heaven

2011-11-08T21:00:00.000-08:00

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After 10+ years of crafting outta those big tupperware storage boxes, I have my very own craft room!!!!

Granted, one corner will be my hubby's office and we're also trying to fit in a mini-home gym in there, but isn't she a beaut???

It's near the front of the house, so I wanted more of a clean look and not so much a scrapbooking room. Of course, I don't think the paper rack is helping much, haha! So that's why I got those white boxes to make them look more uniform.

The big shelf/ table combo is from Ikea. I like how during the daytime, I could put a chair and face out the window and then be able to switch it to the other side at night (maybe put a TV in there somewhere?).

My favorite parts are the two rolling cabinets in the corner. They fit a lot of paper. Most of my design paper are 12 x 12, and they're perfect for them! I sometimes put together a card or lay-out without actually adhering the elements down. I like how I could just open up one of the cabinets and slide them in to finish later on. In those cabinets, I sort my DP either by brand (Basic Grey, Hambly) or by theme (nature, baby/kids).

The supplies I have the most of are papers and embellishments. I'll get back to the embellies later. Here are the other storage places -- the rolling rack of folders and the paper rack (mostly cardstock). And you see the rectangular light green boxes with the oval windows? Those are where my Studio Calico kits or Taylored Expressions kits go. I don't think I'll be disassembling them anytime soon.

The white bins are labeled but things are just kind of thrown in there. I do like the look of apothecary so if I find nice clear bottles/ vases, I may throw in some of my ribbons or buttons in there.

Here's an example of what it looks like inside... these are my tins full of brads/ eyelets. I also have beads and paperclips.

Not quite done. I'd love to buy another cabinet or shelf for the middle part where the green seats are. In the above pic with Mattie, there's a kiddie table made out of cardboard that I'd love to incorporate so my sons can craft with me. :)

I still need to put up a bulletin board and my inspirational pics too. Maybe a rug and some curtains. And if you noticed the little white shelves hold no Copics.

That's because I put them in these little portable containers and lug them whichever room I'm in (usually the family room or kitchen). I ended up buying the new portable bag at the Copics website, and am very excited to get it!

So there it is... it took my so long to clean and sort stuff out. I'd love to see your craft room too!!!

Tata!!!

Super Quick...

2011-11-07T22:05:00.000-08:00

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Hello, hello, hello!

I'm back with a super quick card made up of some old scraps. It features the mini-version of Birthday Tilda. She was super quick to color! I'm entering this for the Birthday Sundaes # 34 (birthday card with birthday wording on front).

The sentiment is from Paper Smooches, and I had to line up some of the letters with my white Inkssentials pen so that they'd show up. Pretty cool effect though, if you ask me, LOL!

Sorry for such a short post! I'll be back tomorrow to show you my new craft room! :)

PWCO's Sweet November

2011-11-07T08:00:00.000-08:00

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Good Monday morning, everybody!

For the month of November, it's my turn to showcase Paper Works Company's Paper Card Kit, and I'm excited because it's my favorite part of my Design Term there. I just LOOOOVE seeing what I can create with supplies given to me!

Unfortunately, I was not able to receive it on time so I just made a random card for today's post. Stay tuned for the following Mondays though, I hear this month's kit is so lovely for the season *wink wink.*

If you've never bought PWCO's Paper Card Kit, I'm telling you are missing out! It comes with so many fun papers and embellishments. I bought one a couple of months ago and it lasted me through a lot of projects and cards. And all for such a great price!

Anyway, here is my card for today:

Doesn't it just make you long for some hot days? It just started getting cold here in California. It's definitely Fall Season now!

I used the oh-so-cute Aqua Amigos stamps and sentiment. For the DP, I used October Afternoon. The chipboard strip is from Recollections.

Have a great Monday! See you next week!

Mini-Album FlashBack

2011-11-06T10:08:00.000-08:00

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Happy Sunday, everyone!!

Sorry I've been MIA. It had been my last full week before getting off Maternity Leave, and I've been busy running errands, cleaning, and spending extra time with the kiddies. Hope you still all visit even though I won't have a daily post.

My goal would be to post 3-4 times a week, I think it's pretty do-able for a full-time working mom of two! Luckily, my job allows my working long hours in just three days of the week. I'm looking forward to learning how to balance it all, but in the meantime, I gotta be realistic and prioritize! So no more extra projects for awhile, but I'll be doing my posts for my amazing Design Teams. BTW, I have some more wonderful news but gotta tell you about that at a later time ;)....

Anyway, it's Sunday FlashBack time, and for those of you who are new here, it's when I get to post an older project. Those of you who have been crafting longer than you've been blogging could relate, huh?

I never got to post this mini-album I did out of transparencies here. I was inspired by what Ali Edwards did. Sorry I wasn't able to find the exact post though. But she did an absolutely amazing album on transparencies bounded by a ring. Here's my take on it using pics from my 2006 birthday. Oh my, that was five years ago!

What I love about posting old projects is seeing how much "my style" has changed over the years. But how some things still stay the same, like my love for using lots of embellishments!

I'd love to see your FlashBack projects. Make sure to leave me a link on your comment, I'd love to visit!

See you tomorrow!

thoughts and prayers.

2011-11-03T15:23:00.001-07:00

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As the last few days of my maternity leave are drawing near, I can't help but feel a bit sad.

But, nevertheless, I am very glad that October has passed.

It was a somber month... I came across many blog hops about tragic events among fellow crafters. The one that touched me the most was Katie's story.

Her tale hits home, I think it's because she also has sons. The first night I came across her blog, I couldn't sleep and just cried for her. It's not much, but I've donated to her cause. And am planning on making a card for her and her family. But right now, I just can't get myself to get started. If you haven't already, you should visit her blog. It's a true testament of how much this crafty blog world supports each other.

I also just came across this:

One of my colleague's mother also passed away last month of breast cancer. How bittersweet that October was Breast Cancer Awareness month. It had been a tough, long battle and I'm praying for my friend and her mom and family.

Lastly, one of our dear friends lost his father from complications of a stroke he endured some months ago. I've never met his dad but saw pictures of this tall, smiling man, whose presence in the pictures always stood out.

Sympathy cards have always been a challenge for me. I feel that most of my stamps are smiley and happy and not really appropriate. I tend to use butterflies, but I wanted more of a masculine feel. When I was cleaning out my stamps bin, I came across this old set that I never used from Sassafras called Oliver and Friends.

The huge, almost boisterous silver owl is my friend's father and he's looking down at his family from Heaven. I thought the leaves represented the season. And that because they are falling around this time, they depict life and death.

The patterned papers are from Scenic Route and the ribbon is from my stash. The CS is from Neenah, and the ink is from Memento. The images are colored with Copics. The sentiment is from Paper Smooches.

Hug your loved ones, everybody! I'm sorry if this was such a sad post.

My Craft Room ReDo Blog Candy (Update: NOW CLOSE!)

2011-11-01T23:15:00.000-07:00

(this blog candy is now closed!)

Hi everyone,

As I'm organizing my craft room, I'm coming across:

1. duplicate items
2. things that I've never used and would be better off in another home
3. stamps specifically obtained for a blog candy giveaway! :)

A few of the items have a sticker missing here and there but still very much in great condition. All of the stamps are new except the Stampin' Up ones (the wood-mounted ones in the clear cases). They each have been gently used one time.

Here's a pic of just the stamps.

My Craft-ReDo blog candy features items from (just to name a few):

1. Love, Elsie.
2. Dear Lizzy.
3. Paper Works Co.
4. TGF.
5. Paper Smooches.
6. Taylored Expressions.
7. Label Tulip.
8. Maya Road.
9. Basic Grey.
10. Stickles.

How to win:

1. Become a follower (if you are not already!) via Google Reader, Feed Burner, or Google Friend Connect (see right side bar & scroll down!) and leave a comment on this post telling me that you've done so...

2. For an additional entry, blog about my blog candy and link it back here (with your blog entry linking back to mine) using the InLinkz collection below.

I'll add the number of people from # 1 & # 2 from above and pick a random number. I am willing to ship anywhere! But again, the discretion is that a few of the items are used but all are in great condition.

I'm still not done cleaning up the craft room so I'll probably add even more items (And I'm very generous, LOL!).

Thanks so much for reading this/ visiting. When I started this blog in 2007, there were only two people who constantly followed and commented. It was kinda discouraging but I was grateful for them & just fell in love with documenting about my craft. But I really longed for more blog friends and comments.

Fast forward to 2009 and I added stamping to my scrapbooking site and met a lot of wonderful friends. I'd love to meet more people, see more inspiration, and get more feedback! And I hope to keep things interesting around here :).

This blog candy will be open until December 20th 12 AM PST or when I reach 175 followers, whichever comes first! And then I will be mailing it out around the 26th (don't wanna compete with the Holiday crowd).

Toodles,

P.S. This Candy is now closed!

SCRSC's White on White

2011-10-31T21:00:00.000-07:00

Good morning, everyone!

It's Tuesday, and it's time for another Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps Challenge! SCRSC # 67 is a White on White Challenge.

My interpretation of that challenge is an image that is not colorful on a card that is purely white. I came up with this:

I colored up Karber Fairy in black and white. I think an all white card would be even more dramatic when the image is mono or dual-toned.

I'm entering this for Some Odd Girl's B&W Colored Image Challenge. And although expired, I followed Card Patterns Sketch 138

Doesn't Karber Fairy look phenomenal in just mode? Because this card is monochromatic in color, I had to create interest with textures. The CS is from Bazzill and Neenah. The butterflies and punch are from Martha Stewart. The curved flap DP is from Love Elsie. The ribbon with clear sentiment and crochet flowers were from a blog candy that I won from Stephanie - I think they were from Gauche Alchemy.

Please stop by the other DTs' blogs for more examples and inspiration. This month, we are switching to bi-monthly challenges - half of the DT members will show you their creations the first week, and the second half will show theirs the next. That also means that you have almost two weeks to play!

For the month of November, let's welcome our Guest DT: the oh-so-talented Jen Shults!

Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps Store
Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps Blog
Alice Wertz
Corinne Mercado <-- You are Here!
Kadie Ensley
Kim Yu
Shaela Odd
Jen Shults (November Guest Designer)

Remember that you must use a Sparkle Creations image to qualify! Please see the blog for more details!

And the November Featured Character is Rin (I just love her name, LOL!). All Rin stamps will be 15% off for a portion of the month. More details to come!

Sparkle will also be having a Black Friday sale (banner and more details coming)!!

Tata!

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T00:00:00.000-07:00

It's officially HALLOWEEN!!!!

Since I've already shown you pics of my kiddies and my Halloween creations, thought I'd show you a pic of my sister's Halloween costume. Isn't it soo creative??

She's a deer that's mounted on the wall!!! Hilarious!!! But also kinda sad! And the best thing is she made it! From the antlers down to doing her own make-up! My sissy is a genius, I tell ya!

'Stinky' is one of her nicknames. :) And her expression? Why, a deer caught in the headlights of course!! Buwahahahahaha!!!

And since it's Halloween, I wanted to share with you an old creation of mine - it was done about four or five years ago. We had a costume party for my DH's birthday and I made a mini-album. Visit it here!

Sunday Flashback - tribute to my hubby

2011-10-30T06:00:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone!

Just wanted to pop in and say Happy Birthday to my DH! Here's a LO from around 2006-2007.

We are on a mini fam getaway to celebrate this and one last hurrah before I go back to work.

Of course, what it says up there isn't entirely true. I know my way around a computer now! :). In fact, I'm typing up the rest of this post on my phone. Sorry, no links though!

XO!

PS. Love me some BamPop and the tag is from Creative Imagination Project (I think that's what it's called- sadly, they went out of business!). I believe the supplies are from a scrapbooking kit from Story of My Life.

PWCO October Releases Blog Hop

2011-10-29T09:00:00.000-07:00

Good Saturday morning, everyone!! And welcome to PWCO's October Release Blog Hop!!

If you came from the PWCO blog, then you're at the right spot! You are here on the letter R post!! :)

Because Peggy hasn't had a release in so long, she decided to have a massive stamp release. So I don't just have one project to show you. Not two... not three...but FOUR!!

The first two cards are of Rocky the Raccoon and Foxy the Fox of the Forest Critters & Sentiments sets.

Remember Rocky the Raccoon from my sneak peek?? :) Isn't he just the cutest? I loved coloring him and I think that sentiment is just adorable! I also used the PWCO Sketch # 101! This card is also the only one that does not have a scene. (Y'all know how much I love to do scenic cards!).

This creation features the sneaky Foxy! This would qualify as my CAS card as it was pretty fast and simple to make. I just used kraft paper and added stickers from Making Memories. I loved coloring her as well and showing the texture of her fur.

And what was very cool was Peggy had asked us for sentiment ideas on these stamps. I remember helping with this one and the last one below! AWESOME!

The next two cards now show the Barnyard Buddies and sentiments. They remind me of when we used to visit my grandparents' farm in the Philippines. I remember picking fresh eggs from the barn, and helping milk the animals :).

Here's Harry the Horse eating some breakfast before working hard in the farm. I really liked the sentiment on the sticker so that is what I included. Pardon that the scaling of the rooster is way off...it's huge!

And lastly, here's Patti the Pig entertaining Mr. & Mrs. Duck in his pen. The ducks don't seem to mind the mud, in fact, two of the other birdies wanna join in on the fun!

Hope you guys are enjoying the blog hop fun too!!! And because the blog hop is SOOO BIG, there'll be big prizes as well!

One random commenter from all the blogs will be picked to win the Forest Critters and sentiments. And another commenter will be picked to win the Barnyard Buddies and sentiments. Plus, collect all the letters from each of the blogs for the discount code for 10% off your entire order (including sale items!!!!) - this will be valid until November 5th, 11:59 PM MST.

Remember that my letter is R :).

In case you lose your way, here's the blog hop order:

PWCO Blog (kick off)
Corinne <-- You are here!
Tanya
Janet
Danielle
Alice
Steph
Peggy
PWCO Blog (Wheelin’ & Dealin’)

Rocky the Raccoon's supplies:
CS- Bazzill. Neenah.
DP- Basic Grey (forest, border around pic/sentiment). Scenic Route (leaves).
Stickers- American Crafts.
Ribbon- Martha Stewart.
Misc.- Button. Copics.

Foxy the Fox's supplies:
CS- Bazzill. Neenah. Kraft.
Stickers- Making Memories.
Misc.- DP behind sentiment. Copics. Memento Ink.

Harry the Horse's supplies:
CS- Bazzill. Neenah.
DP- Jillibean Soup (corn stalks).
Stickers- (tractor, sheep, sentiment). Jolee's Boutique (barn, hay).
Twine, Punch- Martha Stewart.
Misc.- Copics. Memento Ink.

Patti the Pig's supplies:
CS- Bazzill. Neenah.
DP- DSWV (sky, grass). Love Elsie from KI Memories (mud).
Transparency- Hambly.
Stickers- October Afternoon.
Misc.- Copics. Memento Ink. Colorbok ink.

Toodles!

Reflections and Puddles.

2011-10-28T08:00:00.000-07:00

Hello, hello, hello!

It's Friday and it's Recipe Challenge time at PaperWorks Company. This week, it's "Rain drops keep falling on my head" -- have puddles/ rain and something reflective.

Man, this stumped me for a while. The easiest solution would've been to use this stamp but I like to torture, errr, challenge myself sometimes. Because I'm such a glutton for punishment, I didn't want to use a stamp I've already used a lot.

I colored up Abigail C - Spring Blooms and altered her a little. I added water drops from the watering can and colored in a small puddle underneath the plants. There's that 'puddle/ rain' part of the challenge.

For the 'reflection,' I thought about paper piercing the watering can to make it look metal and reflective. I stickled it instead because I found these mirror embellishments from a company called Home Deco. It kinda looks like a flower, a water splatter, and a star combined.

The other part that was hard for me was finding a sentiment/ quote that was appropriate for the card. I don't have a lot of sentiment stamps so I like to hand-write sometimes. I found this quote and thought it was quite fitting.

"I'm an instant star.
Just add water and stir."
-- by David Bowie.

I apologize - I've lost my supply list for this card and the many more I've made for tomorrow's post :(. I hope to locate it soon and add it here! Make sure you come back tomorrow for the PWCO October Release Blog Hop!

More Chocolate Wrappers.

2011-10-27T00:00:00.000-07:00

Ok, I'm cheating again.

And i'm not talking about my diet (what diet?).

Or, God forbid, my husband... (OMG, LOL!)

I'm talking about yet another blog post on a previous creation. Actually, these were originally cards that were tweaked a little to become chocolate bar holders. I didn't have time to make new ones for the rest of the preschool staff, so I just made do with the cards from last year. I changed a bit of their skin and hair coloring to match the ladies' looks.

Here are links for the original cards -- the Twisted Sisters are in order from left to right:

Twisted Sister Larkspur

Twisted Sister Azalea

Twisted Sister Calladium

I've got newer cards to show you later. Just trying to catch up and get ahead of my DT assignments. Before you know it, I'll be back to my full time job. *sighs*

Have a great day!

You Gotta Have Hope.

2011-10-25T14:30:00.000-07:00

**PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR MY SPARKLE CREATIONS RUBBER STAMPS CHALLENGE # 66.****

Hi all! Yet another post from me today. Didn't want to miss a couple of deadlines for these challenges I made cards for.

This card is both for Flutter By Wednesday # 176 (open) and Deconstructed Sketch # 24.

I used my new stamp Hope from SCACD. Isn't she precious? I made this card for a lovely co-worker's birthday. I wanted to leave her hair white with just touches of color as shown by one of Amy's vids at Color Me Copic. But I just couldn't help myself and kinda went overboard :). I still like the result though, lol!

I used my stash again - Scenic Route for the main paper, Kodomo Inc for the colorful strips. The sentiment is from Paper Smooches, and the butterflies are misc items.

Talk to you soon,

SCRSC # 66

2011-10-24T21:00:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone, and welcome to SCRSC # 66. Our challenge for this week is no coloring!

I did some paper piercing and just stamping with my regular black ink. I also wanted to mix up vintage and cutesy again :). I used Karber's Reading Millie and for the papers, I used Graphic 45. That strip of the plain alpha paper is actually from a real school book. And the memo tag is from Creative Imaginations Project (too bad they went out of business). The twine is from Martha Stewart and the brads are from Making Memories.

Hope you all get to play along! I had to think really hard about what I'd do for this - it's refreshing to challenge yourself once in a while! LOL!

Remember, you have to use a Sparkle Creations image on your project! Please see the blog for more information.

For more inspiration, pls hop on over to each of the DT's blogs!

Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps Store
Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps Blog
Alice Wertz
Amy Tsuruta (October Guest DT)
Corinne Mercado <--You are here!
Kadie Ensley
Kim Yu
Margie Cortina
Mary Johnson
Shaela Odd
Simonne Clay
Sparkle Smith
Stephanie Kraft

Tootaloo!!

Innocence of Childhood

2011-10-23T00:30:00.000-07:00

*sings (again) It's just another Manic Monday, oh-wo-oh. I wish it was Sunday. Cuz that's my fun day!****

Any of you watch The Sing-Off? I've been on an 80's kick ever since they did the guilty pleasures episodes last week. I've been seeing "I Wanna Dance with Somebody" and that Flashdance song all weekend! My sons and hubby are sick of 'em, he he!

Well, am sad to say that I didn't get any crafting done this weekend (boo). It's such a therapeutic thing for me to do. I really enjoy my ME time, like most of you could relate. It's my escape from the daily grind of life. I really needed it this weekend because there were lots of drama (uggh). But I won't get into that here...no need for extra negativity.

I did, however, get lots of cleaning and purging done in my craft room. For those of you who didn't know, we moved into this house over a year ago but I'm only getting to my craft room this month. I'm actually very excited because we got new furniture for it. I've been scrapping/ crafting for over a decade and it's my first time having a room dedicated to my hobby. I've always managed to just live out of those giant tupperware bins & craft wherever it's convenient, be it our coffee table or the couch.

Anyway, I found lots of stuff to throw away, get excited about, and donate. I'll be donating a lot to the play room at work -- I work at a hospital and there's a room specifically for kids to play and make art projects in. I also put aside a lot of stuff for a future blog candy -- things I never used, got duplicates of, or "vintage" goodies (a.k.a. "older" stuff)that are just delicately used. Stay tuned!

I also got to take pics of lay-outs for my Sunday FlashBack projects. I'm cheating here and posting about one now even though it's Monday. I just love these pages and couldn't wait to share them again.

The little girl is one of my dearest friend M's daughter. I've watched her grow up, and she is such a darling little girl, beautiful on the inside as well as the outside. So talented and smart and funny like her mama. We had taken a trip to Lake Tahoe and got to stay at our friend's cabin.

What I love about this lay-out is how simple it is (compared to my usual style). I made use of negative space. I adore the pic of I's playing in the sand and water, such a tender moment of innocence and fun. I took these pics with a film camera (gasp! it had been four years ago!) and ordered the sepia tone for both a dramatic and subdued effect, does that make sense? LOL.

I got the supplies from a kit, although I don't remember which one. The papers are from Sassafras and I just really liked how I included a puka-shell necklace. The sequined border is awesome and the title was inspired from the movie that came out that year.

Here's another l.o. of I, this time very different although the papers are from the same line and brand. The touches of red in the B & W pics were cool, I thought. I really do miss taking pictures with film. Alice's blog really inspires me to do it again.

This page is a bit busier but still has the same effect, I thought. I am sure rocking that white pen, haha!

This post has gotten longer than I intended. Thanks for reading this far. One more thing I wanted to add... I have posted about these lay-outs before, but just didn't get to highlight them. They were shown with multiple cards and other pages -- thought I'd share again with a bit of explanation :).

If you are curious, here are the old posts (click for the first one and the second one).

See you back here tonight for this week's Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps Challenge.

Cheerio,

Sunday Flashbacks!

2011-10-23T00:10:00.000-07:00

Happy Sunday!

Welcome to Sunday Flashbacks! I changed it from Throwback Sundays since that term is already familiar at TGF.

Anyway, here, we get to share old projects from the past that were never showcased before. Either because it was before we started blogging or it just never had the chance to be in the spotlight. Hope you join me on Sundays!

What I love about this lay-out were the bright, strong colors, soft shadows, and feminine accessories. The same pic repeated four times made it look artsy, I thought. Plus, with the fabric and lines, well this l.o. is one of my faves of all times.

When I was in High School, I was one of the yearbook editors and our theme then was oxymoron - the book title was "Organized Chaos." Each section also had oxymorons.

"Timid, Yet Bold" isn't actually an oxymoron, it's not two opposing words that form a phrase when put together. But you get the jist? I feel like that's my personality (in '06 when I made this l.o., and now). I'm shy at first but once you get to know me, I can be quite loud and assertive :).

What could be bad about these Sunday Flashback projects is the fact that I never wrote down what supplies I used. So I'm sorry that I'm not able to list them down. I could tell you though that I upcycled two of the embellies here. One was a friendship bracelet (horizontal, near bottom) that my good friend PM gave me. And the other is that bracelet that spelled out my name -- one of my BFFs, M, had given it to me for my birthday.

Ok, now it's your turn! Hope you join in & link your older creations every Sunday. And everyone here, pls visit each other's blogs / projects. I'm working on a blog button soon!

PWCO Sneak Peek & Halloween Attire.

2011-10-22T08:00:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone! Hope you are all having a STELLAR Saturday morning!

I have no crafty post for today but I do have a sneak peek at the October Stamp Releases over at PaperWorks Co..

Since PWCO hasn't had a stamp release in some time, there will TWO collections coming at the end of October.

For the next week, each DT member will be showcasing a sneak peek of our creations. It's my turn today, and here it is:

If you want to follow along the sneaks, head over to the PWCO blog post to get the DT order and links.

On October 29th, the stamps will be released and we will have a special blog hop! Hope you join us! The new images are so very cute! My little tater tot loves them! :)

-----------------------------------------------------

And speaking of cute and tater tots. Here's a pic of MK and Oli with their friend, A, at a professional studio. They are Yoda, E-wok, and Princess Leia from Star Wars.

I really like dressing little kids up in themed costumes -- it's so much fun in pictures! Getting those photos taken though was a different matter. It was hard getting them all to face the same way. And smile at the same time?? Fuh-get-a-bout it!!

The little one was hot in his costume and therefore, cranky. We were fanning him and this was the end result: he fell ASLEEP!!!! And looks like the real Yoda! Too funny, he is! LOL!

I'll have more Halloween fun to show you later. My sister got on my case because I got them second costumes. I know, I know...for the past two years, MK always had two costumes already. But Oli's is too big and too hot and MK was actually scared of his and it was too big. In fact, I could'nt get him to put the head back on. The costumes were fairly cheap though so I don't feel so bad. And the other sets are also the same theme! ;) Still, I need to put some kind of costume swap with my friends for the next coming years. Oh, and I wish I could sew! That would totally bring on lots of uniqueness and creativity!

XOXO,

P.S. I'll also be dressing up. And I have two costumes (actually a wig and a head piece) too. I'll be coming to two different themed events and am very excited! And you know what's nice about being the only female in the household?? I get to be Princess Leia and I don't have to fight with anybody, LOL!

Recipe Challenge # 21

2011-10-21T08:00:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

It's Friday so that means it's Recipe Challenge # 21 over at PaperWorks Company!

Today's recipe is an inspiration photo.

I went with the following themes that I got from the pic:

1. colors.
2. flowers.
3. girly.
4. retro/ vintage.

And here's my card:

I did some altering with my stamped images. Girl # 1 was Abby Easter from PWCO's A Day In The Life of Abigail C.

I simply wiped away the ink from the bunny and eggs in the basket with a baby wipe before stamping (a trick I learned from Amy). So, instead I created a new scene where she's pushing the girl on the swing! Girl # 2 was Spring Swing and was not altered. I drew in flowers with my Copic multiliner in the basket.

I stuck pretty much with different shades of the two main colors. And then added the black as the accent color, which is the same on the pillow. The orange made it look Autumn-ish so I kept the grass that color :).

And did you notice that I had gone over the line at the second Abby's bandanna? Usually, I run over any smidgen of ink with my Colorless blender. But this time, I think it didn't work because I used to much, and it kept smearing the ink inside the black line. I kept on putting it on, waiting, then trying it again so much that I almost poked through the paper!! Goshdarnnit!

Supplies:
Stamps- PWCO's A Day in the Life of Abigail C (Spring Swing + altered Abby Easter).
CS- American Crafts. Neenah.
DP- Crate Paper (polka dot & strip at bottom). Echo Park's Happy Days (Flowers). Fiskar's Heidi Grace Designs (border around image).
Sentiment- Paper Smooches.
Punch- Martha Stewart.
Other- Copics. Memento ink (stamped images). Colorbok (sentiment).

Hope you all have a great weekend! TGIF! I am hoping to finish most of the craftroom organization!!!!

It's a bird, it's a plane...

2011-10-20T00:00:00.000-07:00

Hello, hello! Can't believe it's Thursday already! This week went by super fast!

So fast that I forgot to post this earlier to make it in time for The Deconstructed Sketch # 23. I was three hours late :(.

I really liked how this Edwin Wants a Hug image from Magnolia turned out.

I was excited to make a card with him. But am not really happy with the finished card. Maybe it was because there were too many straight lines mixed along with the curved ones. Or it could be because of the sentiment not panning out right.

Anyway, I used more of my stash. It feels great to use up old stuff :).

Supplies:

CS- Bazzill. Neenah.
DP- Basic Grey (blue graphic). Bam Pop (horizontal stripes). DCWV (brown checks).
Stickers- Cosmo Cricket's Joy Ride.
Sentiment- individual letter stamps from Studio G.
Inks- Memento. Copics.

Have a stellar day!

XOXO

2011-10-18T23:00:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone!

Hope you're all doing well this Wednesday morning!

One of the perks about cleaning out the craft room is finding old supplies. I found some "vintage" goodies, y'all! Basic Grey's Perhaps from 2007. It is retired so I will be using it till the last scrap! :)

Lovin' the beautiful lines and romantic vibe! Paired them with Miss Anya Bags from TGF.

I just adore the rosy shades of her dress and purse. They remind me of my favorite color in the fourth grade (my most treasured stuffed bear was the color of the darker part). And also of my favorite lipstick color in high school (the lighter shade). Funny how specific colors trigger memories! :)

I also used dear Margie's awesome sketch from the first ever Monday Funday Challenge over at Farm Fresh.

Everything here is Basic Grey Perhaps except for the CS (Neenah, Bazzill), pearls (Queen & Co.), and ribbon.

XOXO,

SCRSC 65 and Card Patterns Sketch 137

2011-10-17T21:00:00.000-07:00

Hello, hello! And welcome to another Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps Challenge.

It's SCRSC 65 and it's a photo inspiration:

The first thing that came to mind were the colors. They're sort of monotonous, except for the dark gold/brown/amber. And I decided not to go for the Fall theme as my cards lately have been depicting a lot of Autumn goodness already.

It was a bit of a challenge to do similar colors but have the papers stand out at the same time. So I made a lot of borders. I used Cocktail Emily because of the glass element. The lemon signifies the food entity in the pic, and the sentiment (night) reflects the candlelight.

Doesn't Emily look like she's ready to have some fun? The paper behind her was misted and the hidden design made it look like a dance floor, don't ya think? (more info on technique on this post). And the handwriting on the papers? Well, it's poetic and romantic because you never know who you're gonna meet when you're out with the girls, am I right?? :)

Just remind me to please never mix silver and brown again on a dress....eeeeeks!! LOL!

SCRS is also the current sponsor at Card Patterns, and I wanted to participate. It's my first time, but it won't be my last. They have really great sketches!

Hope y'all get to play along! For more details, pls head over to the SCRS Blog. And for more inspiration, visit the other DT blogs:

Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps Store
Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps Blog
Alice Wertz
Amy Tsuruta (October Guest DT)
Corinne Mercado <--- You are here! Kadie Ensley
Kim Yu
Margie Cortina
Mary Johnson
Piali Biswas
Shaela Odd
Simonne Clay
Sparkle Smith
Stephanie Kraft

Supplies-
Stamp- Cocktail Emily from SCRS.
CS- Bazzill. Neenah.
DP- Hambly (top and bottom border). Prima.
Flower Sticker- Pebbles Inc.
Tag Sticker- October Afternoon.
Pearls- Queen & Co.
Sentiment- cut-out from Maya Road tag.
Ribbon - misc.
Inks- Copics Sketch. Mr. Huey's mist (on DP). Colorbok (edges).

Toodles,

Blonde Twisted Sister

2011-10-17T00:00:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone!

Hope you're not yet tired of seeing my Twisted Sisters projects. :)

When I color my images, I try to make them look like the recipient. Do you do the same? Here's one of MK's main preschool teachers.

Here's a different take on TS Oleander, this time with blonde hair.

All of the supplies except for the CS, twine, and pearls are from Reminisce. Sorry to cut so short. Got a busy day today! But I'll see you tonight - 9 pm PST for another post!

Hugs,

ThrowBack Projects.

2011-10-16T00:00:00.000-07:00

The craft room organization is coming along. I'm hoping that in three weeks time, I'll be done.

I discovered something good though. If you're like me and you've been crafting longer than you've been blogging, you probably have lots of projects that haven't been posted in your blog. I used to belong to Scrap In Style TV (SIS TV), anyone remember that? It was where I would post my scrapbook lay-outs and get feedback or enter challenges. I was really saddened when it went away.

So if a lay-out is cute and the style is still relevant or there's something in that project that is show-worthy or meaningful, I'll blog about it. I hope that you'll join in too.

I think I will pick one day a week (not sure yet if it'll be on Sundays) and post a throw-back lay-out or project here. i'll make up a blog button and maybe even do a Mr. Linky if there's enough traffic. For now, please make a comment telling me you've got a throwback post too and I'll be sure to visit!

So for my first throw-back l.o., here's a page featuring my sister, cousins and nieces/ nephew.

What I like about this page are the paisleys. I also liked the negative space here. And I am in love with those crochet flowers and plastic leaves. Those used to be from a necklace I bought from It's Your Life on Etsy. A few months after purchase, I grew out of its style so I upcycled it and used them as embellies.

This l.o. was from 2006. Five years ago, I still like to cut out elements from designer paper to create a 'different look.' But I must admit, when I make cards, I tend to always cover the background and not create negative spaces. I need to do that more often. It forms a striking result.

Now what I can't do about these old lay-outs is give you a supply list. Sorry, but I hardly ever kept track of what brands I used back then.

Anyway, I hope you join me in this weekly project. It's fun digging through old stuff :). I'm actually learning about my styles throughout the year and getting even more inspired!

Tata!

Twisted Sister Jessamine Returns!

2011-10-15T00:00:00.000-07:00

Good Saturday morning, everybody!

I hope you all have something nice and exciting planned for the weekend! If not, hope it involves some relaxation.

I've got another chocolate wrapper to show you of the Twisted Sisters from Amy's Sweet November line.

This time, it's Twisted Sister Jessamine. She reminds me of how some ladies would use Halloween as an excuse to dress up a bit sexier, LOL! He he he! Not me, of course, I have that natural sultriness already, Buwahahahahahah!!!!

But, yes, Jessamine is the 'hottest' one of the group. I paired her up with some Reminisce paper, Queen & Company pearls, and those buttons and button die-cut are from my stash. The twine is from Martha Stewart and the CS is from Bazzill.

Tata for now! I'm off to a fancy crab place tonight for one of my great friend's birthday dinner. See ya tomorrow!

You Float My Boat!

2011-10-14T08:00:00.000-07:00

Good Friday morning, everybody! I can't believe it's the middle of October! This month is just flying by!

This month, I am scheduled for the Recipe Challenges over at PaperWorks Company. It happens every Friday, and I'm really enjoying them. They make me really think about what I'm making. And I try to mix it up sometimes and not take the recipe so literally.

Anyway, it totally worked out. Because the recipe for today calls for "You Float My Boat." Basically anything that floats image, and include brads/eyelets and ribbons. Now, I don't have any PWCO stamps that float (this one is on my wish list though).

So I had to be really creative about this one. I had to go with the meaning behind the saying. "You float my boat" means "You turn me on." Tsk, tsk, a little risque over here but hey, we are all adults right?

So I went with romance. And this cutie, sweet, romantic bunny that's a Rachelle A Miller exclusive. I colored him with Copics, and I wanted some of that fur texture to show so I didn't blend in all the way. The rest is pretty simple. I added the ribbon and the brads on the left side.

Hope you all get to play along! Remember you don't have to use PWCO stamps! But we'd love to see them if you have them. And if you enter at least two of the challenges per month, you have a chance of winning two stamp singles!

Now, please hop (LOL) to my good and lovely friend, Tanya's blog to see her take on the challenge. Visit the PWCO blog for more info!

Supplies-
CS: Bazzill. Neenah.
Stamp: Some Bunny Loves You (PWCO/ RAM)
PP- Fancy Pants Design.
Brads- Making Memories.
Misc- Copics, Ribbon.

Have a great weekend everybody!

Twisted Sisters Return!

2011-10-13T00:00:00.000-07:00

I decided to make some Halloween goodies afterall. Now that my sonny-boy is going to pre-school, I'm going to be creating some small tokens of appreciation for his teacher, aides, and the secretary up front.

As I have been cleaning out and organizing my craft room, I'm realizing that there are pros and cons to this:

Pros-
1. I'm discovering older stamps and supplies.
2. I'm getting to know where everything is.
3. I won't be shopping any time soon.
4. It feels good to get rid of old stuff and even make a donation pile. (Maybe even a blog candy pile?).

Cons-
1. I feel so guilty because I have tons of supplies.
2. I won't be shopping any time soon. :)

For my project, I got these Godiva chocolate bars which are on sale this week at the local Target. I planned to use my Twisted Sisters stamps from Amy's Sweet November line over at All That Scraps.

About a year ago, I was a Sweet November Gal and I was so ecstatic (still am)! I had to re-read my post back in September '10.

So I had to pay homage to these sets of stamps again because it was truly an honor being able to help showcase them. For my first 'candy wrapper,' I chose my fave of the group, Twisted Sister Oleander.

How funny that she looks similar yet different as the first time I colored her. She looks super sweet here, even shy (and she looked kinda sassy at the other post). Oh, but she looks so adorable with her tattered bow and her striped tights and her batty wings.

I used Bazzill and Neenah for the Cardstock; Reminisce for all the other paper embellies; House of 3 (Pink Paislee) for the twine; the buttons were from my stash.

Ah, I'll be showing you some more of the other ones I did. I think these TS are perfect for their gifts. They are mostly young women and these stamps capture their youth yet are also sophisticated.

Thanks for visiting!

Vintage Baby Decor

2011-10-12T00:00:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

Happy Hump Day!

Thought I'd share some "decor detail" pics from my son's recent Christening.

Whenever there's a big event in our family, I always try to think of a theme. It's so much easier and more fun to plan a party that way. The last party we threw was a nautical one for my son's birthday - see this post here.

For the reception after the blessing, I wanted sort of a vintage baby theme.

I didn't have much time to execute all that I wanted. In fact, I only got to make one part of the party and that was the front of one of the favors. :(

But Baby Gardner came through. It's a website that sells vintage goodies for babes, and I had been smitten for a while with their stationary section.

I especially loved this baby carriage image.

Here are one of the favors - I ordered Baby Gardner's favor bags and filled with an assortment of blue and white candies. Tootsie Rolls, Bliss chocolate, Lifesaver mints. Because we couldn't buy as many favor bags as there were guests, we made other favors instead.

The smaller pic actually makes up a cupcake topper. At first, I thought I was going to make cupcakes but we decided on a cake instead.

My sister helped made these candy bar covers. I just love what she came up with for the back! Isn't it sooo cute & sweet?!!!

I used this to decorate one of the tables - vintage blocks (also from Baby Gardner).

And the Chinese restaurant where we held the reception was kind enough to make personalized fortune cookie messages as one of the other favors!

I'll include pics of the actual celebrant later.

SCRSC # 64 with Farmer Oliver.

2011-10-10T21:00:00.000-07:00

Hello peeps!

It is time for another Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps Challenge --- # 64. Today's challenge is a sketch:

And here's what I did:

I over-tilted a bit, and so Farmer Oliver looks like he's gonna tip over... LOL! Doesn't it look like a great day at the farm? The sky is blue and there are lots of fluffy clouds. The grass is green and the crop is abundant :). He just has to watch out for those darn crows!!

I hadn't been lucky with the clouds before. Amy had blogged about a tutorial on how to do this, but my clouds never even looked like 1/10th of hers, LOL. I'd used Tim Holtz distressed ink like recommended but I think I have a very heavy hand because they never looked right. I think it's also because I didn't have the correct type of sponge. For this card, I used a metallic rub-on tint and it worked much better. (I also did it with a paper towel).

Hope you all play along! You must use a Sparkle Creations image, and upload to the SCRS Photo Gallery. The deadline is October 16th at 9 pm PST. The winner will be picked randomnly and get a free stamp!

For more inspiration, please visit the DT's blogs:

Alice Wertz
Amy Tsuruta (October Guest DT)
Corinne Mercado <--- You are here!
Kadie Ensley
Kim Yu
Margie Cortina
Mary Johnson
Piali Biswas
Shaela Odd
Simonne Clay
Sparkle Smith
Stephanie Kraft
Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps Store
Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps Blog

Supplies Used:
Stamp- Farmer Oliver
CS- Bazzill. Neenah Solar White.
PP- DCWV (Autumn Splendor).
Stickers- American Crafts.
Misc.- Copics Sketch markers. Memento Ink.

Toot-a-loo!

CAS Hello Kitty

2011-10-10T10:00:00.000-07:00

Good Monday morning, everyone!

Just a quick post from me right now...another CAS card. This time featuring my most favorite cartoon character ever: HELLO KITTY! She's from PSA essentials, and the stickers are from Fancy Pants Design.

This card also for the Deconstructed Sketch No. 21. And I think I mentioned before how HK is about an inch here. She's actually smaller! About 3/4 of an inch!

For all of you on the Pacific side of the country, I'll be back tonight with another card. Otherwise, I'll see you here tomorrow! (difference in time zone for my blog post :)).

Have a blessed day!

Sweet Ice Cream.

2011-10-09T00:00:00.000-07:00

Good Sunday mornin' to ya, folks!

Today, I've got another card featuring the new Karber - You Are So Sweet acrylic stamp set from Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps. This time, I made a card outta the two other images from that set -- the ice cream cone and the popsicle. These new stamps are just so adorable!

From the looks of this card, it seems that I am holding on to Summer. That is true, my friends. Although I look forward to the crispness in the air and the upcoming holidays, it'll also mean the ends of:

1) flip-flops on my feet,
2) my stint as a SAHM (maternity leave will soon be over....boo),
3) and warm weather.

This time, my style is back to cutesy with the bright Copic colors and Echo Park papers. I used the Deconstructed Sketch No. 22. Boy, that triangle was tricky...but I just lined up my cone and I think it works!

I added a pearl liner by Viva to their eyes, and used a Martha Stewart punch. The sentiment is hand-written, although now I am liking this less and less. Now, I want to actually stamp with sentiments, LOL!

Sorry to cut this short. It's a big day for our family today. I'll tell you why soon. And of course, I'll be posting some pictures. Thank you sooo much for visiting today and for leaving me some love ;).

XO,

My Clean & Simple Style.

2011-10-08T00:30:00.000-07:00

Good Saturday morning, everyone!

Hope you are all having a great weekend so far.

My BFF'ers asked me last year, "Do you think we'd be blog friends if we weren't already best friends?" And I was confused, "I said, of course!"

You see, we differ when it comes to our crafting styles (I tend to be ecclectic at times, she likes a cleaner approach). But that's what I love about the stamping world -- I am a follower of blogs in which our techniques are similar or blogs where the crafter mostly use die-cuts (& I've never own or used a Cricut or a Sizzix). I follow those who use the CAS (clean and simple) method and the ones who have a vintage aesthetic.

I find so much inspiration in ALL the blogs that I follow. And what I really admire about the stamping blog-o-sphere is that EVERYBODY is so friendly & nice. Everyone comments on everybody's blogs. From the most famous of them to the shy beginners!

Take it from me who have been scrapbooking for more than ten years and who was a scrapper before a cardmaker -- there's so much drama in the scrapping world, LOL! (But I am always gonna be a scrapper at heart and there are a lot of scrappers out there who are so kind as well and who I am always going to look up to).

Anyway, I have a point here. What was it again? (LOL!)

Oh yeah: Sometimes I get so inspired that I try to think outside my usual box and try a different style. My usual?? I love to layer, layer, layer and embellish, embellish, embellish. And I like to be different from everyone else, hence the ecclectic side comes through.

But lately, I have been drawn to the CAS style. Especially when I saw the winners of the Paper Smooches' SPARKS Design Team.

Their cards are so clean and crisp and neat and simple. I am totally not like that. My cards get inky. They tend to have lots of textures. And I am probably Joshua on Project Runway who needs to edit his work before sending his model down the runway, as Heidi Klum, Nina Garcia, and Michael Kors always say! (Although I'd rather be Anya :)).

So awhile back, I colored Bridal Mae from Some Odd Girl. I had big plans for her. I loved how she came out and knew right away that I wanted to make a card with a scene.

I had bought these Martha Stewart pom pom stickers when I was helping to decorate for this shower. Pom-poms are such a beautiful way to decorate - I often daydream about renewing my DH's and my vows and how our 'second wedding' would be, haha!

I was thinking about how to add a gorgeous 'wall' to my scene, possibly a vase with some flowers on a pedestal. But then, I had to urge to just simplify.

So then, I just drew in the 'strings' with a spica pen (I ran out of fish wire, which is what I use for the real pom-poms). And I added the 'floor' patterned paper (see below). Used a sentiment from Paper Smooches. And voila! Clean and Simple (at least for me!)

Pardon all the pics but I've been experimenting on how to take better pics/ angles of my cards since reading this article by Kristy.

This one depicts the card walking down the aisle...buwahahahahaha!!!

One last thing:

See this paper? When I bought it, it looked like the part on the bottom left. Cream with some writing and this embossed pattern that was the same color. When misted, however, it became that gorgeous top right part. The more mist you use, the darker it gets. I used Mr. Huey's mist in Cocoa. And sorry, but I'm not sure what this brand of paper is but it is gorgeous both ways!!

Thanks so much for reading this long post! Hugs to all of my crafty friends!

P.S. And remember when I was talking about how some stamp images remind me of people? This one reminds me of one of the doctors I worked with. I. AM. SO. WEIRD. But that's why y'all love me, right?? :)

PWCO recipe - Autumn table scape

2011-10-07T08:00:00.000-07:00

*** If you're looking for the SCRS preview on You Are So Sweet, please click HERE. ***

Hello for the second time today!

This time, it's my turn with our Recipe Challenges at PaperWorks Company. It's a photo inspiration:

I went with the color combinations, the clustering, and the Autumn theme of the picture. Here's my take on it:

I used Autumn Leaves from PWCO/ Rachelle Anne Miller. This stamp is super adorable. It was really fun to color and even add all those leaves in on the pile. It's perfect for the Fall Season.

For the month of October, play with us on at least two of our challenges for the month and you'll get a chance to win your choice of TWO PWCO RUBBER STAMPS! You don't even have to use a PWCO stamp on your cards, but if you do, you'll have another entry!

Here in California, we don't really have pronounced changes in our seasons (if you can even call them seasons). But some of the trees do turn red/ orange/ yellow here so I guess I shouldn't complain. I'm starting to like Autumn though. There's that crispness in the air, and I get to shop for some new clothes :). Maybe even a pair of boots?? Mmmm, and sipping some warm coffee or tea or pumpkin-flavored drink...

But this image reminds me of my niece and Godson in Maryland. Now there's a state with seasons! I remember seeing pictures of them in their backyard full of those same leaves! They just looked like they were having sooo much fun!

Card Supplies:
Stamp- Autumn Leaves from PWCO/RAM.
CS- Bazzill, Neenah Solar White.
PP- DCWV's Autumn Harvest.
Inks- Memento. Copics.
Stickers- American Craft.

Tata for now,

You Are So Sweet!

2011-10-06T21:00:00.000-07:00

Hi everybody! Welcome to the You Are So Sweet Karber preview for Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps.

Although starting with this release, the Karber stamps will be clear acrylic. You Are So Sweet also comes with four stamps and two sentiments! How cool is that?

For this card, I chose the main image, Leslie, and the cupcake. I can't get enough of this paper with the electric mixer from Lily Bee's Designs (Domestic Bliss). And then, I was pleasantly surprised to find this embossed KI Memories paper (Love Elsie)...aren't those cupcakes amazing? I enhanced them with metallic rub-on pigments from Craf-T products. The ribbons are from Crate Paper. Miscellaneous items are the pink ink, corner rounder, Copics, and pearls.

And if you look very closely, you'll see that Leslie's glasses are real!! Teehee! They have that reflective film due to Glossy Accents, a trick that the lovely Arabella has graciously taught me. Thanks chickie! (She designs for Karber digi and has been a wonderful inspiration!). My version wasn't quite as good as you can see: There are tiny air bubbles and I've gone past the lines even!

Be sure to visit all rest of the SCRS designers for more peeks of You are So Sweet. Sparkle will be giving away You are So Sweet to one lucky person! For a chance to win, you need to comment on all of the designer's blogs (list below). Then head on over to the SCRS blog and comment on the Leslie post. You have until midnight EST each day to comment. The lucky winner will be announced the following day!

Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps Store
Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps Blog
Corinne Mercado
Kadie Ensley
Margie Cortina
Mary Johnson
Peggy Toole, Sponsorship Coordinator
Piali Biswas
Suzanne Bier, Newsletter Coordinator

And don't forget that Lucy is the featured character for October!

Thanks so much for visiting!

Trick Or Treat.

2011-10-06T00:00:00.000-07:00

Hi all!

I wasn't going to make any Halloween cards this year. But upon going through my craft room, I came across my older stamps. Thought I'd give these TGF cuties some love.

This scene is for a scrapbook lay-out. I plan to use it for the pics taken this year so it's not quite done. I used American Crafts for the wonderfully beautiful and eerie black PP. The grass is from DCWV and Martha Stewart fringe scissors. The fence is from Just Cuz Paperworks and a MS punch. The house is from We R Memory Keepers. Misc are the star brads.

Here's what the whole page looks like:

Doesn't the Dracula look dead? Haha, I used Copics C0 and C00, and they left his skin a delicious grayish tone :).

My kiddies will be taking studio pics with their Halloween costumes on. It's another themed one like this pic. But not as elaborate. Still lots of fun though.

Toodles,

Oldie But Goodie

2011-10-05T00:00:00.000-07:00

Happy Wednesday, everyone!

Sadly, I only made it up to the second week of TGF's HeART Journaling project.

For that last week I completed (Week 2), I was inspired by a prior album I made in a class I took about 6 - 7 years ago. That class was taught by Traci Bautista, & to this date, I am still very much in love with this project.

I'm posting that album here now. My post is picture-heavy, and it was overcast so the pics aren't that great.

You're probably wondering why I'm blogging about it, since it was made such a long time ago. I've got several reasons:

1. I didn't have a blog back then.
2. I'd like to showcase it here in case I lose it or the kiddies tear it up.
3. I didn't have a card for today :).
4. I'm hoping to make another one like it someday and need your help.
5. It's nice to document what my style/ technique/ favorites for each year. (or era :)).

Here's the book with the cover down. I love that stitching down the side -- does anybody know what type of stitching that is? I'd like to google it / find it on you tube because I've forgotten how. I guess I could also ask Traci.

Here's the first page. The cover opens from the top up. The pages now open from the left side. I just loved how everything looked "free-style." We were taught to rip pages with unabandonment and sew without worrying about straight lines.

The second page has a pic of a Hawaiian orchid. This album holds pics of my friends' trip to Hawaii, back in 2002.

The third page has a pic from a lomography camera I used to have. I adored that thing. It gave me four different shots in succession on one print.

The fourth page is blank because I took the parts and pics out to add to my HeART Journal. But aren't the papers interesting? If you were a crafter/ scrapbooker back in the early to mid 2000s, did you remember how the popular papers look like this? Very tie-dyed like and fuzzy? :). And vellum was really common, too!

The fifth one has more lomography pics of the beach. Aren't those beads and string just breath-taking?

And this sixth one has my BFF on it. She was on that trip with me. Fun memories!

This seventh page featured one of the cool waterfalls of Hawaii. It was at a park, and there was a show with performers jumping from it.

The last page has pics from the Luau we attended at the Big Island. See the third pic of a wanna-be Hula dancer. Haha!

Thanks for visiting! As I clean out my craft room and organize my old projects, I'll be posting more of these oldies but goodies. Hope you don't mind!

SCRSC # 63 - (We Be' Clubbin!)

2011-10-03T21:00:00.000-07:00

Hi all! And welcome to my first Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps Challenge as a DT member! Today, we have a fun color combination for you - SCRS Challenge # 63.

The first thing that came to my mind was Halloween. But since I didn't have any SCRS stamps with that theme, I decided to go with my first ever stamp from Sparkle's store - Turntable Josh.

He is just groovin' away! I colored him with Copics and stamped him on Neenah Solar White CS. The orange PP is from DCWV's Autumn Harvest. The black with notes is from Graphic 45. The sentiment is a rub-on from Rhonna Farrer (by Autumn Leaves), and the record sticker is from Echo Park. The fun, reflective mesh with stars is from Gauche Alchemy.

For those of you who watched the last Jersey Shore episode where they had a clubbin' party at their place in Italy, this card totally reminds me of Pauly D. He's the DJ, and I heard he's pretty good! I was laughing during that part because there was this one time (not that! LOL!) in Arizona when my sis-in-law and friend had our own party at my SIL's house. We turned up the stereo and made our own flashing lights to simulate a club. So, so fun!!!

For more information on the challenge, please go to the SCRS blog. And don't forget October's featured stamp character:

Here's the list of the other DTs for more inspiration!

Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps Store
Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps Blog
Alice Wertz
Amy Tsuruta (October Guest DT)
Corinne Mercado <------- You are HERE!
Kadie Ensley
Kim Yu
Margie Cortina
Mary Johnson
Piali Biswas
Shaela Odd
Simonne Clay
Sparkle Smith
Stephanie Kraft

Hope you can play along!

Me, Ruffle a few feathers?? Noooo!

2011-10-03T00:00:00.000-07:00

Good Monday morning, everyone!!!

Today, I am super excited to show you my card for several challenges today.

1) For the first annual Link Up for Pink linking party over at Gaby's blog.

As you all know, October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. Remember to do self breast exams. I'm going to share something with you: about seven years ago, I found a lump in my breast. I had it biopsied and part of it was taken out. I was very lucky that it wasn't cancerous. But I remember the fear and sadness I faced. So even if you are fortunate enough to be healthy, remind your family and friends to check monthly, to get mammograms, and even accompany them to their appointments.

I thought this card was appropriate because it's of the holidays. Holidays can be tough when you're sick or when you've lost someone dear to your heart.

I got this quote from Gaby's blog:

As we take this journey together, let us take the time to celebrate life, live for today and remember the lives of the women and men no longer with us.

2) The card is also for a DT call at the new SPARKS Challenge blog for Paper Smooches.

They are having a separate Design Team just for the Sparks Challenge only and I thought I'd try out. I just love me some Paper Smooches.

Here's the photo inspiration.

I was drawn to the ruffles first, and then the color combo next. I am (slowly) learning about how to color ruffles and pleats, and challenging myself to try out not only doing shadowing and blending, but also highlighting. I still need a lot of practice, but I like how Gifty Gwen's (from Some Odd Girl) dress turned out.

I am also liking this color combination a lot - hot pink, mint, kelly green, some turquoise and a bit of brown.

3) This card is also my entry for the Week 2 of SOG's 12 Weeks of Christmas Holiday Challenge --- use non-traditional colors.

Other supplies I used:

CS- Bazzill. Neenah Solar White.
PP- American Crafts, Dear Lizzy.
Rub-ons- Hambly.
Inks- Memento ink. Copics.

Thanks for visiting!

Custom stamp

2011-10-02T16:38:00.000-07:00

No crafty post for today, peeps!

But just wanted to blog about this cute stamp I bought last Spring but never blogged about (at least I don't think I ever talked about it here).

Bought this at Kozue's etsy. I emailed her a picture from my DH & I's wedding day and she custom made this stamp.

This'll be good for thank you cards, wedding invitations, even scrapbooking. :)

She does great work and is very accomodating -- she re-drew/ carved my nose/ eyebrows about 4-5 times because they didn't look right to me. Very, very patient, haha!

I'd like another one of our whole fam next.

Hope you're all having a great weekend!

P.S. If you're new to my blog and curious about the original picture Kozue copied from, it's this:

I say "new" because if you've been a follower for a while, you've seen this pic about a hundred times now, LOL! It's my favorite wedding pic, and I'm always posting it. :)