Getting Bubbly with the Bunny!

Do you ever feel like you need a weekend to recover from your weekend? I hope that yours was as busy and fun filled as ours was! Baseball game, zoo, beach, carnival rides you name it, we did it! Seriously how can kids have SO much energy? But its been great to have some sunshine at last! Hooray!

So, I'd love to be able to get into the bubbly this morning like this month's Flopsey release titled "Bubble Bunny" from My Favorite Things. However, its just not in the cards! (oh, bad pun....)

I stamped Flopsey to my cardstock as well as to a scrap of patterned paper. He's colored with my W1 and W2 markers, with just a bit of R20 to the inside of his ears.

This is just one of three fun new mid- month releases from My Favorite Things! I have another card to share with you on the blog hop which will begin Tuesday night at 10pm. You won't want to miss it!

If you're looking for something to keep you busy in the interim, please join us on the MFT Member Company forum. The sketch challenge and the weekly "My Favorite" challenge are both still open, and don't forget, each one comes at the chance at a prize! You can find this week's thread HERE

To celebrate MFT's Third Birthday - this week only, all sets in the bin are $3 each! Wow! And, once these stamps are gone, they'll be fully retired, never to be seen again! If you see anything you like in the Bin - now's the time to grab it! Click here to see what's in this week's Bubble Bin!

Thanks for stopping by, I'm off to go find a cup of coffee!

Playing with Bears....

You may remember that I mentioned Whipper Snapper had three new releases from Anna Wight this month, I've worked with two of them so far, and I finally got a chance to play with the third "Beware of Bears!"

I had so much fun masking and stamping this fun little bear to place assorted items into his hands.

My go to Copic marker for things like bears, has gone dry... so a little light bulb went off in y head. Prismacolor Pencils!

And I'm actually sort of glad how that all worked out, because this was a blast to work on. I loved coloring his little olive shorts, and selecting just the right reds for the lantern... but most of all, drawing in that grass at his feet. Eeeks! Fun.

Now, normally I select papers first, then color, but this time, I worked backwards... well at least backwards for me. This time I got all the colors just the way I wanted, then I rifled through my papers to find something that matched. And again, I've got bits of everything in here. Some Mr Campy from Cosmo Cricket and several retired papers from Stampin Up. Lots of sewing to anchor all the pieces together, and really, lets face it, just cause I like to!

We're just home from a weekend at my in laws in Maine. It was fantastic, but man, I'm tired. Boys ran me ragged. Hope you had a wonderful weekend!

You're #1!

Just an itty bitty post from me today, we're quickly packing our bags, lunches and headed to the beach to enjoy this beautiful day!

This is a brand spankin new You're My Number One-abella" and I couldn't wait to ink her up for this week's Bellariffic Sketch Challenge.

I had fun digging through all manner of scraps and grabbed a little bit of this, and a little bit of that to match with this fun little piece of Cosmo Cricket's Girl Friday paper that I had just a little remnant of. I pulled the color Copic Markers according to the remnants I had. Once everything was stitched, assembled and tied properly, I added a little bit of stickles to each of the circles in the big old one.

Ask Karen, Stickles frighten me. I've been known to make an unholy mess with them....but as long as I put them on the project at the end, and then force myself to walk away (I've been known to pick and fidget with things, hence the stickly-mess!)

Please be sure to hop on over to Blogabella to see all the samples from this week!

Have an amazing weekend everyone!!

Gina K Designs - Lucky Seven Sale and Blog Hop

Welcome to the Gina K Designs - Lucky Seven Sale blog hop!

Today I have a little sample made for you using Many Happy Returns from Gina K Designs. I also used the designer paper which is included in the Eclectic Summer Stamp TV Kit - Lime Rickey from Basic Grey! I thought it was just perfect for margaritas! Mmmmmmm...

I used Copic Markers to color in the margarita mix, then added a coat of diamond glaze for shine and then added a coat of stickles on top of that.

You won't want to miss the today's blog hop tour of the Lucky Seven Stamp sets by my friends on the Gina K Design Team

Check out these GinaK Designs Senior Design Team blogs tonight for projects made with these seven Lucky Stamp sets!

Many Happy Returns: Joanne (that's me!) and Lynn
How Sweet it Is: Gina and Carolyn
Jumping for Joy: Cathy and Lee
Zoo Animals: Asela and Donna
Christmas Blessings: Kurtis and Emily
Whatever Floats Your Boat: Erika and Jessica
Cuddles and Hugs: Melanie and Theresa

Lucky Seven Sale Event: July 10-14, 2009

Buy any three of these seven stamp sets(regularly priced at $23.95 each) for $49.95 and you can choose from one of these normally priced $19.95 stamp sets for free! (A value of $91.80)

OR, for an even more amazing deal: Buy them all for $125! Purchase all of the Lucky Seven stamp sets and you will receive all 4 of the free stamp set choices for free! (A total value of $247.55)

Lucky Seven Stamp sets available for this sale event:
Many Happy Returns
How Sweet it Is!
Jumping for Joy
Zoo Animals
Christmas Blessings
Whatever Floats Your Boat
Cuddles and Hugs

Stamp sets available for free with the purchase of 3 of the Lucky Seven Stamp Sets:
WhooHoo!
Rectangle Greetings
Heartfelt Hits 1
Kindred Greetings for Kids

To take advantage of these sale prices, look for the Lucky Seven Button on GinaK's Online Store that will go live midnight tonight!

The Lucky Seven Sale event will start at 10pm CST on July 9th and run thru midnight July 14th.

How 'bout them Apples?

I've had this sheet of Cosmo Cricket Early Bird paper sitting on my desk for a few weeks now, and it was just waiting for the right image to present itself.

Truth be told, I was saving it, because I had only one piece, and I wanted to admire it a while.....this fun green pattern is actually the flipside. I wish I knew in advance which papers I'd fall the most hopelessly in love with so that I'd have the sense to buy MORE. Giggle.

Well, today I finally got brave enough to cut it.. because I decided to pair it up with ... with this sweet little Hugabugg Appley Bowl image.

I stamped the image twice so that I could color that sweet bowl of apples and pop it up one layer for a bit extra dimension.

I think this sweet little bug likes apples about as much as my boys do. I can't keep enough of them in the house to keep the boys satiated, they LOVE them. But its okay, there are many worse things they could love than apples right? I'll just be happy when we can go picking and buy a BUNCH of them versus shelling out the bucks for them at the supermarket. Yikes, those boys are expensive.... but I sure do love to see them make healthy choices!

Edited to add: Someone asked me where I get my Cosmo Cricket Paper. I actually bought this early bird as part of a recent order from Stamping Bella - you can see their collection of cosmo here! I also pick it up at my local scrapbooking store - Right at Home Scrapbooking. Cosmo Cricket also just added what I think is an amazing new feature- you can order online through Cosmo Cricket and your order will be fulfilled through your local retailer. Read more about that here.

MFT Kits - Just Add Color!

I'm really excited to have a sample of a brand spankin new product from My Favorite Things for you today! Introducing "MFT Kits - Just Add Color!"

We are pleased and proud to introduce

something fresh, fun and completely
distinctive – MFT Kits!

Each month, a new Kit will be revealed,
complete with an exclusive, unreleased
stamp set, and the items you’ll need to
complete a very special project (s).

The set included with your MFT Kit is a brand new, unreleased set, and will not be available for a period of at least 3 months after the MFT Kit containing the set is released.

Its no secret that I love little die cut boxes, and just look, this fun little stamp set is quite literally made to fit the size of this box.

It was a snap to put it together, and the kit comes with all the things you need to put together six little boxes! Within the "By the Seashore Kit", you'll receive six of these diecut tall gable boxes, five yards of this twill tape, tons of hemp twine, brass brads, six MFT Perfect Paper Panels and even a Memento Dew Drop inkpad! All you have to do is add color to make it your own! You'll even get a download sheet with some tips and tricks as well as some finished samples that you can use for a little jumpstart!

Lots of my friends on the MFT Design Team have samples for you today be sure to hop on over to visit to see what they've come up with!!

Retired SU for Sale

I'm offering the following now retired stamps from Stampin Up for sale. Due to the terms of my demonstrator agreement - I can only sell to customers within the United States. I do apologize for any of you outside of the US borders.

They are all priced to move - really great bargains! I need to clean up around here! All payments must be via PayPal - please email me at basilefamily at comcast dot net with any questions! I will update the list regularly to let you know which stamp sets have been sold!

All stamps will be mailed via priority mail for a cost of $4.95 and I will combine shipping for larger orders.

Please contact me at basilefamily at comcast dot net if you're interested in any of these sets! Thanks and happy shopping!

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Blooming with Love - Purchased

Life's a Breeze - Purchased!

Big Bold Birthday - $15

Stitched Exotics - Purchased

Paisley Background- $10

Print Pattern Background - $5

Illuminations $15

Linen Background - Purchased

Beautiful Borders - $12

Punches Three - $7

Darling Dots - never opened!! - $10

Congratulations - never opened!! - $10

Boatloads of Love - purchased

Doodle This - purchased

Office Accoutrement - purchased

Big Pieces - $10

Wishing You - $10

Polka Dots and Petals - $5

Birthday Whimsey - $7

All in a Row - $7

Flowers and Flourish - $7

Tiny Talk - $5

Stars and Swirls - $5

Year after Year $10

Bright and Cheery for a Birthday Queen!

A few weeks ago, Shannan emailed me to see if I'd like to participate in a little birthday surprise for Emily - you know, THE Stamping Bella!

Of course I was thrilled to jump in, and I'm hoping that my card arrived to her already. If not, Emily, no peeking!

Christy Croll, one of the fabulous illustrators for Stamping Bella drew this image just for us to use for Emily's birthday cards and I totally LOVE it!

I instantly grabbed this fun and rockin' designer paper from American Crafts - love those blinged out hearts, and I added some of my Making Memories "Just Chillin" paper. Be sure to stop by Emily's blog today to grab the latest sketch for our Bellariffic Friday challenge. I'm off to work on my sample with some new goodies that arrived from Stamping Bella over the weekend!

I hope that you all had an amazing weekend. We finally had lots and lots of sun (HOORAY!!!) and we made up for lost time by spending the weekend swimming, biking, eating on the patio and staying up way too late! It was a wonderful, but totally exhausting weekend!

Happy Fourth of July!

Here's a little Fourth of July card that I made using the Gina K Designs free digital download paper "Stars and Stripes" from Stamp TV as well as the "Lazy Days of Summer" and "Ribbon Stripes."

I repeatedly stamped the "Ribbon Stripes" stamp set to Gina's Rocket Red Pure Luxury Cardstock, and then used my Scor Pal to form all my creases.  

I created a little bunting by making only  half of one of those paper medallions and then added two star punchouts from the Lazy Days set.  

Wishing you all a wonderful day celebrating our nation's Independence.  Thank you to all of you who are serving our country in the military, as well as to all of you who have family currently in service.  

Happy Birthday to MFT and Happy Shopping to YOU!

Did you know that this weekend will be the Third Year birthday of My Favorite Things Stamps?  It will also be my sweet friend Kim's (you know, the MFT Lady!) Birthday on Sunday! Be sure to go wish her a HUGE happy birthday!!

To celebrate, she's having a sweet promotion!  You'll find all the details below and also on this thread!

I'm not sure if this card has arrived to her in the mail, so she may be seeing it here before she finds it in her mailbox. I've GOT to get my act together with that sort of thing.  Can I make a mid-year resolution or what?

This card features the set "You Take the Cake" and some more of that My Minds Eye paper that I've had on my desk. I'm trying to be better about using up my scraps over the course of a few projects - I'm finding it results in less paper filing, and a cleaner desk. Imagine THAT!

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

 This weekend ONLY (July 4th and 5th), we are offering a Buy 3, Get 2 FREE promo!

   Purchase any 3 full priced stamp sets (Excludes July New Releases) and they will add:

   1) One set from our Get Sentimental category (we will select the set for you) AND

   2) A FREE set of YOUR choice! (Excludes July New Releases)

   The July New Releases are excluded from this promotion. They don’t count as either your Buy 3 sets OR the 2 FREE sets.)

   They are:

   Catch Some Rays

   Puttin’ on the Glitz

   Puppy Chow

   Purrfect Treat

   But since we know the new stuff is on your wish list, we are EXTENDING the 10% discount on these sets through Sunday, July 5th as well!

On Cloud Nine

Looking at this card, you might think you're in the wrong place... its missing my normal background.  I had to give up my regular means of photography for a light box this week.

  

There has been a *serious* lack of natural light at my house. Its been raining for days and it was killing me to take pictures of cute cards and have them come out dark and dreary.

I usually only have this much trouble with photography in March, and hello, its July.  So, lightbox it is. I will say that its a handy thing, and certainly got me a much brighter photo than I'm used to.  Just seems strange to me to not have my sitting room in the background.  Maybe its just a matter of what I'm used to.....but I'm curious to know what you think.....

This is the Bellariffic sketch for the week, drawn up by Linda Heavens.  This was super fun to work with, and was just the right size for my new "Altee'Tude" 'from Stamping Bella.  I reached for my new little addiction, My Minds Eye paper.  I've been working on my straight stitching.  I haven't used the old go to, my friend the Zig-Zag the last week or so.  

I have a confession, I always have a hard time with pieces of images that should be white.  This time I decided I'd color with my BG10 all around the cloud, and leave it mostly white.  There is a touch of W1 to give it a little depth.  

The sentiment is largely hidden by my bow/button combo but reads "On cloud nine" I noticed while I was editing that it was tucked in behind, but didn't want to pull out all the apparatus to re-shoot.  Hope you'll forgive me as I learn some new tricks!

Till then, be sure to hop on over to visit Blogabella to see what all my friends the Babes came up with for this week's sketch!

Getting Green with MFT!

This week I'm the hostess of the My Favorite Things - My Favorite Challenge over on Splitcoast.

Christina had this fun idea of having everyone re-use something from their house to create this week's project after an amazing project by Barbara a few weeks ago. 

I hope you'll hop on over to this week's Chat and Chatter thread and play in this week's challenge as well as the weekly sketch challenge!!  Don't forget, there are prizes awarded for both!

I sifted through my storage area and found an old Prima package.  I pulled out the insert and recovered it with this fun striped paper from Scenic Route. Then added a bellyband and tied around some ivory ribbon.  

Then I reused again.  I had purchased these Memory Glass pieces and Frames to make Christmas ornaments (and sadly never did...)  So I added one as a charm, and added magnetic tape (leftover from another project) and tied that onto the packaging.  Lastly, I filled it with Hershey Kisses (ahem, leftover from another project....figured if I gifted them I'd stop EATING them right?)

Then of course, I had leftover papers, so what better for a re-use it theme, but to create a 3x3 gift card while I was at it.  What a perfect way to use up your scraps, and really at that point, the papers, stamps and colors are all pre-determined.... For the card I stamped the blossom twice with Pink Pirouette ink, then sponged all the edges.  I punched out just the center of the flower, crinkled, sponged and added it with a pop dot. Then added a button to the center.  I wrapped each of the petals around my paper piercer and rolled them forward for extra dimension. 

For a fun scalloped edge, I stamped Setting the Stage with Memento ink to some designer paper and then trimmed it out.  Such a fun, quick and easy little detail.  I've got to remember that more often!

So, dig into your extras, forage around your house and put your findings to use in a project! We'd love to have you stamp with us this week! 

Eclectic Thanks!

I've been so busy with new releases lately that I haven't really had a chance to just *play* with the images from the current Stamp TV Kit from Gina K Designs. In particular I've been dying to color up this sweet barrel of pansies.

This afternoon has just been rainy rainy yuck, so the boys are watching Bedtime Stories, and I'm trying to stamp myself a little sunshine!  

I rifled through my stash of patterned papers to find a good fit and I uncovered enough scrap of this Websters Paper pink pattern, and a leftover piee of paper from Basic Grey Bittersweet. 

I love using Gina K Pure Luxury White for my cardbases.  It has such a fresh feel and I love how sturdy it is.  I went ahead and used all the scraps I had available to make two cards, with coordinated linings.  

Be sure to hop on over today to visit Stamp TV.  Gina has posted a new video every Wednesday using the Stamp TV Kit and this week, she is showing the Crayon Resist technique, has a video showing how to use her piercing templates, and of course be sure to welcome this month's Center Stage In the Spotlight Team! 

Wishful Thinking

If you've not started over at Kim's blog today, you'll want to pop back to the MFT Blog so that you don't miss any eye candy along the way!  

Tonight we're hopping along through MFT's Sweet Sixteen to share previews of the four upcoming sets from My Favorite Things.  Tonight I've got something to share with my new personal favorite "Catch Some Rays!"  If you have kids, then you understand why I've titled this blog entry "Wishful Thinking."  

You should see the amount of "stuff" that accompanies me to the pool. I've got floaties, sunscreen, snacks, epi pens, dry clothes, sweatshirts, goggles, pool toys, snacks, waterbottles, a book to read (ha!!) 

But look at this Who's That Girl...she's got it made, teensy bikini, fruity adult beverage in her glass and nice quiet solitude, oh, and she's catching some rays... 

That and the aforementioned rainy spell we've been experiencing - I'd *love* to be sitting by the pool right now.  

This is a preview of the latest Who's That Girl set titled "Catch Some Rays" which will be available Wednesday night from My Favorite Things!  There are four new stamp sets available, including two labels (one for kitties and one for puppies like I shared the other day) as well as a new stamp set from Amanda Baird titled "Puttin on the Glitz."

You'll also find an amazing new ribbon collection - I don't have it yet, but I've seen it on some of the projects from girls that purchased the VIP collection last week.  Um, I must have the ribbon.  I hope you don't all scoff it up before I get a chance to pick some up. Giggle. 

Also be sure to hop on over to see the the latest Tips and Tricks from the Design Team over on the MFT Member Company Forum on Splitcoast. 

Thanks for chillin with me today!  The next stop on the hop is Kirsten! 

My only excuse....

I might be a cardmaker, but seriously, I'm lacking in the personal correspondence arena. What's wrong with me?  

The only plausible excuse of how late my thank you notes are... is that they have been delivered by this sweet little snail?  I'm hoping that if I make the cards cute.. that maybe I'm forgiven for just being hopeless?  Yikes!

This little cutie was stamped with Memento Ink, and then colored with Copics.  I zipped the layers through my Janome and then zipped the main image panel through as well.  I'm gasping that this is nearly the end of my Pink Pirouette ribbon.

I should stop blogging and get back to writing....

You can find this adorable little Snailly Hugabugg over at Stamping Bella.  By the way, I do hope that you'll join us for this week's sketch for Bellariffic Friday.  You can find all the details here on Emily's Blog.