Bella!

It's been a while since I've done any Bella cards. It felt good to do a couple today. Both use Bazzill Bling cardstock and unknown paper from my stash. Dew Drops accent both. Balloonabella has Stickles on her balloons and I paper pieced her dress. For Grumpabella I used my Twinkling H2O's to paint her dress.

Rant of the day!

Why do people insist on putting music on their blogs? I know! It's their blog and they can do what they want with it. But when I'm blog surfing (which I am known to do) and music comes blasting out at me, I click off that blog. And I won't go back. They may have great artwork, or be a funny blogger, or whatever, but I will not be subjected to their choice of music. And I'm not gonna scroll up and down trying to find the "off" button! I have my own choice of music playing when I am online. And I don't subject anyone to it but me!

Rant over. You may resume your regularly scheduled programming!

Marjorie's color challenge #'s 14 and 15

Because we were away last week, I didn't get a chance to do Marjorie's challenge. And I've been working on swaps all week trying to get caught up and done with them. Now that they are complete, I can get back to my regular stuff!

Week 14 color challenge was Vineyard Berry, Ocean, Topiary and Hollyhock. I added Sunkiss Yellow into the mix! I used our June SOM, With Love. The vase is pop-dotted and the flower centers all have diamond bling! The textured Sunkiss Yellow cardstock was run thru my Cuttlebug using the Swiss Dots embossing folder.

Week 15 color challenge was Barn Red, Crystal Blue, Bamboo and White Daisy. For this I dug out Balloonabella and used my Twinkling H2O's to paint her. There is shimmer to her dress and balloons, but it doesn't photograph well. I used my Nestabilities scalloped rectangle in my Cuttlebug to cut the white cardstock she's on. Three Sew Drops give some added bling! The "celebrate" sentiment is from Card Commentary and is triple stamped in Crystal Blue, Bamboo and Barn Red. (Forgive the Topiary line thru the middle of the Bella image. That'll teach me to CLOSE my ink pad before I start taking pictures!)

Last swap!

My second upline, Susan, always hosts a new catalog card swap. This card is for her swap. I used Sarsaprilla paper pack and Yeehaw stamp set.

Now I'm gonna go see what I can create for Marjorie's color challenge. I missed last week's when we were in the mountains, plus I've got this week's to do as well!

card for John

Once again, John's route is being restructured. He's gonna be losing two of his favorite accounts the end of May. Couldn't be two of his crap accounts. Noooo! That would be too easy. So he asked me to make some cards that he could give to the managers and receivers when he leaves. This is what I came up with. I used Silhoutte papers, Joy Forever stamp set for the flower and For Every Occasion stamp set for the "goodbye." The flower I stamped in StazOn and used my Twinkling H2O's to paint the blue petals, so it's kinda shimmery in real life.

Amanda Faye's swap

I look forward to AF's swap with every new catalog. She always has quality swappers and I get great stuff back! I always take the same 4 spots. I take a card spot, a circle album spot, an altered item spot and a 6x6 2 page layout spot. I always take paper pack 3, never knowing before I get the new catalog what I'll end up with. This time I got a curve ball fo sorts! My paper pack was "Game On" and dark colors. It's sports oriented paper and the colors are Black, Desert Sand, Bamboo and Grey Wool. In addition to the new paper pack, I ordered the new "Football" stamp set. When I started working on this Tue, I had no idea what direction I was going in. Generally the paper "speaks" to me and I have a plan in my head before I start. I basically took this and with a blank slate in front of me and in my head, went to work. Overall, I'm pretty pleased with how this turned out. The cards are pretty straightforward. I had some ribbon tape in black, gold and silver in my stash and also some silver Magic Mesh, so I utilized both of these. For the cirlce album, I used some Tim Holtz GrungeBoard "F's" and painted them with Black Soot CracklePaint. Stamped "football" with the CTMH stamp set and cut the "f" off so I could use the GrungeBoard "F" in it's place. There is a set of numbers paper in this pack, so I used it in addition to my numbers Cuttlebug embossing folder, then dragged the raised portion thru my black ink pad to give some added dimension. The 6x6 layouts have the ribbon tape and a piece of Magic Mesh on one page. On the other, I used my Nestabilities in my Cuttlebug and cut out a photo frame. The football on this page is pop-dotted for dimension. Fot the altered item, I made a small coaster book. Again, I used Nestabilities in my Cuttlebug to make a frame for a photo. And the center circle that I cut out for the Circle Album for some added interest on the front of the mini album. So now I'm done with swaps til the fall/winter book comes out. Only a week and a half left before you CTMH customers can order! Hope you've enjoyed these sneak peeks!

Smoky's Trip

We stayed at the Hampton Inn in Gatlinburg. Our first time with them, but it won't be our last. Nice location between lights 9 and 10. We got to see snow/sleet on Monday. They said there was quite a bit of snow up at Newfound Gap, but we never made it up there to see. Had wonderful breakfast at the Mountain Lodge out on 321. Love their white gravy and biscuits. Their coffee is really good too! Headed over to Pigeon Forge so I could get my scrapbook store fix! Found some stuff for me and also stuff for some scrappy friends! From there, we went to the Arts and Crafts Community so I could replace my coffee mug from Alewine Pottery that I dropped and broke. I got two this time, just in case! I also finally got one of their large batter bowls! i've looked at them for years (and watched the price go up!) and decided it was about time I got one. Stopped at the Gondolier Italian Restaurant at the end of Food City parking lot for dinner. Friend Cindy from the TN travel boards highly recommended them and we were not disapointed. They bring you out a plate of warm breadsticks and marinara sauce to nosh on before dinner. Yummy! John got a huge spinach and cheese calzone and I had spagetti with marinara. Huge portions at a very nice price.

Tuesday we wanted to try a new restaurant, Mojito's, up on Ski Mtn Rd. Got there and they were not open. Don't know what the story was there, so we went back and got tenderlion biscuits from the Parkway Market. $1.69 each for lip-smacking good tenderlion biscuits. John was still feeling pretty tired, so we went back to the room and he napped while I read. A lazy day all the way around. We walked to the Smoky Mountain Brewery for dinner. We split the beer cheese and soft pretzel appetizer. It is soooo good! I had their house salad as my entree and John had a cheeseburger. A couple of beers each and we were happy campers!

Wednesday we went to Log Cabin Pancake House for breakfast. We both had blueberry pancakes. Love them because they don't use that gloppy pie filling on top. The put fresh berries in the pancakes and on top. They make their own blueberry syrup too, with berries floating in it! A great way to start the day. Headed over to the laundromat to wash our dirty clothes. Course laundromat dryers are not known for their fast drying capabilities! Thirty minutes and the jeans were still soaked. So we took them back to the room and a' la the Clampett's Go To Maui, we hung them over the balcony of the room and in the chairs on the balcony so they would dry in the afternoon sun. Decided to go do something we'd not done. Drove 321 over to Cosby and found the Foothills Parkway, so we drove it. We could see lots of snow on the mountaintops in the distance. Went to Ogle's Brick Oven Pizza for dinner. We had a deluxe pizza that had ham, sausage, pepperoni, onion, tomato, black and green olives. It was sooo good.

Thursday John walked up to the Donut Friar to get a loaf of cinnamon bread to bring home. We ate the hotel's free breakfast today. They actually have a pretty nice selection. Fresh fruit, cold cereals, biscuits, gravy or sausage patties, bagels, donuts, muffins. After breakfast, we went to Elkmont, where they used to log in the early 1900's. Once the logging was completed, they turned the old loggers camps into homes for the rich Knoxvillians to escape the summer heat. They would bring them in on the railroad and people would spend the entire summer in the cooler mountain climate. When the Parks service kicked everybody out, the homes fell into disrepair. They have recently been placed on the National Historic Registry, so there is hope that they can be preserved. From Elkmont, we continued on to Cades Cove. While it was too late to see any animals, our main reason in coming was to drive Rich Mountain Road. It is one of the old original trails out of the Cove. It is an unpaved road that is only about 7 miles long, but because it is up and down over the mountains, it takes about 1 hour to drive that 7 miles. It was a beautiful drive. You come out in Townsend, so we took the River Road back to Gatlinburg. Got the truck packed up with all of the non-essential stuff since we head for home in the morning. Tonight was Rib Fest on River Street in front of the Aquarium. SO we went and ate our fill of BBQ, had a few beers, enjoyed the blues/rock band that was playing. On the way back to the hotel, I managed to squeeze down a single scoop of coconut pineapple ice cream! From snow and sleet on our first day to eating ice cream on our last! A perfect vacation!!

Our furbabies...

Are so happy we are home. Savannah loves bags. Plastic bags that crinkle, paper bags that crinkle. She's not particular! Her favorites are the red bags I get at Ruban Rouge. She will play in them, getting inside and chase them all over the house. But once they quit smelling new, she's done with them! We had all sorts of bags from our purchases while we were in the mountains. I've got them all folded up and stored neatly so she will be in bag heaven for a while. Orleans, on the other hand will lay on top of the bag. He much prefers to lay on his back, legs all askew! They have to be right where I am when we come home from a trip. I think they are afraid we will leave them again!

Swap

Got the first, and easiest of the two new catalog swaps done. This was a card swap for Jami that was supposed to be friend or friendship based. I used the new Sarsparilla paper pack and Yeehaw stamp set. Both will be available to customers starting May 1.

we're back!

John and I snuck away to the Great Smoky Mountains for a few days. Stay tuned for full details and pictures in the next couple of days!

Crying with laughter

Liane sent these and I have to share. I was crying because I was laughing so hard. Hope you enjoy.

Color Challenge 13

Marjorie made life interesting this week with her color challenge. Goldrush, Sunkiss Yellow, Sweet Leaf and Autumn Terra Cotta. First thing I thought of is another of our new Stamp of The Month stamp sets. This one won't be available til July, but I think it's my favorite of our SoM's for this catalog. It's called Life Is A Jungle and has a couple of other animals and sentiments, but you'll just have to wait to see all of them!

I used various leaf stamps and cut them out of the leaf pattern B&T paper from Wild Adventures paper pack (retired). The toucan is done in Sunkiss Yellow, the lion in Goldrush and the Alligator in Sweet Leaf. I used Autumn Terra Cotta as the card base.

Lifted card idea

I so lifted this idea from Liane's blog yesterday. Liane's Blog As soon as I saw it, I knew I had to do my next Convention swap cards like hers! I used Rustic Flowers and stamped with Cranberry, Golden Ember (retired), Vanilla Cream, New England Ivy and Topiary for the background. Then I took the Checklist stamp set and stamped the list in Desert Sand.

New CTMH Stamp of the Month

Giving you CTMH lovers a sneak peek of our May Stamp of the Month. I am now doing two monthly swaps with the SoM. One is with our team that I've been swapping with for over a year now. And the new Yahoo group I joined decided that we would swap too. This stamp set is going to go over very well I think. It has lots of sentiments that can be used for all sorts of different holidays and events. The stamp set is called Say It In Style.

For out team swap, I used Discovery paper pack, the dragonfly from Butterfly Kisses, and It's a Party stamp set in addition to Say It In Style.Colors used are Hollyhock, Topiary, Buttercup and White Daisy. I random stamped using the It's A party set on Buttercup cardstock. Stamped the dragonfly with Hollyhock, then used my Stickles for a bit of bling. Used my SU Word Window punch to make a window in the front of the card and stamped "Nice Job" on the inside of the card.

Fot the Yahoo group, I used Silhouette paper pack and my Nestabilities scallop punch in the Cuttlebug. This is called a flap card. It's a tri-fold card with a flap that folds over the top. Something different I thought I'd try. I double stamped the Thank You in bamboo and black. The flower button is Making Memories and the black rick rack is Bazzill. BUT!!! CTMH is introducing Rick Rack in it's Summer catalog! Mine is already ordered and will be here by the end of the week. Along with 2 new paper packs and 2 new stamp sets. So stay tuned for fresh new artwork!!

Debbie's birthday gift

Here's what Debbie got for her birthday! Using her favorite Simple Pleasures paper pack, of course! I altered a paper mache` letter "D" and added some Tim Holtz GrungeBoard and a cute little MM chipboard bird. I also altered a giant clothes clip to be used as a photo holder. She also got Puppybella in honor of her dog Stormi!

Birthday gift

Today is Liane's birthday. And because I know she will open her gift from me before she reads blogs, I'm going to go ahead and post pictures of her birthday gift now. And if I had remembered to take pictures of Debbie's gifts before I sent them to her for her birthday this past Monday, I would share them as well. Deb, if you will take a pic and send me, I'll share what you got as well!

I actually did a coaster hanging for each of Liane's "girls", AKA the puppies! Each one is different. Each one has the dogs name on it, with a spot to put a picture. Liane also got Javabella from me. It's one she's been wanting and I decided to add that to her gifts at the last minute. Happy Birthday my friend. I hope your day is filled with Joy.

Color Challenge 12

As soon as I saw Marjorie's color choices for this week's color challenge, I knew I wanted to use Friendship Blessing stamp set! The color choice for this week is Citrus Leaf, Orchid Bouquet, Crystal Blue and Pink Carnation. Bright and vibrant! I knew I wanted to put the flowers on a black background to make them pop. I ran the black cardstock thru my Cuttlebug and used the Distressed Lines embossing folder. I stamped the flowers in Orchid Bouquet, Crystal Blue and Pink Carnation. The leaf in Citrus Leaf with Topiary as an accent color. Cut everything out and attached it to the black cardstock with varying sizes of pop dots to give height and dimension. I used the White Daisy Pigment ink pad to make the flower border for the bottom of the card. Hit it with my heat gun to set the ink, then used our original White Daisy ink pad and drug the torn edge thru it. Used some bling, a retired flower button and an old Connections Club bling flower for the flower centers. This card turned out just like the picture in my head!