TOFF Time Challenge

Here I am, almost LATE again for The Octopode Factory Friday challenge. How fitting that the challenge would be "Time". I thought about it all week but had lots of other stuff to do. So many possibilities. But today was sort of bad day and this is what I came up with. I used Steampunk Violet and gave her some wings from Kenny K's Xmas Accessories. The background stamp is from The Cutting Cafe, the clouds cut on my Cricut from Paper Pups. The sentiment is computer generated with some Alpha Bead sarcasm. HA!

Happy 2nd Birthday Charisma Cardz Challenge

So I've had loads to do to get ready for a dinner party tonight and hadn't planned on crafting at all the past couple of days. It does take me awhile to wake up though, and I popped in on my dear friend and DT sister Julia's Blog yesterday morning and saw the blog hop for Charisma Cardz Challenges and decided to hop along. It was a super hop and at the end I saw that you must complete the current challenge to be eligible for the prizes (and WOW what a list of prizes!) so I thought I'd make a quickie and join in. The challenge is a birthday/celebration card and you get an extra entry if you incorporate the number "2". I checked out my digi stamps and the first one (that was easy to color) was this adorable Pure Innocence by Heather Ellis.

Now I really didn't have much time and I usually spend hours looking for paper but as I was browsing my files I came across the Colored Birthday Background printable stamp from The Cutting Cafe and thought it would be perfect. I did something a little different this time when printing my stamps. I knew I wanted to do a Nestie frame around my image so I measured the rectangle and sized my image accordingly, but instead of printing the image and the background separately, I just plunked it right on the background and printed it as one piece. (That made for a little added pressure on the coloring front, but I thought this image would be hard to mess up and the colors I wanted to use were right there to look at. WooHoo!) The circle sentiment is from the Assorted Celebration Word Circles, also from The Cutting Cafe and I added the epoxy "2 U" and a little ribbon garnish. the border punch at the bottom is the old favorite Threading Water by Fiskars. Happy 2nd birthday Charisma Cardz Challenges. I'm sure I'll be playing along with again.

Simply Betty Stamps Meets The Cutting Cafe

Anybody else feel like this this morning? Just had to do another quicky. The fab image is Mummy Lola digi from Simply Betty Stamps. She's from the Emo Digi Halloweenies collection, back by popular demand in digi form but only until October 31st (so act fast!) She's colored with Copics and popped on the Coffee Bean Backgrounds stamp from The Cutting Cafe. The sentiments are from The Got Coffee set (also from The Cutting Cafe) and printed on kraft card stock.

Lots of cool stuff going on with Simply Betty Stamps. She's sponsoring this week's Macabre Monday Simply Sinister challenge at Haunted Design House (thanks so much, Betty!), there's the fab 12 Days of Halloween Challenges going on at the Simply Betty Challenge Blog, TOMORROW is the blog hop for the NEW release of the Punky Teens Christmas (cute, cute, CUTE, which I'm participating in, WooHoo!) AND don't miss the combined Hop on Oct 29 through 31 with the Tiddly Inkers (and feel free to grab the button on my sidebar for your OWN blog to remind you. Lots of opportunities to WIN some of these fab stamps and just an all around good time!

BBTB2 Storybook Owl

This week at BBTB2 the fabulous Karen chose the owl from the Storybook Cartridge. You can blame Marlene for this one. She did a pretty hilarious owl card last week and that's where my mind went. I just couldn't help myself. LOL I welded 3 of the cuties together in DS and added a base from George. I was gonna try to just put bras on them but they sort of ended up looking like big fat bows on their chest so I cut the bikinis from Life's a Beach using the Colored Mini Dots digi backgrounds from The Cutting Cafe. Owls on the beach? Well...

I did a bit of popping and spelled out the sentiment in Alpha Beads and the Curls and Swirls Cuttlebug font set. Not quite sure WHOOOO you'd send a card like this to. Somebody with a new boob job? Anyway, my DT sisters came up with loads of fun stuff so click HERE to go see and be sure to play along. If you don't have Storybook you can use one of the bazillion other owls available.

Land of the Free Because of the Brave

I'm sure many of us are getting ready for the long holiday weekend with plans for a getaway or a barbeque. Not quite sure what's in the works for us, but I did want to call attention to the reason for this holiday and say thank you to those who have risked or sacrificed their lives for our country. We truly are the land of the free because of the brave men and women who serve. I decided to make a wall hanging using the We Love Our Troops set of downloadable printable stamps from The Cutting Cafe. The United States and open star are from the Stand and Salute Cricut cartridge.

I printed the sentiment twice, once in red and once in blue and punched the layers. I use my Printmaster program to do this and Regina has easy instructions on The Cutting Cafe site.

The ribbon is also part of this wonderful set and I cut it out with scissors, but if you have SCAL for your Cricut or a Pazzles or Gazelle machine you can let your machine do the cutting. This set includes 34 stamps and is perfect for patriots, military families and those of you who participate in Cards for Soldiers, so be sure to check it out. Also, there are new sets arriving several times a week for all kinds of occasions so if you havn't visited The Cutting Cafe recently, you're in for a treat. I hope every one has a safe and wonderful weekend!

Just Bug-cause I Love You From The Cutting Cafe

I'm in love with the Cute Critters Downloadable Printable Stamp Set from Regina's Cutting Cafe. With so many adorable sentiments and critters to choose from I had a hard time deciding which one to use first. I was in the mood to do a fun fold card for a change and browsed on Splitcoast Stampers until I came to the Spring Card. Wow, I hadn't done one of those in awhile. Then I remembered my MS ladybug punch around the page set and that was it. There are several fun word circles that could have fit with this adorable little ladybug, but I decided that I was was making it "Just Bug-cause". I colored the sweet little bug to match my DP from Stampin'Up and for once managed to punch around the 5" square the FIRST TIME without messing up! (Maybe I'll take a few pins out of my Martha doll. LOL)

Be sure to stop by The Cutting Cafe to see all of the fabulous new sets Regina has designed. there's a hug 63 stamp Birthday Fun set that is fabulous, and a wonderfully patriotic We Love Our Troops set just in time for Memorial Day just to name a few. Remember, these are downloadable and printable so you can use your computer program to resize them or print them in any color you want. Instructions are on the Cutting Cafe site.

Cutting Cafe Giveaway! "Just Because"

Don't you love having a stash of beautiful but quick cards when you just want to keep in touch? Well Regina at The Cutting Cafe has designed a perfect set for those "Just Because" times. The Just Because Background Printable stamp set contains 4 frames, 4 sentiments, and the printable background that you can see HERE and you can win it just by leaving a comment. The frames are sized to fit a standard A2 card. For the background I sized the stamp down to fit within the frame with an additional mat and I love how cute it looks with the font tiny like this. The border and corner punches are EK success and the chipboard flower is from the DCWV La Crema embellies. Then just some ribbon and a couple of pearls and voila! Be sure to stop by The Cutting Cafe on Monday to see the list of the other Design Team members participating in this great giveaway, and while you're there, take a look at all of the fabulous new sets Regina has to offer. Be sure to come back on Friday morning to see if you're the winner! And Happy Mother's Day to all!

It's Good to be Green!

It's a rainy Sunday here in CA but at least that means it will stay green a bit longer into the summer. Believe it or not, my DH loves this weather and is out on a "storm hike". Not me, I'm staying cozy. Looking outside, things really are greening up which made me think of one of Regina's new sets at The Cutting Cafe for upcoming Earth Day. The Earth Day downloadable printable stamp set includes 20 images, suitable for celebrating Earth Day, as well as reminding us to do our part to take care of our beautiful planet. I resized and printed the earth and sentiment in green, and colored the oceans with my copics. The circle word was resized so the earth would fit in the center. I cut all of the stamps with my Nesties and popped bits for dimension. In keeping with the "green" theme the designer papers are from the DCWV Green Stack which is 70% recycled paper. Be sure to top by The Cutting Cafe to see what's new. We have a whole new video team with loads of great projects to share.

I'm Kind of a Big Deal

Honestly, I have no idea why I bought the Superman cart except for the fact it was on a SUPER sale from Custom Crops at the time and the Clark Kent head (with the horn rimmed glasses sort of reminded me of pictures of DH when he was in high school. LOL) Then I saw what I thought was a hilarious downloadable printable sentiment from the Cutting Cafe called "Kind of a BIG DEAL". The look on this guy's face here really made me think he thought he really was a BIG deal (we all know the type, don't we?) so I couldn't resist making this card. Besides, the current challenge at Cards for Men was HUMOR so I thought this filled the bill. The sentiment is colored with my Copics and I used the Stars folder from last summer's Cuttlebug release, the sort of Bricks folder from an exclusive Oh My Craft's release, and the Stripes from a QuicKutz folder.

Inside I cut the Superman logo shape and made a computer generated sentiment. Be sure to stop by The Cutting Cafe so see the LOADS of new designs from Regina! Now I'm off to get some housework done before MY TEAM (MICHIGAN STATE) plays Butler in the Final Four. I can hardly contain myself!

GO STATE!