February Xmas Cards

I'm participating in a challenge over on Tracy's blog to make 5 Christmas cards every month. This month's cards had to be square and have NO sentiment on the front. Here's my cards:


I had a lot of felt flurries snow flakes and some of the bulk buy designer paper and so pulled it out and went to work.

Thanks for hosting this challenge Tracy - I might even be ready for Christmas this year!

~chris

A Proud member of The Lime Light
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Quickie Post

Just a quick post as I get ready for this morning's workshop. I made some things yesterday that I will share later on, but here's a card I made using my new Marvy punches from PTI.


Recipe:
Stamps: Thinking of You (TSG)
Paper: Real Red, Summer Sun, Whisper White, Old Olive
Ink: Old Olive, Tangerine Tango (sponged on petal edges)
Accessories: flower punches, oval punches, nestie leaf die, ribbon from Creative Impressions

Thanks for visiting and I'll be back later to share a couple more projects from yesterday.

~chris

A Proud member of The Lime Light
Come visit us and see what we've been up to.

Just playing!

Last night I decided I'd just play ... just see what I could create with no plan, no sketch, no definite challenge. Here's a couple of cards that I made.

My friend Jill (who knows what a sucker I am for punches) gave me this wonderful Marvy leaf punch for my birthday. It cuts and embosses and of course I just had to make something with it right away! Thanks Jill!


I have been wanting to play with this wonderful SAB set Botanical Blooms and here's my card.



I'm always looking for new and different ways to use my wonderful SU dies for the Big Shot. I saw someone use this idea for the scalloped envelope die and just had to give it a try too.



I am home from work today and hope to spend most of the day in my studio! Yay! Have a few errands to run but the rest of the day is for creating!

Thanks for visiting!

~chris

A Proud member of The Lime Light
Come visit us and see what we've been up to.

Cuttlebug Spot Button Challenge

I came across this blog in my blurfing and as I have been enamored of buttons lately, decided to give it a go. Here's my card:


Recipe:
Stamps: Hugs & Wishes, Polka Dot Punches
Paper: Pretty in Pink, Certainly Celery, So Saffron, Whisper White, Tea Party dp
Ink: Basic Black
Accessories: cb embossing folder, buttons, 5 petal punch, lg oval punch, scalloped oval punch (marvy)

I needed to do some cards using the Polka Dot Punches set for a display and this will be one of the cards I use.

Thanks for visiting!

~chris

A Proud member of The Lime Light
Come visit us and see what we've been up to.

Blogoversary Blog Candy

Hop on over to My lifes inky escape and leave some congratulations and enter to win some very nice candy.

~chris

A Proud member of The Lime Light
Come visit us and see what we've been up to.

Dual Challenges

I've been wanting to do one of the challenges on the Diva Coffee Break Designs blog and this morning decided to combine it with today's sketch challenge on Splitcoast.
















Recipe:
Stamps: Hugs & Wishes
Paper: Basic Gray, Tempting Turquoise, Green Galore, digitally modified Doodlebug dp
Ink: Tempting Turquoise
Accessories: MS butterfly punches, oval scallop punch

Thanks for visiting!

~chris

A Proud member of The Lime Light
Come visit us and see what we've been up to.

February Aloha RAK

Take a look at this card - don't you just love those buttons and what's not to love about these wonderful colors! This is what my February partner Kristie sent me in Tracy's Aloha RAK monthly swap. She is just too cute!

Thanks Kristie! Be sure to check out Kristie's blog and let her know you liked her card!

Thanks for visiting. I'm hoping to have a bit better slideshow of my butterflies for you tomorrow so be sure to stop back and check out these beauties!

~chris

A Proud member of The Lime Light
Come visit us and see what we've been up to.

Butterflies Everywhere!!

Here's a little slideshow of photos that I took of all of the butterflies drying before packing them up to ship out. There's no way I could take a picture of each of them - there's too many! Thanks go out to Jill, Sabrina and Diane for all their help making these. I may have a few more to ship out at the end of the week as well and I'll photograph those too!

Thanks again everyone for helping out with this worthy project.

~chris

A Proud member of The Lime Light
Come visit us and see what we've been up to.

Stamp Camp Slideshow

Here's the promised slideshow of the cards we made at Saturday's stamping get together. As always, a grand time was had by all.

Thanks for visiting! I'll have a slideshow of images of all the butterflies that Jill, Sabrina and Diane made for the Butterfly Project before I pack them all up and ship them off! I can't thank these gals enough - Diane and Sabrina went way above and beyond making over 50 all by themselves! Thanks again ladies!

~chris

A Proud member of The Lime Light
Come visit us and see what we've been up to.

We have a winner!

The winner of my celebration blog candy is:

Debbie Fisher (debbiedee) said...
congratulations on your anniversary! What great prizes you are offering.
February 19, 2009 6:04 PM

Debbie I have emailed you for your snail mail addy. Congratulations!

Thank you so much to everyone for leaving such wonderful comments! I can't tell you how much I enjoyed reading them and visiting all of your blogs - even when I couldn't read the language, the pictures were wonderful to see.

I will have a slideshow of this past weekends cards a bit later tonight - need to finish one card. The girls are here working away decorating butterflies so I have lots of inspiration and motivation tonight!

~chris

A Proud member of The Lime Light
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Blog Candy Alert!

Okay ... finally here it is!


To celebrate my wedding anniversary and my ddl's birthday (on v-day), my birthday (sometime this month) and my blog reaching 15k hits (hopefully this week) I am offering up this little bit of candy. I will add something special if my blog actually does reach 15k this week so tell all your friends to visit and enter to win! I was going to ask you to do something to win it, but if you are even half as busy as I am - well forget that. So just leave a comment - just one though please and I will have my Monday night gals pick a winner next Monday night.

I'll be back a bit later to post some birthday cards I made today and hopefully my Mojo Monday card as well!

Edited to add: Thanks to Regina from Germany who gave me some instructions, this post will stay at the top of my blog until Monday when we draw the winner.

Thanks for visiting!

~chris

A Proud member of The Lime Light
Come visit us and see what we've been up to.

I'm a GUEST DESIGNER!

If you recall, a little bit ago I applied for a position as a guest designer with Kaboodle Doodles. See my post here to see the cards I made to submit for this team. Well, I heard this morning that they have selected me to be their guest designer for the next three months! I am so thrilled, I can't even begin to tell you! DH had to check to make sure I was okay because when I read the email, I screamed!


I have some things to show you, but probably not until tomorrow. Had a great time stamping with the gals on Saturday and I have one card to finish before I can put up the slideshow. Have a couple of RAK's to share, but need to wait till they reach their destinations before I do. Tracy's Christmas Card Challenge is due this week too so look for my entry - she made it a little harder this month - square card with no sentiments on the front! Got my thinking cap on and have a few ideas, we'll see how that goes.

Well, fighting a bit of a headache tonight - eyes just won't cooperate - so I'll be back for a visit tomorrow! Thanks so much to all of you - you are the greatest! I've had so many visitors this past week (blog candy drawing is tomorrow night) and from places far and wide - England, Poland, Russia, Sweden - WOW! Such nice comments and good wishes you all have shared - even a poem or two! Thank you all!

~chris

A Proud member of The Lime Light
Come visit us and see what we've been up to.

Another one from my favorite fashionista

My favorite fashion princess Courtney, has another great outfit to inspire us this week. Here's my card inspired by her outfit.








Recipe:
Paper: Whisper White, Pink Pirouette, Regal Rose, Basic Black
Stamps: Framed Friends (Gina K), Polka Dot Punches (SU)
Ink: Stazon black, Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose, SU markers
Accessories: Nestabilities, corner rounder punch

Thanks for visiting! I'm going to stamp with some great ladies tomorrow afternoon so look for a slideshow of our cards!

~chris

A Proud member of The Lime Light
Come visit us and see what we've been up to.

Camera is fixed!

I have the most amazing dh! Handed him the camera and within a minute it was operational once again! Magic!

So, since the camera is fixed I will respond to my tag from Angelique! Here's the rules:

1. Post a picture of whatever bag you are using today.

2. Tell how much it cost.

3. If there is a story to go along with how you obtained it, we'd love to hear it.

And I have to tag 5 people. I hate picking names, so I'm only picking one that I know is a purse pro - Allison.

Here's my bag:

It didn't cost me anything as it was a wonderful gift from the legal assistant in our Washington, DC office. She knew that I loved Vera Bradley and she had this one that matched a smaller one that I have and so she gave it to me! What a gal!

Thanks for visiting! Pottery class tonight so probably no card till tomorrow!

~chris

A Proud member of The Lime Light
Come visit us and see what we've been up to.

Minor Disaster

Just when I was getting used to it, I broke my camera! It dropped on the floor and now it just beeps at me a few times and shuts itself off. I'm going to have dh take a look at it for me, but I fear the worst! I'll be hitting the store to check out what might fit the condition of my wallet (too many new stamps the last month or so!).

I'll keep you posted, but in the meantime check out what I got today. The first is from Juanita of Rubberside Down who gave me this wonderful award:


I'm supposed to tag some more folks, so here they are:

Monica
Nicky
Allison
Diane
Cheryl

These gals (also including Juanita) consistently leave me some love and I can't tell you how much that means to me. Thank you gals you deserve this award!

The second comes from Etha of Ethasschuette.com who gave me this wonderful award. I can send this out to folks too and so I'd like to send it out to all you wonderful commentors out there! If you like to leave love on people's blogs consider yourself awarded. If you are shy and don't comment to much - get with it and leave some love for these talented folks who are sharing so much with all of you.
Well, I'll sign off for now and I'll be back later with news of my camera woes! AND
YEEHAW - I passed the 15k hits mark tonight! That means an extra special surprise in the blog candy up for grabs!

Thanks for visiting!

~chris


A Proud member of The Lime Light
Come visit us and see what we've been up to.

Madelynn's Terrific Tuesdays

This is another really fun sketch challenge that I wish I could do more often. The Whimsical Butterfly has a sketch challenge each week called Terrific Tuesdays and they are sketches from Madelynn. Here's this week's sketch and my card for it.






This will go in the bundle for the church too and I think it works for either a boy or girl.

Recipe:
Stamps: Butterfly of Happiness (TSG), Punches Three (SU)
Paper: PTI - Spring Moss, Lemon Tart, Sweet Blush and dp, SU - Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose
Ink: Mellow Moss
Accessories: punches, brads, ribbon PTI Lemon Tart and Creative Impressions Pastel Plaid

Thanks for visiting!

~chris

A Proud member of The Lime Light
Come visit us and see what we've been up to.

Couple of Birthday cards

I am making some general greeting cards for the church that hosts some of our stamping activities. Here's a couple of the birthday cards I made.




I have a question for some of you more experienced bloggers out there who use Blogspot for their blogs. Is there any way to get pictures inserted in the text of the blog where you want them instead of all being at the top of the post? I am hoping that I have just missed something along the way and that this is possible. If you don't create and edit posts using the Blogger Dashboard, how do you do it. Any and all suggestions are welcome. If you don't want to leave it as a comment, feel free to email me directly via the link on the left side of this blog. Thanks in advance for any helpful hints.

Thanks for visiting.

~chris

A Proud member of The Lime Light
Come visit us and see what we've been up to.

Kaboodle Doodle Sketch Challenge

Kaboodle Doodle not only has some really cute digital papers, they have a fun challenge each week and this week it's a sketch challenge. Here is my card using some of their fun paper!

Last night Sabrina and Carol came over to stamp. As always, we had lots of fun both creating and socializing. My stamp room is a bit crowded (need to move my looms out to make some more table room), but we had a grand time. Here's some of what got made (my Mojo Monday card got posted last night).

Sabrina's Creation


Carol's Creation



A colaborative effort


My creation

Thanks so much for visiting. Don't forget to enter to win my celebration blog candy by leaving a comment on THIS POST.

~chris

A Proud member of The Lime Light
Come visit us and see what we've been up to.

Mojo Monday Sketch Challenge

I always look forward to Julee's Mojo Monday challenge. That I am actually getting it done is nothing short of a miracle though! The Monday night gals are here and are inspiring me!

Recipe
Stamps: Petal Pizzazz
Paper: Kraft, Choc. Chip, Baja Breeze, Whisper White, Parisian Breeze
Ink: Baja Breeze
Accessories: punches, brads, ribbon, butterfly from my adventures beading in AK

Be sure to check out the blog candy on the post below and get your comment in for a chance to win!

Thanks for visiting!

~chris

A Proud member of The Lime Light
Come visit us and see what we've been up to.

Dual Challenge Card and some B-Day Cards

I combined a couple of challenges in this first card - Taylor's sketch challenge and this week's Color Throwdown. I used some of Taylor's little gems on this card too - always love to add bling!






Recipe:
Stamps: In My Thoughts
Paper: Kiwi Kiss, Regal Rose, Choc. Chip, Lemon Tart, Vellum
Ink: Choc. Chip
Accessories: ribbon, bling, brads, punches, scallop circle nestie





Next up, two birthday cards for our February famiily celebrations today. The first is for my ddl who shares her b-day with Valentine's Day. The second is for my dh's ex.


Recipe
Stamps: SU sentiment
Paper: Whisper White, Pure Poppy, Basic Black. stash dp
Ink: Basic Black, real red marker
Accessories: punches, Pure Poppy ribbon


Recipe
Stamps: SU sentiment
Paper: Kraft, Choc. Chip, Baja Breeze, Parisian Breeze
Ink: Baja Breeze
Accessories: brad, Mike's $1 ribbon, cb embossing folder

It will be a busy day today, but hopefully I'll be back later with the promised blog candy. I'm hoping to reach 15k hits on my blog this week and that will be even more cause for celebration and for a little extra addition to the blog candy should it actually happen!

Thanks for visiting!

~chris

A Proud member of The Lime Light
Come visit us and see what we've been up to.

A few stragglers

These are the very last of this year's Valentines. It was a pretty good year for v-day cards this year, got quite a few made and distributed!



I know, more red, white and black - I think I'm almost done with that color combo for awhile, but it sure was fun while it lasted! The other card was done with some digital paper that I downloaded and just love from Oscraps called O Escape Collaborations. I didn't want to hide it, so I embossed some vellum. I'm thinking I need to find some vanilla or ivory collored vellum for papers like this one.

Well, the v-day card making event went well in spite of forgetting some key items - like a stamp set - but everyone had a wonderful time and got to really tap into their creativity!

The twins and the new baby (well new to me - hes nearly 3 months now) were here for a couple hours so mom (it's her b-day today) and dad could have a few hours of kid-free time. Needless to say, I'm wiped out and am heading to bed a bit early. Tomorrow we have our Feb. celebrations dinner here. Lots of b-days and anniversaries this month and I'll have a couple of cards for those in the morning.

Thanks for visiting!

~chris

p.s. I have not spaced out the blog candy - just to busy and tired. Maybe Monday as I have the day off and I can get to work on it!

A Proud member of The Lime Light
Come visit us and see what we've been up to.

Doubledog Dare Challenge

Making my usual blurfing rounds today, Joanne (Sleepy in Seattle) posted this Doubledog Dare Challenge to make a humorous card. I've had these stamps from There She Goes - LOL Taglines - and have not inked them up yet. I decided it was about time! Here's my card:


I had the polka dots out from my Courtney's Closet card and I've really been in a red, black and white frame of mind lately! What do you think?

Recipe
Stamps: LOL Taglines from There She Goes
Paper: Whisper White, Real Red, Basic Black, Polka Dots by PTI
Ink: Basic Black, red marker
Accessories: tag punch, brad, SU ribbon

Thanks for visiting.

~chris

A Proud member of The Lime Light
Come visit us and see what we've been up to.

Courtney does it again!

This gal has the best wardrobe ... take a look at this cute outfit - isnt' she just adorable!

Here's my card inspired by her adorable little dress.

Recipe
Stamps: Eastern Blooms, sentiment from Hero Arts
Paper: Real Red, Kiwi Kiss, Whisper White, Polka Dots by PTI
Ink: Real Red
Accessories: brads, Spellbinders leaf die, punches, ribbon (SU)

Lots of running around to do today - hopefully Mr. Brown will come as well! Tonight is our Valentine's workshop and I'll try to take some pictures to share with you tomorrow.

Thanks for visiting!

~chris

A Proud member of The Lime Light
Come visit us and see what we've been up to.

Downline slideshow

Here's a slideshow of all of our swaps and make and takes from last night's downline meeting. As always, a grand time was had by all. I am so blessed to be a part of this group of wonderful women!

Thanks for visiting this morning! Might be back later with more ...

~chris

A Proud member of The Lime Light
Come visit us and see what we've been up to.

February Downline Swap

I gave you a sneak peek the other day, and here's the full card that I made for this month's downline meeting swap tonight.


Recipe:
Stamps: Simply Said, Holidays & Wishes, Love You Much
Paper: Real Red, Regal Rose, Pretty in Pink, Whisper White
Ink: Basic Black, Real Red, markers
Accessories: lace edge punch, 3 hearts punch, lg. oval punch, dimensionals

I like how this card turned out. Simply Said is a wonderfully versatile set! I'll be back later tonight or early tomorrow with a slide show of all of the wonderful cards from tonight's meeting.

Thanks for visiting.

~chris

A Proud member of The Lime Light
Come visit us and see what we've been up to.

An announcement and an award!

Fellow Lime Light design team member Leah is starting a new venture. She's opening her own Etsy shop named Paper Blooms and it will carry mostly embellishments, like her crochet flowers, stick pins and lots of other fun stuff.

She is also combining her new shop with a challenge blog and has a shout out for applications for her Design Team!! She is holding an open call to add 2 more talented ladies to her team. One fabulous Designer, Jacque is already on board. Click HERE to get all the details on how you could join this new exciting design team.

Leah also nominated me for this wonderful award. Thanks so much Leah!

The rules are:

1) Say one nice thing about the man in your life:

It's hard to pick just one! He's the best thing that ever happened to me! We will celebrate 25 wonderful years together this year - yeehaw!

2) List 6 ways you measure success in your life:

• Family
• Friends
• Creativity
• Productivity
• Consciousness
• Responsibility

Now I need to nominate 5 others for this award:

• Juanita - Rubberside Down
• Allison - Stampin' When I Can
• Jessica - There She Goes
• Cheryl - God and I on the Railroad Tracks
• Joanne - Sleepy in Seattle

Well, that's it for now - 3 posts today - whew I'm exhausted! Please be sure to check out the details on the Butterfly Project and email me if you think you might want to make some butterflies!

Thanks for visiting - blog candy coming up by the end of the week to celebrate all kinds of things worth celebrating in February!

~chris

A Proud member of The Lime Light
Come visit us and see what we've been up to.

Butterfly Project

My first project for The Lime Light is making butterflies for the Butterfly Project. This is a wonderful cause that has caught the imaginations of folks all around the world. The Houston Holocaust Museum is collecting 1.5 million butterflies to include in an exhibit representing all the children who died in the Holocaust. The Lime Light Design Team is making hundreds of butterflies & we need your help to reach our goal. Please click HERE to go to the post on the Lime Light website that will give you instructions on how to participate. Click HERE to read a letter from Gracie that explains how we came to be involved in this project. If you want to make butterflies, please send me an email and we will coordinate your participation - you can cut and decorate your own, or I will send you some ready to decorate butterflies! There is a link to my email address is on the left side of this blog.

Please visit The Lime Light blog and check out some of the wonderful butterflies that we will be delivering to Houston!

Thanks for visiting!

~chris



A Proud member of The Lime Light
Come visit us and see what we've been up to.

Mojo Monday Sketch Challenge #73

It's always a pleasure to do Julee's Mojo Monday sketch challenges. Here's my card for this week. I'm not real happy with the birthday sentiment on this one, but I'll do better next time. I'm going to use this card (sans the birthday sentiment) for this month's make and take at our downline meeting on Thursday night. Hope the girls like it!

Recipe:
Stamps: All Holidays, Warmest Regards, Boho Backgrounds, Eastern Blooms
Paper: Regal Rose, Kiwi Kiss, Raspberry Tart, Whisper White
Ink: Kiwi Kiss, Regal Rose
Accessories: brads, Regal Rose ribbon, 5 petal punch

Thanks for visiting!

~chris

A Proud member of The Lime Light
Come visit us and see what we've been up to.

I love leftovers!

I love leftovers - and not just for lunch the next day either! I made a card for Joanne's challenge this past weekend and I had lots of bits and pieces of extra paper and a failed medallion and I just couldn't leave them alone. Here's the result.


This is a little 3x3 love note with parts and pieces that were laying on my table. Love notes are a favorite of mine and this one just arose from the scraps!


Here's a little sneak peek of my downline swap card for this month. I will post it on Thursday along with a slide show of everyone's cards and samples of our make and takes.

Thanks for visiting!

~chris


A Proud member of The Lime Light
Come visit us and see what we've been up to.

Monday Night Madness

Well it's Monday and the girls came over to stamp again. This week we all worked on our own separate projects. Here's the results:

My creations - my card for the
From Courtney's Closet
challenge this week:

Diane's creations:

Sabrina's creations:

As always, we had a great time. I really look forward to these Monday nights! This week I have a downline meeting on Thursday night and then a Valentine's Card workshop on Friday night. Busy week, but all fun stuff!

Thanks for visiting.

~chris

A Proud member of The Lime Light
Come visit us and see what we've been up to.