Inspiration

Hello all, here's my card for this week's Inspiration Challenge (see the post below for details) - I used TCP's brand new "Birthday Bunny" set and used lots of pink - the first thing that jumped out at me from the inspiration photo. I also did lots of paper piecing - which the new TCP images are fabulous for! :)

SURPRISE!! It's a Birthday Blog Hop for Alma!

So....Alma, the fabulous creator and owner of The Cat's Pajamas is having a birthday later this week, so The Cat Pack is doing a surprise blog hop to celebrate Alma's special day! She's such a terrific lady to work with - every one of us in The Cat Pack just loves you, Alma - thank you for your support, humor and just for being you!


We've tied the blog hop in to Amy's TCP Tuesday week, so that's where the fun starts - if you're following the hop all the way through (and I hope you are!), you should be joining me from Susan's blog...and your next stop after here will be Karrie's blog! There is a lot of celebrating going on, so have fun and be sure to leave Alma some birthday love at the end :)

TCPTUES102 - Color Challenge :)

Good morning! It's a beautiful, sunny start to the day here in Conifer - with another snowstorm on the way later today! We're under a winter storm warning, so it could be another big dump of snow for us :)

As you'll see, this week's TCP Tuesday Challenge is a color challenge - our hostess for this week is Joanne, and you can find all the details on playing along (and how you could become TCP's next Swanky Stamper) on her blog. I really enjoyed playing with these colors; it's not a combo I've seen often, but I love how these ones look together! Be sure to check out the creations everyone else has come up with, and you'll see them all together on the slideshow on Alma's blog as the week progresses.

For my card, I used TCP's "Smells Like Cake" set, and I pulled all the papers from my scrap drawers :) That's always a good feeling! Have a great Tuesday, whatever you're up to!

Cake (and other stuff)!

Happy Wednesday :) I've been all mixed up with my days this week since the Monday holiday...makes for an interesting time at work - ha ha! It's been a busy week so far - lots going on with kindergarten registration, learning new procedures, and just starting to think about the end of the school year and getting ready for the next school year! It's a job where I seem to be thinking 4 months ahead most of the time :)

It's been chilly here this week, but sunny! I don't mind it being cold when the sun is out - the sunshine makes everything better! Things have been a little tough for me lately as I am still coming to terms with Iain and me separating - it's a long, hard process and I am very lucky to have some special friends to help me find my way through it all.

On Friday night I'm going to a newly-formed Bunco group - there will be a group of us from school playing together once a month for drinks, foods, chat and maybe even some Bunco :) Should be fun!

Today's card is one I made with some paper I found at the weekend when I was trying to decide on papers to use for my TCP Tuesday card. The stamp is from TCP's "You Say It's Your Birthday" set, and it's an image I use a lot because it's another terrific one for coloring or paper piecing. Thanks as always for stopping by!

Quiet day

So I spent the day at home today since the kids were with Iain. In the morning I made a bunch of cards, including my TCP Tuesday card for tomorrow's color challenge, and then this afternoon I took Tasha for a walk. It was a beautiful day - sunny, crisp and pretty with fresh snow on the ground!

This card was made with an image by Stampendous; I had lots of fun playing with the colors from the Basic Grey patterned paper to make a bright, cheery card with lots of layers and a little bling :) Have a great week!

A Beary Good TCP Tuesday!

Welcome to our TCP Tuesday Blog Hop in celebration of The Cat's Pajamas' new stamp set release! You've been seeing peeks of the new set all week long, and tomorrow morning (Tuesday 9th) you'll finally be able to buy the whole "Beary Good Year" set with the bear and all his/her accessories to last all year long :) And don't forget, Alma will be announcing the winner of her bear naming contest at midnight tonigt on her "Dancing in Pajamas" blog - that person will win all of this year's TCP releases!!

Our hostess this week is Amy and her challenge is for us to use paper piecing, which is what I have here on this card made with the new set and Cosmo Cricket paper (and a layout from the OCC Sketch Blog). For this release Alma has not only stamps, but also glitter and buttons to match. The glitter is fantastic, really chunky and fun to work with!

If you're working your way through the hop, you'll be joining me from Leigh's blog. If you want go to back to the start, head to Amy's blog and you can catch up from there :) Your next stop is one of our favorite past members of the TCP Cat Pack who's playing along with us this time around - Katie Stilwater (tell her I sent you!). Happy hopping!

A Beary Happy Birthday!

Here's the card I didn't get to post yesterday when I was writing about Alma's bear-naming contest :) I found these individual coffee sachets at Starbucks and decided they'd be fun to put on the front of a card...and then Alma sent the new "Beary Good Year" set out to the Cat Pack - and there's a little coffee cup right there as one of the bear's accessories! Perfect!

This set will be available on February 9th...in the meantime, stay tuned here and on the rest of the Cat Pack's blogs for more sneak peeks :)

TCP Tuesday - Stamp Challenge :)

Hi all...TCP Tuesday has rolled around again, and this week Susan is challenging us to make a wintery card :) I decided to post this card as I don't think I showed you a card with this particular image - check out Poochie with his head deep inside the present box (from TCP's "Give A Little" set)! I'm also happy to be able to post a card with warm colors on it - considering that right now the temperature outside is -11! The kids at school haven't had outdoor recess for the past 2 days, since we can't take them out if the temperature is under 20 degrees. Fingers crossed for at least 20 degrees tomorrow...

TCP Tuesday - Happy, Happy Birthday!

Hi all! This week the super-talented Leigh has come up with a great sketch for us all to play with! Head over to Leigh's blog to get all the details on how to play along (including how you can add your creations directly to Alma's slideshow!)...

For my card I used one of my favorite TCP sets - "You Say It's Your Birthday" - I paper-pieced the birthday cake and matted it with some Nestabilities shapes. The patterned paper is from Basic Grey's "Bittersweet" collection. Have a super day!!

Halfway there...

It's already Wednesday and the week is going well for the 3 of us back at school. Nattie is excited to be doing some creative writing in her Language Arts class, and Jamie is happy to be back with all his school buddies again :) My classroom looks really good, and today I met with the 4th grade teachers to start on our schedule for next week. Everyone is being extremely supportive - I love working there!

Today's card is made with another stamp that reminded me of Nattie when I spotted it - so I think I'll put this card away for her birthday in October :)

Featured Blogger Friday - Week 2

Welcome to Week 2 of Featured Blogger Friday! This week the featured blog belongs to the super-talented Jenny Gropp. Jenny's blog is called "One Krafty Kat" :) I came across Jenny's blog in the past year; she and I are slowly but surely getting to know each other. What I know so far is that she is friendly, supportive, enthusiastic, and amazingly creative - I hope you enjoy reading more about Jenny and that you'll pop over to her blog to say hello and to see more of her beautiful work. She has generously created this card for me to show you - isn't it beautiful? The cake stamp is one I recognize from TCP - it's called "Cake No Plate" and you can see it here. Here's some more information all about Jenny...

• Tell us a little about you? I am 36, married to a wonderful guy, no kids, one very cool cat, I work and I stamp! I don't like answering questions like this because I always feel like I sound really corny. Seriously, I love crafting. I have a local stamp group of 6 ladies that meet once a month; we have a BLAST together. I have met so many blogging friends, wonderful ladies! I just love sharing the craft, seeing the ideas that people come up with...the creativity is endless and totally inspiring.



• How long have you been blogging? OK - I just looked - my first blog post was February 14, 2008. And BOY my picture skills have come a long way since then!! When I first started blogging, I was scanning my cards. Now I have a semi-fancy little camera and a light tent...the light tent makes such a difference in my pics, allowing the true colors to come thru. My scanner always did really funky things with pastel colors. Some scanned cards I could not even post or people would have thought I was color blind!!



• Why do you blog? I like being able to create something and immediately share it with all my crafting friends. I also like the immediate feedback and seeing what people like and dislike. I have been stamping for about seven years...through the years I have been involved with several different craft/stamp groups, people all over the world - which is so cool, various stamp companies...blogging allows us to stay in touch and keep tabs on everyone and their art, even though we have moved on from specific stamping groups.



• What's your favorite topic to blog about? Well, all I really blog about is cards that I make and stamping. I try not to blabber on too much about me and my issues. For the most part I TRY to keep it to the details of the project. I probably talk about my cat too much. But he is the best cat in the entire world, so how could I not??? Sometimes my posts can go on and on - I have found that I blog just like I talk. I like pictures. Good pictures are important to me - for my blog and others that I read. That is the draw for me when looking at a blog - I want to see the project/art - then after the picture catches my interest, I'll read.



• Have you learned anything special from blogging? It has been a process...at first, blogging was ALL fun - it was new and exciting. I really enjoyed it...last December I hit a little slump where it began to feel like work. It took me a few months - but I finally said to myself - this should be enjoyable and FUN. I released myself from feeling like I had to post constantly. If I post every day of the week, wonderful! If I only post a few days of the week - that's fine too. I'm enjoying the blogging experience and plan to continue. I do think you have to keep current with products and techniques and blog pretty regularly to maintain regular readers. I do try to post a minimum of three times a week. Feedback from my friends/readers, whenever they send an email or leave a comment is HUGE in keeping me motivated. Playing in challenges regularly is a good thing to help me stay current and keep up with what's going on in Blogville.



• What do you hope that people get out of reading your blog? Well, I know a lot of people don't read it, they are picture lookers. That's OK by me. The info is there for those who want it. I tend to be similar when browsing the blogs, so I don't take offense to that. With so many blogs to choose from, I hope folks that read my blog find inspiration and ideas that motivate them to go grab a stamp and create!



• Can you give links to some of your favorite blogs? Oh - geeez! Just three??? I can't do it!! I can't! There are too many. I have a list of blogs that I do regularly visit on my page - but I can't pick favorites - I love 'em all!!

So, there you have it - some of the scoop on Jenny!! I think you'll agree with me that her work is stunning. Her blog is definitely a regular stop for me!

If you would like to nominate a blog for Featured Blogger Friday, send me a quick email at toners@wispertel.net - I'd love to hear from you!

It's TCP Tuesday!

Here's my card for TCP Tuesday - Susan is hosting the stamp challenge! We can use any TCP stamp that includes CAKE :) For my card I used the "Birthday Cupcake" stamp. Inside I stamped "You Take The Cake". You'll see that TCP has many stamps that feature cake in different forms - have fun with this one!

I also used patterned paper by Bo Bunny, and a layout from a sketch challenge for this card. It's from the "Unscripted Sketches" blog - check it out here.

Birthday Penguins :)

Here are those snorkeling penguins again - this time I used them to make a birthday card :) I added some Paper Glaze to the dots on the inner tubes to make them shiny, and two of the penguins are popped off the page to add some dimension. The stamps I used are "By the Sea" and "Happy Birthday II".

Yesterday I went to school to help put together the registration packets for this year - between 2 of us we got just over 300 packets done in 4 hours - phew! It's just 3 weeks until school starts. On Monday we went shopping for sneakers and jeans for Nattie, along with some pillows and lamps for the guest room. Iain's sister arrives from Scotland on Friday for 10 days.

It was COLD here yesterday! We only got up to the mid-50s! It felt more like Fall than Summer :)

Birthday Best

Here's a tin with a simple decoration using a stamp from the Artful INKables "Birthday Best" set. I can't believe how my time with Kristin and the other INK girls has flown by - our term is up on August 15th. It has been a blast working with and getting to know these ladies!

Birthday Best

Here's a card I made with Artful INKables' "Birthday Best" set. It's another image that's lots of fun to color. The cardstock is all Bazzill Bling, so it has a nice shimmer to it.

Jamie had a rough day yesterday. The ear infection he had a couple of weeks ago returned, so on Friday we got another round of antibiotics. He's allergic to penicillin, so the medication options are a bit more limited. We finished the medication on Tuesday, and on Wednesday morning it was hurting again. I took him back to the pediatrician and he had to get a shot of antibiotics in each leg. Ouch! We also have to go back again this afternoon for another round. Poor litle guy :( Hopefully this will get rid of it once and for all! The nurse said they've had 4 other kids come in this week with resistant ear infections.

Birthday Card

Hi! Happy Thursday! The card I made for today uses stamps from Hero Arts ("Doodle Flower Patch" stamp) and The Cat's Pajamas ("Happy Birthday II" stamp). I used some scraps of "My Mind's Eye" paper and scraps of paper. The card measures 3.5" x 7". I really like the look of tall, skinny cards for a change of style.

We had some big thunder here last night! The kind that's right over the house! Some areas of Colorado have been dealing with tornadoes this week, though, so we're pretty lucky to just have thunder and rain. Have a great day!

TCP Tuesday - Stamp Challenge

Hi there :) This week Susan is our hostess for TCP Tuesday. She is challenging us to use any Penguin stamp from The Cat's Pajamas. I chose one of my favorite sets - "You Say It's Your Birthday". I paper-pieced the balloon and colored the rest of the details with markers. The patterned paper is "Urban Prairie" by Basic Grey. The layout is from this week's Sketch Challenge on Splitcoast Stampers.

I hope you can play along this week! All the details are over on Susan's blog - have fun!

TCP Tuesday Sketch Challenge

Hi all! This week for TCP Tuesday, Carole is hosting a super sketch challenge. I hope you can play along! All the details are over on Carole's blog :)

For my card, I turned the sketch upside down! That's what I like about sketch challenge - they don't have to be used completely "as is"; quite often if you rotate them, you can get a very different look to work with!

I used some patterned paper by K and Company, and I stamped "Gene" and the "Raining Wishes" sentiment on some deckled rectangles (Nestabilities dies).

Card Positioning Systems sketch

Hi! Happy Friday! It's a happy Friday for the kids and me because we have the day off - it's a training day for the teachers. I made this card at the weekend for the Card Positioning Systems Sketch Challenge (#111), which was sponsored by The Cat's Pajamas! The stamp set I used was "You Say It's Your Birthday" :) The patterned paper is some I've had for a while; it's by Chatterbox. I looooove their older lines of paper! Have a great day!

Here it is!

My TCP Tuesday card for this week. It's based on the super sketch created by Carole :) For my card I turned the sketch on its side. I used patterned paper from the "Alissa" collection by Bo Bunny, a couple of my new Nestabilities dies, and one of my favorite TCP stamp sets - "Smells Like Cake" :)