Happy Birthday to my Loonie Friend Wendy!

I want to send a big shout out to my friend Wendy Bond - HAPPY BIRTHDAY girlfriend!!

I met Wendy and several of her friends on the Stampin' Cruise in the fall of 2008 - what an amazing experience and what a LOT of fun these girls brought to our stamp class group. We had the BEST group of gals for classes.  :-)  In those days I knew nothing of blogging or challenges etc.  I soon discovered that Wendy is a Mojo Monday DT girl - YAY!  Anyhow - we have continued our "cyber" friendship since the cruise and it's been great to get to know Wendy and the collection of women affectionately called the Loonie Stampers. (I'm still not sure if that's relevant to the Canadian Loons or to their personalities *snort*)

So here's to you Wendy.... have a blast - enjoy the day and celebrate like there's no tomorrow. Wish I could be there to pour you a glass of wine to celebrate (or was it margaritas? No I think it martinis? Oh maybe it was the drink of the day!! ACK you know what I mean LOL) Couldn't pick a more appropriate stamp for you than the fun and flirty Bella we got on that memorable cruise....

A super simple layout but using one of my favorite techniques, paper piecing... with some delicious Basic Gray papers.

Now how's that for some WILD pants?? LOL But wicked fun eh?

And here's a little close up of the Bella girl....

That's all for today - thanks for stopping by and Wendy - truly girlfriend - have a WICKED birthday :-)

 Now hop on over to the rest of the girls who are also participating in our Birthday Blog Hop for Wendy (gee that sounds like a cause - anyone want to contribute?!?)

Dee Woodland
Regan D'Agostino  
Maria Fiscella  
Jewels Wells  
Charlene Austin  
Stephanie Day  
Dana White  
Karen Motz  
Pam Imholz  
Charmaine Ikach    
Jackie Pedro  

Hugs n smiles,

A Loonie Stamper Birthday (and Mojo Monday)

Happy Birthday Char!!! I am honored to have been asked (again) by the Lovely Loonie Ladies to help celebrate a birthday! This time for Charlene Austin - you may know her blog, Willow and Paisley (and if not get OVER there and check it out!)  Char, I understand your actual birthday was a couple of days ago but gosh - if it's not on a Friday then it can't be a Loonie Challenge :-)

So - here's to you, girl. I guess by now some of you have figured out that I just rediscovered my Stamping Bella stamps that I got on the cruise (and that I had forgotten how much I LOVE!) I pulled out the mini version of the "Content -to-be-a-Bella" (the big one was too big.) I would almost rename this one Chillaxin Bella!  I decided to work with this week's Mojo Monday challenge for my layout and I am loving the Basic Grey Lemonade DP (I refuse to give in to winter just yet LOL) so here's a colorful, girly card to help you celebrate - the real one is, as they say, in the mail! Hope this was one of your best birthdays EVAAAHHHH.  Muuuaaahhhhh! (Said in my best Bella voice LOL) The sentiment is Verve and the dots under the word come from one of my PTI sets. (LOVE those dots.) I decorated the inside too but forgot to photograph it (geeesh) and it IS in the mail. LOL

Be sure to get to all of the Loonie's blogs AND they will take you to the rest of the girls who are hoppin along to wish Char a fantabulous birthday.

The Loonies:

Dee
Jewels

Maria

Regan

Wendy

And friends of Loonies:

Ashley Newell

Sue Pardue

Char Cundy

Steph Day

Carly Robertson 

Dana White

Jessica Diedrich

Michelle Woerner

Nancy McKinney

Christie Ortman

Krissy

Ciao ladies - thanks, as always, for stopping by.

Loonie Stamper Challenge and Mojo Monday

It's another Loonie Stamper Challenge - it's time to wish Deanna Woodland a VERY happy birthday!!! So with no further ado - Dee this one's for you! Hope you have the best birthday ever. My card for you is in the mail but won't make it by your actual BD (sorry). I photographed it nicely during a daylight shoot then decided I wanted to add a little something more - then when I tried to photgraph it, it was raining ICK! So - the photo is not the best but the wishes for a super BD are from the heart.

I wanted something bright and summery for Dee so I chose Lemonade DP and Raspberry Fizz. I used the Mojo Monday sketch #101 as my inspiration but I changed out the rectangle for a Labels 4 nestie shape instead. I sponged white ink on the raspberry paper before I removed it from the nestie die.

I stamped the shoes from Express Yourself stamps (masked to make a pair) from Verve and the sentiment is from another new Verve set called Party Time. Colored the shoes with copics - really wild and funky! Added a strip of PTI ribbon, some Rain Drops bling around the main image and a corner bling for accent. A wee bit of paper piercing for interest in the corner.

Now hop on over to the other LOONIE's pages and the rest of us "honorary Loonies" to see all of the fun birthday wishes for Deanna.

Dee (our birthday girl)
Regan
Maria
Jewels
Char
Wendy

Roseanne
Avril
Tracey
Sue
Steph
Pam
Donelda
Deb
Ashley

Loonie Stampers Birthday

It's time for another Loonie Stampers Challenge... Happy Birthday Regan!

This week's Loonie Stamper's challenge is to make Regan a birthday card (then send it!) That's it - no other requirements. I wanted bright summer colors for my card - sending a little sunshine up to Canada for your birthday, Regs! (Although we've had an unusually cool summer we've still had some lovely sunshine.)

Here's my card to you - Bold bright papers from SU and some of my favorite DP from SU also. Stamp from So Many Scallops (SU.) A little bit o' bling (a girl's gotta have bling right?) and most of all BIG wishes for a super happy birthday. Celebrate, enjoy!

Check out the other Loonies also - I'm sure they've all cooked up some good birthday wishes as well :-) I did comply with part 2 and sent my card off in the mail - thought I did it Tuesday but alas, found it in my work bag this morning (Thursday) - so it will be late - sorry Regs! :-(


Wendy
Char
Dee
Jewels
Maria
Regan

Loonie Stampers Wedding Challenge

Now how can I resist a challenge to make a wedding themed card? My good "Loonie Friends" have posted a challenge for this week to do just that so I had to play along. We're still shopping for wedding dresses - now we're going to go back and re-look at some we saw early on. So many beautiful choices!!

When I need to make an elegant card I turn to my paper from PaperTemptress. This time the Loonie Challenge had simply white, silver and black as the colors (THANK YOU GIRLS!). Add to that my new With This Ring wedding set from Gina K Designs and I knew I could put together a card for this challenge pretty easily.

Here's what I came up with. Typically I am hand delivering a wedding card, either at the wedding itself or at a shower so I don't mind using a larger square card which would take extra postage if sent through the mail. This one was made with GKD's luxury 120 black onyx card stock for sturdiness then layered with SU silver and Paper Temptress Laser Silver Luster AND White Diamond Paper Temptress (can't remember which one) beautiful paper for the focal image. A tiny bit of scoring with my Scor-Bug for a little texture on the focal panel.

I used the wedding cake as my main image but kept to the silver for the flowers. There is a TINY touch of a grey-green for the tiny leaves but that's all. I used the shimmery white flowers from Gina K with rhinestone accents for the finishing touches along with a simple sentiment from the With This Ring set.

Here's the inside of the card - simple but tied together with the overall theme. (Sorry it's crooked - I was trying to beat my battery from dying!)

Thanks to my Loonie friends for allowing me to play along. Hope over and see what these girls come up with - you will be amazed and inspired by their work!

Wendy
Char
Dee
Jewels
Regan
Maria

Have a great week ahead.

Loonie Stampers #39

It's Loonie Stamper Challenge time - #39! I have not been able to do LSC's lately but was ready to play again. This week's colors intrigued me - I do love black and cream together (Wendy I don't know why that's hard for you - you talented Diva!) and why not add a "POP" of color with Hibiscus Burst.


I needed an anniversary card so went for a romantic floral look. Kept it pretty simple - the rose is from Gina K's Year of Flowers set, colored with copics. The rest was created with Cuttlebug, nesties, punches, ribbon and a couple of fun black Glitter Dots for just a little "bling".


Thanks, girls for letting me play along.
Check out the amazing projects from my Loonie Friends:

Wendy Char Dee Regan Jewels Maria

Loonie Stampers #31

It's Loonie Challenge time again - wow - another Friday come and gone. These girls are so awesome - if you have not checked them out you must do so. Start here on Wendy's blog (it was her week to choose the challenge) then see what the rest of them are up to.
Char Dee Regan Jewels Maria

I was inspired by Taylor's sketch TECC58 from a week ago - it was one I wanted to try and never got around to. All images and papers and the dotted ribbon are Papertrey Ink. (I used 3 diff stamp sets - LOL) Chocolate ribbon is SU and the Glitter Dots are from Gina K.
I am constantly amazed at these challenges - I start out staring at 4 pieces of card stock that I can't imagine how I'm going to put together and somehow it works out in the end. Great challenge this week Wendy. (or should I say wicked challenge LOL - I love that expression!)

Thanks again girls for letting me play along. Now I'm off to bed - whew!

Loonie Stampers #30

This week's Loonie Stampers Challenge (these can be tough - I have a lot of admiration for all of you Loonies each week) was Anything Butterflies.

I stamped one of Gina K's butterflies onto vellum paper and embossed it with Bridal Tinsel. I colored with a very pale blue copic (hard to see in the pic) then gently folded up the wings. I pulled it all together with some of this origami folding paper that my daughter didn't want but I thought I could use someday. It was so springy and pretty it just caught my eye this morning. I embossed and cut out a second butterfly to give this a 3D effect. White Glitter Dots from Gina K finished off the final piece. It is for a friend but I won't mail this one.

Mojo Monday Sketch Challenge

The second challenge I tried to work on was for Mojo Monday. I am new to Mojo sketches and have not yet figured out that I need to plan out my base layers/measurements BEFORE I start - LOL. I did it in reverse and created the focal point image with birds (I decided I REALLY need to try something other than flowers). Copic coloring (it was hard to get this shaded very well) - added a "tree" for the branch and bird house to hang from. Embossed with Cuttlebug "Mesh" folder which I inked up first with Lemon Tart Palette Ink. THEN I realized my main image was too big to use the way the sketch was laid out AND I forgot and put the sentiment on the focal image not down in the corner. SO - this was an experiment in how NOT to do a sketch challenge LOL. But I learned a lot in this process and stretched myself to try some more detailed copic coloring. I think I'll pass on Mojo for this week.

Enjoy! Spring is coming - it is - it is!!!

Another Combined Challenge

Here we go again - I find myself interested in lots of challenges but short on time to do each one separately so I tried to combine two this week. First I started off with the Loonies Challenge #29. (I'm never quite sure if they have a place for all their challenges so I end up linking to Wendy's page). The color challenge this week was Summer Sunrise, Vanilla and Gray. Hmmmm - Ok. THEN, on StampTV, Melanie Muenchinger has posted a Friday Potluck challenge which was to make a split frame card. SO I started with the new Gina K Elegant Flowers set and colored with copics. I used the paper colors from the Loonie's challenge and the layout from Melanie. Here's what I came up with. I have to tell you that I decided on the square layout for the split frame but then when I cut my strips I goofed and didn't cut them into equal squares - the top two are 1-3/4 and the bottom ones are 2-1/4. But in the end I kind of like that they are not symmetrical - is that called serendipity?? Thanks for browsing. Have a blessed Sunday.

Loonie Stampers #28

So I met these great gals from Canada when I was on the stampin' cruise to the Caribbean. Turns out they have a weekly "Loonies Challenge". I will tell you there is nothing 'loonie' about the cards these gals come up with! A very talented group of ladies. I decided to play along this week with this challenge: Irregular sized card, kraft paper, at least one pink and NO RIBBON! Oh my this was indeed a challenge for me. (Maybe they are a little 'loonie' after all! :-)

Well - guess what - Gina K has introduced a brand new social network site for stampers called Stamp TV full of high quality videos, contests, challenges, galleries and forums. AND she's giving away some FREE (for a while - not forever) digital paper in lovely shades of pink and brown. Hmmm - I thought this would be a perfect chance to try the Loonie challenge while I also tried out the new digital paper pack (which I downloaded as soon as it was available.) I also love Papertrey Ink stamps and figured this was a great opportunity to use one of their fabulous sets called Warm Happiness. Seeing as how we got 6" of snow today I was looking forward to a cup of good hot coffee and some stampin fun with friends from all over.

So this is my card - it's 4" x 8-1/2" and fits a #10 legal envelope. Thanks, Loonies, for the challenge and for letting me play along. Whew :-)