Marlou's Valentine Challenge

Marlou of Scrapping with Love is hosting a Valentine Candy Challenge. To enter your card must have:

1} A red or pink embellishment

2} Ribbon

3} The word "love"

I had fun putting together this challenge card. I quickly went through my stash of Queen Kat Designs stamps to see if I had one with love on it. QKD's "Mood Checkoff Stamp" was what I found. Lately I've been trying to make two cards with the same design. Well, it hasn't been working. Instead I wind up with two cards with the same papers and most of the same stamps. At least I am getting more cards made and that makes me happy. I have so many that I want to make for my friends, family, and fellow bloggers. So many and so little time..... !!!!

CARD DETAILS:
Queen Kat Designs "Mood Checkoff Stamp"
The Crown is part of new stamp
set coming out in FEB.from QKD
Retired Basic Grey Papers
Michael's Dollar Ribbons
Michael's Dollar Felt Rick-Rak
Button
Brad
Stickles
Scrapper's Floss

Birthday DANCE!

Have you ever done the birthday dance? You know where you prance around like a crazy chicken because you feel good to be alive! Anyhow, here's two fun birthday cards that I need to send out for next month. SMILES!

CARD DETAILS:
TAC "SO GIRLY" Limited Edition
TAC Retired "Birthday Circles"
TAC "A Little Whimsy" Paper
May Arts Polka Dot Black Ribbon
Stickles
Kissy Fit Sassy Sequins

Close Ups...

Ditty Dots

I made Norma J's day of Ditty Dots. Thanks for the award and for mentioning me on your blog!
Smiles,
Nancy

100% Saved

I found this neat stamp set called 100% Saved from Clear Dollar Stamps. The images are perfect for both scrapbooking and carding. Just recently a dad and his daughter decided to make Jesus their Saviour and in celebration I have made some cards with this awesome stamp set. I used Beate's Weekend Sketch #32 as the layout inspiration and was able to get three made in one of Ellie's nap times. What an awesome reason to celebrate and a fun sketch to create with.


CARD DETAILS:
100% Saved from Clear Dollar Stamps
Basic Grey Papers Sweet Pea/Jack
Brilliance Ink
Ribbon
Prima Flowers

Paper Bag Purse Tutorial

Here's a little ditty I put together for Queen Kat Design's Monthly Newsletter. It's a cute way to store pictures, cards, notes, or letters in a clever purse made with your run of the mill paper bag. Sounds like something you'd like to make? Here's how...

Materials:
1 x Paper Bag
1 x Paper Bag Handle (You can find these already made on a paper grocery bag)
Designer Papers (Basic Grey)
Embellishments (Eyelets, Button, & Prima Flower)
Ink
Queen Kat Stamps (Feeling Blocks)



Directions:
1) Lay bag out with the bag bottom flap up.
2) Unfold the bag bottom flap. You are actually refolding just the bag bottom flap in half and the fold that you just created is hidden.
3) Hamburger fold the bag. This is folding the bag in half vertically (to make it fat like a hamburger bun).
4) Adhere designer paper to the front as your base.
5) Stamp a strip of solid paper with your favorite Queen Kat Designs stamps.
6) Adhere the stamped strip to the top of the the designer paper base and embellish.
7) Attach the paper bag strap with eyelets to the front. This keeps the straps out of the way of the pockets.

Optional Design Element: Stamp the paper bag straps in coordinating ink and designs. Additional flowers and ribbons can be added to your liking.

Saturday STAMPING

I held my first TAC (The Angel Company) open house of the year today. We decorated a GWP (gift with purchase) cases with matching candy wrappers and a mini card. I wish this was one of my ideas but it wasn't. My inspiration was from Kim's creation of Crafty Me & My Angel Inspirations.

Her project is so clever and cute!!! Each nugget box held four candies... just enough to compliment a mini card. These were so fast and easy to create! I'll have to come up with more designs before Valentine's Day.

MINI CARD:
The Angel Company Stamps "Swoops & Swirls"
& "My Life"
Hemingway Cardstock
Palette Ink
Versamark Pigment Ink
Shimmer Chalks

CASE:
White Florals
Gift With Purchase Stamp "Faded Heart"
White Copy Paper
Palette Ink

NUGGET WRAPPERS:
TAC Stamps "Swoops & Swirls" & "My Life"
Palette Ink
VersaMagic Chalk Ink Pink Petunia

While Out...

While I was out of town this past season my Dad wanted to take me to the stamping store. (I made a short post on it way back.) We went to the store but it was closed. Well, almost a month later my Dad and I gave it a second try and managed to get there when it was open. He encouraged me to fill a basket full of everything that I thought was me. Oh it was hard not to want everything but I'm a modest type of gal...so I only picked out a just a few items.


I had a great time looking things over, once, twice... you know taking it all in. In the mean while my Dad has laid his eyes on everything at least once. He had a couple of comments and questions about a few things. It was cute.


Anyhow, we met the owner and two of the regular papercrafters while we were there. They helped keep him company while I shopped and guess what? They are very cool and experienced ATC makers. I only have one and a half ATC's under my belt so they had some tips and shared with me their inspirations. I was even given some ATC's to swap. It was a wonderful visit. My Dad survived the stamping store and if you are ever in Salinas, California you need to visit The Stamping Bug. It's tops if you ask me!

LIFE where I live...

Guess what today was where I live? Most people would not guess what today is for us here in Barrow, Alaska. It's the first sunrise of the new year. I spent my day shut in due to the blizzard and high winds. Not only that it's the arctic and freezing in January! I did look out from Ellie's room to see the awesome colors of a setting arctic sun. I saw purple, blue, and pink streaks with patches of white clouds...so beautiful and inspiring. I wish I would of taken a picture to share but instead I have the sunrise & sunset stats.

Our Dream

I have two scrapbooks that I need to make. One is of my wedding and the other is of Ellie's first year. Here's one page for Ellie's scrapbook. She is one of our dreams that has come true. It amazes me everyday how God has blessed us and how He works through our lives through His miracle called Ellie. Now I don't have a timeline to complete these two scrapbooks of mine... someday would be nice.

Thanks for letting me share.
SMILES!

SCRAP PAGE DETAILS:
Queen Kat Designs "Feeling Blocks" Stamps
Basic Grey Designer Paper
Pink Paper from My Mind's Eye
Palette Ink
Ranger Perfect Pearls
Fabric and Paper Flowers
Iron On Bling
Ribbon
Buttons

On the Move...

Keep up with the Queen Kat Designs Blog party! It's off to Sierrs Grannie's blog. Go check it out!

A Little Bit of STAMPING!

As you know I've been a tad bit busy but I've managed to get a couple of stamping things done for a deadline of mine. I thought that I'd share them with you all too. So here they are a bookmark and a card. Hope you like 'em.

SMILES!


BOOKMARK DETAILS:
Queen Kat Designs Feeling Blocks
Blank White Bookmark
Pebbles Inc. Make A Wish Dot Designer Paper
Versamark Ink
Shimmer Chalks
SU! Flower Punch
SU! Tag Punch
Marvy Uchida Flower Punch
MM Eyelets
Stickles
Sakura Pens

CARD DETAILS:
Queen Kat Designs My Hero Circle Stamp
My Minds Eye Polka Dot Designer Papers
Urban Window Boho Chic Notecard Paper
Palette Ink Burnt Umber
Sakura Pen
Star Brads Creative Impressions

Creations From My Friends

Here's a slide show of all of the entries from the QKD's challenges. If you made and entry and you don't see it here please let me know. I tried to get them all but sometime I'm not perfect.

SMILES!

The WINNER Is...

I did as I posted in the Details section of my Queen Kat Challenges and we have a winner. I had my husband pull a name out of the hat and he handed over a paper with "Scrapaloha's" name on it! CONGRATULATIONS SCRAPALOHA!!! Please send me an email with your physical address so I can have your QKD stamp set sent to you.


Thank you all for playing. I love all the cards that were shared and made for the challenges! You all AMAZE me!

I Have a Secret PAL!

What a wonderful surprise!!! My husband comes home from the post office with a Stampin' Up box for me and I think, "Humm....Andrew ordered me something stampin'?" Well, he didn't order me something stampin'. I have a Secret Pal! What an awesome sweet surprise and I love the goodness that she sent me. I don't know if she reads my blog but just in case I have a message for her.

TO MY SECRET PAL,

Thank you - thank you!!!! I love all the goodies. The altered candy tin is a clever addition as well as the loose leaf tea infuser. Your hand made card is over the top!

I will keep the tin (with the candle and matches) in a safe place and use it with our next power outage. Of which we had two just this afternoon and the tea will come in handy on a cold stressful day. Ellie's gonna think the magic towel is neat and Andrew just about jumped out of his skin when he saw the Thomas Kinkade stamp. This is my first one and he loves that style!

Your kindness has touched my heart!

Thank you so much.

Sincerely,
Nancy

ROUND Three....

The hat is getting full of challengers for the blog party QKD prize. Thank you all for playing along! Here's my last challenge...

DAY 3 BLOG PARTY CHALLENGE:
For the last day of my Queen Kat Designs challenges visit the official QKD blog and leave a positive comment in one of the posts. To qualify your entry, you must also let me know which post you commented on or something to that effect here in the comments section of this post. That way I will know that you completed the challenge. This challenge is for today (January 19th) only and I hope to hear from you all.

BONUS:
You can earn an extra entry if you sign the guestbook too.

Queen Kat Designs

DETAILS: Every day I will put all the qualifying entries in a hat and at the end of the three days I'll randomly pull a name out of the hat.

BLOG Party Challenge Day 2

The Queen Kat Designs Blog party is still going on right here and I am so excited to have received so many comments with round one! You all ROCK! So are you up for the next challenge? It's a fun one too!

DAY 2 BLOG PARTY CHALLENGE
Make a card or scrap page with the Queen Kat Design logo color combo of pink, black, and white. Use any or all of these colors. You can enter as many cards as you want and I will accept your links or jpgs in the comments section of this post all the way up to the end of January 19th.

BONUS:
Extra entry if your card was created with QKD stamps only.

Queen Kat Designs

DETAILS: Every day I will put all the qualifying entries in a hat and at the end of the three days I'll randomly pull a name out of the hat.

Are You Wondering...

So? How did we fare during out cold snap? We woke to the heat being out. Of all things! I was more concerned with the electricity going out than the heat but it's the heat that matters the most. Without the heat our pipes would freeze and oh what a costly mess that would be not to mention our safety. After lots of praying and calling around town our turn came up with the repairman and it was a paperclip that got our heat back up and running. The paperclip was a temporary fix. The repairman had to run to the office and get a new sensor for us. Before he returned and before our house completely reheated it happened... BLACKOUT!

Yep, that's right! There was a blackout! Usually it's a block or one side of town that goes down but this time it was everyone. By this time I was getting a tad bit concerned and cold. Forty-five minutes later the power came back on and our heating system was repaired! PRAISE GOD! I would hate for you all to finally see what my town looks like on the national news. Anyhow, I put on some extra socks and my scarf and was good to go. I had little Ellie in warm pants and a turtleneck with her fleece snow suit over it. She was snuggly warm and cute too. She didn't care that we had no heat or lights. She took her afternoon nap and played without noticing. As for me and Andew... there by the grace of God we live.

Thank you all for your prayers and concern. I appreciate knowing that you all are thinking kindly of us.

PHOTO DETAILS: Ellie doesn't notice that the heat is out. Her main concern was to stay up while walking with her fleece covered feet. Here she is going after me with the camera and then sifting through the kitchen drawers. These drawers are set aside for her use. I hope someday she'll love to cook with me in the kitchen.

ROUND & Round...My Turn!

The Queen Kat Designs blog party has been in full play and it still has a ways to go. I have the next three days and at the end of my party one person will be receiving a stamp set from QKD! I hope you take some time to do these fun party challenges.

DAY 1 BLOG PARTY CHALLENGE:
Let me know what your favorite Queen Kat Designs stamp set in my comments section.

Queen Kat Designs Store

BONUS:
Make a card using your favorite QKD stamp(s) for an extra entry created totally with QKD stamps only.

DETAILS: Every day I will put all the qualifying entries in a hat and at the end of the three days I'll randomly pull a name out of the hat.

YIP-EE!!!

Baby, It's COLD!

Life has been very busy for me lately and I haven't been able to get to stamping, blogging, fun... you know the things I enjoy in life. Boy, am I missing my inking time but praise God for His blessings in my life none the less! Anyhow, our weather has finally caught up with its usual winter self. So long to our the mild 10 to 20 below that we have enjoyed. Since the weekend we've been at 42 BELOW! When you account for the wind chill it can get as cold as 60 below. Baby, it's cold outside!!! My husband won't be going to work tomorrow not for a snow day but for a too cold day. I pray that the electricity stays on or we are going to be in a world of frostbite. Maybe I'll get to stamp tomorrow while Andrew is home. That would be nice.

An Evening Well Spent

I know I mention my best friend Laurie a whole lot and here I am mentioning her again. Laurie hosted an evening for us ladies from church to get together and stamp for our nation's heroes...our service men and women. All the cards that we made will be sent to cardsforheroes.org. It was an evening well spent.






PHOTO DETAILS:
Laurie gave me permission to share the photos that she took of us ladies stamping at her house. Thanks Laurie for sharing! It was a wonderful evening of fellowship and fun. You are an encourager and a blessing. :-)


We used a mix of Stampin' Up!, The Angel Company, Paper Trey, My Favorite Things, and Queen Kat Designs stamps.

YOU Make My Day

I was deeply moved and surprised to see that Florence of Flossie's Follies included me in the "You Make My Day" award. Thank you Florence for the award. It makes me smile.

So what 10 people will you give the "You Make My Day" award to because if you are reading this post you have totally made my day! Consider yourself awarded. SMILES!!!

I Love My BUG!

My sweet husband was with me the only time I saw a Cricut demonstrated. He was so impressed that he turned and said, "How come you don't have one of these things? This is the kind of tool that I'd want if I were you." My reaction, "Humm...me and a Cricut? Yep, I would use one of those." Big SMILES! So for Christmas I found myself the proud owner of my very own Cricut!

It wasn't until we came home from the holidays that I was able to actually touch and play with my new tool. I didn't want to waste any of my expensive paper on my first go around so I choose some paper that I hadn't used for a long while. I was surprised with the outcome. The card, envie, and flowers were the first to be cut. I think that the only thing that will limit me with the endless uses of this machine is my imagination. OH WHAT FUN! Blessed indeed!

Another blessing has been getting to know everyone with Queen Kat Designs. I used stamps from QKD's upcoming release called "Feeling Blocks" to make this card and matching envelope. Their acrylic stamps are truly unique in that they are thick like rubber and sticky. This makes them really easy to stamp with and I just LOVE them!

Thank you Andrew for my BUG and thank you Queen Kat for the stamps.

CARD DETAILS:
Queen Kat Designs "Feeling Blocks"
Costco Cardstock
Dollar Store Designer Paper
Palette Ink
Ribbon
Stickles
Princess Brad

Mojo Monday #19

Have you had a chance to find your MoJo with Julee's Monday sketch #19? I know I've found mine. It's more like flexing my stamping mus-cles. I am so out of practice by being out of town too long and I am just now getting back on track. It's gonna be a whole lot of late night stamping until I feel like I am up to par. It seems that midnight is the only time I can get anything done without interruption or commitments. I don't know if it's worth giving up some of my precious sleep... well maybe it is. *WINK-WINK*

Thanks Julee for the fun sketch.

CARD DETAILS:
Clear Dollar Stamps "Monkey Madness"
My Mind's Eye Papers
Palette Ink Burnt Umber
Prisma Color Pencils with Gamsol
Eyelets
Fibers
Scrapper's Floss
Crystal Lacquer






NOTE:
Monkey Madness from Clear
Dollar Stamps is so cute!!! You should see all their latest designs! I LOVE the entire collection. Hey, if by chance you give them a visit and fill your shopping cart full, please be sure to let them know that you found their site through me. It's part of their incentive plan. :-)

THANK YOU!

It was so nice to come home and find our post office box full of Christmas joy from you all. Here's a slide show of all the fabulous cards we received. Vicki from Queen Kat Designs sent me a really cute one to us in California and when I find out where I unpacked it I'll post it too.

SMILES!