Happy Birthday Hop!!

Welcome. Have you noticed that we are celebrating the birth of Denami Design Stamps all month long?  They have been in business for 24 years!! What an accomplishment!

On their birthday page, they have been offering a lot of opportunities for people to win prizes, gift certificates, and even some goodies from their wishlists! Check it out!

Today it's all about a hop though, and I'm first on the list. A bit intimidating I must admit:)

You can win one of three gift certificates just for participating in today's hop. Two lucky hoppers will win a gift certificate just for commenting! 

And best of all...?

You won't know just how BIG your gift certificate amount will be (but more than regular for sure) until the winners are announced on Tuesday! Wooh wee I love a good surprise!

On to my project...

I created a multi-layered diorama style card.

What a blast this was:)

Each layer was stamped and colored and cut out before assembling.

The back is where the recipient's name and a personal message will be written.

And it easily folds flat to fit in an envelope for mailing!

 I can think of so many Denami stamps that would be perfectly suited for cute scenes in this style!

How about all the darling animals like in a jungle or a zoo? Or the tree stamp with falling leaves and the scarecrow? The hardest part for me was just deciding on WHAT stamps to use! *chuckle*

Here's a list:

Spring Flowers Set (cling)

Flower Bloom

Sm. Pointsettia Blossom

Brushed Butterfly

Mini Butterfly

Grass Border

Mini Grass

Elegant Oval Frame

Happy Birthday (cling)

Garden Accents Set

Your next stop in this fun birthday hop is Stacy!

Be sure to leave some love along the way, and if you hit an impasse, the Denami blog has a list of all the participants so you can resume the inspiration parade!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DENAMI

Thanks for stopping by, good luck!

XOXO

Happy Thoughts

Hiya! I need some happy thoughts right now, so why not share them and hope they come back to me, right? Isn't that what Karma is all about? *smile*

This card is actually for a gal pal who needs some encouragement. I'm hoping to brighten her day. The bright, rich tones of red and green with the fun splash of blue would make ME smile, I know:)

Background was stamped with Countdown, and the flower was made with the ribbon and tree stem from Calm & Gentle, and the center is from Loving Thoughts.

Sentiment is also from Calm & Gentle. 

Does it seem like I love my Casual Friday Stamps? *grin* Because I DO!!

Thanks for stopping by today,

XOXO

Pin-Spired

 

Woohoo for Wednesday!

No reason really...just feeling happy:)

 

I love perusing Pinterest when my mojo is faltering, so these Pin-spired challenges that Paulina gives us are so much fun.

Look at this crazy cake! *chuckle*

My kids are allergic to synthetic food dyes, so rarely would something like this appear in my baking repetoire, but it looks fun anyway:)

 

Denami Supplies used:

 

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Gamma Green glitter

Christmas ribbon sampler

Confetti twine pack

White Boutique Buttons

Pastel Cardstock Sampler

Elegant Cardstock Sampler

Summer Cardstock Sampler

 

To see how some of the other girls on the team were inspired by this fun cake, check out the Denami Blog. Then link your own creation up and play along with us!

 

Thanks for stopping by,

XOXO

(Almost) Wordless Tuesday

I'm not feeling very talkative, but wanted to share this card I made a while ago for a friend.

Supplies

Image stamps: PTI

Sentiment stamp: Casual Friday Stamps

Papers: PTI and Basic Grey

Ink: Fresh (Impress)

Buttons: Denami

Thanks for stopping by!

XOXO

Fun news!

Hello, hello!

It's finally March. *happy sigh*

I'm looking forward to my upcoming birthday even though I will be 36:)

Remember my goodbye post last week about stepping down from the CAS-ual Friday challenge blog?

Well... *grin* I stepped down because Michele asked me to be on the brand new Design Team for Casual Friday Stamps!!! 

Wahoo!

I have never said YES to something so fast in my life:)

I loved designing for CAS-ual Fridays (I created and posted for 91 challenges!), but I've never been clean & simple girl at heart. I like lots of layers, details and eye candy. Case in point: After I created the card above, I went back and added rhinestones to the centers of the flowers *chuckle* It just needed something...more, YKWIM?

Stamps used:

Beanstalks

Casual Elegance

Loving Thoughts

WTF

I stamped the image panel (watercolor paper) with several flowers and vines and then embossed them in white. Then I went back in with some watercolor crayons and put color where I wanted it. After "washing" it with my brush and allowing the colors to bleed a bit, I wiped the color off the embossed parts with a paper towel. These are the watercolor crayons I used:

I'm happy dancing along with the rest of the new Ink Squad Design Team! And believe me, you will LOVE the new sets coming up in the next few months. Michele is a mastermind at creating just what is missing from our stamping arsenals. I promise you won't be disappointed!

Go welcome the other girls too:

                           Dana Seymour <---That's me:)

Laurie Willison

Lisa Addesa

Lynn Mangan

Michelle Woerner

Piali Biswas

Virginia Lu

Thanks for stopping by today and sharing in my fun news! 

I'm so excited to get the ball rolling!

XOXO

Spring tags

Hi Friends! I'm posting from my phone, so forgive the LO of this post.

We are having a mini hop today to see the many ways you can use the grass border stamp from Denami. It's on sale all week!

I created three spring tags using lots of Denami goodness:)

The snow here has me yearning for the green grass and good things growing in my garden, not to mention the bunnies in my yard each spring! I'm done with winter.

Denami suplies used:

Grass Border

Solid Egg

Gingham

Veggies stamp set

Bunny Border

Spring Greetings

Assorted Greetings

Confetti twine

Pastel twine

Classic Cardstock

For lots of sweet ideas using the grass border, check out the hop stops below.

Each time you comment, you increase your chances of actually WINNING this sweet grass border stamp! *wink*

DeNami blog
Lisa Petrella
Deb Wabbe
Wendy Elliot
Emily Keaton
Lisa Elton
Kanani Kawamura
Dana Seymour <<-----you are here
Tammy Hobbs  

Thanks for stopping by today,

XOXO

New stamps and a tutorial

Hey there!

Back to the grindstone Monday:(

I have a tutorial up on the Casual Friday Stamps blog this morning to explain how I created this metal embossed panel.

I used three stamps sets: Beanstalks, Loving Thoughts, and Calm & Gentle.

Go check it out, it's quick and easy I promise!

Here's a sneak:

I used the same technique last week for my CAS-ual Friday challenge card too. Scroll down to see or click here.

Now for some cards I made using the new releases at Casual Friday Stamps!

Oh my am I loving these stamps. Seriously. The best sentiments in the business!

Stamps: Only You 

Stamps: Breathe

Stamps: Breathe

Stamps: Beanstalks

Stamps: Beanstalks

So what do you think? Aren't the new sets from Casual Friday Stamps awesome? Lots of possibilities:)

Thanks for stopping by today!

XOXO

CAS-ual Fridays (Silver)

This is a really sad post for me.

It's my last as a Girl Friday with CAS-ual Fridays. *sniff sniff*

I've been cranking out the Clean and Simple designs since day one of the CAS-ual Friday blog inception.

Now I'm leaving...:(

and I'm so sad! *wail*

This week our challenge is to incorporate silver into your design.

I chose to cut up a soda can, flip it over, stamp my design and then use a stylus to emboss along the stamped lines. Flip it over again and voila! 

Stamps are Truth Is and Casual Elegance. 

Cardstock is from Avery Elle.

I've had so much fun working with some super nice and incredibly talented designers with this team. And, Michele is AMAZING to work for. Really. She is a stand-out woman that girl. I don't honestly know how she does it all, and still manages to keep a smile on her face, manage her own home and family and keep all of us Girl Fridays in line. Phewww. She's a whirlwind, funny as all get out, and such a truly good soul. I'm blessed to have worked with her!

We are sponsored by 

Ribbons Unlimited this week and I know they have some gorgeous things in their store.

I hope you join us at CAS-ual Fridays this week! I will definitely play along once I am no longer on the team because who doesn't love a good Clean & Simple design? *smile*

It's been fun!

Thanks for stopping by,

XOXOX

Hipster

Hi all! I'm posting a card I created last week just for fun. Sometimes it's cathartic to just stamp and be creative for no reason other than you are "feeling it!" I'm sending this to my friend Travis. He's a total hipster (he READS my blog!), and I know he will appreciate this:) *waves* Hi Travis! 

I received this cute set from Avery Elle in the mail and couldn't wait to ink it up. I LOVE that mustache ! *giggle*

Papers are Echo Park (a walk in the park), cardstock and stamps are Avery Elle. 

Thanks for stopping by,

XOXOX

CAS-ual Fridays (B&W plus 1)

Happy Friday everyone! Hope you all had a lovely St. Valentine's Day.

This week's CAS-ual Friday challenge is one of my favorites. 

There is something so calming about black and white cards, isn't there? 

The touches of red I added here are vibrant though because the sentiment is so important in this instance. I wanted it to be eye-catching.

I used two sets from our sponsor, Casual Friday Stamps.

Casual Elegance (vine images) and a BRAND NEW set that released last night, Only You (sentiment). I really love the sentiments in this set. 

They are unique yet heartfelt and appropriate for many occasions. Go check out the three new sets that debuted last night...They are awesome.

Join us by linking up your best black and white plus one color creation to the CAS-ual Friday blog! We can't wait to see:)

Thanks for stopping by,

XOXO

Saint Valentine

Happy St. Valentine's Day! (or Lupercalia)

I promise not to way poetic about how the "saint" part is always dropped by everyone. But it sure does bug me. We don't go around saying Happy Patrick's Day, do we? *tsk tsk*

Anyway, I created this card for my sister Perrin, because her favorite color is purple, and this sweet digital image reminds me of Ramona Quimby, the pesky little sister to Beatrice. She's such a hoot! Remember those books by Beverly Cleary?

I sent my boys to school today with little notes in their lunchboxes. Here's a terrible photo taken last night with my phone:

I will make a special dinner tonight and the non-dairy chocolate mousse with fresh organic raspberries is already chilling in the refrigerator for dessert.

And I bought myself a present too...*smile*

Wanna see?

A new nose ring! LOL

I pierced my nose in college when I was about 20. Except for the short time I worked at a private Hebrew school in MA, I have always worn a teeny, tiny nose stud. I actually wear it backwards (with the ball pushed through from the inside). As a Federal Officer with the USDA, I'm in the public eye a majority of the time for work, so it needs to be subtle.

However, I decided to branch out and purchased this darling silver heart from Etsy. It arrived last night and I'm thrilled with it! I will probably go back to my regular tiny silver stud when February is over, but for now I'm rocking the heart on my nose!

Thanks for stopping by today, I hope you have a wonderful day!

XOXO

Scalloped circle fun

 

Hi! I know this photo is terribly blurry, but I forgot to load my real image into a blog post before leaving town, so this was "stolen" from my Denami DT group. *smile*

 

We are showcasing the simple, yet highly versatile cling Circle Scallop stamp from Denami today.

 

This card was a total labor of love and while creating it I noticed that the scallop circle can be used to look like pie crust! LOL

Yep, seriously.

Look at the block on my card that is all the way to the right in the middle row.

It looks like a pie, doesn't it?

*grin*

 

Denami Supplies used:

Circle Scallop (cling)

Garden Accents stamp set

Thoughtful Greetings stamp set

Ivory grosgrain ribbon

Black Rhinestones

 

To see what the rest of the team has created with this stamp, stop by the Denami blog!

And remember, the sale is only good for one week.

 

Thanks for stopping by today,

XOXO

Some Valentines

Hello hello! 

My boys and I made valentines for friends, family, and classmates this weekend.

I allowed them to use my Copic markers for the first time *biting my nails* and they were thrilled!

I created this card which is a total case of this one, because I fell in love with this sassy, glasses-wearing girl image after seeing it, and immediately went and purchased several designs by the digital artist, Lori Boyd. This particular image is called Peyton. Isn't she a hoot?

Lori also sent me a few other images as a bonus and I have to admit to falling for them too:)

Talk about awesome Customer Service. That kind of  generosity really makes me glad to support such artists!

 

Here are the ones my older son made, also using some digital stamps by Lori Designs.

And after my youngest picked out what small "gift" he wanted to give his classmates this year (mini magnifying lenses), he and I created these: 

They say: "Hey Valentine, I've had my eye on you!"

So there you have it...a few things for St. Valentine's Day!

Thanks for stopping by,

XOXO