Home Sweet Snowy Home

Well, I have to say that it's good to be home.  After an amazing time at CHA, (travel woes and all), I finally arrived home early yesterday evening.  I have to tell you that it sure was hard leaving this:

70 degree sunny Huntington Beach

 To come home to this:

18 inches of snow on our deck.  (This is not a drift.)  The snow is all the way up to the seat of the deck chairs.

CHA was wonderful!  I met some amazing new friends, reconnected with special friends, and enjoyed the sights and sounds of CHA, taking in all the crafty wonderfulness in it's entirety!!!  Here's a few pictures for you to enjoy...

A view of the mountains from the plane.

 The Scrapping Cottage booth.  Greg did an amazing job building this!  It's sooooo cute!!!

 Greg and Joanne right before the show opened.  Taking pictures and preparing for the crowd.

 Joanne and Barry ready for the make and take demonstrations.

 

Kathy J.  always smiling!

 Had to get a picture of this star.  Just watched Gentlemen Prefer Blondes again a few weeks ago.  LOVE that movie.

 For all you American Idol fans, here's the front of the Kodak Theatre.

I leave you with this beautiful shot of the Pacific Ocean.  What a glorious way to end the day!!  Thanks for stopping by, and happy stamping!

Checking in...

Hello my stamping friends!  Just a quick check in while I have computer access.  CHA was wonderful, and I had a great time.  Met some amazing and talented people, and can't wait to share more.  I WILL do just that if I ever get home.  After trying to take an early flight home yesterday, and that flight being diverted to Denver because of the storm in Kansas City, I ended up having to fly back to Los Angeles, and here I will be until I can once again get a flight to Kansas City. 

I hope those of you who are experiencing this storm are hanging in there, and staying safe and warm.  Hopefully I can head home by Thursday, and until then, happy stamping!!!

Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge #89

Good morning!  I'm still away enjoying CHA in Los Angeles, but couldn't let the day go by without sharing the latest Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge with you.

I'm keeping my post short and sweet, but please stop by the Midnight Madness Blog and check out all the amazing samples from our talented designers, and be sure to play along, because we have some wonderful sponsors giving away great prizes!!!

Have a glorious day, and happy stamping!!

Hogs and Kisses

Good morning!  I'm on my to warm, and sunny LA ( I HOPE!) for Winter CHA, but had to hop on here and share my Hogs and Kisses card with you.

Hubby's hurrying me out the door, because we have a two hour drive to the airport, so this is short and sweet.  I made this with some of the newly released Cottage Impressions stamps from The Scrapping Cottage.  This Pig Stamp is soooooo cute, and living on a farm, makes this new line of stamps very near and dear to my heart!  There's so many cute ones in this set, and I know I'm going to have to have them all!!!  Thanks for stopping by!!  Have a beautiful day, and happy stamping!

Crazy 4 Cocoa Challenge #9

Good morning!  For my Crazy 4 Cocoa Challenge this week, I created this cute card using buttons, which is the challenge.  To use buttons on your card or project.  I pulled my Cosmo Cricket Material Girl stack out for this card, which had buttons on it, and then used the tiny little green buttons for embellishment, so I'm covered on the button part. 

I colored this Sew Happy Cocoa digital image from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps with my Copics, and followed the Sweet Stop Sketch challenge for the layout.  I just love the way this cute little card turned out, and it will be perfect for a Thank You Sew Much card.  We had a lot of wonderful entries last week, so if you're a Cocoa fan, show us what you're doing with your stamps, and join all the rest of the Cocoa Crazies!!

I have been busy, busy, busy getting ready for CHA,  but I wanted to share these pictures with you that Allen took this morning when he went out to feed the cattle.  We had what they call a Hoarfrost last night, and everything is so frosty and beautiful this morning.  He grabbed the camera so that he could snap some photos before it disappears.

 The sun was coming up behind these trees in our yard, creating that pretty pink glow.

 Some of the cattle enjoying their breakfast.

 Messy eater, but so cute!!

 The barbed wire fence around the hay covered with the frost.

 Mr. Cardinal stopping by for a bit of breakfast.

Allen took these through the window of the French doors. 

Not bad!  Thank heaven the window was clean!!  ;)

Thanks for stopping by today.  I leave Friday morning for warm and sunny Los Angeles and all the splendor of CHA.  Bet there's no Hoarfrost there.   Have a beautiful day!  

Peachy Keen Challenge #44

Good morning!  I have another Peachy Keen Challenge coming your way, and this week, we have a sketch with a twist.  I LOVE sketches, and this one was designed by our very own Viv.  I REALLY had fun with this, and the twist on this sketch is to do a monochromatic color scheme.  I was so anxious to ink up this adorable Pk-282 St. Patrick's Day stamp set from Peachy Keen Stamps, that I kinda spaced about the monochromatic thing.  Thankfully, my shamrock paper saved me, because there's a whole bunch of shades of green there.  

I colored this with Copics, but I'm not at all happy with my little fella's beard.  I went too dark with my red tones, and couldn't get the dimension I wanted after going so dark.  That happens sometimes when using darker colors, so you see, we ALL make mistakes we're not happy with, and I've just shared one of my oopsies with you.  I heat embossed the Pot O Gold with gold embossing powder, and I love that the gold coins, punched from metallic gold card stock work as one of the elements in this sketch.  The stars were punched with SU star punches out of like colored card stock, inked with Versamark, and sprinkled with heat and stick powder.  Once the heat and stick powder is melted and REALLY sticky, then a good dousing of gold and green glitter were applied.  This is a great way to sparkle things up, but once you heat set it after you've applied the glitter, it doesn't fall off everywhere.  Heat and stick powder is a wonderful thing, and I get mine from Stampin' Up!.   I finished this card off with some gold cord behind my leprechaun, and some green rhinestones down the side of the large panel.  That pretty much does it for this card!  

Be sure to check out the Peachy Keen Stamps Challenge Blog to see all the wonderful creations from our amazing and talented designers.  We have a special guest designer this week, too!!  Erika has some amazing creations to share that will amaze and inspire you, so please be sure to visit her blog to let her know how much you love what she's doing with her Peachy Keen Stamps.  I sure hope you get the chance to play along with this challenge, because one lucky winner will receive a K&Co. Valentine Design package valued at $20.00.  We had LOTS of players for our last challenge, and the cards were ALL wonderful!  I can't wait to see what our Peachy Keen fans do with this one!!

Thanks for dropping by today!  I'm so happy you could join me for a little bit.  I hope you leave inspired to do some happy stamping!  Have a wonderful day!!

Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge #88

This weeks sketch...it's "YOUR PICK" Make it fancy, clean and simple, or somewhere in-between. Remember to click on the sneak peek button on the side bar for the following weeks sketch each Friday.

YOUR CHOICE

Enter one or both this week.                                                         

    

Just have fun and come play with us :)

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Our MMSC87 Gold Star Award goes to...

#59 Grace N.

Our Remarkables Awards this week go to...

#21 Karin van Eijk
#53 Julie Glasgow
#54 Nancy Brown
Please grab your award logos from the side bar and display them proudly :)

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Our MMSC87 Weekly Bonus Winner is...
#14 Brigitte

Please contact Priscilla with your info to claim your Bonus Prizes!!! :)

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*Our MMSC88 weekly Bonus sponsor is.....

http://www.thebearyscrap.com

The Beary Scrap is an online scrapbooking boutique carrying a little bit of  everything for all types of paper crafters at 20% off retail pricing every day!  Our stock includes gorgeous papers and embellishments by top manufacturers like  Graphic 45, Bo Bunny, My Mind's Eye, and Echo Park. We carry gorgeous German  Glass Glitter, Copic markers and Magnolia stamps as well as custom made mulberry  papers and unique tear bear patterns. You are sure to find something "beary  sweet" for your next project. Come visit our design team blog for loads of fun  inspiration and twice-monthly challenges!

Thank you so much Susan for your fabulous prize!!

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**Our January Monthly sponsor is....

http://www.lindystampgang.com/
Click HERE to see the Fantastic Prizes.

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Here my card for this week.  I hope you likey!!

I had fun with this cute Be Mine Kitty digital  image from Priscillastyles Store.  I colored it with my Copics, and for this card, I used some wonderful Bo Bunny Valentine paper, along with card stock which I dry embossed with a heart embossing folder.  The hearts were punched using the triple heart punch from Stampin' Up, and while you can't see it in this photo, below you can see that I added some of those wonderful stains from Lindy's Stamp Gang, for added sparkle to the hearts.

We'd love it if you could play along with the Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge this week, and before you do, you can visit the MMSC Blog for oodles of inspiration from all of our incredibly talented designers. Thanks so much for stopping by today!  I wish you a glorious day, and happy stamping!