Friday Favorite Things Winner!

Hooray! The winner of this week's Friday Favorite Things Metallic Marker giveaway is

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I'll be back later this weekend with the October SOTM blog hop (yippee!) and don't forget there's only a couple fo days left to nab your National Stamping Month special stamp set for just $5!

Have a fab weekend!

10 things sitting on my stamp table

Stasha over at Northwest Mommy has a new Listicles up, Ten Things in my Home. Since I spend most of my middle of the night "free" time up in my Stamp Pad, I choose... 

Ten Random Things in my Stamp Pad right now.

1. Three pink glittery mittens left over from last weekend's card making (because I apparently can't count to twenty reliably).

2. Two mismatched boys sneakers which have neither partners nor boys who fit that size.

3. My brand new blinged out rhinestone encrusted stapler scored at Target after back to school!

4. My new mini fridge (also scored at Target - $30!!)...but that's still in the box so far...

5. An empty bag of Kettle chips...hmmm..wonder who ate those?

6. A display of most of the stuff I've made all summer left over from Open House...much nicer than the usual piles of stuff on my counter waiting to be put away.

7. Don't look that way...don't...stink...fine, the usual piles of stuff still waiting to be put away that I shoved over in that corner after deciding that would be good enough for Open House.

8. A picture frame made by Gabe in Kindergarten covered in aqua glitter and random gemstones because my sweet boy loves bling almost more than I do.

 9. Six half empty bottles of Liquid Glass... because I'm always positive I am almost out and need another bottle, which I then have to use right away because the tip is so nice and clean.

10. One tired mommy who should be sleeping but is instead blogging because Stasha writes super funny lists that make me want to play Listicles even when I should be in my snug cozy bed!

See y'all Friday for Friday Favorite Things - nighty night!

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Pearl Paint and Cuttlebug

This is the card that my team made at our meeting Monday night. I just love the new Avonlea papers - so elegant! We used the October SOTM along with a bit of Grey Baker's Twine and a fabulous Bling button. I'm linking this post up to the Heart 2 Heart Christmas Time Part 1 Challenge.

For this team meeting project I taught some fun techniques using Pearl Paint. The polka dot background is done using a dotty Cuttlebug embossing folder, Pearl Paint, and a brayer. Every embossing folder has two sides - one is bumpy and the other is indented. For this technique you brayer a small amount of pearl paint over the indented side of your embossing folder. Then when you emboss your image, the background gets coated in the Pearl Paint while the embossed or raised pattern remains paint free!

Here's a closer look at the background with just the embossing/paint applied. Can you see how the background is pearly and the dots are not? 

And here I tilted the card to pick up all the sheen I could off the Pearl Paint. I distressed the embossed/painted CS with Slate Ink to bring out the dots even more. I painted the ornament with the Pearl Paint as well - never can have too much sparkle and shine, right?

I'm probably going to be missing in action until announcing the winner of the fab Metallic Markers giveaway on Friday Favorite Things. I just found the link again for entering the World Card Making Day contest, so I'm thinking it might be time to hole up and see what shakes out! Anyone else game for entering? 

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Retro Sketches meets Play Date Cafe!

Monday night I hosted my monthly Stamping Rules team meeting called Monday Motivations. I just love these team nights when my stamping peeps gather round! This is my card for our fun team swap, based on this week's sketch from Retro Sketches with color inspiration from Playdate Cafe.

I embossed the background with a snowflake cuttlebug folder, then swiped over the surface with CTMH's new Cashmere ink to bring out the snowy texture. The mittens are rolled in Blush and Baby Pink inks. This stamp set is the October Stamp of the Month (SOTM) and it coordinates with the new Artiste Cricut Cartridge. I found with the mittens that I actually preferred to cut the mittens 1/4" smaller than recommended for the image so I didn't have to even try to line it up. A bit of Stardust Glitz Gel finished off my toasty warm mittens! And yes, I did cut that sentiment in half very, very carefully with my microtip scissors.

And here's the line up of adorable swap cards from my fabulous team (plus some fun team friends!">): Theo, LeighAnne, Linnea, Elaine, Cathy, Carolyn, Kelly, and Amanda. Thanks for a  super fun night, ladies!

Only a couple more days to enter to win that fab set of our new Metallic Markers for Friday's Favorite Things! Check out how LeighAnne used them to outline her cute bat card above!

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I've got some fun Pearl Paint techniques coming your way this week from the hands-on that my team did tonight at our meeting. Until then, WARMEST WISHES!

Color Throwdown!

I'm back! I know I've been a little out of the loop the past couple weeks, getting my family settled  into new school routines, and canning tons of tomatoes and applesauce! It felt so good to get back into my Stamp Pad this weekend. I needed that infusion of girl time, ink, and chocolate...I just LOVE my stamping friends!

To jump back into the inky pool, I grabbed a color challenge from Color Throwdown. I got out next month's Stamp of the Month, which is my favorite SOTM of this whole catalog! It's so adorable and it works with the Cricut. I've got a card for that later this week, but today I'm sharing a non-Holiday theme for this card! I took the big December 25th Sentiment stamp and inked just the top in Sweet Leaf and Lagoon ink. Then I made my own "Damask" pattern in each little square of my card. I added dots of shimmer to the damask pattern with the new Metallic Markers, which are a felt tipped wonder - I love them so much, I'm going to be giving away a set on Friday Favorite Things this week!

And the burlap. Oh! What can I say about the burlap? I didn't even know I NEEDED it until it was here in my inky paws. For this flower I cut the edging off the burlap ribbon...and used that edging to create my flower instead of the actual ribbon!  I wrapped the border edging back and forth in a figure eight, then secured it with a bit of wire. I peeled off a few individual strands to mix in behind with the wider ribbon border and topped it off with a Rhinestone Designer Brad. 

Ooh - you can see the tip of my nail in the pic - have you seen Jamberry yet? I almost never get a manicure, because I mess it up before I leave the salon unless it's shellac. This is like vinyl stickers that you heat up and apply - it's lasted through canning, cooking, bathing the boys, and cleaning reinker out of my spray pens with no staining. So fab! 

Here's the Rafflecopter to enter for Friday's Metallic Marker Giveaway. 

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And don't forget you can RSVP for next month's Fabulous Frame Workshop (or get the Consultant Kit) now! I revamped the Consultant Kit page to make it easier to read, too, thanks, to some help from my Stamping Peeps. You won't want to miss this workshop - 6 kinds of layered flowers and LOTs of glitter! 

I hope y'all have a wonderful week full of family, friends, and lots of stamps...

'cause that's what I'm planning to do!