UIT: Birthday Blog Hop!

We have a little excitement this week at Use It Tuesday…you know why? It is our 1 year Blogiversary and we are celebrating with a blog hop and presents! (And cake with ice cream, too…please excuse the frosting on our keyboards…)

I am the very last stop on the hop! You should have arrived here from Sami’s blog. Be sure to stop by the entire design team’s blogs as well as the Use It Tuesday blog because we have hidden prizes all along the way!

Now, being we are the blog that encourages you to use your stash, we don’t usually do ‘prizes’ per say, but hey, this is a PARTY after all! And what is a party without presents?! (…and the aforementioned cake and ice cream!)

So, how can you win?

1. Hidden along our hop are prizes on each of our design team member’s blogs! Leave each of us a comment and you will have an opportunity to win. Easy as that!
2. Play with us! Link your creation to our challenge post using Inlinkz; one lucky participant will win a GRAND PRIZE package donated by our fabulous sponsors!
3. You MUST be a follower of the Use It Tuesday blog to win!

As always, our winner will chosen by the Inlinkz Froggy. In order to win, you MUST mention that you are playing with us at Use It Tuesday, make a project that meets our guidelines, AND tell us what hoarded supplies you used! And…of course, the grand prize winner will be asked to guest design for us in an upcoming challenge!

Now, on to the challenge! This week is all about our 1 year blogiversary; we want to see a project that has to do with BIRTHDAYS! Simply link your creation to our challenge post using Inlinkz by Friday, Februrary 24th.

For my project, I was lucky enough to be sponsored by Sami at SP and Company!

I used her Mini Card Creations I and II sets! I just love the look of smaller card for attaching to a gift...and yet they are big enough to also fit a gift card perfectly! For my card, I still used a ton of hoarded supplies. I hate to admit, that ribbon was bought off eBay in 2005. Oh yes, I got like 3 yards of all the Stampin' UP colors! LOL And the Pool Party paper had NEVER been used.

And I could not stop there...this set is just so fun! I made a few extra little 4x4 cards for my kids to use on gifts. Plus it is had been forever since I had the opportunity to craft, so I had to take advantage of it!

You have the chance to win the Mini Card Creations set from SP and Company by leaving me a comment with your contact information by February 24th. A winner will be randomly chosen, so good luck!

We want to thank our other FABULOUS sponsors, too! A full list, as well as a peek as what is in the Grand Prize package is linked on the Use It Tuesday blog. :) And since I am the last stop on the hop, don't forget to make your birthday creation and link it up in time to win it!

Thanks for stopping by!

UIT: All About Winter

This week at Use It Tuesday our theme is All About Winter...and boy do I know all about that! I know all about it to the tune of -42F (the coldest I have personally experienced). I can honestly say that seeing temps that low was certainly NOT on my bucket list of 'must dos' but hey, the Northern Lights were and I guess you have to pay in some way to experience such beauty. (Kind of like the pain of eyebrow waxing??!)

Anyway, we would LOVE to have you join us this week! Use your hoarded supplies, link up your creation, and play away! You have until Jan 20th!

This card was particularly fun because DH bought me the PTI Stamps and matching dies last Christmas and they had yet to see ink! I love working with the matchy-matchy stamps/dies they have! Plus, I used up another SU ribbon slide and ribbon from a dusty multi-pack!

Hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Joy...and The Hunt

This year I decided to include a card with my annual Christmas story...because the card's sentiment is exactly how I feel when I retell this year after year...

For the past 3 years, I have shared a story here on my blog. It is about the Christmas spirit and trust me, it will be worth the read! It is my favorite Holiday story ever...and one that I never tire of telling! I hope you will take the time to read it. :)

Historically I get a lot of comments asking if readers can share the link to this post. In short: Absolutely!

It was December 22, 2001. We were living in Utah at the time. I was 8 months pregnant with my second child, had a 22 month old baby running around, my husband was living in Egypt for a year (for work), and we had our house up for sale. Yes, life was a little chaotic, but good!

Due to my husband's inability to make it home for Christmas, our dear friends had invited my son and I over for Christmas dinner. Awesome! My son is the pickiest eater EVER, so making turkey and the fixings only for myself would have been depressing.

At 6:30 pm on the 22nd, my doorbell rang. I answered it and was greeted by some overly cheerful people wearing reindeer antlers and Santa hats.

"Hello!" they exclaimed, "We are on a Christmas Scavenger Hunt and hope you can help us!"

"Sure," I said, intrigued by this proposal, "what are you looking for?"

"Well," the lady replied, "We are trying to provide a needy family with enough food for Christmas breakfast and dinner. Do you happen to have some green beans, a pound of bacon, or rolls?"

I excused myself and went to check. Opening the pantry door, I was reminded of the fact I was not cooking anything this year! No green beans...no rolls in the fridge...and no bacon. Darn! This was such a cool scavenger hunt and I really wanted to help!

"Sorry," I sadly said to the cheerful hunters, "I don't have any of those items."

"Oh, that's OK," she gleefully replied. "We are also taking donations to buy the family a gift card from Target so they can do some Christmas shopping. Would you care to donate to that?"

I ran to my purse as well as I could being so pregnant! Opening my wallet I realized I literally had NO money. Nope...not even a dollar. How embarrassing!

I sulked back to the door and had to tell them how sorry I was I could not help. "But good luck to you," I exclaimed!

About 8:45 pm my doorbell rang yet again. Oh my...now it is getting late. Who could this be? I opened the door to see 25 people on my porch spilling onto the walkway and into my front yard. Candles were lit and carols were being sung. Before I could react, they were in my house, delivering boxes upon boxes of toys and food.

"Merry Christmas," the same jolly lady replied, "Part of our scavenger hunt was finding the needy family...and YOU are it!"

I was literally speechless. Of course, being hormonal, I started to cry. What a dismal sight I must have been...BIG pregnant, young child, house up for sale, no husband in sight! All I could do was stand there. There was no telling them to stop! They were SO HAPPY to have found me! I could not bear to tell them I was NOT the needy family!

They only stayed for a few minutes, finishing a beautiful rendition of Silent Night and Joy to the World, ending with a round of hugs from all. After they left, I stood there with a tear stained face just looking at the boxes upon boxes of things, wondering what I should do with it all.

The next morning, I called our church office and relayed my story of the night before. By divine intervention just hours before my call, 2 needy families contacted my church asking for immediate help. I quickly loaded my Ford Excursion, which was FULL to the brim with boxes, and drove over to make my special delivery. It felt so good passing this wonderful gift on to someone else who truly needed it.

Our pastor shared this story with each church service that day. It put a smile on our congregation's face and led to many jokes about my "neediness" and inability to keep anything in the pantry or a dollar in my wallet!

I love this story. Whenever I retell it, I get the same feeling in my heart as the day it happened. It is truly a testament to the generosity of strangers and the true meaning of Christmas.

May the joy of the season bring warmth to your heart as it did mine.

Hopping with Amber Ink!

eta: Good grief! Those elves have been naughty today! My picture was there when I looked at 6:20 this AM...then I had to do some 'magic' to the html code to get the icons below to work...I think the 'magic' erased my picture! Sorry! :)

Hello from the North Pole! (Literally...I live 10 minutes from North Pole, Alaska!) And welcome to our second annual Amber Ink Holiday blog hop. This year our alumni are tapping in to their inner elves for some fun and frolic.

We've made our list but you'll probably want to check it twice.
Or check it thrice. We just don't know who'll be naughty or nice.

There are 23 commenting spots to be precise
And 23 prizes to help entice.

So see those badges down below?
Roll the dice. Let elf magic flow…

Hop on Monday
Hop on Tuesday
Prizes on Wednesday

One Grand Prize winner will receive an Elf of the Shelf gift set, so be sure to visit every single elfin spot. The final list will be sent to Santa, so remember… the only person you are really competing with is your elf.

Thanks for coming. Now hop on!!!

THE ELF ON THE SHELF

And

The Fabulous Amber Ink Alumni

present our 2nd annual Holiday Blog HOP!!!

There are elves and prizes behind every badge.

Giving Thanks

Just a quick 10-minute CAS card for our challenge over at Use It Tuesday! The theme this week is 'giving thanks'...and I had fun using my hoarded washi paper tape for the project. :)

{Before we moved from Japan, I went a tad-bit crazy and bought 42 rolls of various colors/patterns of washi tape. How many cards have I made with it in the 18 months since I purchased it? Two. Until now! Yay for using my stash!}

I wish all my American friends a wonderful Thanksgiving full of fun, food, and football! And, as always, thanks for taking the time to visit my little corner of cyberspace. :)

Burrr...

Can you hear my teeth chattering? -17 this morning. Yes, that is a negative. Good day to stay inside and stamp some!

This card used up some of my much loved and hoarded SU paper from a few years back, as well as my CTMH snowflakes! I put flocking on the furry areas of Bella's outfit. She told me she prefers Arctic Fox. Expensive taste. ;)

I wish I looked this cute in my winter clothes!

Warm wishes for your week!

Cooking with UIT!

We are cooking up some fun at Use It Tuesday! We would love to have you join us by making and linking a creation that has something to do with cooking!

In addition, we are having our second Design Team call. If you are interesting in being part of an awesome team, head on over to the Use It Tuesday blog for all the details. :)

As for the card...I pulled out my neglected Cricut Imagine and used it to make the images. I also tore into my hoarded SU stash of papers for the accent pieces. And, since we are spilling the beans (or is it apples?), my Janome sew mini had to be dusted before I stitched the card. Sad. ;)

Hope you play along with us! Thanks for looking!

Daisy Birthday Wishes

Happy Friday! I have an easy 10-minute card to share today. The best part about this creation? I used my hoarded SU ribbon! (...and buttons...and stamps...)

You know the sets of 5 types of ribbon Stampin UP sells? Well, I had NO IDEA what to do with the 1 1/2" ribbon. I used it as the inspiration for the card, thus I wanted to keep it simple to showcase it.

I used the direct marker to stamp technique and finished it off with some clear embossing powder for a little pop. :)

For those of you who Pinterest, my dear friend, Sami, added a little Pin It to my blog! Isn't it cute? And how lucky am I to have a friend who helps me with all that HTML gibberish?! ;) Thanks again, Sami!!

I would love to enter this card in the following challenges:
-Crafty Ann's: Clean and Simple
-Prairie Fairy Fridays: Heat Embossing
-Inspire Me Fridays: Anything Goes
-Pals Paper Arts: Ribbon
-Simon Says Stamp: Anything Goes
-Whimsy Inspiration: Buttons
-Crafty Sentiments: No Designer Paper
-Make It Monday: Anything Goes

Wishing everyone a fabulous weekend! Thanks for stopping by!

Chocolate

This week at Use It Tuesday is all about CHOCOLATE! What fun!

I chose to dust off my Cricut Imagine and made this super easy card based on a sketch from Clean & Simple Stamping. The paper was printed from my Imagine as well, because I don't have enough paper already in my stash. **snort** ;) Of course I do...but this just matched so perfectly, I could not resist...

Used some SU ribbon from my stash, as well as the rhinestones that I got from the 100yen store while living in Japan. Stickles dressed up the cake and we finished it off with one of my favorite sentiments from Papertrey Ink!

Thanks for looking and have a fabulous week!

Favorite Flower

This post is bittersweet, as it is my last as part of the design team over at Stamp, Scrap and Doodle Saturdays. The past 8 months have been so much fun and I am forever grateful to Regina, Linda and rest of the team for their support, encouragement, and faith in my abilities. Thanks for the fun, ladies!

This week's challenge is all about your favorite color! Now how much fun is that?! I do have a little admission...I don't really have a 'favorite' color...but I was in love with the aqua fabric I found this week at Walmart (.97 for a fat quarter!...and no, I did not stop at buying one...LOL). This was so much fun to run through my Big Shot with my SU Flower die. :) This is also the very first fabric flower I have ever made. I need to work a little more with it, but overall I was happy with the result.



Our generous sponsor this week is My Creative Time! I used a sentiment from their stamp line on my card and I just love it! It is clear which I really love for placement ease, stamped crisply, and I love the font! Hope you play along with us!

Birthday Sundae

Yay for sundaes! Do you have a special childhood memory of your birthday? Mine was being able to go to Farrell's for an ice cream party! It was SUCH a big deal! And this little ice cream sundae immediately reminded me of what they would deliver to the birthday boy or girl as they were singing Happy Birthday dressed in their red and white striped uniforms! Such a fun time...

At any rate, our theme this week at Stamp, Scrap and Doodle Saturdays is BIRTHDAYS! We would love for you to create a project with that theme in mind and upload it in the challenge. There is a $15 gift certificate to Whimsy Stamps on the line! And I am using one of their images for this card...isn't it darling?!

We sure hope you play along! Have a great weekend!

Use It Challenge #15

2 posts in one week! Don't fall over! My hours at work have finally been cut back to 16 so I have a little more time for my neglected friends Paper and Ink. (Between folding socks and keeping the little monkeys fed, of course!)

I made this card for the Use It Tuesday challenge...to use an uninked stamp. The only difficult part was choosing which uninked stamp to use! And if my husband is reading this, I only had 2 to choose from. If you are a crafter, you know I may have underestimated that number just slightly. ;)

At any rate, I picked up this sweet fairy from Paper Makeup a while back. I got her to use on birthday cards. She lends herself to coloring, which I love to do. :) And the sketch came from my friend Susanne at Scrap, Stamp and Doodle Saturdays.

We would love to have you play along with us at Use It Tuesday! Link a card using an uninked stamp to the blog by 23 Sept! You know you have an uninked stamp...or 2! We would love to see what you make!

SSDS Thanks

Hello friends! Happy Saturday! Our weekend is PACKED with kids' activities. So much so in fact that I wish the drink on the card was real! :)

At any rate, at SSDS we are thrilled to be sponsored this week by Designed2Delight! Please check out the SSDS blog for all the contest info. All it takes to enter is a thank-you card! So fun!

Designed2Delight graciously allowed us to choose the image we wanted to showcase for this challenge. I am ALWAYS in need of masculine cards and tend to struggle with them. This set is fabulous and can be used for many different occasions. In fact, the beer actually had a candle coming out of the foam (hilarious!), but since I was doing a Thank You card, I just chopped it off and there you go! Easy!

Enjoy your weekend! Now that I am down to 16 hours a week, I hope to be posting and blurfing a little more regularly. :)

SSDS Sketchy Saturday

This week at Stamp, Scrap, and Doodle Saturdays we have a sketch for you to play with. And guess what? I made the sketch. ;) No pressure. LOL

This was a super fun 1-layer card! I used my SU paper, stamps and Sizzix dies as well some PTI stamps & dies, CTMH stamps & rhinestones, CM corner rounder, Cuttlebug embossing folder and American Crafts ribbon. Love when all those products come together to make something that flows. I also used up my spool of ribbon! One down, an unmentioned number to go. Heh.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend! Those of you that a little sprinkly of rain ;), hope nothing was damaged and you gained some much needed family time playing games by candlelight.

Fun With Paper

Oh goodness, has it really been 3 weeks since my last post? Wish I could say I have been busy at my craft table during that time, but sadly not so much! Working full time has been a major transition not only for my craft time, but also my family. Thankfully in the next couple of weeks I will drop to the 16 hours I was hired for and life should start resemble some set of normalcy. I hope! ;)

This week at SSDS we are sponsored by Robyn's Fetish!

I chose to play with her digital papers and I am in love! I used the Oriental Beauty paper pack to make this Asian inspired card. The way I used the paper panels reminded me of a stack of obis. :) And what is even better...this was done in under 15 minutes!

We would love to have you play with us this week! Head on over to Scrap, Stamp and Doodle Saturdays and check out the weekly challenge!

Color Me Back

Well, we are back from vacation! It had been 3 years since my kiddos had seen their cousins and grandparents. It was a fabulous time full of food, sun, and touring, despite my 11 year old's broken foot. The crutches were an added bonus for the trip. A summer to remember on so many levels! :)

I honestly think you need to have a vacation from your vacation! Laundry, cleaning, paying bills...it is difficult to get caught back up! Needless to say, blogging took a backseat and I am finally on top of things again...for now. ;)

This week at SSDS we are playing with color!! Use creme, brown and one other color of your choice for a chance to win a fabulous prize with Circle B Enterprises! I had fun pulling out a Verve set that had never been used as well as using up some of my hoarded Prima flowers. :)

For some fun news...I finally found a great job! I start on Monday...full time this week for orientation and then down to 16 hours a week. I am thrilled, excited, and honored to be back in my field!

Have a great week!

Back To School

Yes, I realize it is only June 25th. And I am obviously dreaming. Let me live in my own fantasy land!!

We are so excited to be working with Robyn's Fetish this week at SSDS! She has some darling digital images, one of which that I used here on my card! I made my little backpack red because it reminded me of the little schoolchildren in Japan who carry red backpacks jam-packed with gear! So stinkin' cute!

And, this week is a SKETCH challenge! Now, I am not sure who made that sketch (me), but it looks like fun so you surely want to play along, RIGHT?! :) As an incentive, Robyn's Fetish is giving away a PRIZE!! So link up by Friday! And good luck!!

Stamps: Robyn's Fetish Backpack, sentiment is Lawn Fawn
Paper: DCWV School Pack, SU for cardstock
Ink: Copics and Memento Tuxedo Black, PTI Fresh Snow
Accessories: SU Ribbons and Brads

The Beginning of the End

**sniff, sniff** This is my last project as an Amber Ink Torchbearer!

I wanted to post something that was a culmination of my growth during the process. Not only did I make this little ladybug scene in Photoshop Elements, but I tilted the title AND I colored the ladybug digitally! I think I am a little verklempt.

(How many of you remember Coffee Talk from SNL?! Not that I would know anything about that other than from re-runs of course. Sheesh, I don't even think I was born when that aired. HA! And don't worry, I have a surge protector on my laptop so the lightning bolt won't do too much damage.)

Just a short month ago there would have been NO WAY I could have designed anything with a digi, let alone make an entire scene. Such a new, fun world and I am happy I was able to be mentored by such a great team! Thanks Amber and Pam for rockin' it!! And now I am a digi addict! DH thanks you for that. ;)

So, more on the project! Amber Ink is sponsoring this week's challenge over at Cupcake Inspirations! The challenge, which we know you will accept :), is to make a card inspired by this YUMMY picture:

Seriously, I am just wondering, did looking at that just add 5 pounds to your hips?? My mouth is watering, dang Pavlov... Do you think they are vanilla or chocolate? Or Red Velvet...or...or...

Stamps: Wild Animals with Heart: Love Bug, Love Bug Sentiment
Paper: Crackle Dot Black on White, Basic Black, Whisper White, Poppy Parade
Ink: All digital!
Accessories: Rhinestones, SU Ribbon, SU Top Note Die, White Gel Pen

Have a yummy Sunday!

Are You Inspired?

It is Saturday and you know what that means! No, not laundry...it is another Stamp, Scrap and Doodle Saturdays challenge! This week we want you to make something inspired by this photo:


I obviously went with the wedding theme, using my never-before-inked SU set! And that patterned paper...it is actually a Halloween paper! Scary, isn't it? (Yeah, that was bad but I could not resist!)

You know you want to play along this week! Our own IKE is sponsoring and the winner gets 3 free digis from her store!!

Stamps: Blissful Bride
Paper: White, Black, Pink, unknown patterned paper
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Pink marker
Accessories: Rhinestones, Seam Binding Ribbon, Stickles

Hope you have a wonderful Saturday!