Thanks for RAKS and Blog Candy!

Happy Saturday! Thought I would share some LONG overdue thank yous for birthday RAKS and blog candy!

First up, this beautiful card from Sherri Barron. Sherri is a way-talented paper crafter and furniture designer! You can see more of her beautiful work at Fun to Stamp.


I received this super cute alien card from Vera Shoeters. How did she know I love all things alien, including science-fiction movies?! You can check out more of her fabby work at Vera Stamps.

I received this lovely card, in person, from my dear friend Lori! (I put the wrong last name, oops, she is happily married now!) You can check out her work...here...or at her shop in Dallas, Sister's Closet, because she won't start a blog, no matter how much I pester her to do so!


This last card is my from my dear upline, Jackie, who never forgets me! Wish I had more time to stamp with her, she's great fun!


Next...I've been super lucky lately and received 2 blog candy RAKS! First, I received these yummy goodies...I'm going to try not to hoard them and use them!...from Ann over at Creative Antics! Ann is incredibly talented AND she teaches like me, except she teaches those super scary high school students! More power to her!



Lastly, I was so lucky to receive these BOB sight word books from a give-away on Michaele Sommerville's blog, Kindergarten's 3 R's: Respect, Resources, and Rants. Michaele has been teaching a long time and always has great ideas and advice! She is also very paper crafty in her spare time and shares so many cute projects, check her out!



Okay, guess I better get moving. I'm supposed to be working on my card for 2S4Y! eek! School is kicking my a**, if you know what I mean! I started with a sore throat and feeling crappy on Thursday morning, but I am trying to fight it off and I think I'm winning. I took a 2 hour nap last night, then slept 14 hours! Wowza, that's a record!


Hope all is well in your world, I am trying to get by to see you! *wink* Thanks so much for stopping by! Hugs and happy stamping!

RAKs!

Happy Wednesday! I have some beautiful RAKs to share, lucky me! hee!


This first one is from Ann over at Creative Antics, aren't those monkeys adorable?! It's such a happy card, you can't keep from smiling when you look at it! Thanks, Ann!


The second one isn't exactly a RAK, it's the invitation to the dinner at SU Convention with Shelli and Brent for winning the Artisan Award. It's so pretty, I just had to share it!


Okay, ta-ta for now!! Thanks so much for stopping by! Hugs and happy stamping!

*Hi* and some RAKs!

Happy Sunday! Hope you're having a great weekend! It's been pretty nice here in Dallas. Ran to Joann's earlier to take advantage of 40% off all storage/organization supplies...must get this stamp room into order, mainly my paper, ugh! But it's a good ugh! I need to do some serious purging, and I'm going to try, but no promises! lol!


The card above is the last one of my Splitcoast VSN cards...it was for the CSI challenge...CSI for "framing someone" so you had to use a frame on your card. My frame is from a Paper Salon chipboard set that I've had for a looooong time. I love the look of the smooth, white chipboard.


Now to share some wonderful happy mail I received! Yay! First, this beauty from my fabulous upline and friend, Jackie Ross. I love the way she used the Top Note die and the embossing on the Old Olive background piece.




Next, Cindy Major sent me this uber-fab card as a thank you for being a guest stamper on her blog Encre, Papier, Ciseaux. I love all the layered flowers, the fun mix of things and the beautiful, unusual color combination.



Okay, so off to do that organzing, and get stacks of paper out of the hallway...hee! hee! Thanks so much for stopping by! Hugs and happy stamping!

Recipe
Stamps: Say It With Scallops.
Cardstock: Kraft, Whisper White, My Mind's Eye black polka dot.
Ink: Bashful Blue.
Accessories: 1" Circle Punch, Bashful Blue Double-Stitchded Grosgrain Ribbon, Dimensionals, office metal-edged tag, Paper Salon chipboard frame

RAKs and Goodies!

I have to share some awesome RAKS and Blog Candy Winnings that I received in December!

First up are these yummy flowers and adorable card that I received from Chloe Danz when she offered up some blog candy! She's a GREAT artist with such a clean, striking style, you have to check her out! She even mailed these to me all the way from New Zealand! Thank you, Chloe!



Next up, I received these fabulous goodies from Brooke when Sankari's daughter randomly selected me the winner of the Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge one week...if you haven't played along, you really must, it's great fun! I love that movie Sabrina and don't those Peeps look yummy?! There are also some clear checkbook covers down there if you can't see them, how cool! I've never tried one of those and at the craft show I did in December, several people asked for them, so it must be a sign! Brooke even included one of her Convention swaps that I had said earlier that I wished I had received, how nice! Thanks, girls!



I'll be back later with more to share! Thanks for stopping by! Hugs and happy stamping!

Treats, a Mess, and a Halloween RAK from Lori!

Happy Friday and Happy Halloween! Who likes pumpkin bars with cream cheese frosting?! I hope people at the school Trunk or Treat event do! The cheerleaders are manning a bake sale booth, so I whipped these up tonight for them. I made them for the scrapping retreat a few weeks ago, and they were a big hit. I'll come back and post the recipe if anybody is interested.

I made the tags out of SU Confetti White cardstock and the large tag punch (here's how you know you're tired: you look at the tags in the picture and panic and say "What are those spots all over the tags?!! Doh! Confetti cardstock!) and Pumpkin Pie cardstock with the Martha Stewart jack-o-lantern punch. Before I could make the tags, however, I had to walk into my stamp room and deal with this mess leftover from the previous night of failed stamping attempts:


Ugh! I could not get any mojo working last night while trying to do Kristina's Color Inspiration #28 challenge! You know when you're tired and feel like cr*p, but you don't want to give up?! (I'm also blaming Ashley, because I happened to see that awesome card and knew I couldn't come up with anything as cute! grrrr!) This has been a killer week for sinuses and allergies here in Dallas. I'm about ready to lop off my head entirely! And I know it's not just me, because my friend Lori told me she's going through the same thing.

Speaking of Lori, look at this adorable Halloween card she sent me! Don't you love the vintage feel and that tassel trim?! She knows I love the vintage! And I love this card, thank you and big, big hugs, Lori!!

Ummm, did anyone notice the fantastic job I did with smooth transitions between the above subjects?! That's not always easy to do, you know, as you can tell from most of my other posts! hee! hee! Well, off to school. Wish me luck, the kids have been WOUND UP all week and I think today is going to be the grand finale!

We are doing a cool thing today...a bunch of us are going to be mystery readers...we are dressing up like a character in a book and the students try to figure out who it is, then we read the book to the class. Fun, huh? We'll be going around to different classes all day doing this! I haven't dressed up for Halloween since, like college maybe, and of course I left it until 4:30 today to go to Border's and decide on a book, try to find a costume at the Halloween store (big mistake), go to the grocery store to get supplies for the baked goods (see above), go to Michael's to get packaging for the baked goods, come home to see if a costume will magically appear, prepare and package the baked goods, etc. Can you tell I'm a procrastinator?!

Okay, I've rambled on way tooooo long! Tell me about your big Halloween plans!

*Edited to add the recipe for easy and delicious pumpkin bars!

Pumpkin Bars

• 4 eggs
• 1 c. oil
• 1 c. sugar
• 1 c. brown sugar
• 1 can of pumpkin
• 1/2 t. salt
• 2 t. cinnamon
• 1 t. baking soda
• 2 c. flour
• 1 t. baking powder

• Beat eggs, oil, and sugars.
• Add remaining ingredients and mix.
  
• Grease & flour cookie sheet pan (sometimes I use 13 x 9 and it works great too).
• Bake at 350 degrees for 20 - 25 minutes.

Frosting

• 3 oz. cream cheese
• 6 T. butter
• 3 c. powdered sugar
• 1 t. vanilla
• 2 t. milk

Beat well and frost. I usually double the recipe for extra, extra frosting on the pumpkin bars!

Holiday Post-It Note Holder and RAKs!

Happy Friday! Are you ready for the weekend? I am! I pooped out and had a 2 hour nap last night, yikes! After watching Survivor and Grey's and getting caught up on my Google Reader, I finished working on this holiday post-it note holder I started the night before. The Mary Engelbreit post-its I bought in a 2-pack at the dollar spot at Target (or maybe Joann's?). I used some old repurposed chipboard and ribbon, some "stack" paper from Joann's, and a felt flurry. It came together pretty easily, not sure if I totally love it though.

But I have some better projects to show you, two fabulous RAKs I received recently! If stamping isn't a great enough hobby by itself, you get the added benefit of making great friends with your customers and fellow demos, and if that isn't great enough, you get the extra super added benefit of making great friends from fellow paper-crafters online! I know it sounds corny, but I don't think I'm alone on this, the hobby really has added such blessings and joy to my life.

This first card below is from Beate Johns. She's so awesome, I know EVERYONE knows who she is! She's one of the busiest, talented ladies out there and she still takes time to send out great RAKs like this! Thank you, Beate!


The next card is from Nancy Riley, and I know everyone KNOWS who she is too! She's one of the sweetest, kindest souls I've come across, and she's so creative and talented too! She's entered the educational field this year, working in a classroom, and I know how tough and demanding that can be, yet she still makes time to send me this awesome Halloween card! Thank you, Nancy!


What's super cool about both of these cards is that the inside is "decorated" too. I tried to photograph them so you could see a peek inside. I love that! I ignore the inside too much and need to copy them!

Hope your Friday is great and you have fun stuff planned for your weekend! Thanks so much for stopping by! Hugs and happy stamping!