my madison rocker card

Happy Sunday and thanks for taking the time to visit the charmed life blog.

I love Sundays when they are laid back and quiet. This was one of those days. After church, we went to lunch with some friends. Great conversation and good food was the order of the afternoon.

I packed up a few bags of clothing for the Salvation Army pickup tomorrow morning. Checked in on a few other friends on the phone this afternoon and before I knew it, it's late Sunday night.

My card for today is one that I made for the inspiration challenge on splitcoaststampers. This week our hostess Stef took us to the rooms by Zoya B site. I loved the home furnishings on this site.  I found this Madison-Empire rocker that I would love for my home and I used it as my card inspiration.

The stripes on the chair reminded me of some Stampin-Up designer paper the "Parisian breeze" collection. I used that with some chocolate chip. I liked the look of the cording on the white part of the ottoman and chair so I added that to my card as well.
My scripture sentiment is from ODBD stamps "light of the world" collection. The 3 corduroy buttons completed my card.

This card is for a few other challenges:

1.  Aly's Sunday sketch has a masculine challenge.

2.  The corrosive challenge blog has a "button it up" challenge.

3.  The sketchy colors blog is using blue, brown and white.

4.  The winter wonderland blog has a "my sentiments exactly" challenge.

Well, it looks like a rap for another day. Good night & God bless!!

card recipe:
stamps: odbd -light of the world
paper: su kraft, ww, choc chip, parisian breeze dsp
ink: choc chip
accessories: nesties labels 1, cording, baja breeze buttons (su), upper crest border punch

color challenge card

Happy Wednesday and thanks for taking the time to visit the charmed life blog.

I received an exciting email today. Spellbinders the company that makes our much loved nestabilities, impressabilities, shapeabilites etc. has a design team call for 2011.

The first round of entries was due January 3 and we were required to make a card. They liked it and I moved onto the 2nd round. We had to make a 12 x 12 layout.

My inspiration for the scrapbook page came from my new granddaughter, Phoenix Daisy.
Well they liked that one as well and now I move onto the final round. I am overwhelmed with joy. To make it this far in a contest against so many talented paper crafters is amazing to me.

I will keep you posted on the results. I will post all the photos of what I sent in after the contest is over,

Now moving on to today's card. This is one that I made for the color challenge on splitcoaststampers. Betty Wright, was our hostess this week and she chose some challenging colors or so I thought. We were to use soft suede, elegant eggplant and riding hood red.

      
I used a stamp from Waltzingmouse that coordinates with spellbinders labels 4 nestability die. Inside of that frame I stamped my flowers. They are from Stampin-Up's "just celebrate" set.

My butterflies are punched from a Martha Stewart butterfly punch in the eggplant color. I added some swirly ribbon and that completed my card.

Some other challenge I have entered:

1.  The card layout was the sketch from the "sweet sunday sketch blog".

2.  I also entered this card at the sisterhood of crafters blog. They have an anything goes challenge.

3.  The craft your passion blog has a challenge to use 2 patterned papers.

4.  The top tip Tuesday blog has a fabulous flowers challenge.

Well, its time to dim the lights in charmed life land for another day. Until next time......

card recipe:
stamps: just celebrate (su), vintage labels 4 (wms)
paper: su soft suede, red riding hood, ww, dsp
ink: red riding hood, garden green
accessories: ribbon, pearls, nesties, ms punch
techniques: paper piecing

sending sweet thoughts

Happy Tuesday and thanks for taking the time to visit the charmed life blog. The temps are slowly beginning to rise  and the ice and snow are melting in my gutters.

As I type this I can hear it running in the downspouts. That's good because last year we had an ice dam and it backed up into our house.

We are expecting snow for the next several days. But, last night I noticed that it stayed light until about 5:45. the days are getting longer.

I am off soon to meet my grandsons' school bus. I talked to them last night and they are always so excited for me to come over. I will have to take them a little surprise.

My card for today is a valentines card and also one that I made for the pals paper art challenge. This week they had a sketch challenge done by the talented Margaret Moody.
I loved working with it and my card came together so quickly. I will probably send this one to my mother-in-law for Valentines day.

I used the Stampin-Up "wandering words" set for my image. My designer paper ("sending love' specialty collection) & satin ribbon are also Stampin-Up. 
The red heart is a felt one that I bought on clearance last year at mike's. It's from Stampendous. The square panel is cut with a spelbbinders die and I used a cuttlebug embossing folder "kassie's brocade" for some texture.

Here are a couple of other challenges I am entering:

1.  Lexi's creations blog has a valentines challenge.

2.  The pink elephant blog has a red, brown & pink challenge.

That's my card for today. So until next time .......

card recipe:
stamps: wandering words
ink: choc chip, real red
paper: su choc chip, vv, sending love dsp
accessories: nesties, ribbon, cb ef

featured stamper card



Phoenix Daisy cheering for the Steelers

Happy Sunday and thanks for taking the time to visit the char,med life blog. It was a big day here in Pittsburgh. Our Steelers are going to the super bowl. It's our 7th time.

It will be an exciting game because our Pastor is a big GreenBay fan. On game day our church is having a men's super bowl party and chili cook-off.
I guess whoever wins will have bragging rights for a year anyway. I hope it's our Steelers.

So how about this photo of our Phoenix Daisy. She loves the Steelers as well and she is only a month old (lol)!!

And she lives in San Francisco. I laughed when my son sent me this photo tonight during the game.



Well onto my card-you might not all be football fans. I made this one for the featured stamper challenge on splitcoaststampers. Our hostess, Beth, chose a stamper that I was not familiar with- Emily aka-artsy-em.

She has a great clean and simple style of stamping. I chose her special anniversary card to recreate ala mary marsh style.

I kept her heart theme but made mine a valentine's card. I added a layer of designer paper and used a heart punch on my card.
I used an embossing folder on my hearts and made them "his &amp her" hearts.

I saw the heart idea on the me, my stamps & I blog.

Well, it's time to dim the lights in charmed life land for another day. God Bless and stay warm.







card recipe:
stamps: to my valentine(unknown)

paper: su real red, black, sending love specialty dsp
ink: versafine onyx black
accessories: heart punch, marvy flower punch, rhinestones, ribbon

barbie inspired

Happy Saturday and thanks for taking the time to visit the charmed life blog.
We are in quite a cold spell right now. But I guess it's most of the East Coast. Our high temp today was only 19 degrees.

I had Austin (my grandson) on an overnight. He came without his brothers so we had a good night together. The boys like the one-on-one time with us and so do we. He went home around lunch time today because he had basketball practice.

My card for today is one that I did for the inspiration challenge on splitcoaststampers. This week our hostess, Stef, took us to the Barbie collectors site. It was such fun looking at all the Barbie dolls and trying to figure out what I could do in the way of a card.

I chose this happy birthday Barbie doll to create my card. The colors I chose to use were Stampin Up's melon mambo and bermuda bay and the sweetheart stamp set.

I stamped the heart image and then punched a heart from designer paper. I added a button to the middle that was cut from a sizzlits die.
I also used the cuttlebug embossing folder "kassie's brocade on the melon mambo panel. The bermuda bay ribbon finished off my card.

My layout came from a card that I saw on the pink buckaroo blog and it was also a stampin 411 sketch. I changed the colors, paper and ribbon to make it my own.

This is also for a few other challenges:

1.  The really reasonable ribbon blog has a heart and ribbon challenge.

2.  The totally gorjuss blog is challenging to use hot colors.

3.  The simply create blog wants us to use our punches. I used 2 on this card.
Well, it's late and time to dim the lights in charmed life land for another day. So until next time........

card recipe:
stamps: sweetheart

paper: su ww, melon mambo, bermuda bay
ink: melon mambo, bermuda bay
accessories: sizzlit button die, scallop border punch, ribbon

perfect pair

Happy Wednesday and thanks for taking the time to visit the charmed life blog. It's time for another Creative Belli challenge.

The idea behind the Belli challenges is to encourage you to use your OLD and FORGOTTEN embellishments!

Challenge #109 is the letter P...


This could be anything that begins with a P -paper bag album, pink, purple, poppies, puppies, paper clips, patterned paper, paint, etc...

Everyone is welcome to play along!  If you upload to a gallery use keyword CBC109.

For my card I decided to go with the "perfect pair" and use pear images. I thought this would be a great anniversary card.

For the pear images I pulled out some old Stampin-Up rub-ons "bright delights", some retired designer paper, "good morning sunshine" and some retired card stock "kiwi kiss". After all this is what the belli challenges are about-using up the old.

My layout is this weeks sketch #174  from the mojomonday blog.

I computer generated my "perfect pair" sentiment. I added some seam binding as ribbon treatment and used a spellbinders lacy die and that completed my card.

Don't forget to drop by the Belli Blog to check out what the rest of the design team has created. There is some serious talent on this team!!

I am also entering this card in a few other challenges:

1.  Top Tip Tuesday has an "all sentimental" challenge.

2.  Oldie but a goodie blog is looking for bright and cheerful.

Until next time.......

card recipe:
paper: su choc chip, kiwi kiss, very vanilla, dsp
accessories: su rub-ons, seam binding, spellbinders lacy squares, circle punches

umbrella lass

Happy Monday and thanks for taking the time to visit the charmed life blog. Today is a holiday in the US (Martin Luther King Day) and the schools are closed so I was with my grandsons for the day.

It was a busy one. Aidin had to get braces put on today. He wasn't happy about it at all and especially not about going to school tomorrow.

We were off to the orthodontist for a 2 1/2 hr procedure. He was a little miserable when we returned so I just gave him some extra hugs for comfort.

Then we were off to Ethan's 4th grade basketball game. They don't keep score on the scoreboard but Ethan knows exactly how many points he tallies. And, tonight it was 12. I was very proud of him.

Game over and now it's time to get to the restaurant to celebrate Austin's birthday. He loves crab legs so we went to a restaurant that has "all you can eat" King Crab legs on Monday night. His other grandparents were there and it was a fun evening for him.

Then time for me to make the 45 minute drive back to my home.

I had just enough time to get my design team sample card loaded on the splitcoaststampers website for color challenge 306.

Whew!! This was some day for sure. Now onto the details of my card.

The color challenge on splitcoaststampers this week is using pear pizzazz, baja breeze and bravo burgundy. Betty, our hostess did such an awesome job choosing these colors.

This is my last week on the design team at splitcoaststampers. It was a short stint of 3 months. I cant believe how quickly it went.

My background is not designer paper. It was made using the spellbinders circles impressabilities die. I used it as a stencil and sponged the pear pizzazz ink on the die.


My image is from the "pure innocence" line at MFT stamps. The umbrella girl is paper pieced with baja breeze, bravo burgundy and pear pizzazz paper. I cut her out and popped her up for some dimension. I added some bravo burgundy buttons and pear pizzazz ribbon and that completed my sample for this week’s color challenge.

My layout is the MFT Wednesday sketch #2. It’s the first time I joined in on the MFT Wednesday stamp club. 

A few other challenges where I am placing my umbrella lass:

1.  Raise the bar blog is challenging us to be a kid again.

2.  The crazy challenge wants us to use buttons.

3.  Simon says stamp and show wants us to use polka dots

4.  Paper Sundaes blog wants us to pick a past challenge to create our card. They are celebrating their 1st year anniversary with some fab prizes. Check it out!! I chose the "cut it out challenge" from December 2010.

5.  A spoon full of sugar blog has a blue & green challenge.

Well, it's late and tomorrow is another busy day so until next time.........

penguin birthday

Happy Thursday and thanks for taking the time to visit the charmed life blog. Well the "undecorating" for Chrismtas has begun. I took my main tree down today. It's such a lot of work. You have to wrap every ornament and carefully pack it away  for use next year.

My main tree has a lot of glass ornaments so this one takes the longest for me to disassemble. I have one of the spare bedrooms looking like a disaster struck it. Every storage container is out and waiting to be filled with decorations.

I am leaving the tree in our dining room up until this week-end. I have an annual Christmas holiday lunch planned for friends that I host. It's for the women that I worked and retired with. We were to have it last week-end but our trip to San Francisco pushed it back a week.

We have snow and cold weather here so the tree being up in mid-January is okay. You put so much work into getting your house ready for Christmas and it seems to pass so quickly. After this weekend Christmas will be officially gone for another year.

The card for today is one that I made for color challenge 304 on splitcoaststampers. Vicki Dutcher was our hostess and she chose some awesome colors for us to work into a card. Silver or gray, red and white were the colors of choice.

I made a birthday card for my nephew and these colors worked out well for me.

My cute cocoa cup is a die-cut from Darcie’s Stamps.  I layered the penguin mug on a white oval and then layered that on a scalloped oval cut from gunmetal metallic cardstock from The Paper Company.

My layout is an old sketch (#49) from the inkspirations challenge blog.


The sentiment is computer generated and punched out with a Stampin-Up oval punch. I added a red scallop border-this punch is also Stampin-Up.
The 3 red nailheads at the bottom completed my card.

Well it's time to get back to putting away the decorations so until next time.........


card recipe:
paper: su real red, ww, paper company gunmetal metallic, making memories dp
accessories: darcies u-cuts, oval nesties, nailheads, su border punch, oval punch

color challenge card

Happy Tuesday and thanks for taking the time to visit the charmed life blog.

It's been almost a week since I have posted a card because we were away in San Francisco visiting our new granddaughter, Phoenix Daisy. She is 3 weeks old right now.

I loved holding her and kissing her and talking to her and praying over her. My son lives at the beach so we were able to go out for walks and take Phoenix Daisy with us.
It was a little chilly but the sun was shining and we were all bundled up.



phoenix daisy & me

It was a wonderful family time with Brett, Ghilly and Phoenix. Ghilly even said she thought the baby looked like me. So how happy do you think that made me!!

I wasn't ready to come back but you cant wear out your welcome. We are talking about going out again for Easter. My other son -daughter-in-law and grandsons will be going as well.



phoenix daisy & my hubby



In the meantime I will love seeing her pictures and watching how she changes in the next few months before we see her again.




My card for today was made for the color challenge at splitcoaststampers. Joanne Travis was our hostess this week and she chose some awesome colors. Her picks were melon mambo, pretty in pink, cherry cobbler and other neutrals of choice.

My card layout is from the mojomonday sketch #173. I broke up all the shades of pink with a white background and the cuttlebug embossing folder "kassie's brocade". 

My middle panels are stampin-up designer paper-the welcome neighbor (retired) and the pretty in pink collections. The ribbon is melon mambo with pretty in pink layered on top.

To complete the color requirement of cherry cobbler, I stamped my happy birthday sentiment in that color.
I added a few pearls to complete my card.

This is also for a couple other challenges:

1.  The cute card Thursday blog has an out with the old challenge. I used old designer paper and ribbon.

2.  The paper variety blog is having a "going pink" challenge. This is a new challenge blog for me.

It's late and time to dim the lights in charmed life land for another  day. So until next time.......

card recipe:
stamps: perfect punches
paper: su melon mambo, pretty in pink, ww dsp
ink: cherry cobbler
accessories: ribbon, oval punch, pearls, cb ef

Creative Belli Challenge

Happy Wednesday and thanks for taking the time to visit the charmed life blog.

It's time for another creative belli challenge.

This challenge officially starts my time on the design team with the rest of the Belli Girls.
I am so excited to be a part of this talented team.

This week our challenge is snow. It can include stamps, ribbon, brads, buttons, glitter, patterned paper, chipboard, stickers or anything that is snow themed. It just has to be a new project.

This challenge runs from January 5th thru January 18th. for the belli challenges, we are encouraging you to use your old and forgotten embellishments.

For my card I used some wrapping paper from Christmas 2009 that I recycled. I just thought it was too cute to throw away. I loved the snowmen on the paper. I am going to make some Christmas cards for 2011 using this layout and technique.

For this project I cut one of the snowmen out and traced the image onto chipboard. I mounted the snowman on the chipboard to give it dimension. I cut a cherry cobbler scalloped rectangle and placed my image on that.

I used some May Arts velvet ribbon an  did ribbon ruching across the top. I love this look and have used it a lot lately. A simple thanks sentiment completed my card.

Take a look at what the rest of the design team has done.  You definitely wont be disappointed.

Holly Brown, Darsie Bruno, Chris Dickinson, Joan Ervin, Joy Hadden, Robin Kirkpatrick, Maria Matter, Tamara Morton, Chris Olsen, Robin Parker, Ceal Pritchett, Shelly Schmidt, Jessica Stockmeyer, Karen Wallace, Anne Harmon 


A few other challenges where I am placing this card:

1.  craft your passion has an anything goes challenge

2.  fab n funky blog also has an anything goes.

3.  the little red wagon blog had a leftovers challenge. My snowman is made from wrapping paper.

Until next time.......

card recipe:
stamps: Verve
paper: su wild wasabi, cherry cobbler, ww
ink: wild wasabi
accessories: may arts ribbon, nesties, su oval punches, cb ef, chipboard

showstopper award

Happy Monday and thanks for taking the time to visit the charmed life blog.

Just a short post to announce that one of my cards was picked as a show stopper on the curtain call challenge blog. It's always nice to get an award as a testament to your work and creativity.

This is the card that was selected

Thank you Stacey for the award.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year's Day and thanks for taking the time to visit the charmed life blog. We had a great new year's eve celebration with our son & his family.

We typically celebrate my husband's birthday and then just have some family fun for the rest of the evening.

My daughter-in-law, Joellen, made a fab dinner. We started with a great salad- lump crab cakes and ended with pasta and an awesome bolognese sauce. Dessert was my husband's favorite -  chocolate mousse peanut butter pie.

We had such a relaxing evening with them. We played some games and then watched a little TV and the happenings in Times Square. We then spent the night.

It's always nice to wake up with our grandsons in the morning. Al usually takes one of them out for breakfast and a little one-on-one time. This year it was with Ethan. He is the youngest and of course he just loves the individual attention.

We watched the Penn State -Florida bowl game. Unfortunately, our Penn State team lost. We came back home around 6:00.

Our son in California sent us a baby pic at midnight and a text wishing us all a happy new year. In 5 days, I will be holding our new bundle of joy.

My card for today is one that I made for 4 challenges.

1.  The Waltzingmouse blog sketch challenge was a great one. I haven't played along with this one for awhile. But. I loved the envelope look of the sketch.

2.  Speedy's friends challenge blog wanted us to use something new. My designer paper is new. It's Stampin-Up's "deck the halls" collection.

3.  The cute card thursday blog has a "thank you card" challenge.

4.  Phindy's Place challenge blog also has a "thank you card" challenge.

My cherry cobbler layer is embossed with the cuttlebug folder "Kassie's brocade".
The" thanks" sentiment is from Verve and the frame is Waltzingmouse "vintage labels 4" set. They are designed to work with spellbinders labels 4.
My ribbon treatment is cherry cobbler seam binding. That completes this card.

Hope your holiday was a good one. Let me know what you did to celebrate. I love reading your comments.

card recipe:
stamps; verve, waltzingmouse
paper: su kraft, always artichoke, cherry cobbler, deck the halls dsp
ink: cherry cobbler
accessories: seam binding, nesties labels 4, cb ef