I Dig You

Happy Friday, peeps! I want to share this adorable puppy card with you all. I can't believe that I totally forgot about this Paper Smooches Woofers & Tweeters set. After all, this set have a pug on it!

So, of course I have to fix that mistake and use the pug for my card.

i {heart} papers supplies: Paper Smooches Woofers & Tweeters, 

Fancy Pants Wonderful Day, MME Enamel Dots

And, don't forget that EVERYTHING on i {heart} papers store is 65% off!! Sorry for the super short post. But, Friday is usually kind of a crazy day for me.  Enjoy your weekend!

Birthday Bunny

Last night, I get to make card for the sake of just playing. I browsed around looking for fun challenge and saw Cutting Edge Challenge # 11, which is to create card inspired by Melania Deasy's card.

I love the colors and the CAS design of her card and here's my interpretation of the challenge.

Supplies: Lawn Fawn Snow Day, Avery Elle Picture It,
Paper Smooches Balloons dies, Wink of Stella Glitter Brush

By the way, I am excited to share that the 5th annual Caring Hearts Card Drive will starts tomorrow! We have lined up some amazing prizes and when I said amazing, I really mean AMAZING!! Biggest prizes we ever have.

I am still pinching myself that we're already on our 5th year! Every year, I debated whether I should continue to do it or not, because it's a lot of work and sometime it does gets overwhelming. But, every year I reminded myself of the note I got from one of the card recipient. How our cards brighten her holiday season. And, that keeps me going.

I hope you will join us this year. The post will be up exactly at midnight CST, October 4th. Let me know what you think once you see it. I hope you're as excited as I am. LOL, I am excited and I cannot even win the prize. The prizes are for you, supporter of Caring Hearts Card Drive! Let's make our 5th year a fantastic one!

Paper Smooches Grateful For You

Hi all. Happy Sunday. I am back with another Paper Smooches challenge. This time it's the designer drafts challenge, which is to create a card using this sketch.

And, here's my interpretation of the sketch using Paper Smooches Reflections & Blossoming Buds set.

When I saw the sketch, I know I wanted to do it one layer style. I only had to re-do it once. Hah... The first one, I already finished the flower part and messed it up when I stamped the sentiment. And, there's no way to cover it up. So, restart all over again. :)

Hope you will play along. To enter the challenge and for all the details go HERE. Meanwhile, for more inspirations please check out what the SPARKS team has created. Thank you Paper Smooches for having me as a guest designer this month.

Katie Gehring

Lori Tecler

Lynn Mangan

Vera Wirianta Yates

Savannah O'Gwynn 

Birthday Bunnies

The weather on my neck of the wood been gloomy, so I feel the need to make card with some cheerful colors to brighten my mood.

I fell in love with this Echo Park Camera & Happy dies the moment I saw it and I don't know why it took me so long to finally play with it. Does that ever happen to you, where you love a set or dies so much, yet, when you first get it, you don't quite know what to make. It's such a cute shape and I had fun creating this interactive card. Here's the card with the pull out piece tucked in.

And, here's with the piece being pulled out.

Gah.... these bunnies from Lawn Fawn Snow Day totally captured my heart. What can I say... I love bunnies. After all, I was born on the bunny year. ;) But, seriously don't you think they're so darn cute?! The bold stripe patterned paper is from Teresa Collins Daily Stories paper pad. Finished with the word birthday from Paper Smooches Sentiment Sampler.

To stop the pull out piece from totally sliding out, I used a button (you could also use a penny) on top of the pull out piece and pop-dots on camera, right under the word happy. The pop-dots stop the button. thus preventing the paper from completely being pulled out.

I hope you enjoy today's card. Do you like making interactive card? I love to do it now & then. Let me know if you get inspired to create one and I'll check out your post. Happy Friday!

Paper Smooches Anything Goes

  

Hi everyone and happy Sunday. I am so excited to be invited to join Paper Smooches SPARKS  for September. I have designed for them previously and they're such a great team to work with. So, when they asked if I could help out as one of their team member recuperate, of course I said yes. And, lucky for me, this week challenge is Anything Goes! My kind of challenge. ;)  

I know I've been a bit obsessed with the Blossoming Buds set. Today's card is proof. Hah...

I stamped the blossoms directly on the patterned paper from Teresa Collins Daily Stories paper pad. Sometime I forgot to try this technique (to stamp on patterned paper) as I tend to stamp on cardstock. Totally need to remember to do this again.

Well, that's all from me today. Don't forget to stop by the Paper Smooches SPARKS blog for more details. For more inspiration, please check out my team mates  blog. Thanks so much for stopping by here.

Katie Gehring

Lori Tecler

Lynn Mangan

Savannah O'Gwynn 

Thank You Tag

Hi everyone. Happy Thursday. I have really been enjoying the Online Card Classes Stretch Your Stamp 2 and today I have a project for i {heart} papers that's also inspired from the class lesson.

Instead of a card, I decided to make tag this time using Avery Elle Simply Tags: Love Notes Pocket Dies to create the shape on the top of the tag. 

This tag is super fast to complete thanks to the pretty flower cluster from Paper Smooches Blossoming Buds and some distress ink. I've been using this flower cluster quite a bit lately. The pretty sentiment is from Wplus9 Hand Lettered Thanks set. 

BTW, if you haven't stop by i {heart} papers lately, you might want to check them out. They're back in full swing and have tons of new goodies coming in, including Winnie & Walter products.

Well, that's all for me today. Have a ton of to do list at work and at home. Hah... I am in cleaning & organizing mode. I am itchy to purge my craft room & closet. Guess what I'll be doing this weekend. Enjoy your day, peeps.

Grateful For You

Hi everyone. Quick post. I made this card for the current Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge and Simon Says Stamp Spot & Dots challenge. Here's the inspiration pic from Curtain Call challenge:

And, here's my card.

The flowers & leaves are from Wplus9 Spring Blooms set and the sentiment is from Paper Smooches Blossoming Buds. The patterned paper is from one of my favorite Echo Park paper pad, Dots & Stripes Bundle of Joy Girl. 

That's about it. I don't have much else to write at the moment. You know... sometime you just have those brain fart moment. Hmm... can I say brain fart on a blog? That's still pretty polite, right? Oh well, I better stop while I am ahead. ;)

Kate's Birthday Blog Hop

Hi everyone. Today is a very special day because it's Kate's birthday. You wonder who Kate is? Well, Kate happens to own and operate my favorite online store i {heart} papers. And, to top it off, as dog lovers, I admire her commitment to dog rescue. She tirelessly help rescue, foster & help homeless dogs find their forever home. 

She's a pretty special person & her birthday is definitely the perfect time to celebrate her. The design team is having a little blog hop to share our birthday cards and wishes. 

To Kate.... Happy birthday! May this birthday brings you lots of joy & happiness.

For my card, I have to go with the dogs of course. The big dog is from the oldie but goodie Paper Smooches Birthday Buddies set. The other 2 dogs from Lawn Fawn Critters in the Burbs set and the sentiment from Reverse Confetti Lots To Say set. For the balloons I used Paper Smooches Balloons Dies. And, the patterned papers are from Dear Lizzy Daydreamer 6x6 paper pad.

Please stop by Kate's blog to wish her a happy birthday! And, be sure to hop along to each designer and leave these talented gals some love! Thank you for joining us on celebrating Kate's birthday. :)

Lindsay

Lisa guest DT

Lori

Melissa guest DT

Sarah

Sheri

Tracy

Vera <--- you are here

Gallery Idol Round 2

Eeek.... It's time for Gallery Idol round 2. The theme for round 2 is die-cutting. And from  the moment I saw it, the first thing that came to my mind was shaped card.

After a day of brainstorming, I found my inspiration from Finding Nemo. After all, one of my favorite quote came from  that movie, "Keep on swimming".

So, here's my entry for round 2:

For the card base I used the largest balloon (turned upside down) from Simon Says Stamp Balloon dies set. The water line inside were also cut using the balloon die combine with SSS Curved Edge craft die. Flip the die for the bottom water line.

The seaweed were cut using the leave dies Wplus9 Silver Bells dies set. The fish are from Paper Smooches Briny Blue set. The big red fish were die-cut twice so I can insert a strip of acetate in between to make the fish move-able. See this second pic and you can see the fish swim to the left. :)

To create a glossy look, I die-cut the cover of the card from a piece of acetate, layer it on top and hold the whole card together with a tied bow string. You could barely see the piece of acetate, but if you click on the picture you can see it in larger size and you can see the outline of the acetate on the bottom right corner of the picture.

I hope you like my card and will consider to vote for it. I sure would love to make it to the next round. To vote for your favorite card go to: GALLERY IDOL VOTING

Thank you so much for stopping by here and if you do vote for my card, thank you, thank you, thank you!! And, a quick birthday shout out to my dear brother Jerry who is celebrating his birthday from the hospital bed. Happy birthday, Jerry. I love you, wishing you a very happy birthday and a speedy recovery. xoxo

Painted Flower Jar

So, since I am catching the watercolor bug, I have more watercolor card to share with you. This one is one of my favorite. Using the stuff I learned from the class makes me feel like an artist! ;) I think this class is one of the best one so far.

Here's my painted flower jar card. It's so relaxing to do this. Yes, it takes longer and yep,  the card will only go to someone who could appreciate it,  but it's so fun!

For this card I used the mason jar from Paper Smooches Crystal Clear set and the flowers from Wplus9 Fresh Cut Florals and More Fresh Cuts (the sentiment also from this set). To color the jar and flowers I used combination of Memento ink pads and Kuritake ZIG Clean Color Real Brush (awesome watercolor marker  by the way). And, a little enamel dot couldn't hurt, right? This enamel dot is from Doodlebug Sprinkles Swimming pool assortment. All supplies (except for the Kuritake brush) are from i {heart} papers.

I just bought a new watercolor pad, so I'll have plenty of paper to practice on. Hope you're enjoying my current obsession with watercolor. Thank you for stopping by here and may your Wednesday be a great one! 

Happy Gotcha Day!

Last night as I was playing around my craft room, I realized that I have so many stamp sets that din't get enough love. And that makes me feel bad. So, I decided to find an inspiration and using sets that I haven't been using for a while.

I found this sweet inspiration pic from Taheerah's Cure For The Monday Blues # 12.

With rescue dog, we don't know when they're actual birthday, so we celebrate the adoption day, what we called "Happy Gotcha Day". At first, I started this card thinking to make birthday card. But then, I saw the heart paw stamp and change my mind and came up with this card instead:

The "happy sentiment is from Avery Elle Fill In The Blank set. And the sweet heart paws & puppy are from Paper Smooches Paws For A Cause set. The yellow patterned paper is from American Crafts Splendid Sunshine 6x6 paper pad. I figure a little shimmer never hurt, so I brushed the heart paws with Wink of Stella Brush Glitter Marker. All of these available at i {heart} papers store.

That's it for me today. Thank you so much for stopping  by here. May your day be a sweet one.

I'm So Very Lucky

Hi peeps, happy Thursday! Today, I am sharing a card I made for my one and only using goodies from i {heart} papers.

This card reflect the way I feel for hubby, although after I finish it, I am pretty sure it reflects the way our puppies feel for him as well. ;) Hm... yeah, in case you don't know, our household is doggy crazy household.

Last year, when I went through hard period with Ollie, my 15 year old pug, hubby was there through it all. Taking care of Ollie wasn't an easy task and we have lots of cleaning and caring to do and my hubby did it all. It meant a lot to me, because Ollie was mine to start with. But, that girl got hubby wrapped around her paw since we got together and we both feel his love for us.

So, yes, I feel very lucky to have him as my partner in life. He's thoughtful and kind. I know some people took his kindness for granted, but I want him to know that the puppies and I do not take him for granted and we appreciate him. 

Now, enough gushing. Let's talk about the stuff I used to make this card. The patterned paper is from Pebbles Walnut Grove 6x6 paper pad. This pad has so many beautiful patterned paper that I had a hard time making that first cut. Do you ever have that issue with patterned paper? Please tell me I am not the only one with that issue. ;)

The sentiment block is from the new Technique Tuesday Label by Ali Edwards set. I am a fan of anything and everything created by Ali. And the cute puppy is from Paper Smooches Woofers & Tweeters set. Enamel dots from Doodlebug.

Also, I have a project up on CardMaker blog. If you would please kindly check it out, I would so appreciate it. Thank you for your visit and have a fabulous day! xo 

Paper Smooches Special Blog Hop

Hi everyone and welcome to Paper Smooches Special Blog Hop!

Kate (owner of i {heart} papers) suggested an idea to Kim Hughes to create a stamps and dies to support our rescued furry friends. They worked together to create some really fun dog rescue products! A portion of the sales will be donated to Home for Good - http://www.homeforgooddogs.org. Kim asked us to share these fun products with you, through our projects.

I am so excited to participate on this, as dog rescue is a cause that I support with all my heart. After all, I've been blessed in my life to be the lucky mom of a couple rescue dogs. If I could, I'd rescue as many dogs as possible. I truly believe dogs are the most loyal, loving animals. They enrich my life in so many ways and they  bring me so much joy and happiness.

Let's take a peek at my card. I am using the smiling doggy from Paws For A Cause set and the sentiment is from Lucky Paw set.

The fun patterned paper is from Studio Calico Here & There collection. Check out i {heart} papers for other collection from Studio Calico.

To add extra fun to our blog hop...we are offering up a prize! § TWO winners will be chosen at RANDOM from any of the design team blogs.
§ The prize - A Lucky Dog stamp set, Paws for a Cause stamp set and Dog Icons dies.
§ Just leave a comment on any of the design team blogs listed for your chance to win! (you do not need to comment on all blogs to qualify but it increases your chances) 
§ You have until midnight MT on Wednesday, December 18th to leave a comment. 
§ Please check the IHP Blog (http://www.blog.iheartpapers.com) on Friday, December 20th to see if you are one of the TWO lucky winners.

From here please hop on to the talented Wida Miller. In case you miss a link, here's a complete list of the hop participants:

Kate/IHP

Sarah Gough

Lori Tecler

Judy Rozema

Deb Felts

Vera Yates <-- you are here

Wida Miller

Stacey Schafer

Lindsay Amrhein

You Are Amazing

Yay, this weekend, I was able made several cards. Finally, have a little bit of mojo going. Most of the cards I made are DT work for an upcoming new releases, a couple for submission and one is for my i {heart} papers post.

I have a few sets that are still new in its package that I figure it's about time I use them. Yep, seriously, the 3 sets I use today were never been inked till just now. The set I used are Avery Elle Oh Yeah, Fill In The Blank and Paper Smooches Briny Blue.  

I love the combo of white with bright blue. This card is pretty simple, but with the bright blue popping against the white background, it's eye catching, no?

Of course, a little bit of glitter couldn't hurt, so I added some sticklers on the fish black stripe. Am pretty happy with the way this card turn out. 

Well, that's it for me today. Can't sit too long. My back was finally healing, then smart me, not paying attention while walking, I forgot there's a step and I went flying and hit the floor hard. I can't remember the last time I had such an epic fall. Totally sprawled on the floor. It was a grand fall. Floor 1, me 0. Yep, the floor wins. :)

May your coming week starts off in a grand way, but good grand way. Cheers....

You Are Amazing

Hi peeps. How's summer at your neck of the wood? It is hot, hot, hot here in Houston. I feel so bad for hubby who has to be outside most of the time. He is overseeing all of the houses that are on the ground, which means he has to face the heat most of the day. Luckily, he does love his job. He loves seeing the houses being built from scratch. Not loving the heat, though.

 

With the dog days of summer upon us, we rarely do anything that require us to be outside. Especially hubby, since he's out on the field most of the time, by the time we get home, he does not want to go out unless he really has to. Yep, summer in Texas can be brutal.

 

Anyway, enough of me whining about the heat. I live in Texas the past 18 years, I should get used to it, right? Well, let's get on to card.

 

I made this card for my i {heart} papers post.

 

 

I am loving the vases from Paper Smooches Crystal Clear set. The tall vase is my favorite. In fact I have a couple tall vase like that in our house. The sentiment is from Avery Elle Framed Font set. i {heart} papers don't have this set in stock, but they do carry most of Avery Elle stamp.

By the way, with new products coming in, i {heart} papers have all the 6x6 paper pads (excluding the new products) on sale for only $4 each for a limited time. So, if you want to stock up on your 6x6, now is a great time. And you better hurry before the sale ends.

That's it from me today. And tomorrow, please join me and some fabulously talented ladies for Paper Crafts Holiday Cards & More Blog Hop. See you tomorrow.

Foxy Birthday

Have you check out the latest Paper Crafts special edition called Birthday Creations?  I am very lucky that I have 3 cards published on this edition and today I want to share my favorite card that I made for this edition.

I had so much fun making this card. Love the heart shaped hot air balloon. The fox is from Paper Smooches Smoocheroos set (available at i {heart} papers ) and I made the heart balloon card using Silhouette. The fun tiny banner is from SP and Company.

Definitely my kind of card, cute mix with cheerful colors. I am saving this card for my niece. Today she turns 7 months old and fingers cross if everything goes well, I can hand deliver this card myself when she turns 1.

Speaking about Birthday Creations, yesterday on Paper Crafts Connection I was so thrilled to see Betsy highlighting my card. Apparently her daughter picked my puppy card as her favorite. Yay... :) That truly made my day.

That's it from me today. Work waiting. :) Thank you for stopping by here and hope you have an awesome Thursday!
 

Hello Honey

What I love about i {heart} papers is the fact that they carry stamps from  most of my favorite companies, including Paper Smooches. There's just something about Paper Smooches images that capture my heart. Maybe it's the expression on the image or maybe the cute shape of the image. Either way, Paper Smooches is definitely one of my favorite when it comes to cuteness.

So, this time I decided to play with the Honey Bee set. I made the honeycomb background by layering the washi tape (this one is and old one from My Mind's Eye, but there's many other cute ones you can get from the store HERE).

Yellow, black and white makes pretty striking color combo, isn't it? This card makes me smile and I hope it'll bring smile to the recipient as well. :)

Birthday Wishes Train

Hi everyone! I am back in town. After 8 nights in the city of love, hubby and I are back at home and currently as I am typing this post, my baby boy is snuggling on my lap. LOL, I think he was sulking a bit last night as at first he refuse to sleep by my side, choosing to sleep by  my feet instead (which he never did). But after a few hours, he finally forgave me for being away and back to snuggle by my side.

I have tons of pictures, which I still have to sorted through. So, most likely those pics won't get shared anytime soon as right now I have lots of homework. :)

But, before the trip I know I want to try out for Paper Crafts Gallery Idol again. I made this card before I left. 

Lots of details in this card (click on the pic to see it in larger details). I first cut out the train shape using my lovely Mr. Q (my oldie but goodie Silhouette SD). For the back of the card, I simply removed all the train elements and cut only the outline.  Then I assembled all the front train pieces one by one and for fun and trendy addition I used sequins for the center of the wheels.

You know me and my love for cute animal stamps, so of course I have to add some to this card. There comes the giraffe and purple hamster. And since I love using banners and bright colors add  those to the mix as well.

Then, I was like, hmm... choo-choo train without smoke is not quite complete. So, I die-cut a cloud and attached it to a skinny strip of acetate and adhere the cloud die-cut so it looks as if steam coming out from the train. Voila.... my card for 2013 Gallery Idol audition.

What do you think? Do I stand a chance? All I know I have a blast creating this card and that's one thing that I want to always remember. To have fun. When you love what you're doing and enjoy it, it'll show. Now all I can do is cross my fingers and hope for the best.

With that note, I think I'll take a nap. Jet lag settling in. :) It is so good to be home again. Travel story coming soon.

HB2U

Hi there lovely peeps. As this post go up, I should be (hopefully) sleeping like a baby after coming back from our Paris vacation. Either that, or I'll be groggily awake and wishing I could sleep due to the jet lag. :)

Today, sadly is my last post as Paper Smooches SPARKS team member. The new team is coming and I can't wait to see their awesome works. It's been such a pleasure to be on this team and thank you, Kim Hughes, for the opportunity. For our term last post the challenge is to create a project inspired by this pic.

Hm.... the color and  the repeat of the tag pattern is what drew me and here's my card with lots of colors and repeat hamster image.

I hope you will play along with us and check out what my fab team mates has created for this challenge HERE. And... happy Memorial day! 

I {Heart} U

Happy Monday! Sorry that my blog been a bit quiet. Have quite a few things going on as I am trying to get things done in advance before my vacation starts. And, sometime life takes precedence over card making as well. My BFF was needing a shoulder to lean on and we ended up spending the whole Saturday shopping and hanging out. Nothing beats therapy like a good shopping. I had lots of fun playing as a fashion adviser. ;)

I was so whooped that I went to bed early Saturday night and Sunday we celebrate Mother's Day by taking the baby (that's Eli my pug puppy) to the dog park. Hah... like any good mom, it's all about the kids, right? It was actually a bribe because he got so stressed out from getting his nail trimmed, that I feel so bad and to make it up we took him to the dog park for some fun time. He met some new friends and dip his feet in the pond.

Anyway,  that's pretty much my weekend story. How about yours? Did you do anything special for Mother's Day? 

Now, let's get down to business. It's time for a new Paper Smoochers SPARKS sketch challenge.

I love this sketch and decided to pull out some patterned paper to play with. And, here's what I made:

Can you believe it that I have this set for a while now and just now finally using the balloon images? Sigh... too many stamps, not enough time.

Want some more inspirations?? Please check out what my team mates has created at Paper Smooches SPARKS blog. Thank you for visiting here and I hope you all had a great Mother's Day.