DDSB Challenge #3

Hi there peeps! How are you doing this morning? I love Thursday. Cause it means one more day before weekend and I have my favorite shows on tonight. Flash Forwards and Gray's Anatomy.

Let's start with Digi Doodles Shop's Best (DDSB) challenge for today, shall we. This time it's a sketch challenge. You can see all the detail and the sketch here on DDSB challenge blog. You can win  free stamps and win the chance to be our featured guest designer, so I hope you will join the challenge.

Here's my take on this week sketch. I highlighted the lilac with glitters once I am done with coloring it. Sorry, if the picture is not too great. I have the hardest time taking picture of yellow cards. Somehow it just never quite as good as the way they look in real life.

You can get the lilac stamp here. Please take the time to browse around the shop. They have lots of cute images, from cutesy to vintage for you to play with. I am looking forward to see your creation for our challenge. Hugs, Vera.

Emergency center trip

Monday late afternoon, we were at home, when suddenly I just hear my husband cursing. Went to check on him and found him holding up his hand that was covered with blood. He was working on a project and his pocket knife fold on him (yeah, it's the one that didn't have safety lock) and just cut him open. He's more annoyed that it happened instead of thinking of the pain.

He thought he could just duct tape it. Must be a guy thing that duct tape can solve everything. Since his tetanus shot not current, I insisted on going to the emergency care by our house. Besides it was pretty deep cut. He was still trying to debate me and I just gave him the look that pretty much said don't even try.

I have to say that I am very impressed with St. Michael emergency center. We thought it's only a minor emergency center, turned out it's they are the smallest fully functional hospital in Texas. As soon as we came in they took his information and no waiting! How amazing is that? I never been to any emergency center where there's no waiting. And the staff?? AWESOME! Very friendly and efficient.

John, himself used to be a paramedic, I think that's why he's so calm, too. He knows what's what. And he's so thoughtful. The whole time we were in there, while they're stitching his hand, he joke around and make the doctor and the nurses laugh. I was like, I never seen anybody that cheerful during injury. And his explanation was that he remembered from his paramedic year, how it can be so depressing working in hospital and he said it's refreshing when you have patients that just don't whine and complaint. He said, I can brighten their work day by making them laugh. And he sure did. He made them laugh with his jokes, took pictures while they stitched him up.

Later on, he said that he also did it for me cause he didn't want me to stress out. And, I'm like, you're injured, yet you think about my well being and others. I married an amazing man! He's just so thoughtful of others. I told him though, he didn't have to worry about me in that kind of situation, as I do have my mom's gene in me. LOL. I have that tendency, when the others around me freak out, or get hurt, somehow it forced me to be calm and efficient as my mom always thought me to act efficiently we need to be calm. And yes, my mom used to be a nurse, too.

So, that's my exciting Monday evening. Tuesday evening is my time to watch Lost. Only a few episode left. This final season has been good! Didn't have card made for today's post. I am working on some cards, but they all to be post for my DT project. I figure I can post an old card I made for my boss' wedding last year. It's a pull out card. 

I'll be back with new cards tomorrow. Thank you all for stopping by. Have a great Wednesday! Hugs, Vera.

Mami Doodles DT

I am so excited to announce that I've been selected to be in Elisa's Mami Doodles design team. Mami Doodles was started by Elisa who likes to create digital stamps. And, I got selected to be in the design team, purely by chance and luck. :)

Elisa was just blog hopping, checking out different blog and she found my blog from one of the challenge I entered. She fell in love with my style and out of the blue, I got this email asking me if I'd be interested to be in her design team. For me, that was such a huge compliments and I am excited to be part of her team. 

The next few months should keep me busy being in 2 design teams. Both companies have beautiful stamps to work with, but each quite different in style. So, there should be plenty of images to play with.

Here's a sample of Mami Doodle's stamp. First, I cut a Bo Bunny's dot paper for background and cut a hole in the middle. I attached this to the card base using pop dots. Also, for extra element, I added the dandellion cut with Silhouette. I colored the girl & the cat with Copic markers, I cut around her image and glued her on top of the circle opening.

I don't usually work with bright colors, so using this lime green background was quite a bit outside my comfort zone. But, I think it come out pretty good. You can see all the goodies available at Mami Doodles starting on Thursday, April 15, 2010. We will also have challenges that you can enter. Hope you can join us. Hugs, Vera.

Quick birthday card

Quick post. Made this card for my father-in-law's birthday. He's celebrating his 71st birthday. Am also entering this card for SRM challenge. Sorry for super short post. Have loads of things to do. :) Have a great night.

Lilybean fairy

Happy weekend peeps! Don't you just love weekend? Time to relax, enjoy the time to do whatever you want... aahhh... I love it! :)

My weekend start with making card. Hah... how's that for exciting way to start? :) I made this card for Nina's blog anniversary challenge. I recently found this Lilybean fairy stamp and eventhough I was a bit intimidated in coloring her, I think it turned out pretty good. Love how cute she looks.

For extra detail, I added a couple clouds just because that space looks a bit empty. And of course,  I have to add glitters to the wings. Here's an upclose look of the wings.

Love my stickles! The dragonfly actually have glitters, too. I think whenever I work with fairies or dragonfly stamps, I always add glitters to the wings. Otherwise it just doesn't feel complete. So, what do you think of this Lilybean fairy? This one is called Clover dancing with dragonflies.

I also want to do a birthday shout-out to my gal, Monika in Germany. Today is her birthday and I want to wish her the very best. I met Monika through Hero Arts flickr group. By the way, Monika, your card is in the mail along with your goodies. :) Okay, peeps, that's all for now. Hope you have a wonderful & fabulous weekend. Ciao!

Happy Friday

Aaahhh.... Friday!! Happy dance. I am so looking forward to this weekend as I plan to bury myself in my scrapbooking room while my husband busy watching the Master golf tournament.

I found a blog that just focus on print and patterns and let me tell ya... I've been so inspired. My doodling book been filled with ideas. The only thing that irritate me sometime was that when I tried to do the doodling again, somehow they don't look as cute as the original doodling. I guess when I did the doodling without thinking, there was no pressure, so it just come out naturally. But, when I am ready to use it for actual use, I get worried about messing it up, etc., that sometimes it took me several tries before it come out the way I want it.

I also have to make several cards for Love My Tape as they will be featuring my works on April 19th and 26th on  their blog. So, so excited with this opportunity! Please check my blog on that date, too as I will post the cards here as well.

On to today's card. I made this card for Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger. The inspiration is to create a project that mix aqua with kraft, orange-gold, red and pink. Not your usual color combo, but it turned out pretty yummy, in my opinion.

Also, yesterday, I found the cutest dragon stamp on this Scrapbooking Passion site. If you click on EN on the left top site, you can browse the site in English, otherwise you'd be like me trying to browse in French. And, I was just guessing what it means. LOL. And for limited time they offer free world wide shipping, just enter the code "FREE" when you check out. I was so excited that I get to order some stamps that I couldn't find here in the States. And, no, I don't work for  them, I just saw their card using this dragon stamp, fell in love with the dragon and ask them where can I get it. They were so nice to reply immediately and even share the free shipping. I am a supporter for good customer service. That's all. :)

Okay, that's it for today. I wish you all a very happy Friday!! Hugs, Vera.

Digi Doodle Shop's Best Challenge #2

Only a week ago we celebrated the grand opening of Digi Doodle Shop. I hope you get to join their first challenge. If not, you can join us for challenge # 2. You can find all the details for this challenge by going to Digi Doodle Shop's Best Challenge blog.

This week the challenge is to create card with different folding. If you have followed me for a while, you know I love making easel card. So, that's what I made. I love this sweet Digi Doodle Shop's mail box image. You can get this stamp here. 

For the background, I turned to my Silhouette machine. Don't you love that cloud?? I've been wanting to use this Hero Arts cloud image and  this is just perfect. And, I love the fact that I can use the inside of the die-cut for extra dimension. To create the soft background, I used chalks in 2 different shades of aqua blue. The little extra puff on the cloud is created by using Liquid Applique.

Don't forget to check out all the other blog by our DT. Their links on the left side of my blog. Let me know what you think and join us for the fun challenge!! Hugs, Vera.

Belated birthday

I've been planning all along to do a blog shout out to my older brother, Jeff, on his birthday. My bad... Due to stressfull work situation last week, I totally failed to do so. Today's post is all for my brother!

There's only 3 kids in our family. My older brother Jeff, me and my younger brother, Jerry. Jeff is five years older than me and he's truly a big brother to look up to. Actually my husband points this out to me, how lucky I am to have such a good role model growing up.

Even my mom said so, how Jeff was such a great kid and so mature for his age that back then even she sometime forgot that he was just a kid. :) Yeah, Jeff was the one who put the fear of smoking in me. Back then, my mom would save her money and got him all these encyclopedia book (I think he wants to be a doctor since he was in diaper..., LOL), and from one of the book he showed me this picture of smoker's lung. Hmm... for someone who's easily disgusted with yucky images, that image stuck with me. I was maybe 5?? Yep, never once even try to smoke cigarette because of that. :)

Looking back, as much as I got mad at him when he was bossy (teenage years), I have to say besides my parents, my  brother helped shapes who I am today. He's my mom's helper in watching us. I just want him to know that I appreciate all his good examples. He's a quiet guy, except when all of us together, he can gets very goofy and I love that.

So, no cards for today's post. Just a belated birthday blog-shout-out to my older brother who I love dearly and appreciated so very much. I don't get to see my brothers that often, but they're close to my heart always. Jeff, happy, happy birthday. May all your wishes come true and I am so lucky to have you as my big brother! Love ya, Ling.

Hmmm

How's that for a title? LOL. I just have no idea what to write for today's post. I guess, I just rambling away as I typed this. :)

How was your Easter? We went to Galveston to visit my in-laws and had a wonderful super-big-lunch. My SIL and her family were also in  town visiting from Galena, IL. They have 4 little kids (one actually still a baby) and let me just tell you, sitting for lunch with 4 little kids, made a very interesting time. They're adorable, but when their restlesness or the sugar high kick in, wow, you better have your running shoes ready, because they will just take-off!

After lunch we went to the beach. It wasn't the best day to go to the beach because it was so windy, but we all still had a great time. As soon as we got back home, it's pretty much sofa time. LOL. I was whooped. Besides, I have my show on.

Have you heard of the show "Life"? It's an 11 weeks special event on Discovery channel about all kind of living things on earth. And the pictures are just AMAZING! Some makes you wonder how on earth they captured that? So, if you haven't seen it, try to catch it next Sunday. Here it starts at 7pm CST. The pictures and beauty of life will just captured you.

Speaking about animals, yesterday they were showing about birds. How perfect is that theme for my cards. Beside butterflies, I used birds quite a bit on my cards. Here, I used Silhouette to cut my birdies. The 2nd bird from the left is popped on pop-dot for a little extra dimension. Covered all the edges with glitters. Pretty quick and simple card.

OK, I better get going. There's still so many things to do on my list. Hope you all have a great week. Hugs, Vera.

Digi Doodle Shop Grand Opening

Yay... today is the day!! Today is the grand opening of Digi Doodle Shop store. I am so excited to be part of Digi Doodle Shop's Best Design Team.  They have lots of  digital stamps that I am so looking forward to play with. You can check out their digital stamp collection here. 

You definitely want to check it out today, cause the  first 50 customers of the store will be put in for a drawing to win their very own CUSTOM MADE STAMP. Yep, you read it right. You can send in your picture, your kids picture, or your puppy and they can create your very own custom stamp! One of the lady on the DT, had a couple stamps made of her cute puppies. Way too adorable. When you visit the store, don't forget to sign up for the weekly newsletter, so you can get up-date for new releases.

And of course, we can't do grand opening without doing challenge. This week challenge is to make card with Easter/spring theme. You can join the fun and get the detail for the challenge by going to Digi Doodle Shop's Best here. Every week we will have new challenge. How fun is that?

I actually ended up making 2 cards for this week challenge. The 1st card I used the iris bloom. During the sneak peek a few post ago, I did the same flowers but colored it yellow. Here, I used purple. I colored the image with copic markers and then for the scallop border I used Martha Stewart border punch.

The second card, I used the Boy Bunny image. He looks so sweet and playful. I also included the up-close pic of the bunny tail. To make it looks fluffy, I used Liquid Applique. I don't get to use it often, so kind of glad that I get to play with it this time. And for extra dimesnion, I create layer for the bunny's hat and the butterfly.

I love that they have stamp for evey taste. From the classic, vintage look to the cutesy stuff. Let me know what you think and don't forget to check out the store! Their price is very reasonable. Also, you can visit the other DT blog by clicking on the DT team list on my left side bar. Plenty of ideas. I hope you will play along and join the Digi Doodle Shop challenge. I'm looking forward to see what you talented ladies come up with. Hugs, Vera.