OMG OMG OMG Toot Toot Toot!

I know how much all of you can appreciate the wonderful news that I have just received. I wish I knew how to type my girlie scream of excitement!! OK, I just received an email from the Associate Editor of Paper Crafts magazine. As some of you may know the magazine is doing a spin off of American Idol called "Gallery Idol". Well out of 774 submissions I have been chosen and I am in the top 20! Aaaaaahhhhh! I need to make a card and post it on Monday July 7th. You can go here to check out the deets Gallery Idol. I hope you will check out my entry and hopefully fingers crossed I will have your vote as well. My cards are posted under my username, PASdreambig.
Thank you so much as always for all of your support and for stopping by!
BIG HUGS!!
UPDATE 7.8.08: voting actually starts on July 9th at noon MST and runs through July 11th at noon MST. So "fans" can cast their votes on their favorite card at that time. Those with the most votes will move on to round two. Aaaaah the pressure! I didn't sleep at all last night of course.

My Little Drummer Girl

Last Thursday was a good day, one thing that I can share for now anyway is that our daughter Aly was on the front page of the "Your Hub" section of Denver's newspaper. I made this page in honor of her news paper debut. Aly was at an African percussion concert and one of the drummers let her bang on his djembe. Pretty cool huh!
I will share the rest of my good news in the next few weeks...ooh sneaky huh! Have a super rest of your weekend.
Thanks for stopping by!

Friday Card Flick "Adorable", An Award and Tagged again!

This week's FCF is really short and very simple. Check out the website that I get my die cut frames, cards, shapes and boxes from
Creative Cuts and More
They totally ROCK! Hope you enjoy!

Click Here To View This Week's "Friday Card Flick"











On a different note...

Wow what an honor, Kim from Stamping In the Rain has sent me the Arte y Pico award. Kim is so inspiring and I always come away from her blog with a new idea! Thanks Kim for thinking of me :)

Here are the rules for the award:

1. You pick five blogs that you consider deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also contribute to the blogging community, no matter what language.

2. Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone. Remember to leave the person a comment or email to let them know they received the award.

3. Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and the link to the blog that has given her or him the award itself.

4. Award-winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of Arte y Pico blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award.

So here are my five picks this time:

1. "The Artistic Avenger"

2. "A Day In the Life of the Paper Poppy"

3. "Bits & Pieces"

4. "Chloe-Jill Designs"

5."Traveling Mama"

Kim also tagged me so here are 7 random facts about myself:
1. I can touch my tongue to my nose, yes very talented
2. I have two little brothers, well I am the little one now (short that is)
3. My eyes are really hazel (not brown!)
4. I love hockey
5. My favorite movie is "Sixteen Candles" (oh sexy girlfriend!)
6. I love 1965 mustangs and 1970's big honkin' ford pick-up trucks
7. My favorite of the BR 31 flavors of ice cream is pink bubble gum only without the actual gum in it....is that random enough for ya???
Consider yourself tagged if you actually read through this whole post. BoooWaa ha ha! Yes I am a dork!

Yes, another challenge card

I so missed Kristina Werner's challenge last week, because it got so hectic with the garage sale and bloggers party on Saturday. I had to jump on board this week especially since it is week number 13 and HELLO 13 is my favorite number. The colors for this Color Inspiration Challenge are River Rock, White, Regal Rose, Purely Pomegranate, and Wild Wasabi. This card was originally suppose to be just a circle card, but when I was cutting my River Rock piece with my Coluzzle I managed to only get the top layer on the one side. I decided to go with it and add a pocket to the inside for a gift card. The pocket is just the left over piece from the white circle I cut out. Yeah...happy mistake! Everything I used on this card is from Stampin' UP! well except for the Souffle Pen by Sakura. Love that pen!!
Thanks for stopping by and see you tomorrow for my Friday Card Flick, yes... its back!!

CPS Challenge 70

Finally finally I was able to get a card done for a CPS challenge. It has been a couple of weeks and I have missed playing along. This card was another one that I kinda threw a bunch of pieces out on the table and went with whatever caught my eye. Everything except the bright yellow flower, which is a "bloom-let" from Eye-Lets Etc, the Stampin' UP! Soft Sky card stock, clear button and Target black satin ribbon is all by Making Memories. Wow after typing all of that I realized how much is on this card.
I hope to get some cleaning done around the house today, although I may meet up with a couple of close friends for an ice cream or something. I miss not seeing my girlfriends from the kids school when we are on summer break. It will be nice to catch up.
Have a super day!!
As always thanks for stopping by!

Girl

Here is my version of Kazan's sketch from 2 Sketches 4 You this week. I had just picked up a box of baby themed chipboard pieces made by DCWV on clearance at JoAnns. Gotta love a bargain and bonus, they are so super cute!! The lavender paper is from Cricut and the pink daisy paper is from Eye-Lets Etc. I added some of those cute little button brads from Making Memories to the chipboard flowers and stars for a little more texture. Once again used my Souffle pens to add the tiny dots down the scalloped piece of white card stock and faux stitching around the edges. The sentiment is a vellum sticker by EK Success. You will be happy to know that this card only took me two hours to make ha ha!
Thanks for stopping by.

Finally...a card!

Thank you all for being patient while I was a little quiet here at Paper Askew. I will have a FCF this Friday for sure, thanks for missing it last week.
I have been in my studio all day woo hoo and I am so happy to be posting again! Wanted to get some challenges and sketches done for the week. This card I started making on Saturday night during my bloggers party and finally finished it today for Caardvarks "Pink Challenge". I am loving Thickers, is there such a thing as a Thicker-holic? I seriously love these fun blinged up letters. The other pieces are from Making Memories, just little paper pieces which are fun. I also used my white Souffle pen to do some faux stitching. The flowers or "bloom-lets" are from Eye-Lets Etc.
We had such a good time at the bloggers party, here is a picture of the actual bloggers who were able to make it. From left to right Kazan, Ginger, ME, Dawn & Jen (thanks Jen for the picture). We kept looking at each other to see what one another was creating. I think Kazan had the most eyes on her, she is such a laugh riot!! Everyone is SO sweet and I absolutely LOVE being a part of our blogging community. We paper craft bloggers & readers ROCK!!
Gotta run, thanks for stopping by!

A Lazy Sunday & I need it!!

I am completely pooped out! Who knew having a garage sale was so much work. Friday was a good day, but Saturday just stunk!! I hate having to pack everything back up and find a place for it again until we can either donate some of it or wait for another sale. PLUS I had to get things ready for my bloggers party which was last night. I will share some pictures from the party later this week. WE had such a good time and laughed a lot!
SO, for today I will share a few things about myself because, I have been tagged by Laura. Thanks Laura :)


The rules of the game: Each player answers the questions themselves. At the end of the post the player then tags 4 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment letting them know that they've been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you've posted your answers.

Ten years ago....
I was 25 year old SAHM with 1 little boy, Tyler was only 18 months, living in a very small town in Northern Colorado. Most likely watching Blues Clues and baking something. I baked a lot more back then.

Five things on today's "to do list"
Maybe some laundry, put all my junk away from the garage sale, unload my car from last nights party, maybe film a FCF for this coming week, & most likely sit and be lazy for the rest of the day!
Snacks I enjoy
I enjoy Starbucks Mocha Frapps the FROZEN kind and peanut butter M&Ms. Nice combo huh!

Things I would do if I was a millionaire
I would take my family on a nice vacation, buy a smallish house (less house, less to clean...always thinking I am) with a grand stamp room and a robot to do all the laundry.

Places I have lived
I was born in Iowa, grew up and lived in Colorado since I was about 18 months old.

I am tagging...
Dawn
Jen
Chloe
Karie
Thanks ladies:)

Happy Hump Day

Wednesday already...yikes! I am getting ready for not only a garage sale this weekend but my Colorado Bloggers Party as well, so this post will be short. This is a card that I really just threw together. I had picked up some chipboard & metal pieces from Making Memories and pretty much designed the card around them. I sanded the butterfly just a little to give it those streaks, thought it gave it a little more texture. I had to use a stamp somewhere, so I used my Baroque Motifs flourish with real red in the upper left corner. Thats about it...thanks for stopping by!!

Inspiration Challenge #4 gallery & winner

Here is the gallery of talented paper crafters who played along with this months Inspiration Challenge. Everyone did an amazing job and it was so hard to pick just one person. Thank you everyone for playing and a big Thank YOU to Carrie for a great picture this month. Carrie's card is absolutely gorgeous, did you see it? It is my turn next month to choose an inspirational photo so please come back and play starting July 12th.
Here you go:

Carrie

Pennie

Donna

Cat

Stephanie

Stef

Chloe

Oh and the winner this month is Donna. I really felt like that bath tub could be found in the corner of the room in the photo. Great job Donna!! Thanks again everyone for playing along!!
Hugs,
Pam

A combo challenge

I am completely hooked on both Caardvarks and 2 Sketches 4 You challenges. Since both of them have a challenge this morning I decided to combine the sketch from Laura and the theme from Caardvarks. The theme for Caardvarks micro challenge (which means you only have one day to complete it and post) is "masculine birthday". Now that is a true challenge, why is it so hard to come up with cards for men? I asked my oldest son Ty who is 11 who he thought this card would be appropriate for without telling him of course what I was going for. Luckily he said a boy! I said good that is what I was going for, his reply "yeah Mom its cool, but do you have any skull stamps". Gee I forgot to add a skull and cross bones...have to keep that in mind next time LOL! Everything on this card is from Stampin' UP! except for the star brads, those are Memory Makers. The star I used the faux shaving cream technique on. Looks a little on the camo side I think, then I swiped a versa mark pad across the piece of River Rock card stock to give it a little texture.The colors are Basic Gray, Old Olive, River Rock & Whisper White. Stamp sets are "Fundamental Phrases", "Independence Day", "Circle of Friendship", "Baroque Motifs" and jumbo stampin' wheel "Lots of Dots". I have a stamping meeting tomorrow, so I may just make a bunch of these for swaps. What do you think??

Thanks for stopping by, see you tomorrow with the winner of Inspiration Challenge #4.

Color Inspiration Challenge #11

Here is my take on Kristina's Color Inspiration Challenge #11. This is kinda different for me, really went outside the box or at least I felt like I did. I never have enough masculine cards, so I think this would work. I used Gina K's set "What's In Your Tin 2" designed by Melanie Muenchinger for the lined pattern. The sentiment is from the set "Happy Everything" by Stampin' UP! I just used a small square punch to make the little squares of Rose Red, So Saffron, Old Olive & Basic Gray. I don't know, what do you think??
Don't forget to link your creations for the Inspiration Challenge #4 that Carrie and I have going on right now. You must link your creation here by tomorrow at midnight.
Have a super weekend!

Friday Card Flick "Cherish"

Whew! Here you go another FCF for your viewing pleasure..LOL! I used the colors in Carrie's inspiration challenge photo to make this card. I love the combo of green, pink, black and white! As you can see in the video I was having major issues with the ribbon this time, just about drove me mad! Just noticed my picture doesn't really do the colors justice. Those dots really are Pretty in Pink. Gee I thought today would be my lucky day as its the 13th and all...ha ha! I have a bad feeling it is going to be one of those days....argh!
Don't forget to post your links under the Inspiration Challenge #4 post by the end of the 15th!

Click here to view this week's Friday Card Flick

Friday Card Flick coming soon!

its coming... its coming!

Inspiration Challenge #4

Here we are at the middle of the month again! Time for another Inspiration Challenge this time Carrie chose the inspiration photo and it is AWESOME! I love these colors and gee I wouldn't mind if that room was in my house. SO here's the deal, make something...anything using this photo as your inspiration. Post a link back here with your project by the end of June 15th. On the 17th I will pick one lucky winner to receive a little something something from my own personal stash of Eye-Lets Etc yummies. Go have some fun and check back here tomorrow as I have used this challenge to make my FCF!! Check out Carries blog the Artistic Avenger on the 15th to see what she has created! I know it will be amazing!
Thanks for stopping by!

Summer Time

I so remember sitting outside as a kid cooling off eating either a cherry, grape or my favorite lemon lime Popsicle. Wow I haven't had one in a long time. Although I can say that I don't miss the colored mouth they give you.
BBTB has a challenge right now to use the Popsicle from the "doodle charms" Cricut cartridge. I love their challenges and am not always able to play along since I only own a few cartridges. This time I am prepared. I used the Popsicle border, the sun from the same cartridge, pattern paper & eyelets from ELE and the sentiment from Stampin' UP!'s "Wonderful Words". Does it make you think of Summer? Sure is getting warm here, should have some of those Popsicles in the freezer. OR maybe make a trip to DQ for a mocha moolatte...mmmmm yummy!
Thanks for stopping by. Tomorrow Carrie, Artistic Avenger and I will be posting our Inspiration Challenge photo. Be prepared to play along!!! OH and one more thing, check out ~Lets blog. I have posted my first project.
Thanks for stopping by and have a super day!!

2 Sketches 4 You "Rooster Friend"

Here is the card I made using Kazan's sketch from 2 Sketches 4 You. The rooster used to be a pin, but was broken so I got it for free at a garage sale this weekend. SWEET, free is always good and rather than throw it in the trash why not go green and use him on a card. The flowers, eyelets and DP is from Eye-Lets Etc. I made the button out of DP and a 1 inch circle punch. It has about 5 layers of card stock glued layer by layer behind it to make it about as thick as a button. This way I was able to thread ribbon through it without tearing the paper. The white border I made with white card stock punching a row of 3/4" circles and then 1/2" circles. I tried to make it look like chicken wire, maybe silver CS would look a little better??? I don't know, maybe its ok?? I used my Sakura white and gray souffle pens to do faux stitching and as the edging around the piece that says friend. LOVE my souffle pens!
Thanks for stopping by!

Drum roll please....

the winner of the Eye-Lets Etc. goodie pack is ...
Sheila D who wrote: How cool? Congratulations. Can't wait to see all the goodies and projects you come up with. June 5, 2008 8:35 PM
Thanks Sheila, I will be in contact to get your mailing address.


Now for some more goodies. Karie from 1 Crafty Gal sent me a pay it forward package and this is what she sent me. Now its my turn to pay it forward. The first three people to comment here will receive a goodie, then in return you need to pay it forward to 3 new people.
Thanks for playing! Oh and thanks Karie...you rock chica!!

Oh and did you see my cool new blinkie for ~Lets blog. Jen made it for me, isn't it the coolest! Thanks Jen you rock!!

RAK's needed

I was emailed by a couple of girls, Kate & Rachel who are friends of Matt Logelin asking if I could send him a Father's Day card. You may wonder what is so special about Matt...well 10 weeks ago Liz (his wife) gave birth to their first child, Madeline after being on bed rest in the hospital for 5 weeks. Within 27 hours of having Madeline, Liz passed away from a pulmanary embolism. Matt shares daily how he is dealing or not dealing with life without Liz and caring for this precious little baby girl of his. This blog is heart wrenching and tear jerking at times, but boy does it ever make you realize how precious life is and definitely too short. Matt takes the most beautiful photographs of not only Madeline, but of places he goes and the people he meets during the day.

So, what am I asking of you. If you have time please check out this site there you can get Rachels' email info and she will give you an address to send a Father's Day card to. She is collecting as many as she can to give to Matt in person when he is visiting his family in MN for the holiday. I asked her if it would be alright to share this info on my blog as I know many of you would like to help. We all love to give and receive RAKs and this is one I know I can't pass up. There isn't a lot of time as Father's Day is only a week away, sorry. Just let Rachel know that you want to send a card for Matt when you email her and that I sent you. I know Rachel and her friend Kate who are doing all of this are so appreciative for the support.

This is the card I made for Matt. Seems as though he likes robots as he is always posting gifts that he has received that have something to do with Robots. I had to go to my LSS today anyway to make sure I was set up for my bloggers party and knew they carried this cute paper by Cosmo Cricket. I used some triangle eyelets from ELE and a Fathers day rub on by MSE to finish is up. I hope Matt likes it and I hope it helps make his day a little brighter.
UPDATE: here is a link from Matt's blog that explains the Robot again here and here. Really a cute story, now I know what is up with his love of Robots!

A shout out to Chloe for introducing Matt's blog to me. Thanks!!

In the beginning...

there was this little card. As requested, here is the very first card that I made for an actual class almost three years ago. While I look at it I think of all the things that I could have added to make this card better, I think of all of the things that I have learned to get me where I am now. Of course I will never alter this card or give it away as it will always be a reminder of where I started.

This card I made for the new Caardvarks challenge called "Drink Up". I love their challenges, they are so unique and the DT is amazing! Did you see Laura from A day int he life of the Paper Poppy & 2Sketches 4 You has just joined the Caardvarks team. Congrats Laura!! So, I first started searching for twist off lids, the metal ones that you find on IBC soda or a Corona, but didn't have any on hand. Thought those would make a cute embellishment. So I then searched through my stamps and couldn't find any drink related. Last but not least I turned to my Cricut cartridges and low and behold....a steaming coffee cup woohoo! It was either that or a baby bottle and well couldn't think of anything clever off the top of my head with a bottle. I used card stock from SU and the DP is from Eye-Lets-Etc as well as the flower and eyelets. Isn't that little key eyelet the cutest?! They come in bronze, gold & silver, super cute. The flourish is yes, once again from my fancy pants "Chic Alpha" stamp set. I embossed the flourish with white EP and then sponged some creamy caramel ink over the top to really make the steam pop.

Please check back tomorrow, I have a special request for some RAK's check out this blog and you will know why.
Have a super Saturday!!!

FCF "Friends"

Click here to view this weeks FCF "Friends"

Here we go, another Friday Card Flick. This time everything used is by Stampin' UP! for all of you SU fans.
Don't forget to check out this post for a chance at some blog candy and don't forget to apply for a position on the ELE design Team.
Tomorrow afternoon I will post my very first demonstrator card as requested.
Have a wonderful weekend and thank you everyone for your sweet comments.

Blast from the past

I was really trying to get some stuff done around the house yesterday, so I didn't get a chance to finish a card. So I thought I would go back and grab a picture from a card I made about a year ago. This was one of my favorites at the time and looking at it now I think, oh I could have added this or that or.... It is fun to go back and look at the work you had done in the past and see how much you have grown. Seems as though I have grown a lot in A LOT of ways in the past year. A year older, more inspired and a bit more enthusiastic about my dream of being "known" in the paper crafting world. I wonder where I will be next year, just have to wait and see. I should really post the very first card I ever made as a demonstrator almost 3 years ago. Maybe I will do that if you wanna see it some time. I have it up on my book shelf as a reminder of where I started.
See ya tomorrow for my Friday Card Flick!!
Have a great day!

2 Sketches 4 You challenge #1 part 2

Here is my take on Kazan's sketch from 2 Sketches 4 You. The striped paper and little flower buttons were in my Caardvarks "May Kit". The sentiment and card stock is from Stampin' UP! The orange and yellow striped ribbon, well that is a mystery... just had this scrap left and I am not sure who made it...sorry. The lime green eyelets are from Eye-Lets Etc. Last but not least I used my Scor-pal then filled in the grooves with faux turquoise stitching. A fun, bright and cheery card for someone special!
Thanks again for the sweet comments. Have a great hump day!!

2 Sketches 4 You challenge #1

Happy Tuesday All! This is my very first sketch challenge with Laura and Kazan over at 2 sketches 4 you. Let me tell you a little about these two ladies. Laura first of all has been such an inspiration to me, she is so extremely talented and sweet on top of it. When I was over at Stampinggetaway (my old blog) I was pretty much feeling uninspired and things in our personal lives were not so great, I wasn't posting very often anymore. Then Laura started leaving comments and it really gave me the drive to keep going. We started chatting and found out we live rather close to each other. We have met up in person a few times and she is such a sweet heart! Laura probably doesn't know it, but she really has given me a new outlook on my paper crafting and I am so lucky to have her as a friend. Thank you Laura!! Hugs!!
As for Kazan, hello...she is SO talented, have you seen her stuff! When I started leaving comments on her blog she has always been quick to respond back. Kazan is like the blogging girl next door, she is so sweet and sincere and such an inspiration. I am so excited to be able to meet up with her for the blogging party I am hosting on June 21st. These two ladies ROCK!! Aaaah am I getting all mushy on you guys...sorry! Check out 2 Sketches 4 You and play along each week. I know I will!
So onto the card, I made this card using Laura's sketch and some of the pieces from the kit that I won over at Caardvarks called the "May Kit" (thank you Caardvarks, you rock!!). This kit was so much fun to play with.

Here is the recipe for the card:
-So Saffron Card Stock- SU
-Cameo Coral Card Stock-SU
-"XOXOXO" Fundamental Phrases set- SU
-"Hugs & Kisses" Foam pop up sticker-Marcella K
-Stick Pin w/ ribbon, blue heart, white circle with green scalloped edge- May Kit from Caardvarks
-Plaid Ribbon-Target $spot
Punches-SU
Button Brads-MME
Polka Dot DP- KI Memories
White embossing powder-SU
Versa Mark

Thanks everyone for your sweet comments and for stopping by. See ya tomorrow with my card using Kazan's sketch.

The Big News & Blog Candy to celebrate!

Well...here it is... my big news. I am proud to announce that I have accepted the position to Head the Eye-Lets Etc. Design Team. I will be doing a lot of other fun things with this company, which I am really excited about. So....what do I need from you? I need a design team, check out "-Lets Blog" for more details if you are interested.
Now for the blog candy...any comments left here on this post will be entered in a drawing for an assortment of fun shaped eyelets and I may throw in some other Eye-Lets Etc. goodies. I will choose one random name on Monday, June 9th at 9AM and post the winner.
Thanks for stopping by.