Wednesday's Combo Challenge

It seems that I am addicted to challenges... Here it is another Wednesday and I am once again combining challenges again. I guess from now on Wednesdays will be my "Combo Challenge day". Wow I am really starting to schedule myself, but I don't think that is a bad thing. At least you will know what to look forward to, well I hope you look forward to it, maybe not??!? LOL!
For this card I used Kristina's color challenge #7 and the CPS sketch # 62. Great colors this week and a easy peasy sketch, gotta love that! I used my Fancy Pants "Bella Brush" set again. Good thing, because it wasn't the cheapest, but you do get a ton of beautiful stamps in this set. There are a few corner stamps in this set, but they are huge. I cut some of them in half so that they would fit on my clear block. If I need to use the whole stamp later I can always match the pieces up. Anyway, I used Close to Cocoa for the base of the card, Chocolate Chip ink and card stock, Soft Sky card stock and lastly Very Vanilla card stock. Since I used craft ink I embossed with clear EP, so that it would set faster and really pop. For the bottom of the card I cut out a brace with my Cricut and them traced the image on to the card and cut around giving the card a little more detail. I just happened to have some ribbon that matches SU's Soft Sky perfectly. Not sure who makes the ribbon though, the bolt didn't have any markings and I had bought it on clearance at JoAnn's a couple of years ago. This little buckle is from Making Memories and was a super find at 75% off...I am a bargain girl!! Gotta love a bargain, although that is probably why my studio is plum full! I need to start selling some of these cards I am making or the doors on my room will be busting open and I won't be able to fit inside anymore...tee hee.

Well, I managed to find the recipe for my favorite cupcakes, so I thought I would share the chocolaty goodness with you all. If you have time to make these let me know what ya think.
My next post will most likely be early Friday morning with another edition of my "Friday Card Flick" hope to see you then. Thanks for stopping by!

Black Bottom Cups
by Pillsbury "The Complete Book of Baking"

2 (3oz) pkg. cream cheese, softened
1/3 C sugar
1 egg
1 (6-oz) pkg. (1Cup) semi sweet chocolate chips
1 1/2 C all purpose Flour
1C sugar
1/4 C unsweetened cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 C water
1/3 C oil
1 Tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line 18 muffin cups with paper baking cups. In a small bowl, combine cream cheese, 1/3 cup sugar and egg: mix well. Stir in chocolate chips; set aside.
In a large bowl, combine flour, 1 C sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Add water, oil, vinegar and vanilla; beat 2 minutes at medium speed. Fill each paper lined cup half full. Top each with 1 Tablespoon cream cheese mixture.
Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes or until cream cheese mixture is light golden brown. Cool 15 minutes; remove from pans. Cool completely. Store in refrigerator.
Yield: 18 cupcakes
High Altitude: Above 3500 feet: No changes
Nutrition per serving: Calories 250; Protein 3g; Carbohydrate 31g; Fat 13g; Sodium 160mg.

"&"

My friend Laura has just announced that she is going to be a part of the BBTB design team. I am so happy for her and I know that she will blow everyone away with her beautiful designs. I had never heard of "Bitten By The Bug", so I had to check it out. What a wonderful idea for all of us who use a Cricut machine. LOVE IT!! A challenge was announced this past Sunday (check it out) on their blog to use the AND SIGN (AMPERSAND) from either the PLANTIN SCHOOLBOOK or the GEORGE CARTRIDGE . I need a Wedding Anniversary card for my boss, so I of course chose to take part in this challenge and hit two birds with one stone. I used the George Cartridge to make the "amersand" and the rest is from Stampin' UP! The DP and borders were from a Stampin' UP! kit which retired a couple of years ago and I finally just pulled it out. Nothing like hording.
On another note, I am so excited to have had so many comments left on Sunday's post. You guys rock and sure know how to make me feel good. I am so glad that Al was able to fix the problem. I loved reading what kind of sweets you all enjoy. If I can find the recipe for Black Bottom Cupcakes I will post it tomorrow for you all to try.
Thanks for stopping by!

A quick Sunday night treat anyone?? AKA blog candy.

**UPDATE** Al is my HERO!! I do believe he has fixed my link problem and you can now leave comments!! Internet Explorer 7 had a problem with the template I was using. All other browsers worked fine. So Al regenerated my blog, reloaded the template and tested it all out and voila! I told you he was a super tech genious!! Thanks AL!!!

Wow second post of the day... yes a wonderful lazy Sunday!! I was surfing blogs and saw Taylor's cupcake challenge. I have been meaning to do one for a while now and since I had a few minutes tonight I thought I would play along. I LOVE cupcakes, especially chocolate ones, although I will have to say my most favorite cupcake in the whole world are the ones my Mom makes called Black Bottom Cupcakes. I am sure most of you know what these are, a chocolate cupcake with a cream cheese chocolate chip filling. Almost like a cheesecake center really....ooooh yummy! Mommmmyyy.....I wanna cupcake! What is your favorite little goodie?? Leave a comment with your favorite yummy and the recipe if you have time. My four ladies who entered my last challenge already have their names in the pot, but you can surely enter again. You all have until May 2nd midnight MST to enter. I will draw a name on Saturday morning, so check back for sure to see if you have won.
* For those of you who are having problems with my comment link, just email me -----> my address is over there to the right side of my blog. OH and Al may have narrowed down the problem. Seems that people who have Internet Explorer 7 and or Microsoft Vista as their operating system are the ones having problems. Not sure if it a security issue or if my widgets just don't work with those or what. Al is going to check it out when he has some time to mess with it and hopefully get it working. Keep your fingers crossed oh and toes too LOL!

You are out there!

Here I was thinking I only had three people who wanted to be a part of the Inspiration challenge that Carrie and I do each month. Well come to find out there were 4 more ladies who had emailed me with links to their cards. I just realized last night that gmail had put all of the entries in the spam folder. I apologize to each and everyone of you who took the time to make and post your creations for this challenge and then did not get recognized. It really means a lot to me that you all visit and share your creations and comments with me. Below are the fantastic people who created a card for the last inspiration challenge. Please check them all out, they did a great job! I will enter each of the following in my next blog candy contest, which will be happening this week so watch for that!!

Melissa
Karie
Brenda
Jen

Now on to my Scrapping Sunday. Here is a page I put together last weekend. Just a quick one using "Doodle This" stamp set by SU, a bashful blue craft ink, basic black classic ink pads and a regal rose marker. The letters and big scalloped circle were made with my Cricut. I found this picture of me and my boys which was taken about 5 years ago and since there was only this one photo I thought I would try a large page focused on just the one picture. I tried to not make it look too girlie, not sure if I accomplished that or not.
Hopefully today I will have some time to play with one layout to make both a card and scrapbook page using the same materials.
Thanks for stopping by!

Friday Card Flick " A Little Note"

OK, first off I need to say that my DH, Al totally Rocks!! He helped me out a ton editing this video so it isn't all choppy like the last two. Second he was able to help me get all the settings correct on my camera, so they are bright and crisp. Thanks Al, my super genius tech hero.
Here is my Friday Card Flick. Hope you enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ap5Im6no3cE

Oh how I love to color...

I really can't explain how much or even why I love to color, but I do. The whole act of it is so relaxing for me, not just coloring with markers, but water coloring... heck even painting the walls in our house. I love it all, taking something blank and completely boring and making it pop with color! This is one of the cards I made where I really paid attention to the coloring part. The DP was blog candy, thanks again Karie and the image is a retired Stampin' UP! valentine set that I got a couple of years ago I think. I tried to pull out as many "coloring in" sets as I could find and seriously, I have only 3-5 good ones. For some reason I have a lot of sentiments and sets with decorative lines. Lately I have been trying to be more picky when it comes to buying stamps and really get more with actual images to color in. I think I need to go through my sets again and try to trade them or sell them.
Anyway.... enough of my blah blah blah about coloring. I made this card for Allison's Water challenge. Not sure that it fits the challenge since you can't see any water, but there is an umbrella. LOL! Well, I need to go work on some Graduation announcements and get my Friday Card Flick edited for tomorrow. Hope you all have a nice evening. See ya tomorrow!

*Update: I stamped the image with black Stazon Ink on water color paper and colored in with Tombow markers. Easy peasy!! Thanks Cat for asking :)

Another day, another challenge.

Wow I am hooked on all of these color, inspiration, sketch and layout challenges. There are so many to choose from, what is a girl to do??? This is my KWerner Designs "color inspiration" #6 and CPS sketch #61 entry. It is nice when you can take two challenges and slap them together. LOVE IT!! So, the colors for the first challenge are So Saffron, Pumpkin Pie, Wild Wasabi & Sahara Sand (all SU colors). I used "Baroque Motifs" (yes, again told you it was one of my favs!) and "Small Script" both sets are from Stampin' UP! The little butterfly is from Fancy Pants and he is popped up with a dimensional, kinda hard to see in the photo.

OK, so for tomorrow another challenge card, which I had way too much fun coloring. I need more images that you can actually sit and color. I LOVE to color! Coloring is my "thing", my stress reliever, I could do it for hours! I dug out a couple of sets last night that I thought I could actually spend some time coloring in. I got some water color paper, which I hadn't tried with stamping yet. OMG I am so digging water color paper! The colors blend so nicely and you don't have to worry about your paper getting mushy...fabulous!! So, look for that tomorrow and then Friday, which I still need to work on, is my Friday Card Flick day!!
Thanks for stopping by, see ya later!

Sunday Night already!

Sunday nights are such a drag. I wish the weekends were longer so we had more time to play. I think I need a vacation!
I whipped up this card tonight for Caardvarks "Black & White + One" challenge. As you might guess the challenge is to use black and white plus one color of your choice. I am kind of into greens right now so that is what I chose, SU's Gable Green. I am ready for a more limey green from SU, so hopefully that will be one of their "In Colors" for the new catalog. I used my bella brush stamps on this with basic black craft ink and then embossed with clear EP. Cut out the circle and scalloped circle with my ever so wonderful Cricut and voila, done! I wanted this card to be simple and elegant. I think I managed to pull it off, well it was easy anyway. LOL!
I suppose I should be off to bed, since work comes way too early in the morning. I get up around 4:30 so I can be in by 6AM. Blah!!! If I had one wish, what would it be right now... to be a SAHM again and make money doing what I love, being home with my family and making fun stuff out of paper. Some day....right some day! For now I will keep my chin high and keep working on that dream!
Have a great Monday everyone, thanks for stopping bye.
Hugs!!!

I was feeling a little scrappy

It was so nice outside when I got home last night from work that I decided to take Aly out and get some pictures of her. I threw this page together last night, well it took me about 4 hours from the time I started in the back yard to finish. Not too bad I guess considering I had a lot of interruptions.
I used my Cricut for a lot of the pieces on this page. I am addicted now, thanks Laura. I had the machine for almost a year and never used...silly little me. I had no idea what I was missing out on.Of course now I want the big one..boo wah ha ha. The light blue flourishes on the left upper and right lower corners were made with a Fancy Pants stamp from the set "Bella Brush". The green butterflies and flowers are rub-ons by Stampin' UP!
I have already made another page this morning with a CM kit I bought from Dawn at the beginning of the year. I am going to work on an album for each of the kids, a page a month at least. So, Aly has an "April" 8x8 page done, but I better get cracking on the boys pages as I am already 4 months behind..aah! I have a bunch of 12x12 pages that I have done, but I don't have any albums put together. I think what I will do is just put all those in one album for myself. I get to caught up on making one for each of the kids so they will be able to take it with them when they are older and moved out with kids. I think that will be my new plan, make the kids each an album with one page a month. The others that I do when I am just playing will go in "my album". Would you all be interested in seeing more layouts along with my cards and altered items?? Maybe I will start a "Scrappy Saturday or Sunday" hmmmm a thought???
Have a great weekend!

Friday Card Flick "Little One"

Here is my second Friday Card Flick. A really quick and easy one that could work for a boy or girl.Thanks go out to my blogging friend Karie for the cute little giraffe stamp. Isn't he the cutest!
Well, hope you enjoy!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryKuWiQx5Y0