My PMS Secret Admirer

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! The DT members from Paper Makeup Stamps had a Valentine Secret Admirer gift exchange and I was lucky enough to have Danni Bindel receive my name for her secret admirer. I received my gift earlier in the week and can finally reveal it to you today. Here's the sweet present I received from Danni. Look at those beautiful cards and even a matching tag/bookmark! I love buttons and ribbons and she sent bunches of those. She even sent a little Memento ink pad in Tuxedo Black...my fav! And most of the little things were packed inside that cute little bag she made with the snail! So cute! Oh, and the Reese's? There WERE two packages of them, but I told you I got this package earlier in the week and who could wait to eat them? Certainly not me!!!! After this picture was taken, I ripped into this package as well! LOL!!!

Thanks so much Danni! I loved my Valentine gift package!

Rethinking My 1st PMS Card

Paper Makeup Stamps is celebrating their 1st birthday all month, and one of the things they are showcasing on the PMS blog is the DT's first PMS card, then a remake of it. We are sort of casing ourselves! The stamps that drew me to PMS was their Beautiful Day Fairies, illustrated by Diem Pascarella. They are just so beautiful and I ordered the first four that were released in their first release immediately. Chelly with Lucky Clover was the first card I created with these fairies. She's also available in digi format here if you like digi images. Here's my original card. This was done before I attended the Copic certification class and before I had all the colors I have now. I think this is one of the cards I submitted to Katie for the DT call. I'm happy she liked it and chose me to be on her DT!


Now here is today's remake of this card. I think I like it much better!I like to think my coloring is better on this one! I changed it up a bit using a new Martha Stewart punch in place of the ribbon. I think it sort of looks like Irish lace. The pretty dp is from SU's All Flock Together (I think that's the name!). I cut and embossed the main image with a rectangle nestie and swirled some Sahara Sand ink around it while still in the die, something I really enjoy doing lately. In place of the crystal butterfly, I used My Time Made Easy's butterfly from All a Flutter set (which also comes in digi format). The sentiment is from PMS set Fairy Sentiments (kind of crooked now that I look at it). I added some crystal clovers in the corners (too much? hmmmm....).

The bell in the photo is one I purchased on my trip to Ireland in 1994. I just loved that trip...the country is so beautiful and the people are so friendly! I have very fond memories of that trip!

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look at my PMS journey. It's a fun place to work! Have a great day!

Just Us Girls Technique Challenge

Happy Saturday everyone! Are you getting ready for Valentine's Day tomorrow? I have something that may get you jump-started.

The Just Us Girls challenge this week is a technique challenge, and I am hosting it. I chose the split negative technique. I've never tried that, and Splitcoaststampers and Gina K have great tutorials to follow. It was actually very easy to do. And I got to pull out the old embossing powder and Versamark. They have been collecting dust in my stamp room! So here is what I came up with.In order for this technique to work well, you need a chunky stamp...one with a lot of surface area that's rubber. This stamp is an older one from My Favorite Things called Boho Blossoms. I pretty much followed Gina K's tutorial. The red base of my card was stamped with a text stamp in Versamark and embossed in white embossing powder. I ran the other white piece through the Swirls embossing folder. I tied that velvet heart button onto the bow with floss. Embossing powder, no dp, no copics...takes me back to my beginning days of stamping!

I hope you play our challenge and take a look at what the girls have done. You can see their creations on the JUGs blog. You can stop by their blogs, too.

Kristin Bueter
Pam Imholz
Alicia Weiman
Dana Gustafson
Maria Levine
Mona Pendleton
Tracey Cuccia
Iwona Palamountain (February Guest Designer)

Thanks for stopping in today! Hope you have a great Valentine's Day!

I Get by with a Little Help from My Friends....

I just love that Beatles song! It's perfect for this post too!

One of our Paper Makeup Stamps DT members is going through a rough time right now, and Katie Cotton, owner of PMS, has gone charitable once again. She is offering a new digital image and two new sentiments the proceeds of which will go to our DT member, Gabby Arriaza. Gabby is a sweet, rocking girl (just check out her blog and you'll see what I mean!), so Katie had a Moody Girl created for her called Moody for Rock.I love the Moody Girls! This one is no different! I don't think I did her justice, as I had to do this really quickly last night. I tried to find a rockin' dp, and went with these from Dressed Up by DCWV. I pulled the colors from the dp to color the image. You can't tell from the photo, but the entire guitar is covered in Crystal Effects.

You can read more about this image on the PMS blog. The image can be found at Paper Makeup Stamps for $3.00. I hope you can help out our friend! (Sorry for the short post....it's late!)

Thanks for stopping in today. Have a wonderful Wednesday!

Artful INKables Think Ink Tuesday Challenge #13

I have another sketch challenge for you today. This one is from Artful INKables. Kristin came up with this great sketch.I used this sketch to do another Valentine's Card. I don't think I've ever made as many Valentine cards as I have this year! I'll have enough for next year! Here's my card.I used Love Ya Lots again. I really like this set. I used SU's Bella Rose and punched the bottom with a Martha Stewart heart punch. The image was colored with copic markers. I added a heart charm from Artful INKables on the Riding Hood Red taffeta ribbon. The edges of the images were sponged with Pink Pirouette ink. I also used deckle decorative scissors for the pink pice instead of tearing. I haven't used those in a really long time. Perfect for this sketch. Pretty simple card, but it took a long time to get it right for some reason!

You can find the challenge on the Artful INKables blog. Link your direct post to Mr. Linky to possibly win a grab bag of stamps from AI. Thanks for stopping in today! Happy Super Bowl Sunday!

Just Us Girls #19 - A Sketch Challenge

Thank goodness it's Saturday! I've been looking forward to the weekend! But it's going to be busy with a Super Bowl Party at my house!

Just Us Girls is hosting a sketch challenge this week created by the very talented Tracey.I love sketches so this challenge is right up my alley! Here is my interpretation.I was at my LSS this week and picked up this little girl from the Pure Innocence line from My Favorite Things. Sharon, the owner, just returned from CHA and said she bought whatever was left at the show. I just loved this girl on the swing! While I was there I picked up a new pack of Basic Grey paper, Nook and Pantry. I know I said no more paper, but I couldn't resist! I also used my new SU punch...free from the Saleabration promotion. The sentiment is from PTI's Star Prints. I just love all the sentiments in that one and the fonts! I sponged around the sentiment in light pink, although it's difficult to see. I also sponged some light blue ink on the main image for the sky...also difficult to see.

If you go to the JUGs blog you'll see more amazing creations from the girls using this sketch. Here are links to their personal blogs. And since this is the first challenge of the month, we have a new guest designer, (Iwona Palamountain aka Chupa). Make sure you stop by their blogs!

Pam Imholz
Alicia Weiman
Dana Gustafson
Maria Levine
Mona Pendleton
Tracey Cuccia

Iwona Palamountain

We hope you can play our challenge! Have a great weekend!

Paper Makeup Stamps Birthday Bash Blog Hop!

Welcome to Paper Makeup Stamps 1st Birthday! We are celebrating this event with a blog hop. So, if you came here from the Delightful Danni's blog, you are on the right track. If you just stopped in here, please go to the PMS blog and start there. You will get some important information that you won't want to pass up!

We were asked to choose our favorite PMS stamp to use for this hop. Yesterday there was a flurry of confusion over which was our favorite stamps...they are all fab, right? I went with not necessarily my favorite, but with one that I thought fit this occasion. I chose Katie the Makeup Fairy (anyone who knows me knows I LOVE these Beautiful Day Fairies...it's what drew me to PMS in the first place). This fairy was created for Katie Cotton, owner of PMS. In addition to being a crafter, business woman, mom, and wife, she is a makeup artist and the sweetest young thing! She is also fun, talented, fair, understanding, and charitable. I can honestly say that I am thrilled to be on her design team and especially proud to be on her Senior team and call her friend. So it is with great pleasure that I share my Katie the Makeup Fairy card. I started with the PMS colors of pink and gray. Both the papers are from a SU hostess pack. The design on the pink dp sort of reminded me of the PMS swirls. I colored Katie accordingly. The "Happy Birthday" sentiment is from the newest release called Birthday Cheer. It's a horizontally positioned stamp, but I wanted it vertical, so I just stamped it twice masking off one word each time. I used my stamp-a-ma-jig to get the placement just right. The "Paper Makeup Stamps" stamp is from the Made With Love set. I really like the way this came out! Perfect for the occasion. I placed two pink primas of different sizes together and placed a knotted piece of basic gray taffeta ribbon in the center and added the silver pearls below the flower. I followed the sketch from my friend Diane from Paper Cookies.


Oh, and the cupcake? It was gone right after the picture was taken and it was DE-LISH! The frosting was raspberry flavor! Happy Birthday PMS! Oh, and Happy Birthday to Gabby, PMS DT member, too!

Now if you've been following, you should have been collecting letters. My letter for you is "Y". It's time now for you to hop on over to the Terrifically Talented Tangii's blog! Don't forget to join us tonight at 8:00 pm CST for the PMS party in the PMS forum. And check the PMS blog all month for special events going on! You won't want to miss all the fun and giveaways!

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your hop!