Decisions....decisions

Hey there blogging friends! I have been MIA for quite some time now......had some issues with Goggle and multiple accounts (I couldn't get signed in to update my blog). Not that there has really been anything to show. My mojo has been completely in the toilet as of late.... and I have been seriously thinking I may just give up this whole blogging thing.

My life is just getting busier and busier. My work load is ever increasing and my 8 year old son is getting involved in more activities than ever (karate and swimming lessons just in the past 2 weeks) ....which leaves me even less time to create and do a blog post. You might all think I'm crazy but honestly I have always thought posting on my blog was kind of a "pain in the rear"  (awfully time consuming) with all the linking that one has to do to enter challenges or show products used and uploading pictures etc. We are supposed to enjoy all this blogging business- right?

I guess I have not really enjoyed blogging as of late...that's why you only see me post once or twice a month. I think what I really enjoy most is seeing all of your creations and stopping in at your wonderful blogs. 

I must confess I am officially hooked on Pinterest now too...spending way too much time over there!!

 What to do......what to do?

If any of you have had a blog and closed it down let me know if you really miss it and if it is a good decision to just let it go. I know I'm not the only busy wife/mother out there.  Honestly I don't know how the rest of you all manage to get it done!! 

I'm really on the fence over this .... but leaning towards shutting it down. 

Inky Hugs........Anne

Lily Pad Patterned Paper Challenge

Entering 2 cards in the current Lily Pad patterned paper challenge sponsored by Simon Says Stamp.

I picked up some yummy Basic Grey paper last week at Archiver's and just got my first ever PaperTreyink stamps a few days ago. I thought I would combine them and some favorite Hero Arts stamps for the challenge at Lily Pad Cards. 




This one combines the Hero Arts newspaper tulip stamp (K5576)  with a sentiment form the "simple sentiments" set from PTI and a bit of Basic Grey paper (Hello Luscious).





This card uses the Hero Arts stamp "Large Flower" ( CG134) and paper from the Basic Grey line "Out of Print". Used a different stamp from the same PTI sentiment set and added a brad to the center of the flower. I am still trying my hand at creating more CAS type cards- hope to gosh I am getting a bit better! Here is a funny story about this card. I had intended to have the "whole" big flower on the card......but as luck has it.... my stamp wasn't "clinging" so well to my acrylic block and happened to fall right on the edge of the paper. Arghhh- hate it when this happens.....but I salvaged it anyways! :)

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all have a great day!

Inky Hugs.............................Anne

Casual Fridays Challenge #36

The theme this week over at Casual Fridays is Penguin Suit! In honor of Penguin Awareness Day on January 20th, we are to create a Black and White CAS project. Well...........I'm all over it!! 

                                                          
                           
                This is what I whipped up last evening using some "oldie but goodie" Hero Arts stamps. 

Supplies used:
Hero Arts stamps- K4887, LL165, CG139
Provo Craft embossing folder
Spellbinders Mega Ovals dies
Versafine Black, Colorbox Frost white ink
Black gem, pop dots


I pulled out an older "card art" Hero Arts wooden stamp that has a lot of different things going on (collage style). I decided to add a few polka dots for some more interest along the bottom and cover up the "thanks" that is on the botttom of the stamp with another HA sentiment on black paper. I stamped the flower again and fussy cut it and popped it up for some dimension. I felt compelled to emboss the BG as it needed a bit more texture. I really like black & white cards....I usually struggle with these.....but I really am pleased with the way this turned out!! 

Thanks for stopping bye and have a great day!

Inky Hugs............................Anne

Love U!

Hi everyone! It's been ages since I posted but today I finally found some time and inspiration to get a quick Valentines day card made today.

I made this for the wonderful new challenge over at Lily Pad Cards. Virginia provided us with this wonderful photo....don't you just LOVE the fabulous colors?


                                               Here is what I came up with for the challenge.



Got out the distress inks and found some scraps to play with. Used a few different heart punches and stuck with a simple black-white and "pop" of color combo. I looked for some vellum....but I must be out- darn! I was hoping to make vellum hearts like in the photo. Thanks for the great inspiration Virginia! I must admit it feels great to participate in a challenge.....it's been quite some time since I've done that.

Supplies used:
Hero Hues Snow layering paper
Waltzingmouse label stamp
Spellbinders label #6 die
sentinment by TAC
EK Success & Provo Craft heart punches
Distress inks
Embossing folder by Provo Craft

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all have a great crafty weekend!

FYI- Jenny over at Wee Memories is having a HUGE giveaway.......go see what is up for grabs! 

Inky Hugs.....................................Anne

Guest designer today!

I'm very, very excited to say that I am a "Guest Designer" over at Lily Pad cards today!
Wohoo- how fun and such an honor for little old me.

I was tickled pink when I was approached by Deb.......after getting over the total shock of it all!

Here is a little peek at what you will see over at the Pond! Come take a look and let me know what you think- I'd love to know!

I have been uber busy with work and of course the holidays and haven't crafted in a few weeks....but hope to get crafting again soon- I really miss playing with my rubber and inks!




Thanks for stopping by and I  hope you all have a FABULOUS day!

INKY HUGS.............................Anne

Happy Holidays!

Just wanted to wish you all a safe and very Merry Christmas! 

I don't know about you but we are starting our celebrating tonight...having friends over for some holiday cheer and games...then to the MIL's tomorrow......HOME on Christmas day (yeeees...finally staying home for a change) ....then over to my sisters on Monday. I can already feel my pants getting much tighter!!

XOXO Inky Hugs............................................Anne 

Just back from NYC

Just wanted to share some photo's from our recent weekend trip to New Jersey and NYC. We had a FABULOUS time!! Another wonderful company Christmas party and a day in the big apple.

Here are a few shots from the Christmas party.....lots of dancing...drinks....and great food!

                                              (click on any of the pictures to see them larger) 

                                                                  Me and the hubby

                                                              Denny, Dana, and me

                                                   My hubby Tim and the lovely ladies!

We went down to the 911 Memorial first thing the following morning. It was so wonderful to actually see the new building going up and the grounds were really beautiful. FYI- you have to reserve tickets in advance to get into the grounds......see here. 

                                                    Yup....shed many tears while I was there.

                      Hope to go back next year and see the actual museum once it is open.

 Took the subway uptown and finally got to see the ice skating rink at Rockafeller Center! The huge tree was lit up so beautifully and it was crowded I tell ya- we were squished in there like sardines! Waited in line about 20 minutes to go potty.......NYC you need more public restrooms for sure!!

 We went and saw the "Christmas Spectacular" show at Radio city Music Hall- it was WONDERFUL and those Rockettes have the best high kicking legs!

    I can't even recall what church this was.....maybe St. Peter's........but it sure was beautiful!

We walked a ton......stopped in here and there and just looked at everything....did some serious Christmas shopping at the Lego's store for our 7 year old....and drank lots of Starbucks coffee and loved the famous NY pizza!It was so nice to see everything all decorated for Christmas....and all those college kids dressed up like Santa were everywhere again- it really got you in the mood!

 We love NYC and hope to go visit one of the museums and Central Park next year. One day just isn't enough!

Now I'm off to go check out the Hero Arts blog hop as I missed it all while we were gone. I can't wait to see all the new rubbah and just itching to order up some new goodies for 2012. Look out bank account....you're about to take a serious hit!

Inky Hugs............................Anne

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Wishing you all a blessed day filled with lots of wonderful food and good times. We are staying home and having just a few guests come over.....nothing too fancy- just the way I like it! We will probably get our Christmas tree up over the weekend....and  I may squeeze in a little crafty time too....haven't played with ink and paper in ages!








Inky Hugs............................................Anne

A card and a recipe to share

Hi everyone! Sorry I haven't posted in ages.....just been very busy and had very little mojo the last month. My father in law was here visiting for 3 weeks (he's back home now) and I've had some out of town work as well.

I was rummaging around my craft drawers the other day and came across this fun image a friend had sent me......(this is  soooo embarrassing) .......years ago! Why the heck I never used it on a card before....I don't know- but I was in the mood to make a winter card.




I love how the image is covered in tiny clear microbeads- it sparkles so much and has fabulous texture!

I'm not sure how my friend got the microbeads to stick......maybe she sent it through a Xyron or possibly sprayed it with some sort of adhesive? I would love to figure this out...... and will probably play around with this over the next week or so myself.........if I come up with a wonderful way to get the beads to stick I'll let you all know how I did it!


Speaking of snow- it's snowing here for the first time this season!! Not sure if I'm ready for this or not......I've been really enjoying NO SNOW. It's not even the snow so much that is a pain in the rear- it's the fact that just getting around from place to place is so much more difficult.....and you have to have mittens....and a hat.....and boots.....and a window scraper........ugggh!

I do plan on taking my 7 year old skiing for the first time this winter- have to expose them  to all sorts of winter fun! I haven't skied in years......with my luck I'll probably break my ankle or something stupid like that. Once the lakes get frozen enough we will be out there ice fishing too- love to catch me some crappies!

Now for the recipe.......

This is my mom's fabulous turkey stuffing recipe. It's so moist and delicious and easy to make. Way better than anything out of a box!

                      Sausage Stuffing

1 loaf of wheat bread (sliced or unsliced)
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped celery
1 pound breakfast sausage (I love Jimmy Dean- sage flavor)
1 tsp garlic
salt and pepper to taste

Directions: Tear the bread into small pieces and put into a large bowl. Pour water into the bowl- enough to completely soak into all the bread. If you get too much water in.....just squeeze out the excess. Brown the sausage with onion and celery and garlic. Cool the meat mixture and then mix in the bread- then stuff into your turkey! You can also just bake it in a casserole dish at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Feel free to use more than one kind of bread if you like- sometimes I add a bit of pumpernickel or rye bread if I have it on hand. The sausage makes it really moist- I just love it with gravy poured all over it!!

I have been trying to exercise extreme patience lately too. I won a $50.00 shopping spree at Hero Arts a few weeks ago......and I'm waiting for the new 2012 release to actually go shopping....in the mean time I still go look over all the stamps-inks-paper and make an ever changing wish list. I hope the release is soon, I can't wait much longer!!


Thanks for stopping bye and I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your friends or family!!


Inky Hugs...............................Anne

Color Q challenge #106- Spooky colors!

Hi everyone! I had to play along in this weeks Color Q color challenge - I can't resit using these great colors to make one last Halloween card.

I grabbed a Doodlebug gray and black card base I picked up at Archivers a while back and thought to myself "Hmmm.....I think I'll do a spider web card for this!"
I got out my favorite spider web stamp by Hero Arts and embossed it in clear powder- then to give the web some depth I used my Copic cool gray marker (C-3) to go around all the sections. Then I rummaged though my goodie box of Halloween items and found this big bat die cut a friend has sent my last year. I was really looking for a big old spider (swore I had some of these)...but found none. I die cut a circle for the moon- got out my distress inks in wild honey and spiced marmalade and edged up the moon. Used another Hero Arts stamp for the sentiment. A pretty quick and easy card to mass produce.





I don't know about you but I still have to get a few more Halloween cards addressed and  in the mail by this Monday......or I'll get too busy and they will be  forgotten or just be terribly late.......I hate sending cards out late!

Products Used:

Just thought I would ask...............what are your kids dressing up for this year for  Halloween? My seven year old boy is going to be the same as last year.......the "Grim Reaper"....unless he changes his mind at the last minute- which could very well happen.


Thanks for dropping by and hope you all have a great day and are enjoying fall! 





  Inky Hugs................................Anne

Recipes to share and a holiday card

Today I thought I would share some easy fall recipes with you all. I don't know about you but I am craving some yummy fall comfort food......especially anything with apples in it!

Earlier today I made some Apple Crisp but I changed up the recipe a bit.....just wanted to expirament with the crispy topping ! I used steel cut oats instead of rolled oats....basically because that's all I had on hand......and I wanted to try to add some chopped pecans to it as well as I really love nuts.

The topping turned out great- a bit crispier than usual which made my mouth very happy! If you don't have steel cut oats on hand no worry.....just use regular rolled oats. I chopped the pecans in my food processor and added it right to the topping mix. Here is the recipe!

Apple Crisp

4-5 medium apples
3/4 cups brown sugar
1/3 cup flour (unbleached)
1/2 cup rolled or steel cut oats
1/4 cup finely chopped pecans
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/3 cup softened butter

Heat oven to 375 degrees, peel, slice and arrange apples in an 8x8 lightly greased pan. Mix dry ingredients in a medium bowl and cut the butter into the dry ingredients to form soft small clumps. Sprinkle this mixture over the apples and bake for 30-40 minutes or until golden brown on top and apples are tender. Serve with vanilla ice cream or whip cream....whatever you prefer! YUMMM :)
Serves 6-8.....or less if you are really hungry- ha ha!


Next up is a sweet Halloween treat recipe that my son brought home from school. I have yet to actually make it but plan on doing so as soon as I get all the ingredients. Are ya ready for the name of it?

Bat Poop- eeeeek!

What a gross name (kids will LOVE that)!  I promise it is really good and no actual bat poop is in the  ingredients! It sounds very simple and quick and older kids can even help you with it.

Here it is!

Bat Poop

1-  12 ounce package of chocolate chips
1- 12 ounce package of butterscotch chips
1 cup cashew nuts (chopped or broken into small pieces)
1 cup banana chips
1 large can/bag of chow mein noodles

Dump the chocolate and butterscotch chips into a microwave safe dish. Microwave for 1 minute- stir it up- microwave for 1 more minute or until melted. Stir again.  Make sure you use oven mitts as it will be hot! Break up the banana chips while the chips are melting in the microwave. Remove the melted chips using your oven mitts and dump in the banana chips, cashews, and chow mein noodles. Stir again. Drops clumps of the bat poop onto a cookie sheet (I would use wax paper here). Place the cookie sheet into the fridge until the bat poop is firm. Then lets those kids eat em up- I bet they will get a kick out of telling their friends they ate bat poop- ha ha!!

Sounds like great recipe for a spooky Halloween party :)


I did happen to make a card a few days ago......my first Christmas card of the season- wohoo! I played along with this months Hero Arts challenge to make a holiday card using non-traditional stamps.Some snowflakes, a pine tree stamp, and the cute snowman....and then of course a holiday sentiment!





I stamped the snowflakes using distress ink and white pigment ink and the trees got embossed with polysparkle embossing powder. They really shine in the right light- too bad it doesn't show up in the picture. Just a simple little winter scene for someone I know who isn't into the religious aspect of Christmas!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Inky Hugs........................Anne 

Blog Candy winner!!

Wohooo- the winner of my blog candy is...................................JOY!! 

Joy- if you could please email me (just click on my profile for that) I will get your prize package mailed out to you as soon as possible!!  Congrats and I hope you have fun with your new goodies! 

Thank you everyone for entering and all of your wonderful comments on my blog. 



Inky Hugs.............................Anne

Happy fall

I made one more card for the CR84FN color challenge to use the colors yellow, orange, and brown.

I dug into my stash of patterned papers (which I hardly ever make use of)...... and I used up the last of my Hero Arts felt leaves for this card. Super quick and easy!! I'm not sure who makes the "Happy Fall" stamp- it's super old and has no markings on the wood. I colored the acorn in using 2 shades of brown markers.The card base is a Hero Arts layering paper from the yellow pack......and the papers are by DCWV (polka dotted) and Imaginisce. The card measures 5 X 5 square.



Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all have a great fall weekend! We are enjoying exceptionally warm temps right now- yipeee!  :)

Inky Hugs.......................Anne

CR84FN39 Color challenge

Hi all and happy Sunday to you!

I decided to play along this week in the CR84FN color challenge.....I haven't had time do a challenge in quite a while but who can resit these awesome colors! Love using orange, yellow and brown combo's. I like to add a little bit of red when I can sneak it in too...he he!



  I decide to use a new Penny Black stamp for my main image here. It just screamed to be colored using my favorite color combo!


Supplies used: Penny Black 4202L
Hero Arts ST508, Verve sentiment from Harvest Blessings VS-09-036
Assorted brown, orange, cream cardstock
distress inks antique linen, scattered straw, broken china, tumbled glass, brushed corduroy
Marvy & Bic markers: hemp twine & yellow gem


The image was stamped with antique linen distress ink- then I came back over the entire image and colored it in using markers. I used some scattered straw distress ink and a bit of brushed corduroy to make the ground- and used broken china and tumbled glass to make the sky. I really had fun coloring this image- all those little berries/leaves were a blast!! I used a few shades of orange, yellow, a few different browns, and a tiny bit of red.  I don't have very many Copics, so I mainly used my assortment of Marvy markers and (gasp!) some plain old Bic markers. The card base pattern was stamped using a new stamp from Hero Arts/Studio Calico- set ST508, and the sentiment is from Verve. The gem on the little twine bow is yellow...but it didn't show up very well in the picture....darn it! 

I'm loving these colors and the trees here in Wisconsin are in "full fall bloom" right now- they are amazing. Before you know it they will all be falling off and then it will be time to rake them all up.

Thanks so much for stopping bye and have a great day!

Inky Hugs..................................Anne 

Blog Candy!!

Having a little blog candy up for grabs!

Why do you ask..........no real reason...........I just feel like sharing the love after going to Scrapfest last weekend and getting so many new stamping goodies!

I also wanted to say thank you to those of you who come here and give me a little love and kind comments on a regular basis.....it really makes my day!

The candy consists of this new Hero Arts Christmas tag stamp set

Hero Arts pearls and gems

Doodlebug Doodle-pops Elf sticker

All I ask is that you sign up to become a follower if you are not already, and if you would please be so kind to post my candy on your side bar with a link back to my blog ....and of course leave a comment here. 

That's it! 

If you don't have a blog you can still enter.....just let me know in your comment.

I will leave this open until October 7th and then I will pick a random winner.

I'll probably come up with a few other surprise goodies as to tuck in there as well.....he he!

Thanks for all of your support and happy stamping! 

Inky Hugs..................Anne

Doodlebug Halloween

Just a quick share of 3 Halloween cards created  this week using some Doodlebug card bases and Doodle-pops stickers. Not much time to stamp this week but these cards are so quick and easy not hardly any stamping was needed which was great! 




Just stamped the sentiment from Hero Arts and added some stars and ribbon with a bit of patterned paper by Doodlebug. Love this cute little bat and his googlie eyes!



The fun sentiment here is by Rubbernecker stamps....thought it went well with the owl. Paper is from Basic Grey and added a few gems and a Prima flower as well. Ended up with a bit of embossing dandruff here.....why do I always forget to use my embossing buddy.....darn it!



Another great sentiment from Rubbernecker stamps to fit with the adorable pumpkin. These cards were super fun to create and easy to mass produce with the great Doodlebug products.  I think I'll be sending these off to my 3 darling neices this year.

Have a wonderful crafty weekend all and thanks for stopping by!

Inky Hugs......................Anne 

Scrapfest fun with pictures

I went to Scrapfest this past Saturday and met up with many friends and had a wonderful time! I got to meet 2 gals for the first time  from the Hero Arts Flicker group, Trinh and Robin and got to see Anita again too.  And of course I met up with my local peeps Barb and Linda- it's always great to see them. I also ran into Jenn B. early in the day but she had to scoot and get home and I forgot to get a picture of her...darn it!

                                       (You can click on all of the pictures to make them bigger)

                                                           Robin, Trinh, and Anita

Barb and I did a couple of make and takes but honestly the lines were incredibly long this year so unfortunately we passed up some that we really wanted to do. So we went a did a bit of shopping at Archivers instead!! Ya have to shop at Scrapfest- right? We actually went 2 times....gotta use those coupons!

                                        




    I picked up these 2 Hero Arts stamp sets!Love those new matching dies on the Christmas set- going to have lots of fun playing with them.

A bunch of fun little goodies from Doodlebug and and finally got myself a Sew Easy and a few new distress satins. Stay tuned as I have some other goodies that I'll be giving away here at the end of the week!

All of us Hero Arts Flicker girls met up with Shari and Jennifer at the end of the day and had a lovely dinner at the Twin City Grill. Here I am with Shari after dinner.  She is so nice and told us lots of funny stories!

                                Here is an other dinner shot with Barb, Shari, Jennifer, and Linda!

                                   We all swapped friend themed cards after dinner as well- that was so fun!

                      Here is a shot of some of the CUTE cards Doodlebug had at their make n take booth.

We all did the 2 Hero Arts stamping classes and they were a blast. We made 3 cards in each class and of course learned many new inking techniques- Jennifer and Shari always have the best ideas! Here is a picture of one of the cards we made. I LOVE the main image stamp here- so cute. My inking didn't turn out the best so I added the big felt snowflake to cover up my boo boo.



Scrapfest was a blast again this year!!  A great day to get together and meet new and old friends and of course shop and see all the new products out there! I"ll be going again next year.....maybe I'll meet you there!

Inky Hugs.................................Anne