Simplify!!

Happy Monday everyone!  Whew--I had a busy weekend I tell ya!  I got all my Christmas decorations down and put away and cleaned the whole house--I'm beat, lol!  Hubby took off the lights and packed everything down in the basement but I did the rest and wow what a job it is.  I have it down to a science now but it's still a huge task to take down 10 trees, many other decorations and get the real trees outta the house.  But it's done now and the house is clean but it looks so bare and lonesome :o(  Another Christmas done with and now gotta prepare for CHA (yay) and my son's birthday next month!  And then we're thinking about Spring Break--yay--we might be taking a trip to Costa Rico which will be exciting, but right now we're in the planning process!  All I can think is WARM, BEACH, WARM, LOL!!  This winter is sucking the life force outta me I tell ya--I'm so over it!  But anyway, my projects today are all about simplifying--creating quickly, beautifully and with simple products, so hope you enjoy them!

NewsBitz:

-Pink Cat Studio released some FABULOUS NEW Paper Piecing Projects yesterday!  You can see them all HERE!  You can cut these with your scissors, Cricut, Pazzle or any other electronic cutter--so cool!  Melissa has a fun free 'butterfly' project that you can try out too and then enter the contest to win a $50 gift certificate to her store--all details HERE!  I'll have a project using both the new digi's this Thursday and a paper piecing project so stay tuned!

-Winner of my "Laundry List" Blog Candy & Funniest Entry was from Pam Brown of Pam's Creative Corner!!  Her entry cracked me up so I had to give her the top prize--Read her comment below!
But second Prize goes randomly to Shelley of "Artful Achievements"!!!
Congrat's Ladies--please email me so I can arrange to get your gift certificates to you!!

From Pam:  "I HATE cleaning the toilet. It freaks me out every time since a few years ago we had a squirrel in the toilet stack! I had just flushed it and all the water started coming out the bottom where the wax seal was. I quickly grabbed every towel we had to try & sop it up since the bathroom is upstairs and I had just had the downstairs ceilings painted. Well, while I was wiping up the water, scratching noises were coming from inside the base of the toilet.Long story short...we took the toilet off the floor and discovered Mr. squirrel was in there. All we could see was his tail. My husband tried to lasso it with a rope. He pulled but all he got was part of his tail. EWWW!!!! Needless to say the squirrel somehow escaped down the pipe and ended up in our wall. We finally got him out several days later. I see him outside all the time. I can tell who he is because of his damaged tail. So, everytime I have to clean the toilet it reminds me of that darn squirrel. It's a BAD joke around here as he has gotten himself inside several other times via the chimney or the hot water tank. Don't know what I have in the house that he wants so badly! But I could write a book about my adventures with this squirrel! I am an animal lover so that's why we let him go every time we catch him. But enough is enough already!!! LOL!!"

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Flutterby's

So I decided to challenge myself yesterday to create a couple of cards that were more simplified than what I normally do--I love a good challenge!  So for the first time EVER, I created my card base with my Gina K cs and then stamped right on  the card base--gasp--yes I did it!! LOL!  This fabulously cute image is from Stampavie's Penny Johnson called "Butterfly Bear"--I adore these bears and you can see them all HERE!  I colored my image with copics and then added some stickles to the butterfly and her lil' flying swirls!  The green dp is by Basic Grey's "Lily Kate" (my fave paper of theirs of all time) and the pink polka-dot dp is from PTI.  I used a Fiskars border to create the edges and then punched some butterflies with my MS punch, added some PTI buttons to their centers and edged them in stickles!

I love how it turned out--so sweet and pretty!  I left a sentiment off so this could be used for alot of occasions like a baby card, hello, thank you & birthday!  I just love these bears--too sweet!

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Get Well Blend!!

My second card uses the same simplified idea, just different embellies and stamp!  This fabulous stamp is NEW from Lockhart Stamp Co. called "Coffee to Go"--see the new collection HERE!  I used DCWV "Latte" (perfect 'eh) dp for this card along with some matching PTI ribbon.  I stamped and colored my image right onto my base card, added stickles & diamond glaze and then embossed around the image with my oval nestabilities--you can't see but I used a clear Spica pen to trace the ovals for subtle sparkle.   

**SUZANNE TIP:  My bow was created with my Bow Easy--I attach my bows with Scor-Tape and to make it SEEM like its tied into the ribbon, I tie off the flat ribbon with some Scrapper's Floss so that it's pinched, and then add the bow on top of it!! **  The sentiment is from PTI's "Tea for Two" and the whole card got a spritz of Smooch Spritz in Vanilla!  So for all you coffee or cocoa lovers this is a perfect stamp for you :o)

I'll see ya back here tomorrow and tell you how I managed to lose 7 lbs in 1 week with my new eating plan that I have the whole family on and of course some new projects, LOL!