Let’s Think Pink!

Happy Monday to you all!  Its Columbus Day here in the States and I believe it is or was Canadian Thanksgiving…so whatever you are doing I hope its fab!  That means my teens are home today since school is off…ugh…LOL…they will be sleeping in and disrupting my quiet me thinks.  We had a great weekend….we didn’t get to the Pumpkin Patch because of the weird weather but we had fun anyway.  Alexa and I made cakepops (see below) and we all watched “Haunted Mansion” with Eddie Murphy …Lex won’t admit it but she was skeered LMBO.  We’ve watched it probably 10x and she still gets spooked hahahaha and its more funny then scary—its also my most FAVORITE ride in Disney World too, I head there first after Space Mountain!  Then yesterday we went to the Orioles vs. Yankees baseball game.  So happy the Orioles made it into the play-offs!  I’ve been an Orioles fan since I was little growing up in MD…much longer than I’ve been a Nats fan.  So if it comes down to a Battle of the Beltway of Nats vs Orioles…I’m NOT sure who I’m gonna root for…ugh…but that would be a super fun match up!  We went online Friday night and bought play-off tix right away..I won’t say how much they spent cuz it was RIDICULOUS..but for sports fans like us it’s a historic game that we wanted to be at.  Unfortunately Riley is a Nats AND a Yankees fan (ugh…I hate the Yanks)…so I DID not sit by him at the game. LET ME EDIT THIS NOW TO SAY IT WAS FREEZING...50 degs & POURING RAIN FOR 6 HOURS AND GAME WAS DELAYED!!  I was frozen, soooo cold and sitting out in that for 6 hours was a huge test but we all did it...thats true fans for ya LOL!  Not sure I'd do it again but it was a good game riiiiiight up till the 9th inning when our pitcher got some pitiful throws out leading the dumb Yankees to a win ugh.  We did not get home until 2:30 am this morning so I'm beat...feel like a train ran over me many times last night! LOL...oyyyy!  If you saw some crazies in the stands off of first base with a huge “Gonna BUCKle Up” sign…yeah that was us LOL!  I didn’t get in any brawls with rude Yankees fans…darn it…so James was happy about that.  Last time I had a guy call me and Alexa “bit*&es” and I about took him out…I mean really?  It’s a game, let’s be nice and have good sportsmanship…calling women names cuz we’re cheering on the home team & say that in front of my daughter…ummm NO…I don’t play that game.  As I was getting into it with him…that would be me jumping over Alexa to stand nose-to-nose with him and yelling while he stood there stunned…my hubby & son came back from concessions and the look on my hubby’s face was priceless.  He had that “oh no not again…what are you doing & do I have to fight someone for you” look on his face LOL!  But seriously don’t mouth off to me like that in front of my kids…even the Yankees fans in front of him were booing him.  So no trouble at this game just 2 drunk guys beside me that kept falling on me...I seem to attract drunk men at events like stink on poop I tell ya LOL.  I was worried they were gonna knock me down over the rail half the time---ohhhh its always an adventure when we go to these things   And WHOOOT to the Nationals for winning their first game...awesome!!  So happy!

Below is a celebration of Breast Cancer Awareness Month from the Magnolia-licious DT…we are having a Blog Hop themed “Think Pink”…hope you will take the time to read all about it and see each DT gal’s projects! 

**And I have some SWEET PINK BLOG CANDY you can win as well if you leave a comment telling me simply what your favorite treat is!**

*************************************************************

Think Pink!!

Breast Cancer Awareness Month (October) is an annual international health campaign organized by major companies every October to increase awareness of the disease and to raise funds for research into its cause, prevention, diagnosis, treatment and cure. The campaign also offers information and support to those affected by breast cancer. The Pink Ribbon symbol was used in 1993 by Evelyn Lauder as the symbol of The Breast Cancer Research Fund she founded and is used to symbolize the fight against the disease. We also honor those that have fought the battle and who are currently fighting the battle while raising awareness to ALL women to be aware of the symptoms and to be proactive against the disease. Want to find out more? The National Breast Cancer Foundation HERE for those in the US and globally at the PinkRibbon.org site HERE!

• In 2011 Nearly 1.5 million women across the world were told they had breast cancer
• One-third of breast cancer deaths can be decreased with early detection and treatment
• In the US 1 out of 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer over their lifetime, an estimated 527 women are diagnosed in the US with breast cancer each day

The Magnolia-licious DT wants to help promote awareness/early detection and share what this Think Pink Month is about with ALL women! We also want to honor all of those women that have or are currently fighting this disease and show our support in the fight!! So the DT has planned our own “Think Pink” Awareness Hop and we hope you can all join in with us. Each DT gal has created some Sweet-PINK treats and PINK Packaging to match using those beautiful Magnolia images.
You can find some Magnolia stamps that were created specifically for Pink Ribbon Awareness at Magnolia-licious <HERE> So have fun hopping along to see all the fabulous Pink-a-licious Creations and make sure to stop back by the Magnolia-licious Highlites Blog to join in on the fun too!

So I decided to create a sweet Think Pink card featuring a beautiful Magnolia “Sitting Tilda” and the Magnolia Pink Collections “Strength Hope Cure” circle stamp.  Then for my Sweet Treat, Alexa and I made cake pops covered in the pink ribbons symbol sprinkles and matching tags and charms.  We had a ton of fun creating the cakepops..you can see our slideshow below LOL!

I'm entering this into the following fabulous challenges:

Challenges 4 Everybody (anything goes) 

Dream Valley Challenges (Go Pink)

Sentimental Sundays (anything goes)

A Gem of a Challenge (for the girls)

Drunken Stampers (pink)

For the card I used some scrap PTI papers all in pinks & whites of course.  I used SBs “Labels 16” die and embossed the white matting.  All of the papers were distressed a bit, the frilly mats were made with a Memory Box die “Quinn Flourish” (cut in half) and then I layered Prima flowers.  I stamped the Magnolia “Strength Hope Cure Circle” stamp and created a tag to hang below my pink ribbon bow made with my handy-dandy Bow Easy.

Tilda was colored with Copics R21,R20,R000 / E11,E00 / Y23,E50 & TouchTwin color BR104 / E42,E41,E40.  I added Stickles to her pink socks, bow and shirt trim…the flowers all got some sparkles too!

Here is the “Strength Hope Cure Circle” stamp I used..I colored each ribbon & then added Stickles around the circle for sparkle!

I had bought a BabyCakes cake pop machine at Wegmans and it was just waitin’ to get used (I have a slight machine addiction lol).  So Alexa & I fired it up and created pink & white frosting then sprinkled them with the pink-ribbon-symbol sprinkles.  I created tags that matched the one on the card and we made Shrinky-Dink ribbon charms.  I used the Magnolia “Pink Stitched Ribbon” stamp, stamped them in Pink Memento ink on Shrinky-Dink sheets, cut them out & punched a hole in top then heated them up with my heat gun till they shrunk all the way down.  Then we wrapped up the cake pops, threaded the tag and charm and tied them all off.  I think they came out so cute and who wouldn’t want to receive one of these!  We will be making some for Halloween too

Now leave a comment on this post by Friday, Oct 12th & tell me what your most favorite sweet treat is and you could win the PINK goodies below:

Blog Candy: Organic EOS strawberry crème lip balm & lotion set, a Magnolia “Strength Cure Hope Circle” stamp, a Pink Ribbon cookie cutter, a paper pad of Prima’s “Tea Thyme” and a Pink Deck of Playing Cards!

Hope you enjoyed the post today!  

Now make sure to hop on to Cheryl’s Blog to see her fabulous

Pink-a-licious creation!

************************************

Here's a slideshow of me & Alexa makin' the cake pops :)

Let ‘em Speak!!

Hello all my friends and hope you have some fabulous plans for your weekend!!  While you are reading this I should be flying somewhere over the US on my way to California---first to Denver and then onto San Jose.  And yep you know I’ll be all over Facebook posting weird pics and things/encounters I have during my travels cuz YOU KNOW its gonna happen people LOL.  Like Oprah always asked “what do you know for sure?”—well I KNOW FOR SURE that I will have some stories for ya.  Whether they are ha-ha-ha funny or noooo-she-didn’t-do-that I’m never really sure hee hee so we will see.  Not really sure what my family is up to this weekend---I asked and I just got blank stares from them all LOL.  Guess they don’t have any plans but I did tell hubby he could go to Costco for me we’ll see if that happens or not!

Ok I promised another song for you today---welllll I lied cuz I got two for ya!  One is a new single off of Kelly Clarkson’s album called “The War Is Over” (omgoodness I love it so much).  The second is by Montgomery Gentry—yep they have a new album, yeehaw and this song IS MY PERSONAL theme song cuz I say it often “Work Hard, Play Harder” in fact I’m jammin’ to it right now

****************************************************************************

Gina K Releases Today!!

Today the Gina K DT is sharing projects done with the new October Releases “Strength & Hope” by Theresa Momber & “Basket Additions” by Melanie Muenchinger.  If you hop along today and leave comments you could win a stamp set yourselves, so make sure to do that today AND you get to see some awesome inspiration along the way.

I chose to use another image from “Strength & Hope” (you can see my other project using this beautiful set in the post below) for my project today.  This time I used the more traditional pink colors associated with Breast Cancer.  Portions of the proceeds from this set will be donated to Breast Cancer Research the first month of sales—so buy this with a generous heart.  I think we all know someone who could use an uplifting card made with stamps from this set—I know I sure do. I think this is a stunning image and has a very powerful message for us all.  I used soft papers by Melissa Frances that I distressed for a bit of a shabby chic look.  I added some cream tulle netting behind the image in a few places to soften it even more.  The tag was done with a Spellbinders die and I stamped the sentiment in soft pink.  The pearl swirls are by Prima.



The image was colored with Copics R21,R20,R11,RV10 / RV14,E42 and then I added some dimension with my Viva Décor Pearl Pen in cream to the centers.  The pearls on the sentiment were also done with the Pearl Pen.  And yep I added some Stickles in Stardust to the ribbon—nice & sparkly!



My second project uses Melanie Muenchinger’s set for Gina K called “Basket Additions” and yes this coordinates with her other Basket stamps sets—cute basket toppers for many seasons/occasions.  I used the other set called “Holiday Basket” taking the basket image out to pair with the fun holiday topper.  I colored the topper with Copics and then cut it out so I could pop it up for more dimension.  The basket was colored in green Copics as well to match my holiday papers by BoBunny.  The delicate holly vine is from Memory Box and I added small red pearls for the berries.  The images in the topper got coatings of crystal lacquer , stickles and flock for more texture and fun!

Now make sure and hop around to all the DT gals on the list below for a fun chance to win a stamp set and get some inspiration along the way!

• Gina K
• Melanie Muenchinger illustrator Basket Additions
• Theresa Momber illustrator Strength and Hope
• AJ Otto
• Michelle Woerner
• Sharon Harnist
• Suzanne Dean (that’s me, thanks so much)
• Tina Gilliland
• Vicki Dutcher
• Carolina Buchting
• Cathy Tidwell
• Deb Felts
• Donna Baker
• Emily Giovanni
• Giovana Smith
• Janice Whiting
• Jimmi Mayo
• Lee Murphy

For the Cause!!

Happy Thursday friends!  EEEKKKK!  I leave at 6 am tomorrow morning for San Jose and I have soooooooo much to do today (per the usual lol).  My main work is all done but as always its laundry, packing and organizing supplies. I also had to trash a suitcase—yep too many miles on it and zippers are broke and it looks like its been thru WW3 LOL!  TSA is not very nice to luggage eh’—so I’m off to buy a hardcase suitcase today which I’m hoping is still on sale LOL!  We’ll see how long that one lasts, poor things!  And I’m flying Southwest so I will fly to Denver first and then onto San Jose and yep I have to rent a car.  I’m taking MY Garmin GPS this time so I’m hoping it doesn’t lead me up to Seattle or Canada in my travels this time LOL.  I already have that funny buzzy feeling that something is gonna happen (shhh I won’t go into how I think I’m slightly pyschic, yes I really do) but I’m PRAYIN’ its funny stuff not the BAD stuff KWIM.  I don’t want to be involved in any kind of newsworthy or tragic event---I’m only up for fun kind of stuff ok I say to the higher ups somewhere up there LOL.  Hubby likes to poo-poo my psychic abilities at times but even he has to admit that I am right on the money with my predictions 95% of the time!  YIKES—so stay tuned for all that!!  And yes Suzanne is setting up her mobile office in the airport in the morning and you can follow me on Facebook cuz I usually am there posting weird stuff and funny pics along the way!  Hey I gotta keep myself entertained at all times LOL!  So for those in CA, I’ll see y’all soon   And you can come to a Copics class with me too---go to www.cmcroad.com for all the locations and info!

Ok---I love, love music—you know this right? I spend so much at ITunes that it ain’t even funny--LOL!  Then YOU MUST listen to this beautiful new song by Christina Perri HERE.  Its haunting and beautiful!  I’ll share another fave with you tomorrow LOL!

*********************************************************

Gina K Sneak Peek Blog Hop

We are very excited to extend an invitation to Gina K. Designs October Release Party. We have a fun evening planned for you - chatting, prizes, challenges, stamp sets reveal, design team shares, and most importantly, at the end of the party you will be able to go shopping!
If you came from Sharon Harnist’s fabulous blog you're at the right place. If not make sure to head over to StampTV where you will find a list of all those participating in today's hop.
Hope to see you at the party, here are all the details:

• When: Today, Thursday, October 20
• Where: StampTV Release Party Forum
• Time: 7 PM to 9 PM (CST)

So today the Gina K DT is sharing some sneaky peeky samples of the NEW RELEASES which will be up for sale after the release party this evening!  I cannot be at the party this evening (boo hoo) because hopefully I will be in bed at a decent hour since I have to be at the airport at 4:15 am tomorrow morning (ugh—double ugh).  But I am happily sharing my project made with Theresa Momber’s AWESOME set for Gina K called “Strength & Hope”.  A portion of Theresa’s profits will go to Breast Cancer Research for the first month of sales---so go buy this set for sure.

I know for most of you, like myself know someone personally or thru a friend or co-worker that is battling breast cancer. I have quite a few DT sisters and friends going thru this battle right now.  So purchase this set, help out and do your part—we women will ALL benefit from more research.  One in eight women will develop invasive breast cancer in their lifetimes!  That means for every 8 of your friends or female relatives its possible that one of you will develop breast cancer---that is SCARY stuff!!  So please be proactive, do self-checks and visit your doctor regularly (and teach your teen daughter’s how to start this too---I am teaching my daughter to be proactive).



So I love, love this set “Strength & Hope”—it is awesome in so many ways!  I chose to use both this awesome sentiment by Ralph Waldo Emerson and the fabulous butterfly that incorporates the cancer ribbon.  The sentiment was cut out using the fabulous die set from Spellbinders called “Twisted Metal Tags & Accents”. I love the shape and swirls—you know how I love my curly-q’s LOL!  The In the Navy cs from Gina K was embossed with a CB folder. I kept the color palette to just navy and cream with a touch of light pink on the ribbon for an elegant look.  The pearls were made with my Viva Décor Pearl Pen in Cream.



I stamped the butterfly in navy Memento ink and then colored the ribbon in Copic Color R20.  The whole butterfly got a thick coat of Stickles in Stardust and then while it was wet I sprinkled my fave Deco Art Glamour Dust on top for extra bling-i-ness!!  So I have a special friend that I will be sending this to next week, hopefully it will cheer them and keep them strong in their fight!

Ok now you need to hop on over to Tami Mayberry’s wonderful blog!!

See you tomorrow!

Pink Girl Power!!

Happy, happy Friday everyone! I'm looking forward to the weekend and I'm feeling more myself now thank goodness (thanks for all the well wishes). Our club here in our neighborhood has a huge Gingerbread House Decorating event every year and we're going on Sunday. My daughter and I are making one (and they're huge) and my son & hubby are doing one--I'll share pics with you all on Monday, should be tons of fun! I'm sure my kiddos will be on a sugar high, lucky me--LOL!!

**********************************************************
Remember you have until Sunday evening at 11 pm to enter for my Rubber Romance Blog Candy on THIS POST!!!
**********************************************************



My two cards today feature Pink ladies, lol! This card features another Rubber Romance stamp, but this one is super special!! Her name is "Jane" and everytime someone purchases her a $1 is donated to Breast Cancer Research & Education by the gals at Rubber Romance. Even better, when you buy this stamp from Susana's Custom Art & Card Design, Susana will donate another $1 to the cause--so $2 will go to this most worthy cause. I'm sure we all know someone who has suffered from this horrible disease and what a great way to support and honor them!

I paired my Jane with this yummy dp from Dovecraft called "A Hint of Pink" (oh my how I love this dp). The sentiment (which I love too) is from Verve Stamp's "Fairy Tales". Another set Verve has that is great for supporting your loved ones w/ just the right sentiment is "Here for You" & its 20% off right now--I'm ordering one for sure. So if you love this gal and you want to donate to this great cause that really helps all of us women, be sure and visit Susana's store & purchase one. The DT for Susana's Custom Art & Card Design (on my sidebar) all used this stamp today for a project, so make sure and blog hop around to see their versions :0)

My second card is pink too--do you feel a theme goin' on, lol! This is one of the very first stamp sets I bought from Pink Cat Studio (Lily & Tweet) and I instantly fell in love with them all! I was lucky to be chosen by the fabulous Melissa (owner & illustrator) to guest design for her in the New Year and I'm sooo honored! I've been neglecting my Pink Cat stamps so I've pulled them out & been inkin' them up, so look out for more of these cuties here on my blog! I colored w/ Copics and the snowflakes were punched and then I added my favorite Martha Stewart snow glitter to them. I love using these non-traditional colors for the holidays--so much fun!

I hope you all have a fun weekend ahead of you and remember only 13 DAYS until Christmas---are you excited or stressed, lol?? I'm happy to say my shopping is DONE and all I have to do is wrap. My biggest stress is getting out all my Xmas cards---I need to sign & address them all--eekkk!

see ya back here tomorrow,

Suzanne