Hugz!

Hello and Happy Monday to you my friends! Did you have a good weekend? Ours was pretty darn good and it was a nice balance between getting work done and some fun & relaxing!  Riley had a sleepover last night so he's feeling a bit rough today, hee hee!  And I expect Alexa back from the Outer Banks this evening as well--she needs bed early as she has practice tomorrow in the heat, blech!  I still am having a hard time getting over the fact that she'll be starting high school in September--yikes!  And I'm soooooooooo NOT looking forward to back to school shopping this coming weekend with my two kids!  NOT FUN!  No lie, Alexa is super picky and likes to argue and Riley just whines and complains the ENTIRE TIME!  Sometimes I want to stick signs to their backs that say "FREE to Good Home!!", LOL--KWIM?!  Nothing good about it and James and I ALWAYS end up with migraines by the time we're finished!  And neither of them wear little clothes or shoes anymore so it's always a sticker shock for my poor hubby when we're shopping, hee hee!  But I did get all of their school supplies minus their backpacks cuz' I would NEVER want to ASSUME that I know what they want, lol--so they will of course pick out their own bags!  Whew, pray for me this weekend :)

NewsBitz:

-NEW Dates & Locations for my Copic Classes are up on the new website CMC on the Road HERE!  If you want to take a Copics class or two check it out!

-NEW Release from Elisabeth Bell is coming this Friday from SCACD!  You can enter for some super yummo-licious Blog Candy at the store blog HERE!!

-Gina K Release sneak peeks tonight at 11 pm EST!  I will have one up later this evening to share with you and I HEART it so much :)

-Oriental Blog Candy winner (from this post) is: Sandy Owens (LittleLou) who will be celebrating her birthday soon and the fact that she is beating CANCER! Email me Sandy with your mailing addy and congrats!!

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Hugs!

Okay, so lucky me got to pre-order all these fabulous new stamps from Crafter's Companion (makers of Popcorn Bear) while I was at CHA--they're called "S.W.A.L.K."!  I won't tell you what a deal they gave me but I was able to get the entire new line and get them early--wahooo--a bonus special I tell ya!  I wish I could tell you where to get them but none of the stores have them in yet (boo hoo)--google them to see what comes up & I'll let you know if any stores have them here in the states soon too!

This particular stamp set is called "SWALK Hugs" and I just love that cute lil' kitty she's hugging! I used some of my favorite DCWV "Linen Closet" papers--I love the soft creams and blues!  The bow was made with my Bow Easy and the background behind the image was done with a new Cuttlebug Folder set called "Sentimental".  I used my SB's Nestabilities for the circles and stamped the sentiment directly on the patterned paper.  All my edges got a vintage touch with my fave Zutter Distress It All tool--love that thing!

I colored this cute image with Copics and I paper pieced her dress with some of the matching papers! TIP: make sure when you paper piece that you don't forget to shade the paper with your copics/markers/inks so that it matches the rest of your image or else it will look too flat!!  I added some diamond glaze to her eyes and some stickles to her hair bows!  She's such a lil' cutie--look for more of these cuties coming soon to my blog!

I'll see you back here later tonight with my NEW Gina K sneak peek!!

Guest Designer News!!

Happy Friday everyone! Sadly tomorrow I will be on my way home after a fabulously wonderful vacation in Hilton Head Island! Although coming home is always nice & I've been feeling the itch to get back to my craft room--2 weeks of no creating oh my! But my mojo juices have definitely been recharged so first thing Monday I'll be back creating for you all!! I'll also have a vacation picture slideshow for ya too!

So today I wanted to share some exciting news with you all! I am this month's guest designer for All That Scraps--WOOOHOOOO!!! If you're a regular reader here you know how much I adore their stamps (CC Designs)so this was a fabulous opportunity for me & I'm super grateful they asked me (thanks Amy & Christine)!! You can check out the announcement right HERE and every Monday on the All That Scraps Blog you will find some more fun info & projects from me this month of July!


First up is this fabulous animal set called "Chasing Butterflies" by designer Diem Pascarella for CC Designs(all new stamps available on Monday)! Isn't this kitty the cutest (ya know how I lovee me my kitties)! These new animal stamps by Diem will be available in a set or individually--how cool is that! Kitty is colored with copics and I used this fun dp (Imaginisce?-can't recall, have vacation memory fog, lol) along with PTI's poppy red cs & twill ribbon. I added some stacked butterfly punchouts on top of the fun yellow button and the border was done with my new Fiskars border punch! Such a fun & happy card me thinks! Make sure and stop by the All That Scraps blog to see the rest of the DT's fun samples!

Have a fabulous weekend & lots of fun & safe Fourth of July activities to my fellow Americans! See ya back here on Monday!

hugz,
Suzanne