Camptown Girls . . .

Is coming tomorrow! I get to show off my scrabpooking abilities or lack of, for our team, The Rosebuds, for The Greeting Farm's Royal Battle. We've made it through to Week 3 and I sur4e don't want to let my sisters down. So stop back tomorrow and find out where to go to vote for us.

In the mean time, I thought I'd show you a couple of pictures of my family from
Easter. We had the greatest time and I love spending time with them. So enjoy and I'll be back tomorrow with a different side of me!

Here's our Allie eating breakfast. She grows so fast!



Ella, Heidi and Allie., Aren't they all just gorgeous?



With Daddy going through the Easter Egg Hunt bag.



This is all of us. Gosh, it was wonderful!

Stampin With Those New Clear Stamps

I thought I'd share a tutorial for those of you who are a bit leary of the new clear stamps. This is my way of stamping and hopefully it will put a different spin on the clear stamps for you.

Ingredients:

1 Belles N' Whistles stamp (the most important thing and I just love Wishes!)
Ink of your choice (I chose Memento Tuxedo Black)
Paper of your choice
Acrylic block to fit your stamp
1 9 x 12 sheet of craft foam (Yes, it's like the kind you can get at Joann's for like 10 for $1.00 when they're on sale!)



First I place my paper on top of the sheet of foam. This gives your stamp a great cushion in helping the ink cover the paper.



Then I peel off the protective covering from my acrylic block. I always cover my blocks with Tac N' Peel and love it!



Next I ink up my stamp. I like to pat my block on top of the ink pad but do it however works for you.



Then I place my block on the paper wherever I want to stamp. And then press down! Don't rock too much and try and place even pressure over the entire stamp.



Then just lift the stamp up and you've got a great, clear, crisp and clean image! I have been stamping like this for like a year and a half and I always get a great impression but these clear stamps are great to stamp with.



Some of you were worried about how detailed Elisabeth Bell's images would turn out and I picked Wishes from our new Spring and Summer Release because of the great detail and small lines used and it came out perfectly! I've stamps up all of the new clear Belles N' Whistles stamps and didn't get a bad image out of any of them.



So go get some cheap foam sheets, a great acrylic block and stamp away! I hope this clears up some of your misgivings about the quality of the image you'll get by using these clear stamps. I've got to tell you that not only was I not disappointed with them, but I loved how much space I saved with them! Quick, easy, clean stamping, Belles N' Whistles stamps! Enjoy!

Li'l Cowboy by Elizabeth Bell

She's gone and done it again! The oh so talented and inspiring Elisabeth Bell has taken me back to my childhood where things were so innocent and pleasures were simple. She's brought us some us some of the sweetest digi stamps and I couldn't be happier to be presenting and sharing them with you on my favorite holiday of the year, Easter weekend!



This sweetie pop is Li'l Cowboy and he takes me back to times with my brother and my nephews. There's nothing as timeless as a little horsey head on a stick! I can still feel the soft, cool plastic with the bright white impressions on it from when my little brother, Rick, used to get one of these. He would ride it around and I so wanted to have my own horse. I remember one time telling Mommy I had changed my name and demanded that everyone start calling me Dale Evans! And I remember getting mad at my brother one time for something stupid and I took his horse and stuck the head in some water and mopped the floor with his horse's mane! Yep, I was a little something with attitude back then!




I just adore the feel of this sweetie with his little long johns on. Can't you just see him growing up to become a real bull rider or ranch hand? Oh, those earthy men just make me weak in the knees!



And his sweet boots! I remember buying one of these same horsey's for my nephews and the boots. Oh how they thought they were all grown up in those boots! Little did I realize how fast their little feet grew!

I love this saying 'Free your mind from worries". I adore these block sayings and thought this one was so carefree and perfectly suited for the easy feel of this card.



So go off and free your mind from worries and let it create something wonderful and warming from your childhood. Head on over to Elisabeth's blog and pick up these sweet things and show us what you created. I love hearing about other's childhoods and memories. Happy Easter on this blessed weekend.

Card Ingredients:

Li'l Cowboy digi by Elisabeth Bell, My Mind's Eye paperpack, Kaisercraft flowers, Scrapper's Floss, buttons, star charms from Blue Moon, MS leaf punch.

The Greeting Farm, The Rosebuds and The Royal Battle!

A few of my good stamping buddies got together and joined the Battle going on over at The Greeting Farm! It's kind of like the American Idol of stamping and we'd love for you to come over and vote for our team. We're The Rosebuds and Jodi has our first card up and she did a fabulous job! Go Jodi! Go Jodi! You're a Rosebud! You're a Rosebud! It was retro week and the picture above was the inspiration for the card.

So if you would like to place a vote (well - you actuall got 3) - then this is how you do it:

"You must be registered to vote.
Go to http://thegreetingfarm.com/galleria/
Click on Register and fill out the form.
You will be sent confirmation info to your email and you must click the link to officially be activated. If for some reason you do not recieve it, just email me and I will manually activate your registry.
Once you are activated, go back to http://thegreetingfarm.com/galleria/ and login.
Once you are logged in, go to Contest/Challenges > TGF ROYAL BATTLE > Week 1
Vote for your top 3 choices. When you comment, that counts as your vote. So Comment on your top 3 choices.
ANYONE and EVERYONE can vote. "


So if you love the card from The Rosebuds this week - please make sure that you vote before Tuesday!

Summer Time, Summer Time...

It's my day to host our blog post for the day and I thought I'd being a bit of sunshine and fun into your day! Don't you just love our new release? I simply am enchanted by them and thought I'd share one of my favorite activities with you - hanging out by the pool!



If you know anything about me, you know I love the sun and fun and these two cuties from Splashing Good Time take me back to some of my favorite times. Can you remember the days when that little wading pool just felt so cool and refreshing on a hot day? I'm not a bit ashamed to say that I used to lay out in the sun smack in the middle of one of those wading pools! One of my good friends thought I was buying the pool for my nephews who used to come over all the time, but I certainly set her straight that it was MY pool, thank you very much! Oh, to be young and have the time to laze around out in the sun.

This cutie is colored with copics and I added some bright yellow Prima Flowers and spacers and pearls at the bottom because yellow flowers just mean hot weather to me. I love the waterfall Stickles and think it gives this water the perfect sparkles.

And here they are close up! Wouldn't you love to just jump in that pool with them?



Hope you enjoy this cute summery creation. It was so fun to put together and I hope it brings a bit of sunshine into your day! Thanks so much for stopping by!


Card Ingredients:

Splashing Good Times from Belles N' Whistles, copics, June Bug paper pack from BasicGrey, BasicGrey Bling, EK Success wave punch, MS leaf punch, spacers, Stickles, Diamond Glaze, Prima flowers.