Happy Birthday QKD

Queen Kat Designs is turning five!! Hard to believe that!!! And what better what to start off the celebrations than with a Queen Kat Designs blog hop!!!

You should have hopped from Jean's blog (didn't you just love all that fabulousness on there) to mine.


And now, here is my card featuring the fabulous stamp set by Sandra Caldwell that you could win!!! I used the birthday present stamp out of this set, but there is also a balloon and a cake and a happy birthday sentiment.


Thanks so much for stopping by and now it is time to head off to Bonnie's blog to see what fabulous creation she has in store!

Time to Celebrate!

Are you a stamper? are you a card maker? a scrapbooker? a person who loves to have fun?

Then make sure you join Queen Kat Designs for their 5th birthday party!! The fun starts on November 1!

Here's a peak of what you could win!

Thursday Thoughts

September is a busy month, but it is amazing how much can be put into 30 days; here is a card that I made using Meadow Pixie Arts Chibi Mermaid Stamp. I wanted it to look like she was "swimming" on the card.



Thanks for stopping by!

Queen Kat Designs

Today, I woke up to an overcast sky, a cool breeze, and a hint of fall in the air. Wow! It was so nice to have a brief look at what I am desperately waiting for -- fall! But, along with fall comes a little bit brisker pace as we get ready for Halloween, birthdays, and such. Of course, one of the best things about Halloween is candy corn (sshh, I have already had one bag!)

But, we also love carving pumpkins and as such, I love the new stamp that was released at Queen Kat Designs - Pumpkin Stack.

Here's my card using Pumpkin Stack.

Card anyone?

I made a couple of cards this past weekend since we were hunkered down because of all of the rain from Tropical Storm/Depression Lee. Since it was raining, I thought it was appropriate to use a mermaid stamp! This card features the Chibi Mermaid Stamp by Meadow Pixie Arts!



Such a fun stamp!!

Chubby Witch Card

I wanted to share another fun card using Terrell Dorfeo's Chubby Witch Stamp



This is such a fabulous stamp that it doesn't need a lot of bling to dress it up; a simple web background a little accent and this fabulous stamp is all that is needed for a fabulous Halloween card!

Thanks for stopping by!

QKD - Dragonfly Stamp

Here's a card for this week: I used Jessie Barber's Dragonfly Stamp. This is such a unique stamp. I know that I didn't even come close to doing it justice but it was so much fun to play around with!

Designer Apprentice Competition

I have never been one to do anything "half-way." So, while I have been tossing the idea of going into digital design for a while now, I never committed to it. But, that has definitely changed!

I decided to enter the Designer Apprentice challenge at DSA; yes, I know that I am not a designer, I am a wanna-be. I joined in with the new group (designing less than a year) and have already completed two challenges.

The first challenge was to create a mini kit that contained at least two extracted elements: this is what I came up with.



Not too bad for my first kit ever!! You can snag this for free (doesn't that sound nice) at DSA. Just click here.


And then for the second challenge, we had to create our own "textures" and create a paper pack using at least two of those textures. I had so much fun with this challenge. Here's what I came up with.



And you can also download these: click here.


The new challenge will be up on Sunday; I can't wait to see what it is!!!

QKD - Chubby Witch Card

Halloween in August? I am so excited to show you a fabulous card using Chubby Witch by Terrell Dorfeo (Meadow Pixie Arts).



This witch is not too scary, but it so much fun! She is perfect for Halloween cards (or even layouts). And why not get the jump on those cards and start now!!!

Scheduling Time

I often have the comment ready on hand to say "I don't have time for . . ." You know the

I don't have time to exercise; I work then come home . . . (yeah, you know the rest of the excuses).

I don't have time to . .. . because I am tired, . . . (are you putting all those answers/excuses in the blanks).

But, this week it hit me that I do have time; I just need to prioritize what I do with my time, how I spend my time. So, instead of thinking about exercises and wishing I had time, my day now starts at 5:30 am (gasp)walking.

It is a great way to start the day and boy does it help me feel better as well. But this is only the physical aspects that I am working with; I need to start scheduling more time for the spiritual aspects. Prioritizing my life is the goal; I need to have my focus on Him.

Not Leaving on Jet Plane

Okay, so I was supposed to be getting ready to leave Sunday for a trip to Vegas, but mmmm, that didn't work out! Oh well! So, since I can't go, I thought I would share some new creations with you:



This is using Alexandria Sandlin's Can You see Me Now available at Queen Kat Designs. I love this humor behind this stamp!!!

Out of Control

Sometimes I feel like everything is spiraling out of control and I can't find a way to get it together. Yet, today my feeling of being overwhelmed was calmed.

Just wondering what could calm my storm, my life -- a blog post. Reading a blog post by Katie Walker. As I read her blog, I realized that while her post was for her, it was also something that God was directing toward me.

In her post, she said:
so for today:
- "bad" days may be God's way of saying, "hey, I'M in control here."
- find joy in trials.
- with grace, life IS good.

Drooling!

I went to the store at Queen Kat Designs just to snag a link for a post that I was working on and I was floored because somehow Vicki has slipped in some stamps that I haven't seen and now I am sitting here drooling over them!

Check this out!

Dragon Snuggles



Victorian Kitty


Steampunk


Faces of Time


Clowning Around


Okay, now to figure out which ones to buy!!!

Camp???

Day 4 of my children being gone to camp! This is their first experience (mine also!) and I was a little apprehensive about how they would feel about being away from home for five days and four nights ---mmm, well, the quick words from my female child -- I'm having fun; this is great. Oops, got to go, bye. (this is basically what she told me on both day 1 and 2). And it isn't until day 3 when the male child talks to me, only because he broke his glasses and needed his other pair! No, Mom, I love you and miss you.

I am so happy and sad at the same time; my babies are growing up and who knew that I would be the one who is "home-sick" because it isn't really the same without all the noise and hugs and laughter from my two!

Happy Birthday Vicki Blog Hop!!!

Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday dear Vicki!
Happy Birthday to you!

Today is the birthday for the fabulous Vicki, the Queen of Queen Kat Designs. In celebration of this fabulous day, we are having a Surprise Birthday Party Hop for her! And you get to see all of her fabulous birthday cards!!

You should have come from Maria's blog to mine. Now, here's my card for Vicki!



Thanks for stopping by, now it is time to head off to Valerie's blog to see her creation!!

QKD T3 Blog Hop

Today it is time for the T3 Blog Hop! This week was a sketch challenge, using a fabulous sketch by Roni. Before my card, just a quick reminder of the rules.

Here are the rules of Triple Tiara Tuesday:

- Each week 3 Royal Court Members will host a challenge on their blog.

- You start right at the QKD blog and visit the challenge hosts on their personal blogs. (Leave us some love and a link to your project so we can return the favor. *wink*)

- QKD will offer up a $25 stamp gift certificate for the players to compete for each month. So if people enter each week, they have 4 chances to win the monthly prize of $25.

- The contestants will post their link to their card on the Inlinkz widget here on the blog. (There will be 1 per month.)

Ok, so this week, there are only two people, Wynneth and myself. Here's my card using the sketch and the new unicorn stamp.

June Heat Wave

There is no reason or rhyme to the weather lately across the US. Tornadoes have hit so many different regions; flooding and droughts are happening side by side. And now, here it is the first week of June and the heat is almost unbearable.

So, to beat the heat, we are staying in as much as possible. Staying in means I have time to scrap some; this week, I worked on some cards for QKD (two I can't share yet because the stamps haven't been released yet) but here are a couple that I made using a cool new stamp called Giver of Light.

Of course, if you look at my cards, when I first used the stamp, I wasn't thinking sun behind the girl, for the first one, I was thinking Earth Day.



And not sure exactly where I was headed with this one, but I love how she turned out.

Cards and Easter Egg Dyes

After my kids finished dyeing Easter eggs, I looked at the all the cups and thought --- what could I do with them. So, I thought about using them as misters, but I didn't have any spray bottles (note to self - get spray bottles). Then I thought about using them like a wash.

So, I grabbed a napkin, and then used the napkin to put the dye on cardstock. It came off as a watercolor type of technique and I really liked how it turned out. Here's some cards that I made using this technique.




I used the Knowledgeable Pixie stamp for the top card and the QKD Get Inked kit for the bottom card. If you are not on the list for the kit, then get on it!!! This is a fabulous kit!!

T3 - Queen Kat Designs

It's a distressing day here -- well, not the type of distress that makes us sad; this is the fun distressing of papers!!!

So, before we get to the good stuff, here are the details that you definitely want to know!

We challenge you to join along with our distressing challenge. So, here are the rules of Triple Tiara Tuesday:

- Each week 3 Royal Court Members will host a challenge on their blog.

- You start at the QKD blog and visit the 3 challenge hosts on their personal blogs. (Leave us some love and a link to your project so we can return the favor. *wink*)

- QKD will offer up a $25 stamp gift certificate for the players to compete for each month. So if people enter each week, they have 4 chances to win the monthly prize of $25.

- The contestants will post their link to their card on the Inlinkz widget on the QKD blog. (There will be 1 per month.)



Now, here's my card:



I used a fun new technique of inking my paper and then crumbled the paper before adding it to the card base. I wanted to create a look that mimicked the appearance of books stacked. Thanks for looking; now make sure you check out Wynneth's and Loretta's blogs to see their fabulous creations!

April 27 - Mitzi Wiuff New Releases!!!

Absolutely fabulous was my reaction to the designs by Mitzi Wiuff!! I couldn't believe how beautiful these stamps were. So, if you have been following along with the hop, you also know. If you just stumbled onto my blog, then go back and start at the QKD blog, hop along, and you should have made it here to my blog from Chris' blog.

Okay, I got to play with Lily of the Valley, and again, oh my!!!

Here are my creations using this stamp:




Thanks so much for stopping by; make sure you head over to Jan's blog to see what she has created for this hop.

Welcome to the Jungle!

My life as a jungle -- well to have the proper jungle, you need some animals. I might not have "wild" animals around here, but I do have some adorable ones (and most of them are courtesy of Queen Kat Designs)

One of my favorites is Flutterby




Or Mr. Froggie



or Curious Kitty



All cute animals which could come live with you in your jungle!