confetti by lexi

mwah!

here's another card from the weekend.  actually, two takes on the same card.  like the others, i started it for two splitcoast dare to get dirty challenges--girls & ginhgham and paper piecing.  what you see above is the original "finished" card.  beachabella was the perfect subject, her suit perfect for paper pieced gingham!  i used the a muse lc polka dot alpha for the fun signature bella phrase.  but the more i stared at it, the more i thought it needed something on the left edge...

so i added a row of pink primas, with jewels in the centers, to match the punched flower on the beachabella's bag.  and then the card worked for two more challenges--floral, feminine, & flirty and all that glitters--bonus!  i think they're both pretty.  the first is my usual cas/clean and simple.  the flowers add a little more punch to the second.  but i'm really not sure which version i like better.  do you have a preference?

:) lexi

give thanks & hook 'em!

i'm coming down off of a 4-day weekend--a busy one too!  but i did squeeze in little stamping, so i thought i'd share a few things today since i wasn't around much the last two.  saturday was our monthly stamp club meeting and our atc theme was fall, halloween, or thanksgiving--perfect for using stamps from the new release from the saltbox studio!  i decided to use the pilgrims from give thanks again, but this time color them a little more traditionally, using brick white and skin white for a soft touch.  (i need to remember to post pics of my wood ones when i take them out!)  i thought the little pumpkin from pumpkin oak was just the right scale and style for the pilgrims, so i added one at their feet.  simple, but sweet!  i brought the same stamps to the meeting and used a few more on the project we made there...

one of our members led a project turning clear card boxes into mini file boxes or treat bags.  i thought this would make a great little file of scrapped cards with things to be thankful for, including pictures from thanksgiving, or maybe a container to store place cards, or even packaging for thanksgiving treats to give a teacher.  so cute and lots of possibilities--thanks kim!

while i was at the meeting, the tx/ou game was in full swing--and i was checking the score from time to time on my iphone.  love that thing!  anyway, i was very excited when texas won, and of course had to stamp a card in their honor.  my fellow longhorn stamper geeta sent me these awesome stamps last year from deadbeat designs.  don't they go well with pompomabella for this occasion?!  and just in case you didn't know, su! pumpkin pie is the perfect burnt orange!

hook 'em horns!
:) lexi

sweet victory!

 

yeah tigers--bcs national champions!!!  and yeah for me--i had time to make a quick card!  of course, my computer decided to start shutting down on me again as soon as i downloaded pics from my camera.  so it's taken me the better part of the afternoon to edit and post.  the good news is i'm just trying to decide what to get, but i will be getting a shiny new one soon!  hopefully, this one will hold out and be nicer to me until the replacement arrives.

anyway, back to the card--it was fun to use a variety of stamps for a completely different purpose than they were intended.  this was a recent amuseaddicts challenge, but i was in dallas and then overbooked, so i never got to it.  sparkler poms, a muse; cosmobella tiger fan, stamping bella; and sentiment, from piece of cake by papertrey ink--i was on a search for something else and this just jumped at me!  the note card is a muse; white card stock, papertrey ink; purple card stock, su!; and there are touches of copic spica markers and yellow stickles for bling.

enjoy!
:) lexi

beach bum bella

 

a friend of mine found these little packs of summer charms for cheap on a shopping trip recently and thought of me--thanks michele!  i was about to create with pmsabella, but there they were in front of me, so beachabella won out and this design just kind of took off.  yellow, orange and blue from the charm became my main colors and there's nothing better than real sandpaper for a sandy beach card!  my first idea for background paper was an orange one in my stash, but i found this one and thought it had nice touches of all three colors and reminded me of sunset at the beach.  a happy beach card for a grey rainy day.  maybe i'll get to pmsabella tomorrow!

as i've started getting back into blogland after a week of not reading much, i saw that i'd been tagged by kirsten from confessions of a naptime stamper.  sorry it took me so long kirsten!  the challenge this time is to fill in the blanks with one word.  i'll do my best...

Yourself: creative
Your Partner: friend
Your Hair: brown
Your Mother: smart
Your Father: cool
Your Favorite Item: computer
Your Dream Last Night: ???
Your Favorite Drink: iced mocha
Your Dream Car: lt blue conv bug
Dream Home: two--city & beach
The Room You Are In: living room
Your Fear: rodents
Where You Want to be in Ten Years: still stamping
Who You Hung Out With Last Night: my kids
You’re Not: twenty
One of Your Wish List Items: new design software
The Last Thing You Did: ate dinner
You Are Wearing: pink
Your Favorite Weather: sunny & not too hot
Your Favorite Book: can't pick just one
Last Thing You Ate: steak
Your Life: just right
Your Mood: happy
Your Best Friend: necessary
What Are You Thinking About Right Now: blogging
Your Car: volvo suv
What Are You Doing At The Moment: this + tv
Relationship Status: married
What Is On Your TV: groundhog day
What Is The Weather Like: rainy
When Is The Last Time You Laughed: tonight

ok, so one word didn't work so well for all of them.  i don't know who to tag, so if you want to play, please do & leave me a link so i can read all about you too.

thanks for stopping by!
:) lexi

freestyle

 

in honor of the pool opening this weekend and hanging out there this afternoon, i decided to create with beachabella.  this was total freestyle stamping--i stamped and colored her first and then went in search of paper, embellishments, etc.  totally different from what i've been stamping lately, but i do like the colors and it's fun to do different.  one thing that remains the same--the glitter pen is well represented on bella's hair, suit and the flower centers, but you'll have to trust me on that!  so here's to summer and many days of pool side fun...  just a few busy half days of school to go!

:) lexi

cool blue cruisabella

 

when i first saw cruisabella i thought red, but then i saw this card by julie at stampin with julie--and i just had to do blue.  my layout "drove" me crazy, though!  i knew i wanted the ribbon for the road and i liked the retro atomic explosion with the retro car.  i also wanted a pattern along the bottom, but had trouble choosing one--too many stamps, perhaps?!  i think it might be a little too busy, but i just had to finish it and drive on!  and the best thing about stamps--i can make it red next time...

thanks for cruisin' by!
:) lexi

p.s. there's plenty of glitz on the car, but again, hard to capture in pictures.  the atomic explosion is by hot potatoes, the retro pattern and spiral hardware by su!, the ribbon from michael's--and of course, cruisabella by stamping bella!

let's get together!

 

sometimes when i see an image, i immediately think of another image in my collection.  that's what happened when javabellas arrived.  the a*muse cafe, an actual cafe when paired with the a*muse shopper girl below, suddenly became a hanging sign in my mind when i saw the size of javabellas.

it's taken me a while to get around to figuring the actual design and layout, but i finally worked on it this weekend while bella stamping with the girls.  after two days of fiddling and then having to adjust my poorly centered hand written sentiment by adding the cup, i think it's pretty close to what i imagined!

enjoy!
:) lexi

ETA:  if you haven't already, don't forget to check out the mother's day inspiration gallery at a*muse news and vote for your favorite card--voting ends tonight at midnight (pacific time)!

 

my mom stamps a lot!

 
that pretty much sums it up, doesn't it?!  i was kindergarten parent helper today and my group activity was to have the kids copy and illustrate "my mom..." sentences they'd come up with last week.  colleen was in my first group and i just had to take a picture!  some details she pointed out to me:  my lamp, an ott-lite; my blue jacket, because i'm always cold; and my overflowing trash can.  she said i was stamping cruisabella (who arrived last week).  colleen loves the bellas--in fact, we were stamping bellas together yesterday afternoon...

 
colleen's beachabella

mignon's beachabella  "babe"!!!

i'm still working on mine, but i'll share them as soon as i finish...

:) lexi

after 2 weeks & 1 day

my bellas arrived yesterday...

 

and today i stamped the day away!

enjoy!
:) lexi