What's on My Kitchen Counter

Time for the MFPSpeedyTV Inspiration Challenge (Challenge #48 - Party Dresses--1-30-14). Shirley has dug up some really cool inspiration pictures of party dresses for us: I chose the first one - that red just grabbed me! My dress was stamped with MFP's Paper Doll Formal Wear set. After I stamped my image on my paper, I toned the paper a bit to match my other papers with some Tim Holtz ink and then I covered the bottom of the dress with some roses I made with some Impression Obsession dies. My papers are Recollections and SU! and I also used Spellbinders and Sizzix dies and some SU! ribbon. Come join us in this super fun challenge! Hugz!

There is so much snow and ice here in Central Alabama that I couldn't go into work. I almost didn't make it home yesterday - my normal 30-40 minute drive took 2.5 hours as several bridges closed down and we had to turn and go another way. Today, I am catching up on a few comments and challenges. This week's Squigglefly challenge (SFC0414) is "Have a Heart" - use a heart on your creation. It is our team's week off but I just had to play in this one as Valentine's Day is moving fast and I need some more cards. I used the very adorable Kitten image by Enid Barnes and a cute sentiment by Lynne Stansbery which can be found in her I Miss You set (it also has a kitten in it). Both sets are available at Squigglefly. My card is made with papers from The Paper Studio and Recollections and my flowers are from The Paper Studio. I even used an old orphan earring circa 1980. My name is Nancy, and I am a hoarder... The challenge runs another 4.5 days and the

When I saw the MFPSpeedyTV Sketch with a Twist Challenge this week, I wanted to play. I help Shirley, Kathy, and Chris with the Inspiration Challenge on MFPSpeedyTV, but I have been trying to play in some of the other challenges too so I can visit with other MFP DT members. There are so many fun challenges on MPFSpeedyTV - I am going to try them all. This is the sketch: And the twist is to use black, pink and white colors (the Tim Holtz tea distress ink lends a bit of brown tone to some of my black papers but I promise they are black). Here is my card: I used the MFP Oh Beans set for the cups and the MFP Ivy and Blossoms set for my sentiment. My papers are SU! and Recollections, my inks are Memento Black and Tim tea, and my bling is from Zva. I showed this one to my Mom (a coffee addict like me), and she wanted to send it to a friend so off it went. Fun challenge girls - I promise to come play again soon. Hugz!

This week's MFPSpeedyTV Inspiration Challenge has some really great pictures again - don't know how Shirley finds these fun pictures! I used Mark's Finest Papers You've Got Style set , some SB and MFT dies, Zva Crystals and DCWV Le Crème papers. We would love to see how these pictures inspire you too. Hugz!

My sweet friend Marisa made THIS card and I finally broke down and bought the Verve I heart You die set. Marisa uses it on some wonderful cards, and I have several ideas for it rolling around in my head. For my colors, I used THIS color palette from Design Seeds which was the Inspiration Site in IC424 at Splitcoast Stampers. What a fun site - I think I am going to use this site for my color palettes on a lot of cards in the future. Many hugz!!!!

This week's Squigglefly challenge is Clean And Simple (SFC0314). I used a new image called Kitten by Enid Barnes. Enid Barnes's realistic animal images are done in an artistic technique called pointillism. Kind of over my head, but from what I can tell she uses a lot of dots to make the images. They are very realistic and very beautiful and they are perfect when doing a CAS card because you don't have to color them if you don't want to - I didn't want to so all I did was place the image on the paper and then use a great sentiment by Lynne Stansbery (out of her I Miss You set which also has a kitten). I am trying to get a few Valentine's cards done as it is sneaking up on us fast! What a great and easy challenge. If you don't have a Squigglefly image to use in the challenge, there are some fun freebies you can use (a few are even great for Valentines Day or to do a CAS card. Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day! "I have a dream that one day thi

The Inspiration Challenge on SCS is a visit to Global Table and I picked THESE beautiful candles as my inspiration. I used the MFP Butterfly Essence , Glad Glads and Lots of Words stamp sets and some various mediums including SU! Heat and Stick Powder, Versamark, Stickles, Sparkly embossing powder, Glitter, and white/gold frontage. My paper was all plain white SU! paper, but I think it kind of looks like it has a back light or glow to it behind the butterflies (probably the burn marks from all the heat embossing - lol). I am also entering this in the Sparkle N Sprinkle Monthly Challenge which is anything goes with glitter, sparkle, embossing or flocking - I used glitter, embossing, sparkles galore. Hope you have a lovely weekend! Hugz!!!

I don't usually have time to make too many cards during the week but I felt inspired last night by the MFPSpeedyTV color challenge (blue) and the Queen For The Day at SCS - naturecoastcrafter where I selected THIS card to case. I love her very fun gallery. I am on the DT for MFPSpeedyTV's Inspiration Challenge but I am checking out some of the other challenges to see how fun they are - this color challenge is VERY fun! I used a SB die, SU! ink for my circle, some blue Zva crystals, and two Marks Finest Papers stamp sets: Nature's Brushstrokes and Works of Art . I am falling in love with the Nature's Brushstrokes set - I received this set several months ago and never used it but now I am starting to find all kinds of uses for it. Since Jean loves nature and uses lots of nature in her cards, I thought it would be fun to use the word "nature" on the card (and there are two different sentiments with that word in the Nature's Brushstrokes set). Happy

This week's MFPSpeedyTV Inspirational Challenge has some very funky fashions to inspire us (#46 - Wild Fashions): I love all the She Art out there but it intimidates me - it is a bit more artsy than I have been comfortable with attempting. This week I took a baby step toward it though! I know my "She" has facial features when she should have a blank face, but remember I am still doing baby steps! Here is my creation inspired by fashion model #2: I used the Mark's Finest Papers new Paper Doll Set , the Paper doll Formal Wear Set , and the classic Huge Blooms set. All the She Art I have seen has the skin and face done with a text print and lots of mixed media so I stamped my image again on some text paper and dug out some different kinds of media. I sponged on some inks for the base colors, dabbed some paint around the edges and as highlights on the clouds and hill, did some pen ink doodles (I even doodled on the animal print on her dress), used some Metallic

Most of you know that I am on the MFPSpeedyTV Inspiration DT, but MFP has a lot of great challenges and many DT. This morning I decided I would play along in the Speedy Fox and Friends Challenge #194 which is Sponged Circles. I had so much fun with this challenge! I sponged my die cut circle and I sponged some circles using a SB die as my guide on my bg panel (using Tim Holtz walnut). I used the MFP Firefighter set. I used this set because we had a giant flood at work with our sprinkler system broke and one of the guys at work came in at midnight to let the rising waters out the back door so we wouldn't lose all our equipment. Despite massive damage to our ceiling and the high waters, we only lost a little bit of our equipment because Steve stayed all night working with the Firefighters to save everything. This is a thank you card we are going to give him (his initials are SB if you are wondering about the cards at the top). Hugz!!!

A Pattie's Creations, the newest challenge is Stitching - faux or real. I was thrilled as my Christmas present this year was a new sewing machine! I haven't sewed in almost 30 years so this new machine was a challenge. Part of my problem was that I attempted the fancy stiches before I tried to do a straight line - lol! My image is Dogwood Branch by Pattie and I colored it to match up with the tones of my paper using Tim Holtz ink and a sponge. I am sending this to a friend who needs a bit of cheer (send a prayer up for her if you think about it). Come join in the challenge so we can see your wonderful faux and real creations. Hugz!

This week's MFPSpeedyTV Inspiration Challenge pictures are about Puppy Dog Fashion: I was inspired by the last picture: I used the following MFP stamp sets: Oh Beans , Glad Glads , and Calendar . Come join in the fun! Hugz!

Maddie is reading a good book about Thank-yous in my creation for the newest Squigglefly Challenge (SFC0114): Emboss A Thank-You . I used one of the new images at Squigglefly called A Good Read Maddie by Cheryl Grant Alger. The set comes with this image, some books, and two great sentiments. I did a lot of embossing on this and I inked my folder before doing the main panel and ran the other two panels through the same folder with lighter and lighter results each time. I hope you come play in this embossed thank-you challenge at Squigglefly - we would love to see what you come up with. Hugz!

The Queen for the Day Challenge at Splitcoast Stampers is so fun this week. Participants are to find another stamper with a similar name and case them. I cased Nan Cee's (since my name is Nancy) and I picked THIS beautiful card to case. I used several SB dies and a Sizzix ef along with some ribbon from a Christmas present. My Mom and Pop have an anniversary coming up soon and this is the card I made for them: The image for this anniversary card is by Close to My Heart and the dies are by Tim Holtz and Impression Obsession. At Sassy Cheryl's Challenge for this past week they are shining and sparkling so I added both elements: I used Jump, Snowman, Jump which is available at Squigglefly. Hope you are staying warm! Hugz!

I played around on Pinterest a bit the other day and saw THIS really great little wreath. I figured that if I layered enough SB leaf die cuts in various directions around some wire twisted in a circle that I could achieve something like it. I ended up making some little leaf flowers to get more dimension (done like building a rose. The wood veneer heart is from Hobby Lobby (the package is cheap, cheap and has a ton of hearts and arrows - I am going to get a few more packages) as is all the paper I used. The berries are off an old decorative sprig I had twisted around some candles but got tired of a few years ago. I love how this came out - it will be going to my Mother for her upcoming 78th Birthday. Hugz!

This week at the MFPSpeedyTV Inspiration Challenge , Shirley found some lovely coats to inspire us: Both my cards were inspired by the color and design of the yellow coat and those little yellow flowers in the background. I love the first two coats and if I could look as good as those girls in the coats, I would buy them and wear them every day - even in the summer! The stamp sets I used for these cards are Lots of Words (the first card) and Natures Brushstrokes and Columns and Topiaries (for the second card). I used the netting from my holiday turkey on the first card, and on the second I was also inspired by THIS wonderful card by Jo on Splitcoast Stampers - I love how she nested her Nesties and I had to try it! Come join us in the challenge - you don't have to use a Mark's Finest Papers image (of course we would love it if you did), we are a no pressure challenge, you can enter several times, and the prize is super cute! Hugz!