Ode to Vincenzo Nibali!

After Stage 5 of the Tour de France, the race leader's yellow jersey is still on the back of Vincenzo Nibali of Italy. He rode like a champ yesterday on a dramatic cobblestone-filled stage, which also saw the defending champion Chris Froome abandon the race due to injury. You may remember Nibali from his awkward podium non-kiss a couple days ago (oops!). His "official" nickname - no doubt the one he prefers - is The Shark. But he's also referred to as Nibbles. And when I think Nibbles, I think of a sweet little mouse. So... here is Mr. Nibbles, dreaming of yellow in Paris...

I've been dying to stamp with this adorable mouse from Avery Elle's Storybook set (I got mine at i {heart} papers - it's out of stock at the moment because they are having a GINORMOUS moving sale - everything is 40% off until 3pm EST tomorrow 7/11 - go shop NOW and use code moving2014!!). The background was created with two different Hero Arts bicycles - 3 Bikes and One the Go Bike. I doodled the frames and the thought bubble with a journaling pen. The colors for the card are the blue and yellow of Nibali's team, Astana.

Yesterday was such a crazy stage!! The cobblestones were wet, there were way too many crashes and the riders were covered in mud after the race. I loved it!

(Photo from Le Tour de France's Facebook gallery.)

I kind of like Nibbles, and I wouldn't mind if his dreams come true in Paris. But, there's a LOT of racing left, so I do hope it's exciting and this jersey changes hands a few more times before the Champs Élysées!

Happy Tour-watching!

Stamps: Avery Elle (Storybook), MFT (Who's That Parisian Girl), Hero Arts (LP202 3 Bikes, 657782 On the Go Bike)
Paper: Neenah Solar White, MFT Blu Raspberry
Ink: Hero Arts (Lemon Yellow, Tide Pool, black) Memento Tuxedo Black, Copic markers, journaling pen
Other: ribbon, scissors, foam tape

Vive le Tour!

For those of you who've been confused the past few days about why I was getting all British on my blog about the Tour de FRANCE, you'll be relieved to know the race has made it's way back to the motherland! I'm so excited, I had to bust out my Fleur-de-Lis stencil!

Today I'm trying to flex my mixed media muscle. Or, at least work on building that muscle....! I love love love the layers and textures of mixed media, it makes me happy! I began with some white card, and covered it with Broken China Distress Stain, then spritzed it to add water spots. Once dry, I finally gave the oh so popular Wendy Vecchi embossing paste a try! I just secured my MFT stencil with tape, then spread on the embossing paste with a palette knife. The black dots were created with bubble wrap and ink, and Distress glitter was added over the stenciling. The message was spelled out with those Hero Arts Typewriter Letters I love.

Tomorrow the Tour dips into yet another country that I love (and a country that LOVES cycling!) - Belgium! There's been a lot of excitement about Stage 5, it's going to be a tough one. The guys will have to ride over several sectors of pave! (I really need to figure out how to add accents on my words, imagine a little accent over that final e and pronounce it pah-vay!) In other words - cobblestones. Racing fast over cobblestones. Just let that process a little and you can begin to imagine how jarring that's got to be on a body! Ouch.

And even more exciting than the pave - tomorrow brings my first guest designer to the blog! Yay! And she knows a thing or two about bike races in Belgium... :-)

See you tomorrow,

Stamps: Typewriter Letters from Hero Arts
Paper: Neenah Solar White, MFT Kraft
Ink: Ranger Distress Ink (Broken China), Hero Arts black
Other: MFT Fleur-de-Lis stencil, Wendy Vecchi emobossing paste (white), Ranger Distress Stickles (Clear Rock Candy), Sequins (Neat & Tangled), Multi-Medium (matte), bicycle clip, bubble wrap

Congratulations, Linda!!

Today I'm hopping with some friends to celebrate the birth of our sweet friend Linda's baby girl, Olivia!

You should have arrived here from the blog of my stamping idol, Cheiron! If not, why don't you scoot back to the beginning at Mary Dawn's fabulous blog and take in the entire hop?

I made a sweet little bunny card for Linda & Olivia, using an MFT Pure Innocence set called "Warm Fuzzies", that I think is now retired. I also played along with this week's MFT sketch challenge:

Big congratulations to Linda and her sweet family! Olivia is beautiful, just like her sisters and her mama!

Now head on over to my friend Wanda's blog and see what she's sharing with Linda today!

Bon Appetit!

Hi everyone! It's the final rest day at the Tour de France today. Since the boys aren't riding their bikes, I thought today's post would feature another thing I love about France - la cuisine! Yum!!

I dug out another one of my favorite retired MFT sets for this one - Flappers in the Kitchen. With her sassy bobbed hair and serious face, she just looks like a little French cook to me. No doubt she's whipping up something sinfully fantastic! The papers are all from the Lost & Found paper collection from My Mind's Eye, and those adorable little spoon & spatula embellies are from TPC Studio and have been in my stash for a while now. If you squint really hard, you'd see that I added some fleur de lis and bicycle stamping to the background paper, to Frenchify this up even more. And I played along with last week's Mojo Monday sketch.

This month I've been a nearly as obsessed with French cooking as I've been with the bikes. This is what I've been reading on my Kindle:

It's funny - of course I'm fully aware of what Julia Child looked like, but as I'm reading this book I always seem to picture Meryl Streep instead. Hmm. Speaking of which, I feel another viewing of Julie & Julia coming on!! Julia was a really inspiring woman. She didn't even begin to start becoming the Julia Child we all know and love until in her late-30's - when she discovered French food and began learning to cook. In her late-30's!! That's so cool. It gives this early-40's-year-old some hope that I can still figure out what I want to be when I grow up. HA!

I've had a couple of "French" meals here during le Tour. Or at least my version of French...! On the first day of the Tour, I made some chocolate croissants for the family.

I looked up how to make croissants from scratch. And then I promptly gave up on that idea!! Holy million steps, Batman! It made me appreciate the French and their pastries even more! Instead I went with this super easy cheater version from Nigella, using premade puff pastry instead! Lame I know, but it made us happy!

I also prepared my favorite "French" lunch on the first day of the Tour - this is the sort of thing my hubs and I would gather from the markets back when we'd travel through Europe - local cheeses, fruits, olives - all combined with a fresh baguette for a yummy picnic lunch.

Last weekend we tried a new-to-us nearby restaurant, The Crepe Cafe! The owners are European, but not French. The crepes were delish! I had a veggie crepe for dinner, and we split a stawberry & nutella crepe for dessert. Yum!

Every year during the Tour I long to travel to Europe again. Sometimes I just have to bring a little bit of Europe to us. :-)

Thanks for stopping by,


Stamps: Flappers in the Kitchen from My Favorite Things, my old Karen Foster snap stamps
Paper: Stampin' Up (gray), My Mind's Eye (Lost & Found - Portobello Rd 6x6)
Ink: Tsukineko (Memento Tuxedo Black), Copic markers
Other: Hero Arts (die, gems), TPC Studio (So Delish metal accents), Stickles, seam binding ribbon

I Wheelie Like You

Well this is Sunday's Tour de Craft blog post, and it's extremely late. But since I haven't gone to sleep yet on Sunday as I'm posting this, I consider it "counting" as a day not missed during le Tour! :-) I was going to make today's card first thing this morning, but instead I went for a bike ride. Hello! Valid excuse for missing a bike card!! Then I got home and I was going to stamp, but today's Mont Ventoux stage called my name. And then I was sad about procycling for just a bit. And then I had to go grocery shopping. And then laundry and cleaning and all that. Sooo... here it is, at long last... today's card. And I have to say, I wheelie like it...

This is the stamp set I'm giving away in this past Friday's post. It's I Wheelie Like You from MFT. I paired it with LilyBee Design Pinwheel papers. I glittered up the bike with Stickles, because really, who wouldn't want a red sparkly bike??!

The sketch is the latest over at retrosketches:

Speaking of retrosketches, they gave me a SHOUTout for another bike card I made for another challenge. Awesome!!

Thanks by stopping by,


Stamps: I Wheelie Like You from MFT
Paper: MFT (Jellybean Green, Kraft), Neenah (Solar White), LilyBee Design Pinwheel 6x6
Ink: Tsukineko (Memento Tuxedo Black), Copic markers
Other: MFT Die-namics (Fresh Cut Grass, Flat-Bottom Clouds, Blueprints 1), Stickles, machine stitching

Enjoy the Ride + Freebie Friday!

Bonjour! Today we're going for a fun little bike ride on a warm, sunny day.

I inked up an older set from MFT called Enjoy the Ride. I believe this set is now retired. Which is pure insanity, because why oh why would a bicycle stamp set EVER retire?! Ah well, what can ya do? It will never retire in my stamp room! The sun shining on this card as I took the photo is a bit out of control, but oh well - adds to the happy, warm, sunny day on a bike feel of it, IMHO. :-)

For the colors, I was inspired by this gorgeous bike photo shared on the Moxie Fab World blog. Oh my Moxie Fab, indeed! And wasn't it awesome of Cath to post it during my bike card month?? Thanks for the inspiration!

And it's Freebie Friday, so I have a freebie for you! Just tell me about your first bike and I'll put you in the drawing for an adorable non-retired set from MFT, the Pure Innocence I Wheelie Like You! I have two copies of this little cutie thanks to Jennifer McGuire - she sent me one because she just knew I'd love it! Which I did - so much so that I had already ordered one for myself! LOL! So you can also thank Jennifer for this giveaway.

Comments to enter the drawing end 8pm EST Sunday night, and I'll announce the winner next week.

Have a nice weekend,


Stamps: WTG Enjoy the Ride from My Favorite Things
Paper: Neenah (Solar White), Stampin' Up (Cameo Coral, Certainly Celery), Patterned Paper from le stash
Ink: Tsukineko (Memento Tuxedo Black), Copic markers
Other: MFT pennant die, paper crimper, hemp twine, road washi tape, machine stitching

Party Time!

Do you ever go to a stamp company's website and sit and look at the stamps... stamp by stamp... clicking "add to cart" along the way. Yah. Never a good idea, really. But I was doing it last night anyway, at the MFT site. My wallet is empty, but I'll soon be getting some goodies in my mailbox, woohoo! :-) In the meantime I decided I better get using the MASS QUANTITY of MFT stamps I already own that have barely seen ink... starting with this adorable little girl!

This set is called Party Time and it's from the Doodle Garden collection. We go to a lot of little girl birthday parties, so I thought she was rather perfect for birthday cards. I played along with the latest sketch challenge (MFTWSC129) for the card layout - which resulted in lots of layers and dimension!

The gorgeous papers are from the Cool Summer 6x6 pad from Carta Bella - I picked it up from i {heart} papers. Here's the MFT sketch:

Thanks for stopping by!


Stamps: DG Party Time from My Favorite Things
Paper: MFT (kraft cardstock), Stampin' Up (pink cardstock), Copic Xpress Paper, Carta Bella Cool Summer
Ink: Tsukineko (Memento Tuxedo Black), Copic markers
Other: BasicGrey (Candy Buttons), Sizzix (chevron embossing folder), MFT (Open Simply Scallops border die), Spellbinders (circle die), Stickles

7 Days of Easter Projects - Day 6

I'm a day late on my Day 6 post - better late than never? Today I made a card for my bunny-loving girl using the Hunny Bunny set from My Favorite Things.

Isn't she the cutest? I followed along with Michele's MFT Academy post on coloring hair - my attempt is not perfect, but probably the best hair I've ever colored! I also played along with the MFT Wednesday Stamp Club Sketch Challenge.

The flower is an MFT Rolled Daisy. I have trouble making rolled flowers, I think my fingers are just too fat and uncoordinated. But after five attempts, this one was decent enough to put on the card, LOL! I think next time I need to put something in the center under the pearl, so it's not in there so deep. Live and learn!

I wanted to add a flower to play along with this week's Catered Crop Recipe Swap! The theme is Flower Power - you just need to include some sort of flower on your card.

Now please visit my blogging friends and see what wonderful Easter projects they've created...

Angi Barrs
Barb Murphy
Ceal Pritchett
Donna Bowman
Lalo Ik
Rachel Kleinman

Thanks for stopping by today!

Hoot Hoot Hooray!

When I saw this little owl girl from MFT, I squealed!! I looooove her so much! She's called Owl Costume and I couldn't resist buying the August VIP package when I saw her!

Here's why. This was Courtney in her Halloween costume last year!

I loved this costume so much, if I do say so myself. I even made one for Courtney's best friend, Silver Bunny!

I played along the latest MFT sketch for this card.

And I'm also playing along with Linda's Recipe Swap. This week we are "In the Pink" - and as you can see, I very much took that theme to heart, LOL! My card is megapink! I played with paper, ribbon and twine I received in a fabulous package from our sponsor, Lilly Belle's Paperie & Textiles. Yummy stuff!

I hope you'll join us at the Recipe Swap, it's goes through 8:00pm EST on Saturday, September 15.

Thanks for stopping by,

Happy Birthday to my Princess!

I love it when you find a stamp that is just PERFECT for an occasion! One that when you see it, you totally let out a SQUEEE at it's perfectness! That's how I felt about MFT's Pure Innocence Birthday Princess:


In my last post I mentioned that I spent my time in Columbia coloring a whole slew of those adorable birthday princesses:


I was making thank you cards for Courtney's birthday. Here's my little birthday princess:


If you remember last year's birthday, yes, this was just a scaled-down rehash of the same party, LOL! It's what the birthday girl wanted, and since it's all new friends here in Georgia, why not? The MFT image worked perfectly for the thank yous because the party was princess-themed, and the favors were little princess & prince crowns!


One thing I did differently this year - I made a princess castle cake! It was actually really easy to do, and it made the birthday girl very happy (despite the cake's lopsidedness!)


One little tip about the card - I wanted to put little pink flower gems on the crowns, but I didn't have my Hero Arts gem stash with me in Columbia. Instead I bought some they had at the store where I was working and colored them with my Copics. I love that you can do that!


My little princess turned four this year. I know everyone says this about their kids, but truly, I cannot believe she's four already! Remember her first princess dress (and one of my all-time favorite cards, hee hee)?I need to treasure these princess days, they will be gone before I know it!

• Stamps: Birthday Princess from My Favorite Things, sentiment from Flourishes
• Paper: SU pink, GP white, BoBunny polka dot
• Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copic markers
• Other: Martha Stewart heart tape, Fiskars scallop border punch, Spellbinders die, Kaiser gems

Gettin' Crafty in Columbia!

A couple weeks ago I was itchin' to have some crafty time to myself. I mentioned this on Twitter, and @corgidusty, aka Donna, piped up and mentioned she was going to a stamp show that weekend & I should join her. She's in Columbia, South Carolina, which it turns out is a pretty easy drive from Atlanta. So I convinced the hubs and off I went! Here are some photos from the weekend, not the best quality ever since they were taken with my phone, but you get the idea. :-)

My Saturday was off to a fabulous start as I drove into this gorgeous sunrise.


See this girl? Doesn't she look happy & relaxed to have some alone time?


Donna met me at the StampScrapArtTour show and we were off to shop!


The highlight of the show was the Stampers Anonymous booth. Sigh. Oh my word, so much Tim Holtz & Ranger goodness gathered in one place. Pace yourself, Libby!


I wanted to hide this entire display in my bag...


Another highlight? Meeting the one & only Ted of Stamper's Anonymous!! I am now only two levels of Kevin Bacon away from Tim Holtz! I'm not sure that made sense, but maybe you know what I mean. (Has Tim ever met Kevin? Hmm, I wonder.) The other lovely face in the photo is Donna.


Ok a slight detour from stampy goodness to show you my lunch because oh my word it was so good it was nearly a religious experience! I've been eating mostly vegan lately and big thanks to Donna I got to get lunch from a vegan/raw cafe. The "meat" on these tacos was some walnut concoction. And the sour cream was made out of cashews. And it tasted JUST like sour cream. I have no idea how they did that. It was CRAZY good. I may have to drive back to Columbia just to eat this again!!


Ok back to the crafty stuff. After the stamp show Donna & I stopped by her house to let her dogs out and grab some supplies. I got to see her WONDERFUL stamp room! Very nice.


And then we went to her LSS, The Stamping Place & Scrapbook Station, for a Mardi Gras-themed crop night! The ladies at this store were so much fun! They went all out with Mardi Gras decorations, masks, food - what fun! Here's the party cart complete with a delicious punch and king's cake!


Me in my mask.


The entire crop crew.


I spent the evening coloring a Birthday Princess from MFT.


Actually, I colored a whole bunch of Birthday Princesses! I'll share the finished cards tomorrow. :-)


I had so much fun hanging out and stamping on Saturday night, I stayed for the Sunday afternoon crop as well before heading back to reality, aka Atlanta. Huge thanks to Donna for being such a sweet host, it was great to meet you IRL!