{Letters from Lizzie}

abracadabra!

2012-01-25T06:00:00.000-08:00

Gourmet Rubber Stamps just previewed the February Diners Club stamp set that we've designed for them.. it's called Abracadabra! One of the things I love about this set is that it's a good one for man cards. The cards I made above have a very masculine feel. I love Houdini poster... isn't it fun?! Lots of things you can do with the "magic" theme. Meridith and I have also always wanted to design a Leprechaun for our Little People line... so he's in there as well (perfect for St. Patty's Day!)

All the Diners Club sets we design for GRS can be bought without a club membership for $17.99. If you sign up for the club though, you get a big discount. Our February set, "Sealed With a Kiss" is shipping through the end of January, and I think its one of our best love-themed sets. So if you want it for a discount, sign up for the club soon!

So many of our friends are about to head off to the CHA Winter Show in Anaheim this weekend... I am jealous! I could not take the time off to attend this year, but Gourmet Rubber Stamps will have a booth in the New Exhibitors section, and they will be representing the Lizzie Anne Designs line. So if any of you are going to the show, stop by and say hi!

snowpocalypse

2012-01-22T13:45:00.000-08:00

A few days ago, I was poking fun at the rumor that a "Snowpocalypse" was about to hit the Seattle area, a rumor started by our news / weathermen. I grew up in Utah and am no stranger to snow, so I tend to always chuckle a little when people freak out here in Seattle when a little snow falls.

The rumor continued to spread on facebook with this funny little picture that everyone was "liking" and laughing at...

Ha ha, funny right?

Well, nature sure had the last laugh this week. (It always does!) We had over a foot of snow in one night, it kept snowing, and the ice buildup on the trees was so thick (see photo above) that it caused our trees to start breaking. I was sitting in my chair by a window when I heard a crack and looked outside to see one of sidewalk trees break in half. And then the power went out (which always follows breaking trees.) It was out for four days. Luckily we have extremely kind neighbors who let us share their generator so we had heat and didn't freeze. To top things off, my car got smashed on the freeway. I was in the car with my family trying to find a city with some power so we could buy a hot meal when a car lost control on the ice in front of us and started spinning. We couldn't get out of the way. Luckily, nobody (other than our car) was seriously hurt.

This is my favorite little red maple tree. I was so afraid that it too would crack under the pressure, but it survived! It's a strong little thing. Beautiful in the snow too.

This week was a reminder that you never know what life has in store. So be prepared. And buy a generator.

I'm looking forward to summer.

kissing tag

2012-01-15T03:00:00.000-08:00

The Gourmet Rubber Stamps design team is doing a "Kissing Tag" challenge today, and I decided to play (because who doesn't want to play a game of kissing tag? ;) My tag was inspired by this card I posted a few days ago.

Here is what the back of the card looks like... this is material-paper. I covered the backside of the pin so it's not poking out the back. I'm planning on using this with a box of pineapple truffles from See's for my husband on Valentine's Day (his favorite.)

Check out the other design team kissing tags on the GRS blog today!

dreaming of Maui

2012-01-14T10:58:00.000-08:00

If you are at home FREEZING like I am, maybe this scrapbooking page will make you feel better. Or worse. I'm undecided how it makes me feel. :) I had a scrap night with some friends last night and I finished up scrapbooking the Maui trip I took with my husband last year... sigh! I guess if I can't be in Maui right now, at least I can scrapbook about it. ;)

cuckoo for you

2012-01-04T06:00:00.000-08:00

A few more card samples using stamps from "Sealed With a Kiss."

Which shall I give my hubby on Valentine's Day?

An equally important question is "what cupcake am I going to buy today for my birthday??" I'll be heading to the cupcake store soon! :)

a new year...

2012-01-01T16:46:00.000-08:00

This is a Valentine I made with the new GRS Diners Club Set "Sealed With a Kiss." You can't see this in the photo, but I used red Fun Flock on the heart so it's a little fuzzy. I love the simplicity of this card.

One of my new years resolutions is to SEND more cards. Not just make them but actually send them. ;) I know how appreciated they are and I don't know why I don't do this more often. Tomorrow I plan on heading to the post office to buy a big book of stamps so I have no excuse (not having a stamp is an excuse I often use.)

There are a lot of things I'm looking forward to in 2012. To name a few...

Designing more stamps for Gourmet Rubber Stamps
Designing more websites for Pixel Remodel
Trip to St. George / Disneyland over Spring Break
*Hopefully a trip to Hawaii with my husband??* --we're working on it
Seeing my daughter go on the school bus for the first time in the Fall, and Kindergarten
Having more ME time with two kids in school!
Having my brother visit me in Seattle (he hasn't been here for a few years)
Working out at the YMCA that just opened down the street from me (no more excuses!)
Eating more cupcakes (after I visit the YMCA ;)
Getting caught up on my scrapbooking! Have already planned a scrap night with friends.

We'll see how it goes!

wonderful world

2011-12-29T11:03:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone, I hope you are enjoying the Holidays! I've been playing with the new Sealed With a Kiss stamp set that Meridith and I designed for Gourmet Rubber Stamps... samples to come soon!

I'm feeling very grateful for a lot of things in my life this year. I have great friends, a wonderful, supportive husband, the cutest kids ever, and a great career. I feel fortunate that I get to do what I love for living... so glad that I went into Graphic Design. Every year has it's ups and downs and this year was no exception... but everyone I love is happy and healthy, and you can't really ask for more than that. Overall 2011 has been a good one. Here's to 2012 being a great year as well for all of us!

Some exciting news that really ended my year on a high note... Cath from Paper Crafts Magazine - Moxie Fab World has nominated a stamp set I designed, Wonderful World, as one of the top 10 "trendiest" stamp sets of the year! I am honored and excited. Cath has a poll on her blog today where you can vote for your favorite set out of the 10. I would love it if you would cast a vote for Wonderful World!

Here's a sample I made back when we released this set. It's one of my favorites, I had a hard time giving this card away (but I did. I remember! :)

This stamp set is available at Gourmet Rubber Stamps... and it's 40% off right now too through the end of the year. Just use the discount code 40IN2011 on checkout!

peppermint cake pops

2011-12-12T01:09:00.001-08:00

Anyone who knows me well knows that I have a thing for cupcakes. Well, cake pops have made an appearance on my favorites list recently. Really it's just about any cake and frosting combination that I love, and cake pops are just that on a stick. Brilliant!

My friend gave me a Christmas cake pop kit from Starbucks, and I have to say, these cake pops are GOOOOOD! Sammy and I had a really good time making these together-- they are an easy treat for kids to help make with a grown-up. Sammy is just as addicted to cake as I am. After making these I spent about 30 minutes in my office doing some work, and when I returned, three of them had already been devoured by you-know-who. At least she has good taste.

Starbucks is brilliant, I have to say. I highly recommend this cake pop kit if you haven't made cake pops before. Of course, the cake pop became popular because of Bakerella's awesome blog, so if you are ready to move on to more advanced cake-popping, go check out the ideas there! They are amazing.

let heaven and nature sing

2011-12-03T06:00:00.000-08:00

I'm taking my daughter to see the Nutcracker for the first time this weekend. She is so excited. I've been playing the music to the Nutcracker Suite so she'll be familiar with it when we go. Christmas music is the inspiration for the card I'm sharing with you today. Simple and beautiful, using the sentiment and holly leaf from the GRS Season's Greetings stamp set, and some musical Christmas paper... a scrap I found left over from a scrapbooking page I designed last year. Perfect. Enjoy!

auld lang syne

2011-11-25T06:00:00.000-08:00

I'm going to shake things up a little this year and mail out a few New Years cards out to my friends instead of Christmas Cards. The December Diner's Club set we designed for Gourmet Rubber Stamps has a few New Years stamps in it. It's called Let's Celebrate. Here's a sample featuring the star bell, champagne glass, and Auld Lang Syne sentiment. I embossed the bell in silver embossing powder on blue cardstock... it turned out really pretty, the photo does not do it justice.

I love the song Auld Lang Syne. It's kind of funny because nobody really knows how to sing this song on New Years Eve. :) But it's a great song about old friends.

The Let's Celebrate stamp set is being previewed today. You can see the whole set HERE! I think this is a fun one. We haven't designed a lot of New Years stamps in the past, so it's fun to add these to my collection. There are some fun birthday stamps in there as well.

If you are looking for Black Friday deals today, Gourmet Rubber Stamps has a 25% off sale going on through the end of November!

family photo blocks project

2011-11-23T06:00:00.000-08:00

Looking for some Christmas gift ideas? I made a super cute gift for my mom and my mother-in-law that I'm sharing with you today. I decorated 2" wood blocks with pattern paper, scrapbooking letters, and a collection of family photos. They spell FAMILY. Each block has two photos on opposite ends, with the letter around the other three sides (the bottom just has paper but no letter so it sits flat.) This is a fun coffee table or mantle decoration. You can stack them or turn them different ways. My kids love picking these up and looking at the photos.

Supplies:
2" wood block cubes
scrapbooking paper
modge podge - matte
patterned paper
3 kinds of cardstock scrapbooking letters
sanding block or sandpaper
photos - professionaly printed (Costco or Snapfish, etc. Don't print them out at home because the modge podge will make the ink bleed.)

Directions: Cut your photos and paper into 2" squares (you may need to trim them a bit as you go to help them fit on the wood block.) Use a sanding block on the edges. Glue onto the block with modge podge, and also apply a coat over the top of the paper/photos to seal. After it's dry, add your cardstock letters.

embossed christmas cards

2011-11-19T10:58:00.000-08:00

While cleaning my craft area this weekend, I discovered my embossing gun and some embossing powder called Winter Wonderland... it's opaque white with flecks of silver. I pulled out my Season's Greetings stamp set and made a few Christmas cards. Embossing is fun. My kids heard the sound of the embossing gun and kept running into the kitchen to see if I was making popcorn... it sounds like our air popper. I had to tell them sadly no popcorn, Mom just making cards. ;)

winners!

2011-11-03T06:00:00.000-07:00

I have the winners from the Trick or Treat blog hop! My winners are...

Ashley Nguyen Newell
Lillian Child
Liz Williams

Congrats ladies! Email your mailing address to me at tricia@lizzieannedesigns.com and I'll get your goodies out to you!

trick-or-treat

2011-10-31T06:00:00.000-07:00

I have a friend who moved into a new house earlier this month, and I thought a fun housewarming gift would be these BOO letters decoration. I made a gift tag with one of the Halloween-themed Stick Chicks from Gourmet Rubber Stamps. I also used my new Martha Stewart spider web border punch.. love it!

Are you ready for some blog candy for Halloween?!

Gourmet Rubber Stamps is having a Trick or Treat blog hop, and we are all giving away treats! I'll be giving away THREE different Halloween-themed Stick Chicks cling stamps. Just leave a comment by the end of the day on November 2nd. I'll post the winners on the 3rd!

Visit the other girls who are hopping today for a chance to win even more treats!

Meridith
Jeni
Joslyn
Deb
Kendra
Taylor
Pam
Rose Ann
Joy
Kelli

A photo of my daughter with our pumpkins this year...

Have a fun Halloween!

season's greetings

2011-10-25T06:00:00.000-07:00

Gourmet Rubber Stamps is unveiling the new November Diner's Club set today that we (Lizzie Anne Designs) illustrated for them. It's called Season's Greetings! I can honestly say I'd use every image in this Christmas-themed set, it has everything I need. A great mix if you are looking to only buy one Christmas stamp set this year.

I love vintage-looking Christmas cards, and there are some images in this set that would work really great for that. The first is the Angel... it has a woodsy old look to it that I just love.

Here's a card that uses the vintage sled and a vintage-style sentiment. I kind of liked the idea of having this one pop of red on the card (the holly berry button.) Did it add interest to the card, or did the card not need it? I can't decide. What do you think?

lake wenatchee

2011-10-22T13:00:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to get caught up on my summer vacation scrapbooking pages. There is one page I did that I love. It's the first time my kids were out on a raft that was being pulled behind a speed boat. The look on their faces is priceless!

autumn

2011-10-17T11:26:00.000-07:00

This is a little Autumn-themed card I made using this Fall Stick Chick and this Lizzie Anne Autumn stamp. I love Fall colors. Enough said!

candy jars centerpiece

2011-10-12T08:19:00.000-07:00

I made a fun holiday decoration this weekend that I thought I would share with you. It's an inexpensive and easy holiday candy jar centerpiece. You can fill it up with different candy to match the season. For example, I have Halloween candy in there for October, which also happen to be my favorites-- dark chocolate m&ms, reeces pieces, and candy corn! (This tempting project wouldn't be the one to make if you are on a diet, ha ha.) In the Fall I'll fill it with fall-colored candy, Christmas will be red and green, Easter will be pastels, July will be red, white, and blue. So cute!

Here's how you make it:

1) Get three glass candle holders. Two of these I found at the dollar store and the third smaller one I found at Bed, Bath, and Beyond.
2) Collect three jars. It's more fun if they are slightly different sizes from each other and they should stay under 3" in diameter. I used a jam jar, a smaller pasta sauce jar, and a hot-fudge topping jar.
3) Spray paint the lids of the jars and the glass candle holders white. If your lids have something printed on them, you may need to spray them with a darker color first and then spray them white. Keep coating the jars and candlesticks in 1 minute intervals until fully covered. It may take several layers.
4) Glue the jars onto the candle sticks. I used a hot glue gun. I think something like Gorilla Glue would also work.
5) Fill your jars full of candy!

scandinavia

2011-10-04T19:25:00.000-07:00

Hello readers! I've just returned from a wonderful vacation to Sweden and Copenhagen, Denmark. I was visiting my good college friend, Ulrika, for her 40th birthday. What better way to celebrate your 40th -- strolling around Scandinavia with a friend (and rarely with kids!! :) We had such a good time, and we got really lucky with the weather too... it was warm and sunny almost the entire time. I took so many fun photos on this trip. I'll share a few of them here... you will see me in some of them and also Ulrika. Enjoy!

Some Halloween Fun is Brewing

2011-09-17T06:00:00.000-07:00

I have two fun Halloweeny projects to share with you today, both that use the Gourmet Rubber Stamps October stamp set, Tart and Spice. I also used the bat from Spooked! on the candle below...

Check out this candle. Have you ever tried to do this before? It's easy! Just stamp on tissue paper, wrap it around a candle, and then tightly cover it with another layer of wax paper. Use an embossing gun (I've heard a hair dryer will work too) and melt the tissue into your candle. The wax paper ads another layer of wax on top. The tissue melts right into the candle and makes it look like you've stamped on the candle! Everyone asks me "how did you do that?!"

Here are some pointers when making this project:
-Not all tissue papers work. I have another kind that isn't as transparent when it melts. I have no idea why. The good stuff I bought from Target in the wrapping supplies area, so maybe the stuff I had tried before was the cheap stuff you get for free when they wrap up breakable items for you at stores, etc.
-Ligher-colored candles work best. I usually do this on white or cream, but I really wanted an orange, pumpkin-scented candle for Halloween. It still worked pretty well!
-This candle is one of those flameless, battery-operated candles, which I highly recommend. This one is super-cool because it also flickers! I picked this candle up at my local IGA/grocery store, oddly enough. They are everywhere right now.
-Coloring on tissue paper is hard because it bleeds. I just added a smidge of color to the candy corns, and used a white gel pen. In general I try not to color at all. If you do color, just expect that it won't look perfect. It's okay! :)

This is a card I made with the witches boots from this set, my fav image! The paper is from Cosmo Cricket - Matilda. Perfect!

This is my favorite stamping season, so you can expect to see more from me in the very near future. ;) (Plus the kids are back in school, yippee!)

lizzie and anne :: stamp designers (again!)

2011-09-16T06:00:00.000-07:00

Today the Gourmet Rubber Stamps website launched... along with the Lizzie Anne Designs stamp line! (If this website looks a lot like something Lizzie and Anne would design to you... well, it is. We were hired to design the new GRS website, and we have to say, it turned out pretty darn cute. ;) We are so excited that we get to continue being a part of this industry doing what we're good at... making art for you. We are turning Lizzie Anne Designs into an illustration and graphic design company and hope to be designing lots and lots more!

GRS is licensing all our past stamp designs, so if there was something you wanted (and I get asked this all the time!) you can now go over there and find what you're looking for. They are also going to have a monthly stamp club and have hired us to design the set each month! Super fun. The first set is called Tart and Spice. It's a set with some fun Fall images mixed with some classics.

Here is a card I designed with the thank you banner. This is an image I've been wanting to add my collection for a long time. I love the banner-trend.

I used a little diamond effects on the very center circle on each banner flap. It gave the card some fun dimension. Here's a closeup so you can see it better...

Tomorrow I am going to be posting some Halloween projects designed with this set. Stay tuned...

washer necklaces

2011-08-12T17:04:00.000-07:00

I have a fun project to share with you today. These are necklaces that I made out of washers (the kind you pick up from the hardware store.) I was looking for an inexpensive project that some ladies from my church could do. You would never know that these are inexpensive to make because they look so awesome.

Here are the supplies you will need:
Washers (mine had 1/2" holes)
twine or cord
two sizes of circle punches
ultra thick embossing powder
Versamark ink pad
embossing gun
patterned paper
beads
glue

Here's how you make them:

1. Make your paper ring. What I did is I took the two smallest circle punches I had, made my paper ring, and then took my ring to Home Deopt with me to match it up with a washer. Washers come in all sorts of sizes so it's a lot easier to match up your punches to the washer than vice-versa.

2. Glue the paper ring onto the washer.

3. Press the paper-side onto the Versamark ink pad and then sprinkle on your embossing powder. Make it thick!

4. Emboss your washer. It will be HOT, wait a few minutes before you pick it up again. If you have dimples, you can do a second coat of embossing powder. Note: you can also use Diamond Glaze or Glossy Accents instead of embossing powder. I just like the embossing powder because it's faster. And I like embossing stuff. ;)

5. Tie the washer onto your cord, add a bead, and tie a square knot.

That's it! Super fun and easy. My daughter and I have been making these for her friends.

I've been a very busy girl, and here's why... I have some exciting news to share. A new stamp company has licensed artwork from Lizzie Anne Designs, and they are hiring us to illustrate ongoing new artwork for them. I'm also currently designing a new website for them, and Meridith and I will be managing the design team! We are really excited and feel like this was the perfect opportunity for us. More details to follow... the new company launches mid-September!

looking ahead

2011-07-01T09:18:00.000-07:00

In the week since we announced Lizzie Anne is closing, I've had my "business head" on and not really thinking about the fact we will really be gone. It finally hit me yesterday when somebody called me "Lizzie", and I realized that Lizzie will be no more. I've always loved my middle name and thought maybe I should just start going by Lizzie anyways so that I can keep calling myself by that name, ha ha. (Probably not though. ;)

This is not the first time I've had to close a business. Back before Lizzie Anne, I owned a scrapbooking and stamping store with my sister. As anyone in retail knows, owning a brick-and-mortar store is a lot of work, and we eventually decided it wasn't working for our families, so we had to close. My store was what inspired me to start a stamping business however. I have always been a stamp-lover, and I was ordering and carrying stamps from local businesses. I learned a lot about business and retailing and wholesaling through owning my store. After we closed, it wasn't too long before I called up Meridith and suggested we start a stamp design biz.

So I think now... what doors will be opened to me from the experiences I have gained by owning Lizzie Anne for the last five years? We have learned so much about the paper crafting business and about manufacturing, as well as the paper crafting community. I can't help to think that I'll be using all this knowledge I have gained in some way.

Lots of thoughts have been going through my head. Some of my goals for the future:

-Keep growing Pixel Remodel, my freelance web design business.
-Take some coding classes. I've been wanting to gear up and increase my coding skills and haven't had a lot of time to do that until now.
-Start painting again. I love watercolors, and it's something I haven't had a lot of time for.
-Continue with my scrapbooking and card making.
-Explore opportunities for new creative work. This could mean a lot of things. It could mean more web design freelance, or even stamp illustration for other companies. Not sure, but I'm keeping open to new possibilities.

Long term... I would really love to be a high school art teacher. I had a wonderful art teacher in high school who encouraged me to major in art / graphic design in college. Without her I doubt I would have done it. I'd love to be this kind of influence in other kid's lives. This is a goal for the future as I still have little kiddos at home and it will most likely require some graduate schooling. But I like to plan ahead. ;)

As sad as I am to be closing a door on something I loved so dearly, I am also excited about the new adventures that may be lying ahead. As you can see from my list above, I'm most always doing something creative. It's what I do. And I've always been one for adventure.

thank you

2011-06-24T00:01:00.000-07:00

This is a tough blog post to write. Today, Meridith and I announced that Lizzie Anne Designs will be closing it’s doors.

This really has been such an amazing journey. When we first decided to start a stamp design company, little did we know how many FRIENDS we’d be making along the way. I’ll never forget the first time we exhibited at CHA. We were in the new exhibitors section downstairs in the Anaheim Convention Center. We were running a bit behind our first day and when we finally got to our booth (about 10 minutes late) there was a LINE OF STORE OWNERS waiting to talk to us. We were absolutely shocked, and extremely excited. I was horrified to discover I had made a major spelling error on our order form, ha ha. But they ordered from us anyways. This was the beginning for us.

Also at that same CHA show, a few people showed up at our booth, calling themselves the Splitcoaststampers crew. We had never heard of Splitcoaststampers. I’m pretty sure it was Julie Ebersol who handed us her business card and told us to check out the site for advertising opportunities. The discovery of this fabulous website and it’s community opened up a whole new outlet, and got us “out there” to thousands of stampers and customers. SCS helped to put Lizzie Anne on the map, and we are forever grateful for that opportunity.

I don’t even know where to start talking about all the FRIENDSHIPS we’ve made over the past five years. First there were the wonderful people at SCS – Daven, Beate, Lori, Jennifer B. Then all the customers who found us through Splitcoaststampers, and the extremely talented ladies who ended up designing cards for us as Design Team members. We will never forget the day that we got an email from Lauren Meader asking “if we had any design team openings.” I called Meridith and said, “What’s a design team?!!!” I’m pretty sure Jeanne Streiff was next, followed by MANY, MANY talented women. We have always been AMAZED by the way the members of our Design Team can take the designs we create and turn them into something we couldn’t have even imagined. I can’t tell you how many times Meridith and I have called each other and said, “Did you see what she did with that stamp image?!” So much fun.

Last but not least, our wonderful customers and Lizzie Anne Fans, many of whom we got to know and hear from on a regular basis. And the store owners who took a chance on our little company and chose to carry our products. And owners of other stamp companies that we have come to know and love through the industry, and our fabulous manufacturer – Robert from American Art Stamps. Thank you all!

Sadly, due to circumstances beyond our control and the effects of the economic downturn, we really had to evaluate the amount of time Lizzie Anne was taking away from other design opportunities, and decide if we could keep going. Sadly, the answer was no. Meridith and I have always been graphic designers first and foremost. We have absolutely LOVED owning a stamp design company, but it seems the time has come for us to concentrate more on our freelance opportunities. My web design company, Pixel Remodel, which I started with a good friend of mine here in Seattle , has been taking off and keeping me very busy. This is where I will now be devoting my design time.

I WILL STILL BE CRAFTING. I have always been cardmaker, crafter, and scrapbooker. This will not change. In fact, I might have more time to devote to my craft now. ;) There are a lot of great companies out there whose products I am anxious to try. A little secret – I have always been a bit jealous of my own design team and what they do. Had I not started a stamp company, I could see myself in this role. I don’t see this as the end of the road for me. So if you follow my blog, feel free to check in and see what I’m up to. I'll be posting my creations as usual!

Again, thank you so much for supporting Lizzie Anne. All our remaining inventory is 40% off -- and we do need to sell it all, so go and grab some LAD goodness before it’s gone!

how to make a s'more

2011-06-17T06:00:00.000-07:00

It's Design Team challenge day at Lizzie Anne! This month we are making cards inspired by our summertime vacation plans. In my family, we plan on doing a lot of camping. And my kid's favorite part of camping are making s'mores! They are really looking forward to it... in fact, not only do we make s'mores on our camping trips, we make them with our neighbors in the circle behind our house. When it's nice weather, we have a fire pit we put out there and we all pull up our lawn chairs and have a campfire and roast marshmallow's right there in the neighborhood. I love it!

This card clearly shows how to make a s'more.
1)Build your campfire
2)Roast your marshmallows
3)Add marshmallows to graham crackers and chocolate, and make your s'more!

I used The Great Outdoors stamp set to make this card, and it's retiring and 50% off right now, so if you love it as much I do grab one before they are gone!

Visit the Lizzie Anne Blog today to see more summer vacation cards!

summertime celebration cards

2011-06-15T08:55:00.000-07:00

Here are a few samples from the new Summertime Celebration Mix set that we revealed today...

I love Americana and the red, white, and blue. There is a fun banner flag border image in this set along with the independence day sentiment.

When my daughter saw this cruise ship card, she said "It's the Disney Cruise!" I admit, when I drew this cruise boat, it was inspired by the Disney Cruise trip we recently went on. ;) Red smoke stacks remind me of Disney.

I can see myself giving this S.O.S. card to a lot of different people in my life! We have some beautiful, naturalistic shells in this set, and I versamarked them on kraft cardstock to make the background for this "message in a bottle" card.

A lot of our design team girls are showing Summertime Celebration samples today on their blogs... go check them out!

big girl bed

2011-06-03T06:00:00.000-07:00

This is a scrapbook page I made of my little Sammy in her new big-girl bed! I just love the colors, and look at the measuring tape ribbon, how cute is that?! All these products are from Little Yellow Bicycle. I can't believe I don't have a crib or a toddler bed in my home anymore, nothing but big-kid beds. The baby years are over. I'm loving the post-potty training years, but I will miss my little baby girl. Though I'm sure she'll always be my baby girl. :)

sunshine surfer thank you card

2011-06-01T09:00:00.000-07:00

This is a card I designed for the June Lizzie Anne newsletter that went out this morning, and it features one of our new June singles of the month... Surfer Dude! (We also have a Hula Girl who is equally adorable.) I used papers from Pink Paislee Hometown Summer. If you look closely, the yellow pattern paper are little rows of suns, and the blue paper are ocean waves. Waves and sunshine, just what every surfer needs! The Mahalo sentiment (which means Thank You in Hawaiian) is from our Garden Isle stamp set, a great Hawaiian-themed set. I love the sunshiny feel of this card, and it makes it a fun thank-you for someone.

simply sweet summertime cards

2011-05-31T08:41:00.000-07:00

Memorial Day always gets me excited for summer. Though I don't know why because summer weather doesn't typically appear here in Seattle until after the fourth of July... it's a well-known fact.

My creative mojo has been missing lately, as happens to us all once in awhile. I pulled out two new summer designer paper packs we got into the Lizzie Anne store recently, and the papers inspired me! I seriously think these may be the cutest summertime papers I've ever seen.

This watermelon card features papers from Pink Paislee's Hometown Summer collection. Just look at that watermelon paper, isn't it to die for?! I paired it with some watermelon stamps from our July 2010 Mix set, Simply Sweet (one of my all-time favorite Mix sets.) I love watermelon stuff. Have you seen the watermelon bowls from Pier 1? They will be mine.

I used papers from Echo Park's Summer Days paper pack on this icecream card paired with stamp images from our Sweets and Treats stamp set. This paper pack has super fun colors and theme-park style designs. There is some roller coaster paper in there I'm dying to use.

I love to make smaller note-card sized cards lately. I find them convenient to throw into a gift bag or as a simple thank you to hand to a friend.

I've designed the Project of the Month card for the Lizzie Anne newsletter, so I'll be back with another summertime post tomorrow featuring one of our new June singles -- a new addition to the Little People line!

may colors

2011-05-14T06:00:00.000-07:00

It's Lizzie Anne Design Team challenge day! This month we're doing a color challenge based on a pretty home decor photo I found that uses lots of Springtime colors.

Here's the photo the color challenge was based on. I pulled most my inspiration from the nature prints on the wall. :)

Here's my card...

Visit the Lizzie Anne Blog today to see more challenge samples from the rest of the team!

sunshine

2011-05-08T09:35:00.000-07:00

I've been vacationing on and off for the past month, and it's been lovely! :) I just got back from a vacation to Disney World followed by the Disney Cruise with my family. Here are a few picts I loved...

This is our family in front of the Disney Dream boat on Castaway Cay! It was absolutely perfect weather. Ahhhh, to be warm again (it's now raining in Seattle.)

This is my daughter getting all done up princess-style at the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique. That's her "fairy godmother" in the background. I think this may have been the best day of her four-year-old life. It was her birthday too!

I have a difficult time getting my son to smile "real" smiles. So I am in love with this photo. He's smiling because he just won me at mini-golf, and he's quite pleased with himself.

This is my husband sitting on a bench on the island, I love all the tropical colors.

Me and my little princess sitting on a throne on the cruise ship.

Time to start scrapbooking!

easter egg cards

2011-04-15T06:00:00.000-07:00

The April Design Team Challenge is to make an Easter card. I am getting a bunch of my handmade cards ready to sell at the Sassy Mei show on Saturday alongside our stamps, and I thought it would be good to have a few Easter cards to sell. So I came up with this simple, but cute Easter Egg card idea. Just die cut an oval out of some cardstock, and then put patterned paper behind it. Top off the egg with a bow. Simple and elegant!

For my challenge card, I stamped a pattern from our Damask stamp set onto new paper from Pink Paislee-- Butterfly Garden. Pink and orange are one of my favorite color schemes. The Happy Easter sentiment is from our new Spring Mix - Follow Your Dreams.

This card also uses paper from the Butterfly Garden collection. I love the pattern!

This is a brighter version with some polka-dot paper from Cosmo Cricket - Upcycle.

We've been adding a lot of new designer paper into the store at Lizzie Anne-- Meridith and I are paper addicts so it's a way for us to get our hands on some of our favorite lines. :) All our 6x6 paper pads are on sale right now 20% off, including the papers I used on my cards above. You can see them all HERE.

Visit the Lizzie Anne Blog today to see other Easter cards from our Design Team!

spring break

2011-04-11T20:25:00.000-07:00

I took my kids to Zion National Park over Spring Break. It was perfect weather... about 80 degrees (yes!) and if you've never been to Zion, you'll see why you should go from the photos below. It's gorgeous. Spring is a great time of year to go because there are a lot of waterfalls that you don't see during the Summer months. Great hiking!

I'm going to be hosting a booth at the Sassy Mei show this Saturday if any of you live in the Seattle area! There will be a selection of Lizzie Anne stamps, as well as some hand-made items (by me. ;)

Here are the deets:

Sassy Mei's 1 DAY ONLY Spring Boutique:

Saturday, April 16, 2011
10: 00 AM - 5:00 PM
7430 Better Loop Way SE, Snoqualmie, WA
(end of the parkway, behind Subway)

Hosted in a beautiful CamWest home, this show will feature: Easter specialties, Mother's Day gifts, home decor, gourmet food, sweets, designer clothes, accessories, baby everything, books, artwork and more.

*First 50 customers through the register will receive a sweet treat!

april singles

2011-04-01T06:00:00.000-07:00

We're releasing two new Singles today... Mother Defined and So Very Sorry. The card above features Mother Defined... isn't this perfect for a Mother's Day card?! I love it!

I have a crazy busy but exciting month ahead of me. I just love April. April is exciting. You can feel Springtime in the air and I start looking forward to warmer weather (it doesn't always show up until about May or June-- but it's still close. :) I'm taking my kids to visit their grandparents in St. George, Utah over Spring Break this week, where it's sure to be in the 70's and if we're lucky the 80's. Then I come home and get ready to do a little craft show where I'll be selling some Lizzie Anne Stamps, handmade cards, and some hair accessories I make from zippers, should be fun! Later in the month, we are FINALLY going on the family vacation that I have been planning for a year now, our Disney Cruise / Orlando trip! We're taking the kids on the four-day Disney Dream cruise, I'm so excited. My kids are just the perfect age, my daughter is over the moon at the thought of spending four days in the company of princesses! We'll spend a few days at Disney World before the cruise as well.

I might not be posting much this month though I do plan on participating in our Design Team Challenge on the 15th, see you then!

little cards

2011-03-24T06:00:00.000-07:00

I'm getting ready to do a little craft show, and I want to have some simple hand-stamped gift cards. So I've been doing a bunch of these little square cards with just a cute strip of patterned paper, a great stamp, and a little twine or ribbon. I'm mass-producing and I don't want them to cost too much, so they need to be simple. This card uses our Happy Mother's Day single and some purse patterned paper from the new Cosmo Cricket Upcycle line. I think it's cute!

Here's another little Easter card... I love these springtime colors.

playing with color

2011-03-19T06:00:00.000-07:00

I had a day where I started to play with my Copic markers a bit and see what I could do with them. I've never taken a Copic class and my "coloring" skills cannot match what I see some of my design team girls doing, that is for sure! There are some amazing color-ers out there (if that's a word?!) I was pretty happy with these two little cards though... let me show ya what I did.

The card above uses our new Love You a Latte single. I wanted the latte cup and saucer to have that "chalk" look... like something you'd see drawn on a chalkboard at your local coffee shop. I used the clear blending marker to make the polka-dots on the cup by removing some of the red ink. Then I took my white gel pen, colored the saucer, and kind of smeared it around to give it a chalky look. I finished it off with a little gray shadow. The patterned paper is from Cosmo Cricket - Upcycle.

My next card features the little bird nest from our new Spring Follow Your Dreams Mix set. I love this little image, and I've been wanting to use it with my favorite color combination -- robins egg blue and brown. I wanted the eggs to be "speckled" eggs. So first I made polka dots with a brown marker, then I colored over it with a light blue marker, and finally I took my clear blender marker again and removed some of the color. I think it worked! The eggs match the speckled button I used on the side. I love the earthy look of this card.

I also pulled out my Versamark ink pad and stamped the flourishy eggs in the background (that egg is also in the new Spring Mix set.) That's something I haven't done for awhile and it reminded me that I love Versamark!

baby boy blue

2011-03-18T03:00:00.000-07:00

The design team challenge at Lizzie Anne this month is to create a baby-themed card based on a photo from the Pottery Barn website. I actually found SO many things on that website that I had a hard time choosing. (In fact, I also found something to buy which is why my daughter will now be getting this bed for her birthday. Oh boy that site really sucks me in! Super cute.)

Here's my card. I used our Merry Marine Sixlets stamp set, which was perfect for this theme.

And here is the photo that was my inspiration! It's from the Jackson nursery collection. Notice how it's mostly a blue color theme with just a touch of red? That is really the key for this color scheme. Too much red and it's not "nautical" feeling anymore I just added a thin border of red to my card as well as a red button, and that was perfect.

I stamped a baby sentiment from our new Spring Mix set -- Follow Your Dreams -- on the inside of the card in white. I have a baby boy shower to go to next week and so this will be perfect, I am also going to dress up a gift bag to match!

spring mix cards

2011-03-14T23:53:00.000-07:00

We're revealing our new Spring Mix -- Follow Your Dreams -- today at Lizzie Anne! It ships on April 1st to our Mix Members. I've been super busy lately, but so anxious to get my new stamps inky. I decided to give myself 30 minutes and make some clean and simple-style cards. So I grabbed this stamp set as well as Timeless Treasures (border stamps) and some new Cosmo Cricket paper we just got in, and here's what I came up with. 10 minutes per card. I quite like how they turned out! These make perfect little gift cards.

Did you notice the little crown I put on the cameo card? I've been looking for the perfect opportunity to use that little crown. Initially this image didn't stamp as dark as I had planned, but then I realized it looked very antique. I can see myself playing around with that cameo image quite a bit...

canvas decor

2011-03-01T13:57:00.000-08:00

I just made some wall decor that turned out so fun I had to share! I've been wanting some artwork above my bed for quite some time, but couldn't decide what. We have a travel-theme in our bedroom. I've framed some photos of places we've visited and we also have some really cool retro prints of Paris, London, Rome, and New York. I wanted to continue my travel-theme above my bed.

I keep seeing these "canvas wall art" deals coming up on sites like Groupon, so I decided to give it a try. I used CanvasLifestyle. It turned out so fun! I used a photo of Venice that I had taken back in college during my study-abroad trip, and I wrote "The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page" at the top in a nice scripty font with a flourish. (That sentiment is one of my favorites and is also one I used in our Vintage Verses stamp set.)

Here is the photo I sent to them...

and here it is in canvas on my wall.

Here it is above my bed!

Isn't that fun? This is a great way to make your own home-decor using your own photographs and memories!

green, brown, and cream

2011-02-18T03:00:00.000-08:00

It's Design Team Challenge Day at Lizzie Anne, and this month the challenge is to choose a card designed by another DT member and use it as inspiration for your own card. My card is above!

The card I chose as inspiration was designed by Taylor. Here is a link to it in the Sketchbook so you can see why it is I chose this card (because it's gorgeous!) I really loved the color combination... green, brown, and cream are not colors I usually pair together. It makes for a really elegant look. The hardest part of Taylor's card to case was the perfect sponging she did around the main image. I have to admit, I ruined my first attempt at this and had to try again. ;)

Visit this post on the LAD Blog today to see more Design Team Challenge Cards. This is a fun one, it's always interesting to see what inspires others!

i heart you valentine

2011-02-14T06:00:00.000-08:00

This is what I think of when I think of a traditional Valentine... red, white, and pink colors with hearts, lace trim, and the word Valentine! All it needs now is one of those red heart suckers or some conversation heart candies and I'm a kid again. :) Happy Valentine's Day!

card ingredients:
squiggly heart stamp: Lucky in Love
i heart you stamp: So Much Love
lace border punch: Martha Stewart
valentine rub-ons and paper: Hip 2B Square January Kit

style

2011-02-12T06:00:00.000-08:00

This is a card that just appeared in the new March/April edition of Paper Crafts Magazine. They are having a "hot air balloon" feature and our Vintage Birthday set was perfect for that! I love the vintage style.

I love the combination of the body form from our Warmest Wishes Mix set combined with this GORGEOUS Hopscotch patterned paper from Basic Grey. Sewing and stitching-theme cards continue to be in style, and I'm glad because I really can't get enough of this look.

And then I tried something I don't normally do... I dressed up the inside of the card too.

I admit I cheated and drew fake stitches. Something was wrong with my little sewing machine and I was too tired to fix it...this was a "midnight" card. (Why do my midnight cards always turn out as my favs? Do I design better when I'm sleepy?!)

love theme cards

2011-02-10T13:42:00.001-08:00

I've been playing with my January Hip 2B Square kit the past two days. There are some really gorgeous papers in this kit, I've been having fun playing with them. My table/kitchen is still a disaster area... covered with stamps and bits of paper and glue dots and ink pads. My kids don't have anywhere to sit to eat breakfast. I told them to just clear a little spot somewhere... but don't spill milk on my paper!! ha ha.

I've posted a few cards and the stamp sets I used with the paper. Naturally most have a Love theme for this time of the year...

Both cards above use stamps from the Lucky in Love Mix Set

Wedding card uses stamps from the Dream Big Mix set (released last May.)

Uses last year's January Mix, From the Heart.

bonjour

2011-02-01T06:00:00.000-08:00

It's Release Day at Lizzie Anne! All our new stamps can be found in the New Release area of our website.

This is a vintage Parisian card I made last night with Bonjour, I am loving that set, it's going to get a lot of use!

All this Paris talk reminded me of my college study-abroad Paris trip and the scrapbooking page I made a few years ago... I think I even posted it when we released a different Parisian set (now retired) called Ohh La La. Here it is... I'm the one on the far left kissing the sky on the boat. :) Meridith is on that boat somewhere too...in fact she was probably taking the photo. We were on the Seine floating by all the great sites, including Notre Dame. The smaller photo (and the big one I enlarged for the background) is of our group in front of the Eiffel Tower.

Good memories! I remember thinking "someday I'm coming back here with my husband!" Well that hasn't happened yet. I was also thinking we'd go to Venice for our honeymoon... of course what happened is we were young and broke. We did go to Las Vegas where we walked by the Venetian and Paris casinos. That hardly counts but we still had a good time. ;) Someday...

You're sure to see more Parisian cards from me in the next few months. I have another Parisian Valentine that I'm posting in the Lizzie Anne February Newsletter that is going out soon... if you haven't signed up, you can do it here!

cool cards

2011-01-31T06:00:00.000-08:00

I've been having fun with the Tweens & Teens set we just previewed today on the LAD Blog. My kids kept walking by and saying "cool" as I was stamping (even my 3-year-old!) It made me feel kind of cool that they were saying cool about something I was stamping. Am I officially cool now? :)

I thought this next card would be a fun Teen Valentine's Day card... I'm in love with the Peace Heart. I paired it with the swirlie heart in our Lucky in Love Mix set.

All the papers I've been using the past two days on my sneak peek samples (including the samples I've been posting to the LAD blog) have been from my December Hip Kit. Mmmmmmm. That's all I have to say about those papers...paired perfectly with our stamps. And here's a little secret... my cards were posted to the Hip 2B Square blog about two weeks ago. So in the future, if you ever want a sneak peek of our sneak peeks, go look there, you never know what you may see! ;)

I hope you love our new stamps as much as we do! Tomorrow we're revealing the February Singles of the month, and all the new goodies will be available on our website!

lizzie anne sneak peeks day one

2011-01-30T06:00:00.000-08:00

We've started our Sneak Peek at Lizzie Anne for our Winter Release... and I've been having a wonderful time playing with these new stamps. (As usual!)

The card above features our new Wonderful World Sixlets set. I had SO MUCH FUN designing the images for Wonderful World, let me tell you! I scanned in patterns I loved, gave them a distressed look, and then worked some magic in Illustrator. I can see myself playing with this set again and again. (The Happy Day sentiment is from our Everyday Sayings set.)

Meridith designed our new Bonjour Little Bits set, and it is just gorgeous. Every image is a memory of Paris for me (read more about the inspiration for this set on the LAD Blog today.) The Parisian theme is a popular one right now... I think our take on this theme is unique. I am in love with the marionette stamp... I'm not sure I've ever seen a marionette stamp before!

I'll be back with more sneak peeks tomorrow...

made with love

2011-01-17T06:00:00.000-08:00

I had some good cardmaking mojo going this weekend... I made TWELVE cards. And a mini-scrapbook. I think that aside from last-minute Christmas Cards, this may be a new record. A few things inspired me. We just got our Winter Release stamps from our manufacturer, and I just picked up my new papercrafting kit from Hip 2B Square. I think this one of my favorite kits yet, the papers just kill me. There is nothing like new stamps and new paper to help the mojo flow!

Unfortunately I can't show you most of what I made yet because they feature stamps we are releasing on February 1st (and they are AWESOME, so stay tuned!) but I can show you this little Valentine I made with the Winter Mix set. I also have a Vintage Valentine up on the LAD blog today, see it here! And play along with our sketch challenge too!

This is a little scrapbook I made for a friend who is getting married. She has a daughter and they are about to become a little family with her fiance, I am so happy for them. I know she doesn't have a lot of time to scrapbook as she's working full-time, so I'm going to take photos of the three of them and fill this scrapbook for her as a wedding gift. It will be a lovely reminder of their first year together as a family. I used our House and Home Sweet Home stamp singles on the inside panel.

Because we are so busy preparing for our release you probably won't see a lot of posts from me for the next two weeks. But we start our sneak peeks on January 30th, so come back then. It will be worth the wait!

january challenge

2011-01-14T03:00:00.000-08:00

Today is Design Team Challenge at Lizzie Anne. The challenge this month is to make a card that reflects one of your New Years Resolutions. Here is my card... can you guess what my resolution is? (No it's not to kiss more. ha ha. Though I'm sure my husband wouldn't complain.)

My resolution is to cook at home more often, thus saving us money (and calories) by eating out less. This is definitely something I need to work on. I don't love to cook and so it's not unusual for me to look at the clock at 5:00pm and call my husband to pick up Chinese food on the way home cause I didn't plan anything for dinner. Meanwhile my kids are starving and filling up on chips and cookies and anything else they can get their hands on so by the time the food gets home they aren't hungry enough to eat it anyways. Sigh.

This has got to change. I'm on this one. I may not be the best cook but I'm sure going to try. If you have any favorite (and easy please) dinner recipes to throw my way please do, I'm going to need all the help I can get. ;)

Visit the Lizzie Anne blog today to see what the Design Team gals are resolving to do this year.

By the way, this card features the In the Kitchen stamp set (one of my favorites!) and Modern Homemaker patterned paper from October Afternoon. A match made in heaven!

winter layouts

2011-01-09T17:06:00.000-08:00

Here are some more winter layouts I did using the Hip 2B Square November Kit. My favorite is the Santa page... that was such a fun night. My parents were in town and we took them on the Argosy Christmas Cruise around Lake Washington. It just happened to be a beautiful clear night (we've done this before in the rain which isn't nearly as fun) so we were able to be outside on the deck of the boat. The boat goes to different beaches where people on the beach have a huge bonfire, and the choir on the boat leads everyone in singing Christmas carols. It was such a fun night. And Santa was on the boat with us! My son won the "ho ho ho" contest, he was very proud. :)

1/1/11

2011-01-01T09:59:00.000-08:00

Today's date is 1/1/11! Welcome 2011. It's funny what New Years Day does to you. First you start thinking about everything that happened the year before, it feels so strange that a whole year has gone by so quickly. Some highlights from 2010 for me were going to Hawaii with my husband for the first time, getting to see my close friend Ulrika who lives in Sweden (we met in Utah,) and watching my kiddos grow up another year-- they have both learned so much and I'm amazed by how "grown up" they are becoming.

I've been shocked by how much snow we had the last part of the year -- and there is still snow on the ground. My kids have been loving it. I've been freezing. :) Here's a scrapbook page I did of my husband and my daughter...he took her sledding (my son was with the bigger kids on the bigger hill.) I love these photos of the two of them together. These all feature papers from the November Hip 2B Square Scrapbooking Kit (by the way, I just previewed the December kit and I am drooling, can't wait to get my hands on this stuff!)

New Years Goals... sigh. Do I dare even mention my New Years Goals? :) Maybe if I do I'll actually do them, ha ha. I think all of us have better money management and gym attendance on our list of goals, and I'm no exception. My biggest goal this year though is to spend more time with my kids... especially my 3-year-old daughter Samantha. She's not in school full-time yet, and I want to take time to enjoy these years with her, I know they go fast. I am going to try and keep my work-life balance in check... I don't want my kids to think of me sitting at my computer when they think back on their childhood. I think this is an issue all parents struggle with... it's hard to find that balance. But I am going to try! My plan is to (gulp) get up earlier in the morning to work so I have more time during the day. We'll see if I can pull this off. ;)

Happy New Year!

the last christmas card

2010-12-24T06:00:00.000-08:00

I saved this one for last cause it's one of my favorites. Enjoy the Holidays with your friends and family, and Merry Christmas!

merry christmas cards to you!

2010-12-19T06:00:00.000-08:00

I have made a ton of cards for my favorite local scrapbooking store, Hip 2B Square. I always mix them with my Lizzie Anne Stamps, it's a great combination! Here is a bunch of them that I haven't even posted yet, and Christmas is in just a few days... so if you need last-minute inspiration, here you go! Enjoy!

crafty christmas

2010-12-17T06:00:00.000-08:00

I have been in a crafty mood this Christmas. I've never made so many handmade Christmas gifts, it's been a blast! Let me show you a few things I've been working on...

Peace on Earth Christmas Cards

This is my family Christmas card this year. I always duplicate a few cards of a more simple design that I really like, and these cards are usually what get mailed out (the cards with lots of stuff on them I hand-deliver). I am really diggin the pine tree from our December Mix this year, I used it a lot! I also love the look of white ink on kraft cardstock. I put a few dots of glitter glue on the trees to make them look like they were snowy boughs sparkling in the sunshine. The photo doesn't give them justice, they turned out really pretty.

Speaking of that pine tree, here is another (more complicated) card that I made with the tree that I just LOVE. I heat-embossed the trees with white glittery embossing powder. All these papers are in my November Scrapbooking Kit at Hip 2B Square.

Zipper Rosette Hairbands

This is a gift I made for a few girlfriends, my sister, and my niece... they are hairband rosettes made out of zippers! I found and bought one of these in a store I love called Fireworks. I figured out that they aren't that difficult to make. All you do is take a zipper (14" metal) and split it. Cut off the pull and then use one of the zipper strips for the bigger loops in the back. Then use the second strip for the smaller loops. Save a little piece of zipper, take a needle and thread and make a single stitch along the bottom. Gather it to make a small rosette for the center. You can just hot glue all these pieces together and also glue a hair band to the back. Aren't they cute? Here's how it looks in my hair. I made a few for myself too, I wear them all the time.

I packaged them up with a stamped tag...

Bottle Cap Magnets

I was asked to help make a gift for all the women in my church and this is the idea I came up with... bottle cap magnets. I've never made these before and they are so easy and fun! You just buy bottle caps, resin, and magnets for the back. The magnets fit a 1" circle... I designed three different sayings. Print out your images on photo paper so the ink doesn't bleed. Pour resin inside the bottle cap and let them dry overnight. Then just attach the magnet to the back! So cute! I can see myself making more of these.

This is a photo of 300 bottle cap magnets (that's right.) I had resin dripping all over my table...I suggest putting down plastic before making these :)

Hopefully this will give some of you out there some ideas!

lucky in love

2010-12-15T03:00:00.000-08:00

Today I'm showing a card I made featuring some new stamps from the new Winter 2011 Mix set we are previewing today, "Lucky in Love." I was really excited to use this fortune cookie. I thought it would be a fun way to make a valentine for somebody... this one is for my husband! It makes me laugh a little, we used to get Chinese food a lot when we were first dating and there are a lot of inside jokes about fortune cookies, it's perfect for him. It's my anniversary on Friday so I think I'll give it to him then. :)

Go check out the Lizzie Anne Blog today to see more Mix samples! We're making a big announcement about our Mix Club too... we are changing our club from a monthly club to a quarterly club. We've heard from many of our Mix Members that they would like some more time in-between Mix sets to enjoy and use their stamps, and you know, we agree. Meridith and I would also like a little more time in-between Mix sets to design our regular release stamps. It's a win-win. I know I'm opinionated but I do believe we have the best stamp club in the industry. :) We love our Mix Members and we absolutely love our Mix stamp sets, they are always so much fun to play with. If you want to read more about our club, visit the Mix Club page on the Lizzie Anne website!

Hope everyone is enjoying the Holiday season! I have a few Holiday-themed project posts scheduled for the next week... stay tuned. ;)

more tags

2010-12-12T20:39:00.000-08:00

These are a few gift tags I designed for a Christmas Tag Tutorial for Hip 2B Square using the yummy papers/embellies from the November Hip Kit. You can read the tutorial HERE.

I am in a crafty mood this Christmas. I spent all weekend making gifts, I'll be posting them for you to see soon!

Warmest Wishes Tag

2010-12-10T03:00:00.000-08:00

It's Design Team Challenge Day at Lizzie Anne... and the challenge this month is to make a Holiday Tag! I love tags, and they surely do come in handy this time of year. I've already used several tags on some holiday cookie plates for my neighbors, including these two tags below. Both feature stamps from the new December Mix.

I love the furry-looking tartan scarf on our little marshmallow guy...

This is a super simple tag...it took me about 3 minutes. I stamped the pine tree in white ink and the peace on earth sentiment in green ink over the top. Done! I think it's very elegant looking.

For more Holiday Tag ideas... visit the Lizzie Anne Blog today and see what the other DT girls have designed!

Blessings

2010-11-25T09:00:00.000-08:00

I definitely have a lot to be thankful for this year. A great family and wonderful friends, to start. This year I'm especially thankful I get to live in such a beautiful place... every day I wake up and sit in my favorite chair with a hot cup of tea and look at the beautiful Cascade mountains outside my window. I can't wait to go hike in them again this Summer. It looks like we're in for a snowy winter... we've just had our first snow storm this year and it was not the usual sprinkling of snow we usually get! My kids loved it... they have been sledding all week.

Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas!

BTW... Lizzie Anne is having a HUGE Thanksgiving Weekend Sale Friday - Monday. Everything in the store will be 40% off, and every order over $25 will get a holiday-themed free Single stamp. Happy Shopping!

first snow

2010-11-23T10:39:00.000-08:00

This is the scene I woke up to this morning. Beautiful!

I should mention that last year we had NO SNOW at all (other than a few flurries), and here it is only November with this much snow. Snow plows are not plentiful in the Seattle area, so everything is shut down today... no school, husband home. A great day to relax with a cup of hot chocolate. Maybe do some stamping. Love it!

(I am hoping I am able to get to the grocery store before Thanksgiving...)

Fall projects

2010-11-21T10:30:00.000-08:00

I'm watching the first snowflakes fall outside my window this morning. Brrrr. Last year we didn't get any snow, and this year they are (whoever "they" are ;) predicting we're going to get dumped on! I was just in Sacramento last weekend visiting my aunt and it felt like Summer there... we had lunch out on the patio of a cute Mexican restaurant. I'm glad I got that last little bit of sunshine in before settling into winter.

Here are a few projects I made with my October Hip 2B Square kit. I thought I better post these before Fall is over!

This is a layout featuring my daughter playing in the leaves. She always does a good job posing for the camera. :) The sewing/pleating idea was based on a tutorial on the Hip 2B Square blog this month.

This layout features photos from the Halloween Party that Phillip and I went to this year... it was the first time we have ever dressed up for Halloween together! I wrote about our costumes in this post if you want to find out who we dressed up as!

This is a Autumn garland I made by punching out circles of patterned paper and stringing them together. I stamped a leaf on some of the cardstock circles. It looks so pretty hanging on my bookcase!

This is a little clean and simple card I made. I'm loving the bakers twine we've been getting in our kits.

Enjoy the last few days of Fall!

Mini Wreath Ornament

2010-11-19T03:00:00.000-08:00

I made this little mini-wreath for our Lizzie Anne Design Team Challenge today. I used one of my favorite nature/holiday sets, Heaven and Nature. That pine bough and the pinecone are well-used stamps. I framed one of my favorite picts of my kids. Will look cute on grandma's Christmas tree!

I also stamped this holiday sentiment on the back (from our November Mix set.)

This is actually version two of this ornament, the first one didn't make it. I tried sewing my circles together on my sewing machine and found out the hard way that sewing machines do not do well with glue dots. I had used just a few glue dots to try and keep the circles in place while I sewed, and the needle kept getting stuck! And sewing in circles is difficult anyways. At least for me (I've mentioned that I'm afraid of my sewing machine.) I'm sticking to straight lines for now!

I kept hearing from my design team that this challenge was difficult. And yeah, it kinda was. But the projects all turned out awesome! Very original and creative. Make sure to go see them all on the Lizzie Anne Blog today!

time for a cuppa

2010-11-15T06:00:00.000-08:00

It's Mix it Up Day at Lizzie Anne! We are revealing our new December Mix set and having a little DT Mix Blog Hop. This is a card I created with the teapot images in the current November Mix set. I have a thing for tea. I probably have at least two or three cups of tea a day. My favorites? Honey Chamomile, Good Earth Sweet & Spicy, and Peppermint with a splash of vanilla flavoring (the kind you use in coffee.) Mmmmm. It warms me up inside and helps me deal with all the rain this time of year! And I love teacups and tea kettles on my cards too... super cute. All the paper supplies on this card are from my October Scrapbooking Kit from Hip 2B Square. The teacup and tea kettle paper is from Graphic 45... isn't it perfect?

Go to the Lizzie Anne Blog to see more Mix samples today, and check out the new December Mix set! I'm super excited about the images in that set, there are some fun ones!

sammy smile

2010-11-08T08:13:00.000-08:00

I have a new iMac, I'm so excited! I'm still getting used to the differences between a Mac and a PC... I had to reinstall all my programs, fonts, and copy over my files. I realized that I hadn't posted this layout I did with the September Hip 2B Square Kit... and it's one of my favorites! I love the colors in this one. That smile is so typical of Sammy too... I see that one all the time. :)

sprite and starburst

2010-11-01T06:00:00.000-07:00

We're releasing two adorable new Singles today at Lizzie Anne... Sprite and Starburst. Here's a card featuring the new stamps based on Joslyn's sketch challenge this week. We wanted a new Fairy that looks more like our Little People line of stamps, and here she is! I used the Starburst stamp on the first purple panel behind the Sprite... it makes a great background stamp! The "make a wish" sentiment is from the Everyday Sayings set (a great all-around sentiments set).

Visit the Lizzie Anne Blog to play along with this week's sketch challenge!

creepy crawlies

2010-10-30T22:03:00.000-07:00

I seem to have a thing for spiders this Halloween and I don't know why because I normally hate spiders. But in October, spiders are cool. I'm sure I'll go back to hating them November 1st.

I bought a "nest of spiders" at Target and I got a lot of use out of them! I made a Halloween costume for myself by gluing the spiders all over cheesecloth to make spider wrap. I also had spider earrings, a spiderweb shirt, and a big spider for my hair. I wore it to my friends Halloween costume party (my husand was Devo. If you don't know who that is, look it up. And if you were in highschool during the 80's you probably already know who that is. :)

I had a lot of spiders left over so here are some of the crafty things I did with them. At the top of my post is my Spider card. I just got that striped ribbon in my October Hip 2B Square kit and I think it's cool. I also embossed the spider from our Lizzie Anne October Mix in the background and the sentiment is from that set too.

I used some of the spiders to decorate the tops of the Halloween cupcakes I made for a Halloween party my kids went to...

Those are Martha Stewart cupcake liners...

And the rest I spread all over our Jack-O-Lantern.

That $3.99 I spent on plastic spiders went a long way!

Have a Happy Halloween!

little ghost

2010-10-22T10:18:00.000-07:00

This is who greeted me this morning when I stepped outside my door to help my son catch the school bus.

colder weather

2010-10-20T03:00:00.000-07:00

It's Design Team Challenge day on the Lizzie Anne Blog and also our Holiday Preview! Each Design Team Gal was assigned a different Lizzie Anne Christmas/Holiday stamp or stamp set to use, and the challenge was to make two projects. I have to admit, I purposely assigned myself our Way Up North stamp set because it's my favorite!

Here are my projects... a card and a matching gift tin that you could fill with Christmas goodies. And look... stitching! You know it's a special day when I'm stitching because I'm afraid of my sewing machine. :)

My card is also based on the weekly sketch challenge I hosted this week, though you can see that I deviated from the sketch a bit (it's okay if you deviate from my sketches, I do it all the time.)

If you are a friend or family member of mine, don't expect to receive this card for Christmas. I love it too much, I'm not sure I can part with it. Maybe I'll mass-produce but that means pulling out my sewing machine again... I'll think about it. ;)

Make sure to visit the Lizzie Anne Blog today to see the rest of the Design Team Challenge card... you will be inspired to get going on your Holiday projects!

doors and wreaths...

2010-10-15T06:00:00.000-07:00

Today I have a *clean and simple* door card and wreath card for you featuring stamps from our new November Monthly Mix Set "The Key to Happiness." It was hard for me to do clean and simple -- which may seem odd given how simple the designs are. I tend to love "stuff" on my cards so I had to keep telling myself, "Stop. That's enough!" :)

The thing is, if you've got the *right* stuff, you've got enough stuff. Know what I'm sayin? For example... all I used on my card above was the door stamp from the Mix set, a strip of patterned paper (Pink Paislee Sweetness collection), some twine, and some Tim Holtz key charms. I love it, that's all it needed!

I love the sparkly star wreath from the new Mix set, I am going to have fun with that image! Once again, all I've got on this card is some super cool new red/white twine (so Christmas-y!), my stamped image, and some red/white polkadot paper. I added sparkly green jewels around the wreath. The "Holiday Sparkle" sentiment is from our Oh Christmas Tree stamp set. This would make a fun little gift card.

The Lizzie Anne Design Team is showing Mix samples on their blogs today! Visit the Lizzie Anne Blog and click on the links to see more fabulous samples!

A few pages...

2010-10-11T11:52:00.000-07:00

Here are a few scrapbook pages I did recently featuring the September Hip Kit. Some of these feature those awesome first grade photos I mentioned in THIS POST. They made such awesome school scrapbooking pages, I knew they would. The other pages are of a fishing trip we went on. Ethan caught his first fish!

witchy woman

2010-10-06T06:00:00.000-07:00

When I saw this "witches feet" paper in my Cosmo Cricket Matilda paper pad, I knew I had to pair it with our Witch single. I seriously need some socks that look like that.

I also paired it with this Halloween sentiment from the October Mix Set...

When witches go riding,
and black cats are seen,
the moon laughs and whispers,
'tis' near Halloweeen.

Ah yes. Love Halloweeny stuff like this! The spider is from the October Mix set too and let me tell you, it's so fun to use that spider! I never knew I could like spiders (cause usually I really, really don't like spiders. ;)

I also have a sanding and distressing tutorial over on the Hip 2B Square blog that features this card... go check it out HERE!

a little halloween decorating...

2010-10-04T06:00:00.000-07:00

I did a little Halloween decorating today. I just love Halloween decor. I made this new "BOO" decoration with paper mache letters covered with some cute scrapbooking paper. And ribbon and buttons of course! It's sitting up on my fireplace mantle by my Department 56 Witch (which I also love. Such a shame she is sitting underneath my stairs most the year!)

I have my coffee table done up with new pumpkin ornaments on my Halloween tree (Pier One) and cinnamon scented pine cones and pumpkins in this little crate I found (Michael's.)

schoolhouse rock

2010-10-02T03:00:00.000-07:00

Happy World Card Making Day! I've been saving this project to show on WCMD because it's a favorite of mine. It's a card and a matching notebook which would be great to give to a teacher. And it uses some product I love... the schoolhouse (my fave in the set!) from the Lizzie Anne October Mix Set, and the Hip 2B Square September Hip Kit which has a lot of papers and goodies with a back-to-school theme. I love school-themed stuff. I think it's fun shopping for my son's school supplies... I love the smell of new #2 pencils and pink erasers and Crayola crayons and wire-bound notebooks. It takes me back. I want to be in the second grade again like my son (sigh.)

I look forward to playing with my Monthly Mix stamps and Hip Kit Club papers every month. Here is the links to both clubs if you want to check them out(and both clubs are offering specials right now :)

Lizzie Anne Designs Monthly Mix Club
Hip 2B Square Hip Kit Club

More World Card Making Goodness... we are offering FREE WORLDWIDE SHIPPING today (October 2nd) at Lizzie Anne! No minimum order. I don't think we've ever done this... it's a first. We thought it would be a great way to celebrate our favorite card-making holiday. We're also offering free shipping on the October Mix for new Mix Club sign-ups. Head over to the Lizzie Anne Blog today to find out more!

summer layouts

2010-09-24T09:39:00.001-07:00

Here are two layouts I did with my August Hip 2B Square kit.

This first one is a Maui layout and the paper I used is so perfect for this. The arrow is actually pointing at the Hawaiian Islands! It's a little hard to see so I tried to zoom in on it below. This paper is called "Yellow Bikini" by October Afternoon (the backside is the yellow floral paper.)

This layout is of me and one of my closest friends Ulrika doing what we love to do most... shop! Ulrika visited me from Sweden this summer (she lives there with her American husband and two kids) and we had a lovely day shopping and eating at our favorite Vietnamese restaurant... the one we'd always go to during college. I'm wearing the new shirt I just bought at Buckle. :)

I'm headed to Whidbey Island for a scrapbooking retreat with some great friends this weekend... so excited! We rented a little beach house and I'll be doing nothing but scrapbooking, cardmaking, chatting with friends, eating chocolate, and gazing out over the ocean for two days. It's going to be lovely!

a fun surprise

2010-09-21T06:00:00.000-07:00

I am going on a scrapbooking retreat with some of my good friends this weekend (yay!) and I'm getting the photos I want to scrapbook ready. My son's first grade teacher made photo cd's for the parents at the end of the school year and I've not looked at it yet... I thought I'd take a peek and see if there were any good shots of my son. Oh my word, there were the BEST photos in there, I can't believe it! I'm so excited, these will be such great first-grade memories to scrapbook for him. Here are a few of my favorites...

This is Ethan reading a book wearing his Dr. Seuss hat. He looks so serious yet he's wearing this huge paper hat, it cracks me up!

This is another one that cracks me up... that look on his face matches the spider he just made, ha ha. I've seen that face many times before. That's his "Whoa!" face.

These two photos were taken on a school field trip... he is studying nature. Aren't they great?! This is going to be a GREAT scrapbook page.

Here's a photo of me and Ethan at the Mother's Day Tea. That's my "bee pot" on the desk he made me.

Thank heaven for great school teachers who do these things for us parents. What a gift!

The September scrapbooking kit I'm getting from Hip 2B Square has a bunch of really great school-themed papers I can use with these photos. I'll be playing with it this weekend! You can see it HERE. I'll of course share my layouts with you later!

new stamps!

2010-09-20T03:00:00.000-07:00

It's new stamp release day at Lizzie Anne...whoo hoo! Go to the New Release area of our website to see our two new Little Bits sets, our two new Singles, and two new digital papers!

Today I'm showing you another card from Vintage Birthday. I made this for my son who is about to turn 8 years old soon! This is also another one of my Hip 2B Square August kit cards. I think my favorite part of this card is the little birthday hat on top of the 8... you could easily do this with any cardstock sticker number-- a fun way to dress it up! And the little cake at the bottom is one of my favorite cake images we've released so far.

We also released our October Singles -- Tall Snowman and Merry Christmas -- today instead of on October 1st like we normally do. We know how anxious some of you are to get going on your Holiday cards, and they are both Holiday images so we figured why make you wait?! I made a simple gift card and a gift tag because these are two things I'm always in need of around the Holidays. Sometimes I just want a quick little card or tag to go with a gift for the neighbor or my son's teacher or a friend. (I have my "Christmas Card List" for the more elaborate cards that I spend hours making!)

I used the new Cosmo Cricket Mitten Weather patterned paper and buttons on these. Note how cute but simple they are! You could easily mass-produce a bunch of gift cards and tags with just these two stamp Singles.

Make sure to go over to the Lizzie Anne Blog today... I have another In the Powder Room sample featuring the chick in the bubble bath and I LOVE, LOVE that image (okay, I drew ME in the bath, what can I say! :) I am a bath-lover, oh yes. When my husband and I were house-hunting two years ago it was the big bathtub in the master bathroom that won me over (true story.) I have another Vintage Birthday sample too featuring the hot air balloon, another image I LOVE LOVE. Here are two little peeks of my cards that are over there...

ONE MORE THING... our entire store will be on sale 20% off for the next three days only! This *includes the new releases.* Enjoy!

going vintage... sneak peeks

2010-09-19T03:00:00.000-07:00

Our fall stamp release is tomorrow (Monday, September 20th) and today is SNEAK PEEK day! It's always fun to get a little peek at what's to come, yes? You'll notice that both my projects have a vintage-feel today, so fun!

Here is a card I made using a gorgeous Happy Birthday sentiment from our new Vintage Birthday stamp set. This card also features paper from my August Hip 2B Square scrapbooking kit. I made this for my Grandma who I believe is about to turn 90 this November! I need to verify this with her (not sure she will tell me, ha ha. But I'm pretty sure it's her 90th Birthday.)

This gift tag was made with our new In the Powder Room stamp set. This is a room we haven't covered yet... and what with us having In the Parlor, In the Kitchen, and In the Nursery, we really felt like we needed a Powder Room! Heck we practically have an entire house now (maybe we need a garage... that may come next. ;)

I made this tag to go with a fancy, yummy-smelling bar of soap... a great gift! In fact, this entire set would be great for bath gifts, something I give a lot, especially at Christmas. I paired the "curler lady" with paper from Cosmo Cricket's Material Girl paper... a good match.

This lady with her head full of curlers makes me laugh. I remember my mother using these... she had one of those trays of hot-steaming rollers. She'd try to use them on my hair and I HATED how they felt--like they were burning my scalp--so we ended up using those pink foam curlers that you'd sleep in all night. In the morning I had bouncy curls! Ah yes, those were the days.

That's all the peekin' I have for ya today, but come back tomorrow (release day!) cause I have more samples to share! Go and check out the other Lizzie Anne Design Team blogs today for more sneak peeks, we are linking to them from the LAD blog. And participate in our weekly sketch challenge too!

sunflower for you

2010-09-15T06:00:00.000-07:00

This is a little gift card I made with our new October Mix set -- Sweet & Spooky! I love sunflowers. It's the first flower my husband ever gave to me (a few days after we met. :) This set has a bunch of fun little image/sentiments that fit inside that scallop frame. This is also the stamp set that I used for the "Eat, Drink, and be Scary" sentiment I used this card yesterday. See why we named this set Sweet & Spooky?! It's a little of both! Love it.

I'm also using some adorable new matching digital papers we are releasing today. It's called Autumn Mix and there are some fabulous fall-themed papers in there! My good friend Rebecca designed this digital paper pack based on a lot of the images in our Sweet & Spooky set, and they are just perfect for Autumn-themed cards and scrapbook pages. I printed the "fall foliage" and "gold polka-dot" paper on some recycled cream paper to achieve an earthy-feel. I love earthy!

purple people eater

2010-09-13T06:00:00.000-07:00

This month's Lizzie Anne Design Team Challenge was to make a Fall-themed card and base it on the Weekly Sketch Challenge that is posted on the Lizzie Anne Blog today. Go and see what the rest of the team has done, it's inspiring!

I wanted to do a Halloween card. I LOVE Halloween stuff. I thought it would be fun to make one with our Little Monsters Sixlets stamp set... I love those little monsters. Tryin' to be scary when they are really just cute. (Kinda reminds me of my kids!) I also used the new Cosmo Cricket Matilda pattern paper and buttons... mmmmmm.

There is also a SECRET STAMP on this card.... shhhhhhhhhhhh! It's from the October Mix that we are previewing in two days on the 15th. What can I say, I needed a good "scary" sentiment and this one was perfect, I couldn't wait. That's one of the benefits of being a stamp-company owner. I can break my own rules. ;) Make sure to come back and see the rest of that stamp set on the 15th, it's a fun one!

crafting again...

2010-09-11T15:24:00.001-07:00

...into the wee hours of the night! I love it!

The following are a few projects I made with the August Hip 2B Square scrapbooking kit. YUMMY papers in this kit. If you are looking for a good scrapbooking club, I highly recommend this one. You don't have to live in Snoqualmie... Kim (the owner) will ship anywhere!

This is a cute card I made with random scraps from the kit. These are scraps I had after I made my first three cards, which all feature a new stamp set Lizzie Anne Designs is releasing on September 20th, so you'll have to wait to see those! :)

I love this layout. I love this photo. It's of my daughter and her cousin Zoe. They were sitting on this bench in my sisters backyard yucking it up over something... cute little girl laughs. Who knows what was so funny...only little girls know these things sometimes. :) I captured the moment perfectly in this photo.

Closeup of a flower I made... I love to make these flowers. I cut different sizes of crumpled up paper circles and the cut around the edges with scissors and layer them.

That was a lovely, lazy summer day. I'm missing summer already.... :)

sketch challenge

2010-09-07T10:27:00.000-07:00

I spent Labor Day weekend crafting! Could there be a better way to spend a long weekend? Okay... maybe crafting on a beach in Maui. With my husband watching the kids. ha ha!

I have LOTS of new stamps to play with and a new Hip 2B Square scrapbook kit to boot, so it's keeping me busy and happy! Some of the cards and scrapbook pages I'll be posting very shortly and some will have to wait until our NEW STAMP RELEASE on September 20th. Yippee!

Here is a card I made today for Joslyn's Lizzie Anne Sketch Challenge. I used stamps from the September Mix Set, Treasured Trinkets, and the May & July Hip 2B Square scrapbooking kit. This is a color combination I don't often use... black and brown. I was inspired by the Maya Road fabric flower up there in the corner. I think it turned out elegant. Enjoy!

my favorite chair

2010-08-20T06:00:00.000-07:00

This month the Design Team Challenge at Lizzie Anne is to take a photo of something you love and then use it as inspiration for a card.

I decided to take a photo of my favorite chair! I love this chair. I bought it at Pier One about a year ago and it's my favorite place to sit and read my magazines. It's comfy and stylish and it has all my favorite colors. If I have a special guest over, I may offer my favorite chair to them. Maybe. :)

Here is my chair. Note the gold swirls, the flowers, and the autumn colors.

A close-up of the pattern...

And here is my card!

I used three different stamps on this card... a flower from Brilliant Blooms, a flourish from Fanciful Flourishes, and the Thank You sentiment from the Life is Good Mix set. I gold-embossed the flourishes and used a little glitter pen on the flowers to match the gold on my chair. I kinda love this card!

This assignment reminded me that *anything* can be inspiration. So often I hear "I have a creative road-block" or "my mojo is gone." This happens to all of us every now and then! When you feel like you need some creative inspiration, just take a look around at the things you love and let that inspire you. A favorite chair, a home decor magazine, your bedspread, a favorite shirt, a favorite photo...all these things can be inspiration!

Visit the Lizzie Anne Blog today to see what the other Design Team members have come up with for this challenge. Enjoy!

aloha

2010-08-17T14:28:00.000-07:00

I just got back from a fabulous getaway to Maui with my husband... the first no-kids getaway we've had since we had kids! We had such a wonderful time. We stayed in Ka'anapali (which I highly recommend) for five days and drove all over the island! We also relaxed a lot on the beach. :) Below are a few picts from our trip.

This is a waterfall we hiked to on the "Road to Hana" over on the jungly side of the island.

A view of a coastline I loved.

This is us at the Old Lahina Luau.

This is a huge Banyan tree in Lahina, it covers an entire city block! That is an old courthouse behind it that is now a museum.

I loved all the tropical flowers. They were everywhere!

This was the view from our hotel room. Um yeah, can we go back now?

Hope you are enjoying your summer as well!

patchwork of friends

2010-08-15T06:00:00.000-07:00

It's Mix it Up Day at Lizzie Anne... and here's a card featuring one of my favorite stamps from the July Mix set, "Life is a Patchwork of Friends." Not only is this a great sentiment but it lends itself to a lot of cardmaking ideas... which is why I did a "patchwork" of different patterned papers behind the sentiment. This card is also based on our Sketch Challenge this week.

Visit the Lizzie Anne Blog to see who else is posting Mix cards today!

I am in Maui right now! My husband and I have been talking about going to Hawaii together for, oh, FOREVER. At least since we got married almost twelve years ago! This will also be my very first time *anywhere* in Hawaii, I'm so excited! I'll post some photos when I get back!

summertime

2010-07-29T09:05:00.000-07:00

I have played hard this month! We had a really cool June, so when the sun finally came out in July I went crazy! I don't think I've spent a full day inside for a month. Seattle is a wonderful place to live but I was feeling a little vitamin-D deficient, ha ha. :)

Here's some pictures of some of the adventures I've been on. We started with a trip to Utah to visit friends and family, and while we were there, we went to my favorite ski resort, Snowbird. This is a photo of my family at the top (behind me is my favorite run, Little Cloud Bowl.)

This is a picture of me and my daughter riding up the lift to go on the Alpine Slide (my husband took it from below.)

We went up in the canyons for breakfast one morning and made orange muffins. If you don't know what orange muffins are then you HAVE to try them because they are the best camping food ever! What you do is scoop out the inside of an orange and fill it up with blueberry muffin mix. Wrap it in tin foil and then stick it down inside a HOT fire for about 30 minutes. The muffin inside has an orangepeel/campfire flavor that is soooo good! My kids had a blast making these.

Back to Seattle... I've been spending many days at the lake and hiking in the mountains. Here is a photo I took on a recent hike up Little Si which is about 15 minutes away from my house.

I've said it before and I'll say it again... there is nowhere more beautiful than Seattle in the summertime. We took our kids on a ferry ride over to Bainbridge island and here are two shots I took from the boat... one of Mount Rainier and the other of the Seattle skyline (and my kids.)

I will not be slowing down in August as I have two camping trips planned, Seafair weekend (the BEST weekend in Seattle all year) and a trip to Hawaii with my husband! I have a scrapbooking retreat planned with my girlfriends on Whidbey Island in September and I'll have lots of great photos and memories ready to play with.

I hope you are enjoying your summer!

More exiting news... Meridith and I are currently designing two new Little Bits stamp sets for release in September, and my LSS has asked me to join their design team, so I will be posting LOTS of projects in the upcoming months! Stay tuned!

design team challenge

2010-07-17T06:00:00.000-07:00

Our Lizzie Anne Design Team Challenge this month is to use an everyday item on our card... something that would not normally be slated as a papercrafting item. I chose this star birthday candle that was left over from my daughters birthday party. The cupcake stamp has sentimental value for me...it was my first time *ever* drawing a cupcake. It's still my favorite cupcake stamp to date, but alas, it has been around for a long time and thus it's time for it to retire so we can draw new cupcake stamps. This stamp -- "Hey Cupcake" -- is 50% off until they are all gone so get it while you can! The cool Happy Birthday sentiment is from the new August Monthly Mix set!

I have a funny story to share about this card. I was trying to figure out how to stick the candle on the card...the wax was too slippery for my double-sided tape and I didn't have any glue. Then it hit me... I should just melt the backside a bit and stick it on the paper! Note: I already had the stick and the cupcake taped to the bottom of the card, so I was trying to lift the wax star off my card a bit to get a match underneath it. I'm sure you know where this is going. While doing this, the wick on the candle actually caught fire and I nearly burned my whole card down. ha ha ha! (Note that the wick looks used, that's why!) I managed to blow it out just in time. My son came down the stairs and asked me "Mom what's that burning smell?" Oh, it's just me papercrafting dear! :)

Make sure to visit the LAD Blog today and see what the rest of the design team members did for this month's challenge!

enjoy life

2010-07-15T06:00:00.000-07:00

I have so been looking forward today because we are revealing the August Mix set and I get to show you one of my favorite cards EVER! I made it with the photo-realistic ice cream cone. Isn't it fun and summery? August is all about ice cream. I really love this month's mix set...so many fun images in there. It's called "Turn Toward the Sun." Go check it out!

This is another card I made for Ethan's teacher... I gave it to her with her end-of-year gift. (Yes I had access to this set a long time ago. ;) This tree is so fun. The set comes with different little images you can put inside... a cherry, lemon, apple, and flower. It's a build-a-tree! Isn't that a fun idea? The teacher sentiment is also in the August Mix.

Make sure to visit the Design Team's blogs today to see more August Mix previews!

strawberry juice

2010-06-26T10:04:00.001-07:00

I took my kids strawberry picking the other day. It was a beautiful HOT day and we went with a friend of ours. The kids went a little crazy...we had about 10 lbs of strawberries after only 10 minutes! It's okay, there are several bags of frozen strawberries in my freezer now which is what I like to use for smoothies in the morning...mmm. Farm-fresh strawberries are so much better than store-bought, they taste so much better! My daughter was covered in strawberry juice. She was squeezing those little berries a little to hard as she was picking them, ha ha.

I love this photo I took of my friend Jen picking strawberries with her new baby strapped to her front! So cute. This is a mamma who does it all!

tomato time

2010-06-22T21:26:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite things about summer is planting tomatoes in May/June and eating them in August! This year I planted three kinds of tomatoes... Roma, Early Girl, and a type of grape tomatoes. Last year my tomatoes turned out SO good. We had a really hot summer though...I'm a little worried about my tomatoes this year because summer is off to a late (rainy) start. I just checked them and I do see some flowers so I'm hoping they turn out! So this is my hot tomato card. This is a popular image in the new July Monthly Mix stamp set...I've seen a lot of tomato cards from our design team already and it's perfectly paired with Cosmo Cricket's Garden Variety patterned paper! A match made in heaven really... or the garden. :)

design team challenge

2010-06-17T06:00:00.000-07:00

It's design team challenge day at Lizzie Anne! This challenge was a fun one.

This is my card.

And this photo was the inspiration for my card.

What inspired me most about the photo above was the color combination, the stripes, and the flower. So those are the three elements I pulled into my card!

Stamps used: Hello Friend

Visit the Lizzie Anne blog today to see how our Design Team girls answered the challenge... it's really interesting to see how the photo inspired everyone in a different way. I noticed that three of us chose the Hello Friend stamp set for our cards...I guess I was not the only one inspired by that flower!

simply sweet

2010-06-15T06:00:00.000-07:00

I'm excited to share my samples with you today! We just revealed the July Monthly Mix set -- Simply Sweet. I am so in love with this stamp set...I truly think it's one of the best sets we've ever designed. It has a lot of great vacationy and summery images.

The vintage/collage look is really hot right now, and I had so much fun making this card. Wondering where we got the vintage-looking postage stamps for this image? Let me tell you! My father-in-law was a collector. He left for us boxes of old letters and stamps, some of them over 50 years old. I went through the box and chose a few of my favorites, scanned and manipulated them in Illustrator, and this was the result -- a very unique and original stamp of "stamps!" I love this image. I think it would be fun on a vacation scrapbook page too.

The other stamp I love is the eiffel tower. The sentiment "eiffel for you" is a play on the phrase "I fell for you." So you can make it a romantic card if you like. This is actually an idea I had for a Paper Crafts card I had published about two years ago. I had just typed out the "eiffel for you" sentiment back then and always wanted it in rubber. That's one of the great things about being a rubber stamp company. If I want it, I can "make it so." ;) Note: The world is a book sentiment on the card is from our Vintage Verses set.

The card above features our peacock. I'm not sure I've ever seen a peacock stamp before I saw this one! Joslyn designed this image for us and the first thing I said when I saw it was, "Wow, what a great idea!" I bet we start seeing peacocks now... we'll set the trend! ;) I used two Copic colors and my blender pen on this birdie and I think he is just beautiful. Note: The "triple thanks" sentiment is from our June Mix set -- Life is Good.

Visit the Lizzie Anne Blog today to see more fabulous Monthly Mix creations, from both our Design Team and customers!

a little something

2010-06-13T11:26:00.000-07:00

This is the card I made for my son's school teacher to go with her gift (a set of Lizzie Anne stamps of course ;) It's based on this sketch challenge. And there is a sneak-peek stamp image on there from our July Monthly Mix set (I'll let you guess which one!) We are revealing the July set on Tuesday and I have some great samples to share-- very excited because they are cards I made on my retreat last month and they are some of my favorites!

This card makes me want a cupcake bad... may have to go to my favorite cupcake store this week. :)

Cupcake stamp from the August 2009 Mix - Hey Sunshine
Strawberry patterned paper - My Minds Eye / Quite Contrary

pixel remodel

2010-06-07T12:36:00.000-07:00

I was up way too late last night... I think I went to bed around 2:00am, I'm not sure. I went through half a bar of Trader Joes dark chocolate... (the Pound Plus bar, not the regular size. I'm sure I'll gain a pound plus.) What was I doing? Two things..

1) I am launching a new design business with my longtime friend Rebecca. Rebecca and I used to work at an advertising agency together about ten years ago (in fact Rebecca interviewed me!) and we've been friends ever since. We both do freelance work and we've been saying forever that we should combine forces and do a design biz together. Well, we just did! We are called www.pixelremodel.com. Go check it out! I was trying to get our website up last night because the second thing I was working on (coming next) was about to launch. BTW here is our pixel remodel website homepage...

2) The second thing I was doing last night was redesigning my cousins blog. We plan on offering blog design so I thought it would be good practice. And wow, I sure learned a lot about Blogger (mostly about what a pain it can be!) It took me about 10 hours to get her blog up. But I definitely learned alot and it won't take me nearly as long next time I do it. She has a very popular / funny mommy blog. I had to laugh when she sent me the illustrations she wanted to use... they are very "her" (they look like her too.) It was a fun project! Her blog is called Hiding from the Kids if you want to see what I did for her.

I need a nap. :)

yankee doodle dandy

2010-06-01T06:00:00.000-07:00

I'm just in love with the new "Little People" stamp we are releasing today... Yankee Doodle! I've always had a thing for patriotic design and decor. I love to decorate my kid's bikes for the parade on the Fourth of July, I always have a flag outside my house, and I always buy my whole family the USA t-shirts from Old Navy to wear. So naturally I'm drawn to this little guy.

This card features Yankee Doodle and also the other single we're releasing today--a flag made from the words from "America the Beautiful." This image is called Grand ol' Flag and grand it is. The tiny stars paper is from the Stars and Stripes digital kit I designed...naturally a favorite since I love patriotic design. We have a promotion going on this week... buy Yankee Doodle and Grand ol' Flag and get the Stars and Stripes digital paper pack free. Details on the LAD Blog!

I'm looking forward to June and the start of summer. My sister and her family are arriving this weekend for "Duvall Days" which is a big summer festival in the town of Duvall where we both lived for quite awhile... we have a lot of friends there. I think one of my favorite things about summer is all the festivals. And the fireman's pancake breakfast. :)

you really make the cut

2010-05-19T09:11:00.000-07:00

This is a Father's Day card I made using our June Monthly Mix set and Cosmo Cricket Garden Variety patterned paper. It's funny...I made several cards last weekend at my retreat and this is the one that people gravitated toward the most! It was also the easiest card I made. It really is a fun card for Dad. :) I have a lot of memories of my following my Dad around the yard as a kid while he mowed the grass. Then he'd walk through the front room leaving grass-stain colored shoe prints on the carpet and my Mom would get mad. Ha ha! Good ol' Dad.

may challenge

2010-05-17T00:08:00.000-07:00

It's Design Team Challenge Day at Lizzie Anne, and this month I challenged the girls to design or decorate packaging with stamping. For my project, I went to my trusty packaging solution... stamping a kraft gift bag and making a matching tag. I know it's not the most complicated project, but honestly, I have made DOZENS of these. The thing is it doesn't take very long --which important for me when I'm in a rush to find cute packaging for a gift. I stock lots of different sizes of kraft gift bags and tissue paper specifically for stamping.

Here is a bag I stamped with the butterfly images that are in the new June Mix Set.. Life is Good. The butterflies are two of my favorite images in this set because I like 2-step stamping... which is the perfect type of stamping for making a pattern on a gift bag. First I stamped the solid/pattern butterfly in glimmery lavender ink all over my bag, and then I used the dotted-line butterfly to go over the top in dark purple ink.

I made this cute matching tag with the butterflies again and also the Enjoy sentiment from Vintage Verses (this is becoming a go-to sentiment set for me.) Tie some cute ribbon through the tag, attach it the bag, and stuff in some matching tissue paper and you're ready to hide a gift in there!

Make sure to go and see the other challenge projects the DT girls are posting today! You can see some sneak-peeks of their projects on the Lizzie Anne blog.

ten cards and ten pages

2010-05-16T16:48:00.000-07:00

I missed our Mix it Up Day blog hop yesterday but with good reason... I was at a scrapbooking retreat up in the mountains! And I must say, I had a VERY productive weekend... I made 10 cards, 10 scrapbooking pages, 7 gift tags, and one packaging item. :) Yeah! It was fun having a whole weekend of craft time to myself and gabbing with my good friend Rebecca across the table from me.

So naturally I'm excited to share my projects with you, but some of them use stamps from the July and August Mix sets that we haven't released yet! So I'll have to pick and choose. The card above features the light house in the new June Mix Set - Life is Good. This light house is actually one I photographed while on a trip to the Oregon Coast about two years ago, it's a very famous lighthouse!

Here are three scrapbook pages I'm proud of. The first two feature family photos that we had done last fall, and the third is a page of me and my favorite Aunt Shauna. Enjoy!

mom

2010-05-08T19:14:00.000-07:00

Here's the card I made for my Mom. I am so in love with the Pink Paislee Queen Bee collection... gray and yellow are such an unusual color combination and I think it's very sophisticated. This uses the Mom stamp from our It's Good to be Queen stamp set, and the gold-embossed flowers are from our new Hello Friend Sixlets set. Once again, I used an awesome Tim Holtz button...it's gold and gray so it matched my card perfectly!

To all the Mom's out there... Happy Mother's Day and take some time out for yourself, you deserve it!

vintage bookmarks

2010-05-07T11:51:00.000-07:00

I had SO much fun making bookmarks this week, oh my word. I was inspired by the bookmark that Meridith made for the Lizzie Anne May newsletter... I thought they would make great Mother's Day gifts and also a gift for Ethan's teacher for Teacher Appreciation Week. They are so easy! I wanted my bookmarks to have a vintage feel. Here they are:

I'm giving the "Queen" bookmark to Ethan's teacher because she calls her classroom "The Beehive" and she is the "Queen Bee."

Mixing Tim Holtz stamps with some of our latest Lizzie Anne vintage stamps really worked well, and the icing on the cake are those vintage buttons! I'm going to make some more of these... I think I need one for myself. So here's how you make these: Choose 2 6x6 pieces of patterned paper and glue them together (I used different patterns for the front and back.) The paper I used is heavier-weight which made it nice and sturdy once I had doubled it up. Cut it down to 2.5" wide...you could get two bookmarks per sheet. Use a corner punch for the edges and a hole punch through the top. Attach ribbon and tie on one of the buttons. Use your stamps and strips of patterned paper to decorate the bookmarks. That's it!

Supplies:

Lizzie Anne "It's Good to be Queen" and "Vintage Verses" stamp sets
Tim Holtz Accouterments buttons (these are SO yummy.)
Tim Holtz Mini Classics stamp set
Pink Paislee Queen Bee and Bayberry Cottage 6x6 paper pads

new sixlets

2010-04-23T06:00:00.000-07:00

Today we are releasing EIGHT new Sixlet stamp sets over on the Lizzie Anne Designs website! Meridith and I love stamp releases. We work very hard on our stamp designs and it's always so much fun to finally reveal them and share them with our fellow stamp-lovers!

I have two projects to share with you today featuring two of our new Sixlets sets... Great Expectations and Little Lizzie.

Here is a card featuring Great Expectations... I just LOVE that little baby pea pod, so cute. And I still have friends popping out babies left and right so I'm planning on making and stocking a bunch of these cards to have on hand... the thing I like about using green is it's gender-neutral. And how perfect is that pea-pod designer paper? It's from Cosmo Cricket's Garden Variety line.

My next project features Little Lizzie. Not only would she look adorable on cards, but I thought she would make a great paper-doll for my daughter too (who am I kidding, I made the doll for myself as well :)

Here's how you can turn Lizzie into the doll that she is.

First, stamp Lizzie and her clothes on heavy white cardstock.

Second, use a black pen to draw tabs on the clothes. Add them to the shoulders and also down past where the arms would go.

Color in your images...

And then cut them out. Here she is wearing her favorite yellow polka-dot dress.

It's easy to make a stand for Lizzie. Just fold a strip of heavy cardtock in thirds, make a triangle, and glue it to the back of the doll. I left the area between her legs solid so I could attach the stand there.

Make sure to go and see the rest of the new Sixlets sets today! You can find them all in the New Release area of our website. Have a great weekend...do something creative!

paisley birds

2010-04-17T06:00:00.000-07:00

Today is Design Team Challenge day at Lizzie Anne, and I am LOVIN' our challenge this month. The challenge is to use a stamp image in a way that is otherwise intended. So in other words... take an image and turn it into something else. It's been so fun to see what the girls have done with this challenge... so creative!

Here is my card... I used the paisley from the April Monthly Mix set and turned it into a bird! Three birds actually. Aren't they cute? I just took a pen and drew a beak, an eye and two legs. I thought the shape of the paisley and the little swirl on the "tail" would make a perfect bird.

Make sure to head over to the following blogs to see how the other girls answered this challenge!

Bethany Paull
Deb Felts
Jeanne Streiff
Joslyn Nielson
Kendra Wietstock
Maren Benedict
Meridith Ethington
Taylor Usry
Tiffany Ervin
Wendy Price

happy day

2010-04-14T13:34:00.000-07:00

This is a card I just has published in the May/June issue of Papercrafts Magazine! I love this card. I made it specifically for this Sunshine call and I knew after I had made it that it was a winner. :) It's a good feeling! If you aren't a Paper Crafts subscriber I highly recommend it...it's by far my favorite stamping and cardmaking and all-things-paper-making magazine. I get so excited to see it in my mailbox, the whole magazine gets read on the spot.

The sun is shining today in fact, and I'm so glad because after a very warm winter we had SNOW over Spring Break last week! Ironic. It didn't stick, but I was really enjoying not having *any* snow all winter, ha ha. I'm looking forward to taking the kiddies to the park the next few days.

I know this may sound silly but I'm also planning my summer vacations (I'm SO ready for summer) and I want to go on a romantic getaway this August with my husband. We're going in August because that's when my parents are available to watch the kids. We're thinking Napa/Sonoma. Any suggestions for Napa/Sonoma? What should we see? Where should we stay? Where should we dine? Where should I get a spa treatment/massage... and where can we sit and do NOTHING? :) Ahhhh. I can't wait.

{Letters from Lizzie}

abracadabra!

snowpocalypse

kissing tag

dreaming of Maui

cuckoo for you

a new year...

wonderful world

peppermint cake pops

let heaven and nature sing

auld lang syne

family photo blocks project

embossed christmas cards

winners!

trick-or-treat

MeridithJeniJoslynDebKendraTaylorPamRose AnnJoyKelli

season's greetings

lake wenatchee

autumn

candy jars centerpiece

scandinavia

Some Halloween Fun is Brewing

lizzie and anne :: stamp designers (again!)

washer necklaces

looking ahead

thank you

how to make a s'more

summertime celebration cards

big girl bed

sunshine surfer thank you card

simply sweet summertime cards

may colors

sunshine

easter egg cards

spring break

april singles

little cards

playing with color

baby boy blue

spring mix cards

canvas decor

green, brown, and cream

i heart you valentine

style

love theme cards

bonjour

cool cards

lizzie anne sneak peeks day one

made with love

january challenge

winter layouts

1/1/11

the last christmas card

merry christmas cards to you!

crafty christmas

lucky in love

more tags

Warmest Wishes Tag

Blessings

first snow

Fall projects

Mini Wreath Ornament

time for a cuppa

sammy smile

sprite and starburst

creepy crawlies

little ghost

colder weather

doors and wreaths...

A few pages...

witchy woman

a little halloween decorating...

schoolhouse rock

summer layouts

a fun surprise

new stamps!

going vintage... sneak peeks

sunflower for you

purple people eater

crafting again...

Meridith
Jeni
Joslyn
Deb
Kendra
Taylor
Pam
Rose Ann
Joy
Kelli