Quick share

Well this week has turned out to be busier than I had planned!

And that of course means the ole blog gets neglected.

But I do have a card to share really quick!
This one is up on the Bella Blvd blog today...

These crochet flowers (Dahlia) coordinate perfectly with the new Birthday Girl line.

I love that!

I used some card sentiments stickers too and voila!

Done!

OK that's all I've got!

TGIF!
:)
And thanks for stopping by!
gretchen

Duh

Oh yeah, I have a blog.

DUH!!

Poor, neglected blog!
:)

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Thank you to everyone who stopped by the Creative Memories blog hop last week!
That was fun!!

*****
I forgot to share another card that I made last week using Bella Blvd and Unity Stamps.
In case you are counting that makes 3, yep 3, cards that I have stamped recently!
That's big time, folks!

I stamped the cute "it's a boy" onesie on a scrap of patterned paper and then cut it out before I added it to the card.

OK it was a short and sweet post but it counts!
More posts and projects to share coming soon!
:)

gretchen

Creative Memories BLOG HOP!!

Hi there!

Welcome to my stop along the Creative Memories DREAM blog hop!

What a great thing this is and I am so glad to be a part of it!
*****

Here is the layout I made using some of the very cool Make-A-Wish Foundation products from Creative Memories...

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Make-A-Wish® grants the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions to enrich the human experience with hope, strength and joy. In collaboration with Make-A-Wish, Creative Memories has developed these exclusive Dream products that can help you celebrate the wishes, hopes, dreams and achievements in your world. Each Dream product benefits Make-A-Wish with a $1 or $2 donation per purchase.
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Here is the super secret word that you need to get from my blog...

Thanks for stopping by!
Now your next stop on the hop is over to
Grace Tolman's blog.

{click here}
*****
If you want to go back and start at the very beginning of the hop, check out the Creative Memories Digital 411 blog!
{click here}
*****

Have fun!
And have an awesome day!gretchen

Look Mom, I stamped!!

This is kind of a big deal for me as I am NOT a stamper!

But I do love the cute Bella Blvd/Unity stamps so I was able to manage!

:)

It is Unity Stamp inspiration day over on the Bella Blvd blog and I made a couple of cards!!
{patting myself on the back}

I used the "Birthday Toad" stamps to create part of the sentiment on this card.
These stamps are "toadilly" fun!

Ha!

And of course I had to cut out the frog from the "Birthday Boy" Cute Cuts sheet to compliment the sentiment!

 

Look, look! I even made a 2nd card!

I used the "Welcome home" stamp to create a flag to coordinate with "Fall" and "Thankful" flags I used on this card.
I stamped "Welcome home" on a piece of patterned paper from the "Thankful" line, cut it out, wrapped it around a pin similar to the ones on the Bella Blvd flags (I found these in the craft section of Wal-mart!), and then cut a dovetail in the end for a little contrast.
Easy peasy!

 

OK so do you want some of these stamps??
Well here is your chance!
Go over to the Bella Blvd blog and leave a comment on {this post} for a chance to win some!!

And come back tomorrow for a fun blog hop!

:)
Have a great day!
gretchen

FYI

This is EXCITING!!

Well this is some fun news that will liven up a boring ole Tuesday!!

Yep, that's me under the Card Designers!
So excited to be able to stay on for another year and work with this fabulous company!!
Happy Tuesday to me for sure!!

And I am pumped to get to work with the other cool girls on this list!

It is quite an impressive list!
Smiling all day I will be!

:)

In celebration, here is a recent card I made with some Bella goodies.

I had to make this one because (like always) I forgot about a very important birthday!

And here's the inside of the card...

Hope your Tuesday will be just as good as mine!

:)

gretchen

P.S.

I get to be part of another very fun blog hop later this week so make sure to come back!!

Design tip: FLIP IT!

OK so I sat down to make a birthday card not too long ago and I was totally stumped.

No mojo! No creative juices!

So I needed something to get me going.

I started looking through the box I store my cards in hoping for a little inspiration.

I came across this card that I made a little while ago.

This is one of my favorite cards that I made for Bella Blvd's booth at CHA this past summer.

I took the basic design of this card, flipped it on its side, and came up with a similar but new birthday card!

{Supplies: Bella Blvd Birthday Boy line}

So here is your take home message today (hehe...i am trying to make it valuable for you to actually come here and look at this blog!)...if you need a little jump start, take something you have already made, flip it over, and see what new project you can come up with.
It works for layouts too!
:)

Have a great day!
gretchen

Birthday cards!!

Are you in need of any birthday card ideas??
Because I've been a birthday-card-making-fool lately and I've got some to share today!

And it never hurts to have a few extra birthday cards lying around!
*****
To make this first card, I pulled out a 1" circle punch and some Bella Blvd Birthday Girl scraps I had left over from another project.

I punched a bunch of circles and then used them to create scalloped borders along the right and left sides of the card.

The middle of the card is actually a sticker from the Birthday Girl Just Write Journaling Stickers.

I added "friend" to the sticker with blue alphabet stickers (Bella's Hive Five Alphabets).

OK you know that I cannot get enough of the cute hippo on the Birthday Girl Cute Cuts sheet, right?!

Well I actually used the other side of the Cute Cuts sheet on another project and, unknowingly, cut the poor hippo in half.

Horror of horrors! :)

But I could just not let it go unused!

So I used what was left of the poor hippo to make it look like it is peeking out of the card to send some birthday greetings!

FYI: the green patterned paper here is actually from the Birthday Boy line from Bella Blvd.
It coordinates perfectly with the little bits of green in the Birthday Girl line!

OK that's all I've got for now!!

Have an awesome day!
:)

gretchen

WINNER!!

With the help of random.org...

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

9

Timestamp: 2012-09-10 23:44:05 UTC

*****

The lucky winner of this new special issue 
from Creating Keepsakes is...

WensV said...

I always have my camera on auto, I print them as they come and they are never great for scrapping.

Thanks for a chance to win.

WensSeptember 5, 2012 3:05 AM

*****

whoop whoop!!

Email me your address and I will send your info on to the powers-that-be at CK!

(gretchenmcelveen at yahoo.com)

Congrats!!

and happy Monday!

Creating Keepsakes BLOG HOP! + a giveway!!

Welcome to my stop along the Creating Keepsakes Blog Hop!
Thanks for making it this far!

This blog hop is to get the word out about CK's new Special Issue.

This one might have been written just for me!

I will always be a paper scrapbooker, but I sure could use some help with my picture taking and photo editing!

 I soooo was glad to get a copy of this issue!

*****

Here is a great sneak peek of some of the articles in this issue:

Open publication - Free publishing

And here is a link to some extra online content too {here}!

Cool, huh??!
*****

Want a copy of this issue for yourself??
Leave a comment here telling me why you need it and I will randomly draw a winner at the end of the day on Monday (September 10th).

Each person along this blog hop is giving away a copy so that gives you lots of chances to win.

Make sure to visit each blog!

From here you need to hop on over to the fabulous 
Iris Uy's blog!
And thanks for stopping by mine!
Have an awesome day!!
:)
gretchen

Happy Labor Day!!

You gotta love a day off!

Happy day!
I started my day with a very wet but colorful 5k at The Color Run with my brother. 

And now I am chilling on the couch doing a little scrapbooking while watching last year's national championship game for like the 16th time. 

It never gets old!

And I really should probably be doing some laundry but, eh, that is boring! and labor-ous!
:)

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I've got a card up on the Bella Blvd blog today. 

This one is using the Sunshine & Happiness line that came out earlier this year. 

But it is still probably my favorite Bella line to date!

Love the flowers and bright colors!

OK that's all I've got today but come back tomorrow because I am part of a cool blog hop.
You won't want to miss it!!

:)

Enjoy your day!
gretchen

Can I get a

Are you ready for some football?!?!