Puppies, Kitties and Love with TAWS!

It's blog hop and new release time at The Alley Way Stamps (TAWS)!

Last week, I gave you a sneak peek of a cute kitty set - see it here!  Exciting news - there is a puppy set also!!!

I love this little guy and I'm not even a small dog person.  But never fear, the set also includes a mid-size and big burly dog!!  I love the newspaper, because I can add any type of sentiment inside and the card will work!!

Besides the kittens and puppies, it's also the time of year that cardmakers start thinking about Valentines.  TAWS has a darling new Valentine's set.  (Hopefully you are hopping through the entire blog to see the variety of stamps and sentiments in this set!)

Next on your hop is Melissa.  Have fun!
Here's the official blog hop verbiage - AND BE SURE TO KEEP SCROLLING FOR ANOTHER GREAT PRIZE DEAL!!

One person will win ALL 3 NEW SETS!! YEP!! So if you want that person to be you.. 
all you have to do is comment on the hop! 
Here are ways you can win.. You can pick and choose which ones you want to do.. 
but the more you comment, the more chances you have to win.. 

1-Comment on The Alley Way Stamps Blog

2-Comment on the DT girls blogs (below)

3-Post about it on facebook or your blog

4-Like us on Facebook
(leave a seperate comment for each that you do)

 You have until tonight, December 31st by 10:30 PM TAWS time to leave comments.

Here are the DT Blogs to visit

But this isn't the only way to win great prizes this month with TAWS!  Because TAWS is celebrating its first birthday!!

We will be having a 13 day GIVEAWAY Birthday Celebration.. TAWS is turning 1!!! eek... we hope you join us. For a chance to win a random stamp set, place this banner on your blog and/ or share on FB  or PIN it.. make sure to link it back to TAWS. Then head to the TAWS page yourself and add your name to MR. Linky or add a comment. That's 2 chances to win..

NEWSPAPER PUPPY:

• Stamps: The Alley Way Stamps The Gane
• Paper: Echo Park Woof Words dsp, Stampin' Up Cherry Cobbler, Chocolate Chip
• Ink: Memento Espresso Truffle, Copics
• Accessories: Stampin' Up Curry ribbon, Bella Blvd Dog Flags

LOVE IS IN THE AIR:

• Stamps: The Alley Way Stamps Lighter Than Air
• Paper: Imaginisce dsp, Stampin' Up Basic Gray, Cherry Cobbler
• Ink: Memento black, Copics
• Accessories: Stampin' Up Cherry Cobbler twine, Fiskars squeeze cloud punch, Papertrey Ink Aida Impression Plate
• Challenge: retrosketches

Amazing, Fantastic, Extraordinary, Wonderful

I spent this morning preparing ahead (fingers crossed, knock on wood).  My 16-year old son has had a tough few years.  Of course, you couldn't pay me enough to go back to my teen years so I can totally relate.  Just this year, he enrolled at Lutheran High School for the significantly smaller classroom size and the Christian environment.  It's been a perfect fit!!  He went into mid-terms with straight A's (and a great attitude!)  But one of the things that developed over the last few years is a severe test anxiety - so it's always possible that his nerves got the better of him on his mid-terms.  The results come out at the end of this week and I want to have a card ready to go - so I can immediately hand it to him and he will know that I have faith!

I have had this set out on my desk for awhile because I wanted to play along with Avery Elle's AEI♥U Challenge to create a project summing up my personal style.  I love clean cards - either white or I also love kraft.  I love including something that is unique or different - in this case, the button, and the fun sketch from retrosketches.  (I'm also a big challenge player!)  I don't tend towards patterned papers and if I use it, it's usually just a dash.  I love stamps that can stand alone - in this case, the variety and arrangement of fun fonts makes the sentiment interesting all by itself.

• Stamps: Avery Elle Framed Fonts and Bright Days (the sun rays)
• Paper: Stampin' Up Crumb Cake and Island Indigo, MME Indie Chic Nutmeg "Hanging Out"
• Ink: Stampin' Up Summer Sun and Island Indigo
• Accessories: A Flair for Buttons Etsy Shop, Paper Crimper, Corner Rounder, Stampin' Up Island Indigo twine

Have an Epic Year!!

It's a big day in my house - my youngest is a teenager!!  Yes...I'm old.  (Actually older than you might think.  Erik, the new teenager, came home from school with a story that he thought was funny.  A teacher was talking about the first moon landing and how long ago it was - so long ago that the student's parents wouldn't even remember it.  Wrong!)

My kids get to pick their special meal on their birthdays - either home cooked or dining out.  Erik is usually quite fun as he is a foodie.  He likes new and unique food experiences and unusual restaurants.  He went an entirely different direction this year - - Golden Corral's breakfast buffet - - seriously!!!???



I am so uncomfortably full as I write this because I couldn't possibly say "no" to the second serving of biscuits and gravy!!

Then we wandered across the parking lot of Golden Corral to the bowling alley.


None of us even broke 100!!
Then I had my husband take a picture of my boys and I.

The shortest one is the birthday boy - a new teenager!  The biggest one actually has a birthday in a week - he'll be 17!  If anyone knows the trick to making a teenager smile, let me know.
After seeing the picture, I decided the boys needed haircuts - they both look like they have had bowl cuts.  But the only way to get Erik there was to bribe him with the extra treatments - it's $5 for that warm towel and head massage - but he loved it!!

Now we are home and Erik is settled into the recliner,  hair a little shorter and spikier, PS3 remote in hand, playing a new game.



With this picture, you can see why I went the direction that I did with his birthday card!!



I used the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches.  I found this one really hard - that square piece under the circle gave me headaches.  But that's why they are "challenges"!

• Stamps: Papertrey Trey Ink Boy Basics: Game One, Grunge Me
• Paper: Stampin' Up Crumb Cake CS and dsp, Pacific Point CS, Black CS
• Ink: Stampin' Up Crumb Cake, Pacific Point, Basic Gray
• Accessories: Stampin' Up Star Brads, Cuttlebug embossing folder, Nestabilities Circle dies

Thank You Snowflakes!

I LOVE the current photo for The Alley Way Stamps (TAWS) BE Inspired challenge.  I have always thought that I will know that I have made it in life if I can have seasonal bedding (other than the switch from cotton to flannel when it gets cold!!)

I used the snowflakes from Holiday Sparkles which is a free set for the month of December with a $40 purchase.  The sentiment is from Jibber Jabber (although I did cut the "s" from "thanks. FYI - cutting stamps can be really helpful.  Just be sure to cut them with a little curve so that when you want them put back together, you can line them up easily - they will just fit together like a jigsaw puzzle!)

Aren't red and white wonderful together???

• Stamps: The Alley Way Stamps Holiday Sparkles, Jibber Jabber
• Paper: Stampin' Up Real Red and white
• Ink: Stampin' Up Real Red and Versamakr
• Accessories: Stampin' Up Red grosgrain and gingham, Zing white embossing powder, misc twine and bling

Sweet?? Not So Sweet!!

This is my second post today!

I almost missed the current Addicted to CAS challenge and then I got a perfect set of stamps in the mail.

The challenge is:

My card has some sweet chocolate and little not-so-sweet attitude!!

• Stamps: The Craft's Meow All You Need is Love
• Paper: Papertrey Ink Dark Chocolate CS and dsp
• Ink: Papertrey Ink Dark Chocolate, Stampin' Up Real Red
• Accessories: Stampin' Up ribbon, Dress It Up Red Hot Hearts button

Happy Cat-urday! (on Thursday)

It's sneak peek time for the January release at The Alley Way Stamps (TAWS)!  If you follow the TAWS blog - yesterday you saw puppies.  Guess what today is?  Kitties!!!!

We share our home with two kitties.  One is feisty (that's a polite way of saying that if you annoy her, she just might scratch your eyes out!).  The other is a big black and white lug.  He loves to sit on the stairs going upstairs and swat as you head down the other set of stairs - BUT, never once do his claws come out...you just feel a big thump.  He purrs if you just glance at him and it can be heard throughout the house.  My big boy was my inspiration for this card...

Here's my inspiration - hanging out with his sister.  They are truly sister and brother, but you couldn't have two more different cats in looks and in personality!

Not only did I use the new TAWS set, Sittin' Pretty (available January 1), I also added a "sun" using the current free-with-$40-purchase set - Holiday Sparkles (only available through December 31).  I've already done a snowflake card with it - check it out here.  I love the doily look and thought it would make an interesting sun.
Enjoy the rest of the sneak peeks - be sure to check back on the TAWS blog over the weekend - there is still a charming love/Valentines set to sneak a peek at.  I'll be back with more TAWS for the new release blog hop on January 31.

• Stamps: The Alley Way Stamps Sittin' Pretty, Holiday Sparkles
• Paper: Stampin' Up Daffodil and Black
• Ink: Stampin' Up Daffodil
• Accessories: misc black and white gingham

White on White with Papertrey Ink

I hope everybody had a wonderful and joyful Christmas!  It was very calm and peaceful at my house.  This year worked out so it was just my little family and it was very nice.  There was no hurrying, no time schedule, no last minute cleaning.  Instead, there was time to laugh and chat and to reflect.

(And...free time for me to make cards!!!)

This month's blog hop at Papertrey Ink is "white on white".  I LOVE white on white!!  Such a clean and pure look, so I immediately thought of a baby card!

The pattern on the animals is actually a polka-dot, but my embossing powder didn't quite capture that. On the other hand, when I realized it had the same look as my new Aida Cloth Impression Plate - I was  thrilled with the soft look!!

• Stamps: Papertrey Ink Sweet Baby, Bitty Baby Blessings (sentiment)
• Paper: white!!
• Ink: Papertrey Ink Soft Stone, Versamark
• Accessories: White embossing powder, misc white ribbon,  Paper Trey: Sweet Baby dies, Double Ended Banner die (just one side of it), Edgers #3 die, Aida Impression Plate, White Button