Lilla Rose Review and Give-Away!

 Hi!!!  

With a little help from my daughter,  I am delighted to share a little review and give-away from Michelle, Independant Lilla Rose Consultant.  We gave this adorable Cat's Meow Flexi Clip a try and loved it!  

Things I love about this Flexi Clip:

The Lilla Rose Flexi Clip is all one piece making it incredibly easy to use (even for me)!
In seconds hair is beautifully secured. 
The design is so stylish, it's like wearing ART in your hair!!
  The beads add a touch of color for added interest.
The Flexi Clip is strong and durable, I am certain that I will be using my clip for years.

I have to tell you that I am all thumbs and always have been. I am hopeless when it comes to opening and closing clasps for necklaces, arranging hair in fun styles, etc.  When Michelle asked me if I would like to try a Lilla Rose Flexi Clip I told her that I would love to, totally expecting to hand the clip over to my daughter and just take photos of her using it BUT to my delight I found that the Lilla Rose Flexi clip is so easy to use EVEN I CAN use it!!!  In seconds my hair  was held in place by the gorgeous Cat's Meow Flexi Clip!

So now that you know how fabulous this clip is I am sure you would like to have one yourself!

Leave a Comment to WIN a Pin valued up to $16.00! 

I will draw a winner Friday, January 2nd.

This giveaway is open to readers who are not currently registered as Lilla Rose customers. 

offer valid in the US only.

Must be 16 years of age.

The winner will need to sign up as a customer HERE.

Michelle also has a Special for New Customers:

 BUY 3, GET 1 FREE OFFER

Buy 3 to receive a coupon redeemable for one free clip or item $16 or less available on the Lilla Rose website. Offer good for new online customers only, one per household. No cash value or exchanges.  Must be 16 years of age. Registering on the Lilla Rose website with a valid personal email address is required to take advantage of this offer. 

*Offer valid in the US only

PPRS Monday Inspiration!

Happy Monday everyone!

I hope you had a fabulous Holiday week!

Ours was not the norm but it was lovely just the same.

I created this card with PPRS  CLR025B Steampunk Gears 3 a few months ago but didn't post it on my blog before now because I wanted to share it closer to the New Year.  I like the idea of entering 2015 with an attitude of exploring, dreaming and discovering!!  

Now I am off to celebrate an early New Year's Eve with my family.....ok, well that sounds ridiculous but WE ARE going to spend the day together and have our traditional New Year's Eve party foods around 1pm since hubby works the rest of the week and will miss out on any sort of New Year celebration!

I hope you will  stop on by PPRS blog to see all the beauty the PPRS DT have to share today!

Birthday Blessings!!!!

Well here is a super late post!  I just couldn't get it all together this year!

 I was so blessed by the beautiful cards, gifts and friendship shared with me for my birthday a few  weeks ago that I just had to share a bit with you!

I received  wonderful gifts and they are all special to me.  I didn't photograph everything but I did get the paper goodies from stamping friends photographed and I think I was able to get almost all my cards photographed (I might be missing one)!

THANK YOU to my friends and family for the precious time taken from your busy December to make me feel special!

Goodies, goodies, and more goodies!!!

 The ribbon and Wink of Stella we chatted about + more!!!

 Die cuts!!!!!

Quilt patterns!!!!!!!  OH MY!!!!

So Special!

Thank you!!!!!

PPRS Monday Inspiration - A CASE of love.......

Happy Monday!?! Here we are just few more days left before Christmas; are you ready?

  We still have not ironed out the details of our holiday because DH works most of this week including Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  I have not bought a single Holiday menu item....we could very well have beans and rice this Christmas!  

December has been full with birthday outings, shopping, shipping, band practices, programs and sickness that included missed days work and missed school days but here we are just days away from Christmas, healthy and all home together.  I get to celebrate another Christmas with my husband and two teens and that's what matters even if we only have a few hours all together on Christmas Day and even if we eat beans and rice!

The card I am sharing with you today is quite simple but appropriate as it puts all the emphasis on the sentiment and my wish for you....

Today at Splitcoaststapers we are celebrating my sweet friend Janeen who has also been our GD right here at PPRS!   Janeen and I have enjoyed designing together for Splitcoaststampers CAS challenge  the past few months.  My card today CASEs this beauty of Janeen's.

 I used PPRS rubber stamp  HH0107 Peace, Love & Happiness, and decorated the edges of the sentiment with PPRS-D034 Floral Border. I added the gorgeous bow made from ribbon that Janeen sent me for my birthday!  For just a bit of bling I added gems to the border and at the end of the sentiment.

That's it for me today but stop on by PPRS blog to see all the beauty the PPRS DT have to share today!

Merry Christmas 

and 

Happy Holidays!

Prickley Pear Monday Inspiration - A CASE of a Snowflake

Hullo and Happy Monday!

Cards and packages were sent out in the mail today, yeah, I am a bit behind.  As lovely as a December birthday is, it puts me behind every year and it didn't help that Thanksgiving fell late in November this year but I am pressing onward!  How about you are you all set for the holidays?

Today, I am sharing a card inspired by my friend, Rebekah's SCS's gallery using an SCS color challenge of red, brown and green.  

I used Prickley Pear Rubber Stamp's wonderful PPRS-D038 Snowflake Pendant Die and coordinating .CLR038 Snowflake Inserts Clear Stamp.  This is such a fun pairing of stamp and die.  The stamp set includes 12 mini stamps that fit the snowflake pendant die!  For this card I chose the retro Christmas lights.  

That's it for me today!  I hope you have a wonderful week as we take a quick breath before the holiday week is upon us.  Before you go I hope you will hop on over to the PPRS blog to see all the beauty the DT have to share today!

TFL!

Prickley Pear Rubber Stamps Tutorial - Don't Throw That Away!

Hello!  Angie Here!  It's December the 10th so I thought I would celebrate my birthday with a Prickley Pear Rubber Stamp Tutorial.

 A few months ago our guest designer, Janeen challenged us to use crumpled paper on a CAS challenge for SCS.   I came up with the technique I am sharing with you today by using Janeen's "crumpled paper" idea in combination with my favorite way to color paper.

Here's what you will need:

Lightweight card stock

Mister bottle filled with water

Distress Ink

Craft Mat

Heat Tool (optional)

Spritz light weight card stock with water and crumple. 

Tip: The paper will shrink a little so if your project calls for a definite size you will need to cut  the paper a bit larger than the size required.

 Unfold.

 Press pad directly on craft mat and spritz with water.

Swish paper through ink then tap with fingers in the hills and valleys of the crumples to encourage the ink in the crumples.

Allow wet paper to dry.  I like to use a heat gun. 

Repeat the above step a couple of times if more color is needed.  It's important to dry between layering of ink to achieve a vibrant background. In the photo above you can see a lot of white on the edges where the ink just didn't saturate so I took a paint brush and dipped it in the watery ink still left on craft mat and painted the edges

 The next step is optional.  After the paper has dried it's ready to use but for today's card I didn't want the distressed look of the wavy paper so I ironed it!  Just place it between two sheets of copy paper, iron for a few seconds and you have a beautiful piece of designer paper!

 Even after ironing you can still see wonderful texture in the paper but it lays flat for adhering.

For this card I cut a layer 2 1/4 in wide and then used the rest to create the fabulous Poinsettia  embellishments with PPRS D031 Poinsettia Leaf Die.

PPRS Ingredient List:

PPRS D031 Poinsettia Leaf Die

PPRS D010 Ornament Die

CLR027B Scalloped Oval 3 - Winter Clear Set

I hope you will give this technique a try!

CAS302 - A touch of Music for Christmas

Good Morning!  

I wonder how the beginning of December has been for you?  Do you shop, decorate and bake for the holidays? If so have you found the balance between the bustle and the enjoyment of the season? 

We celebrate the month of December in a traditional way with gifts, food, decorating and a December birthday!  I find myself balancing between feeling stressed and peaceful, just depends on the moment!  My shopping is about half done, there's been no baking and the decorating has been done, well at least in the living room!

To add a dose of peace into holiday anxiety, I am carving out time for creating and today I am going to share a card that I created for Janeen's Splitcoaststampers CAS302 challenge which is to add music to our cards.

I used a Heidi Swapp stencil that my friend Janeen and I both purchased while she visited us last January so this has a fun memory attached to it!  I stamped MFP's "Just a Note" music stamp randomly through the negative of the stencil, then sponged in color.  For my cardinal I used a tutorial I found on Pinterest and used my SU! bird punch.  Such fun!  The sentiment is from MFP's "Poinsettia Blooms".

I am playing along with:

Monday Morning Challenge: Anything Christmas or Winter

Simon Says Stamp: Holiday/Christmas

Splitcoaststampers CAS302 - Music

I hope you will stop by tomorrow as I will have a Prickley Pear card to share with you and a super fun tutorial!

In whatever holiday moment you find yourself in today, I wish you Joy and Peace!
             
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 Rejoice greatly, O people of Zion! Shout in triumph, O people of Jerusalem! Look, your king is coming to you. He is righteous and victorious, yet he is humble, riding on a donkey -- even on a donkey's colt.

Zechariah 9:9

  

Prickley Pear Monday Inspiration - Christmas Kitty

Happy  December 1st!!!  

Share our sale graphic on your blog with a link to Prickley Pear store.  Comment ON the PPRS BLOG with a link to your blog.  One lucky poster will win some Prickly Pear goodies, to be announced here next Monday! 

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I hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving week.  Our meal was delicious and the time spent together chatting with our teens and playing Pictionary are memories I won't soon forget!  I am counting on those warm fuzzies to see me through the next few hectic weeks!! 

For today's Prickley Pear Rubber stamps I let IC469 at SCS help me create this fun card!  

I was inspired by this funny napkin at: sur la table.  I made my background to mimic the napkin design by using the retro circles from the CLR010 Ornaments Clear, set. Christmas Kitty is 

EE0096 Retro Christmas Cat.  The sentiment is from CLR038 Snoflake Inserts.

That's it for me today but I hope I hope you will hop on over to the PPRS blog to see all the beauty the DT have to share today!

Happy Thanksgiving with an MFP Christmas card

Happy Thanksgiving to my friends in the U.S. and to my international friends Happy Thursday, the weekend is almost here!  On this day of Thanksgiving I wish to say THANK YOU to all of you who stop by and take a peek at what I am up to!  I appreciate every one of your kind comments!!  Thanks so much for following along with me this year!

 My Christmas card stash is woefully short of my quota so I went with a Christmas card to share with you even though today is  Thanksgiving Day!  I used Shirley's gorgeous photos to inspire  my Christmas door scene. I settled on the first photo because this card is going to go to my neighbor and they have a bright green front door!

For my porch decorations I used MFP's "Columns and Topiaries". I added dimension by popping up the Topiaries with foam pads then stamping the shrubbery a second time, fussy cutting and layering with foam pads.

The ribbon was stamped and fussy cut from the horn image in the  "You're an Angel" set. 

For a little surprise I stamped inside the door with the "Merry Christmas" sentiment from

 "You're an Angel".  From this angle you can see the dimension added by layering the shrubbery.

 I hope you will check out the Inspiration challenge at MFP  to see the beauties my teammates have created  from the photo inspiration along with the  details so you can play along!

TFL

Prickley Pear Rubber Stamps Monday Inspiration - Maybe Christmas....

Happy Monday!  

Wow!  Can you believe Thanksgiving is just a few days away and after that a fast zoom to Christmas?  Our Thanksgiving will be a bit different this year.  My husband works on Thanksgiving day so we will have our feast when he gets off.  Our feast itself will be a bit different to meet the new dietary needs of a couple of family members but I am thankful that we are all healthy and our kids haven't left the nest yet!!! 

As I said last week, I don't make many Thanksgiving cards so I don't have one to share with you today but I put my heart into Christmas cards so I am showcasing this wonderful sentiment from

 Dr. Seuss today.

How the "Grinch Stole Christmas" is my favorite animated Christmas show.  There's just something about those "Who's down in Whoville" that don't allow the absence of  things to dictate their joy.  

I had a blast playing with the Poinsettia die and stamp for this card.  For my bits of "greenery" I cut the Pine Branch in pieces and placed the fronds behind the Poinsettias. .

I hope you will hop on over to the PPRS blog to see all the beauty the DT have to share today!

Ingredients:
 GG0095 It Came Without Ribbons,  DD031 Poinsettia Leaf Die, D040 Pine Branch Die, CLR031A Poinsettia 2 Holiday Clear Stamp.

I am also playing along with CAS300 at SCS and this week our challenge is to add winter wildlife to our cards.

Here in Georgia the wild life we see most from our Bay window are Cardinal families! The vivid red of the male cardinals add a fabulous splash of color to a gray winter day.

Ingredients:
Stamps: Prickley Pear Rubber Stamp - CLR027B Scalloped Oval 3 Winter, CLR014 The Four Seasons Clear stamp,
Dies:  PPRS D014 Four Seasons Tree Die, D049 Tree 2 Die
TFL!

I hope you will hop on over to the PPRS blog to see all the beauty the DT have to share today!

Prickly Pear Rubber Stamp Inspiration - Christmas Elves

Happy Monday!!! 

 Last week Janeen and I stamped via FaceTime  while long distance separated us!  It was so much fun to chat while we worked!  I must say Janeen was far more productive than me.  You can check out all her beauties at A Little Bit of This and That.

I love creating Christmas cards all year long so I tend to bypass Fall and bring out the red and green!   I had a blast coloring this cute image!  I love using Prickley Pear's gorgeous Snowflake Pendant die with the cooridinating Snowflake Inserts stamp for a fun wintry embellishment.

I played along with F4A247 to guide my design.

I used:

 HH0170 Elves Babysitting, CLR038 Snowflake Inserts Clear Stamps, PPRS D038 Snowflake Pendant Die

I hope you will stop by Prickly Pear Rubber stamps to view the awesome creations my teammates have created this week!

Enjoy your week!

MFP Inspiration - Pick a Chandelier

Hello!  Happy Thursday to you!

 I have a little inspiration to share with you from this week's .Inspiration challenge at MFP.  Shirley has chosen three amazing chandelier photos to inspire our design.  I hope you will check out the challenge and enter for your chance to win a prize!

 I have a passion for dishes.  I can't pass a dish display in a department store without touching!  I love the delicate feel of fine china and the heaviness of crockery.  I love everything from bold colors and patterns to the very soft and delicate.  My china pattern is very similar to the last photo and I am all about pink, ribbons and gems so it was a snap deciding which way to go with my card today! 

I used "Oh Beans" and fussy cut the cups out and stacked them.  I added a hint of shading to the cups and punched out little flowers for a finishing touch.  For my card I used SC512 which went live during HYCCT.  

Inspiration photos:

TFL!

Prickley Pear Rubber Stamps Monday Inspiration - We Three Kings

Happy Monday everyone!!!

I hope you enjoyed the weekend. Our weather is bouncing around warm to cold and back again so I am all over the place with my creative inspiration! One minute I am thinking butterflies and flowers the next snowflakes and Christmas ornaments.  This week Christmas won out because I am WAY behind on my Christmas card goal.

I used: CLR010 Ornaments Clear Set, CLR010A Ornaments Clear Set 2 , PPRS-D010 Ornament Die.  

I decided that I wanted some shine on my ornament so I heat embossed it with  extra thick embossing enamel. 

Thanks so much for stopping by and taking a look at my Prickley Pear design for this week.  My talented teammates have gorgeous creations to share  HERE at the  PPRS Blog. I hope you will stop by and take a look!

Have a great week!

PPRS Monday Inspiration - Winter Resist

Hello!  Happy Monday everyone!  I hope you had a nice weekend. 

 We've had our first taste of winter and I don't think I like it but I love creating winter cards so when Robin challenged us to use a "resist" technique for her HYCCT challenge I decided to use one of my favorite techniques for this  Prickley Pear Rubber Stamps creation.

The Speckled Gesso Resist technique tutorial can be found HERE. 

Supplies: 

Prickley Pear Rubber Stamps -  GG0162 Raven Branch Red Rubber Stamp, CLR001 Butterflies - Clear stamp

Spiral clip, Ribbon

TH Distress Stain - Tumbled Glass, Dusty Concord, Bundled Sage

Hop on by Prickley Pear Rubber stamps blog  and view the lovely designs my teammates have created this week!

Have a great week!

Hope You Can Cling To 2014 - When the World Tilts

Today is the last day of "Hope You Can Cling To 2014"!  It's been a wonderful month full of inspirational stories and art!  Today there will be three challenges.  The first one is live and I am your challenge hostess!  Click the HYCCT button above for all the details.  There's still time to join us as the cut off day to upload is November 7th!

My Challenge: HYCCT1431A

If you would like to know a little bit more about me, there is also a "Meet the Challenge Hostess" thread you can find HERE.

Hope When the World Tilts

I used the word "Hope" on my card because it's my favorite word during difficult times.  I have been fortunate thus far not to have been touched by breast cancer but I have struggled through dark times and it was during the darkest times that I held onto Hope.  When I wanted to give up it was the Hope of a future planned by God that continued to see me through.  

I would remind myself of
Jeremiah 29:11

 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

and.....

Psalm 139: 15-17

       My frame was not hidden from you

    when I was made in the secret place,

    when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw my unformed body;

    all the days ordained for me were written in your book

    before one of them came to be.

 

How precious to me are your thoughts,[a] God!

    How vast is the sum of them!

Thanks for stopping by today!

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I am playing along with Word Art Wednesday - Anything Goes