Just Saying Thanks

I wanted to share with you the card I made and posted over at the Fresh Brewed Blog. Isn't he just a cutie?!!! It's Watermelon Boy from Fresh Brewed Designs. The banner and stamp set for the sentiment came from Simon Says Stamp. On vacation, the owners of the house we rented sent us a yummy chocolate cake and pound of coffee. We were shocked by their wonderful gesture. Now I hope I can track down their address so I can mail this card off to them.

I just wanted to remind you of our rubber stamps release and blog hop at Fresh Brewed Designs. The card samples will be fantastic and the deals oh so cool. Be sure to come on Monday, July 15th.

 

Life's a Beach

Wish I were still at the beach!!! We actually came home early from our vacation because my Dad suffered a stroke. He's doing okay, but we wanted to get home to see him and give Mom a helping hand around the house. Bear with me as I try to get my head screwed on straight after all that's been going on.

I made this card for fun and for a few challenges. First, this is a stamp set from Gina K Designs called Life's a Beach. I love the sandcastle image so I heat embossed it onto kraft card stock then highlighted some areas with a tan marker. The sentiment is also heat embossed and a little sponging was done along the edges of both it and the sandcastle. I had to get a pop of color in somehow so a little red twine and brads did the trick. And I used my new favorite clouds embossing folder for the background.

Some challenges I'm entering this card into are:
Crafty Friends - Photo Inspiration - I went with a summer theme
Brown Sugar - At the beach 
Jellypark Friends - Celebrate Summer
4 Crafty Chicks - Dry embossing
CCEE Stampers - Summertime is Beach Time
The Outlawz - Twisted Thursday Beach Challenge

You're So Sweet

Welcome to the latest and greatest clean & simple challenge over at The Outlawz. This week we're letting someone know how sweet they are by creating a CAS card all about sweets. I went with a Paper Smooches stamp set called Sugar Rush. Who knew popsicles could be so cute with smiley faces on 'em!! I added glossy accents to them as well for that fun shine. Some ribbon, a button with twine and a few sequins and my card is complete. Now let's see your sweetness, CAS style, over at our Sunday challenge at The Outlawz.

Summer Time

Welcome back to our Clearly iStamp Challenge by Clearly Digi Stamps. This challenge theme is Summer Time. One lucky winner will receive our featured digi set Happy Trails Camper. Since it's the featured digi and oh so cute, I decided to use it, merging the bear into the tent and the trees as decoration. A simple yet fun card. Please join over the next 2 weeks for our Summer Time challenge over at Clearly iStamp.
 

On Vacation

I think it's hilarious, the theme for our month long challenge at the Fresh Brewed Blog is vacation...and I'm on vacation as we speak (well, type & read!!). That's why I went with Bob from Fresh Brewed Designs. He's such a fun image!!! I've been in the pool more than in the ocean -- love the sandy beach, just prefer chlorinated water to the dirty salty water of the ocean! Call me crazy! Anyway, I sure hope you can join us for our month long Fresh Brewed challenge -- it's also a prize challenge!!!

Just a quick reminder of our rubber stamp release and blog hop Monday, July 15th. You definitely won't want to miss this one!!

Say Cheese!

As you know, I'm on vacation and really hope this posts! I'm super excited about Sweet Sketch Wednesday this week. First of all, here's the fabulous sketch! Isn't it wonderful?!! Yep, I love it too.

Secondly is our sponsor! Clearly Digi Stamps is offering our winner a $25 gift certificate to their newly opened store...yes, I said $25!!! My enthusiasm stems from the fact I'm on their DT as well. Talk about a fun week for me!!!

Clearly Digi Stamps (Clear Dollar Stamps) is a home-based business run by moms!  Located in Pleasant Hope, Missouri, we run the main operations out of Lori's (my) basement.  We have illustrators from all over the United States and join forces to bring you the a variety of styles and images at incredibly affordable prices.  We believe that the value we put in our Digi sets are above and beyond what you will find at many other stores....and we want it to be that way.  As moms, budgets are many times very limited, but we still need our creative outlet too!  Enjoy!

Clearly Digi Stamps has 6 artists that illustrate for us:  Laurie Wilson, Lisa Lara, Deedee Anderson, Austin Owens, Patrick Dunnegan and myself, Lori McCroskey.  We love what we do and love to create digis for you to play with!
If you have suggestions for Digi Sets, we would love to hear your suggestions....just send us an email at Lori@cleardollarstamps.com !

The parent company of Clearly Digi Stamps is Clear Dollar Stamps LLC.  You can learn how Clear Dollar Stamps got started below.

 How Clear Dollar Stamps got started:
Motto: Where value and creativity meet!
Hi!  My name is Lori McCroskey and I am the founder and owner of Clear Dollar Stamps, LLC.  I started stamping in the summer of 2000 while I was pregnant with my first little girl.  I had a friend from church that kept asking me to go to stamping parties, and I just thought stamping party, how silly is that?  Finally, I relented.  I went to a stamping party, got hooked on scrapbooking AND found out there were inks that I could stamp on clothing!  I have a fashion design minor so I was hooked from that moment on!  Can you imagine?  Matching clothes and scrapbook pages?  I was in heaven.

After having my first child, my ideas of spare time quickly vanished.  There weren't many stamped dresses, but I found time to do some scrapbook pages, cards and gifts!  As my passion for stamping grew faster than the money in my billfold, I decided to start selling one of the lines of stamps, for an existing stamp company, shortly after my second little girl was born.  I would throw food on her high chair and run to my stamping table in the same room to see how much I could get done while she ate!  LOL, We've all been there!   As time went on, it became harder and harder to leave my little girlies crying in the hallway as mommy went off to do a stamp party.  It just broke my heart.  Thus, the dream of Clear Dollar Stamps began.

Why did I start my own stamp company?  Most stamp companies, at that time, would not let you sell their products on the internet, which is what I wanted to do..I wanted to be at home.   I also found it very hard to find unique Christian stamps.  I really wanted something that would convey my love for God in a whimsical, out of the ordinary sort of way.  As a stay at home mom, I wanted to create a line of stamps that other stay at home moms could afford to create beautiful cards, crafts, and scrapbook pages.  Why did I name my company Clear Dollar Stamps?  I wanted people to know they were affordable!  Why do I have a cross in the middle of my company name?  I want people to know that Christ is the center of my business and the center of my life!

I come from a very crafty and artistic family, and believe it or not, I have the least talent of them all!  My sister is the trained artist of our family, not me, so I decided to teach myself to draw.  I invested in a drawing program, enrolled in an online tutorial service, and prayed for the girls to take LONG NAPS!  After much internet cruising for suppliers and manufacturers, Clear Dollar Stamps introduced our first set of stamps on eBay in October of 2004.  The learning curve was huge and at times very painful, but God always blessed my brain at just the right time with the ability to take the next step.

I give God all the glory for the very existence of this company and thank everyone who has prayed for me along the way!

I've gotta say, I really had fun making this card! The set is called Cool Camera and because I needed to make a quickie card, I used the color version. The flash and the heart are covered in Glossy Accents. The digital paper is also from the set. So fun in the pink and black. Sure do hope you can join us for another fabulous challenge at Sweet Sketch Wednesday. 

Tuesday Morning Sketches

Doodle Pantry is sponsoring Tuesday Morning Sketches this week. What a great sketch. I used the newly released USA Star, color version, which, until the 4th, is free. Just download it yourself from that link.

 

I've done this before and should have learned, but I was making this card from memory of the sketch, and thought the image was lower on the card. Oh well, it still looks like the sketch. 

So what plans do you have for the 4th of July? Here at the beach there's a parade in the morning that, if it would stop raining, we might go to. The we'll be grilling burgers and dogs...YUM!