Happy Saturday!  I don’t know about you, but I’m so glad the weekend is here!!!  I’ll be back later with a card to show, but for now I wanted to let you know about some YUMMY blog candy upf or grabs!

Debbie is celebrating her blogoversary with this fabulous giveway (through April 30):

Kim is giving this set of goodies away for her blogoversary (through May 2):

Debbie is celebrating her birthday and her blogoversary (through April 27) with some fabulous candy that includes 2 Elisabeth Bell stamps!!!

and lastly, The Friday Sketchers challenge is looking for a guest Design Team Member (the call is open until May 1) – checkout their blog for more details.

Have a great day!

How’s that for a title? It’s all I could think of this morning – all of my creativity has been channeled towards crafting! I have really enjoyed playing with my paper and markers.  Last night Nadya joined me and colored a Butterfly with her markers (Crayola Pip-Squeaks) – a first for her and closely supervised by me!

What was I working so diligently on you might ask? Well, Cute Daisy May is having a Design Team call through April 13th – you can check their blog for more details.  If you’re not interested in the DT, they’re also running a weekly sketch challenge; the prize being a FREE download of your choice from the Cute Daisy May doodles collection.  Combine the DT Call, the Sketch, and the fact that my mom’s birthday is this weekend and I had no choice – a card MUST be made!

I printed Cute Daisy May Set 5 onto Whisper White CS (SU) and selected the little girl picking flowers from the set of 4.  I left her to dry for a couple of hours since I didn’t want my ink to run when I started coloring.  She’s colored in Stampin’ Write (SU) and Le Plume II (Marvy) markers with Spica clear glitter marker (Copic) on the flowers to add some sparkle.  I added the sky with my I Kan’Dee pastel chalk set (Pebbles).  After trimming the image, I used my Large Corner Rounder punch (SU) and matted the little girl on Lavender Lace CS (SU) that I had texturized with my CuddleBug Birds and Swirls folder and my Big Shot. The base card is 6×6 textured CS from DCWV and scored with my Scor-It.  I used silver organdy and bright pink grosgrain ribbons (Offray) from Hobby Lobby and JoAnn’s.  The flowers are from the Island Pastel Calypso Tin (Prima) and the pearls are EK Success/Martha Stewart, both from Michaels. The adhesives I used were TomBow’s Mono permanent adhesive runner and Multi Liquid Glue.  I’m quite pleased with how my little girl turned out.  I’ll add a birthday sentiment to the inside and give her to my mom this weekend (it’s a good thing my mom doesn’t read my blog huh?!?!).  LOL

I know I mentioned a Mega, so let’s get to that too shall we?  As you may recall all of the OLD DSO Mega kits were retired as of April 1. Today the DSO Design Team introduced our newest EXCLUSIVE collaboration -  April Showers. This spring kit is all about the water -watery skies and watercolors!  Gorgeous watercolored elements (including exclusive spring and April themed WordArt and hand-drawn elements) and 30 textured papers will make this fabulous kit fun to work with and it’s on-sale NOW!

For those that were asking, our first swimming lesson was FANTASTIC! Nadya loved the water and never cried – even when she inadvertently got a face full of water.  The instructor feels she’ll do well and is going to start survival and swimming techniques with her next week. Yea! I’m so glad my baby doesn’t have the same fears I do!

I guess that’s all for now – today is laundry day and now that Nadya is up, I need to strip her bed and conquer Mount “Washmore” (LOL).  On a side note, my blog candy prize from Hanna Stamps arrived – and it’s awesome! I’ll show you in my next post, but I wanted to say thanks to Vicki and Kristi for my treat!

Happy Humpday!  Wednesdays are one of my favorite days because we have a special dinner routine that started when both DH and I were slaving away at work.  We really liked seafood, but didn’t have the time to go out – so we started having it at home. It’s our little something special to break-up the week.  So, every Wednesday we have Scallops St. Jacques, Crab Cakes, and Shrimp w/ Cocktail Sauce.  Now that she’s a little older, even Nadya enjoys the shrimp! Yummy!  And, I only have to prepare once every-other week because the Scallops and Crab Cakes make enough for 4 servings – BONUS!

Are you interested in being on a Guest CT and working with amazing designs? If so, my dear friend Kristine (the Wench of WenchdGrafix) is having a call. Here’s the scoop (the image is clickable):

Having been a member of her CT, I can say without hesitation that she is an amazing person to work with and her designs a superb in quality and workmanship.

I know you’re waiting for the freebie, but gimme another few seconds of your time to shamelessly promote my challenge at DSO.  I’m hosting The Great Exchange.  This month we’re featuring 12×12 QPs or Card Fronts made by YOU using either Hearty Tarty or Fresh Posey by Kim Broedelet.  Check out the Forum for more information and join us! We’ve already had several stunning entries and YOU can get them ALL by joining us – so what are you waiting for?!?!

Ok, now for your freebie.  I didn’t create a Valentine kit this year, but in the spirit of Valentine’s Day and to support my love of color, glitter and sparklies, I have created 8 Glittered-Heart Page Edges/Overlays for you.  They are 12×12 and 300 DPI – and the glitters styles were created by me – woohoo – I loved playing with the brushes and settings in Photoshop too. So, enjoy your freebie (and you might want to try back on Friday as I have some news and maybe another goodie for you).  Please don’t share my files, send the masses to my blog instead.

Download expired, please check my DSO store.

That’s all from me for today.  I need to go play with my baby and work on income taxes (bluh)!  Have a fabulous Wednesday!

Shannon