Just a Note

Today's Crazy 4 Cocoa challenge is polka dots :)!! I LOVE polka dots, but I honestly had a hard time adding them to this card. I am not sure why....perhaps the papers just weren't coming together....anyway.....I ended up going with this brown polka dot ribbon. Not sure it matches too well, but it was the best I could do with what I have without completely starting over ;).

I hope you'll grab your Cocoa images and play along with us today!!

My card uses an image and sentiment from our Love From Cocoa stamp set. I love this sweet image because you can stamp lots of different sentiments on the paper Cocoa is holding. A very versatile image, indeed :). The papers are from a new 6x6 pack I got by Webster's Pages. You just might be seeing them in our store soon ;).....

Thanks for stopping by today. We are heading out shortly to pick up a puppy we are rescuing......yes, we are crazy.......and total pushovers ;)! I'll post more pics later but I do have this one. She's a Doxie and her name is Daisy.


Inky hugs and puppy licks ;),
Korin

Cocoa Loves Springtime!

And so do I :)........this week's challenge over at Crazy 4 Cocoa Challenges is to create a Spring themed Cocoa card so this is what I came up with.

This also happens to be a sneak peek for next month's release :)!!! Cocoa took a short break but he's back again in a brand new set...watch for the release on April 1st.

Mother's Day is in late spring and since I am rarely ahead of the game I thought I'd *try* to get ahead some.

I have been using tons of kraft CS for my card bases lately.....I am not sure why, I just love it, I guess. I also used a bunch of scraps for this card....The floral paper I used for this card is from the Echo Park For the Record line. The red polka dot DP is from K&Co and the green polka dot DP is from Kaiser Kraft.

Thanks for stopping by and putting up with my sporadic posting. This weekend my oldest son turned 13-----ack I am now the mother of a TEENAGER!!!!-----so we were quite busy with parties and such. He bought himself a PSP with his birthday money last night, so I may never see him again ;)!

Here he is surrounded by his friends and brothers waiting for the guy at Laser Quest to TP him....yes, I said TP....the kids thought is was pretty funny ;).


Have a great day, stampy friends!!

~Korin

Release Day and a Cocoa Challenge

Yay for Release Day at Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps!! We have 6 fabulous new stamp sets for you today.....

If you love the whole collection, you can save $7 when you purchase our March Release Bundle!

And guess what???!!!.......we are giving away the WHOLE collection to one lucky stamper over at the Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps blog!!

Here's a card I made using the adorable Rainy Day Bethany set....


I actually made this for the Paper Crafts Magazine Stamp It Cards call, but it didn't make the cut, so I get to share it here for all to see :). I had so much fun coloring this image. You know how much this girl loves to color :)!

And speaking of coloring.....what do you think of this cutie-patootie :)????


Our Crazy 4 Cocoa challenge for this week is to use ric-rac on your card. I love how vibrant this card turned out and the colors are so much fun! The image and sentiment are both from A Cocoa Kind of Birthday. I honestly think this might be my favorite Cocoa image. :)

Thanks for stopping by today. I hope you'll take a moment to stop by the website to see our new release AND the SNSS blog to enter for the whole release give-away!

Inky hugs,
Korin

Cocoa & Flowers

It's Tuesday which means another Crazy 4 Cocoa challenge. Today we want to see flowers :). We're all anticipating Spring and flowers certainly say Spring, don't you think?

I used our Write Soon Cocoa digi stamp. The papers are from Basic Grey, but I can't recall which pad at the moment.

I'm keeping this one short today, but I do hope you'll join the challenge :). We'd love to see your flowery Cocoa creations :).

Inky hugs,
Korin

It's Crazy 4 Cocoa Day!

For today's challenge we want you to paper piece your Cocoa image. I have a confession.....I didn't get around to making a card because I have been super busy with a few other things so I am sharing a card I made last summer. It's been almost 6 months so I thought it would be ok to share it again ;).

If I can, I will make a new card and share it later today.

Thanks for stopping by.

Be a blessing to someone today!
~Korin

Sweet Christmas Wishes

Yes, I know, Christmas is behind us but today's Crazy 4 Cocoa Challenge is to use your favorite Cocoa image and well, this one, Sweet Cocoa as a digi or Cup of Cocoa as a clear stamp, is mine :). Wanna know why? Well, I am going to tell you ;).....it's my favorite because it's the very FIRST Cocoa image I drew :).

The pretty swirly paper is from SEI...I think the Holly Lane Collection. I always enjoy doing the out of the box technique with Cocoa's images....such a fun technique :).

Thanks for popping over today. I hope you'll grab your favorite Cocoa and play along with us this week!

~Korin

It's Crazy 4 Cocoa Day!

And today we wanna see buttons :).....SEW, I thought the Sew Happy Cocoa set would be perfect for the theme.


I went a little crazy with the pink, but it totally works, don't you think ;)? Oh my goodness, now I am rhyming LOL!! The papers are Echo Park's Be Mine Collection.

I hope you will join the Cocoa Crazies this week and show us Cocoa and buttons :).

Thanks for stopping by today!!

I hope your day is full of God's goodness and love!

~Korin

For the love of chocolate

Cocoa is a mouse after my own heart ;).....he loves chocolate. This image is called Cocoa's Chocolates and I actually used the pre-colored version for this card :). Talk about quick and easy!

For today's Crazy 4 Cocoa Challenge we want you to use red and pink. I hope you will join us!!

Thanks for stopping by today!

~Korin

More Hugs & Kisses

Over at Crazy 4 Cocoa Challenges today we want you to make something reflecting a New Year's resolution.

My New's Year's Resolution is to give my family MORE hugs and kisses in 2011. It may sound silly, but I know how important it is for our loved ones to FEEL loved and they are so often taken for granted so I want to make sure they know I love them by my affectionate hugs and kisses :).

So.....my card features this fun new Cocoa digi, Cocoa's Heart, with a sentiment from the new set Love From Cocoa.

I hope you will join us this week :)!!

Blessings,
Korin

I'm alive...promise :)....

Sorry for my absence lately.....too much to do and not much time for blogging....in fact, today's post is going to be a quick one.

My card is for the Crazy 4 Cocoa Challenge this week which is a color challenge. I used a new set being released January 1st called Love From Cocoa.


Here are the Copics I used....


And how about I leave you with a pic of my sweet birthday boy, Aidan.....he's 11 today :).....

...and he is one stylin' 11-year-old ;).

Blessings,

Cocoa Challenge #3

It's Tuesday again so we have another fun challenge for you over at the Crazy 4 Cocoa challenge blog. This week we want you to make anything BUT a card using Cocoa so this is what I have to share with you today....


It's a huge pickle jar turned into a "Cocoa" bank. I save some of the craziest things for the purpose of altering them.....it's great for this time of year when you need those last minute gift items. :)

I used an image from So Sweet Cocoa. The papers are from CTMH and Basic Grey. It was actually a pretty quick project. The coloring probably took the longest amount of time.

Thanks for stopping by today. I am planning to work on getting my Christmas cards finished today, plus maybe a bit more cookie baking :).

I leave you with this thought today.....

"For unto us a child is born, for unto us a son is given: and the government shall be a upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this." Isaiah 9:6-7

This passage of scripture brings me so much joy....my favorite part is the last sentence....The ZEAL of the Lord of hosts WILL perform this! AMEN!

May you remember why we celebrate this season.....it's not the gifts.....it's THE GIFT!! Praise God!

Christmas with Cocoa

It's Tuesday again which means it's time for a new Crazy 4 Cocoa challenge :). All you Cocoa fans, I sure hope you'll join us! :)

Our challenge this week is to make a Cocoa Christmas card :). Even if you don't have a "Christmasy" Cocoa image you can play along. Be creative with the images you have. I am sure whatever you come up with will be wonderful.

Here's my Coca Christmas card using our new Cocoa's Christmas Tree digi.


This image was sooo much fun to color. I love the little ornament hanging from his tail :).

The papers are from Basic Grey's Eskimo Kisses line. I machine stitched around the two background panels and used Nesties for the image panels. Then I added the ribbon, Stickles, sentiment panel and gold pearls....overall a fairly simple card, just lots of yummy layers.

Thanks for stopping by today!

May you count your blessings today and praise your Father in heaven for each one!

Hugs,

Have you heard the news?

All you Cocoa Mouse fans out there are going to LOVE the new Crazy 4 Cocoa Challenge Blog! This adorable little mouse has found his way into many hearts so we thought a fun new challenge blog dedicated to Cocoa would be a great way to share the Cocoa love :).

Today is our debut challenge over at Crazy 4 Cocoa Challenges and I hope if you have any Cocoa stamps or digis, you will join the fun :). We're giving away an exclusive Cocoa digi designed just for this challenge to EVERYONE who plays along this week :). How cool is that?!

I actually have 2 Cocoa cards to share with you today in honor of Cocoa's new blog AND our next digi release (TOMORROW) which features many new Cocoa images :)!! WOOHOO!

First up is this CAS card I created for my youngest son's birthday on Friday.


This image is called Cocoa Loves Soccer and will be available as a digi starting tomorrow :). I created a fake ticket around the printed digi sentiment using my SU! ticket corner punch and a bit of doodling. The DP is from a Die Cuts With a View stack I got last year. I added a couple Bitty Brads from CTMH to the top corner....I just couldn't leave it without some kind of embellishment ;)! Still, it was a super fast card. Even the image only take a few minutes to color. Gotta love that!

This next card I created for a very dear friend and fellow Cocoa fan. :) I think she will really enjoy this card. I sure do :).

This image is called Cocoa's Stocking and will also be available as a digi starting tomorrow. :)

The papers I used for this card are from the Merry Christmas line by Echo Park Paper Co. To create the glow around this image I stamped it on white cardstock and added colored around it with my Copics starting with the darkest color and then getting lighter as I went out further away from the image....then I sponged around the edges with Rich Cocoa ink. It's quite deceiving because it looks as though I stamped the image on tan paper. It's a really fun effect and gives it a very vintage look.

Here's a close-up of the image with the extra 3D details.


The fuzzy stuff on the top of this stocking is actually a very tiny pom-pom that I cut in half to create a sort of flock. I then glued it down with a glue pen. I am not sure if you can tell by the picture, but there are little flecks of "glitter" in it. Sooo fun!

I used an Exacto knife to cut two small slits along the top rim of the stocking and inserted a few wire candy canes.

I then did a bit of faux stitching around the image and background panel using a brown journal pen.

The buttons have some yummy red and white baker's twine tied through them to compliment the candy canes.

The ribbon is sort of an iridescent shimmer to it....when the light hits it a certain way you can see red as well as the green :).

And finally here are the Copics I used to color this image....oddly not as many as the snowman image from yesterday....interesting.....


Phew! That went a bit long. If you are still with me, thanks for sticking it out :).

I do hope you'll grab a Cocoa image and play along with us this week! Let's start this new challenge off with a BANG!

Hugs,