New set up!

Last weekend my 6 year old computer, that I got up at 3am to buy on Black Friday 2004, finally decided to die. Well, actually the router died, but because the computer had long since rejected it's own disk drive, I couldn't install another. So, I finally got a new computer!
It's quite the difference from the old one. For one, the monitor isn't the size of my desk, and doesn't weigh 450 lbs. yay! For two, it's super fast and just plain gorgeous.
Why I am sharing this with you? Because hopefully, having a new faster machine for me will mean more posts for you to read!

Also, I think it's time for a new desk. When I was a teenager I was obsessed with antiques and all things "Shabby Chic", and I found this desk and an antique mall for $40 and scooped it up. Over the last ten years it's been moved 6 or 7 times and the paint has been picked off... even as I was waiting for the picture to load I was absent minded chipping away at the paint with my nail, oops. And it's one of only two "antique" things in my house. Now I like my stuff new and shiny. oh well, it works for now.

Hope you are having a great week!

Buttons and Ribbon: New Card Cupids Challenge!

This week at Card Cupids our challenge is "Buttons and Ribbon". I made this simple card:
using a digi stamp from our sponsor (and one of my most favorite Digi companies!) Bugaboo. And the winner of this weeks challenge will get SEVEN free digis from Bugaboo! If you've ever browsed their store, you know this is an awesome prize :)

It's a super easy and fun challenge, so I hope you enter!

Zebra Cake aka the cutest cake I've ever made!

Yesterday my best friend turned 26, and today we're having her big birthday bash! She asked me to make the cake (I'd already been planning to do so!) and mentioned she liked purple fondant. This was the first thing that popped into my head:




I LOVE how it turned out. I'm seriously proud of this cake and I hope she loves it!



Inside is black magic cake with chocolate ganache filling and this buttercream, which is my new favorite buttercream recipe!

I know that pedestal looks bad, but the cake wont be served on that :) It was just for decorating purposes!

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

The winner from my giveaway was number 16: Samantha! Thank you all so much for entering and Samantha, you have an email ;)

psst!

You still have a few hours to enter my little giveaway at the bottom of this post. I'll post a winner tomorrow morning!

Card Cupids Challenge: Red, White and Blue

I had a hard time with this weeks challenge at Card Cupids, and I'm not gonna lie: I don't love my card. When I hear Red white and Blue I think:



And it's really not the season for flag cards, and I think making one would have been a cop-out. But I DO love my little bear digi stamp from Bugaboo and my Cherry printed paper from DCVW and my "Little Sunshine" stamp from Pink By Design...so I think I will try to make another version of this card in the future.

What did YOU come up with?

Card Cupid Blog Appreciation Tour

Welcome to the Card Cupids Appreciation Blog Tour!

Be sure to start at the beginning at Card Cupids, so you don't miss a thing! If you're coming from Christy's blog, then you are in the right place.

Our Blog Tour theme today is Valentine’s projects for children! I'm going to show you how I made Chocolate Dipped marshmallows on a stick.



To make chocolate dipped marshmallows, you will need:
Marshmallows (these are strawberry ones, om nom nom!)
Lollipop sticks
chocolate (I used semi sweet chips)
Sprinkles (optional)
Hideous Green Counter tops (also optional, but it would make me feel better if you had them too)

I made a stand using a block of Styrofoam, red ribbon and paper to hold up my sticks.

First, dip the tip of the sticks in melted chocolate, and then put the stick in the marshmallow. Let these cool.

Then, holding the stick, dip the marshmallow halfway into the chocolate and top with sprinkles. Let cool.
Put the marshmallows in a tiny bag and tie with Ribbon.

And display however you want! So easy and cute! Your kids can help with almost every single step of these adorable treats and they will LOVE to make them! (I know I did!) It would also be really easy to cut tags and add them to the ribbon so everyone knows who they're from.

The secret word from my stop is SMILES. Remember, to win the Blog Tour prize you have to email the secret sentences to info@cardcupids.org by 11:59 pm February 14 with subject: Blog Tour Prize.

Card Cupids is collecting handmade cards, new stuffed animals, coloring/activity books, crayons and markers for Absolutely Incredible Kids Day on March 15 as well as cards for Kate and Christopher and their siblings. If you would like to donate handmade cards or care package items, please visit Card Cupids for more information.

Your next stop on the blog tour is Heather. Have fun!

Card Cupids mission is to provide encouragement and joy by sending Card Cuddle Care Packages to children who are facing difficult challenges in their young lives regardless of their economic background. Card Cupids believes that every child needs to know that they are loved. A stuffed animal to hold, along with cards that share a positive message can help lift the spirits of children that are faced with difficult challenges. Card Cupids collects handmade cards to be sent to children along with new stuffed animals, coloring books, activity books, crayons and markers. Card Cupids hopes to provide numerous Card Cuddle Care Packages to children in hospitals, foster care, homeless shelters as well as children facing difficulties.
Now, if you've read this far, here's a treat for you! Follow my blog and leave a comment on this post by 8am PST on 2.19 to enter to win a $10 gift card to either Michael's or JoAnn's (winner will chose!) be sure to leave me an email address where I can reach you!
I will draw a winner using Random.org on Sunday, February 20th!


Happy Valentines Day!

New Design Reveal!

Happy Thursday everyone! If you're reading this in a reader, I invite you to hop over and see my SUPER cute new blog!

Do you love it? Because I do!

Thanks again to Brittany at Brittany Garner design for this adorable header, I think it's perfect for Pumpkin Butts :)


Want one of your own? You can find Brittany's Etsy shop here.

psst: Be sure to come back Saturday for the Card Cupids Blog Tour! I'll be having a giveaway!

New challenge and news!

This week's challenge at Card Cupids is to create a boy themed card. We needed to use a digi stamp from Fresh brewed Designs and I chose "Squeakers Ride".
Most of my cards end up girly. I can't help it! I always use glitter or pearls or some sort of non-masculine embellishment. So I kept it simple using mustard and brown paper (both from Stampin' Up) and a scrap of red patterned paper. I thought it sort of looked like Squeakers was going to a picnic, with his cheese strapped to the roof, so I love the picnic blanket looking paper.

On to the News:
This weekend Card Cupids is having a Blog Tour! It starts Feb. 12th at 8am. It's going to be HUGE with nearly 20 stops and prizes and tons of Valentines day projects. Hope to see you there! You'll want to stop at Card Cupids first so you can get the correct order, because there's going to be a secret word at each stop you'll need to collect to be entered in the grand prize giveaway.

And in Pumpkinbutts news: Pumpkinbutts is getting a mini makeover! My talented friend Brittany is working on a custom blog header for me and I'm so excited! Brittany has an Etsy store here, where you can find adorable digital art, custom monograms and labels, wedding invitations, and all sorts of fun stuff. Super excited for our mini makeover! Hopefully I'll have it up in a few weeks.

Card Cupid 3D Challenge!

The challenge this week over at Card Cupids is 3D or pop up cards, sponsored by Bugaboo Stamps. I have to admit, it was stinking hard to pick my stamp for this challenge because their stamps ARE SO CUTE! I want them all!
But, I chose this little boy with the giant adorable cupcake, and I love him :)

I made a stair step fold card. The dimensions are 10.5X5.5 and it's folded at 1 1/4, 2 1/2, 4 1/4, 6 and 8 1/4. You can find a great tutorial of how to make this card on Split Coast Stampers. Just be sure that if you are not using a scor-pal, you follow the second set of directions on where to score! I messed up the first time.
patterned papers are from my scrap stash
cupcake is from Sweet Treats, cut at 3 inches (made from all scraps)
stamp is from Michael's $1 bin
ink is Distress Ink in Black Soot
Boy is colored with Crayola markers and accented with a Spica Pen!

The winner of this challenge will get to pick SEVEN free Bugaboo images! That's an awesome prize!

Exciting News!

Now that the announcement has been posted, I can share that I've been selected, along with a ton of other talented ladies, to be a guest designer over at pinkcricut.com!

I'm a huge fan of Sarah's, and of her design team (Erin Lee Creative is one of the first cricut blogs I ever followed!) so I can't tell you how excited I am to work with them. I'm not sure yet when my day to be featured is, but I will let you, faithful two readers, know when it is!

Want to see the card that landed me the spot? :)It really is one of my favorite cards I've ever made. When I cut that tiny cupcake out and put it together, I may have actually squealed from delight. It's SO cute!

Recipe:

Bird from Create A Critter, 3 inches
Cupcake-Sweet Treats, 1 inch
heart and scalloped heart-welded and cut from gypsy
Face Stamp-Peachy Keen Medium Critter Faces
White gel pen
Diamond Glaze (makes the eyes glossy)
Patterned Paper- We R Memory Keepers Holly Jolly collection
heart brads-LSS
"Eat Cake" stamp-Studio G
Black ink- Tim Holtz distress ink in black soot
Red ink- Studio G
Pink Ink (around the edges of scalloped heart)-Stampin up Pink Passion
Ribbon-4 for $1 bin at Michael's
Blush-People Blush! I wanted him to have pink cheeks, but I don't own chalks..and since I'm on a spending freeze I had to make do. My own blush on a Qtip was the perfect touch and free to boot ;)

I hope you like my card and I cannot WAIT to see what this group comes up with in the next few weeks!

I'm also entering this card in the Getting Cricky with K Andrew Challenge to use a bird in a card!

Card Cupids Challenge!

This weeks challenge over at Card Cupids is Cards with more than one fold.
I made a Z-fold card and used the digi stamp from Sweet and Sassy Stamps called "Cocoa's Latte". Isn't it adorable?! The winner of the challenge will get three free Digis!

You have until Sunday to enter, and I hope you do!

I'm in love with a mini

album! I made my first mini album this past week, and I had so much fun that I've already made a second one. I love doing these!

Much like my regular scrapbooks, my minis are super simple and leave lots of room for pictures. The precious baby mini has almost no embellishments, because I don't really have any unisex ones (I'm not sure who that one is for yet). I may add some things later to make it more boy themed for my new nephew or my new GREAT nephew!

The Evalyn album is for some friends who are due to have their first baby later this month. I thought that it would be a sweet thing for them to fill with pictures and mail to an out of town family member or something :)
The little plaque on the front cover is to write in Evalyn's birthdate. The inside cover has a tag that pulls out of a pocket, and that can be written on or a photo attached to it. Each of the pages has a simple little embellishment, but mostly I just left lots of room for pictures and writing about how adorable Evie is!

So those are my very first minis. I'm already stalking ebay to purchase more chipboard books to cover and create more minis for all of the preggos in my life.

Love Layout

I made this layout this past weekend for a few of our engagement pictures (which I finally printed out through Snapfish-4 years later!)
This is the first layout that I've completed in 8 years! Obviously, I'm pretty proud of myself :)

The background paper and red paper are from a set that a coworker gave me for Christmas
The "LOVE" was cut from Elegant cakes and welded with the Gypsy and inked with Making Memories Sepia ink, and studio G red ink
The design on the corner is cut from Elegant Cakes, and also inked
The paper flowers are from Hero Arts
The brads are from a LSS
The flat back pearls are from my stash

When I originally designed the layout I was going to cut backgrounds for the photos from the Gypsy Wanderings cartridge, but when I got them on there it just felt too busy. My style for scrapbooking has always been pretty plain and basic, though, so I think this fits right in with the rest of my incomplete scrapbook!

I just ordered 100 more photos from snapfish, so I'm hoping to really get going on my scrapbook! I forgot how much fun it was.

Snaps for Provocraft

I just wanted to share a recent experience I had with Provocraft because I was really impressed with their customer service. They say that if someone has a positive experience they'll tell one person, but if they have a negative experience they'll tell ten people...so I'm trying to do the opposite by telling lots of of a positive experience :)

I got my Gypsy a few weeks ago and waited a few days to make sure I liked it before linking my cartridges. When I finally started linking them, there was one the Gypsy couldn't recognize, Create a Critter. I tried turning backwards, resetting the Gyspy, waiting a day, nothing worked. When I looked up on a few forums I saw that this was kind of common and many people complained about the long wait times with PC customer service, so I was dreading calling.

I called on Monday 1/3 and was on hold for only 15 minutes. I spoke with Christy who was so nice and apologetic that I ended up with a defective cartridge, and she said they'd send me a new one. When I hung up with her I had an email in my inbox asking about the call, and I received my new cartridge on Saturday 1/8.

Anyways, I was (am) super impressed with how they handled my issue, especially since I had such a negative attitude when I went into the process.