This card is SO COOL!

Ok, so I'm LOVING this challenge with the distress products! I am also REALLY LOVING on the Sharp Backdrops set!!! This card takes me back to my childhood and I LOVE these colors! Mustard Seed and Picked Raspberry are my color choices for this embellie that I also used Unicorn colored Hero Hues by Hero Arts to stamp the arrows over my distress ink. The distress ink wasn't QUITE as dry as it should have been, but I LOVE the effect! The sentiment is from Here's the Scoop which is a set I LOVE but haven't stamped enough!

The background is just black cardstock cut a tiny bit skinnier than a standard card so my fancy shape there could hang off the edge. I "stitched" around the image with a Memento Tuxedo Black Marker. The white ink on the card base is also Unicorn by Hero Arts. 

Thanks so much for taking the time to check this out! And as a special note, this is another project completed later than the entry time... LOL! I don't care it was inspired by the challenge and I love it so!

Thirty Rock! (And me!)

I worked on a layout while I was away petsitting this weekend. The only thing I had left to add when I got home was a title. I thought I had enought of these awesome Redy-Set-Chip letters from Cosmo Cricket hiding out in my stash, but it turns out that I was missing an "r." So I decided I could make my own.

I started by punching out all of the letters for my title, including the letter I would alter into another "r."

I placed the actual "r" on top of different letters I thought would be easy to alter, I chose an "n." Then I just held up the letters stacked together like this and then cut them with my Tim Holtz Tonic scissors (because they cut anything).

This is how it turned out and I am very happy about it!

Here is my layout. The papers came out of the Echo Park Photo Freedom II collection kit. I used stickers from the collection and lots of diecuts from The Pier collection from Crate Paper that is in my stash. I also used my lovely new Paper Smooches Stamps to embellish on my LO. This set is Super um, and it is! The ink on the page is Peacock Feathers Distress Ink and I LOVE this color!!!

Oh, and as a side note I used Picasa to make the collage of photos. I'm feeling better about making collages, now I just need to work on printing square photos at home. Any tips?

HI, Lawnscaping Challenge #64

LOVING all the awesome cards over at the Lawnscaping challenge blog, their challenge is one I can really get into! It's all about being a Distress Maniac!

I went to town with a mini mister and the following Distress inks: Seedless Preserves, Peacock Feathers and Picked Raspberry. I also edged my leaves and watercolor paper with Tarnished Brass Distress Paint. The embossed images were stamped with Distress embossing ink (just because it was here... and why not) and the embossing powder was gold from Ranger. I used Sharp Backdrops that I just got from Two Peas along with Quinn's ABC's which is my FAV alpha from Lawn Fawn! 

I went ahead and stamped out more of these arrows on another scrap of watercolor paper (this piece was a scrap that I decided to add to a card without cutting it down). I played with some different colors of Distress Ink on it and also need to practice stamping these arrows better. I left this as the background for my card because I like that they look like they are converging, it made me think of leaves swirling about in the fall. Let me know what you think. And while you're at it, why don't you play along?

In the Loop!

I posted a second video last week, it's a Two Peas Haul. Lots of goodies and my next project comes from supplies in this box (hmmm, the previous one did as well).

Paper Smooches Challenge August 19-25

This week's challenge is a color story:

I varied my "coral" a bit because I had didn't really have a coral but I have a new pink I wanted to use ;)

I layered flowers from Calico and the sentiment is from Cyber Cafe. TFL!

Spring/ Summer, Exciting Events Mini as Gift!

So I have been working this week to finish a mini that I've been "working on"since June. I kept thinking it needed just one more thing and couldn't figure out what would make it feel complete to me without becoming overwhelming to the recipient. I think I nailed it so I filmed a video of the mini for you. Please to enjoy.

I will be working on a Paper Smooches project this week, I kind of feel like I can do something else now that this is finally finished! HUGS!!

What a CUTE Bird!

There's a new roommate in the apartment and it's time to scrap about it! I dug into my stash and grabbed some Webster's Pages, some pages out of my Heidi Swapp Shabby Chic paper pad that's still going... and a sketch from Shimelle . I also grabbed a set of Paper Smooches Stamps because my background just looked too bare.

Here is the result:

Well this waiting's over... and I'll do it again!

So ClearScraps announced their new design team. I didn't make it this year, but some very talented ladies did. You should check them out! I love their products and their blog gives tons of ideas and inspiration.

Here is a layout that I made to submit for the DT tryouts:

I used a ClearScraps Acrylic star, along with my favorite Doily Mask from ClearScraps (they call them Mascils), I stamped a unicorn from Lawn Fawn and colored it myself. The paper and diecuts are from Crate Paper (The Pier collection). I stuck a random doily from the grocery store in there, some ruffled ribbon, thickers, tiny word stickers from Cosmo Cricket (and letters), and some plain black cardstock behind my photos. 

I'm a little disappointed that I didn't make this DT, but if at first you don't succeed, try and try again. 

Thanks for stopping by today. Hope you are having a lovely and creative day!

Lawnscaping Challenge #63

One layer Challenge. I decided to play along with the Lawnscaping gang this week. I love LOVE it over there, they have great challenges and fab inspiration for using your Lawn Fawn Stamps! (BTW I'm dying for the Yeti, Set, Go set to be available to buy!!!) I made a postcard for this challenge and hey, I used some Christmas Stamps in a non Christmas way! I used the sets, Sweet Christmas, Critters In the Forest, Quinn's ABC's and Hats Off to You. I colored in these images using a few Distress Inks. And went over the postcard with Vintage Photo. I think it looks AWESOME! Hugs and don't forget to check out the Lawnscaping blog!

EEK! PaperSmooches Sparks Challenge Ending August 11!

So I've been stamping and playing and trying to come up with an idea for something to go with the design trend challenge over at the Papersmooches Sparks blog. The inspiration this week is the current fashion sheer/clear trend and my final project after some rejected starting was this Halloween Treat Bag:

I LOVE this cute stamp set and will be making some other treat bags to go along with this one!

So glad to get it finished just barely in time to enter ;)

I am LOVING playing along with their challenges every week, so much inspiration over there!

Playing with stuff!

I got several new stamp sets from PaperSmooches last week. I am sure you will be seeing them on upcoming projects! BTW they have a free stampset for qualifying orders every month, and a perks program, so check them out!

So sometimes when I have stamps, I just want to see what they look like, um especially if I have new ink I haven't used yet. Like the Neon Pink Hero Arts inkpad I recently picked up at my local Paper Source. I opened up my neon ink and just stamped, playing with some pattern, then just practicing how hard I might need to stamp some images... and to me, that's all in the name of F U N!

This is different from the day I just felt like coloring, I really wanted to play with stamps and ink, check out how many generations I could get with the neon, it does stain but I think it's cute my little superhero is now pink, LOL. The yellow is Lemon Drops by Jenni Bowlin for Ranger dye ink. I'm liking the dyes right now, what can I say? I got an exciting box yesterday full of scrappy goodies from my friend Christine over at Scrapbooking Technique she and I were both having some creative block and so I just packed up a bunch of things that weren't doing it for me and mailed them to her. She did the same right back for me ;)! It was awesome to open a box full of goodies that I didn't have and start drooling. I have a couple of "made" projects that I'll be sharing for the next couple of posts and soon I hope to have something really cool made with some of my surprise box of goodies ;)!

Have you ever just boxed up and sent things that you haven't used and that you liked so much you knew they needed some love?

This little mini is another one of the projects that I submitted to the ClearScraps Design Team call. I made it from a slide frame. Talk about play. First I wanted to see how the Distress Paint would work on the acrylic. It looked ok, but the Mascil edges weren't as clear as I wanted, That's the Distress Paint I used on the ClearScraps heart as well. Then I painted over the back of the slide frame with pink which I was almost out of (Claudine Hellmuth paint that is...) and then a coat of white because like I said, I was running out of pink. I played with my punches to get the cloud and butterfly shapes and then attached them to the frame. I cut down some My Mind's Eye Papers from the Kate and Co. collection to make the pages of the mini. Some of the pages I used that awesome ClearScraps Doily Mascil to add just a little OOMPH to the background! This mini is PERFECTLY sized for wallet sized photos, I just have to decide if I'm going to print up some tiny photos or give it as a gift.

The Waiting Is the Hardest Part ;)

There have been several design team calls lately, a lot of them actually, it's that time of year. I have submitted to some in the past, but there is one that I always "wanted" to submit to and never actually did. I bought their products, had them in my stash, used them... and well, just didn't think I was good enough. But not anymore. My attitude about that sort of thing now is, well... the worst they can say is no. I like my stuff so why not submit. I did want to make some new projects because well, it had been a while since I did anything particular with their products and they have a lot of new stuff and I order more stuff online now than I used to as well as I have awesome places that will special order for me if I ask.

With all that being said, let's get to a project why don't we ;).

This card features so much that I love. It is kraft paper, it has a doily on it (and this doily isn't misted or painted or anything.... There are sequins and ribbon that I bought and had trouble using (for fear of running out) forever ago. And that LOVELY piece of ClearScraps acrylic! I started with the ATC size piece of Clearscraps acrylic, stamped a PaperSmooches sentiment on the acrylic in Staz-On ink, stamped the greeting on a 3x4 card from the cut apart sheet in the CratePaper The Pier collection, cut the sentiment out, glued it to the doily where I was going to line up the acrylic. I used the Doily Mascil, taped off the sections that were't the little triangles and added Ferro from Viva Decor in the color Graphite (yummy texture from this product too!) I allowed the Ferro to dry then attached the clear element to my card using of all things Fabri-Tac behind the triangle shapes. The sequins from the diecut pack of The Pier Collection was the finishing touch.

This card makes me smile!

I won't know for a while longer if I made the team, but I am really proud of myself for deciding that I can submit!

Thanks for checking it out!

You Can Make Funky Things

I have to say that before yesterday I hadn't played with Shrinky Dinks in many years. And I LOVED it as much as I did when I was a kid! Oh my, stamp an image, color with your favorite coloring tools then shrink them down (takes 3 minutes in my toaster oven. I made a whole bunch of little goodies, but today I'm going to share the first completed project. I made a bracelet. (not for me, but I'd totally wear this, maybe I need one too!)

(sorry for the glare...)

I used the Critters Ever After Stamp set from Lawn Fawn. I stamped out my unicorns. I began by lightly sanding my shrinky dink plastic (as per the instructions), then I stamped my images (I stamped them twice because I used Momento Ink the first time through and wound up wiping them clean off my plastic, the second time I used black Staz-On)I used copics to color the images, then I punched a hole where I wanted to place my jump ring and carefully cut out the image. Then you just pop them in the oven (I used a toaster oven) and watch them shrink. The instructions say you can use your heat gun, but  I didn't want to attempt the heat gun action with all the paper bits on my dining (read crafting) table right now. I do love how this turned out, and I hope Bella loves it. Ok, time to make something else with more of these hand made embellies... OH MY they are fun!