Fun Friday

I snuck in some fun stamping time this morning before the rest of the day calls me--the yard needs mowed, and other chores need taken care of---you know how it is! I had won a Taylored Expressions Birthday Boy kit from Laura Frederickson--and today was the first chance I had to play with it! What fun! All the products are color-coordinated--ribbon, paper, DP, brads & glitter! I did a little assembly line and made several cards; so easy when all your products are right there in the kit! I am not sure this is still available, but you can at least look at the DP here.

I inked up the little snail from My Cute Stamps' Little Forest Friends and colored him with some Copics and SU markers. I couldn't resist adding some polka dots from PTI's Polka Dot Basics, and then some sentiments: one from Verve's Petals and Stems, another from MFT's Essential Sentiments. Here is the inside of one of them: Of course, I had to use that perfectly matched ribbon and some yummy Waterfall Glitter! I used Brilliant Blue and Tempting Turquoise SU ink.

Last night, my SIL needed a wedding card, so I got out a set that was severely neglected, Fun & Fast Notes:

I quick snapped a photo from my kitchen table before she left! Image was stamped in Stazon and colored with reinkers and an aquapainter; it was then die cut with a Nestability Labels One die. I punched the border with a MS punch, embossed it with a CB Just My Type border and added some pearls and ribbon from Michaels. I used Shimmery White for the panel, Regal Rose and Pink Pirouette for the card.

Thanks for visiting today and have a great Friday! I may be back, who knows!

Altered Tin

Today's SCS challenge was to alter a tin--and after seeing all the wonderful creations, I am embarrassed to even submit my paltry little thing!  My friend gave me a bunch of these clear-top tins and they were just sitting around, gathering dust.....you don't have anything in your craft room like that, right?  So here we go:

I covered the side with some Manchester DP, and on the top added some Nestie-cut circles of Kraft and Always Artichoke, then stamped my little Trendy Tree on another circle of Manchester.  I stamped the spiraly-leaf thing a few times with Artichoke on Confetti White and punched it out, then popped it up on the lid.  I poked two holes on either side of the tree and added a hemp twine knot; the tag is also tied around the outside of the tin with twine as well.  I added a silver eyelet for the twine to feed through.

 

 

I'll put some goodies in here for my Dad for Father's Day....maybe some M&Ms! 

 

 

I was making some samples for my meeting, and after rooting through the scraps, die cuts, etc., that were littering my desk, I came up with this fun card:

Four layers of the Daisies #2 die cut in More Mustard form the flower; a big knot of Mellow Moss grosgrain forms the center.  The lady bug and sentiment are stamped in Riding Hood Red--gotta use it up before it retires!  Background paper is from the Hostess Patterns Pack.

And finally, I was experimenting again with stamping on SU's clear window sheets, and found a way to have the colors show up a little better.  You can look here for my first attempt.  This time, instead of letting the Stazon White ink dry, I applied the pastels immediately after stamping; they adhere to the ink and really stand out:

It's such a dreary day here, I hope you can see the effect in the first shot.  I mounted the sheet on a piece of Tea Party, and stamped my sentiment on another coordinating piece, then punched it with the small oval punch.  Funky Forest forms my monochromatic border on the Sage Shadow card.  I love this!

Thanks for visiting today!  If you need any info on any of these projects, just shoot me an email!

A Special Tweet

I am busily preparing for my downline meeting this weekend, PLUS a yard sale (why do I plan things this way??!), so I don't have anything to share yet today, but I did receive this wonderfully sweet card from Heidi!  Isn't it incredible?

Look at all these details!  She and her friend Carol share a blog called My Little Inspirations...you need to check it out, they have lots of creative creations!  THANKS, Heidi!  My day was happier when I received this!  I may have time to post later, if not, see ya tomorrow!

Color Throwdown #42

Hey, it's MY turn to choose the colors this week--Tempting Turquoise, So Saffron and Basic Black! 

I must have just gotten my Basic Grey Urban Prairie when I chose these colors!!!  Because that's exactly what I went for when I designed this card!  I had been hoarding that little bee paper, so I decided to use it today!  I got out my retired In Full Bloom set, and stamped the flower, leaves and bee on Shimmery White paper with some Black Stazon so I could watercolor them with my reinkers. The little bee was cut out and popped up, and the whole image was mounted on some oval Nesties because I wanted to use the Sweet Sunday Sketch #15 from Karen Giron.  

 

So here it is:

This is a BIG card--5 1/2" square.  This little baby will have to be hand-delivered to a special someone!  I used two BG Urban Prairie papers, some scalloped Nestabilities and a little CB tag die cut for the Papertrey sentiment. Some little fun embellishments are the itty-bitty bling down the center panel edges (and on the brad), some Twinkling H20s on the flower, Jelly Roll shimmer on the bee's wings, and some little Geo Sparkler stickers on the bees' wings on the DP.  I saw them on a card Janine made, and LOVED them!   Here's a closeup:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I got them at Stamper's Dream, and they come in lots of cool little shapes and colors!!!

So let's see what you can come up with!  Post your creation on your blog or an online gallery, and then link it back to the CTD blog using Mr. Linky.  Use the keyword "CTD42" if you post it on a gallery, so we can find it easily!  Don't forget, you could be chosen as a Featured Stamper or even a Guest Designer!  If you don't have these exact colors, feel free to substitute!  Now lets see what the others have come up with, including our Guest Designer for this month, Darlene:

• Broni - Splashes of Watercolor
• Tammy - Stamp Happy
• Cathy - Crafty Thoughts
• Barbara - Paper Pursuits
• Danielle – Wild Dragonfly Designs
• Darlene - Dar's Crafty Creations

 

• Stamps:  In Full Bloom (retired), Mixed Message, PTI
• Paper:  So Saffron, Tempting Turquoise, Basic Black, Shimmery White, BG Urban Prairie
• Ink:  Stazon Black, Tempting Turquoise, So Saffron, Certainly Celery
• Acc:  Nesties, CB Tag Die Cuts, Geo Sparklers, Bling from Michael's, So Saffron brad, dimensionals,  Copic & SU Markers, Jelly Roll pen

Glitterfied

I was delighted to see the colors for Stacey's Stamping Stage Jewelry Inspiration #36 this week:

You can go here to check out the beautiful piece of jewelry that inspired them!  I have had this glitterized chipboard bird sitting on my desk for a couple weeks; I planned to use it on something but never did.  So I grabbed a couple chipboard flowers and covered them with some Lavender Lace craft ink , Crystal Effects and some Martha Stewart glitter and went to work.  These are all RAKs from Kim Crawford (thanks, Kim!) and come from Maya Road.  I also used the Mojo Monday Sketch #86:

 

 

So here we go:

 

 

You can really see the glittery-ness of it in the top photo, which I took outside!  I used some lace from my sewing box,  and I stamped a little sentiment from My Cute Stamps' Little Forest Friends onto an oval of acetate and adhered it under the left flower.  The bird's eye is a little Twinkle gem from Taylored Expressions.  TFL!  And why don't YOU go play Stacey's challenge!!

• Stamps:  Flight of the Butterfly, Watercolor Vine Jumbo Wheel, Canvas (ret), Forest Friends by My Cute Stamps
• Paper:  Confetti White, WW, Lavender Lace, Tempt Turquoise, BG Lily Kate
• Ink:  Lavender Lace, Tempting Turquoise, So Saffron, Stazon White
• Acc:  Chipboard, Crystal Effects, MS Glitter, Acetate Sheet, Small Oval Punch, Grosgrain Ribbon, Cr Caramel Marker, Lace, Geo Sparklers Sticker, Twinkle Gem, Dimensionals

I Can Stamp Clearly Now.....

so corny, I know.  I was playing around with some of the new window sheets from SU's Occasions mini catalog after  I saw this post on Papercraft Planet about coloring your images stamped on clear acetate.  I believe she used the pre-printed ones, but I stamped my image in Stazon White ink onto a plain sheet, and just colored over them with my pastels once the images were dry--and they dry very quickly!

This sketch is from Karen Giron's blog, the sweetest thing, and she calls it her Sweet Sunday Sketch; this is #17.  As I said, I stamped the Pocket Silhouette image on a piece of window sheet in Stazon White ink.  Once it dried, I used a makeup applicator (like a Q-tip) from Walmart to color the image with my SU pastels.  It was simply matted on Basic Black & Certainly Celery panels; the card itself is Pink Pirouette and this awesome DP is BG's Porcelain.  I made a little triangle border by punching some squares and layering them, then adding some little Twinkles from Taylored Expressions.  Ribbon is the black velvet from Valet.  Sentiment is from SU's Sweet Little Sentiments.  FUN technique!

Here is another one I did--just sort of playing around--didn't color it in, but layered the window sheet over a piece of Candy Lane:

I added some Riding Hood Red ribbon, stamped a sentiment from Boho Backgrounds and punched it out with the jumbo oval punch and sponged it for some contrast.

Finally, I covered a little jewelry box with some Raspberry Tart paper, along with some candies, punched a window out of the box with my square scallop punch and lined the lid with a little scrap of a window sheet.  Popped the candies in and added ribbon and a tag, and I have a little hostess gift:

So have you played around with any of these window sheets yet?  I'll bet you can come up with some fun ideas, too!  These are super simple and easy!  Thanks for visiting today!  If you'd like to order some, click here!

Now, don't forget that tomorrow is MY turn to do the Color Throwdown, so stop back!  And also, Barbara Anders, another CTD designer is still in the running for the My Favorite Things Idol contest!  You can see her wonderful creation and get the link to vote tonight here.

Rock and Roll

Today's CAS challenge at SCS was to do the rock and roll technique.  Can I say that, for as many stamp sets that I have, I could not find any that really "rocked" this technique?  Very frustrating.  I ended up using Bojo Backgrounds for this very lame card, which used Fall to Layout #30 from Clean and Simple Stamping's blog:

The only redeeming quality is the pretty bling and the lovely DP, which is from K&Co's Hannah cardstock pad.  The image was stamped first with Baja Breeze, then "rocked" with Not Quite Navy, then punched out & layered on some Baja Breeze ribbon.  Sentiment is from Trendy Trees, stamped crookedly also in NQN.

This card is a little better.  It actually makes me smile!  It uses Fall to Layout #41 and some new-to-me K&Co DP, Berry Sweet:

The top panel is the reverse side of the main panel; I already had the Baja ribbon and ink on my desk, and it matched so well, I went with it!  The little flower is from PTI's Green Thumb and sentiment from Paper Tray; flower brads are Chloe's Closet and button is SU's Button Latte.  The panel is matted on Apricot Appeal; card is Kiwi Kiss.  I can't wait to send this to someone special!