Some Spring Cards...

I got to play a little bit today with some new stamps and my March Counterfeit Kit.  I struggled a bit with these colors, and I'm not quite sure that I was successful.  Getting inky made me happy, though!  Here are the 4 cards that I made today-but I still have a ton of paper in my kit that I want to use up!  I see a few more blue and yellow cards being created before the weekend is over. :)

This card uses some older stamp images from Hero Arts and Art Impressions.  My wonderful sister-in-law, Patti (the one who got me hooked on stamping a few years ago), recently passed all of her stamping supplies along to a few lucky recipients.  This is a thank you that I made for her using some of those stamps. 

I am in love with this little bunny stamp from Unity and Jillibean Soup's "Chicken Dumpling".  Isn't he sweet?  This is a super-simple CAS card that used just a few scraps of patterned paper from my kit.

I'm not quite sure about this card.  I think it needs a "pop" of color somewhere.  What do you think?  I think it just may be a bit too much blue for me.  I love the white lace over the kraft, however.  To make the kraft border, I traced a blue die cut border from my kit onto kraft, trimmed it with scissors, then used a brass stencil to dry-emboss the edge.  You can see just a hint of it in the picture.  Adds a little "oomph". :)

This card is super bright and cheery.  I used a Hero Arts flower set and a "vintage" sentiment from PSX (another pressie from my SIL.)  The blue and green patterned paper on the bottom is actually a journaling box that was on the back of one of my kit papers.  It worked perfectly as flower stems!  I added some bling to the centers and a little notch to the sentiment.

Thanks for stopping by today-and remember the Lily Pad Cards' Birthday Blog Hop starts tomorrow morning at 9 AM!  Lots of inspiration and goodies up for grabs!

Christmas (in July) Layout

***Please note that this is my 2nd post for today. Please scroll down for the Master Forgers' Blog Hop post. Thank you! ***


I really wanted to use my 4th of July add-on kit from this month's Counterfeit Kit Challenge, but I didn't have any pictures from this past 4th of July. I did, however, have these photos of a trip that my son, Ryan, and I took way back in December of 2007. We went to Washington, D.C. as part of the Wreaths Across America convoy. On this trip, Ryan placed a Christmas wreath on a grave at Arlington, and he also visited the grave of a soldier he had learned about in his Enrichment Resources class. We also got to meet the soldier's wife and daughter. It was by far the most meaningful trip that either one of has ever taken.

Everything on this layout is from either my July main kit or the 4th of July add-on. I stamped the banners at the top using a photo corner stamp from {ippity}. I also used a Unity Christmas bough stamp to stamp the red strip at the bottom with watermark ink. I am entering this layout in the "My Unity Place" Banners challenge.

Priceless

I love this card-I got a chance to try lots of fun little techniques! I made this card for a friend, using my July Counterfeit Kit and one of {ippity}'s newest stamp sets, Flowers + Friends + Priceless. I also made another one of Vicky's adorable little envelopes-I adjusted the scale to make it smaller to fit on the front of my card. I also included a little "something special" inside the envelope-a tiny tag with a cute little message.
This was also my first time embellishing crepe paper for a project. I trimmed the bottom edge with pinking shears, then used {ippity}'s Dots for Sure stamp to stamp teal polka dots. I then machine-stitched it to the front of my card. So easy, and I love the result! I will definitely use this technique on other projects.

I am entering this card in the current All Things Unity challenge-Wrap it Up. I used three kinds of twine and also used them three different ways. First, I tied on some buttons. Second, I used it as a clasp for my mini envie. Finally, I tried a new technique: I swirled it around on a round glue dot to create the center for my large yellow flower. I then surrounded the twine with a row of tiny gems.

Thanks for stopping by today-hope to have some more fun projects for you later this week!

June Kit Layouts

Our first challenge this month was to find inspiration in an ad. This was a tough one for me-until I saw this Keds ad in a magazine:
I loved the clean design of the layout and knew that it would work well with the photo that I wanted to scrap. I substituted some of my favorite papers and a journaling box for the extra photos in the ad. The background is embossed cardstock from Core'dinations. I lightly sanded it to show the texture. This photo is of my dad and some of his brothers and sisters (taken around 1937). My dad is the little blonde on the right, next to the pink flower. :)

Challenge #2 for the blog hop was to make an "I" page. I immediately though of my Pinterest boards, which I labeled like Apple products (like the iPod and iPhone.) My boards include iBake, iSew, iScrap, etc. I also lifted this design from a layout that I have "pinned" on my iScrap board. Notice the subtle background stamping on the gray background? I did that with my homemade chicken wire stamp! The metal clips were leftover from my May kit.

My last layout was for Challenge #3, "Get in Shape". The challenge was to use a shape as a design element on your page. I had included this large chipboard heart in my kit and knew that it would be perfect for this challenge. I inked it with Creamy Brown chalk ink and then stamped a small branch with heart-shaped leaves all over with brown ink. I also realized that I used all patterned paper for this layout-the only cardstock is my background, but you can't see it because it is covered with patterned paper strips! I can't remember ever making a project using only patterned paper. I really like the look-it reminds me of an old quilt. :) These photos are of me and my parents last summer.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. Today is my last "free" day before a very busy holiday weekend. I hope to get lots of scrapping done!

Lily Pad Sketch Challenge

I feel so honored to be working with the girls on the Lily Pad Cards Dream team. Our sketch artist in the amazing Lucy Abrams! She created this wonderful sketch for us to use this week:

We also have a generous sponsor this week, Penny Black! This was my first time using Penny Black stamps and cardstock. I used the Mimi in Paris set to create my card based on Lucy's sketch:

Ooh la la! Be sure to check out all of the details for this week's challenge HERE on the Lily Pad Cards blog. I know you will be amazed by all of the Dream Team's cards, as well!

Teal and Orange Thank You

I have SO many projects to share with you! I'll start with this one which I made for the Hero Arts "Catalog Inspiration" challenge and for Kim's Off the Wall Craftiness Challenge #42 to use white, orange, and teal. It's such a fun and sunny combination, don't you think?

For this card, I used both colored pencils and markers to color the little girl. I stamped the Thank You background using Broken China Distress Ink. then I just combined these stamped images with some papers from my stash. I really dug deep into my scrap bin for these! The orange Double Dot cardstock is some that I've had for 3-4 years, and the aqua solid (which has the script Thank You stamped on it) is about 10 years old! It is from one of the original SEI sets! I am really making a dent in some of my stash! The flower is from Hero Arts, the button is from DeNami Design, and the ribbon was from my bottomless stash of ribbon. :)

I will be back later with some of the cards that I made for Momenta's booth at CHA. Now that they have been shared on Momenta's Facebook page, I can share them here. You're gonna love the new products!

Paper Poinsettia

When I saw the tutorial for this poinsettia in the December issue of Cards magazine, I couldn't wait to try it. After a couple of attempts using different papers, I finally came up with this one, which I love! First, I "cheated" again by using a premade card base from Making Memories. To make my poinsettia, I stamped a text background stamp from Hero Arts onto rosy-red patterned paper from Momenta's Family Ties collection. I then cut and folded the petals, added some hand-cut leaves, and topped the poinsettia with a chunky brown button. Finishing touches included some American Crafts ribbon and a stamped sentiment (stamps from Unity and Ippity.) Hope to finish up my Christmas cards tonight-at least the ones that I need to mail! :)

DeNami Sketch Challenge #4

Good Monday morning! It is 42 degrees here in Maine this morning-a chilly start! It's almost fall, though, so I guess that is inevitable.

My card for this month's sketch challenge features some other signs of fall, like a cute little scarecrow, leaves, acorns, and pumpkins. Not to mention some warm and cozy fall colors! I used DeNami's new little Scarecrow and the Autumn Stamp Set, along with Leaf Green and Cream Cardstock. A few Harvest Boutique Buttons finish the card off nicely.

I'm so excited about this month's sketch-it's MY sketch! It 's my first time drawing the actual sketch for a challenge. What do you think? When I first drew this, I had planned on using just buttons for the little accents. As you can see, I changed that idea when I saw how perfectly the autumn stamps matched my scarecrow.

What would you use for accents? We want to see! You can see all of the details for this month's Sketch Challenge over on the DeNami blog. I'm anxious to check it out myself so I can see our fabulous DT's creations! By linking your project made from this sketch, you have a chance to win some yummy DeNami goodies! check it out!

DeNami Design Color Challenge

We're bringing our color challenge to you a little early this month-so you will have the long weekend to play along! Our colors were selected by DT member Michele. These colors look fabulous together! I always admire cards that feature black and white with a splash of color, but I have to admit that I struggle to use just one color! Most of my cards feature lots of colors because I love patterned paper and images that you can color or paper-piece. So this "Challenge" was definitely a challenge for me! If I can do it, though, so can you!

While I love patterned paper, I didn't have any that used just the featured colors. So, I made my own! I stamped black polka dots on hot pink cardstock using DeNami's Polka Dot Background. Then I stamped my focal point image-one of my favorite DeNami stamps-the Cupcake Tower. I colored the image with markers and added some Crystal stickles to the frosting. Although this didn't add any color, it added some sparkle and a little bit of texture., which I love. The final touch was to stamp Happy Birthday and add a touch of bling. Easy design, but a fun result.

I hope that you can play along with our Color Challenge! You can see the details of the challenge, along with the Design Team's beautiful cards, over on the DeNami Design blog. Thanks for stopping by today!

Welcome to the Polka Dot Blog Hop!

Today is going to be so much fun-I love blog hops! Even more, I love participating in blog hops and giving away prizes! If you are just joining the blog hop, please make sure that you start at the beginning HERE on the DeNami Design blog. You will want to visit all of the blogs on the hop for chances to win some fabulous prizes from DeNami and to see all of the Design Team members' cards. We also have three special guest designers for the hop, as well!

I got to play with some of DeNami's newest releases for this card. I started with the new Polka Dot Background. This is a Polka Dot Blog Hop, after all! I paired this background with punched circle embellishments-kind of like "over-sized polka dots", heehee. Each circle is stamped with a two-step stamping technique. I used the apples from the Apples and Pears Stamp Set. First, I stamped the solid apples using red and lime green chalk ink. Then I stamped over these with the apple outline stamp using black ink. You can use a stamp positioner to line them up perfectly, or you can stamp them randomly (like I did) for a more whimsical look. A little touch of polka dot ribbon finishes it off.

There is one more stop on the Polka Dot Blog Hop. You are now off to visit the lovely and fabulous:

WENDY ELLIOT

Thanks for joining us today! Remember to leave some love on each of the blogs for your chance to win some yummy DeNami goodies! Enjoy!

Little Scarecrow

Just a quick share tonight-a last minute entry for the Card Patterns #75 Sketch Challenge. For this card, I used DeNami's Scarecrow from the new releases. Isn't he just too cute?

I am also entering this in the Papertrey Paper Dolls Challenge #14. The challenge there has two parts: 1) use a color you don't normally use, and 2) use a technique that you haven't used for a while. The color that I chose to use was yellow-I never use yellow! It was only after choosing the yellow cardstock that I decided what the theme of my card would be. The technique that I haven't used for a while was to use the negative part of a punch. I actually used the negative of the pumpkin punch to dry emboss the orange border. I then shaded the pumpkins with orange and brown colored pencils to make them show up a bit more.

Another technique that I tried on this card was to make a watermark background using Versamark ink and DeNami's new Polka Dot Background. Because the cardstock was slightly coated, it didn't absorb the ink much. I wanted to see the polka dots a little more, so I shaded each polka dot slightly with a colored pencil. Not too carefully-I wanted it to look a little distressed.

And last but not least, it fits in with the color scheme for Color Throwdown #104. although my cardstocks were from Momenta, they are similar to the Color Throwdown colors of Tangerine Tango, Daffodil Delight, and Old Olive.

Thanks for stopping by again today-three posts in one day is a record for me! I just have so many projects accumulating and I need to share them, lol!

Mini Purses

Usually my projects are cards-they are quick and easy, and I send a ton of cards. So I have to admit I was a little nervous to try a template. Something 3D? Hmm...have I ever even done something like this before?
As I began cutting out this purse template from DeNami Design, I could see how it would come together and I got a little giddy. I love cute things, especially mini cute things!
The template was so easy to use because it's already printed on DeNami's white cardstock (which is a nice heavy weight and has a linen-like texture.) All I did was cut along the outline and fold on the marks. So, so easy!
I stamped one of the flowers from the Elegant Spring Flowers randomly as a background image, then colored them in. The only other embellishing needed was to add a ribbon "strap", a button and some sheer ribbon.
The first one was so cute that I couldn't stop! I ended up making three different jewel tone purses.
All supplies are courtesy of DeNami Design.
Don't forget to hop on over to the DeNami Design blog for lots of other "minis" from the DT! Nami is also offering a downloadable template so you can try one of your own! The downloadable template is normally $5, but use coupon code PCT2010 to get yours for FREE! Use your template to make a project and enter it into this week's Product Challenge. There are lots of fun stamping supplies up for grabs. Contest deadline is June 15th.

Graduation Owl

Today's card features this cute little Graduation Owl from DeNami Design. (You all know how much I love owls!) He's the perfect little guy to embellish a simple graduation card.

To make this card, I started with a red card. To that, I added a piece of black cardstock (attached with white micro brads) to "anchor" the center panel. The center panel is kraft cardstock which I stamped using the Diploma stamp and Versamark ink. To slightly define each of the diplomas, I lightly colored them with a white colored pencil. I finished them by applying a little bit of red Sparklets glitter to the ties. then I simply stamped and colored the owl, cut him out, and adhered him to the card front. A punched border on each side and a stamped sentiment (Small Congratulations) make for a super-cute, and super-simple, graduation card.

thanks for looking today, and don't forget to check out the DeNami Design blog for more cute cards from the DT using the Graduation Owl stamp!

A late Valentine's Day share...

but I just had to show you all. This is my first time trying something "shabby chic." I was very pleased with the results, but let me tell you-IT TOOK FOREVER! I second guessed myself the whole time I was making it. I knew that when it was done, I wanted to give it to someone special who would appreciate it. I gave it to my mom and dad. They've been having a rough time of it for the past few months because of my dad's health issues, so I wanted to give them something special to let them know how much we all love them both.

I made the shape of the card by tracing a chipboard mini album by K & Co. The base of the card is made from Bo Bunny Double Dot cardstock, flourish background stamp (heat embossed on the red heart) by Hero Arts, brown flourish on text paper from Gel-a-Tins.

Stamp Kissing, Pumpkin Scones and Prom

First I want to share a simple little "hello" card I made for my husband's Aunt Lois. I saw her last weekend-such a sweet lady and an incredible cook. She made yummy Lemon Biscotti. I told her about an easy and yummy Pumpkin Scone recipe. She asked for it, so I am sending it out to her in this card. (The recipe is listed further down in this post, if you want to try it, too. I believe it was originally in Quick Cooking magazine.)

For my card, I wanted to try playing around with background stamps again. (It is this week's challenge over on the Hero Arts blog.) I first inked my Meadow Petals stamp with Ice Blue chalk ink. Then I "kissed" an uninked stamp (a flourish from the Artistic Windows set) to the image before stamping it onto white cardstock. This removed some of the ink, creating a swirled flourish pattern on the stamped image. Then I just stamped the coordinating flower (A Real Violet) over the background image using Blue Iris and Olive Green chalk inks. I distressed the edges of both the white cardstock and the blue mat with my fingernail, creating kind of a watercolor paper look. I thought this was a nice touch, since the "kissing" technique created a watercolor effect as well.

On another note, there is excitment in our house today: my dd is going to her first prom! Her eighth-grade prom (how crazy is that?) is tonight. I'll be taking tons of pictures to share!

Pumpkin Scones: In a large bowl, combine 2 cups flour, 7 Tbsp. sugar, 2 tsp. baking powder, 1 tsp. cinnamon, 1/2 tsp. salt, 1/2 tsp. ginger, and 1/4 tsp. baking soda. Cut in 4 Tbsp. cold butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. In a small bowl, combine 1 egg, lightly beaten, 1/4 cup canned pumpkin, and 1/4 cup sour cream; stir into crumb mixture just until moistened. Turn onto a floured surface; knead 10 times. Pat into an 8-inch circle. cut into eight wedges. Separate wedges and place on a greased baking sheet. Melt 1 Tbsp. butter; brush over dough. Sprinkle with 1 Tbsp. sugar. Bake at 425 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Serve warm.

Enjoy!

You're a Dear Friend

I've just been playing this morning, trying out different background stamps for the HA challenge. This card uses the flourish from the Artistic Windows set. I've stamped it with brown ink onto plaid paper from the Basic Grey Recess paper pad (which I got for a song on Peachy Cheap.)

Even though I usually consider flourishes a feminine touch, I really liked the way it turned out on the plaid and think it would be a great addition to a masculine card.

I added an orangey-colored floral from SEI that had red dots-perfect for pulling the red out of the plaid paper. Red stitching, a red epoxy chipboard deer accent from Colorbok's Friendly Forest collection and red matting for my sentiment pull it all together.

I'm excited to try this stamp with other patterned papers now! Thanks for looking!

Hello Birdies

I made this card for the background stamping challenge over on the Hero Arts blog this week. I was inspired by THIS card by quilterlin. I used the Designblock Tree stamp over patterned paper by SEI. The little birdies are from the Holiday Birds set (just trim off the ornaments) and the Ink 'n Stamp-Birds and Branches set. I used a daisy punch for the flowers, but they were just too big, so I trimmed off the point of each petal and loved the results. Kind of whimsical, don't you think? I used a scalloped circle punch to create the window in the front of the card, then adhered the negative to the inside of the card. You can see just the inside of my card HERE. Thanks, Lin, for the great idea!