Rainbow Banners

 Thursday already?! Wow this week is flying by!

I can't say I mind though because( between me and you) my birthday is on Friday and I have plans to go bowling with my hubby and some friends. Can't wait :)

My card today is for CAS-ual Fridays Banners and Flags challenge this week. I use a banner in almost every card I make since I usually position my sentiment on them. I wanted to try and be a bit more creative. While I was racking my brain I remembered a fabulous card I had seen on Laura Bassen's blog. I completely love it and could not get it out of my head :) She is such a talent, I could spend hours on her blog!

I loved the diagonal banners and the rainbow of colors in Laura's card so they made their way onto mine in a different way. After I trimmed and adhered my banners to a white card base I stamped the houndstooth background from Hero Arts in Versamark. I wanted to add some interest without making it SO busy. 

I white embossed my sentiment on a strip of black and added some rhinestones to finish it off. Embossing a sentiment is something I so rarely do but I {heart} black with bright colors so I had too hehehe :) 

It's a bit different for me layout wise too. Usually, I use my go to layouts and hardly ever try something else. I'm sure glad I did! Fortunately, CAS is one of the categories for Hero Arts monthly contest so I'll be entering this there too. 

Thanks for popping in! Enjoy your day :) 

Sweet Stamp Shop + Petaloo + Core'dinations = Fun

 

This week Sweet Stamp Shop is doing some sharing with Petaloo and Core'dinations. All of us had such a good time playing with so many fabulous products! Today the wonderful Laurel and I will be sharing our Back to School projects over on the Sweet Stamp Shop Blog. 

Here is just a sneaky peek at my project

I hope you head over to Sweet Stamp Shop to see the whole thing! Plus Laurel has created something fabulous you won't want to miss! Also there are prizes . . . .yep I said it! These are three awesome companies so you won't want it miss it :) 

Sweet Tart!

 Happy Monday!

Was your weekend super fun? Mine was! For our anniversary the hubby and I decided to take a trip up to Dearborn, Michigan to visit the Henry Ford Museum. Craig is a huge Ford fan and just about everyone in my family has worked at Ford Motor Company. Oh yeah, we are way blue collar :)

As an added bonus their was an Ikea about 20 minutes from where we were so before coming home we stopped there and bought some fabulous things to help organize my craft space, yay! I swear once it's not a disaster put together I'll share photos :)

I saw this adorable card by Samantha Mann in the Sweet Stamp Shop Flickr group and I couldn't stop thinking about that green Amy Tangerine Paper! I thought it would be a fabulous way to use that super sweet digital stamp Nicole made :) and it just so happens that The Play Date Cafe colors are black, white, and lime this week! Okay so it's not happenstance, I totally made this card with them in mind hehe :)

I love the way my little lime turned out! I printed it out on that Amy Tan paper, solid neon green, and white. I trimmed and layered until I achieved a look I liked. 

The sentiment was trimmed into a banner and accented by some bright green Doodlebug Twine. I have the bright assortment and all the colors are awesome! I adhered everything with dimensional adhesive then applied some stardust stickles. Super simple card :)

If you want a chance to win a Sweet Stamp Shop set of your choice or a guest DT spot here is still time to play along. The Paper Piecing challenge doesn't close until tomorrow night at midnight! You can see all the details here. 

Thanks for popping in!

Simon Says: Back to School

Happy Friday!

Any fabulous plans for your weekend? The hubs and I are finally going to celebrate our anniversary on Saturday! I'm hoping for a day trip maybe :) We so seldom to get to see each other it will just be nice to be together, you know?

Any who, Simon Says is hosting a back to school challenge this week. I so wanted to play along but I so don't have many stamps that qualify :( I've been out of school for years now and I don't yet have any babies so this is one of those times that I was ill prepared. However, I will not be bested! I will be creative :)

Take that back to school! In searching for anything that would be suitable I remembered I had It's A Man's World from Sweet Stamp Shop. and It's A Man's World has a pencil stamp in it, yay! 

I started by using MFT hexagon die and cutting from various pattern papers that read school to me. I used the grey from Amy tan's sketchbook and the red stripe/yellow polka dot from Echo Park's Dots and Stripes.  I fit them all together and trimmed to form a panel. 

I stamped the pencils and colored them with copics before adding stickles to them I printed the lined paper and the sentiment from my computer. I used an EK Success punch to create the notebook edge. That lovely twine is from Doodlebug. 

All in all I feel like I kicked back to school's booty. Oh the little victories. Ha!

Thanks for popping in! Wishing you a lovely weekend :)  

A new SWEET Challenge

Hello crafters!

I'm so happy to be here posting about Sweet Stamp Shops first weekly challenge! The very first challenge is paper piecing! Are these stamps perfect for this or what?!

Even if you haven't gotten your sweet tooth yet, no worries, you an still play along :) Using Sweet Stamp Shop stamps isn't a requirement although I don't know why you wouldn't?! They are so stinking cute :) Okay, ready for some SWEET paper piecing? Me too!

I used pattern paper! 3 different kinds! Shut up! I know, yay :) So first I took the little petal from happy bugs and stamped and masked like a mad woman. I think it was totally worth it though because I {heart} that flower. The leaves came from Melvin and Vernie. I really wanted the center to shine so I used black enamel accents. The wood panel and the flower pattern are from My Mind's Eye, Miss Caroline, Howdy Doody collection. Those adorable diagonal stripes are from Echo Park's Dots and Stripes (cannot get enough of this paper pad. MUST. BUY. MORE.!) I stamped my sentiment on a little banner and adhered it with dimensional adhesive. 

Want to know a secret?! Just between us crafters . . .there may be one or two extra special (free) goodies being shared on the Sweet Stamp Shop blog. Also the prizes for playing along are simply fabulous! Maybe you should head over an check it out hmmm? Added bonus, there is some awesome inspiration from my fellow DT members. 

Thanks for stopping by :) 

Under the Sea

Hey crafters!

We're half way through the week, how is yours so far? It was mine and my hubby's 2nd anniversary yesterday! We celebrated by staying in. ha! Well we didn't actually celebrate yet the hubs doesn't have any vacation at this new job yet so the celebration had to wait until this weekend.

 I am so blessed with such a wonderful husband. I'm grateful every single day that God chose him for me.

So back to the card :) This week I am playing along with CAS-ual Friday's challenge, splish splash, anything you might see near the ocean.

Didn't I just get the Under the Sea set from Sweet Stamp Shop?! Well thank God! :)

I started by creating a seaweed "seat" for my little mermaid. I masked and stamped until it looked the way I wanted. I then stamped the mermaid on a scrap sheet, colored her and trimmed her out. Once I adhered her with dimensional adhesive I gave her top and tail a healthy coat of stardust stickles. I mean, aren't all mermaids glittery!? hehehe

Thanks for popping in! Hope your week is wonderful :) 

Masculine (Kinda) Play Date

Hello Crafty Peeps!

How was your weekend? We actually had pretty good weather here, minus one short lived storm yesterday. I worked all weekend and we were a bit busy (insert stolen vehicle pursuit here) but everyone made it through okay :) Despite the rambunctious criminals I did manage to find some time to craft!

So before I share my card using this week's Play Date Cafe colors I would just like to say thank you to the whole PDCC team! You see, the card I entered last week won The Cup of the Week and now I have $25.00 to spend at Simon Says Stamp! *SQUEEEL!!!* Thank you guys so much for choosing me as the Cup of the Week :) There are so many talented people who along with this challenge and I'm so honored.

Okay, okay, enough mushy stuff. Moving on to this week's colors at The Play Date Cafe, which are

Burnt Sienna, Mustard, and Slate. 

I did not intend to make a masculine (kinda) card but now that it's done I feel like it is (mostly).

I started by cutting strips of orange and yellow to 1/4in. I adhered them to create a diagonal pattern on a piece of gray card stock. The gray is cut just slightly smaller than my card front. 

I wanted to add something else to bring attention to the sentiment but was really hesitant to do so because it was already so busy. Versamark to the rescue, ha! I stamped the plano stamp from Hero Arts just off the edge using Versamark. It's kind of hard too see so I took a close up

I rounded opposite corners before adhering the gray piece to my card base. After that I just added my sentiment banner and some gray twine from doodlebug. 

What do you think? Masculine or no? (minus the bow of course hehehe)

Thanks for stopping in! I hope your Monday is as good as a Monday can be :)

Happy Birthday Stephanie!

Just popping in to share some special birthday wishes for my fellow DT member

Happy Birthday Stephanie! I hope this is the most amazing birthday ever! Enjoy your day :)

I did a little masking to color in the starburst background with the Hero neon inks. And I super love the Polaroid from Wonderful World! That gorgeous chevron is from Amy Tangerine *LOVE* and I swear I do make other cards with a different color combination LOL 

A Bunch of us girls are all sharing our cards over at A Blog Named Hero. Head over there to see all the yummies :)

Sweet Sharing!

 Hey craft peeps!

It is my turn over at the Sweet Stamp Shop Blog today. I'm so excited to not only be sharing my projects with you but also some super fun news :)

Here is a little sneaky peek of one of them!

You'll have to head over to the blog to see the whole she-bang! Not only do I have 3 projects to show you but the news it's really awesome too :) See you over there!

Get your Kraft on!

With

It's time for a new challenge over at A Blog Named Hero and this time we are getting crafty with Kraft! 

Now if you follow me you know kraft and I, we aren't friends. Me and brights, we hang with black and white. Sometimes gray gets invited to the party but never kraft. So this was quite the challenge for me too! But in an effort to stop being a color snob here I am and I have a card with kraft. Surprisingly, it's a card I actually like too, ha!

Probably has something to do with that adorable little fox :) I paper pieced Mr. Fox with the yellow from Echo Parks Dots and Stripes. Then I built a little focal point for him to sit on using cup o' joe midtone ink and latte chalk ink. Recognize the sketch? Yep, It's from Hero Arts Monthly contest!

Thanks for dropping over! Now head over to A Blog Named Hero to see the rest of the DT's projects! Don't forget to enter the challenge too you could win a fabulous prize :)

Butterflies: You Make Me Smile

Happy Monday!

While most people are heading off to work Monday is my day off, ahhhh, day off :) So I spent sometime creating last night this week's colors from The Play Date Cafe. 

Now my first thought was to bust Hero Arts neon inks again but then I remembered a fabulous card I had seen on the super talented Danielle Daws blog. She used Christmas ornaments but I loved the layout so I decided to put my own spin on it. P.S. Her coloring is far more fabulous :)

I masked the area I wanted to stamp in then drew my border lines with a ruler. I stamped and masked the butterflies until I was happy with how they looked. I colored with my copics and added details with my white gel pen. I thought the sentiment was a perfect fit because, well, CAS, bright colors, and butterflies do make me smile :) Oh and stickles, stickles make me smile too, so I added them also lol. 

Thanks for stopping by! Hope your Monday is chock full of smiles :) 

Moxie Fab: Type Hype

 Back again :)

This time I'm sharing my take on Moxie Fab's Tuesday Trigger. This week's trigger is such a fun photo!

Now I don't actually own any stamps sets that have a typewriter in them (seems to be the theme of the day, no?) I super loved the keys and the fun colors so I concentrated on that.

I started by tracing my smallest spellbinders circle with a black pen. Once I had all my circles done I started coloring them in the same bright colors from the keys. I also tried for a similar pattern. Since the pattern is so busy I kept the sentiment short. I tried to incorporate the text with Hero Arts Essential Messages. All the lettering is old school type font :) 

and because everything should be shiny I covered every dot in glossy accents. It looks super cool in real life but you can't see it in the photo at all :( so I'm including a close up!

See?! Super shiny! 

I chose Hello but I actually think this would make a super fun birthday card :) 

Thanks for visiting! Hope you are enjoying your Sunday!

CASology, Finally!

Happy Sunday Crafters!

So a little while back this fabulous new challenge blog appeared called CASology. They focus on clean and simple cards like some other challenges do but what makes them different is the way they inspire you. Instead of a sketch or an image it's just a word. Talk about a myriad of different takes :)

Any who I've been trying to play along since week one it just hasn't worked out for me. Any challenge with a weekend deadline usually doesn't fit into my timeline since I work EVERY weekend. But this week I finally got a card done, yay! So the CASology word this week is:

and here is my interpretation

Okay so I have NOTHING in my collection (no frogs, lily pads, cattails, nothing!) that reminds me of ponds so per usual I made my own! 

I started with a dark blue background to create my pond "water". Then I really wanted to use a lily pad so I cut 3 squares and rounded the opposite corners. I stamped the "pad" with Hero Arts stripes background to give it some pattern. The flower was stamped on that pretty pink then trimmed out. I added some lines with a white gel pen and added stardust stickles. 

I can't seem to stop myself from adding twine banners to everything lately! I had all this twine I'd never used now all of a sudden I'm putting in on everything LOL. Oh well, I think it's cute :)

Thanks for dropping by! I'll be back later to share my take on this week's Tuesday Trigger. See you then!! 

Sweet Stamp Shop August Hop & One Year Anniversary: Last Day

Hello, Hello!

So the final day of Sweet Stamp Shop's August Release and One Year Anniversary Celebration is here! Are you ready to see the full sets? Nicole has done such an amazing job creating these adorable sets. I really do love them! I also have a confession to make :) I hop right along with you guys because the design team makes such fabulous projects I can't help but want to go see them hehe!

You should have arrived here from the Sweet Stamp Shop Blog but if you just popped in you can join in the fun by starting there.

Ready for some sweet eye candy?! I have three cards for you today because I am SO IN LOVE with this set :) Let's get right to it, introducing Pattern Craze!

If you visit here often you know I love, love, LOVE! rainbows and stardust stickles. So I adore this card :) I also used Sweet Spring and Scootin By. 

This stamp set is so versatile! It can be a background element or a focal point!  The sentiment is from Packaged Pretty.

I usually struggle with monochromatic cards but with these little cuties everything came together so quickly! That sentiment is super cute and it's from Happy Bugs. 

I hope you can not only how versatile this set is but it's also super trendy! I simply adore it! Don't forget there is a super extra fabulous prize to be won for our hop celebration!

Your next stop on the hop is uber talented Jaime! Her project is so fabulous, you're going to love it :) 

Sweet Stamp Shop August Hop & One Year Anniversary!

Hello crafters!

Are you having fun hopping along Day 3 of Sweet Stamp Shop's August Release and One Year Celebration :) 

You should have arrived from the super talented Emily! Isn't she the best?! If your just stopping in to visit be sure to head over to the Sweet Stamp Shop Blog to start from the beginning. There is so much inspiration and of course prizes! You don't want to miss out on either :)

I'm so excited to be celebrating this milestone with them! Speaking of excited I squealed with absolute delight when I first saw these adorable Halloween Characters. CUTE! I had to use as many as I could, this means card set!!

How could you not love this cutie pie?! Adorable little Ghost!

Say Hello to Frank! Was there ever a more charming Frankenstein? I think not :)

Last but not least this precious little witch! Finally something I could glitter hehe! 

Recognize the bottom pattern? Yep, that is Against the Grain! I inked up my paper with seedless preserves, ripe persimmon, and mowed lawn before stamping against the grain in black. Love how it came out! I didn't put a sentiment on them yet because I'm not sure how I'll use them. Maybe "You're Invited" or something uber sweet like "Witching you a Happy Halloween!" All kinds of ideas for them. 

Your next stop on the hop is the fantastic Laurel! I just know you'll love what she made, I sure do! 

Thanks for visiting :)

And I think to Myself . . .

what a wonderful world it would be.

I danced with my Daddy to this song at my wedding <3 which is why as soon as I saw the Wonderful World stamp set from Hero Arts/Studio Calico I HAD to have it. Unfortunately, after I received I didn't use it lol Until today :)

You all know I love a sketch challenge. Hero Arts just so happened to include some sketches in their monthly contest. AND The theme is Clean and Simple so I'm fairly sure like every card I make will be entered into this contest lol! Speaking of CAS the challenge over at CAS-ual Fridays is "Something you'd see in the sky" so I'm playing along with them too!

Ready? Set. Card!

I stamped a piece of white with the clouds in versamark. Once I heat set them with white I used my My Favorite Things hexagon die to cut them out. After they were trimmed into individual hexagons I colored each one with salty ocean distress ink. I pieced them back together on a white card base adhered flat. 

For my sun, I heat set the wood grain circle stamp in clear on orange paper. I die cut it twice. The outer ring is adhered flat and the middle circle is popped up. To finish it off I stamped my sentiment onto a banner and added some yellow twine. 

I actually really love the way this one came out :) Thanks for dropping over!

Hello Little Lady

Hello, Hello!

Have you seen the colors over at The Play Date Cafe this week?! *LOVE* them!
Bright Red is such a fun summer color :)

Since I just received my newest order from Sweet Stamp Shop I went to work trying to decide which adorable stamp set to use. Happy Bugs was the winner!

I stamped the flower by stamping and masking to create a full bloom. After I colored with my copics I fussy cut it out. I stamped two more petals to be my "leaves". I wanted a subtle background that matched the floral feel to the card. I masked the outer edge so I would have a stamped rectangle in the center. I used the same petal I just stamped smaller blooms. 

I love designs that stretch out past the your usual rectangle so I stamped the sentiment off set and extended my stem. In order to ground the design a little more I added a strip of red. 

Even though these aren't beachy colors I feel like the card has a summer beach feel, and I totally love it!

Speaking of things I totally love Did you know it's release week over at Sweet Stamp Shop? Plus it's an extra special release because it's also our One Year Anniversary! Not only are we sharing the newest adorable stamps there's a hop with prizes! You can head over to the Sweet Stamp Shop blog to check it out!  

Thanks for dropping in!