Back to School!

Hi again!
(2nd post of the day.. please scroll down or click here for the Paper Sweeties Blog Hop)

Jodi is hosting FFF this week at The Greeting Farm! It's that time of year again.. Back to School! I definitely miss parts of back to school season, but I do love me some school supplies! :) I know I'll be a wreck when it's time for my son to start school in a couple of years!

In the meantime, my nieces go back to school, well one goes BACK while her sister is starting kindergarten! I decided to make a sweet card to give her this weekend along with a little something special (to be blogged soon...)



Be sure to check out all the details on the challenge over at the TGF blog! Hope to see you play along!

Paper Sweeties Birthday Blog Hop

Happy Friday! & Happy AUGUST!  (Can you believe another month has passed?!!?)

I am so excited to be posting today- I was asked a little while back by the SWEETEST Debbie M. from Paper Sweeties to participate in her BIG 2nd birthday Blog Hop!  How could I say no?!



You should have arrived here from Colleen's blog, if not I suggest you go to the Paper Sweeties blog to start from the beginning- you won't want to miss all the fun! There's even some big prize giveaways (you'll want to be sure to leave comments along the way *wink wink*)

I couldn't wait to play with these goodies when they came in the mail!

Since this IS a birthday celebration, I made this birthday card using the adorable Paper Doll stamp Abigail, and had some fun mixing clothing from her extensive wardrobe!



I colored her hair and skin with copics and paper pieced her outfit. I used the top from Enjoy Your Day set and the apron, shoes & sentiment from Sweetie Pie! Oh! and you can find those awesome flower sequins in the Paper Sweeties shop too!

I couldn't stop at just one card! I also received this Showering You With Love bundle set- it has matching metal dies! This set is super sweet and so fun to use- and so versatile for birthday, baby, & bridal showers etc. Now, for this card- I die cut the umbrella, stamped the image and instead of paper piecing I colored it with copics.



With some creative masking I made my own greeting- I used the "showering you with love" from the set along with the 'birthday' from the above mentioned Enjoy Your Day to have it read: "Showering you with birthday LOVE"! Again added some sequins- and see that gorgeous ribbon- it's hand-dyed seam binding available in the store too!

Ok that's enough from me... now I'm thrilled to pass you along to the next stop on the hop to my new crafty *friend* & fellow Gallery Idol finalist, Miriam!

and just in case you get lost along the way here is the FULL hop order!

Paper Sweeties Design Team:

 Amber Kroening

Annette Allen

Annette Witherspoon

  Char Cundy

Debbie Marcinkiewicz

  Jeanne Jachna

Kerin Sylvester

Kristi Schurr
Lesley Croghan

Lisa Elton

Maria Patrick

Michelle Bala
Mynnette Kitchen

Nancy Penir

Tammy Hobbs

Larissa Heskett

Special Guest Designers:

Pattie Goldman

Teresa Kline

Lori Hairston

Colleen Dietrich

Lysa Rohrer-- *you're here!*

Miriam Prantner

Jill Norwood

Gail Lass

Mackie Robertson

Aneta Matuszewska

Tina Milbourn

Lori Ulrich

Diane Hover

Rebekah Faries

Amy Linkletter #1 , #2, #3, #4

Paper Sweeties blog

Happy hopping and Happy Weekend! 

Missing You...

Popping in quick to share this card I made with Chi Chi Memories' Casual Day image!

She is just the sweetest and I thought with the way she's standing she'd make a perfect, "thinking of you" or "missing you" type of card- so that's just what I did!

Paired her with some fun summery colors: aqua, orange & silver...



Can't forget the ribbon and sequins of course!  Don't forget to join us for the CCM challenge blog  monthly sketch too!

Good Day Sunshine!

Here's another scrapbook layout I made a couple of days ago and didn't get chance to photograph until this morning!

It's another from our summer trip in San Diego! It was my son's first time at the beach and he wasn't sure what to think of it all....


The first day he ventured out to the water (it was pretty chilly!) and took him a few minutes to warm up to having some sandy toes!


But after another day getting a bit closer to the water...

He wanted nothing to do with it! & was much happier building and smashing sandcastles as fast as I could build them! Oh well.. maybe next time :)

Oh and that awesome "Good Day Sunshine" title is a freebie from Kerry Bradford Design! I finally am getting the hang of playing with my silhouette- and it is the coolest thing! :)

Thanks for stopping by! ;)

1, 2, 3...

I'm so DETERMINED to do more scrapbook layouts.. I sat down last night to make of list of pages I wanted to do and it's very much longer than I'd like it to be!

I was inspired by the page I had created last week with the pictures of my nieces, nephew & son in their "flamingo" stance that I decided to do a facing page with them attempting to jump all together using the same sketch on The Memory Nest, only reversed.


Doesn't sound that hard right? Well... when your subjects range from age 2 to 15 it's a lot harder than you may think! LOL!

Happy Sunday... on to more pages!

Christmas in July

OMG. Yes. I did it. I made a CHRISTMAS card in the middle of summer! It is exactly FIVE MONTHS until Christmas. I know I say it a lot- but holy cow where does the time go?

Kristina is hosting over at The Greeting Farm today & she chose to do 'Christmas in July' Farm Fresh Friday challenge!  Now, I found this card exceptionally hard to do- because thinking about anything holiday-ish right now blows my mind.... and it doesn't really help that we hit record high temperatures today.  116*F! (46*C!) YIKES.

I used a few different sets (Ian from Xmas Sweeties (retired), the chair from Sitting Casual (retired) & The gift stack from Birthday Bundle) here is what I was able to come up with...


I dug through my scrap paper stash and found these bits and pieces of some holiday papers- put them together in a slightly color blocking pattern, added some glittery washi tape and sequins :)

Be sure to check out the rest of the team's creations over on the TGF blog (they're pretty fab!) and join us for FFF!

A Whole Lot of One-layered-ness

Hi ya! Back at it again today with another card to share!

After doing some blog surfing, I found that Hero Arts, & A Blog Named Hero were both having a one-layer challenge I couldn't help but to play along!  I had this idea pop into my head and just couldn't let it go.. so after much trial and error (like x3 maybe more...) I came up with this final product that I'm very happy with!



I first stamped the sentiment, used a post-it to mask off a circle, and inked & lightly water misted this Everything Flower stamp from Hero Arts with some bright bold distress inks (Picked Raspberry, Dusty Concord, Mowed Lawn, Peacock Feathers) onto heavy cardstock (110lb.) Attached my stencil and layered on a thin coat of white embossing paste, sprinkled with some frosted white embossing powder and let dry... then heat set! & Finally finished off with my favorite faux stitching and flower sequins!

I'm also entering this into the embossing challenge over at Simon Says Stamp!

Thanks for stopping by! Would love to know what you think of my card! :)

Until tomorrow!

Arigato!

Hello again! 2nd post of the day (please scroll down or click here for my 1st post!)

I have most definitely jumped on the watercoloring train- I just picked up a small set of watercolors from Hobby Lobby to practice with before I splurge on anything fancy. But I also love using the distress inks as my palette too- getting as much use out of products I can makes me happy!

On that note, this week's challenge at Lawnscaping is watercoloring!


I also finally got my hands on some Tim Holtz watercolor paper- and I gotta say I'm in LOVE! I attempted to make this a one layer card, but it just wasn't working for me the other day- so I scratched the idea and came up with this...


I used all distress inks as my watercolors (can list the colors if anyone is interested) for this delicious plate of sushi (I think I want some sushi now!), and finished it off with a couple of sequins and baker's twine!

Like I mentioned in an earlier post- I'm challenging myself to post more, and to play more! I kinda found myself in a bit of low with just posting for required DT projects- so time permitting (& 2 year old son permitting...) I hope to create more!

Thanks for stopping by! Arigato!

Curtain Call: HB2U

I've been on a little bit of a roll this week... or maybe just challenging myself to do more :)

I'm joining the Curtain Call: Anything Goes Challenge!



I love those shelves (I have one in my craft room- minus the attached desk) and I love it!

This is the first card I've made in awhile (maybe ever?) that didn't involve *gasp* any stamping- but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out!


I used my Scor-pal to create the gridlines like the shelf, played off the colors in the photo, & embossed the piece with flowers to match the gorgeous arrangement on the table. :)  The big 'C' on the shelf gave me the idea for the sentiment. And finally finished it off with some more DIY'd enamel dots, washi, & baker's twine!

Thanks for stopping by I have a few other cards to share- so please come back! :)

Beach Beauties

Hey Look! I made another scrapbook page!

Now I just need to keep going...

I chose another photo from our beach vacation for my layout- my 4 nieces hanging out at the beach watching the sunset- we saw some gorgeous colors that night! (my 1st one is here in case you missed it!)   Wishing to be back on that beach right now...

& what perfect timing- Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge is a mid-summer's challenge!



Then I remembered I had this *perfect* digi for my page from Chi Chi Memories Beach Time set.  The image actually only has 3 girls, but I printed 2 and flipped it (so it wasn't *exactly* the same) and added the girl on the far right.

I also mimicked the sunset colors by using some distress inks (yes, I've been using these a lot lately & am totally addicted), added some glittery embossing powder. Here's a closer view...


Thanks for stopping by!! I'm off to {day}dream about being back on the beach with the sand in my toes...

The Flamingo!

I finally felt the itch to do some scrapbook pages this weekend.. I'm SOO behind on my son's book!

I decided to work backwards and work with some recent photos, and picked some photos from my son & his cousins on the beach from our San Diego beach trip last month! :)

I went to The Memory Nest for some sketch inspiration & decided to use the Make It Monday Sketch



Now this was a fun series of photos to take... my son had just recently figured out how to stand on one foot, so we rounded up the rest of his cousins to get them to do the same- not that hard right?



Getting them to do it all at once was hilarious (so was getting them to jump together, more on that soon...) since my son is 2 and can only hold his balance for a few seconds! LOL!

& Adding that little flamingo from the Lawn Fawn Gnome Sweet Gnome stamp set was just what this page needed!

Hope to get to more layouts today... Happy Sunday!

Farm Fresh Friday: Summer Colors

TGIF!

I'm hosting another Farm Fresh Friday Challenge over on The Greeting Farm blog this week! In my {many} moments of getting lost in the world that is Pinterest I found this gorgeous photo that I couldn't help but to think how it would be a great inspiration piece, the colors, the flower- I love it all!


I chose to ink up the newest Dollie release and color her up in these fab colors...

I created the background piece by stamping my flower image (that I found for $1!!) in white ink embossed on some water color paper, inked it up with matching distress ink- Picked Raspberry, Salty Ocean, & Mowed Lawn. I added a few finishing embellishments, including my newest obsession- DIY enamel dots (I made them by melting perler beads in my oven!)

Thanks for stopping by- be sure to check out the TGF blog for all the challenge details & I hope to see YOU join us!

Love at first cut ♥

(2nd post today... please go here to see my post for Chi Chi Memories or keep on scrolling down ;) )

I had some last minute inspiration to play along with a few more challenges and all on ONE card! :)

I was experimenting with my Silhouette Cameo the other day and had this piece sitting on my desk just *waiting* to be put on a card...

and I was totally inspired by this week's inspiration card on The Cutting Edge challenge #3





I used the negative of the Love cut file from Winnie & Walter's The Big, the Bold, & the Happy set. I used watercolor paper and inked with a rainbow assortment of distress inks.

I'm also playing along (again) with Virginia's View Challenge #5



AND the Wonderful Words Challenge at Moxie Fab World!

Thanks for stopping by!!

Popcorn & Wine

Can you believe it's already mid-July?! Time is FLYING by and I can't believe it!

Just POPPING in to share my latest Chi Chi Memories creations!


(see get it? Popping in? LOL- I'm a dork) This is one of the fab July releases Movie Time!

The 15th of the month also means that it's FREEBIE time at Chi Chi Memories!! Yes, you heard me FREEBIE- but you have to be quick it's only available for the first 30 people! & this month's (as always) is awesome!

I'm not much of a wine (or any alcohol really) drinker.. but this image is perfect for a girls' night out invitation, birthday, or an occasion really... introducing Spa Girl!


Grab her HERE at the CCM Challenge blog and join in with this month's sketch!

Oh and did you see the fun patterned papers I used on both my cards- they're DIGITAL! You can find them at the Lillian Ellaboudy Design shop, her etsy store, & more info on her Facebook page. (my first card used paper from this Subtle colors collection, & my second card used papers form this Modern Wedding collection)

Bonjour!

Bonjour! Happy Weekend!

When I saw the Avery Elle AEI♥U Challenge this week- I just had to play along!



I finally had a card to put these macarons I had inked up when I first bought some Memento Luxe Inks- & I just spied some new to me colors and Joann's think I *need* them!



Enjoy your weekend.. looking forward to some more crafty time this weekend- it's way too HOT to do anything else!

Stripes or Plaid?

or both?!

It's time for another Farm Fresh Friday Challenge @The Greeting Farm! Marcy is hosting this week and her challenge is to use plaid or stripes!

I couldn't decide... so I used BOTH! :) Using the sweet girl from the WS Wild Child, I made this with my lil niece in mind.. her favorite color of the moment is ORANGE & she's going to be starting kinder soon.. might just have to have my sis sneak this in her backpack :)



Check out what the rest of the design team created over on the TGF blog & I can't wait to see what you create for the challenge..

Feelin' Foxy

Hi again!

I took big advantage of my lil guy's long nap yesterday and found some time to get inky for the new Lawnscaping Challenge Summer Colors!



I'm still totally in love with all of Lawn Fawn's adorable critters... but I gotta say this little fox is my favorite! (Shhh... don't tell the others!)



I masked a rectangle, inked it up with some Salted Ocean & Squeezed Lemonade Distress Inks, fussy cut the fox and popped him up with some foam tape. Inked up the hello bubble in Spiced Marmalade Distress ink & finished it off with some enamel dots! :)

Thanks for stopping by!

BAM! You're Super! POW!

I was SOO excited when I saw this freebie from Chi Chi Memories!

It's a mini Wonder Woman, "My Heroine"!! She's especially perfect because my niece has already declared that she's going to be Wonder Woman for Halloween this year! (Though it's still early and that may change.. but still cute none the less!)



I had so much fun creating this card.. and thought since I missed making a patriotic card for the 4th this one would make up for it!

She and the other new July releases are all available now in the CCM store!!

Hello {Rainbow} World!

So I finally tackled some more cleaning and organizing of my craft room this weekend... it was LOOONG overdue! But of course after I cleaned off my desk I just messed it all up again after deciding to get inky! LOL

I decided to join in on the fun over at The Cutting Edge challenge #2 this week.... I totally love Karolyn's card that is the inspiration for the challenge & it just so happens that I have the same building die-cut from Paper Smooches (Super 2)! And I just needed an "excuse" to play with some of my dies!



I die cut the buildings from watercolor paper and went to town with a rainbow assortment of Distress Inks (Fired Brick, Spiced Marmalade, Squeezed Lemonade, Mowed Lawn, Salty Ocean, & Dusty Concord) to make my 'city'. I also added the hello diecut & finished it off with a couple of enamel accents dots!



& what's one of my cards without some faux stitching?

Oh and since I used nothing but die-cuts on this card I'm entering it in Virginia's View Challenge #5: Die-Cuts too!

Thanks for stopping by- hope you all had a fabulous weekend!

Farm Fresh Friday: Anything Goes!!

Happy 4th of July to all my readers (in the U.S.A)!!

I'm popping in to share with you this week's Farm Fresh Friday Challenge at The Greeting Farm- brought to you this week by Chitra! & this week is an easy one- Anything Goes!

Now after creating my card I had second thoughts thinking I should have gone a little more patriotic with red, white, & blue- but I already had this sweet Anya colored from the new My Sunshine set (available now!!)



I created the background on watercolor paper and distress inks (salty ocean & mowed lawn), flicked some water drops and embossed it for some fun texture.

Check out the TGF blog for all the details on the challenge- hope to see you play along! ;)

May have some spare time today to create another more patriotic card today before hopefully catching some fireworks!

Happy 4th!

Scooting by...

Just "Scooting by" with a happy hello on this 2nd day of July!

A new month means more new sweet goodies from Chi Chi Memories! The first digi I'm sharing is super cute...

Introducing Scooter Girl!


And she's available right NOW in the Chi Chi Memories shop!