** Announcement!! **

Oh my goodness, I couldn't be more excited to FINALLY announce my newest Design Team assignment with My Creative Time!! If you haven't yet visited Emma Aguilar's blog or checked out her super cute stamp sentiments, please head over there now and do some shopping. Her stamp designs are so cute, the fonts are adorable, and the stamps themselves are a-ma-zing!

My first project for My Creative Time is this get well card using the Pain, Pain, Go Away! get well set. What a fun set this is with some of the cutest little phrases and even a couple of images.

I heat embossed my sentiment with black so it is easily read. I love the look but need to perfect my technique a little more. LOL Other elements I used on my card include Spellbinders nesting lacy oval and nesting oval...



cardstock butterfly sticker, some of my handmade roses, various bling, lacy ribbon, and for the corner embellishment, another Spellbinders die with a flat backed pearl bead.

I hope you've enjoy this project. I loved making it and look forward to working with all the talented ladies at My Creative Time and the great stamp designs created by Miss Emma herself! Thanks for coming by the studio today.

Have a crafty weekend!!

Happy birthday, Sally!!!!!

Today is my baby's birthday and I'm sharing with you the card I made for her using this adorable Magnolia stamp. The cutest thing about this birthday Tilda stamp is the curl in her forehead. Sally was that little girl with the curl who could be so horrid when she was bad but so sweet when she was good. LOL!!!

Handmade paper roses to match the adorable papers by My Mind's Eye, Stella & Rose. I love these patterns and color combinations. "My Girl" label and "for" brad are also Stella & Rose. elements.

Sweet birthday Tilda colored blonde for my birthday girl :) Bows for her pigtails are from the Cottage Cutz Mrs. Gnome die! I've embellished her party dress with fabric paint accents and added pretty bling to her cake.

Love 3D so I had to make the cake stand out with my ever favorite foamy tape! ;)

Thanks for coming by today. Have a happy Friday and a great weekend! Maybe you'll get out those stamps to work with in your next project. :)

XoXo

For today's project, I used the adorable Cottage Cutz giraffe to make an I miss you card.


Isn't he, excuse me, she, sweet! Her friend, bluebird, is from the Cottage Cutz bunny with umbrella die, from the spring/Easter release. The little birdie is the perfect companion to any of the Cottage Cutz animals. I have a confession...the scalloped circle behind the giraffe is actually the piece I was planning to throw away. I was going to use the inside circle instead, but this looks so cute I changed my mind and used it instead! LOL

For my message, I used the Cottage Cutz label and XOXO stamp from the Love release.

Thanks for coming by the studio today! See you tomorrow....my very favorite day FRIDAY. ;)

First Place goes to

My page today shows off my first bloom of spring! Isn't she pretty. :) Sorry I can't seem to get a decent shot of the full page. I tried scanning but it doesn't work that way either with the big lump in it from the blue ribbon. LOL I also used one of the flags from the DIY banner/pennant border for the date tag. Most of the papers for this page are from the new line of LifeStyle Crafts paper, and the shapes are the awards die. Title font is QuicKutz Nutmeg.

I used the awards die from the LC Yearbook release for my page. The shield and banner for the "1st" in my title....

...and the trophy and banner for my embellishment.

For the blue ribbon, I used the Tim Holtz mini rosette die and the QK Bottle Caps die set. The mini rosette made the perfect "ribbon" to go with the cute little trophy! I printed the banner with the name on the trophy. One of my favorite "techniques" when working with teeny pieces like this mini banner.

Thanks for coming by today!

Happy Easter

Love,

"M" for Mom

I love this new paper collection by My Mind's Eye - Stella & Rose. So pretty and feminine and vintage and .... just gorgeous! And thanks to NikkiF for making me look at it. I couldn't look without buying!!!

For my mother's day card I used six! different patterns from this collection, as well as a pearl brad and sticker.


The stick pin and roses are handmade by me, the other flowers and monogram are various Spellbinders dies...

...as is the flourish embellishment below the monogram.

I cut three layers of paper for the flourish and adhered two of them together. I attached this to the third layer using foam tape giving it a 3D sticker-look. I then sanded and inked the edges, and heat embossed with clear embossing powder. Finished it off by adding bling for sparkle!

I also used the same layered technique with the flowers.

Thanks for coming by today!

Besides flowers.....

...I have a new favorite thing! Why, oh why, didn't anyone tell me about this ages ago!??

Totally in love with Inkssentials Blending Tool and Blending Foam. Holy cow. How did I possibly miss this little gem, as much ink as I use! {putting myself in the corner with a dunce cap!!!} Have you used these priceless inking wonders? MUST HAVE for anyone who likes to ink edges or shade and shadow.

LOVE. THIS. TOOL. !!

That is all. ;)

Happy Spring

Today's project is a simple card using the ornate wreath from the Cottage Cutz Spring/Easter release.

Can you see the bunnies and tulips in the design? So clever and cute! I simply adhered the wreath to the front of a scalloped circle card and added a sentiment sticker and lots of bling and doodles. Tie a ribbon or twine around the fold, and you have a lovely spring or Easter greeting!

Thanks for looking.

Easter card - and more flowers

Who knew there were soooo many types of flowers one can make!? I'm finding out! LOL For my Easter card I used the beautiful lacy oval dies by Spellbinders to make these Becca Feeken flowers. If you haven't seen her work, please visit her blog, Amazing Paper Grace. Here is a link to her video on how to make these flowers. She does amazing and gorgeous work!

There are 5 sizes with the Spellbinders lacy ovals nesting set. For my flowers, I used the two largest sizes. It might be pretty difficult to make flowers from the smaller sizes but it can't hurt to try if you have the patience. ;)

Along with my flowers, I used the QuicKutz leaves 2x2 die 0440, egg shape 0933, and twig Rev0152, and flat backed pearl beads for the centers.

To embellish the darker pink egg, I used the swirly portion of a stamp and versamark watermark ink with clear embossing powder. On the other, I used spica glitter pen on the flowers (which didn't show in the photo, sorry) and tiny flat backed pearl beads for the flower centers.

Other details: grass is cut from the Cottage Cutz scarecrow die, edge is Martha Stewart dots and scallops punch, ribbon is Offray, papers are Chatterbox, and sewing is by me and my Janome Sew Petite. :)

Thanks for looking!

An Aussie Hello!

Buggy Designs, Scrapbuggy's Exclusive line of wafer thin dies, presents two new dies. Meet this adorable little koala! Isn't he sweet. :) He comes with the eucalyptus branch and boomerang on a 4x4 die. The pattern papers for my projects this week are all new from Lifestyle Crafts. They are double sided and accented with glossy patterns. There are also coordinating solid colors. It's really nice quality paper. I used the QK Sunshine mini font for my message. It looks very koala-ish to me. :)

And to add dimension to the fun little boomerang, I made a springy wire to simulate its flight pattern. LOL!

The second die is roo and her Joey! Designed by Gia, the kangaroo is approximately 4 inches tall when assembled. Joey is separate pieces so roo can also be assembled as a Mr.!

I attached roo with a springy wire to give her some real bounce.

Look at her go! LOL

What fun ideas can you come up with using these adorable new designs?

Thanks for coming by the studio today!

"How to's" for you

Today, at Dawn's request, I'm sharing how to make a gatefold card with handmade "wobbly" inside. Gatefold cards are not as difficult to make as they may look. They are actually pretty easy, and fun too. They're also fun to receive because they aren't your typical, ordinary folded in half card.

I like to use large sized dies for my cards, which makes it especially easy because the hard part is done for you if you want a shape other than a square or rectangle. Basically all you do is fold the paper and the rest of the fancy cutting is done by your cutter. I use a BigShot but you might have a Vagabond, Epic, Cuttlebug or something else. Easy enough, right!?

Ok, let's get started. First choose the shape you want to make your card. For this example, I've chosen a 5.25 inch scallop circle by Lifestyle Crafts. Notice I've also made sure I have an envelope that will fit my card. Sometimes I forget this step!

Cut a piece of 12" cardstock for your card base, a little wider than the size of your die.

Score and fold your card at 3.5 inches from the left side and 3.25 inches from the right, for a 5.25 inch finished card.

Lay your folded cardstock over the die so that the folded edges are just inside the die (this will prevent the folds from being cut off), run through your cutter and it will look like this.

Now let's make the wobbly. It's easier than it looks, I promise. You will need 24 ga. wire and wire cutters, foam tape, a clear label (oops, not pictured) and a pencil or marker.

Start by cutting about a 9 inch piece of wire. Wrap the wire around the marker (I use my white pen).

Punch two 1 inch circles from the clear label and one circle from foam tape.

Now it starts to look complicated but it's not really. :) Cut a slit in each of the three circles.

This allows you to put the label "around" the wire so you can attach the wobbly to whatever it is you want to wobble.

Now using the foam circle, attach the free end of the wire in the same way. Before peeling off the backing, attach the second label circle to the back side of the foam circle so the sticky is covered.

Peel the backing from the foam tape and attach to your shape or whatever. Now make it wobble just for fun! :) Isn't it cool?!

Now finish your card. Here are some of the supplies I may use to finish mine.

and here it is finished.

The inside looks like this when you open the front flap.....

...and this is the bunny wobbly on the inside, under the second flap.

I hope you'll try this fun technique. Once you make one, you won't need the instructions. It's really quite simple. :) Have lots of wobbly fun!!!