Melonheadz "include an animal" Challenge

Welcome to a new challenge! I hope you will join me and the rest of the Melonheadz Design Team and share your cute animal project. You could win super cute digis by Melonheadz and wouldn't that be awesome!? :) I made two cards this week - it was so hard to just choose one animal to play with!

For the first card, I used this mama sheep from the Barnyard Babies set. Love her fluffy wool coat! I used soft colored papers from one of Heidi Swapp's 6x8 memory planner paper pads, and the gray stripe from the 6x6 Smitten print papers by My Favorite Things. The tufts of grass and the grassy hill stamps are by My Favorite Things as well.

You probably already know how much I love a good pun....the inside message I made up myself (kinda proud LOL).

The stitched ovals are dies by My Creative Time, and the little sheep is by My Favorite Things.

For my second card I went with this sea turtle from the Ocean Life set. Yes, I made up this pun too. :) And not only is he turtley adorbs...

...he is also on an action wobble!!! See him wiggle?! So fun, right!

Inside I made a super cute under the sea scene with the same little turtle on a pop up. The sand is sandpaper! For real! I love using sandpaper on beachy projects.

Product List:
Melonheadz Illustrating (product links above)
My Creative Time, rectangle frames; stitched ovals; pop up die; waves edge die
My Favorite Things, Ewe are the best; 6x6 Wild Prints paper pad
Paper Smooches, Surf & Turf
Other: Action wobble, sandpaper, glossy accents, stickles

My Favorite Things Color Challenge #40

UPDATE: Thanks so very much to the My Favorite Things team for picking my card as the winner of this challenge! :) 

Color challenge #40. What a lovely color combination!!! I apologize that the spearmint green shade in my design ended up mostly covered up. I didn't even realize it until I looked at the pictures. It's there, you just have to look for it. Sorry!

For my card, I used several MFT sets; modern blooms, mini modern blooms, and fall florals (store link in product list below).

For the grungy background and sentiment message I heat embossed with platinum embossing powder by Ranger. Sentiment from Written in Watercolor stamp set by MFT.

Card Challenges link up

Hope you like my design choice for this color challenge. There is plenty of time yet to join this one (see link above) and enter your card.

Product list:
My Favorite Things, Modern Blooms, stamp set and die set
My Favorite Things, Mini Modern Booms, stamp set and die set
My Favorite Things, Fall Florals, stamp set and die set
My Favorite Things, Written in Watercolor sentiment stamps
My Creative Time, Rectangle Frames

Bo Bunny, Distressed Textures stamps

Jen Hadfield, Homemade 6x6 paper pad

TH distress inks, abandoned coral, tattered rose, peeled paint,

Ranger embossing powder, liquid platinum

Foam tape

Masculine birthday

This deer head silhouette is so perfectly masculine. And combined with a wood grain look paper background, I couldn't go wrong. "DAD" stamp by My Creative Time.

Foam tape makes my day.

Inside message:

Product list:
My Creative Time, You're My Hero stamp set
My Creative Time, dash marks edge die (Mad for Plaid)
My Creative Time, rectangle frames dies
Savvy, deer head silhouette die
My Favorite Things, whipped cream cardstock
Foam tape, kraft paper, wood grain pattern paper, gold cardstock

My Favorite Things, Sketch 268

The new sketch challenge is up for My Favorite Things. The second and fourth Thursday of the month brings a new sketch to play with, so you have plenty of time to play before the next challenge is posted. (See link and current sketch below.)

For my card, I used the adorably sweet little elephant set by Birdie Brown called Adorable Elephants, fittingly enough! :) I colored the elephant and kite with copics, cut them twice and applied foam tape between the cuts to pop them up.

Honestly, these little baby ellies are so cute!!! And then I found this ribbon!! GASP!  For the simple sentiment I used this little "hi" from a Paper Smooches sentiment set.

The kite comes with the set, along with balloons and butterflies, sentiments, and three other elephant poses. The dotty-holey background piece is from the Blueprints #14.

Card Challenges Link Up

Product List:
My Favorite Things, Adorable Elephants stamps and dies
My Favorite Things, Blueprints #14, holey piece
My Favorite Things, SnoCone cardstock
My Favorite Things, Black Licorice hybrid ink pad
Paper Smooches, Scripty Sayings sentiment stamps
Foam tape, copic markers, ribbon

Birthday Challenge at Melonheadz Friends

Happy birthday! Well, maybe it's not your birthday today, but today's challenge at Melonheadz Friends is birthdays. I got a little carried away this week, as I'm finally over the sickies that have plagued me since the first of the year, and my creative juices just kept on flowing! Feels so good to be back in my studio creating again. :) So let's get to it, shall we....

Card #1

I used the Happy Birthday set for all my cards this time. My first card is simple. I used this bunch of balloons and a simple sentiment. I love these colors together. To 'paint' the watercolor-look background, I created a mask by cutting a second set of balloons from plain paper and placing it over the card panel using repositionable adhesive. I then used an ink applicator (the foam kind by Tim Holtz) to apply a soft, even layer of color all around the mask. 

This keeps the balloons underneath white so that I can color them without the background ink distorting the color. After I colored the balloons I added glossy accents.

Inside message is a simple star shape with inked edges. The little star clusters are a stamp.

Card #2
This one is also fairly simple, as I wanted something that could easily be mass produced as a party invitation. I layered two panels on the card front, then added the banner cut out with foam tape and stamped the simple sentiment.

Isn't this banner so much fun?!

Here's the inside - simple panel with stamped info.

Card #3
For the last card I used the balloons again, only this time I wanted them to be more colorful so I used various colors and added sequins for the look of confetti. A simple strip of pink separates them from the sentiment.

Again, I used the masking technique so that the balloons would remain white until I colored them.

Thanks for coming by. As always, I hope you'll be inspired to join the challenge. You aren't limited to Melonheadz digis, so if you don't have any yet, you can still play with us! You might even win a set of adorably hand drawn images if you enter. :) Hope to see you in the gallery!

("Let's Celebrate" stamp set for the invitation by My Creative Time.)

Happy Valentine's Day!

For today's card I decided to combine this week's sketch challenge and color challenge for My Favorite Things Card Challenges. I like how it came out. But now that I'm writing up my post I realize that I forgot the blue part of the color challenge. Argh! Well. Anyway, here's the card I made for hubby.

Product List:
My Favorite Things, Blueprints #14 dies
My Favorite Things, Blueprints #22 dies
My Favorite Things, Hearts & Stitches border stamps
My Favorite Things, Sweet Safari (to create my sentiment)
My Creative Time, Rectangle Frames dies
My Creative Time, Love die
My Creative Time, Mad for Plaid stamps
Foam tape

What's Cookin'

Oh em gee, the newest My Favorite Things set by Birdie Brown is the cutest ever!!! Seriously. Every new set she creates is cuter than the last. I can't even stand it!!

I recently got this adorable paper pad, before I even knew about this stamp release, and I knew immediately when I saw Chef Francois, of the Recipe for Happiness stamps and dies, that I would use this paper with the stamps. The sentiment is one I made myself and printed on the computer. There are, of course, several super cute sentiments in the set, but I had this one in mind and had to use it.

I colored Francois in shades to match back to the papers. I love him!

Product List:
My Favorite Things, Recipe for Happiness stamps and dies sets
My Favorite Things, Jumbo Fishtail Banner dies
My Favorite Things, Fishtail Stax dies
My Creative Time, Rectangle Frames dies
Carta Bella, Home Sweet Home 6x6 paper pad
Copic markers, Copic Xpress blending cardstock, computer generated sentiment

Happy Chinese New Year

Did you know that today is the Chinese New Year? And did you also know that this is the year of the Monkey?! I love monkeys. :) Except for sock monkeys...they are evil and don't even get me started. But I digress....

My card today is in honor of the Year of the Monkey. I used this adorable little guy from the Sweet Safari stamp set by My Favorite Things.

Isn't he the sweetest. :)

He sends you lots of wishes for a happy new year and some bananas. Can you see them among the sequins inside the shaker?

Fun shaker card to make, and the little monkey and these awesome jungle leaves are the sweetest accent.

Thanks for looking, and HAPPY YEAR OF THE MONKEY!

Product List:
My Favorite Things, Sweet Safari stamps and dies sets
My Favorite Things, Happy Trio dies
My Favorite Things, Wild Greenery dies
My Favorite Things, Wild Prints 6x6 paper pad
My Creative Time, Bunch of Fun circle dies and Rectangle frames
Echo Park, Love Story 6x6 paper pad (black/grey animal print paper)
Other: clear acetate, foam tape, sequins, gold cardstock

Tags, trims, and banners, oh my!

Welcome to the studio! I hope you're ready to be inspired as I have been busy, busy, busy with Valentine's Day projects. I love adding trims to jars and containers, tags to goody bags, and putting together super fun banners. Here are a few of the goodies I've been working on.

These dipped pretzel rods are so easy to do, and FUN! I've tucked one into each of the kidlets' goodie bags, and the maillady gets one too. :) These awesome mug comes from Big Lots. It  just flew into my cart before I could blink an eye. I'm so glad it did as it's perfect for these Valentine pretzels.

Hearts and tag dies are by My Creative Time. Super cute treat bags from Walmart.

Fun trim idea using burlap ribbon and lace from the sewing department at Walmart. The doily heart is a die cut using a heart die by My Creative Time. Adds just enough pizzazz to this plain cylinder vase from the Dollar Tree.

And my banners. I love, love, love banners. If I had space for them, they'd be hanging all over my house! For these, I used a variety of crafty goodies in addition to an old falling apart dictionary I picked up at the thrift store for 25¢ and a couple of packs of doilies from Dollar Tree. The fishtail banner shapes are a die by My Favorite Things; hearts, love and tab are by My Creative Time, and paper flower and stick pin handmade by me. Jute twine, sheer polka dot ribbon, and hot glue hold them all together.

I hope you have as much fun as I do making stuff for holidays. Valentine's Day is my second fave, only behind Christmas, and even though the kids are no longer at home, I can still send them all the spoils through the mail so I'm a happy grama! :)  Thanks for coming by. If you'd like more specifics on any of the projects I've shared, please leave a comment and I'll provide links etc.

Melonheadz Love Challenge

Today's challenge is Love. I love love, don't you! For my project, I made Valentine cards for the grands. Have a look!

 

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I hope you enjoyed these cute cards. Still not 100% but feeling way better so, crossing fingers it won't be too much longer and I'll be back in full swing. :) In addition to health issues, I'm also having major internet issues so it has taken me two days to get this post written! UGH Now hoping it will actually go live when it is supposed to! In the meantime, provided it does post as scheduled, if you have any questions or would like links to products I used this week, please leave a comment and I'll reply asap.

 

Happy Love Month, crafty friends. :)