Party like a princess

     I have been so busy with DT work lately that I haven't made a for fun card in forever.  Well, I love playing the Seize the Birthday challenges and I'm about to run out of time to play which is pitiful because it's been a month long challenge.  I've been chomping at the bit to get to color up this little cutie from Wendy Burns.  I had seen her on someones blog a while back and then again on Ann Marie Governale's (her version is just breathtaking) and just had to pop over to Wendy's etsy shop and buy her.
     The card is an odd size, 4 3/8" x 6 3/8" because of the Spellbinders Fancy Lattice die I used.  I put some pretty floral MME paper behind it.  The image is called "Abi Ballerina" and Miss Abi was colored with my trusty Copics and given a Stickles dusting on her headband and tutu.  I went with rolled roses for the flower spray.  I mean what else do you give a ballerina but a bouquet of roses.  And I know just exactly which little ballerina will be getting this for her birthday in a few months.
     Hope you like the card and a huge thanks to all of you who have contacted me about sending postcards.  I can't wait to start getting them.  ☺
     I'd like to enter my card into the following challenges:

Going Grey with Scrap-Creations--anything goes
Party Time Tuesdays--anything goes
Top Tip Tuesday--spooled items
Tuesday Throwdown--birthday party
Bunny Zoe's--pink and white
Card Mania--summer blooms
Cutie Pie--pretty in pink
Eureka--anything goes
Make It Monday--anything goes
Creative Inspirations Paint--anything goes
Eclectic Ellapu--anything goes
Pile It On--anything goes
That Craft Place--it's a girl thing
Crafty Ribbons--anything goes with ribbon

     Have a blessed Wednesday!

Supplies:
Paper--My Mind's Eye "The Sweetest Thing--Lavender", Bazzill, Recollections, Copic XPress-it Blending card
Stamps--Wendy Burns "Abi Ballerina", Sentiment from Create with TLC
Ink--Copics
Tools--Spellbinders Fancy Lattice, Nestabilities Standard Circles and Classic Scalloped Circles, Fiskars Circle Cutter, Martha Stewart Frond punch, EK Success Retro Flower punch
Miscellaneous--Hobby Lobby ribbon, Cotton Candy and Diamond Stickles

The Golden Girls

     I have a trio of cards to share with you today.  This winds up the first batch of Art Impressions stamps sent to me  as a Guest Designer.  I have a whole new bunch waiting to be inked.  The characters are so much fun to color.  Now I have to admit laying out the cards is a bit challenging cause some of them are not rinky dinky stamps.  The larger ones pretty much fill up my standard 5 x 5 cards so there's not a whole lot of room for embellies, but with these fun characters you don't need much else.  They carry themselves.  So without further rambling on my part let me introduce you first to Maude.  Please excuse her.  She's a bit grumpy.

     Next, here's Sylvia.  She just might be in the middle of a mid-life crisis or maybe she has kids. bwhahaha

     And last but not least is Burnadette.  Her cake looks really yummy, but I don't know if I want a piece now.  Hope someone close has a fire extinguisher.  I don't know about you but doesn't something about the look on her face remind you of one of those sweet old grannies who would bake a file in their jailbird son's birthday cake?

     Hope my girls gave you a chuckle or two.  The new stamps are a mix and match bunch of the newest releases.  Hopefully I'll start working on them soon to share with you.
     Have a great week!

Supplies:
Paper--My Mind's Eye "The Sweetest Thing--Lavender", Bazzill, Recollections, Copic Xpress-it Blending card
Stamps--Art Impressions "Maude"
Ink--Memento Tuxedo Black, Jet Black Archival, Copics
Miscellaneous--Recollections flower

Supplies:
Paper--My Mind's Eye "The Sweetest Thing--Tangerine", Bazzill, Kraft Outlet, Copic XPress-it Blending card
Stamps--Art Impressions "Sylvia"
Ink--Memento Tuxedo Black, Jet Black Archival
Tools--sewing machine
Miscellaneous--Kraft Outlet Baker's Twine, buttons from my stash

Supplies:
Paper--My Mind's Eye "Blue Floral", Recollections, Copic XPress-it Blending card
Stamps--Art Impressions "Burnadette"
Ink--Memento Tuxedo Black, Jet Black Archival
Tools--Nestabilities Standard Circles, MFT Die-namics Scalloped border, EK Success Dotted Scallop punch, sewing machine
Miscellaneous--buttons from my stash, Darice Hemp cord

Happy, happy, happy

     Yes I watch Duck Dynasty.  LOL

     It's a paper piecing challenge this week at There She Goes straight from our very own Trendsetter Jenny.  I've used another one of the Amalia sets from Megan Suarez for this card and paper pieced everything but her face, arms, and legs.  I used last weeks Mojo Monday sketch.

     Paper piecing is super simple so I hope you can find time to play along this week.

     If you missed my previous post about my postcard project please click here.  A couple of you left me comments, but I don't have an email address to respond to.  Please drop me a line via the email link on the right.

     Have a fabulous week!

Supplies:
Paper--My Mind's Eye "Reunion", Bazzill, Kraft Outlet Light Kraft, Copic XPress-it Blending card
Stamps--There She Goes Clear Stamps "Amalia's Daisy"
Ink--Memento Tuxedo Black, Jet Black Archival, Copics
Tools--MFT Die-namics Sentiment Strips
Miscellaneous--Yellow Stickles

Can you play my postcard game?

     Been kicking around an idea for a little while for a mini album, and the blog candy package I received from my sweet and uber-talented friend Dilyana just solidified the plan, that is.....if any of you are inclined to play along.
     One of the wonderful things about blogging in the crafty world is that I have become cyber friends with people from all over the world---England, Scotland, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Romania, Bulgaria, Australia, Canada, etc., not to mention all the ones here in the states.
     Dilyana's package was full of a wonderful collection of travel themed paper crafting goodies perfect for a mini album.  What I would like to do is collect postcards from my friends around the globe to put into the mini.  Postcards are pretty inexpensive both themselves and to mail.  It would be up to you how it was sent.  You could pop it in an envelope or go ahead and mail it by itself with all the cool postmarks and everything!  I would be more than happy to send one in return if your interested.
  So if you think you might want to help me out with my little project as one of my worldwide crafty buddies please send me an email via the button on the top right hand sidebar.  I'll leave this post up at the top of my blog for a few days so hopefully lots of you will see it.
     Hugs!

Mixed Media--TSG New Releases--Day 4

Today wraps up the new releases and oh boy is it a fun one.  For those of you looking for great mixed media stamps, this is the set!

Mixed Media Backgrounds from Tobi Crawford is perfect for all you Mixed Media crafters, but is also fabulous for cards, scrapbook pages, and other projects.

Mixed Media Backgrounds is a 4x6 set that includes a total of 19 stamps and will sell for $15.00.

Handwritten is a mixture of fabulous fonts and styles, perfect for adding that personal

 touch to any card or project.

Handwritten is a 4x6 set that includes 16 stamps and will sell for $15.oo.

     My first play with these amazing sets was completely on vellum, but I just couldn't make it work as a card.  So I went smaller with the vellum and used the same stamps on the yellow chevron paper to make a background for the star squares.  I am by no means a great stamper, but this was really fun and I even broke out some NON-black ink to make that swipe for the sentiment.  WOW!   LOL  There's no way you can't have fun with these stamps.

     Would you like to win the new Mixed Media Backgrounds and Handwritten stamp sets? Here is what you need to do- visit the Trendsetter’s blogs that are participating in each of the blog hop challenges below and comment on their creations as you go. One of the Trendsetter’s blogs (from each hop day) will be randomly chosen as the ‘it’ blog and a winner will be picked using a random number generator from the comments left on that Trendsetter’s Blog Hop Challenge post.

You will not know which blog has been chosen so the more you comment on the better your chances are of winning new stamps! The Blog Hop Challenges will be open until 5 PM Eastern Time Saturday, July 27^th with the winner being announced during the release party chat.

Supplies:
Paper--My Mind's Eye "The Sweetest Thing--Tangerine", Recollections, Georgia Pacific, Paper Studio vellum
Stamps--There She Goes Clear Stamps "Mixed Media Background Builders" and "Handwritten"
Ink--Jet Black Archival ink, Memento London Fog, Versamark, Zig Vellum Writer
Tools--Marvy Uchida heat gun
Miscellaneous--Stampendous white embossing powder

Strut Your Stuff --TSG New Release--Day 3

(If you're looking for my Mo's Digital Pencil post for today, please click here.)

Day three of TSG sneak peeks!

The newest addition to Wendy Leach’s SUPER FUN Sock Goblin line, Strut Your Stuff….these stamps will make you feel like a kid again.

Strut Your Stuff is a 3x4 set that includes a total of 2 stamps and will sell for $9.00.

     I totally love this image.  They have so much character and I can clearly see them marching around her room to their own tune.  Went for a bit of a Alice Wertz design style on this one and really like the CAS look.
     Would you like to win the new Strut Your Stuff stamp set? Here is what you need to do- visit the Trendsetter’s blogs that are participating in each of the blog hop challenges below and comment on their creations as you go. One of the Trendsetter’s blogs (from each hop day) will be randomly chosen as the ‘it’ blog and a winner will be picked using a random number generator from the comments left on that Trendsetter’s Blog Hop Challenge post.

You will not know which blog has been chosen so the more you comment on the better your chances are of winning new stamps! The Blog Hop Challenges will be open until 5 PM Eastern Time Saturday, July 27^th with the winner being announced during the release party chat.

Supplies:
Paper--My Mind's Eye "Handsome Boy", Kraft Outlet Light Kraft, Recollections, Copic XPress-it Blending card
Stamps--There She Goes Clear Stamps "Strut Your Stuff"
Ink--Copics (skin E000, E00, E11, E13, R20) (hair E21, E23, E25, E27) (clothing and sock goblin Y11, Y21, YR000, YR23, E93, E95, E97, BG10, BG72, BG75)
Tools--MFT Die-namics Little Open Scallop die and Fishtail Banner Stax
Miscellaneous--Darice hemp cord, button from my stash, Glossy Accents

You get a line and I'll get a pole

     Do you like to fish?  I do.  Hubby and I would love to get a boat so we can go salt water fishing like we used to.  The skiff we used is just too small to get out in good fishing waters, but those floaters ain't cheap!
     My super duper "Queen of Scenes" DT sistah Kim Bell has given us a theme of "Use Kraft" for this week challenge at Mo's.
     For my card I started with a kraft base and used some great Simple Stories papers and some fun fluted cardboard to create the background for Mo's "Fishing" image.  I have always loved this image.  It's so perfect for a guy card and I finally colored it up.  The sentiment is from Create with TLC.
     Hope you'll pop over to the DP2 blog and link up a card for the challenge.  I think kraft is pretty much a staple in everybodys stash nowadays.  Make sure you use a Mo image on your card.
     Did you see the brand new Royal Babies that Mo just added to the store in honor of the new prince.  Too cute.
     I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Here Come the Boys--anything goes
Allsorts--transport

     Stay tuned for the third sneak peek from TSG today and have a great one!

Supplies:
Paper--Simple Stories "Awesome", Kraft Outlet Brown Kraft, Bazzill, Home Basics Fluted Cardboard Tiles, Copic XPress-it Blending card
Stamps--Mo's Digital Pencil "Gone Fishing", sentiment from Create with TLC, All Night Media Splatter wood mounted stamp
Ink--Copics, Vintage Photo Distress ink, Versafine Vintage Sepia
Tools--Nestabilities Labels Two

Amalia Daisy Fairy--TSG New Release--Day 2

It's day two of the new TSG releases and today we have a sweet fairy.

The new Amalia stamp set from Megan Suarez…just gorgeous!! Not only is Amalia a ballerina, but now she is a fairy as well!

Amalia’s Daisy Fairy is a 3x4 set that includes a total of 3 stamps and will sell for $9.00.

     I've given her a whole garden of flowers to tend.
     Would you like to win the new Amalia’s Daisy Fairy stamp set? Here is what you need to do- visit the Trendsetter’s blogs that are participating in each of the blog hop challenges below and comment on their creations as you go. One of the Trendsetter’s blogs (from each hop day) will be randomly chosen as the ‘it’ blog and a winner will be picked using a random number generator from the comments left on that Trendsetter’s Blog Hop Challenge post.
You will not know which blog has been chosen so the more you comment on the better your chances are of winning new stamps! The Blog Hop Challenges will be open until 5 PM Eastern Time Saturday, July 27^th with the winner being announced during the release party chat.

Supplies:
Paper--Crate Paper "Random", Recollections, Kraft Outlet Light Kraft, Copic Xpress-it Blending card
Stamps--There She Goes Clear Stamps "Amalia Daisy Fairy"
Ink--Copics, Sakura white gel pen
Miscellaneous--Kaisercraft rhinestones, Diamond Stickles, Polymark gold Dimensional Fabric paint

School Doodles--TSG New Release--Day 1

It's new release time at There She Goes and the first set we have to show you is "School Doodles".

The new School Doodles set from Torico is FULL of super cute and fun images perfect for any parent, teacher, scrapbooker, or card maker. With 49 stamps, the possibilities are endless!

School Doodles is a 6x8 set that includes a total of 49 stamps and will sell for $24.00.

     Forty nine stamps is a TON of choices for a mix and match card.  There are five on my card.  I added a fun fishtail banner and some tiny punched stars and colored the stamped images to compliment the DP colors.

Would you like to win the new School Doodles stamp set? Here is what you need to do- visit the Trendsetter’s blogs that are participating in each of the blog hop challenges below and comment on their creations as you go. One of the Trendsetter’s blogs (from each hop day) will be randomly chosen as the ‘it’ blog and a winner will be picked using a random number generator from the comments left on that Trendsetter’s Blog Hop Challenge post.

You will not know which blog has been chosen so the more you comment on the better your chances are of winning new stamps! The Blog Hop Challenges will be open until 5 PM Eastern Time Saturday, July 27^th with the winner being announced during the release party chat.

Supplies:
Paper--WeRMemory Keepers "Hall Pass", Kraft Outlet Light Kraft, Recollections, Georgia Pacific, Copic XPress-it Blending card
Stamps--There She Goes Clear Stamps "School Doodles"
Ink--Faber Castell Pitt pen, Copics BG72, BG75, G21, YR21, YR23, Y11, Y21, E08, E13, E93, E95, E97, E99, R37, R43
Tools--MFT Die-namics Fishtail Banners, Martha Stewart star hole punch
Miscellaneous--buttons from my stash, Kraft Outlet Hang Tag String

Bathing Beauties

     Hope you have some sunglasses nearby cause your going to need them for this card.  hee hee  Having some more fun with another great stamp set from Art Impressions Rubber Stamps.  Meet Selma and Gladys, the bathing beauties.  Nothing like having a good friend to make you feel good about yourself.  See what the sentiment says on the inside.

     Catered Crop just started a brand new challenge with the theme of "Summer Lovin'".  I think these two are ready to love summer.  Find something summery and come link up.
     This is going to be a super busy posting week for me.  Just wanted to give you a heads up.
     I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

Joanna Sheen--citrus colors
Pile It On--thinking of you/Just Becaus
That Craft Place--it's a girl thing
Just Us Girls--color palette
Inky Impressions--summer
The Paper Shelter--CAS
Tuesday Throwdown--anything goes

     Have a great Monday!

Supplies:
Paper--My Mind's Eye "The Sweetest thing--Tangerine", Recollections, Georgia Pacific, Copic XPress-it Blending card
Stamps--Art Impressions Rubber Stamps "Selma and Gladys"
Ink-- Memento Tuxedo Black, Ranger Jet Black Archival ink, Copics 
Tools--paper piercer
Miscellaneous--DMC Embroidery thread, buttons from my stash

Mini Album video for YouTube

     Video is up on YouTube for the mini album.  It's short and sweet, but at least those of you who have been missing my twang will get a refill.  LOL

Retirement Mini Album

     Hugs!

Birthday Bot

     All this week There She Goes Clear Stamps has been showcasing several of the cute robot sets in the TSG store.  Today is all new cards from the Trendsetters.  I've used Birthdaybot on my card and colored him with Copics and a little pastel pencil.  Hop on over to the blog to see all the new cards and play along with this weeks metal challenge if you haven't yet.
     I'd like to enter this little guy in the {Pin}spirational Challenge.

     Have a great weekend!

Supplies:
Paper--My Mind's Eye "Blue Floral", Kraft Outlet Light Kraft, Recollections, Copic XPress-it Blending card
Stamps--There She Goes Clear Stamps "Birthdaybot"
Ink--Sakura white gel pen, Faber Castell black Pitt Artist pen, Copics (robot C00, C0, C2, C4, C6, R37) (present BG72, BG75, BG78, Y11, Y21, YR21, YR23, E31) (shading E40, E42, E43)
Tools--MFT Die-namics Mini Tab Quartet
Miscellaneous--Conte Black Pastel pencil, Darice Hemp Cord, button from my stash

Mermaid Tales

     My DT sistah Tine has called for "turquoise" this week at Mo's Digital Pencil.  LOVE this color!  I've used "Melia on her shell phone" and broke in my brand new Lattice die which most of got covered up.  LOL  The card is very simply designed.  To be honest the mini album rather knocked out my craftiness so this card started out in a complete different vein than it ended.
     It's very hard to see in the photo, but I did a bit of stipling around the image with my Copics and then went back on top of them with Glossy Accents to make bubbles.  It looks much better IRL.  I hand cut the seaweed and then sprayed it with Pearl Perferct Pearls for some shimmer.  Melia has a light coating of Green Patina Perfect Pearls which is totally lost in this photo.  sigh.....
     Grab all your turquoise goodies and a Mo image and come play along for a chance at a $5.00 gift voucher from Mo's store.
     Happy Thursday!

Supplies:
Paper--My Mind's Eye "Reunion", Bazzill, Recollections, Copic XPress-it Blending card
Stamps:  Mo's Digital Pencil "Melia on her Shell Phone", There She Goes Clear Stamps "Aquaholic"
Ink--Ranger Archival Jet Black, Sakura Starlight and white gel pens, Tumbled Glass Distress ink, Copics (skin E000, E00, E11, E13, R20) (hair E51, E53, E55, E57)(clothes BG10, BG11, BG32, BG45, BG49, BG78, YG11) (shells and starfish E08, E40, E42, E93, E95, E97) (water bubbles B0000, B000, B00, C00, C0, C2)
Tools--Spellbinders Fancy Lattice, Martha Stewart Deco Shell edge punch, MFT Die-namics Scalloped Border
Miscellaneous--Recollections and Paper Studio pearls, Prima flower, Patina Glimmer Mist, Pearl and Green Patina Perfect Pearls, Glossy Accents

Time to go....have some fun!

     Okay, here is what has been taking up so much of my time lately.  About a month ago my bestie asked me if I would be interested in making a mini album for one of her co-workers who is retiring.  I've been wanting to make a mini FOREVAH so this was the perfect excuse.  Now some of you are familiar with my minis and some aren't.  First off let me say that I think this one was created in record time for me.  I am a top of the line OCD perfectionist so these little projects usually take me ages to complete.  However, the lady who this is going to is not a scrapper and I figured the full bells and whistles mini treatments would be a bit over the top for her so the book is fairly CAS.  I did have to have some fun though so I managed to sneak in a bit of mixed media fun as well as some cool scrapping techniques I found on the web.

     I'm going to give some deets about each page so if you want to skip the jibber jabber and just check out the pics be my guest.  I hope to have a video up on YT for it within a day or two.

     The whole album was constructed using a chipboard album from the Michaels $1 bin.  The pages are covered with some really cool textured paper I found a Mike's.  It was rather a pain to adhere things too, but it was worth the trouble for the texture.  The brick work came from a tutorial you can find on the amazing Lisa Gregory's blog.  Love this ladies scrapping!  They are created with a stencil, ink, and modeling paste.  The Tim Holtz clock was die cut in two layers of chipboard and one of paper and then covered with Crackle Accents.  The hands were left unpainted and edged with gold ink.  The vines were sprayed with water/gold Perfect Pearls for some shimmer and the leaves were edged in gold ink.  I gave the flower a few squirts of the PP too and colored the stamens with a Copic.
     Here's a little closer look at the clock face and brick work.

     I don't do personal photos on the Internet and I respected the privacy of the people in the photos I used by blurring their faces in photo shop.  For this page I made a faux pocket using a Tim Holtz On the Edge die that I layered and paper pierced.  The album was created from Pink Paislees Cottage Farm Collection.  All the DP and paper ephemera are from the collection.

     I didn't show all the tags in this post, but you can see them all sticking out from the edge of the page.  Four of the pages have a large photo mat with a picture on it and all but the cover page have at least one journaling tag tucked in.

     Lots of machine stitching throughout the album and all the photos are matted in gray and black to accent the designer papers.

     I took the difficult path to do the stitching on this page.  I wanted the darker paper to look like a recessed channel, but it really didn't come off that way IRL.

     I broke out the modeling past and another stencil for this page.

     I was really surprised at how much the paper shrunk up when I sprayed it with water to soften it for the wrinkling.  I wish I had made the stitching a bit smaller and closer together.  Hind sight and all you know.

     Had to throw some fishtail banners in there somewhere.  hee hee

     This was the first place I used the bricks and I liked them so much I had to put some on the cover.

     And finally the back.  I had originally planned to put this card and frame from the ephemera on the front, but couldn't get it to work until after I had already glued down the clock. grrrrr  So it went on the back with a cute quote about retirement and my personalized stamp tucked in on that little gray snippet peeping out.

     Hope you liked the album even without all the bells and whistles.  Have a great day!

Sparkle and Shine for Card Mania

     Quite a while back I was asked to be a Guest Designer by one of my favorite challenge blogs, Card Mania.  This is the week and new challenge that was selected for me and this is my card for the "Pearls and/or gems" challenge.  This particular challenge is being sponsored by Bearly Mine Designs and I was graciously supplied with some of Donna's gorgeous digital papers to use on my card.  All the designer papers used on this card are from the "Lacey Vintage Dreams" collection.
     This was definitely another of my kitchen sink cards and I really enjoyed making it.  I pulled out lots of goodies I don't normally use.
     It's hard to tell in the photo but the dark mats are the same deep olive green I used for the leaves and photo corners.  The second mat of designer paper was edged with sparkly gold embossing powder as were the photo corners.  I edged the two tabs with a gold ink pad and added some fancy crystal brads.  The leaves and photo corners were sprayed with a mixture of Gold Perfect Pearls and water for some nice shimmer.  The roses were also sprayed and then edged with Diamond Stickles.  The butterfly punch was covered with sticky embossing powder and covered with copper glitter.  It then got a gold pearl body and pretty pink bling trail.
     The image is a lovely Saturated Canary called "Roses are red, violets are blue".
     Hop on over to the Card Mania blog to get all the details on the new challenge and play along.
     I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:

2 Sisters--make it sparkle
Stampin' For the Weekend--photo/color inspiration
Southern Girls--no spoolin'
Crafts and Me--anything goes

     Happy Monday!

Supplies:
Papers--Lacey Vintage Digital Papers from Bearly Mine Designs, Bazzill, Copic XPress-it Blending card
Stamps--Saturated Canary "Roses are red, violets are blue"
Ink--Versamark, Frayed Burlap Distress ink, Sakura white gel pen, Brilliance Galaxy Gold, Copics (skin E000, E00, E11, E13, R20) (hair E21, E23, E25, E27, E29) (clothes R11, R20, R24, R29, E40, E42, E43) (flowers R11, R20, R21, R22, R24, R29, BG93, BG96, YG93, YG95, G40)
Tools--Martha Stewart Frond, Rose Leaf, Photo Corner and Monarch Butterfly punches, MFT Sentiment Strip
Miscellaneous--Stampendous Jeweled Gold Transparent embossing powder, Gold Perfect Pearls, Ranger Sticky embossing powder, Doodlebug Glitter, Prima  flowers, Recollections brads,flowers, pearls, and rhinestone bling, Diamond Stickles