All Decked Out for School

Hello, crafty friends.  I have a post on the 3 Girl JAM blog today.  the 3 Girl JAM challenge blog has a School themed challenge happening right now, so I decided to get in the spirit of things and alter a notebook that any kid would love to take to school. I started with a basic notebook, on sale, 5 for $1.00 (whoot!) and took it from there:

 

 

I used ribbon and flair buttons from the 3 Girl JAM store.  Ribbons are from the Celebrations bundle (Tuxedo Black), the Harvest Bundle (Sunflower), and the Winter Bundle (Holly Berry).  The flair buttons are a sneak peak and will be available shortly in the store, along with some other fun ones you WON'T want to miss!

Designer papers are My Mind's Eye 'On the Sunny Side' 12x12. The hopscotch game and printables are from The Cutting Café and can be found HERE.  I used stamps from Fancy Pants, "The Good Life", and Close To My Heart ( a retired set) to make the bicycle with borders and apple with borders pieces.

Here's a close up of one of the new, fun flair buttons available soon:

 

Create your own "back to school" project, and link up over at the 3 Girl JAM challenge blog. I'd love to see what you make! 

 

I entering this project in the following challenge:

 

Simon Wednesday Challenge -- Back to School



Anything Goes -- at Sweet Stamps

I am having so much fun with my guest designing for Sweet Stamps this month. The month is going WAY too fast!

A new challenge started yesterday over on the Sweet Stamps blog, and it's the always popular theme of "Anything Goes".

When I was given the opportunity to guest design for Sweet Stamps, I was also given the chance to pick out some stamps to design with.  The first one I chose was this dashing young lady, Margery (Margery 527).  She's a beauty, and I HAD to color her!

 

Isn't she fun? I paired her with some old fashioned looking papers I picked up from Hobby Lobby, added a nostalgic sentiment, also found in the Sweet Stamps store, "Old Fashioned Wish" (9065E). Both images were lightly sponged with Tim Holtz distress ink in worn paper to further the 'aged' look.  Some Close To My Heart ribbon, a stick pin created for me by a friend, a Bazzill card base, and voila, the card is complete! I hope you fall in love with Margery!



BUGS! For Get Inky! Stamps

A new challenge starts today on the Get Inky! Challenge blog.  The theme can be anything -- as long as it includes a bug. 

I've been working with Perfect Pearls lately, so decided to continue with that line of thinking, and used one of the newer Get Inky! Stamps releases, Love Bug.

 

 

 

I find that the Perfect Pearls show up best on darker color card stock.  This is Close To My Heart outdoor denim.  All the butterflies and bugs, along with the sentiment are from the Love Bug set -- it's a real cutie!  I stamped using Versamark ink, then brushed various colors of Perfect Pearls on the bugs where I wanted the color to be. I made sure to leave room for the sentiment, then used the same technique on that.  All the leftover powder can be dusted off with a larger brush.

I mounted the outdoor denim card stock to a piece of textured white c.s., and that is adhered to a crystal blue card base. Hope you like my "buggy" creation!

A Bouquet of Good Wishes

Hello, blog friends.  I'm guest designing again today on the Sweet Stamps blog.  Their monthly challenge started this week, and the theme is masking.  I worked on several different masking techniques before I came up with one that I liked.  I love daisies, so used them on this card:

 

 

I used the Sweet Stamp, "Daisy Bunch" (3033H) for the masking technique.  The sentiment is Sweet Stamp #9126C, 'A Bouquet of Good Wishes'.  After masking and stamping the daisy image several times, I colored them with watercolor pencils.  I fussy cut several images and used foam tape to elevate them .  The card was cut out on the Silhouette. I used papers from Simple Stories, and ribbon from 3Girl JAM.  Come join the Sweet Stamps Challenge with your own masking challenge!



It's a SWEET! Post for Joy's Life design team!

Hello, and Happy Saturday, my friends.  I'm scheduling this post ahead of time because I'm taking a couple Copic certification courses yesterday and today. Yeah! Sooo excited! I'm going to learn so much!

The theme this week on the Joy's Life design team blog is "Sweet!" -- certainly a theme many of us can get excited about!

I made this shaped card:

 

I cut out this canning jar pattern on my Silhouette, used the super cute Joy's Life set, "That Tastes Punny".

 

  

The jar shaped file is by My Scrap Chick, and can be found HERE. I used Fancy Pants Summer's End 6x6 papers on this card, with Close To My Heart cocoa cardstock used for the base. Enjoy!

FWF - and a Copic Class!

Hurray! It's Friday! And a very special Friday at that! Back in July, for my birthday, my husband paid to send me to the Copic basic certification class and the Copic intermediate certification class in Minneapolis, MN.  Those classes are today and tomorrow.  Yes! I'm so excited! Yesterday, I drove 2 1/2 hours to get to the hotel/conference center where the classes will be held.  I'm camped out and ready! Let the fun begin!

And, speaking of fun, I have a card to share with you today that was a lot of fun to make!

Last Sunday, we got together with my in-laws at a restaurant, and they picked up the tab.  I figured the least I could do was make them a pretty card.  So, Monday, after work, I whipped together this little pretty for them:

 

I used the Unity set, "Butterfly Beauty" on this.  It was one of the first Unity sets I ever bought, in the old brown boxes.  I love the 4 butterflies in this set.  They all emboss beautifully, and that's what I did with this one.  I heat embossed on black cardstock using clear detail embossing powder. Then, I mixed Perfect Pearls and water together in four different colors, and painted them on the butterfly.  The areas that were heat embossed resist the color, and this is the result.  Neat, huh?  I added the sentiment (a CTMH retired set), and some Close To My Heart bling, and voila, the thank you card was complete and ready to go. Well, it was after I rounded 2 corners and wrote a message inside.

Now it's time to practice my Copic coloring skills.  Sooo stoked for this!!!  Have a great weekend everyone!

 

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

 

Inky Impression Challenges #121

Crafting by Designs "Anything Goes"

AUD Sentiments Challenge #87

Sister Act Card Challenge "Anything Goes"

The ABC Challenge "T is for Thank You"

Just Be Creative Linky Party - Anything Goes



 

 



Everybody likes BLING!

I'm guest designing again today at Sweet Stamps blog. The challenge theme this week is 'bling'.  Yeah.  I LIKE this theme! I had a great time designing a card and blinging it up!

 

 

I used my new favorite, "go-to" butterfly stamp set on this card. It is the Sweet Stamps set, "Fanciful Butterflies" (S600).  There are 4 separate butterflies in this set, and they are beautiful. The sentiment is Sweet Stamps set #9099, "Fancy Birthday 2-line". I used My Mind's Eye Indie Chic:Nutmeg paper on this card, found in the Sweet Stamps store.  I used a Lifestyle Crafts doily die, some 3 Girl Jam ribbon, and bling from my stash.

I stamped the butterflies in 2 different shades of Close To My Heart blue ink (Indian Corn Blue, Crystal Blue) then used CTMH Crème Brulee, Crystal Blue, and Indian Corn Blue inks and a water pen to give them more color. The sentiment is stamped in CTMH cocoa ink.