Sunday, February 27, 2011

Wonderful Winter Wishes

Hello everyone! I hope that you are all enjoying your weekend so far :) Did you guys see that the new stamp sets are now available on the TSG website? AND that there is a sale going on too?! It's a great time to shop for new stamp sets :D

I wanted to share this card that I made a little while ago that I just love. I have decided that Prismacolor Pencils are my 'go-to' coloring medium. They are so much fun to use and I find them easier to work with since I can always go back and erase any mistakes before I blend the colors with OMS ;)
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Supplies:
Ink- Momento Tuxedo Black
Paper- Alphabet Soup, White, Early Espresso
Accessories- Nestabilities, Rhinestones, Sewing Machine, Dimensionals

Recipe:
* Create card base from white cardstock
* Cut layers, mat with Early Espresso, stitch, stamp sentiment on smallest layer and adhere all layers to cardbase with dimensionals
*Cut circle from white cardstock with dimensionals, stamp image, color with pencils, blend with OMS, stitch
*Mat with scallop nestability shape in Early Espresso. Adhere circle/scallop layer to cardbase with dimensionals


Thursday, February 24, 2011

Flying By / Good Times Sneak Peeks!

Today is the last day of sneak peeks and we've got two more cute sets to show off! If you made your way here from Iwona's blog, you are on the right track :) If not, you may want to head over to the TSG Blog for all of the info about this Blog Hop Challenge as well as to find out how you can win both sets being shown today!!
 “Good Times” is illustrated by Torico and is a 4X6 stamp set that includes a total of 11 stamps and will sell for $15.

I love one of the sentiments included in the Good Times stamp set so much that I wanted to use it as my background for this card lol! It says 'Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop.' One of the great things about this sentiment stamp is that when stamped in a 'staggered' fashion, the words line up to create one long line instead of the original 3 on the stamp! For my image, I stamped this cute little bunny onto white cardstock, colored with Prismacolor Pencils, blended with OMS before cutting out and adhering to the card base with dimensionals. I added a white layer to the inside of the card and stamped the sentiment inside as well.
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“Flying By” is a 3X4 stamp set that includes a total of 5 stamps and will sell for $7.
I love this cute mini set illustrated by Iwona! My friend Kelli gave me the idea of using real twine for the balloon strings and I couldn't wait to try it out! I first started with a simple card base out of Soft Sky cardstock with a layer of sky designer paper that was sponged, stitched and adhered on top. The image was stamped onto a separate piece of cardstock, colored with Prismacolor pencils, blended with OMS and cut out. I used a paper piercer to poke a few holes right under the line of her hand so that I could feed the twine through. I used a tiny bit of sticky tape on the wrist to tack down the twine and keep it in place. I then adhered the other end of the twine onto the balloons before adhering the entire image to the card base with dimensionals. I added a bit of Diamond Glaze to the balloons for extra dimension.

Funny story: While I was waiting for the balloons to dry, I put them in my light box with the lights turned on. While I had my back turned, Chloe came in and for some reason was drawn to touch the balloons to see if they were wet. Thankfully it was dry enough that no real damage happened and just a fingerprint was left. Then Matt came in and while I was in the midst of telling him what Chloe did, he poked the same balloon and put a bigger dent in it lol! I've decided to just stamp when the family is asleep from now on ;)
If you have actually stuck with me through my journal of an entry thanks lol! Now head on over to Jessie's blog to see what eye candy she has for you :)

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

In All The World / Sentimental Birthday Sneak Peek

Welcome to day two of our Blog Hop Challenges!! Today we have two sneak peeks to share with you today. One mini set that was designed by Chris Dark and another mini set that features the handwriting of Julie Lacey!

If you made your way here from the talented Iwona's blog, you are on the right track! If not, you may want to head back to the TSG Blog for all of the details about this hop and to find out how you can win both of the mini sets being show simply by blog hopping :)
“In All the World” is a 3X4 stamp set that includes a total of 7 stamps and will sell for $7.

For my first sneak peek, I chose to color this sweet image with Prismacolor Pencils blended with OMS. The green panel behind the image was embossed with a Cuttlebug folder then sanded to enhance the design.

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“Sentimental Birthday” is a 2X6 stamp set that includes a total of 7 stamps and will sell for $7.
 I chose to go simple and elegant for this card. It was very easy to make and includes lots of distressing, sponging and a mixture of corner edges to give it some extra visual interest. The adhesive pearls are a simple yet beautiful finishing touch!

Now hop on over to Jessie's blog to check out her eye candy and don't forget to leave her some love!

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Under The Weather Sneak Peek!

Welcome to day one of our sneak peeks! Today is extra exciting because we are announcing our newest illustrator for TSG- Melyssa Connolly!! I'm sure many of you are familiar with Melyssa's whimsical designs from her digi stamp website Whimsie Doodles.

Did you make your way here from the talented Iwona's blog? If so, great! If not, you may want to head back to the TSG Blog for all of the details about this blog hop and to find out how you can win the stamp set being shown today!!
The first set she has illustrated for TSG is called Under The Weather which is a 4x8 size stamp set and includes a total of 25 stamps!

The card I made for today is pretty simple and yet pretty time consuming too lol! There is quite a bit of paper piecing and I colored the girl's hair, face and umbrella handle with Copic markers. I also added some Diamond Glaze to the heart rain drops, umbrella, raincoat/boots, and puddle.
The next stop on the hop is Jessie!

Monday, February 21, 2011

Release week challenge!

Happy release week everyone! Sorry for the late challenge post, we have satellite internet that has been acting up all week and driving me crazy grrr......

This week we are channeling our fellow Trendsetter Julie Lacey with a challenge that requires using a line art stamp without coloring it in. Julie does such a beautiful job at this and I thought that it would be a great challenge for all of you color hounds out there ;)

Check out the TSG Blog today to find out all the details about this challenge and how you can win a TSG gift certificate simply by playing along!

The stamp set I used for this card is a sneak peek of a new stamp set illustrated by a new artist to join the TSG family! I am so excited that Melyssa Connolly from Whimsie Doodles has joined us and I know that you are just going to love the style that she brings to the current stamp line :D

This stamp set is called Under The Weather and you can see more of this awesome set tomorrow for the Blog Hop Challenge that starts on the TSG Blog! For my card I created a card base out of kraft cardstock, stamped the umbrella boarder stamp and sponged the edges. I used Nestabilities to cut out the image panel, sponged with Crumb Cake ink, stamped the image and sentiment in Early Espresso ink, adhered to card base, trimmed extra cardstock that was hanging over the sides and stitched with a sewing machine across the top and bottom. To finish of this card, I added diamond glaze to the bird to give it some extra depth.
Make sure you come back tomorrow for the start
of our Blog Hop Challenges!

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Sentimental Thank You

Hello everyone! Here is a card I made for this week's TSG Challenge over on the TSG Blog. It is a beautiful color challenge using pink, kraft and ivory.
 I kept my design simple and used an embossing folder for the kraft layer before adding strips of pink scrap paper and stitching them to the kraft layer with a sewing machine. I stamped the sentiment (from Sentimental Thank You) in kraft onto vanilla cardstock and stitched that to the kraft layer as well. I then matted that with vanilla cardstock and adhered to a kraft cardbase. Easy-peasy :)
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Monday, February 14, 2011

Love Birds

Hello everyone and Happy Valentine's Day! I hope that you all had a wonderful weekend and maybe even got some stamping in ;) I have been way too busy all weekend and the next couple of days aren't looking any better but I wanted to stop in and show you these quick little Valentine cards I whipped up for the girls to slip in their lunch boxes before school!

I used the Love Birds set which is quickly becoming one of my all time favorites! There is so much that you can do with all of the fun images that are included :)

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The images were stamped in Momento ink before I colored them using an SU blender pen and Inks.

Have a great Monday everyone, I hope you get to spend it with someone(s) you love!

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Wrapped In Joy

Happy Saturday everyone! I have been pretty productive this week and have actually been stamping everyday! I can't even remember the last time that I was able to stamp for fun and I have really been enjoying getting into it again :)

While I have enough cards to post for at least the next week, I wanted to show this one that I created last weekend at the stamping retreat. The images are from the stamp set Wrapped In Joy and were paper pieced as well as colored with Copic markers. I love this fun layout and credit it to Kim who can apparently pull a sketch out of thin air lol!
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Friday, February 11, 2011

You're A Hoot / Friday Night Chat

Join us tonight right HERE in the TSG forum for our Friday Night Chat!
Everyone is welcome and we love to meet new people :)

Here is another card that I made this weekend while I was stamping with a few of my crazy Trendsetters :) This card was inspired by this gorgeous card that Sandra sent me as well as by my table partner Kim. I love watercoloring with her Tombow markers but I had to have her show me step by step how to shade lol! The stamp set used is You're A Hoot.

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Thursday, February 10, 2011

Spring Fever

We've been getting some sunshine the last few days and I think spring fever is officially setting in at our house! On top of that, I am finally starting to feel better and am keeping my fingers crossed that this cold is on its way out.

Here is a quick and easy card that I made this weekend at the stamping get together. I love how it turned out despite the simplicity :) I used the stamp set Spring Fever.
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Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Back in 10

This week our featured Trendsetter Sandra has challenged us to use the following on our cards-

3 patterned papers

2 buttons
1 sparkly element
For my challenge card, I used the newly released Back In 10 stamp set. It's hard to tell but I paper pieced the butterfly's wings with the third pattern paper. The sparkly element of this card can't be seen in this picture but I added glitter with my Stardust Gelly Roll pen to the butterfly as well as the centers of the flowers on the pattern paper.

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I'm still not feeling well so I'm going to keep this post short. Keeping my fingers crossed that I get over this cold soon!! Make sure you stop by the TSG Blog for all the details about this week's challenge as well as to find out how you can win a TSG gift certificate simply by playing along :)

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Tastes Like Chicken

I must have had way too much fun this weekend cause I am feeling completely run down now lol! I was feeling completely inspired while hanging out with my stampin' friends and with all the craziness going on it was only natural that I ended up using the Tastes Like Chicken stamp set while there ;) This card was inspired by the colors that Sparkle was using on a project she was working on. I love how the teal, yellow and orange go so well together and I would have never thought to use them on my own like this!

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Have a great stampin' day everyone!!

Monday, February 7, 2011

My Mojo Makers :D

I wanted to pop in and share a few pictures from a fun weekend with amazing friends! On Friday the girls and I headed over to Corinna's house where we also met up with Kim, Angela and Danielle. Oh my goodness, I love these ladies!! I got to meet and hang out with Kim and Angela back in October but it was the first time I met Danielle and let me tell you, she fit in with us crazies just fine :)

Corinna was the perfect host and made sure that we were all taken care of and (in true TSG style) even welcomed us with flowers upon the arrival at her house ;) We did some shopping, ate some great food and of course got inky! We all had laptops out and were participating at the TSG Friday Night Chat as well Skyping with Holly. Good times, good times......The girls had a blast even though they got a little bit wild towards the end of the night. So I took them home and went back the next day all by myself for some grown up time!

Sparkle was already there when I got there the next morning and it was great getting to hang out with her again too! Since I was there without kids this time, I was waaaay more productive and actually got a few cards made! I actually love what I made and these girls are officially my Mojo Makers. I was bummed to have to say goodbye to my friends but we have made plans to get together again in April!

Thursday, February 3, 2011

You Inspire Me


Sorry for being so quiet lately! I was sick all weekend and even Monday so I spent a majority of those three days sleeping. Then on Tuesday Kylie and I went up to Seattle Children's Hospital for her LAST infusion! Wahoo!!! We even go our own room :) Well, not because it was her last infusion but because they had to put us in isolation just in case my cold was still contagious lol! Oh well, we were comfortable for those 6 hours ;)

When Kylie was first diagnosed for her JDM resulting in being admitted to Children's for three days, I bought her a necklace at the wonderful gift shop there. It has become a tradition that we purchase a new charm for her necklace every time she has an appointment to add to her necklace. While we were picking out her newest addition, she came across this pretty pink umbrella that she wanted. I figured, what the heck, after all she has been through- she deserves it ;)

When we got home, it was still light enough to post for some pictures in the back yard with her new umbrella and it gave me the perfect chance to try something I've been thinking about for a couple of weeks now.

Here is the picture I created of Kylie taken on the same day of her last infusion. Whew, it sure feels good to say that!
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And here is the Stampbook page that I made featuring it. This also was made for this week's TSG Inspiration challenge. I chose to create a sketch using the image then flipped it to accommodate my picture. I will have to post the sketch for you next time so you believe me ;)
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