Friday, December 31, 2010

Kylie's Kards

I know it's a little bit late but it has been a busy day and I am just now getting to post Kylie's card for the week. She loves this cute new image from Torico (included in the set Buckets Of Love which will be released Saturday evening) and the card she made is pretty darn sweet too ;)

Two of the papers she used are Poison Ivory (card base) and Nero Incandescent (dark wavy strip at the bottom). Both of these gorgeous paper are from Paper Temptress.


Kylie's Kards 12-31-10

I hope you will join us tomorrow at the release party chat where this brand new set (and 3 others!) will be released :) Come back here for all of the details tomorrow!

Thursday, December 30, 2010

Love Birds / Sentimental Blog Hop

Hopefully you made your way here from the talented Iwona's Blog but if not, you may want to head over to the TSG Blog for all of the details about these sneak peeks and how you could win the set being shown today!!!

We have four brand new stamp sets that will be released Saturday night after the release party chat that you are going to fall in love with! All week long, the Trendsetters will be giving you some peeks of different ways they used awesome new stamp sets!

This amazing set is fast becoming one of my favorites! It is jam packed with images that can be combined in an endless amount of ways to create fun and whimsical cards/projects.

Love Birds is a 4x8 stamp set that includes a total of 18 stamps and will sell for $18 (Illustrated by Torico)
Stamps: Love Birds
Paper: Very Vanilla, Early Espresso, DP unknown
Ink: Early Espresso
Accessories: Prismacolor Pencils, OMS, Dimensionals, SU border punch, Stardust Gelly Roll pen
This mini set includes many different sentiments to use on cards for any occasion as well as features the handwriting of our very own Julie Lacey! This will be one set that you will leave out on your stampin' desk because you use it so much :)

Sentimental is a 2x6 mini set that includes a total of 6 stamps and will sell for $7
Stamps: Sentimental
Ink: Momento Tuxedo black, Sahara Sand
Paper: White, DP scraps from my stash
Accessories: Sponge, sewing machine, dimensionals, nestabilities, embossing folder

Next on the hop is Jessie!

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Buckets Of Love Blog Hop

Another fun day of Blog Hop Challenges is here! Hopefully you made your way here from the talented Iwona's Blog but if not, you may want to head over to the TSG Blog for all of the details about these sneak peeks and how you could win the set being shown today!!!
We have four brand new stamp sets that will be released Saturday night after the release party chat that you are going to fall in love with! All week long, the Trendsetters will be giving you some peeks of different ways they used awesome new stamp sets!
The set we are showing off today is a super cute, super versatile set called Buckets Of Love. This set includes two styles of buckets and a variety of images to fill those buckets with like hearts, candy, Easter eggs and flowers!
Buckets of Love is a 4x6 stamp set that includes a total of 18 stamps and will sell for $15
Stamps: Buckets Of Love
Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black, Poppy Parade
Paper: Poppy Parade, Black, White
Accessories: SU border punch, Dimensionals, Prismacolor Pencils, OMS

* Created black sentiment layer using a SU border punch, sentiment is stamped onto white cardstock in Momento Tuxedo Black ink with hearts (stamped off once) stamped in red ink. Adered to cardbase using dimensionals.
* Bucket was stamped onto white cardstock, colored with Prismacolor pencils, blended with OMS, cut out and adhered to card base using dimensionals.

Now hop on over to Jessie's blog to see the eye candy that she has to share with you!

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Wonderful Winter Wishes Blog Hop

Hello my friends and welcome to our first day of Blog Hop Challenge sneak peeks! Hopefully you made your way here from the talented Iwona's Blog but if not, you may want to head over to the TSG Blog for all of the details about these sneak peeks and how you could win the set being shown today!!!

We have four brand new stamp sets that will be released Saturday night after the release party chat that you are going to fall in love with! All week long, the Trendsetters will be giving you some peeks of different ways they used awesome new stamp sets! The first set that we have to share with you is called Wonderful Winter Wishes and not only is it perfect for everday cards for friends and family, it is great for making cards to send those that you may have forgot to send a Christmas card to ;)

Wonderful Winter Wishes is a 4x6 stamp set that includes a total of 12 stamps and will sell for $15
Stamps: Wonderful Winter Wishes
Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black, Versafine Toffee
Paper: Whisper white, Black, Marina Mist
Accessories: White gel pen, Ribbon, Corner rounder, Sponge, Dimensionals

* For my card, I stamped the image and sentiment onto the white cardstock after it was lightly sponged with brown ink.
* Continued the 'snow line' with a copic multiliner
* I created the design paper by stamping the border image that is included in this set onto Marina Mist cardstock and coloring in sections with white gel pen.
* Tied ribbon around the design paper before adhering to the card base.
* Stamped image onto seperate piece of cardstock, colored with Prismacolor pencils, blended with OMS, cut out and adhered to cardbase using dimentionals.



The next stop on this wintery wonderful hop is my friend Jessie!

Monday, December 27, 2010

Happy Birthday Jodikins!

I am so excited to be taking part in a very special blog hop today to honor my super fabulous friend Jodi!! I have been lucky to not only have Jodi be part of the TSG team as senior Trendsetter but she has also become a very good friend as well. You should have arrived here from Sankari's blog but if not, why don't you head back to Karen's (who is throwing this fun shindig!) blog to get all of the details as well as the list of blog hop participants.

Happy birthday girlfriend, I hope
your day is as special as you are :)
Jodi's Bday hop
Stamps: Butterfly Happiness
Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black, River Rock
Paper: Kraft, Black, White, Sahara Sand
Accessories: Prismacolor pencils, OMS, sewing machine, red line tape, corner rounder

The next stop on this birthday hop is my friend Julie!

Coolest gift ever!

I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas and are getting back to 'real life' mode easily! Sorry for the absence all last week but as you can imagine things were a little hectic while we were finishing up preparations for the upcoming holiday ;)

I wanted to share this awesome gift that I received from my TSG friend Meredith (aka Crafty Math Chick). Using TSG stamps only, she created this set of bingo cards and drawing pieces!! Every card is hand stamped, colored and laminated and it obviously took a lot of time to create.

I am completely awed that she was so thoughtful to make and send not only this *amazing* project, but she also sent a little something for Matt and the girls as well!

THANK YOU SO MUCH MEREDITH FOR THIS GIFT, THERE ARE NO WORDS TO EXPRESS HOW MUCH I LOVE IT!!!
12-26-10 

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Changing Of The Seasons Winter Sale

Scroll down for this week's Trendsetter Tuesday post
That's right, it's time again for the TSG Changing Of The Seasons sale! To celebrate the start of winter, we have 5 select stamp sets available at 15% off of their regular retail price. This sale only lasts until Jan. 28 so scoop up your sets before they disappear!!
Autumn Mosaic $15.30 (reg. $18) *gallery*

Monday, December 20, 2010

TSG86- Button It Up

This week's challenge over on the TSG blog is all about buttoning it up! Your projects that is ;) 


Last week was a bit of a crazy week. You see, I woke up on Tuesday and realized that the girls got out of school that Friday. I don't know where in the heck my brain has been but I thought that I still had a whole 'nother week before having to get the girls' teacher's Christmas projects finished. I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to make for them but I was struck with a fabulous idea when I was volunteering in Kylie's class helping with their gingerbread house decorating. Luckily I had brought my camera so I snapped some pictures to use for my project. I was also scheduled to help with Chloe's class the following day for the same activity so I made sure to bring my camera again :)

So what I decided to do was put together a gift basket for Kylie and Chloe's teacher that includes a CD of all of the pictures I took (with a cover I designed myself), prints of all of the pictures (tied with a pretty bow of course ;), a tag book using all of the pictures I took, a homemade Christmas card along with our holiday family photo. I picked up the basket along with the decorative items for the basket at Dollar Tree.

Ok so here is the timeline- I volunteered in Kylie's class on Tuesday, Chloe's on Wednesday and started this project on Thursday evening with the hopes of finishing it in time for the girls to give it to their wonderful teachers. Well, that took a tad bit longer than I had thought. Once I got started, I just could not make myself stop and ended up staying up throughout the whole night. Literally. I didn't go to bed until 9 AM the next morning lol! Luckily my wonderful husband was able to fill in for me and get the girls to school so I could go to sleep :) I love how these turned out and the teachers loved them too and that's what really matters right?

Picture of the finished baskets
Gift Baskets

Close ups of the two tag books (the only embellishment that I used was buttons so that is how it fits into this week's challenge lol!)
Tagbook(1) Tagbook

I also made Kylie's teacher from last year a pretty gift basket that included the Believe In You stamp set, a set of card bases in all different colors, cardstock in the same colors cut into 4.25x5.5 pieces, a couple of acrylic blocks to fit the images in the stamp set, a VersaFine cube, hand made card and our holiday family photo. I would have taken a picture but I was waaaay beyond tired at this point lol!!

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Holiday Sparkles

I wanted to pop in to show you guys a project that I did yesterday. This is the first wreath I have ever made and I love how it turned out! My husband however, is not thrilled that I managed to get glitter everywhere in just about every room in our house lol!

I knew that I wanted a pink and silver wreath but I couldn't find one so I decided that I would just make one instead. Here is how I made it-

Wreath: $2

Silver sparkly-circle-branch-things: 5 @ $1 ea.
Silver bells (pack of 9): $1
Sparkle Poinsettia flowers (set of two): $1
Silver bunch of holly leaves: $1

I couldn't find any sparkly pink decorations so I decided to improvise and make my own. This is where the mess began ;)

*First I took my pack of bells I picked up at Dollar Tree and sprayed them each with spray adhesive (LOVE that stuff!!) and then lightly sprayed acrylic sealer over it to kind of set the glitter to keep it from coming off.

*I then took the bunch of holly leaves and cut the leaves off the branch thing they came on and giving them the same glitter treatment.

*While I was waiting for those to dry, I dipped the tips of some of the wreath 'branches' in Aleen's glue and then dipped them in pretty white glitter.

*Then I ate dinner while I waited for that to dry ;)

*Had Matt put the girls to bed so I could keep working lol!

*Added my sparkly-silver-circle-branch-things by using twist ties (that actually were used to secure them to the packaging they came on) to secure them to the wreath frame.

*Did the same with the poinsettia flowers

*Tied the bells onto the wreath branches with the silver string that came with them

*Used green embroidery thread to tie onto the end of the leaves and then tied them onto the wreath branches as well.
Sigh..... now Matt is insisting that I go clean up the glitter. This is gonna take all week......

But it was worth it ;) I learned that spray adhesive and glitter is SO much fun lol!

Monday, December 13, 2010

TSG85- Use your stash

This week's TSG challenge is all about using up some of those supplies that you have been hoarding for ages. The goal is to use things that you have had for at least 6 months (or longer!). For my project, I decided to make a pillow box with a fancy schmancy tag so that I can use to put my grandma's Christmas gift in. After all who appreciates homemade gifts more than gram?? :) I was inspired by this card that Iwona made, I just love the colors and layout!

Make sure that you stop by the TSG Blog today and to find out how you can win a TSG gift certificate just by playing along!
12-12-10 
Stamps: Holiday Tags
Paper: Black, Very Vanilla, K&Co., DCWV
Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black, Early Espresso
Accessories: Ribbon, Brads, Prismacolor Pencils, OMS, SU Boarder Punch, SU Punch, Dimensionals, SU Slit Punch, Sewing Machine

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Shimmery Seasons Greetings

The weekend is here and can you believe that Christmas is just around the corner? I keep thinking that it is still the beginning of December and when I see the date I start to panic because I have yet to send out my Christmas cards lol! I know, horrible.

I wanted to pop in and show you guys another card that I made from one of my new favorite papers from Paper Temptress called Nero Incandescent. This paper is gorgeous and I love, love, LOVE it! It is a nice weight cardstock that can be used for card bases, it's textured and has this beautiful gold shimmer to it that adds a great dimension to your cards!! I stamped the images onto the Poison Ivory cardstock (which also has a beautiful pearly shimmer to it) with Momento Tuxedo Black ink, heat set and colored with Copic markers before cutting out and adhering to the card base with dimensionals.

12-11-10

I used the newly released stamp set Seasons Greetings designed by Chris Dark. I love the style of these images and they are so fun to color!


Friday, December 10, 2010

Kylie's Kards

Happy Friday everyone! I hope that you all have had a wonderful week and are looking forward to a relaxing weekend :) Join us tonight right HERE in the TSG Forum for our weekly Friday Night Chat. Everyone is welcome and we love to meet new people!

It's been another busy week and since Kylie had her all day infusion at Children's Hospital on Tuesday, she didn't have much time to stamp. So instead, I thought that I would post some stamp sets that she designed :) You see, Kylie is on a mega dose of Prednisone (which is a nasty steroid that works wonders for a variety of different diseases) and one *of the MANY* symptoms is trouble sleeping. So while she is working on trying to fall asleep, she would spend a lot of time reading and drawing. One night (over an hour after I had tucked her in) she brought me this drawing that she had done and told me that it was a stamp set that she had designed for my stamp company. Looks like someone wants to follow in her mama's stamp sets :)

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Back in stock!!

BACK IN STOCK:

Monday, December 6, 2010

TSG84- Bring On The Bling!

This week's challenge over on the TSG Blog is brought to us by our featured Trendsetter Jodi! It's all about the bling baby!! From glitter to rhinestones and everything in between, use them to glam up your cards and projects this week.

I chose to create some cards to go with the picture cards that will be going out with this year's family Christmas letter. I've been dappling a bit in photography for awhile now and this picture is one of my favorites from a shoot I did with the girls about a month ago :)


It was a little time consuming figuring out how I wanted to 'decorate' each of the circles but once I got that down, it wasn't too bad to mass produce these. I used the mini set Stick Together along with embellishments that were found in my stash. For the challenge part of this card, there is clear snow like glitter, rhinestones, stardust gelly roll pen and glittery embossing powder. For the sentiment, I simply printed out the one that I made for the picture cards on the card front before adhering the circles.
12-5-10 

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Kylie's Kards (and Chloe's & Kayla's too)

I hope that you are all enjoying your weekends so far! Today I have some exciting news to share- my oldest daughters are following in their mama's footsteps and are in the process of becoming professional card makers :) A couple of weeks ago I received an email asking if Kylie (7) and Chloe (6) would be interested in doing some design work for Paper Temptress! Paper Temptress carries a ton of different cardstocks in all types of weights, colors, textures, etc.  Check out the website and have fun oogling all of the gorgeous papers and cardstocks.

Here are a few cards that the girls made last night. From left to right we have Chloe, Kylie and Kayla (4). They had way too much fun going through mommy's stamps looking for just the right image ;) The stamp sets used are: Spread Your Wings, Seasons Greetings, Penguin Pals, Rejuvenate and Snowy Days.


Aren't these cardstocks gorgeous?? Most of these  that I have shown are from the Mica/Metallic line but I also have Sparkle Blanc and Nero Incandescent too. And if you only buy one sheet of cardstock make it one from the Velvet line!!! Oh my goodness. This paper feels like butter in your hands! I can't guarantee that I will actually create with it because all I really want to do is carry it around in my pocket so I can hold it whenever I want lol! It isn't called the Paper Temptress for nothing ;)

Friday, December 3, 2010

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

Also, keep on the lookout for some stamping eye candy made by a couple of my kidlets! They have some exciting news to share but after the busy week we've had, it's going to have to wait one more day :)

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Love notes for kiddos

This week's TSG Challenge is to create a card/project to give to a child. Since I happen to have a few of these said receipients located in my home, I loved the idea of this challenge! One of my favorite types of papercrafting projects is the ATC (Aritist Trading Card)! These cute little 2.5"x3.5" works of art are quick and easy to make and with the smaller amount of surface area to create on, the less mojo it requires to finish ;)

I used two of the newly released stamp sets to make these ATCs. I plan to slip them into Kylie and Chloe's lunch boxes for a little mid day pick me up :) I was inspired by this card that Heather made because I love these colors together as well as the splash of white!
11-30-10
Stamp sets: Wrapped In Joy, Just For You, In Stitches
Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black, Sahara Sand, Pear Pizzazz, Melon Mambo
Paper: Kraft, Melon Mambo, Peach Parfait, Tempting Teal, Very Vanilla
Accessories: Ribbon, Stardust Gelly Roll Pen, Dimentionals, 1 3/8 Circle punch

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Seasons Greetings sneak peeks!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my US friends and welcome to our final day of TSG sneak peeks! Did you make your way here from 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 hop and how you can win the set being previewed today!!

Today the Trendsetters are showing off this beautifully illustrated set by Chris Dark called Season's Greetings. It has a lovely variety of images that are perfect for all of your holiday projects!
Seasons Greetings is a 4x8 stamp set that includes a total of 13 stamps and will sell for $18.

For my samples today, I chose to use four of the larger images to create a set of holiday cards. They are clean, simple and easy to make which is a huge plus during the hustle and bustle at this time of year! All of the images were stamped onto white cardstock using Momento Tuxedo ink, colored with Prismacolo pencils, blended with OMS, cut out and adhered to the Kraft card base using dimensionals. One thing that I love about using the colored pencils is the artistic feel they give to these cards. 
 Close ups of each of the cards
The next stop on this hop is Jessie!