CAS-ual Fridays Challenge–Long & Short of It!

 

Hello Friends!

You all did another bang up job on last week’s challenge – amazing work!!  Congrats to all the VIP’s and the TGIF Club winner!  This week’s CAS-ual Fridays challenge is to create a clean and simple project that measures 4” x 9”.  Resist the temptation to fill it and embrace the “white space.” 

Our sponsor this week is Lawn Fawn Stamps, and they very kindly provided a stamp set to each of the Girl Fridays to inspire you all – thank you, Lawn Fawn Stamps!!

 

Not gonna lie – I STRUGGLED with this one!  I’m an A2 girl, through and through.  It KILLS me to make anything that’s larger than that, especially when it comes to clean and simple designs.  Don’t get me wrong – I love “white space.”  But oh my gosh there’s a LOT of white space on a 4” x 9” card.  But I persevered and actually am EXTREMELY happy with the end result.  I worked with the On the Mend set – super cute stuff!!  The jar was created using a Spellbinders die set called “Assorted Fresh Fruit.”  I die cut the jar three times – once out of acrylic CS, once from black CS and once from white CS.  I stamped the sweet little bug on the white panel and colored him with my Lyra colored pencils and Gamsol.  I added a few rhinestones to the bug’s bag (to add to the cute factor), and then assembled the jar.  It was super easy to create and I had a lot of fun doing it.

PRODUCTS USED:

STAMPS:  LAWN FAWN (On the Mend), PAPERTREY INK (Tiny Tags)
INK:  TSUKINEKO (Onyx Black VersaFine Dye Ink), A MUSE STUDIO (Cherry Pigment Ink)
PAPER:  FRENCH POPTONE (Black Licorice CS), A MUSE STUDIO (Red Mini Gingham CS), NEENAH CLASSIC CREST (Solar White Ultra Smooth CS), PAPERTREY INK (Acrylic CS)
ACCESSORIES:  SPELLBINDERS (Assorted Fresh Fruit Shapeabilities Dies), PAPERTREY INK (Linen Impression Plate, True Black Polka Dot Satin Ribbon, Tiny Tags Die, Edgers No. 2 Collection Die and Pure Poppy Button), GLUE DOTS (Craft Glue Dots), White Embroidery Floss, STAMPIN’ UP! (Stampin’ Dimensionals), LYRA (Colored Pencils), Gamsol.

We’d love for you to play along with us again this week!  If I can do it, you can, too!!  LOL  You can get all of the details of the challenge, as well as some additional inspiration from the other fun Girl Fridays, HERE.  Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Best Wishes!

 

Hello Crafty Friends!

I’m popping in today to share a project that I created with the intention of submitting it for the Moxie Fab World Stamp It Challenge . . . needless to say, I forgot about it and missed the deadline.  Oops!  LOL

 

 

I was actually in the process of reworking it, when I got distracted by a cute little boy . . . my grandson.  I was having way more fun playing with him and completely forgot that I needed to finish reworking this project before the deadline!  LOL  It’s a little off-center, and looks a little wonky at the bottom.  But I really like the theory behind my original idea.  I may still try and redesign this . . . maybe today!  We’ll see what the day brings.  The mehndi image is from Impress Rubber Stamps and can be found HERE.  Delicious, right?!

 

That’s it for me today, friends!  I plan to stamp my little fingers to the bone today – Mr. Brown is expected at my door any minute now and will be bringing me some brand new, delicious Papertrey goodies!!  Ooohhhh how I love Mr. Brown – don’t tell my hubby, though, okay?!!  Thanks so much for stopping by today – hope you have a great day!!

CAS-ual Fridays Challenge #12–Here’s the Rub!

 

Hi Kids!

 

We had another super duper crop of project submissions last week – you all are so clever and creative!!  Thank you for sharing your amazing “eye candy” with us – delicious, I tell ya!!

 

This week’s CAS-ual Fridays Challenge is one that I typically struggle with and am so glad I tried it – I had a blast!!  This week’s challenge - create a clean and simple project using stickers or rub ons.

Our very generous sponsor this week is EAD Designs, the manufacturer of some of the cutest stickers and rubons, as well as custom decorative vinyl cut outs, in the the crafty world – seriously, they have some super cute stuff!!  EAD Designs was kind enough to share some of their stickers and rubons with the Girl Fridays to inspire you to play along with us this week.  EAD is also offering up a fantastic prize to this week’s TGIF Winner – but you’ll have to head on over to the CAS-ual Fridays Challenge Blog to find out what it is.  Go ahead . . . I’ll wait!

 

Good, right?!!  So, as I said, I typically struggle with stickers and rubons.  I’m a stamper, through and through.  But I chose some of the cutest Caged Vinyl Rubons that I’ve ever seen and they adhere like a dream!!  What’s even more amazing is that they come in like a million different colors!!  Well, maybe not a million . . . but close!!  I was a lame-o and chose black.  I wanted to give the birdcage some dimension, so I actually adhered the bird cage rubon to some acrylic cardstock that I had and then cut around the outside lines.  Since I’m a stamper, I couldn’t help myself – I had to stamp that cute little red bird inside the cage.  And then had to add those cute clouds and fun sentiment.  I’m so happy with how this turned out and will definitely be playing with rubons again!!

PRODUCTS USED:

STAMPS:  MY CUTE STAMPS (Ashley’s Blossoms), LIL INKER DESIGNS (Rainbows & Clouds Stamp Set)
INK:  TSUKINEKO (Onyx Black (VersaFine Dye Ink and VersaMark)
PAPER:  FRENCH POPTONE (Sno Cone CS), PAPERTREY INK (Pure Poppy CS), NEENAH CLASSIC CREST (Ultra Smooth Solar White CS), Acrylic CS
ACCESSORIES:  EAD DESIGNS (Caged Vinyl Rubons), ZING/AMERICAN CRAFTS (Rouge Embossing Powder), STAMPIN’ UP (Stampin’ Dimensionals and Real Red Satin Ribbon), LIL INKER DESIGNS (Clouds Dies)

 

We’d love to have you play along with us this week.  You can link up your sticker and/or rubon project HERE and you have until next Wednesday at 11:59 PM EST.  I can’t wait to see hat you come up with!!  Remember, if you don’t have any stickers or rubons, you really should check out the products that EAD carries – their customer service is outstanding!!

 

That’s it for me today, friends.  Thanks so much for stopping by today – you all make me smile with every sweet comment and kind word.  I appreciate you all so very much!

CAS-ual Fridays Challenge #11–Sweets & Treats!!

Hi Chickies!

Did you know that National Ice Cream Day is on July 16th and Lollipop Day is July 20th?!!  Well, you do now!!  In honor of those two yummy holidays, CAS-ual Fridays is celebrating  this week by challenging you to create a clean and simple project that incorporates sweets and treats such as ice cream, candy, cakes, cupcakes, cookies, and any other delicious goodies that you can think of.  How fun is that?!!

This week’s sponsor is PSA Essentials, a super fun company that has some of the cutest stamps with switchable centers that you’ve ever seen!  They’ve got some other cutie patootie stuff, too, so you really need to check them out HERE.  PSA Essentials is offering up an amazingly generous prize, one of our biggest prize packages to date, to this week’s TGIF Winner, so head on over to the CAS-ual Fridays Challenge Blog to see what it is, and to peruse the amazing eye candy that the other Girl Fridays have for you!


I had a blast with this challenge, mostly because it gave me a chance to play with some delicious new W Plus 9 stamps and dies that just happened to show up in my mail box a few weeks ago.  How convenient, right?!!  I’ve listed the products I used to create this week’s project below.

STAMPS:  W PLUS 9 (Pile It On)
INK:  A MUSE STUDIO (Toffee Pigment Ink), FRESH INK (Mango, Fuschia, Pink Lemonade and Chocolate Pigment Ink)
PAPER:  PAPERTREY INK (Raspberry Fizz CS), NEENAH CLASSIC CREST (Ultra Smooth Solar White CS)
ACCESSORIES:  W PLUS 9 (Pile It On Designer Dies), PAPERTREY INK (Sunshine Impression Plate and Summer Sunrise Polka Dot Satin Ribbon), SAKURA (Quickie Glue Pen), STAMPIN’ UP! (Stampin’ Dimensionals and Dazzling Diamonds), SPELLBINDERS (Classic and Scalloped Rectangle Nestabilities)

That’s it for me today, kids!  I cannot wait to see what you all come up with for this week’s CAS-ual Fridays Challenge – I hope you have as much fun with it as I did!!  Thanks so much for stopping by – your kind words and comments keep a perma-smile on my face!  Have a great day!!

Celebrate Today–Moxie Fab World Beautiful Borders Challenge!

Hola Chicas!

I’m finally over my rejection of not having my projects picked up for publication last week – of course, eating those three cookies helped A LOT!!  LOL


I’ve been meaning to sit down and create for the current Moxie Fab World challenges.  The one I decided to tackle today is the Beautiful Borders Challenge.  You all know how much I love cityscapes.  There’s something about them that just makes me happy.  I combined my love of gradient with my love of cityscapes for this challenge.  I was inspired by THIS card that I created for another Moxie Fab Challenge – I’m telling you that EVERY craft room should not be without the EK Success Plaid Border Punch!!  Using three different shades of grey cardstock, I punched the edges of each color with the plaid border punch, and trimmed the strips to create city buildings.  I then adhered each layer, one color in front of the other, using dimensional tape.  The clouds were created using a brand spankin’ new Clouds Border Die that I just picked up from Taylored Expressions and some linen vellum.  Isn’t it dreamy?!!  The graphic sentiment is from Think Big Favorites #4 by Papertrey Ink.

I’m super happy with how this turned out – if you’re inspired by this challenge, I believe there’s still a little bit of time left for you to play along, too!  You will find all the details of the challenge HERE.

Thanks so much for stopping by today.  I’ll be back again tomorrow to share another reject with you – I’ve got a few left!  LOL  Have a great day!

Rejection BLOWS! But Cookies Cure All!!

Hola Friends!

 

How’s your weekend going?  Mine’s been pretty good so far – we attended a beautiful wedding for the daughter of one of my high school girlfriends last night, and today my daughter and grandson and I wandered around a French Flea Market in downtown Kirkland – it’s sunny and gorgeous out!!

 

I’m back today to share a couple of things.  First, I spent the better part of last week creating for a couple of publication calls, and found out on Friday that not a one of my projects was picked up!  Wahhhhhh!  LOL  The one positive thing that came out of it though is that I have several projects to share with you here.

 

This project was created for the January/February 2012 Paper Crafts Magazine call – to create an interactive Valentine’s Day card.  I immediately thought of this fun A Muse Studio set called Love Conquers All.  The road was created using another set called Mad for Plaid.  I created a spinner card – that cute red car is attached to two pennies with a dimensional square sandwiched in between them, and then slid into the slot/road.

 

Here’s what it looks like when you tilt the card sideways.  That funny little car twirls around from end to end as you tilt it.  Cute, right?!!

Products Used:
STAMPS: A MUSE STUDIO (Love Conquers All, Mad for Plaids), MY STAMP BOX (Neighborhoods)
PAPER: A MUSE STUDIO (Sky and Grass Gingham CS), NEENAH CLASSIC CREST (Ultra Smooth Solar White CS)
INK: TSUKINEKO (Onyx Black VersaFine Dye Ink and VersaMark Water Mark Ink)
ACCESSORIES: ZING/AMERICAN CRAFTS (Rouge Embossing Powder), STAMPIN' UP! (Word Window Punch and Stampin' Dimensionals), LIL INKER DESIGNS (Clouds Die), PROVO CRAFT (Cuttlebug Die Cut and Embossing Machine and Swiss Dots Embossing Folder), Pennies

 

I have to admit, I was really bummed when I didn’t get that coveted email telling me that my project had been picked up.  I walked around the house all day Friday like a pouty baby, throwing myself a little pity party.

That is UNTIL my mailman rang my doorbell and there he stood with a cute little box in his hands.  When he handed it to me, I immediately ran inside my house and opened that baby up.  Much to my surprise and elation, my sweet, sweet friend, Terri had sent me some of her amazing sugar cookies – and look at how freaking CUTE they are!!  Are you KIDDING ME?!!  Starbucks coffee cups?!!!  OH EM GEE!!  Terri knows how much I love me some Starbucks coffee (Vente Raspberry Mocha, please! LOL)  How sweet is she?!!  Seriously, she made my day with her thoughtful gift – and it made all the difference in soothing my wounded pride.  Cookies take all the pain away!  LOL  And see that cute coffee cup?  That was another gift from Terri – on HER birthday!  LOL  How lucky am I to have such a thoughtful friend?!  You’re the BEST, dude!!

GIVEAWAY ALERT!!

Now, if you think these cookies are amazing, you SO need to head on over to Terri’s blog – she’s giving away another set of her world famous sugar cookies (and I can tell you first hand that they are THE most delicious cookies you’ll EVER eat – no joke!).  You don’t have to do much to enter to win – she’s nice like that.  But it’s well worth the trip over there.  So stop what you’re doing right now and get over there – and tell her I sent you, okay?!!

 

Okay, peeps, that’s it for me today.  Enjoy the rest of your weekend, and I’ll be back on Monday with another rejected project – I have six total!  LOL  Thanks so much for stopping by today.  Your sweet comments make my day!

CAS-ual Fridays Challenge #10–Shaped Cards!

Hola!

I’m back today to share the newest CAS-ual Fridays Challenge – which is to create a clean and simple design using a template for a shaped card!  What a blast I had with this one, and I know you will, too!!


This week’s very generous (and a sweet friend of mine whom I miss desperately) sponsor is Paper Smooches – the brilliant brain child of Kim Hughes!!  Not only does Ms. Kim design some of the cutest stamps on the face of the earth, but she’s also one of the most talented card designers that I know.  She’s well known for her fun and cute shaped cards, and she was generous enough to share her Paper Smooches card templates with the Girl Fridays for this week’s challenge – thanks, Kim!!  If you want to play along, and you need a fun shape, you really need to check out the options at Paper Smooches.  You can find them all HERE.  So fun!  Paper Smooches is also offering up a prize for the newest T.G.I.F. winner – you’ll have to pop into the CAS-ual Fridays Challenge Blog to find out what it is, but it’s a goodie, for sure!


I chose to work with the Flower Pot card template, but I “reworked” it a bit.  I love to look at a shape and ask myself “what else could this be?”  I turned it and tilted it, and decided it could totally work as a bird house!  Right?!

I traced the template onto some kraft cardstock (although I’ve cut some of the other templates out with my Silhouette and they work like a dream!), trimmed off the top “rim”, turned it upside down, and made the fold of the card at the top instead of on the side.  I then used the separate flower pot rim as the roof of the bird house – I scalloped one edge just for fun.  I embossed the card base with a woodgrain impression plate, and punched a hole for the birdhouse with a circle punch, adding a scalloped circle around the birdhouse entrance.

Can’t have a birdhouse without a bird, right?!  So I got out my fave-a-lave Paper Smooches Birthday Buddies and paper pieced the bird from the set.  How stinkin’ cute is he?!  The sentiment is also from the Birthday Buddies set.

PRODUCTS USED:
STAMPS:  PAPER SMOOCHES (Birthday Buddies)
INK:  A MUSE STUDIO (French Roast Pigment Ink)
PAPER:  PAPERTREY INK (Kraft, Hawaiian Shores and Orange Zest CS)
ACCESSORIES:  PAPER SMOOCHES (Flower Pot Card Template), SPELLBINDERS (Scalloped Circle Nestabilities), EK SUCCESS (Circle and Embossed Scallop Punches), PAPERTREY INK (Distressed Polka Dots DP, Hawaiian Shores Twill and Wood Grain Impression Plate), MICHAEL’S (Pom Pom and Googlie Eyes), STAMPIN’ UP! (Stampin’ Dimensionals)

I so hope you’ll play along with us this week – we’d love to see what you come up with!!  We also have a Girl Friday Temp here this week to give you some additional inspiration – Leigh Ann Baird is super sweet and uber talented, so please be sure and check out her project, as well as the projects of the other Girl Fridays, at the CAS-ual Fridays Challenge Blog.

That’s it for me today.  I’ll be back tomorrow with some “rejected” crafty goodness to share with you, so I hope you’ll pop in and share my rejection with me!  LOL  Thanks for stopping by!

CARDS Gallery Challenge–Accordian Flowers!

Happy Thursday, Friends!!


We’ve had some amazing weather the last couple of days, so I’ve had a hard time focusing on things in my craft room – especially after spending the bulk of the weekend creating for a few pub calls.  But I did get a chance to create a little sumpin’ sumpin’ for this week’s CARDS Magazine Gallery Challenge – which is to create a project using accordion flowers.  I’ve actually been really fascinated by these babies of late, and was happy for the chance to try one out.  I wasn’t brave enough to figure out how to make one on my own – thankfully, Memory Box has made it easy for scaredy cats like myself.  They’ve come out with an uber cool die that creates a really nice scalloped edge, and it scores it for you so that all you have to do is fold it accordion style and adhere the two ends together – it’s called the Blooming Rosette and Center.  Super easy!  Now that I’ve created one with the die, I really think I could do the same thing on my own with my border punches and my Martha Stewart Score Board.  Right?!  My mind is swimming with ideas, now!

STAMPS:  PAPERETREY INK (Think Big Favorites #4)
INK:  FRESH INK (Slate Pigment Ink)
PAPER:  A MUSE STUDIO (Buttercup Polka Dot CS), STAMPIN’ UP! (Basic Grey CS), NEENAH CLASSIC CREST (Ultra Smooth Solar White CS)
ACCESSORIES:  MEMORY BOX (Blooming Rosette and Center Die), WE R MEMORY KEEPERS (Corner Chomper), PAPERTREY INK (Lemon Tart Button, Turning a New Leaf Die, and Wood Grain Impression Plate), DIVINE TWINE (Dove Grey Baker’s Twine), PROVO CRAFT (Cuttlebug), EK SUCCESS (1" Circle Punch)

That’s it for me today, chickies!  I’ll be back tomorrow with my sample for the next CAS-ual Fridays Challenge – it’s another really fun one, so I hope you’ll come by again to check it out!  Until then, please know how much I appreciate you!

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!

 

Hi Peeps!

 

First of all, thank you all for your sweet, sweet comments last week – you all are so very kind and generous!  Second, I wanted to pop in really quick to announce the winner of the free issue of Stamp It! Cards Volume 8 from last week’s Stamp It! Cards Meets Stamping Royalty Blog Hop!

 

 

64.

Amanda said...

love the little flowers! thanx! prhmangel@gmail.com

July 1, 2011 11:20 AM

 

Congrats, Amanda!!  I’m so happy for you!  I’ll be contacting you by email to gather your mailing information and will get your free issue out to you ASAP!  You’re going to love it – seriously this is the BEST issue ever!!

 

If you’re reading this and you weren’t the winner today, Stamp It! Cards Volume 8 is available HERE or at a bookstore near you (I found mine at Barnes & Noble, but I’ve seen them at JoAnn’s, too).

 

I have nothing crafty to share with you all today, but I hope to have something for you tomorrow.  Thanks so much for stopping by – see you soon!!

Stamp It! Cards Meets Stamping Royalty Blog Hop!!

 

THIS IS MY SECOND POST FOR TODAY – PLEASE SCROLL DOWN TO THE NEXT POST FOR MY CAS-UAL FRIDAYS CHALLENGE SAMPLE!!

 

Hola Peeps!

 

If you’ve landed here for the first time from Paper Crafts Connection – Welcome!!  If you’re one of my regular blog readers, I’m so glad you stopped by today!!  You’re going to want to read all the way through to the end of my post for some amazing prize opportunities!!

 

Are you as excited about the newly released Stamp It! Cards Vol. 8 issue as I am?!!  I mean seriously, people – this baby is jam packed from cover to cover with some of the most beautifully stamped cards I’ve ever seen!

To wrap up this week’s launch of Stamp It! Cards Volume 8, the Online Editor of Paper Crafts Magazine, P. Kelly Smith, has organized a super fun blog hop with the winners of the 2011 Stamping Royalty contest – and I just happen to be one of those 15 lucky winners!!  Fun, right?!!

 

The Stamping Royalty “Queens” were asked to create an all occasion card based on the current needs of Operation Write Home, a wonderful organization that provides hand made greeting cards to our troops overseas to send to their family while they’re deployed.  We all agreed that since the 4th of July is coming up soon, we’d use a patriotic color scheme for our cards.  We each chose one of the stamp sets that were included in our amazingly generous prize package for winning the Stamping Royalty contest, and away we went!

 

I chose to work with the uber fun Cake Shoppe and Cake Shoppe Too! from Mint Motif.  Oh my goodness, these stamp sets were a blast to play with – the mojo was oozing as soon as I placed these clear photopolymer beauties on my acrylic block.  I will definitely be inking these sets up again!!

 

Stamping is an important part of my life, and more specifically stamping to create cards is my passion.  I was beyond thrilled and honored to be one of the 15 winners chosen for this year’s Stamping Royalty . . . in fact, it was truly a dream come true.  I am blessed beyond belief in my life, and so many of those blessings are due to the freedoms we enjoy because the men and women in our military risk their lives every day to protect us.  I can only imagine how difficult it is to be thousands of miles away from your loved ones for months and sometimes years at a time.  How can I NOT thank them in a way that makes a difference in their lives?  So to be able to provide our troops with cards that they can send home to their loved ones was an opportunity that I felt compelled to act upon.  When P. Kelly suggested that we tie this blog hop to Operation Write Home, I felt as though the planets were aligned – it was meant to be.

 

You’re definitely going to want to hop over to the remaining Stamping Royalty blogs to enjoy some additional stamping inspiration – these ladies will blow you away:

• Amber Daigre
• Lynn Darda
• Angela Fehr
• Mariana Grigsby
• Shelly Kurth
• Sarah Jay
• Cristina Kowalczyk
• Stephanie Nagel
• Laura Pryor
• Mary Dawn Quirindongo
• Kelly Silva
• Julia Stainton
• Laurie Willison

Wanna win some prizes?!  Well, of course you do!!  You have TWO chances to win.

• First, head on back to the Paper Crafts Connection blog and leave a comment to win one of two amazing prize packages as pictured above!
• Second, leave a comment here on my blog for a chance to win a free copy of the Stamp It! Cards Volume 8 issue!!
• All comments must be posted by midnight (MDT) on Sunday, July 3rd to be eligible to win!

 

Lastly, we’d love for you to get involved and donate some of your handmade cards to Operation Write Home.  There’s a Mr. Linky set up on the Paper Crafts Connection blog if you’d like to post your cards for the campaign!!

 

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  I so appreciate it!