Sailing Away - Stamped Beach Card

Are you looking for a challenge to float your boat? Well Fusion can do the trick for you! Today, I'm showing off a little number I made inspired by the new inspiration image and sketch from Fusion. 

If you haven't played along at Fusion, it's super easy! Just choose either the sketch or the inspiration image to inspire your card, OR you can mash 'em together and use both! 

In this case, I chose to play the mash 'em up game and combine both this inspiration image and sketch. I don't really have many beachy themed stamps, so I pulled out this sketchy ship from the STAMPlorations True North stamp set.

I made some cute little waves by using the Stitched Snow Hills CUTplorations dies. and then I stamped my ship. I paper pieced the boat's wood, and then added some vellum over the sails, which helped to delineate the sails from the white background.

I finished the look by adding a swath of cute patterned paper and stamping a sentiment from the Verve Rise Above stamp set.

I'm going to also play along in the following challenges:
Paperminutes - In the/By the Sea
2 Sisters on the Blog - Beach Theme

Happy Heart Paper Piecing Handmade Card

I am finally settling in to my new crafty space which means I can once again start playing along with all those fun card making challenges out there! 

And boy did I ever see a doozy of a gorgeous inspiration image over at The Challenge this week. I've had this card in my mind allllllllll week and had to make time to put glue to paper. And... there definitely was LOTS of gluing going on for this creation!

Isn't it lovely?! Well, I took this very literally and busted out my inner Lauren Bergold to use up my ginormous scrap paper pile. 

This bag has been collecting and collecting and it's about time I started using some of it because I can't fit any more in there! Yipes! 

I started by sorting some of my scraps by color and trimming thin strips off edges. Then I took out cardboard hearts and began gluing.

This was my first chance to break out my Ranger Mini Collage Glue Stick and WOW! I really, really loved it. Unlike normal glue sticks where paper starts falling off or peeling at the edges after the glue fully dries, this stuff is STRONG! I highly recommend it. 

After I got all of my tiny pieces glued on, I trimmed around the edges of my heart and then covered a square piece of paper using the same technique.

Taaaa daaaaaaa!

I'm so in love with this! EEEEEEee It's so cute! (If I don't say so myself). If you're going to try this technique - it takes SOOoo much time and patience. On the plus side, it's VERY therapeutic. 

In addition to the challenge, I'm going to link this up to:

Naughty or Nice - Over the Rainbow

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - Make it Girlie

PartyGirl PartyDresses release! +GIVEAWAY+

STAMPlorations has got another fabulous stamp set being released today: PartyDresses. This fun set is designed by Shirley Bampton and coordinates with PartyGirl so if you've already got that set, you can play dress up with her! Totally fun, right?

I LOVE this stamp set because I get to be a mini-fashion designer but not worry about having to sew a stitch! It's over-the-top fun and I get to choose what my PartyGirl wears to that fancy shindig.

For my card, I did a little bit of paper piecing to get an adorable polka-dotted dress. Then I accessorized her with a big ol' bow and gave her a balloon from the Balloons and Banners stamp set and a sentiment from the Party Time stamp set. 

Yeah.... I'm pretty much the next Prada, huh? I would totally wear that outfit. I finished off the card by using the little sash from the PartyDresses set to create a "stitched" border. It looks pretty cute, I think!

I'm going to send my PartyGirl over to party along with the following awesome challenges:
613 Ave Create - ATG w/optional Girl's Night Out (totally fits!)
Corrosive Challenges - Utterly Feminine
Through the Craftroom Door - Anything Goes
 Addicted to Stamps and More - Clean and Simple (ok... so I'm the Damsel of *distressed* and I always struggle with whether my cards are CAS. I think this one qualifies? It's got a lot of white space! If not please delete it!)


For this mini hop, we have the STAMPlorations girls sharing their projects. We'd love for you to visit the designers' blogs and leave comments along the way. The best part? One lucky commenter will win PartyDresses! 

How the mini release hop works:
Comment on this post.
Visit the designers' blogs and comment on their featured project(s).
Commenting closes on Friday, August 28, 11:55 p.m. Pacific (GMT-7).
We'll randomly select a winner of the stamp set from comments left on all the blogs and announce it on Sunday, August 30.


By the way, PartyDresses is now available in the STAMPshop and for one week only, it's 10% off!

Happy Hopping!!

By the Sea Card - Eclectic Ellapu August Challenge

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack! I'm sure you didn't really miss me, but I missed you all! I just spent the last 5 days foraging around in the forest with my family on a very primitive camping trip.

It. Involved. Vault. Toilets. 

And now I am back and boy was I ever ready to get back into the craft room! Paper. Ink. Stamps - the smell of life (and not vault toilets)!! 

Today I'm posting my design team make for Eclectic Ellapu. The theme is "By the Sea". At first I was stumped, and then I remembered this great summery STAMPlorations set and got to work. 

I pulled out my patterned cardstock and started by stamping it onto a bunch of different patterns. 

I channeled my inner Lauren Bergold, the famed paper piecer and had a ton of fun doing it. I used my Cricut to die cut some wave patterns from various blue patterns. 

And then I fussy cut. And fussy cut again. And again. whew! I love it though!

I'm going to enter my card into the following awesome challenges:
Crafty Gals Corner - Anything Goes
DL Art Thankful Thursday - Summertime
Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes
Sisterhood of Crafters - Summer Heat


As for you - you should head over to Eclectic Ellapu and play along with our "By the Sea" theme! 

Speaking of by the sea - here's a couple of shots of my vacation:

Wading through the Mississippi Headwaters

My little nephew, Landon, catching his first fish

Sugary grins with my niece, Emma, and spending some quality time with my shy nephew, Bryson. 

                                                                 

 Thanks for popping by my blog! I'll begin announcing winners of my birthday bash blog giveaway starting tomorrow so make sure to tune in! 

STAMPlorations Birthday Blog Hop Bash Day 1 - $100 in Prizes!

Today is a day for celebration, my friends!! 

STAMPlorations is turning 2!!

If you've stopped by my blog, you know how much I love this stamp company. It's owned by the incredibly thoughtful, generous and talented Shery Russ and I'm so proud to support them. 

We would LOVE for you to celebrate with us! And to win some of the amazing prizes that are available!

In honor of STAMPlorations 2nd birthday, there are three new birthday-themed sets available and I am loving them. 

We've also got a stellar guest designer celebrating with us today - Amy Tsurata of Tsurata Designs! 

For my day one card, I played around with the  PartyGirl and Party Time stamp sets and made this card:

Isn't it fun and bright?! I stenciled fun Distress Ink colors with the Confetti Circles ARTPlorations stencil and paper pieced a matching dress for my Party Girl. I embossed the sentiment and added in some texture with some green sparkly mesh. A perfect card for a celebration!

Check out what the rest of the team made! You'll find links to all birthday blog hop projects here.

There are two different ways to get in on the mega-prize-giveaway-action:

1. You can hop along with the STAMPteam and comment 

2. You can link up a party/celebration/birthday project! (Using ANY products)

Remember there are over >>$100<< of prizes that will be given away, so you don't want to miss out!

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On a more personal note - I just got back from a 3-day kid's camp and will be making the rounds to visit all of you kind folks who left amazing comments for me. I haven't forgotten about you!

Fashionable Card - STAMPlorations Sketch Challenge

Well this post is going to be a little quick and dirty which is waaaaaay off base for me. But it's been a long weekend and I'm just barely skipping in with my newest card for the 

STAMPlorations Sketch challenge. 

Isn't this lady funky funky cool? She's the hip chick from the CityGirl stamp set designed by Shirley Bampton. STAMPlorations has added two new stamp designers this year and Shirley specializes in sketchy whimsical designs with her line, The Bee's Knees.

Here's the sketch:

This sketch was slightly different than my normal style because there was a lot of white space. But hey - when given white space, you can always splash it up, right? Which is exactly what I did! I made a colorful strip by using some gelatos and then stamped some city names into it. Then I splashed around onto the white space. 

I paper pieced CityGirl's trench coat using some paper from the DCWV Haute Pink paper pack. All in all I think it's graphic and wicked cool. I'm pleased.

I'm sending this over to the following challenges:
613 Avenue Create - ATG with Subway Art option
Just Us Girls - Paper Piecing


The STAMPlorations sketch challenge runs for the ENTIRE MONTH! Woohooo! So make sure you play along because we've got some FAB-o prizes to give away AND you could win a guest design spot, too!

Valentine's Day Card Crop - Take 1

Yesterday I spent 12 crafty hours at the local scrapbooking store with a group of six ladies, cropping 'til we dropped. I was a teensy bit nervous going into the venture because, well, I've never gone to a crop before and there's nothing like a roomful of strangers with scissors to make a gal nervous.

But the ladies were oh-so-nice and welcoming and I made quite a few Valentines Day cards. I won't inundate you with all of them, but I'll share a few today and a few later this week!

First up is this card that I made with some inspiration from the image at Dazzling Diva and the sketch from "The Challenge" 
 
                                    
 

I thought the coffee was so cute and cozy and so I inked up a stamp set from Two Paper Divas that I won called "You Warm my Heart".  I paper pieced the mug and added an adorable little button with some twine.

I was feeling pretty self-satisfied with my first card. I held it up for ooohs and aaaaahs - totally different than the normal crickets in my basement (literal crickets... those crafty buggers hide so well and are so annoying!!).

Then I moved on to my next card. Prior to going to the crop, I came prepared with a list of some of my favorite challenges, which made trying to decide what to do so much easier! 

The next card went a little less traditional for a V-day card and had tons and tons of bright fun colors. It was inspired by this week's Viva La Verve sketches and is going over to House of Cards "Love".

 

I added some sponged sunbeams, some funky paper, and made a cute little umbrella embellishment with my Spectrum Noir Markers and some glossy accents. 

 

The umbrella stamp and sentiment is from Verve's  "Rain or Shine" stamp set. I just love the way the patterns mix and match here! It's Valentine without being VALENTINE. 

And the last card I'll share today comes from my pun-loving brain. It was inspired by My Favorite Things current sketch and is also going over to Chocolate, Coffee, and Cards Challenge "Love is in the Air". 

           

I just loved this one! It's the cutest ever and I'm pretty sure it's going to be the one I give to my boyfriend for V-day. So shhhhh! Don't tell him! 

 Har Har Har - To my significant otter! That's otterly silly isn't it? I gave him a little glossy accent to his heart and then added some teensy pearl embellishments. 

All-in-all it was a lot of fun and I was glad that I was there. For everyone who left me air hugs, and sent me good vibes... THANK YOU! I felt them. :) 

Here's to the smorgasbord of  love going on!

Patterned Playfulness and Holiday Cheer

Well, it's that magical time of the year again... The time when Christmas is actually still 3 months away but retail shops have gone into overdrive. They've already tossed out the turkey and put out all things red and green. Oh well - I might as well hop on the bandwagon, right?

Patterned paper can be a doozy to work with, but I've been loving all the graphic fanburst cards with the strips of patterned paper stemming out from one corner. I decided to do an interpretation of the fanburst cards and do pieces of paper in a slightly different pattern. Do not try this at home, folks. It takes forever! Just kidding. I hope you do try it at home and then tell me your secrets! At least it's worthy of an entry into Virginia's View Challenge #7 - Patterned Paper.  I think the background turned into a statement piece.

The best bet to get all the pieces to fit together without pulling your hair out (if you're not a math genius and know how to do the proper angles) is to start with the top and work your way to the bottom. 

I also wanted to play in A Blog Named Hero's "Spell it Out for Me" challenge so decided to bust out the dusty stamped letter set I own and create some faux Christmas ornaments that spelled out a jolly saying. I didn't want to cover up the background effect, so I intentionally kept the card cleaner than my normal aesthetic. 

I cut out some 1-inch balloons using Cricut's Basic Shapes Cartridge and turned them upside down. Next, I embossed the letters in white and added a glossy layer to the top to give them that ornament feel. A little white ribbon finished the look. Note to all those who want to attempt this look: do not try to speed up the drying process by using your heat tool gun or you will have to start all over. The glossy accent material does not like to be trifled with. Just do yourself a favor and let it sit overnight. 

I used Stampin Up's "Bells and Boughs" set to ink a piece of holly using Distress Ink "Forest Moss" and colored it with Spectrum Noir markers. I added some dots of the glossy accent to raise the berries.

The finished project is both merry and bright and will make a perfect card for the upcoming holiday season. Even if it did take forever and a lightyear to figure out. :)

MATERIALS:

Red and green cardstock

Patterned paper (I think stripes give it an even cooler effect)

Inkssentials Glossy Accents

Cricut "Basic Shapes" cartridge

White ribbon

Distress Ink: Forest Moss

Spectrum Noir Markers: LG4, DR4, DR6, GB11

Stampin' Up "Bells and Boughs" stamp set