Short bloggy break

Hello All.. 

Sometimes life just leaves you overwhelmed and I currently find myself at that precipice. Just wanted to let you all know that I'll be back in a bit, but for now I am taking a short bloggy break. 

Much love,
Becca

Funny Mother's Day Card - STAMPlorations Theme & Sketch

It's a brand new theme and sketch challenge day up at STAMPlorations. We've got a whole new theme & sketch for you to try your hand at! 

I'm still on the Mom Card train "chugga chugga chugga chugga choo choo! 

And I made this card with the new Sweet & Sassy Mom stamp set. I masked off the flowers and added a row of  moms by stamping them over and over again in a (semi)straight line. I watercolored and added a sentiment at the bottom. 

So how can you play along at STAMPlorations? Choose either the sketch or the theme OR mash 'em up and use both! 

Hope to see your card in the mix for the awesome prizes we're giving away! 

STAMPlorations New Release Blog Hop + Giveaway

Hello Ladies and Gentlemans! Today is a very special day because it's a new release party!!! I always love breaking open a new package of stamps. Something about hearing the crinkle of the bag and trying desperately to unstick the polymer clings from the packaging just does it for me. 

STAMPlorations is releasing 4 new sets today and they are all focused on the special ladies in your life - yo mama. 

I want to show off the card designs I made using these fantastic new stamps:

Using The Bee's Knees Parfumerie. The vintage perfume bottles were a perfect pairing with these old-timey 1920's ladies.

Using Big Grins by Becca Cruger - Sweet & Sassy Mom. If you're looking for a mother's day/lady set that pairs humor and sweetness, this is the stamp set for you! 

Using Dee's Artsy Impressions - Best Mom Ever. I love this big ol' flower arrangement and used watercolors and gold shimmer to really make it pop. 

Using Shery Russ Designs - One Cool Chick. This artsy girl was just screaming for a graphic, edgy design and I happily obliged. 

Here's what you need to know:
Number one, these stamps are in the STAMPlorations store right now and my bloggy readers can get 20% off their ENTIRE order by using the discount code STAMPGIRLBECCA at checkout.

Number two - if you hop along, we're drawing 2 prizes. One commenter will win a choice of a stamp set and one commenter will win a $15 gift certificate. Winners will be drawn from comments left on the STAMPlorations blog and participating designers blogs. 

What are you waiting for! Head over to the New Release Party and hop along!

Guest Designer - Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers

Have you all played along in the Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers challenges? They're a challenge blog that focuses on both the sweet and snarky side of things. I love looking through their design team's makes each week because the gallery just cracks me up as I scroll through.

This week, they invited me to be a guest designer for their latest challenge: Y is for Yippee. 

I watercolored a sweet image from The Bee's Knees for STAMPlorations: Two of Us stamp set and paired it with a snarky sentiment from Big Grins by Becca Cruger for STAMPlorations Funny Kinda Love stamp set. 

I definitely brought the snark this week and hope you all will visit and play along with all those hilarious Sistahs at Sisterhood of Snarky Stampers!

Happy Birthday Monica - Blog Linky Party + Prizes

Ya'll! (I know I'm not even close to being Southern, but it really makes for a perfect interjection)

Ya'll! 

Monica Taylor of TaylorMade4U Cards is celebrating her 50th year on this earth and she's invited some bloggy friends to celebrate with her. Not only that - Monica is giving away some seriously awesome prizes - like lots of them! 

How do you win said prizes? Check out that uber lovely mood board, put together by Monica to inspire you! She wants you to create a card inspired by the mood board and the word "Journey" and link it up. 

I loved the old timey car and was drawn to the browns and the blues I saw in the picture, so here's what I made:

I used some BoBunny papers and Tim Holtz stamp sets and added in some metal gears to complete the look. 

I'm also going to play along at:
Southern Girls Challenge - About a Boy
Aud Sentiments - Stamp your Sentiment
The Corrosive Challenge - Anything Goes
Come and Get it - Make it Square

So we don't have any party fouls, here are Monica's party rules:

1.  Look at the mood board and find something that reminds you of a JOURNEY.

2. Create a project and link it up. This can be a card, canvas or anything that inspires you and in any style.

3.  Follow Monica's blog & like her Facebook page

4. Leave me a comment 

There are also some fun discount codes to use throughout her party!

1. I BRAKE FOR STAMPS - 10% off using coupon code SAVE10MONICA
2. STAMPLORATIONS - 20% off  in stamp store using coupon code STAMPGIRLBECCA
3. TAYLORMADECARDS4U - 10% off using coupon code BIRTHDAYBASH

Now for the prizes:

Prize - Memory Box Sponsored by Taylormadecards4u

Prize - $15 gift certificate to I Brake for Stamps (2 people)

Prize - T.H.E. Bag - Sponsored by Simply Charming Bags

Prize - Perfectly Posh gift set - Sponsored by Aimees Posh

Prize - Stamp Set by creator of Big Grins - Becca Cruger from Big Grins (2 people)

Prize - $15 Gift Certificate to Canvas Corp Brands

Prize - Umbrella Crafts Papercrafting Favorites Kit-  Sponsored by Scrapbook.com

Prize - The Ton - Stamp set of your choice

Prize - Celebrate Mini Digital Sentiment kit- Sponsored by Decosses Dynamite Doodles (3 people)

Prize - Set of Vintage Printables - Sponsored by VectoriaDesigns (3 people)

Prize - 7Gypsies Stash - Sponsored by Taylormadecards4u

Prize - One Paper Pack and one digital set of your choosing - Sponsored by MHKDesigns
 

What are you waiting for? Go play along already!

Watercolored Feather Card - Fusion Challenge

I know, I know... I'm running a wee bit late for my posting today... I wasn't feeling well yesterday and am consequently late on my timing. 

I promise, though, that this card will be worth the wait! 

My design is inspired by the STUNNING inspiration image over at Fusion Card Challenge this week.

Just look at that beauty! For those of you who haven't played along at Fusion, here's how it works: You can choose to play with either the sketch OR the inspiration image OR mash 'em together and use both. 

I got out some old sheet music I keep stashed in my craft hoard erm... I mean stash and used the masks from the STAMPlorations Feathers and Arrows LARGE stencil and mask set. (Which you can score for 20% off using my discount code STAMPGIRLBECCA). 

I laid the mask securely on the sheet music and added some watercolors around the edge, to mimic the inspiration image. 

I tore the sheet music out and glued it on a piece of black cardstock, adding some washi tape to the background. Then I used the Dots All Over stencil and applied some metallic black texture paste. 

Taaadaaaaa! Artsy textural goodness! I rounded out my design with some words from Tim Holtz sticker set and added a handwritten sentiment using a white gel pen. 

I used watercolors because I wanted to link up to the Mixed Media World - Watercolors and Mixed Media challenge. 

Thank you for popping by! I hope you'll go check out the rest of the lovely designs at the Fusion Card Challenge. 

Rainy Day Card - Card Concept Challenge

I don't know about you, but this neck of the woods has seen a strong drizzle and cloudy skies over the last week. What's a girl to do other than to hole up in her crafty room in pure happiness? :)

Luckily, The Card Concept gave me the perfect way to channel my inner creative superstar into a card that could brighten up any rainy day! 

The new challenge has this fantastic inspiration image: 

I adore the mix of bright colors and patterns. I decided to pull out my Rain or Shine stamp set from Verve and paper pieced a polka-dotty umbrella. 

I created a background using a combo of Distress Inks and Distress Oxides. 

For more on how to create this background you can see my technique tutorial on Distress Ink Double Dipping.

I added some fun colors pulled from the inspiration image, and used a the Mojo Monday sketch:

to create my sunny rainy day card. 

Thanks for popping by my blog. I hope you pop over to The Card Concept where our brand new designers are being welcomed in their first challenge! 


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On a second note, I'm up at the Coffee Loving Cardmakers Blog with a whole tutorial on how to make this watercolored simple and chic design!

I made this card because of some awesome inspiration from the City Crafter Challenge. I cased this monochrome beauty designed by the oh-so-talented Marina. 

I'd love for you to pop over to CLC to check out my tutorial and let me know what you think!