crafting this and that

Hi!  I just recently received my first Paper Smooches stamp order and so I thought I'd play along with their July Sparks Challenge .  There are a lot of sketches and/or color combinations to pick from and the stamps are so super cute!  The funny thing is that even though I got some of their clear stamps, I love the free digi bee.  He is so adorable so I made a card using him even though my printer is really bad.  So bad that I actually went out and bought a new one but it still prints not that great.  I don't know what it is but I can still see these tiny little dots over any kind of image that I'm trying to print.  Frustrating to say the least.  The thing about digis though is that you can manipulate the image and make really fun cards!  I love this little card.  I made the girl bee just a bit smaller and I thought if I should erase the boy bee's eye lashes but decided to just draw in longer lashes on the girl.  I printed th...

Hi!  Another little card today.  This one is for TGF's Mystery Monday .  I liked the layout of the card and the hot air balloon floating away.  So I thought I'd use one of the little bunnies from TGF's Lucky Bunnies.  I actually bought a few of the older sets when I came across them online at A Walk Down Memory Lane .  I was on a mission to find some of the older sets and checked the retailers listed on TGF's shop. I went with the bunny holding the balloon.  The bunny is added on with dimensionals and paper pieced too along with the balloon.  I added the sentiment (after I cut it in half) from Fly Away.  I glued on some twine for the balloon's string and tied a bow too. A pretty straightforward and simple card.  Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!

Hi!  I've been procrastinating a bit on some challenges lately.  I finally got around to finishing a card for TGF's Farm Fresh Friday Piece it Together .  It's all about paper piecing which I love to do since I don't think Copic coloring is my strong point.  Sometimes it's just easier to cut and paste. I decided to make a side step card (tutorial from SCS HERE ) to feature the animals from TGF's Down By the Pond.  I love to paper piece animals!  I made grass from tissue paper but realized after I glued the flowers on that you can't see much of the grass anymore!  The sentiment is from Lawn Fawn's Hello Friend.  I love this turtle and bunny!  Both are paper pieced so lots of layering especially on the turtle including the flower cap, his shell and his eyelid.  The carrot is paper pieced too.  I used vellum to paper piece the goldfish and added some stickles.  The froggy in the background also is paper pieced. The kids wi...

Hi!  My daughter and I spent Saturday afternoon creating our pages for the first week of TGF's Heart Journaling .  The assignment for week 1 is to use the concept of wings.  It was suggested that we try something out of our comfort zone.  So I got out my hubby's art box (yeah, he has an art box!).  He was actually an art minor in college but the supplies in his box haven't been used in years!!  He had a box of pastels so I used those.  My daughter went with watercolors.  My daughter's page.  She stamped over the watercolors with PTI's Butterfly Dreams and Beautiful Blooms 2.  She also used some permanent markers to draw here and there.  I really like the brightness of her background.  I think sometimes she is shy to express herself creatively so she still needs reassurance to just go with it even if it isn't perfect.  Her goal of perfection--maybe something I passed onto her??  What was that line--embrace imperfecti...

Hi!  My hubby's aunty has a crafty store called Cute Stuff and indeed, she has a lot of cute stuff in it!  She has started doing monthly challenges too and I finally got a chance to participate this month.  The challenge for July was to make a tag and anything goes as long as it was a tag.  I knew I wanted to keep it fairly simple and use my Lawn Fawn Silly Valentine set. I used one of PTI's tags and the congrats to is from their All About You set.  The pear couple is paper pieced as well as the red heart (velvet paper).  Tied on a matchy ribbon (from Xmas time) and some twine and then I was done.  My tag was inspired by this card I had made for a cousin who got married.  The hearts in the background are from Lawn Fawn's Teeny Tiny Backdrops.  And I have to give some credit to my hubby who suggested I place a doily behind the mat (from PTI).  I liked it so I kept it. My youngest had seen that I made a card and tag set and so he wa...

Hi!  I signed up for TGF's heart journaling class .  We were to get a journal and decorate the cover too.  So while we were shopping at Target one day, I found this really inexpensive marker/paint pad for kids.  It was pretty large so I ended up cutting the pages in half and making 2 journals, one for me and the other for my daughter who wants to play along as well.  Our journal covers were on TGF's blog today and my daughter was excited about that! My daughter's Hello Kitty art journal which I bound with my Cinch.  She used tear-shaped ink pads to make the hearts after she saw that I had made flowers with them too. My journal featuring TGF's Blush Bonnie.  I chose these colors after I saw the papers from Echo Park's Be Mine set.  I used the ink pad to make flowers, reminds me of plumerias.  I also used TGF's Splotchy and the hearts, and PTI's Butterfly Dreams.  I made this journal first and I liked the colors a lot so that inspir...

Hi!  It feels like it has been a little while since I last posted.  But I've been busy making stuff.  I recently signed up for Pineapple Cove's ATC swap .  It sounded fun and since I've never really made any ATCs before, I thought I'd give it a go.  The theme for this month is butterflies. I made 3 identical ones using TGF's Blush Bonnie.  The Blush girls are smaller than the usual TGF stamps so she fit nicely on this card (2.5 x 3.5).  I really love how these came out!  I used TGF's Splotchy in smokey grey ink for the background.  I also stamped dandelions from PTI's Botanical Silhouettes in the back.  Then used Stampin' Up's butterflies from the Sprinkles set.  And to think I was gonna sell my Stampin' Up sets but you really don't know when a stamp will come in handy.  The sentiment (on vellum) is also from PTI (Butterfly Dreams).  I actually cut the stamp so I could have the sentiment in one line.  Added some s...

Hi!  I really couldn't resist any longer and got my first Some Odd Girl clear stamp.  I really had to to stop myself from buying them all and tell myself to buy in moderation.  Hahaha.  My order came so nicely packed in a white bag wrapped with twine and there was a piece of cardboard in it to keep it from getting all smashed.  Well, I really loved how it came and the twine and the cardboard were too pretty to throw away so I decided to make another book!  But this time for me.  And the current challenge at Some Odd Girl is to Lift an Odd Girl .  So I looked through all the DT's sites for some inspiration and it was hard to choose!  In the end I had to go with Robin Mck's card . I'll show the back first.  I used the cardboard piece for the back of my book for stability.  This is the cover.  The stamp is called Smell the Flowers Tia.  I wrapped the blue twine around the front over the lace.  I love that blue color!...

Hi!  Hmmm, couldn't think of a title for this post especially since the card I made has no sentiment.  I made a card for this week's TGF's Mystery Monday using Miko from the Roll Call set.  She's only the 3rd one I inked up so far from that set.  Hopefully I'll get to everyone. I aimed to make a softer, more feminine card.  Less bright colors.  Miko's dress and hair accessories are paper pieced with some copic marker coloring on her dress and bows. Added some flowers and pearls on her dress.  Used some ribbon and stick pins too.  Hopefully no one gets poked. I'll also be entering this into Paper Sundaes Challenge #77--paper piecing .  My second entry! Thanks for reading!

Hi!  Made a little something for TGF's Farm Fresh Friday--Xmas in July challenge .  Well, actually it's not that little.  I used a whole 8.5x11 sheet of cardstock for the base.  Again while I was wandering through blogland, I saw variations on the easel card.  There is the regular easel, then the twisted and a double and even a triple easel card.  So of course I had to try it and I went for the triple one.  I found a tutorial HERE .  I really thought it was the best layout for how I wanted to present my Xmas in July in Hawaii project.  Now I don't really know yet how I'm even going to mail this to anyone.  Haha.  But I thought it came out pretty cute. I did some mixing to come up with this Hawaii-ish Anya.  She is a mix of Dress Me Anya and Fleur Anya.  I bought Wardrobe 1 & 2 during the last Farmers Market and found the perfect Aloha clothes for her. Here's Ian in his matching Aloha clothes!  I used to laug...

Hi!  This morning I woke up to find my Chibi in my email.  Yay!!  I {heart} it so much especially my cute hair.  heehee.  I had seen a couple of these around blogland and found Kristy's site and her Some Odd Girl stamps which are soooo cute.  I'm waiting for my first stamp to come in the mail.  Then I saw that Lorraine had one too and then I knew I wanted one.  So if you'd like to get Chibi'd (hint hint, Cheryl!), contact Kristy ! Thanks for reading!

I finally made a card!  And again, because I need one for an upcoming birthday.  So I utilized the sketch #7 from the Greeting Farm's Which One Wednesday Challenge . Although my "7" is supposed to stand for "7 years old."  I couldn't decide on how to fit a "happy birthday" sentiment on there so I think I will just add it to the inside.  And this is the new Ryan stamp, (thanks, Eva, notice how many things she has given me?!).  I'm not completely happy with the way I colored his hair, but this was my 2nd attempt and I was getting tired.  The patterned paper is Old School from Pink Paislee, I got the 6x6 paper pack on sale from somewhere...I've ordered so many things online over the last few months, I forget where I've bought things from.  I double die cut the number 7 and did the shadow layering thing that I learned from Nichol Magouirk's blog  and all her cool titles. Well, have a good rest of the week!

Hi!  So I'm a little behind in making my 2012 calendar scrapbook using the Pure Innocence year of flowers stamps.  I thought I'd better get on it again before it's too late.  Again, I used the weekly sketch from My Favorite Things .  They are already on sketch 27!  I haven't been too good at keeping up with them. Just the left side follows the sketch.  The right page has my computer generated calendar.  The space above it is reserved for a photo and some journaling. The stamp is Pure Innocence Crazy for Daisies.  I paper pieced her dress and then had to add her arm as well over her dress.  I always think of daisies as white but when I did a search for them on line, there were so many different varieties and colors so I made the daisies pink of course. Close up photo.  I used PTI's picket fence die and the daisy on the right is from MFT.  I like how this daisy die cuts and embosses so you can see details on the leaves and the l...