Belle Papier {pretty paper}

I know many of you are busy shopping and wrapping presents this time of year and actually that is what inspired the challenge today…getting caught up in a roll of Scotch tape. The little boys love it and I have to hide it to keep it out of their hands. My roll is getting quite the work-out here with the amount of presents I have to wrap! Which got me thinking about the kinds of tape we use in papercrafting. Why not have a “tape” challenge and find ways to use it. Now I’m NOT talking about just using regular adhesive tape to hold your design together…I’m talking tape that that you can see or at least…use it in a special way. There are all kinds of tapes available on the market if you just stop and think about it. Making Memories makes a fabulous textured tape that I adore. There are also other great patterned tapes out there, red line tape…add some microbeads with it! How about packing tape? Lots of cool uses there! Diasy D’s even makes a fabulous rub-on tape in the form of stitching. If you don’t have anything besides the regular adhesive tape…why not try it on a surface and sprinkle some embossing powder on it. Oh! I just thought of another! Isn’t there a masking tape technique out there? I’ve never tried it but it might be fun! Have fun with this! Be creative!

All are welcome…join us at WT143 to play along!

Best Friends

For this design, I wanted to use a fresh spring/summer look to go with these fun flower stamps from My Favorite Things. The two strips across the design in gingham and paisley patterns are actually textured tape by Making Memories. I just love how quick and easy they are to work with! It may be difficult to see in the photo but this tape is actually like a woven printed fabric with adhesive on the back. After adhering the tape to my kraft cardstock layer, I trimmed the edges.

For my main card base, I adhered a layer of Certainly Celery cardstock over the Whisper White base and then lightly scored a light where the top of my kraft layer would go. Using Aloe Vera Chalk ink, I stamped the circle from this Build a Bouquet stamp set repeated along the line. The clear block and stamps made it so easy to line up. After adhering my kraft layer over top…it looks like a scalloped circle shadow border. I pulled it together by straight stitching around the perimeter of my design.

for the main image panel…the flowers from the Build a Bloom set was stamped and then stamped again to get a double blossom type flower. I used a little flower in Old Olive ink to fill in a little of the white and stamped the Best Friends sentiment in black. To add a little fun, I clipped on this Cheek Making Memories clip to highlight the sentiment and used three Doodlebug Designs gemstones to glitz up those flower centers.

Hope you have time to play along with the challenge this week. Have fun with that tape!

There is definitely not any rain here today. A gorgeous thick blanket of snow covers everything and the evergreens behind our house look like a postcard. Wind is down, sun is out…a perfect winter day.

The design I have to share with you today uses today’s sketch challenge layout paired up with a sneak peek of a My Favorite Things Stamp set….Rain or Shine. A darling umbrella, a MFT classic box scene, some darling sentiments, a pair of boots and some other darling additions….this set is adorable. I have some more samples already planned in my head and I can’t wait to get at them!

Make sure you join us tonight in the My Favorite Things STamps forum at www.splitcoaststampers.com We’re having a release party from 9-11 pm EST. The new sets will go on sale at 10:30. Enjoy!

Rain or Shine

Again…another super large card…I’m not quite sure what is going on! LOL I can’t make it smaller…soo…. bear with me here. This design uses a Soft Sky cardstock base and is layered with Very Vanilla and a darling My Mind’s Eye Tres Jolie print for the panels in the sketch layout.

For my main image, I stamped the umbrella in Regal Rose craft ink and then masked it. The cloud is stamped in Soft Sky dye ink and then the sentiment, in black. The sentiment says….Rain or Shine… (and inside) I’ll be your umbrella. Isn’t that sweet? The image is punched out with my scalloped square Marvy punch and then matted before adhering to the layout. I always love using this striped May Arts ribbon with Soft Sky color combos and a strip is added across the bottom of the design with some buttons adhered to it. Another little scrap is tucked behind the image to create a little tab.

Wishing you a day that shines!

You warm my heart…one of three fun soon-to-be released stamp sets from My Favorite Things Stamps. You don’t have long to wait! The sets will be released Wednesday December 5th at 10:30 pm EST and I know you’re going to have a lot of fun with these ones! This You Warm My Heart Set is really darling! I love the little winter scene and the darling stamps that make up the set. I can really use some warming up today! Winter snow squalls and a flash freeze after a very wet evening last night has left us gasping for mercy today! The kids are extremely excited though. A two hour bus delay for them…my feeling is they’re going to be home all day if this doesn’t let up soon!

Join us Wednesday evening from 9 - 11 pm EST in the My Favorite Things Stamps Forums on Splitcoaststampers for the December Release “Cocktail Party”. Prizes, surprises and lots of fun. If you’ve ever wanted to be a guest designer…you can find out how then too!

You Warm My Heart

For this design, I pulled my color inspiration for this glittery piece of Making Memories patterned paper. I loved the warm color combo and pulled out the hint of blue to cool things down a little. After all…we need something to warm up with this sentiment. After stamping the image and coloring it with my Copic markers, I added a little glitter with a glue pen to tie in with that glittered paper. I wanted to have a little fun with the top hat so I stamped it onto a scrap of Basic Gray cardstock and then cut it out. I love how when added to the snowman’s head, it pops out of the box. My Soft Sky cardstock card base is stamped with a darling little snow flurry stamp.

Quick Tip: I love to add a fun border of free-style stitching to my design, especially when using a snow or wave theme. It just adds a touch of waving motion that I associate with falling snow and moving water.

I wanted to add a few stitching touches to embellish the design. A curvy free-style stitching borders the design and zig zag stitching draws your eye to the punched circle layer and button embellishment. I’m loving buttons right now. This one is from My Mind’s Eye and is tied with a piece of Olive Stitched Ribbon. You may have noticed my sentiment tucked in on the vertical. It seemed to fit best into my design there and to “frame it”, I added a little stitching around the layer right up to the sentiment on both sides.

Hope you are staying warm and dry and safe today! Have a wonderful day and start to your week!

I had a lot of fun playing around with this card design. When I saw the new Essential Sentiments stamp set from My Favorite Things, I just knew I had to try and combine some of them for a cool idea. And yay! It worked! Choosing a few coordinating sayings from this clear stamp set, I carefully added them to my acrylic block on a curve and made a fun circle out of them. Thanks, Much Love, Thank you Grande, You Rock, You Made My Day…all work together well and made this fun flower center for a unique design with this set. This set, along with Build a Bloom (also used on this design) and Shore Thoughts were released yesterday. Totally cute and flexible…really worth checking out.

You Made My Day

To make it easy to get a smooth circle design with the words, I first punched out the circle size I wanted to work with in a color that would be easily seen. Laying it under a similar sized clear acrylic block, it was easy to lay out where my sentiments would go. The five sentiments all fit perfectly and were gently curved along the path where I wish them to be. To check to see if any adjusting was needed, I stamped the circle onto some scrap paper. It was quick and easy to smooth out the circle for a circle sentiment that looked as if it had been designed that way.

I wasn’t quite sure how I wanted to proceed from there. What colors should I use…what kind of a look did I want? I went searching through my stash of paper for a little inspiration. In the first box I opened I came across this fun circular designed Scenic Paper Route Co. designer paper. I didn’t look any further the circles went so well with my original idea. From there it was easy to pull out a Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive and Regal Rose color combo and decide to go with a square card format…the squares in the grid really worked with that as well.

Need a closer look? …click on the thumbnail image.

To my delight, the large solid circle stamp from the new Build a Blossom set fit perfectly in the center of these words and I stamped it in a celery Versamagic ink. On top of that, I double stamped one of the flowers in Regal Rose and then…just peeking out from under the button, a smaller daisy of Pumpkin Pie. The circle image layer was then matted with a Scalloped circle in Pumpkin Pie using my Marvy Giga Punch. In the center of the flower…a Daisy D’s button tied with some olive stitched ribbon and held in place with a glue dot. Lastly…a little fun straight and free-style stitching in brown thread to add to the funky look.

Now onto the sketch…its been a while since I’ve attached one to an entry so here it is! Feel free to use it for personal use. If you do…link it on a comment on this entry as I’d love to see it!

Let’s Chalk it Up…for a fun rerun challenge! This week for the Way’s to Use it Challenge, we’ll be doing a repeat challenge from wow..a couple years ago and will be focusing on chalk inks. What are they? Chalk inks are a hybrid ink combining the properties of both pigment and dye inks. Gotta love them! They dry fast and are opaque and work great on quite a variety of surfaces. Think Versamagic, Colorbox etc. these inks combine the best of both worlds. One of my favorite uses for these inks is on vellum. And let’s not forget…chalk inks are fabulous for using with clear polymer stamps! There are also some great techniques out there that focus on chalk inks as well. If you’d like to play along today with my challenge on Splitcoaststampers…check out the link here WT137 …all are welcome!

Vellum Pocket Design

I’ve been wanting to try out a vellum pocket card design for a while but just never seemed to get around to it. I decided today was the day to try it out. Using my new Build a Bouquet stamp set from My Favorite Things Stamps I stamped the front of a vellum pocket with my Versamagic Cloud white chalk ink. I love how fast this ink dries on vellum and gives a gorgeous soft chalky look. The pocket was created by folding a piece of 8.5 x 4.25″ vellum in half and punching out a little semi-circle at the top. The edges were quickly and easily stitched up the sides with a quarter inch seam. On the front for a little embellishment. I added a gorgeous new Making Memories felt flower from their Take Note line. Love those colors!

For the inside card…it is actually more like just a tag. A piece of 3.75″ x 5.25″ Soft Sky cardstock was layered with Whisper White and then Soft Sky cardstock that had been stamped. I once again used my Build a Bouqet set and this time used a white and sage colored Versamagic ink with two different flowers. Across the tag, I adhered some of my Making Memories textured tape…I just love that!

My main image is just a quick random collage of stamped flowers once again, using my Versamagic inks. For the sentiment, I used the new Essential Sentiments set, also from My Favorite Things and stamped it with black hybrid ink. After matting my image layer, I stitched around it with my sewing machine. The final step was the top pull out brad/ribbon. It may be hard to see in the pic but I punched out a circle of vellum and adhered it over the top of my tag. After stitching it around in a semi-circle, I used one of my favorite brads by K & Company…a gorgeous fabric and pearl affair and then tied a piece of beautiful Teal and Olive May Arts ribbon at the top.

You can check out all three brand new My Favorite Things stamps sets (just released today) here!

So frustrating isn’t it?!! When your server goes down! Yikes…another server glitch and another 18 hours without internet is not fun! A couple weeks ago it was the modem and this time the server itself. Which has kind of sent a deadline or two of mine into a bit of a tailspin. LOL Well…I wasn’t laughing last night to be sure. AND I wasted THREE hours on the phone this morning waiting for someone other than an automated computer voice to speak to me. I just couldn’t believe how hard it was to get a human being on the phone line. And so, I’m glad to be back and am busy running around regrouping and switching things around. It’s all good now though.

Guava Baby Shower Design

I created this design weeks ago but for some strange reason, haven’t managed to get it uploaded yet and so, today seemed like a fabulous time. When I started this design, I decided it would be fun to take the Groovy Guava cardstock and ink and try it out for a less traditional baby design look. I really like it and isn’t it a fun change from the pink and blue? This design uses the It’s Shower Time stamp set from My Favorite Things. I love that umbrella and all the little goodies that go with it. For this design, I decided to try popping out my umbrella a little to give it some dimension. First it was stamped onto Groovy Guava cardstock and then scored and lightly bent into shape along the lines were the spines would be. Under the middle of the umbrella, I added a pop dot to keep it out and adhered the umbrella to the cardstock along the bottom curve of the design. The little scrap of white ribbon is tied and knotted and adhered with a little glue dot.

For my background, I quickly stamped baby randomly over the cardstock and then added my stamped striped panel. To stripe this panel I used the Behind the Scenes stamp set and repeatedly stamped it. It was really easy to line up the stripes with the clear polymer stamp. I’d also been wanting to try out my new ruffled May Arts ribbon and slid it around the card front and adhered it under the scalloped circle. Isn’t it pretty? I love it so much I had to go back and buy all the colors!

Check it out… Trudee has some fabulous goodies on her blog, Follow Your Bliss. Make sure you take the time to check it out!

Supply list:

Cardstock: Groovy Guava, whisper white - Stampin Up

Stamps: It’s Shower Time, Behind the Scenes - My Favorite Things stamps

Ink: Groovy Guava, black, Close to Cocoa - Stampin Up

Other: circle punches - EK Success, large circle and scalloped circle punches - Marvy Uchida, ribbon - May Arts, sewing machine

Pink! Today’s color challenge in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month was to use pink. And use it I did! Lots and lots of pink! I was pretty excited with this challenge because it worked perfectly with the design and blog post I wanted to do today! I wanted to one…make this little gift set for my Mother-in-law and two….tell you about a cool card auction with the full proceeds from this auction will be donated to the Susan G. Komen Foundation to further research toward a cure. And so…..

I’ll tell you about the auction first. The My Favorite Things Stamps Design Team wanted to do something special this year to help raise money for Breast Cancer research. Kim released the darling Think Pink stamp set with proceeds going to the same foundation. We decided to do our part too. Eighteen original hand crafted and signed cards with envelopes by the My Favorite Things designers are up for bid on eBay. I’m so excited to be part of this and can’t wait to see how much money is raised for this great cause. And so… you really need to check it out…

My Favorite Things Stamps Design Team card auction for Research

One of my designs is part of the group. You can see it HERE.

Think Pink Set

I picked up these three little white post-it note pads at my local Business Depot store. The have a pink bottom band and on the pads, is printed a pink ribbon. I thought of my Mother-in-law and thought she would appreciate having them. She just finished radiation therapy at the end of August and I decided to make this into a little gift set for her.

Lots of pink today for this pink challenge so I went searching for some of my favorite Baby Girl Daisy D’s paper. To make a band to go around the three pads, I stitched the striped pink paper to my Pretty in Pink cardstock. Some wide satin May Arts ribbon wraps around the band and ties on a darling little tag. I decorated my tag punched tag with a pretty Prima flower that is set with a brad holding a pink gingham awareness ribbon.

For my matching mini card, I once again stitched on a Daisy D’s paper layer and stamped a ribbon heart and Believe from my Think Pink stamp set. Also using the set to create an image, I colored it in with my Copic markers, matted it and adhere to my design. I got some new Making Memories goodies in the mail today. A darling little flower brad decorates the top left corner of the design. Very simple, very pink and oh so cute. Hope it is OK to say that. I hope she likes it as much as I do.

Make sure you check back in later tonight as I’ll be announcing the winner of that great Make a Wish Stamp set from Gina K.

Supply List:

Cardstock: Pretty in Pink, Whisper White -Stampin Up

Patterned Paper: Daisy D’s

Stamps: Think Pink - My Favorite Things Stamps

Ink: Black - Stewart Superior, Regal Rose - Stampin Up

Other: ribbon - May Arts, Hodgepodge Hardware & tag punch- Stampin Up, sewing machine, white brad, flower - Prima Marketing, markers - Copic, flower brad -Making Memories

Yay!!! I’m back! I missed you my friends!

Yikes! That was four days too many without internet and e-mail service at home. Running out every morning and not being able to use my files, just was not a good thing! LOL I did manage to get caught up on some assignments and write-ups though so I put my time to good use. It is always a bit of a scramble after a long weekend too! I have to wait until morning to photograph a couple of the designs I’ve been working on so I’ll share one I made a few weeks ago and am just getting time to upload now.

Thanks so much to so many of you who have shared their recipes with me! They all look awesome and I can’t wait to try them! If you want to take a peek, scroll down to the previous post and you’ll find them in the comments as well as links to some others that have been posted on blogs. I have a few more slow cooker recipes I just remembered about today and I’ll try and post them in the upcoming week too. And so, with all this talk of food, how about a sweet little card?

How Sweet

This is a clean simple design. I used the sundae image from the new How Sweet stamp set by My Favorite Things. I thought the more ice cream the better and stamped it three times. LOL It seems as if there were quite a few of us who had the same idea! I watercolored in my image with my SU inks and then added some glaze to the design with my Sakura Gelly Roll Clear Glaze pen on top of the cherries and the sundae dishes.

The image panel is tied with some darling May Arts ribbon and I added a fun little Heidi Swapp photo corner to the top left corner. The main card base is whisper white overlaid with some gorgeous pink Sassafrass Lass patterned paper. Quick, easy and fun.

It’s here! World Cardmaking Day! And there are lots of cool things going on so many places today. Make sure you take some time out to have some fun! Check out the web-site for some great card ideas or things you can do. There is even a gallery to share your work on. So go ahead…don’t be shy!

I’m hoping to work on a few designs I have in the works for upcoming projects and I’m also off to Apple Land this morning with the kids. Apples and squash to get ready for Thanksgiving on Monday. The renovation here is also in full swing and yikes! What a mess! This is a HUGE job. My hubby is the best to take this on!

In keeping with my Simply Saturday theme, I thought I’d share this Boho Blossoms design with you.

Boho Friendship

As you know, I just adore this Boho Blossoms stamp set. What a gorgeous flower! I decided to keep my design simple and monochromatic to highlight its beauty. The flower was stamped three times in versamark in and then embossed with black Stampendous embossing powder. Wow! It is gorgeous in person. I also quickly stamped the friendship script sentiment onto the panel and that was it.

After adhering my panel to the card front, I pulled out my Making Memories textured tape. I tell you, I have gotten a LOT of mileage from this one little package of tape…..absolutely love it! I applied one strip of dotted tape above the stamped panel and one strip of the white paisley tape below for a quick, fun design. I decided to echo the dotted shapes of the top to the bottom of the design and added a row of paper piercing just below the tape. You can see how the light shines through the holes a little in the pic.

For my quick finishing touch, another one of my new favorite goodies, Making Memories Sweets. They are epoxy covered chipboard and are oh so cute! I tied mine with black gingham ribbon from Michael’s and adhered it to the design with a glue dot. Simple, simple, simple. But so much fun!

And now for some more fun… a little something to help you celebrate today…

Do you like My Favorite Things Stamps? Kim has just released five great new sets this past week and I have one of them to share with you. It’s a Jungle out There is a darling new set…I can’t believe all the possibilities you can create out of it…all the Design Team samples were stunning! If you are intersted in a chance to win this set…leave a comment below. I’d love to hear your favorite technique or feature on your designs right now. Or tell me how you are celebrating World Cardmaking Day! Can’t wait to hear from you! Have fun!

Oh….the rest of the details …You have until Monday October 8th at 10 pm EST to leave a comment to be eligible to win. Tne winner will be chosen at random and will be announced Tuesday morning. Please, one comment per person! Have a great weekend!

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and what a fabulous way to kick it off! The last of My Favorite Things stamps new releases to be featured is Think Pink. And…you don’t need to wait any longer…all five sets are now released and available. If you wish to purchase all five…make sure you check out the special at My Favorite Things stamps.

This mini set is a wonderful set and also, a great way to raise money for Breast Cancer research. 50% of the proceeds from this set will be donated to Cancer Research. My own family has been touched by Breast Cancer in the past few months. My Mother-in-law recently finished radiation treatment after surgery this past June. Breast Cancer is the most common cancer among Canadian Women and one in nine will battle it at some point in their life. If you’d like to check out other stats from the Canadian Cancer Society, you can check them out here.

Together We Believe

I designed this card using a few of the smaller images from this set. I just love all the different sentiments but especially, we’re in this together. Cancer is a battle, not just for the patient but for the families as well. Hope and strength and support are needed to get through each day.

When designing this card, I needed a little kick start to get me going. A sketch challenge is always a great place to start when that happens and so I checked out the latest CPS 32 sketch and loved it. What a fabulous layout…I know I’m going to use this one again! From there it was easy to pull out one of my favorite paper packs, Infuse 6×6 paper pack from Basic Grey. Actually…I used almost all patterned paper for the entire design except for the card base. You can see a wee tiny piece of rose red peeking out as a mat behind the central panel but that is it. LOL

For my main image, I stamped it directly onto the central panel of Infuse neutral patterned paper. I paper pieced the bodice of the top with some more Infuse paper and then colored in the flesh and background with my Copic Markers. I love how flexible they are. They work great on patterned paper too! Also drawing your eye to the sentiment is on of my few embellishments on this design. I found these brand new Making Memories Chipboard Buttons as my local scrapbooking store and I just love them! I was so lucky to snag the last of this color combo!

The sentiment We’re in this together was stamped on a lower panel and then highlighted by stitching around it on my sewing machine. I also added a small touch of stitching along the right side of the image panel and across the beautiful scalloped May Arts ribbon.

Have a great week! Make sure you check back in tomorrow as a few of my friends and I are cookin up another Take Two challenge! I can’t wait to see the other designs! And one last thing to note….if you are interested in a Mono Adhesive Refill share…make sure you check out THIS post on Jacksonbelle’s blog. Because of the huge demand…the price for the refills is only $1.80! Check it out!