Hi friends! Well….our city had our first 100 degree day of the year today! Whew. No wonder I'm in a beach card mood! hahaha. Happy official start of summer I guess! Ready or not, here it comes! Today's card started out in my head as one thing and ended up going a different direction. That happens quite often to me. I thought it was going to be aqua and kraft only….but then I didn't end up using aqua at all.

So, I was inspired by the adorable new set from PTI – called Flippin' Out! Who can resist it? Not me. So fun and so perfectly Summer - I'll be using it a lot I'm sure. I was also thinking back to one of my favorite cards I made last Summer (CLICK HERE) and wanted to do that technique again.

So this is what I came up with:

 

 

Instead of aqua, I ended up using a medium shade of royal blue and then popped in some red and yellow – very happy! Don't you love the matching dies? Cute little flowers for the tops of the flip flops. ACK!

 

This is my planning stage….

 

 

Lots and lots and lots of tiny scraps….

 

 

And you get this effect. I used my tweezers and a glue stick – yep – it took me a while too! The letter dies are also from Papertrey Ink (PTI).

 

I like the contrast of a bright pop of color next to the kraft. I was trying to give the effect of sand and beach with using the kraft paper. Not sure…In my head this was a whole different card. There are so many adorable samples using this stamp set that I think I'm feeling like 'how could I make something better?' Do you feel like that sometimes?

 

In case you ever, for one minute, thought that I was not completely serious about my foam tape…check this out! LOL!

I hope this week was good to you. Thanks for listening to me ramble on. Have a super weekend and thank you for stopping by! 

Hello there friends! Are you enjoying the last bit of your long holiday weekend? Did you have a good one? I sure hope so. My weekend was spent mostly in the craft studio here at home, stamping and relaxing. It was strange weather here – we actually had rain on Saturday! Go figure. Memorial Day weekend marks the official start of Summer, so I thought I would start making Summer cards!  My very favorite place to be is by the sea…any type of ocean… The sea calms me and restores me. I've always been that way.

One of the most beautiful collections I saw at CHA in January was this new Travel Collection by Tim Coffey for K & Company. It's just gorgeous… Paper, stickers, stick pins, all of it ocean related. I found it at Joann's and bought one of everything! And, I'm being good and not hoarding it!! I made two cards to share today using the same techniques. I hope you like them!

This first one uses cool colors and has more of a masculine feel to it. I had so much fun choosing which stickers to use.  

 

 

 

For this part of the card I used silk ribbon, natural twine, and some crocheted ribbon. Then I added a shell sticker and two stick pins.  In order to get the crocheted ribbon to look like rope/nets, I scrunched it in my hands and then unraveled the ends of it. I rather like this technique for 'shore' cards.

 

 

This paper is from the 12×12 paper pad. I crinkled it and then smoothed it back out. Then I added some distress inks. I was going for an old map feeling.  

 

 

This is a quick peek at the inside of the card. It's another piece of that same 12×12 paper and then one little shell sticker.  

 

 

Here is a close up of the big shell stickers. I added just a tiny border of teal. the sentiment is from an old Stampin' Up set!  

 

 

 

 

 

The next card uses the same collection and the same techniques, but has a totally different feel to it. I can't decide which card I like better! I started with the two seahorse stickers. The cream base they are on is actually watercolor paper so it's nice and thick. I distressed the edges with two colors of distress inks and then lighty stamped a background stamp or words on it.  

 

 

On this card, I also crumpled the paper first and did the same technique to the crocheted ribbon…. This card is more of a CAS design though.  

 

 

Here is a close up of the watercolor paper…

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you so much for coming by my blog today…always so nice to have you visit! Have a super week and here's to Summer!   

Hi friends! It's almost time for Memorial Day weekend! Yay! Three days of rest and relaxation….just have to make it the rest of the week. What do you have planned? I'm not even sure what we're doing! But it will involve sleeping in, that much I know for sure! And probably some stamping!

When I was cleaning out my craft studio getting stuff ready for the garage sale last weekend I went through all my old Stampin' Up sets. I have such a hard time getting rid of those. Some I've had for 15 years or more! They feel like old stamping friends. I found these cute stamps that are part of a travel set from 2006 and decided to make a card with them to share today! It's a CAS design – lots of white space, and a pop of bright green…

 

 

 

Oh snap! Gotcha! I put some ultra fine prisma glitter on the flash and a pretty gem in the center. The background stamp is from Paper Inspirations.  

 

 

Here are my supplies…clean and simple… 

 

 

I think this is such a great sentiment for a crafty friend who likes to take pictures. I added some more gems here and there for a bit of sparkle. All that white space kinda makes me nervous…it's hard for me to walk away! hee hee.  

Thanks for stopping by!!! See you soon!!! Enjoy the rest of the week. I can't wait for the American Idol finale tonight! I was really rooting for Joshua though….

 

Hi everyone! I'm in the craft studio winding down the weekend. Where did it go? I'm not sure, but I do know it was a lot of fun! The big crafty garage sale yesterday was a huge success! Thanks to everyone who came out to shop and visit. We had quite a crowd. This is the fourth time I've done this and I made the most money this time around. It was awesome! It was good to see friends and fellow crafty girls. There were nine of us selling stuff and afterwards we all went out to a nice lunch together and paid for the whole thing in $1 bills! hahaha. After lunch I decided I had to spend some of my cash on new crafty products! Took a trip down to Stamper's Corner and saw my pals there, saw the lovely and talented May F teaching a class, and bought just a few things.

My card for today was made with my new goodies I bought yesterday. Paper from Basic Grey's collection called What's Up and some new dies… These new dies may just be the key to the crafty universe. I was STOKED when I found them. You'll see in a minute….

I was inspired by this card from Pinterest…and I love banners…. 

 

 

 

I used a cream cardstock base and lightly edged the base with Antique Linen distress ink. After I put the entire card together I spritzed the whole thing with Cappuccino Perfect Pearls Mist. You can see the splotches from the mister. The little flag is part of the Basic Grey collection and the flower is from Prima.

 

 

Here are the new dies, and my other supplies. The dies are from MFT and they're called Fishtail Flag Stax! OMG! Perfect flags every time!!! Are you kidding me? YAYAYAYAYAY!!! New favorite thing. Someone didn't want to move his big furry self so I had to shoot around him!

 

At the last minute I added a little spray of pearls… 

 

 

I am so lucky to have the most sweet and wonderful pen pal!! She and I became friends through my blog! One of the best things about having a blog is meeting so many amazing, kind and talented people from all over the world. Holly is from the Netherlands and is a fabulous paper crafter. I get the prettiest things in the mail. Last week I got a package from her and the cards inside blew me away! I had to share them with you. 

 

I can feel the love that went into this card.

 

 

These are so cool and fresh and happy…

 

So totally beautiful, right? Sigh.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a wonderful week ahead of you. XOXOXO

 

Hi everyone! Happy Friday Eve! (also known as Thursday!). I have a busy weekend planned and stuff to do and so I thought I would post now (instead of my usual Friday night post) and share these fun cards I made last weekend. A while back, I bought some adorable stamp sets from Paper Smooches! Don't you just love her stuff? My stamps have been sitting in my craft room and I finally used them! I love it when that happens. I have three cards in one post since I just wanted to share them all. Hope you like 'em. Kim's style lends itself to clean and simple. 

I think this one is my favorite of the bunch, so I'll show it first…Let's chat! Such a cute image and that handwriting font for the sentiments is so great! 

 

 

 

I really always love aqua and red together, and the color scheme for this card was inspired by that pretty patterned paper. I found matching ribbon and a button in my stash.  

 

 

Here are my Copic colors for this card….

 

 

 

 

 

It was fun to try to make this image seem vintage. I stamped on cream cardstock to make it not so bright and also lightly distressed the edges of my circle.  

 

 

This next card came together with more of a possibly masculine flair. I combined the chevron background with some pretty teal ink and then added just a pop of red to the hearts.  

 

 

 How freaking adorable is that sentiment??? LOVE. 

 

 

To add some depth and dimension, I added a few coats of clear glaze just to the red hearts….

 

 

Now, last but not least, a pretty kite card! The clouds and kite are all one stamp and then I added the sentiment from another set. One thing I love about the Paper Smooches stamps is that they stamp so crisp and clean – the very first time out of the package. For this one I thought those clouds needed to be spark-a-lay! What do you thinK?  

 

 

 

Okay friends, that it for today! Tomorrow is a full work day and then Saturday is the big crafty garage sale. I'm still going through things and trying to get ready. Hope to see some of you there. Have a great weekend! Mwah.  

Hi Bloggy Friends! Hope you had a wonderful weekend, and for those of you who are moms, a very Happy Mother's Day! We had a nice weekend. Saturday we went to a movie double feature! Haven't done that in many many years. It was fun. It was super hot outside on Saturday so it felt good to be inside the A/C all day. First we saw Avengers and it was excellent! (some of you might remember this post about my DH and his love of Marvel). Then, we saw Dark Shadows….also excellent. I was already a huge Johnny Depp fan, but this put me over the edge. I think it might be my favorite role of his ever. Really fun movie.  Have you seen either of these? I can honestly say I would recommend both. The rest of the weekend I continued to get ready for the big stamping garage sale next Saturday! I have loads of goodies to sell. 

Today I'm posting two cards I made last week with the same stamps and technique. I was inspired by THIS POST from the lovely Jill. Her work is amazing and I am always 'inspired by' her. I love the way she stamped the music and then put flowers over the underlying image. I used words for my background image….

 

 

 

 

The card base and the main panel are cream cardstock instead of white. I think this makes the cards warmer. I stamped the Friends Background (from Hero Arts) onto the cream paper using Linen Distress Ink. It faded into the perfect soft shade. For the other card I used the French background stamp, also from Hero Arts. 

 

 

I distressed the edges of the main panel using two shades of brown, for more depth. I am in love with my Distress Markers, which I used directly onto the stamp. 

 

 

You can see that I also stamped the flower image in Linen Distress Ink to give some more interest to the card. 

 

 

I used four shades of green in these two panels. The stamp is from Amuse….

 

 

This sentiment is from Papertrey Ink! I adore the fonts on this one and it just seemed the perfect, simple, finishing touch. 

 

I'm really trying to mix up my stamping lately, and do more clean and simple designs. You know how your taste and style kind of change from time to time? I am loving getting 'back' to stamping basics every once in a while.  Best wishes for a fantastic week ahead! 

 

 

Hi friends! Did you have a good week? Hope you did! It was another busy week here and Spring is in full swing and the weather is getting warm. Looks like a nice weekend on tap. I wish all of you that are moms a very Happy Mother's Day on Sunday!  So, I was trying to decide what to make and I was blog surfing and guess what I found? This post on the Moxie Fab World Blog – with a Gingham Challenge! Are you freaking kidding me? A gingham challenge??!! If you've stopped by here on more than one occasion, you know that I am gaga for gingham… That settled it. Now, I had to come up with a fresh new way to use it!

I had purchased this cool Fry Box Die a couple of weeks ago at Paper Garden and it was sitting on my work table. An idea started forming…I went back through my PTI stamps…and the idea grew… And here you have the final project! Some happy gingham treat boxes!

  

 

 

I made my fry boxes out of brown and white gingham paper. I thought it was sort of a country feel to match the fruit images! The stamps are from an adorable set from Papertrey Ink! LOVE those fruits!

 

 

I popped up the little cherries with some foam tape and added a little green bling to the leaves. The circle dies and the matching cherry dies are all also from PTI. Seems so fresh to me…

 

 

Here is the die. If you cut a sheet of 81/2 x 11 cardstock in half, you can get two fry boxes from one sheet of paper. Awesome!

 

 

I used these new Colorbox Ink Pads….

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm Sweet on YOU my bloggy friends! Maybe you will pop over to the Moxie Fab World blog and enter your own gingham creation!? I know I'm not the only one around here who loves gingham!

 

Have a blessed day and a most wonderful weekend! Thanks for coming by to see me today!