Prettie Peak #2 - Cool Coffee!

I am so loving all the new sets Paper Pretties is releasing on March 1st. And the Prettie Girls have all been posting some amazing samples! This stamp is another in the Prettie Petites line by artist Jennifer Lambien - and it is so much fun! Jennifer created our other new coffee set that I previewed yesterday, so you can see her style goes from nice open images like this one to very detailed, dense images like yesterday's. Such great variety, I'm so happy she's working with us here at Paper Pretties!!I colored my image in with copic markers, just using a few different colors. I thought I'd use last week's Sweet Sunday sketch from Karen Giron (she's a super sweetie that I got to meet at CHA - seemed like everytime I was at Taylor's booth she was there and Jack was fussing!)I cut some strips of retired SU! dsp and mounted them onto a piece of chocolate chip cs, then stitched all around the outside with a straight stitch, then zigzagged between each of the strips. I added some chocolate chip satin ribbon, the mounted this onto a kraft card with dimensionals. Lastly, I added my image (layered onto a coral scalloped circle.) Now, head over to see what Jackie and Christi have to share with us all today!

I hope you enjoy this, and be sure to come back tomorrow for one more look at another new DIGI image from Paper Pretties, and on the Pretties homepage you'll be able to see samples using ALL the new stamp sets being released!

My Promised Prettie Peak!!

Ok everyone...here it is...one of the newest stamps coming from Paper Pretties which will be released on Monday, March 1st. It's called Brew Your Coffee, and it's TONS of fun!!This stamp has so many fun details to color, from the different patterned mugs, to all the cute little birds, and even the little houses in the background. Because there is so much detail in this stamp, I wanted to keep the layout simple, and not use any patterned paper which might compete too much with this adorable image. I stuck with nice bright colors (the houses in the background made me think of the beach we used to visit in the Netherlands) and just did a little dry embossing to keep the cardstock from being too plain.I colored the image with my Koh-i-Noor pencils and some OMS. I think I need new blending stumps because the one I was using is getting VERY short!! And I think I like my Prismacolor pencils better - so I think I'll be sticking to those next time!!

I hope you've enjoyed this little peak. Be sure to check in with Jules, Christi and Jennifer who all have peaks for you today as well. And I'll be back with another peak tomorrow...so I'll see you then!

Card set with crocheted flowers

A good friend of mine from my daughter's school is a fabulous knitter and crocheter...so I asked her to crochet some flowers for my cards, and in exchange I would make her some cards. When I saw the KSS Crew challenge for February (to make your own patterned paper with KSS stamps) I thought it would be perfect for making her cards. I was so happy to finally ink up this set which I got when I first moved back to the US.I stamped 2 full sheets with the hydrangeas and leaves using some memento ink spots. It was so much fun to build the flowers up...and watch as I kept adding the layers of colors. I used the two sheets to and some old olive and rich razzleberry cardstocks to decorate the box (from Taylored expressions - LOVE these boxes!) and the cards. For the box, I stamped the word "cards" using the Bling Bet from MFT.I made 4 cards each of 2 designs, and I used some of her lovely flowers on half the cards, along wtih some different ribbons and the fun Stampin' Up! SAB edge punch.I hope you all have enjoyed this project! I'll be back tomorrow morning with a Prettie Peak at a fun new set Paper Pretties is releasing on Monday night...hope to see you back here!

I've been busy lately with lots of fun things, but I wanted to go back and show you a few valentine's I made for Jackson to give to his friends and therapists. We made this card for his Occupational Therapist. I thought it would be fun to make a tri-fold card with Cooper peeking through to the front. I didn't want it to be square, so I cut an 8.5 by 11 sheet down to 5 by 11, then scored it for a trifold using my scorepal. I stamped Cooper on the inner flap and colored him with my copic markers, then punched the hole for him to peek out of.I added a scalloped ring of Bermuda Bay cs to the window, and some matching ribbon, then stamped the greetings (with the addition of Happy Valentine's Day from SWAK to the inside) to finish it off. I'm happy to say his therapist loved it!Don't forget you only have until the 28th (that's this Sunday) to enter all the challenges over at I Dream of Stamping. Each challenge has it's own prize, and we'll have select a grand prize winner from all those people who enter all 5 challenges...so get workin'!

Prettie Wednesday Embossing, PWC92

Happy Wednesday everyone! It's time for another Prettie challenge hop as we travel along to see what all the Prettie Girls have created with Heather's challenge to use embossing of some sort on a card (both heat and dry embossing count.) If you didn't arrive here from Julie's blog, then head on back to Christie's so you don't miss a thing!I'm using the Apple of My Eye set today, which is such a fun stamp in our Petite Prettie line of stamps. This set, and Apple of My eye Scripture are both on sale this week for 20% off, so it's a great time to add them to your collection if you haven't already. I embossed my apple bowl image with white embossing powder on watercolor paper, and then used a "wet on wet watercoloring" technique to color in my image. First I spritzed the paper with water, then using my aquapainter, I picked up some reinker and dabbed it into different parts of the image. The embossing contains the color, while the water encourages it to spread. It's a really fun technique!I used this week's Mercy's Tuesday Sketch #62 for my layout, and I think it worked perfectly with this image! I used some retired Bella Rose papers from SU! to complement my image, and finished off the inside with some more papers and the sentiment that comes with this great image!We'd love to have you play along with us. Please be sure to upload your creations with Prettie stamps to our gallery, we'd love to see what YOU create! Now hop along to Jackie to see what amazingness she has for you today!

The need for speed....

I love things fast paced. I walk fast, I work fast, and I like to stamp fast. So for the final Winter Card Olympics challenge over on the I Dream of Stamping blog, we're doing a timed challenge. Create a card in 10 minutes (or 15 if you're handicapped with a sleeping baby on one shoulder or similar situation!) It's really fun to see what you can get done in such a short period of time. I was surprised!For my card I used the new Good Neighbor DSP from the Stampin' Up! SAB catalog along with the Trendy Trees stamp set and some gorgeous satin ribbon. I wanted the trees to represent 3 of the 4 seasons, so the cameo coral is like spring blossoms, then the summer green, and lastly the autumn leaves. For the leaves, I inked them first with More Mustard, then tapped around with my Ruby Red marker for some variation. I also used some punches to make it fast, and the wonderful Sketch for You to Try from this week - still gotta go back and do last week's...hmm!We'd love for you to play along with all our winter olympics challenges, so go check them out! You could win some fun prizes...and everyone who enters a card for ALL 5 challenges is qualified to win the grand prize!! OOOOoooooh!!

Have a wonderful Tuesday everyone!

LaLa Land is all RED!

This week's LaLa Land Crafts challenge is to make a card with Red as the dominant card. I wanted to play along and had this Building snowman Maya image all stamped and ready to color. Isn't she adorable??She's stamped on an MFT Perfect Panel with brilliance black ink and colored with my copics. She was cut with my nesties and mounted on some real red. I used some old retired SU! dsp and close to cocoa for the panels behind the image and added some red satin ribbon and red corduroy buttons to finish it off. I did this one fairly quickly but I'm happy with the results!

MFT Monday - Jolinne

Jolinne, Jolinne, Jolinne Joleeeeenn. Sorry, whenever I think of this stamp set Dolly Parton's song Jolene pops into my head. My parents were big country music fans - so I was quite familiar with all the country stars in the 70's and early 80's.

I finally got a chance to start playing with my newest MFT stamps - just in time since I should be getting more in just a few more hours!! When I first saw these new images I wasn't so sure about them...but they grew on my pretty quickly. I managed to only buy one at the last release, but may have to add more since I'm really enjoying this one so much! Introducing Miss You Much Jolinne.This reminds me so much of Julia when we were living in Europe traveling around all the time. I stamped her on a white perfect panel twice (once just to get her legs, so it was on a scrap) then I stamped her 4 more times for the luggage and dress. I colored her with my copics then added some shading to the dress and luggage before cutting everything out and assembling.I used some of the same papers to create my background, and meant to stitch all the way around but I think I had too many layers of paper already, so the thread broke. I figured I'd just keep going on the machine and at least have the paper piercing all around, and just pulled out the stitches that were there. I used a greeting from my WTG Going Places set. I thought this might be cute to stick in DH's suitcase when he goes to Germany in a couple weeks for some meetings.On the inside, I stamped one of the sentiments that comes with Jolinne and of course added some more dp. The dp's are all Basic Grey except the teal, which is from my DCWV Green stack. Hope you've enjoyed it...I'll have more to share soon!

challenges galore!

I don't usually do this, but somehow this card just turned out to work for many challenges! I started it as my sample for the I Dream of Stamping blog's curling challenge (which starts Sunday morning so be sure to check it out!) and then decided to use Julie Masses' inspiration challenge from the Stamping Around blog. Of course, since I used one of my new Pure Innocence girls I had to paper piece her outfit, thus qualifying for Joanne's challenge here, and finally I used the latest CPS sketch #154! Whew!!To start off, I stamped this new little sweetie with her cute pigtails on a cream Perfect Panel. I then stamped her on 2 different dp's from MME's Be Loved paper and a second time on the perfect panel (to cut out her arms per Joanne's great new paper piecing tut!) Then, I colored everything (including shading on the dp) and cut it all out to piece it together. Lastly, I cut her out with my new deckle edge oval nestability die.I followed the CPS154 sketch, sponging distress ink and sewing on each of the different layers. I created the satin roses using SU! vanilla satin ribbon and following the instructions from Debbie Olson's recent blog post. They do get easier the more you make...and I discovered 12" was too long, so I ended up using only 8 or 9 per rose. After assembling everything it was still missing something, so I added that strip of lace over to the right side. That helped tremendously in my mind!I finished off the inside with a little more stitched on dp, the sentiment and the flower which the little girl is watering stamped inside (minus the little girl, can, and water!) I hope you've enjoyed this card as much as I did making. Be sure to check the details for the curling challenge on I Dream of Stamping on Sunday morning - I can't wait to see what you all come up with for this one!

Ice, Ice Baby

Sorry...I couldn't help myself. When Julia was little we taught her to say that because it was sooo dang cute! For today's challenge over on the I Dream of Stamping blog you need to have some ice and/or snow on your card - in whatever format you want! I've been trying to keep up with the olympics (only 2 days behind right now) and just watched Lindsey Vonn win gold, and Louie Vito miss out on bronze, so I'm seeing plenty of snow and ice!For today's card, I used a digital image I purchased from Heather Ellis, the illustrator of the adorable new Pure Innocence line of stamps Kim has over at My Favorite Things (all of which are currently in stock last I heard!) Since I obviously don't have enough of these cuties (I have all but 2 I believe!) I had to go in search of more and found Heather's etsy site with her digital images. As a general rule, I don't care for digital images because I don't have a printer that works with my computer and can only print from dh's laptop. So, when I print, I tend to print a lot at once!!!I did very little coloring on this little cutie, just her hair & skin, some shading on the tub, a little shading for the bubbles, and the heart. I then cut her out with my circle nesties and covered the whole bit with versamark ink. I embossed it with SU's iridescent ice ep, then set her aside (under something heavy so the piece wouldn't curl!) I wanted to use Mercy's tuesday sketch which I really liked, but I had to change it up a little to work with this round image. I didn't want to use squares, and when I punched some circles it looked off. Michelle was here and we finally agreed flowers were the way to go for those side elements. These (and the brads) are some from GinaK from 2 years ago. I'm really happy with the final result!!Oh...and did you notice the stitching on there? My husband finally had some time to take a look at my sewing machine last weekend, he cleaned it out and oiled it, and it works FABULOUSLY now! I'm so excited, you'll start seeing a lot more sewing on my cards, since my machine will be sitting on my desk from now on! WOOHOO! I added some more dp to the inside of the card (this is from the SU! Sweet Pea designer pack) and a sentiment from the Serentiy Now MFT mini set.

Now...go work on your Icy challenge card and link it up over on the I Dream of Stamping blog. you could win a great new stamp set!!

MFT Valentines...

I'm getting behind in all my posting. But the good news is I've been creating LOTS! Just haven't been getting them up here!

Here are 2 MFT Valentines I made recently for the Wednesday Stamp Club. The current inspiration is to create a basket...but I'm waiting for my new stamps before starting on that project!! However, last week's inspiration was to create a Valentine (or to use the new love birds set that Amanda Baird illustrated...or a few other things!) Since I had forgotten to buy the Amanda Baird set when doing my release night order, I stuck with Valentines (but don't worry, that set is coming in this new order!!)

This first card was for my husband. We moved to a house with a pool last summer - which included a pool maintenance company. However, I often tease him that he should take over the pool maintenance (not that he actually has time) just so I can tell everyone that I'm sleeping with my pool boy! LOL!!I paper pieced the wallpaper with some basic gray paper, and colored the rest with markers. I added a little crystal effects to the tv screen to give it some dimension as well.I finished off the inside with another strip of the dp, and another sentiment from the Maid for You set as well. LOVE this set!!My second card for you was for a good friend of mine, and I have to say she LOVED it! I used the Bling Bet alphabet set and the new Twisted Threesome both from MFT. I stamped LOVE with chocolate chip craft ink to get good dark coverage, then added the crystals. (I bought a cordless heat tool for adhering crystals at CHA and LOVE it! I actually finished this card in the parking lot of Starbucks while my daughter was at her German class last week!) I added a sentiment from Twisted Threesome to the inside, and that was the only part my friend objected too...she said cross out "next marriage"! It is now displayed on her desk - so glad she appreciated it!!Thanks for stopping by today. Be sure to come back tomorrow for the next I Dream of Stamping Winter Card Olympics challenge - it's one of my personal favorites!!!

Prettie Wednesday: Casing the Pretties

Happy Wednesday everyone! This week's Prettie Challenge comes from Jane, and she wants us to case a card from the Paper Pretties Gallery. We're using Crafty Emergency or Game On as the featured sets this week - which means they are both 20% off in the boutique right now! As usual we're hopping, so be sure to head back to Christie's blog if you didn't get here from Julie's.

Speaking of Julie, that is who created this gorgeous card which I chose to CASE. I've been wanting to make an easel card for a while, and after watching Beate's super video and realizing just how easy it is, I figured I should go for it.I knew I wanted to use Crafty Emergency because it's such a versatile set. It can be used for serious cards, cutesy love cards, or like here - cutesy friend cards! I replaced the mailbox with the ambulance, so I ended up turning the card on its side a bit. I created the 9-1-1 paper with one of the included stamps - and isn't this greeting just the best?For the inside, I decided to include a row of brads on some cardstock that is adhered with temporary adhesive so the recipient can easily remove it to use the brads. I created the inside sentiment with my Karen Foster Snap Stamps (yup, I've still got some!)

Now head on over to Jackie's blog to see what cuteness she has for us all today, and enjoy the rest of the hop. And...if you haven't check it out yet, be sure to visit Jane's, Michelle's and my new challenge blog, I Dream of Stamping!

Warm up with some heat embossing!

Our 2nd challenge over at the I Dream Of Stamping Winter Card Olympics is Heat Embossing! Be sure to go check that out and enter to win a fun stamp set!!For my card, I used my SU! I {heart} Hearts set, stamped on white cardstock with versamark ink and then embossed with some Judikins psychadelic ep. Then, I brayered some Melon Mambo ink all over the hearts. I layered this on some black before adding it to my Melon Mambo card. I added the additional bit of black cardtock and the flower according to Kazan's sketch #46 from the 2 Sketches 4 You blog.I hope you're enjoying these fun challenges, and we'll be back with another challenge for you all on Friday!

I Dream of Stamping Color Challenge!

The first challenge for the I Dream of Stamping Winter Card Olympics challenges is a color challenge - to use either the olympic colors, or the colors from the flag of the team you are rooting for.

I decided to use the German flag colors, since they are who I root for when the US is not contending. The true flag colors are black, gold, and an orangey-red. I'm using Basic Black, Dusty Durango and Crushed Curry.I also am using the Taylored Expressions 100th sketch challenge sketch, along with some of her newest stamps, Fish in Love and the coordinating set Animal Love Sentiments. I got to use these sets for one of the make and takes and fell in love. I also used the Razzleberry lemonade dp from SU! along with some SU buttons.After coloring in my fish, I outlined both of them with Spica Glitter pens, then after stamping the sentimement, I cut it out with my circle nesties. Then, I added some crystal effects to the fish bowl to give it some shine and depth.

I hope you'll head over to the I Dream of Stamping blog and play along with us...we'll have another challenge posted over there on Tuesday evening! Happy President's day everyone!!

SFYTT Turtle Love!

I'm back again today with another card I created using Jen's Sketch For You to Try, Turtle Love! I purchased the turtles in love and a couple other single stamps along with the matching Animal Love sentiments set while at CHA last month (Didn't even KNOW they hadn't been released yet!!) and finally got to get them inky.The turtles are stamped on white cardstock, colored with my copics and then cut out. The card base is craft, with a layer of chocolate chip, and some new Green DCWV designer paper. This paper is 70% recycled, and is just beautiful! I created the bottom piece using my SU! edge punch then adding some chocolate chip satin ribbon. The heart is cut out with my nesties.For the inside of the card I used the adorable sentiment for this set, and then added the smooches and some punched hearts to the bottom.

Now I'm off to check out the 100th TE Sketch, and the new SFYTT. You'll be sure to see them BOTH here this week!

Introducing I Dream of Stamping

Good evening everyone. I want to introduce you all to a fun new endeavor cooked up by a couple of my good stamping buddies Michelle and Jane. We all wanted to do more stamping and blogging, and thought it would be great to challenge each other to get it going. So...as part of those challenges, we created a whole new blog to host (and post!) them. I Dream of Stamping! (the name came from the fact that Jane had recently been dreaming about stamping)

To kick off this fun new venture, we've decided to host the 2010 Winter Card Olympics. You can read all the details about this fun challenge over on the I Dream of Stamping blog...but here I have my first card for it...the relay of the torch (just in time for opening ceremonies!)I used the sketch from Jen del Muro's Sketch for you to Try, and my Lady Liberty Sofi from Paper Pretties to create this fun, patriotic card. This fabulous designer paper is from Creative Imaginations. It all came from one sheet...but has strips of different patterns - so fun! And I used my spica glitter pens on the flames to give it a little extra spark!Now, head on over to Michelle's blog as I pass the torch to her, and then be sure to come back to see our first challenge (with prizes!) on Sunday. We'll all post our challenge cards to our individual blogs, and you'll see all 3 of them on the I Dream of Stamping blog.

Happy Friday night!!

SU! Friday - CPS153

Happy Friday everyone. I don't know about you, but we have a 3 day weekend (which is the beginning of February break here!) and I know I'M looking forward to having some downtime while DH takes care of the kids for a few hours. Hopefully I can spend that time in my stamp room and finally finish getting it organized again!!I was so excited to finally get to play with another CPS sketch this week. After looking at it and thinking a great deal, I decided to pull out some of my new SU! stuff that I got last month. I just love this new Sweet Pea designer paper pad - there are so many amazing designs to choose from, and the colors are fabulous! I paired it up with the fun new I {heart} hearts set, and was good to go!I started with a kraft card base of 4.25 by 8.5 folded in half, with a layer of chocolate chip (4" square) and then bermuda bay (3.5" square) and finally the sweet pea designer paper layered on that. I sponged everything with chocolate chip ink, and wrapped the ribbon around the bermuda bay/sweet pea layer before adding the punched heart with some dimensionals. That whole piece was then added to the chocolate chip layer with another set of dimensionals. of course, I had to have a button too.....so I added this one with some white DMC floss.

I loved this card so much, I went back and made a few more to give to my friends for their valentine this year. I hope you enjoyed it as well! Have a very happy Valentine's day everyone! Oh...and be sure to keep coming back over the weekend...there's something BIG coming!

Prettie Wednesday Flirty Valentine

Welcome to another Prettie Wednesday Challenge hop. If you didn't get here via Julie's blog, be sure to head back to Christie's so you don't miss any Prettie goodness! This week Jennifer has challenged us all to make a Valentine for our sweetie (or anyone else for that matter!) and we're using Sassy Circles and either Flirty Fortunes or Sassy Shoes (all three of which are 20% off this week - woohoo!!)I used some more of my new My Mind's eye paper - I've been loving that lately! I stamped the takeout box onto some white cardstock, then stamped the long oval from Sassy Circles underneath it to create the shadow. Next, I paper pieced the takeout box and then added the chopsticks which were colored with copics and covered with crystal effects - love that shiny effect on them!! My dp is layered on some Riding Hood Red cs which is on a kraft card base. I finished off the front with some corduroy buttons tied with linen thread, and some riding hood red taffeta ribbon on a spiral clip.On the inside, I added some more of the striped dp, then stamped the fortune cookie in chocolate chip and added a little shading with my copics. I stamped the fortune outline on some white cs then added the sentiment stamped with the Riding Hood Red ink and cut it out to add to this card. I'm sure my honey will like this one!!Now head on over to Jackie's blog to see what she's cooked up for us today, and give her my best while you're there! have a wonderful Wednesday, and be sure to get working on YOUR Prettie Valentines!

MFT Monday: More MFT Cuties!

Do you remember this post? We were challenged to create cards using the wonderful MFT line art images, but NOT COLOR them in. That was so hard to do...that I had to create the same cards, but colored this time!! Much more my style!! The first card uses Balloon Girl from the Pure Innocence line of stamps (sorry, she appears to be sold out right now!). I love these little cuties, and can't wait to get my newest ones - they might arrive today! I colored her with my copics, then added some crystal effects to her balloon. After I tied on the bow, I added that little flower instead of a button...just because! I also used the Birthday Girl sentiment that comes with this set - now it's all set to give away at yet another party Julia has next weekend!The second card uses the cute little "Boy and Dog, Snow Adorable(also sold out right now set. I didn't stamp the dog (again) but LOVE coloring in this little guy. I have to admit, I love these images so much I went and bought some of the artists digital images as well - I'll have some projects with those to show in the coming weeks I hope! I used the sentiment that came with this set, and added some ribbon and a snowflake embellishment to finish it off.I love these. They used super simple layouts, but were tons of fun to make! Now I'm hoping my new stamps arrive in time to use them for the WSC (Wednesday stamp club) sketch from Frances and Cindy this week - I won last week's challenge which was a good thing since I needed that extra $15 for the huge order I placed!!

Have a happy Monday, and thanks for stopping by!