PWC97: Let's get buggy!

This week's Paper Pretties' challenge is to create a masculine card using either Bugs and Fishes or Wade E. Bug (which also means both those sets are 20% off this week!). I decided to get out Bugs and Fishes to make a birthday card. I could send it to my nephew who turns 2 next month! Now if you didn't get here from Julie's blog hop on back to Christie's blog to get started!

 I used Mercy's sketch from yesterday for the layout, but didn't add the embellishment because I just couldn't find anything masculine to put there! Now hop along to Jackie's blog to see what gorgeousness she has for us today!

La-La Land is going to Pieces!

This week's LaLa Land Crafts challenge from Kristine is to do some paper piecing. Since I just did a mini tutorial on paper piecing digital images (and had plenty of dresses printed for LaLa still!) I went with what I had!

Here's LaLa with Rose wearing a beautiful pink patterned dress using some old Bella Rose designer paper from SU!  The sketch I used is from Karen Giron's Sweet Sunday Sketch, and I have to say LaLa looks a little drunk off kilter here. I guess I should have cut the nestie a little different to keep her straight while still putting the oval off kilter. That's what I get for coloring first, then cutting!

Be sure to check out the creations by all the other LaLa designers, and we'd love you to play along. Keep in mind that you can win a $10 gift certificate to the LaLa Land Crafts store, and now this stamp is available in RUBBER too in case you're not a big fan of digis, so if you win you could get this or any of the other new Spring release stamps. And if you don't win...you can still buy then! ;-) Just remember, to be eligible to win you  must go link up your new card featuring a LaLa land Crafts image! Good luck!! And hey, since Kristine is using Rosie with Bird, she's on sale this week!!

Taylored Expressions Sketch 106

Howdy everyone! I hope your weeks all got off to a good start. Julia is very excited because the eggs they have had in her classroom have started hatching...spring is definitely here!

Here's a card I stole a few moments to create yesterday using Friday's TE sketch #106. I had to pull out my fishbowl again because it's such a fun stamp. I really loved this week's sketch, and I pulled out some more of my new Kioshi paper from Basic grey. I also grabbed some buttons to add to the bottom...LOVE the buttons since I couldn't fit any ribbon on.

After coloring the image with copics I added some sparkle with my Spica glitter pens. I added some scales to both fish, and then I added some clear swirls to the water. And then I had to add a nice thick layer of crystal effects to the bowl. It actually warped the paper somewhat (I actually put the whole card together before adding the CE) and the warping actually makes the fish look like they are floating in the CE - very cool look!

Hope you all have a wonderful day...I'll be back tomorrow with 2 cards, my LaLa Land Crafts and Paper Pretties challenge cards!! See you all back here then.

MFT Monday is Puttin on the Glitz!

The Weekly Stamp Club for MFT this week was to put on the Glitz! Make an embellishment using the fun new Glitzy Glitter. So...I created a fun glittery sun. I punched a 1 3/8" circle from Summer Sun CS, then i punched a 1 3/4" circle from summer sun and cut it into wedges. I adhered the wedges to the smaller circle, then ran it through my xyron to get it all nice and sticky, then added the gold glitter.

I used some fun cloud paper from a local stamping store and then added some rolling green hills using a new CK punch and some certainly celery cs. I stamped this greeting from Clearly Sentimental about Emerson and added some ribbon to finish the card off. It is SUPER shiny IRL, Have a wonderful Monday everyone! Be sure to check out the Prettie Peeks today on Christie, Wendy and Jane's blogs.

Prettie Peek - Penny for your Thoughts

Howdy Prettie Peeps, I'm back again today with another sneak peek of a fun new from Paper Pretties set due to be released on April 1st. This new set (called Penny for your Thoughts) is full of all kinds of fun sentiments and add ons. For my card today I went with the basic Piggie, with a dollar bill going in - but I love the versatility of this set.

My card is a congrats card for a raise or promotion (thus the Cha-Ching on the front and congratulations inside!) I used some new Basic Grey Green at Heart paper and SU! Rich Razzleberry along with my white cardstock. And don't you love those buttons on there??

 Be sure to visit Jackie and Wendy to see what they've done with this fantabulous new set!

Prettie Peek - Cooper is Super!

Paper Pretties is gearing up for another release on Thursday, April 1st - and we've got some FABULOUS new stamps for you all! Today, I'm showcasing our new Super Cooper - and I just LOVE him!! Isn't he the cutest EVEH?!?! I'm soo in love! He is one of 4 new digi stamps (so you can make him whatever size you want!!)

I started with last Sunday's Sweet Sunday Sketch from Karen Giron and some Cosmo Cricket paper to go with my sweet little boy here. I picked up some olive and red from the planes to color him (with Copics of course - has anyone else noticed that the darker pigment colors seem to be thicker and harder to blend?) Since I was at my pal Jane's house, I had a lot more colors to choose from when coloring him in (and of course have already gone to add a few more markers to my collection)

I printed the sentiment from my computer, and added a little more dp to the inside to finish it off. I thought keeping it Super Cutie was generic enough you could use this card for almost anything! Of course, when making this card and talking about Super Cooper, I had Jackson with me - and I had fed him an entire Kiwi the day before. Let's just say I started calling Jack my little Super Pooper that day!

For more peeks today, be sure to visit Jennifer and Heather. I'll be back with another peek for you all tomorrow!

Dahlia's for mom...

Ok Mom, I know you'll see this. And maybe you'll get lucky and this will be the card that actually gets put in the mail - we'll have to see! ;-)

I got my new goodies from PTI this week and immediately had to play with the new Dahlia's stamp set and matching dies. OH MY GOSH! WOW! SOOO easy to use, lining them up was a piece of CAKE! I love the look of neatly cut out flowers, but HATE the work, so this was perfect for me. I cut my cardstock first, then stamped the image, and colored it with copics. I can see I need to expand my collection some more since I didn't have ANY of the right colors to go with the PTI papers, but it turned out ok.

I used this week's Mojo Monday sketch (# 131) and on the inside I even got to use some ricrak I cut with the new rikrak die!! LOVE it!! I used some SU! dp with polka dots and added a couple of buttons so this also qualifies for Lisa Johnson's Poppy Seed challenge to use polka dots, buttons and light moss.

I think you'll see a lot more with these dies and set in the coming weeks...I haven't even begun to get this out of my system yet!

La-La is all Flowers!

For this week's La-La's Weekly Wednesday Challenge, Kim challenged us all to make a flower for our cards. I've been on a flower making binge lately, so this was right up my alley. We'd love for you to play along with us...be sure to link up your cards featuring La-La Land Crafts images on the LaLa blog for your chance to win a $10 gift certificate to the store.

I love this little Fairy La-La, and it was so much fun to color her hair all pink! I used some scraps from the package Susie Lyles (her husband is battling cancer right now so go leave her some love!) for my dsp. La-La is stamped on an MFT Perfect panel, and layered on Perfect Plum (same as the card base!) My flower is made from a Pottery Barn catalog, and the fun crystal swirls are some I picked up at CHA. The layout is CPS159.

 Be sure to check out the creations of the LaLa Land Crafts design team for some more inspiring flowers! And remember since Kim used Porsha for her creation - it's available at a 20% discount all week in the La-La Land Crafts store - so go pick her up today!!

Happy Birthday Hoppin' for Frances!

Today is Prettie Girl Frances' birthday, so in addition to our Wednesday challenge, we're hoppin' for her birthday! If you didn't get here from Julie's blog, be sure to head back to Christie's so you don't miss out on a single bit of eye candy today! And of course, be sure to leave some Birthday Love for Frances at the end of the hop!!

In honor of our Owl lovin' Frances, this week's challenge was to be inspired by an owl...ANY owl! And of course, being the big Harry Potter fan that I am, I chose Hedwig!

I'm using Lady Sophia, our sweet little Princess (who along with Make a Wish is on sale for 20% off this week in the Prettie Boutique. For my card, I decided to go the white on white route that is so trendy right now. I used a lot of punches (it is for Frances, our punch Queen after all!!)

I also used lots of glitter, because every girl needs glitter for her birthday! I hope yours is wonderful Frances!! Now hop along to Jackie's blog to see what owl she chose as her inspiration, and the incredible creation she made to go with it! Now shoo!

MFT Monday - Jolinne Birthday Book

I finally got to finish my birthday book that I started last week. I was going to make a book for the template WSC, but only got as far as printing the pages. Then on St. Patty's day when Kim announced the new club challenge to use something recycled, I thought it would be great to use some cardboard I rescued from some packaging to make the covers of my birthday book.

I used some Imaginecense papers that I had to alter the chipboard covers, then trimmed the inner pages to be a little smaller than the covers. I stamped and colored Jolinne with Balloons, then cut her with my nesties. I stamped the balloons again to paste on top so they could go outside the oval. I covered the balloons with crystal effects so they'd be nice and shiny! I cut the letters with my sizzex, and used a heat set jewel to dot the eye.

I stamped some different Pure Innocence girls on each month using different SU! inks along with the months. I decided I'll just start at the top and write the date and names of people with birthdays that month so as new people get added the numbers may not be in order, but that's OK. And of course I added some gift information pages to the end of the book as well! LOVE this template.

Happy Birthday Julie, Prettie Style!

Today is Julie Masse's birthday. Julie is so amazingly talented...she's been published many times, and we've been so lucky to have her as a Prettie girl since the beginning. We're hopping for her birthday today, so if you didn't arrive here from Christie's blog, hop on back so you don't miss a thing!

I used the Happy Birth Day Lamb set for Julie's card, added some color with my copics, and some sparkle with my spica glitter pens! The papers are from Basic Grey's Bittersweet 6 by 6 pack, the lace is May Arts, and the buttons are from MFT. The layout is this week's Sketch Challenge from Mercy (MTSC65)...LOVE it!

 I stitched all the panels (even on the inside!) and added some ribbon on a spiral clip.

On the inside, I added the Happy Birthday sentiment from the set and some more designer paper. Now hop along to Jackie's blog to see what amazing gorgeousness she has for us all today, and don't forget to leave some Birthday love for Julie at the end of our hop!

PWC95: Prettie Color Challenge

Hello Prettie Fans! I'm back with my Paper pretties challenge card for this week. Julie gave us a great color challenge this week to use yellow, aqua and kraft with any neutral (white or vanilla) Now...as usual I forgot the kraft part by the time I got into my craft room, but I decided the dp looks like it has  little kraft on it, and the linen thread ought to count for something, right?? Now if you didn't arrive from Jules' blog, head on back to Christie's so you can catch all the beauty today!

I used some Cosmo Cricket dp that I picked up at my LSS along with some PaperTrey Ink yellow and aqua for the cardstocks. Cooper is stamped on an MFT Perfect Panel and colored with my copics. The layout is this week's CPS #158.

You can play along with us by uploading your card to our challenge gallery - we'd love to see what you make with these colors. Also, Love you This Much and Eggstra special Easter are the 2 featured sets this week, so they are both 20% off in the Prettie Boutique all week long! Now hop along to see what Jackie has created for us all, and have a wonderful hump day!

La-La Land goes Green!

This week's La-La Land Crafts challenge comes from Elena Joldersma who wanted us to Go Green for St. Patrick's Day! Now, that doesn't mean make a card with the color green, but to use something recycled ON your project. That could be bubblewrap to make a background, an old cereal box as chipboard, or an old book (as I have done) to make those trendy flowers! And, since Elena is using Pirate LaLa for her card this week, it will be 20% off in the La-La Land Crafts store all week!

For my card, I used the adorable Easter Bunny digi stamp. I love this image so much, and the first time I saw it I immediately thought of one of my childhood favorite books, The Country Bunny and the Little Golden Shoes. It's the original Working Mother story book, written in the 1940's!! So, I had to color my little bunny to look just like the Country Bunny.

 I used Jen Del Muro's SFYTT from this weekend for my layout, along with some Sweet Pea papers from SU! and my flower made from an old book. I sponged a little pink ink on the punched flowers and used a pretty in pink corduroy button for the center.

We'd love for you to play along...head on over to the La-La Land Crafts blog to link up your creation and a shot at a gift certificate to the La-La Land Crafts store - just be sure to use one of our stamps (rubber or digi!) to be eligible for the prize!

Another MFT Cutie

Here's a card I made a few weeks back, just having fun. I like the clouds in this paper for rainy images because they seem less sunny than all white clouds. And the basic gray cs from SU! is perfect for a rainy day sidewalk.

 I paper pieced her umbrella and colored the rest of her to match. Then, I added the rain with some stickles.

For the inside, I used Start each Day with Whee...to indicate that the rain will go away and you'll soon be swinging in the sunshine!

Hope you all have a wonderful day, thanks for stopping by!

Shamrocks galore!

There's no doubt...I LOVE St. Patty's day. Part of the reason is I LOVE Corned Beef and Cabbage - and that is the one day a year I can force my family to eat it! I also can claim some percentage of Irish blood (don't ask me to quantify it!) So of course I was thrilled with Jane suggested a Green challenge over on our I Dream of Stamping challenge blog for this week! That, and I had just gotten a new 4-Leaf Clover Girl from MFT's Pure Innocence line.

I used my wonderful Cosmo Cricket Garden Variety paper again to paper piece this little cutie, and for the background as well. I used some of SU!'s Not Quite Navy to layer everything, and the card base and shamrock are from PTI Spring Moss (as is the ribbon!) The layout was supposed to be this week's Mojo sketch, but it went off a little. Oh well!

I finished off the inside with similar papers and added the Go Green sentiment from SU! again, because I just LOVE it! Be sure to go check out the I Dream of Stamping blog to see Jane and Michelle's samples, and then make your own and join the fun!

Paper Piecing Your Digital Images - a mini tutorial!

I'm back with my quick tutorial...it's really quite simple, but I thought a few photos might help!

Step 1: Print out your image on regular copy paper. Cut pieces of designer paper that you want to use for paper piecing to cover the area of the image you want covered. Adhere these directly to your printed paper using a removable adhesive such as Dotto. You want to make sure the edge that is going to get fed into your printer first is adhered down so that it is less likely to jam up your printer

Step 2. Print the same file again feeding this paper BACK through your printer. Make sure you know which way to load the paper so the file prints in the same orientation. If you look at this image, you can see some of the Rosies at the bottom are looking a little blurry - it's not your eyes it's just because there are 2 images printed and it got a little off.

Step3. Now that you have your image printed, remove it from the copy paper and you can now trim it out. There are many great tutorials on paper piecing out there..one thing that's important is to cut ON the line (not outside it) so that it fits in your stamped (or in this case printed) image perfectly.

Step 4: It is best to color your underlying image BEFORE adhering your paper pieced bits on. You can move things around and figure out what you like best before gluing it all down. I like to use my Quickie Glue Pen to put glue onto the image, then use my paper piercer to move the bits around and get them into perfect alignment (great when working with small bits)

Step5: Finish it off. Here you can see I decided to color the bodice of her dress and just piece the skirt. However, I now have 3 other dresses ready to cut out and use, so I'm set for a little while - at least for THIS La-La!!

Thanks for coming by, I hope you find this helpful! Let me know if you have questions about any of this and I'll be happy to answer them.

La-La Land Crafts is going soft

This week's La-La Land Craft's Challenge comes to us from Maureen, and she wants us to create a spring card all in Pastels! We're changing up the challenges a little, and encourage everyone one to play along, but in order to be elligible for the prize of $10 to spend in the La-La Land Craft's store you must feature a La-La Land image in your project. That's much easier now that we have several new digital images, and to help you out Easter Bunny Rosie (the image Maureen is using this week!) is on special all week for 20% off (making it ONLY $3.40!!!)

For my card this week, I chose to use the La-La with Rose image. I love her short and sassy hair in this image, and it's perfect since my little Julia just cut her hair on Monday and she looks a little like this with her cute blond hair and blue eyes! I used this week's Mercy's Tuesday Sketch Challenge sketch for my layout, don't you love that luscious silk ribbon??

I also knew I really wanted to paper piece this image and give her a cute print dress. This has been one of the biggest hurdles to me really getting into digital images...I love to paper piece! But how do you paper piece a printed digital image? That's why I thought I'd do a quick little tutorial on just that! Watch for that later today!

Be sure to check out all the loveliness created by the rest of the La-La Land Crafts team today - they are sure to knock your socks off! Then make your own pastel masterpiece and link it up on the La-La Land Crafts blog.

PWC94: We've been inspired!

Our Prettie Mama Christie gave us this wonderful inspiration challenge (which is where this hop started in case you didn't come here from Julie's):

Now, we Pretties aren't encouraging you all to head out and pick up a brew (although I did pick up several cases of wine in my trip last weekend!) but this is quite an inspiring image! I pulled the blues and pearls from this image to create my Bunny Slipper Sophia card shown below. Both Bunny Slippers Sophia and Hippity Hoppity are on sale this week for 20% off...so be sure to check them out!

I used Friday's Taylored Expressions sketch for my layout (TESC103) and more of my fabulous new Cosmo Cricket papers. The beautiful flower is one of the crochet flowers from my good friend, and the pearls were picked up at CHA back in January.

Be sure to hop along to see what gorgeousness Jackie's created for us today!

MFT Sketch is Bloomin' Great!

Last week's Wednesday Stamp Challenge from MFT was a wonderful sketch created by my wonderful friend Frances! I just LOVE sketches!! I was able to create my card before leaving for wine country, but am just now getting around to uploading it. I'm glad I finished it though, because it made a perfect birthday card for Julia's 1st grade teacher yesterday!!

 I used the adorable little Pure Innocence Blooming Girl as my main image. I colored her with my copics (don't you love that orange dress? I know I do!) and cut her out with my circle nesties. She is mounted on a nestability peony shape cut from Pumpkin Pie cardstock. I used my new Cosmo Cricket Garden Variety mini stack for the 3 panels behind, layered on some Glorious Green cardstock, with some Green Galore as the layer on top of the Pumpkin Pie card base.

 I added some twill ribbon underneath this little cutie, and finished it off with my paper flower for Joanne's crumple it challenge. That was WAY fun to make, can't wait to make more! Oh..and I added the sentiment using my new Go Green stamp from SU! by inking each word individually and using the stamp-a-ma-jig to line everything up.

Finally, I finished off the inside with some more of this wonderful DP and the sentiment from the Pure Innocence set. I hope you have a blooming good day, and now I'm off to finish up a tutorial I'm working on for tomorrow's La-La Land Crafts challenge post...I hope you'll come back to see that and my Paper Pretties challenge cards tomorrow!