Snowy Window Card for the Paper Smooches Spark Inspirational Challenge!

Good morning friends! Hope all is well out here in the blogasphere. I suppose I’m recovering from this cold - slowly but surely. Thank God!

Ok, onto another note. Did you know that Paper Smooches has their very own challenge blog - it’s called Paper Smooches Sparks? Hello! How did I not know about this!! Just found it yesterday! I only have 2 sets of Paper Smooches Stamps so far, but really love them. You all know how much I love Lawn Fawn - and they are of the same high quality - and their images are truly SO original and fun - their fonts are also adorable!!

Ok, I don’t know if it’s tacky adding a project made with no Paper Smooches Stamps, but I was totally inspired by their inspirational photo and wanted to join in on the fun, so I’m giving it a shot! I'm also trying out for their DT call - fingers crossed ;). Here is a look at the inspirational photo:

So cute right?!? With it in mind, I created this:

and here is an inside view:

Here's a standing up view:

and a laying down view...

Cool huh? I really adore how it came out! I was at Michaels this weekend, and found some cute ArtC glitter. I’ve been wanting it for a while - but just couldn’t justify paying $5.99 for it, no matter how cute the little bottles are!! Anywho, Michaels a variety of them on sale - 60% off - I couldn’t help but grab 3 different sets!! Some of the sets come with beads too & they’re all so cool! I thought they’d be perfect for this project.

Onto the card: So to make this, I started by making the glittery window/pocket using clear acrylic “paper” (also found at Michaels) and Martha Stewart’s clear {chunky} glitter & the ArtC glittered hearts. Used my sewing machine to stitch it all together so it’d be nice and sturdy! Then I went to work stamping my Frosty Friends (all Stamps on this card are Lawn Fawn’s Making Frosty Friends and all patterned paper is Crate Paper) and paper pieced them. Next I set them aside and stamped the same images onto what would be my (inside) card base.

Then I stamped a few snowflakes from the set with Versamark Ink and heat embossed them using AC’s Zing in White. Next, I added the paper pieced snowmen to the card base along with their pretty bows (dark pink = The Twinery & light pink = Trendy Twine).

Then I cut a square window into the front of the card base (this was done by trial and error and I now have quite a few little scraps of this paper laying around... why don’t I just use a ruler already?!?). I glued the snowy window to the inside of the card with Glossy Accents and then covered it in Crate Paper. I stamped the sentiment using my (new) fave Jenni Bowlin ink - Robin’s Egg - and used a finger inker to also ink up the edges in the same color. I finished it off with the same twine as the bows attached with Tim Holtz’s Tiny Attacher. I love it. I’m going to make some more window glitter cards tonight if I’m feeling up to it. Maybe Halloween cards this time. OOOHHH the possibilities! Well, that’s all for me today - thanks for peeking!

Lawnscaping Challenge #5 "WE JUST CLICK" card ;)

Good Morning!! Hope you had a great weekend. Mine was nice. Busy. Let the week begin...

So, I was REALLY stumped on how to take on this round fo the Lawnscaping Challenge #5. I'm also going to add it in for the Moxie Fab World paper Piecing Challenge. I think it definately works for that ;)

I'm telling you, after seeing the DT's work this round, I just felt like I couldn't measure up. I mean Laurel KILLED it!! The other girls were - AS ALWAYS amazing as well! I just couldn't think of what to do!!!

What I decided on, was making a "mirrored"/"reverse stamped" polaroid camera birthday card, using the Say Cheese Stamp Set.

It's a birthday card for my sister-in-law. She was very jealous of the card I made for my hubby using the same stamp (especially bec her b-day comes 1st). So, I decided to up the antie for her card. The way I made it, was by (using Colorbox Chalk Ink, in Charcoal) stamping the camera image onto the "cling" side of a giant Hero Arts Background stamp using Marie's technique. The Hero Background stamped worked the best for me and I just washed it off afterwards, and perfecto... good as new.
It took A LOT of trial and error, plus I had to get 3 perfect images (or close to perfect) because I wanted to paperpiece the camera. It was not an easy task, I had to try several different inks, and had to waste quite a bit of paper (it was double sided though, so I'll reuse the other side). If you give this a try, as Marie suggests, you also have to trace the image (I used a Black Copic Multiliner in 1.0) because the image will not really be crisp without doing so. Here's a look at my card:
I also used a glue pen to trace/fill in one of the hearts and used Martha Stewart's (fine) pink glitter to glam up the card a bit ;). I like it how it came out. It's not perfect, may not even be a great entry (because it's not TOO unconventional) but it is what it is. I'm just happy I made it out of this one alive ;). I made a commitment to myself that I'm really going to try to enter every Lawnscaping Challenge. I just really want to push and grow my cardmaking skills, so I don't want to not enter just because it's "too hard" for me. That's why it's a challenge, right?!?

Thanks for looking, and I hope you have a lovely day!

Get Sketchy #75/Lawnscaping #4

Good Monday everyone! Hope you had a wonderful weekend. Mine was good. Busy and full of family fun AND craftiness :D.

I decided to play along with this week’s Get Sketchy’s card sketch challenge (my first time) and incorporate that with this round of the Lawnscaping #4 challenge!

Ok, so the Get Sketchy challenge looks a little something like this:
And the Lawnscaping #4 Challenge is all about paper piecing (squeal - my fave): Here is a look at my card:
Pretty flower right?!? I’m in love LOVE love with it! I learned how here on the Crate Paper Blog. Fabulous tutorial by Tara Anderson - and the flower is just amazing!! Easy to do, and I’m just - well can’t you tell - I’m in love with it. I made several of them this weekend! I’m such a sucker for handmade flowers!!

So I started off with (Neenah - Sandstorm) cardstcok, all the patterned paper and the pretty brad are from My Minds Eye (Breaking Free). I used three Lawn Fawn sets to do my paper piecing: Bannerific, Fly Free, and Sophies Sentiments. They are stamped in Momento Ink and popped up with American Crafts foamies.

I hope you likesie. I’m loving it! Going to mail it to a friend who moved away :(, I’m sure it will brighten her day - that’s the plan anyway :D!

I don't know what the Get Sketchy prize is yet (to be revealed later), but it was a fun sketch, so whatever it is (if I should win it) would be a bonus! As for the Lawnscaping prizes, there are two, a chance to be a guest designer (cool!) - and you also Lawn Fawn's Fly Free Stamps. Now, I'd love to win this!! I do already have the Fly Free set, but I'd love to gift that to my mom :). She's commented on it a few times, so I know she'd love to have it. Are you playing along with any challenges this week? Which ones? This is my 1st time combining challenges. I always see girls doing it & so I wanted to give it a try. Well, that's all for me today. I hope you have an awesome one!!

Supplies:
Cardstock: Neenah in Sandstorm
Patterned paper & Brad: My Mind’s Eye - Breaking Free/Hazel (brad)
Circle Punches: Fiscars, Marvy
Glitter: Martha Stewart - clear glitter (coarse & fine)
Boarder Punch: Fiscars
Stamps: Lawn Fawn - Bannerific, Sophie’s Sentiments, Fly Free
Ink: Momento
Foamies: American Crafts
Glue (for Flower): Glossy Accents

Lawncaping (#3) Challenge - Additional Submission

Hey everyone! I just wanted to say thanks so much for the sweet comments on my OCD card & all my other projects!! It always means so much to me that you take a few minutes to give me some blog love. I've said it before & I'll say it again, I think that's super important - not just cause I want comments - but because I think one of our purposes here, in life, is to lift eachother up and share the love. It makes me feel so good to know someone likes or is inspired by something I do - or is just being nice & saying hi!! It's a wondeful thing - this blogging experiance. It's wonderful to get to "know" people through their art and creativity!! I appreciate every friend I've made! Life can be hard (even in a fully blessed and happy life), it's nice to have a place to go where other women create, inspire, and share the love!

Ok, I'm not just posting today to get all ooshy-gooshy on you ;). I wanted to make another card (to redeem myself...to myself, maybe) with the same kind of concept as yesterday's card. OH! F.Y.I: I heard from Laurel over at the Lawnscaping Challenge Blog & she said you can make as many entries to the challenges as you want, just number them. AWESOME!

So, here is my #2 entry into this round of the Lawnscaping Challenge - I'm also going to enter it into Moxie Fab World (Paper Piecing Challenge): Isn't it a cutie? I used 6 - yes SIX - Lawn Fawn Stamp Sets on this card. Critters in the Burbs (bunnies & the tree), Bake me a Cake (little hearts on tree), Partly Cloudy (cloud), Bannerific (banner), Harold's ABCs (sentiment on the outside of the card), and Silly Valentine (sentiment on the inside of the card..."Some Bunny Loves You" ;) teeheehee). I made it for a teacher, Ms. Tenes, at my daughter Alivia's preschool. She was in the hospital for about 3 weeks, and just returned to school this week. I'm so happy she's back and feeling better! She's not my daughter's teacher, but takes care of her in aftercare, and she's just one of those people who you can tell were MADE to work with kids!! She is so sweet to my baby girl & in turn, Alivia LOVES her so much! She really missed her while she was out.

So, I thought it'd be cute to use the Critters in the Burbs bunny and, make a whole lotta them - as her little students. I have to say - I love how it came out. I made another little picture tutorial too because I think you'll really like how I made it. I thought it was a neat idea (if I say so myself) because I got all "recycley" (nice word huh) and used the cover sheet for the paper pack (Basic Grey's "Hopscotch") I just picked up. I stamped the super cute bunnies (18 of them!) onto the little "sample" squares on the cover page of the packet. Ok, maybe that sounds odd, here's a look: . As you can see, I stamped the bunny into the little square swatches, and I think it worked out really nice for the card, because it meant the images on the patterned paper were smaller (very cardworthy - without having to use a 6x6 paper pack). Next I stamped the tree (also Critters in the Burbs) onto some Bristol art paper and used an Inkadinkado Mask to cover the image while I Distress-Inked up the card base with Ranger's Tumpled Glass (Edges done with Broken China) and the Tim Holtz Blending Tool. I also inked the edged of the (Neenah) card with it as well. Then I heat embossed the cloud from another Lawn Fawn (Partly Cloudy) set (twice - once directly onto the card, and then again on the Bristol paper.) & then used distress inks on that as well and then paper pieced it leaving a little edge so you could see the blue. Also, you should know, the embossing ink i used was Ranger (Tim Holtz) Distress Embossing Ink...thats why it's not a full image (its actually a little distressy, as you can see). Then I popped up the pieced cloud with foamies for prettyness.

Then I paper pieced the tree using the "Hopscotch" paper and stamped the cute little heart from Bake Me a Cake onto it. Next I stamped the Bannerific banner with a "Welcome Back" sentiment using Harold's ABCs. Let me just say, Lawn Fawn's letter stamps are AMAZING! I love the fonts and how easy they work. The grass is just a little strip of paper that I hand cut into grass (I have the Martha Stewart scissors, but don’t feel that I get the same effect as hand cutting) and then chalked with Colorbox (green) Chalk Ink. Lastly, I added the bunnies in onto the grass. THEN I got real creative and cut the arms/feet of the bunnies apart and hung 4 of them off the banner. Just for a little something extra and different. ok, one more looks at the card:
I hope you like it. I really Sorry, I forgot to photo the inside sentiment ("Some Bunny Loves You" but it was there ;).

Hope you have a wonderful day! I'm hoping to have a scrappy weekend. My hubby, son, and niece will be going to Monster Jam and Alivia & I will be going to a Valentines Day Dinner at Church. She's my date ;). Have a great weekend.

Lawnscaping 3 Challenge - Valentiney Gifts for the Nanas (& Pop)

Morning! I wanted to share my weekends scrappiness with ya today. So, I’m thinking I have my round 3 Lawnscaping (#3) Challenge entry. I think I'll switch it up a bit, instead of making a card.

Are you playing along? You totally should, there’s a Lawn Fawn stamp set (of your choice - what?!?) up for grabs! If I was to win, I would totally pick this little set up. I dont have it yet, and Christiana has SO inspired me today with this card. So, the Challenge's theme this time around is "All About Love" - and the amazable Karen Baker is the guest designer this month - and her card just ROCKS!!! You HAVE TO go check out her, and the Design Team's creations. So much inspiration going on over there!

Ok, onto my project. First, here's a looksie at the finished products:
Ok, so I did (my 1st) a mini-tutorial on this project and it goes a lil something like this:

I went to AC Moore on Friday, I’ve only been there once before (it’s pretty far from me) and wow that store is amazing!! I was there for literally 2 hours... just oogling the goodies!!! Anyway, while I was there, I picked up these plain little wooden springy heart photo holders for $1.00 each. I decided they would be our parent’s Valentines gifts from the kids. So, I started them off by painting them with a pink acrylic paint: After I got the edges, insides of the hearts, and the base painted pink, I reached into my stash for paper (Fancy Pants’ - Vintage Valentine) and traced one of the hearts and made a template to cover each (4) heart with it. Then I distressed the edges of the paper hearts with the pink paint and glued them on with “Scotts” multi-purpose glue.

I love this glue for everyday stuff, like anytime I made a mini-book or a wooden project. It works really well & stays... stuck (always a plus): Next I Worked on my trademark “Made by Heather” stamp to go on the bottom of the project: And then, I worked on my images. Of course, I HAD to go with Lawn Fawn’s Silly Valentine Stamps. I just love them so much & that little bunny with the heart on his rump is just adorable!

I started by punching out a circle, chalking the edges with Colorbox (Red) Chalk, then stamped the images and sentiment using Momento Ink and colored them in with Copics: I decided to add cuteness by flocking the bunny’s tail with Doodlebug (white) flock. I started by coloring the tail in with this glue pen, and then poured a little scoop of flock onto it, patted it on a bit and then let it set for a few minutes. Flocking is so cool. I hope to do it more often!

Well, that's that. I hope you like. it was really fun and super easy peasy. My son loves it and says he wants one... he always does ;). He's my own little fan club! Hope you have a great day!!

Lawnscaping Challenge...#2

Hello again! Have I got a beauty to share with you this morning!!

So, I had to wait and wait and wait to post this card!! It’s my entry for this round of the Lawnscaping Challenge!! The challenge is to CASE Lawn Fawn’s amazingly talented Kelly Marie Alvarez. This was kind of easy for me, as Kelly Marie is one of the people who inspire me MOST where cards are concerned!!! She’s so very generous with sharing her card making wisdom and techniques!!! And her videos rock!! They’re always so fun and quirky - I love that! So, anyway, here is a peek at Kelly Marie’s Card that I CASEd (it can be found on her blog here):
Isn’t it so cute!! I just recently got Lawn Fawn’s Just My Type Stamp Set from my office for Christmas (yay!) And have been dying to dive in and play with it since!!! Perfect opportunity ;).

I had to wait until the beginning of February to post the card because everything I used to make it is from this month’s Paper Niche kit. I made it about 3 weeks ago, so it’s a long time comin’! Here’s a looksie at my take on the challenge: I started off with Neenah (Sandstorm) Card Stock. The patterned paper and brads are Basic Grey’s “Curio”. Everything to make this card, (except the Lawn Fawn Typewriter Stamp) along with this fabulous flower ribbon were all included in this month’s Paper Niche kit!!!! I am SO hoping paper Niche starts carrying Lawn Fawn Stamps. They are second to none in my book!!

Anyway, I went all distressy with the Tim Holtz Distresser, and Vintage Photo Distress Ink on all of the edges. Next I stamped and paper pieced that amazing Typewriter Just My Type Stamp Set. The sentiment is from Lawn Fawn’s Just My Type II Set (the inside of the card is stamped with “Did you get the memo?”). Lastly, I attached the brads to the ribbon - which was my favorite thing I did with this month’s kit - and attached the ribbon to the card using Fabritac!!! I love LOVE love how it came out, and am super excited to enter in into the 2nd Lawnscaping Challenge!!!

Well, that’s all for today folks. Have a happy (crafty) day!!