100th Lawnscaping Challenge Celebration!

Hi everyone! I have a special post today...

It's the 100th challenge at the Lawnscaping Challenge blog! Everyone is so excited about this milestone, and each of the Design Team members have invited a special guest to play along. The theme is Birthday/Celebration!

I was invited to this party by my sweet friend, Samantha Mann. Samantha's designs are always super clever and fun (and often laugh-out-loud funny). I just love her work. :)

Be sure to head over to the Lawnscaping blog where you can see ALL of the Design Team projects as well as ALL of the special projects, too!

Here's my project for the celebration:

For this card, I went CAS with a whole lot of coloring. All of the stamps and dies are from Lawn Fawn. I stamped monsters from Monster Mash and Yeti, Set, Go and colored them with Copics. Since it's a celebration, I added hats and balloons from Hats Off to You and Year Four. For the sentiment, I used my favorite Milo's ABCs. 

I had to go with the 'ole Roy G. Biv for the layout. A few of the critters are popped up with foam tape. Here's a close-up to see the dimension:

I hope you'll join in the Lawnscaping celebration! You can link up your projects HERE. 

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great day!

Supplies

Stamps: (monsters from Monster Mash; yeti from Yeti, Set, Go; sentiment from Milo's ABCs; hats from Monster Mash, Hats Off to You, Year Four; balloons from Year Four) Lawn Fawn

Dies: (monsters from Monster Mash; hats and balloons from Year Four)

Cardstock: (Rustic White) Papertrey Ink

Ink: (Black Licorice Hybrid) My Favorite Things

Copics

Looking Back

Hi everyone! I hope you had a happy holidays! It's been a whirlwind for us--Christmas, my daughter's eighth birthday, and my sister-in-law's family and brother-in-law's family visiting. It's been a great break. :)

With New Year's a day away, I decided to look back at my blog cards for this year and make a top 10 of my favorites. I haven't done a top 10 list before, but I enjoyed it...it was good to look back and remember making the card, the reason for the card, etc. I'm not sure what was going on, but I didn't have any cards in my top 10 before May. ha ha

Here's my list (in chronological order):

Congrats (AC Digitals)

Have a Magical Birthday for Gallery Idol Round 1 (Robyn Meierotto)

You Get Me (BasicGrey, American Crafts, Pixels & Co.)

Love Machine (My Mind's Eye, Paper Smooches)

Grateful for You (Hero Arts, Technique Tuesday)

Put You In My Pocket (Glitz Design)

Whitewashed Leaves (Paper Smooches)

Cashmere Dame Card Set (Glitz Design)

Oh, Hello There (Lawn Fawn, Creashens)

Joy to You and Me (Glitz Design)

All of the supplies are linked in the original posts.

Thank you for all of your support and comments this year. Sometimes it's hard to blog--I don't like my photo or the project, or I think my post content sounds lame. But, I'm very grateful for the visits and comments--you are very kind. :)

Have a great New Year's Eve! Happy 2014!!

Rock Chalk Baby Blog Hop

Hi everyone! In blog world, it's often hard to throw someone a baby shower, so instead, we're having a baby blog hop:

The Gallery Idol '12 ladies and I are having a blog hop for Erin Lee Schreiner, who's having a baby boy this month. Yeah! Big congrats, Erin!! If you want to hop along along, you can start at Aga's blog.

Erin likes forest critters, and I went with the woodland theme for this non-traditional baby card:

Isn't that little fox to die for? I love his little face. I made a custom sentiment using the Milo's ABCs from Lawn Fawn.

Want to hop along and wish Erin well? Here are the other peeps participating:

Aga Malyszek

Amy Kolling

Anita Recksiedler

Cheiron Brandon

Dana Warren

Debbie Marcinkiewicz

Elena Roussakis

Heather Campbell

Jennifer Rzasa

Jennifer Ingle

JJ Bolton

Jocelyn Olson <--You are here.

Joscelyne Cutchens

Laurie Willison

Miriam Prantner

Nina Yang

Taheerah Atchia

Tessa Wise

Wida Yusufi-Miller

Thanks so much for stopping by! Next up is my dear friend Joscie!


Supplies
Cardstock: (white) Avery Elle; (Rustic White) PTI
Clear stamps: (sentiment from Milo's ABCs) Lawn Fawn
Ink: (Smokey Grey) Versafine

Happy Happy Happy (and a Giveaway Part 2)

Hi everyone!

It's our last week of the term at CAS-ual Fridays, and there are some changes to the design team (you can check it out on the site HERE). We're saying goodbye to AJ and Pamela--they're such fantastic designers and nice people. :)

We have one last challenge of the term:

So, the challenge is to make a feminine CAS card with kraft and text. I have to admit, I kind of forget about the text part, so we'll just say my sentiment is the text. Okay?

Here's what I came up with:

I used my new WPlus9 Sweets & Treats and stamped the cupcake on the platter. I fussy cut the entire image and colored it with Copics. The sentiment is my version of the text (wink, wink).

As an afterthought, I added the Lawn Fawn twine. My teammate Wida always keeps the tails of her bows long, and it looks very cool.

Here's a close-up:

I hope you'll play along with this week's CAS-ual Fridays challenge! You can link up your projects HERE.

On Monday, I talked about a giveaway as a thank you to my blog followers/readers. I have two giveaways, and here is the photo of the second one:

You can comment on any of the posts this week, and I'll draw two names from all of the comments. You can comment through Sunday. Thank you again for all of your support!

Have a great weekend!


Supplies
Cardstock: (Kraft) WPlus9; (white) PTI
Clear stamps: (sentiment, cupcake, platter from Sweets & Treats set) WPlus9
Ink: (Tuxedo Black) Tsukineko; (White) WPlus9
Cord: Lawn Fawn
Copics

Gallery Idol Round 5

Hi everyone! Every time I think about making it to the Top 5 at Paper Crafts Magazine's Gallery Idol contest, I want to jump up and down. :) Thank you for your support!!

The challenge for Round 5 was to make four cards in four different card styles using coordinating colors. Phew! It was a CRAZY weekend working on cards. I got very little sleep all weekend, but in the end, I perservered and made four cards I'm proud of.

I found a color scheme from The Sweetest Occasion that I used for all of the cards:

For my four card styles, I picked Fun/Cute, CAS/Graphic, Shabby Chic/Vintage, and Freestyle/Collage. If you have any questions about what I did, feel free to drop me an e-mail. :)

First up is the Fun/Cute card:

Oh, he just cracks me up (or quacks me up, as my 7-year-old would say). Here are a few highlights about the card:

• The duck (Starving Artistamps) and hat (Lawn Fawn) were colored with Copics and fussy cut (those legs were tough!)
• I made the speech bubble digitally and masked off and stamped the sentiment (CAS-ual Fridays)
• I didn't have the right patterned papers, so I made my own. I made the gingham patterned paper in Photoshop using a template. I also altered the polka dot paper digitally--it was yellow on yellow--but I wanted to bring in the aqua.

Here's a close-up:

Next up is the Clean and Simple/Graphic card:

This style is definitely in my comfort zone. While I normally make a lot of CAS hybrid cards, this card doesn't have any digital elements. Here are a few highlights:

• I die-cut the Memory Box heart six times and filled in the the negative space in the white die-cut with the various coordinating colors.
• Since the card is graphic, I went with fully-saturated colors instead of patterned papers like the other styles.
• I finished the card with a sentiment from Technique Tuesday. 

Here's a close-up:

Next up, is the shabby chic/vintage card:

I'm not going to lie, shabby chic does not come naturally for me. I wanted to take on the challenge and did a lot of homework studying blogs and back issues of Paper Crafts.

This vintage image made me laugh (is the mom in the back seat and the kids are in the front seat??). I thought the cheekiness reflected my style well. Here are the details:

• The vintage circle (Pretty Little Studios) and sentiment are both digitally created. I altered the colors in the illustration slightly to reflect the coordinating colors.
• I altered the scalloped Chic Tags die cut by flipping it over and misting the backside. I also whitewashed the wooden tag. 
• I used six different patterned papers from four different manufacturers (SEI, Webster's Pages, Fancy Pants, and BasicGrey). 

Here's a close-up:

Lastly, I made a Freestyle/Collage card:

This card was the most fun to put together. :) Here are a few details:

• I altered three of the embellishments with paint (the flower and wood veneer mini frame) and spray mist (the canvas oval).
• There were twelve unrelated elements on the card (misting, stitching, die-cut patterned papers, sticker sentiment, metal flower, wood veneer frame, canvas oval, metal clip, and sequins).

Here's a close-up of the collage:

As part of the Gallery Idol contest, there's a final vote for the winner. If you like my cards, I would *really* appreciate it if you would take a moment to vote for me. You can click on the link at the top of the sidebar or go HERE, click on my cards, and vote. You do have to register, but if you have already registered, you can simply long in. Making it to the Top 5 feels like I've already won. But, winning would be the icing on the cake. :)

I wanted to throw out a special thank you to my husband and my in-laws for watching the kids and the moral support during the Gallery Idol contest. Thank you to everyone who has voted for my cards, given advice, and been a great listening ear. I have the best crafty friends! It's been such an honor to be in this contest. 

Thank you so much for stopping by!!

Supplies

Let the Shenanigans Begin!

Cardstock: (white) PTI

Clear stamps: (duck “Squirt”)Starving Artistamps; (sentiment from Shenanigans)CAS-ual Fridays Stamps; (hat from Hats Off to You) Lawn Fawn

Digital elements: (gingham from Patterns vol. 7) Wishing Well Creations at Sugar Hill Co.; (polka dot paper from Maritime collection) One Little Bird at The Lilypad; (speech bubble from Blah Blah Blah) Splendid Fiins at The Lilypad

Embellishments: (Whipped Cream button) My Favorite Things

Thank You For Simply Being You

Cardstock: (white; Aqua Mist) PTI; (dark orange, orange, yellow, grey) Bazzill

Clear stamps: (sentiment from Studio AE This One) Technique Tuesday

Die: (La Rue Heart) Memory Box

The Adventure Begins

Cardstock: (Aqua Mist) PTI

Patterned paper: (orange and red stripe from Vanilla Sunshine collection) SEI; (triangles, arrows, honeycomb from Composition and Color) Webster’s Pages; (polka dot from Hopscotch) Fancy Pants; (clouds from Serenade collection) BasicGrey

Paint: (Picket Fence Distress Ink) Ranger

Ink: (Dewey spray mist) Mr. Huey’s; (Antique Linen Distress Ink) Ranger

Embellishments: (scalloped tag) Chic Tags; (stickpins from Fact or Fiction) BasicGrey; (wooden tag) Maya Road; (scalloped ribbon from Mistables collection) Pink Paislee

Digital elements: (vintage circle ephemera) Pretty Little Studios

This Little Light of Mine

Cardstock: (white woodgrain) Simon Says Stamp

Patterned papers: (Sweet Composition) Allison Kreft at Webster’s Pages

Ink: (Tangerine Metallic spray mist) Maya Mists; (Letter Jacket mist) Mr. Huey

Stickers: (sentiment strip from The Sweetest Day) My Mind’s Eye

Embellishments: (mini wood veneer frame) Maya Road; (metal flower) BasicGrey; (metal clip from Fact or Fiction) BasicGrey; (orange sequin) Avery Elle; (silver sequin) Kelly Purkey at Simon Says Stamp; (canvas oval) BasicGrey

Dies: (Tag Scallop Die) Paper Smooches; (Jumbo Fishtail Banner) My Favorite Things

Other: (craft paint)

(Not) A Bun in the Oven

I drove to Kansas City today for work this week. I'm not sure if there was an 80s flashback on every radio station this weekend or if the recession is really hitting the midwestern radio stations, but jeez, there were more 80s tunes than back in the 1980s! I heard Berlin's "Take My Breath Away" 4 times this afternoon (yes, really). Kind of made me feel like I was in a Top Gun marathon...except I was looking at Iowa countryside instead of Tom Cruise....and I wasn't going as fast.

But now I'm ready for my marathon meetings the next few days. Hopefully I'll be able to sneak in a trip to a local scrapbook store one evening! :) If anyone knows of any in the KC metro, please let me know.

I made the card below using the Plus One Lawn Fawn stamps. And no, I am NOT pregnant, but I thought the little bun in the oven was so adorable I had to use it! I'm entering it in the Lawnscaping/Wee Memories Cute and Cuddly Challenge. Anyhoo, here's today's card:

I used Crate "Neighborhood" and "Restoration" patterned papers...like the pink and grey together. The May Arts ruffle ribbon looked kitchen-like to me. I added some Doodlebug jewels to the oven knobs...I think it pulls the yellow together. Here's a close-up of the cute little oven:



We actually used this expression to tell my in-laws about my first child. We put a hamburger bun in the oven and pointed it out...they didn't get it (they called it a roll). After about 10 minutes, they finally understood what we were trying to tell them. Wish I had had these stamps back then!

Thanks so much for looking. Your comments make my day!

Lawnscaping Challenge

So I am totally in love with my Lawn Fawn stamps. They are even cuter than a baby bunny! I ran across the Lawnscaping Challenge blog and decided to give it a try. This week's theme is love, and in my kooky mind, I was inspired by the movie "The Shining" (based on Stephen King's super scary book).

Here's my card using 3 different sets of Lawn Fawn stamps (another one of my card making addictions!):

Isn't the typewriter stamp adorable? Anyhoo, I was looking at the typewriter, and I thought of the scene in the movie The Shining where Shelley Duvall finds the "book" Jack Nicholson has been writing for the past few months. Instead of a book, all of his pages say "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." I still get chills thinking about that scene!

So I made my own background paper using MS Word and made a slightly different mantra. I thought it was a sweet card for someone who misses their lovey dovey.My husband said it was a stalker card, though. Hmmph!

Here's the low-down on the card:
Stamps: Jessie's ABCs, Just My Type, How Delightful (the shine lines) are from Lawn Fawn
Paper: Vintage Cream (Papertrey Ink); red and blue (Bazzill)
Ink: Cranberry and Blue Stylus Set (Color Box); Coffee Bean Brilliance (Tsukineko); Tea Dye (Tim Holtz)
Other: Clear embossing powder; Notebook edge die (My Favorite Things)

Thanks for looking!

Jocelyn