Celebrating Cath + Technique Tuesday Blog Hop

Hi everyone! Happy Monday! I'm in a very special blog hop today:

I am super-duper thrilled to be sharing projects using the new Technique Tuesday stamps and dies by Cath Edvalson! :) You can check out the new stamps and dies HERE. Aren't they fabulous?

To celebrate the release, there's a special hop today. You should be coming from Kimberly's blog, or if you want to start from the beginning, the Technique Tuesday blog.

Here's what I made:

I made a set of cards with the inlaid die-cutting technique. First, I die-cut the Garden Flowers dies in white and trimmed down the base flower to make  a backing. Next, I used old Mint Julep BasicGrey papers to die-cut the outline flower. My Big Shot got a work-out! I know Cath likes homespun designs, and these papers reminded me of her. :)

I in-laid the pieces and made a couple of flowers at once. It's not a 10-minute card, but this technique is great for card sets (and using up 6x6 paper pads).

Next, I stamped a leaf from the Garden of Life stamp set and stamped a few yellow flowers in the background. The sweet sentiment is also from the set. This die is *perfect* for this technique!

Here's my next card:

This card uses the same stamps and dies for a very different look. I started by stamping the leaves from the Garden of Life set. I partially colored the leaves with Copics and fussy cut them. I love the boldness of these stamps! Next, I die-cut the Garden of Life flower base die on vellum and heat embossed the flower.

I layered a Citrus Bliss paper and a chipboard frame. For the sentiment, I die-cut the "friend" sentiment from the Garden of Life set in charcoal grey. Here's a close-up:

Giveaway
Technique Tuesday is giving away three prizes! One winner will receive all five of Cath's new products (wow!). The other two winners will receive $25 gift certificates to Technique Tuesday. The winners will be randomly chosen from all of the comments left during the hop.

To enter, leave a comment here and at each of the blog hop stops. The more comments you leave, the more chances to win! You have until midnight PST on September 16th to leave comments, and the three winners will be announced on the Technique Tuesday blog on September 18th. 

Here's the whole list:

Technique Tuesday

Julie Ebersole

Laura O'Donnell

Heather Campbell

Julia Stainton

Daniela Dobson

Kimberly Crawford

Jocelyn Olson <-- You are here.

Tobi Crawford

Laurel Beard

Melissa Phillips

Laura Williams

Jaclyn Miller

Donna Mikasa

Birgit Edblom

Kalyn Kepner

Laura Bassen

Julie Campbell

Lisa Adametz

Linda Barber

Teri Anderson

Cath Edvalson

Thanks so much for stopping by! Next on the hop is the awesome Tobi. Have a great day!

Yes, Awesome!

Hi everyone! I hope you're having a good Monday. It's our last week of school--it's hard to believe the school year is over (especially since it's only about 40 degrees right now).

I'm guesting with i {heart} papers for the month of May! Woo hoo!

I made a card with supplies from IHP:

I started with stenciling White Embossing Paste on the background of the card. I wanted the circles to look like bubbles…I’m not sure that they do. LOL! They do add cool texture, though. J I hand-cut and layered papers from the awesome #Summer paper pack. I've really been into cutting papers by hand lately...it gives them such a scrappy look. I added a layer of linen vellum over the papers to lighten the papers.

On the bike journaling card in the #Summer paper pack, I stamped the Technique Tuesday Classic Ali Edwards sentiment. Here’s a close-up:

I added a few details to the card, like the Essentials Enamel Dots, the Hello Sunshine Mixed Sequins, and some stitching and misting. The stitching through the sequins was definitely inspired by Maggie Holmes--I love how she does that! I also added a little file tab from Paper Smooches.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Supplies

Cardstock: (white) Avery Elle

Patterned papers: (papers and journaling card from #Summer) American Crafts

Stamps: (sentiment from Classic Ali Edwards) Technique Tuesday

Ink: (Tuxedo Black) Tsukineko; (Taxi, Opaque White Mister Huey's) Studio Calico

Dies: (file tab from Toppers) Paper Smooches

Embossing paste: Wendy Vecchi

Stencil: (Confetti) Heidi Swapp

Embellishments: (sequins from Hello Sunshine Mixed Sequins) Lawn Fawn; (Essential Enamel Dots) Studio Calico

Hi From Me to You

Hi everyone! Are you having crazy weather like we are? It was 70 degrees today and tonight is a low of 18 with snow. Forget spring--I'm ready for summer. :)

I'm excited to share a guest post today. For April and May, I'll be guesting with i {heart} papers! The online store has tons of stamps, dies, and other supplies. I love how they have so many brands of stamps, and really current supplies. Plus, there is free shipping over $70--woo hoo!

I made a card using supplies from the store:

I was flipping through the fab BasicGrey Capture paper and saw the different "hey" sentiments on one of the papers. I loved it and had to use it! I cut up the papers and die-cut some frames out of the Capture papers using one of the My Favorite Things Polaroids die. I also die-cut a Paper Smooches arrow and heart--the heart was cut from a Spice Market paper. The Cardbooking die set is one of my faves!

I layered some of the Capture papers and added splatter and stitching. The cool sentiment is from Technique Tuesday's Rah Rah Sentiments set. Here's a close-up of the sentiment:

I finished the card with a couple of embellishments--a Lawn Fawn sequin, and some Studio Calico enamel dots.

Here's a close-up of the top:

You can see the guest post over on the i {heart} papers blog. :)

Thanks so much for stopping by!


Supplies
Cardstock: (white) PTI
Patterned paper: (Capture, Spice Market 6x6s) BasicGrey
Stamps: (Rah Rah Sentiments) Technique Tuesday
Ink: (Real Red) Stampin' Up; (Mary, Mary; Opaque White; Letterman's Jacket Mister Huey's) Studio Calico
Dies: (heart, arrow from Cardbooking) Paper Smooches; (Polaroids) My Favorite Things
Embellishments: (sequin from Hello Sunshine Mixed Sequins) Lawn Fawn; (enamel dots from Yellow/Orange Essentials) Studio Calico

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!!

Grateful for You

Happy Friday! Any plans for the weekend?

It's been a while since the last CAS-ual Fridays challenge, but this one is a great challenge:

So, fall colors and include a leaf in your CAS projects. This challenge is a two-weeker.

Here's my card:

I started with stamping the Hero Arts' Painted Maple Leaf stamp with Distress Inks and misting it lightly. I fussy cut the leaf ad inked the tips. I stamped the sentiment from Technique Tuesday's I Give Thanks set (love these sentiments!). I splattered different spray mist colors in the background.

Here's a close-up:

 *sigh* Are you looking forward to fall or wanting more summer?

If you'd like to play along with this week's CAS-ual Fridays challenge, this week's sponsor is Simon Says Stamp.

You can link up your projects HERE. I hope you'll play along!

Thanks for stopping by!


Supplies
Cardstock: (Cranberry Crush, Oatmeal) WPlus9; (white for leaf) PTI
Clear stamps: (sentiment from I Give Thanks) Technique Tuesday
Rubber stamps: (Painted Maple Leaf) Hero Arts
Inks: (Spiced Marmalade, Antique Linen on edges; Persimmon, Aged Mahogany, Barn Door Distress Inks) Ranger; (Chocolate Chip) Stampin' Up
Spray Mists--various
Silhouette Cameo

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)

Thinking About Vacation

Happy Thursday! I hope you're having a good week. This morning I'm volunteering in my daughter's class for the first time. Luckily, she's still young enough that she's excited to have me come to her class and not embarrassed about it. ha ha

It's time for another Play Date Cafe Challenge! This week's colors are Mint, Gold, and Leather:

Isn't her hat to-die-for? Love it! This week, we're sponsored by Technique Tuesday. I used the Think Vacation stamps by Teri Anderson to make this "beachy" card:

I stamped the little beach scene from the Think Vacation set, added some patterned paper below, and then added a mixture of sand (out of my kids' sand and water table) and gold glitter flakes to look like a tiny island.  I thought the glitter made the sand look a little more gold, but now I can't decide if the mixture looks like an island or like dirt. ha ha. Here's a close-up:

I added some sponging to the borders and the sun, distressing, and sewing to give the card a more rustic look.

Want to play along? The winner will win a fab prize from Technique Tuesday:

You can link up your card or project HERE. The uber-talented Teri Anderson is joining us this week, so be sure to stop by her blog to see how she used her stamps.

Thanks for looking! I really appreciate you taking the time to stop by. :)

Supplies
Cardstock: (Rustic White) PTI
Patterned paper: (mint dot, gold stripe, and woodgrain from The Sweetest Thing-Lavender collection) MME
Clear Stamps: (sentiment, palm tree, chaise from Think Vacation) Technique Tuesday
Ink: (Antique Linen Distress Ink) Ranger; (Wet Cement Mid-Tone) Hero Arts; (Pool) Fresh Ink

Hello Boo-tiful!

Happy Thursday! This week has flown by, and it's already time for another Play Date Cafe post. This week's the challenge is a color splash with plum as the color:

That plum color is so pretty, and it instantly made me think of Halloween. I got out my new Teri Anderson Technique Tuesday stamps and made this card:

That spider just cracks me up! I love these stamps. :)

I started off by misting black cardstock with Graphite and Blueberry Metallic mist and then embossing the spider and sentiment over. I'm not sure if it was misting first or luck, but I had almost no stray embossing powder to remove (with embossing powder that never seems to cooperate). I'll have to try embossing over misting again to see if it was a fluke.

Here's a close-up so you can see that cool metallic mist:

And since I am officially addicted to metallics at the moment, I made some metallic confetti. I took sequins, punched holes in them, and used the punched pieces. My husband thought I was completely nuts when he saw the residual sequins on the dining room table. hee hee

Want to play along? To sweeten the deal, this week's sponsor wins a prize from Freckled Fawn.

They're also offering free shipping for PDCC players--you can see the code on the blog. To play along, you can enter HERE.

Thanks for stopping by. I really appreciate it!

Supplies
Cardstock: (purple) The Paper Studio; (True Black) PTI
Stamps: (Eek!) Technique Tuesday
Ink: Versamark
Spray Inks: (Blueberry, Graphite Metallics) Maya Road

Give Thanks--PDCC #145

Hi Everyone! I'm sharing a card for the new Play Date Cafe Challenge. The colors for this week are Burnt Sienna, Mustard, and Slate:

The other day I received my new Technique Tuesday stamps, and I was super excited to use them. The new Teri Anderson designs are THE BOMB! It was all I could do to not buy all of them. Ha! I thought the Think Beef Thanksgiving set worked well with the PDCC colors. Here's what I came up with:

Isn't that turkey stamp hilarious? I stamped, colored, and fussy cut one turkey and then decided to add a second one. I added googly eyes and adhered them. The one on the left is popped up a little. Here's a close-up:

So now's your chance to link up and enter to win a prize package from this week's sponsor, Momenta:

If you want to enter this week's PDCC, you can see the challenge HERE.

For any regular readers, I'm sorry I've been so scarce on the commenting. It is CRAZY busy with work (grant applications at the moment)...it's been a lot like writing back-to-back dissertations in a month. Talk about major burnout!  But, the end is in sight. I kind of feel like one of the turkeys right now. hee hee I promise I'll be visiting blogs in another week. :)

Have a great week!

Supplies
Cardstock: (Rustic White) PTI; (slate) Bazzill; (Tangy Orange) Stamp School
Stamps: (Think Beef) Technique Tuesday
Ink: (Tuxedo Black) Memento
Patterned Paper: (It's a Boy's Life) Echo Park
Border Punch: (Scallop) Fiskars
Various Copics

5, 4, 3, 2, 1...

Happy Monday! I hope you had a wonderful weekend. I was in Washington, D.C. last week for work and had a whirl-wind week. I got to see my boss and her husband for the first time in ~7 years (we live across the country from each other). It was a great reunion of sorts to see several of the people I used to work with. The meeting was the start of my busiest time of year for work, but now I will procrastinate...

I've been so bad about updating my blog and making my blog rounds, and this week, I'm going to try and post every day (at least try!). I have dozens of cards and projects I haven't shared, and so I thought I would start with a gift bag that was in the Paper Crafts magazine's Jan./Feb. issue:

This bag has die cutting, coloring, fussy cutting, and masking--whew! The little astronaut, the star, and the countdown numbers are from Technique Tuesday. I masked the numbers (it's a continuous row of numbers) to fit the sketch. 

Thanks for looking! Have a wonderful day!!

Here are the details:

Cardstock: Bazzill

Patterned Paper (Rocket Age) October Afternoon

Clear Stamps: (Out of This World) Technique Tuesday; ("happy birthday" from Bake Me a Cake) Lawn Fawn

Dye Ink: (Tuxedo Black) Tsukineko

Markers: Copics

Sticker: (moon from Rocket Age collection) October Afternoon