BABY Cammie....Revealed!

Well, now that you have all had the day to look at the CCEE blog and guess who is who....we are all revealing our pics and cards/pages on our blogs today.

Yep--this is me. This was a tough project for me--as I was the seventh of eight children and I found two good pictures of me at this age--and they were both taken on the same day.
(Sigh!)

My parents don't even have a newborn hospital picture of me because "the camera was broken at the hospital that day."
When I asked my parents--"Where the heck are the pictures of me?" My mom told me that I was a "shy" baby. *lol! Yeah, you can stop laughing now!

(Seriously reconsidering the adoption possibility, if only I didn't look so much like my brother and sisters I would probably believe it!)

So this is the photo I had to work with. (I took it to the local CVS to get copies made and decided because it was a small photo..to just make some tiles of it.)

And I ended up creating a scrapbook page--proof that I existed!

At this point--you may have caught on that I bent the rules a bit. Well, I didn't bend them as much as you think! The beautiful die cut flowers are not die-cuts at all...I simply cut a portion of designer paper that came that way (KI Memories.) And the flowers aren't primas--they are not made by Prima...they are from Paper Studio (Spare Parts)! *giggle*

I did however use brads(6) and one little flower punch. (I had it on good authority that the others weren't following the rules either so I decided that if I am gonna cheat...I am gonna cheat!)

Here is a close up of the main part of the page. The quote reads "Little Girls are Heaven's Flowers." (Hence, the flower design!)

I hope you had fun with our little contest! I am still trying to figure out who everyone is!

UP NEXT: Fold Over Flap Card tutorial (finally!) and your chance to win a Scor-Mat!

Thanks for stopping by!

Guess that CCEE Baby Contest

It is time for another CCEE Challenge! This month was Cindy Motherway's turn to supply the challenges.

Cindy challenged us to make a card using our baby pictures.
Here are the rules:
No fancy edges or borders using a fancy punch of any kind, no scallops, no nestabilities, no nuttin!
No fancy primas, no brads, no eyelets, no charm, no ordinary or extraordinary embellishments. No sewing on any of the cards and no Thomas Kinkade landscapes!
No over the top, crazy complicated, triple and quadruple layered sketches!

Here is what you must do:
You must use a piece of ribbon.
You can use as many different colors of cardstock/designer paper as you wish.
You must make your baby picture the main panel, main focus.
You can use stamped images with your baby picture as long as your picture is the main focus.
You must try to keep away from what you feel is your signature look.

If you check out our CCEE blog, you will see all of the things we created with our pictures---and all you have to do is guess which picture belongs to who! [To help you there are photos of each of us as we look today .] So post a comment and give us your guesses.

One random participant will win this Rubber Soul Baby Stamp Set which has been kindly donated to us by Michelle from Stamper's Dream. You have until 12 midnight EST Saturday 17th January to be in the running for this prize. Check out Stamper's Dream store for TONS of your favorite products all in one place. Thanks Michelle for donating the prize!!!
Now head on over to the CCEE Blog to check em all out and enter to win!

Thanks for stopping by!

A Spring Celebration...

Lots of stuff going on and because I was "outta" my stamp room for two weeks--I have been trying to catch up on a few deadlines that are looming...

Here is what I cranked out for the My Favorite Things booth at CHA. I cannot believe that it is so close. [For those of you who are unfamiliar...CHA is the Craft & Hobby Association and twice a year they have a craft fair for merchants to show off the next season's products.] FUN schtuff!

If any of you are going, I will be working in the MFT booth (I will keep you posted on what days!) Please stop by and say hi!

Back to the card--For this show we are showing off the Digital Spring paper packs so I used Let's Go For a Walk set to create this card:

After coloring the image with Copics, I pieced the lady's dress. I added some Spica glitter pen to the hats and the dots on the lady's dress and to the sentiment.
I added some fun bling all around the sentiment circle and finished the card with some funky fibers along the side.

This was so much fun to make and literally took me no time to make---because I KNEW what I was going to use for the paper. I printed out what I wanted to use and set to work!

Materials used: Stamps-Let's Go for a Walk (My Favorite Things); Memento tuxedo black; Pretty in Pink stamp pad (SU!); MFT Digital Paper Pack (Stephanie Fizer Spring Collection); Pink (American Crafts); White (Gina K Pure Luxury); Copic markers; rhinestone stickers (Zva Creative); Cuttlebug (Provocraft); Slit punch, circle punches, scalloped circle punch (SU!); Spellbinder Nestabilities-circle and scalloped circle; paper piercing tool; dimensionals (SU!).

Tomorrow---Check back for a fun game! Ya better put your thinking caps on!!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Do You Want to Get Published???

Since this seems to be a topic that a lot of you want to know more about, I thought I would share my personal experience with you. Hopefully, you can learn (from my mistakes!) and be on the road to finding yourself in a magazine soon!

About a year an a half ago, I decided I wanted to try to submit some cards for publication. I went to my local Borders book store and found a few craft magazines and looked in the back for submission guidelines. I found two publications to start with. (Mistake #1: one of them was not my style at all!)

I submitted a few things to both calls and heard nothing. I submitted the next month and didn’t hear again. By month three, I really had the submitting part down and really forgot about the part that someday I might have something accepted!

And then it happened….an email from Cardmaker magazine with the news that they wanted a card I had submitted!!!! I will never forget the joy (and shock!) that came with that email!

My persistence had finally paid off ! If you want to get published, you just have to get out there an try. Here are a few things I have learned along the way—

1. Go to your local bookstore and look at all the publications out there (there are a lot!) and find the ones whose pages reflect your style. Many leading craft magazines lean toward a certain style and if you don’t fit that style—it may not be the fit for you.

2. Submit things that they ASK for. You will have much better success if you actually find out what publications are looking for (either printed in the back of the issues or on their website.)

3. When you submit, concentrate on sending quality NOT quantity. This is a mistake I first made. (Mistake #2!) Although it seems that if you send more in—your are more likely to be picked up and I guess statistically that is true. But, if you work hard on the design of a few cards—you will be more likely to have success than just submitting a bunch of cards that you threw together. Keep in mind that some magazines (such as Cardmaker) are now limiting the number of submissions each person can send in per call because they are getting too many submissions.

4. Compensation: Varies for each publication. Some send you a free issue. Some send you a free issue(s) and free product. Others send you free issues and also pay for your work. A range of payments I have received in the past has varied from $25-$150, depending on the publication and the project. Keep in mind that you ARE working. You have to spend time to write a detailed material list, instructions, etc. You also have to send the project in, which costs money. Keep this in mind if you submit.

5. When you decide where to submit your designs, make sure you follow the submission guidelines carefully. If they ask you to send in submissions with information on the back of the card, don’t send them an email. Just submit however they request.

Important things to remember:

1. Many publications are starting to request that all material that you submit be new (never posted online!). Check the website for specific details on this as it varies. Some magazines that do not pay do not require this because they are not paying for your work. They might simply ask you to remove the project from your blog/gallery for a certain amount of time.

2. Do not submit the same card to two publications at the same time. You can, however, submit the card to one and if you do not get picked up-you can then submit the design to another publication.

3. If you use someone else’s card design or template on your submission, you should get permission from the person who created the original design and give him/her credit in your card submission details. (However, in general, it is best to just stick with things you design. It is upsetting to see your original design printed in a magazine without your permission.)

What Gets Picked Up:

Sometimes it is hard to determine what will get picked up and what will not. Again, study the different stamping issues to see what styles they gravitate to. This will give you some direction (or let you know if your style fits that particular magazine.)

In general, cards that merely show a beautifully colored image will not get picked up, unless there is a focus on that particular coloring medium in that issue. Many people can color beautifully but there are a lot of cardmakers out there that cannot and do not want to see just colored images.

Clever designs and using unusual materials or ordinary supplies in creative ways are some things that most publishers look for.

Finally, whatever you submit, make sure your work is professional. Make sure your layers are straight and everything looks like it was done intentionally. If you submit electronically (via email), make sure the photograph is clear. Take the photo in a well-lighted area for best results.

If your project is picked up, make sure you send it in well before the deadline. You do not want to hold up the magazine because YOUR project is late. Also, be sure to send it in a cardboard mailer or box so that it doesn’t get damaged during shipping. It is also a good idea to get delivery confirmation so that the package can be tracked (in case it is lost en route!)

Most importantly—have fun! Do not get discouraged…everyone gets rejections—it is part of the process.

I hope this helps you! I just found out that my buddy Alli is going to be posting an article about getting published soon too…so be sure to check in on her blog for some more information to help get you started. I am sure she will have tons of good pointers! Good luck!

And THANK YOU for all the great responses and emails from my post yesterday!

Thanks for stopping by!

Funky Birthday and a Question for YOU!

A hip birthday wish---As you know by now....I don't really seem to stick to one style of cards. I get bored doing the same types of cards all the time and find that when I change it up I inspire more creativity!
This card was created with some negative chipboard, some basic grey paper and stickers---a quick and fun birthday wish!

Now...a question for you! As I am planning some posts for the year, I want to know what you want to see/hear about on my blog. If there is anything you can think of, please let me know and I will see what I can do.

Coming soon:
How to submit cards for publication
A Scor-Pal Mat Giveaway....

Thanks for stopping by!

MFT Blog HOP

Welcome to the My Favorite Things Blog Hop. If you did not start at the beginning you can hop over to Kim's blog to be sure that you don't miss a thing (There just might be a reward at the end of the rainbow!)

I chose to use the Good Knight set for my blog hop card. My youngest daughter is really into princesses right now so I thought this would be a fun card to make.

I stamped the castle three times--once on the background sheet and two other times. I colored and cut out the castle on the two sheets and layered them on top of the background (which I had sponged the clouds on!) Portions of the castle are raised to give it more dimension.
I added gold stickles to the flags.
I stamped the knight and dragon and colored them with Copics. I applied green stickles to the dragon and gave him a fun pink rhinestone eye. I added silver Zigpainty on the knight's sword and shield.

To finish the card---I added some faux stitching around the scene, the beautiful prima flower I received from a sweet friend (Thanks Joanne!) and added the tab tops.

What a fun (magical) card this was to make!

Here is a shot of the dimension of the images.

Materials used: Stamps-Good Knight (My Favorite Things); cardstock-white; designer paper-Ella-Honey Pie (Cosmo Cricket)Memento tuxedo black ink; Copic markers; stickles-gold, green, Zigpainty pen; prima flower; olive green su marker; sponge; Ranger faded jeans ink; paper piercing tool, oval punch (SU); corner rounder punch (Creative Memories); mat pack (SU!); dimensionals (SU!); rhinestone.

To continue on the blog hop--check out what the talented CANDICE has on her blog!

My Favorite Things is having a New Release Cocktail Party on Wednesday, January 7th from 9-10 p.m. Eastern time. This month there are FOUR new sets being released including a Who's that Girl set that is Maid for You! Head over to the MFT forum on Splitcoaststampers to find out all the details and to find out how YOU can be the next MFT Guest Designer. We hope to see you there on Wednesday night.

Thanks for stopping by!

MFTeaser #2-Making QUICK cards with scene stamps

Here is another new set that My Favorite Things will be releasing on Wednesday night. It is called Maid for You!
I wanted to show you another way to use these scene stamps from MFT. I know some of you don't feel like coloring a whole scene or don't like coloring at all.... so these scene stamps might not be ones you feel like you would use often......

So, for this card I used the image but only colored in the maid (and added a bit of white Flower Soft fringe to her dress!) This card was so simple and QUICK to make.

Materials used: Stamps-Maid for You (My Favorite Things); Memento tuxedo black, red (SU!); cardstock-white (Gina K Pure Luxury), red, black (SU!); ribbon (Offray); Threading Water Punch (Fiskars); black rhinestones (Mark Richards); heart die cut (Sizzix); Cuttlebug (Provocraft); corner punch (EK Success); corner rounder punch (Creative Memories); Flower Soft-white.

Tip: To create QUICK cards with more elaborate scene stamps----You can crop out portions of the scene or merely spotlight the parts that you want to focus on and still create an adorable QUICK card. Gotta love that!

Stay tuned: the official MFT blog hop will kick off Wednesday morning (11 p.m. tonight for those on Central time!) There are tons of fabulous creations designed by the team that you won't want to miss!

Thanks for stopping by!

MFTeaser #1-Owl for All Seasons

Hello! Today I can share with you the first of several MFTeasers I have of the new sets that will be released Wednesday.

This card is created with Owl for All Seasons (MFT Presents by Stephanie Fizer). Yep, you got it..lots of fun accessory stamps to make these funky owls ready for any season. Because of the fun dotted design on the owls, I decided the dazzle them up with twinkle rhinestone stickers. So they are all sparkly and fun!

The background squares are from NEW digital paper packs that will be available from MFT on Wednesday that coordinate perfectly with this set! I love being able to print out just what I need!!

Here is a close up of the main image!

My Favorite Things is having a New Release Cocktail Party on Wednesday, January 7 from 9-10 p.m. Eastern time. This month there are FOUR new sets being released including a Who's that Girl set that is Maid for You! Head over to the MFT forum on Splitcoaststampers to find out all the details and to find out how YOU can be the next MFT Guest Designer. We hope to see you there on Wednesday night.

Materials used: Stamps-Owl for All Seasons (My Favorite Things); Memento black ink; Copic markers; cardstock-Pure Luxury 80lb White, Navy (SU!), Spring Moss (Papertrey); ribbon (Papertrey); Flourish die (Quic Kutz); Cuttlebug (Provocraft); brilliant blue ink (SU!); twinkle rhinestones (amuse); dimensionals (SU!).

Be back tomorrow with another MFTeaser!

***Special thanks to Deb Wood for giving me the "Nice Blog Award." You are so sweet Deb! I am passing this along to all of you who have blogs...cause I enjoy reading all of them!***

Thanks for stopping by!

Anyone Can Color: A Watercoloring Tutorial

Last year, I created a few simple tutorials on coloring--one on coloring with prismacolor pencils and one with Copic markers. After my post the other day with the watercolored flowers, I received a lot of emails asking how I did it...so today I thought I would show you how EASY it is to paint with Stampin' Up! reinkers.

My goal this year is to create level II tutorials for all of the coloring mediums I have already done. I really love using lots of different coloring mediums and have found that most are a lot easier to use than they appear.

I am going to list all of my coloring tutorials on the sidebar of my blog shortly so they will be easier to find.

Watercoloring with SU Reinkers

What you need:
Paintbrush (or aquapainter, etc)
Bowl of water (you don't need this if you use aquapainter)
Ink to stamp image (I used Memento tuxedo black because I am lazy and can use this for almost anything I color with!)
Watercolor paper (essential)
Reinker(s) in what ever colors you want to paint with (Stamp pad is optional. You can simply use a plastic plate to hold the reinker color if you don't have the pad.)
Stamp image (I used a flower from A Year of Flowers from Gina K Designs)

I choose to use a thin paint brush when watercoloring because it gives me more control. I have used an aquapainter before and find that sometimes it drops more water than I want when I squeeze it. You may prefer to use an aquapainter and that is fine. It is just a matter of personal preference.


Step 1:
Stamp image on watercolor paper.
Step 2: Squeeze a drop of reinker on the inside of the stamp pad (or plastic plate).
If you are using more than one color on an image, prepare all inks for that image the same way.
For this image, I simply used Riding Hood Red (SU!). You can get several shades from each color so for some images you can use one reinker to color. That is one of the reasons I love watercoloring.

Step 3: Dip brush in water and mix with some of the ink to create lighter color. Now you are ready to paint.

Step 4: Dip brush in the darkest area of the ink and paint where you would see the darkest areas in the rose. (Tip: If you think of a real rose---darker areas would appear where the petals attach to the flower and right under each petal.)

Step 5: Then dip the brush in the lighter (diluted) area of ink and paint the other areas of the flower, keeping in mind where there would be natural light hitting the flower. The ink will blend into the darker area nicely because the water helps to move the ink. This is the great (and easy) part of watercoloring. It is very easy to achieve nice (realistic) results.

Because I knew I was cutting the flower out, I didn't have to worry about keeping the ink inside the lines on this. I was just concerned with making the color realistic.

Step 6: Go over any areas that need to be blended together. You can create even lighter areas by dipping the brush in the water (do not oversaturate) and going over the areas that you want to make lighter.

When the ink is dry you can cut out the flower and attach to the card.

For my flower card, I used:

Red Rose: Riding Hood Red

Blue Flower: Brilliant Blue, Bordering Blue

Sunflower: Close to Cocoa, Creamy Caramel, Barely Bananna, More Mustard

Stems and Leaves: Old Olive

Watercoloring is one of the easiest ways to get realistic and vibrant colors with very little effort. I think if you try this, you will be amazed at how easy it is to paint with reinkers.

Please let me know if try it---I would love to see your creations.

Stay tuned: My Favorite Things will be releasing four new stamp sets on Wednesday and I have some MFTeasers to share with you!

Thanks for stopping by!

Melanie's Flowers

Thanks everyone for the well-wishes. The thumb is doing great. I think I might be able to shed the band aid in another day or so! *woohooo*
Although my first stamping injury was not until the last day of the year, let me assure you that I have suffered my fair share of pain (usually because I was being careless!). My favorite Duh! injury was a few years ago when I was making cookies and talking on the phone. I went to take the cookies out of the oven and I opened the oven door with the mitted hand and grabbed the cookie sheet with the unmitted one. OUCH! I was so shocked that I had done that--it took me a few seconds to drop the pan on the floor. Yep, that one took awhile to recover from...

My friend Melanie is having a huge anniversary celebration on her blog this week. She has been a designer for Gina K for a year and is throwing a party to celebrate! Check it out for lots of inspiration and give-aways!

Melanie asked a few of her friends to help spread the word by using our favorite set that she designed. I really could not pick a favorite set--they are all so wonderful and CLEVER!

I went with A Year of Flowers because it was my favorite at the time I went to create a card (giggle!) Here is my card:

I stamped the flowers on watercolor paper and painted with reinkers. Then, I cut the flowers out and arranged them. I layered two roses on top of each other for depth and stamped an extra sunflower to cut out and raise the center part. I painted the other flower blue because I felt like it. (I have no idea what kind of flower that is but I like it blue!)
I used my trusty Scor-Pal to create the grid pattern in the background.


Here is a close up of the dimension of the flowers. Congratulations on your wonderful milestone, Mel! Love ya!

You can check out some more wonderful creations using Melanie's sets on these blogs today: Donna, Jessica, Lee, Michelle , Theresa, Carolina and Joanne.


Thanks for stopping by!