Valentine's Inspiration

Hello! Happy Valentine's Day!
Since today IS Valentine's Day----I figured it would be a good day to share some Valentine-y projects--- :)

First up--A set of Valentine's cards using SRM Stickers:

Next--A Beary Cute project --tutorial is in this week's Crafts 'n Things Weekly:

There are a lots inspiring projects in every issue!  Be sure to sign up  for Crafts 'n Things Weekly to have all the creative ideas delivered to your inbox every week!

Thanks for stopping by! xo

SRM Holiday Card Ideas

Hope you are enjoying your December.  It has been a crazy month already!  My son had to have a molar tooth pulled on Tuesday.  The dentist wanted to pull it because it does not have an adult tooth and the baby tooth had a root canal and a cap placed on it when he was younger. So, they didn't anticipate it lasting long.   The hope was that they would pull it and the other molars would start tilting forward and then braces will just pull the teeth into alignment.  But, when we got there...the procedure took a lot more time than we had planned because that little tooth had fused with the bone.  Luckily, the dentist got it out (along with a piece of the bone!)  Ben did great (much better than I did!) but I think the whole process aged me a few years :)

Yesterday I spent the day at the mall...and still feel like I haven't accomplished much:(  But it was fun! (At least more fun that watching your child have a tooth yanked:)

Anyway.....here are a few more holiday card ideas using SRM Stickers:

This first card features Sticker Sentiments: Happy Holidays along with some Echo Park paper (Happy Days: Red, Springtime: Lemonade, Robin's Egg; For the Record: Green) and a layered chipboard snowflake (Season's Greetings-Echo Park).

Next--A little Peace on Earth:

I used  Sticker Sentiments: Happy Holidays (SRM) on this card also.  I combined it with some fun patterned map paper (Wayfarer by Bazzill Basics) and some Echo Park Papers.  The dies are from My Favorite
Things (Paper Doll border Dienamics) and The Cat's Pajamas (Heart).

Thanks for stopping by!
 

Rock Stars Cardmaker Hop

Today the Cardmaker Blog Team is having a Rock Stars blog hop.  We all designed cards inspired by a song.  Totally fun!  I had PLENTY of help picking my songs.  (My kids loved this and had great song ideas for me:)

In the end I picked songs, with their blessing, that are inspiring and fun (and had suitable lyrics!) and used them to create two cards.  (You can click the song titles to see the music videos for the songs.)

My first song is FIREWORK by Katy Perry:

I used the Skyline Border by My Favorite Things for this card and then used a fireworks silhouette file to create the fireworks.  (TIP: I cut the fireworks from the blue patterned paper and then peeled off some of the paper so that some of the offshoots were white.  I used a butter creme Copic marker to color it yellow to get two colors in the design.)  I added some red rhinestones in the center and some red paper behind the one building.  I adhered some more red patterned paper on the card base and some twine from The Twinery and finally a SRM sticker finish the design.

Supplies: white cardstock (Gina K Designs); patterned paper- Dots & Stripes: Ruby Red, Winter Park: Light Blue (Echo Park); Dienamics die- skyline border (My Favorite Things); Silhouette file- fireworks; rhinestones- Recollections, Michael's; baker's twine- Charcoal (The Twinery); tiny attacher stapler (Tim Holtz); SRM stickers- Life is Good; corner rounder punch (Creative Memories).

The second song that I chose was HONEY BEE by Blake Shelton:

Such a cute song --my oldest daughter loved  it first came out.  It was easy to make a card based on this one :)  I grabbed my favorite bear sets by The Cat's Pajamas for this card---Honey Bear and Happy Camper.  I stamped the images and colored them with Copic markers and cut them out.   I cut out the honeycomb paper from Jillibean Soup to place under the bear.  I cut one extra honeycomb out and adhered it on the top of the card and stamped the sentiment over it.  The finishing touch is some Lemondrop baker's twine from The Twinery.

Supplies: white cardstock (Gina K. Designs); Stamps- Honey Bear, Happy Camper (The Cat's Pajamas); patterned paper- Coordinating Atomic Soup paper (Jillibean Soup); memento tuxedo black ink; Copic markers; baker's twine-- Lemondrop (The Twinery); tiny attacher stapler (Tim Holtz); corner rounder punch (Creative Memories).

I cannot wait to check out the songs/cards by the rest of the team.  Here is the hop order:
Cardmaker blog
Kimberly Crawford
Carolyn King - You are here!
Colleen Schaan
Anya Schrier
Trudy Sjolander
Michelle Woerner

Thanks for stopping by!
 

Love you Beary Much

Hello!!!! I am super excited because I am getting ready to head to CHA tomorrow morning!  I am very excited to see my stampy friends and to see all the new things that will be introduced at the show:)

Before I go, I have a cute little card to share... love this little fella from The Cat's Pajamas:

Supplies:
Stamps:  Honey Bear (The Cat's Pajamas)
Sentiment sticker- Fancy Sticker Sentiment- Love (SRM Stickers)
Ink: Memento tuxedo black
Patterned paper- Times & Seasons (Echo Park); Authentique
Copic Markers
Mini clothespin
Fibers- Baker's twine- Cappuccino (The Twinery)
Corner rounder punch (Making Memories)

Have a great week! Meet you back here for some fun-tabulous blog candy next week!

I Can Finally Share......

Hello!  Today I can share some EXTRA TWINERIFFIC news!  I am officially a member of The Twinery 2012 design team!  I can hardly believe it.  For anyone who is familiar with my work---you already know I adore baker's twine.  I use it on almost every project.  I am very excited to begin this adventure. 

The Twinery is announcing the first half of the team today and the second half tomorrow on their blog.

Here is the first half of the team. So excited to be designing with these super talented ladies:

Teri Anderson

Dorangela Bobet

Helen Bird

Lauren Brewer

Natalie Clause

Amy Crockett

Tifany DeGough

Carolyn King

Kathy Skou

Kellie Winnell

Angelica Suarez- Senior Designer

Monika Wright- Senior Designer

Julie Ranae- Design Team Coordinator

Here are two tags featuring The Twinery baker's twine that I whipped up for today:

The first tag is features a computer generated sentiment to go with the bee I made using a clothespin, baker's twine and some heart punches.  I covered the bee's body with Lemondrop baker's twine and then created a little trail using Caribbean baker's twine.

The second tag features a heart made with  Pink Sorbet baker's twine. I used a SRM sticker for the sentiment. 

Thank you for sharing my excitement.  I am looking forward to sharing more of my projects with you.

Thanks for stopping by!

Beary Cute Treat Container Tutorial

Hello! It is getting closer to Valentine's Day so I thought I would share a tutorial on creating a sweet treat container. This project is easy to make and can hold treats, pencils, small toys, gift cards or whatever you want to put in it. Here is the finished project:
What you will need:
soup can (you can also use a crystal light container, empty paint can, or anything that has straight sides)
Clear stamp set- Honey Bear (The Cat's Pajamas)
Memento tuxedo black ink
Copic markers (or whatever you wish to color the images with)
Stampin' UP! Marker- real red
Cardstock- white (Gina K. Designs)
Designer paper- Atomic Soup: Pinch of Electrons (Jillibean Soup)
Craft wire (The Beadery)
Pencil
Mini clothespin (Hero Arts)
Glue Dots and adhesive (Glue Glider Pro- Glue Arts)
Scissors
Optional- glitter (Doodle Bug) and Quickie Glue pen


Directions:
Step one: Empty and clean out your soup can. Remove label.

Step two: Measure height of can and cut a strip of patterned paper to wrap around can.

Step three: Adhere paper around can. (Notice that I left the top and bottom edge showing. The paper fits nicely between the rims if you measure it just a bit smaller than the can.)

Step four: Stamp images on white cardstock. (I used Gina K. Design's pure luxury white cardstock. I like how it holds the ink and it is very smooth.)

Step five: Color the bear, bees and honey pot. I used Copic markers to color my images.

Step six: Cut out images. *I cut along the edges of all the images and cut the sentiment out in a square shape (see step seven below)

Step seven: Run a red marker along the edge of the sentiment. (It is important to use a water based marker, like Stampin' Up, on this step so the color stays on the edge of the paper.)

Step eight: Cut a section of the patterned paper to use under the sentiment. I cut along the pattern so that I kept the honeycomb shape.

Step nine: Wrap a piece of beading wire around a pencil and slide off. (I used beading wire because it is very easy to manipulate and you can cut it with regular scissors.)

Step ten: Adhere a bee to the end of the wire with a glue dot and manipulate the wire until you get the desired flight path for the bee. Adhere under sentiment panel with a glue dot.

Step eleven: I filled the container with a bag of candy hearts and tied it with a bow. Clip the sentiment onto the bow using a mini clothespin.

Step twelve: Repeat steps nine and ten to add a flying bee to the bear image as shown below. Attach bear image to can.

Step thirteen: (Optional) Add some glitter to the little hearts on the bee and to the honey on the honey pot.

Finished! Now you have an adorable Valentine treat container to surprise someone you love with on Valentine's Day!

Have a Beary nice day!

Thanks for stopping by!

Want FREE Stamps for a YEAR!

Thought so!

All you have to do is NAME THIS BEAR:

Alma of The Cat's Pajamas is holding a contest to name the newest critter to join the TCP family. Think you have the BESTEST name for him??? Just email your entry to contest@thecatspajamasrs.com by February 8 and if your name is selected....you will win all their new stamps for a YEAR! All the details can be found on this POST!

Card details: Bear-Happy Camper (The Cat's Pajamas), sentiment and flower from A Beary Good Year-releases Feb 9! (The Cat's Pajamas); Copic markers; Memento black ink; white cardstock-Gina K Designs; button; Designer paper- Farm Fresh, Report Card (October Afternoon); ribbon (Offray).

Have a Beary Special Day!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Shiver Me Timbers...it's time for a CCEE Challenge!

Hi everyone! Good luck to everyone who entered the PaperCrafts giveaway!!! I hope you ALL win!
Today it is time for another CCEE Challenge. This week we had to "use a die, a tool, or embellishment" that we haven't used in a long time.

Well, I figured it was high time to ink up this adorable set from The Cat's Pajamas--Arrgh! Piratey.
Since I just got it..I haven't used it in awhile (giggle) :) Also, I used some fun tab tops on this card--something I did VERY often about a year ago and I always forget about doing it these days.
Finally, I wanted to challenge myself to NOT use designer paper (aside from the water of course!), since I tend to use it a lot to create the background of my cards. I used Weathered background stamp to stamp the caramel cardstock. Then I just layered the images on the front panel.

The pirate ship is another thing I have only used one time...so I thought I would throw that onto the card as well!!!

Hope you will play along in the challenge! You can see all the other CCEEers cards HERE!

Materials used: Stamps- Arrgh! Piratey (The Cat's Pajamas), Weathered (SU!); ink-Memento tuxedo black, Ranger tea dye distress ink; cardstock-caramel (Stampin' Up!), chocolate, vanilla, white (Gina K Pure Luxury); gold, platinum stickles (Ranger); eyelets (Making Memories); brads (Making Memories); hemp (Hobby Lobby); oval punch (SU!); pirate ship die (Quic Kutz); Cuttlebug (Provocraft); dimensionals; Copic markers.

In other news: My computer is slowly dying. I bought a new one so I will be working on setting it up for the next few days....yipes...I hate learning new programs but it is MUCH needed.

Thanks for stopping by!

Widdle Tags!

Well, this morning started well---we woke up to our hamster, Widdle, loose in the house. After chasing the bugger for awhile, I ended up putting his open cage in my son's room and he went right back in....good Widdle!

.......Sometimes all you have time for is a TINY project. Here are two tiny Valentine tags I created with some fun The Cat's Pajamas stamps. Most of the things I used on these tags were things that were left on my desk from other projects--SCORE!

The first one features Sprinkle:
And this one features Love Puppy:

Materials used: Stamps-Love Puppy, Sprinkly (The Cat's Pajamas); Memento black; Twinkle stickers; cardstock-Gina K Pure Luxury, bananna SU cardstock; Doodlebug glitter; Heart punch (Creative Memories); Spellbinders rectangle and scalloped rectangle nestabilities; oval punch (SU!), ribbon (SU!).

Hope you have a great day!

Thanks for stopping by!

Heart to Heart Spotlight #7 - TCP

The Cat's Pajamas!
(Check out the new release Candyland Christmas---ADORABLE!)

Alma (the owner of this swanky stamp line) is a doll. I have had the pleasure of meeting her a couple of times and I can tell you that she is such a sweet and unassuming person (with a rockin' sense of humor)!

When I sent out an email to Alma asking if she would like to sponsor the Heart to Heart blog candy she wrote back "Whatever you need". She sent me a HUGE and HEAVY box of fun stuff to give away......That sums up Alma. Huge heart and great talent.

My first card features this pup (Puppy Love)--he is so cute and I just had to make a little Valentine with him.

I overlayed the swirl cut cardstock over white cardstock. I added red stickles over all the red in the stamped image (around the heart and the heart antenna and collar). I added a little silver clip at the top of the image and tied some fun ribbon to it. Isn't he adorable?

Materials used: Stamps-Puppy Love (The Cat's Pajamas); Memento Tuxedo Black ink; stampin up real red marker; red stickles (Ranger); cardstock-white, red (SU!); ribbon (Offray); hardware clip (We R Memory Keepers); Swiss die cut cardstock (Creative Imaginations); rub-on - Cherished Memories (SU!); dimensionals (SU!).

I had to make a card with one of my favorite TCP sets- It's a Mod, Mod World. Love this rocket--it is so fun to play with. So I decided to make a birthday card for a four year old boy.

For this card, I paper pieced the rocket. I used my Cuttlebug numbers embossing folder to add some texture and cut out the number 4 from an embossed piece for the tag. (I REALLY need to get some number/letter dies--any suggestions?!)

I added some punched stars to make the rocket look like it is heading into the sky.

The final touch is some rocket "smoke" which I created by cutting thin strips of designer paper and rolling them around a paint brush. Then I attached them under the rocket "thingys"?--what are they called--exhaust pipes? No clue....just like it!

Materials used: Stamps-It's a Mod, Mod World (The Cat's Pajamas); cardstock-very vanilla (SU!); Designer Paper-Zoom Collection (Crate); Cuttlebug (Provocraft); Numbers Embossing Folder (Provocraft); Fiskars Threading Water Punch; Jumbo eyelet (SU!); hemp (Hobby Lobby); dimensionals (SU!); star punch (SU!).

Alma--You Rock! Thank you so much for donating a million bajillion things to the Heart to Heart Blog candy. The drive was such a success in no small part to caring people like you. Love ya!

Coming next week: Gina K Release and some fun altered projects! Coming soon--my one year blogaversary---it's gonna be FUNTABULOUS!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Blog Winner, Pictures, RAK and a Gift Set

LONG POST WARNING!!!!

Thanks again for all the well wishes for Cara. Here is the picture of her when she came home from school on Friday---we gave her the cell phone then. Look at her face as she opens her gift and sees the cell phone box. (Little did she know then that the cell phone inside was just a card. Bawaahwaaa!) I didn't make her wait too long for the real thing. I had her cell phone ring in the house after she opened her card---She really loves it.

Blog Candy Winner:
Random.Cara selected #176 this morning before school. I had to count the posts about 6 times to make sure I got it right (She couldn't pick an easy one, could she?) Woohooo! Congratulations to Christina Gerlof who said "Congrats on being 12! Wow, I remember when I turned 12 I was finally able to shave my legs! LOL Happy Birthday!" Congrats, girl! Please email me (email link is on the side of blog) so I can get your goodies to you!

I had to show you the room my son, Ben (5), decorated for Cara while she was in school on Friday. On Fridays, I take my littlest two children out for "Fun Friday." Every week we do fun stuff like go to the park, McDonald's for lunch and the dollar store to pick out a prize. This week, my youngest (almost 3) picked out balloons. When she was napping, Ben took some of her balloons and decorated the playroom for Cara so she would be surprised. I asked him what was on the wall with the balloons and he rolled his eyes and said "Stringers, Mom!" (I guess he was improvising because he didn't have streamers! I thought this was so cute (and I tried not to think about the fact that he must have CLIMBED the cabinets to hang the balloons---UGH!)


Onto a RAK. I spotted this ADORABLE card on Charmaine's blog last week. I LOVED it when I saw it and wanted to case it. Little did I know that it was coming to me. I was so excited when I got this in the mail on Friday....Thanks so much Charmaine. You can read all about her card here.

Did I mention HOW MUCH I loved Charmaine's card????? I told her I was gonna case it and here is my version. I am not normally a big caser but I HAD to do this----This card was such a cinch to make because Charmaine already did the hard part for me.

I used this adorable set from The Cat's Pajamas called It's a Mod, Mod World. I love this set---it has TONS of images and I cannot wait to play with every one of them. (I have used this set already but cannot post the card--heehee!)

I used a muse twinkle stickers for the cat's collar--they are so small and fit perfectly (even on the tag!)


Did I mention HOW MUCH I loved Charmaine's card---Well, I decided that the card would make a perfect gift set. So I used a clear box and created a little handle out of beads. (The beads are strung on hemp and tied through small holes punched in the top of the box with my Cropadile.)

And here is a close up of the matching tag (The It's A Mod, Mod World set has an identical small cat image PERFECT for a matching tag---YEAH!)

Materials used: Stamps-It's a Mod, Mod World (The Cat's Pajamas); cardstock-whisper white, celery (Stampin' Up!); American Crafts Designer paper; Brilliance black ink; Nestabilities (Spellbinders) and Cuttlebug (Provocraft); tag punches (Stampin' Up!); twinkle stickers (a muse); Cropadile; silver eyelet (SU!); silver cord (SU!); black craft beads (Hobby Lobby); hemp; celery ribbon (SU!); paper piercing tool and mat pack (SU!); dimensionals (SU!); clear box (www.clearbags.com).

Thanks again Charmaine!!! I will be back tomorrow with another MFTeaser for you!

My Favorite Things (www.mftstamps.com) is having a New Release Cocktail Party on Wednesday, June 4 from 9-11 p.m. Eastern time. LOTS of fun (and a surprise release) is planned including finding out how YOU can be the next MFT Guest Designer. Head over to the MFT forum on www.splitcoaststampers.com to find out all the details and we hope to see you there on Wednesday night.

Thanks for stopping by!