Prettie Sneak Peek

I have my sneak peek for you today! This is Off To School Sophia. Isn't she cute?! Last month she was sent to all of our lucky Paper Pretties Stamp of the Month Club subscribers. Now, she is being released to the public, so you can have her too!



It isn't too late....if you sign up for the Paper Pretties Stamp of the Month Club before midnight tonight, you can still get the July release. Let me tell you....the next Sophia is just as cute as this one!

There have been a couple of challenges issued which I am behind on...so unusual for me, I know! *hehe* Anywho, I decided to combine my sneak peek with not one, but two challenges! I am going for maximum productivity! The most recent challenge, by Christie, was to make a green and white card. Mission accomplished! The challenge before that, issued by Joni, was to use your own drawing or handwriting on a card. I drew in the dragon fly and the butterfly that are flying around Sophia as she skips off to school. Mission #2 accomplished!

Now for the details....the background patterned paper is from a Close To My Heart paper packet called Discovery. Sophia's dress is paper pieced in Making Memories Garden Party paper, also from a paper packet. The stamp is Paper Pretties (of course!). The ribbon is from an SU! share I recently participated in. The rest of the image was coloured using Faber Castell coloured pencils.

Don't forget to stop on over to the Stampin' In Your Jammies Release party in the Paper Pretties Forum on Tuesday, July 1st at 8:00 pm EST. There will be challenges at the top of each hour and prizes to be won!

See you there!

All Business Today!

You will have to stop by again tomorrow in order to see my Prettie Sneak Peek....unfortunately, I am not able to photograph with much success at night!

BUT....I have lots of news to share!!

Firstly, the new guest designers have been announced over at Paper Pretties and yours truly made the list again! You have to scroll all the way to the bottom to find me! :)

Secondly, there is a Cutie Pie contest going on over at Paper Pretties as we speak! All you have to do is make a card using your Paper Pretties stamps and send it to Christie at christie@paperpretties.net, and she will chose a winner from the entries. Besides getting to call yourself a Cutie Pie, you will also get all the stamps from our July 1st (CANADA DAY release) for free!! You have until June 30th at 8pm CST to get your entries in!

Thirdly, we have another Stampin' In Your Jammies release party on the calendar! Join us at 8:00 pm EST on Tuesday, July 1st over in the Paper Pretties Forum. The very talented Charmaine will be issuing challenges at the top of each hour. There will be prizes to be won and two new stamp sets will be released! You can be the first to have them!

See you there!

A Wedding Card and Another Prettie Pajama Party!

Today I am posting a wedding card that I recently made for a neighbour. He was going to be giving it to his nephew and soon-to-be-niece-in-law (is that even a real term?!). So, I wanted the card to be elegant....not too feminine (since it was being given from uncle to nephew) and definitely not pink!!

The papers I chose were bronze metallic from The Paper Company, patterned paper from Sandylion, shimmer card stock from SU! and black card stock. The image of the bride and groom are from the set Life's Special Moments from SU!. I stamped the image in Encore Metallic Gold Ink on shimmer card stock. I then embossed the image with gold embossing powder and heated it with my heat gun.



The groom was coloured with basic Crayola coloured pencils and then blended with OMS and a blending stump. I used my glue pen on the bride's gown to add some dazzling diamonds for a beautiful shimmer. The giant eyelets at the top of the card are from SU! also. The ribbon is from Joann's.

Those are the details for my card...but don't forget...there is lots upcoming over at Paper Pretties! Our next Prettie Pajama Party is going to take place on Tuesday, July 1st at 8:00 EST over at the Paper Pretties Forum. There will be two new stamp sets and two new sentiments released. Come on over to join us for challenges at the top of each hour, and lots of chatting!

There will also be a Cutie Pie contest taking place. All you have to do is make a card using your Paper Pretties stamps and send it to Christie at christie@paperpretties.net, and she will chose a winner from the entries. Besides getting to call yourself a Cutie Pie, you will also get all the stamps from our July 1st (CANADA DAY release) for free! You have until June 30th at 8pm CST to get your entries in!! Good luck!!

We hope to see you there!

Thanks for stopping by today!

More Thanks

So, I've decided to continue right along with my theme of posting all of the 'thank yous' I had to make for the end of the school year. This card features one of my favorite little fellows.... Cooper. He reminds me a lot of my little guy. :)

My card base on this one is kraft from SU!. The patterned paper is from Provo Craft and it is OLD!! It has been in my stash for forever!! I used my water colour crayons to colour in Cooper (Look Out World from Paper Pretties, of course!). The ribbon is Dots, Dashes and Checks from either Mike's or Joann's...I always forget which...

The image was matted on black card stock while the patterned paper was layered on white. Sometimes I wonder...is it necessary to state things that are that obvious?? LOL... The buttons are from my mish mash of buttons that originally came from this four gallon ice cream pail full of buttons at my Mom's house. She has been sewing for years and years and never gets rid of anything. I am sure some of these buttons are older than me!


That's all for today. Thanks for stopping by!

It's Your Day, Friend

I recently made this birthday card for my friend, Audra. She was my very first friend here in New England...and she is still the closest one!

She celebrated her 29th birthday (*wink, wink*) and I wanted to make her a cute card with one of my favorite stamps! So, out came my MFT set, Time For The Bubbly. It is so fun...and just what a mom of three needs on her birthday....some quiet, a glass of wine and a bubble bath!

It is a long card...probably about 6 1/2 by 3 1/2 if I had to guess... The ribbon is from CTMH. The eyelets are Making Memories. The wallpaper was paper pieced and the rest of the image was coloured with coloured pencils. My Spica glitter pen was used on the bubbles. The card stock is all generic and from either Joann's or Michael's. The floral pattern was added to the background with a vellum overlay. The vellum is from DCWV. I used my SU! corner punch and set three eyelets on each corner to finish things off.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Swiss Teachers Get Gifts Too!

I made this little tote quite a while ago for my friend in Switzerland. She needed it as a teacher's gift. I have posted totes like this several times before...but they always make such nice gifts that I find that I go back to them over and over again.

The patterned paper is from DDDesigns7. It is made in Quebec, Canada and the wording is all in French...very appropriate for someone living in Geneva! The card bases are all made of plain grey cardstock, layered with a moss green. The stamped images are from a CTMH acrylic set called Fresh Picked. They were stamped in ink also from CTMH. The ribbons are from either Joann or Michaels...I can't be sure which.




I used the same paper and ribbon for the tote itself. The image on the front of the tote is from an MFT set called Can Ya' Dig It? I stamped the wheel barrow and then cut it out. It is adhered to the front of the tote with dimensionals. The mini blooms in the barrow are from Making Memories.

That pretty much sums it up!

Thanks for stopping by today!

To The Man In Our Lives...

As you all know, Father's Day just passed. I made a few cards for the occasion, but have yet to post any of them! So, the card I am posting today is the Father's Day card I made for my husband.

The card base is made from standard scrap stack cardstock. The distressed looking brown paper is by K&Company. I used one of the sentiments from MFTs 'Let's Hear It For The Boys'. It was stamped on a circle and then suspended within the front of the card. The reverse side of the circle reads 'Dad' and it is from Gina K's King of the Grill set. This is the first time I have ever made a suspension card...and I must say....it wasn't difficult! The directions can be found over at Split Coast Stampers in the tutorials.

The main image is Wallstreetafella. He was stamped with StazOn and then coloured with my water colour crayons. I used my sewing machine to zip around the image as well as the background. Once I had the sentiment suspended, I felt the card looked a little bare. So, I added the brown ring around the sentiment and paper pierced around the circle with my piercer. I then added the two bits of ribbon on the right with my standard office stapler. You gotta have a bit of metal on a guy card! I just can't seem to get away from that....

Of course on the inside of the card there is a wonderfully personal and sentimental message...but I won't be sharing that with you! :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Thank You Teachers!

I have to tell you...I don't know how teachers keep their wits about them much of the time! I recently spent a bit of time in my son's kindergarten classroom for end of the year activities. My son and his peers are now entering the phase of childhood where the begin to lose their 'cuteness' and their misbehaviour just becomes pure irritating! Ughhhh....

In an effort to thank these wonderful teachers for all of the shenanigans that they must tolerate, I made them each a card and a card tote.

This was one of the cards......

The papers are from K&Company. I used brown StazOn to stamp both the image and the sentiment on the front of the card. The sentiment is from the Circle of Friendship set from SU! The watering can is from the set Simply Special by Paper Pretties.




I coloured the image with my watercolour crayons from SU! and my aqua painter. I then stitched the image to layered brown and black mats. It was adhered to the front of the pocket card with dimensionals.

The ribbon I used is from CTMH. The big eyelet is from SU! as are the stamp and the punch I used for the sentiment on the front of the pocket flap. I used my corner rounder on the flap and the top corners of the card. The punched edges of the sentiment were inked with brown StazOn to make it 'pop' a bit more against the pale colour of the front flap.

.....and there you have it!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Cleanin' Off The Dust

I bought a Quickutz ages ago...and I haven't used it much since. I really need to make some time to play with it....and just see what I can make. In an effort to do that, I recently completed the following scrapbooking layout (in case you are wondering...it was part of a gift album...that's why I am making Christmas layouts in June!).

I needed a two page layout, and I only had one photo to work with. The layout was an 8x8, and the size was ideal for using my Quickutz to fill in some of the gaps. One page of my layout features the photo, and the second page features some of my Quickutz fancy work. :)

On this page I used silver cardstock and Christmas paper from SEI. I used a snowman die, a snowflake die and a Santa die. They were mounted on red and then green cardstock and I used my corner rounder to soften all of the corners. The wide red grosgrain ribbon that covers the seam in the middle is from Michaels. White brads make up the centers of the snowflakes.

The other page also features Christmas paper from SEI. Once again I used red and green cardstock for matting and my corner rounder for continuity with the other page of the layout. A snowflake and wide red grosgrain ribbon are the common elements that tie the two pages together.

Lastly, a white gel pen was used to write the date above the top right corner of the photo.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Fly

When I worked on my school bus layout for my Prettie Wednesday post last week, I was already thinking about my layout for this week in the recesses of my mind. I worked through it in my mind as the week progressed and then the time to execute was upon me! How does that always happen so quickly?!


This layout features my husband and daughter playing at the beach last summer. My husband was throwing her up in the air and catching her, and I captured the different stages of the game with my camera.


The papers are all from a Close To My Heart paper packet called Discovery. I LOVE this paper. It is one of those special things that I have been hoarding for quite some time now. It seemed too pretty to cut!


The stamp is from Paper Pretties....of course! It is Flutter By Sophia. Her caption of "Flutter your wings and fly" is what gave me the idea for this layout. She is just adorable...perfect for use on a page about my adorable daughter! :)





I also used two other stamp sets.....both from CTMH. The first is called Fluttering Love and the second is called Boutique Alphabet. The alphabet stamps were used for the title "FLY". It was stamped in CTMH ink called Hollyhock, and then the letters were cut out by hand and a dash of Dazzling Diamonds was added to each letter. The Fluttering Love stamp set was used for the butterflies you see throughout the layout. Sophia is holding one in her hand and they are also scattered on some of the photos. The butterflies were stamped in Hollyhock ink also, and then they were cut out by hand. My Atyou Spica pen was used to add some sparkle to the butterfly wings, but you may not be able to see it in the photos.





I used a Fiskars arrow punch to punch two arrows that help to draw attention to certain elements of the layout that I wanted to highlight.





Sophia was mounted on the layout using a large, white brad so that her image can rotate to the side to reveal journaling about the photos and the day they were taken (the journaling still has to be added!) in behind.





Yes, this photo is an upside down photo of my layout. I wanted to show how the butterfly in Sophia's hand is layered up to give the effect of dimension. Sophia is actually holding three butterflies! The other butterflies on the layout are all individual butterflies that have had their wings popped up with dimensionals.

The last thing on the agenda for today is announce the winner of the blog candy!! Drumroll please.......

The winner is number one!! Cindy Vernon. :) Cindy, please email me your snail mail address to creativeexpressionspapercrafting@yahoo.com.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Musicabella

I recently had a friend who asked me to make a card for an occupational therapist. She wanted the card to be musical and/or artsy in nature. Since I had just gotten my new Bellas, it was a no brainer as to what stamp I would use.

I inked up my Musicabella with brown StazOn and off to work I went! I used my Coluzzle blade and oval template to cut out my little Bella and then I trimmed up the oval mat by hand. Bella was coloured using water colour crayons and an aqua painter. The ribbon is from Michael's (or maybe Joann's....yeah...I think this one was from Joann's).

I can't tell you where this patterned paper is from....it was from my scrap bin and I swear it is as old as the craters on the moon. The card base and the mat for Bella are simple brown cardstock. The sentiment is from MFT's Essential Sentiments set.

Stay tuned...the blog candy winner will be announced tomorrow!

Thanks for stopping by today!

She's All That Times Three

I purchased this cute stamp set from SU! and it sat without being used for far too long! I finally decided to correct that! I made three different variations of this card...all with the same paper, ribbon and stamp, but with subtle differences in how they were assembled.

The stamp set is She's All That. The ink is from CTMH....it is called 'Blush'. I used decorative edged scissors to cut out mats for the main image on all three cards.

In this first sample I messed up the mat so many times while cutting that it ended up being cropped very close to the image! I cut the image out with my Coluzzle knife and oval template, and then used the oval template to cut out the mat in one size larger. Once I had the larger size oval, I used the decorative edged scissors to cut around the mat to get the fancy edge. I then pierced along the top and bottom of the card. I used my SU! punch to punch the slits in the image oval and then I threaded the ribbon through and tied it in a bow. The papers are from.... who am I kidding...I have no idea! The ribbon is from Michael's....isn't it pretty?!

On this version I used my corner rounder and skipped the piercing. A couple of cute pink brads on the bottom corner (Making Memories) and it was done!

On this version I used my ticket corner punch from SU! and pierced on all four corners. The rest is the same.

So, what do you think? Which one do you like the best?

Oh, and don't forget there's one more day to leave a comment and have a chance to win the blog candy! Just scroll back a couple of posts. The winner will be announced on Tuesday or Wednesday of this week!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Family Man

A friend of mine needed a Father's Day card recently. The description that I was given was that he is an engineer and a family man. Since I don't own an engineering Fella, I opted to go with the Grillafella....grilling, family, fun....they all kind of go together, right?



First I stamped my Fella in StazOn, and then I coloured him with coloured pencils and blended him with OMS. I stitched the stamped image onto a navy blue cardstock with my sewing machine. The plaid patterned paper was from my scrap bin....and I can't remember where it originally came from. The wide maroon grosgrain is value ribbon from Michael's The sentiment stamp is from the SU! Circle of Friendship stamp set. The tab was made with a tab punch and the 'dad' was spelled out with Alphabitties stickers.



The buttons are random buttons that I found in my Mom's old sewing stuff. If I know my mother, they probably came from my grandmother's house 40 years ago. So I can't confirm their origin! LOL

And, here is a close up of my little Grillafella.


Thanks for stopping by today, and make sure to scroll back a couple of posts and leave me a comment in order to have a chance to win some blog candy!!

Waiting For The Bus

For my post this week I decided to make a scrapbook page for my son's album using Back To School Sophia and Cooper from Look Out World. Look Out World can be purchased from Paper Pretties, but in order to get your hands on the likes of Back to School Sophia, you will have to join the Paper Pretties Stamp of the Month Club! Your membership includes a new stamp each month, and little Sophia was the stamp for the month of June. Isn't she cute?! For details on the club, just go here.

The background for this page is white cardstock. I started out by sketching the road and sidewalk in pencil. I then used green acrylic paint and a paint comb from my Making Memories Distressing Kit to create the grass. The sidewalk was coloured using Crayola coloured pencils and then blended with OMS and a blending stump. The road was done with pencil first, but when it didn't blend as I wanted, I went over it with a sponge dauber and stone grey StazOn.

For the kids heading to the bus, I stamped two Coopers and one Sophia...masking them in between. I used black StazOn to stamp them and then Crayola pencils to colour them and OMS to blend them. I cut them out by hand with small Fiskars scissors and a Coluzzle craft knife.

For this version of Cooper, peeking out from behind my son's photo, I used a light table and traced him in black pen so that I could get a reverse image. He was coloured using the same technique as the other kids.

Each of the photos were double matted. The largest mat for each photo was distressed using a v-blade from my MM Distressing Kit. The journaling was written on a DCWV tag and then tucked behind one of the photos. It slides in and out to reveal the story behind the photos. Both the title and the school bus are Jolee's. One is from the Jolee's By You line and the other is from Jolee's Boutique.

Thanks for stopping by today, and don't forget to leave a comment on my previous post in order to have a chance to win an extra large oval Fiskars punch!

Blog Candy, Anyone?!

So, we finally made it home from Canada! Twelve hours in the car with two children does not make for a happy mommy. Phew... But, we are back, and all in one piece!

I thought that I would like to celebrate my return to my home (and to my stamp room) with my very first blog candy! Anyone who has been here knows that this blog is quite new, and therefore I haven't had the chance to join in the fun of giving stuff away...yet!

For my first blog candy, I have an extra large oval squeeze punch by Fiskars. There is actually a story behind this punch. I bought one a while back, and it broke after I used it only two times.
I called Fiskars customer service to complain about that...they aren't cheap punches, after all! They lady I spoke with was very kind, and assured me a replacement punch. Well, several weeks later two boxes appeared on my door step. How does one put a punch into two boxes you ask? Well, the answer is that they don't. I was actually sent two new punches. I don't know why...but I have decided to share the love! :)

So, one of you can be the lucky owner of this brand spankin' new, still in the package, large oval punch. Just leave me a comment below, and in a week or so, I will use random.org to choose a winner!

Good luck!