A "Super" Card for Lawnscaping Challenge #32

This Lawnscaping challenge was to stamp a scene.  I was kind of stuck on what to do, but when inspiration hit, I just had to crank this bad boy out.  I seem to be showing my age in my cards lately, donchathink?  :)  Anyone else remember playing the original Super Mario Brothers on NES?  I think my brother and I had those first couple of levels memorized.  Good times. I don't think I've ever had so much fun putting a card together.

I used the mushrooms from Gnome Sweet Gnome, the star from Critters Ever After, and the clouds from Bon Voyage to make both the game's clouds and the bush.

I used Stickles on the star to reflect the flashing colors that the star has in the game.

The sentiment on the inside of the card reads "Have a super birthday" :)

Hope you've had a "super" day!!

~Jen

Winner(s) and welcome!

Good morning!  I'm back with the results of my Scrapbook Steals blog hop giveaway!  And the lucky duck is............
wait for it..........

Charity Becker!  Congrats, Charity!!

I also realized this morning that I never posted the winner of the ribbon clips and card, so without further ado, the winner is.......

Karen B.!  Congrats, Karen!

Winners, email me with your addresses and I'll be happy to send out your prizes.

And, to all of my new followers, Welcome!  Next project on my to-do list is the new Lawnscaping challenge, and this week's Monday Card Madness!

Have a fabulous day!

Scrapbook Steals Blog Hop!

Good morning!!  I am so very excited to be participating in the blog hop for Scrapbook Steals this weekend!  Here's a recap of the lineup:

1. ScrapbookSteals
2. Misty Buck
3. Michelle Philippi
4. Stephanie Umpleby
5. Kerys Sharrock
6. Jennifer McDermott
7. Emily Lanham
8. Brenda Smith

Be sure to stop by each blog along the way and leave these talented girls a comment; the generous girls at Scrapbook Steals will be picking a random commenter to win a $20 gift certificate to their store.  And if you have ever shopped for scrapbooking supplies at Scrapbook Steals, you know that gift card will go a looooooooong way.  Each comment you leave is another chance to win.  You should be arriving here from Kerys's blog; if not go back and check out her fabulous projects.

I am totally over the moon about the product used for today's hop: My Mind's Eye, Miss Caroline 6x6 Paper Pads.  I *love* all things My Mind's Eye, and the patterns in the pad I worked with (Dilly Dally) were just perfect for making some boyish projects, as well as a layout of my baby girl.  Plus, the 6x6 size makes the pads affordable, and perfect for both 12x12 layouts and itty-bitty projects.

First, I made a shadow box using my Cameo and the Silhouette file from Lori Whitlock.  I love how I got to use several of the patterns in the pad for this shadow box. In the lower right corner, I used my Cameo to cut out some chevron stripes and assembled them to make my own pattern.  I also used one of Lori's Project Life sentiments in the upper right, and misted it with Mister Huey's Calico White to make it stand out against background.  How about that fun, boyish wood plank paper?  I love it!

Next, I made a couple of cards.  For this first one, I couldn't get over how fun it was to make those chevron stripes for the shadow box, so I made some more for the front of this card!  I added a Lawn Fawn sentiment, and some Glossy Accents, and voila!  

These Dilly Dally patterns were just begging to be made into a boyish card, so I cut up some hexagons and flicked some Mister Huey's Classic Tan on the background.  I am in love with this griffin from Lawn Fawn, and it matched the yellow paper from the pad perfectly!  I just added a little shading with a Copic, and I just love the way he came out.  With a neutral "dude" sentiment, I can use this card for whatever boyish occasions arise. 

Since there are a couple of floral patterns in the pad, I wanted to see if I could make a girly layout with this picture of our baby girl's little toes.  I think it worked!

Thanks so much for stopping by and checking out my projects; next stop is the incomparable Emily Lanham!


Don't forget to leave a comment on this post for an entry into the Scrapbook Steals gift card drawing.  **I will also be choosing a random commenter from this post to win a prize pack of scrapbooking goodies, and will post the winner Monday morning! And, if you like my projects, feel free to follow me on the link to the right!**

Lawnscaping #31: Coloring

Yay!  I love playing along with Lawnscaping Challenges.  I am always amazed and inspired by all of the creations from the design team and other participants, and I love finding new ways to use my most favorite stamps.  The past couple of weeks have been a bit hectic and I've not had very much time to craft, so I'm just now getting a chance to sit down and put a card together.

I have been wanting to make a card with this sentiment ever since I saw those cute little shrooms from Gnome Sweet Gnome.  I colored the little guys with Copics, and freehanded the hearts.  I tried to make the rest of the card pretty bright and simple, using the Lawn Fawn Bright Side papers.

**Disclaimer/keeping it real moment:  Hubby's camera is in the shop, so I'm working with my iPhone's camera and Instagram for the time being.  Add that to today's lack of sunshine and what you get is a craptastic snapshot of my card.  It's even prettier in real life, but you'll have to take my word for it. :)  Also, the baby has an ear infection, so I've gotten a combined total of maybe 5 hours of sleep over the past two nights.  So if my blog post doesn't make sense in spots, that's why.  Seriously, I'm a space cadet right now.  It took me several minutes of staring at my desktop before I could muster enough brain power to figure out how to open Photoshop.  Really.

Hope you got a chance to play along with the challenge; I'm off to nap!

~Jen

Wonky, squished, jumbled up ribbon wreath tutorial

I know that some of you have asked for a tutorial for the ribbon wreath I made this past Tuesday for Scrapbook Steals!  I put one together for you, but as you are about to see, it is not an exact science by any means.  It's kind of a go-crazy with the glue gun project. (my favorite kind!)

It started when I knew I wanted to make a ribbon wreath, but wasn't quite sure how to go about it.  I saw this tutorial on Tater Tots and Jello, and although I *loved* the final outcome, whenever I read the words "sew" in a tutorial, my eyes glaze over and I instantly lose interest.  As a general rule, if it can't be done with hot glue, I don't do it.  So, I decided to take the basic principles of the tute, and make one of my own.  So this is my Lazy-girl-Wonky-Hot-Glued Ribbon Wreath Tutorial.

First, since I didn't want to drag all four of the kids to a craft store with me for a wreath form, I decided to use what I had handy.  I made a big donut shape in my Silhouette software, and cut it out of white cardstock.  Viola!  Wreath form!

Then, I gathered a huge pile of ribbon.  I grabbed a couple of feet of 1.5" ribbon, a couple of feet of 5/8" ribbon, and about 7-8 spools of the 3/8" ribbon from the American Crafts ribbon steal.  I cut the ribbons into 5-6" pieces, (like I said, not an exact science.) while I fired up my glue gun.  Starting with the widest ribbon first, I ran of bead of glue width-wise about an inch from the bottom of the wrong side of the ribbon.  Then I smushed the glued part to it's matching side, making a loop, like this:

Then, while the glue was still wet, I smushed it to the wreath form, with the little tails poking out, and the loop pointing up.  Then repeat, repeat, repeat until you can see no more of the white space on the wreath form.  Since I was working with the widest ribbon first, I spaced them all out evenly around the wreath form, using about 8 loops each of 1.5" and 5/8" ribbon.  Then I went to town filling in all of the gaps with the 3/8" Summertime ribbon.

It was fun.  And messy.  And I was picking dried glue off of my fingernail shellac for a long time.

When the wreath was full, I cut out a sentiment with my Cameo, and made a few lollies using some paper scraps and some buttons, then hot glued that all to the front of my wreath.  And there you have it!  My messy, lazy-girl ribbon wreath.

I hope you all have fun with your ribbons and glue guns, and if you make one of your own, I'd love to see it! (You can post it on the Scrapbook Steals facebook page, especially if you used the ribbons from the steal!)  Have a blessed Good Friday!

~Jen

CAS-ual Friday's challenge: Just barely!

Phew!  So, I am *just barely* making the deadline for this challenge, but if you know me well, you know there is *no way* I would miss a chance to post a card with this sentiment on it.   My poor Cameo has not been functioning properly (I can't get the sketch pens to work), so instead of putting this card together during my crafty time this week, I have been working with customer service trying to get my machine to work.  Well, tonight I gave up, used my printer for the sentiment, and we'll just call it a hybrid card.  So, on to the card!

On CAS-ual Friday's blog, the challenge was to make a project based on a song.  (Seriously, crafts based on music or lyrics are my favorite challenges ever.  My DMB layout of hubby and I in California is one of my favorites ever.  And the John Lennon layout of Sean.)  And when I think of a song that has many memories attached to it, I've got to go with Sir Mix-a-Lot's tribute to derrieres, Baby Got Back.  Yes, I know.  I'm a mom of four.  But I wasn't always.  :)  Here's my punny take on Baby Got Back:

Pardon the crappy light in the picture; it's 9pm here and I had to take the pic in my dungeon of a studio.  :)

So, there you have it.  I love to read.  And my guilty pleasure song is Baby Got Back. :)

Check back with me on Friday for a how-to on the ribbon wreath from my Scrapbook Steals post!

Guest blogging at Scrapbook Steals!

Good morning!  I have some awesome news-I'm guest blogging at Scrapbook Steals this morning!  To head over there, click HERE, and you will see my post with lots of fun ideas about how to use today's super cute "steal": American Crafts Summertime Ribbon!  Then, come back here to enter my drawing for the card and ribbon clippies featured in the posting!

For those who are not familiar with Scrapbook Steals:  it is a fantastic deal-of-the-day site that features designer scrapbooking supplies, some even brand new releases, at a huge discount (hence the "steal") at 9am and 9pm MST.  You have to be fast, because they often sell out quickly!  There are also awesome card and layout sketch challenges, and seriously the most sweet, sincere ladies you could ever "meet" for friendship and inspiration.  Can you tell how much I love it?

So, Kristy, the Mojo Mama, sent me a *TON* of ribbon to work with for this posting.  Seriously.  If you buy the steal today, you will *not* be disappointed.  You could make about fifty bajillion super cute ribbon clips with this steal.  I love how American Crafts expertly matches the colors and patterns of the ribbons to make putting them together a breeze.  A Summer breeze, in fact. (amiright? ;)  Here are some quickie teasers of my projects:

Another feature I enjoyed about this ribbon is that the color palette is perfectly suited to just about any summer collection you already own.  If I can buy a product that allows me to use the alarming amount of paper I already have, that's a definite plus in my book.  For my featured projects I used Echo Park's Summer Days collection, and it matched splendidly.

Be sure to head over to the blog to check out the rest of the pictures of the projects, and a special How To'sday tutorial on ribbon-lined hair clips.  And did I mention a giveaway?  Indeed, I did!

If you would like to win this card, featuring 5 clippies made with the Summertime Ribbon, you will have two chances to win.  1.) Just leave a comment on this post.  Piece of cake, right? Then, for an extra credit bonus entry, follow my blog and leave a separate comment on this post telling me you have done so.  Awesome!

Thanks so much for visiting; be sure to stop by Scrapbook Steals and say hi!

~Jen