Pinspired Challenges #4

Good morning!  It surely has been a rollercoaster with the weather this past couple of days (this storm has been nicknamed the Blizzard of Oz, apparently), but I'm so excited to be sharing our 4th Pinspired Challenge with you today!

This challenge is once again sponsored by the FABULOUS Sweet Stamp Shop. I just can't say enough nice things about the wonderful Nicole Rixon (Sweet's Owner/Illustrator extraordinaire).  Her stamps are cute, on trend and super fun to use.  Nicole has graciously offered a $10 gift certificate to Sweet Stamp Shop's online store to our Pin Perfect winner!  How sweet is that?!

So, for this challenge we are working with the follow Pinspiration photo:

I love the masculine feel of this photo.  The distressing, wood grain, typography....it all said "masculine card" to me.  This is what I came up with:

So, the elements I took from the Pinspiration photo are the manly color scheme of kraft, orange, and green.  I mimicked the shame of the wood panels by cutting a triangle section out of the ends of my paper strips.  Then, I added green (and white) paint splatters, like in the picture.  See the fun stamping?  That's from the Chemistry set by our sponsor, Sweet Stamp Shop.  It's totally perfect for this manly "love" themed card and I love how it just blends right into the other elements.  (Keeping it real: my kids swiped this card, then helped me "distress" it by rubbing it on the floor while the Mister Hueys were still wet.  I think they are secretly artistic prodigies because I like the way it came out)

I can't wait to see what Pinspired you!!

Express the Moment- Part Deux

Well, the hubster went back to work today (and made it, safely--thank God), so we're hanging out sans Dad for Snow Day: The Sequel.  So thankful that we are safe, warm, didn't sustain any damage, and only minor inconvenience from the snow storm.  Cabin fever is in full force, but we're playing lots of "dance freeze" and the like to get through it.  :)  So, I'm excited to show you a couple of more projects I've made for Express the Moment as their guest designer this month! If you would like to check out my first couple of projects (I'm really proud of them!), they can be found here.

I love the girly colors of this month's kit, and I've made a deal with myself to start scrapping more pictures of myself, so I couldn't pass up this picture of me and Lady Fi-fi with our matching pig tales.

So many fun patterns to choose from with the papers, but I still tried to keep the focus on the sweet picture.  I based it loosely on one of the Page Maps from this month.  This layout makes me smile.  :)

Next, I grabbed a couple of scraps I had from the layouts I made, and put them together for this card.  There is a FULL PACK of American Crafts note cards and envelopes in the kit--so perfect for when you need to whip up a quick card for someone!

I am all about the paint splatters lately.  Adds a little something extra.

Thanks again, Kim for allowing me to guest design for you!  It's truly been a pleasure!!  I hope to be back tomorrow with one final layout--a boyish one at that.  :)

Express the Moment Guest spot!

Hey, all!  We're hunkered down right now for Snowmaggedon 2013.  So far, we've gotten I don't know, 13ish, 14ish inches of snow in the past day and a half.  The snow on our deck is mid-thigh height, and it's bad enough that my contract engineer hubby stayed home from work.  That's serious biz-niss.  So, while we're stuck home (and I'm stuck indoors with the little kids), I will share with you my latest creations!

I have the pleasure of being the guest designer for Express the Moment this month, and have had a lot of fun breaking into the giant kit they sent me!  Thanks, Kim, for having me on this month! I look forward to creating some more for you!

I love that Kim included this month's Page Maps sketches, so I got to work using one as inspiration for this layout.  Everything you see is from the kit, with the exception of the mini clothespin, washi and the Sprinkler ink.  When I saw the dreamy My Mind's Eye papers, I knew exactly which photo I wanted to scrap--this one of our sweet Fi-fi!  Love the delicate colors and textures of the paper.

Next, I put together a home decor project.  I've been wanting to make one of these "words of affirmation" frames since I saw them on Pinterest a while back, so I grabbed a Dollar Store frame, my Cameo, my Xyron sticker maker, and the kit, and here's what I came up with:

And this is what it looks like after adding in my "words of affirmation":

So, you just place the frame where your sweetie can readily see it, write directly on the glass with a Sharpie or a dry-erase marker, then just wipe off and change out your little love note whenever you feel like it.  What a sweet idea, right?

I'll be back soon with more projects from this lovely kit!

Pinspired Challenges #3: Sponsored by Sweet Stamp Shop

(If you're looking for my post on Sweet Stamp Shop's new release, today, first check out this Pinspired post (**cough,shameless plug,cough**), then scroll down one post.)

Today is a pretty "Sweet" day for me!  Not only do I get to show my projects for Sweet Stamp Shop's new release today, but I also get to highlight them as a sponsor of our third challenge at Pinspired Challenges today!!

A little about our sponsor (from Nicole Rixon):

Sweet Stamp Shop is a small business out of sunny southern California that features hand drawn clear polymer stamp sets made here in the USA! The shop was started in 2011 by Nicole and Jacob Rixon with the idea that there was a space in the industry for fresh, hand drawn, clear stamps. Sweet Stamp Shop is a stamp company dedicated to creating fun and unique stamps that are easy to use and fun to color. We know how important it is to you to know the latest techniques and we are excited to share our knowledge with you. Whether on youtube, Face- book, or a well placed 'tweet' ... we'll help you stay on top of the trends!

Nicole has graciously offered our "Pin Perfect" challenge winner a $10 gift certificate to their store, so you'll definitely want to play along with this challenge!

Here's the inspiration photo for our challenge:

And here's how I interpreted it:

This was my first attempt at creating a Distress Ink background and I think I like it!  Taking my color inspiration from the Pinspired photo, I used Barn Door, Worn Lipstick and Spun Sugar Distress Inks and rubbed them on a piece of freezer paper on my work surface.  (I don't have on of those fancy craft mats, so I use temporary glue dots on a big piece of freezer paper, and it does the trick for the time being)  Then I spritzed the ink and rubbed my watercolor paper on top.  I used a blending tool to smooth out the lines, and I think I'm digging the gradient.  At least for a first attempt!

I kept with the "sweet" theme of the photo, and colored and glittered this image from Perfect Match. I printed my own sentiment, and Voila!  A "sweet" valentine, or all-purpose "what's up" card.  

I would LOVE for you to play along with this challenge.  You'll have until 2/21 to link up your projects to the Pinspired blog.  I can't wait to see how you were inspired by the photo!

Sweet Stamp Shop New Release!

I am so very excited to have the opportunity to show you one of the new releases at Sweet Stamp Shop this morning!  The very sweet Nicole sent me the Baby Love set to work with as a Guest Designer, and did I ever have fun with it!  Being at the stage of life where most of my friends are having babies, it seems like there is always an occasion for either a baby shower card, or a congratulations card.  Having a cute baby set on hand is a must.  First, I wanted to have some fun with some shaped cards, so I grabbed some swiss-dot-embossed Bazzill and used my Cameo to make a onesie card (by welding two onesie shapes at the shoulder of the cut)  Here it is, using the baby banner stamp:

I used Copics to color in the banner, and to color the pearls that are the "snaps" of the onesie--that way they would match the banner.  A little bit of glitter on the hearts, and voila!  What I think is a very cute CAS card that can be used as a thank you, invite, or congratulations card!

Next, I kept going with the shaped cards.  I used my Cameo to cut out a circle card with a big round window on the front.  I stamped the rainbow from the set, and fussy cut the clouds, and colored a bit.  Then I colored and cut the baby in the little pouch, and positioned (him? her?) so it was flying in the clouds, presumably hanging from a stork's bill.

This last project I had a ton of fun with.  I wanted to make a Smash book, for a friend who is having a baby soon.  It's so hard to keep up with scrapbooking when you have an infant, so I wanted to give her something that she could quickly stick in cute pictures of her baby and write in important dates, happenings, and snippets of her daily life.  So I got together a favorite paper collection (My Mind's Eye Lime Twist), the Baby Love stamps, and some embellishments and got to work.  After I made all of my pages, pockets, and made it pretty, I used my Cinch to bind it all together into a book.  

So, there you have it!  Thank you, Nicole for giving the chance to work with such fun stamps.  I hope you've all enjoyed taking a peek at what I've created.  Go give Sweet Stamp Shop some love!

Polka-dotted Sparks

I am so stinking excited that the challenge this week at Paper Smooches Sparks is polka dots.  I love polka dots.  In fact, I would love to do this with my stand mixer: 

 But, I'm not sure the hubster would share my enthusiasm for such a gorgeous spectacle of a KitchenAid taking residence on the kitchen counter, so I'll just have to settle for crafting pretty polkas on my cards.

I was giddy with happy mail today-my new Gossamer Blue kit arrived today, along with two of the brand spankin' new releases from Paper Smooches!  The patterned papers I used on this card (by Carta Bella and Pink Paislee) are from Gossamer Blue, and the sentiment is from Spiritual Sampler.  I had to add a little bling and voila!  A card for a sweet friend who is always encouraging me.