WMS Sneak Peek - Spring Baskets

I know I've been a horrible blogger... but I'm prepping to be out of town again this week so bear with me. I'm going to be skimping on the supply list to preserve my sanity. Do feel free to contact me (see link on the left) if you have any questions and I promise I'll get back to ya.

The first day of sneak peeks have begun for the newest Waltzingmouse Stamps release! There will be four awesome new sets on Thursday being released! There will also be a blog hop that day to celebrate complete with prizes so be sure not to miss out on the fun!

I'm showcasing Spring Baskets today. This is just such a fun set with great sentiments and fun baskets to color and to fill with all sorts of goodies!

I filled my basket with some easter eggs that I paper pieced. They'd be fun to color as well! I colored my basket and then added a ribbon on the top (in lieu of coloring the ribbon that is actually associated with this basket).

I kept the image and sentiment simple and then used patterned papers and pearls to accent the rest of the card.

Laurie and Claire should also have some fun things to share today! So be sure to hop over for more inspiration!

My brain's not with me today

Ahck! Sorry I forgot about the blog hop today! Be sure to visit the rest of the WMS DT for some great creations and happy birthday Claire! :)

The next hope is Bonnie -

http://theluckyclucker.blogspot.com/

I'll have something to share tonight.... I promise!

Mahalo Dude

I like to say "dude" a lot. Everyone's a dude in my world. Probably picked it up from my friend D. Have you noticed that you pick up phrases from people?

So in honor of all my favorite dudes (including you), here's a big mahalo!

Chair

Man, as I'm typing my posts up in advance, I just keep thinking that I'm really bad about posting my cards on time. However, it does give me good blog fodder for those weeks when I'm out on business.

Ok, so this is another card using Furnishing Fun set from Schlosser Designs. Such a fun set! So many possibilities and so many things you can do!

So let's go over the fun things you can do with this card.

1. Try running a comb over the stamp once you've inked it up. It gives it a fun wooden look! Isn't that neat?

If you mess up it's ok. Just stamp it anyways. I like doing this image in 2 swipes.... once for the top of the chair and once for the feet.

2. I used the 2 different sized flowers for a neat background. I stamped the larger flower in brown and used white on the smaller image to tone it down a little.


Stamps: (Furnishing Fun) Schlosser Designs
Paper: PTI
Ink: PTI
Other: (Ribbon) PTI, Distresser, Paper Piercer

There's NO ONE in the World

I hope everyone's having a good week so far! :) I'm out again this week for business so these are going to be pre-scheduled.

Given that I'm traveling this week for business again, I figured this was an appropriate card to share. :)

I used a stamp die to create some stamp shaped die cuts and made "stamps" with them. I love that kraft paper gives it an aged look already. Using some brown colored pencils, I added some shading to the images. Also added some inking to it and crumpled the "stamps" for more of that aged look.

I made a bg with that paper and then trimmed it down. The headless lady is paper pieced and cut her out.

Let's see, what else? I love adding some gems to the edge of the sentiment and then using some decorative scissors to create a fun edge. Also love coloring the gems with copics to match my card colors. :)

Ok, I'm gonna cut this relatively short and let me know if there are any questions about the card. :) I'll try to get back to all emails and comments. I'm just trying to enjoy the last bit of my really short weekend. :)

Celebrate!

So I'm on a business trip again this week...sadly in a colder location than last week. The only thing I don't like about back to back business trips is that the house is an absolute mess. While the husband has nice intentions to clean, the house is in dire need of a vacuum and there's clothes and boxes everywhere you look. I can't even sit on the couch since there's a pile of clothes on it. Sigh....

Anyways, I'm going to try to share some things. If you've noticed, my cards tend to be quick and simple these days. I don't have time to breathe sometimes -- forget sitting down and crafting!

This is a quickie using Furnishing Fun from Schlosser Designs. I used the word celebrate from that set and stamped it in a light pink. Then stamped one in red to make it stand out more.

Simple and quick. :)



Stamps: (Furnishing Fun) Schlosser Designs
Paper: PTI
Ink: PTI
Other: (Ribbon) PTI, (Corner Rounder) EK Success

Swapping Sister - Card 4

Ok, last one! And the week's almost over! It means I get to go home soon!

This one was pretty simple and straight forward. I cut the paper so that you could see the bird in the paper completely. I think its such a pretty bird and I love how it just sits there.

I went with a bigger sentiment since there wasn't much else to the card. I paper pierced under the sentiment but it's not showing up particularly well in the photo.

Since the paper itself is already so pretty I didn't add too much. I had fun crocheted flower sitting on my desk and so I thought that would work so well. I also found that one of the brads in this month's kit fit perfectly into my flower's center. :) What's nice is that the legs of my brad even helped to hide the leftover thread of my flower from view. Two birds with one stone!

I am now officially out of the red crocheted flowers but maybe I'll try to see if I still remember what Ren-Yi taught me about crocheting.

Just a few overall tips. I usually work on "card fronts" and then mount them to a white cardstock. First off, I find it easier to stamp on (and I can just flip it over if I mess up). Secondly, it hides any piercings, ribbon, etc. And last but not least, I get the most use out of my colored cardstock.

Hope you enjoyed the series. I can't close the Christmas thank you/swap series without a group shot!

Ok, hope everyone has a lovely night and a great weekend!

Swapping Sisters - Card 3

And we're on card 3! In case you missed it, this is a series of my Christmas thank you cards.

This one is deceptively simple. One of the papers was a fun felt paper and it had all these fun patterns on it. I picked on of them and cut it out. Let's just say it took awhile. :)

I also added some gems of assorted sizes and placed it in select spots on the felt cut-out.

I like cutting out stuff during commercial breaks. :) When I travel sometimes I take a few things I know need fussy cutting and do that at night. Lets me at least "craft" when I'm away from home.

Swapping Sisters - Card 2

I'm scheduling these posts ahead of time so I apologize for the short posts.

We're going through my swap posts. Card 1 is below in case you missed it. I present card 2! For this card I cheated ever so slightly. I actually pulled some of paper I had from the SEI Winter Song line and used it in addition to what Stephanie included. :) I couldn't not... the paper pattern was the same as the ribbon.

Another simple card. I didn't have much time so they're all 10 minute cards. My favorite as of late.

Hope your week is going well!

Swapping Sisters - Christmas thank yous

It's that time of month again! The time that Laurie, Ren-Yi, Stephanie and I all make something crafty from the same set of supplies. This month Stephanie graciously sent us so many fun SEI goodies! Be still my heart!! As many of you know, I have a love affair with most of the SEI lines and I even had just gotten some of the Winter Song paper that was included in this month's set. Heehee, you know what they say about great minds!

My post is ever so slightly late but look at the time stamp! Still on time! Barely.... Heehee! And here's my weak pathetic excuse -- I'm leaving on a business trip so I have to make sure the hubs has food before I leave. I made him promise to heat some veggies but I'm pretty sure that the boxed pizza he got just for this week is going to be the only source of veggies for him.

Ok so onwards! I don't know about you guys but I'm behind on my Christmas thank yous. I decided that the Winter Song line was a great set of papers to use for my thank you cards!

With the supplies I made 4 cards. The Moravia line I haven't cut into (but since I'll be posting a birthday card post with the gals I'll reserve that paper for then...)

I LOVE the fun stamps in Very Vintage Labels - No 1 and I used that to stamp my border. Stamped a quick thanks and off we go! Easy peasy!

**I'm not going to advocate this but I tend to do some stamp surgery to make stamping the labels easier for me. They come joined but I used my craft knife to split them up. I've also done this with sentiments. Again, this is a do it at your own risk but I find it easier for me. **

I'm going to post the deets on the rest of the cards later this week. For one, I don't want to bore you and for another, I'm on a business trip this week and so therefore no crafty time. ;-) However, since I'm going back to Raleigh, this does mean a trip to Archivers!

Hope you all have a wonderful week !

Gift holder card

So one more gift card to share! I think this is the last one for 2009. THANK goodness. Remind me next year to start these holiday preparations earlier. Although I say it every year, I never do anything until the last minute...

So the hubs and I went shopping the weekend before Christmas. And lo and behold, EVERYTHING we wanted was sold out. One of the gifts they still had in stock in the warehouse, so we had that shipped directly.

For the other one, well, we had no choice but to do the gift card route. So what better thing than to package it up in a cute card?

Even the hubs conceded that it was a fun way to gift a gift card. :)

I still had Colorful Christmas on my desk so that's what I used! Even though its for a guy, I think its not too girly, right? Oh well... I'm really bad about keeping girl colors out of guy cards. I figure just a purply pink little never hurts anyone.

You can actually pull either side and the gift card will appear. I just only wrote pull on one side as to not confuse.

There's just some dimensional adhesive on the top and bottom of the panel. And the gift card piece slides right in! Easy peasy!

I tell my hubs that this is how I put my engineering degree to use. Hah.


Stamps: (Everyday Classics) Papertrey Ink
Paper: Bazzill, (Colorful Christmas) My Mind's Eye
Other: (Gems) Hero Arts, (Scallop punch) Fiskars,

Warm Winter Wishes

This is my Christmas card this year -- well, one of the many variations. I took the same concept... just different chipboard pieces (from Cosmo Cricket like this one or My Mind's Eye). :) I didn't feel like taking pics of all of them and boring you with them all. So here's one. :)

I love the "Warm Winter Wishes" sentiment from Half-Baked Gingerbread Joy set from Waltzingmouse Stamps. And I felt that was appropriate for my holiday cards this year.

Super quick and to the point -- great for mass producing. I did still send some store bought cards... we had a few laying around so I figured I'd get rid of them and send them off.

Skipping Stones Design Blop Hop

Welcome to the Skipping Stones Design Blop Hop sponsored by Skipping Stones Design. If you didn't come here from Jen's blog, you can click here to start from the beginning at Skipping Stones Design.

Along the way, the Skipping Stones Design Team (aka the Stamp Tramps) will have blog candy for you to enter. As an added bonus, there will also be 4 stamp sets (new stamp sets not yet released) will be hidden along the hop, but we’re not telling you where so be sure to leave some love as you hop!!! Make sure you leave comments on every post so you have a chance to win!! The winners will be announced on Friday January 8th at Skipping Stones Design.

I'm so thrilled to be joining the ladies on the hop but I have a little secret to share... I still haven't gotten into the swing of things from the holidays -- ugh ugh ugh. Monday was such a drag at work, but here's hoping today's better!

I decided to pull out the set Healing Wings for the hop. I love the sentiment "Friends give color to lives" and I thought it'd be fun to emboss the butterflies with a clear embossing powder to give the purple butterfly more color pop.

I used some pearls to emphasize "color" in the sentiment. I also used a larger pearl in the middle of the butterfly body with smaller ones to bookend it. I like the effect and how it gives it more depth. :)

I'm sure you guys are all liking what you've seen so far on this blog hop! Lots of talented ladies!
Just a reminder that Heather is also generously offering 25% off on all stamps sets Tuesday and Wednesday! How awesome is that? The code is 25off.

Ok enough babble from me! Next on the hop is the ever so talented Kandi Phillips. Be sure to visit her blog to see what inspiration she has up her sleeve!



Try playing with different sizes of the same embellishment for some fun effects!


Stamps: (Healing Wings) Skipping Stones Design
Paper: (Vintage Cream, Kraft, Spring Moss, Lavender Moon) PTI
Ink: (Plum Pudding) PTI, VersaMark
Other: (Border Punch) Fiskars, (Word Punch) SU!, (Corner Rounder) EK Success, (Twine) May Arts, (Button) PTI, (Clear EP) Ranger

WMS Preview - Hugs To You

I have another little preview for you! :) This is another card I made with the new Valentine's set from Waltzingmouse Stamps.

I love the hearts and the fun font for the sentiments. I also love that the little heart nests nicely into the next heart. So much fun! So many possibilities!

And sigh, I couldn't help myself. The swirl from Seasons of Love - Tags just squeezed its way in. ;-) It sets off corners so well!

Stamps: (Valentines Day Set, Seasons of Love - Tags) Waltzingmouse Stamps
Paper: (White, Melon, Berr) PTI
Ink: (Sweet Blush, Dark Chocolate, White) PTI
Other: (Border Punch) Fiskars, (Ribbon) PTI, (Pins) Making Memories

WMS Preview -- Forgetful or not?

Happy New Year!

I had the new Valentine's set from Waltzingmouse Stamps sitting on my desk (it will be released January 4th). There's lots of fun sentiments and some great Vday images! Perfect for Vday or any other special lovey dovey occassion. ;-)

The sentiment totally rings true... I usually listen and then forget whatever the hubs just told me. ;-) I think it's great for him but he kinda hates that I forget so easily. Then again, I'm like that with everyone... haha.

Stamps: (Valentines Day Set) Waltzingmouse Stamps
Paper: (Bitty Dots, Cream, Dark Chocolate) PTI
Ink: (Sweet Blush, Dark Chocolate) PTI
Other: (Border Punch) Fiskars, (Ribbon) PTI, (Pins) Making Memories