March Madness Blog Hop Day #1

It's my first ever blog hop! A word from our sponsor:

Welcome to the Stampin' Dymonz Scrap Shack's Mad About Paper Blog Hop! Our theme for this hop, besides being Mad About Paper, is Sports -- it is March Madness for the Scrap Shack as well as for basketball after all!! Some of the divas have creations with a sports theme. Some of them have simply created out of their favorite medium - paper! This hop shows our madness for all things paper! The hop starts at Stampin' Dymonz's blog, which can be found by going to www.StampinDymonz.com. It ends with NikkiP's blog, found at nikkimopapercrafts.blogspot.com. Along the way we have Lynetta, Cynta, Jessica, JoAnn, Christina, and Tammy who have beautiful creations to share as well. Don't miss out! If you got to this blog hop from any place other than the beginning, go back to the beginning and work your way through. There's lots of inspiration to share and these divas have created some magnificent projects! Don't forget -- this is a two-day blog hop! Creations will be posted both Saturday, March 19th and Sunday, March 20th. Stop back by both days in order to see all of the beautiful work -- you too will be Mad About Paper!

Here's my Day One project: March Madness Wishes!

Basketball-inspired Easel Card. Inside:

You should have arrived here from JoAnn's blog. Tammy's blog is the next one on the line up and you can reach her blog by clicking on her name below. If you have problems with the link, her blog's URL is in parentheses after her name -- just copy/paste it into your address bar.

I hope you enjoyed my project and the hop so far! Don't stop hopping until you get to the end -- there could be blog candy along the way that you don't want to miss out on! Any of the divas participating in the hop may offer some, but the biggest thing you'll miss are the great creations and the greater inspiration for your creations. Have fun!

Stampin' Dymonz (www.StampinDymonz.com)

Lynetta (CraftyNetta) (craftcreationsbynetta.blogspot.com)

Cynta (cynta.blogspot.com)

Jessica (customcreationsbyjessica.blogspot.com)

JoAnn (thecreatorsworkshop.blogspot.com)

Christina (cg-says.blogspot.com) <---You are HERE

Tammy (fromme2upapercrafting.blogspot.com)

NikkiP (nikkimopapercrafts.blogspot.com)

Don't forget to come back tomorrow for Day 2!

About my card:
I must admit that I don't follow college basketball, but I have enjoyed a few March Madness evenings in past with my dad, a former player & coach. All I remember about the game is that it's, at its best, a team sport. Of course, there's no feeling like making a basket yourself...or so I've heard! So I decided to challenge myself to make a March Madness-related card for this blog hop. Ooh, I had fun!

I recently rented a woodgrain acrylic stamp from Raisin Boat, and it just felt right to use in this context. The darker piece is simply black on brown; the lighter piece was stamped in two tones of chalk inks. The letters and the inside frame were designed in SCAL, and cut on my Cricut from a basketball-textured scrapbook paper. The inside frame wasn't as easy to design as I might have hoped, but I can definitely see using it again. I'm also offering it as a free SCAL file; see the download link at the bottom of this post. Please let me know if you use it!

The sentiment piece is atop a couple of white foam tapes pieces that I colored with the same black I used for all the edging.

Digi stamp: Use Your Head by Tiddly Inks
Woodgrain stamp by Raisin Boat
Supplies: Recollections cardstock, Memento ink, ColorBox and Versamark chalk inks, ZipDry glue, MS detailing scissors, Cricut & SCAL, Lithos Pro Black typeface (for cut letters), HP printer & ink, foam tape, Copic Markers, Sakura glitter pen

Download circle frame SCAL cut file