Gum tree Joy -- Stars & Sparkle at the UnstampaBelles

Our theme this month at the UnstampaBelles challenge is Star Struck Starry Night, with the optional twist of Use Sparkle Pens and/or Glues. You need to follow the twist to be considered as the DT Favorite, but you only have to follow main theme to win our prize. And remember, no stamps!

My mom found these beautiful papers at our favorite scrapbooking store, scraps of love, and add immediately sent me some to play with! They are from Kaisercraft's under the gum tree Christmas collection.

Inspiration/Challenges:
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: (Wed) Interactive Christmas
Word Art Wednesdays: (Wed 2W) Anything Goes

Be sure to check out the fabulous projects by my teammates the UnstampaBelles this month!

Thank you for visiting,

Pilin' on the Red & Green

The theme this week at Pile It On is Red & Green. You can use any shade of these colors! We're sponsored by Dr. Digi's House of Stamps and I used their Naughty or Nice digi stamp to create a joy fold card.

The door, wreath & bow are cut files from Bird's Cards.

For the inside of the door, I used a free printable from Rooftop Post.

The card base is a double-sided DP. Here's a view of the inside before I added a white message section:

Inspiration/Challenges:
A Gem of a Challenge: Inspired by Christmas song or carol ("Santa Claus is Coming to Town")
Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper: Anything goes with Patterned Paper (3rd entry)
Digitally Sweet: All About The Title ("Naughty or Nice") + Digital item (digi stamp & SVGs)
Simon Says Stamp: Anything Goes
Silhouette Challenges: Anything Goes + item cut on Silhouette (door, wreath, bow)
WordArt Wednesdays: Anything Goes

Thank you for visiting & inspiring my crafting! Hope you'll join us at Pile It On,

Joyful Ding-dongs

This Joy Fold card was inspired by this silly sentiment from a Designer Paper in my holiday stash. The cards are made with a double-sided DPs. I hand- pieced & -sewed the border on the front, securing the real jingle bells along the way. For the inside, I stamped the sentiment and bell on a shiny paper, which I cut into a banner.

I added some puffy stickers to the sentiment; they sort of remind me old cookbook decoration. I used some gingerbread men stickers on the inside & back. I'm certainly starting to feel the holiday spirit...at least the sweet parts!

Inspiration/Challenges:
Connie Can Crop #40: Cornycopia
Simon Says Stamp: Anything Goes (3rd entry)
Sparkles Christmas Challenge: Christmas Decorations

Update: I won the prize for Connie Can Crop #40!


Thank you for visiting,

Chinese Love

I'm sure I'm not the only one who has little bags in their stash filled with leftover bits from past projects. Earlier this year, I made a large custom order of cards based on my Chinese New Year never-ending card, and ended up with a fair amount of leftover Chinese ephemera and papers. I also pieced this lovely decoupage piece some months ago and never ended up using it, so I was glad to see the Asian Art & Ephemera Challenge at Lunagirl Moonbeams and have a reason to make a card with some of these stash items. I made a Joy Fold card:

The gorgeous front piece is from a Dufex die cut sheet. I popped up each of the layers with foam tape. I matted it onto a light gold paper. To close the card, I used a bird-shaped paperclip.

The pattered papers are all from Graphic 45's Birdsong collection. I used a smaller sheet of the background paper to make the mini-card. The Chinese symbol reads "Love" and was created in SCAL & cut with my Silhouette Cameo.

I cut the flower in black and shiny red with the Wildflower Corner die by Memory Box. The message frame, corner elements, and the good luck character are all from Chinese money envelopes.

I really had fun making this, which ended up being perfect as a birthday card for a friend of mine. Many thanks to Lunagirl Moonbeams for the great inspiration!

Update: This was the random prize winner for the Lunagirl Moonbeams challenge!

Thank you for visiting,

School Time! - Pilin' On the Primary Colors

This week at the Pile It On Challenge our theme is Primary Colors (as the main colors) and we're sponsored by Bugaboo Stamps. They have some of my favorite school-themed images, so I made this Joy Fold Card for two of our nieces:

I used two of my favorite DPs (can't remember who they are by... Jillibean? October Afternoon?).
The small card was cut with a Spellbinders/PageMaps die. One of the notebook-edge borders is cut with a Die-namics die and the other is from an actual notebook! The bottom border was cut from DP with decorative scissors, and I punched the holes with my Crop-O-Dile.

The sentiment is a rubber stamp from Hero Arts, and the stars were heat-embossed in gold using a handmade wood-and-cork stamp. The flowers were cut/embossed from a SU! paper on my BigShot. I colored the adorable Bugaboo digi stamps with Copic markers. The sun paperclip is from my stash, and I added a scrap of red raffia to it. The gold spiral in the flower is also a paperclip. I used an actual mini-notebook sheet for the message section on the back.

Inspiration/Challenges:
As You Like it Challenge: Favorite Papers and Why (I adore Design Papers featuring regular-paper patterns; guess I could just use the real thing, but the DPs are so fun!)
Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper: Anything goes with Patterned Paper
Hobbybook Designer Challenge: All about Kids
MilkCoffee Challenge: Use 2 or more die cuts
Party Time Tuesdays #184: Back to School
QKR Stampede #100: Back to School
STAMPlorations August Challenge: Stamps and Die Cuts
Whimsy Inspiration #73: Back to School

Update: This card placed in the Top 5 for QKR Stampede #100!

Thank you for visiting, and hope you'll join us this week at Pile It On,

Easter Daffodils with Pink Gem Designs at Pile It On

Our theme this week at the Pile It On Challenge is "Easter Joys," so I made this Joy Fold card featuring Daffodil Vase by Pink Gem Designs:

I colored the Daffodil Vase with Copics, and the center flower is popped up with foam tape. The vase was pieced with a shiny white paper, colored with Sakura glaze pens, and coated with Ranger crackle paint.

The "Happy Easter" sentiment is from a Fiskars rubber stamp set, and is heat-embossed onto white silk ribbon from MayArts (this was the very last of this spool of ribbon...must get more!) The ribbon is finished with some liquid pearls. The green mesh is recycled from a bag of avocados!

The Joy Fold card is one of my favorite techniques, but I haven't made one in ages (see my past Joy Fold cards here). It opens up to reveal a sentiment from a Hero Arts rubber stamp, heat-embossed in two green Stampendous powders:

The leafy background was made with a K&Company clear stamp set and the same two colors of embossing powders. I added some Liquid Pearl accents in the corners. I used a Cuttelbug folder to deboss some of the white pieces, and backed everything with a bright green, textured Core'Dinations cardstock.

Inspiration/Challenges:

1. Card A Day Blog: Baby, Spring, Congratulations or Easter
2. Charisma Cardz #5: Something Not for Crafting (mesh from bag of avocados)
3. Crafty Boots: Green
4. Crazy 4 Challenges: Be Sentimental
5. Created With Love Challenges: Think Spring
6. Emergency Crafters: Flowers
7. Love to Scrap: Create your own Background
8. MarkerPOP Challenge: Lucky Green
9. Really Reasonable Ribbon #90: Show me the Green & Ribbon
10. Sweet Stamps #151: Fun Folds

Update: This was the winner for Sweet Stamps Challenge #151!

Thank you for visiting, and hope you'll join us this week at Pile It On,

International Crafting with Mom Month

I don't think there's any such thing as International Crafting with Mom Month, but I just invented it for this card! I made this card with the awesome freebie provided for Jellypark Friends' National Craft Month Challenge, and since Sunday is Mother's Day in Britain I decided to make it in honor of my crafting guru, my mom! Of course, that also means I can enter it into this week's Mother's Day challenges, so if I win anything I guess Mom gets it, ha!

I made a Joy Fold card, mostly so that I could use my other favorite crafting image, Craft Lady by MelonHeadz Illustrating.

I have so many favorite crafting products, only a few of which are depicted in these images, ha ha! I ink-distressed the edges with Antique Linen; I never thought I'd like ink-distressing until I found this product, and now I'm hooked!

The red ribbon is actually from a Harry & David gift package! I've had these pretty vintage-y DP and pretty buttons forever.

I generated the sentiment with the cute freebie font 4 My Lover. I thought that some of you might want it for International Crafting with Mom Month (pick the month, ha!), so here it is (there's no border on the actual image, so that you can make your own frame). If you use it, please let me know. This JPEG image is 1.3 inches square & 300 DPI (click to go to full sized image and save to your computer):

I am so blessed to have my mom in my life, and crafting has brought us so many good times together. Have a crafty day!

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:
Craft Your Days Away Challenge #40: Mother's Day
Jellypark Friends Challenge: National Craft Month
One Stop Craft Challenge #173: Mothers Day with Ribbon
The Crafty Pad Challenge #161: Mum's The Word


Update: This card made the Top 5 for The Crafty Pad Challenge #161!

Silky Puppy Love

Since I spend the majority of my days with our two sweet dogs, I always feel almost obligated to enter dog-themed challenges! There are at least two such challenges out there this week: Can You Digi It? Challenge #3 and Crafty Ribbons Challenge #13.

I don't have either of those company's images / ribbons (yet!), so I "made due" with a Mo Manning polymer stamp I acquired from Stamp and Create and a homemade silk, paw-print ribbon. Oh, and a bunch of other stuff!

I used the Faux Silk technique for the circles (see tutorial). I colored the image after adhering the tissue paper to the cardstock and cutting out the shapes with Spellbinders dies in my Big Shot. To be honest, I really expected my Copics to bleed quite a bit on the tissue paper, but they actually blended beautifully.

For this card, I used my new Tea Dye distress ink pad; love this color. The base cardstock is a two-toned Core'dinations piece which I embossed with one of the embossing folders from a Tim Holtz set I just bought (Gift Cards + 50%-off coupons + Tim Holtz = One Happy CG). I sanded it and added some design with a background stamp from a Prickly Pear set. The sentiment on the inside is from the same set. The sentiment on the front is from a Hero Arts set; I heat-embossed both in Zing! copper.

I used the Fork technique to make the bow, a must for one-sided ribbon!

You know I couldn't resist the Joy Fold Challenge at Mark's Finest Papers:

The back, message portion:

Inspiration/Challenges:

Can You Digi It? Challenge #3: Puppy Love

Chocolate, Coffee & Cards Challenge #6: Brown, Orange, Teal

Crafty Ribbons Challenge #13: Paws for Thought

Mo's Digital Pencil Challenge #122: "My Sentiments Exactly"

Mark's Finest Papers Challenge #95: Joy Fold Card

Faux Silk technique tutorial: Annabelle Stamps blog 

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I just want to take the opportunity to thank Crafty Ribbons for their early-Sunday-morning contest! The first 14 emailers are receiving some of their new Baby ribbons and then get to make two projects! I'm so excited to be one of them! The the contest was posted around 10:30AM UK time, and I've never been so happy to be up at 5:30AM on a Sunday!

And since I'm sharing good news, a very special thank-you to Christi for offering her great blog candy, which is on its way to me thanks to her husband Mickey who picked my name out of his proverbial hat!

Here's my thank-you to you all: one of my favorite photos of my Allen & Walt:

Thanks for visiting, and have a great day!

Brand-happy with Cardmaking and Papercraft Magazine

Mom purchased the August 2011 issue of Cardmaking & Papercraft Magazine, then promptly sent it to me so that I could make a few cards for their "Cardmaker of the Year 2011" Contest. Thanks for the complement, Mom! She also knows that she's sent me bunches of products that fall into the contest categories, like Penny Black, FlowerSoft, Lili of the Valley and Stampin' Up (links will take you to my card featuring that product). I wanted each project to really focus on its theme product; when I couldn't use the theme product,I tried to incorporate other products made by the other sponsors of the contest (see items bolded in the supply lists).

I know the competition will be fierce, but I had tons of fun making these cards. I hope some of you will enter as well (especially those of you in the U.K.)  You can get all the contest info and forms on their website.

Update: I didn't get these in the mail for the deadline (who knew the post office was closed Labor Day Saturday?!), so I'll get to share them with friends!

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Penny Black Joy-fold card

Back:

Penny Black stamps: Poppy Fields, Love Graffiti, Spring is Here set

Paper: Echo Park, Core'dinations, Hammermill
Tools: Fiskars papercutter, Martha Stewart scissors, HP printer & ink, Adobe InDesign, Tim Holtz paper distresser
Other: Sakura gel pen, Recollections brads, hinge from stash, ZipDry glue

Copics: BG000, B23, R35, RV23, RV02, E35, E17, E37, E000, E11, YR00, YR01, Y13, Y04, FY1, FYG1, Y17, E47, R37, R35, R59, BG93, G07, YG03, E50, E51, C-5, C-1, 0

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Stampin' Up!
Waterfall Card

Inside:

Stampin' Up! products: Butterfly/flower wood-mount stamp, Bliss rubber-mount set, Stampin' Around tool & Sweet Swirls wheel stamp, Classic inks (Wild Wasabi & Black)

Paper: Hammermill
Tools: Fiskars papercutter
Other: stash eyelets, ZipDry glue, Stampendous! frame stamp & embossing powder, Offray ribbon

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Lili of the Valley
Trifold Card

Lili of the Valley products: Die-cut pre-colored image "Cute Card", Merry Christmas A5 Stamp set

Paper: The Paper Company, Core'dinations, Hammermill
Tools: Fiskars papercutter, MS detail scissors
Other: ZIG glue pen, ZipDry glue, FlowerSoft: Polar White,Raspberry Fizz
Copic markers: RV11, RV02, RV04, BV000, 0, E31, E33, E35

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FlowerSoft
Dimensional Card

Inside:

FlowerSoft products: Die-cut sheet & paper set, brand PVC glue, FlowerSoft: Baby Peach, Pale Green, Bright Pink, Sweet Pea

Tools: Fiskars papercutter, MS detail scissors, Cricut Personal Cutter & Deep Cut mechanism, SCAL 2.0
Other: Recollections cardstock, ZIG glue pen, ZipDry glue, stash chipboard, tulle
Copic markers: E47, G02, RV04, YR04

A little Sunshine, with help from Verve Stamps

I've received such lovely responses to my recent projects featuring images from Tellen's Place Designs. The owner, Terry, told me she likes my coloring! which means the world to me. Mom asked if I could one of the bathing beauty images for a card for her friend's granddaughter. I actually have a photo of the sweetie in question in our living room, modeling my first Feria dress. I'm hoping to see them when I visit my folks this winter.

I made a joy fold card with Ally Beach Cool and my beautiful new set from Verve Stamps. I won these from the Mojo Monday 200 Celebration, and I've gotta tell you, I'm hooked! Not only are the stamps beautiful and excellent quality, check out how they were sent:

Wouldn't this make a great gift?! And you know I saved the wrapping for future use!

For the backing paper, I stamped a mix of the sun stamps in watermark ink on light yellow paper, then heat-embossed with transparent-yellow powder. I added detail with different yellow markers. The card itself is 4.25x4.25, so I cut the backing paper into 1.875 squares. For a little something extra, I added matching bows on the front and back.
I added flocking for texture: yellow on the bear, and light blue on the towel.Of course, I couldn't help but want to share this in a few challenges:
Critter Sketch Challenge #76: Summer Fun
The Crazy Challenge #78: The Sun is Out
Allsorts Challenge Week 114: Free & Easy

Stamps: Ally Beach Cool by Tellen's Place Designs, Let It Shine set by Verve Stamps
Paper: Recollections, Hammermill
Tools: Fiskars papercutter, Martha Stewart scissors, HP printer & ink, Adobe InDesign, Marvy heat tool
Other: ZipDry glue, ZIG glue pen, Versamark & Memento inks, Stampendous embossing powder & flocking, Smirk glitter pen, Offray ribbon, American Crafts stamp marker
Copics: Y02, Y000, Y17, Y04, FY1, YR12, RV11, RV02, BG000, B05, FBG2, FB2, E17, E13, E47, E37