Thursday, June 30, 2011

MTME Pretty Patterns 16

Hey everyone, so sorry that my post is up late... blogger was giving me fits last night and then a thunderstorm came in so I just shut operations down for the night.

Today I have a card for you that not only fits in with today's Pretty Patterns sketch, but also fits in with MTME's Pretty Palette color scheme which is light pink, yellow and Kraft.


I used the digi stamp set Bee-Loved... it is one of my favorites!  I cut most of the petals of the top flower down to the center and then rolled the petals over a pencil toward the center to make it more 3-d.  


I also used a couple of MTME digi papers:  wildflower, wistful musical and romance.  Below is another angle of the card... I used pop dots to accentuate the lower flower and make it pop off the page a little.


I used copics to color the flowers...


 and added some stickles on both of the flower centers to add a little shine.


Here is this week's Pretty Patterns sketch:

and here are the Pretty Palette colors:


I hope you will join us in both of these fun challenges!  The Pretty Palette colors are posted every Sunday so look for a new color scheme then!

 I also want to encourage you to stop by Lauren's blog for previews of the new release on July 1st!  You won't want to miss it!

Other challenges:
PaperCrafting Journey:  anything goes!

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Mirror - Mirror

I have a post today using a Lili of the Valley stamp.  I'm new to their stamps but I think they are soooooo cute!

Isn't this little girl so stinkin' cute playing dress-up?  I added some pearls around her neck since all the best-dressed ladies are wearing them.

I also added little pearls in the lace flowers and on the bow in her hair.  I used the sketch for the Lili of the Valley challenge and the colors from CR84FN.


I'm also entering this card into the following challenges:
The Shabby Tea Roomfavorite embellishments and paper: I love flowers, lace, pearls and doilies, etc
Stamp and Create: Summer
Creative Inspirations: Summer
Stampin for the Weekend: favorite things:  flowers, lace, pearls and doilies, etc
Papercrafting Journey: anything goes!


Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you enjoyed your stay and I hope that you'll come back tomorrow when the MTME's Pretty Pattern sketch team (yours truly included) will have a new sketch for you... and we'll post some new cards to inspire you as well.

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Old Glory

I have two posts today so if you are looking for My Time Made Easy Pretty Patterns challenge, scroll down or click here.  

It's time for the monthly Taylored Expressions Blog Hop again!  woo-hoo!  The theme is "Old Glory".  I had an idea for my card that evolved and then evolved some more and then turned out quite a bit different than I had originally expected.  I originally had planned to have a small flag on the card in the background and then have the TE stamp that I ordered especially for this blog hop "God Bless The USA" in the center with maybe a few shabby stars in the background... well, this is what it grew into:


I still used the same stamp and I made the flag that is in the background... but somehow the flag grew and the fireworks lit up all over the card!  LOL  I saw the blue and "diamond bling at Michaels yesterday and knew it just had to go on my card.


I didn't have room to stamp the whole stamp so I fussed with it (threw a couple of tries away) and finally got the center that I wanted.  I used a red marker to ink the the USA part, stamped it and then cleaned the stamp really well and then with a stamp positioner figured out where I wanted the "God Bless the" part, inked it up with a dark blue marker and stamped it above the "USA".  I then used the nestabilities to cut out the sentiment and the two tags as well.  Popped it up with pop dots and viola'!  An Old Glory that is quite glorious!


I'm thinking it's a little over the top but what the hey... it's very festive.  In fact, due to all the wildfires here in AZ this card might be the only fireworks we get to see this year for the 4th of July.  We're praying for rain and hoping for relief.

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you will go to the other blog hoppers to see what they have in store for you today!





My card is being entered into the following challenges:
CC328: Cherry Night Cakes: color challenge: Night of Navy, Cherry Cobbler, Crumb Cake (kraft), Neutrals of choice
 Magazine Monday - color challenge:  Bazzill Red, Sea Water, Lily White and Beetle Black

For Someone Sweet

It's Thursday so that must mean that it's time for a new MTME Pretty Pattern sketch challenge!


I used MTME's digi images Well Preserved.  I did some digi magic to colorize the topper from black to red... same with the strawberry on the jar... resized the saying and the strawberry to fit into the label and then printed it all up.  (It really isn't hard at all!  Lauren has some great video tutorials on how to do it!)  I then used my copics to color the red jam and shade the label.  Had I been thinking right I wouldn't have used a grey (N0 & N1) and I would have gone with a warm color due to the fact that I wanted to achieve a vintage look.  I used the distressed ink to warm it up a bit and to also distress the paper on the card.

I cut a strip of shiny red fabric and tied it around the jam jar before adhering it to the card with pop-up dots.  I printed up some of the great papers from Preserve it Oranges and Strawberries.  There are other "Preserve it" paper packages that are so fun!  You can also see the buttons I used below.


And here's my bow...


I'm quite happy with the way this one turned out.  I have my own unique way of tying them and maybe... just maybe I'll share that secret on here another time.  Not this morning though... I still have another blog post to do before I even go to bed.  No rest for the weary!   

Thank you for stopping by!  I hope you will play along with us and be sure and check out the other design team member's cards.   

 I'm also entering this card in these challenges:
The Shabby Tea Room: inspiration photo & gingham
Ribbon Carousel challenge:  "color your world" & use ribbon

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Bringing Home Baby

I decided to make a baby card for this week's sketch. My brother and his wife have a new baby girl! She is soooo cute!


I used Bringing Home Baby for this card.  I also used Bringing Home Baby Girl digi paper.  I also decided to try a new card style (that makes two new ones for me in so many days)!  I made a recessed window card.  You can see the dimensions better in the following photos.


The center of the card is recessed so it cannot lay flat - but that's ok, I delivered the card in person when we went to visit my brother's family and to meet my new niece.


You can see the dimensions more clearly in the photo below.


Some fun details - bling for the buggy...


I love the little storks on the paper in the upper corner left-hand corner.  I also used my sewing machine to stitch around the card and between the different papers to make it look like a quilt.

I hope you will stop by the other design team blogs and see what they have for you and don't forget to play along. 

I hope you enjoyed your visit today - please leave a comment - they really make my day!

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Underwater Wonderment - new MTME digi release

Good morning everyone!  I'm so excited about My Time Made Easy's new digi images called Underwater Wonderment.  They will be in the store a little later this morning... Lauren is working on it as I speak... erm, type!

I made a wiper card using the new images... I think the only image I didn't use is a dolphin and that's because I just didn't have enough room on the card.  All the images are so stinkin' cute!

Here's the front of the card:


Now, when you open the card you get a little surprise:

How sneaky is that little seahorse?!  He pops right up because he wants to join in the fun.



This is called a wiper card.  I found the directions on Splitcoast Stampers wiper card tutorial.  Give it a try!  It was a lot of fun.

Every image and paper (except for the base which is SU) is My Time Made Easy's digi paper.  I printed Alexa the mermaid onto the orange paper so I could cut out the parts I needed to paper piece her outfit. 

For my sketch for the front of the card I used Splitcoast Stampers sketch challenge#SC337

There are other challenges I am entering:
A Spoonfull of Sugar- Splish Splash
ScrapCreations - anything goes


Thank you for stopping by!  I appreciate each comment - they really help keep me going!

Thursday, June 9, 2011

MTME Pretty Patterns #13

A dear friend of mine told me that her pastor is getting married and she needs a card for his wedding.  Instead of giving her one of my other cards, I decided to make a new card using MTME's wedding cake image and MTME designer paper, Wildflowers. I'm so excited about this week's sketch.  It was a lot of fun to work with. 


I made the flower - oh yes I did!  I've made one similar to this one but it was quite big so I used the two middles sized flowers in this Sizzix die for this flower.  The instructions on how to make this fun flower is on my friend, Linda's blog: The Funkie Junkie - Easy Apple Blossom Tutorial


 The center of the flower is... a button of course!  Last week JoAnn's was having 40% all buttons so I stocked up on a few of my favorites.  I'm not sure if they are still on sale - they could be... another JoAnn's flyer just came in the mail today for next week. 

I just LOVE MTME's digi wedding cake found in the stamp set called On Display.  I wanted the cake to be a little larger than the original size so I easily enlarged it and then printed it up.  Lauren has a lot of video tutorials that are easy-peasy to follow. She also has a link to a FREE program that you can use with your digi stamps. Changing a stamp's size is one of the perks of buying digi! 


I colored the cake with copics added the little pearls and then added a tiny bit of shimmer by outlining the roses with my star dust pen. (I totally forgot the name of it.  lol)  I gathered some lace down the middle in a zig-zag fashion and adhered it to the card (before I attached the flower of course).

 I dry embossed the white background with Swiss Dots cuttlebug folder, cut the lattice with Cherrylynndesigns Lattice #2... and then I had to re-size it to fit in the area I wanted it to.  You can see the dry embossing a little better in the photo below:


I cut out the sentiment, To the Happy Couple from the set So Sentimental, with Spellbinder's fancy tags.

 All the fun, frilly, layers and details.  What fun!

 
 This sentiment, "Love" is stamped on the inside of the card.  I found this and several other rubber stamps mounted on wood at Michael's that were originally $1 each but were on sale for $.60.  You just can't beat that!


Thank you for visiting and I hope you will stop by My Time Made Easy Blog  and join in the fun!  Here is this week's sketch:

http://mytimemadeeasy.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/MTMEPPS13.jpg
I'm also entering this card into the following challenges:
CR84FN: light pink, med green, neutral (white!)
Wee Memories: anything goes
Truly Scrumptious: Summer & Sparkle- June weddings & pearls & shimmer on roses
Mark's Finest Papersuse a 3-D flower
Paper Take Weekly: anything goes!
The Shabby Tea Room: embossing
Stamp TV's Mix it up Monday: add texture to your card.  (if my card doesn't qualify with all the different textures... then I don't know what does!  tee-hee!)


Thursday, June 2, 2011

MTME Pretty Pattern #12!

Wow, are we already on sketch twelve?  As they say, time flies when you're having fun.... well it's certainly true as far as these challenges go.  They are very fun indeed!

My Time Made Easy has a new release - it's all digi this time - check it out here!  

I used MTME's newest digi paper called Spring is Here. Isn't it gorgeous?!  I used one of their acrylic stamp set called Singing Silhouette.  I bought the acrylic because I love to stamp solid images (such as the birds, flowers and leaves) right into my different colors of ink.  It was a lot of fun!  I also enjoy embossing which can't be done when you print a digi image, but I did not do it on this project. 

(As always, click on photos to enlarge)

Here are some close-ups of the new paper that I used on my card:


Can you see the orange birds amongst the flowers?
 This pattern has vertical stripes of flowers.  The stripes just happened to be the right width to use with this sketch. What's great about digi paper is that you can resize the print and make it fit whatever project you are working on.  See?  I am becoming accustomed to using digi stuff.  ;)
My usual 3-d shot.  I like this photo.. it makes it look like the pearls are all lined up straight.  LOL
 Here are the love birds!  I don't have a pretty orange ink pad so I used a marker to color the orange bird's body.  I couldn't get the ink to come out smooth like the pink.  It looks like it has scratches on it.  Does anyone know what to do about that?
I hope you will join us and play along!  Just click on the sketch and it will take you there. 


Thank you all for coming by!  Please leave a little comment so I know you were here... and stop by the other Pretty Patterns design team members to see what they've come up with and leave them a little love too!