Little Christmas Elf

Christmas is almost here!  I don't know about you but I could use at least another week to prepare!  This week we are having another review.  You can choose between sketches # 48 - #52.  You can see the different sketches on the MTME Blog HERE.  I used sketch #51. 

I made another Christmas card since next week is Christmas.  I used this cute little elf from the set Holly Jolly.  I cut her out and put her on an ornament I made using Spellbinders 2012 Heirloom Ornaments.  I colored her with copics and used Liquid Applique on her collar and the pom-pom on her hat.  

I cut out a poinsettia using Spellbinders Layered Poinsettia and added some yellow pearls to the center.  The paper I used is from Candy Clause.  

I hope you are getting ready for Christmas or any other holiday that you celebrate.  Please stop by the MTME Blog and see what the other designers have in store for you.  

Thank you for coming by today.  I appreciate each and every visit and comment.  

NEW! Gingerbread Box

Just a quick post to tell you about an adorable and festive cut file that Lauren is giving away for FREE!  Head on over to her blog and see the cute boxes and get the coupon code.  I'll be back next week with another sketch challenge sample.  Have a great weekend!

NEW! Gingerbread Box

Christmas Ornament Card

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!!!  Oh yeah, Christmas shopping, baking, decorating, going to parties and of course performances.  My youngest son is performing in Sweeny Todd, one of my nieces is in a dance company and will be performing several times and another niece is in band.  To top it all off, we tore up the 40-year old carpet in living room, old tile in hallway and 40 year old vinyl in the kitchen and re-did all those floors.  We still don'g have it all put back together again.  What fun!  

This week we are to choose a sketch from the weeks of 41 - 47.  I chose to use #46.  The circle on the sketch made me think of a Christmas ornament so I made one!

I printed the red stripped digi paper from Candy Claus and punched out 6 ornaments with my Stampin' Up ornament punch.  I then scored each ornament in half, lined up the back halves and glued them together.   I added some diamond Stickles over the top of each side and smoothed it out with a brush.  I couldn't get a good picture of the glitter but it's there.  I poked a hole in the top, threaded fishing wire the hole and through the back of the bow.  I tied the bow onto the top of the ornament and then tied a knot at the top of the fishing line forming a loop to hang onto the tree.

The card base paper is also from Candy Claus.  I used the banner "Merry Christmas" from our new release, Christmas Swag.  I temporarily put some pop-up dots behind the ornament so it will stay on the card.  The ornament will easily come off the card and can be hung onto a tree. 

I hope you enjoyed my card today.  Please stop on by the MTME Pretty Patterns blog and see the rest of the great samples our team has made for you today.

As always, I appreciate each visit and comment you leave for me.  Hope you enjoy the holidays!

Thankful for You!

November sure came fast, didn't it?  I am getting ready for Thanksgiving and looking forward to having all much of my family together on that day.  What are YOUR plans for Thanksgiving?

Today's card is "Thankful" card in honor of the wonderful holiday we call Thanksgiving that brings so many families together.  

I used MTME's Thankful digi stamp set and I also used the pumpkin from the digi stamp set A Spooky Surprise.  I used my digi program to put them all together in a cluster.  I printed it up, colored it with my copic and use Spellbinder's Labels Eighteen to cut it out.  I then sponged a bit of Stampin' Up's Purely Pomegranate for a contrast around the edges.

I used the digi paper Dainty Damask and Fall Foliage.  I used a die from My Favorite Things called Dizzy Duo.  I added some burgundy seam binding and a small flower from Stampin' Up.  To finish it off I added a little stickles to the flower and the focal point.     

Thank you for coming by and I hope you will stop by the MTME Pretty Patterns Blog and see what the other designers have prepared for you.  Play along for an opportunity to win prizes but most of all to have fun!  

Count Dracula

This cute Dracula image makes me think of Sesame Street's Count.  He's too adorable to be scary!

For today's card I used MTME's The Count digi image.  I digitally removed the extra elements so all I had left was the count.  I colored him with copics and sponged a little Brilliance pearlescent Lavender ink around the raised edge.

The background paper I used is from the Traditional Halloween pack.  Don't you LOVE those little spiders?  The rick-rac I used is shiny... it was hard to get it to photograph easily but it is really pretty in real life.

I used Spellbinder's for the spiderweb and spiders which I popped up to give them more dimension.

Thank you so much for stopping by today.  I appreciate each and every visit and comment!  Hop on over to the MTME Pretty Patterns Blog and play along with us.  

Just Popping By To Say HI!

We have some new neighbors who just moved in across the street.  I found out that one of the daughters was recently diagnosed with diabetes.  I wanted to bake them some cookies or some other treat but didn't want to leave the little girl out so I contacted my cousin who has a son with diabetes.  She recommended taking them some pre-packaged popcorn so they can count the carbs. I immediately remembered the popcorn stamps in the digi sets About to Pop and Night at the Movies so I got started on this card, using this week's sketch of course.

I digitally arranged the popcorn bags and popcorn kernels and printed it up.  Using my spellbinders I cut it out and did some sponging and colored the image with copics. 

I added a little element to the sketch by typing "Just popping by to say HI!" and instead of an "o" I placed a popcorn kernel in it's place.  I think it turned out kinda cute!

The paper I used was from Pop Some Fun.  

Speaking of popping, I popped the main image and the sentiment up with pop dots after I tied the red checked ribbon around the main image.  Below is another angle of the card.  

Here's the sketch for this week.  I turned the sketch sideways so it would fit what I had in mind.  You are free to flip it anyway you want so long as the main sketch can be recognizable.

I hope you will join in the fun and play along with us.  Come and check out what the rest of the design team has in store for you.  Lots of great inspiration!

Thank you for stopping by my blog today.  I truly appreciate each and every visit.  Don't forget to comment - everyone LOVES comments!

Pink Roses

Good Morning!  Today at MTME's Pretty Patterns sketch challenge we have a great new sketch for you try!  Here is the card I made for this challenge.  I hope you like it!

I used the rose digi stamp from  MTME's Grammy's Sewing Kit.  I enlarged it to be the focal image on my card, I printed it up and colored it with copics.  I used RV000, RV00, R81, R83, R85 for the roses and G24 and YG63 for the leaves.  I used a Martha Stewart ink pad for the sponging around the edge of the oval Spellbinder's die.

The background paper is from MTME's digi paper Grammy's Pretty Patterns.  I LOVE this set!  I added a crinkled ribbon bow and placed a dome center from Prima.  I think it added a nice touch. 

Thank you for coming by my blog today.  I hope you will stop on over at My Time Made Easy's blog and see all the other great cards the design team has waiting for you.  I hope you will play along with us.  And as always, I truly appreciate each and every comment!

Love is the Thread...

Good Thursday morning to you!  It's another Pretty Patterns sketch day with My Time Made Easy!  I really enjoyed this sketch and I'm sure that you will too!

Today I used Grammy's Sewing Kit for the sentiment.  There are so many really great digi stamps in this kit - you really NEED to check it out.  I also used Grammy's Pretty Patterns for the background paper.

The little flower that is in the center of the bow is made out of crinoline and toole that I bought at JoAnn Fabrics.  I cut them out with one of Tim Holtz's tattered flowers dies.  It's the smaller one.

Two love birds.

Pretty mosaic style lattice as part of the elements on the sketch.

Here's my 3-D photo.  I really like the background paper - it's almost as if it's made out of lace.

Thank you so much for stopping by!  I appreciate each and every visit and comment!  

Don't forget to stop by the MTME Pretty Patterns Challenge blog and join in the fun!  It's a really nice sketch that you can do very simply or add a few dimensions like I did.  Having FUN is what it is all about.

Other great challenges I'm entering:

The Pretty Little Ribbon Shop: add some bling

7Kids College Fund: anything goes

Simon Says Stamp challenge: anything goes

Just Us Girls: inspiration photo

Back to School

Good morning!  This week's challenge at CropStop is to make a project using" Back To School" theme.  I had fun making this calendar page using this theme.  I remember when school used to start in September but now most schools start in August.  My son started school on August 2nd!  That's way too soon in my opinion.  But at any rate, school is well underway in our school district.

I used colored pencils to color the Little Schoolhouse to try to make it fade into the background but I'm afraid that in my efforts to do the shading, I didn't quite succeed in doing that.  Oh well, I still like the little schoolhouse.  The image of the girl, Moka Gwen, was colored with copics.  I paper pieced her dress with pattern paper that coordinates with the background paper. 

I made the sun by using a Spellbinder's circle and the sun's rays were from Spellbinders  

Nested Lacey Pennants.   

I downloaded and printed the 2013 calendar here.  I adjusted my printer so it printed smaller than the 6x6 so that I could have more space to decorate my 6x6 page.

Thank you for coming by!  I truly appreciate each visit and comment.  Don't forget to pop on over to CropStop's blog and see what the rest of the design team has made for you.  We'd love it if you would play along!

what's in it:

Honey Bee 5" Scissors, Tim Holtz Tonic Studio Scissors, Score-tape, Copics, Spellbinders standard circles, Spellbinders Lacy Nested Pennants Moka Gwen, Little Schoolhouse, 6x6 calendar download

Happy 90th Birthday!

No, it's not my 90th birthday, in fact, it's not even my parent's 90th birthdays as they are just entering their 70's... but this card is still very special.  My good friend asked me to make a special card for a lady that she goes to church with.  I decided to use some of the beautiful digi stamps and digi papers from My Time Made Easy with CropStop's adhesives and die cuts to make this pretty card.

The challenge at CropStop this week is a recipe challenge:  Use 1 - 3 flowers, polka dots and bling!  I also used this week's MTME's Pretty Patterns Sketch found here.  

I used MTME's Magical Birthday Wishes for the banner and sentiment.  I printed it on light pink paper and then used copics to add shading and to color the 90.  I added some shimmer to the 90 by coloring over the copics with atyou Spica "blossom".

For the background paper (LOVE THIS!!!) I used MTME's new Grammy's Pretty Patterns.  I'm sure I will be using these papers a lot in the future.  I used Spellbinder's Floral Burst for the rosettes.  I LOVE this set!  Unfortunately CropStop seems to be out of this set at the moment.  So Sorry about that.

I added some polka dotted ribbon, small roses and some bling and viola - my card is done!  Here's a 3-D photo.  You know how I love my layers!

Thank you for coming by!  I LOVE each and every visit and comment!  Please stop by both CropStop's and My Time Made Easy's challenges and join in on the fun!

By the way, CropStop has a Design Team call right now.  I'm so sad that I need to step down from the team.  I've been with them since January and have loved working with them but I have family & medical issues that I need to take care of so I feel the need to step down.  Go on over and read the details, I know you will enjoy working with them, they have a great team!

Don't forget to leave me a comment - like everyone, I love comments! 

what's in it:

Honey Bee 5" Scissors,  Tim Holtz Tonic Studio Scissors,  Score-tape,  Copics, Spellbinders Floral Burst , 

Watermelon and Tilda

Good morning!  It's another HOT Summer day here in Southern Arizona - 108 for us today and 110+ by the first of the week.  I hope you are finding ways to stay cool.  For me, I stay in my craft room/office since it's the only room in the house with A/C.  The rest of the house is "cooled" with evaporative coolers, otherwise known as swamp coolers.  They work really well in dry conditions but when it's humid, like now with the monsoons very active, they don't work well at all.  Temps of 80 - 82 indoors is not my idea of cool (and did I mention HUMID?)  LOL  

So to freshen up my mood I made these two watermelon-themed projects.  

Today at CropStop we challenge you to make a project using colors that are fruit-inspired.  For instance, for watermelon use pink (or red), green and black.  Since Watermelon has a thin ring of white right along the green rind, I used some white in my projects too. 

For my little watermelon box I used a template from My Time Made Easy called Slice.  It's a cut file but it also comes in a PDF format so it's easy to print on your patterned paper and cut out by hand.  I should know - because that's what I did.  In fact, I wanted a smaller size so I resized it and made this watermelon box much smaller than the original size.  I wanted Tilda to be able to sit on it and but not be overwhelmed by the size.  The good thing is that if you have a gift or other goodies that are larger than the little jelly beans I put into it then the original size will work just fine!  You can also make citrus fruits such as orange slices from this template too.

I colored Tilda with copics and then paper-pieced her outfit, bow on top of her head and socks.  I used copics to add shading to the clothing.  I also used an At-You Spica #14 (blossom - by copic) and added some shininess to her outfit.

Here's the top/back view.  See?  A few little jelly beans inside.  It can hold more too.

In this view the tabs are on the top and enter into coordinating slots in the bottom side that is open.  To close this box you first close the side (at the bottom of the photo) inward and then fold the other side down and insert the tabs into the slots.  (as you can see, my slots are perfectly cut like a die cutter would do - but it works!)

My second project is this butterfly Tilda.  I used coordinating colors and patterned papers as well as the same black "bling" that I used for the Watermelon Tilda.

I added a few little butterflies on the card.

Some black swirly "bling" by Want 2 Scrap.

A white lace flower with a large pearl center makes for a nice element in the sketch I used.

I colored Tilda with copics and paper-pieced her dress.  I added some pink stickles to her flower, lace and butterfly.

Here's an angel view of the card.  I love all the layers and textures.

Thank you so much for stopping by today!  I truly appreciate each and every visit and comment.  Don't forget to head over to the CropStop blog and enter in our fun challenge!

I am entering these projects in the following challenges:

Magnolia Down Under - sketch challenge (the card)  

The Ribbon Carousel - sewing on the card

7Kids College Fund - shaped card

Simon Says Stamp - bingo: gems, "free" & lace

Creative Inspiration - anything goes!

Stamping Scrapping Challenge - stamp something

What's in it:

Honey Bee 5" Scissors,  Tim Holtz Tonic Studio Scissors,  Score-tape, Cuttlebug Swiss Dots, Copics, Spellbinders Grand Labels 1, Spellbinders Labels Seventeen, Martha Stewart 3-in-one butterfly punch, 

My Time Made Easy - template Slice.
Tildas (by Magnolias) are on sale at  stampingscrapping.com!

Let's Go Fly a Kite

The theme today at CropStop to use a kite on your project.  I knew I just had to use my Tilda flying a kite stamp - which is so cute!  I also wanted to use the kite die that I have so I only stamped Tilda and left her kite un-inked and then fussy-cut Tilda out.  Somewhere I saw a kite-shaped card and thought I'd take it to the next level and turned this project into a wall-hanging.

(click on the images to enlarge)

I paper-pieced Tilda's blouse and then used a coordinating copic to shade on the patterned paper to give it depth.  I also pierced a hole on Tilda's right hand and threaded the twin through it so it gives a more realistic look of her holding it.  I glued the twine onto the backside of both her hands.

I know that when you fly a kite the line between the person and the kite is taunt but I thought it would be fun to put some loops in the twine.  I put a small dot of glue on the paper where the twine touches it to keep it in place.  You wouldn't want to smash it though.

Some decorative flowers on the bottom corner of the kite.

I love how this turned out.  I wanted the small kite to POP against the large one but I used coordinating papers so I made this sun to go behind it.  I love the striped yellow paper in the back and the circle in the front is embossed in a dot pattern.   

Here is a better photo to show you the 3-D areas of the project.  The small kite and Tilda are popped up with pop dots.

Thank you for stopping by today.  I'm sorry I've been MIA for awhile.  I took a break from crafting due to some health issues I'm having but I hope to be able to post more often.  I have a couple of projects that I made but haven't posted yet.  I appreciate each and every visit and comment.

Head on over to the CropStop blog and see what the other designers have made for you!  I hope today is bright and full of hope & happiness!

What's in it:

Honey Bee 5" Scissors,  Tim Holtz Tonic Studio Scissors,  Score-tape,  Spellbinders Blossom Two ,  Spellbinders Standard Circle  Large ,  Copic,

Die-namics Fly A Kite, Tilda with Kite