Love is in Bloom

To see my post for My Time Made Easy please scroll down or click here.

Today's challenge at CropStop is to include a bird in your project.  I love this paper from Graphic 45 which has a bird in the lower corner.  I added another bird to my project and then added a birdcage and a ton of hand-made flowers & greenery!  (the dies are listed at the bottom of my post)

Here are some close-ups of my card and all the lovely details!

I used foam squares to pop up the birdcage and some of the ivy.  I used my Scissors to cut the foam squares down to size when needed.  You can see a few of them in the image below - underneath the bars of the birdcage.  

I used a craft molding mat and a flower making kit to give dimension and shape to my flowers and leaves.  

I used Stickles and/or liquid pearls in the centers of the flowers.

Some 3-D goodness:

Thank you for coming by today!  I appreciate each and every visit and I especially love receiving comments!  I hope you will join us this week at CropStop and show us your projects using birds.

Other challenges:

Waltzingmouse Sketch challenge

Joan's Garden: hand-made flowers

The Shabby Tea Room: inspiration photo

What's in it:,

Carousel Bird Cage, Fancy Blossoms, Primula Blooms, Fruit Punch Stickles, Buttercup Liquid Pearls, Ribbon - yellow with white sheer dots, Scotch Foam Tape, Honey Bee 5" Scissors,  Tim Holtz Tonic Studio Scissors,  Score-tape , Tool kit for flowers, Paper Blossoms molding mat, Ivy Vine, Bird & House, Love is in Bloom - MTME's Tending the Garden digi stamp, Waltzingmouse acrylic stamp Very Vintage Label 4,

Daisy Teacup

Today's card for MTME's Pretty Patterns sketch was definitely a fun one!  

I used the digi stamp, A Spot of Tea for my main image.  I digitally added the decorative edging near the top of the teacup and then printed up a daisy from Bee-Loved at just the right size to place onto the teacup.  I then colored them with copics.

I used the following digi papers:  Bee Mine, Serenity and Romance.  I used some sheer blue ribbon for the bow.

I popped up the teacup on foam.  

I used a couple of punches from Stampin' Up to make the strips of paper a little more interesting.

Thank you for your visit & comments.  I appreciate each and every one!  Don't forget to hop on over to see the Pretty Patterns sketch and I hope you can play along. 

Follow Your Dreams

First of all, I hope you will bear with me while I work on my blog design. I tried a new style but it wouldn't allow me to have any widgets or gadgets - therefore getting rid of my lovely design team information including my wonderful teammates blogs so I changed it again.  I'm not finished with it yet so hang in there!  

Today I combined both my creative design team positions from CropStop and My Time Made Easy's Pretty Patterns to show you one fantabulous card!  At CropStop we are making our own lace.  I have a mini tutorial on how I made my lace and layered it to give it depth. 

I absolutely LOVE the new digi paper set Berry Burst.  I digitally changed the background in the paper I used from dark brown to light blue to go with the color scheme I wanted to use.  That's one thing that I love about digi paper - I can change the color if I want to.  I also lightened up the light pink and dark pink bursts.   

I used the following digi stamps:  I used the frame from Fine Finish and the sentiment and oval from Round Off.  I digitally colored the frame and ovals with butterflies and printed them onto cardstock.  Below you can see the paper after I printed them up.  I printed several to use in future projects.  I left some room at the bottom of the paper so I could punch out the lace and not waste paper.

I then punched out the same lace out of pink cardstock.

I chose a pink that would coordinate with the printed paper.  You can see both strips of lace below.

I'm sure there are many glues that you can use when adhering the two lace strips together but one of my favorites is Quickie Glue pen pictured below.  You do have to work fast or the glue will dry but it's great for small spaces.  I also have a glue pen from Creative Memories.  That glue won't dry quite as fast and is also great for small areas.  As you can see in the picture below, I placed the white paper lace to the right and slightly above the pink paper lace giving it the impression that the pink lace is the shadow of the white lace.  I tried placing only the white paper lace on top of the printed designer paper but it just needed a little something to make it pop.  It seemed to fade into the background.  If I have a paper seems to blend into the background it makes a huge difference if I add another color behind it (that coordinates with the other colors that I'm using) that will help it stand out much better.  Sometimes even using a color a little darker will make it pop too.

Here's the lace after the card is done.  I added some little round "bling" to the centers of the flowers of the lace.  I love my "bling"!  I also love using hand-dyed seam binding for my bows.  A little button is adhered to the center.

I also added some little pearls to my focal image.  I layered the oval with foam tape and layered the frame with foam tape as well.  That really brought out the focal image... I love that butterfly and the sentiment!

I added a little shiny to the flowers too.  I made sure this picture was a little darker so you can see the shininess a little better.

Here's a view of the layers.  

And one more view of the finished card.

Thank you for coming by!  I truly appreciate each and every visit and comment!  

I hope you will join me in both challenges at CropStop and MTME's Pretty Pattern sketch challenges. And don't forget, there's still time to enter CropStop's April Becky Fleck's sketch challenge for a chance to win Becky's newest Spellbinder's set. 

Challenges I'm entering this card in:

CropStop (DT) - make your own lace

MTME's Pretty Pattern (DT) - sketch below

 The Shabby Tea Room - beautiful roses

  

DiecuttingDivas - garden
Craft Us Crazy - Mother's Day and/or Flowers
Paper Pretties - create a card for a girl
Bunny Zoe's Crafts - ribbon or twine
Stamp, Scrap and Doodle Saturdays - Pastels

What's in it:

Copics, Scotch Foam Tape, Honey Bee 5" Scissors,  Tim Holtz Tonic Studio Scissors,  Score-tape, Spellbinders Ovals , Round Off, Fine Finish, Berry Burst 

Apple Blossoms and a Question

I finally have my card for My Time Made Easy's Pretty Patterns challenge ready for you.  I had made a card early because I knew I was going to have a crazy-busy week.  I was so proud of myself that I had my card ready 3 days early!  When I went to upload my card to the MTME Pretty Patterns folder I realized that my card didn't look anything like the sketch!  I had accidentally printed up the wrong sketch!  It was a sketch that we had used months ago.  While working on my card I kept thinking, "This sketch sure seems familiar!"  lol  I was able to use that card for my CropStop post but not MTME's.  You can either scroll down to see my card or click here.

Now for this week's card:  

I used the digi stamp set So Fortunate to print up the pretty Asian girl.  I colored her with copics and then fussy-cut her out.  Here's the copic list:

skin: E00, E0, E01, E02, R20 for cheeks

Dress: RV000, RV00, RV02

I used Spellbinders Floral Ovals to cut out the frame.  I wanted something special behind the girl image so I cut an oval out of some shiny paper that I found at The Paper Temptress store.  I sponged around the edge with one of Martha Stewart's pink inks.  

The designer paper I used is Blossoming Cherries.  I printed it at one quarter of an 8 1/2x11 inch sheet of white cardstock.  It was the perfect size for this project.

Blow is a photo of the three layers.   Instead of putting 3 stripes at the bottom, I decided to layer them and make them a little more fancy.  Notice the little white pearls?

I popped up the frame with pop dots and then popped up the girl image on pop dots to give it an even more 3-d effect.  I put little pink pearls around the frame and a little tiny white pearl in the flower in the girl's hair.  

 I am trying to figure out a better way to take my photos so that the true colors are represented.  I fiddle with two digi programs trying to get the lighting and the colors just right but this time it just didn't work out.  Several papercraft designers use their own little photo tent with light to get really amazing photos of their projects.  So my question to you is this:

How do you take photos of your crafting projects?  Do you use a photographer's tent or a special light?  I'm very interested to find out how you all do it!  Any tips or techniques you would like to share?

Come and join the fun at MTME's Pretty Patterns sketch challenge!  The new Pretty Palette challenge will be up tomorrow too.  Why not play along with both challenges?   

Thank you so much for stopping by!  I appreciate every visit and comment.  I hope you have a wonderful week and come back soon!  

Cupcake Birthday

Welcome to my post for CropStop's "Buttons and bows" challenge!  I LOVE buttons and bows and if you haven't already noticed, I placed my button right in the center of the bow.

Here is a close-up of the button and bow.  I love the soft touch that the crinkled hand-dyed seam binding gives.

I used digi paper & digi stamps from My Time Made Easy.  After I colored the cupcake with my copics I added a few touches with a shiny silver pen and my Gelly Roll "Clear Star" pen.  I left this picture a little darker so you can see the shimmer a little better.

After I cut out the image I sponged around the edges with SU's Pink Pirouette ink.  I used SU's Pink Pirouette paper for the backgroud - I first ran it through the CuttleBug swiss dots embossing folder and then cut it out with Spellbinders Doily Motiffs.  Afterwards I sponged around the edges with SU's Pretty in Pink ink.

You can see the fun dimensions in the photo below.  

I have something kind of funny to tell you... but it's kind of not.  I wanted to combine my design team posts from My Time Made Easy and CropStop and make one special card for you.  Well... I was dealing with a horrible migraine when I looked up the sketch for MTME (our design team has our own yahoogroup where the sketches are uploaded) and I accidentally printed up the wrong sketch!  It was a sketch that we did several months ago.  I kept thinking... boy, this sketch sure seems familiar, it must be similar to a previous one.  haha!  I didn't even think to go back and double-check!  So today's sketch is from MTME but is NOT the new sketch that is up today at the site!  hehe!  I have my card for the MTME challenge for this week almost done and I should have it up later today.  Good thing they are so forgiving over there at MTME.  ;)  The CropStop crew is really great too.  I LOVE working on both teams! 

Thank you so much for stopping by.  Come and play along with us at CropStop in our Buttons and Bows challenge.  As always I appreciate each and every visit and comment.  Your comments always make my day brighter!  

Other Challenges:
The Shabby Tea Room: inspiration photo & use a cupcake

What's in it:

Copics, Scotch Foam Tape, Honey Bee 5" Scissors,  Tim Holtz Tonic Studio Scissors,  Score-tape, Spellbinders Doily Motifs, Cuttlebug Swiss Dots, Spellbinders Circles 

Wow, I received "Top Mouse" award!

I was so excited to find out that I won one of three "Top Mouse" awards by WaltzingMouse Sketch contest for my Easter card below.  

Here's my blinkie: 

This is the 2nd time I've won this award.  The last time was probably a couple of years ago.  I haven't had much of an opportunity to play along with this challenge but I hope to participate more often.  I love WaltzingMouse Stamps and the owner, Claire Brennan is so sweet and kind.  She is a wonderful friend who has been so compassionate towards me and the loss of my daughter... not to mention how amazing her stamp sets are!  

I'm so glad that everyone liked my card so much!  Thank you for the honor!  :)

I truly appreciate each and every visit.  I hope that my little projects bring you even just a small portion of joy that they bring to me when I create them.  My mom did a lot of arts and crafts with me and my siblings when we were young which instilled in me a love of creating beautiful things with my own two hands.  Thank you for coming with me on my journey of learning new skills and using my creativity in fun ways.  I hope you all have a wonderful Easter weekend!  Sending love and virtual {{hugs}} to all my fellow crafters!  

Becky Fleck sketch challenge at CropStop for April

UPDATED TO ADD DETAILS ABOUT MY PROJECT - SCROLL DOWN TO SEE THEM BELOW!

We are having a terrific sketch challenge at CropStop to win Becky Fleck's new Spellbinder's die set: Pot Pourri.  Here is my sample of the sketch.

I wanted to get this posted so you can have as much time as possible to play along but since I've been dealing with headaches for the past few days I'm going to get some rest and then come back to share more photos and more information on what I used and how it came together.  I also found an awesome frame that I'm going to use with this "card" - which isn't really a card since it's 8"x10".  This challenge will run through the month of April and will end on April 30th 11:59am.  (I'll check on that and see if it was supposed to be PM instead).  You are welcome to enter up to 3 times!  So head on over to the CropStop blog and get started!


UPDATE:
Yay!  I finally have time to add the fun details about my project.  I really wanted to rock the sketch by Becky Fleck.  In case you don't know who Becky Fleck is, she is AMAZING!!!!   Becky is the owner of Page Maps and is now designing dies for Spellbinders.  For the next few months Becky is offering a monthly sketch to CropStop and the prize to one person (chosen at random) will receive one of Becky Fleck's die sets.  The set up for grabs is shown on CropStop's blog.


So back to the deets on my project... which is more than just a card because it's 8x10.


Here is Tilda ready for Easter with her bonnet, basket of flowers and even a bunny!  I paper pieced her dress and colored her with copics.  I added shading to the paper pieced dress using my copics as well.  I used my Matha Stewart score board and a Stampin' Up border punch to make the large rosette and then used

I made these sparkly butterflies using Martha Stewart punches and added Diamond Stickles to them.  I added some clear rhinestones to the center of the large butterfly.  I made the flowers using Memory Box Pinwheel Posies both the regular size and small.  I used a quilling tool to roll the dies after they were cut.  After I rolled up a flower, I took out the quilling tool and glued it together on the bottom.  I then added Diamond Stickles to some of the edges of each flower to add the shiny element, placed pink pearls in the centers and when they were dry, I adhered each of the flowers to the card.  

I found some awesome stamps called Recycled Rubber Art Stamps by ECOGREEN CRAFTS at Michaels.  The set I bought is Butterfly Post.  I LOVE this set!  I stamped the rectangular stamp found in the setwith Stampin' Up's Pink Pirouette ink.  I then used Spellbinders Becky Fleck Office Supplies to cut out the stamp and I adhered another little shiny butterfly to it. It's popped up on pop dots.  

Below is a close-up of the large butterfly.  I thought it would be fun to create a swirl out of Diamond Stickles to simulate a flight pattern for the butterfly.  I must not have made big enough dots because you can't see it very well.  So there's proof below that it's there.  lol

I made these cute flags using pins with heart shaped tops on them.  I first put a bead onto the pin then folded the flag around the pin using strong glue to hold it there. I then added another bead and then a "crimping bead" which I then crimped into place with a crimping tool.  The tool basically crushes the crimping bead against the pin so it holds everything above it in place. 

Here's photo to show you all the great dimensions used in this project.  You can click on this photo to see a larger size.  

Don't forget our CAS (Clean and Simple) for CropStop's weekly challenge.  You can see my card here.   


Other challenges:
CityCrafter - Hats off!  (Tilda is wearing a beautiful Spring hat)
Simon Says Stamp - use your favorite tool (I have so many favorites!) - I chose my Martha Stewart score board & SU's border punch to make the rosette.
AllSorts Challenge:

I used pink, yellow and blue (the dp behind Tilda is yellow with touches of pink and blue).  ALSO, I used pearls as the flower centers, the striped paper across the page and pink. Lots of pink!


CutiePie Challenge: your favorite cutie - Tilda is such a cutie!

7Kidschallenge: Shades of Spring
Just Magnolia - Anything goes!
Flutter By Wednesday's - use a butterfly - I used 4!  :)
Sweet Stampin' challenge: Dies & Doodles - I used quite a few dies on my projects and the doodles part would be the shiny swirl underneath the large butterfly.
Magnolia-licious challenge: inspirations photo:

I wasn't able to get eggs onto the project but it has a lot of the colors and Easter theme to it.  :)


(whew!  I finally had a chance to link up all the challenges I made this card for.)

Thank you for stopping by.  I appreciate each and every visit.  Don't forget to leave a comment - they make my day!  And besides, everyone loves comments, right?


Have a wonderful Easter weekend!

Easter Blessings

Good morning!  I can't believe that Easter is just around the corner.  Do you have any special plans?  We are going to get together with family, have dinner and let the little kids hunt for eggs.  It's going to be fun.  I miss having little children who get excited to hunt for Easter eggs but my nieces and nephews are so cute... it's always fun to spend time with them and the rest of our family.

This week at CropStop we are to make a one-layer card.  I don't do too many of them because I love my layers!  But this card came together fairly quickly and I think it's kind of cute.    

I cut out the card using Spellbinders Blossom die.  The way to do it is to first score and fold the card in half.  Have the edge of the spellbinders hang over the folded edge of the card as shown below.

Below is a picture of the underside of the card.  See how the cutting edge of the spellbinders is beyond the folded edge?

Below is a picture of the card after being cut out and embossed.    

After I took the picture above I put the card back inside the spellbinders and used a sponge to lightly add pink ink around the edges.  I'm sorry that I forgot to take a picture of it.  

I used Waltzingmouse Stamp set Spring Baskets for the image and Sentiment and colored it with  Copics.  I then added Diamond Stickles and used a small paint brush to spread it around evenly. 

I added a pink bow and viola'!  My card was done!

Please join us in CropStop's One Layer Card Challenge. It's actually not hard at all!  

I will be back later today to update my other post: 

Becky Fleck sketch challenge at CropStop for April

I have the photos ready now, all I have to do is write it all up. 

Thank you for stopping by and like everyone, I LOVE comments!  

Other challenges: 

WaltzingMouse Sketch Challenge - one layer card