Paper Smooches August DT Blog Hop

Hi all!

It’s another great day for a Blog Hop.

Today, I’m hopping with the Paper Smooches design team.

It’s Pep Rally week in the Paper Smooches world and the gang is sharing a sampling of the Paper Smooches September stamp release with you!  The three NEW clear stamp sets will be available to purchase at 12:01am, Eastern time…on September 1st.  You will find them HERE.

To add extra fun to our blog hop…we are offering up a prize!  Just leave a comment on any of the five design team blogs listed below for your chance to win one of the three new stamp sets!  (you do not need to comment on all blogs to qualify)  You have until midnight MT on Friday, August 31st to leave a comment.  Please check all five blogs on Saturday, September 1st to see if you are one of the five lucky winners.

• Emily Leiphart
• Heidi Van Laar
• Kalyn Kepner
• Laurie Schmidlin
• Teri (<——-here you are)

To increase your chances of winning:

1. Leave a comment on this blog post.

2. Tell us that you Facebooked about our blog hop.

3. Tell us that you Tweeted about our hop.

4. Tell us that you posted on your blog about our blog hop.

(which means that you have up to four chances to win on each blog)

So let’s get on with the project, shall we?! 🙂

I used Paper Smooches’ new Great Chemistry set. Every thing stamps (with the exception of the little heart) is from that new set.
The little heart is from the Pip Squeaks set.

One little side note: I did draw a line to hang the lightbulb from.
Just a fun way to get a little extra mileage from that stamp.

Alright so that’s it! 🙂

Thanks for bee-bopping by today. I’ll be back again later.

Go-to Challenge: Die-cutting with Simon Says Stamp

Hi everybody!

How is your Wednesday?

Well, I’m happy to be hopping and playing along with the Go-to Gals for another challenge!

We challenged ourselves to make something for today’s challenge with some of the exclusive dies from Simon Says Stamp! (They make awesome exclusive stamps, too!)

So with that, meet today’s card (and my take on the challenge).

My die of choice was their Fresh Daisies die!

(Oh la la!)

I also used a sentiment from SSS’s Absolutely Delightful stamp set.

I did something a bit different with the die. Rather than using plain old, yawn-worthy paper, I die cut fine grit sandpaper with it. Here’s a closer look at it.

Here’s my process for die-cutting sandpaper.

Start with a fine grit paper.

You want to have the inside of the die (the cutting part) to face the not Gritty side, especially with a thin wafer style die.

Set a little Washi tape (or masking tape) on the die to anchor it onto the sandpaper.

Zip it through your die-cut machine.  (I have a couple machines, but I often use this old retired Revolution machine. I really love it for thin dies. If you see one at garage sale, snatch it up.)

And the end result is something like this here.

Want to win a Fresh Daisies die from Simon Says Stamp? Here’s your chance. Leave a comment for me and I’ll pick one one person at random to win.

And be sure to check out the blogs of the other Go-to Gals to see their take on the challenge and what dies they used (oh yes, and for a chance to win dies off of their blogs, too).

• Betsy
• Julie
• Jennifer
• Windy
• Kim

And one more thing: Be sure to comment on Jennifer’s post on Paper Crafts Connection today. 🙂  Heidi at Simon Says Stamp! generously put together a pack of $100 worth of their exclusive stamps and dies, in honor today’s hop! Woo-to-the-hoo!

A big, big, big thank you goes out to Simon Says Stamp! for being so generous! Thank you again, Heidi!

And a big thank you to all of you for stopping by today!

Zva Creative August DT Blog Hop!

Hi all!

I’m lucky to be joining my buddies at Zva Creative for their August Blog Hop! Everyone is  happy to have you join us and hope you enjoy all that we have to share with you along the way!

The Blog Hop begins at Zva Creative’s blog! Be sure head on over to check it out! Leave a comment there for a chance to win an extra prize package just for visiting the blog and telling us that you stopped by! You will also find a complete list of all the participating blogs there (in case there is a glitch along the way).

As you know, Zva offers many beautiful color groupings for pearls, flowers and crystals.  If you like during the hop, you can find a list of stores and online retailers that sell Zva HERE.

I was lucky to make a few projects with Zva’s Summer release so I’m sharing those today.

Meet #1.

Meet #2.

Meet #3.

Meet #4.

And meet #5.

Whew. That was a lot of projects. 🙂

Every single crystal you see on them is from Zva. Everything else is from my sorta controlled/on the brink of chaos stash of supplies. 😉

If you would like to play along with the Zva team , just follow along the blog path.  I am linking to one of the Zva designers and that designer is linking to the next and so on. Be prepared to be inspired along the way!

Hidden on FIVE of the designer’s blogs is a Zva Creative prize package! Winners will be randomly chosen after the hop is over, so it’s important to leave a comment on as many blogs as you can along the way.

The Blog Hop starts today, August 27th and runs through midnight US Eastern Standard Time on Tuesday, August 28th. 

The 5 winners will be announced on Wednesday, August 29th on Zva Creative’s blog. We will do our best to notify each winner, but it’s best if you can pop in to Zva’s blog on Wednesday.

All you need to do is leave a comment on this Blog Hop post… you do not need to leave a comment on each and every designer’s blog post to qualify. However, the more times you comment along the blog hop path, the more chances you will have to win.

We also thought it would be more fun to add even more chances to win our blog hop prize!  To increase your chances of winning:

* Comment to let us know that you posted on your Facebook page about our hop (link to any of the blog hop posts)

* Comment to let us know that you “tweeted” about our hop (link to any of the blog hop posts)

* Comment to let us know that you asked your local store to carry Zva creative products.  If they already do, that’s fantastic, maybe you can suggest other products that they don’t carry.

*Hop over to Zva’s blog and leave a comment there to tell us that you made it there!

The blog hop begins here at Zva Creative’s blog. Your next stop is the blog of the super lovely and extra fabulous, Robin Shakoor! Take it away, Robin. Enjoy the hop, and thank you for stopping by today.

P.S. Mark your calendar to join the Zva crew again on September 24^th for the next Zva blog hop!

Today’s card (8-25)

Hi all!

Another day. Another card. 🙂

Made this one using the August Greenhouse Society stamp set from Technique Tuesday.

I was inspired to do something different this time. Successful, I don’t know. But fun was had along the way.

Here’s what I did:

* I folded a paper towel into a rectangle.

* I dumped a little bit of bleach on it and then used it like an ink pad to ink up the poppy stamp.

* I stamped the poppies on black cardstock. While I let the bleach dry (it turned the paper kind of an orange color where I stamped), I cleaned my stamp FAST (and hard) with soap and water.

* I took a bunch of color pencils and just started coloring.

* After I finished my coloring, I came in with a white pencil and added some random sketchy marks around and on the flower. I think it just kind of gives it a more artsy touch.

Again, this was really was just a fun playful experiment this time. Some times, it’s way more about the journey than the final result. 🙂

That’s all for now. Be sure to check out the Technique Tuesday blog today. There’s some great projects made with this stamp set by the TT Creative Team.

See you again soon!

Avocado Arts: Project Share (8-22)

Hi all!

Meet today’s card.

I played again with the Perfectly Perfect Day set from Avocado Arts. Can’t get enough of the set’s fun little tree.

This time, I punched a bunch of circles from cardstock and added leaves and gems to a few of them. Then, I dumped them all over the tree. Ok, maybe not quite dumped them, but but you get the point. 😉

I stamped the clouds on felt and then fussy cut them with a good, sharp pair of scissors, which to be honest is pretty hard to find around here these days. (Ahhh, the chaos of my crafty space, but we will save that story for another day.)

I’m not the only one playing with Avocado Arts stamps today. Head to the blogs of these sweet girls to see their newest projects made with the Perfectly Perfect Day set:

• Emily B.
• Kelley
• Emily L.
• Julie

And Avocado Arts, of course. They really do like it when folks tell ’em, “Hi, just because.”

See you again soon.

Have a super day.

Stamp Spotlight: Bright Idea

Hey friends!

I’m back with another stamp set focus from Technique Tuesday’s Summer 2012 release.

Today, I’m focusing on my Bright Idea set.

Just a fun little set here. It’s especially designed with card makers in mind, but some of the elements could could be used on a scrapbook page.

The very first stamp made for this set was the light bulb.

(Made with Bright Idea and So Very Thankful by Ali Edwards)

I really love all the hanging light bulbs that are are prevalent right now in home decor. And I have to say that the little bulb was definitely influenced by that trend.

The set also has another hanging lamp.

I have a lamp a lot like this one hanging in my kitchen. 🙂

One of the things I like to do is stamp this light with a light color and then overstamp one of the little hearts on top of it with a darker color.

And it’s fun to mix and match the lights in the set together.

The set has two standing lamps.

One has a heart cut in it. You can leave it blank or stamp the small hearts inside it (and above it if you use a darker ink).

You’ll see the little hearts are purposely smaller than the big heart cut-out of the lamp.

And you don’t always have to use a light when you make a card with this set.

The itty bitty hearts make for fun cards, too.

And that’s Bright Idea for you.

I’ll be taking a break on the Stamp Set focus for a couple days and sharing some other thing on the old blog-a-roo. I hope you will swing by.

See you again later.

GCD Studios: Vacation time = Picture time (8-16)

Hi again!

Oh boy, do I love going on vacation!

And do I love taking pictures when I go! It’s just so addicting.

I can’t remember the last time I went on vacation and didn’t take less than 300 pictures. Yes, 300 pictures. 300 pictures to get in my scrapbooks. And, if I am lucky, it happens before the next time I hit the road but not always.

With my next trip looming, I decided to whipped up this scrapbook page the other day with a bunch of pictures from a trip earlier this year to Disneyland.

I wanted to get as many pictures as I could on the page since, well, I have still have a pile of about 200 more from the trip to scrapbook. (wink!)

You see four pictures right on the top, but guess what? There are actually six!

I took a 4″ x 12″ piece of paper and folded it half to make a card of sorts. I put two pictures of my friend, Kim (That’s her on the roller coaster!), on the outside. Open it up and you’ll find two more pictures, plus a little journaling.

Because this page is all about a happy vacation place, I wanted to give the page a few fun colorful touches.

I gave the page little bitty pops of color by taking small strips of paper from the Oh Happy Day! and Flower Child collections and fanning them out here.

And here.

Supplies: Amber’s Avenue paper – Oh Happy Day!, Hailey paper – Oh Happy Day!, Swirling paper – Flower Child, Striking Stripe paper – Flower Child, Provence Floral paper – Bonjour!

See you again soon!

Stamp Spotlight: Eek

Hello again!

So I’m spotlighting another one of my stamp sets from Technique Tuesday’s Summer release.

Today, I’d thought I would talk a little bit about the Eek set.

As you can tell, it’s a just fun little graphic, goofy twist on Halloween.

Pretty much all the sayings can be mixed and matched with the goofy little characters. I think this one especially has a lot of card and paper crafting potential.

The first stamp I designed for the set was the spider.
I tried to make it a friendly spider. 🙂 It can be either a girl or a boy.

(I added the word “friend” here from another set – So Very Thankful by Ali Edwards.)

I really like adding wiggle eyes to the spider. It’s just fun and super goofy!

You can also go without and and make a more spooky spider. Red eyes are optional. 😉

(This one uses also uses one of Ali’s stamps. The rectangle is from her Leaves are Lovely set.)

The stars in the Eek set are fun to stamp over and over to make little borders. I also love using them to decorate up little scenes.

I used them to just add a little pop on these Halloween-scene inspired treat bags.

For each tag, I stamped the pumpkin twice, once on my tag and once on orange paper. A 1″ circle punch worked well for cutting them out.

The pumpkin goes pretty much with all the phrases in the set.

I think it would be pretty cute to add the bat to one of these tags, too.

Oh, in case you are wondering about the treat bags, I used vellum mini envelopes.

I put candy inside each envelope, put the tag on top, punched a hole through the envelope and tag and added twine. Easy peasy.

And there you have Eek! Thanks for spending some time here today.

I’ll be highlighting another stamp set tomorrow.

Stamp Spotlight: Awesome

Hi everybody!

I’m taking a break from my regular “Today’s card” blog posts and  am going to spend the next few days highlighting some new stamp sets from Technique Tuesday.

As many of you know, I’ve been a big fan of Technique Tuesday for, stinking gosh, ever. But what you may not know is some of the stamps that are part of their Summer 2012 release are ones that I designed for them.

Today, I’m going to focus on the Awesome stamp set.

Ever wonder how someone comes up with a set? Well I designed this set with the encouragement of TT’s Sam. She was figuring out another stamp set (Thank You) and asked me what if I had any ideas. I suggested, “Thank you for being awesome.” Well, that spurred her to say, “You need to make an Awesome set!” And the rest is history. 🙂

This set was designed with a number of words and phrases that can work together.

There’s also a few random shapes (stars and an arrow).

You’ll see the set has two large circle stamps  – Awesome and Cool.

I made the cool one so folks would have an alternative to using the awesome circle all the time.

These word circles also work with a large circle punch.

I designed to work with a 1 3/4″ circle punch. But let me say that I really love using them with larger than that circles punches, too.

While I am sharing cards with you today, I think this card has some serious scrapbook potential, too.

Alright so that’s Awesome. I’ll spotlight another stamp set tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by, and for learning a little bit more about Awesome.

Technique Tuesday: Greenhouse Society (8-15)

(This is my second post of the day! Be sure to check the one below this one, too!)

Hello all!

A little “somethin’ something else” to share today.

This is a little something I cooked up with the August Greenhouse Society stamp set from Technique Tuesday.

Here’s the whole set. It goes on sale today. Just watch the Technique Tuesday Web site for it.

Love this set because… gosh… poppies are just such pretty flowers.

I lived on the edge and decided to go a more collage style route by stamping the flowers on patterned paper and then doing a little bit of paper piecing.

The sentiment is from another Technique Tuesday stamp set (So Very Thankful by Ali Edwards).

Head over to the TT blog today for some more ideas for this new set.

See you again soon.