Stinky Spotlight... Wha?!

Good Sunday Stampers!!! I wanted to share this project with you that I got to make with my Club girls last week. I had such a great time making this card not just cause it is "So Stinkin' Cute" but because I am in LOVE with the technique that we did on it. This is called the SPOTLIGHT technique. Super easy and such an impact too.

I used a strip of textured kiwi kiss and a die cut top note die piece of Melon Mambo that frames the top note die piece of whisper white. I stamped my image on that whisper white using jet black staz-on ink. Then on a scrap white piece I stamped the image again and colored it in and added some Cosmo Glitter. Punch out a portion of your colored image with the 1-1/4" circle punch, then layer that onto a 1-3/8" circle punch piece black card stock. Then attach it on top of the image lining up the image so it looks connected. I raised my image up with dimensionals.

I added the sentiment punched out with the window word punch and layering it onto a piece of Melon Mambo punched with a Modern Label punch.

Ok, so this is obviously a picture taken several days later, but see how I added this BEAUTIFUL glitter around the edges of the Mambo top note die accent piece. I LOVE glitter and the more the better! You should see how sparkly this card is in person, if you are ever in the neighborhood you are more than welcome to stop by and see first hand. :)

I hope you enjoyed this spontaneous project today... I have some exciting class and event details that I will post in the next few days. you will have to keep your eyes peeled to get the first peek for it. Oh, and I made some updates to my craft space too. I will take more pics this week and share those as well. Thanks for stopping by tonight and until next time~ TTFN

I {Heart} Hearts Theme Challenge #52

Good Morning Stampers!! I am so happy to show you guys this weeks project for the Hand Stamped Sentiments I {Heart} Hearts Theme Challenge #52. I used it for my club meeting project also, yep 2 birds 1 stone- LOVE IT!!! So here is what we have ahead for us today, any project that has hearts and your theme. I can't wait to see what you all create. Lets see what I have for you all...

I really liked this project because it was simple and textured. I have to tell you though I had to stop myself from continuing to add more and more to it. I tend to think a card is too simple for my clubs and then before I know it I have made it so complicated that it takes forever to finish... My ladies hate that, and I must admit it frustrates me too. So I tried to keep it simple and adorable and then I have to walk away before I touch it anymore...

I used the "wet stamping" technique that I saw in my Stampin' Success Magazine. I can't remember which month it was from but it was cool either way. You get the watercolor paper totally wet, then stamp your image. The image bleeds a bit. I used Melon Mambo for that step. Then once the paper is dry, you use your Stamp-A-Ma-Jig and stamp the same image on top using a slightly darker ink - I used Rich Razzleberry. Then I roughed up the edges of both my WC paper and my Razzleberry layer. I added a button to hide the flower that I was trying to NOT get on the card. :)

I stamped the background with the 3 heart image in this adorable stamp set. I randomly placed the images using the Melon Mambo ink. Then on a scrap piece of the same color paper I stamped more hearts and punched them out using the coordinating punch (3 heart punch) and layered those embellishments on top to add dimension.

I made sure to cut off the edges when they over hang, because I think that is really COOL looking. i don't know WHY I love that look so much, but I do.

I hope that you enjoyed this weeks project and I hope that you hop on over to Hand Stamped Sentiments to submit your creation! Stay tuned as I will be posting the other club project later this week. Don't forget that SALE-A-BRATION starts TODAY!!! You can click HERE and start shopping NOW. For every $50 you spend on merchandise you get to choose a free item out of the Sale-A-Bration brochure. Get your wish list handy and receive free stuff just for getting the things you want!

Late but not Forgotten...

Hello Stampers, well it finally happened. I finally got the room finished and kept it clean long enough for the pics to be taken. ;)

Now remember, this room is nothing spectacular so don't get your expectations up too high. Here is my space with he doors shut- before you open them up to enter the world of craftiness. :) I keep them shut when the kids are out wandering around, it is amazing that my own kids are not that interested in coming in here to man-handle the items inside BUT their friends LOVE to come in and look around. One of these days I need to do a class for my tween neighbors and kids.

Here is the room in all its glory- I have had this desk (which is actually a dinning table) for some time, and it is great because it is nice and large. I keep all my papers in the rolling carts under my table. It works great, I roll them out when I am being creative and when I am not using them they fit nicely under the table and I still have a ton of room to sit and "blurf" (that's blog surfing in case you were wondering- look my genus is showing *wink*).

I bought additional tables for behind my desk and placed all my storage shelving units under them then I packed them full with all the stuff I have that I couldn't stand looking at. When I want to get crafty I open the fabric covers and there are all my goodies in all their splendor! But the nice thing is that when the room is not in use everything (for the most part) is hidden away and looks neat and clean. I would love to hide the little white storage bins under there as well, but I ran out of space... maybe I need one more table??

I wasn't too keen on the rug that I inherited from my husband when we swapped rooms, but with the new fabric I chose it all coordinates nicely. I am still working on finding a new home for the storage cubes in the corner, or maybe i will paint them black so at least it matches. I am too anal retentive for all these mix and match items.

I finally got my display shelves all by themselves, I think it looks so much better and uncluttered. I just have to work on getting new and updated projects for my display. I guess I should have taken better pics of my Definitely Decorative wall art that I made for the room, but I didn't do that too well- sorry. I still need to complete the rest of my wall art- and putting them up. It is still a little work in progress.

Well, I hope you all enjoyed the little look see into my crafty space- now the only thing left to get is a space heater so I am actually able to go in there while it is cool outside. There is a large window in the room and it gets chilly in there when you are not movin' around a lot, so once I get the heater then I will probably never leave the room. :) I hope you guys enjoyed a glimpse into my little world and until next time~ TTFN

HSS Sketch Theme #51

Good Morning Stampers! I love this weeks Sketch template for Hand Stamped Sentiments challenge. Check out the template that is our inspiration- lets see what you can create from this sketch. Hop on over to HSS and play along.

This week I created this cute card. I love Kiwi Kiss, it is one of most favorite greens that is in our color families. I love this designer paper too, I still have a bit left over and am so sad that it is retired. I used it all the time for a good long while there and just came across it a few days ago. I have been dying to get this sentiment in the stamp set but haven't broken down and done it yet, so I printed it off of MDS (My Digital Studio) and mounted it on another piece of card stock, I think it turned out nicely.

I love layering the scallop and circles, I cant wait for Sale-A-Bration to come around so I can get the larger circle punch and the large scallop dies to make even larger embellishments. The only thing I wish I had done differently is the background. I wish I had run it through my texture plates and given the card stock some design. I didn't think about it until I looked at it here in the photo... ugh.

I love using the scallop edge punch as well, I have almost perfected the art of getting every scallop perfect. I am very slow and meticulous when I use this punch cause I hate to have one scallop that is messed up and the rest look normal.

I hope you enjoyed this weeks project, and I really appreciate your patience in regards to my craft space update. I have had it like 90% done for almost 2 weeks and then my church calling took me away and then I got a stomach bug and when I went past it today to take photos- somehow it was a disaster... so give me a few more days to get a couple more things up and the place cleaned and then I PROMISE I will share it with you all. I fear that I have built up the expectation for this room way too high, it really is quite ordinary. Thanks for stopping by and until next time~ TTFN

HSS Punch Challenge #50

Good Morning Stampers!!! I am thrilled to share my project with you for this weeks HSS Challenge, it is using the art of PUNCHES!!! I love crating different things using my punches, and I thought I would take it up a notch this week for this challenge. It is fairly easy for me to make things with paper and punches... I have made Frankensteins, reindeer, Santa's, and a number of other things using paper and punches. BUT I thought it to be a bit more difficult to create objects/images using punches in my MDS (My Digital Studio). Lets see what I have to share-

I have my daughters Bday coming up this weekend, and thought that this challenge would be great to incorporate into her invitations. I made 2 for her to choose from, can you guess which one she picked??

For this invite I used the scallop edge punch, corner round punch, decorative label punch, oval punch, window word punch, and square punch. I thought the cake turned out nice, my only complaint is that it was hard for me to create a 3-D effect with the punched images, see once you start to layer them on top of each other when you use a drop shadow it messes up the illusion you are going for.

For this invite I used the butter fly punch, small heart punch, oval punch (in white- you can't see them), and scallop circle punch. I finished off her dress with some satin ribbon and a satin bow.

So can you guess which one she wanted to use??

She chose the birthday cake one, which I have to admit at first glance is the one I loved the most. BUT I revamped the dress one and used it for a church invite (the Relief Society was doing a special event collecting dresses) but after I printed them out we covered the red dress with red glitter and MAN it ended up being my FAV! I was a beautiful red glittery focal point and they turned out GREAT!!!

Thanks so much for stopping by today and jump on over to Hand Stamped Sentiments to submit your creation for our challenge this week. We would love to see what you have to share!

On a side note, those of you waiting to see what my craft room looks like since the re-do...well hold tight. I am still working on it, I have had a few "life" things take priority this last week and so give me a bit- I planned on finishing it yesterday and woke up with a nasty sty and spent the day with a compress on my face...ugh!!! Stay tuned for pics :) Thanks for stopping by and until next time~ TTFN

HSS Winter Blues Theme #49

Good Morning Stampers!!! This weeks Hand Stamped Sentiments Challenge is "Winter Blues". I have to say that living here in TX doesn't really give me winter blues so much... unless you have the grey Sky's like we have had lately. I know I shouldn't complain about our winter, for the most part it is been upper 60's lower to mid 70's- yeah I know pretty wonderful. BUT I dug deep for my inspiration for this weeks project. I went straight for my MDS (My digital Studio) and played with all the blue hues we have available there...

I then chose a template and went to town. I played with tone on tone images accented with some drop shadows, I think the effect turned out GREAT!

Of course I had to add a couple of ADORABLE pics of my kids and it works great, since I didn't do Christmas Cards this year I will send these out as a new year "Howdy". I really like the simple layout and the mono-chromatic feel of this card. I think it brings all the focus to the kido's and then you realize how cute the rest of it is. :)

I hope you enjoyed this weeks project and I hope you decide to head over to HSS and play along with us this week. I want to see how creative you can get with only using BLUES... how blue are you?!

Keep you eye out, I am remodeling my craft room- not to mention moving it to a whole new area of my house... once I have it completed I will share it with you all. I have some painting, sewing, furniture assembly, and of course CLEANING ahead. Hope to share it soon, and until next time~ TTFN