Do you like Sugar Skull?

Hello crafty friends,

Well, my niece loves all things sugar skulls related, so I made her this:  

and the Winner is...

Hello crafty friends, 

A big THANK YOU to everyone for participating in our Joint Blog Hop. Based on all the comments we received, it was a huge success for such a great cause!

The Grand Prize Winner of a $25 gift certificate from Die-Versions and a $25 gift certificate from Sparkle N Sprinkle is.......

CONGRATULATIONS Theresa/Scrapper69  
Please contact Anne at icinganne@yahoo.com to claim your prizes.  Happy Shopping!

Theresa's comment came from my blog:

Scrapper69August 1, 2015 at 4:42 PM

Oh WOW!! Your projects are amazing!!! You're right about it affect our pets as well... My brother has lost 2 dogs to it.... it was very hard for him & his wife since they had no children... they're pets where their children... it was heartbreaking for them.... I love seeing the different version of encouragement in your cards.. :)

Theresa

Cancer Awareness Kitties

Hello crafty friends, 

My Cancer Awareness kitty cards got such great reviews that I'm entering them on these challenges: 

A Gem of a Challenge - Animals and Birds
Brown Sugar Challenge #157 - Animals
ABC-challenge - O is for open - Anything goes

Cancer is very real and very scary.  Unfortunately, it's something that can strike our pets as much as us.  That's why I choose to feature cats on some of my Cancer Awareness cards.  I truly believe we can find a cure for ALL Cancers, we just have to keep fighting.

For these two card I used the super cute Kitty Love stamp set by Sparkle & Sprinkle and the Whispers - Fight It die from Die-Versions.  I LOVE the tall kitty, so on my first card I made him the star and hanged the Fight It die around his next.   I used yellow for the cancer ribbon, because the Animal Cancer Awareness Ribbon is yellow w/tiny paw prints on it.

On the second card, I used just the ribbons from the Fight It die, but if you look close you will see that I used the tiny ribbon from the boxing glove around necks of the taller kitties.

Thank you for stopping bye :)

Cancer Awareness Hop

Hello crafty friends,

Sparkle N Sprinkle and Die-Versions are partnering up for a very special joint blog hop, called the Awareness Campaign.  A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the newly released Die-Versions dies and the stamp sets revealed in the joint blog hop will go to help with cancer research. Almost every one has been touched by cancer is one way or another.  Either you or a family member has had cancer or you know someone who has had cancer.  The Designers from both teams are joining together to help the fight to eradicate all cancers by inspiring you.

Not only are we debuting NINE new Die-Versions low profile dies (July 2015 Reveal - scroll down to the end of the reveal), Sparkle N Sprinkle is also revealing THREE stamp sets for this Awareness Campaign.

The SNS sets are:

Pink Ribbon Background 408  (digi version DIGI408)

Survivor 713    (digi version DIGI713T)

Awareness 714   (digi version  DIGI714T)

A Grand Prize winner will be chosen from comments left on the Designers' blogs and will be announced on August 4th.  You won't know who the Mystery Designer is until after the Joint Blog hop, so remember to leave a comment with each of the Designers.  

The Winner will be announced on the Die-Versions Facebook page, the Sparkle N Sprinkle Facebook page, the DV Blog, and on the SNS Blog and will receive a $25 gift certificate from BOTH Die-Versions and Sparkle N Sprinkle.

We hope you enjoy the Awareness Joint Blog Hop as much as we have enjoyed creating new projects for it.  We also hope that we have inspired you as well.  Thanks for joining us and remember to comment on each of the Designers' blogs to be eligible for the Grand Prize.  (We love reading them too since your comments also inspire us.)

Cancer is very real and very scary.  Unfortunately, it's something that can strike our pets as much as us.  That's why I choose to feature cats on some of my Cancer Awareness cards.  I truly believe we can find a cure for ALL Cancers, we just have to keep fighting.

For these two card I used the super cute Kitty Love stamp set by Sparkle & Sprinkle and the Whispers - Fight It die from Die-Versions.  I LOVE the tall kitty, so on my first card I made him the star and hanged the Fight It die around his next.   I used yellow for the cancer ribbon, because the Animal Cancer Awareness Ribbon is yellow w/tiny paw prints on it.

On the second card, I used just the ribbons from the Fight It die, but if you look close you will see that I used the tiny ribbon from the boxing glove around necks of the taller kitties.

For my next set of cards, I went w/a more girly theme...  I used the Pink Ribbon Background Digital Stamp as my background.  I printed the digital image on a laser printer and using a hot laminating machine, I pink foiled everything that printed black.  

Here's a better look at the foil, which I also used on an adhesive backed die cut Whispers - Awareness Doily die from Die-Versions.

I used the same pink foil enhanced Whispers - Awareness Doily die from Die-Versions for this card...

and for my last card...I die cut three Whispers - Awareness Doily dies in three colors to create my flower element.

You should have come from Patti's blog; if you get lost along the way, you can always head back to the Die-Versions Blog or the Sparkle N Sprinkle Blog for the complete list of participants. Your next stop along the way is Marie's blog.

Scrapy Land Challenge #21

Hello crafty friends, 

Today is July 5th and I get to play in my craft room all day :)

The first thing I did was clean my desk, followed by making a card for Scrapy Land challenge #21. The theme for this challenge is ANYTHING GOES using dies that Scrapy Land sells. 

For this challenge I went all girly and got out my shoe dies from Die-Versions:

I create a shaker card with the quote "Give a girl the right shoes, and she can conquer the world" by Marilyn Monroe.  I die cut all the shoes in the Shoe Collection Wee Petites die from black glitter paper and glue them to the inside of my heart shaped window.  I used the Little B heart dies to cut my window.  On the front of the card is a black glitter paper die cut Whispers Nice Heel die. 

Thanks for stopping bye to check out my card/blog.  Please stay a while and look around.  I love comments, so feel free to say Hi.  Until next time, take care.

Happy 4th of July

Hello crafty friends,

I hope your July 4th weekend is FUN packed.  We started ours by attending a Hot Air Balloon Festival a few towns over.   Tomorrow we'll be celebrating the 4th with my In-Laws.

Normally I don't do any crafting during the week, because by the time I get home from work and eat dinner, I'm usually mentally done.   But this week, work was lite and I was able to leave early a couple of days.  I put the extra time at home to good use, no I didn't do any cleaning, I craft, of course!

I started a Art Journal page celebrating American's birthday.  Here's the finished page displayed with other patriotic items, like the ceramic flag plate I made last month:

Here's a few other views of the page

I used the following Die-Version dies:
the Whispers - Independence Bell
the Whispers - Statue Of Liberty
the Whispers - Patriotic Banner
the Sole Sentiments - Happy Birthday, a top favorite of mine!
the Font - Magical for the USA letters

I also used a die cut of the Whispers - Bricks Background die to create a stencil, which I used to apply white embossing paste.

The black text comes from an older stamp set called Americana Silhouettes by Tim Holtz.

The flag was a free clip art I found on the internet.  I sized it to take up most of a 8.5x11 sheet of cards stock and printed it. I fussy cut it and glued it to my page using gel medium, 




Thanks for stopping bye to see how my page turned out. Have a safe and fun holiday weekend.

Bow Wrapped Birthday Wishes

Hello crafty friends,

Here's my card for Scrapyland's Challenge #18 (and my 2nd entry for their Guest Designer call).  The theme was birthdays/celebrations using any brand of die Scrapyland sells.     

For this card I used three of the Elizabeth Craft Designs Candle dies, cutting them out of white and baby blue glitter papers.  

I also used, one of the Elizabeth Craft Designs Four Bows dies, cutting it out of white and pink glitter papers.

And as my finishing touch,  I used the Die-Versions Sweet Wordlets Happy and Die-Versions Sweet Wordlets Birthday dies for my "Happy Birthday".  

I love how simple, but elegant this card turned out.   Thanks for stopping bye today.  Until next time, take care.

Anything Goes

Hello crafy friends,

It's Saturday, May 15th 10:30am and I just found out about the Scrapyland Guest Designer call and I know I want to submit a card.  Now I should be working on the three cards I need for later today (2 Birthday cards and 1 Mother's Day card)... LOL  

I have a lovely bridal card to show you today. 

I started by covering my card base with wood grain pattern paper.  Next I die cut several of the Die-Namites Beautiful Flowers die, because I trimmed sections to fit them on my card.  I wanted to create background of flowers instead of die cut clusters.  

Next I stamped, colored and glittered my Stamping Bella bride.  I added foam tape under her for dimension and attached her to the card. 

I glued an Elizabeth Craft Best Wishes die cut at the bottom of her dress and added tiny pearls to the card.

I'm past the point were I have friends getting married, so I will just hold on to this lovely card until the next generation is of age.

Thank you for stopping bye my blog today. Please stay a while and browse some older post.  I LOVE comments, so please leave me some feedback.  Take care.

Welcome Die-Versions Friends!

Dear Die-Versions Fans,

In honor of National Scrapbook Day and Mother's Day we on the Die-Versions Design Team have come up with a fun Blog Hop and Card Challenge.  The Mother's Day Card Challenge will begin on May 5th and run thru May 11th and the winners will be announced on the Die-Versions Blog on May 15th. 

The Design Team will be picking 5 winners from the Mother's Day Card Challenge.  The theme for this Challenge is to make a Mother's Day Card.  To be eligible to be one of the 5 Lucky winners you have to comply with the following:

*  Your card must be newly created and PLEASE, no back linking

*  Please be a follower of the Die-Versions' blog along with the Design Team Members Blogs (listed below)

*  You need to leave a comment on the Die-Versions' blog and each of the Design Team Members blogs (listed below)

*  You must link your Mother's Day card with the inlinkz link on the Die-Versions' blog  

*  We would love it if you used a Die-Versions die in your card, but that is not mandatory!

I love the Whispers - Vase of Roses die, so for this card I die cut it twice, so that I would have green leafs and red flowers. I cut the red flowers and glued them over their green counterparts.   

I created my scalloped opening by die cutting the Whispers - Daisy Chain Scallop die from my background pattern paper.  The mom die cut comes from the Sweet Spot #1 Mom die.  

Here's a close up of the card:
   


For my second card I used the beautiful font called Magical to spell MOM and framed it with the lovely Daisy Frame.

Thank you for stopping bye. Your next hop should take you to Patti's blog.  The list of Design Team Members Blogs:

Anne

Archana

Emilia

Lisa

Lori

Mary (you are here)

Patti 

Have fun hopping and don't forget to leave a comment on the Die-Versions blog and the DV Design Team members listed above blogs!!  We look forward to seeing all your beautiful creations!!  

Happy National Scrapbook Day and have a wonderful Mother's Day!!

Inspired by Wendy

Hello crafty friends,

I have a layout for you today scrap-lifted inspired by Wendy Antenucci​'s "My Baby Girl" layout, which you can find here.   I used products I had on hand, so my layout doesn't have the same products her's does.   

My sewing machine is not working currently, so I ended up using a stitch die (Paper Smooches "Dots & Dashes") to get the look of stitches down my white hearts.

I feel my layout has a heavier feel to it than Wendy's, but I think it matches my darker photo. I love how it turned out and thank Wendy for the inspiration.

      

 

Tiddly Inks Design Team Submission

Hello crafty friends,

I'm so excited to show you the card I made for the April 2015 Tiddly Inks Design Team call.

I hope I make the team, because I love working with digital images probably more that physical stamped images.  For me the ability to print a digital stamp in whatever size I want/need is a very good things to quote Martha Stewart.  

I own several Tiddly Inks digital and physical stamped images, but for this design team call I wanted something a little different.  I tend to buy girl images, but I wanted to work with a boy images, so I went shopping and fell in love with the Mad About You - Madhatter image.

Using Adobe Photoshop Elements 7, I printed my Madhatter in several different sizes varying from 3" to 5 1/4".  This is what I LOVE about digital images friends.  I wanted him to have a big presence on my card, so I went with the largest image.

At this point, well honestly I knew the direction of my card when I went shopping. I had this idea of Yankee Doodle Dandy, so I tweaked my digital image to fit my theme. I gave him stripped pants and a stripped hat.

I used Copic markers to color him Red, White and Blue. I'm not an expert in Copic coloring and I struggle with whites. For this image I didn't apply color to the white areas. They are just the raw card stock white.

As a finishing touch, I covered his hat and jacket with clear Wink of Stella (so glad my photo captured some of the shine) and gave him a flag to hold.

I added dimensional tape behind him and set him aside to work on my card base. I cut out the zig zag (chevron) red, white and blue pattern paper with the largest of the Dotted Elements Die from Avery Elle. The pattern paper is from the Liby Bee Design 6x6 Destination pad. The other pieces of pattern paper were from my scraps pile. The little flag, fireworks and Happy 4th of July are all stamps from the Stampendous Perfectly Clear - Patriotic Pair set.

Once my card base was ready, attached my patriotic Madhatter digital image and added a few silver sequins.  I absolutely LOVE how the Mad About You - Madhatter turned out and I hope you do to.   Here's a close up...

Thank you for stopping bye my blog. Wish me luck in the design team call.  Until next time, take care.

My 1st Art Journal Page... EVER!

Hello crafty friends,

As I posted on facebook, I broke the seal on my new art journal.  It was a very scary, but highly rewarding thing.   I started w/an idea of what I wanted my first ever art journal page to be about, but ended up far from my original idea... LOL

I feel like I found a new crafty love.  Unlike scrapbooking or card making, art journaling will allow me to just create.  I don't have to worry about printing photos, or finding appropriate pattern paper, working within a set theme, like birthday.

So drum row please... here's my 1st Art Journal page:

If you ask me how I could start with the idea of rain drops keep falling on my head and end up with this, I wouldn't be able to tell you.  All I know is that this page just came together as I was working on it.  And honestly, declaring my love for art journaling on the first page in my book is somewhat fitting, don't you think?

Now, let me tell you some stuff that I found while making this.   Gesso, it's basically paint or paint primer.  It even smells like paint.  Gel Medium, is basically glue.  

I don't think you can even see it, but I started the page by using Gel Medium to glue a large piece of music and text tissue paper.  Remember I started w/a song in mind.  My application of the tissue paper wasn't the greatest, so I had areas that didn't get glued and areas that wrinkled.  I continued on thinking the Gesso would cover up my mistakes, but it didn't.   The areas not glued down lifted and I ended up peeling them away.  But even w/missing sections I kind of liked the look.  

Once the Gesso dried (with help from my heat gun).  I added color to my page w/gelatos, but since I only had four colors to work with my pallet was limited.   I started by coloring the top third of the page Acqua Dolce (a teal blue) and middle third Squid Ink (a dark gray).   I stopped, because I wasn't happy w/the colors.  I should have flip the color order, so I added some Squid Ink to the Acqua Dolce and vice verse.  I ended up w/an ugly gray color and I was NOT happy, but strangely I was not stressing out.  I took a baby wipe and tried to tone down the ugliness of the gray and something wonderful happen... the baby wipe clean the area I was trying to tone down.   Live and learn... LOVE IT!  So I went to town on the whole page and petty much took off all the ugly gray.

It was at this point that I decided to embrace my love of red.  It is one of my favorite colors, so why shouldn't my first art page not have red (lots of it) in/on it.  So I put my Blood Orange down and blended it w/my finger.  That felt really good, but I'll tell you a certain amount of muscles are needed... can I conciser this exercising?  I covered the bottom w/a light covering of Acqua Dolce.   I let things dry a bit while I went looking for stamps.

I stamped the flowers and the word quotes w/Archive black ink and it took a long time for them to dry, even having used a heat gun to help it.  While looking for stamps I found a "this is love" stencil and decided it was perfect for my title w/the insertion of "a new".  I used Distress black ink and marker for the title.

Next I sprayed the centers of the flowers with Dylussions Fresh Lime Ink Spray and using a Tim Holtz stencil the top of the page w/Postbox Red.  I let this dry while I punched out a few hearts.  I "glued" them down w/Gel Medium and even thou they are looking a little flat to me, I'm calling my first art journal page DONE!

      
Thank you for stopping bye and letting me share with you how my page came about.  I'm so excited to start my next page and let some of  the ideas running though my mind out.  Until next time take care.

Birthday Bunny

Hello crafty friends,

Spent the morning in my craft room doing some water coloring (a recent obsession for me) using distress inks.

Started with this cute Bebunni stamp called Hip Hip Hooray that I got last fall at the Scrapbook Expo and my stash of tiny Distress ink pads.

Ended with this.  Petty happy w/how it turned, but I can tell that the Memento black ink I used to stamp the bunny bleed a little.  Will have to try a different kind of ink next time.  

 

I haven't done a video in a long time, so I think I'll do a water coloring video next time. Thanks for stopping by, hope the rest of your Sunday is a good one.

Owl My Love

Hello crafty friends,

It's been a while since I posted anything on my blog.  It's taken me a while to get caught up after the holidays and to start creating just for me.   After dinner last night I went into my craft room and created these three love theme cards and since today is LOVE day, it's the perfect day to post them here.

My first card was super easy... no I really mean it this time :)  I used the Die-Version I LOVE YOU Corner Concept die, which I cut four times and arranged on my kraft card front.   This is my first top fold card.  I used a 8.5x11 sheet of kraft card stock, which I cut in half the long way and folded in half.  I added one of the cute owls from the Owl My Thanks stamp and die set, which I colored in green to match my card stock and popped up w/foam for a little dimension.  Super easy and super fast card.

My second card has a few more components, but just as easy to put together.  I used the other half of my 8.5x11 sheet of kraft card stock for my card base, once again making a top folding card.  I matted it w/a piece of pattern paper leaving a small kraft border.  Next I die cut the Die-Version Smile Sweet Frames, manually trimming off the smile for a clean look.   I also die cut the Die-Version Heart Pops Whispers balloons, which I tucked into the bottom of the frame.  I added the same little owl from the Owl My Thanks stamp and die set, this time colored in yellows and added some tiny hearts from the same Owl My Thanks stamp set.

My third card was a little more involved and I have to admit it's my favorite :)

I covered my card front with a distress blue pattern paper and die cut three hearts into the front though both layers of paper.  I used smallest and second smallest dies from the Little B Heart die set.  I love that these dies also have heart stitch dies in the set.

The last thing I added to the front of the card was the "Owl My Love" sentiment from the Owl My Thanks stamp set,

The next thing I did was lightly trace the heart openings w/a pencil to get placement from my owls on the inside of the card.  Are you ready to see the inside?  Drum roll please :)

I stamped all three of the owls from the Owl My Thanks stamp set and colored them all.  Next came the hard part... at least hard for me, because I have zero drawing skills and I wanted to draw some tree branches around the stamped owls.   If I was smart I would have done the inside stamping on a separate piece of paper, which I would attach to the inside, but NO... I didn't stop to think and just started drawing and you know what?  I think I did a pretty good job.  I LOVE how it turned out.  I didn't draw the leafs, they were from an old stamp set I had (sorry, have no idea of the brand).

The last thing I added to the inside of the card was the "Owl My Love" sentiment and a few of the hearts from the Owl My Thanks stamp set.

That's it.  Three cards in under three hours on a Friday evening... not bad.  Thank you for stopping bye to look at my cards.  I love comments and try to reply to all of them, so leave me a comment letting me know which card is your favorite.

Happy LOVE day crafty friends!