Right at Home + The Moving Challenge

Happy Wednesday! This will be my last post until I'm in my new house. Hubby is picking up the keys as I type this. I couldn't be more excited! The next couple of days will be a flurry of packing and cleaning the new house from top to bottom. Plus, we've both gotten colds over the last day so it's another thing we have to deal with on top of everything else. Fingers crossed that our little man will stay healthy. I decided to really break in my Hero Arts Whimsical Houses set for one last entry in the Hero Arts August Contest in the Technique Category: Making a Scene.

I kept things fairly simple with this card. My cold is making my head kind of foggy so I was in no mood to colour or paper piece. Instead, I stamped the different elements in various ink colours and fussy cut and X-acto'd them for a fun little scene which is, of course, inspired by my new house!

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The Moving Challenge is taking place right here on my blog. I would like to see projects inspired by the little photo of my new house! Isn't it cute? :D

The Twinery sent me an extra little pack of twine that I don't need so I'm going to share it with three lucky winners which will be drawn randomly from all entries for this challenge. I haven't decided how to award the different colours but it'll probably involve asking my son, "Who do you think should get the individual Blossom... Honeydew... and Charcoal bundles?" LOL

InLinkz for this challenge will officially open at 12:01 a.m. on Thursday, September 1st and run 'til 11:59 p.m. on Thursday, September 22nd EST so you will have three whole weeks to participate in this challenge. You can enter as many times as you like but you must use a separate blog link for each entry. I'm not requiring that you use any specific products but it would be great if you linked to my blog or this post so your own followers can play along if they're interested. :)

I will be around via email and catching up on comments but this blog will be quiet for a few days. Big hugs to you all!

Sources: Japanese Linen Avocado cardstock; SU Naturals Ivory cardstock; Hero Arts Whimsical Houses; Memento Tuxedo Black & Rich Cocoa inks; SU Riding Hood Red, Tangerine Tango, Old Olive & Garden Green inks; Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels One; QuicKutz Epix Six; Stampin' Dimensionals

C♥NGRATS

Today, I have a very special card to share with you. A good Canadian friend of ours in Italy has just gotten engaged! He's spent the last 11 years in Italy and had moved over at the same time my husband moved over, two weeks after we had met when I was visiting my sister in Indianapolis. Do you remember that story (the other part is here)? Well, our friend met a sweet Canadian girl online about two years ago. She lives in British Columbia so that is a heck of a long distance relationship. A nine-hour time difference makes it very difficult to connect! After several vacations here and there, they decided it was time to make things official. He took her to France on vacation and proposed to her in the gardens at Château de Versailles. Isn't that romantic? Well, they are getting married later this year so she can move over to Italy and they can finally be together!

Do you love the bling on the girl's hand? ;) I used some of my new Hero Arts goodies, the larger 'bathroom people' and the Tree Trunks to make this sweet little outdoorsy scene. Our friend is very sporty and outdoorsy so I thought it would be cute for them to be sitting on a nurse log in the woods. I stamped the background twice, cut out the trees from the second sheet and layered them over some grass which was die cut from Basic Grey's Oxford Collection. I had a hard time figuring out how to incorporate the sentiment but finally settled on using the Typewriter Letters to make a banner. I did have the 'O' stamped and cut but decided to use a red heart instead. My son did not like that idea at all. He said, "No, Mommy! Use the 'O'. Make the guy holding the heart!" LOL He also commented, "That guy not really sitting, Mommy. The girl is but that guy not really sitting, Mommy." Oh, how he cracks me up!

I hope this card shows our friend how happy we are for him! Of course, I'm linking this up to the Hero Arts August Contest in the Technique Category: Making a Scene. Now, I better go do some packing before hubby comes home and tells me to stop crafting. :Þ

Yesterday, when I said I had a challenge all ready, I thought that today was September 1st, which it isn't! So you'll have to wait two more days for the challenge details. I'll even have prizes and InLinkz set up. I hope you're excited! :)

Sources: SU Bashful Blue cardstock; Gina K Designs pure luxury white & red cardstock; Basic Grey Oxford paper pad; Hero Arts Plaid Person, Polka Dot Person, Tree Trunks & Typewriter Letters; Tim Holtz for Ranger Walnut Stain & Antique Linen distress inks; SU Bashful Blue & Riding Hood Red inks; a•muse|studio grass border die; Stampin' Dimensionals; The Twinery baker's twine in Honeydew; SU Basic Rhinestones; SU Heart to Heart punch

Fleas Navidad

Isn't that the cutest sentiment? I love it. Kim Hughes is so clever! Santa Paws is one of my newest sets from Paper Smooches and before this blog goes completely dormant for my move, I just had to make something before I went crazy from all work and no play! I was literally going stir crazy from not creating for a few days and hubby asked why I was so grumpy. I told him it was because I hadn't made anything in a few days and he said to me, "You're going to have to get used to that." Then I gave him the look. You know, the ultimate evil eye. I could see that he was going to argue with me but, after pausing, said, "Okay, okay, go make something!" LOL

Click on any photo for the full size.

Instead of making a card, I made a set of six Christmas cards! A good friend of mine is having a birthday a few days before mine and she loves dachshunds. Last year, she searched high and low for dachshund holiday cards and actually found some. As soon as I got my hands on Santa Paws, I knew I was going to make her a few this year. This friend is also a client and buys my cards to give away but has admitted to sometimes keeping them for herself. LOL I hope that having a set of six of these cuties will allow her to give away at least five. ;)

Yes, cutting out six dogs and six Santa hats is a lot of fussy cutting but it's less work than colouring all six dogs and hats. I was most definitely not going to fussy cut the white parts of the Santa hats so I used a white gel pen to add the white detail. I used Echo Park's Wintertime Collection and one 12" x 12" sheet made great backgrounds for the entire set.

I've decided that I can't leave you all with nothing to do, aka not visit my blog for a week or two, so I'm going to host a challenge right here for three weeks. There's probably no way I will stay away from my crafty stuff for three weeks but I thought it would be fun to have the challenge run for three weeks anyway. More on that tomorrow! :D

Sources: Gina K Designs pure luxury Moonlit Fog cardstock; Echo Park Wintertime Collection; Paper Smooches Santa Paws; Memories Black ink; SU Riding Hood Red ink; Uniball Signo broad white gel pen; Stampin' Dimensionals; SU Basic Rhinestones

Jane's Doodles {Sneak Peeks}

This is my second post of the day.
For details on the Last Days of Summer Blog Hop hosted by PSA Essentials and sponsored by The Twinery and more, please CLICK HERE.

Today, I'm sharing a couple of Jane's Doodles cards which combine previously released stamps with sneak peeks of new stamps that will soon be available to order!

This first one is a 3" x 4.25" mini that uses a pop of patterned paper for the 'flower pot' that holds the flowers from Garden Friends.

My second card is a standard-sized A2 card and it features Little Miss Mia with another beautifully hand-written sentiment and the cutest little flag which I stamped three times to create a banner.

Little Miss Mia is partially coloured with Copics and partially paper-pieced. I love the way this combination looks!

The designer papers used on this card are from Echo Park's Life is Good Collection. They were a gift from Jenny Johns who so generously sent them with an Ippity set I ordered from her. More on that later!

Sources for Thanks a Bunch: Gina K Designs 120lb pure luxury white cardstock; Basic Grey Oxford Collection; Jane's Doodles Garden Friends, Party Time and Big Sentiments; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; SU Riding Hood Red ink; Copics

Sources for Classy and Fabulous: Gina K Designs 120lb pure luxury white cardstock; Echo Park Life is Good Collection; Jane's Doodles Little Miss Mia, Party Time and Big Sentiments; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; Copics; SU Basic Rhinestones

Hello'ween Kitty

Happy Last Days of Summer, everyone! Some of you may be sad that summer is coming to an end but I'm not. I'll be in my new house on Labour Day weekend, I'll be celebrating my birthday at the end of September with a giveaway and fall is my favourite time of year! I've made this card using The Twinery's baker's twine and a cute little Hello Kitty stamp from PSA Essentials as part of the Last Days of Summer Blog Hop. Be sure to check out The Twinery Blog for more information, inspiration and prizes from all 11 participating sponsors!!

To make this 3.5" x 4.5" card, I started with a basic black base and die cut a couple of nesties from designer paper and white cardstock. I stamped the image, coloured the bow and embellished it with a little rhinestone which I coloured with a Copic marker to match. I crocheted three foundation chains in Stone, Denim and Charcoal. Then I tied them together at both ends with tiny bows in Mandarin baker's twine. To finish, I adhered the ends to the card and popped the white panel with foam tape.

I will be back later with a post for Jane's Doodles which includes sneak peeks from two of three soon-to-be released sets!!

Sources: Gina K Designs pure luxury black and white cardstock; Little Yellow Bicycle (Orange Ledger, Frightful Collection); PSA Essentials Hello Kitty Trick or Treat; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels Four; QuicKutz Epic Six; SU Basic Rhinestones; orange Copic marker; The Twinery baker's twine in Stone, Denim, Charcoal and Mandarin; Stampin' Dimensionals

BOO

This mummy dog is so not scary. It's waaay too cute to scare anyone! Can you believe this was a publication reject? Me neither. ;) I just had to show it to you since Pink Cat Studio is on hiatus for the summer and because I'm super excited about Halloween this year. For the past two years, we took our son trick-or-treating in my parents' neighbourhood but this year we'll be in our very own neighbourhood! We went to visit our soon-to-be house last Friday to take some measurements for area rugs, a chandelier, etc. and the current owners told us that we need to make sure we buy at least $100 worth of candy. Last year, they bought $75 worth and ended up having to hand out other things in their house, almost reaching for cans of tuna at one point. Yikes! Does this mean our son will bring home $75 worth of candy? LOL

This card was simple to make despite the layers. I started with a black base, cut a piece of vellum and attached the punched borders to it. Then I used my paper trimmer to create an orange frame which I then stitched on to the card to hold the first two layers in place. The mummy dog was printed, coloured with Copics, fussy cut and adhered with foam tape. This is one of my favourite Pink Cat Studio digis to colour! How 'bout you? Have you gotten into the Halloween spirit yet?

Sources: Gina K Designs pure luxury black onyx cardstock; SU Basic Gray & Tangerine Tango cardstock; SU vellum cardstock; Pink Cat Studio Mummy Dog; Copics; Martha Stewart Boo & Ghost border punch; Gutermann white thread; sewing machine; Stampin' Dimensionals

It's a Lil' Inker Holiday!

Not as in a statutory holiday but I did make two holiday cards using Lil' Inker Designs products and more. This is the earliest I've ever made Christmas cards, by at least two months, so it's saying a lot about how inspiring the Pinwheel die and stamp set can be. ;) I'd been trying to wrap my head around different ways to use this set. You've seen all the wonderful 3D projects made by the design team but I wanted to show you that you can flatten the pinwheel and it'll still be stunning!

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My first card uses the Pinwheel die with a Hero Arts+Basic Grey sentiment from Happy Holidays and papers from Echo Park's For the Record Collection. For the pinwheel, I chose a double-sided paper that had the traditional Christmas colours since both sides will always show when using the Pinwheel die. I folded the flaps down in the reverse direction from THIS CARD I made using the same die. Then I used a scoring tool to neatly flatten each blade or, in this case, petal to create a poinsettia. I stitched along the outer edge of each petal and adhered them to each other.

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After I finished die cutting the blades, I was left with the negative from the curves of the Pinwheel die and the pattern looked so beautiful to me. Normally, I throw away all my scraps. I know, some of you are gasping in horror. ;) This time I couldn't bear to dispose of it. That's when the lightbulb went on inside my head. I could use it as an overlay! But how? I looked through some of my new stamps and I thought it would be perfect to use it as a Swiss cheese house for this little mouse from the Paper Smooches set called Santa Paws. Don't you love how it looks like he's watching the snow fall through the windows?

As soon as I saw the sentiment, I knew it would look great with the Sentiment Flags die and stamp set. The post that comes with the stamp set is awesome and goes with pretty much everything. I just wished that I had stamped it a little better on this card.

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I hope you enjoyed today's installment of Lil' Inker Designs inspiration! Do you own any of the die and stamp sets? I'd love to see what you've made. Just leave a comment with your link and I'll drop by to have a look.

We started packing this weekend! Every day, my son thinks it's moving day tomorrow. He even packed up some of his toys in a mock moving box and taped it shut. Poor little guy. Not yet, honey, not yet. We still have 12 days to go. All I can do is blame the Berenstain Bears who apparently packed in one day. :Þ I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Sources for Happy Holidays: Gina K Designs pure luxury black cardstock; Echo Park For the Record Collection; Hero Arts+Basic Grey Happy Holidays; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; Lil' Inker Designs Pinwheel die; QuicKutz Epic Six; Gutermann ivory thread; sewing machine; Basic Grey button; The Twinery baker's twine in Charcoal

Sources for Happy Christmouse: Gina K Designs 120lb pure luxury white cardstock; Echo Park For the Record Collection; Paper Smooches Santa Paws; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; Lil' Inker Designs Pinwheel die & Sentiment Flags die and stamp set; QuicKutz Epic Six; Stampin' Dimensionals

Thank You

Yesterday, I participated in my first Hero Arts 90 Minute Scramble Challenge #22. This challenge asked participants to use the small (often neglected) stamps in a set. Well, this was right up my alley since I always seem to hone in on those stamps!

I used the two leaves from Sweet Threads Thank You to create the flower. I used two ink colours for both the leaves and the 'flower' using the rock and roll technique. I was about to fussy cut the leaves when I realized that the bird's wing from the SU Bird Builder punch was an almost perfect match for the leaf. This made making the card even faster and only took me about 20 minutes! I embellished the flower with Buttercream anthers to finish the card.

We also had to photograph and post our card within those 90 minutes so it worked out nicely for me. I had enough time to make a second card but I didn't want to push myself too much since this was my first Scramble. It was fun and I hope you'll join us next time!

Sources: Gina K Designs 120lb pure luxury white cardstock; Hero Arts Sweet Threads Thank You; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; Tim Holtz for Ranger distress inks in Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint, Milled Lavender & Dusty Concord; SU Bird Builder punch; The Twinery baker's twine in Buttercream; We R Memory Keepers corner chomper

I Thought of You

Did you get your hands on a copy of Paper Crafts Magazine's Card Ideas for Paper Crafters? This is my card on page 55. When I was sublicating for this issue back in February, I knew it was going to be a long-shot since sketches aren't my strength. Of all the cards I submitted, this was my favourite one and it is, shockingly, covered with designer paper! Well, many of you have already told me and now I can say this myself, I'm no longer allowed to say that I can't use sketches or patterned paper. LOL

My card uses the Basic Grey Wander Collection with the International Skyline from Hero Arts and a sentiment from Unity's June 2010 Kit of the Month - Fly Free (currently on sale).

This really is an amazing issue! When I saw the sketches by themselves, I couldn't wrap my head around most of them but now that I see the great cards to go along with them, I could easily make a few cards based on those sketches. I think you'll love this issue as much as I do!

Sources: Gina K Designs 120lb pure luxury white cardstock; Basic Grey Wander Collection; Hero Arts International Skyline; Unity June 2010 Kit of the Month - Fly Free; Memento Rich Cocoa ink; McGill 1 1/4" square punch; Stampin' Dimensionals

Unity Friends With Flair {Aug 19th}

If you're looking for my The Twinery + Echo Park Blog Hop post, please CLICK HERE.

Blogger is playing games with me again and I'm not happy about it! Ever since yesterday, my entire sidebar has been displaced to the very bottom of my blog. It is fine if you're inside a post link but if you're at my main blog, you'll see that the formatting is wrong. Hopefully it returns to normal soon!

Today, I'm sharing another publication reject for Unity Stamp Company's Friends With Flair Friday. I absolutely love the simplicity of this card. I mean, what's not to love? A beautiful Suzi Blu called Spring Flower Chic paired a wonderful sentiment from Forever Friends in simple black and white with a pop of red. It makes me happy! Plus, it would be so easy to make an entire set of these cards for a gift. Oh, and I've just given myself an idea. ;)

Did you know that Unity Stamp Company is discontinuing their Suzi Blu line? That makes me so sad! But I'll always have mine to play with forever and ever. You can still grab 'em HERE while limited quantities last!

Sources: Gina K Designs 120lb pure luxury white cardstock; Unity+Suzi Blu Spring Flower Chic & Forever Friends; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; red Copic markers

The Twinery + Echo Park Blog Hop

I'm so excited you are here for Day Four of The Twinery's 1st Anniversary Celebrations. Today, we are blog hopping with Echo Park Paper Co.! Be sure to hop to each of our amazing designers' blogs and check out the projects using baker's twine from The Twinery and the beautiful designer papers from Echo Park. If you came here by way of super talented Monika Wright's blog, you are on the right track. If not, make sure you start at the beginning over at The Twinery's Blog because there are terrific prizes for those who complete the hop by commenting on each blog. You'll have two days to enjoy this hop, so relax and have fun!

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You could win the Ultimate Color Sampler Pack from The Twinery or three collections from Echo Park!

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My first card features The Twinery's baker's twine in Pink Sorbet and papers from Echo Park's Candy Shoppe Collection.

This card was inspired by the Paper Smooches August SPARKS Challenge photo shown below. I combined the colours, the woodgrain, the paint, flowers and bling in my card. The twine flower I created here is a variation of the flower shown in THIS POST which features The Twinery's most recently released colours. I started off with five small knotted loops adhered to the card.
Then I created five slightly larger knotted loops and adhered those in between the first five knots. To highlight those knots and the flower, I punched a ring from the Watermelon Small Dot pattern and adhered it to the twine flower.

All stamps used on this card are from Paper Smooches. The sentiment from Sentiment Sampler is stamped on the striped side of the Watermelon Large Dot pattern. The rings and circles from Sugar Rush are stamped directly on to the card base and accented with clear rhinestones, as is the crocheted flower. This was my first time using paint and I can say that it could be highly addictive!

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My second card features The Twinery's baker's twine in Pink Sorbet and Lemondrop as well as papers and a border sticker from Echo Park's Little Girl Collection. If I could adopt a pink plaid dachshund, I certainly would. ;)

Once again, all stamps used on this card are from Paper Smooches. The fish, splash, tail wag (made with both sections of the waves) and 'gillfriend' sentiment are from Surf & Turf. The fishbowl is actually an upside down popsicle (sans stick) from Sugar Rush. The dachshund and bone are from Santa Paws. The 'happy birthday' sentiment is from Sentiment Sampler.

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I hope I've inspired you to give baker's twine a try. There are so many possibilities! Please make sure you leave a comment on my blog because there are terrific prizes for those who leave comments on all the designers' blogs. The deadline for commenting is 11:59pm EST, Friday, August 19th and prizes will be announced on Saturday, August 20th on The Twinery's Blog.

Thank you so much for stopping by today! Now I'm sending you off to the amazing Jess Diedrich!

Sources for Vintage Birthday: Gina K Designs pure luxury kraft cardstock; Echo Park Candy Shoppe paper pad; SU vellum cardstock; Paper Smooches Sentiment Sampler & Sugar Rush; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; SU Pink Passion & Tempting Turquoise inks; Papertrey Ink woodgrain impression plate & Edger #1 die; Jenni Bowlin for Ranger Malted Milk acrylic paint dabber; SU Victoria crochet trim; SU Basic Rhinestones; The Twinery baker's twine in Pink Sorbet; SU 1/2" & 3/4" circle punches; Stampin' Dimensionals

Sources for Gillfriend: Gina K Designs pure luxury white cardstock; Echo Park Little Girl Collection; Paper Smooches Sugar Rush, Surf & Turf, Santa Paws & Sentiment Sampler; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; Copics; My Favorite Things Fresh Cut Grass die; Marvy-Uchida 1/8" circle punch; The Twinery baker's twine in Pink Sorbet & Lemondrop; Stampin' Dimensionals