MFT - Guest Designer Challenge - Bling It On!

Hi everyone and Happy Halloween!!!!!  It's a very busy Monday around here!  It was a wild weekend here in the Northeast with a snow storm!  Really?  It's still October!  =)  But it allowed a lot of time to create and enjoy the newest My Favorite Things Guest Designer Challenge!  This month Jody and Joanne have challenged us to "Bling It On"!  There are SO many gorgeous entries in the gallery over at SCS that I highly recommend you pop in and check them out! 

I've thrown my hat in the ring using a gift pack that I'll be giving to a neighbor tonight who is having a Halloween gathering for the entire neighborhood!  So lovely!!  I've created a sweet treat and a crafty pack combined with blingy card to pull it all together.  

For my gift set I've used MFT's ALM - I Treasure Our Friendship Set. 

This set is PERFECT for Halloween and seriously SO cute!!!

When I chose this set to work with I then started thinking about "piratey" colors.  I pulled purples, golds, reds and browns for my cardstock and designer papers.  I have to admit...I worked on this for three days!  I'd do one piece and walk away from my craft desk and then come back and look at it.  I do this a lot as it always looks different when I come back a few hours later and review my creation with fresh eyes.

I started by coloring my image.  She is inked up using Momento Tuxedo Black Ink stamped on MFT perfect panels (sorry - they are no longer available *sniff*). I colored her with my Copics and my oh so sparkly Sakura pens.  I then paper pieced her skirt and leggings using G45 and SU! designer papers and sparkled up her treasure chest with blingy gold glitter.  As a finishing touch I added a feather to her hat!!  I made a tiny cut in her hat and put the feather through and adhered it to the back.  I then added Glossy Accents to the pearls and set it aside to dry overnight.

As you can see, I also used this week's MFT sketch challenge as my muse.  I have come to TRULY love sketch challenges as it allows you to focus a lot more on the contents of your creation as opposed to the composition as well as the contents.

My card base is retired SU! cardstock in Vintage Violet, layered with SU! Chocolate Chip and G45 DP.  I've used more SU! Chocolate Chip paper followed by Basic Grey then another layer of Chocolate Chip and then another layer of G45 polka dotted paper.  I added a strip of purple spider web ribbon from Michael's as an added blingy layer.  I stitched together my bottom two layers using my sewing machine.

Some of the small details are difficult to catch on camera when you do a full shot photo so I popped on my macro lens in order to capture these to show to you.  I used the small, script text stamp (located in the bottom right in the above photo) from the First Class Friends Set to bling up the background of my Basic Grey layer.  I stamped it with Versamark ink and heat set it using clear embossing powder.  I then sponged the edges of this layer with an ink blending tool and Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink.

I used a Martha Stewart butterfly punch to create my own embellishments in lieu of the circle accent pictured above on the sketch.  I punched them out onto purple cardstock (it was a scrap and I'm not sure which brand it is).  I coated a few butterflies with Glossy Accents and then sprinkled a pinch of Doodlebug glitter over top and set them to dry overnight.  I took the other butterflies and stamped them with a wood grain stamp from Smeared Ink.  I used Versamark ink and white embossing powder to make them pop.  I then inked over the top of the white embossing powder with an ink blending tool and Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink.  When everything was dry I tied some shiny, silver cord around the body of the butterfly and tied them in a knot at the top to create antennae.  I adhered a couple on the top of the card where the round element would go and one on the bottom for a bit of balance. 

I then decided that I wanted a sentiment on the exterior as well so I pulled out my very favorite Bracket Tab Die-namic. 

I stamped my sentiment and then adhered my panel to a scrap of purple cardstock and carefully hand trimmed around the bracket tab to give it some more dimension.  As a final exterior touch I added two blingy stick pins that are pushed into the foam adhesive popping the main layer up.  (I never like to leave pin ends loose anywhere on my card lest someone get poked!)

For the interior of my card I used the same SU! Chocolate Chip cardstock followed by the golden colored Basic Grey designer paper.  I used the SU! purple striped DP to create a scalloped cluster on the left hand side.  I stitched some eyelet lace (it reminded me of a pirate's puffy sleeves!) to the back of my scallop and adhered it down.  I then used a strip of scalloped bling to mimic the same bubbly shape of the purple paper.  I added another butterfly to the interior for cohesiveness with the front and added just the top half of the ALM pirate as a balancing element in the bottom right hand corner. 

In addition to my card I'm giving the hostess of the Halloween party some sweet treats that I cooked up yesterday using a great Halloween Treat recipe from one of my favorite Food TV hosts - Giada DeLaurentis.  It was a seriously easy recipe that can be customized with any of your favorite sweet treats!  I packaged it up using cello candy bags and I made decorative labels for the front of each one.  I used the same ALM set substituting sentiments this time using "Ahoy Matey".  I left my ALM uncolored but tinted the edges with my brand new Seedless Preserves Distress Ink and an ink blending tool.

I used my Hearts A Plenty Die-namics (swoonnnnnnn!) cutting first with my Ouchless Cardboard from Gauche Alchemy and purple craft felt from Michael's.  It's not NEARLY as great as the wool felt that you can get but the color was perfect so I ran it back and forth in my Big Shot a few times and trimmed any sections with my snips.  I adhered them together and added three blingy self-adhesive rhinestones.  I added it to my label and used the last bits of my spiderweb ribbon, trimmed into a "v" and popped on with an orange staple.  I don't use them often but when I need a staple the different colors available are awesome!!  

As one last add-on for my hostesses daughter I've gathered an old iPod box that I kept in my container of containers (say that 3 times fast! lol!) and put in it a bunch of adorable, sparkly foam Halloween themed stickers.  I wrapped the box with a scrap of the polka-dotted G45 paper, some very chunky and rustic twine - very piratey IMO, the last of the sparkly butterflies and a tag using the Notched Tag Die-namics set - yes...another of my very favorites! 

I'm one of those shoppers that gathers things all the time.  I have in my stash an awesome treasure chest that I'm going to package the treats and crafty kit in along with some chocolate gold "booty" and beaded necklaces to finish off my Halloween themed gift pack.  

I have to tell you the biggest challenge was getting a shot of all of the goodies together and having everything in focus!  Near impossible!  But here you go!  The entire package all together!

Thanks Jody and Joanne for another fierce challenge!!  I hope you all enjoyed my creations and get a chance to play along or hop on over to soak up the awesome inspiration in the MFT gallery over at SCS!! 

Have a fabulously fun and safe Halloween!!

Amber Ink - For My Snuffle Bunny

Good Monday Morning Y'all!!  Happy Monday and I hope that you all had a great weekend!!  It was filled with snow and ice here in the Northeast but it was cool to ALREADY have the first snowstorm of the season upon us!!  

I'm so excited to be with you this morning with my first Amber Ink creation!  I've chosen Love Bunny - Flowered as my image today.  Seriously - ADORABLE!

I love how sweet, crisp and almost vintage"y" this image is.  It reminds me of my Peter Rabbit books when I was a little girl.  Some of my favorites!  I've paired this sweetie with the following iPaper - also from Amber Ink.  I love the teeny tiny carrots and sweet checks and hearts!!  I chose to use the tiny version of this paper but there is also a larger version available which is awesome depending on your project. 

I printed my main image on Neena white cardstock.  I cut the image out using my circle Nesties then colored Love Bunny in with my Copics.  I backed it with Ouchless Cardboard from Gauche Alchemy - also cut using my Nesties.  I used Sparkly Fluff from the OCL in Breezy Blue to adorn the flowers.  Seriously?  Just too cute!!

My card measures 5.5x5.5.  The base is Kraft cardstock (JoAnn Fabrics).  I used to be a bit of a cardstock snob using only SU! or PTI but I'm finding now that the "box stores" are starting to carry a better quality (not AS great but...still) of cardstock than they ever have before.  And it's tremendously less expensive than some of the others.  The other thing is...I HATE WAITING FOR MAILED PACKAGES!  LOL!  When I need something I want it in hand...immediately.  Yes..I'm impatient in that way..what can I say?

Anyhoo - after my Kraft base I've used a slice of Bazzill orange cardstock, followed by the Amber Tiny Carrot iPaper.  There is a layer of Crate paper (the tiny yellow border behind the polka dots) stitched together with the PTI "guava" colored polka dotted paper.  Everything is stitched together using my sewing machine. 

I created a few embellishments to add to this creation.  My heart "rosette" starts with an orange felt heart using PTI felt cut with my MFT Hearts-a-Plenty Die-namics, the rosette is cut using a Tim Holtz die, I coated a blue button with Versamark ink and then coated it in white embossing powder and heat set it.  I used some PTI rustic twine to tie a bow.

I then added some scraps of green DP that I had lying around into a "v" tailed ribbon coming off of the main frame of my card with more rustic twine tied around of which the entire panel is stitched with a zig zag pattern. 

I added my sentiment of "snuffle bunny" (a loving term I use for my DD) using Lawn Fawn's Harold's ABC set that I stamped, matted and trimmed out individually.  I used glossy accents as my dab of glue on each letter to hold them firmly in place.  I added a black pearl at the beginning of my sentiment, in the middle and at the end.  

Behind my sentiment I have another cluster of goodies consisting of blingy corners, paper "ribbon" and yellow American Crafts ribbon.  

I am so excited to be representing Amber Ink this month!  Hop by the store and check out their adorable images - both digi and clear acrylic as well as their huge selection of iPaper!  

Till next time!!  Thanks for popping by today!! 

Amber Ink - I'm Catching The Torch! Go Pink!!!

Hey Paper Canteen friends!!!  Soooooooooooo glad you're here with me today as I have some SUPER FABULOUS and exciting news to share with you!!

My darling friend, Sarah, has chosen me to carry the torch from her and to be a part of the AWESOME Amber Ink Design Team for a month!  How cool is THAT???!!  Thank you Sarah so much for considering me worthy of carrying the Amber Ink Pink Torch!! 

I am so honored and SO excited to start creating with the crazy adorable Amber Ink Digi Stamps, Digi Papers, and Clear Acrylic Stamps!  I always love a challenge and staring new endeavors are SO enticing to me!

I am THRILLED to meet some new and fantastic women who I will be designing alongside!  Please check out their fabby sites!

• Deb Miller
• Jessica
• Leigh Penner
• Pippertaja

Again - thank you to my dear friend Sarah for choosing me to carry on the torch!!!

Tiddly Inks - Fabulous Inky Friday

Good Morning Everyone!!!  Just a little creation to show you this morning using Fall Queen of my NEW favorite images from Tiddly Inks!!  Isn't she RIDICULOUSLY adorable?!?!!?  She totally makes me giggle...

I've been working very hard on my shading with Copics and I *think* I'm getting a bit better. But man is it hard!!  I recently watched this AMAZING tutorial by one of our very own FABBY Tiddly Inkers - Cheryl.  Thank you Cheryl for this amazing video and all of your great tips and tricks with shading!!!

I used lots of orange to pull out the colors in the pumpkins.  My background paper is inked and heat embossed with a large Hero Arts background stamp.  I used my nesties to cut my main image out and matte her.  I used my Ouchless Cardboard from Gauche Alchemy, PTI felt (the best on the market I may add!) and MFT Hearts A Plenty Die-namics to trim the hearts and make a super cute and simple embelli.  I did lots of stitching and added some really pretty navy blue pearls scattered about.  Lastly, I used a MFT file tab Die-namic to add my sentiment of "I Miss You" and Lawn Fawn's sentiment "boo".

I hope you enjoy and have been inspired to create something fun today!!

Come and see all of the other gorgeous inspiration that is over at the Tiddly Inks Challenge Blog!!

Bombshell Hop - A VERY Skelly Halloween!

Greetings fabulous Bombshells!!  I'm hopping today along with my fellow teamies and friends over at Bombshell  for our monthly hop today!  The theme?  A Very Skelly Halloween!  But first - if you've just happened upon here today or popped by to say hi please jump HERE so that you can see everyone's gorgeous creations!  If you are hopping along you should be arriving from Torrey's blog! 

I have a VERY simple creation for you today but I was in need of a lot of things like this so I kept them simple in order to make quite a few (you'll notice I don't use the word "Mass Produce" - for some reason it sounds like poison to me! lol!!)

Anyhoo - I've created this simple gift card hang tag using the Skull/Rose combo from Man's Ruin and two piratey skulls from A Pirate's Life.  I used the two skulls from A Pirate's Life to for my background - inked with Versamark and heat set with white embossing powder.  And I used the Skull/Rose from Man's Ruin - stamped on patterned paper, colored and blended with my Prismacolor pencils, trimmed out and popped up on foam adhesive.  I added a bit of rustic twine through a punched hole and VOILA!

Other stamps used - Lawn Fawn - Happy Halloween web.  

Thanks so much for hopping in today!  Your next stop is off to Paula's fabby site!

MFT - Weekly Sketches

Hello Crafty Friends!!  It's a fabulously rainy day here in the North East (my favorite weather if you didn't know!).  I've been in super focus mode creating away as it's been a busy fall and I have been missing my creative time!  So I'm making it a priority and trying to get it in wherever I can. 

Yesterday and today I worked on three MFT sketches for their weekly stamp club.  And I'm just popping in to show them to you!

exterior

interior

Here is where you can find the information on the sketch challenges.  And here is where the current weekly sketch challenge is going on!

Hope you are having a wonderfully crafty day!!

Tiddly Inks - Halloween Style!

Happy Tiddly Tuesday everyone!!  This week at Tiddly we're celebrating the upcoming Halloween holiday!!  Come create with us and show us your Halloween designs!!  

Today I've used one of my very favorite Tiddly Halloween Designs - Spooky Birthday.  Isn't she ADORABLE?  I love this image as it's fabulous for paper piecing.  I simply trim down my 12x12 paper to 8.5x11 and run it through my printer.  Sometimes if I choose a particularly thicker piece of DP or cardstock it jams but I simply pull it out and try again and most of the time it works.  The peachy colored polka dotted paper here is from SU! and is really the perfect weight.  I colored her with my Copics - hair, skin, hat and tote.  I colored her cake with my Prismacolor pencils and added a thick coat of Distress Stickles on top.  I used my Orange Marmalade Distress stickles and water to create a thin coat to paint her hat and gifts with.  I then pieced her dress and the band on her hat as the last step and let everything dry overnight.  I trimmed her out and set her aside while I assembled all of my layers.  

For my layers, I've used an assortment of DCWV, Bazzill and G45 papers.  I've paired these papers with ivory PTI felt, PTI rustic twine, bling, stitching, a snowflake die from Sizzix, a Martha Stewart punch, my new postage stamp die from MFT and an old SU! sentiment "sparkle" for a layered and non-traditional Halloween effect! I simply love deviating from the standard Halloween colors - trying to keep on track but think outside the box here with peachy tones and navy blues versus the standard orange and black.  

I can't wait to see what you come up with for us over at the Tiddly Challenge Blog.  See you there!! 

Bombshell Sketch - October!

Bombshells!  Welcome =)  Thanks so much for popping by today to check out my, albeit, abstract translation of this month's sketch here at Bomshell - but I was - inspired.  I was inspired by an on-line card class, taught by Jennifer McGuire, that I took recently.  So decided to try a new technique and see where it led me.

First off - here is the sketch:

As you can see I rotated the sketch a quarter turn left.  But I started with white cardstock.  The center layer that you now see as deep night cardstock is really Distress Inks in color Chipped Sapphire.  I took my ink pad and colored a piece of Neena white cardstock into Chipped Sapphire cardstock.  I let it dry.  (with some assistance of my heat gun.)  I took the seaweed image from Mermaid Treasure and sprayed it with my pearlized water. Pearlized water is Perfect Pearls pigment powder (any color) mixed into water in a tiny Ranger misting spray bottle.  I spray twice and stamp - over and over again until I finished my underwater garden.  You are stamping with Pearlized water.  I then added my sentiment.  Stamped in Versamark and heat embossed with white embossing powder the white jumps off of the page offset by the Chipped Sapphire background.

I will admit that this was difficult to photograph.  As you can see, I split the sketch somewhere in between layers so a part of the sketch is on the front of my card and the rest of the sketch is on the interior of the card.  I used purple designer papers as a bold accent color added to the neutrals of Kraft and Cream within the base. 

Thanks for popping over today!!  I do hope you come and play with us over at the Bombshell Challenge Blog!

Tiddly Inks - Boys!

Greetings lovely readers!  So happy that you are here with me on this wonderful Tiddly Tuesday!  Today we're letting boys be boys!!  Our challenge this week is to create something with the boy(s) in your life in mind!   

I've used one of the newish Tiddly Images "Hi There".  I colored him with my Copics and added a sparkly "t" on his shirt for my son's first initial.  I then trimmed him out carefully and nestled him all snug on top of a Tiddly stack of books. 

I used lots of Kraft cardstock along with some chipboard and 3-D sparkly stickers to embellish.  I used an MFT sentiment "I Simply Adore You" stamped in black Momento ink.

I stitched my background and then took my sanding block and distressed the entire background.  This was tucked into my son's lunchbox one day last week.  I just LOVE adding extra bits of love to my kid's lunchboxes letting them know that I'm thinking about them while they are at school.

I can't wait to see what you all come up with!  Please play along with us right here!

Bombshell Tutorial - Faux Letterpress

Greetings Glorious Bombshells!!  I'm here with you today to show you how to create a Faux Letterpress look to create your own coordinating background papers with any of your projects.  I must give credit to Jennifer McGuire as I recently learned this technique when I took her On-Line Card Class - Inspiration Showcase.  It's SO easy with a great end result!  

Let's begin!

First you need to gather just a few very basic supplies.  Paper, ink (any kind will do), any brand of plastic embossing folder and which ever die cut machine you use. 

 

I chose a dye ink as well as a chalk ink.  I like to play around and experiment with different inks.  Depending on where you want your ink will depend on which side of the embossing folder you rub your ink pad on.  If you want the ink in the recesses of the embossing you will rub the ink on one side of the embossing folder, like this:

You will then add your paper, quickly close the folder making sure to hold it closed so that the paper doesn't wiggle around (this will reduce smearing) and then run it through your die cutting machine using which ever "sandwich" works for your machine and embossing folders.

Here is the end result when you open your folder:

See how the ink is in the recesses of the image?  Super cool!  I went ahead and inked up the other side of my folder with my chalk ink:

and here is how it came out!

So in this example the script is inked up instead of the background.  This technique can be used in many ways and could easily be used to make super cool embellishments as well!  Here are a few more background examples that I did with a different folder using really bright inks.

 

And here is my finished example!  Clearly I have Halloween on the brain!  I kept my design VERY simple as I really wanted to show off that cool Faux Letterpress background. 

I hope you have enjoyed this technique!