Psst...More Exciting News!!

I'm super excited to have been asked to join the new Loves Rubberstamps Design Team!   It's the first team that Laura has put together and I'm thrilled to be creating alongside other fabulous ladies who share in my artsy passion!!

Laura Love is the owner of Loves Rubberstamps, a store that has a super huge selection of many popular brands of stamps, embellishments, dies, papers, tools and more!  Just some of the fabulous brands that Laura carries are Lawn Fawn, Paper Smooches, Whimsy, Sweet Pea, Stamping Bella,...just to name a few! 

The first challenge will be issued right HERE at the Loves Rubberstamps Challenge Blog on Tuesday, June 5th! 

I do hope to see you there!! 

Crafty Hugs!
Meredith

Psst...Some Exciting News!

Click to come check it out!!! 

Fabulous Birthday Girl

Greetings All and Happy Long Weekend!!  YAY!!  We are hanging around this weekend as I vowed to never travel on these busy holiday weekends.  The traffic simply makes me insane!  So we're sticking close to home, enjoying the pool club opening, lacrosse championship games at Gilette Stadium, and visiting family.   We will be celebrating my darling sister-in-law's birthday as well!  I took the opportunity to bust out this week's MFT sketch to get me started.

Her favorite color is purple so I started there adding grey and yellow as my accents.  I've been dying to ink my new ALM - I've Got Your Back.  It has been inked with Momento and she is colored with my Copics.  I paper pieced her shirt and the letters U and R using papers from MME.

I used the sketch pretty literally and simply shifted my main panel making it slightly askew to accommodate the large flowers I created.  I added ittiy bitty micro pearls to the corners of my main panel and used lots of Hero Hues Latte Chalk Ink to distress all of my edges. 

I used the Photo Corner and Chevron Stripes Die-namics to compliment the background.  I used an embossing folder to give a bit of richness to the middle layer (white) behind the flowers.  It really added just the right amount of texture that I was looking for.

I used both the Royal Rose and Rolled Mum Flower Die-namics layered together to create the fun and fluffy flower cluster.  I added a resin flower in the center of each one for some added depth and color.

I kept my interior simple and crisp, using my favorite Finishing Flourishes, for my greeting.  

Thanks so much for popping in today!!  Don't forget to come join the MFT fun at the sketch gallery here!

Have a fun, safe and creative long weekend!!

Crafty Hugs!
Meredith

Is It Time For The Beach?

Good Morning Oddie Fans!  Yes...it's another fabulous release day over at Some Odd Girl!  Today we are showing off the Beach Day Buddies set featuring the always adorable Tia and Tobie! 

I've used both sweet kids in my creation:

I inked with Momento and colored with my Copics.  I then trimmed each out leaving a tiny white margin around as a border.  I like to do this especially when I am using a busy background as it really makes the images pop.

I used the accent elements that come with this set; sandcastle, flag, shovel, pail and wave to create my own patterned paper for the background.  

My papers are from Bazzill and Fancy Pants.  I used my MFT Fishtail Flag STAX Die-namics to house my sentiment and I added some shells from the Under The Sea Mae set that I had leftover from this project. 

I hope you have enjoyed this month's clear release as much as I have!!  Have a fabulously creative day!!

Crafty Hugs!
Meredith

A Lightbulb Moment

Good Rainy Tuesday Everyone!!  It's raining like crazy here in the Northeast and I must say that my garden and lawn is soooo happy!  I love it.  We spent four hours this past Saturday hauling 6 yards of mulch into my gardens and it is just so worth it!  Everything looks lush and beautiful. 

I did have a bit of time to squeeze in some crafty time to play with this week's MFT sketch challenge. 

And here is my interpretation:

I used the newly released ALM - Lightbulb Moment as my focal point.  I colored her with my Copics and glazed up the light bulb with Glossy Accents.  I let it dry completely overnight.

I paired it with come bold reds and navy keeping it crisp and simple.  I added a Bingo card to the background along with a fun blingy flourish to keep things interesting.  I used the Well Worn Greetings Die-namics to house my sentiment and added a couple of mini brads to anchor that panel.

I used the last bit of my red May Arts chevron ribbon to finish everything off.

Thanks for popping by today!!  Hope you have a craftylicious day!!

Crafty Hugs!
Meredith

Sunshine Come My Way Today!

Good morning Oddies!!  Another fabulous day to show off the next in line of new releases at Some Odd Girl today!  The set I am showing today is called Sunny Mae. 

I have a new card today and will show you one that I used the other day when I showed you the Emboss Resist tutorial. 

My card today is a post card style.  I used my circle Spellbinders to cut out a large circle 4.75" around out of watercolor paper.  I used the sun ray stamp element, white craft ink and white embossing powder to layer the rays all round the card.  I then went in with my Wild Honey and Scattered Straw Distress inks and blended them both together.  I sprayed the entire piece with my Pearlized water and zapped it with my heat gun to dry. 

I layered another circle in the center - this time using patterned paper from Recollections.  I backed it with a sturdy cardstock to give it a bit more stability.  I then took another smaller circle and stamped my sentiment.  I added the sweet cloud element from the set - stamped with black craft ink and heat embossed.  I sponged it with my Peacock Distress ink, trimmed it out and added it using 3-D foam adhesive. 

I added three self adhesive rhinestones as an added little touch. 

Here is the other card that I made using this beautiful set. 

And here is the post and tutorial that went along with it. 

Thanks, as always, for popping in today!!

Crafty Hugs!!
Meredith

Yappy Father's Day!

Good Morning!!  Today starts a new challenge over at the Paper and Such Challenge blog and I do so hope you'll join us!  The challenge theme is Father's Day.  Yep!  That's it!  Super fun and easy!  Today I've combined two Paper and Such sets in my creation - Deer Dad and Patriot and Friends. 

I started out with the sweet Lab image from Patriot and Friends.  I inked him with Momento and colored with my Copics.  I decided to pair the kraft cardstock with red and keep it crisp and simple.  I pulled together a grouping using my Tim Holtz mini-rosette die, a punched circle and two rustic twine threaded buttons.  

My sentiment is a combination of the two sets.  I snipped apart the "Yappy Birthday" sentiment from Patriot and Friends and combined it with the "father's day" sentiment from Deer Dad to create a sentiment that would become a perfect "dog to owner" sentiment.  (I know all you pet lovers out there will understand!;)  I trimmed it out using my MFT Fishtail Flag STAX Die-namics. 

I do hope you come join us over at the Paper and Such Challenge Blog!

Crafty Hugs!
Meredith

Make A Splash!!

Good Morning Oddies!!  So excited to be here with you today to introduce you to one of the newest members of the Odd Girl Family - Under The Sea Mae!!  You are going to fall in LOVE with this gorgeous clear set.  This new set is chock full of gorgeous designs, elements and sentiments.  Today I've used one of the stunning Mae Mermaids along with some sea shell elements and a sweet sentiment.

I did something completely different with my stamping this time.  I inked her onto watercolor paper with white craft ink and then heat set her with white embossing powder.  I masked my image and then sponged all around her with Scattered Straw and Wild Honey Distress Inks (can you tell I'm LOVING on my Distress Inks lately?!)  While the image was still masked, I lightly spritzed the entire background with my pearlized water.

I colored her skin with my Copics and then proceeded to paint her with my Distress Inks.  For her hair I used Barn Door and Fired Brick, along whit a hint of Spun Sugar.  And I used Peacock Feathers FOr her tail, top and decorative seashell hair clip. 

I used a micro pen to exaggerate her luscious eyelashes!  For my background I used a large background stamp inked with white acrylic paint.  I was in a texture "mood" if you will so it was calling to me.  I used my MFT Photo Corner Die-namics to embellish the top, left corners, new Washi tape and a Tim Holtz edge embossing folder for the bottom.

I inked, painted and trimmed out a few of the fun seashell elements that come with the set and added them to my creation using 3-D foam squares.  As a final touch, I added self-adhesive pearls scattered here and there.  I love how they almost look like bubbles floating around her!

 Thanks for popping by today!!  I know you're going to LOVE this release as much as I do!  Please be sure to pop by my fellow amazing design team members over at the SOG blog to see all of the absolutely STUNNING creations there are today!!

"Sea" (heheeh) you tomorrow!

Crafty Hugs!
Meredith
 

Paper and Such Anniversary Celebration!

Greetings Paper and Such Fans!  Today over at the Paper and Such Challenge blog we are hosting a fun weekend of challenges and prizes all in celebration of Paper and Such's Anniversary!  Today I'm hosting a Monochromatic Challenge.  I love monochromatic as it allows you to delve into one color family and find all those fun hues and patterns that mix and match so well together. 

If you're a follower of mine you know that I have been totally loving on the new Distress Ink colors...especially Peacock!  So I with that in mind, I paired it with my neutral - black and came up with this creation:

In this project here I sponged a white doily with Peacock ink while resting it on a piece of white cardstock.  I used the negative of the doily as the main focal layer behind my Wild Rose image which was inked with black Colorbox ink, heat set with black embossing powder and then watercolor painted with the same ink and Pearlized Water on watercolor paper.

I added some photo corners, blue staples and some rustic twine to pull it all together.  I thought the bling and fun dizzy doily were the perfect finishing touches.

 To play along with this and all of the other amazing weekend challenges and to win some fabulous Paper and Such stamps come along to the challenge blog and check out all the fun!!

Thanks for stopping by today!!

Crafty Hugs!
Meredith

Can You Feel The Sun? Emboss Resist Distress Ink Tutorial

Greetings fellow Oddies!!  So excited to be here with you on this fabulous FUN weekend!!  Today I have a tutorial for you showing you how to create a beautiful background to any creation!  I'm using the GORGEOUS soon to be released Sunny Mae clear acrylic stamp set.  I've also used fun elements from the upcoming Under The Sea Mae and Beach Kids - Tobie and Tia sets!  Oh they are all just SUPER fabulous, fun and full of amazing images and sentiments. 

Today I am going to show you how I created a fun embossed resist background using white craft ink, white embossing powder and Distress Inks.  Now I must admit, for the longest time I shied away from fun and funky techniques like this as I didn't quite know how to do them or even what they really meant.  So for this technique, I will give you a very basic explanation so that it makes sense for everyone.  Let's break it down.

 

Embossing is a technique that can be done in many ways.  It can be done with what is called dry embossing and it can be done with heat called heat embossing.  The technique I am demonstrating today is called embossed heat resist which is done with a heat tool or gun along with ink or paint or other viscous medium.  The embossing causes whatever image you choose to be raised or popped up slightly from the paper and the resist part comes into play when you rub ink/paint etc. over that raised image and it 'resists' whatever medium you've applied over it.

To start out here are the basic supplies you will need:

• Stamps
• White Craft Ink or Versamark Ink
• White embossing powder
  
• Dryer sheet
• Water color paper
• Distress Inks
• Pearlized water or regular water in a mister bottle
• Heat gun
  

I use this water color paper as I find the quality to be absolutely amazing.

*Note - you do not have to use watercolor paper if you are going to simply emboss.  I am using watercolor paper because we will be adding ink and water to this project.

I then went through my Distress Inks and pulled out some colors that I might like to use. 
The next step is to lightly rub your dryer sheet over the watercolor paper.  I do this whenever I heat emboss as it helps minimize any static cling that might occur causing your embossing powder to stick in places other than your stamped areas.  I find this to be especially helpful when using black embossing powder. 

The next step is to choose the elements for your background.  I used the small accent stamps from the three sets listed above in addition to one sentiment stamp from the Sunny Mae set.  I absolutely LOVE my Fiskars Stamp Press and I have one in both small and large sizes.  As you can see, I fiddled with the stamps until I had them just where I wanted them.
I always work on my Scor-Mat which is attached to my Scor-Pal as it really allows for a nice spongy surface with just the right amount of 'give' when you are stamping with acrylic.  I then generously applied my white craft ink.
I try to work relatively fast when heat embossing so that my ink doesn't dry before I get my embossing powder sprinkled on.

I will stamp once, coat with embossing powder and then stamp again as I found that waiting the few minutes in between can cause too much drying to happen and then the powder won't stick. 
I then zapped it with my heat gun until it was shiny and dry.
Once it was all dry, I took out my ink blending tools and started at the bottom with Peacock Distress Ink and worked my way up to the top where I ended with Rusty Hinge.  I have a different blending pad for each color so I simply switched out each time I used a different color.  I work in circles lightly picking up color from the pad and working it across the paper. 

Once I had the desired colors I sprayed the entire panel about 5 times with my pearlized water.  Pearlized water is regular water in a mini mister bottle with a scoop or two of Perfect Pearls powder.  If you don't have the powder, no worries.  Distress Inks work and blend wonderfully with water so spritzing with plain water will give you the super fabulous watercolor effect without the shine that the Pearls powder lends. 
I am impatient, so I use my heat tool to dry the entire panel.  You can simply let it air dry if you'd like.  Once dry, I take a baby wipe (a damp paper towel would work as well) and gently rub the embossed areas to remove any excess ink that may have rubbed off onto those areas - it's usually very little but you want to make sure that those images really shine through!  And there you have your brilliant summery background!

Here is my finished product:
Thanks SO much for being here with me today!!  If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask!  Just leave them in the comments section with a way to get in touch with you and I will get back to you!!

Crafty Hugs!
Meredith

YNS Love!!

Hey All!!  Yes...you do see a new blinkie on my sidebar!!  I've been chosen to join the YNS Challenge Design Team!!  I'm so excited and very honored to be among so many great and talented artists!!

Come on and check out all the fun at YNS!! 

Crafty Hugs!
Meredith

My Favorite Things - Wednesday Stamp Club

Greetings Friends!!  Posting today bringing you my interpretation of this week's MFT sketch challenge.  I know I've said it before but over the years of enjoying, learning and sharing this amazingly fun craft I've found that time and time again sketches are just such a fantastic point at which to jump from when you are feeling low on mojo and/or time.  The sketches and samples that the designers at MFT post weekly are classic, imaginative and always easy to follow.  Every week there is a sweet prize to win as well as lots of fun inspiration to oooh and aahh over!

Without further ado, here is this week's sketch:

And here is my interpretation using Pure Innocence - Cowgirl.

I inked her with Momento and colored her with my Copics.  I paper pieced her hat, dress, vest, shoes and arms. 

I dug deep into my scrap bins to pull out some fun purple designer papers to pair them with some of my favorite Bazzil colors in Bling (yellow), Mermaid (turquoise) and Classic Purple.  I layered and stitched and went a little rogue by adding a few extra Rolled Rose Die-namics Flowers with designer paper and felt.  I anchored two of the Country Charms Die-namics tied to the felt flower with rustic twine. 

 I recently acquired an awesome selection of resin flowers in all colors and sizes and they just needed to adorn the center of my flowers.  I use hot glue to hold them all together and to attach them to the card to make sure they simply don't move.

I finished everything off adding a Photo Corner Die-namics to my main image to trim down the expanse of white space that was showing and I used my Oval Tab Die-namics to house my sentiment.  I chose to round my sentiment to mimic the shape of the oval tab so that left me with a bit of extra space showing directly under the sentiment.  To add a bit "more" to this area, I trimmed out a second Oval Tab using the yellow designer paper from Recollections, and I simply trimmed off the oval part leaving a simple strip that I adhered and then stitched to the sentiment tab.  I love how it came out, simple and bold. 

My daughter has recently started riding lessons and is totally enamored of the entire world of Equestrians.  I am going to be tucking this into her lunch box tomorrow!  Thanks for popping in today!! 

Crafty Hugs!
Meredith

Some Odd Girl Fun Day Challenge!!

Greetings Oddies!!  I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!!  I know I did spending the weekend away with my darling hubby and kids!  Today is a fabulously fun day over at the Some Odd Girl Challenge Blog as Kristy is changing it up a bit with a Bright Color Fun Challenge!  As you can see, I've inked up Cupcake Mae and colored her super brightly with my Copics.  (psst...I TOTALLY want a dress like that!!)

I used white gel pen to create the illusion of shine on the cherry in her hair and the reflective dots on her eyes. 

Here are the marker colors I used to color Mae.

You'll notice a few Pantone and Prismacolor markers strewn about in there.  It's ok...they're all friends ;)  I LOVE the Pantone markers because they have three nibs.  One large chisel tip, one sort of small pointy tip - similar to the Copic Original markers and then they have a teeny, tiny micro-fine point that allows you to access the tiniest of areas which is helpful when you are trying to get color in one small space but not bleed out onto the areas around it. 

I used my Rolled Rose Die-namic from MFT to create this bright and happy felt flower cluster.  The pearls were originally white but I colored them with my Copics to match my felt perfectly.  I added a bit of bling and a few sewing stickpins to complete this arrangement. 

The blue doily in the background was also originally white but I used my spongy ink blending tool to coat it with Peacock Blue Distress Ink.  My papers are from MME and Bazzill.

I hope you have enjoyed and been inspired today!!  You'll definitely want to check out all of the gorgeousness at the SOG challenge blog!

Crafty Hugs!
Meredith

Mini Album Peek

Good Morning Friends!!  I don't know about you but I LOVE mini albums.  I think they are a fantastic way to remember a specific event. 

The reason for this mini album?  My daughter's very first horseback riding lesson.  I know...I'm an uber proud Mum.  Our daughter is 7 and has been asking to ride since last fall.  We were in the midst of trying soccer at the time which she enjoyed but is not so much into the team thing.  Which is absolutely fine.  So we went through the Winter and once Spring hit I started calling around to the many Equestrian centers we have near where we live.  I found the most perfect stable for her and our family.  They are wonderful, caring, and nurturing AND they have the most stunning horses and ponies.  She's had three lessons so far and is really taking to it.  I think this is her sport.  Sigh...I just love it.  Here is the picture that inspired the color palette.

The pony's name is Spirit.  He is sweet and gentle.  Perfect for a first rider.  Oh and the sweater you ask?  It was made my my darling husband's amazing Grandmother.  It was made for my sister-in-law when they were kids and has been passed down which I absolutely love.  Grandmother is turning 100 this Fall and she is just tickled that her Great-Grand-daughter has taken to riding.  She herself was an Equestrian as are two of her daughters (my hubby's aunts).  So it runs in the family! 

So, to honor this occasion, I'm creating a mini-album with pics from her first lesson.  I have the cover done and I'm almost done with the first page but I have a little sneak peek of the cover to show  you.

I pulled lots of scrap papers (Making Memories, Recollections, MME, and Bazzill) in blue and limes along with an assortment of stickers and embellishments.  I added the pop of red in lieu of pink as it just seemed to work better with the papers I had.  

As you can see, I've used some delicious resin flowers that I got here as well as my MFT Fishtail Banner Die-namics to really make the cover pop.  

I threaded my sewing machine with red thread to make the entire cover pop!  

I promise to share more when it's all done!

Crafty Hugs!
Meredith