The Best Day - Part One

Hello Friends!  I told you that I'd pop in every now and again with a fun creation!  Technically, I am on a self imposed blog break but I clearly couldn't let the start of school come without a creation or two for my fabulous children. 

My darling daughter started second grade yesterday and I wanted something simple, bright and fun to tuck into her lunchbox on day one.  I recently purchased the MFT Sentiments 6th Birthday Celebration Set

I mean, really, talk about awesome!  I used Bazzill cardstock and Basic Grey patterned papers from the Konnichiwa collection.  (swoon)

I used my Fishtail Flag STAX and my Hearts-a-Plenty Die-namics to complete my project.  To achieve my super glossy and bubbly heart, I cut the smallest heart out in both red cardstock and a scrap of thin cardboard.  I Xyroned the two together to give it some stability and then added a generous layer of Glossy Accents over top.  I let it dry overnight and adhered it to my card using hot glue to ensure that it wouldn't fall off. 

I anchored the corners of my sentiment panel and my outer panel with self-adhesive bling for an added touch of texture.

I was happy and my daughter was beaming when she came home as she had a fantastic first day of school.

I am one super proud Mom. 

Until the next time!

Crafty Hugs!
Meredith

A Lovely Farewell...

Greetings my dear friends!!!  I'm here today with a bit of explaining, some fun and a few creations to bid you a bloggy farewell for a short while while I embark upon a new adventure, of sorts! 

My darling friends and teammates at DYSU have organized an amazing blog hop as way to say adieu as I am stepping down from the team.  (sniff, sniff)  I first and foremost want to thank them for this amazing send off as well as my wonderful time that I spent with them on the team.  It was one of the most organized, well thought out, kind, compassionate and caring group of women that I've ever had the pleasure of creating with.  I will miss you all GREATLY but as time goes on I promise to come back and create with y'all when I can!!  Hugs my friends and many, many thank yous to you all!!!

As some of my crafty friends have noticed...my blog has been VERY quiet and getting increasingly more so as the weeks have gone on.  I have resigned (albeit tearfully) from all of the fabulous teams that I was on.  While I cannot share the news ~ just yet (wink) ~ I will say that it has to do in a way with my health (I am TOTALLY fine) but require more time to spend with my darling husband and two amazing kiddies as well as time to care for myself.  With school starting less than two weeks away, I want to spend every single moment with my babies before my daughter heads off to second grade and my son to Kindergarten.  The time is precious and few. 

I am sure that once everyone is settled in school, I will have a little time to dabble creatively here and there but will be more focused on some mini albums for my kids as well as catching up on some scrappy projects that have been waiting for me very patiently.  I will post every now and again so please don't forget about me as I surely will not forget about you all.  I will definitely come by and visit and comment when I can and will for sure get back into the crafty world when it's my time.  But for now...it's farewell to my daily creating and blogging.  Be sure to keep me posted on anything fun and I will come by and say "hello!!" 

And so, without further ado, I am going to leave you with some of my favorite projects that I created while on the DYSU team. 

Thank you my friends for everything!!  See you soon!!

With Many Crafty Hugs!
Meredith

Four Legged Friends

DYSU WK 84

Birdie Brown

* Winner's Choice of 3 Digital Stamps

The Paper Shelter

* $20 Gift Certificate

Bugaboo Stamps

* Winner's Choice of 7 Digis

 

Greetings DYSU friends!  Today we're hosting a super cute challenge at the DYSU challenge blog called Four Legged Friends.  Yep, that's right!  We want you to bust out all of your super cute animal images and share them with us!!

Today I've used the super sweet porcupine image from Bugaboo stamps.  I printed him onto Copic Xpress paper and colored him with my Copics.  I did this twice coloring and trimming out his adorable face so that I could pop it up on foam adhesive to give him added dimension.

I used lots of scraps including some from Bazzill, Basic Grey and SU!.  I used a sentiment from Loves Rubberstamps.  I added quite a bit of embellishments to create a fun little grouping using wooden buttons, twine and twill tape.  I also added some stitching and a tiny clothespin attached to the main image panel.

I hope you come play along with us at the DYSU challenge blog!

Crafty Hugs!
Meredith

Smashing Kaylee

Greetings Oddies!!  Here again bringing you another amazing set from Some Odd Girl!  Today's release highlights the gorgeous Kaylee and her new fun filled closet! 

In lieu of a card today I decided to create a smash page using this gorgeous gal!

It's a mini Smash book - about 5"x 7" or so.  Just the right size and place to use lots of bits and leftover scraps.  I inked Kaylee in Momento ink and colored her with my Copics.  I then paper pieced her adorable dress as well as the white trim on the bottom. 

I LOVE the versatility of this set as there's so many unbelievable options!!  I used all kinds of bits and bobs from a variety of sources in my stash.  Bottlecap embellies, resin flowers, rhinestone bling, mini paperclips, rosette trimmed ribbon and Washi tape.  Most papers are from Amy Tangerine.

I used lots of stitching to add extra texture.

My sentiment is from my very favorite Under The Sea Mae set. 

Thanks for coming by again today!!  I hope you are enjoying this new release as much as I am!

Crafty Hugs!
Meredith

One Hot Dog!

Greetings Oddies!!  Today is SUCH a fun day as it starts our new clear stamp release for August!!  There are four crazy adorable sets releasing this week and I know you're going to love them all!  Today we're showing off the set called Preppie Pups.  I mean, really...do they get any cuter?  Before I get to my project, I am going to show you the entire set:

Sooooooo cute.  I went pretty CAS today using my favorite Distress Ink water coloring technique for this sweet Dachshund.  I used an older MFT sketch as my jumping off point and kept my card relatively masculine in nature. 

My papers are from MME - Darling Dear.  One of my favorite little tricks when using acrylic sentiments is to be able to curve them to suit your panels!  In this case my 'hey hot dog' sentiment is curved to follow the line of the ovals which were cut using my MFT Oval STAX Die-namics. 

I created some rolled flowers using kraft and black cardstock and my rolled rose Die-namic. 

The possibilities with this set are totally endless!  Thanks for popping by today!  See you tomorrow with another fabulous Odd Girl set!!

Crafty Hugs!
Meredith

Super Fabulous

Super cool, super fabulous, a super great cause...check it out.

Crafty Hugs-
Meredith

One Party Animal!

Greetings Oddies!!  Today marks the first Blog Hop of the new Some Odd Girl term! I am so excited to be showing you some new sets that I know you’re going to enjoy. Today the team will be featuring projects featuring the soon to be released sets, Preppy Pups and our new line, Kaylee’s Closet.


Be sure to leave a comment on each stop as we will be giving away the new Preppy Pups 4×6 set AND our Kaylee’s Closet Wardrobe set!  A fabulous prize for sure!!

You are going to find tons of inspiration with these new sets along the way so let’s get to hopping!  You should have arrived to my blog via the lovely Rachel's blog.  If not be sure to start the hop right HERE.

 My creation today features the adorable Preppie Pups set using the bulldog-esque puppy as well as the HYSTERICAL mustache!  I stamped the puppy using Momento ink onto kraft cardstock and then colored with my Copics.  I inked the mustache with black Colorbox ink and heat set it with black embossing powder.  I cut both of them out and added the mustache with a tiny dab of Glossy Accents.

 I added the sentiment 'party animal' to the right hand side of my main panel.  I anchored the corners with large, sticky back gems and popped the puppy up using dimensional adhesive.

My papers are a mish mash from G45, Crate Paper and Bazzill.  I used the last bit of my VERY favorite May Arts Chevron ribbon (with a note to buy more!) to create a sweet knot on the right hand side, balancing it out with resin flowers from Kaiser on the left.  I added stitching to all of my layers and used an older sketch from MFT as my muse.

Thanks so much for coming by today!  Your next stop on this fun hop is my dear friend Leah C.!  She will SURELY have something to seriously WOW you!!

I've added the entire hop list below just in case you get lost!!  Have fun and have a great weekend!!

Some Odd Girl Blog
Alyce
Vera
Anna Maria
Asa
Anna
Annette
Rachel
Meredith
Leah C
Indah
Kristy

You have through the end of the day on August 5 (midnight EST) to hippty hop to each stop and leave some love. The winners will be announced next week.

Crafty Hugs!
Meredith

Happy Hamiversary

Good Morning Hambo Fans!!  You may notice that I'm not posting on my usual Wednesday for Hambo!  That's because there's been a shift at the Hoedown and those of us who have been creating with their fantastic digital images are now shifting gears and creating with their equally amazing and very expansive rubber stamp line! 

My creation today features the CUTEST image called List Pig.  I inked the image with Momento and colored it with my Prismacolor pencils.  Not a medium I reach for often but one that I love to use.  I combined it with some fabulous Love Story papers from Fancy Pants.  I've been coveting it since last Valentine's Day and dole it out very slowly!  (hoard much ;) ?)  I paired it with a hilarious sentiment - also from Hambo and can be found here. 

I used my MFT Hearts-a-Plenty and Fishtail Flag STAX dies to compliment my design and added some stitching for extra texture.  As a finishing touch I added teeny, tiny metallic sticky back pearls to anchor my corners.

I hope you enjoy and come on over to play in the newest Hoedown Challenge!

Crafty Hugs!
Meredith

Beach Cutie - A New DYSU Challenge

Broken Box Stock

* A "Toodle Club Membership" and a free Toodle Birthday Calendar.  Total prize package is a $29 value.

Stamp and Create

* $25 Gift Certificate

Greetings DYSU friends!  Today marks another challenge at the DYSU challenge blog!  The challenge is to use Polka Dots.  My sweet swim girl image today is from Stamp and Create.  I printed my image three times.  Once onto Copic Xpress paper, again onto blue cardstock and again onto red/blue polka dotted designer paper.  I first colored my image with my Copics and then paper pieced her towel and bathing suit.

I don't know about you but I totally have Olympic fever this week so this was THE perfect image!  I added lots of fun polka dotted elements using Washi tape and patterned paper.

 I added a cluster with stitched ribbon, baker's twine and a pretty button.

 I used some tiny brads to anchor my corners and lastly my VERY favorite resin flowers that I love love to give my creation that little something extra.  I used my MFT mini tabs - specifically the bracket tab to house my sentiment which is from Some Odd Girl.

I hope you come play along with our polka dots challenge right here at the DYSU Challenge Blog!

Crafty Hugs!
Meredith

Just Keep Swimming...

Greetings Oddies!!  Sooo glad to be here with you today bringing you another fabulous challenge over at the Odd Girl Blog!!  There's a super fun sketch for you to play along with us and don't forget...you have an entire month to play along!!  It's just fabulous all around!

Here's the sketch:

I've used one of my very favorite SOG sets - Under The Sea Mae, this time highlighting the CRAZY CUTE sea horse.  I used one of my most used and most popular "go to" techniques - painting with Distress Inks.  I have to be honest, when I'm in a crunch for time, feeling low on mojo, or am having one or another crafting maladies I turn to this technique to help push me through and finish a creation that I am happy with and can be proud of! 

I inked the seahorse onto good quality watercolor paper and heat set it with black embossing powder.  A tip for using black embossing powder.  If you don't have a fancy powder tool, which I do not, (love those things!) grab a dryer sheet and lightly swift it over your paper.  Don't scrub too hard because then your ink won't grab well to the paper but if you do it lightly it does help eliminate any static cling and you won't be left with so many stray bits of embossing powder.  But there are always a few, so I take a very fine, soft paintbrush and gently sweep away any strays that are hanging around.  I then zap it dry!

I love how quickly the image comes together when painting with the pearlized water yet how sparkly, shimmery and brilliant the color comes out.  I cut it out using my circle Spellbinders matting it with kraft cardstock.

For my background, I started with some very basic designer paper from a HUGE stack pack that I bought years ago.  I recently 'unearthed' it tucked away in a bin.  It seriously was 300 or so sheets and I *think* it was either from K&CO or DCWV.  One of the two.  The paper is really thin and to call the quality fair is being kind.  But I LOVED most of the patterns and colors so I grabbed it when it was on sale eons ago.  When I found it a few weeks ago, I painstakingly went through it tearing out all of the sheets I liked and trimmed them down to a manageable 6x6 size.  I RARELY buy 12x12 anymore unless the patterns are smaller scaled which work better for cards and mini-albums so whatever was leftover went right into my kids art drawers!

 

I grabbed a patterned blue piece but it didn't "quite" go with my scheme so I enhanced it a bit by stamping the background with a Studio Calico background stamp and embossing it with white embossing powder.  I then grabbed the same Distress Inks that I used for the sea horse - Peacock Feathers, Shabby Shutters and Peeled Paint and sponged the background until it was exactly how I wanted it.  I love that you can still see the original paper shining through but it looks just richer with the added touches.

I used a variety of embellishments including pearlized and glittery brads, paper doily, baker's twine, fabric flower trim, a fun decorative pin, sticky back rhinestones and my MFT Fishtail Flag STAX Die-namics.

I layered my main panel and ran a straight stitch for extra texture.

I really do love when all of my elements come start to come together.

I do so hope you come join us over at the Odd Girl Challenge Blog!!  Can't wait to see what you create!!

Crafty Hugs!
Meredith