Fond Farewell to the 4 Crafty Chicks...

Hello everyone! Thank you for stopping in today.  I've got some bittersweet news to share with you today - this is my last challenge with the 4 Crafty Chicks...:(  We've been together for three years and we recently decided that it was time to inject some new life into the group so I have decided to leave in order to pursue other endeavours, both creatively (one which I can share with you next week) and personally.  I certainly wish Leanne, Tamie and Lori all the best in the future - I know they will find someone fantastic to replace me.

With all that being said, you're here to see my card for this week's challenge, aren't you?  I had fun with this sketch and the Colour Q combo was the perfect complement for it:

The sentiment from the TAWS set, Calypso:

I hope you will play along with my final 4CCC sketch challenge - I can't wait to see what you all create!  I'll be back tomorrow morning with a BE Inspired challenge card - see you then!

4CCC-158 {Lace} & CQC205 & RS79

Hello everyone! Thank you so much for stopping by today.  It's Thursday and that means it's time for a brand new 4 Crafty Chicks' Challenge.  Leanne's our hostess-with-the-mostest and she is challenging us to use LACE in/on our creations.  It could be real lace, or a lacy stamp...or maybe a lacy die cut... the possibilities are endless so have fun.

For my card, I decided to use a lacy stamp - it's one of The Alley Way Stamps new releases, Calypso, and it works perfectly for this challenge.  The sentiment is from another TAWS set, Give Thanks. 

I totally love this week's colors over at the Colour Q challenge and the sketch is very *loosely* based on the current Retrosketches:

I hope you will play along with us over at the 4 Crafty Chicks - I know the girls love to visit your blogs and see what you've created.  :)  Hope you all have a fantastic weekend - we'll see you next week.

 

{Give Thanks} Sneak Peek & 4CCC-157 {Squares} & DS115

Hello again! Thank you so much for stopping by today - it's release week over at The Alley Way Stamps and today is day three (and my FAVORITE set), Give Thanks.  Alison has really outdone herself with this set - the loopy font just makes me smile.  And the little owl and turkey???  Well, you've gotta have it! 

It's also time for a brand new 4 Crafty Chicks' Challenge and this week the theme is SQUARES.  Lots of squares or just a few squares - you decide.  :)  I decided to keep it pretty simple with my squares and just make a square card with a square layer - and one of my patterned papers has squares on it.

The sketch is last week's Deconstructed Sketch, rotated to fit my sentiment:

So cute, right?  Trust me - if you love that loopy font you are going to LOVE this entire set.  A must-have for sure.  :)  If you'd like to WIN this set (and who doesn't love free???), all you have to do is pop over to the Alley Way Stamps blog and comment on the Day Three sneak peek post.  And if you want yet another chance to win, share it on Facebook...SUPER easy-peasy!

OK - don't forget that squares is the theme over at the 4 Crafty Chicks' and I'll be back on Saturday for The Alley Way Stamps Blog Hop.  You could win all three new sets!   See you then!

4CCC-156 {Inspiration Photo}

Hello again, everyone! I'm so glad you decided to stop in today - I've got a brand new 4 Crafty Chicks Challenge to share with you all.  This week, Lori is our hostess-with-the-mostest and she has given us this funky inspiration photo to get the mojo going:

So, as usual, I decided to go with the bright colors and the chevron pattern of the afghan for my card.  I used a MFT die and some scraps of paper and created a CAS invitation using a sentiment from the new Alley Way Stamps set, Crazy Circuits:

I even used the zig-zag stitch on my sewing machine to mimic the chevrons...a couple of pearls added a bit of *zing*. 

I hope you can play along with us - we'd love to see how the photo inspires you!  Have a fabulous weekend!

 

4CCC-154 {Black & White}

Hellooooooo! I'm so glad you stopped in today because I've got a project to share with you all that I am SOOOOO excited about.  This week over at the 4 Crafty Chicks Challenge, "yours truly" is your hostess-extraordinaire and I've got a challenge that might be hard for those of us who really LOVE our colors.  This week, I want to see projects that use ONLY black and white.  Yikes, right?  Trust me, you'll have fun.

I've been in a bit of a crafting funk lately and haven't really wanted to spend much time in my craft room so have been trying to figure out how to get my mojo back.  Well, folks, I might have done just that with this project I am working on.  I've been crafty most of my life and have recently rediscovered quilting...LOVE!  It's been years since I have quilted - life just got too busy - but I think the bug has bitten me again.  We've got an AMAZING little quilt shop in town and it's just a couple doors down from the gym so I popped in last Friday and decided I was GOING to do this.  I had done some research and watched a few videos on YouTube and was agog at this fast, easy, GORGEOUS quilt using a jelly roll.  No, not the kind you eat.  :) 

Basically, a jelly roll is a bunch of strips of coordinating fabrics, put together and tied up all pretty.  I picked up a jelly roll that only had black and white fabrics, some material for coordinating borders and got to work.

Some of the fabrics from the jelly roll...

The first step is sewing all the strips together end-to-end on an 45* angle...that's a LONG strip of fabric:

Then you put the short ends of the long strip together, sew down one LONG side, snip the bottom apart, and repeat the process four more times...watch the video because I cannot explain it as well as she does.  :)

Here's the completed jelly roll part of the quilt top:

And then I added two borders - one small and one wide.

First border - a black and white gingham:

 The wide border and completed quilt top - had to hang it over the railing because my DS wasn't tall enough to hold it up for me!

 Here are a couple close-ups of some of the materials:

I am so excited to get some batting and binding and finish this up!  I will definitely post pics when it's all done.  :)

Thanks for stopping in for my novel-length post...remember...Black and White...that's the challenge!  Have fun!

 

4CCC-152 {Pennants} & RS73

Hi again and welcome back for another fun-filled 4 Crafty Chicks' Challenge! This week Lori is our hostess with the mostest and she has decided that she would like to see some PENNANTS.  If anyone is wondering what that is, it's kind of like a banner or a triangular flag you might get to cheer on a sports team.  If you are still confused, pop on over to the blog to see how the other girls incorporated this theme into their cards.

For mine, I used some patterned paper from Echo Park (Sweet Day) that had pennants all over it and combined it with the ever-festive polka dots and made this fun little b-day card using sentiments from the TAWS set, Wish BIG:

The sketch is this week's Retrosketches - a nice, CAS one, don't you think?  I even managed to sneak a little bit of Limeade Trendy Twine onto the button. :)

Okie dokie - that's it for me!  Enjoy your day and the upcoming weekend.  Don't forget that the new TAWS Sneak Peeks start on Sunday and you won't want to miss them!  So AMAZING!

Later gators!

4CCC-151 {For the Boys} & Mojo 302 & Curtain Call

Welcome back for another 4 Crafty Chicks' Challenge! This week, Tamie is our hostess with the mostest and before she left on holidays, she told us to make projects "For the Boys," so that's just what we did.  :)

This month's new release over at The Alley Way Stamps features two nautical/pirate-y sets, Blackbeard's Loot & Land HO!, so when I saw the inaugural Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge, I knew I had to use them for my card:

And since the sponsor over at The Curtain Call is Verve (one of my favorite stamp companies EVER!), I figured I'd use this week's Mojo Monday sketch:

Thanks for stopping by today - make sure to come back tomorrow for our new BE Inspired Challenge over at TAWS - you're gonna love the inspiration photo!  See you then!

4CCC-150 {3-D Projects} & DD60

It's time for a brand new 4 Crafty Chicks' Challenge and this week I'm your hostess with the mostest - aren't you lucky?  This week, we're looking for some amazing 3-D Projects - boxes, bags, canvases, knit, crochet...you decide.  This is a bit of a departure from our usual challenge but I can't wait to see what you all come up with.

For my project, I made a fun little bag of treats - I found these yummy peanut butter-filled pretzels at Costco and filled a little cello bag full, added a bit of an "envelope" for it and voila!!!  I used an image and sentiment from The Alley Way Stamps' set Land HO and combined it with this week's Dynamic Duos color combo - perfect for a tropical bird:

And a quick side view:

I hope you will come and play along - we'd love to see what you create that ISN'T a card.  :)  Thanks for stopping by!

 

4CCC-149 {Dry Embossing} & Mojo300 & Fusion 13

Happy Independence Day to all my wonderful American friends!  I'm sure you will all be busy celebrating today so when you are all finished with that, I hope you will join us for a brand new 4 Crafty Chicks Challenge.  This week Leanne is our hostess-with-the-mostest and she's got an EASY one for us all this week: Dry Embossing.  Use a stencil, embossing folder or whatever else you've got that you can dry emboss with.  I know most of you have a bunch of embossing folders so get 'em out and use them!

For my card I used a couple different folders - a fantastic woodgrain one from Stampin' UP! that I used on the birdhouse and the big flag and then a leafy branch one on the white layer.  I thought it was kind of like the trunk of the tree and the branches/leaves that a birdhouse would hang from.  The stamps are from two different TAWS sets, Tag-alongs and Bird Brain:

The sketch is this week's Mojo Monday sketch - celebrating 300 sketches!!  Wow...I can hardly believe Julee has been blessing us with fabulous sketches for so long - thanks, Julee.  :)

And the card was inspired by this week's Fusion Card Challenge Inspiration picture - the colors of the birds and the bird theme:

Thanks for stopping by today - enjoy the day and upcoming weekend!  We're heading out to visit my parents for some much-needed R&R...see you next week!

4CCC-148 {Cupcakes} & TAWS Day Two Sneak Peek & RS69

Here we are again - another Thursday and that means a brand-new 4 Crafty Chicks Challenge!  This week, Lori is our hostess-with-the-mostest and she must be in a celebratory mood because the theme this week is "Cupcakes."  Who doesn't love a yummy cupcake?

But do you know what else today is???  It's Day TWO of The Alley Way Stamps new release sneak peeks!!!  Do you know what *that* means?  You could WIN today's set just by commenting at the TAWS blog so don't forget to pop over and see what the other girls created using this school-inspired set.

For my card, I decided to go in a different direction.  I love one of the sentiments that comes with this set and it is PERFECT for all those super-awesome people in your life.  I made this card for one of the ladies that works with my son, J., at school.  Many of you know he has autism and the gals that work with him on a daily basis really are "out of this world." 

 The sketch is based on this week's RetroSketches...very "loosely" based:

Thanks for stopping in - I hope you will play with our cupcakes challenge at the 4CCC.  Don't forget about the TAWS blog hop on Sunday where you could win all THREE new sets!  See you then!