You're Sew Nice...{JUGS229} & {RS102}

Hello everyone! Sorry I wasn't around to post for Tuesday's Colour Q - the kids and I decided to head off to my parents' place for the long weekend and I wasn't able to get a card done before I left.  I will admit it was kind of nice to have a week *off*, but now back to the grind.  :)

Today is my final day as the guest designer over at the Just Us Girls challenge...so sad!  I have thoroughly enjoyed playing along with the girls this month - they have been so sweet and supportive.  Thank you so much ladies!!!  This week's challenge is an inspiration challenge so take a peek at the photo inspiration:

For my card I used the colors as well as the sewing spools for inspiration.  I got to play with a new cutting plate I got awhile ago from Taylored Expressions - holy chevrons, Batman!!!  It's awesome!  I used last week's Retrosketches and came up with this *sorta* CAS card:

Thank you so much for visiting today - I love all the love.  :)  Enjoy the rest of your weekend and the upcoming last week of February!!  OY VEY!  How did that happen?  I'll see you back here on Tuesday with a brand-new Colour Q.  Later!

{HELLO} JUGS228 & RS101

Hi all! How are you doing this Valentine's Day weekend? The boys and I have gone on a road trip to visit my mom and dad - it's been quite awhile since we've been down there so it will be nice to relax and visit.

Today marks the third week of my stint over at the Just Us Girls Challenge blog and this week is my FAVORITE kind of challenge - a COLOR challenge.  And, to make it even better, you get to PICK which three colors you want to use!  Take a peek:

So I decided to use yellow, purple and lime green for my card - I combined it with last week's Retrosketches for this fun, CAS card to just say {hello}:

Those little sequins are so much fun to use - they give a project just that tiny bit of *sparkle*. 

Thanks for stopping by today - enjoy your weekend!

 

Happy Birthday {CQC228} {JUGS227} {DS137}

Welcome back for another totally amazing Colour Q combination. This week's inspiration is from a super-cute pincushion Arielle found on Etsy - this particular one is no longer available but she's got lots of other cute ones:

I had a little bit of time to play around with these colors this weekend and was able to use the reverse sponging technique from the Just Us Girls Challenge as well as the Decontructed Sketch- take a peek:

As always, I hope you will be able to play along with us at the Colour Q - these are such fun colors I can't wait to see what you come up with!  See you on Saturday!

Best Day {ever}... JUGS227 & FMS122 & CMCC6

Welcome back! I'm so glad you decided to pop by today - I've got a really cool (albeit DIFFICULT) technique to share with you for my second week as the Guest Designer over at the Just Us Girls Challenge blog.  The technique we are challenging you all to try is the Ink Bordered Die Cuts - the lovely Becca Feeken has an AWESOME video tutorial that explains how to do it PERFECTLY. 

I will warn you - you MUST have wet, wet, WET ink pads for this technique to work properly.  I had my whole card planned out but soon discovered that all my pigment ink pads had DRIED UP!!!  The only ink pad I had that would work was my SU! Whisper White Craft Ink so, I had to rethink the WHOLE card.  I used this week's Colour Me! combo as well as the Freshly Made Sketches sketch:

It really is a cool technique that helps to give you a border around a die cut when you might not have the right size die for layering.

I hope you will have some time to play with us at JUGS this week - make sure you have LOTS of wipes handy because this is a MESSY one!  See you on Tuesday for a new Colour Q!!!

It's a SUPER-AWESOME Saturday!!!

Hi everyone! I am so excited today! I have TWO very important reasons for this Saturday post and I am thrilled to be able to share them with you.  :)

First of all - the amazing group of ladies over at the Just Us Girls Challenge have asked yours truly to join them as a Guest Designer for the whole month of February!  I was so excited I nearly squealed when I got the email - of course I said YES!!!  So thank you to Vicki and all the girls!  The first challenge this month is a SKETCH challenge - take a peek:

And the SECOND piece of awesomenosity?  Remember back at the beginning of January when I submitted this card to the Kraftin' Kimmie Krafty Guest Contest???  Well, yours truly made the top ten!!!  SO, now the challenge is to make another card (or two...) using this round's theme, "Kim Loves Pink!"  I must say that I also enjoy pink so didn't really have a hard time with this challenge - the hard part was trying to pick which KK stamp I was going to use!!!  I finally decided on Goldilocks which, I just discovered, is NOT even available in the KK store anymore!!  I hope that's OK and doesn't disqualify me?  At any rate, some pink and green paper set the tone for the rest of the card, I added some Rose Red seam binding, a button, some teeny-tiny pearls on her skirt et voila:

Thanks for stopping in today - things around here are slowly finding their way back to normal after me being away in Disneyland.  I will be back on Tuesday with another Colour Q combination and *maybe* one more submission for this Krafty Guest contest...stay tuned!  Enjoy the weekend!

SSSC #200 and a Fond Farewell...

Welcome back everyone!! I hope you are all pretty close to being ready for the big day - only 3 more sleeps!  I think I am pretty close to being ready - we will be celebrating with my husband's family on Tuesday and then enjoying Christmas Day at home.  I still haven't decided if we will head down to visit my parents between Christmas and New Year's - we'll see...

Today I've got some good news and sad news - let's start with the good news!!  It is time for the 200th Sweet Sunday Sketch!!!  Can you believe we're up to 200 already?  I feel so thankful and blessed to be part of such an awesome design team - Karen and the girls are one-in-a-million.  :)  To celebrate this amazing milestone, Karen will be offering up a gift certificate to the My Favorite Things store to one lucky participant so please try and play along with us!  Here's the final sketch of 2013:

And now for the sad news... this will my final sketch as part of the SSSC Design Team.  I have had a lot of *life stuff* going on the past few months and just feel like it is time to let some responsibilities go to free up some time to focus on my family and friends.  This was a VERY difficult decision for me to make and I took a LONG time deciding what to do.  I will miss everyone but will still try and play along when time allows!  

For my card, I used this week's color combo from the Just Us Girls Challenge - love the reds and browns together:

Need to see more?  All of the fabulous Sweet Sunday Stampers have inspiration for you, so please stop by and say hello to:

Dana White 

Dawn Easton 

Jackie Pedro
Jodi Collins 

Karen Giron
  Karen Motz 

Lisa Henke

Lori Tecler 

Lynn Put 

Sarah-Jane Kalé 

Tracy Clemente 

Vicki Burdick 

...and don't forget about the MFT gift certificate up for grabs!!!  You've got two weeks to play along so when you have a few minutes after the hustle and bustle dies down, I hope you will join us!

See you on Tuesday for a new Colour Q!

It's YARR Birthday! {DD59} & {JUGS195} & {RS70}

HELLO!!!   I hope everyone had an amazing weekend - we celebrated Canada Day with a long weekend and the weather was absolutely gorgeous so I wasn't inside much but I did manage to find a few minutes on Sunday morning to whip up a few birthday tags to add to my stash.

I am loving the two pirate-y sets from The Alley Way Stamps' new release...Blackbeard's Loot and Land Ho! work perfectly together and when you combine them with bits and pieces of other sets, you can use then for almost any occasion.  My sentiment uses a word from each of these sets: Blackbeard's Loot, All About YOU and Wish BIG. 

I also combined three challenges this time:

• The colors are from Dynamic Duos - I chose Real Red as my other color.

• Normally I would have just made one card but this week's Just Us Girls challenge inspired me to create the four tags:

• And the sketch is from the Retrosketches crew - slightly adapted to make a tag:  ETA: *and I realize now that I totally CASEd Kasia's card... I didn't even notice until I went back to the RS blog that I'd used the almost exact same images/shapes.  Funny how you think you have a fabulous idea but then realize it was someone else's first. ;) *

And here's a close up of each of the two designs - basically the same but a bit different with the background stamping:

Alrighty - that's it for me.  Thanks for stopping in today!  See you on Thursday!

 

Wish BIG Sneak Peek & JUGS 181

Are you as excited as I am????  I can't believe another month has passed so quickly and we're already in the midst of another fantastic release from The Alley Way Stamps.  Today we're sneak-peeking the third set, Wish BIG, and it's an AMAZING birthday set...a wrapped gift, a party hat, balloons and a banner - and the sentiments I {love}.

Here's my card using one of those sentiments:

I also used the Just Us Girls' color combo and a Seize the Birthday sketch - too late for STB but I loved the simplicity of the sketch...perfect for those last minute cards!

What do you think?  I know it doesn't really show the awesomenosity of the entire set, but I bet the rest of the girls can help you with that one.  Stop on over at the TAWS blog to see what else the talented ladies have done with this set.

See you on Saturday for our TAWS Blog Hop where you could win all three of the new sets! 

 

TAWS Sneak Peek {Day Two}

Hello everyone! Are you ready for another FANTASTIC release from The Alley Way Stamps?  Well, today is Day Two and we're sneak-peeking an AMAZING sentiment set called "All About YOU."  I LOVE this set - you know me and sentiments...a match made in heaven!

For my card, I used the lovely inspiration photo from Marisa and the gals at the Just Us Girls Challenge for the colors and the sketch is from CAS(E) This Sketch:

Don't you just {heart} this font?  All of the sentiments are perfect for so many occasions...definitely a MUST HAVE set. :)

Thanks for stopping by today - see you on Thursday for a new 4 Crafty Chicks' Challenge and the TAWS Blog Hop where you could win the entire new release!!  WOOHOO!!  See you then!

Fun With TAWS, JUGS and RetroSketches!

Hey crafty peeps! I've got a quick, CAS card to share with you all today.  I just love this new release from The Alley Way Stamps and this sentiment is from one of the new sets, "The Gang."   I used the color combo from the Just Us Girls challenge and the sketch is from RetroSketches - LOVE them both!  A few die cuts, a button with twine, and some simple zig-zag stitching, and this card was done in less than half an hour. :)

 Thanks for popping in today - enjoy your week!