No, not here... Did you see the new Doodlefactory Great Outdoors set from Starving Artistamps? It is so cute. I love the little pine trees and the camper. Anyway, you can throw your hat in to win the Great Outdoors sheet and all four sentiment sets to go with it! Check it out here.
I came across a new stamp company called Whiff of Joy. They have some really cute winter kid images coming out soon. When I found out that Katharina, the owner, was having a sketch challenge contest to find a guest designer, I just had to whip up a card!
The challenge was to make a card using this sketch. Since the new Whiff of Joy stamps are all winter related, I pulled out the Lily and snowman stamp from Pink Cat Studios.
Then I added Indigo flocking to Lily's fringe and ear muffs. I love how this looks in real life. Frosty is covered in ice stickles and his hat, eyes and buttons were colored in with a Black Sakura jelly roll pen. Since it was already so late, I didn't give the pen time to dry before adding the stickles and it bled a little. That was a bit of a bummer, but I don't think it is too noticeable.
Now that the anniversaries have past, it's time to think about the 3 weddings we have from August 30-September 30. Another bridal shower equals another card!
The layout is Julee Tilman's Mojo Monday sketch #45.
Eric's newborn cousin had surgery earlier this week to fix a violent vomiting issue. She is okay now, but her parents have been through a horrible week of uncertainty and then surgery. I can't even imagine!
I decided simple is best so I chose Natasha's Fall to Layout #6. I chose a few different patterns from the Almost Amethyst prints patterned paper from Stampin' Up and added a little ice stickles to some of the blocks to keep it from being too drab. I couldn't leave well enough alone, so I added some very thin black ribbon to the bottom that I've had forever.
July is a big wedding month which means lots of anniversary cards! This week is both my parent's anniversary and Eric's parents. Since my stamping time is a little limited these days, they are both getting the same card.
The layout is from Taylored Expressions's Cupcake Challenge #25. I had to flip the layout since my main image was too tall and I forgot that it was supposed to be off-center. I'll have to try this sketch again since I think it would be cuter with more of the circles showing.
I finally finished the baby's announcements. He's 6 months old, so I'm only 4 months or so late... At least they beat his first birthday invitations out the door!
The birth stats were cut out and embossed with a rectangle nestability. I blurred out his name in the picture because we have decided not to post his name to the internet.
Here's a shot of the announcement fully opened. I love the way these came out, but I definitely underestimated the amount of work they would be. In the end, I made 91 announcements. If you look at how many stars are on these invitations, I hope I am forgiven for procrastinating so much! I totally should have ordered a stars wheel instead. ;)
Last week, I mentioned that I made a gift for my husband's new cousin. I also made these for my little guy.
Melissa over at Pink Cat Studios ran a contest to be a guest designer for a new accessories set for Dress Up Billy & Dress Up Lily. I absolutely love these stamps and knew I had to at least try. ;)
To me, Billy is all boy. After just getting home from a baseball game, he tossed his gear on the floor and is ready to start playing with something else. ;)
For Billy's bed, I wanted to give him a cute dinosaur sheet ensemble. I used a corner rounder on one end to make it look less boxy and the key tag punch from Stampin' Up! to make his pillow. I just punched it twice to make it a little bit shorter. To hide all of the toys that Billy shoves under his bed, I added a bed skirt. To do this, I put down some Sticky Strip (red lined tape) on the back of the mattress piece. Then I applied some wide grosgrain -- making sure to ruffle it as I went along. I love how it came out.
The toy box was based on a technique that Mary O'Neill did on the Carol Duvall show several years ago. It took a little digging on the HGTV website to find the exact episode, but I did it! I love how the toys are layered to add a little dimension there as well.
Thanks to Tracy at Staving Artistamps, I found out that the Rubber Stamp & Scrapbook Expo was coming to Hartford last weekend! After checking with my local stamping friends, I found out that my friend Pat was demonstrating on Sunday, so that was the day that the baby and I headed up.
Being the geek that I am, I decided to stamp a onesie for the baby so he would look even cuter than normal. I chose Drake the dragon from the Doodle Factory Fairytale set because I think he is just too cute! I colored him in with metallic soft paints from Tulip. Isn't the sparkle awesome?
My little guy was a real trooper throughout the show considering he missed his morning nap. By the time we left, he was ready to fall fast asleep.
I had so much fun with the last Mystery Image swap that I had to join the next one on Stamp Girls Gone Wild. This time my dear friend Rose was the hostess and she chose these cute Elzybells girls as our image!
The layout is from Taylored Expressions Cupcake Challenge #7. I love Taylor's sketches!
I think I'm getting better at this colored pencil blending thing. Here's a close-up of my girls. I added a little glitter to them too. I just can't help myself. These girls are just too fun to color! I'm definitely going to have to order some myself!
As I mentioned earlier this week, my husband has a new little cousin. And that new cousin has a four and a half year-old big sister. When we went to visit the baby, we just had to bring a gift for her big sister too. :)
After letting the ink dry for an hour, I colored Lily in using the Tulip Soft paint. I ended up mixing white with the peach color to lighten it for her skin. Then to add some sparkle, I colored her dress in with the Amethyst pearl paint. It has a lot of sparkle in person, although it is hard to see in the pictures. You can see all the colors of fabric paint on Tulip's website.
My husband has a brand new cousin! She was born last week and we visited her over the weekend. I'll share more about the gift I made next week, but today I wanted to share the card.
The layout is an oldie but goodie -- Julee Tilman's Mojo Monday Sketch #32.
I went to a bridal shower on Saturday for one of our close friends. Her family owns a cottage in the Catskills where they spend a lot of time in the summer, so I wanted to make an earthy but still elegant card.
For simple elegance, I turned to Natasha Trupp's new blog, clean & simple stamping and used the Fall to Layout #4. Natasha has been posting great tips on making simple but still wow cards.
