CASual Fridays Breathe

I'm having fun playing with my CASual Friday's Stamps today!  Today I'm working with the Breathe stamp set!    This set is awesome  you get two borders to make backgrounds or underline sentiments.  I used the brush stroke stamp from the set today.

I inked up the brush stroke stamp with distress inks, spritzed them with water and then stamped on watercolor paper.  The colors I used were Candied Apple, Picked Raspberry, Spiced Marmalade, Squeezed Lemonade, Shabby Shutters, Salty Ocean, Wilted Violet and Seedless Preserves. I used my Misti tool to get the stampes lined up perfectly.

I'm seriously addicted to bling so when I saw the Fun-Fetti Fri Die I knew it was just the thing for me.  This die set has little stars, hearts, circles and flowers that you can use to sprinkle on any project!  I used the stars (in two sizes!!) cut from gold foil paper. 

I attached the front panel to the card base with a sheet of craft foam in between.  I love the layered look and dimension it adds to the card.

Sometimes watercolor paper is hard to stamp on because it's not completely smooth.  If you have a Misti tool you can double stamp to get a clear impression.  

Want to go shopping?  Click here to jump to the store!

 Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a great day! 

Finished Size 4.25 x 5.5"
Stamps | CASual Fridays Breathe
Dies | CASual Fridays Fun-Fetti Fri Die
Ranger Distress Ink
Canson XL Watercolor Paper

12 Kits of Occasions - Here Comes The Sun

It's the last day of the month! Time for the 12 Kits of Occasions! The 12 Kits is a group of friends who all love to papercraft. Every month one of us takes a turn at supplying a kit to the rest of the group. The hostess with the mostest this month is Sharron from On Papillon Wings blog. She put together this beautiful kit for us with pretty papers, stamped and die cut images, twine sequins and gems! Our theme this month is "Here Comes the Sun" - and yes! I was walking on sunshine creating with this wonderful kit! The colors came together beautifully and make me think of rainbow sherbet! YUM!!

One of my favorite parts of being a member of this group is all the new products I get to try.  I've been introduced to some of my now favorite brands through some of these amazing kits.   There is no "tricky" ingredient this time - everything was a pleasure to work with.  I switched a few things up - particularly the die cut words and butterfly - I wanted them to "pop" more so I colored them black with a Sharpie Marker.  

Some of the items were stamped on watercolor paper - The Hula Girl (OK so that's what I'm calling her!  LOL!) and the yummy drinks.  I colored them up with Zig Clean Color Real Brushes (watercolors).  All the other images were stamped on card stock and colored with Copic Markers. 

The only big addition to the kit was lots of die cuts from Pretty Pink Posh - I added Stitched Borders for edges and landscape;  and used the Decorative Tag 1 and Window Frames for my focal points.  

OK.. here goes!!!  Count em!  YEP SIX!!

Want to see what the rest of the team made? Just click on their name to jump to their blog. You can also click here to go to our 12 Kits of Occasions Blog where you will find one sample from each of the designers to sort of aquaint you with their style.

Sharron - On Papillon Wings (This Month's Hostess)

Marybeth - It's Time For Paper

Joyce - Cards By The Sea

Kim - Cupcakes Cards & Kim

Jessica - The Paper Parade

Tracey McNeely - In My Creative Opinion

Lindsey Larsen - Occasional Crafting

Michele Ferguson - I Card Everyone

Lisa Elton - My Paper Tales

Michelle Leone - Pretty Periwinkles

Nancy Penir - Artful Notions

Thanks for stopping by and have a bright bright sun shiny day!   Sorry I just couldn't resist!!

All cards 4.25 x 5.5"

Stamps | MFT Stamps Polynesian Paradise, Blissful Blooms

TYIC#48 Patriotic Pinwheels

Do you love tags?  Heck yes!  You KNOW I do!!!   Then you better check out the Tag You're It Challenge!  Tags are a mini canvas for you to create on - and most of the time ideas come together quickly!  Check out our inspiration tag this time from Tag You're It designer Bobby Hagan from Bits and Pieces Designs!

Summer always makes me feel patriotic - it starts with Memorial Day, then in June Flag Day (go to a Scout flag retirement!!) , July 4th.. and don't forget the home town parades and fairs.  Things will be jumping in the midwest for months!   So yes.. Bobby's design is perfect!

I love everything about this one - top to bottom - the red white and blue ribbon, swirly stars, flags hanging off the tag, and of course the sentiment .. remember.  In all our celebrating, pride and patriotism.. it is important to remember those who have served and sacrificed for us. 

This seemed like the perfect sentiment for my little tag! It's from Taylored Expressions. 

This one was tricky to photograph because the pinwheel stand much taller than the tag base.   So where to focus.. the pinwheels or the words??

The stars are die from the white panel cut so I cut a second tag from  gold glitter paper to place in the open windows so the glitter peeks through.

I kept  a few things the same as Bobby's design - do you see the stars in the background?  If you look close they have a stitched pattern connecting them.  My background seemed a little to "white" to me so I splotched on some blue ink  - just some distress ink mixed with water.

Instead of flags - can you believe I couldn't find ANY????!!!  I made some patriotic pinwheels - plenty of those around in the summertime too right?  This is a fun die from Lil Inker Designs - I used the SMALL pinwheel.  I added pearl brads to the centers to hold them together before I glued them to my tag.

The finishing touch was the red eyelet for the gold shimmer twine - festive right?  Now it's your turn!  I sure hope you'll join us at Tag You're It Challenge - make sure you wear your colors!  

Supplies 
Stamp | Taylored Expressions Of Thee I Sing
Dies | Poppystamps Pinpoint Mainstreet Tags, Annaleigh Tag Decorations | Memory Box Starlit Breeze | Lil Inker Designs Mini Pinwheel 
The Twinery Gold Shimmer Twine
Pearl Brads

Fusion - Something Blue

I hope you're having a great week!  I'm loving the weather and feeling drawn out doors more and more now that the weather is getting warmer.  I 'm guessing lots of us are.  The kids are out of school and there is less empty hours to fill.  My crafting has always been my therapy.  Time for me to forget everything and just relax.  No Calgon take me away here - a set of stamps and colorful ink and I'm in heaven! 

Oh have I got the best challenge for you today!  OK.... YES it has FLOWERS!!  They are my kryptonite.. I see flowers.. I'm there.. what can I say???   So I'm hoping you love flowers too!   This is the newest Fusion Card Challenge - remember it's Fusion - so you can work with just the inspiration photo.. just the sketch... or if you're feeling clever you can fuse them together!   Did you know each of the challenges has a clever little name?  This one is called "Something Blue".

This week the sketch went completely out the window and I just went mad stamping blue flowers!  There are so many great double and triple stamp flowers out there - check your stash.. you know you have one!  LOL!!

The stamps set I used today is the Pretty Peonies From WPlus9!  I stamped them in Memento Inks - Bahama Blue, Soft Blue, Danube Blue, and Nautical Blue.  I have lots of different brands of dye ink, but I'm still always reaching for these. 

I added lots of pain splotches when I was done stamping.  This is my way of coping with the white negative spaces LOL!  Since the inks I used are dye inks they are water soluble.  I tapped the pad onto an acrylic block added some water, mixed it around, and then spashed away.  I used two shades of blue for the splats.

Since this is a wedding congratulatoins card I wanted to add some bling.  I double cut the Poppystamps Congrats sentiment - once in white, once in gold glitter paper. - so there is just a hint of gold peeking through.

A few iridescent 4 mm sequins from Pretty Pink Posh scattered about  add even more drama.   

How crazy is this? A one layer wedding card! Pinch me! Am I dreaming?

Looking for a little more inspiration for this one? Check out designs from the rest of the Fusion team!

Deanne Kay

Julia Aston

Katie Brooks

Kimberly Wiener

Lyndal Higgins

Lynn Mangan

Michelle Williams

Michelle Lupton

Stephanie Severin

Shannon Jaramillo

Sandie Munro

Karren Johnson

Brandi Hall

I sure hope you will join us!!




Finished Size 4.25 x 5.5"

Stamps | WPlus9 Pretty Peonies

Die | Poppystamps Decor Congrats

Sequins | Pretty Pink Posh

Pretty Little Studio Madison Ballerina

I love introducing you to all the die cuts at Pretty Little Studio! Today it's time for you to meet Madison! Isn't she the sweetest little ballerina? When my daughter was young we wanted her to be all grace and elegance and enrolled her in a dance class. She was beautiful in her pink leotard and frilly tutu! Since this was a class for very young girls, as a teaching aide they had stickers on the floor where each of the girls was supposed to stand. Seeing that the instructor had things under control I removed myself to the viewing area. When I made it into the room I discovered several moms pointing and giggling as they looked through the window.. of course I had to look too. What did I see? My little angel, not listening to the instructor - she was preoccupied with peeling all the stickers off the floor!!! How embarrassing! LOL!

Maybe you have a little ballerina of your own! Isn't this the cutest Birthday card? I started with papers from the Marigold Collection, the grey, blush and garden print are gorgeous together - an elegant setting for your tiny dancer!

The journaling card behind Madison is from the Hollyhock set - it has a grey herringbone pattern with a scatter of butterflies in bright colors. They look like they are dancing around Madison! 

I wanted this layout to be very feminine so I added half of a 4" Cambridge doily behind the ballerina die cut. It looks like soft lace peeking out. I only used half because I didn't want to cover up the butterflies on the journaling card. This is a great way to stretch your supplies - I'm sure to use the other half of the doily on another project! 

I love adding details and embellishments to projects! The little details make any project look like you went the extra mile when you were making it. Using Pretty Little Studio products makes that so easy because many of the items are already printed and cut - ready to work with. A good examples are the Cat Mint Tab across the top of the journaling card, and the Sunset Beach Note Flag with the stamped sentiment. 

I wrapped twine around my card several times finishing with a simple bow. I adhered Madison with adhesive foam tape creating a void on the back of the die cut for the twine to pass through allowing the die to lay flat. 

I learned a good lesson at dance class - don't take life too seriously... sometimes it's better to just laugh and have fun!

Finished Size 4.25 x 5.5”
Pretty Little Studio Products:
Die Cut | Madison
Paper | Marigold Collection
Journal Cards | Marigold | Hollyhock
Tabs | Cat Mint
Doily: Cambridge 4”
Note Flags | Sunset Beach
Other:
Twinery Blossom Twine
Stamp | Sugar Pea Designs | Seaside Wishes
Die | Pretty Pink Posh Stitched Borders

SPDSS55 - Hello Sunshine!

The rules are very simple…

• Create a new card or project using the sketch provided.
• SugarPea Designs stamps are NOT required to play along or to win but would be appreciated
• You may rotate/flip the sketch & replace shapes – so long as the original sketch layout is recognizable.
• Upload to your blog or other Online Gallery using Keyword: SPDSS55 so that we may check out your beautiful work.
• Add your name and link to your project in the InLinkz shown below.
• One randomly selected winner will receive a $25 Gift Certificate to the SugarPea Designs store. However, if the winning entry features a SugarPea Designs stamp we will increase the prize to $75!
• We will announce our Sweet Picks and our Main Winner at the end of each month.
• The more times you play along during the month, the better chance you have of winning!

Here's the sketch for this week...

Looks interesting right? So hmmm... what todo with those four boxes?  Put a little image in each?  I decided to put a scene inside like a window!  But first.. how to cut out those four squares - I was lucky to find a die from Pretty Pink Posh - the Stitched Duo 3 that had exactly 4 windows to cut out!  I set that die inside another die - the Scallop Squares - and ran them through my die cut machine once to make the perfect window.

I stamped the scene from Hello Sunshine with Memento ink and colored it with Copic Markers

I chose bright colors and papers for my layout for a fresh summer look.  Bright colors always make me happy !  I stamped the sentiment on pattern paper just above the window.

The sketch has some lines down the left side of the panel... I decided to add a die cut border in hot pink.  The framed scene looked like it was floating to me so I added some stripes of Twinery Pink Sorbet Twine wrapped around the card 3 times and finished with a bow.  This anchored all the elements. 

Need a little more inspiration? Check out creations from the challenge design team. Just click on their name to jump to their blog!

Kerin Sylvester

Claire Broadwater

Deanne Kay

Karren Johnson

Laura Jane

Lee Ann Barrett

Lesley Croghan

Mackie Robertson

Ready to play? Click here to jump to the blog - you can always find the challenge by clicking the badge in the right column on the Sugar Pea Designs Blog. 

Stamps | Sugar Pea Designs Hello Sunshine

Dies | Pretty Pink Posh Stitched Borders 4, Stitched Duo 3, Scallop Squares

Pattern Paper | Simple Stories DIY Boutique 6"

The Twinery Pink Sorbet Twine

Wood Veneer Heart Ruby Rock It