Happy Little Stampers CAS: Hugs

It's time for the June round of Happy Little Stampers challenges, and today brings the CAS Challenge! Our theme for June is HUGS. I have a number of sentiments with the word hug or hugs, but I could only think of one image, and decided to use it: 

This is an oldie but goodie from Paper Smooches. I didn't worry about too much shading when I coloured them in, and added just a simple ground with some green Copic dots. I had a hugs sentiment out as well, but this is so perfect for a new baby, I couldn't resist. I stamped in grey rather than black to keep everything looking a little softer. 

There are never too many hugs to go around, so I hope you'll make a card and join us! 

Supplies: Neenah white & Fabriano grey cardstock, Paper Smooches A Little Lovin & Unity sentiment stamp, Versafine smoky grey ink, Wow clear gloss embossing powder, Copic markers, Photoplay stitched frame dies, Gelly Roll white glaze pen

Pin It Now!

Addicted to Stamps and More: Anything Goes!

It's time for a new Addicted to Stamps and More challenge, and this week it's an easy one: Anything Goes! While you're socially distancing yourself by staying in your craft room, might as well make more cards! 

I have a friend who wanted a card for a christening. It was the perfect opportunity to get out one of my favourite stamps: 

I love this sleeping bunny from My Favorite Things - mostly because I have a little figurine just like it that my grandmother gave to me when I was very young. Watercoloured and paired with that little bear, it's one of my go-tos for baby cards. For this one, I added a blended ink background and a Lawn Fawn heart tag for the sentiment. 

Now is a great time to make a card to send to someone you might not be seeing for a while. For more inspiration, be sure to check out the ATSM blog! 

Supplies: Neenah white cardstock, Ranger watercolour cardstock, MFT Somebunny I Love & Alexandra Renke Best Wishes stamps, Versafine onyx black, Altenew blush & chipped sapphire distress ink, Wow clear gloss embossing powder, Zig watercolour markers, Winnie & Walter Katharine Cutaway & Lawn Fawn tiny tag dies, baker's twine, foam tape

Pin It Now!

It's a Celebration! 🎉

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 2017 had its up and downs, didn't it? So let's celebrate the arrival of 2018 and all the potential that a new calendar year offers. To kick off 2018, Naughty or Nice Challenges is looking for any kind of celebratory creation! Perhaps it's the new year, a special birthday or anniversary, or anything worth celebrating. 
It must be the afterglow of Christmas or something, but there's nothing in the least naughty about my card today...

A card to welcome a new baby is perhaps about as nice as one can get. To jump-start my creativity after a bit of a break over Christmas, I looked to Freshly Made Sketches #318 as a starting point for my design. This little bunny and that sentiment are my absolute favourites to use those rare times when I make a baby card. To keep the background subtle, I used a stippling brush to lightly apply ink through my stencil. And those soft pastel colours? Let's hope this is just a momentary lapse in my usual habits. :D 
Simon Says Stamp has an Anything Goes Wednesday challenge right now, so I'll link this little guy there as well. 

But wait, there's more! To start the year off, we're offering a prize! Our naughty and nice favourites will each receive a set of mitten dies. Be sure to check the challenge blog for all the details, and to see what the Troublemakers are up to in their celebrations. You have until January 25th to come and play along! 

Supplies: white cardstock, Strathmore mixed media paper, My Mind's Eye Lost & Found Rosy & Echo Park Everyday Eclectic patterned paper, My Favourite Things Somebunny I Love & Unity sentiment stamps, Versafine onyx black, MFT black licorice & bundled sage & ground espresso distress inks, Ranger clear embossing powder, 

distress markers, ARTplorations hearts all over stencil, foam tape

Pin It Now!

Happy New Baby

It's not very often that I need a card for a new baby, but I do this week! I have the perfect new image to use, too. 

Is that little sleeping bunny not adorable? I have an extra reason for liking it so much... 

I have had this little bunny figurine for as long as I can remember, a gift from my grandmother. And I've always loved it. 😊 For the design, I also turned to the current My Favorite Things sketch challenge, although my stamped bunny is not nearly as long as the horizontal banner in the sketch. (They do call it inspiration, after all...) I didn't purposely pick the pink polka-dot paper, but my bunny's blanket was obviously in my mind. 
Not surprisingly, there are a few challenges looking for something "new" in this first month of 2017, so I'm also linking my card up to Just Us Girls (word week: new) and the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge (new something: both my bunny image and a new baby card). 

Supplies: MFT grout grey cardstock, Strathmore mixed media paper, Echo Park Little Girl patterned paper, MFT Somebunny I Love stamp & die, Unity sentiment, MFT black licorice ink, distress markers, MFT blueprints 24 stitched rectangle frame die, pop-dot tape

Pin It Now!

Baby SPARKS!

Friday, and I have a Paper Smooches SPARKS card already! This week is a photo inspiration challenge. 

  
Here's what I took from this pretty photo:

• from the balloons, I was inspired to make a bokeh-style background
• the background colour gave me the shade for my "ground"
• the couple reminded me of a "paired" Paper Smooches stamp

Put all that together with a desire to make a baby card, and here's how it all came together:

It may not resemble the inspiration pic, but at least I explained how I got from there to here. ☺The elephants are stamped and embossed on watercolour paper and coloured with distress markers. I used my sponge daubers to make the background, and added a bit of Glossy accents on a little punched heart to add some shine. 
Hope you have a great weekend planned! 

Supplies: white & teal cardstock, Canson 140 lb watercolour paper, Paper Smooches A Little Lovin' stamps, Memento Luxe gray flannel, Memento teal zeal, canteloupe & tangelo inks, Wow clear embossing powder, distress inks, small heart punch, Glossy Accents, pop-dot tape

Pin It Now!

CAS on Sunday -- Oh Baby

This week, CAS on Sunday is looking for baby cards. I just happen to have a couple! ☺I don't have a lot of baby-specific stamps -- although I do have many cute animal stamps that can always be used -- and decided to try using one baby stamp on two very different cards.

I stamped the baby tag twice in blue on white, and stamped and embossed once in white on blue, picking up the two blue shades in the cute patterned paper. I cut the patterned paper specifically so one of the planes could pull my sentiment banner. 

This time I used the baby tag a little more traditionally, tying it to the card with some jute twine. The little rainbow baby footprints are clipart -- I really wanted footprints of some kind, but didn't have any! I like the non-traditional colours of this card. 

Supplies: (congrats) white & blue cardstock, Echo Park A Boy's Life patterned paper, Stampin' Up Terrific Tags and Pebbles, Inc. Sunny Side sentiment stamps, VersaMagic Aegean blue and Colorbox frost white inks, Wow white embossing powder, Stampin' Up small tag punch, Twinery marigold twine, pop-dot tape; (footprints) white cardstock, Basic Grey Wander patterned paper, Stampin' Up Terrific Tags stamp, clipart image, Memento bamboo leaves ink, Stampin' Up small tag punch, May Arts jute twine

Pin It Now!

Baby Time at Crafty Creations Challenges

Happy Wednesday! It's time for another Crafty Creations challenge, and this week we are looking for your baby-related projects. Our challenge this week is generously sponsored by Beccy's Place, and I've used one of her digis for my card: 

As soon as I saw this image, I knew I wanted to paper-piece the letters and shape the card around them. All the many patterned papers come from Echo Park's Little Girl line, and I so like that I could make a card suitable for a girl OR a boy using them. I played with a few ideas to make the balloons more, well, balloon-like, but in the end decided I liked them best keeping them the same as the rest of the design. I did trace the balloon strings with a clear glitter pen. With so many happy patterned papers, I think I'll enter this in Moxie Fab World's Mixy-Matchy style challenge.
Link up your baby-inspired project for your chance to choose three images from this week's fabulous sponsor! 

Supplies: white cardstock, Echo Park Little Girl patterned paper, atyou Spica clear glitter pen

Pin It Now!

Crafty Creations Challenges: Oh, Baby!

Today on the Crafty Creations Challenges blog we are starting a new challenge looking for baby cards! Whether it's for a baby shower or to welcome a newborn, show us your baby-related paper creativity. This week we are sponsored by The Stamping Boutique. Tracey is offering this week's winner a choice of three images from her store. 

I kept my design very clean and simple. (I know, big surprise!) The sentiment is a digital freebie from Paper Crafts magazine. I thought those baby-block-like letters just called out to be popped up. Down the left-hand side is some DIY washi tape using rice paper and a small Unity stamp. 
Whether your style is clean and simple or more detailed, whether you make cards or other paper crafts, come show us your baby-related creations! 

Supplies: white cardstock, rice paper, Unity October 2010 Kit of the Month "Take Time to Laugh", Paper Crafts magazine digital sentiment, pop-dot tape, Creative Memories corner-rounder punch Pin It Now!

Crafty Creations #161: Sing a Song...

... of Mother Goose! (That's the librarian in me showing.) This week we are looking for Mother Goose-themed projects at Crafty Creations Challenges. Meljen's Designs, our sponsor this week, supplied some delightful images for the design team. Here's what I came up with: 

I thought this was perfect to use for a new baby card. I printed the entire image on dark blue cardstock, then paper-pieced the cow and moon. I went over the swirls with white gel pen to show up against the dark background. This image is called "Over the Moon" and seemed like the perfect congratulatory sentiment. And yes, I DO have a star stamp that small! It added that extra something that was needed to finish the card. 
Join us at Crafty Creations Challenges for your chance to win four images from Meljen's Designs! 


Supplies: white, blue & yellow cardstock, Recollections blue and yellow gingham patterned paper, Meljen's Designs Over the Moon digital image, Digi Doodle Shop frame 3 digital image, Paper Smooches Birthday Buddies star stamp, Colorbox frost white ink, white gel pen Pin It Now!