You're Too Kind

This is the second time I'm posting this project, because the first post was deleted by Blogger.  Funny - it happened on today, Friday the 13th.  Coincidence?

Here's my second submission to the CAS-ual Friday challenge using Dark Chocolate, Vintage Cream, Kraft and JilliBean Canvas Flowers:

Here's a close-up of the flowers that you have to go buy right now!

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place...again.  And seeing the same project...again.  Did anyone else's get messed up?

Make It Monday 14

This week's Make It Monday was brought to us by Erin Lincoln.  It involves "selective inking," not be confused with "selective hearing" that my almost-six-year-old suffers from.  (It's a dreadful disease!) Erin encourages us to stop the masking and use selective inking when you need a stamp to stamp in different colors.

Lisa Johnson's Life set is made for this technique!  I've used it several times with this technique.  Here's my latest - again using colors from Play Date Cafe this week, but I think I've reached my limit in submissions for them this week:

I stamped the leaves in Ripe Avocado and then the blooms were stamped in Orange Zest with a little Pure Poppy rolled on the edges.  After I got the color down, I stamped the blooms again in Versamark and embossed them with my new Holographic embossing powder.

Then I scored the frame to highlight the images.

The sentiment is also done with the selective inking technique Erin is highlighting this week.  The orange part of the sentiment is one long strip, but I wanted it on two lines, so I only inked it up a little at a time. 

Another fun week at PTI.  This challenge along with the big release week has me losing some sleep!  What's on your Wish List?  I haven't taken the plunge with Year Of Flowers yet, so the mini-set looks very appealing.  I also love the Fruit Fusion, all the Floral Fusion, Think Big and Tag Its sets!  I thought I would take it easy this month, but it doesn't seem like that's going to happen!

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!

Here are a couple of other cards I've made with Life and selective inking.

 

 

No One Like You

Once again, I'm hooked on the color combination from Play Date Cafe this week.  It's a great combo, and one I never really would have put together.  Here's their inspiration photo:

I wanted to use some Paper Smooches stamps that I haven't had a chance to ink up yet.  I chose the pepper for this card:

I stamped the pepper on Pure Poppy and Orange Zest cardstock.  After stamping the large Gingham strip, I added the piece of Pure Poppy rik-rak.  I wanted it to look kind of like a happy picnic.  The sentiment is from a Hero Arts set and is stamped on one of the Double Ended Banner dies. 

Here's a close-up of the orange pepper - popped up a bit for emphasis:

We have several teachers & staff leaving our campus this year due to budget cuts and life-changing events, so I'm trying to get some cards made to send them off with smiles. This one goes in that stack. I better get busy; we only have 12.5 days left in this school year - but who's counting?

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!

Casual Friday #1

There's a new challenge blog!  Did you hear?  I'm thrilled about the theme of the blog too - it's all about CAS (clean and simple) and it's called "CAS-ual Fridays!"  It doesn't hurt that two of my PTI forum friends are on the design team, either.  I've admired their work and styles for a long time!  (Waving at Laurie and Dana!!)

This week is the first challenge from the blog and it's all about adding text to your project:

GREAT challenge and a great way to kick off this blog.  You can see the details and all the entries for this week here.  I loved the typewriter in the image, and wanted to use my stamp from Hero Arts that I HAD to have back in December.  It does not get enough love, that is for sure.

Here's my card:

Is it still CAS if I cut out the image and put buttons on the typewriter?  I hope so.  I curled the paper coming out of the typewriter a little so it would pop off the base a little.  I love Kraft with red and black.  I don't use it enough either.

I'm excited about this new blog and can't wait for the next challenge!

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!

Play Date Cafe #80

This week's challenge at the Play Date Cafe is beautiful!  Here's the link to play along, and here's the inspiration photo:

You don't see red paired with orange too often, so this was a bit of a challenge.  I've seen a lot of designers using white panels on white card bases lately, and haven't tried it yet.  I gave it a try with this challenge and here's how it ended up:

I used the Vineyard Impression plate from Papertrey Ink on the card base, and cut the panel for the flowers on a 4x4 square.  After I stamped the flowers, I added some holographic embossing powder to the images to give them a bit of shimmer.  The bow is made from Orange Zest satin ribbon and the little tag is from PTI's Tiny Tags set and die. 

I'm considering a couple of other cards with this color combo, but have to take a nap first before I attempt them! 

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!

Bee Happy!

I love the new line of stamps from Paper Smooches!  I want them all, but since I have a child to clothe and feed, I have resisted the urge to order them!  Kim also provides her blog readers with some digital stamps too!  Love that!

I wanted to use the chubby little bee digi-stamp for a card, but I wasn't sure exactly how it was going come together.  So, last night, before I went to bed, I colored the bees with Aquacolor pencils, and then outlined the eyes and colored in the wings and stingers with my Sakura Stardust pen.  After adding some Glossy Accents to the eyes to help them stand out, I let them sit overnight.

This morning, I wasn't really sure where to go from there.  Then I saw a fabulous sketch at Unscripted Sketches, and everything seemed to fit together for me.

Here's my card using Kim's digi-stamps and the sketch:

Here's a close-up of one of the little cuties.  Hopefully, you can see the accents and sparkle on him:

This was a super-fun card to make! 

Thanks so much for visiting My Happy Place!

More Wee Memories

Did I tell you that I loved paper-piecing?  LOVE IT!  I think I love it so much because by stamping on patterned paper, I really don't have to color in the images, which takes some time.  Time.  We all need more time, don't we?  Boy, there's a blog post waiting to happen - really an entire blog should be devoted to that topic, but then, who has the time for that?

I digress.

I love paper piecing and wanted to play along again with Jenny @ Wee Memories this week.  I had a little "sussie" to give to one of my friends at school, and wanted a cute tag to go along with it.  Here it is:

Do the bugs make you giddy?  Good! They should, because they are from Paper Smooches "Giddy Bugs" set.   Oh, they are cute, cute, cute, and perfect to paper-piece!

Here's a closeup where you can see the sparkle in the sentiment and on the lightning bug:

I'm blessed to have friends to which I can give gifts.  I hope she likes it.

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!

Paper Dolls #36

Jen Carter has recently brought us a wonderful challenge at the Paper Dolls Blog.  It's really no surprise to me because I have always admired Jen's creative color combos that she comes up with for her projects.  Here is the inspiration photo that she used for the challenge - and she also bought the fabulous quilt!

I love quilts.  I sleep with an old, old handmade quilt every night, so I loved this photo and want to go and find this quilt for myself.

Here's what I came up with:

I used the stamp set Sending You from Papertrey Ink and stamped the flowers in Hawaiian Shores and Pure Poppy.  The leaves were stamped in Simply Chartreuse.  After stamping the sentiment and matting the panel on Hawaiin Shores, and then mounting it on Harvest Gold, I filled in the centers with some yellow stickles, which had to be left to dry for quite some time.

It looks a little "folksy" to me, which is something I haven't really ever tried.

You should come and play along with this challenge by clicking here.  All of the Dolls' challenges are open for quite awhile and anyone can play along.  We are just trying to have fun and enable each other!  Join us!  The more the merrier!

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!

Wee Memories & Play Date Cafe

As I promised yesterday, I have another card using the AWESOME color challenge from this week's Play Date Cafe.  You can click here for the challenge information.  Here's the inspiration photo:

I also wanted to play in the Wee Memories challenge for the week, which is paper piecing.

 
I LOVE paper piecing!  It may be my favorite stamping technique.  Here's what I came up with for these two challenges:

This card has so much of what I love!  Scattered Showers stamp set from Papertrey Ink, Fiskars grass border punch, paper piecing, polka dots, dies, and a little bling.

I die cut the clouds from the white cardstock and matted it with the grey patterned paper so it could peek out from behind.  I paper-pieced the umbrella using Bitty Dot Basics from PTI.  After I secured everything and stamped the sentiment, I felt like there was too much white space, so I added the silver beads to resemble rain drops.  I was really happy with how it turned out.

Here's the inside:

I hope you have some time to play along with these two challenges! Thanks for taking the time to visit My Happy Place!

Make It Monday #13 and Play Date Cafe

This week's Make It Monday, brought to you by Erin Lincoln, is FUN - with a capital F!  When Papertrey Ink began to sell Impression Plates, I turned my head and pretended I didn't see or hear anything - "La La La - I can't hear you!"

That didn't last long.  I have a few, but not as many as I want. 

This week's challenge is to use a die on top of the impression plate, creating a space for a sentiment or any other focal point.  Here's what I came up with:

I inked up the Woodgrain Impression Plate before using it.  It gives it a bit of a gray look, which is what I was going for.  The sentiment panel is the Fillable Frame #9, and I chose a sentiment from Star Prints.  I used the Turning a New Leaf die and stamp set for the leaves and embossed them with Holographic powder to give them some shine.  After cutting the flowers from felt, and threading the button with Martha Stewart twine, I secured everything on top of the leaves.  A couple of mats later, and I was finished!

Here's a close-up:

Now, another fun part of this challenge was the color combo.  I said earlier that I was going for a gray look to the woodgrain.  That's because the challenge this week at Play Date Cafe is AWESOME!  You can play along by clicking here.  I have another card for the challenge already.  Stay tuned! 

Here's the inspiration from Play Date Cafe:

Who knew Monday could be so fun!  Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!

Make It Monday- OTWC

This week's Make It Monday was H-A-R-D...hard. First, you really, really, really need a pen that works. Really.  That's pretty much it, so there is no "second."

After several attempts to make something, I finally managed this:

I love Melissa Bickford's Way to Go Kiddo! set and have not used it nearly enough.  So, I thought the caterpillar would make a good "base" for the card and a natural place for the line to come and go. The sentiment seemed like it would compliment the caterpillar by being in the opposite corner, but then the whole thing just looked bare - which is the idea around the frame - to tie everything together.  So, to avoid throwing the whole thing in the trash, I added some flowers and rhinestones.

Do you like the color combo?  It is the palette that Kim Wilson gave us at Off the Wall Craftiness.  You can play along by clicking here. Here's her inspiration.

I hope you find the time to play in one of these challenges this weekend!  Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!

Easter Cheer

I had a few Easter cards to hand out on Easter Monday, and wanted them to be bright and cheerful for some friends at school.  A couple were to thank my friends for some Easter gifts they gave to my son, and others were just to cheer them up during this week - state standardized testing!

Here's what I came up with:

I managed to make six of these in about an hour - easy to do when you are make smaller cards. First, I stamped the bunny on 2009 Polka Dot Basics paper in Kraft, Soft Stone, and Hibiscus Burst.  I cut out the bunnies (super-easy!) and highlighted them with either a red gel pen or a pink marker.  Then, I cut the 3x3 mats, inked the edges and added the grass to all of the mats.  After stamping and coloring in the tree leaves, I added the rhinestones, sentiment and secured the bunnies.  I left their ears loose so that they would look a little floppy.  I added another white mat and then used New Leaf as the card base. Here's another angle: 

 On the inside, I included the sentiment "Sending You a Happy Hello" from the Sending You set. 

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place today!  

Make It Monday - #11

This week's Make It Monday was brought to us by Heather, who showed us a great technique using our dies to emboss.  I waited until the last minute to make a card for the challenge.  Life was busy last week - or was it just me?  My family was in town for Easter, and I didn't think they came to visit me while I worked in my craft room.

So I waited until they left to make this:

Pink and green.  sigh...I love it together.  It may be my favorite color combo ever.  Any pink with any green - you just can't go wrong.

 I embossed the frame from the Sending You collection on a piece of white cardstock, and then masked it to stamp the Gingham background.  I used the die for the leaves and punched out the flower with my 1-3/4 inch punch.  I had a yellow button in the middle, but it just didn't look right, so I took it off and added the rhinestone.  It gave it just enough bling.  

Both of these sets were sent to me by my blog group - The Paper Dolls.  I haven't had a chance to play with the sets much, and I'm so glad I reached for them for this card today.  The Dolls have a challenge going on right now with a great inspiration photo.  You should check it out and play along.  I just now got an idea for it.  You'll be seeing Sending You again very shortly!

Thanks for visiting My Happy Place!