Pretty Pink Posh birthday hop!

Hi there!

I'm joining in the Pretty Pink Posh birthday celebrations today:

It's a 3 day hop, and today is day 3. If you've missed anything so far, click over to the Pretty Pink Posh blog. There have been a few projects that have made me go "wow!" already. Did you see *this* one, by Laura Bassen? Amazing.

I decided to get ahead of the game and make a birthday card for my little niece, Mia.  She's turning 2 next month:

Can you spot all of the PPP stuff I used on this card?  I had to combine them with some new MFT goodies too.  I first die-cut a tag out of masking paper and laid it down on my card-front. I used a checkerboard stencil to create the bubble-gum pink and blue background. When I pulled away the masking paper, I was left with plenty of white space to place my focal images.

The Birdie Brown image is so cute, isn't it? Torico is such an amazing illustrator!



I die-cut the tiny stitched rectangles, and used them to back the letters spelling out Mia's name.

The glitter on the cucpake icing and the sequins add some birthday-girl-appropriate sparkle.  I used a mix of different sequin sizes: the tiny clear ones, and the sweetheart mix.

I hope you like it!

You can't have a birthday celebration without presents! There are prizes to be won, so comment along each stop of the blog hop. As a bonus, Paulina is offering a special discount code on her blog.

Here is today's full hop list:

PPP blog ♥ Elena (you're here!) ♥ Gayatri ♥ Nicole ♥ Laura ♥ Debby ♥ Kay ♥ Joni

cool day {MFT stamps}

I just love these MFT polar bears so much that I had to sneak in a couple of cards for you today!



I love anything Torico designs, but I really couldn't say no to these bears.  Aren't they adorable?



I started out with an off-white card base, and layered a stripes cover-up in white over-top.  I cut a starry night stitched circle and layered images from the set in front of it. You know, he's just nonchalantly drinking his hot chocolate while drifting on a block of ice in the north pole. haha.

I am teaching a card class next weekend, so I needed to challenge myself to create a card that, with all of the pieces cut, could be stamped and re-created by stamping newbies. I hope they will enjoy paper-piecing his little scarf and hat! The Mama Elephant sentiment works perfectly on top of the polka dotted background.

I hope you like them!

♥.

geek is chic {mft guest designing}

This is my last post for MFT, a look back at some of my favorite products just released.

Before I show you what I made, I just wanted to say a huge thank you to the MFT team and to all of you who visited my blog this past week while I guested with them. You've all made this such a fun experience!  I've been overwhelmed by the encouraging words left on my project posts and the kindness of the MFT staff (particularly Erica - you are a gem!)

On to today's project.  I went a little quirky with this one...

Whenever I design for a company, I like to lay out everything I own made by that particular company. With all of the dies and stamps spread over my craft area (read: kitchen table) I couldn't help but pick up the new geek is chic glasses die-namics and then look at the circle die found in the new blueprints 18 die-namics set and think of creating a little face.

I die-cut the circle twice, both out of white cardstock, and free-handed a hairline out of one circle. I colored them using copic markers and die-cut the glasses out of black cardstock.  The little dots for the eyes are tag holes, from the new tag talk die-namics set.  Fun, huh? Actually, my favorite part are the glassy lenses: I filled the inside of the frames with glossy accents before setting the eyeballs inside :)

I adhered the striped cover up die-namic to the card base (in black, naturally... black and white stripes are oh-so-chic) but cut away one of the stripes to make room for the fun sentiment.

I don't know if you can tell, but I swiped a light blue marker inside each of the framed areas, between black stripes. I felt like it added a little extra depth to the whole thing.

And that's all for me! It's been grand, MFT - thank you so much for having me on as your August guest designer!

happy haunting mini card set {MFT release day}

Hi there!

It's MFT's new release day! As you read this, everything you need for halloween projects and more is available in the MFT store.

I love making things ahead of time. It doesn't happen often, but it makes me feel like I've got life under control :)  I made a little halloween card set for my little 4 year old Maia to dole out to her preschool friends come Halloween.

First off, the finished package.  I couldn't just give them to Maia, all willy-nilly in a plastic bag.  I grabbed a clear card box (from Simon Says Stamp) and cut it down to my desired height (which is code for I can't remember how high the box is and I am writing up this post from our beach house in Virginia where there isn't a way to go back and check.) I then die-cut a spider web cover-up die-namics but didn't cut it all the way. The rest of the strip travels under and around the box to create a closure.

Inside, a collection of orange polka dotted envelopes, cut with the new envelope die from the you've got mail die-namics.

When she hands them out to her friends, this is what they'll see:

I closed the envelopes with a strip of washi tape each, and a dangling spider to pull on...

Yank the spider out for some halloween fun:

hee.

I used the centerpieces spooky window die-namics for the dangling spider and the spooky scene die-namics for the big "boo" punchline.

I hope you like what I've created and happy shopping!

batty about you {MFT guest designing}

Welcome to another day of MFT's august release countdown!  Only a few more days until the brand new goodies are available in their store at 10pm on August 12th.

I mixed a slew of new product together to create this one card: batty about you stamp set and matching die-namics, the small checkerboard stencil, the trick or treat die-namics, and the tag talk die-namics.

First off, I covered the background with the batty about you sentiment, keeping it a little random looking. More spooky that way, no?  Then, I used their new checkerboard stencil on an oval die-cut.  I stenciled in some orange ink, then moved the stencil over and sponged on more ink in a slightly darker orange. I'm in love with this stencil!

Does the bat-girl look a bit different to you?  I couldn't resist doodling some extra hair, although she looks super cute without bangs too. I love how we can customize stamps to look a little different!  The star on her shirt is from another new set, geek is chic. I achieved the polka dots on her shirt by way of a colorless copic blender.



The tag was the perfect size to ground our little bat-girl.  I die-cut the boo sentiment into the tag, colored it in the same purple as her star and placed it back into the tag.

I hope you like what I've created! Visit the MFT blog for a list of participating blogs today!

♥.

Witch way? {MFT guest designing}

I am beyond thrilled to be guest designing with My Favorite Things this month! It's countdown week to their August release, and oh boy - they know how to do it up right.  It was like Christmas in July when I opened my MFT box :)

I'm showing off a cute witch today: witch way is the candy and the matching die-namics, as well as the witch's cauldron die-namics and a little strip of the you've got mail stamp set. Everything will be available for purchase in the MFT store on August 12th.



When I saw that adorable witch, I knew I wanted to play around with her.  She looks like she just cooked up some trouble, with her tiny mouth drawn like that! She naturally paired with the huge cauldron, and I used glossy accents on the potion bubbles.  It looks perfectly slimy, hee hee.

To give the card a bit of balance, I reached for the airmail strip from you've got mail and stamped it in a bright orange.

I hope you like it! Visit the MFT blog for more of what's new and for more inspiration today!

♥.

happy heart day.

I love waking up to a little something special.

and also, other little things that spell love: a coffee made, bed-covers straightened out, and time to take a shower (without little ones clawing at the shower door, lol.).  My sweet man also dove into my supplies and made me a special card - love that!

My littles enjoyed their chocolate treats and homemade cards at 6:30am.  Along with some pancakes, and pink milk...

Sofia got this card.

Thomas got this one, but with a little something special inside.

A banner of monsters.  He loved it, which is a good thing, since I think I sprained a finger cutting out 22 of these bad boys... and it's already hanging up in his room :)

Any special plans for tonight?  We're hosting my sister's family for a fondue party (which, my hubs would like me to tell you I've been calling our "fond-ue of you" party all week... because that's the kind of geek I am...)

Hope you all feel the love today - kisses from our family to yours!

could Maia look more unimpressed? hee hee.

card #2 for week #3.

I really do love these colors together!  I couldn't help but put together another card.

It's so easy when you have most of the elements already created (I have a pile of stuff that didn't work out from other cards or were just extras - so handy for crafting in a pinch!)  The only thing I stamped especially for this card is the leaf image.  I colored the stamp with my SU creamy caramel marker and it gave me this soft, dewy look that I rather like.  Oh, and I stamped on top of the music background with the hero arts envelope pattern again.  I can't promise I'll stop using it anytime soon.  It's so subtle, you hardly notice it - but something's missing without it.

Have a great day!