a good apple {lawn fawn inspiration week}

Welcome back to another day of new lawn fawn sets!  Today, we're showing off (my favorite new release set!) "a good apple."



Isn't it cute?  I just love it!  I went the straightforward route, in honor of teacher appreciation week.  (this won't be the only apple-themed project you see on the blog this week - *wink*.)

Everything on the chalkboard is one-layer.  I did some stamping and masking and sponging of black soot distress ink to give depth without adding bulk.  At the end of it all, I added the embossed sentiment.

I get asked why I love masking so much - hands down, it's because the end result is much more professional than if I attempted to hand-cut the different elements.  Plus, I always enjoy the magic moment when I remove the mask and it all looks amazing!



Everybody loves a newly-polished apple, am I right?  I gave mine a coat of glossy accents.  And here's a tip: this set is m-a-d-e to be used with schoolhouse backdrops.  The stamped notebook paper background was a no-brainer, hee.

I hope you liked my card!  Be sure to visit the lawn fawn blog to see what the rest of the design team has cooked up ♥.

you make my world go 'round.

This is my second entry into the lawn fawn CHA challenge!  Click *here* to see my first card.  I have to admit, I'm crazy for this one :)

I featured "admit one" and used - what else - "schoolhouse backdrops" in a supporting role...  that little set is getting a run for its money over here...  I first white-embossed the ferris wheel, cut it out, and stuck it to my die-cut shape with foam squares.  The tickets were stamped in a row onto pool party cardstock (SU), and cut out.  I stapled them onto the kraft mat, beneath the ferris wheel. 

The card base was stamped with the notebook paper image from "schoolhouse backdrops."

The strip on the side was the after-thought that made me fall in love with this card!  I stamped images from "admit one" and then used the solid line from "schoolhouse backdrops" to divide them.  

I kept this card simple and fun, and I hope you like it as much as I do!

Thanks for peeking!

lawn fawn - CHA contest

Happy Monday, all!

I whipped up a little something for lawn fawn's CHA challenge - a chance to be featured in their new catalogue, and the winning card displayed in their CHA booth!  So exciting!

I used "Plus One" as the focal point for this card.  My little sis is having a baby girl, so this card can afford to get tucked away for a few months if it doesn't win :)

Since we couldn't use any patterned paper, I made a little strip of my own.  I stamped the mobile from the same set, and layered the grid pattern from "schoolhouse backdrops" over top.  The pink strip running through the white die-cut shape was stamped with another image from "schoolhouse backdrops" before I stamped the sentiment on top.

For extra interest and texture on the top of the card, I used my score-board to create a diamond pattern.

I colored my over and cupcake image with copics.  I hope you like my entry!  I have another one to share tomorrow :)

think pink.

The new lawnscaping challenge is paper-piecing!

My daughter and I sat down to read "Pinkalicious" yesterday evening, and I think I still had pink on the brain when I made this:

Paper-pieced-pink-pigs... *history lesson: when we were really young, my sister swore up and down she wanted to be a pink pig when she grew up... they are so cute when they're little!*

I stamped the pig from lawn fawn's "critters on the farm" onto various patterned papers and cut them out and mounted them with foam squares.

I created a focal point of pigs (!) by stacking them onto a strip of white cardstock and tucking half of a decorative label shape on either end.

I glued that to a white mat, which I'd stamped with "schoolhouse backdrops" - also in pink, naturally!

The sentiment was created with "smitty's abcs".

Thanks for looking!

MIM #36: faux watercoloring

This week's MIM challenge is faux watercoloring.

It involves stamping with a die ink, and using an aqua-painter (or a brush dipped in water) to make the ink bleed a bit.

In the tutorial, Lisa was careful to stay within the lines, but I did my best to grunge it up a bit.

I started with a kraft card-base and stamped images from PTI "grunge me"  and set it aside.

From a sheet of white cardstock, I die-cut a tag sale 3 shape and stamped images from simple circles in pool party, lucky limeade, soft suede, and peach parfait inks (all SU.)

With my aqua-painted, I blurred the lines around each circle and let the sheet dry.

I apologize that it's hard to see the blurring in the photos, but it's there!  The green and brown inks really bled, but the lighter colors really need a lot of saturation to start breaking down in the obvious way that I was looking for...

I stamped some paint splatter images from "grunge me" over-top and also the gridlines from lawn fawn's "schoolhouse backdrops."

I stamped the bird and sentiment from "grunge me" in a bold, black ink.

Thanks for looking!

stamped wall art.

I pulled out some stamps and made myself some framed art for our living room:

I actually slipped them off the wall and into the kitchen to snap the photos - I take all of my photos in this gorgeously-lit room...

For both prints, I used the same stamp sets:  "love lives here," "framed," "mat stack II," "background basics: gingham" (all PTI), and "schoolhouse backdrops" (lawn fawn).

A bit of masking to keep it as close to 1-layer as possible, and a whole lot of edge-distressing gives it depth without bulk so it could still fit into our existing frames.

Come back tomorrow to see my card for the 1st-ever lawnscaping blog hop!

back to school...

in less than a week!  Where did the summer go?  Sofia is off to grade 1, with her crazy list of 20 no.2 HB pencils, 4 40-oz glue sticks, 8 32-page Hilroy notebooks, and on, and on, and on.... this isn't kindergarten anymore for sure!  And Thomas - heading into his 2nd year of preschool...with his tiny preschool backpack and 1 kleenex box... I'm excited to see what they'll both learn this year!

In honor of the whole back-to-school rush, I used this week's MIM technique to create my faster-than-lightning bus.  Sofia was appalled when she spied my out-of-the-lines coloring!  I think she might have even muttered to herself, something about how she never colors out of the lines anymore... ha!  Kids!

Just for that, here's a even more close-up view of the bus:

I used "generation stamping" to make it look like the bus is in motion.  I inked up the bus only once and stamped it at full strength on the right.  Then, without re-inking, I stamped it again a few more times, each time moving my hand slightly to the left.  I think the freestyle coloring works really well with the generation stamping technique!

Have a great Friday, and a wonderful weekend!

birds of a feather...

The challenge over at the lawnscaping blog:

I don't have any of the critter sets from lawn fawn, but what I do have, is "bannerific"... which I used to create a little scene I like to call: birds on a wire.

  

I started out with a piece of white cardstock and layered stormy sky, antique linen, and walnut stain distress inks to make up my cloudy blue sky.  Then, I took a stamp from lawn fawn's "schoolhouse backdrops" set (the long skinny line) and stamped it 3x in fresh snow ink - that's my wire!  The cute birdies from bannerific grew legs - doesn't it look like they just all came and perched together?  I used smitty's abcs to form the sentiment.

I hope you liked my scene!  

CAS-ual Fridays... the kraftman.

Um, in case you didn't notice the badge on the right side of my blog... I won last week's CAS-ual Fridays challenge - what a thrill!  (The self-promotion portion of this blog entry is now at an end...)  

This week's challenge is for a manly project, using kraft paper:

I'm thinking this one is at the busier end of CAS, but I still think it fits!  Oh, and fyi:  I l-o-v-e kraft cardstock.  I would use it on every single project if I could...

I started with PTI's out of this world - first stamped the trio of stars onto a circle of black card-stock, and then fussy-cut my rocket image and popped it on top.  I stuck the whole thing down onto my kraft base, which was stamped with a lawn fawn background (from schoolhouse backdrops).  Then things started to go downhill (crafting when over-tired is not the way to go for me...)  I had to add the red strip on the bottom to hide a black smudge.  And the stitching on the side on the greeting?  Let's just say my stapler made some unsightly holes that needed covering up.  (I feel bad for that stapler - got a good yelling-at...) But even though it's not what I'd planned, I really like those elements now!  

Happy fourth of July to everyone south of the border!