wavin' happy birthday!

Lawn fawn is teaming up with Perfect Paper Crafting to show off what you can do with the perfect tears tools.  I used the wavy rulers to create an ombré ocean for my party dolphin to jump out of:

For the dolphin, I stamped the hat first and masked it, before stamping the dolphin overtop.  I then cut around the entire dolphin/hat combo.  For a bit of extra party pizazz, I added a little bow-tie.

The ocean was made in a snap!  I grabbed a few different blues from my card-stocks stash, and went to work with the rulers (I used the largest wave).  They even provided a little water-pen so that I could break down the cardstock fibers with a little water before ripping.  Every rip scored me two wavy layers - how awesome is that?  Four tears later, I had a full ocean that I stitched together along the sides before adhering it to the card-base.



The sentiment is a bit of a mash-up: I grabbed the first part from "critters of the sea" and the second party from "so much to say."

Thanks for stopping by!  Starting Saturday, it will be lawn fawn inspiration week!  Kelly Marie posted a sneak peek of all of the new sets on the blog - check it out!  (You know what that means over here, right?  Get ready for another round of 2 and 3 posts a day for a few... eeep!)

sending hugs {cardmaker blog hop}

Hi there!

Some of the lawn fawn girls are joining the cardmaker blog team for a fun blog hop.  No rules, no theme, just a fawnie good time with a prize at the end :)

I stamped myself an entire background with our sharp backdrops, and die-cut a leaf  (from blissful botanicals) into what I eyeballed to be the middle...

I backed the focal mat in a brighter pink, and adhered the leaf-stems-only to the base.  I love the little pop of color!

The sentiment (from so much to say) was embossed onto a banner flag and adhered with a little strip of pink lemonade twine.  

Hope you are having a good day! hugs! Here's a list of the rest of the hop stops:

cardmaker blog ♥ aj otto ♥ elena roussakis (you're here!) ♥ christine okken ♥ lynnette kauffman ♥ glenda j. wyatt ♥ latisha yoast ♥ ivanka lentle ♥ tiffany johnson ♥ jennie harper ♥ chari moss ♥ melanie muenchinger ♥ yainea nunez ♥ lawn fawn blog

it's hoppin' {10 minute craft dash}

If you are looking my lawn fawn "home sweet home" post, then click *here* or scroll down.



It's time for another 10 minute craft dash!  And, with lawn fawn sponsoring, some of the girls got to playin' along.  I thought to myself - been there, done that, when the lawn fawn girls were gasping over the short time frame.  But you know what?  It's still a rush!

I actually had a harder time getting 'er done in the 10 minutes...could be because one of my kids asked me to stamp them some bunnies halfway in :)

I kept it pretty simple:  a kraft card-base, a banner label that I found in my reject stash (it was already embossed with that waffle pattern), and 2 square die-cuts.  I stamped a bunny (from "happy easter") on each, and colored around the bunnies, to bring in the pink and green colors that are required for the challenge.  I also did a tiny bit of shading on the bunnies, using a light grey marker.

Once I adhered them to the card-base, added a few hearts, stamped my sentiment, and stamped extra bunnies for the whiny child, I had already hit a bit over 9 minutes.  I took the last minute to debate whether or not to add some sparkle to the white hearts.  Time ran out and I was still paralyzed in indecision.  Saved by the ding.

I hope you decide to play along!  There's a lawn fawn prize up for grabs.

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great day ♥

So much to say {lawn fawn inspiration week}

It's time for another lawn fawn inspiration week!  We're kicking things off with the set "so much to say."  The sentiments in this set are a little bolder, and I love that.  My favorite one is the happy birthday sentiment, but I've used it several times already on other projects, so I challenged myself to use my second favorite - the "feel better" scripty sentiment:

I created a sunny background, using blue for the "feel better" sentiment, and made sun rays out of the Belinda's borders line image.



I cut a circle into my white focal mat, and then another, smaller circle into a hot pink carstock mat, finally leading to the plaid patterned paper (from the Daphne's closet collection) and that adorable little sun.  I love the tiny images included in "so much to say" - they're adorably lawn fawn, in miniature size.

The banner shape is from "home sweet home" and the "smile" sentiment is also from "so much to say."

Because I've been getting a few emails lately, asking how I take my pictures, I'll share a few of my set-ups this week.  Here's how I took these card pictures:

When I'm not "staging" my card, I usually just grab a kitchen chair, and bring it close to the patio window (where I get great light in the morning, but not so much in the afternoon - you have to know your lighting!)  I used some patterned paper for my card background, and stacked a few cedar planks underneath my card to ground it.  I'm too lazy to buy foam core board, or anything else to bounce the light back onto my card:  I wrap my kitchen curtain around another chair and that seems to work just fine for me.

I hope this card brought a little sunshine to your day.  I hope you'll come back to see more lawn fawn over the next few days!

tons of birthday fun!

Good monday morning!

It's the first day of March break over here, which obviously means that the kids woke up at 5:40am (instead of having to be dragged out of bed at 6:30am for school) - oy!

We're kicking off a new lawnscaping challenge this morning - all about adding texture to your project.  Here's my take:



Did you happen to see *this video* made by my friend Karin?  She was the inspiration behind my ink-textured focal panel.  I used her technique to create my sky and grass, all the while keeping a white border around my label.  Love it!



I used the same technique as I did *here* to create a custom sentiment via my computer.  I'm working on a little tutorial for those of you who asked - I haven't forgotten!  We've all just been spending time being disgusting and congested... as soon as I get my voice back (it's manly-sexy at the moment) I will be posting something for you :)



The big hit of texture on my card is in the liquid-appliquéd clouds.  I love how fluffy they got!

It's your turn to link up to our challenge:

This current challenge is being sponsored by Simon Says Stamp:

this one's for the boys.

this is my second post of the day!  If you are looking for my lawn fawn inspiration week post, click *here* or scroll down.

Time for another lawnscaping challenge!  This one is perfect for all of your critter sets: stamp a scene.



I needed to pad my stash of boy birthday cards a bit, so I made this magical birthday card, where dragon and his friend griffin are ready to dig into some cake.  And how exactly do you get the candles lit at a party like this?  Dragon takes care of things like a boss.



I stamped each element onto my white panel, and then again onto a separate sheet of white cardstock.  I colored, cut out, and popped up each image for a fun but still clean and simple scene.



The little looped banner and navy polka dot patterned paper are my fave.

Hope you stamp your own little scene this week:

You could win a free stamp set of your choice from lawn fawn!

Stamps supply list (all lawn fawn): critters ever after, bake me a cake, year three, so much to say