mama and me crafting.

Did you see that Mama Elephant has a new monthly challenge blog?  I was checking it out the other morning when my 9 year old daughter, Sofia, popped up behind my left shoulder and said:

hey! a contest? can i enter?

I set her up with all of my Mama Elephant stamps (wow, you have a lot of them, mom!) and let her choose what she thought would work with the inspiration photo.

She settled on Tree Friends, because she thought the fringed top on the inspiration favors looked tree-like, and I showed her how to stamp her elements onto scrap paper until she was happy with the placement.  She asked my advice a few times (do you like the sentiment here or here?) and then off she went, stamping and coloring. She was concentrating so hard she never noticed that I snapped a quick picture:

The finished card is amazing. I think it shows so much growth, that she held back from adding more and more onto the card (I'm trying to think what you would do, mama!) and even kept her cool to figure out how to hide a stamping boo-boo.

She tested copic colors to match the inspiration photo (although she wasn't happy with the lack of a lime green color for the leaves) and purposefully leave some of the elements on the tree white.



Her hand shook when she stamped the falling flower, but I challenged her not to scrap the entire project right away. I can just pop another flower on top, can't I? She's so smart. You'd never have seen the mistake if I didn't take a photo from this angle.

She brought in some blue with the patterned paper background, and gold with the washi strip at the bottom.

If you are as impressed with what she's created as I am, leave Sofia some love! I know she'll be thrilled to read your comments.

♥.

love is the bridge {mama elephant stamp highlight}

Welcome back to another day of mama elephant may stamp highlights! Today, we're featuring sightseeing.

I used the double-decker bus for my stampede card, but I wanted to do something a little different today.



The critters are facing off at opposite ends of the bridge, and I've highlighted the beautiful sentiment by propping it up onto its own strip of paper.  I double-stamped the top of the bridge so that it looks seamless on the sentiment banner.



The critter silhouettes are from tree friends, and are just so cute.

I hope you like it! There's more to see on the Mama Elephant blog - click!

a small, crittery gang {mama elephant guest designer}

****this is my third and final post of the day!  Scroll down to see what else is new today****



I'm back with Mama Elephant to show off my cards made with the new "tree friends" set.

When Kryssi first emailed the images of the upcoming sets, I squealed a little when I saw this one.  It's right up my alley, being so cute 'n all... I already used it for my stampede day project, but I wanted to try a few different things for this post.

I can't even tell you how much I love this card.  That sentiment still makes me giggle.



I paired it with a fun triangle border, added some sequins and a wood veneer heart, and snickered at it some more.



I mean, c'mon - he's offering his friend an apple.  I die.

My next card is completely different:

I embossed the tree with some zing aqua embossing powder, and then dabbed in some color here and there with copic markers.

I stamped and cut out the little squirrel separately, so that I could add him over-top.



I love this sentiment - it is such a sweet saying, and the fonts are fantastic.  I know I'll be reaching for it quite a bit.  I accented the sentiment with some roughly-torn washi tape, and added a ribbon to the side of my card.

I hope you like what I've created with this set!

♥.

hello & good day {mama elephant guest designer}

****This is my 3rd (and final) post of the day!  Scroll down to see my lawn fawn inspiration week and lawnscaping challenge posts****


I am so thrilled to be guest designing with Mama Elephant this month!  Welcome to the Mama Elephant April Stampede:

For the stampede, I created a card with my favorite new set, tree friends.

This set is so soft and pretty!  I stamped the tree and colored it in with copics, adding a few falling leaves and a squirrel silhouette to the mix.  

And, because I didn't want to cover up the beautiful tree, I stamped the sentiment onto vellum and added glue dots behind a couple of sequins to hold it in place.

I hope you like what I've created!

To celebrate the new release, Mama Elephant is giving away 3 gift certificates worth $20.00 each to 3 lucky people! Winners will be chosen at random from the collective blogs in the Stampede. Winners will be announced on the blog on Friday, April 19th.

Here's how to qualify to win (leave a separate comment for each):

1. Leave a comment on the Mama Elephant Stampede blog post

2. Become a follower of the Mama Elephant blog

3. Like/share us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/mamaelephant

4. Follow/tweet about us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/heymamaelephant

And be sure to visit all the stampede stops today!

Kryssi/mama elephant ♥ Lisa Spangler (guest desigining) ♥ Mariana Grigsby ♥ Lea Lawson ♥ Alice Wertz ♥ Geralyn Sy ♥ Savannah O'Gwyn ♥ Cheiron Brandon ♥ Pamela Ho (guest designing) ♥ Jenn Biederman ♥ Pearl Lui ♥ JJ Bolton