easter lamb.

I don't know if you've noticed, but I tend not to buy very many stamping supplies.  I'm lucky enough to design for Mama Elephant and Lawn fawn, and they make my favorite images.

Once in awhile, though, a set comes along that I must have.  The new Wplus9 Easter Blessings set was one of them.  I inked it up immediately after ripping open my package.

I've been looking for a set for Easter that was cute, but that included more spiritual sentiments. I like the "easter blessings" and "rejoice" that are included, along with "happy easter."



I created a mask around the images and inked up a sunburst stencil in beige and blue inks.  I love that it all works to highlight the little lamb.  Isn't he adorable?  I'm also loving the new lawn fawn scallop borders. The stitching gives them an airy, dainty, lacy feel - perfect for springtime projects.

I hope you like it!

♥.

milk & cookies for santa {lawnscaping winter blog hop}

Hi and welcome to the winter edition of the lawnscaping blog hop!  You should have clicked over from the always beautifully styled and photographed Nicole's blog.

There are prizes up for grabs and a complete hop list up on the lawnscaping blog, if you lose your way.  Since you have many stops to get to, I'll keep the chatter to a minimum. I was so inspired by this pin:

I mixed stamps from lawn fawn (specifically, the gnome, the banner, the cookies, and the gingerbread man), Wplus9, CSS, and Papertrey Ink to create my version:

The focal panel is one layer.  I wanted it to look like a print, so everything was carefully (sooo carefully) masked.  I started with the cookies, then the milk bottle, santa, the banner and finally the sunburst background.  whew!  I held my breath the entire time, and when I was coloring in the images, I prayed to Santa, "please Santa,  no red-marker-bleeding.... and let my 3 year old still like what I've bought her for Christmas, because she keeps changing her mind."

So there you have it. hee.

Your next stop is the lovely Sarah's blog.  Don't forget to check out all of the prize and giveaway details on the lawnscaping blog.  To be eligible, you can leave comments along the way, from now until Sunday December 15th at 11:59EST.  Good luck!

♥.

deerie me, it's almost December.

Have you taken out any Christmas decorations yet?  I know most Americans wait until after Thanksgiving (ours was back in October).  I usually like to wait until early December, but that doesn't stop me from ogling new decorations.

My husband is appalled that I have my eye on this, from Target:

or this one, from the WFT shop (Etsy):

Until I can talk my husband into letting me buy one of these beauties, I decided to whip up a stag-inspired card:

I stamped the entire card base with the oh-so-cozy "fair isle backgrounds" from Wplus9.  The reindeer was isolated from *this* silhouette file.  The scarf was hand-drawn using a copic multiliner and stamped with the cutest tiny greeting.



And glittered antlers never hurt nobody.

♥.

we're better together.

a just for fun card, to celebrate the end of a long week.

I'm still trying to make my way through my small pile of uninked stamps... I just love these wplus9 images!  If you own this set (milk & cookies), how do you attach the straw?  It doesn't take much to confuse me (sigh) but I tried the following:

1. I die-cut the straw and laid it on top of the jar, but something about it looked unnatural and weird to me...
2. I stamped the straw into the milk bottle, but since the milk bottle was already die cut, I didn't have the top half sticking out.

I settled on this:

odd? or acceptable?  I stamped the straw into the milk bottle and then stamped it again onto its own die-cut.  Then, I lined it up (although the camera angle makes it look a little off, grrr....) and cut off the bottom excess.  I'm not sure how I feel about that.

But, I do love me some milky vellum.  I stamped the milk bottle onto vellum, and trimmed it just inside the black outline.  I used a white paint marker to color the back of the vellum.  (bonus: having colored the vellum, I could use glue to adhere it without it showing through!)



Happy weekend!

♥.

festive fridays - guest designer

Hi peeps!

I'm helping my friend Meredith kick off the first challenge over at Festive Fridays (where you can make your Christmas cards all year long to beat the rush!)

Here is the inspiration photo and color scheme for this week's challenge:

And, to kick things off, here's what I came up with:



I started out with a piece of CSS silver cardstock (swoon!  it's so pretty!) and white-heat embossed a damask background (from Wplus9) over the entire card base.  I then die-cut 2 tags (PTI's tag sale 4): one in red and one in white.  I also cut into the one in white with a tree die, and layered them one over the over.



Since I didn't want to detract from the damask background, I stamped my sentiment in 2 sections, and onto vellum.

If you have some time this week, you should join in the fun.  You have until February 13th to add your entry, and there is a prize up from grabs.

Happy Friday, all!

naughty or nice?

Hi peeps!

Just a quick one for today - a fun card from last weekend's card-class:



I used a little Wplus9 sentiment (from their little "dear santa" set,) and stamped it onto a notebook page die-cut... and, my favorite part of the card? The bossy Joscie flair I ordered especially for the class :)  Isn't it adorable?



The "naughty or nice" sentiment was printed via my computer, and I stamped a speech bubble (from lawn fawn's "a birdie told me" around it.)

Have a great weekend!

Hang a shining star...

I'm going to be doing that thing where I start posting lots of Christmas cards... something came over me this past week... I was preparing for my first Christmas card class of the season!

If you've been around the blog for awhile, you may know that I teach classes in the months leading up to Christmas - it's a group of girls, sitting around a table and crafty-chatting, while they ooh and aah over the cards we're making together.  So sweet, these ladies... What they don't realize is that I'd probably pay them for the opportunity to have a night out *wink*  

If you're interested in seeing my class flyer, here's a link to it on my "Just ME" facebook page: class flyer.

 I inked up my new Wplus9 set "iconic christmas," for this card.  Instead of stamping the tree into the negative space, I sprayed in some shine mist.

Thanks for popping by!

retro-sketch #12

We will be enjoying a nothing-but-blue-skies-beautiful day off today - it's a Canadian holiday honoring Queen Victoria - but I thought I would pop in before anyone wakes up with a card I made over the weekend...

Here's another great sketch from the retro-sketches challenge blog:

and here is my take on it:

 I started out with a kraft cardstock base, and added a mat stamped with Wplus9's knit background (in autumn rose ink).

For the focal mat, I stamped the greeting first (from Paper Smooches' "pretty momma" set) and then stamped florals (from Lawn Fawn's "blissful botanicals") all around in a slightly lighter brown ink.  To tie it all into the knit background layer, I stamped a few solid flowers in the same autumn rose ink.  I also stamped my favorite Hero Arts' envelope pattern background over-top (I think if you click on the picture to enlarge it, you might faintly see the nice detail that it gives.)

Thanks for peeking!

she wore an itsy bitsy, teeny weeny...

...yellow polka-dot bikni!

My mom is bravely jumping back onto the weight-watchers bandwagon, and while (right now) I'm lacking the motivation I need to join her, I wanted to encourage her with a fun card.  Isn't so hard to START the process of eating better and exercising when you haven't been doing it for a long time?  sigh.

And can we talk about the staging of this card for a second?  I was cracking myself up, with the blue martini glass, and the jar full of sea-shells... oh, the things I have lying around my house :)

I hope she'll get a kick out of the little yellow-polka-dotted Denami bikini - it was just the right size for this card.

I added my favorite accent of the moment, the Wplus9 sunburst, in back of the bikini (with some masking, of course, to avoid the bikini itself), and the sentiment was computer generated before I stamped the frame around it.

The card base was stamped with the "classified" section of the PTI newsprint background, and the tiny stars are leftovers from the star border die (mft.)

For a last, fun touch, I glazed the bikini with a layer of glossy accents.

Have a great day, all!

spectacular you.

All that coughing I've been doing has lost me my voice.  What little I have left is either very sexy, or very manly...

And speaking of manly (how's that for a segway!), I'll be teaching a class next week, and was asked by the hostess to create something that can be either a father's day card, or a masculine birthday card.... Easy peasy, with the Wplus9 set, "super star."

Here it is in its just masculine version:

For Father's day, the Y-O-U can be switched out to D-A-D... both are included in the set.

I'm having so much fun with this set, and specifically, with that sunburst image - you've probably spotted it on a few of my recent cards...

I decided on a color palette of blue/green/orange/brown, layered my elements using these colors, and added some faux-washi tape at the bottom for fun.

Today being Thursday, it's time for another TMKS installment (that's "things my kids said," if you're new here *wink*)

I have a few snippets to share:

Maia, walking by and handing Sofia a book, exclaiming "here! enjoy!"  (she just turned 2 last week, keep in mind...and is snarky as all get-up.)

Thomas, telling me how great his party was, and how much he is looking forward to his "rockstar" party next year... WHAAAAAAAAAT?  (Blocking ears, closing eyes, singing "LALALALALALALALA - I can't hear you!" at top voice.)

Sofia, showing by example, helping Maia obey to pick up her toys.  The tantrum subsiding, Sofia exclaiming to Maia: "great job, Maia!  you're listening to Mommy... finally!" HA!

Thanks for peeking!