Doily-embossed love notes {CSS new release}

There is beautiful new product being released with CSS today, and I am so pleased to be showing off the "tri-fold 2 die" and the new doily stamp.  I've created some special valentine's day treats:

Here's what I did with the tri-fold 2:  I stamped it with the woodgrain background (from "background basics 1"), rubbed distress ink all over it, and then embossed the new doily image over-top.  I inked up my stamp first in versamark ink, and then into my color, and sprinkled the stamped image with clear embossing powder.  It's a subtle pop, compared with a colored embossing powder, but pretty nonetheless.

Once open, the woodgrain pattern is present also, as well as a simple little valentine's day love-note.  And a cookie.  The mini tri-fold 2 die has room for embellishments or skinny treats - I love that!  

I colored the owl's belly a light pink, and the leaf a red/pink combination.  The rest I left plain, since the envelope needed no competition.

Click on over to see what the other designers have created with these products:

Audrey ♥ Lori ♥ Dana ♥ Jen ♥ CSS

based in black {PTI blog hop}

I squeezed in a little time for this month's PTI blog hop.  The inspiration photos were just too.... er... inspiring.  *grins*



I started out with a black cardstock panel, and heat embossed florals from "in bloom."  I colored the leaves with a green inktense colored pencil - they're amazing, the way they pop on dark-colored paper!  I heat-embossed the blooms again on watercolor paper, and watercolored them with different inktense pencils.  They were cut out, and layered with different heights of foam squares.



The large thank you sentiment is so beautiful, and fancy enough to stand alone on the kraft panel.  I was especially inspired by the tag on the top right:

That's it for me!  Happy hopping, and thank you for popping over here!

snappy valentine {a paper crafts magazine publication}

 Are you a paper crafts magazine online subscriber?  If you are,  you've likely seen this snappy project in the current issue.  It isn't in the paper pages - it's an online exclusive!

I printed the sentiment via my computer, and added a sunburst image (from Wplus9) to my valentine-themed patterned paper.  The only time-consuming part was cutting out all of the snappy lawn fawn crocodiles - but totally worth it!  They're a cute 3x3 size, and perfect for the kids to hand out to their school friends for valentine's day.  For fun, the cards were packaged in a fun little box (CSS' party favor 3 die.)

Thanks for stopping by!

Baby makes 3.

A friend is due any day now with her first baby boy.



My new Mama Elephant stamps were perfect for creating a little scene.

I mixed some of the images from "cosmic stars" (the lion and the bull) with the teddy and giraffe from "nursery deco."  A bunch of adorable stuffies on a nursery shelf.



Some creative masking allowed me to have all but the giraffe sit flush on the shelf, and stamp a striped "wall" in that same layer.  The giraffe and the alphabet art piece are popped up.

Thanks for stopping by!

Baby, it's cold outside.

Hi friends!

Even though Monday mornings come too quickly, the ones that start with a new lawnscaping challenge are so much fun.

I don't know what the weather looks like near you, but this week's "winter wonderland" theme is just perfect for where we are.  Snow and ice - everywhere.



I know I'm (very) late to the chalkboard party, but I was so inspired by some of Kara's pins (here, here, and here) that I decided to give it a go.

I started out with a mat of black cardstock, and created my sentiment using lawn fawn alpha sets.  I stamped the sentiment, and the polar bear (from "critters in the snow") in versamark first, and white-heat-embossed it all.  One trick I picked up from Betsy Veldman - keep sprinkling embossing powder as you go along.  I stamped my polar bear first, for placement, and sprinkled him with powder.  Then, the word "cold" - sprinkled with powder.  And so on.  It really helped to take the stress off!  I didn't feel like I needed to rush and throw the powder on before the versamark dried.

Once everything was heat embossed, I went back in and stamped again: this time with white ink, and slightly to the left of the original impressions, to give a shadowed look.

I added some snowfall, (from "let it snow") in white ink, without embossing any of it, and smudged the edges with more white ink.



The best part of winter is layering cozy textures to keep warm.  I added a felt snowflake and some soft yarn and attached them with a mini clothespin.

I hope you play along!  Both with Kara's challenge, and our latest lawnscaping challenge!

We're sponsored by lawn fawn this week!  You could win a sweet prize:

Thanks for stopping by!

I ♥ you {saturday creations}

this is my second post of the day.  if you are looking for the latest CSS release post, scroll down or click *here*

Are you loving the new set from Precious Remembrance?  Even though it's a "thank you"  set, Dyane added some great sentiments that keep the set very all-purpose.



I used the "I ♥ you" circle to create this cozy valentine's day card.



It was the perfect opportunity to break out my package of heart veneers.  A few of them stacked perfectly over the heart in the stamped image.  (but what's up with the scraggly edge on the peeking heart?  I didn't notice it until I uploaded the picture)



I used CSS dies to cut my favor flags, and their "create a plaid" stamp set to make this classic tartan pattern. I think one of my girls has a skirt in this pattern :)

The card background was stamped with a strip of  PTI's text style II, and I actually broke out the sewing machine for this one.  I haven't done that in awhile!

Thanks for popping by (again!)  Have a great weekend - after breakfast, I have a date with my favorite 5 year old.  I ♥ spending time with each kidlet - it's so much quieter... ha.

good things come in tiny packages.

I am so excited to share the new CSS release with you: an airmail background set, a tiny envelope die, a new party favor die, and a notebook edge die - squeeeee!  I had so much fun playing around with these goodies.

I used the new air mail stamp set, and tiny envelope die to create a tiny stationary set:



A brown paper package, all tied up with string,



filled with tiny airmail envelopes, and little spools of faux washi tape.  Some creative masking allowed me to stamp the navy&red airmail border around each envelope.  For the faux-washi, I backed a length of 1/4 inch simple adhesive with white tissue paper, and stamped the tissue paper side with images from the airmail background set.  When the adhesive is peeled off the back, the effect is translucent, like a strip of washi tape:



I love the "to" and "from" that I added to the front and back of the tiny envies - they are from "trendy tags" and the perfect little accents to this set.



On display is my favorite way to view this tiny gift set.

The tiny envelope die comes with a little insert die as well (how thoughtful of CSS! hee hee).  So perfect for little tiny love notes:



Hope you like it - at least a tiny bit ;)  Bonus points if you go back and count how many times I used the word "tiny" in this post...

These designers have more to show you:

Audrey ♥ Kim ♥ Laura ♥ Lori ♥ Laurie ♥ Dana ♥ Tracy ♥ CSS