same bear, new look {saturday creations}

now.

I finally got my Precious Remembrance "little one" set.  After all this time, after the rest of the design team has been brilliantly showcasing this set for the last few weeks, I figured I'd better come up with something fresh. something to razzle-dazzle you, and make you see the set in a new light.

I took the bear image from the set, and made it look like this:



You see the difference immediately, right?  It hardly looks like the same bear.  I did some creative masking to give the cute bear a slouchier and more vintage teddy look.

I did have to paper-piece the bear to get him to look just right.  Even with my mad masking skills (ha) it was too hard to get everything as perfect as I wanted, but by paper-piecing the body, it looks seamless.  The outline underneath is a little messier.... hee.  

If you want to try this at home, here's what I did:

1. stamp the bear onto masking paper or post-it notes.  cut the head and body out separately.

2. ink up only the body, as best as you can, and stamp down onto white cardstock. (you may need to use a wipe to remove some excess ink before you stamp down.)

3. mask the body and stamp the head, low enough to cover the bear's bow-tie.  (I replaced it with a different style from another set, to further the transformation, but you can certainly paper-piece the bow included with the bear image.)

4. pop up the bear's head, so when people see the outline image underneath, they'll think you are even more of a masking superstar than you really are. wink.

Also of note: remember I told you: don't be afraid to cut up your stamps?  I took my regular paper snips to his "i ♥ hugs" belly.  I like the sentiment, but I love the freedom of being able to stamp the bear without having to wipe ink off every time I didn't want it there.  

I love the cute accent lines that Dyane adds to every set.  This one has dashed lines and stars and is perfect for making baby cards.

I hope you like my inaugural "little one" card!  Have a great weekend!

My crafty space.

If you ever wanted to see where I craft, head over to the lawnscaping blog, where I'm sharing my tiny and dark basement studio.

Here's a little peek for you:

Googly eyes and washi tape.

And yes, that is all the washi tape I own.  sad.

And the little espresso cup?  Ten years ago, Amar & I gave away espresso sets for our wedding favors.  Now, one lonely cup houses buttons and tiny die-cuts.

Happy touring!

you are beautiful.

I am so happy to be rounding out day 25 of our 25 days of CSS inspiration!  I hope you've enjoyed having the team show off new ideas and techniques every day for the last few weeks.

My project today is "no-stamps-required" and yes, it feels weird to have written that *grin*



I die cut all of my letters out of masking paper and arranged them on a piece of white cardstock.  I then used crudely cut strips of the masking paper to help me define the wavy lines of sponged colors.  I worked my ink blending tools from top to bottom, orange to dark blue.  In case there are curious minds out there, I did not use Distress Inks.  As long as you are patient, work off some of the excess ink onto a scrap paper first, and use circular motions on your cardstock, you can use almost any ink and get smooth results.

Masking is so addictive.  When you pull up the masks, the heavens open up and tiny little birdies start to sing.



You're hearing it right now, I know it.



It's is the nearest thing to a print that this stampy gal could ever hope to create.  In person, it is even more stunning and perfect looking.

Also, I should have taken a picture of my hands post-project.  So ink-dirty that it's a wonder nothing got smudged...

♥.

Ballerina birthday tags

When I don't have stamps to match a party theme, I pretty much smooch my silhouette in humble thanks.  A dollar ballerina file is all it took to create these cute tags:

I used a tag shape I already owned, and cut the silhouette file out of masking paper.  I don't love handmade decorations to look too matchy-matchy (doesn't that defeat the point of handmade?) so I used both the positive and negative parts of the ballerina cuts to sponge my tags.  A flourishy sentiment (a mix of *you* and *thank...for coming* sentiment) and a few sequins finished things off.

Which version is your favorite?  pink ballerina on white tag, or white ballerina on pink tag?

And, a simple silhouette file can be used for more than just favor tags:



Cut out of 12x12 inch cardstock, they can beautiful hold up either end of a banner ♥.

soft and stitched thank you.

I have a card on the lawn fawn blog this morning.



I used the hot air balloon die-cuts, but also paper-pieced the images.  I love the white border around the images, and wanted to keep that, even if I was doing a lot of hand-cutting...

The card was created for the memorial day OWH blog hop.  The information and links are on the lawn fawn blog!

you need cake to make it a party.

Welcome back to another day of CSS inspiration!

I came across this quote by Julia Child and just had to create a whole card & gift box set inspired by it:

"a party without CAKE is just a meeting."

I'm obviously mourning the loss of party season in our home, and with no excuse for baking a cake, I turned my attentions to the paper kind.

The cake decorating and cake dome sets were perfect for highlighting the sentiment that I created and printed on the computer.  But a flat cake would have been so boring...

With just a few strips of patterned paper, I easily created a fun, 3-D cake image.

Here's a close look at the folded tabs that hold it all down.

And what's a birthday without a slice of cake box?  (a meeting, apparently.)  The birthday gift could easily be tucked inside for a very fun set.  I used leafy dies (in the same patterned paper as the 3-d card cake) and created a soft flower by following my own tutorial. (grin.)  I used build-a-flower dies and *this technique* to get 'er done.

yum! 

you rule! {lawnscaping challenge no. 58}

Good monday morning!  It's time for another lawnscaping challenge - and this one was a challenge for me: create a CAS project (that's clean-and-simple, if you stumbled onto my card-making blog from out of nowhere...)

this is what clean and simple looks like for me:

I created a focal point out of the chalkboard, added some notebook patterned paper and notebook-edged cardstock in behind, and just a few wood veneer stars to balance things out.

Apart from the ruler, the chalkboard is all one-layer.  I just find it looks cleaner that way.  I colored in the frame with copic markers, and masked it to sponge in some green distress inks.  The sentiment was stamped inside the frame more than a few times, and heat embossed.  

I hope you like it and decide to put up your own entry!  You could win a prize from lawn fawn:

Have a great day ♥.