Sunday, September 30, 2012

O Come Let Us Adore Him


Good Sunday morning! It occurred to me recently that I have yet to make a single Christmas card this year. I'd say it's high time I got started! Today's card features a beautiful Christmas set by Hero Arts called Heavens Rejoice, newly re-stocked at i {heart} papers. I was so drawn to the wise man silhouette image, and chose it to ink up first. I stamped in Tim Holtz Pumice Stone ink onto a neutral pattern from the Teresa Collins Christmas Cottage 6x6 pad, then die-cut the image using a Spellbinders Labels Ten die. Accents and embellishments include crinkled and dyed seam binding, buttons tied off with some Creative Imaginations Natural Twine String Thread, self-adhesive Lace Fabric Tape by Love My Tapes, distressing, hand-stitching, and Kaisercraft pearls.



I finished the inside with some more Christmas Cottage papers and another of the sentiments from Heavens Rejoice, leaving plenty of room for a personal note as well. One holiday card down, a bajillion more to go, right? :D

Since it's the tail end of September, this is my last "official" post as guest designer at i {heart] papers. A huge thanks to Kate and the whole friendly team at IHP for taking me in this month! 

Thanks for stopping by!


Thursday, September 27, 2012

Ticket To My Heart


I'm back, this time with my sample for this week's Deconstructed Sketch #71. This week's sketch is brought to us by Lori Boyd:


More samples from the Deconstructed Sketch Girls:





  • Amber Hight
  • Arielle Gordon
  • Cresta Woodruff, guest designer
  • Donna Wardle
  • Jen Shults
  • Jessica Diedrich
  • Kadie Ensley
  • Lori Boyd
  • Sheri Gilson
  • Tracey Pickersgill



  • This is also my sample for this week's TCP Tuesday Challenge #229, "We're Partial To Penguins," hosted by Susan Liles. She's challenging us to combine any penguin stamp with either the Ticket or Ribbon Slide CutUps dies. I used the penguin from Up, Up and Away and combined him with a "ticket to my heart" that I created with various stamps from Admit One. I *love* Admit One -- it's so much fun creating custom tickets! For this one, I included the date of my husband's and my 19th anniversary, coming up in November. In hindsight, maybe I should have put the actual wedding date? The colors are awfully girly, but oh well! Aren't the men in our lives used to that?







    1. Each Tuesday we will give you a challenge.
    2. You will have until the end of the month to complete the challenge.
    3. Add your entry to the guestbook on Alma's Blog and/or upload to the SCS Gallery, using the keywordTCPTUES229 for this week's challenge.
    4. TCP stamps/dies are not required, but of course, highly encouraged. (Unless it is a challenge calling for a specific stamp/die, like this week)
    5. There will be one randomly chosen weekly winner, announced on Tuesdays.
    6. There will be one winner, The Swanky Stamper, announced the 1st of each month. They will win several sets from an upcoming release and get to play along with us at our Pajama Party and Blog Hop.


    Thanks for stopping by!

    Deconstructed Sketch #71

    The new Deconstructed Sketch is up! Have a look at this beauty, designed by Lori Boyd:


    I'll be posting my sample later this morning -- so sorry! For samples, visit the Deconstructed Sketch Girls blogs:




    When you're ready to play along, Jen has all the 411, as well as the InLinkz entry form. Can't wait to see what you do!

    Tuesday, September 25, 2012

    You Are My Sunshine


    How about a cute, warm-weather card after yesterday's wintry one? This adorable image is Wagon Kiddo by Stampendous, and is available at i {heart} papers. I stamped the image in Memento Tuxedo Black ink on Copic Blending Cardstock by X-Press and colored with Copic markers. Embellishments include red buttons threaded with yellow satin ribbon and tied off with Black Licorice Divine Twine; hand stitching; two cloud die-cuts; and some ivory lace fabric tape by Love My Tapes. The papers are from my well-loved Tangerine 6x6 collection by My Mind's Eye. The sentiment, "You Are My Sunshine," is from a sheet of cut-apart elements in the Tangerine collection.


    I hope your week is off to a great start. My kindergartner just finished lunch, and now we're off to enjoy this beautiful sunny Tuesday. Thanks so much for stopping by!


    Monday, September 24, 2012

    A Warm Hello - TCPTues228


    Happy Monday, friends. Hope you had a great weekend! I'm posting a very late entry for last week's TCP Tuesday #228 challenge, a gorgeous color challenge hosted by Lori.


    There's been a distinct chill in the air as the kids and I wait for the bus in the mornings, and I say bring it on! I love the changing leaves, getting cozy in my boots and scarves, and sipping a steaming hot beverage. In an effort to encourage Mother Nature, a variation on the rain dance if you will, I thought I'd ink up this cutie from The Cat's Pajamas You Suit Me. It's such a fun image to paper-piece, too, and I was happy to oblige. The papers I used are from Echo Park's Times & Seasons and For the Record 2 Documented collections. The die-cut behind the image, a left-over I found in my scraps bin, is the inside cut-out of one of the Spellbinders Snowflake Frameabilities dies.


    TCP TUESDAY CHALLENGE DETAILS...
    1. Each Tuesday we will give you a challenge.
    2. You will have until the end of the month to complete the challenge.
    3. Add your entry to the InLinkz gallery on Alma’s blog and/or upload to the SCS Gallery, using the keyword TCPTUES228 for this week’s challenge.
    4. TCP stamps are not required for this challenge, but of course we love to see TCP fans use their TCP stamps!
    5. There will be one randomly chosen weekly winner, announced on Alma's blog, who will win a Gift Voucher for use on The Cat’s Pajamas website.
    6. There will be one winner, The Swanky Stamper, announced each month, who will win several sets from an upcoming release and get to play along with us at our Pajama Party and Blog Hop.



    Hope you'll join The Cat Pack for any or all of this month's TCP Tuesday challenges. A new one comes out tomorrow. Look for it in the TCP forum on Splitcoast!

    Thursday, September 20, 2012

    Make A Wish - DS70



    This week's Deconstructed Sketch, by Donna Wardle, is up! 



    One fun and probably obvious interpretation is a three-tiered cake. My cake layers are made with My Mind's Eye Tangerine patterns and hand-stitched for some added texture. The sentiment is from Verve's Doodled Occasions, the stars below the sentiment are from Borderline, and the three candles peeking out at the top are paper-pieced images from Carpe Cupcake. The doily frame around the sentiment is an MFT Die-namics die. Along the bottom is Verve's Pennant Trim die, some ruffled yellow trim, teal trim, and some black Divine twine.

    Visit the Deconstructed Sketch girls for lots more sketch inspiration:



    You'll find the InLinks entry form and all the participation details over at  Jen's blog. Hope you'll join us this week!

    Tuesday, September 18, 2012

    i {heart} papers + Zva Creative Blog Hop!

    Do you LOVE bling? So do we! This month the i {heart} papers design team and the team from Zva Creative are celebrating the love of beautiful bling! Since each of our teams have designers that are also Paper Craft Planet Super Novas, we asked the PCP team to host some special challenges throughout the week. There will be lots of beautiful, blingy inspiration!

    You should have arrived from Kate's blog...if you missed the beginning, head straight to Kate's so you won't miss a single gorgeous project!




    i {heart} papers retails the industry's best paper crafting supplies from your favorite manufacturers while offering stellar customer service and super fast and FREE US shipping with any $60 order. (We also ship internationally.) We are proud to offer our exclusive i {stick} papers redline tape, which is manufactured just for us in long-lasting 60 yard rolls, at an amazing price! We also provide a publication incentive for our three private stamp lines, Mint Motif, The Petal Press and Chicken Girl. Visit our website and follow us on FacebookTwitter and our blog for news, sales, coupons and more!



    Zva Creative produces many beautiful color groupings of high quality pearls, flowers and crystal embellishments that can be used on scrapbooking, card making and mixed media projects. Visit Zva’s gallery or blog for great project ideas and to find a list of stores and online retailers that sell Zva click HERE.

    Zva Creative will be selecting one lucky winner who comments along the blog hop to win a Zva prize package worth $30. All comments must be received by 11:59 pm on Wednesday, September 19th. Winners will be announced on Zva’s blog on Thursday, September 20th.



    For today's card, I broke out the beautiful Simple Stories Harvest Lane 6x6 collection. I love the country look, with the different plaid, gingham, striped, and woodgrain patterns. The sweet pumpkins from Lawn Fawn's So Thankful set are colored with Copics and popped up with some Sticky Thumb Dimensional Dots. The clear crystal flourish by Zva Creative makes a perfect accent and really glams things up beautifully. See the strip of crochet trim along the left? It's 1/2" Ivory Self-Adhesive Lace Fabric Tape by Love My Tapes, and it's amazing! So easy to work with, since the adhesive is already on the trim. Simply peel off the backing to adhere. The tiny twine bows on the pumpkins are done with some Natural Twine String Thread by Creative Impressions.



    From here, you're visiting Robin Shakoor. Thanks for visiting, and enjoy the hop! We hope to see you and your creations this week on Paper Craft Planet!

    Monday, September 17, 2012

    With Gratitude - Fanspiration Diva Dare


    Good morning, friends, I invite you to join me over on the Verve blog today, where I'm taking my turn with this month's Fanspiration Diva Dare. 

    This month, we "dare" you to show us your new creations inspired by projects made by Verve fans!  You can pick any little Verve project to inspire you, as long as it is not by one of our design team members (or yourself!) {grin}. To get your wheels a turnin', the Divas will be posting their Fanspiration creations using our newly released products each weekday on the Verve blog!

    Two chances to win some Verve prizes:
    1) take the dare (i.e. play along); 
    and 2) leave comments on the Diva Dare posts over on the Verve blog.

    My card was inspired by this lovely creation by Kerri Michaud. More card info, as well as full challenge details, are on the Verve blog.



    Friday, September 14, 2012

    Sunshine For My Soul

    I'm usually a layers and stuff kind of cardmaker, but every now and then, the CAS bug bites. These cards are a couple that I made for Verve's big Anni-VERVE-sary release a few weeks ago. I was inspired by the sweet simplicity of that doodled sun in the Doodled Occasions set, and pared back my normal array of accoutrements to just a few: 

    rounded corners, washi tape, dry embossing, a Pennant Trim border, and a touch of yellow Divine Twine on the first




    .and more of the same on the second, minus the washi tape 



    How about a short and sweet, simple blog post to go along with these?

    Thanks for stopping by!





    Thursday, September 13, 2012

    Keep Calm and Smile Big - DS69


    Hello my friends, are you ready for a brand-new Deconstructed Sketch? I hope so, because Amber has put together an amazing sketch this week! Check it out:



    For my sample, I used a darling Technique Tuesday stamp set, Smile Big, and papers from Echo Park's Everyday Eclectic 6x6 collection, both available at i {heart} papers. For the yellow strip at the top, I did some paper pleating using my Scor-Pal and 1/4" Scor-Tape. Tucked under the yellow strip is some dainty little May Arts Mini Pom-Pom trim in white that I also picked up at i {heart} papers. I love pom-pom trims, and this one is so tiny and cute! I added some colorful smiley faces (there are four in the Smile Big stamp set) that I stamped, punched with a 3/4" punch, and popped up with Sticky Thumb Dimensional Dots. Last is a pink bow topped with a turquoise button and some Natural Twine String Thread. The new stuff continues to pour in at i {heart} papers - check it out in the What's New section. And be sure to subscribe to the IHP blog feed for inspiration and all the latest updates.

    For some amazing sketch inspiration, please visit the Deconstructed Sketch girls:




    You'll find the InLinks entry form and all the participation details over at  Jen's blog. Hope to see you play along this week!


    Wednesday, September 12, 2012

    Stay Tuned



    I'm loving the cute, fun images in Lawn Fawn's Stay Tuned set, available at i {heart} papers. Here's a kind-of, sort-of, but not CAS card today. I started out with a color combo that I pulled from Jillibean Soup's Country Pumpkin Chowder Soup and Soup Staples 2 6x6 collections. The image and sentiment are stamped in Memento's Espresso Truffle ink, my new favorite brown ink. It's so dark and rich it's almost (but not) black -- love it! I stamped the image a second time, trimmed it out, and popped it up with some Sticky Thumb Dimensional Dots. You can't see it in the picture, but I also colored over the image with a clear atyou Spica glitter pen for a subtle sparkle. Other details include a mini binder clip, a notebook punched edge, some narrow yellow velvet ricrac (adhered with 1/8" Scor-Tape), yellow ribbon tabs, and of course, a big layered bow element. The dark brown twill is from my stash. It's topped with some Green Apple Divine Twine and a turquoise button.

    Thank you all for the wonderful birthday wishes on Facebook yesterday! This is the birthday card I made for my twin sister, who really does rock!

    Have a fantastic day,

    Monday, September 10, 2012

    Ahoy There!


    Ahoy there! Hope your week is off to a great start. I'm feeling quite spoiled with perhaps the longest stretch of alone time since the birth of my first child. So did I clean the house, catch up on yard work, run errands? Are you kidding?! There will be time enough for that another day. Today, I indulged in all things papercrafty. Actually, I do still have time left to get some work done, but first I need to share my creation for Jen's fun TCPTuesday challenge from last week, using this inspiration picture:



    I was clueless what I was going to do for this, until I was thumbing through a new Echo Park 6x6 paper collection, For the Record 2 Documented, and noticed a scale pattern that reminded me of the scales on the umbrella. I didn't realize how many other elements I picked up on until just now ... the tan horizontal strip reminds me of the sand, the splashes of yellow certainly pick up on the yellow drink, and I added a cloud accent (a single cloud done with TCP's Cloud Border CutUps die), which goes with the second and third photos. Fun! The darling whale is from TCP's Whale of A Time.



    Here are your TCPTuesday challenge details:

    1. Each Tuesday we will give you a challenge.

    2. You will have until the end of the month to complete the challenge.
    3. Add your entry to the guestbook on Alma's Blog and/or upload to the SCS Gallery, using the keyword TCPTUES226 for this week's challenge.
    4. TCP stamps/dies are not required, but of course, highly encouraged if you have them.
    5. There will be one randomly chosen weekly winner, announced on Alma's blog.
    6. There will be one winner, The Swanky Stamper, announced the beginning of each month. The Swanky Stamper will win several sets from an upcoming release and get to play along with us at our Pajama Party and Blog Hop.


    I also used Karen Giron's Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge #167:


    Have a fantastic week, friends!

    Saturday, September 8, 2012

    Friends Until The End - SFYTT


    I have another creation using some of that brand-new Verve that released the end of last month. The sentiment comes from Brighter Days, and my layout is this month's SFYTT:


    My sentiment panel is die-cut using Verve's Tabbed Rectangle die and accented with a pennant strip that was done with Verve's new Pennant Trim die. Other embellishments include some turquoise trim (Webster's Pages, I believe), some Zva paper flowers, black Divine Twine, and some Kaisercraft turquoise gemstones. The papers are from My Mind's Eye's Tangerine collection.



    Here's a list of the SFYTT girls who also have sketch inspiration today:



    To play along, link up your creation HERE. You'll find all the participation details there as well. 

    Thanks so much for stopping by, and have a great weekend!


    Friday, September 7, 2012

    Hello, My Vintage Telephone Love


    So, I mentioned the other day that I'd be guest designing for i {heart} papers this month. I'm excited to get started! You know how you sometimes have an idea rattling around in your head that you just have to make? That was today's project for me. As soon as I saw the Ali Edwards Love This Memory stamp set in the IHP store, I wanted it for my {struggling} Project Life project.  Then, as I was looking through the different sentiments and saw "hello my love," this vintage telephone idea popped into my head.

    I found the telephone file in the Silhouette store, and die-cut it out of some navy blue polka-dot paper from the Soup Basics 2 Collection by Jillibean Soup, then accented different parts of it (such as the cord) in charcoal card stock. The sentiment is stamped on an address book pattern (how perfect!) from the Grandma's Lima Bean Soup collection by Jillibean Soup, which is also where the green background pattern and the dainty floral scallop pattern came from. Embellishments include the ruffled crochet trim just underneath the phone, some twisted burlap rope, and of course, distressing and sewing to help with the overall vintage theme.



    If you're already an i {heart} papers customer, you don't need me to tell you about the wonderful product selection and the super fast shipping, but for those who aren't, two things: First, I once placed an order late at night and was shocked to see the shipping notice within 30 minutes! Of course, USPS didn't make a special midnight stop, but it was so nice knowing my order had been pulled and packed, and was ready to go out the next morning. That's about as quick as is humanly possible! (And, orders over $60 ship free -- I LOVE free shipping!)

    Second, by the time your order arrives (we're talking mere days, remember), if you chance another visit to the store, it's gonna look like a whole different store (this time of year, anyway) because of all the new product arriving daily. Kate, the owner, has a wonderful "news from the {heart}" weekly newsletter, where she sends updates on all the new arrivals. The latest newsletter arrived in my inbox just this morning, and let me say, you're gonna have to hurry if you want to beat me to those new Memory Box dies! Oh my - I'm drooling over the Christmas ornaments especially! You can find the newsletter sign-up on the left sidebar of the i {heart} papers blog.

    Enough chatter! Thanks so much for stopping by. Goodbye, my loves {wink}.


    Thursday, September 6, 2012

    Hope Things Are Looking Up - DS68


    One of my favorite sets from Verve's big anniversary release last month was Brighter Days - this sentiment, in particular. I think this is the fifth or sixth card I've done with it (but only the second I've shown here, so you'll be seeing it again and again). For this card, I've used today's new Deconstructed Sketch. Here it is:


    A few weeks ago, Jen Shults (creator of the Deconstructed Sketch challenge blog) invited the design team to help out with designing the sketches, and I jumped at the chance. So this week's sketch is by me - fun! I kept it super simple, but designed that split focal panel for interest. Hope you'll play along!

    For my sample, I ran a strip of washi tape along the side of my sentiment panel. The upward point of the chevron pattern is perfect for the "hope things are looking up" sentiment. The papers are from My Mind's Eye's Bluebell 6x6 collection.

    Have a look at the fabulous creations by the team:



    Here’s the scoop on what you need to do:
    1. Use the sketch to above to make a project, any kind you like using any image you like.
    2. Post it somewhere on the internet. Use keyword DS68 if you post to an online gallery like Splitcoaststampers.
    3. Link up your creation to Jen's blog using the Inlinkz at the bottom of the post so we can stop by and see it.
    4. Check back HERE next Wednesday to see if you are one of this week’s favorites and grab a badge for your blog.

    Thanks so much for visiting!