Monday, March 28, 2011

a swimming color splash

well i made another layout, crazy! this time i made a layout for the latest lawnscaping challenge: color splash! and it's when my little gnome went swimming for the first time: awww! :)







i decided to use beiges (and white) as my nuetral with most of the 'color splash' coming from the pictures. i think it works! :)

here it is:





i used lawn fawn's 'say cheese', 'say cheese too', and 'critters in the burbs'. i even made my own 'polariod' for that extra long picture on the top right! i wanted it to fit in, and that was my best solution! :)





i added some dimension with my homemade felt things (they're bubbles today!), and all of the polaroids are popped up, too.




i clear embossed the small camera stamp and 'all smiles' which was super fun - i still feel like embossing is like magic!





well, it's a short post, but i wanted to share it!

enjoy!

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

cute and cuddly

can you be lazy with something you love to do?? ha ha! well, i don't know if it's laziness or not, but sometimes i just can NOT get motivated to craft. i WANT to craft. and i go to bed at night thinking about how i didn't get any crafty time in again, but then the next day, poof, still nothing.

the even weirder part is, when i am crafting (finally!) i love it! and i want to go-go-go! i love to getting scrappy/crafty! i don't know what my problem is! i think i let life's other prioritites get in my way! :)

anyway, i was finally able to convince myself to get down and dirty (or should i say cute and cuddly?!) and it was fantastic! i came up with an idea for the double challenge that lawnscaping and wee memories are having!! these are two of my most favorite challenge sites, and there was no way i was going to let myself miss participating! :)



so here's cute and cuddly card:



where to begin! i layered the blue cardstock on the cream cardstock and popped it up for dimension, and the fox and the mushrooms are from one of lawn fawn's newest releases: critters in the forest. love love love! i flocked the fox to make him extra cuddly! because really, what's more cuddly than flock? for real. i colored the mushrooms with colored pencils (no copics for me!) and then fussy cut them out. the sentiment was made using harold's abc's from lawn fawn and i just love it! i cut the top to make it looks like grass a little.



it's just a simple card, and i adore it! i hope you find it cute too!
enjoy!

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

another monster smooch

my name should be 'by the seat of my pants sam', because sometimes that's what i feel like! ha ha! this morning i had just woken up, and this idea for a card for the paper smooches 'guest designer' challenege hit me! and i thought, when am i going to get this done? the deadline is today, and who knows when i'll be able to get crafty...think think think. and then i decided to throw caution to the wind and make the card first thing in the morning...which meant i had a little assistant...my son! so i set him up with his own stamps and ink and paper. and i was actually able to get enough crafty time in to make and finish the card! crazy, i know!
anyway, here's the card i made for paper smooches:


isn't it adorable! i am a huge fan of the colors! and i altered both monsters from the original stamp by changing the position of their arms. the monster on the left is offering his 'love' to the monster on the right, who's so excited her arms are in the air! :) ha ha!



the embossed sentiment is also paper smooches, and i was originally going to emboss it in red, but i did not like the way it looked. so white it is! :) i definately wanted to add more red though, enter the addition of the bakers twine! :) isn't the little bow cute?

anyway, have a great day, and who knows? maybe i'll even get more crafty time in!
but i wouldn't count on it! :)
enjoy!

Monday, March 14, 2011

an easter layout

well i was able to get aa little over an hour of crafty time in this weekend. it was a great hour though! i just felt the groove, and i wanted to keep scrapping for hours!! but then, alas, my little mann woke up from his nap, and my husband had a hockey game, and so on and so on! :) so my dreams of staying crafty all afternoon flittered away! ha ha! but that's ok!

anyway, i have been imagining this layout for days...layouts are always tricky when i make them for myself, because i pur so much pressure on myself! i have made oodles of scrapbooks for friends and family, but for myself...notta one! ha ha! oh well! anyway, this layout is from my little mann's first easter! what's more spring than that!

which brings us to the challenges for this layout! :) i created this layout for lawnscaping's latest challenge (use a lawn fawn stamp in an unconventional way), wee memories' latest challenge (anything green or spring!) and an actual layout challenge at stuck sketches!


here it is!



what started this whole layout was the challenge at lawnscaping. i knew i was going to make the fab flower tree, but after stamping, cutting and paperpiecing all of the flowers i wanted to use it on something more 'permanent' than a card (does that make sense?!), hence my layout idea was born! i love using lawn fawn's stamps in unconventional ways, and i've already done that a bunch of times! so that challenege was right up my alley!



even though the sketch from stuck sketches shows 3 pictures, i decided to only use 2 of mine. my husband with jackson and my mother-in-law with jackson (she flew in from california to be with jackson on easter!). i like the use of the chunky and 'messy' twine for around the layout because it reminds me of an easter basket! and it's a little more masculine than a ribbon too!



i splattered the top left corner of the layout with my son's yellow finger paint!! ha ha! i wanted to emphasize the sun's rays! and of course i also littered the layout with more lawn fawn stamps - the birds, the year, and the bunny with his fuzzy, flocked tail. :)

anyway, that's my layout! i hope i can get crafty again soon and keep my groove! :)
enjoy!

Thursday, March 10, 2011

featured on paper smooches!

i just have a really quick post this morning, and it's some very exciting news (well, to me anyway!) :)

paper smooches is featuring one of my cards on their blog today!!! definately check it out!





i was so surprised and honored! what a great way to start the day, huh? :)
enjoy!

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

monster love

i don't know why i'm racing to submit this card, but i am! how does this happen?? time just slipped away from me!
luckily danielle from girlracer scrap and i skype-scrapped tonight and i was able to get a little crafty in a short amount of time! but i'm thankful for even that!

anyway, the card that i squeaked out tonight is for the playdate cafe and their color splash challenge:
the card is also for a chance at paper smooches to be a guest designer!! super exiting!



the most exciting thing to me is that i was able to get my paper smooches stamps a little more inky! and obviously, the 'color splash' i chose was pink! :) here's the card, in all it's glory:


i like it, because the monster is in love with the apple! or maybe he just thinks he's in love because he's hungry! either way, it's meant to be light-hearted and cute! :) you may not notice at first glance, but i altered the monster stamp from paper smooches. the stamp has the monster's hand going up and down (with the hand towards the bottom), but i altered it so the hand was going to the side (like he was reaching for the apple) and i even added another arm! all i did was ink up the monster and then us a baby wipe to wipe away the ink from the arm. then i stamped the image. then i inked up the stamp again, and used the baby wipe to remove all the rest of the monster except for the arm. rinse and repeat for two arms! :)


the heart is also from the 'falling for you' stamp set from paper smooches, it's the stained glass looking heart, but i just flocked pink all over it!

well, that's my card, in a flash! :) i hope it made you giggle!
enjoy!

Sunday, March 6, 2011

a paper smooch

paper smooches (you know the stamps, those funky and unique stamps that are irresistable...? yeah those) is looking for a guest designer! how super exciting is that?! i just love the stamps!

here is my first (of many, i hope!) submissions!



i decided to make the apples have faces! how fun! i embossed the sentiment (made with lawn fawn's harold's abc's stamps) and popped it up with some hand cut green felt circles i made - for some fun dimension! :)



also, you may have noticed...one of those unsuspecting apples has a bite taken out of him! i think it's so cute that the one apple is running away (because he doesn't want to be the next 'apple a day'), but the bitten apple is sort of resigned to it, oh well, c'est la vie. :)

my husband thought this card had a touch of dark humor to it, sort of like any cohen brother's film out there, but i think it's just silly and funny! it makes me crack up to look at! so i hope you get a little chuckle too. i have a lot more plans for these silly apple friends (oh, i forgot to mention they were paper pieced!), and i can't wait to put my ideas down on the cards!

i hope everyone is having a great weekend, i can't wait to ink up some more paper smooches stamps! :)
enjoy!

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

you're a dear

although i've mentioned (more than once...) that i am not a huge fan of purple for crafts, sometimes, i just have to use it anyway! for instance, one of my best friends' favorite color is purple. so of course when i want to make her something, i use purple. unfortunate as that is for me! :)

fortunately, though, off the wall craftiness has a new challenge out, and i was actually able to come up with an idea that i didn't second guess the entire time i made it! :) here are the inspiration colors:




and here is my purple spin on a card:



i combined two different stamp sets - one from paper smooches and the other one is, of course, from lawn fawn! i hope that's not a faux pas! they just fit so well together!
i layered two different colors of purple for the card and on top of that, i used some white ribbon. the sentiment is stamped onto polka dotted vellum (i love that!), which is why i used the white ribbon - to tie it together. then i paper pieced two deer stamps from lawn fawn, and made one of them a girl (complete with homemade bow! i made the bow by using two small heart punches and a little gemstone)!



the flower embellishment i sort of scraplifted. i found it buried deep in my scrap supplies but the base of it had like a tacky orange and dark green...so i ripped that off and stuck it onto my folded over white ribbon! and ta-da! much better!



anyway, thanks for checking it out - i really appreciate it!
enjoy!