The Cutting Cafe-Joy Clair Stamps Collaboration!

Welcome to a very special Cutting Cafe Inspiration!  In April we're collaborating with Joy Clair Stamps and using some of their fabulous stamp sets along with our favorite Cutting Cafe files!  One of my very favorite fairly new files is the 3-D Shadow Card and I knew this Wild & Free stamp set from Joy Clair would be perfect to use along with it!

I love this 3-D card because it appears like a plain old flat card from the outside and then when you open it the shadow box "pops" up to reveal whatever 3D creation  you want to add to the inside!

I used all of the images from the set along with some of the dies in my stash to create this cute scene... and even cuter if you wiggle the front open and closed a little it looks like they're actually moving!...lol!  Just a pleasant surprise that I didn't expect!  This would be a fantastic set to decorate a travel journal don't you think?  But this card would be for someone setting out on an adventure!  Or just for fun... 'cause these two are SO cute!  And the set contains lots of great sentiments too.

That's a lot of layers!  I did add some twine to mine because I used quite a bit of popup tape, but it still lies pretty flat and would be easy to mail.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  Be sure to check out the Cutting Cafe Blog on the 21st.  Comment there for your chance to win three files of your choice!  And then check out what everyone else has made for Anything Goes!  You'll see a bunch more Cutting Cafe-Joy Clair goodness and we've been sharing throughout the month too!

Come back tomorrow for a special National Tea Day celebration!

Positively Beautiful Negative Spaces With Stencils!

I'm up on the CAS-ual Fridays Blog today and sharing with you a technique I used during the new release with Ken Oliver Color Bursts and some of the new stencils available in the shop!

My favorite stencil at the present time seems to be the Starlequin stencil... especially with this technique... I think it's all of the detail but it still has wide open spaces to give the colors lots of room to blend.  This is the watercolor paper I used.  I can't say if it's my favorite, but it worked well, and I got it on sale!  I cut my watercolor panels ahead of time and had two ready to go!  Have a little spray bottle of water ready too.

You'll want to protect your surface because this is messy... or maybe you don't... lol!  I'm not the boss of you!  I layed my stencil over one of the panels and sprinkled some Chartreuse and Lime Color Burst powders over the top in a random pattern.  It seems some of my bottles come out heavy and some not so much, but it's better to start out light and you can always add more!

I prayed on some water... you may want to tape down your stencil, but I didn't.  I don't mind if a little sneaks underneath... To me it adds to the beauty!  I sprayed a good amount of water on mine... a little at a time and just watch the beautiful colors do what they do.. mixing and swirling.  When you think it's enough, just lift off the stencil..

You'll want to be careful that all of that extra color doesn't slip off the top!  Move your first panel aside and put the fresh one in place.  It's ok if it takes you a longer than you plan... the oven dings... you have to chase after the dogs or the kids... because you can always spritz it with more water before you flip it over and smoosh it on top of your fresh panel!

I make sure to press down on mine..yeah.. my hands are a mess when I'm done...but I don't care!

And when you lift that one up, you have two beautiful panels to work with!  The hardest part is deciding which one to use!  I closed my eyes and picked because I love them both!

I cut the Bubble Box die out of some water color paper and used a bit of the Chartreuse powder to watercolor it.  I'm impatient so I used a heat gun to dry this piece so I could stamp it with that inspirational sentiment from the Dream Then Do stamp set (LOVE that set!)  I popped it up and splattered a bit of shimmery watercolor over the top.

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I cut some leaves using the Garden Fri-Dies from green cardstock and cut some flowers from some yellow Sparkling Sheets using the 4 Petals Fri-Dies.

Isn't that background yummy??  Well, I love it anyway.

And that's me for today!  Hope you'll give this a try!  This is just one of the many mediums you can use with these beautiful stencils and right now it's one of my faves.  I just love the unexpected results each time!

I'm playing along with a couple challenges today!  There's a fun new inspiration over at Cupcake Inspirations.  It's all about Inspiration Quotes.  I used an inspirational quote and I loved the pretty green and yellow color scheme so much I used that too.

And over at Simon Says Stamp's Monday Challenge is about Beautiful Blooms... and I added lots of flowers here for that.

Thanks so much for visiting today and if you saw something today you must have from the CAS-ual Fridays shop, I have this for you:

Doodles Paper Playground April Sparkle Blends Release!

Hello Sparkle Blends fans!  It's time for the Doodles Paper Playground April Sparkle Blends Release Blog Hop and I'm so excited to be hopping along as a Guest Designer this month!

There are six beautiful spring-y blends to share with you: Easter Basket, Springtime, Sunshine, Cafe Au Lait, Birthstone Collection: April-Diamond and Birthstone Collection: May-Emerald!  If you love soft pastel shades and budding greens, you're going to love this release!  I know I do!

You will find descriptions and closeups of each of the gorgeous Sparkle Blends from the April Release in the detailed Release Blog Post here!  There are six beautiful new blends to choose from... or just order them all!  And be sure to head over to the Doodles Paper Playground post after you hop; leave a comment stating your favorite blend from the New Release and you could win a packet of that blend!  AND for a chance to win a set of all 6 of the new Sparkle Blends, make sure you leave some comment love on each leg of the hop!  You receive one entry for each comment and don't forget to share with your friends!  You have until April 21st to comment!  Good luck!

Also, just a reminder that the limited edition April Release is available for purchase while supplies last and exclusively at White Rose Crafts!  So if you fall in love, make sure you order now or you might just miss out!

Without further ado, here's how I was inspired:

I love all of these blends... and the Sunshine Blend is no exception!  I love this fun mix of yellows, clear and gold.  What I love about these beautiful blends is all of the different shapes and sizes of sequins and other sparkly bits you find in them!

It was fun to use this Sunshine cover die from RC and make it into a shaker for this blend.  I added a couple layers and shades of yellow.  I used alcohol inks with some orange and yellow and added a bit of gold foil to it and then cut that great Couture Creations phrase die that I got in the White Rose shop out of it for the center of my shaker (I think it might be sold out... so glad I picked it up when it was on sale!)  Oh!  See that butterfly and the gold flower??  Those are the kinds of surprises that are in these blends... love them!  I chose to save a few of them to add to the outside of the shaker as I always like to do.

Just look at all of that lovely!!

Next I decided to create a shaped shaker using one of the cuts from the Easter Shaker Cards file over at the Cutting Cafe!  I thought that Birthstone Collection: Diamond Blend would be perfect for the bunny tail on this one!

Was I right??  Gosh I love this sweet blend... I really must get more... this one could be used so often and in so many projects!  And that sweet Delicate Flower that I got in the White Rose Crafts shop was perfect for this sweet card.  For the sentiment I colored a chipboard tag with my Copic and used a stamp from the Heffy Doodle Honey Bunny Boo set I purchased at WRC too!

And speaking of Honey Bunny Boo:

I LOVE this sweet stamp set!  And it was perfect to go along with the equally sweet Springtime Blend!  Those pretty flowers and bunny shapes are perfect for this playful scene!

I used some CDD grass dies and then colored and cut out (why oh why did I not get the coordinating dies???) all of my images and using various thicknesses of foam tape to place them.  Between shakers and layers, I'd say foam tape is one of the most important tools in my craft room!

And I created my sentiment using the Bunny Boo set along with that great Easter word die from Heffy Doodle!

I think my very favorite sequin in this blend is that large plaid circle!!!  Awesome!

I'm playing along with the Spring Mood Board over at Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday Challenge!

So that's me for today!  I had so much fun playing with these blends!  I've been playing with them for a couple weeks now and I'll be sharing more makes coming soon!  But for today, you should start (or keep on) a hoppin'!  Be sure to leave some love at each stop along the way for more chances to win!  Here is the entire hop list:

Doodles Paper Playground

Alison Heikilla

Kelli Sanchez Green

Annie Collins

EK Gorman

Fawn Kuehne

Carolyn Labille

Lisa Bzibziak (You Are Here!)

Meghan Kennihan

Katrina Howe

Berina Febin

Doodles Paper Playground

Caffeine Fueled Paper Play - White Rose Crafts LLC

I'm up on the Coffee Loving Cardmakers Blog today and playing along with a Sketch Challenge at White Rose Crafts LLC!  Find out who won the Gina K stamp set from my last post and have a chance to win some beautiful sequins from new Super Sponsor Doodles Paper Playground!  Hope you'll "Hop" on over there and check it out!  Here's a sneak peek!

We Are The Perfect Blend!

Decided to make a quick and fun card for a couple challenges!  I've used the Gina K Designs Perfect Blend Stamp Set and I'm playing along over at the Monthly Mix Challenge which is all about Ombre Ink Blending!  And be sure to see how you could win this set at the bottom of this post!

I recently got a cool Coffee Bean stencil from Funky Fossil Designs and decided to use it on this card along with some distress inks and blended light to dark... just using the lightest green first and heavier on the ink at the bottom right... then following up with the darker green and not going as high up with the color.

I didn't want to cover up those cool green coffee beans (that is fun to say) so I used the photo frame die without the inside portion as my base layer for these awesome coffee images from the Gina K set.  I added my sentiment onto the speech bubble for fun!  And those pretty green sequins are from Sparkle Blends Emerald blend.. I love all of the different shades and sizes that come in these packets!

I'm also playing along over at Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday challenge which is No Designer Paper!  Didn't need it here!

Now... I had an ulterior motive for this one today... I need to remind you that you could win this Gina K Designs Perfect Blend Stamp Set!  You have until tomorrow evening to visit my Design Team Closeup post over on the Coffee Loving Cardmakers Blog and maybe learn something new to you about me and play along with my Two Truths and a Lie game for a chance to win this awesome set!

Thanks for stopping!

Paper Smooches Sweet Fairy Bear

So I'm taking a break from Tax Season and all of the other things I SHOULD be doing to play along over at Paper Smooches monthly challenge!  Did you know that Kim is back at it... creating up a storm of new products each month?  I wanted to use this month's beautiful floral set and set out to do so when I saw that beautiful Fairy Bear sitting on my table... I had colored her up during the last 30 Day Coloring Challenge and she's been waiting patiently each day to see if it was her time to shine on a card... and I knew I had to get her on something!  So I decided to create this using this month's Sketch.  I flipped the sketch because it worked better for me with my Fairy Bear's wings and I had to move my word a bit so as not to cover up those pretty flowers:

Isn't she just the sweetest??  She's from the So Fairy Cute stamp set released in February!  I'm thinking for this one she's been hard at work all day long spreading cuteness and good wishes and she's taking a break to just enjoy the moment.  I'm glad you can kinda see the glitter I added using some Stickles to her wings and skirt, star and crown.

And these mushrooms and tiny flowers!!!  SO sweet!  The Mushroom dies are also from the February release and those tiny flowers are from the Mini Flowers set.  I left all of my mini flowers attached and cut them all at once out of a few colors of paper to mix and match... less chance I'll lose those teeny tiny dies and I get a bunch cut at once... leftovers go in the package with the dies and they'll get used on some other project.  Same with the mushrooms although the stems are all neatly attached in one area so I did separate that bunch from the tops.  And those sweet little grass tufts are from Kat Scrappiness and they were perfect with the mushrooms and flowers.

I used the new Fab Frames dies and this Hi sentiment is included in the center!  LOVE that Kim filled the space with this sweet word die!  And for the first time in a long time I made sure to save the Dot for my "I" since it was that sweet heart!  Oh!  And that sky??  I used an MFT cloud stencil to create that with some Distress Oxides in Worn Lipstick.

Just a few sweet sequins and I was done!

I'm playing along with a few challenges today:

Of course, Paper Smooches Sketch Challenge (sketch is above)!

At Kat Scrappiness the challenge is to use Pastels... this is pretty Pastel-y for me!

Over at Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday Challenge, they're challenging us to use No Designer Paper on our creations.. and I've done just that!

And at Cupcake Inspirations it's all about Woodland Creatures!  Does a bear sit in the woods?  She sure does!  (Do I hear groans out there??)

The Cutting Cafe - Easter Inspiration!

Welcome to some Cutting Cafe Inspiration!  This time around we're sharing projects made with some of the many awesome Easter themed files available over at the Cutting Cafe!  I'm using the Easter Shaker Cards file today.

This is a very cool set of Shaker Cards/Overlays... there are various egg overlays including this one with the tulip shape on it and a few others.  There is also a bunny shaped card included in the set (and you'll be seeing that one soon!)

With this tulip overlay egg shape, there is also an extra layer for the tulip which I cut in green and the flowers which I cut in a darker pink.  I filled my shaker with the Springtime Blend from Sparkle Blends.  And I loved the tulip SO much I decided to cut an extra and do this:

I've been wanting to play along over at the Tag You're It Challenge for a  while since it's all about Coffee Break.. of course I needed to play along!  

I used my favorite tag die from Stamplorations and this cup was perfect for that beautiful tulip to be placed into!

I chose that pretty Hugs die from Stamplorations and cut it from green glitter paper to keep it pretty, sparkly and still kinda subtle.  I think maybe I should cut a bunch of these tulips in a bunch of pretty spring colors!

Be sure to check out what everyone has created over at The Cutting Cafe Blog!  Comment there for a chance to win three files of your choice!

 Hope you enjoyed your visit here today!  I'm playing along with the following challenges:

As previously discussed over at Tag You're It it's all about the Coffee Break

Over at Stamplorations Cutplorations Challenge there's a pretty Easter/Spring themed photo