Paper Sweeties Challenge - September 2017 Anything Goes!

Welcome to the September 2017 Anything Goes Challenge at Paper Sweeties!   Here's how I was inspired!

 So, I was recently at a crop with some crafty friends and finally learned how to make shaving cream backgrounds!  I thought this red one would be perfect with the beautiful apples from the Homegrown stamps and dies...

After this one was dry, I covered it with some versamark and sprinkled some glitter embossing powder and clear embossing powder over the whole thing... Love how it turned out!

If you've never tried this cool technique, you should!  When this group crops, we like to learn a little something each time...so one of us usually volunteers to show everybody a cool new (or in this case, not so new, but new to us) technique.  My good friend Jean Chaney offered up this lesson and we had so much fun and made SOOOOOO many cool backgrounds.  Here is a sampling of some of our favorites:

I'll be posting another card soon using this background technique and I'll include a short tutorial and supply list, but for today... back to Paper Sweeties!

I just love the fruits included in the Homegrown stamps and Sweet Cuts dies!  They are a pretty good size and really can carry a card on their own.  And those sweet flowers from the Hello Spring set are one of my favorites.. I use them all the time as little accents for all kinds of cards... I colored my images using my watercolor pencils.

And the oh so delicate word dies ... this one is from the Happy Sweet Cuts... love that pretty font!  And if you're looking for some wrinkly seam binding..you should check out what Debbie has in the shop... such pretty colors and SO affordable!  Love this sweet "Mint" color!

I also love to use the Leaf die from the Be Happy Sweet Cuts with or without the stamp set... 

Not to mention the oh so adorable scallop frame dies... this oval one made a perfect backdrop for my cluster of apples and flowers.

So happy you stopped today!  We hope you'll play along this month!  You could win a $25 gift certificate to spend in the Paper Sweeties shop!  If you'd like some inspiration, you should visit these places:

Debbie Marcinkiewicz – Paper Sweeties

Julie Tucker-Wolek
Karen Letchworth

Kathy Schweinfurth

Larissa Heskett
Lilian Forsyth  
Lisa Bzibziak (You Are Here!)
Lori Turner

Mackie Robertson

Maria Patrick

Michele Henderson
Michelle Bala
Nancy Salkeld
September guest designer:  Gail Scott (Welcome Gail!)

Come back here soon!

Oval Scallop Frames - Paper Sweeties	Homegrown Stamp Set - Paper Sweeties	Homegrown - Sweet Cuts Dies - Paper Sweeties	Hello Spring - Paper Sweeties	Hello Spring Sweet Cuts - Paper Sweeties
Bee Happy Sweet Cuts Dies - Paper Sweeties	Happy - Sweet Cuts Dies - Paper Sweeties	Paper Sweeties - Marshmallow Sequins	Mint Seam Binding - Paper Sweeties

Three Amigos Jack Inspiration for a Tuesday!

So happy you stopped by today!  I can't seem to get enough of these Jack papers and wanted to play along with a couple challenges as well, so I made a quick card this morning..

Don't you just love that second layer from the bottom??  I cut that with a die from Reverse Confetti!  The set comes with three different sized dies all like this one and the largest (shown here) is 5 1/2 x 4 1/4 so you could use it as your whole bottom layer.  I wanted a white border so (sorry Mom) I made my card 1/4" bigger than usual.  (You see... she often puts my card fronts on bases for me and she gets quite aggravated when I go rogue and use a non-traditional size...lol!)  She may just give notice soon...

I so love the Inspire sentiment stamp set from CTMH... it's got four beautiful sentiments on it and decided the sentiment would be front and center for this one.. I am normally a rule follower in life.. I don't like to make waves.. but to be honest.. when it comes to the crafty world, I don't even know what the rules are... people try to tell me sometimes, but I just start to hear music in my head... sorry not sorry!

I knew I wanted to use some pretty white lace with this Buffalo Plaid paper... I love the contrast of the kind of manly print and the airy lace.  That heart is from Fun Stampers Journey and those pretty little pearly "flowers" were sent to me by a friend.  They were actually in a string but I found I could cut them apart with no problem and they were a perfect replacement for sequins on this one.  The chipboard arrows are from the Jack Complements. 

And I love to keep some premade paper flowers on hand for when I don't have the time to create my own.. these are my two favorites and I got them at Hobby Lobby... I stock up when they're on sale.

Hope you like it!  There are still a few days left to play along with us at Three Amigos!  We do send out a small gift to the randomly drawn winner so even  more fun!  We hope you'll play along!

Today I'm also playing along with the Heart2Heart Anything Goes CTMH Style challenge!  You should check it out... you have to use at least one CTMH product...  and speaking of rule breaking... Color My Heart Color Dare is also playing with the Jack paper pack this time around and I intended on joining that one, but I made a mistake and didn't realize you had to use ALL the colors in the paper pack this time around so I'm not linking up, but you can!  So check them out too... that one goes 'til Thursday.

Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge #227

Welcome to this week's Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge!  This week I have a couple things for you!  My projects have been so simple lately because they have all been little pocket pages in my scrapbook and all in the same theme/colors so I felt like making a second project using the sketch this week:

My friend Jean created this Swish the Angelfish image to be used over at The Outlawz Progressive Challenge and of course I'm playing along!  She actually created two different images and I wasn't sure which one I'd use, but then I had this idea...and I wanted to use that pretty shaving cream background I created this weekend so I did!

So the basic part of the sketch is at the top!  I added a little scene to the bottom of my design (big surprise?)..lol!   I very rarely stick to the script... I like to think I'm the Robin Williams of the card world.

I pulled this fish image into Word and then copied and resized a few and flipped one.. just one... and really this is a great tribute to Jean because she always goes her own way!  When she's creating she likes to ask "What If"... so many "rules" are not only broken but just smashed to pieces... so yeah.. we're alike... but I'm learning to let go of the accountant side of my brain a bit with her help.  And she's a rainbow Angelfish in a sea of goldfish... no kidding!

I'm also playing along with the Createful Hearts Digis & Design Challenges very first challenge!  This one runs until the 15th of September so plenty of time to play along!

Isn't this new Ribbon Border die from Close to My Heart just the cutest??  And although the bow isn't in the center, I just had to use it for this card.. and it was perfect.  And that sentiment... I love the Keep It Sassy stamp set from L'il Inker Designs!!

Love those clear droplets I got at Pretty Pink Posh... they are perfect for fish bubbles...

And these awesome Ocean Scene Dies from Paper Smooches... LOVE!  Perfect on this one cut from green vellum!

Update:  This one was a winner over at Createful Hearts!

And to not disappoint... here is my little pocket page for my mini album using the sketch:

 

I'm using old retired papers from Close to My Heart and some dies from Peachy Cheap for the flowers through-out the book.  That pretty bow die is from Pretty Pink Posh (borrowed this one from my mom), but since I created this page, CTMH now has the bow die mentioned above and I love it!  Although I might need to own this one too...

Thanks for stopping by and hope you'll play long!

Paper Sweeties-Just for Fun

So I was spending some time with crafty friends yesterday and came across that yummy yellow and purple scalloped oval layer.  And I decided I needed to use it.  So luckily I had some pretty yellow design paper and this wonderful purple cardstock.

I decided this beautiful basket of flowers (that you can get for free this month over at Paper Sweeties) would be perfect.  When I travel to a crop, I like to take my watercolor pencils and a waterbrush with me instead of my copics... they fit in a small organizer and are so easy to transport.  And it was the perfect look for this watercolored oval layer I started with.

Love these balloons from the Party Time Stamp Set and Dies... they were the perfect amount of fun for this celebration card and the sentiments from the Love You To Pieces set are perfect.

I love to leave my sentiments open when I can so the card can be used for multiple occasions.  

Thanks for stopping today!  You still have a few days left to get your free stamp set!  Just spend $25 and get the free stamps and $50 total to get the stamp set and die!

Oval Scallop Frames - Paper Sweeties	Thank You VIP Set - Paper Sweeties	Party Time Stamp Set - Paper Sweeties	Party Time Sweet Cuts Dies - Paper Sweeties	Love You To Pieces
Hello Spring - Paper Sweeties	Hello Spring Sweet Cuts - Paper Sweeties

MFT Camp Create Bonfire Bonus: Awesome Ombre!

Welcome to my last MFT Camp Create project for this round of Camp Create!  Today I'm taking on the bonus challenge, Awesome Ombre!  Here's what I created:

This one has been rolling around in my head for a few days now.  And when I started in my head it did not look like this at all... wasn't even about coffee!  But in the end... this beautiful coffee cup die from Stamplorations was calling me so who am I to deny it?

I started with some watercolor paper.  I simply swiped on brown watercolor paint right across the paper... and as I worked my way up the panel, I used more water and less paint.. this is all the same color since my pallet didn't have but ONE brown.. can you believe it??  When I got to the top, I just started over again from the botton with some heavy paint and again added a bit more water as I went up... tried to blend it  and I guess I was somewhat successful... 

Once the paint was dry, I began randomly stamping the coffee bean stamp from Paper Sweeties.  I stamped closer together at the bottom where it was darker and got further apart as I worked my way up the page.  I felt it would lend more to the ombre effect that way... idk if it did, but I like it!

I've been using vellum and embossing lately for quite a few of my cards mostly because I don't want to cover up my backgrounds too much.  I love the way it looks with gold.  And those pretty little flowers are my favorite to have on hand... they come in all kinds of colors although the white are my favorite and these natural colors come in a close second.  I stock up at Hobby Lobby when they are on sale... last time they tried to hide them on me.. they weren't with the rest of the flowers and embellishments.. but I found them and brought a few packages home with me.

I cute quite a few of these coffee cups out while trying to land on the perfect color and it turned out to be the one I cut originally from the base!  So I'll save the others for future projects.

And those sequins... I used the special limited edition Latte blend from Paper Sweeties (that you can still get here as I type this) and added some pretty tiny gold hearts from Kat Scrappiness and just a few tiny dark brown ones from Pretty Pink Posh. 

I mustn't forget to mention those awesome stitched layers from Stamplorations, the fantastic sentiment from MFT, and my favorite banners from CDD.

So much fun has been had!  I've learned so much participating in these projects and am so thankful to MFT for hosting this fun!  You have until sometime on the 24th to link up to any or all projects so what are you waiting for??  Head over there and check it out!  There are lots of prizes to be handed out on the 28th!

See you again soon!  Tomorrow morning I will be back to cleaning up... right now it looks like a tornado hit camp.. yikes... stop again!