Paper Sweeties May 2019 Plan Your Life Series!

Welcome to the May Plan Your Life Series over at Paper Sweeties!  This month is an exciting month!  Not only is tax season OVER!, but I've got a couple vacations planned AND in just two days (Friday, May 3rd) it's the start of the 2019 Spring/Summer Coffee Lovers Hop!  I put my two favorite sets to use for these layouts... the Planner Series-Coffee and Planner Series-Get Your Craft On sets are the two most used in my planner arsenal!

I used quite a few other sets as well on my Printable Planner pages... along with some Doodlebug Washi, I used the scallop from the Sweet Borders Sweet Cuts to decorate my edges.  I added Days to my calendar using the Planner Series-Everyday Basics set.

And along with the Coffee Planner set, to decorate I used those sweet flowers from Hello Spring, the pretty tag from Stitched Tags 1, and the cute little words from the Treat Box Sweet Cuts.

Sweet is right!!

And I can't forget the inspirational sentiments from the Kindness Matters stamp set and the heart die from the Planner Series All Occasions Sweet Cuts.

So fun... right??  Now... what's going on this month??

As we discussed... the Coffee Lover's Blog Hop starts on the 3rd!  Paper Sweeties is a Sponsor!  Create a coffee, tea or cocoa themed project and link it up for chances to win prizes!

AND if you play along there, you can play along at Paper Sweeties special beverage challenge going on at the same time!  Use Paper Sweeties products and get extra chances to win!  Paper Sweeties has bunches of beverage themed sets... you can check them out here and here and here!  Just create, post on the Paper Sweeties Facebook Page and/or Instagram and be sure to tag @Papersweeties.  The theme is beverage and here is the Inspiration Photo!  It all starts on Friday, May 3rd at 6:00 am West Coast time!

Now be sure to check out what my awesomely talented Planner Girl Teamies have created for you today:

Debbie Marcinkiewicz – Paper Sweeties
Lilian Forsyth 
Lisa Bzibziak (You Are Here)

Maria Patrick
Taylor Golzbein

Sarah Wyles

And be sure to come back here often over the next week and a half!  I'll be sharing all things Coffee, Tea and Cocoa... but mostly Coffee...lol!!  And I'm having a giveaway during the hop so, as we say here, Be There or Be Square!

National Bubble Tea Day With Trinity Stamps and The Coffee Loving Cardmakers!

So excited because today is National Bubble Tea Day and over at the Coffee Loving Cardmakers Blog we're hopping along with the team at Trinity Stamps!  Hop along with us and leave some love along the way and you could win a $25 gift card to the Trinity Stamps shop!  You have until Wednesday, May 8th to hop and comment for your chance to win!  You should have arrived here from the oh so talented Erin's blog.  If you get lost along the way, just head over to the Coffee Loving Cardmakers for the entire hop list.

Here's how I was inspired:

Today I'm sharing some cards I made with the adorable Seasonal Sweetheart Stamps and Dies!  Isn't she just the cutest?  And what's awesome about this set is all of the extras that come with it... and the coordinating die cuts her arms and hands so that she can hold all of them!

I started with one of the bags my order came in... I thought the polka dots were perfect for a Bubble Tea celebration!

I stamped, colored and die cut the sweet girl, flower (a few times) and the coffee cup.  I added some "bubbles" to the cup... she's drinking a Green Tea Soy Milk Half Sweet Boba.  I will admit... the first time I had Bubble Tea I was not impressed... those gummy little balls, but then my friend Amy told me how I should be drinking it... and you know I buy everything Amy tells me to buy, so I tried it again and guess what???  I am craving it!  I'm probably having some right now!

I finished up with a sentiment I built using the Seasonal Sweetheart set, some twine that came wrapped around my order, and those sweet Pine-ing For You Wooden Embellishments.

Did you know Trinity has a Monthly Creativity Challenge??  April is the 2nd month for this new challenge, and I'm submitting this card just under the wire!  Here is the beautiful inspiration photo:

I took inspiration from the beautiful florals and pretty spring colors!  You have today to enter this April Challenge .. can't wait to see what's going on for May!

And then I had this idea in the middle of the night!  And considering that, I'm hoping you can see it....

I recently got the beautiful Succulent Banner Stamp Set and Coordinating Die.  I decided it would make a beautiful label on the wrap of a cup of Bubble Tea and I created this card to look like a closeup of the front of a cup!

Isn't that a beautiful stamp?  I love how this die cuts all of the wonderful details out!  And I used some of another bag (that stripey bit) that my order came in as a straw for my cup.  Do you see those pretty embellishments?  Those are from the Shiny Baubles Embellishments Pack... love them!  They come in an assortment of colors and sizes in one bag and I love how they again give the feel of "bubbles"... they're Bauble Bubbles...lol!

And I used a die from my stash to cut out a bunch of "bubbles" for the bottom of my glass and covered it with popped up acetate before I added my wrap using another upcycled bag and some dies from my stash.

So... do you see it??  It's ok if you don't... it came out just as I pictured it and I love it!  With this one I'm playing along over at Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday Challenge which is Anything Goes this week!  You have one more day to play along!

And for my final card, I did this:

I had some older retired CTMH papers hanging around and one of them had this fun donut theme which I thought would be perfect with some Bubble Tea goodness!  And that cute little PML card was in the pack also and made the perfect sentiment for a just because card.

And although she can hold onto any of the cute little stamps in this set, of course today she's holding a cup of Bubble Tea again!  

It is definitely a Sweet Life!

So that's me for today!  From here you should head on over to the illustrious Kathy's blog and see what she's got for you!  And if you get lost just head on over to the Coffee Loving Cardmaker's Blog or the Trinity Stamps Blog for the entire list!  Don't forget to leave us some love along the way for chances to win some free stuff from Trinity!

Crafty Elves' Countdown To Christmas - April 2019 Edition!

Welcome back to the Crafty Elves' Countdown to Christmas!  My friend Debra Davison from Meticulosity and I have made a pact to create a Christmas card a week for 2019 and so far so good!   We're sharing our cards on the 25th of each month and guess what??  It's April 25th!  (Can you believe it??).  Tax season is over and I've made it through so it should be smooth sailing from here on out!

This month once again because of my "real" job I needed some quick cards that wouldn't take too long.  I had the Doodlebug Christmas Town 6x6 Paper Pad staring me in the face with it's adorable little mini sentiment pieces and I thought... yeah!  I got my pad in the Paper Sweeties Shop here!

I created seven cards for you today... six all using just the Doodlebug papers and some dies from some of my favorite makers plus a special one using a beautiful new to me stamp set from Papertrey Ink that I've been dying to ink up!  I'll start with a quick pic of each of the cards and a list of the products with links below it.  On most of these cards I used the following:

Kat Scrappiness Double Stitched Rectangles (I use these ALL the time!)

Cottage Kutz Nested Wacky Stitched Circle

Poppy Stamps Double Stitched Circles

CDD Mini Shaker Clip Dies (To cut out the sentiment images)

On this one for the gifts I used a great die set from The Cat's Pajamas called Presents.

With this one I'm playing along with the Die Cuttin' Divas Red Hat Society Day Challenge which is to use red and/or purple... this one's got a little red!

For this one... I had that kraft piece with the cutout circle in the corner... I had needed the circle piece for another card and saved this one... I was so glad I did... love that it's now a cutout on this and I popped up the kraft panel over the Doodlebug Design Paper.  I also used these Snowflake Dies from Paper Smooches.  Oh... and the Kraft paper I've used on these... Papertrey Ink and it is awesome! #robynmademebuyit

For this one I used a Jolly word die from Lil' Inker (I think this one is retired), those adorable mittens from Sunny Studio's Warm and Cozy Dies and that cute little Santa Hat from Taylored Expressions.

I'm playing along with Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday Challenge which is Anything Goes this week!

I should mention about that CDD little notepad die from the Mini Shaker Clip set... it was the perfect size to cut out most of these little sentiment cards from the Doodlebug paper!  It really didn't take me long and it was fairly easy to line up... I was SO excited to be able to cut them in this shape instead of just cutting out the rectangles!  The hat on this one is from the Sunny Studio Warm and Cozy set same as the mittens above and these Mini Snowflakes are from Lawn Fawn.

On this one the T.E. Santa Hat again, LF Snowflakes and that sweet stitched heart is from the same Mini Shaker Clip set from CDD that the notepaper die is from.

With this one I'm playing along over at Cute N Craft Christmas Challenge #11.

Well, of course I had to fit a cup in here somewhere!!  On this one I used Paper Smooches dies from the Coffee and Tea Dies and the Holiday Sweets Dies.  Perfect with this sentiment square!  Season's Eatings...lol!  Cracks me up!  And of course the cup is plaid!!

And last but certainly not least.. there is this beautiful deer from the Papertrey Ink Fawn and Flora Stamp Set... this is a layered stamp which I would normally not attempt... they make me cry... seriously...lol!  but this one was so easy to line up and I had no problem.  The flowers that come with the set were a little more challenging for me but I have a couple ideas and I'll attempt them again soon... but for this one, I decided to use some dies from Impression Obsession for those little flowers and Holly leaves and they worked out just fine!

Isn't she just the sweetest!?  Definitely gonna use her again.  I had to cut her out because I wasn't able to order the dies but I'll be getting those soon.  These Circles are from CDD and I think are retired but there is a new set here!

And then this sentiment die set is awesome from Papertrey Ink... it's called Holiday Double Cuts Dies and there are three word dies and they cut like butter... love them!

And that's it for me today!  I've chosen a winner from last month's post to receive some Happy Mail from me:

Crystal!  Please send me your snail mail at bzscrapper66 at gmail.com!  And yes, we'll play again... leave me some love and I'll pick a name and announce it in our next Crafty Elves Post on the 25th of next month!

Now be sure to hop on over to Debra's blog and see what she's cooked up for you today (and she's got a giveaway going over there too)!  Thanks so much for stopping!

National Tea Day With Honey Bee Stamps and The Coffee Loving Cardmakers!

So excited today!  It's National Tea Day and over at the Coffee Loving Cardmakers we are hopping along with Honey Bee Stamps and sharing inspiration with some fantastic Honey Bee products!

I don't often drink hot tea actually... I do like it with lemon when I'm not feeling well.  But every few days I brew a fresh pot of Black Mango Tea and keep it in the fridge.  I fill my cup every day before I go to work with a slice of lemon and keep myself caffeine infused all day.  I just keep adding water so by the end of the day it's barely caffeinated which works out well for bedtime...lol!

So!!  What's going on today??  We've got lots of inspiration for you!  Hop and comment along the way for your chance to win one of two $30 gift certificates to the Honey Bee Shop!  You have until Friday, April 26th at 11:59pm to leave us some love and be entered in the drawing to win!  The more love you leave... the more chances you have to win!  Winners will be announced on the Honey Bee Stamps and Coffee Loving Cardmakers Blogs on April 27th!

You should have arrived here from the Coffee Loving Cardmakers blog!  If you get lost along the way, just head there or to the Honey Bee Stamps Blog for the full hop list!

For my first card, I wanted to combine the beautiful Honey Bee Spring Blossoms set with the quite awesome Tea Time Stamps and Honey Cuts:

I decided to do some line coloring with my Prismacolor pencils... my first time and while it didn't turn out as I had imaged, I do love the way it looks!  And these flowers are perfect for the technique.  I created three different layers in the corner of my card.

I stamped and die cut the cup and lemon slice from the Tea Time set and colored them in with my Copics and nestled it into the flowers.

And I built my sentiment using the Perfect Blend sentiment set.  I love this set because there are so many sentiments and single words or short phrases that can be combined together to create so many different sentiments!

And with this pink pretty I'm playing along with the challenge over in the Honey Bee Stamps Buzzworthy Challenges group on Facebook... would you just take a gander at this inspiration photo:

I'm also playing along over at Simon Says Stamp's Monday Challenge....it's all about Beautiful Blooms!

That's quite the inspiration isn't it?  Just join the Facebook group here and add your creation to the challenge album!

The coolest thing about the Tea Time dies is not only do you get a die to cut out each of the stamped images, but there are also a few that are stand alone dies so I decided to make a card using those:

I used some pretty design papers from Authentique and of course my cup is plaid!  And another sentiment that I built from Perfect Blend.

Yeah... I'd buy that cup!

With this one I'm playing along with the Simon Says Stamp Spring Mood Board... it's also a beautiful one!

And I'm also playing along at Kat Scrappiness' Pastels Challenge for April!

And finally I was inspired by the packaging that my last order came in!

Yup... that background paper was cut from the bag that my order was packed in!  I used a bunch of the images from Tea Time for this one.. it's such an awesome set!

Edited to add:

This one got top pick at Inkspirational!

Making me hungry....

And I really can't say enough about the Perfect Blend sentiment set... it can't be beat!

With this one I'm playing along over at Inkspirational... it's a fun Tea Photo Inspiration!

And there you have it!

Thanks so much for stopping to see me today!  I hope you enjoyed your visit and please do be sure to hop along through and see what everyone has created for you today!  From here you should head on over to my awesomely talented teamie Helen Gullett!  Comment along the way for chances to win one of the two $30 gift certificates that Honey Bee is so generously offering up!  And Happy National Tea Day!

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 and 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!

I'm playing along over at Word Art Wednesday which is Anything Goes!  I'm also linking up at Die Cuttin Divas Animal Cruelty Awareness Challenge.  You should check them out!

Come back tomorrow for a special National Tea Day celebration!