[DYSU] Challenge #74 - Under the Sea

Good morning, everyone! Summer is really coming around - evident by the hot temperature. Makes me want to jump into a nice cool pool or hang out in the ocean. It's Beach Time after all...(although I'm not a big fan of all the sand)

So you know we had a DT call at DYSU, right? The new girls have all been notified but announcements don't go out officially until June 1st. Here a quick schedule of what's going on at DYSU...

• Jun 01 - see who made the cut into our DYSU 2012 Term 2 Team
• Jun 06 - Top Three & Winners post for #74
• Jun 07 - last challenge for some of our current DT
• Jun 10 - Goodbye & Hellos, including an introduction of the entire DYSU 2012 Term 2 Team
• and then the normal fun resumes with the new team... 

Are you excited? We are for sure...But to tie you over until all this excitement goes live...we are breaking those record heat waves with a theme called Under the Sea. Yep - this one brought back memories of "The Little Mermaid." Some of you may know how susceptible I get to hearing songs in my head ;)

What a cooling picture, isn't it? This week I'm showcasing a Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps digi.  Sweet 'n Sassy is one of my first love and my first stamps ever purchased. I even got to meet Korin the wonderful brain behind Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps before I even knew I was addicted to paper crafting and stamping ;)


Stamps: (Clownfish) Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps; (Roadtrip) Papertrey Ink
Paper: (Paper Basics Card Stock - Vintage Cream) Papertrey Ink; (Heatwave) American Crafts
Ink: (Tim Holtz Distress Inks - Tumbled Glass; Jenni Bowlin - No. 9 Spice Tin) Ranger
Embellishments: (Impression Plate - Woodgrain) Papertrey; (Liquid Pearls - White Opal) Ranger; (Soft-core Color Pencils) Prismacolor; (Mister Huey - Lunchtray) Studio Calico; (Nestabilities - Standard Circles Small) Spellbinders; (Acetate)

I decided to emboss the base card stock with an Woodgrain Impression plate of texture. If you look at woodgraind side ways it looks a little like those patterns that carved into the sand by the water. Fun & wavy...Added a bit of Distress Ink on the side, and didn't like how "white" it still looked. So I took some misting to it. After all fishes swim in water, and no on the white beach sand... ;)

Next I colored this little cute Clownfish. I gave him a little makeover, because the fin had to be orange, but the stripes didn't play in my favor. I hope Korin doesn't mind. He is also dressed up with some Liquid Pearls for some extra sheen.



The rest of the background is created by cutting a window out, cutting a piece of pattern paper from my very old Heatwave pattern paper, and adding some acetate to cover it up...I just noticed that you can see my reflection in the background taking the pic. Ha!

The sentiment is inspired by the word "fish." It ways makes me think of "wish." Fish-wish-fish-wish-fish-wish...see how fun that is to say? I bet every time you see a fish, you'll think of some "wishing sentiment" now too...



So that's all I have for you today. Go check out the amazing creations by the talented DT and welcome our guest designer. I look forward to seeing your sea creations!

Our sponsors this week:

Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps

* $10 Gift Certificate 

The Stamping Boutique

* Winner’s Choice of 3 Digis

Melonheadz

* $15 Gift Certificate

 

[Waltzingmouse Blog Party] Felt Like Saying Hi...

Hello everyone! It's time for another party with my favorite stamping company! In case you're new along, I hope you enjoy all the great inspiration you see from all the Waltzingmouse Fans. This blog party usually goes on the 17th of each month, but due to Claire's mum passing, it's been postponed to now. I would like to dedicate this blog hop and card-making session to the one and only Claire Brennan. Her mum is who we get to thank for Claire's artistic talent & passion, and from Claire's post, it seems like Claire's mum was quite an artist herself! So, it's only appropriate to dedicate a crafting event such as this blog party to these two amazing women, past & present.

This month we're getting down & crafty with Felt. I'm glad I got to sneak this card in... 


Stamps: (Text It, Musical Backgrounds, Basket Additions) Waltzingmouse Stamps
Paper: (Paper Basics Card Stock - Vintage Cream, Sweet Blush) Papertrey Ink; (Stella & Rose Gertie) My Mind's Eye
Ink: (Tim Holtz Distress Inks - Vintage Photo, Antique Linen; Jenni Bowlin - No. 11 Brown Sugar) Ranger
Embellishments: (Rainbow Felt - Gold, Orange, Shocking Pink) Kunin; (L'occitane Ribbon) Recycled Stash

Lots of my card have been lacking sentiments on my front recently. Must be getting lazy ;) But I also thought a punny statement inside that says..."Felt Like Saying Hi" was just perfect. I like to keep hand-written sentiments on the inside - still feeling shy about my penmanship.

I decided to make some rolled felt flowers. Since this year's fashion is all about the bold almost neon colors, I chose my three favorite brights out of my sample pile of felt. This felt is made my the Kunin Group and is made out of recyclable materials. I also had more of that L'Occitane ribbon lying on my desk and decided to snip off a few to make little leaves. If you read a few posts back, you may have read my up-cycling attempt with this ribbon.



The rest of the card is pretty simple. Stamped the musical background in Vintage Photo, created my square by using the Text It frame and added pattern paper. Then mounted the basket on foam dimensional and popped the flowers on there. After much deliberation I didn't like the Vintage Photo musical background - it was too dark. So pulled off the top most panel with the flowers and redid the background using Antique Linen on the Sweet Blush paper. Much better :)

So, I'm off to head to bed, but can't wait to see your lovely creations...In the meantime for the state-side girls, Happy Memorial Day weekend! We get an extra day off! To those who have a normal two-day weekend, I wish you a wonderful one too! Thanks so much for stopping by. Let me know what you're up to this weekend... and thank you in advance of your inspirations!

[Paperplay Challenges] Week No. 21 - Summer Lovin'

Note: If you are looking for DYSU challenge - please keep scrolling :)

Hello there! Little me again :) It's almost Memorial Day weekend and I can't wait to catch up all the things I need to do. We have visitors coming soon, so we have to straighten up the house, clean, and especially tackle the craft room which doubles as a guest room. I doubt my guests want to dive onto a bed full of pattern paper, chipboard, stamps and what nots; neither will they be able to find a small uncluttered corner and curl up and sleep (like my cats do while I craft). But onto business, shall we?

At PaperPlay Challenge we are inspiring you to whip out inspirations that make you see Summer Lovin'. Aside from the Grease song stuck in my head, summer means full of life. The farming season are in full gear, the kids are out playing, and it's the right weather to go biking. I'm not one of those hard-core bikers who like to chance it in the winter. I prefer my carefree summer days to that... so here is a card dedicated to this fun summer activity.


Stamps: (City of Lights Kit) Hero Arts + Studio Calico
Paper: (Paper Basics Card Stock - White) Papertrey Ink; (Nantucket Collection) Pink Paislee
Ink: (Jenni Bowlin - No. 9 Spice Tin) Ranger
Embellishments:  (Stella & Rose Mabel "Little Lady" Trim) My Mind's Eye; (Tiny Twinkles - Multicolored) Taylored Expressions; (Vintage Button Autumn Mix) Papertrey Ink; (Corner Chomper) We R Memory Keepers; (Zig Zag Chain Punch) EKSuccess

This card is actually also inspired by the current Embellish Challenge, and when I saw bicycles, it just clicked that this is the perfect summer inspiration I wanted to highlight.

It was also quite an experience trying to put this card together while hearing these lyrics "I Want to Ride my Bicycle" by Queen in my head. At least I managed to get Grease out of my head. Here an unclose picture of the bikes. Aren't they lovely? I think the basket is just too cute! It's a whole bike family with Dad, Mum, and Child going on an adventure.



Everything came together pretty quickly. The orange makes a nice bold contrast to pop everything more and matches the background paper so well. The blue bikes have a little bit of pink bling to make them sparkly, and the zig zag kraft card stock gave a fun little bumpy road (and broke up the bold orange a little bit). And since the button overhangs a little, I thought it made sense to make the kraft overhang a little ;)



What is your summer thing? What do you and your family look most forward to?

Anyways, hop on over to the other PPC girls and see what they have created for this week's challenge. They have always lovely creations and bring great ideas to the table!

Our sponsor this week:

• A Whiff of Joy

[DYSU] Challenge #73 - A Little Birdie Told Me

Good morning, everyone! I'm so excited to share that this weekend I will be going strawberry picking! After the CSA season starting in full swing and us eating up the whole quart of strawberries in two evenings, I must simply go back. (I also forgot to take a picture to share how we enjoyed them...duh!)


Oh - before we get on with our regular program here, did you see that DYSU is having a DT call? Yep - it's true, we're looking for *four* talented girls to join our little (maybe i say awesome) family. You have until May 26th to throw in your hat.

This week's theme at DYSU is appropriate to the summer coming, because I hear plenty of them in the trees outside my house. Yep, it's A Little Birdie Told Me. So I look forward to seeing you bring out your bird stamps, your pattern paper, cute washi tape, or other bird-inspired theme!

This week I worked with some pretty old pattern paper I had in my stash, but I thought this was a perfect opportunity to make a minor dent into it. Do you remember a fun set called Backyard by American Crafts?


Stamps: (trees2build) The Stamps of Life; (Text It) Waltzingmouse Stamps
Paper: (Paper Basics Card Stock - White) Papertrey Ink; (Backyard) American Crafts
Ink: (Tim Holtz Distress Inks - Antique Linen) Ranger; (Memento - Tuxedo Black) Tsukineko
Embellishments: (Decorative Washi Tape Set #1 - Woodgrain) Hambly Prints

I created a light background by stamping the some text with Antique Linen. And cut out these bird cages from my pattern paper. I use to cringe at cutting into my "good" pattern paper. It felt like waste and it slightly hurt. But I must say I like finding things on 12x12 papers that can act as an embellishment. Heck - you can even make your own chipboard by backing it on some cardboard.


The rest is pretty easy. I used the woodgrain yellow washi, because it has a fun, bright, bold color. The washi tape creates a place for the sentiment to sit, and for good measure I popped an extra bird onto it from the stamp set "trees2build" by The Stamps of Life. If you haven't seen the beautiful works of the lovely and talented Stephanie Barnard, then I hope you hop on over.




That's all I have for you today; please check out the amazing creations by the talented DT and welcome our guest designer. And I look forward to seeing your bird-inspired creations!

Our sponsors this week:

Meljen's Designs - 

* Winner Choice of 4 Images

Robyn's Fetish - 

* Winner’s Choice of 5 Digital Stamps

Little Claire's Designs

[CSA 2012] Week 1 - Goodbye Asparagus, Hello Strawberries

I tweeted a while back that I finally joined a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). It's been something I've been wanting to do, but we didn't have too many options in this area, until the last two years.

My food and personal projects are all colliding together this year, and it's been a personal focus on mine. I've started "Project 30" as a personal homage all my dearest friends & family from all my chapters in my life. I am embarking on cooking through all these recipes, and I have some already done under my belt. I will showcase these good eats on the blog with a short interview from the person who gave me the recipe.

There are also plenty of books like Michael Pollan "In Defense of Food," where his mantra is quite simple: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." Or take Jaimie Oliver's "Food Revolution" - trying to get America to eat healthy. Obesity and diabetes have been skyrocketing in statistics. I remember watching one episode where Jamie Oliver went into the older elementary grade classrooms with a basket of veggies and fruits and asked the kids what they were. These kids were stumped by eggplant. Some got tomatoes and potatoes all mixed up and were astonished what real veggies and fruit looks like. Well, this poor man is on a mission to get us all to understand what healthy eating is all about. It's not by chance that he won the TED 2010 award.

And lastly, I've always been struggling with my weight. It yo-yo's up and down and it's time to really tackle it. I truly believe the key is eating real foods, portion control, more exercise. It's really not rocket science, but one of discipline. So I hope to put more recipes up here to inspire everyone to be able to do so.

Well, really what I was trying to do is to show you my proud moment picking up my first CSA basket at Stults Farm. We signed up for a half-share since we're only two people at home.



This farm is located very close to my work place, so it makes my pickups pretty easy. I plan on blogging what we do with our basket of ingredients. I've been picking up fresh-picked asparagus almost twice a week from this farm since mid-April, long before the CSA season started. So we have had our fair share of asparagus this year, but it is so delicious! It doesn't compare to store-bought asparagus. These green ones are so tender, you could shave it up into a salad and eat them raw. We personally love to sauté them up with a little bit of olive oil and a sprinkle of salt. No more that 3-5min max. A great way to get your veggie serving(s) in. I can't get Florian to stop eating these once they hit the plate (fresh from the pan) and if I don't watch out, he will gobble up my portion too...but hey, anything to get him to eat his fruits & veggies :)

But it's the end of asparagus season and it's time to say goodbye to these little crunchy green spears of goodness. Instead we're welcoming the strawberry season in, and from the way these tasted, they are delicious, juicy, and sweet. 



Don't you want to go strawberry picking now? ;) I know I'm going back this weekend to pick myself a new batch, because we already finished our little pint. I guess I will have to make a retro-active picture of how we had them...Hint: yesterday was National Strawberry & Cream Day!

So, what's in season in your area?

[DYSU] Challenge #72 - Landscapes

Good morning, everyone! What a whirlwind week. Are you guys ready for the weekend? We have a company picnic on Sunday at a park with great outdoorsy fun. If I remember right, we had that event there about three or four years ago, and there were paddle boats. But I am secretly looking forward to watermelon ;)

This week's theme at DYSU is Landscape. Yep - the DT had a toughie with this one, but there is plenty of inspiration spread across the team. We even worked on it as a team and gave each ideas how to go about it...

This week I'm working with a sponsor image by Pink Cat Studios called Happy Flower.


Stamps: (Happy Flower) Pink Cat Studio; (Up, Up & Away) Papertrey Ink
Paper: (Paper Basics Card Stock - Fresh Linen, White) Papertrey Ink
Ink: (Jenni Bowlin No. 8 - Soap Powder, No. 4 - Lemon Drops) Ranger
Embellishments: (Sewing Thread - White) Gütermann; (Precision Pen 03) American Crafts; (L'occitane Ribbon) Recycled

The landscape scene is just an everyday fun garden scene, with some grass, clouds and sun! The grass is actually made out of recycled ribbon from L'occitane...



The grass is different lengths cut at an angle and alternated in a fun way to give it depth. I like the two tone that the ribbon had, so I had a lot of variety in color to make it work. 



The faux stitching around the card is inspired by the ribbon and the rest of the flower just has some fun vibrant colors. Here an unclose look of the image...



That's all I have for you today; please check out the amazing creations by the talented DT and welcome our guest designers. And I look forward to seeing your creations!

Our sponsors this week:

Copic Marker Scrapbooking
6 copic ciao marker (North/South America), Martha Stewart punch (rest of the world) 
Pink Cat Studio
Winner’s Choice of 5 Digis

The Ribbon Reel
£10 Gift Voucher

[Paperplay Challenges] Week No. 19 - Chipboard

Note: If you are looking for DYSU challenge - please keep scrolling :)

Hello there! I'm ready for this week to finish. I hope the weekend is good, because I am planning to go into New York. I have a much needed date planned with my hunny. We've been wanting to watch a musical of some sorts for a long while. Any suggestions? My bucket list has Wicked, Avenue Q, Billy Elliott, and Book of Mormons. But we're here to introduce a new challenge...

At PaperPlay Challenge we are inspiring you to whip out Chipboard. I have stashes of certain collections, so I was set for this challenge. About a year and a half I probably wouldn't even try entering this kind of challenge, if I didn't. But try to think outside the box and create your own. A little bit of pattern paper and some cardboard is just the start... the sky's your limit :)


Stamps: none
Paper: (Paper Basics Card Stock - Sweet Blush) Papertrey Ink; (Emma's Shoppe Collection) Crate Paper
Ink: none
Embellishments:  (Emma's Shoppe Collection - Chipboard) Crate Paper; (Thickers - Muse) Amy Tangerine

I saw this cute frame when I pulled out my Emma's Shoppe and knew I wanted to use it. The idea was to frame the word "Mum" since Mother's Day is just around the corner ;) I created a little backing with some pattern paper, because the letters need something to make 'em pop.



Everything came together pretty quickly. Some Baker's Twine and some more pattern paper... 



Have you made your mother's day cards yet? I think I need to make one for the boy to give to his mum... Are you also crafting for his side of the family?

Anyways, hop on over to the other PPC girls and see what they have created for this week's challenge. They have always lovely creations and bring great ideas to the table!

Our sponsor this week:

• Crafty Cutting

[DYSU] Challenge #71 - Use a Flower

Good morning, everyone! If you're looking for our next DYSU challenge, please come on in :) If you're here to find a new source of inspiration, please come look around, too. We are doing things at DYSU a little differently. The team talked it over and mentioned that they weren't able to give the last entries on DYSU the same full consideration and time as the ones entered throughout the week. Wendesday's closing time and us dispersed around all kinds of time zones can't all vote in a Top Three before the Winner's post goes up. So we're trying something different by closing the challenge a day early. So get your cards in by Tuesday, 2pm DYSU time.

This week's theme at DYSU: Use a Flower (or more). I hope you have your flower stash in sight: bring on your pattern paper, your flower embellishments, your stamps... anything pretty much fits here.

For this week I got to play with an awesome image from one our sponsors The Greeting Farm. A really great company if you personally ask me ;) This digi is a cutie called Chibi Japan. 


Stamps: (Chibi Japan) The Greeting Farm; (Out on a Limb - Revised) Papertrey Ink; (Asian Garden) Waltzingmouse Stamps
Paper: (Paper Basics Card Stock - White) Papertrey Ink
Ink: (Jenni Bowlin No. 11 - Brown Sugar, No. 1 - Chewing Gum) Ranger; (Memento - Tuxedo Black) Tsukineko
Embellishments: (Mistery Huey - Clover, Lunch Tray) Studio Calico; (Soft-core Color Pencils) Prismacolor

I decided to mist the background together. I created a mask for the little grass hills, and cut out one little hill out, which all got some Clover misting treatment. The background sky is Lunch Tray. Chibi Japan is colored up in some Prisma color pencils. The tree is suppose to be a a cherry blossom tree, where I popped some of the flowers off the base card stock. Here is a close-up of the cute little digi...



That's all I have for you today; please check out the amazing creations by the talented DT and welcome our guest designers. And I look forward to seeing your entries!

Our sponsors this week:

Inspired Stamps - $15 Gift Certificate


Digi Darla - Winner's Choice of 5 Digis

 

The Greeting Farm - Winner's Choice of 1 Clear Stamp Set

[DYSU] Challenge #70 - Circles

Good morning, everyone! This work week has been super long with our event taking place. But we have heard some good feedback thus far. I should be long in bed by now, but I need to write this little post up ;) Shall we make this short & sweet?


This week's them at DYSU: Circles. I think last week's CASE the DT was pretty tough on you guys, but I enjoyed seeing each entry! It was really quite amazing!

This is a CAS card to bring across the "circles." Let me know what you think!


Stamps: (Vintage Circles, Offbeat Backgrounds) Waltzingmouse Stamps
Paper: (Paper Basics Card Stock - Kraft, White) Papertrey Ink
Ink: (Jenni Bowlin No. 11 - Brown Sugar) Ranger
Embellishments: (Sticky Keys - Teal & Cream) October Afternoon

The circles are lined up with a 3x4 configuration on a kraft base. Since this circle has a larger circle around it, I decided to mask it. I haven't been brave enough to cut into my acrylic circles to separate them. The circles without the alpha stickers are stamped with some Offbeat Backgrounds dots pattern. I again created a mask to make sure that I could get that effect.


Since I have recently entered the alpha addiction, I decided it was time to bust some out. I love these Sticky Keys from October Afternoon, because they have a cute little circle around them - just like those old typewriters!



That's all I have for you today; please check out the amazing creations by the talented DT and welcome our guest designers. And I look forward to seeing your creations!

Our sponsors this week:

  Crafty Sentiments - Winner's Choice of 4 Images

 

Folded Paper - Winner's Choice of 3 Digital Stamps