Hot Stuff, It's TCP Tuesday!

Today's TCP Tuesday challenge is a color challenge: blue, pink and orange, with the option of green. Jen is our hipster hostess with the mostess, so you can link your creation to her blog if you play along. Remember, there's always the chance you could earn some swanky TCP doll-hairs ($), so why not play along, eh?! All the swanky deets are posted on Jen's blog, right HERE!

If you tuned in yesterday, you'll notice that I've used the same sketch for my TCP Tuesday card, just cause I liked it so much! I don't think I've done a {row} of buttons like that before and I sure liked how it looked on the American Art Stamp card from yesterday's post, so I used it again today. My buttons are from TCP's Candy Sprinkles button collection, and I secured them with a line of red sticky tape--easy peasy!

{Hot Stuff} Kittie's hula skirt is paper pieced with a glitterified lei and hot pink crystal in her hair--I tell ya, she's hot stuff! The edges of the card are also glittered up a bit using TCP's awesome new Glitzy Glitter. I spanked up the scalled orange layer with another stamp from On The Beach for a little sumpin'-sumpin' and tied it together with satin ribbon from PTI.

I'll be back on Saturday with a fun SFYTT, but until then, I'll be in Florida attending CHA, meeting lots of my {pretend} stamping friends--sooooo darn excited! Hoping to have lots of chatter about that next week!

That 4 Letter Word: Grey!

I get the biggest kick out of the Emerson Quillin images from American Art Stamp! The stamp featured on my card today is aptly named, Grey, and let me tell you, it's one of many that you just have to check out, especially right now at 25% off! Scrolling through the images is like standing in the funny card aisle at Hallmark, except you can snort and laugh out loud in the privacy of your own home!

Deets on the card include some purty stuff from PTI--New Leaf cardstock, ribbon and vintage buttons; Jenny Bowlin mini 4x4 papers (so darn sweet!); and some fun Smooch pearlized accent ink in green apple.

Thanks for stopping by here today, and be sure to move on ahead to American Art Stamp for great deals!

Wedding Day Flip Flops & a {SFYTT}

Well, another Saturday means another wedding and another SFYTT! We're invited to a wedding reception later this afternoon for Jared & Sarah, would actually got married in Jamaica on February 14, 2009. They're having a reception today in a local spot for those who weren't able to make the wedding in Jamaica (that would be us, darn!). Anyway, they're keeping with the tropical theme, so I created flip flop coasters featuring the newly released images from TCP's On The Beach and By The Sea. Here's a photo of the pile of flip flop coasters I created, followed by my SFYTT card which just happens to be doubling as their wedding card.

Jared's mom is the Mary of whom I speak so highly of here and there on my blog. She's my friend, my fellow stamper and George's daycare provider. When she showed Sarah the flip flops I'd done for the TCP release, Sarah loved them! So, what would any good and serving paper crafter do but make enough for the head table, right?! Ü

I really wanted to stick with Kittie and Poochie for the wedding card as well, but it just wasn't working for me, so I opted for my go-to wedding stamp, a few flowers and some bold, somewhat tropical (?) colors. I think my SFYTT card needs a little sumpin'-sumpin' on the main panel, but it hasn't come to me yet. Feel free to leave me a suggestion in the comment section today--I'd sure be appreciative!

Ok, changing lanes here, I just want to mention a couple other things going on in the paper crafting world:

• Dare To Get Dirty 2009 over at SCS (lots of fun challenges hosted by the DD and DD Alumni for you)
• 25% off sale at American Art Stamp
• New releases from The Cat's Pajamas at a steal of a deal when you buy the Kitty Kat Pack

Now, let's see what the SFYTT pack has done with the sketch, and a fond farewell to Regina, Jen's July guest designer!

Jen & Regina
Amy
Carole
Kelly
Susan

Have a great weekend!

Card ingredients
Stamps: All Year Cheer (retired SU!)
Paper: CTMH Happy Day paper pack, Very Vanilla
Ink: Chocolate Chip craft
Accessories: Birds & Blooms die, flat back pearls

Porthole Trio

When I first saw this trio of TCP dudes in their portholes, I immediately thought of a SCS challenge card I'd done a few years ago using a trio of Halloween images that I just loved and still have today in my "card stash". I pulled it out and used it as my inspiration. Today's card features images from By The Sea, embellished with yummy Candy Sprinkles ribbon, a shrinky dink'd sentiment and Glitzy Glitter--all available from The Cat's Pajamas!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great Friday! I'll be back tomorrow with a new SFYTT...

Beach Bum Journal

Every bum needs a beach, every beach needs a bum, and every beach bum needs a journal to keep track of important things, right?! I certainly think so, which prompted me to create this journal using my Zutter BIA, along with beachy-keen paper from the Cosmo Cricket Snorkel line all topped off with a newly released image from TCP's On The Beach. This is my favorite image from the set, and I had fun paper piecing Poochie Bum's umbrella, book and swim shorts. The rest of the image is colored using colored pencils and a blender pen. I love the colors in this particular sheet, so bold and vibrant, yet a little muted, so I wanted to keep it all low-key, so to speak, just like Poochie!

A couple of fun details are the buttons (Candy Sprinkles BT-001) and the gold coins stamped with a shell and starfish image, also part of the On The Beach set. Alma is always adding fun little images to coordinate with the larger ones, perfect for adding a little sumpin'-sumpin' here and there. To make the gold coins: smear a little versamark/watermark ink on card stock, pour a pile of embossing powder on top, heat from bottom, stamp image (without any ink) before it cools completely. After that process was completed, I used my smallest Nestie circle die and cut out the coin, and the scratches on my Big Shot plates (kwim?) left cool marks in the coins.

Here's a closer shot of the coins:

Come back tomorrow for another TCP project and have a great Thursday!

It's Release Day at TCP!

Yesterday was the first official TCP blog surf which just happened to coincide with TCP Tuesday and the release of 3 swanky new sets: You Sick Thing, By The Sea and Fun in the Sun, along with new embellies--Candy Sprinkles Ribbon & Buttons, and Glitzy German Glass Glitter! Today I've got more TCP treats to share featuring some of the above ingredients. I'll be posting more projects Thursday and Friday as well, so be sure to come back!

Both of today's projects feature You Sick Thing paired up with the Candy Sprinkles buttons and ribbon and a dash of the Glitzy glitter. Paper is from Cosmo Cricket's Lil' Man collection. Both images are heavily paper pieced with added stitching on Kittie's quilt and glitter on her swanky bed frame, just to make her feel a little better.

For a view of the new clear stamp sets, click HERE. To see the new embellies, click HERE. See you tomorrow...

If you want a chance to win all three of the new sets, scroll down to my previous post and take part in the blog surf, leaving a comment on each blog. Alma will be picking a winner on Friday, dude! Surfs up--get your wave on!

Hey dUdE, it's like a TCP Tuesday Blog Surf!

Thanks for ridin' the wave with me today folks! I'm smack dab in the middle of a swanky TCP blog surf featuring awesome projects put out by the TCP design team featuring spankin' new releases that you surely don't want to miss out on. You may have landed here via Tracy's blog, and if not, you can start at the very beginning so you don't miss out on one single thing! Here's another great reason you don't want to miss out on anyone's TCP Tuesday blog post today: you can win the whole shi-bang, the entire Kitty Kat pack of the three newly released sets--By The Sea, Fun in the Sun, and You Sick Thing (releasing July 22). All you have to do is stop at each of the TCP design teams' blogs and Alma's as well, and leave a comment, that's it! Alma will be picking a weiner-weiner-chicken-dinner (aka: winner) on Friday, so sit back, relax and enjoy the ride!

This week's challenge is of the inspiration variety with the following inspiration for you to use for your very own creation!

Keep on a scrolling to see what I did with the inspiration piece. My SIL had one of these darling flip flop coaster/charm ditties that is intended to hold your wine glass as well as marking your territory, so to speak. I used a variety of papers from the Cosmo Cricket Snorkel line for each of the flip flops along with some swanky new ribbon from TCP (Candy Sprinkles RB-01) and images from the newly released set, Fun in the Sun (N-9670 CL).

Each of the charms was made by stamping the Fun in the Sun images on polyshrink sheets with black Stazon, coloring, cutting and shrinking--easy peasy! This is the first time I've made my shrinky-dinks in the oven and they worked out beautifully! I colored them with a combination of colored pencils and markers. Here's a closeup of Kittie in her floatie--ain't she just the cat's meow?!

Now that you've gotten to the end, I'm going to {thank you} for stopping over today and send you on to Susan's blog. Get going now!

Blog Surf Comin' Your Way...

Details coming your way on TCP Tuesday (that's tomorrow!)...

Garden Inspired Medallion {SFYTT)

Good morning all you good people! Another Saturday, another SFYTT, and this one is a dandy! Don't be intimidated by the layers because they all fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. My color scheme is inspired by one of my garden areas and I probably should have taken a picture of it, so you could see the rich colors of the hollyhocks, bee balm and foliage from which I drew upon....mebbe later!

I've been doing quite a bit of stamping using soon-to-be-released (Tuesday, July 22!) stamps from The Cat's Pajamas, and the images are just so darn funny, cute and all around swanky, that I was pulled to do a little shabby-vintage-flower cluster stamping today. I pulled out my Big Shot and Birds and Blooms dies AND my newest SU! purchase--Medallion background stamp (love, love, love it!). The medallion was the first stamp to catch my eye in the new catty and I knew it'd be the first one I'd buy (I know myself so well, don't I?! Purely rhetorical--don't answer that!), and darned if I didn't.

After putting the layers together, I knew I needed something less circular and more linear/grid-like for the Pixie Pink layer, so I used my retired Houndstooth background stamp and quite like the result. Other details are the mini pearls and sentiment flag, stamped with a sentiment from PTI's Mega Mixed Messages. I'm invited to a 40th birthday party tomorrow for a co-worker, so I'm thinking this one's for her!

Let's peek in on the other SFYTT gals and don't forget to use the keyword: SFYTT when uploading to SCS. If you're a fellow blogger, leave a link to your SFYTT creation over at Jen's.

Jen & Regina
Susan
Carole
Kelly
(Amy won't be in this weekend--she's hittin' the beach! You go girl Ü)

***I keep forgetting to thank you all who left me such nice comments last week about my mini-anxiety about leaving George overnight with my brother and his family for the first time last weekend. Everything went grrrreat! Ü

TCP Tuesday & A Sneak Peek!

TCP Tuesday67 kicked off yesterday with a fun and very {circular} sketch from our hipster hostess with the mostess, Carole Burrage. I've lifted the sketch and TCP Tuesday deets from her page, so just keep-a-scrollin' to find out more!

Carole's sketch lends itself to all kinds of options with those circles. Lucky for me, I was so fortunate to receive lotsa birthday $ with which I invested in a few Spellbinders Nestability dies--first off, the circles! Keep scrolling to see what I did with all those sketch circles...

As you can see, I used a circle die for the main image panel, but that's not the best part. The best part is that cuter than cute whale image which will be available for purchase from The Cat's Pajamas next week. Be sure to stay tuned for lots more where that came from--all good and swanky stamps from TCP comin' your way!

For the remaining circles, I opted for buttons tied with Karen Foster Scrapper's Floss in pink and one punched circle with my stamped sentiment. I love the contrast of the buttons to the punched and die cut circles. The patterned paper is from American Crafts, and that new TCP set is called By The Sea. Lastly, keep a scrollin' for all the TCP Tuesday deets....

Here are the deets. (Lifted from Ana's page.)
1. Each a week one of The Cat’s Pajamas DT members will host a challenge.
2. The challenges will vary {stamp, color, theme, sketch, etc.}
3. You will have until {this} Saturday night to complete the challenge.
4. Link your project on this week’s hostess’ challenge announcement. This week you will link your project HERE!
5. TCP stamps are not required, but of course, highly encouraged. {Unless it is a challenge calling for a specific stamp}
6. There will be one winner each month. She/he will be deemed that month’s Swankiest Stamper and get $25 in Cat’s Cash {money to spend on the TCP site!}.
7. When uploading to SCS or PCP, please use the keyword TCPTUES67 for this challenge.
8. Alma will post the entries from the week the following Monday on her blog.
9. The newly crowned Swanky Stamper will be announced on the First of the Month and have his/her winning entry posted on The Cat’s Pajamas website where he/she will reign for the entire month.

Happy Wedding Day {SFYTT}!

Well, I didn't think I was going to be able to participate in the SFYTT challenge today because I had "scheduled" stamping time during George's nap yesterday for my SFYTT card and had unexpected company all afternoon. On top of that we're leaving this morning for an out-of-town wedding and George is spending his first night away (from his crib) with my brother and his family. Needless to say, it's a little bit stressful for me--worrying if he'll sleep well, be too much to handle for my brother and his family, etc, etc! I'm sure all will be fine, and I don't know why I'm rambling on and on because I'm short on time this morning, ha! So, without further rambling, here is the wedding card I whipped up this morning using Jen's sketch:

Remember that you are all invited to play along with Jen's weekly SFYTT challenge. When you do play along, be sure to leave a link over at Jen's blog and/or use the keyword: SFYTT if you upload to SCS. Ok, here's the rest of the SFYTT crew for you to view!

Jen & Regina (July Guest Designer)
Amy
Carole
Kelly
Susan

Have a great weekend!

a message for you...

A wonderful friend of mine sent me a birthday gift ('member I turned 40 in May?!) that was right up my stampin' alley! Well, I'm finally getting around to making a thank you card for her, and of course I couldn't just pick one out of my dusty card stash, I had to make somethin' brand spankin' new! You see, there are times that I can be a bit naive when it comes to the stamping world, whether it be intentional or not, but this friend of mine is always watchin' my back, throwin' me a bone here and there, and cheering me on from the sidelines (actually, she's pretty much the quarterback with me on the sidelines waitin' to be put in the game). She's true blue, AND...she deserves a card designed just for her!

I happen to know that my friend likes bright colors, and I think she has been using this Girl Friday paper from Cosmo Cricket, so I'm guessing she likes it, right?! Here's where it all comes together: while blurfing last night, I came across another of Heather Nichols/Pinefeather signature pocket cards and decided I just had to make one as my TY card. Here she is, folks.

Card highlights include:

• paper pieced leaves using the cover sheet from the Cosmo paper pack
• buttons tied with twine from PTI
• Crystal Effects on my birdie
• fun stamps from My Cute Stamps
• button tied ribbon tab on insert (Pine's idea)

Thanks for stopping by today!

Early Bird Heaven!

I am so smitten with Cosmo Cricket's Early Bird Collection! I have a few projects to share using them, including today's sketch challenge over at SCS. Let's get going, eh?! The first one (above) is my sketch challenge card using the papers along with cute stamps from My Cute Stamps and an alpha from CTMH. I embellished the main panel with a ribbon/flower/button cluster tied with button twine from PTI.

Next up is a name banner and tag using the papers, chipboard, button and stamps. Everything was created for our niece and goddaughter, Brea's 1st birthday this past weekend. I have to take the opportunity to brag a bit about DH because he made the pictured dollhouse/bookcase for Brea from an idea we'd seen online (trendy home furnishing catalog)--isn't it the bees knees?! I thought it would be fun to do something paper-crafty with the dollhouse/bookcase, so I channeled my good friend, Kelly Lunceford's cool banners. Keep scrolling down for a close up of the banner and the tag that accompanied Brea's other gifts (books, of course!)...

Thanks for stopping by today!

Under The Stars

It's another swankified TCP Tuesday challenge for you and you and you! Today's challenge hostess is Susan Liles, and she's challenging us to get our Happy Camper stamps inky. For all the TCP Tuesday deets, visit Susan's blog HERE! If you don't own Happy Camper as of yet, you don't know what you're missing, so click HERE to find out how you can secure your own Happy Camper set--it's delightful!

For my card today, I used part of the Cosmo Cricket Mr. Campy paper collection for my sentiment and scene and then stamped and paper pieced Mr. Bear from the Happy Camper set. He's looking for someone to spend the night {under the stars} with him, wink! Then, just for fun, I added wonky green stitches around the perimeter and random buttons from the Great Outdoors Button collection, available from The Cat's Pajamas (also part of the Kitty Kat pack at a grrrr-eat price)!


Have a grrr-eat day, all!

Celebrate Today!

Happy 4th of July, everyone! My submission for Jen's SFYTT today features a great basket stamp from Saltbox Studio filled to the brim with stars and stripes. The basket is colored with watercolor pencils and then blended a bit with both aqua painter and blender pen. I smudged around the edges as well and dirtied up the edges with Ranger distress ink in walnut studio and sponge. Actually, I dirtied up all of the layers just to keep with the whole look. I also added a few buttons and stitches, what's new?! Ü

Let's see what the sketch team has done with Jen's fun sketch, and it's time for the unveiling of Miss July, aka July Guest Designer, so be sure to stop over at Jen's blog to meet her!

Jen
Amy
Carole
Kelly
Susan

Have a fun and safe weekend all!

Materials
Paper: Naturals Ivory, Kraft, Riding Hood Red, Pacific Point (SU!); Bo-Bunny Press Raspberrie Red Shabby Princess Collection
Ink: Versafine Black, Ranger Distress Ink Walnut
Stamps: Saltbox Studio Baskets of Celebration, PTI Mega Mixed Messages
Accessories: buttons, decorative brads (Jo Ann's), button twine (PTI), watercolor pencils (SU!), sewing machine

TCP Tuesday #65

Happy Wednesday, all! I have a swanky little summer number for you today with a color challenge for TCP Tuesday #65. This week's hostess with the mostess is Jen, so head on over to her blog to link your creation using this color combo:

I used THIS past SFYTT for my {summer} card featuring Sprinkle in her floaty. Polka dot ribbon from PTI along with a duo of stick pins and glittered edges on the letter panels give this one a fun summer look. Sprinkle was colored with reinkers in Crushed Curry, Bermuda Bay and Rich Razzleberry and a combo of blender pen and aqua painter. Edges are sponged with Ranger distress ink in Walnut Stain.

If you're a TCP connoisseur, you'll notice Floaty Sprinkle is a little larger than the original wood mounted version, and this is because she's going to be part of a soon-to-be-released clear set, which you're just gonna l-o-v-e! Be sure to stay tuned later this month for the release of summer-wonderful new clear stamps from TCP...

ETA: I forgot to tell you the whole highlight of this piece! "Summer" was spelled out using my favorite alpha, Nightie from TCP. Remember to check it out because you can purchase it "solo" or as part of a swanky package for a great price!