YNS Challenge #52: Pierre Says 'Hi'!

It's challenge time at Your Next Stamp (YNS), and Kerri  has a great sketch for us! Peggy is hostessing the challenge, so stop on over and see her for more challenge details!  I've colored, fussy cut and layered Pierre from France atop a mix of scrappy papers from MME Lost & Found: Rosy 6x6 pad. I've also added a mini clip, buttons, linen thread and ric-rac to finish off my shabby chic collage look. I always think shabby chic when I envision anything 'French' for some reason?! The 'American' sentiment is from a great set called Mixed Bag of Greetings.

I hope you'll get a chance to play along with the sketch, and while you're thinking 'YNS', be aware that there are some really great deals going on at the YNS shop that you can check out at the YNS blog HERE. Finally, by participating in the sketch challenge, you are eligible to win Light Up the Holidays Stamp & Die!

Happy Hump Day~Amy

Wicked Sweet Holiday Lights from YNS!

How exciting, huh?! Your Next Stamp is in the die business and calling it Your Next Die...so perfect! What's even better than that?! Their first official die--Holiday Lights, of course! I can't wait to use it in it's fullest capacity for Christmas, but I just couldn't pass up a Halloween idea I had floating in my head...

Wicked Sweet goes to the Halloween Ball under the Holiday Lights...how fun is that?! She even looks like she's standing along the sidelines of the gymnasium-turned-dance-hall, hoping someone will notice her wicked sweet green hair and ask her to do the monster dance. Ok...enough already!

Here's a close up of the die in full force. I die cut black felt and then various patterns from Pink Paislee's Phantom 6x6 pad, layered the bulbs on top of the die cut felt piece and then wrapped linen thread to mimic the 'threads' of each light bulb before layering it atop a triangle banner. You'll also notice some awesome new Divine Twine in Halloween colors--a gift from my BSF, Leigh O'Brien...love.it.

Now that you've had a chance to see what I've done with the YND Holiday Lights die, scoot on over to Karen's blog for a list of the YNS design team members playing along with today's debut!
~Amy

TCP Tuesday 177, Inspired by TCP Tuesday 176

Although the main image and colors of my card were inspired by last week's TCP Tuesday challenge, I'm a little late posting it (too many family 'things' going on) but right on time with a card for Julie's Technique Challenge for this week's TCP Tuesday 177 Challenge--rolled cabbage roses. Alma shared a fun and informative tutorial for cabbage roses using TCP's seam binding, and Julie is forcing our hand at them with this week's challenge. You can see Alma's video tutorial HERE.

I started with 1" very sticky foam booster that I got from Jody Morrow. First, I knotted one end of the seam binding, trimmed off the excess, stuck it smack dab in the middle of the foam booster and proceeded to twist the seam binding while securing it around and around the center knot. Clear as mud?! If not, check out Alma's tutorial...easy peasy, mac and cheesy! The key is to keep squishing the twisted seam binding down as you go.

My image is The Cat's Pajamas' You Suit Me, paper pieced using new-to-me paper from MME, paired with Pink Paislee orange paisley paper. I wanted a deep distressed edge, so I added lots and lots of PTI's vintage ink around the edges and tied it all up with TCP's Beige Linen Thread before embellishing the whole thing with my CutUps Sunflower Rosette. My cabbage rose is posing as the sunflower center and I like it very much! Now that I've achieved some success with my first attempt at these cabbage roses, I just might be using this technique again!

Be sure to check out Julie's blog for this week's TCP Tuesday Challenge details, and then head over to Alma's blog to link up your cabbage rose creation!
~Amy

Ingredients:
TCP Images: You Suit Me, Who's This (sentiment)
TCP Accessories: CutUps Sunflower Rosette, Seam Binding, Beige Linen Thread
Paper: Pink Paislee Phantom, MME Lost & Found: Breeze
Other: PTI buttons

YNS Challenge #51 & Blog Hop!

Hi, and welcome to the YNS (Your Next Stamp) Challenge #51 and Blog Hop to celebrate our September stamp release! You may have hopped here from my good buddy, Carole's blog. She's a tough act to follow, but I'll do my best here, but I'm not even going to attempt to match her wit, so let's talk about the challenge and the hop! The September Release stamps are all about Halloween and Fall (well, most of them!) and the challenge is to paper piece.

I decided to do some ghosty paper piecing using the uber cute ghost from Spooktacular! The ghost and sentiment are from the same stinkin' cute set, and I paper pieced Pink Paislee Phantom paper over my vellum ghosts, punching out the eyes with my Cropadile tool for added ghosty fun.

I have to say they look pretty spooky in real life...cute spooky that is!  I took some liberties with my fence die, cutting each of the posts apart to achieve that Halloween Night-spooky fence look. After piecing it just so, I added brads here and there, and then tied it up with linen thread.

Now the FUN part...blog hop details (and good ones they are!):
Blog Hop Starts: Wednesday, September 14th at 3:00AM (EST)
Blog Hop Ends:Saturday, September 17th at midnight
Prize: Selection of new release stamps (see picture below)
Store Promotion: Special stamp bundles plus a free YNS stamp (YNS choice) included for every $30 spent – spend $30 get 1 free stamp, $60 get 2 free stamps, $90 get 3 free stamps etc…

Here's the prize package!

Now it's time for you to hop along to your final stop on the hop, Karen's blog!
~Amy

You Are Appreciated!

Each year local businesses in the school district where I work put together a little 'Welcome Back' package for our staff and I was asked to make thank you notes for our little care packages. Here's what I came up in a 5x7 size that will hold all of our signatures.

The sentiments are Kim Hughes' Making the Grade,  and the apple is part of Kerri Bradford's This & That: School digi kit. I love that you can take bits and pieces of Kerri's kits for card making or scrapping...so darn versatile and affordable! I wanted to keep this card quick and simple as there are a million and one things to be done this week, and I'm pretty darn happy with this CAS card!

I'll be back tomorrow with a fun little blog hop for YNS, so stay tuned!
~Amy

Jiffy Girls {Take Off}

Here we are with our latest edition of the 'JiFFy Girls' challenge using Take Off from The Cat's Pajamas (TCP) and some loverly paper: Simple Stories "Simple Pleasures" from their 100 Days of Summer Collection. I've used a couple other fun items from TCP including my fav CutUps die, Big Scallop and Lemon Divine Twine...yum! As much fun as this image is to color, I'm just sayin'...it's even more fun to paper piece, so that's 'jiffy' what I did!

If you're not familiar with our somewhat monthly JiFFy (Just For Fun) challenge, one of the gals chooses the paper and another chooses the image, both anonymously, so we just never know WHAT we'll end up with. That's the fun part, and sometimes the challenging part. However,  I'd have to say this JiFFy challenge is gellin' like a felon!

Can't wait to see what the JiFFY sistahs have done with Take Off and our patterned paper...hmm, who colored...who paper pieced?!

Carole

Michele
Lori

Jody

Christina

Hope your Friday rocks you all through the weekend!
~Amy

TCP Tuesday 175: Sketch Challenge

Leigh has a great sketch for this week's TCP Tuesday challenge, and it's not nearly as intimidating as it might appear when you first look at it, so I hope you get a chance to play along for your chance at Swanky Stamper or Cat Cash! There are endless possibilities for that center circle, like a bat house?! Check out Leigh's blog for the details and remember to upload your swanky creation to Alma's blog!

My card uses an oldie-but-goodie TCP Halloween set, Fright Night, and a newer TCP set, The Tweetest Things, that's not necessarily Halloween related at all, but it sure makes for a cute bat house! Of course I die cut my bat house using our CutUps Home Tweet Home, which inspired my computer generated sentiment: Twick or Tweet...I love when things come full circle! The fonts used for the sentiment are LD Petticoat Black and LD Franks Friends, and the Halloween paper is from Pink Paislee. Almost forgot that my bats are secured with a glue dot to some of that dusty old wire I've had for years and have never used all that much...darn good thing I didn't throw it out, huh?! And...last, but not least, two great CutUps dies that don't need 'splainin'--CutUps Pennants & Grass and Black Licorice Divine Twine.

Here's a peek at Leigh's original sketch before I go...one good sketch that I think I just might be using again! ~Amy

 

Bucks & Sheep!

Yesterday was my brother's birthday, and tomorrow marks his youngest son's birthday, so I got busy this morning making a couple of cards for them. The card above is for Anders, my nephew, who loves anything to do with hunting and fishing, so I thought this hilarious buck and coordinating sentiment from Paper Smooches was just the ticket! I also used a bit of Orange Divine Twine and CutUps Big Scallop die from The Cat's Pajamas. Here's the inside...

 

Next up is my brother's card using The Cat's Pajamas Ewe Complete Me and a computer generated sentiment. I copied the idea from The Spotted Chick...I almost died laughing when I first laid eyes on her original card and giggle every time I go back and look at it! Thanks for the awesome idea, Jeanie!

 ...and the punchline reads:

Isn't that the most hilarious thing ever?! Gets me every time I tell ya! Hope my brother gets a chuckle out of it as well.

Before I go, I have some really awesome news to share with you! As of September 1st, I am a proud member of the design team for Your Next Stamp! I can't wait to start sharing YNS creations with you on a regular basis!
~Amy