SAINT CLOUD x HOLD FAST

Unique collaboration producing some good straps for you >>

Visited Nick this morning and they were instore, looking great in two way black or white choices.

MARK WHALEN | Tonight! Mark's exhibition in Collingwood | April 1st, 5-8pm

WORDS CANNOT EXPRESS MY GRATITUDE FOR YOU

and the title goes out from my heart to each one of you who take the time to stop by and check out my humble creations even there are lots more creative bloggers than me.

i truly appreciate your comments and your visits and your friendship.

this card is for you

Words cannot express my gratitude for you

3.75" x 5.5"

robyn, my pink stamper really rocked all the sentiments with this new one set and specifically with this one sentiment. in my opinion it is a very powerful statement. "Words cannot express my gratitude for you". wow! just think about it.

in case you are interested in the sizes----card base 7.5" by 5.5" piece of cardstock-scored at 3.75" and folded in half.--- the first piece of patterned paper was cut at 2.5" by 2.75"---- the brown strip was cut at 1" by 5.25" and the blue one is 1.25" by 3.75".

the flower is from gypsy wanderings image#11 cut several times, misted with water, crunched, dried with a heat gun and inked...;p  and the layers were attached with my glue gun. the buttons were from an old flannel shirt that had seen better days, lol. i distressed all the papers.

below is the new stamp set that is used:  

"Everyday Sentiments"

(a must have)

well, thank you so much for stopping by and remember

i love you all

*-*

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a little personal note here: my son did not get accepted at Harvard but he was accepted in the other 5 universities he applied for but he decided for Boston University. we are so happy for him. he was a bit bummed about Harvard since they were the ones who approached him and even gave him an interview. but God knows what is better for us and i am so very happy about his decision. now the time has come where he has to apply for some loan to cover the rest of the tuition. Boston University was very generous but still a very expensive school and he has to cover the rest. of course we are here to help him as much as we can.

thanks for the good wishes and better vibes.

Happy Birthday, Margie and Bah! Humbug! Christmas Tree Challenge

Before I do anything, I want to wish my dear friend Margie (Bellabug) a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I'm thinkin she'll be asleep before I post this so she won't see it until tomorrow (March 31) which is the BIG DAY! Have the best birthday ever and win, win, WIN BIG at the casino WOOHOO!!!, don't get too tipsy, and stay away from pay per view. LOL Love you, girlfriend! Be sure to wish her a happy day.

Okay, so this week at Bah! Humbug! the challenge is Christmas trees. I wanted to do something different so I decided to do a 3D project. I'd been playing with the Stampin' Up Petal Cone die (thanks Lillie) and turned it upside down. It sort of reminded me of a tree and wondered if I stacked them how it would look. I embossed the cones with the Stampin' Up Elegant Lines folder and cut the scalloped portions of the die in red. I think the clean red and white looks kind of Scandanavian to me. (I'm half Swedish).

To stack the cones I cut circles with my Nesties that would fit inside the cones. This one for the top cone,

and this for the bottom. The base is a ribbon spool that has been covered in card stock, also with my Nesties and the trunk is just a rolled piece of regular copy paper. For a first try I don't think it turned out half bad. I think I'll be playing with this again.

The Cuttlebug Spot Oh So Soft Challenge

Were rounding up our month of embellie challenges at The Cuttlebug Spot. And I'm sad to say it's the last of our challenges for awhile. The Cuttlebug Spot will be taking a bit of a break but don't forget us, WE'LL BE BACK! Our final challenge is Oh so Soft featuring felt in our designs. I was particularly excited about this one because I'd been dying to try my MFT Die-namics dies with felt. I use the Rolled Flower and the Rolled Rose. They cut quite easily in the Cuttlebug, but in a few cases I did have to snip through a few reluctant stands of fiber. You use the same sandwich as with Nesties; A plate, C plate, die, felt, and B Plate. Then I rolled them up and glued them using Zip Dry glue to a small punched circle and added adhesive pearls to the centers. The leaves were from the Spellbinders Nested Leaves dies. Pretty pretty, huh? The background embossing is done with an old style Fiskars Basketweave Texture plate. I'd never had much luck with embossing with these, but while at the Scrap Expo I came across Lucy McGoo's Wonder Goo which, when sprayed on card stock is (among other things) supposed to enhance embossing. Still not as crisp as a folder, but a definite improvement. The eggs were cut with my Spellbinder's Nested Eggs dies, and embossed with my new Sizzix Country Foliage folder. The bottom scalloped border was not punched, but rather cut with the Scalloped Scallop Die-namics Die from MFT. "Happy Ester was computer generated on a little banner cut with my Stampin' Up Bigz Petal Cone Die (Thanks Lilllie!) I'll be using that whole die in the near future.

So, it's a simple Easter card, but ALL Cuttlebug. Here's a pic of all of the goodies I used. the Design Team has all sort of inspiration using felt, so be sure and check out The Cuttlebug Spot and please play along. Last chance for awhile. You might want to consider subscribing so as not to miss our return. Don't forget us!

Tiddly Inks Celebrate With Us! Challenge

WooHoo! Today is Christy Croll's Birthday! I'm sure you all know this, but Christy is the owner, illustrator, and all around fabby lady of Tiddly Inks and we're celebrating the day with a challenge in her honor. Christy's favorite colors are red, black and white so create a card with those colors (and a Tiddly Inks image) for our Celebrate With Us Challenge and you're IN! Christy has been in a creative frenzy with TONS of cool new images in THE SHOP and I thought I had this card all worked out until I saw this new one, Christine. It's Christy's self portrait so previous plans flew out the window so I could put the Birthday Girl (spelled out in Alpha Beads) herself on her card. She's colored with Copics and obviously came with me to my hair appt yesterday because she too, now has many more red highlights in her hair, LOL. (Honestly, you should go for it, Christy!)

I used my new Nesties Lacey Circles to create a Swing Card using the video HERE. I used Bo Bunny Sugar Dot paper, black peelie borders and my Dymo Label Maker for the outside sentiment.

As you open the card, that lacy circle swings around to reveal...

Wicked Fun! (Now don't we ALL want that for our birthday?) She's another of the NEW RELEASES available at the TI Shop (including some brand new Cute Girls, Gothic Cute Girls AND Gothic Pin-Ups and there's MORE!!!!!!! Christy has a yummy new freebie available on her blog HERE (so be sure to stop by, snag it, and leave her some birthday love) AND...

How about THIS?!!!!! There is a super SALE going on at the Tiddly Inks Shop right now! Today ONLY!!! with 25% off everything! Oldies, New Releases, Digi paper, YOU NAME IT! No minimums, no coupons, no restrictions...LET'S PARTY!!!!!

"OH! SO SOFT" WITH THE WEEKLY CUTTLEBUG SPOT CHALLENGE

and...

we have come to an end. this is our last project for the cuttlebug spot. my term has come to an end and it was a pleasure to work with nilda who comes up with such nice challenges and make you wear your rusted thinking cap...hehe.

i have also got the pleasure to meet  and work and get inspired from some very talented designers through this blog and i am so glad for it.

"a big applause"

to nilda and my team mates for all the hard work and their awesome creations .

these latest  projects have been easy and this week we are to use felt on our projects.

i am working on another mini and even my "felted" embellishment was store bought...still felt, lol

Nature

4.50 x 6.50 

mini album cover

that little owl is felted :P

no embossing on this cover but the back of it.

"nature" is from graphically speaking and the heart from create a critter.

easy post here today too.

hope you enjoy it and as soon as i finish with it i will post the pics up.

disclaimer: i am not trying to compete with rhonda here because she is the queen of shaped minis...lol

have a great day!

love you all.

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BBTB2 Disney Challenge and Blog Hop!

Woohoo! It's Blog Hop time again at BBTB2 and this week we're hosted by my dear and fabulously talented friend, Maria. In honor of Spring Break she's chosen a Disney challenge, hopefully using one of the new carts, but hey, any Disney cart will do. If you've come from dear Carole's blog you're on the right track, but if you'd like to start at the beginning, hop back to BBTB2 so you don't miss a thing. I really find the Disney characters intimidating so this is actually the first one I've actually cut and assembled. This is Figaro from Pinocchio on the new Disney Classic Cart. I love the surprised look on his face so I added the "Oops" sentiment by welding letters from Mickey Font. I added striped twine from the Twinery to the "O's" to make them look like balloons thinking this would make a cute belated birthday card.

It's a shaped front card (again) with a rounded rectangle from George welded in Design Studio. All of Figaro's layers were cut in white card stock and colored with Copics, even the black. Once I'd colored the other parts, the solid black card stock looked too one dimensional and I was able to add a teeny bit on shading coloring it all with my Copics even though it still was essentially black. The inside striped mat was from the DCWV Summer Glitter Stack from awhile back. Yikes! How bright! Definitely a kid's card, eh?

One this I find particularly challenging with the Disney characters is they are not particulary conducive to the type of dimensional layering I like to do. I thought I was gonna be okay with that, but after gluing on all the the features it just looked too flat to me. To remedy that, I actually cut apart the character using the layer placement cuts and popped the head, bow, paws and legs on top of the solid black cut and then popped the entire kitty on the card base. Definitely better, but wished I'd thought of this before I'd glued down the chest fur or that would be popped too. Next stop is Theresa's Blog and wait 'til you see the magical layouts she's created! WOW! but before you go, don't forget to leave a comment for a chance to win a $40.00, yes, you read that right, a $40.00 gift certificate to Custom Crops!!! Thanks so much Custom Crops for being such a generous sponsor. BTW, Custom Crops currently has the Disney Classics cart on SALE for on $27.00! In fact nearly ALL of the Cricut carts are on sale as well as regular Cricut mats for $8.00 and Imagine mats for $9.00 so be sure to check out Custom Crops for all of your Cricut needs.

Macabre Monday Hacked to Bits Challenge (and Various Mother's Day Challenges...YIKES!) WARNING! Possibly Offensive!

Okay, before we even go there. I need to do a bit of a disclaimer. I was having a bit of a challenge with my Macabre Monday Hacked to Bits Challenge when I remembered this adorable image from Limited Runs Stamps. Little Madison with Hatchet, one of the Grimms, reminded me a bit of Lizzie Borden so...well, there ya go. What followed was a bit of my twisted humor which in no way reflects my opinion of my own Mom, or any Mom I know or have ever known so I really don't hope to offend here. Please blame the humor on WAY too much wine at Sunday Brunch and please forgive. The image included a collection of 6 of the images which I resized, then copied an pasted, until I got 54 of the little dears and then trimmed it down to 40. Then I made the computer generated sentiment and overstamped the whole shebang using the by Smeared Ink Inky Dreams Set in Aged Mahogany Distress ink. The sentiment was cut and matted using Nesties Labels Seventeen. I actually tried to hack my original attempt with an axe but it sort of made a mess, so instead I blew up the single Madison with Hatchet image and cut out just the hatchet to add to the front. The lovely roses are by Recollections from M's. Mom's Love roses!

Just in case you can't see some of the 40 little Madisons, here's a close up. Love doing my own DP! HeeHee!

And the beginning of the little Lizzie poem...

Now here's where I might be skating on thin ice. To whom would you send such a card? Well, all I could think about was Mother's Day, so here's the inside sentiment. Hoping I'm not going to lose followers over this! Check out s0me more Hacked to Bits Inspiration HERE AND because there are quite a few Mother's Day challenges out there I thought I'd stir up the pot a bit. (Besides, I've been dared by another of the Minions so ...) I'm also entering this in the following Mother's Day challenges (I'm not ALWAYS like this ladies, really, I'm not!): Simon Says Stamp, Mother's Day or Girly 2nd entry, Stampin'for the Weekend, One Stitch at a Time, Craft your Days Away, and I'm thinking I better quit while I'm ahead. Most are UK blogs and I'd hate to have my passport revoked.

LEAVE A LEGACY ALBUM

FINALLY, 

here i am with a very "photo heavy" post.

there are 20+ photos here.

because of it if you have a question about the album, just ask away :P, and i will get back to you. as you know these mini's really take time and this one is packed with details and various techniques were used. i hope you enjoy it as much as i did making it.

Leave a Legacy

8 x 8 album

thank you so much for stopping by and please, accept my apologies again for being so tardy with the photos.

love you all!

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