FWF Friday at Unity - Sun Sand and Sea

Happy Friday everyone! I don't know about you, but I'm ready for the weekend to begin. We're having a yard sale this Saturday and Sunday (all you local followers, stop by!) and the weather is set to be GORGEOUS! Oh, and hey, happy first day of summer!

I don't know about you, but when I think of summer I think of the beach. So when I saw Unity's beach stamps, they had to be mine. Bonus: no surfboards or palm trees, YAY!! That's become a pet peeve of mine lately, too many companies including those in paper packs and embellishments. Please people, I live in the Northeast. We don't have palm trees at our beaches!

This card started off with white cardstock...before I went to town with my Distress Inks. :) Tea Dye, Tumbled Glass, Broken China and Bundled Sage created the perfect balance of sand and sea. Then I broke out my new Perfect Pearls and Perfect Pearls Mists that I found at Michael's, on clearance, and I had a coupon. Woot! I used Bronze for the seashell frame, then stamped the sentiment with SU Midnight Muse.

 The seashells were stamped on ivory cardstock I had in my stash with CTMH Bamboo, then the edges were inked with Distress Stain in Frayed Burlap.

 Before I put all the layers together, I spritzed the base card with the Perfect Pearls Mist in Cappuccino and my "ocean" got a spray of Perfect Pearl. Then everything was attached and I popped up the starfish for some added height.

Yes, those are my fingers...no, I don't have a manicure. I'm sure that breaks a rule somewhere...LOL

The result? A pretty, shimmery, beachy card that glitters and glows without the use of glitter. My husband was impressed. LOL

Look at that sparkle! Yowza!

 

Finished card

Now I'm off to dream of the beach...I'm linking up to Unity FWF.

Happy Crafting!

Party Time! Scrapbook Page Tutorial

Happy Wednesday everyone! I was cleaning out my camera last night and came across some assembly instructions for the Party Time! page kit. When I was putting together the sample kit I realized that the balloons were a little tricky and had to be assembled in the correct order, otherwise they're not going to look quite right. So I grabbed my phone and shot some assembly pics.

Yes, they're camera phone shots...yes, that explains the funky lighting...hey, the glue was drying on the first one when I realized what a PITA this was going to be without step-by-step instructions. Just pretend they're not fuzzy and funky-colors! LOL

The balloons are part of the title for the page, and the phrase assembly is completely self-explanatory.  Once you've got your letters glued down, it's time to make some balloons!

All ready for balloons!

After putting together the balloon layers, glue the green balloon down first

Wondering how to glue them down? I used a glue pen, perfect for making little dots of glue.

See? I use a "dot dot dot" technique to get around the narrow spaces, then scribble over the rest.

The blue/brown balloon goes down next!

Wondering what the shimmery partial circle was for? The pink balloon!That way the other balloon colors don't show through. :)

Pink balloon goes down last, and you're done!

Now it's party time!

There we go! Simple steps, but if you don't do them in order, the balloons don't come out quite right. I hope this helps everyone's assembly and let me know if you have any questions!

Happy Crafting!

Bun in the Oven

No no, I don't have one in the oven, but this card is perfect for anyone who does! I baked it up especially for the Lawnscaping Challenge: Coloring challenge this week.

A little vellum made the oven door cuter

 I saw...somewhere...the idea of scoring paper to make some bead board. It seemed like such a cute idea that I used it here for my kitchen scene. I colored in my bun and the oven with my Distress Markers. A few banners and some fabric lace as a chair rail topped off this cute card. I used the same technique of applying a bit of Glossy Accents to the lace to keep it from fraying as I did on my butterfly kisses card.

View from above

Side view to see the lovely layers

 Thanks for stopping by!

Linking up to:

Happy Crafting!

Butterfly Kisses

Apparently I need two separate links for my card submissions...sigh...so here's the butterfly kisses card again. You can read the full post here!

Happy Crafting!

Two Cards for the June Unity Challenges

Hi again everyone! I'm having some serious fun playing along with several challenges this week. Today I'm showing off what I came up with for both the color challenge and the card sketch challenge over at the Unity Stamp Challenge blog.

For the colors, I had some fun with several of the Unity stamps:

Yes, that might be the bird/french fry stamp...again...

I've had the idea of making a pile of notes for a bit now, like a messy desk. I stamped up several notes to self, then added on various sayings from several of the stamp sets. To tie in the gray, I made a little "don't forget" reminder and popped it up to give the card some height.

Side view

View from above

I like how it came out. The patterned papers add interest and the wood grain embossing on the chocolate brown gives a nod to the desk feeling I was going for.

For the card sketch challenge, I pulled out one of the older SotW sets - butterfly kisses.

You can never have enough butterflies

I pulled out one of my MME 6x6 paper pads and found this lovely butterfly print. The pink banner is actually the reverse of the butterflies. I love it when I can use an entire 6x6 for a card. Less waste! A little ribbon trim and some shimmery punched butterflies finished off the card. Here's a fun trick - to keep the ribbon from fraying, I squeezed some Glossy Accents onto my finger and used it to seal the edges. It works great!

Side view of the butterflies taking flight

View from above

I'm also linking the butterfly kisses up to:
CAS-ual Fridays CFC104, banners and/or flags
Simon Says Stamp Challenge, Simon Says...Transport

Happy Crafting!

Red, White, and Blue Stars Card

Yes, sometimes I really do still get to post twice in one night! I have time to show off one more card I made for a challenge.

Remembering with you

 The stripes and polka dots you see as the background paper are actually washi tape! I covered a sheet of paper with them, then punched a bunch of stars out of a pretty shimmer white cardstock. I felt it needed just a little something more, so I stamped two of the star punches with tiny stars from Lawn Fawn. To finish them off, I traced the edges with my Distress Markers in red and blue before layering them on with foam tape. The sentiment is from Pink by Design.

Side view of the card so you can see all of those lovely layers

Oooo, layers!

I'm linking this one up to:
Washi Up! - use red, white, and blue washi tape

Happy crafting!

Today I Shall Be Happier Than a Bird With a French Fry

 Hello again everyone! I'm in challenge-mode, so I decided to make a card this time with my new favorite stamp ever.

Hello again, little birdie

I was going for a slightly vintage feel, and tried my hand at faux stitching. I like it, but I think I need to practice drawing straight lines...ah well. The watercolor paper the bird is stamped on is actually reused from a craft show sign. How's that for reusing? Of course, then I had to use some scraps so I decorated the inside of the card as well.

Tweet, tweet!

The bird is made with my new Fiskars punch and cut from scraps, then topped with a little pearl eye. Of course, they're craft room photos again. One of these days I'll actually create in the daylight again!

I am linking up to:
CAS-ual Fridays CFC104 - use banners and/or flags

Happy crafting!

How Much is that Kitty in the Window?

 I'm so excited that I can finally share this card with you! A good friend of mine asked that I make his wife a special birthday card. While I knew she dyed her own yarn (how freaking cool is that?!?), they also adopted two kitties recently and are putting in a new garden this year. So, put that all together and what do you get:

Today is a gift, that's why they call it the Present

 Two little gray kitties (one has a white tummy) chasing her balls of yarn and looking out the window at the garden, of course! I'm not even going to pretend to be modest and instead just say that I outdid myself on this card.

I. LOVE. IT.
Thankfully, so did Tina. I hear her "husbeast" needs to get a frame for it next... :)

I wanted to give myself lots of card square footage, so this lovely measures 6"x6". Of course, turns out I don't have envelopes that big (gak!) so out came the tissue paper instead. Hey, it's extra padding!

Closeup of the window...wait, did I smudge that? Dang it!

The window, kitties, and basket were all cut out with my Silhouette Cameo, aka my sexy, sexy craft beast. I think I found the basket in the Silhouette store, but the rest were SVG files that I imported and cut myself. The vines and flowers were colored in with Liquid Pearls and Stickles. Those clouds are from one of the My Mind's Eye 6x6 paper packs, as was the "wallpaper" I believe.

One little, two little, three little yarn balls...

For the yarn, I pulled out my baker's twine and just got rolling. It took me a few false starts, but in the end I knotted one end and just started wrapping, much like I was rolling a yarn ball. Yes, I've done it before; my Gram knits and my son likes decorating her apartment with yarn. Sigh. The basket backing wasn't solid, so I hid the patterned paper with a bit of chocolate Stickles. Ta-da!

Get back here, you evil ball of yarn! I'll keeel you!! Meow!

Then there's the kitties. They became gray as their little furballs are, and rumor has it they do indeed chase the yarn. Then again, have you ever met a kitty that wasn't enticed by that lovely ball of wool goodness?

Last shot. Yeah, I still love it.

The wall hanging was also done on the Silhouette, then hung on the wall with some twine and a square brad after its edges were inked up with Distress Stain (I think I used Gathered Twigs). The saying is one of my favorites, and lovely for a birthday.

Now, everyone go show Tina some love and buy some yarn. I promise, it's awesome.

I'm linking up to: Pink Cricut Link Up Party

Happy crafting!