Sites of the week

Can you believe how fast July is whizzing by us? It’s crazy that CHA is already upon us. I was supposed to be on an airplane this morning headed for the windy city, but I am opting for Winter CHA instead. It’s been a LOOONG while since I have been and I am looking forward to it already. It’s actually good that I am not headed up there because I have a BUNCH of stampy stuff to get done! On my list was to complete a couple of more cards using this month’s SKETCH FOR YOU TO TRY. You can see the original post with samples using this month’s sponsor’s stamps HERE.

This month’s SKETCH FOR YOU TO TRY…

A BIG THANK YOU to this month’s sponsor, MY FAVORITE THINGS! I think that I **may** have mentioned that I just love the Pure Innocence line of stamps at MFT. When I saw this girl holding her cotton candy {Sweet Greetings set} I knew she had to be mine! Ellie used to have a slew of colorful striped pants, so I had to go with that on the coloring. Whatcha think?…

I put her on an embossed rectangular panel, although I really fought off wanting to use a circle here. That just wasn’t going to work {HmPh!}. The flower are die cut with the Perfect Petal Trio Die-Namics dies and adorned with a green button to pull in the green from her pants..

The vertical side panel is die cut with the Simply Scallops Medium Die-Namics die {love this one!!}. And, instead of using paper for the horizontal panel that goes across the main image panel, I decided to use green and pink baker’s twine wrapped around a few times and double bowed…

Wanna play along with the sketch? I sure hope you will! Below are some “Notes To Know.” Be sure to link up your project {card, layout, etc.} to THIS post.

1. The SKETCH FOR YOU TO TRY {SFYTT} will be posted on the first Saturday of each month on www.iheart2stamp.com at 8am EST and will stay open to participants until the last day of the month, unless otherwise noted.
2. This is for fun! Interpret the sketch as you wish and embellish as desired. There are no vendor restrictions, but we would love to see you use the sponsor’s stamps!
3. Each month we will have a Designer of the Month that will be chosen from past month’s participants.
4. Come and play with us on each and every sketch! On Christmas Day 2011 a prize package worth over $200 will be given away to one very lucky and loyal SFYTT stamper that participates in EVERY sketch for the year.
5. To be eligible for the prize package, you must complete ALL of the sketches by each of the deadlines AND link your creation to the link system on that month’s sketch post (the first Saturday of the month). Everyone except for SFYTT Sisters are eligible for the prize package, including Designer of the Month and international players.
6. When posting your sketch creation on your blog, please post the sketch and link back to the sketch post on www.iheart2stamp.com. When posting to online galleries, please use the keyword “SFYTT.”

In addition to all the birthday parties that we have been having and going to, many of our friends are having kiddos! Last week I posted a “Oh Boy” card for friends that had their baby. I decided to work ahead a little {gasp!} and make a card for friends that will be welcoming a little girl very soon. Again, I went to my Verve drawer and pulled out several sets that I thought would be great for a sweet baby girl card…

The “Sugar & Spice” sentiment comes from the To the Moon set. The “Welcome Baby” sentiment is in the NEW Small Phrases set, which has baby sentiments as well as sentiments for all sorts of occasions. In addition to the Welcome Baby sentiment from that set, I also used “Bundle of Joy” to stamp tone on tone on the Flutterby die, which I cut out twice and topped with a button with Baker’s Twine and Linen Thread…

I used to be a little skeptical/nervous about using more than one sentiment on a card, especially a card front. However, I have found that done “right,” it can really make a card! Have fun playing with sentiment placement to create cards with more than one. Using flags and/or die cuts can break up the panels and make it easy to incorporate more than one sentiment. Also, remember to use sentiments that have complementing fonts. Too many fonts that don’t mix and match can make your card look very hodge podge.

Well, I’m checkin’ out for now and am gonna catch up on a little HGTV…I love their Sunday morning programming for yard and home inspiration!

So, this week’s TCP TUESDAY challenge is to use watercoloring on your project. As much as I like all forms of coloring, this just was not happening for me. I guess my brain can only think in Copic at the moment! I did try, but then I just had to throw in the towel. I know, I know…no giving up, right? There just comes a point at which you have to think that your hobby shouldn’t be this frustrating! With that being said, I don’t have a watercolored card, but you can see all the challenge details on our Hipster Hostess with the Mostess, Julie’s blog HERE.

As for me, I still made a TCP card but grabbed for my markers when coloring. Ellie’s friend is having her 5th birthday party this weekend, so I thought that I would whip something up for her…

This adorable bunny is from the set, A Girl and Her Cake. The “5″ is cut out with my Slice machine and then glitterfied with Stickles and loose fine glitter…

I used The Cat’s Pajamas’ Pennant CutUps die set in combo with the Nightie alpha and Brown Sugar Baker’s Twine to create the banner on the top of the card…

This was such a fun and easy way to personalize the card…great for birthdays and showers! The standard size can easily be flipped to accomodate {slightly} longer names. You can always make a square or long rectangle card for longer names, as well.

I hope y’all have a great weekend! I’m teaching Copic classes tomorrow and next weekend. If you are local and interested in these classes, please email me {link under my pic on top left of this blog page}.

Howdy Friends! It’s time for another blog hop from YOUR NEXT STAMP. There are lots {and lots} of cutie patootie stamps that are being released and I am so glad that I was invited to join the hop and show you my favorite character in the YNS line up…ELLIE! Hmmm…wonder why I am partial to a lil’ girl named Ellie…LOL!!

So, I did mention that this is a HOP, so if you happened upon here at random be sure to take a moment to rewind and start at the beginning at Kerri’s blog where she kicks off the par-tay!

My Ellie colors my world, but this Ellie Loves Art can color yours…

This started out as a card, but then I ended up chopping off the back/inside of the card and making it into a little hanger. I think this would make a cute gift for an art teacher or to hang in Ellie’s room over her desk…where she spends A LOT of time coloring and creating {just like her mama!!}. This set also includes other images, including a window so that you can really make a scene…in a good way!

Detail shot of the image…

I like a deal, how about you? Your Next Stamp is offering up a sweet 10% discount off your ENTIRE order until July 20th at midnight. Just enter the code YNSJULYNR when you check out. That’s some happy shopping!

There’s also a sweet prize up for grabs. Aren’t they cute? Just leave a comment here and each of the other hopper’s blogs, as well as a link on the linky system {you only need to do that from ONE blog} and you will be entered to win Kali and Kai…

Are you ready to keep on hopping? Off you go to Wendy’s blog for some more YNS fun!!

Just wanted to share some pics from Ellie’s 5th birthday party. I don’t really do themes, but all the decor was red, white and pink…with lots of polka dots!

“Photo Booth” pics…

A great time was had by all! We decorated crowns {designed by me in Make the Cut…woot woot!!}, colored cupcakes, played a bean bag toss game, took photo booth pics and, of course, chowed down on some cupcakes and ice cream! Not bad for weeks of planning for 2 hours on a Friday afternoon!! LOL!