Sites of the week

I’m pretty excited to be one of the guest designers for YOUR NEXT STAMP this month. This month being my absolute favorite for paper crafting! I mean, what other month gets kick started with World Card Making Day AND has Halloween…none of ‘em even come close!!

The YNS Challenge this week is to create a Halloween project! {YAY!} Amy is your hostess this week and you can find all other challenge details and the entry link on the YNS blog, along with a chance to win EEK the Bat! In addition to the chance to win, Karen {YNS’ owner} is offering a FREE digi stamp to anyone that wants to play along! Yep, I said FREE! Just choose a HALLOWEEN digi from the YNS site HERE and email your selection to Karen@yournextstamp.com…

Here’s what I came up for this challenge…

Feel like you are experiencing a little deja vu? I did a remake of THIS birthday tag in a Halloween theme. I really like the original tag, so I thought that it would be fun to do it in different holiday themes. I’ll be making one for Christmas and Valentine’s, too! But, for now I will stay in my Halloween mood…

Only 20 more crafty days until Halloween! What will you make today?

Happy New Release Day! Yep, it’s finally here…the new release from The Cat’s Pajamas! No doubt that TCP has ROCKED THE BIG TOP with many circus inspired sets! I have a couple more circus-y projects to share with you on this hop!

First, let’s take roll on this blog hop! Did ya start on Leigh’s blog? She’s this week’s TCP Tuesday Hipster Hostess with the Mostess. I’ll get to more details on that in just a moment. If you are hoppin’ right along, you should have come here from Susan’s blog. She took her girls to the circus last night, so I am sure she has some fun details to share!

As noted above, Leigh is your Hipster Hostess with the Mostess and she has a FABULOUS sketch for everyone…

Here’s my take on it featuring PJ Bear in his new ringmaster roll in Step Right Up…

Detail shot…

You can find all the details about the sketch and this week’s challenge on Leigh’s blog.

I am always looking for cute party themes and I have seen a TON of circus related stuff on party sites, Pinterest, etc. With that in mind, I thought to make a circus themed banner…

This banner uses SO MANY products from THE CAT’S PAJAMAS!!!…
*Clownin’ Around Stamp Set
*Big Top CutUps die
*Circus Panel CutUps die
*Nightie and Coolvetica alphas
*Ribbon and Baker’s Twine

Detail shots…

I hope y’all have a BIG TOP kind of day!! Off you go to AMY ROHL’S blog where she has some more TCP sweetness for you!

HiP HiP HoOrAy…
TCP Sneaky Peek Week starts today! To quote the movie Despicable Me {and so many others}, “Oh yea, baby!”

This release brings 7 new stamp sets and 4 new CutUps die/die sets, all which will be released next Tuesday. Each day the design team will be featuring one of the new sets. Today’s featured set is ADMIT ONE, which pairs perfectly with the new coordinating BIG TICKET CutUps die. I made this card with Tony’s and my anniversary as inspiration…

Detail shot…

I LOVE this die and stamp set! The die is a substantial size {3″ x 2.75″} and can be the focal panel on any card or project. It also can make a cute lil’ pocket. Did ya notice the perforations? love.

The Cat’s Pajamas is this week’s sponsor of CPS {Card Positioning Systems} #238. You can check out their post/sketch HERE, along with some great TCP cards their DT did.

I doubled up on the challenges this week, too! Susan is your Hipster Hostess with the Mostess and she wants you to HYPE THE TYPE…use any TCP alphabet or sentiment stamp. Easy peasy japaneasy! Have fun with this one…there’s so many ways to complete this challenge. Just be sure to upload your card to Alma’s blog’s Slide show for a chance to be the next Swanky Stamper!

You can find a full list of sneak peekers on Alma’s blog and don’t forget leave a comment in the TCP forum on Splitcoast so you’ll be IN IT TO WIN IT!

Happy October everyone! I am so excited to announce that I wore a cute sweater yesterday! LOL!! Really, it was waaaay too warm for a sweater {in the afternoon, at least}, but I just had to because it’s fall and it’s sweater weather darnit {shakes finger at Mother Nature!}. Ok, ok, I will quit my rants about fall already {well, for now} and get onto why you all are here on the first Saturday of the month…SKETCH FOR YOU TO TRY! Every time I type that {Sketch For You to Try} I think that I should come up with a more kitschy name for it, but I started with that because I just wanted it to be fun and not be taken too seriously. So, that’s what it is and probably what it will always be…unless I have some sudden stroke of pure genius that needs immediate implementation. I’ll keep ya posted, but don’t hold your breath for that one!

As always, a big THANK YOU to last month’s sponsor, Skipping Stones Design. I love playing with their stamps!

A new month brings a new sponsor, but first a new sketch…

And now to our new sponsor… I have to admit that I have LOVED her stamps since she first came out, but I don’t have a lot of them {<--on top of list of things that I need to change!}. I was THRILLED to get to work with the Halloween Party stamp set from…{drumroll}…WALTZING MOUSE STAMPS! Thank you to Claire for sponsoring us this month!

Here’s what I came up with…

Detail shot of the main panel…

LOOOOOVE these spiders…

So, this is normally where I would put a pretty picture of the Designer of the Month and then there would be a short blurb about them followed by a card they made using the sketch. I don’t have a Designer of the Month this month. There’s no other excuse than I dropped the ball on this! Between having a car accident, a sick kid and out of town company, I flat out did not think of it until it was too late. So, tisk tisk me all you want, but DOM will be back next month!

Wanna play along? Here’s some info for you to take a peek at…

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.”

Want more WALTZING MOUSE inspiration? Check out what the SKETCH FOR YOU TO TRY SISTERS have come up with…
*all of the SFYTT Sisters will be showcasing WM at some point in October. Some of the girls are still waiting on Mr. Postman to deliver their goodies.

Amber Hight
Amy Sheffer
Becky Carafa
Carole Burrage
Iwona Palamountain
Jen Tapler
Jodi Collins
Kerry Johnson
Megan Lock
Susan Liles
Terri Moore

Ok, it’s your turn now!

Howdy SKETCH FOR YOU TO TRY friends! Tomorrow brings us a new sketch, but before we get to that I want to share another card that I did with this month’s sketch along with some Skipping Stones Design stamps…

I used the TOUGH GUY set and used my crazy lil’ Nicolas as my inspiration. Here’s the sketch for September…

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.”

Ok, it’s your turn now! What you will come up with? {trying to see if using the linky system code from the original post works…}