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.”

Hooray, it’s the first Saturday in July and time for a new SKETCH FOR YOU TO TRY!

I am absolutely loving all the creations you are making with each of the sketches! I hope that you are having as much fun playing with them as I am. What do you think of the monthly format? Wish it was still weekly? I would love to hear your thoughts because I am already thinking about next year’s format. Yes, really! Don’t go thinking of me as all super organized or anything now…seriously!

Thank you to Stamping Bella for being last month’s sponsor. I have sorely missed playing with all my Bellas as my stamping time as dwindled down. I have a large box full of them and some of those new ones are screaming to join them!

Of course, we have another great sponsor this month…MY FAVORITE THINGS! You know ‘em and love ‘em and the SFYTT Sisters have lots to show you with ‘em today, too! But first, let’s see the sketch…

There is so much you can do with this sketch! I already have a scrappy version that I am cookin’ up in my head. For now, I will let Fred Bear do the cookin’…

I might be on a little bit of a paper pleating kick, or maybe it’s all about being a one trick pony having been sick lately! Either way, I like it.

Detail shot of the button/twine combo on the end of the paper pleating…

Are you interested in being a Designer of the Month? I choose each D.O.M. from previous month’s entrants. This month, I would like to welcome SFYTT fan DEBBIE CARRIERE…

A little about Debbie in her own words…
Hello, my name is Debbie Carriere and I am very excited that Jen asked me to be the July Designer of the Month for SFYTT! I am a stay-at-home mom of 3 wild kids (ages 6, 3, and 2), wife of 10 years to a great husband, and paper crafting addict. I was introduced to stamping as a scrapbooker, but since joining the blogging world just about a year ago I am hopelessly addicted to cardmaking (not to mention blogging!). Most nights after the kids are in bed, you will find me creating in my “scrap room” until after I should have gone to bed! I also love to spend time outdoors, playing with my kids, reading, drinking coffee. I am looking forward to seeing all the fabulous creations for this month’s great sketch!

Here’s Debbie’s oh-so-cute card using one of the stamps from the Pure Innocence line {a personal fave o’ mine}…

Want a little more inspiration? See what all the SFYTT Sisters have come up with…

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

Kelly Lunceford has stepped down from her SFYTT post as she prepares for the arrival of sweet lil’ one. Please go give her some SFYTT love and let her know how much she will be missed!
Sony Christoph is playing with us this month! Glad to see you got some stamping time, Sony!!

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, your turn now…

Hey MFT fans! I hope you are having fun hopping along looking at everyone’s creations! If you happened upon my blog randomly and don’t want to miss a thing, be sure to start HERE at Kim’s blog.

The set that I have used here is a little piece of me! The Pure Innocence painter girl concept and some of the sentiments are all ideas that I am happy to see come to clear stamp fruition. What do you think of this set, You Color My World?…

I just had to use that Pretty Posies Die-Namics flower set again! You know when I get on a roll with something like that, it’s hard to stop me! LOL! I used the Simply Scallops Medium Die-Namics die on the inside…

Die-Namics used…

I’d love to stay and chat, but you gotta keep on a hoppin’!! Off you go to Melody’s blog to see yet another wonderful creation!

It’s another day of Teasers from My Favorite Things and we are on the eve of the release. You can see a full list of those showing off the new MFT sets, as well as release details on Kim’s blog HERE.

One of the sets that is being featured by the team today is Hello, Sunshine by Claire Keay…

I gotta say that I love cutting up a sentiment and placing it just how I want it! I thought that I would give tone on tone a try and I really like the way that it came out…

I kept on with the tone on tone look on the inside, too…

The inside sentiment is actually a combination of two sentiments from the set. I’m also a fan of cutting my clear stamps to make them work for me. I don’t know that I could say that there “endless” possibilities with that lil’ trick, but it can make your clear sets go a little further.

As for some of the other details…
I stuck with my favorite color combo {of the moment, at least}: Olive, Orange, Teal {with a splash of yellow}
There a a few Die-Namics that are coming out in this release {of course!}. I used Simply Scallops Medium and Pretty Posies {see graphics in previous MFT Teaser post}.
I wrinkled the paper flowers and then layered them for some added texture/detail.
I’m still lovin’ using acrylic flatbacks in all sort of colors/styles. The ones in the center of flowers are from Stamping Bella.

There’s a lot of DT members struttin’ their stuff with the new MFT goods today, so I won’t keep you here for long! Have fun checking it all out!

Have a great day! I’m kicking off my week with a {re}visit to the dentist. Blech!! Hopefully, I’ll be doing some stamping, too!

Can you believe it’s already time for a My Favorite Things release? Yep, it’s just around the corner and today is the first day of MFT Teaser Time! Be sure to check out Kim’s blog for a full list of those peeking the new releases today.

MFT is constantly moving forward with new styles and lines and the set that I am previewing today is the perfect example of that. The new set, Own Your Story, is a bit scrappy, a bit vintage-y and a whole lotta fun!

I’m on a roll with 4.25″ square cards…

In addition to the Own Your Story set that comes out on Tuesday, I also used the Pretty Posies Die-Namics on the outside and the Four Point Frame and Simply Scallops Medium Die-Namics dies both on the outside and inside of the card. I really like that the images that I used that coordinates with the Four Point Frame is slightly larger than the die, making it very easy to cut out and not have to be so super precise.

Coordinating inside of card…

Don’t forget to pop in tomorrow for the NEW Sketch For You To Try!