Technique Tuesday: Valentine's Day cards

I can't believe Valentine's Day is almost here. It's one of my favorite holidays, but it always catch me by surprise. I guess I'm usually still decompressing from the big holiday that is Groundhog Day...

But anyway...

Let's talk V-Day cards. Here are two Valentine's Day cards I created for Technique Tuesday.

The arrows in this one are from Teri Anderson's Awesome set. Which is: awesome. I stamped them on wood veneer (yes, again with veneer, sorry) and the love circle is from Ali Edwards' Adored set. The Adored set is one of Technique Tuesday's all time best sellers. The folks at TT get regular calls about this set. So they brought it back. Woohoo! I stamped it with Clearsnap Colorbox pigment ink, punched it out, and used a pop up dot to adhere it. The polka dot paper is Canvas Corp.

This card also uses Teri's stamps: the Puffy Hearts set. It's really the perfect Valentine's set. It has six heart designs, a handful of sentiments, and those cute buttons! Ink is by Clearsnap, and the twine is from The Twinery. The cardstock is Bazzill (they have this awesome super smooth one for cardmakers and stampers). Embossing powder is from American Crafts.

Thanks for stopping by today! Please come back on February 10th for our Studio AE blog hop. Did I mention prizes? Prizes = good things.

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Elle's Studio: CHA projects

As you know, I'm a huge fan of Elle's Studio, so I was super happy when she asked me to create a few projects for her CHA booth. Elle debuted patterned paper this year! And it's so good. Really.

These were all created with the You & Me collection. I just love easy-crafting. Take some paper, add photos, journal in the pre-printed cards, add some pretty little tags, a bit of hand-stitching, BOOM, done. I'm pretty sure they've started to ship these to retailers. I honestly cannot wait to get more of this stuff!

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Technique Tuesday: Studio AE February 2013

Hello hello! Technique Tuesday revealed Studio AE's latest stamp set today. It's called Super Fantastic. Because, well, it is. If you haven't heard about Studio AE, all the stamps are designed by Ali Edwards. And when you sign up for a membership, you get a nice discount on your sets. Find out more about Studio AE here.

So this is Super Fantastic:

It's eleven stamps with everyday sentiments that are perfect for scrapbooking as well as cardmaking. And here's my first project using this set:

stamps: Technique Tuesday Super Fantastic by Ali Edwards / cardstock: Neenah / patterned paper: Echo Park / tags: Elle's Studio / washi: Freckled Fawn, Bella Blvd. / ink: Clearsnap Colorbox Pigment Ink / thread: DMC / staples: Tim Holtz / adhesive: Tombow

I love the mix of the typewriter font with Ali's handwriting. For this layout, I stamped them in various colors, and did some hand stitching with some (kinda sorta) matching thread. It's a layout about my family's recent visit to an Orange County beach. It had a lot of tidepools, and my youngest was fascinated by them, and all the sea creatures he was finding. Usually, he wants to dig in the sand with his brothers (or swim if the water wasn't so cold). But because of these tidepools, he chose to explore the beach with me. WITH ME! Woohoo!

Thanks for visiting today! The Technique Tuesday team will be doing a blog hop on the 10th. So don't forget to come back. Have a great weekend.

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Lawn Fawn: Valentine's Week

It's Valentine's week over at the Lawn Fawn blog. Here's my super simple project, that could be easily reproduced, so you can spread the love!

I used the new stamp set from Pink Lemonade (the jar, the solid heart, and the label). The happy face heart is from Critters Ever After. The heart with arrow is from My Silly Valentine. The "I love you" sentiment is from Love n Breakfast, and the Happy Valentine's is from Happy Everything. The twine is Lawn Trimmings. Ink is all Clearsnap Colorbox Pigment Ink, except for black which is Tsukineko Versafine (my favorite black ink). The patterned paper is from Canvas Corp (which, by the way, is a really nice heavy weight). I stamped the label on regular printer paper so it was a little translucent.

Thanks for coming!

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Happy New Year

Uh, yeah. It's January 31st. I'm a bit late with my Happy New Year wishing, but I do mean it! Life has been a huge blur lately. Not that I have much to show for. I've been busy living it, trying really hard this year to be present in each moment. Instead of just snapping photos. Which is leaving me with very few photos to scrap. Which is ironic since I decided to give Project Life another try. Such is, right?

I do have a few things to share, starting tomorrow. Tomorrow is Technique Tuesday's Studio AE February stamp set release. I'll be sharing a project here. And it's also Lawn Fawn's Valentine's Inspiration week. Lots of amazing cards this week over at the Fawn blog!

But until then, I thought I'd share some of my Maui photos. These are my favorites, in no particular order.

The weather wasn't the best, and the water was pretty cold. But it was amazing to spend a long week together, relaxed, just enjoying each other's company, not thinking about homework or housework. I'm so blessed, and very thankful to be able to travel.

Thank you for stopping by today. Please come by again tomorrow!

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Lawn Fawn + May Arts Week

This week, Lawn Fawn is pairing up with May Arts for lots of fun! Lawn Fawn is known for its super cute stamps. And May Arts is synonymous with gorgeous ribbons. It's a good marriage!

I created a Christmas card for this. I've been making different holiday cards for the past month or so, and this might be my favorite!

The patterned paper is from Lawn Fawn's 6"x6" Fa-La-La Petite Paper Pack. I stamped the tree onto white cardstock and used watercolor crayons to color them. Then I stamped the star and the banner and the sentiment, and colored them in with markers. I fussy cut them out, and wrapped May Arts' sparkly string around the tree, using wet glue to stick it in place. The "soil" is May Arts' woven burlap ribbon.

Don't forget to drop by Lawn Fawn and May Arts' blogs for lots of  inspiration and prizes! Thanks for coming by today.

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Technique Tuesday: Holiday Cards

Good morning! Almost the weekend. Woohoo! Here's a simple card I made for Technique Tuesday. I've been listening to Christmas songs on Pandora almost non-stop, and it's getting even this curmudgeon into a happy holiday mood. Oh yes! Now if only someone else would do my Christmas shopping and decorating...

I've had this piece of wood veneer from Creative Imaginations for a while, and I really wanted to see how it inks up. I'm totally in love. Wondering how many projects with wood veneer is too many. It cuts so easily too!

I used two sets of stamps for this project. The sentiment and hat are from Teri Anderson's Twinkle On, and the ribbon is from Ali Edwards' Jingle All The Way. I used pigment ink because it's thicker, and less likely to "run" into the grooves. A little bit still spread out, but I still love this thing! Add a pompom, mount it on a white card base, and it's done.

Drop by Technique Tuesday's blog for more projects!

I'm off to Maui for the next 10 days. Don't hate me. I'll share some photos when I get home! Be good til then.

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Lawn Fawn: Inspiration Week

Me again! With more Lawn Fawn cuteness. Today, Lawn Fawn is launching Bee Mine. It's a smaller set, but full of potential!

Adorable, right? Here's the card I made with this set:

Pretty simple card. What took the most time was cutting around each heart, stems, and the bee. But once that was done, it was just 5 minutes to assemble the whole thing. The hexagon paper is from Lawn Fawn's Dewey Decimal 6"x6" paper pack.

Drop by Lawn Fawn today for a chance to win some stamps! Thanks for stopping by. Happy Wednesday!

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Lawn Fawn: Inspiration Week!

Hey there again! Lawn Fawn is launching its newest release today: Here's The Scoop! Yes, we are talking Valentine's Day already. Although, really, these are perfect for everyday love notes.

Ice cream story I must share. My father is a huge fan of ice cream. HUGE! When I was growing up, we lived in Rio de Janeiro, and my father tried out every single gelateria in town to find the best gelato shop. He asked them to make us custom gelato. As a matter of fact, my father would sometimes make his own base, haul it to the shop, and they would whip it into frozen perfection. That's dedication. He was making fig gelato before it was fashionable (and a few other awesome flavors). To keep our large inventory, we had a huge freezer just for it. We didn't have ice cream in the normal gallon size. Ours were those tubs you see in ice cream shops. Did I mention me and my siblings were really popular with kids our own age? Yeah. We were.

Back to the stamps and my card!

I used some Echo Park for the background paper. I topped the seam with Lawn Fawn's natural hemp cord. The ice cream cone was stamped and colored with alcohol markers, and trimmed out. Same with the heart. The ice cream scoops were stamped and cut out. Then it was simply stacking them and popping them up on the card. The sentiment is part of the set.

Don't forget to drop by the Lawn Fawn blog to see what the rest of the team created. And for a chance to win a lot of new goodies!

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Happy December!

Yikes! Another year going by. I read something the other day that is so true: "The days are long, but the years are short." It needs to be a poster, doesn't it?

Anyway...

I've got a layout to share today. It's in Creating Keepsakes' latest special issue, Scrapbooking Babies and Toddlers. It's about The Nose! That would be my nose. Which is also my mom's nose, and grandmother's nose. It might have been her mom's nose too, but I never met my great-grandmother, so I cannot attest to that. When I was little, growing up in a sea of people with perky little ski slope noses, I really hated my nose. My mom sold me some story about our nose being lucky. But apparently she knew what she was talking about. I've been nothing but lucky!

When my littlest was born, he had my nose, which seriously, is so much cuter on him. A most adorable button nose. Alas, the button nose is not too buttony anymore. It's definitely following in the direction of my husband's Northern/Eastern European ancestry. A more... uhm... prominent shape. Oh well.

That would be little me in the circle. Yes, wearing three piggy tails. As seen in the Scrapbooking Babies and Toddlers special issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine. Copyright Creative Crafts Group. Posted with prior permission from the publisher.

Thanks for dropping by! See you tomorrow, when I'll share Lawn Fawn's new release. We are talking Valentine's Day! Already! See? Time does fly.

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