The event we've been waiting a year for is finally here! I am just beyond excited!!! I was able to get an early start with the hopes of keeping up with the schedule this year ... alas, there was just too much crafty inspiration to be had and tutorials to drool over. lol! The posts and videos are still free for the viewing, but the challenges aren't, so let me get right to it! In case you would like to check out all the fun for yourself, you can find it on Nichole's blog, here.
My day started very early getting one of my soccer players up, ready, and out the door. She and DH left a couple minutes before 7am - perfect timing for me to place my SAF order and earn that sweet Reasons to Smile stamp set for free. * Score! *
I ate my farmer's market-fresh cinnamon roll (delish!) while browsing all the sketch and color combos for the Morning Bake & Take challenge. Here are the sketch and color combos I chose:
And my take:
Then I started rolling out some paperclay to use later as well as get some tea boiling for the next challenge - Tea Staining! I stained some muslin fabric and promptly dumped out the tea before realizing that I wanted to also dye some laces. Hmmm. Instant coffee crystals to the rescue! I got the lace wet with boiling water and then sprinkled on some coffee crystals. The effect was neat, since I could get an overall color, or a speckled look depending on whether I mixed up the coffee or just sprinkled and let it sit.
I just Adore (with a capital A) Melissa Phillips' works of heart. She is one amazingly talented lady! I made my fabric flower much like hers in the tutorial. I used some watered-down coffee to spritz my bookprint (love how that turned out) and fashioned my card after Melissa's. I love, love, love how it turned out! Thank you, Melissa!
I also wanted to try Betsy's dip-dye technique using the Kool-Aid packages for coloring. I dipped an A2 size piece of white card stock into some red Kool-Aid on one side and then flipped it around and dipped the other side into some purple. It's a neat effect and I think I'll try it again with some brighter colors next time. I die cut my dip-dyed card stock with the Rainbow Stripes die and mimicked the design of this awesome card by Erin. I used the sugar-coated technique of Betsy's to glitter the die cut star.
Now, the rolled dough challenge proved a bit difficult for me. It took ages to dry and then it was nearly too thick to cut. I seriously thought I might break my poor Big Shot! Late on Sunday, I did finally manage to eek out some die cut stars and heat embossed them in gold.
I made this card with my DD's in mind as they both played awesome at their soccer games over the weekend and green is one of their team colors. :) So proud of those girls!
The mixing mists challenge was much more fun than I'd anticipated, I mean, how could I possibly make a mist that would rival Mr. Hueys? I ended up making a mist from Hawaiian Shores ink refill and used it to spritz over a handmade chevron mask. I found the homemade mist to be a bit more translucent without any shimmer (because I opted not to add the perfect pearls). The results reminded me of the color wash look that's so popular right now. So, Nichole proved me wrong ... there is most definitely a use in my craft room for homemade mists!
Onto the Sprinkle of Salt challenge. Who knew? Who knew you could use salt like a coarse glitter? I sure didn't. A heavy dose of glittery goodness makes me think of snow, so I chose to salt-up my Peaceful Pinecone image to make a festive holiday tag.
Have you heard of the Gallon, Quart, Pint theory? I had. But, let you tell you, I had trouble with this challenge. The theory is pretty straight-forward. Shouldn't have been an issue, but this one took me awhile.
Time to revert to your childhood. Remember way back, way, way back to when you played with Shrinky Dinks? Yep, time to revisit that art form! I took Melissa's cue and decided to make a cute jar pendant. I used green (my DD's favorite color) embossing powder to include some stars as well as silver to stamp the jar image. The resulting little jar is just so tiny and cute! On a side note - the jar ended up curling a little bit while cooling off. I was afraid to try and flatten it on account of the embossing, and when I tested it with my fingernail, it ended up smearing one of the stars a little bit - oops - still wet, I guess.
I also used frosted shrinky dinks and my copic markers to make this little cutie:
This was such a fun technique and there is such possibility. I can't wait to explore it more, especially with my DD's by my side. :)
Next up on the schedule are the Scent-sational cards. I canNOT wait to get my grubby little craft hands on that cute stamp set designed specifically for scratch and sniff cards. My DD's thought that was the neatest idea and loved smelling the card I made ... Mmmmm, strawberry!
Getting towards the end of the fun with the Limited Ingredients challenge. After I decided on a design, this one went pretty quick. I used inspiration from one of the DT (I can't find who at the moment) for the sentiment/balloon string idea, along with the angled panel idea from Maile. I love the result - festive, fun, and pretty easy!
One last challenge - Sweet Sugar-Coated Embellishments. I have to say, Betsy's tutorial for glittering paper or embellishments is the best I've seen yet! The spray adhesive gives a nice even coat, which gives a nice even appearance to the glitter layer. Ever brush on some glue and then sprinkle it with glitter? Did you have good results? Well, I tried it, and bleh, the results were terrible! The glitter came out thin in some spots and denser in others. Betsy's technique worked great! Then, add that layer of clear coat like Betsy suggests, and it's pure glittery heaven. :)
To wrap up the festivities, I've got a photo of all my projects along with a glimpse at my work area, including the 8"x14" spot of cleared desktop I used to make all of my creations. haha!
Hope you had a great time this weekend. I know I sure enjoyed myself! I'm already looking forward to SAF 2014! :)
Thanks ever so much for stopping by!
PTI August Blog Hop - Fast Food, Color & Sketch Challenge
This month's PTI Blog Hop Challenge is to create a project using one of their yummy color and sketch combos. These combos were seriously inspiring, I mean, seriously! I ended up creating a card for each combo!
If you would like to check out the challenge for yourself and gawk at the gorgeous entries, you can see it all here.
Since time is of the essence (and I'm still trying to complete some of the Stamp-A-Faire challenges), I'm going to simply show the inspiration photos along with my take on them. I'll come back to edit my post at a later time to provide you with more info and details. Thanks for understanding!
Challenge Fajita-Style Quesadilla:
Challenge Broccolini with Crispy Lemon Crumbs:
Challenge Blueberry Summer Smoothie:
Challenge Pastel Layer Cake:
Challenge Chocolate Chip Rolo Cookies:
Challenge Strawberry Rhubarb Pie:
All supplies by PTI.
Thanks ever so much for stopping by!
What a fun and nautical-feeling mood board over at WPlus9 this past couple of weeks! I was inspired to make a couple of cards with this one. There are some gorgeous entries you can ogle over at WPlus9, just click here to check it out for yourself.
First up is a simple banner card. I stamped the banner repeatedly over the background and then showcased a single banner, done in watercolor pencils and popped up on foam adhesive for added dimension.
Lastly, I was inspired by the monogram from the Mood Board photo, and I just HAD to try out my new Monogrammed stamp set from WPlus9. I love that stamp set!
A simple one-layer card, but perfect as a thank you note, or better yet, done in a rainbow variety set to gift to someone special.
I'm going to put that on my to-do list. :)
All stamps and dies from WPlus9.
Thanks ever so much for stopping by!
This month's PTI Blog Hop challenge is to create a project incorporating a touch of gold. Just check out this inspiration photo ... so elegant! If you would like to check things out for yourself, you can find out all about it here.
I chose to incorporate a bit of gold with a soft and pretty pink baby card, using gold ink and a trio of gold star sequins.
The Striped Sweater stamp set was used to cover the card base, alternating Berry Sorbet, Sweet Blush, and white inks. I sprayed some pearl shimmer mist on the white panel before embossing it with the Quatrefoil plate for a deeper impression and a little extra sparkle. :) The card was finished with a Sweet Blush pattern paper word die cut and a hand-crocheted strand, wrapped around the main panel and tied in a bow.
My second card boasts an animal print panel, created using the backs of some flower stamps from my stash, with touches of gold embossing. The sentiment was embossed in white, and the stripes on the tag were embossed in gold using scor-tape. A girly-girl, hot pink double-bow tops the card off. :) My DD is so excited to give this card at her next invited birthday party!
Thanks ever so much for stopping by!
Have you seen the gorgeous inspiration photo over at WPlus9 this week? It's so fun and summery! If you'd like to check it out for yourself, you can see it here.
I just HAD to try out the new milk bottle stamp from the new release set, Milk & Cookies, from WPlus9. Isn't it just the sweetest little thing?? I paired it up with the Written on Ribbon set to make one sweet birthday card.
I used a craft knife to cut a few slits into the ribbon diecut to allow the milk bottle to slide right in.
A punch was used to make a scallop edge on the card front and some washi tape on the inside edge to contrast against the scallops. Lastly, the card was finished with an appropriately decorated sentiment stamped inside.
Thanks ever so much for stopping by! Hope you have a "sweet" day!
Supplies:
WPlus9: Milk & Cookies, Written on Ribbon, Chantilly Trim, Fresh Picked, Fresh Preserves, and coordinating dies
Other: Ink, scallop punch, Copic markers, washi tape
Finished size: 3.5"x5"
This week Papertrey Ink has a tutorial and challenge hosted by Ashley. She has shown us a fabulous idea and technique to create photo postcards by using our stamps to dress up our photos. Wow! Why hadn't I thought of that? :)
If you would like to check it out for yourself, you can find all the info here.
I rummaged through the photos I had on my phone to see if any were good candidates for this challenge. I came up with more than a few. :)
The first photo I knew right away that I wanted to pair with this great sentiment from the Petal Pushers stamp set. I felt it was the perfect match.
This is actually the second photo I stamped on. Let me explain. I had my photos printed at Target. They are the glossy finish, like Ashley used, but the PTI dye ink did NOT soak into the photo, like it showed in Ashley's video. The upside to that was my stamp did not stick to the photo. The downside ... neither did the ink. I have that photo with ink, still in a pool, not dried, for the last two days! Phooey! So, with this photo, I used white StazOn ink. It turned out perfect! It turned out so wonderful, that I decided this would make a great father's day card! So, that's what I did. Adhered it to a card base and will have the kiddos sign it for Daddy. :)
My next attempt was riddled with ink woes as well. I decided to stick with the StazOn ink, except this time it didn't turn out perfect at all! What?!? Who knows why? If you know why, please clue me in. :) So, I restamped the sentiment with just a pigment white ink. The results: brighter and more readable, but still wet 2 days later.
The photo is of my DD made up like a sugar skull for last halloween. It was so fun painting all that on her face. Hopefully the ink on the postcard will be dry by this halloween. haha!
I tried to do a retro-modern look to decorate the correspondence side:
I found these cute photos of minecraft characters my DDs made out of cardboard and duct tape. My first thought was to make some birthday gift tags out of them. I know it's not a postcard, but the idea is the same. :)
This time I tried black memento ink with my sentiment. No better than the dye ink. And with the dark color, I think it even looks worse. I used PTI Aqua Mist for the sentiment on the second tag. (the Aqua Mist ink does show up a bit more in person)
A look at the festive backside:
I really love this stamping on photos idea! I don't think I would have come up with that father's day card on my own, and I really love it! More importantly, I think my DH will love it! With that, I am going to need to come up with some new materials to attempt this in the future. Either different ink, or different photo paper. How about you? Did you give this challenge a try? What was your outcome: difficulties or success? I'd love any tips you may have for me!!
- Post edited to add more projects. -
I love this photo of my DS with his face painted from Family Night festivities at Chick Fil-A:
I turned it into a "thinking of you/have a good day" postcard:
This is a photo of my DD dressed as the clown, Emmett Kelly, for her Famous Hoosier project at school:
Doesn't it make the perfect "Missing You" postcard?
And lastly, a postcard of our new family member, sweet Zulilly. We adopted her in February from a local rescue shelter who saves felines from surrounding area high-kill shelters. She is the sweetest little thing!
We have a couple of feline-loving family members who would enjoying seeing our new addition to the family. :)
That's it from me. Thanks ever so much for stopping by!
