Yesterday was digi-day for Sweet n Sassy Stamps at SNR – which means a new challenge (SNSDD10 – Easter) and a new prize for playing along (using Sweet n Sassy images isn’t required).  I tried valiantly to finish my card last night for the early bird prize too – but between gymnastics, the park, and dinner it just didn’t happen!  Fortunately we have until next Wednesday to complete the challenge and still earn a free sentiment set. Thanks Korin! That being said, here’s my card – I think I’ll give it away as well; I already have someone special in mind.I LOVE that cross image – it’s a new release from Sweet n Sassy Stamps – you can find it here.  Though sentiments are included in the set, I opted to created my own in Photoshop – I wanted to tie the usual Happy Easter that’s often accompanied with a bunny or eggs with a deeper reason for celebrating.  I printed the stamp and sentiment on Neenah classic crest white cs – my first time using this paper.  I must say it allowed more bleeding than I expected, but I like the bright white finish. While giving the ink a few minutes to dry, I found an awesome sketch challenge at The Sweet Stop that I decided to follow. For my Designer Paper, I returned to Photoshop and printed one of the awesome papers in Designs By Kristine’s  newest kit – Cheerful (on-sale for a short time). I loved the texture and the color scheme reminded me of dawn about to break – so it tied in perfectly with my image.  My image is colored with copic markers and spica pens.  I used shimmer chalks to shade the background – using a light blue except near the center of the cross where I used yellow and a circle mask to give the subtle illusion of dawn breaking – again tying in with the image and the DP I had selected. Since I didn’t have any fixative spray and I didn’t want the chalk smearing or wiping off, I used some aerosol hairspray – the Aquanet inexpensive type works best, but since I don’t use that on my hair, I used my Pantene since that’s what I had on hand.  It worked well and my card is now lightly scented! I trimmed the image and matted it with Ballet Blue scrap cs.  I edged the DP and Barely Banana card base with a MS punch – our Wal-Mart clearanced several punch around the page sets before Christmas. I added a teeny bit more texture to the DP using my Big Shot and an SU texture plate.  The sentiment was cut out using my Circle Nestabilities and tucked in behind the edge of my image panel.  The ribbon is from my stash.  I added the tiny pearls (Michaels) to the ribbon as a finishing touch. To “round out” my card and anchor my image, I added white and purple flowers from Prima – I love these self-adhesive flowers and wish I could find more of them! There you have it – probably more detail than you wanted, but detail nonetheless.  I really enjoyed creating this card – the image just “spoke” to me and everything came together from there!  I’d love to know what you think too!

It’s time for me to close and begin the much less fun and creative but oh so necessary task of laundry and house tidying!  With a toddler around, it seems like a never-ending task – but she’s beyond worth it!  What? You’d like a little peak from our activities yesterday?  Alright – just a peak (then run to Jodiann’s blog this weekend – she used Kim’s newest kit Merry Around and a photo of my little one to create a STUNNING scrapbook layout):

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Have a fabulous Friday and weekend!

It’s Thursday already – where has my week gone?!?!? Though all of my days seem to fly by – this week has been one of lesser productivity and activities – the nasty respiratory bug that’s been making the rounds stopped for a visit at our house! My DH had it last week and he very generously shared it with me starting Sunday – I think I’m over the worst of it, but still have a bit of a nagging cough.  Plus, my sweet little one was under the weather over the weekend – requiring lots of Mommy-time and laundry! Fortunately she only had a 12-hour bug – I’m crediting the buffet at Peter Piper Pizza for it.

On to more pleasant topics – you’re probably here to see my latest creation for Lindsay’s Stamp Stuff and I’ll not be one to disappoint! I was browsing through a back issue of PaperCrafts magazine and noting all of the “simple” card designs and thought I would try one of my own.  I wanted to work with Lindsay’s Birds & Branches stamp set – it’s such a versatile set and perfect for the “simple” theme I had set for myself:

I selected the mailbox stamp for my card.  I printed the image in medium brown (#594029) on Naturals Ivory CS.  After trimming away the excess, I sanded the edges and ran them over my Walnut Stain Distress Ink pad to add definition.  Then I stippled the same ink over the image surface.  I rummaged in my stash and found some ivory lace hem facing and adhered it to the edge of my image panel.  Since I didn’t want to drag out my sewing machine, I pulled out my A Stitch in Time stamps (retired) from Clear Dollar Stamps – you can find similar ones here – and added the zigzag across the edge to tie my panel and lace together (also in Walnut Stain).  For my card base, I selected a patterned and textured card from DCWV Indian Summer Fall Box of Cards and shaped it with the largest Nestabilities: Labels 8 die. After attaching my panel and lace to the card base, I added Orange Bauble Drops (I love these – you can get lots of fabulous colors at a great price from my friend Suzanne’s store Crafting-Connection) and colored the flowers lightly with my Pumpkin Pie marker.  Whew – 1 “simple” card that I’m really proud of – I used colors that were outside my norm and didn’t allow myself to over “think” or embellish.  I’d love to know what you think too!

If you didn’t arrive here from Lindsay’s blog be sure to stop there! She’ll have a freebie for you and the links to the rest of the DT projects.  Also, today is the last day of the MyGrafico St. Patrick’s Day sale – 30% off until midnight – a perfect time to grab any of Lindsay’s stamps at a great price and receive your downloads instantly!

That’s all for me! Today is the last day of gymnastics for this term – we get a 1 week break next week while the public schools are on spring break, and then we’ll start up again the following week.  My little one keeps asking for swimming lessons too – so I may check into those again this afternoon.  Speaking of my little one – she is choosing to express her creative side more and more lately – here’s a peak at what I call “The Body as Canvas”: Thankfully she used her water-based Crayola markers and nothing more permanent!  She was quite proud of herself – her Daddy and I tried very hard not to laugh as we didn’t want to encourage her.  Obviously I couldn’t resist reaching for my camera though!

Another Thursday is upon us – so that means another fun creation using Lindsay’s Stamp Stuff digital stamps.  For my card today, I chose to digitally “paper-piece” a flower from the Doodle Flowers set.Along with the swirl frame from SVGCuts.com – A2 All Occasion card set: Textures from Kristine’s (Designs by Kristine) Texture Plated 2: And one of my favorite and most versatile style sets – Jodiann’s Mini-Stripe Lites: Now that you know what I used, let’s see what I did!  Following my “norm”, I opened the flower in Photoshop, separated layers, and applied styles and textures until I was happy with the look – here’s what my flower looked like in Photoshop:

Then I duplicated the flower 9 times so I could layer the petals for dimension and printed them out on Georgia Pacific cardstock.  I cut the swirl frame using SCAL and my mom’s baby bug from one of my DCWV glitter mat stacks. Then I trimmed all of the flower layers, and similar to Lindsay’s post on Monday, I used the end of a rounder paintbrush to burnish the backside of the leaves to give them some dimension as I wasn’t going to piece them separately from the base layer.

The card base is from my stash – I ran it through my Big Shot with a Cuttlebug embossing folder and then used my Pebbles Pearlescent chalks to add shimmer to the embossed area. I added the frame and then began layering and adhering the flowers.  I used buttons from my stash (Wal-Mart) as the flower centers and added a glitter butterfly (Wal-Mart) for fun and sparkle.  I drew the butterfly trail with one of my Zig Micron pens. Here’s a close-up of my sparkly butterfly:And my layered flowers – I just love the dimension here: Such a versatile a fun set to create with.  I purposely didn’t add a sentiment as I am thinking of gifting this card and I want the recipient to be able to use it however they’d like.

If you didn’t arrive here from Lindsay’s blog, be sure to stop there.  She’s known to have freebies, as well as fabulous eye-candy and the links to the rest of the DT blogs/projects.  She’s also having a sale in celebration of St. Patty’s day – helping you save a bit of green!

Have a great day – we’re off to gymnastics, and then to shop for a new toaster oven – ours smells like it’s about to combust – you know the not so pleasant burning electronics scent that everyone wants in their kitchen?!?!?!