It’s been one of those weeks here in the Desert…lots and lots of wind! This morning wasn’t too bad – Nadya and I were able to squeeze in a short visit to the park after Scaly Slimy (a class/demo on toads at the Natural History Museum)  and lunch before Mother Nature sent us home! We found a couple of those wind spinner twirly flowers, so at least Nadya enjoys the burst of spinning color through the window. Yasha ended up working until almost 9 PM last night and then had to be back at noon today – I’m still holding out hope that he’ll be home tomorrow so we can celebrate Easter with family time and a little egg hunt for Nadya.  We opted out of a traditional basket filled with candy again this year – I have a few plastic eggs to hide for her and she has a couple of cute baskets from her Baba to collect them in.  Her favorite soccer ball was flattened thanks to the teeth on our male German Shepherd, so I did opt to replace it for her as a little gift from us.

Before I get into my creations – I want to remind everyone of some fabulous deals that you won’t want to miss (ads are clickable): Ok, now that you’ve been reminded, I’ll move on to my creative ventures. I loved the He Is Risen digital stamp set from Sweet N Sassy stamps so much that I “had” to create another card with it – this is one has more digital features than many I have done of late.  Like the bird nest card from Thursday, I created the shaped card base in Photoshop (I need to test cut the SVG files and then I’ll be happy to share them), only this time I used Jodiann’s Ribbon Weave and Easter Cross styles and I opted not to trim the purple edge away from the bracket. I used the 09 KutUps font to create the mat and then added a stroke outline on a 2nd layer with a bevel style to create the embossed illusion.  Then I layered my digi-stamp over the mat, centered it, and removed the white edges to allow the mat to show through.  The fabulous leaves and flowers are commercial use extractions from Kim Broedelet designs – you can find them here.  I printed everything out on Georgia Pacific CS and let it sit for a few minutes to dry, while I rummaged in my craft closet for my Prismacolor pencils and blender marker.  I colored the image with my pencils and then blended with my Prismacolor colorless blender as I still haven’t been brave enough to breakout the Gamsol and stumps in the house.  To add some sparkle and shine to the flowers, I lightly dabbed them with Iridescent Medium (Winsor & Newton) using a small  dry brush – my printer ink is water based, so I didn’t want to smear the image by applying too of the medium. I added the stitching with a purple Pilot G-2 pen covered by coat of clear Gelly Glaze pen for interest/texture and the purple adhesive pearls (Michaels) for dimension.   I’d love to know what you think – and as a little Easter gift, I’m giving you the jpeg printable card (minus the stamped image of course) – you can download it here.  Have a fabulous and restful Easter – and celebrate the greatest gift of all with your family.

It’s Thursday – which means gymnastics for my little one and a new project for Lindsay’s Stamp Stuff! Lindsay has some awesome new Houndstooth papers in her My Grafico store (and they’re on-sale right now!!), as well as some cute Princess stamps.  However, I have once again, used her Love Grows Here set along with Jodiann’s Gelly Hearts and Mini Stripes Light styles to create 4 cute little cards.

Using Lindsay’s Multi-Bracket Paper SVG freebie as a starting point, I experimented in Inkscape until I created Multi-Bracket card base and mat SVG files – definitely a bit of a learning curve, but completely doable! Then I turned to my trusty Photoshop and with the help of Jodiann’s styles, created 5 different papers that I printed out and then using SCAL cut the card bases and mats – I used 5.5 inches as the height for me card base and 5.15 inches for the height of the mat.. Then, using Photoshop again, I selected and printed the stamps from Love Grows Here.

I must admit, I’m rather pleased with the way they turned out – though my fingers were getting a little tired – thankfully I have really good, sharp scissors!  The birds are colored with Copics and Bic Mark-Its; the hearts have a generous coating of red stickles on them, and the the stitching was drawn in with a Blue Spica pen. The sheer organdy ribbon is from my stash. The heart paper is one I created and the card base is from my stash. This was one of my DH’s favorites. This little guy was colored with Bic Mark-Its with a touch of Spica Yellow glitter pen added to his wing and Cool Grey 1 Copic for shadow. Since Lindsay is sponsoring this week’s challenge over at Tuesday Morning Sketches, I used Melissa’s fabulous sketch to guide my layout. I used Bazzill CS and an EK Success Punch to create the image mat.  The card mat is one of my creations; the base is Bazzill textured CS.  The flowers are from Prima (checkout my friend Suzanne’s store – Crafting Connection, for awesome deals on Prima) and the pearls are from Michaels. This was DH’s other favorite!

Yes, once again, I HAD to use the fabulous cupcakes in the Love Grows Here set.  I colored the cupcakes with Copics, Mark-Its, and Spica pens – I used a white gel pen for accent.  The small cupcake sprinkles are coated with Red Stickles while the large sprinkles are Dew Drops from Crafting Connection.  I added ribbon from my stash to the card mat (another of my papers).  The card base is SU.Last but not least, I used the doily heart from Love Grows Here.  I colored the heart with Copics and punched the holes in the lace with my Fiskars hand punch.  The flowers are Prima and the pearls are MS.  Both the card mat and base were created by me.

That’s about it from me, but before you head over to Lindsay’s blog to check our her fab project and goodies – as well as the links to the other DT creations, I have a surprise for you!  I’m giving away the card base and mat SVG cutting files and 4 layered, printable cards – you can get them here.  If you like them, please leave a comment and send your friends to my blog – don’t share the links directly – thanks!

Have a fabulous Thursday!

…at Lindsay’s Stamp Stuff! I just love this new set – so much so that I incorporated it with Bunny’s new January Card Class and the Digital Tuesday challenge to create 3 super cute (at least I think so) cards.     My first card features a cupcake from Lindsay’s Love Grows Here set and one of the scallop heart mats I created using Sure Cuts A Lot and my mom’s baby bug (thanks Mom!) and it’s my entry for today’s Digi Day challenge at SNR.. I ran the card base through my Big Shot with a Fiskars Heart Texture Plate to add just a bit of dimension.  The glitter papers are DCWV and the ribbon is from my stash.  The cupcake is colored with Copics, Spica and Sakura markers/pens and some diamond glaze on the cherry (note to self – let it dry flat or it runs!!!) I used pearl ex powder over chalk ink to give the heart cutout a little shine before adding red glitter faux stitching and then coated it and the cupcake with Winsor & Newton Iridescent Medium – super easy and cute! My 2nd card uses the same glitter CS – this time run through my Big Shot with the Cuttlebug D’Vine Swirls embossing folder. I used SCAL to create the mat and to add the scallops to the card edge.  The cherry hearts are included in Lindsay’s Love Grows Here set.  I added some pearls stickers and faux stitching before stamping the sentiment (SU – retired) in Pearlescent Coral (Brilliance) ink.My last card of the group (the class gives you info for 4 cards, but I ran out of time – I have another cupcake already decorated and ready to go though) is a circle-shaped card – another of my first SCAL creations.  I embossed the front with my D’Vine Swirls folder.  I used my largest Nestie Circle as a template for my stitching.  The red ribbon is from my stash and the little flowers were liberated from one of my little one’s broken hair barrettes ( whew – I knew I could recycle somehow!)

For this week, Lindsay challenged us to recycle – aka repurpose an item or two on our creations – and you can enter too! Today is the last day to enter your “repurposed” project for a chance to win a free stamp set – check Lindsay’s blog for all of the details, links to the other fabulous DT projects, and possibly a FREEBIE! Then head to Lindsay’s store to snag this super cute set and check out her new SVG files – yup Lindsay is now selling cutting files!  And, just for hanging out with me today – I have a goodie for you too – my VERY FIRST cutting files – they’re in SCUT format as I haven’t mastered all the conversions yet – but hey we all to start somewhere.  I’m sharing the scallop heart mats I created to go with my cards and Bunny’s class!

That’s all from me – today  is the last day of swimming lessons – next week we start tumbling again. Plus I REALLY need to join the ranks and tidy my craft space and find homes for all of the new Christmas goodies. Have a fabulous day!