Joyous Bells

Yes, I have another holiday card today!!! I'm telling you, if you do them here and there, you'll have a gorgeous collection ready by the time you need them.

I'll leave you with a few photos of the project showing my coloring up close, and the products are listed below.

Products Used:

• Sheena A Little Bit Festive EZMount Stamp Set, Silver Bells
• Ultra Smooth Premium White Cardstock
• Memento, Tuxedo Black
• Distress Ink, Festive Berries (for the Joy wood shape)
• Spectrum Noir Markers: GB7, GB6, GB10, EB2, EB5, EB8, DR1, DR5, EB3, EB7, DG2, DG3, LG1, LG4, CG4, IB1, Blender
• Extra Strong Permanent Tape Runner
• Double Sided Circle Foam Adhesive

Be sure to check out all the Holiday items Crafter's Companion has to offer and get a jump on that holiday crafting.

Have a Wonderful Day!

I think we should all have cards on hand for whatever we need, and this is a wonderful card to send to someone just because. In the era of online communication, it's a joy to see something addressed to you in the mailbox, isn't it? You get a bit of excitement wondering what it is! At least I do. I love getting handmade or handwritten correspondence. This is a beautifully simple card for just the occasion.

I took the clean and simple approach (otherwise known as CAS) for this layout. I used the Sheena Douglass Perfect Partners, Poppy set and inked up the leaf in Memento Luxe, Pistachio and stamped my own background paper on the white cardstock. Once that was dry, I rounded two opposite corners and adhered to an olive green card base. 

The sentiment is from the Sheena Douglass Perfect Partners, Wonderful Day set. I inked that up with some nice, rich Versafine ink in Onyx Black. It's super dark and it's wonderful to use on a patterned card like I did. It is nice and dark! I found a simple floral embellishment in my stash and I adhered that to the corner of my sentiment card and used some foam adhesive to glue that to the stamped background I created. 

Visit Crafter's Companion today for more gorgeous products!

Thrift Shop Find to Cute Keepsake

Good morning, everyone! I am excited to share a new project with you up on the Blitsy blog today. I have taken a thrift shop find and transformed it into this amazing sugar skull design! Anyone who knows me knows I'm obsessed with sugar skulls / Day of the Dead artwork and design.

I took this thrift shop find:

And transformed it into this:

Want to know how I did this? Check out the full post here: http://blitsy.com/blog/diy/how-to-go-from-thrift-shop-find-to-cute-keepsake

Have a Roar of a Time

I have a bit different of a card for you today. Something I've never done before. A shaped card! I wanted to do something a little different, so here we go...

First of all, I adore this set so much. This is the Scruffy Little Kitten, Freddie set. As a mom of boys, I love when I see cute little boy sets like this one. I colored him in with my Spectrum Noir Markers and  decided to cut him out in a circle shape. It fit perfectly.

The card base is also a circle shape. I used a simple white cardstock piece, folded it in half and laid my die on top of that. I left the top of the die hanging over so it wouldn't cut into the fold I had made and ran it through my die cutting machine. I topped that off with a fun green and white patterned paper cut to the same size circle as I used for the card shape. I glued that onto the white card base.

I thought it would be fun to cut apart the sentiment from the set and color in the word ROAR using a graduated look. I went from dark to lighter green. I used foam adhesive to pop it off the card.

This is a great card to give for a little boys birthday! ROAR!

Products Used:

• Scruffy Little Kitten EZMount Stamp Set, Freddie
• Ultra Smooth Premium White Cardstock
• Memento, Tuxedo Black
• Spectrum Noir Markers: FS2, FS3, FS7, CR6, EB3, TN3, TN4, TN7, GB5, GB11, JG1, JG6, JG7, GT1, GT2, CG3, CG4, LG1, LG2, LG3, IG4, LG5, BG2, BG1, Blender
• Extra Strong Permanent Tape Runner
• Double Sided Adhesive Foam Circles

Lawnscaping Challenge 112: Embossing

Good morning! I'm back with another fun challenge. This challenge is EMBOSSING. You can use a variety of different embossing methods including heat, dry, texture paste, etc.!

We are sponsored by the always amazing Lawn Fawn! They just rock and they are sponsoring this challenge with a free stamp set of the winner's choice! It's a tough decision :)

And now on to my challenge card I created...

I used a kraft card base to start with. I then picked an orangish color cardstock for a punch of color and used my Sizzix large dots embossing folder to add some texture. The orangish color matches the color I used in the center of the ice cream container!

I created my own stencil with die cutting a piece of plain white cardstock using the Lawn Fawn Heart Lawn Cuts. It took me a little while to cut this out, but I think it's well worth it! I encourage you to use your dies in the same way. It's really a fun way to create your own stencil. 

Then, I laid my stencil down and secured it with painters tape (you can use washi as well) to my craft mat. I applied the texture paste with a piece of scrap cardstock. You can use a knife or palette tool to spread the paste onto your stencil. It dries really quickly, so you have to work a bit fast and clean up right away. It's like cement! 

I set my piece aside to dry before I used a water brush pen with my Spectrum Aqua Markers on an acrylic block. I just scribbled on a small section of color from the marker and pick it up with the water brush pen. This helps to really showcase the texture of the paste. I like to leave my paste layer a bit thicker and not as smooth to really make it fun to look at and feel. 

For the little image, I used a simple circle diecut with a piece of purple and white striped cardstock and curved the sentiment from the Lawn Fawn Treat Yourself set and inked it up with Memento in Tuxedo Black. That's the beauty of clear stamps! You can bend and curve them just how you want 

to in order to fit your project.

The ice cream container, lid and spoon were colored in on some watercolor cardstock with my Spectrum Aqua Markers and my water brush pen. I wanted it to have a softer feel this time, and the watercolor markers are a perfect way to do that. These images are also from the Treat Yourself set. It's a must-have little set!

I hope you're inspired to get to embossing and enter our challenge!! Have fun!

Christ-Moose Card

Getting a head start on my holiday cards this year!! I have an adorable one from the new Nordic Christmas line by Crafter's Companion. I want them all. They are seriously must haves. Since winter lasts forever here, I can use these products for many months!!

Come on, how cute is he???? (You can always make him a girl if you'd like by adding some rosy cheeks and eyelashes!) I wanted a warm and inviting card to send to a special loved one this holiday season and he definitely fits the bill there. 

I've listed the products below. Here are a couple more shots of the card to show the coloring up close and details. 

Products Used:

• Nordic Christmas EZMount Stamp Set, Christmas Cheer
• Die'Sire Essentials, Scalloped Squares
• Textures Woodgrain Embossing Folder
• Spectrum Noir Markers: DR1, DR7, TN5, TN7, TN9, LY2, GB3, CR2, CR5, GT3, BT5, JG1, CG3, BT7, OR2, BP3, LV2, FL3, HB2, LG3, LG1, JG1, JG6, IG1, Blender
• Ultra Smooth Premium White Cardstock
• Memento, Tuxedo Black
• Extra Strong Permanent Tape Runner
• Double Sided Adhesive Foam Circles

Be sure to check out the Nordic Christmas line as well as all the other wonderful holiday themed products Crafter's Companion has to offer. 

Bluebell Greetings

I have a very simple, but beautiful card up today for Crafter's Companion! I LOVE when there are coordinating dies for stamps. Especially for intricate or smaller stamps, it makes it so much easier to cut them out after coloring them. 

Today, I've used the Sheena Douglass Perfect Partners Blubell stamp set and the coordinating metal dies. I started off by stamping onto my Ultra Smooth Premium White Cardstock with Memento Ink in Tuxedo Black. I colored everything in with my Spectrum Noir Markers (DG1, DG2, DG4, TB2, TB3, TB4, TB6 and Blender). After I colored everything, I cut them out with the coordinating dies. (In hindsight, I should have cut them out first and then colored them just to make sure that I didn't diecut them incorrectly after spending the time coloring!)

I used a simple white card base and embossing Shimmering Cardstock in Sky Blue with the Embossalicious Lattice 6x6 Embossing Folder. I rounded two corners and adhered to the card base.

I glued down a sentiment card from a sheet of patterned paper I had in my stash and then glued down my flowers on top of that. Very elegant and clean layout! 

I hope you enjoyed my card today. Check out all the amazing Sheena floral sets from Crafter's Companion. 

Lawnscaping Challenge #111: Back to School

Good morning!! It's almost that time of year that some parents look forward to, and some parents, like myself, who are NOT looking forward to it. I'm talking about Back to School. That means no more lazy days during the summer to play video games, hang out outside, watch movies on a rainy afternoon or read books until you pass out! So much fun is had during the summer even we were aren't doing anything - it's time together. Sniffle...

But join myself and the other amazing design team with our projects for the current challenge:

The wonderful, fabulous Ellen Hutson! is sponsoring this challenge!!! Certainly you are familiar with her and her store, but if not, a little bit about the store in her own words:

Ellen Hutson, LLC began their adventure in November 2006 as an online web store committed to bringing you the finest paper crafting products and related product education. They are always looking to provide their customers with quality products, excellent customer service, and education and inspiration for the products they carry. You can shop with Ellen by clicking HERE. As well please join them to be inspired and learn some fun techniques in the CLASSroom, or stay up-to-date on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and/orPinterest.

Ellen Hutson will be sponsoring our first challenge of each month in 2015! The prize? A $25 gift certificate to the online store! Thank you Ellen!

Now on to my projects. Yes, I made two. While I was creating my first card, I had to make a second one; one for each child. I usually start the first day of school out by leaving them a handmade card and way too much wording on the inside pouring out my thoughts, but it helps me :) And I hope that they look back on these when they're older and smile.

I created this adorable little card for my youngest who is starting Kindergarten this year. 

I wanted something cute, but boyish. I decided on a simple color palette and layout for this card. I took my Darice ABCs embossing folder with some black linen cardstock and ran that through my machine. I then punched the left hand side with a Stampin' Up notebook punch and rounded the other two corners. I rubbed on some Memento Luxe in Wedding Dress to mimic a chalkboard. I glued that down to my white card base. 

I wanted a pop of color, so I took a red strip and trimmed to the same size as my black embossed piece and glued that down over it. 

For the sentiment, I diecut out the fancy frame from the Lawn Fawn Stitched Labels. Then, I used the "sweet wishes" from the Lawn Fawn Milk and Cookies set. I just covered up the wording to be able to stack the type. You can certainly cut your stamps apart as well between wording if you'd like, but I wanted to keep it together.  I stamped it with Memento in Tuxedo Black. I glued that to the red strip with some foam adhesive. The little heart is from the Lawn Fawn Party Animals set and I stamped that with Tuxedo Black as well onto a piece of lined paper from the 6x6 Snowy Day Paper Pack. I also adhered that with foam adhesive.

The bear. He's from the Lawn Fawn Party Animals set. Oh, is he ever cute. I stamped, colored him with my Spectrum Noir Markers, and cut him out leaving a little white border (to pop him off against the black background). I added in a dapper little bowtie from the Beep Boop Birthday set, glued down with some foam adhesive and gave this bear a bitten cookie from the Milk and Cookies set. Went along perfectly with my sentiment. 

I'm going to miss my little guy during the day with me, so I hope this card makes him smile on his first full day without me! 

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Now for my second card for this challenge. A card for my oldest, who is starting 5th grade. When did that happen??? So not ready for that! I kept his card simple since he is getting older, the cutesy stuff doesn't work with him! 

For this card, I used a simple white card base and pulled out two green cardstock pieces from my stash. I cut and adhered them to the base slightly askew. 

I diecut out the large tag from the Lawn Fawn Tag You're It die set and the reinforcement circle out of a simple black and white dotted paper I had on hand. I used the three leaves from the Flutter By set with Memento in Tuxedo Black. I stamped those on the tag and colored them in with my Spectrum Aqua Watercolor Markers. Just a beautiful subtle look in variation in the colors used. I then stamped the sentiment HELLO from the Hello Baby set and the 5th Grade is from Milo's ABCs. Those were both stamped in Tuxedo Black. For a little fun, I also inked those sentiments up with Memento Luxe in Pistachio and stamped it off on a scrap piece of paper removing most of the ink. Then I stamped it a little off the original stamped sentiment image to give it a slight shadow. 

I tied a simple black and white twine piece through the hole on the tag and adhered the entire tag down to the card with some foam adhesive. For interest, I used some white enamel dots on the card. 

It's simple, a little more grown up and perfect for him. Welcoming him to 5th grade. Sigh. Why do they grow up so fast??

I hope you're inspired to create something fun for your little one(s), not so little one(s) or a teacher or anyone going back to school soon! Thanks for stopping by. Be sure to visit all the design team blogs for amazing inspiration!