Wednesday, December 31, 2014

January SOTM Blog Hop

Welcome to the first SOTM blog hop of 2015! This month we are featuring This Moment, a LOVE-ly set of 12 heart themed stamps. If you've arrived here from JEAN'S BLOG, you're on the right track!
Today I'm sharing the front cover of this cute Hip Pics album all done up with the January SOTM. Throughout January I'll be sharing interior pages, all stamped with this adorable set.
I really loved this week's RetroSketches sketch, so I used that cuteness for the basis of my album cover. I sketched out a square using red Shimmer Trim, then added a line of rhinestone mesh ribbon I got for a sewing project. I just trim off rows and bits of the ribbon as needed and it lines up beautifully. I adhere it with Liquid Glass, A bit of stardust gel pen outlines the main focal point and the album cover with just a hint of shimmer.

I'll be sharing more pages throughout January, but that's all for today! Now hop on over to see more January SOTM goodness on STEFANI'S BLOG!

Here's another January SOTM project I've made:
Be Amazing Quick Card

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Happy birthday, Max!

So my littlest dude is turning 5 this morning, and we had his party a bit early ('cause who's available to attend a New Year's Eve b-day party...for a 5 year old?). Nothing would do for the munchkin but a Man-Batman themed party. What? You've never heard of Man-Batman? 

Man-Batman is none other than Adam West, as in the original Batman movie, which is Max's favorite thing ever. More beloved than Ninja Turtles. Cooler than Chima Legos. Better than Wii games. When he watches the movie (for the eleventy billionth time), he has been known to announce, "That is a great movie!" at the end. It inspired his love of tuxedos (check out his hashtag #maxlovestuxedos on Instagram for a giggle), and unfortunately for poor ol' Adam West, he actually loves Burt Ward's Robin just a wee bit more than Batman... He calls them Man-Batman because they are not cartoons, dig?
The thing is, no one really makes Man-Batman anything anymore, at least not for kids parties. Collectors items and such yes, but Party City does not have a selection of Man-Batman items. In fact, their entire Batman area in general was pretty sad. So I whipped up this quick little panel invite using a long retired superhero set and a photo of Adam and Burt doing their thing. Max could not have been more pleased, and I was happy to use up my stash of retired colors like Sunny Yellow. Win-Win!
Here's the backside of the panel, with a little fussy cut bat signal (the lamplight leading up to the signal is colored with an alcohol marker), and a bit of identifying info so-very-neatly removed. It was so fast and easy I still had time to make Man-Batman themed goodie bag toppers, cricut cut some cupcake wrappers, and whip out some Batman themed food labels. Max even insisted that we paint eyebrows and nose lines onto a bunch of plain blue fabric masks we found so everyone at the party could be Man-Batman, whether they knew who he was or not.

I'm linking this up to the Heart 2 Heart Challenges favorite holiday challenge. While I love all holidays, I really try to go all out to make the boys' birthdays special. They get to choose all the food and activities  for their actual birthday day, the theme for their party, and even push all the elevator buttons on that special day. For our brood of boys, it's great to be king for at least one day a year!

If you want to see more of the Man Bat-man themed party goodies, let me know in the comments below. They aren't super fancy with lots of glitter and roses...'cause, you know, he's five...but I think they turned out pretty cute, for party goods focused on a large man who only works in black or very, very dark gray and his holiday themed sidekick. Later on New Year's Eve we'll be back to my regularly scheduled glitter and hearts!

Monday, December 29, 2014

Be Amazing

I'm back with a quick card for the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge.
I was inspired by the color combo over at Just Us Girls this week. I love grey and pink so much! The polka dots reminded me of the bulls-eye image in the upcoming January SOTM. I was able to stamp my sweet little quick card because my super awesome friend Sheryl loaned me her SOTM after I realized I'd only thought I ordered it.  I've got a super adorable mini album coming up with this set in a couple of days, all thanks to the kindness of Sheryl!
I stamped the bulls-eye multiple times in Grey and Pixie, piecing the image back together and adding glitter gel around each ring. I stamped and pieced the sentiment image too, adding a touch of stardust gel pen inside the letters. It was fast and easy, but with lots of sparkle!

I'll be sharing all the Batman and Robin goodies I've been making for my little Max's birthday this weekend. In the meantime, I hope you'll hop over the Atlantic Hearts and have a go at this adorable sketch! 

Monday, December 15, 2014

Atlantic Hearts Color Throwdown

I'm having a super busy December which is really keeping me out of the stamp room. Well, actually, not out of the tamp room, just not stamping. We've re-arranged over half the house to give our oldest his own room while retaining a guest room for our beloved visitors and a stamping space for me. Much moving and unpacking has been happening, plus all the cooking and daily mom stuff, a Joann's Open House, and of course lots of holiday hoopla for the boys, too, so not much time for blogging lately. I was so glad to see this week's super cute Atlantic Hearts Sketch.
After busting out almost 100 Christmas cards in one weekend, I was ready to do something non-Holiday related. I saw the happy, bright color combo over at Color Throwdown and thought it would make a beautiful birthday card. I used Lagoon, Topiary, Cranberry, and Pixie. 
 I grabbed some Seaside dotted paper and my Have a Happy Day stamp set. I cut out the simple rose shapes and topped them with silver sequins and clear sparkles colored Red with an alcohol marker. It was fun to get my fingers inky again for a moment before I need to get back to more unpacking and rearranging. I'm linking up to the Seize The Birthday Anything Goes Challenge 

Monday, December 1, 2014

Creative Blogger Blog Tour!

Today I'm double posting after a slow November because the super sweet and talented Dawn Ross nominated me to the Creative Blogger Blog Tour! I love Dawn's Blog, I Am A Happy Stamper, because she does a fabulous job with clean and simple stamping, something I'm working hard at trying to understand. I love to see how she makes such fabuous simple cards and projects. Thanks, Dawn!

Here is a list of some of the recent Creative Blog Tour alumni. It is SUCH a talented bunch of artists and super duper nice people! A bunch of my artistic heros are on this list, so I am super honored to be nominated. By clicking on the artist's name you will be able to visit their blogs and read more about each artist and their creative process.

Here are the questions each Creative Blogger gets to answer:
1.  What are you currently working on?
What am I not working on? After moving last spring, most of the house is under control, but my stamp room is a disaster dumping ground for all things undetermined or sparkly. 
I've got this card for the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge. I love the sketches and am so happy to be included on their DT - if you love sketch challenges, come check them out! 
I've also got 4 cards going for my annual Stamp A Stack holiday card makers. 6 pages of Yuletide scrapping sketched and waiting to be finished. A PML mini album workshop to publish. Open House hands on project to cut for my first official Joann's duty this next weekend. The 3-D rose wreath that may never be finished. Craft fair boxes to unpack and reorganize for the next go around. Batman themed invites to Max's birthday party to design and make. A Christmas tree to decorate. Turkey Soup bubbling in the crockpot, with GF biscuits to be made this afternoon. A little boy's tuxedo to clean and more grocery shopping. A box of cards for sale to mail to my favorite bookstore in Portland, Jacobsen's Books. And a partridge in a pear tree. 


2.  How does my work differ from others in its genre?
Golly, I think that's a mighty deep question for a gal with no coffee in her system! I guess I like stuff. Bling. Flowers. Glitter. I love the idea of clean and simple...I admire those that can pull it off...but what Imma really gonna do is add some glitter and maybe a few sequins or some distressing...I just craft and pile it on until my heart is happy. 

3.  Why do I create what I do?
Boy howdy, what a great question! I live in a house with an engineer husband and three little boys, ages 8, 6, and 4. It's a three ring circus and I'm the one in the center twirling the flaming baton (if you know where that quote is from, message me and I'll send you a little stamped goodie, soul sista). My home is a shrine to all things Batman and Star Wars. My youngest child goes everywhere dressed as either Robin, Batman, or Bruce Wayne (i.e. his beloved tuxedo). 

CTMH and papercrafts is my saving grace, my outlet for all things girly and fun that I do not have a good audience for in my daily life. Pinterest pin about making fancy shaped pancakes? Wolfed down with the same speed normal, non-pain-in-the-rear circle GF pancakes are consumed. Set the table with a cloth and nice dishes, maybe some flowers? Expect every inch including the flowers to be coated with gravy/ketchup/syrup. Pants must be purchased in khaki, navy, or denim. No glitter. Only Legos. 

But in my stamp room, surrounded by glitter paper, shimmer trim, sequins, and 3-D flowers...everything is pretty and fun. The ladies I've had the pleasure of crafting with do not want to discuss the merits of padawan Luke vs. Jedi Luke. Papercrafting is like my raft of sanity and civilization in the lovely but rowdy world of boys that surrounds me everyday. 

Plus I just really like glitter. Like a whole lot.

4.  How does my creative process work?
I wish I had something inspirational to write here...but let's get real. I have a very limited time to spend in my craft space after the demands of my lovely but needy little guys. They are on a strict GF diet and we don't buy much in processed foods which means I'm cooking and baking a good portion of every day to keep up with feeding them. Laundry? Good luck with that. I'm trying to train the kiddos to take it over on threat of going naked, lol. There's rarely time to craft or blog during the day right now. So it goes like this... "Oooh! Atlantic Hearts challenge card is due tomorrow? Awesome - it's only 10 p.m., so I've still got time." Commence staring at sketch blankly until inspiration strikes based on whatever materials are currently on my desk. I should've called my blog Midnight Scrapper, lol.

I will occasionally go across the room to retrieve something sparkly. But my big project each month is a 6 page scrapbooking kit, and my cards tend to be made from those papers and whatever embellies are in my bowl of goodness. I have a big clear bowl that catches all scraps of anything cute, sparkly, or awesome. When I make a card that the first place I look...you know, 'casue it's the closest. 

I have an IKEA Raskog cart next to my seat. The top is my current paper pack materials, the bowl of goodness, a pad of postits, a ruler, plus black and brown Memento Pads. The middle holds a glass jar of washi tape and my CTMH paper samplers and 6x6 pads of papers. The bottom holds my trimmer, any tools I'm too lazy to get up and put away after making something, a small bin of the latest ten or so stamp sets and extra adhesive refills. 

So basically I sit in my oasis of craftiness and get it done. If I am working on a workshop I clear the table and only have the materials I'm using for the project in front of me so I won't be distracted by other goodies. I try not to look around because I'm completely overwhelmed by the amount of unpacking and sorting still to be done in my catchall space of a room, Instead I just focus on the pretty in front of me and try not to get up to move about the cabin. Glamorous, right? Still, once I make the time to get in there and get my paws inky, I come out a much happier and sweeter person. CTMH and stamping is like a mini vacation for my soul!

Now I'd like to nominate one of my favorite artists, the fabulous Tina Lovell at My Scrap Happy Life. Tina has 4 boys at home and still finds the time to make some of the cutest cards and pages like ever. She manages it all with a huge smile and I just love her to pieces! Grab a warm cuppa something and go check out her blog today for a treat, then peek into her creative process next Monday. Thanks a bunch for hanging out with me today!

Cyber Monday Only!

I am so addicted to the CTMH Cricut cartridges. They are the first thing I reach for when I cut, so much so that the rest of my cartridges are pretty much dusty and unused (except for Mickey and Friends). But that's Mickey. And I believe that CTMH just makes the best cartridges!

Monday only CTMH is offering an unprecedented
20% off any and all CTMH Cricut Collections!
CTMH has never done this before!
Let me tell you why I love our cartridges more than the average Cricut cartridge.

1. Each cartridge has 700 images. That's like getting multiple cartridges all in one. They fill every key and every feature key with cricut goodness. The average cartridge has anywhere from 50-70 images I've read. Even at full price they are an amazing cricut value!

2. They come with 3 coordinating stamp sets. Look at the cuteness of that font and the comprehensivness of that sentiment set that comes with the newest cartridge, Artfully Sent. It's like never-need-another-card-sentiment set again goodness. Not that THAT will stop me from buying another stamp set. But I won't need one. You know.

3. They are bundled with coordinating cardstock or chipboard images to use with the cartridge and stamps. Since the stamps are clear, it's easy peasey to line up the images and go to town! 

4. With as many images as the cartridges hold, the stamps and papers are seriously like free bonuses. You're already getting triple or more images than you would if you bought a normal cartridge, but here's some bonus goodies worth another gob of $$ to make the deal even sweeter. This is one reason why I heart you, CTMH!
5. The images on these cartridges are unique and interesting. it's not 200 new images and 500 repeats. Because there's so much good stuff they include an images guide and often an assembly guide. 'Cause otherwise how you gonna glue that baby bootie together? 
Art Philosophy is my go to for scrapbooking and card making shapes. Like I seriously need it to function when designing now. And for the 3-D flowers. I HEART 3-D flowers.

Artiste is amazing for gift bags, 3-D items, cards, and generally cool craftiness that is way easier to make than it looks. And even more 3-D flowers!
Artbooking makes my scrapper's heart swoon with amazingly intricate overlays and details for pages and mini books.
And the newest cartridge is called Artfully Sent. It's got a bazillion super cool fun cards that you can just choose, cut, glue, and go!

Ok, enough gushing - if you've been on the fence, today is your day, sista!
20% off any and all CTMH Cricut Collections. MONDAY only.
Merry Cyber Monday!

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