Quick Gift Tag Trio

I had such a great time yesterday.  I got together with three of my very sweet and crafty friends and enjoyed an entire day of crafting, my idea of the perfect Saturday.  I didn't make as many cards as the others...in fact, only one which was a blatant CASE of one Tracey McNeeley made earlier in the day.I was too busy testing out all of the stamps, dies and inks that Joyce of Cards by the Sea has (she has just about everything), I had so much fun visiting with Joyce, Kim and Marybeth.  It was a great day.  Joyce...you are the best hostess!

Here's a little peek of the little gift tag trio I made to attach to a little gift for each of my friends.

 Look at that sentiment...isn't it perfect to use on a package for crafty friends?  It is from Lil Inker's newest stamp set, Snarky Sentiments.  There a few sentiments in that set that will make you laugh right out loud!  I used Lil Inker's Folding Tag Die, original with some Simple Stories double sided paper for the tags, each in a different color.  If you look closely, you can see the folding tag is the perfect size to tuck in a folded up Lil Inker gift certificate.  Who doesn't need more dies and stamps?

 I stamped my sentiment on a Lil Inker Stitched Mat Rectangle (perfect size for the tag) and embellished it with a Stitched Sunshine die  and Stitched Mat circle also from Lil Inker.  At the last minute I added a tiny bow from their Flip Flop Die set. No doubt this new stamp set will see a lot of ink from me in the future!

Pretty Exciting News

(For Marybeth's Belated Birthday Blog post, please scroll down)

Wondering what this little picture is all about?  To find out, just head over to the Waltzingmouse Stamps Blog and see.   It is a pretty exciting event for me...I hope you all will take a peek:   Waltzingmouse Blog Link

Happy (Belated) Birthday Marybeth!

Boo...I have been a bad friend!  I knew our sweet friend Marybeth Lopez of Marybeth's Time for Paper was having a birthday in August and went off on vacation without turning the page on my calendar.  I had it in my head that her birthday was on August 24th and I was so embarrassed to discover it was actually on August 4th!  Bad friend!  I am so sorry Marybeth.  You have been so sweet to me on my birthday and have made me several beautiful cards to wish me a happy day and I go off and don't remember your special day!  Please forgive me.  To make up for it, at least a little bit, we have planned a belated birthday blog hop for you.  Joyce and I have come up with as many "crafty friends" as we could to bring you good wishes on your birthday.  Happy Birthday Marybeth...this hop is for you!

I actually made this card for you while I was on vacation...thinking I was so smart to have your card all done and ready to mail for that birthday at the end of August...NOT!  At least the thought was there.  I used a Lil' Inker Original Pinwheel die to make a cheery pinwheel to wish you happy birthday.  The original design of this card is a Case from Jeanne Jachna of A Kept Life.  She always knows how to pair patterned papers together to make a beautiful card.  Here's is Jeanne's original card.  I also used Lil' Inker Stitched Scallop Border die and their Stitched Sentiment Flag with a cute birthday sentiment from Sun Sentiment Stamp set.  I also used one of their Fanfare Scalloped Border die along with a few punched buttons for embellishment.
I am not the only one who wants to wish you a happy belated birthday Marybeth...here is a link to lots of your friends who also want to wish you happy birthday.

Joyce (Thanks Joyce for coordinating our hop)

Cathy (That's me!)

Ally

Bev

Bonnie

Carol J.

Carol S.

Christina

Darnell

Helen

Jeanne

Jill

Kara

Kelly

Kim

Lisa

Nancy

Renee

Sharron

Sue

Tracey

Lil' Inker 3rd Birthday Celebration

Happy 3rd Birthday Lil' Inker!  It seems like I have been using your dies forever, it's hard to believe it's only been 3 years.  Lil' Inker is having a huge birthday celebration with lots of prizes up for grabs.  Ever since it was first announced that they would be having a big celebration about a week ago, I have been thinking and thinking about what I might like to make.  Obviously their challenge was going to be "birthday related" so I started thinking about everything I could make using Lil' Inker products that had to do with birthday.  I did google image searches of balloons, pinwheels, presents and kept coming back to the fabulous custom cake designs that people make to celebrate birthdays.  Yesterday the Lil' Inker challenge was posted and here is the challenge photo to base our project on:

Lil' Inker 3rd Birthday Challenge

What did I see that inspired me?  It would be a lot easier to say what "didn't" I see that inspired me. Front and center I saw that cute cake, the bright blue color, the big poofy bow, the patterns on the party hats and of course, those great balloons.  Now, what kind of cake do I want to make based on all this inspiration?  I remember I had seen a pinwheel cake somewhere so decided to make one myself using Lil' Inker dies.  Here is what I came up with:

I started with a stacking round box and lid cut file from the Silhouette online store.  I sized the boxes to be the exact size as two of the Lil' Inker's Stitched Mat Circles.  I wanted to add that extra nice stitching detail to all of the round portions of my box.  Here's a little closeup of that great stitching detail so well known to Lil' Inker fans.

(The largest box uses the largest stitched circle and the smaller box used the third largest circle)

Here's the finished birthday cake:

Embellishing the boxes was easy.  I used a variety of bold double-sided patterned papers (Simple Stories, Snap) and Lil' Inker Mini Pinwheel dies to cut 8 pinwheels and a My Favorite Things grass border in the same three shades of green as the cake photo.  The pinwheels are adhered to the top of the box making it easy to open for filling with some kind of birthday goody.  The small box has Lil' Inker Clouds (Rainbow & Cloud Dies) and also a couple of Lil' Inker Sun dies (large).  

I cut the #3 and added some punched polka dots to match the original photo and since balloons were the main image for their birthday celebration, I added a few Balloon Dies along with their Balloon String die too.

I had such a good time making this tiered cake and I don't know anyone other than Lil' Inker that is turning "3" anytime soon, so I doubt I will ever really use it, but it is actually quite sturdy.

Lil' Inker's birthday celebration challenge runs until August 25th...plenty of time to make something extra special to help them celebrate.  Here's a link to the challenge just in case you have missed it.  Happy Birthday Lil' Inker!

I also am going to enter this in the Seize the Birthday Anything Goes challenge.

Seize the Sketch: Ready for Fall

If you look through my blog lately, it is pretty obvious I am wishing that Summer is over and that Fall has arrived. I am so ready for the great colors of Fall, even if in California you can only see those colors in cardstock! No changing leaf colors anywhere near my home, but I just happen to have nearly every Fall color you can think of right in my craft room and can use my imagination to picture what those changing leaves look like. Today I did just that, created a card using Fall colors and combined it with a very cute sketch from Seize the Sketch #1. I am so happy to get in on the very first challenge. Here's the cute sketch we had to work with:

You could go a lot of different ways with those strips in the inspiration picture, but I decided to use Lil Inker's Fanfare Scalloped Border die. I ran them through my die cut machine with a sheet of scrap paper next to the die so that the little cut out pieces would remain intact. I layered them all along the side so that they overlapped and then tried to think of something Fall-related that could represent the star in the picture. How about an acorn? I used Lil Inker Acorn die and embossed the top of the acorn with a cuttlebug embossing folder. The sentiment is from Lil Inker Darling Diamond stamp set. Can you tell I took all of my Lil Inker dies and stamps with me on vacation? My fun is just about to end though, I am going to have to pack it all up as we are heading for home on Friday and back to work on Monday. I guess Summer really is over!

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CAS(e) this Sketch and Dynamic Duo Challenges

I just got back from an ATV ride with my husband...there is such beautiful scenery in Montana and it was such a beautiful day. I decided to make a card for this week's Dynamic Duo #64 challenge as the colors are two of my favorites, Strawberry Slush and Daffodil Delight (raspberry fizz and harvest gold). I love that combination together. I also used the CAS(e) this Sketch # 39 for my card design and for once, I totally stuck with CAS all the way.

I used Waltzingmouse Stamps Playful Pinwheels for my main image and sentiment. That stamp set is so good for paper piecing with patterned papers. So easy to cut out each section and pop them up with dimensionals. The banner is from Lil Inker (Stitched Sentiment Flag Die) and the texture on the white panel is an embossing folder from Darice.

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Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge - Watermelon Wonder

The August 1st Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge has moved on from Nautical to Watermelon Wonder...both great themes for summertime challenges. I loved the beautiful colors in the inspiration photo as well as the idea of using a watermelon in my design.

I am still on vacation and luckily I brought a lot of my Lil Inker dies and stamps with me...(actually, I brought them all), and I really put my Cover Up Die Pieced Chevron to good use creating a card that reminds me of the colors of watermelon.

It is so much fun to come up with different combinations with this chevron die...it kind of looks like the layers of a watermelon, don't you think? My sentiment is also from Lil Inkers (Spot On Stamp Set). I also added a cute die cut watermelon from PTI Fruit Fusian, Watermelon. I even added a few black seeds and I couldn't resist using a hole punch to take a little bite out of my watermelon.
You have lots of time to come up with a card for this Curtain Call Challenge...what does watermelon wonder mean to you?

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