Friday, August 29, 2014

Baby Dreams at Sami Stamps



Here in the US, this weekend has an extra day as Monday is a holiday. It is in honor of all the people who work and is called Labor Day. Now, that always puzzled me because most of the retail establishments, restaurants, etc. were open on Monday -- thus, causing people to labor instead of being home and enjoying an extra day with their family and friends. Rather a dicotomy, eh? In addition, not too many decades ago, Labor Day (the first Monday in September) signaled the end of the school holiday and children everywhere returned to the classroom for another year of learning. Now, a large number of school start the new academic year the first part of August, robbing Labor Day of even more of its notoriety. So sad.

However, we do have a happy side to this weekend because today Sami at Sami Stamps has released a new set of images that are just adorable!  Here is a glance at the entire set:




I used Little Girl Dreams for my project. Isn't she just precious? I colored her with Copic markers after printing the image onto X-Press It card. I then fussy cut the little cutie! All of the designer papers is from the 12 x 12," double sided pad of baby prints by K&Company. The card is a white base with green and pink solid card (matting) by Bazzill. The white frame around the baby was cut using CR1241 die by Marianne Design. I popped the baby image and sentiment up using foam adhesive dots. The flowers are by Wild Orchid Crafts. The sentiment is a stamp I received in a set as a present, and the packaging is gone.

If you aren't too busy shopping or tending the bar-b-que this weekend, stop by and have a look at the new release. I think you will just love the beautiful samples the DT have put together for all of you to enjoy.


Tuesday, August 26, 2014

TMS and Zap Pow


Good Morning TMS friends.  We hope you're doing well.  Thank you so much for joining us today and help us to welcome back previous sponsor Zap Pow.  Owners Lizzie and Cassandra have created a store of digital stamps that are cheeky, fun and quite whimsical images and are great to work with.

The prize is 3 digis of the winner's choice.
Here's the sketch we're working with:



Sometimes I feel as if I spend an awful lot of my time making apologies! Even when something isn't entirely my fault, the old Catholic guilt kicks in, and I feel the need to apologize (sigh)! Well, I'm at it again this week in that I have to apologize to Lizzie and Cassandra for not using a Zap Pow image for my DT card. My six years old printer decided to die this past week. The print head jammed tight. The Hubs was able to get it unstuck only to have it jam again when we tried to print again. The poor thing was absolutely worn out despite my having just put new ink cartridges in it :-(.

So we pulled out an extra that we had (that the Hubs uses occasionally with his computer) and gave printing another go. I guess I wasn't holding my mouth correctly or something because I could not get it to print without smearing ink all over my image. I couldn't very well color and use an image with ink smears all over it, now could I? In tears, I bit the bullet, wrote to Melissa (who stepped in and used the image I was going to use), and I pulled out an already printed/colored image from my stash to use with our wonderful sketch. My Image is called "Goodbye Summer" by Sami Stamps

My card base is white card. I rounded the four corners with my corner punch, then cut a piece of DP from K&Company about 3/4" smaller on all four sides. I also rounded the corners and then matted the DP with solid blue card. I cut a piece of orange DP and matted it with the blue card. Lastly, I used a Marianne Creatable die CR1203 to cut the background square from the blue card. I then cut my Sami Stamps image into a square. The apple is rustic metal and is adhered with foam dots for a slightly raised effect.

Stop by Tuesday Morning Sketches and take a look at the wonderful samples the DT have created for your inspiration and enjoy the cute little images from Zap Pow.

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Rose Beauty


This week our sponsor for Tuesday Morning Sketches is a designer close to my heart. Our sponsor is Sami Stamps! As you know, I have the great priviledge of being a member of Sami's design team, so to say that I really like her images would be a bit of an understatement (smile). Since I was remiss (due to the remodeling project) and haven't yet gotten my project for Sami's new release (this past Thursday) posted, I feel a little exhonorated by getting this TMS card made using the lovely "Rose Beauty" by Sami. 

Before I go further with my explanation of my card, let me share this week's sketch with you:


I colored my image (as usual) with Copic markers. I want to let you know that the face/complextion is not grainy/blotchy in real time. I took several photos of the card trying to get rid of that blotchy look, but to no avail. However, if you were to look at the card in person, it would not look like that -- so I do apologize to everyone for how it looks. All of the designer paper is by Crate Paper and is from a 6" x 6" pad called "Paper Heart Collection." The green card is from a piece out of my scrap bag, and the pearls are by Recollections.

Please join us this week in the TMS challenge. Sadly, we are having to say good-bye to a team member. Angela has been a member of the team for several years (as have most of us), so she will be terribly missed; however, she feels the need to lighten some of her commitments in order to spend time with her family and friends.

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Tuesday Sketch and Watercolors

Hi my dear followers. Tuesday Morning Sketches has a new sketch for you this week. It is a fantastic sketch, and I know you will use it often. I, sadly, didn't get a card made for you this week. Before I go into that, let me share the TMS sketch with you. Here it is:


This week we're sponsored by Craft Classes Online (fomerly My Creative Classroom which has been closed).  
Craft Classes Online (CCO) brings multiple Creative Arts Instructors together on one site to provide students with the best choice in online craft workshops. Classes are advertised on the CCO website, but are paid for and held on individual instructor's blog/website. This enable instructors to have more freedom and flexibility in their independent businesses. 

Our instructors offer online workshops that are engaging, affordable, and time-saving. Students from across the globe can learn any number of techniques and creative projects from the comfort of their own home and on their schedule. 

In September we will relaunch our blog, My Creative Life 2014, where we issue challenges to help us use all of our craft supplies during the year.

We are excited to be sponsoring Tuesday Morning Sketches Blog. You can view our class list on our website atwww.CraftClassesOnline.com. We are bringing in more instructors throughout the fall, so check back often. Sign up for our newsletter. Visit us on our Facebook page, too! One lucky winner will receive a free seat to a Workshop class valued at $25 or less.  Good Luck!

As I said, I do not have an inspiration card for you this week. It isn't that I didn't like the sketch (because I DID), and it isn't because I didn't want to do the twist (watercolors), because I was looking forward to pulling out my watercolor crayons or my tubes of watercolors. Nope, it is because the remodeling is starting to come to a close, and I'm having to pitch in more. The part the contractors did has all been completed. Now, painting the outside, the inside, and putting down flooring is falling on our shoulders -- not my idea nor preference, by the way. It was the Hubs who decided we could save $$$ by doing those things ourselves. OK, so he makes a good point, but I was willing to cut out things such as meals (need to diet anyway), cable tellie (we could better use our time), and other non-essential items in order to have someone else completely finish this project for us. Humph, he then mentioned cutting back on crafting supplies and that's when I buckled!

I have to admit that I am more than ready for this project to be completed. The new room is lovely, but more importantly, I am ready to get the second set of furniture out of the living room and the extra items out of my bedroom and craft room (boxes of books. DVDs. CDs and "stuff" that came out of the bookcases in the old den). Anyhoo, I hope to be back on track soon. In the mean time, do visit the Tuesday Morning Sketches blog and have a look at the beautiful samples the other DT members have shared for your inspiration. 

Thanks, and take care everyone!



Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Christmas Cheer


This week, we have a wonderfully simple but beautiful sketch for all of you. This sketch can be adapted to any kind of card (as you will see from the samples the DT have made). Our sponsor this week is returning sponsor Yours or Mine Paper Crafts.  Mei has a sweet little shop with all kinds of paper crafting treats.

Now here is our sketch for this week:



My girlfriend and I have gotten started on our Christmas cards for this year. (I have a confession to make in that I got behind and didn't get a lot of my cards in the mail last year, so I really have quite a head-start for this year's cards. I'm not proud of that confession and have a goal to do much better this coming holiday season.) This is a nice, CAS design that can look festive without adding lots of extra layers (translate extra postage).

My base card is red Bazzill card cut to 5" x 7" size. I then cut a layer of green DP from a Brenda Walton K&Company 12" x 12" Christmas pad (which I've had for a couple of years), and the fish-tail banner from a companion piece from the same pad. The K&Company pad contained two sheets with various sentiments and tags printed on it. My sentiment is one of the pre-printed elements from the pad page. I realized that maybe I should have scanned the page before cutting it so that I'd have additional sentiments/elements to use on other cards, and was much relieved there were two pices of this page. The two glittery holly leaves and berries are from a set of Jolee stickers that I purchased last year from Michael's Crafts.

Please stop by the blog. We have a new DT member, and I know you are going to love her work. Nina has been a faithful follower of TMS for quite a while, and we are so pleased she has agreed to join the team. 


Friday, August 1, 2014

Strawberry Summer



New release from Sami at Sami Stamps is all about strawberries. We don't grow strawberries, but we do grow blueberries, grapes, apples, pears and plums along with a variety of veggies. Yum!

One summer, many years ago, my husband, three children and I drove cross country from Georgia to California pulling a pop-up camper. We spent the summer living in the camper in the middle of Anaheim not far from Disneyland. It was a fun summer, but one of the things we really enjoyed was shopping often at a small fruit stand nearby and constantly having fresh fruit on which to feast. It was a deliciously healthy and yummy experience, and I feel so sad for anyone who is allergic to fruits, most especially strawberries. 

As I said, Sami's new release features strawberries, and the DT have created some beautiful cards with the new images. You will definitely want to stop by the Sami Stamps blog and have a look at all of the lovely work posted there. Here is a look at all the new images:


I have used the first image, "A Basket Full" for my card. After coloring the image with Copic markers, I layered various papers from a 6" x 6" pad called "Summer Goodness" by Raspberry Road Designs. My card base is white, and the first layer of DP features beautiful strawberry plants -- how perfect is that? All of the other papers, except the solid green card, are from the same pad. The green pieces were cut from a piece of scrap using Marianne die (CT1202). I hand made the large flower (rose), and the four smaller buds are from Wild Orchid Crafts (aren't they perfect stawberry blooms?). The sentiment "Wishing you (outside) strawberry days and marshmallow nights (inside)" was my own that I created on the computer. 

Since this is the first Friday of a new month (wow, the year is certainly flying by, isn't it?), it is also the beginning of a new challenge.