Such a Doll

Hi Friends! I hope you all had a good week, and have something fun planned for the weekend. This time tomorrow night, my DD and I, along with one of her friends and his mom, will be inside the Georgia Aquarium for a sleepover! I don't really know what to expect, but it should be fun!

Speaking of fun, I was able to do a little crafting today, and have a card to share with you. My Favorite Things is having their MFT Guest Designer Contest right now, and I decided to give it a go.

This little girl is adorable! The stamp set is called Pure Innocence Paper Doll. And, I love the coordinating MFT Die-namics Paper Doll Border die. Did you make paper doll chains as a kid? I know I did! Do little girls even do that kind of thing anymore? I don't think my 8-year old DD ever has. Looks like I need to remedy that soon. ;)

Here's the sketch for this contest. You have until August 6th to enter. If you have any MFT Stamps, get busy! The winner, besides having the honor of being a guest designer for MFT, will also win a prize worth over $200 in MFT products!!! Awesome, huh? :D

I colored the image with Copics and paper pieced the dress. The stamp actually has the girl holding a paper doll chain, but I wanted to use the die cut chain instead. Because the stamped doll chain is slightly smaller than the die cut chain, I didn't want them stamped across the dress, so I first stamped the dress on scrap paper, cut it out, then traced it onto the dp, so that when I cut that out, it wouldn't have the stamped dolls on it. When I glued the die cut between her hands, I only had to worry about covering the stamped dolls on the two end paper dolls. I used a white gel pen to cover any lines that showed. Also, since the die cut is larger than the stamped chain, I folded the "hands" up on the paper dolls for a little dimension.

For the rolled flower, I used the Die-namics Rolled Scalloped Flower die, and added a pearl to the center. The leaf stamp and die is from Verve. Both the flower and the leaf were cut from Vintage Damask digi paper from Print Candee. On the other roses, I added Stickles for a little sparkle.

The Paper Doll die cut on the inside is from the same dp as the floral dp layer on the front of the card. The sentiment is another from the Paper Doll stamp set. There are 5 cute ones to choose from!

That's it for my card today. Thanks for stopping by, and enjoy your weekend!

~Hugs,

 

Stamps: Pure Innocence Paper Dolls (MFT Stamps); Bloom & Grow (Verve)
Paper: Circa 1934 (Cosmo Cricket); Avalon (Bazzill Basics); Vintage Damask digi paper (Print Candee)
Ink: Memento; Copics; Distress Ink; Colorbox; white gel pen
Dies: Paper Doll Border, Rolled Scallop Flower (MFT Die-namics); Elegant Leaves (Verve); Labels Seven, Labels One (Spellbinders)
Accessories: Parisian Edger punch (EK Success); ribbon; pearl; flowers; Pearl Pen; Stickles; sewing thread
Size: 5" sq.

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Faith, Trust, & Pixie Dust

Happy Monday, Friends! I hope your week is getting off to a great start. I'm starting off the week in my craft room, so I'm a happy girl, today! One of my nieces is having a baby girl soon, and I found out that she is decorating the nursery in a Tinkerbell theme, using pinks and purples. I just happened to have a cute Tink digi image, so I went to work, to make a nursery wall hanging that would double as my baby shower card.

This project took me longer than anything I've ever worked on, but I think all my time was worth it. That said, this is a fairly long post, and very photo heavy. :)

Both The Shabby Tea Room and Stampin' For the Weekend had spectacular photos for inspiration. I just love all the girliness in them. 

I decided right away that I was going to use Prima's Fairy Flora paper pack and a Vintage Damask digi paper, so that part was easy. But, finding a sketch wasn't, because I wanted to use several different papers and didn't want to cover them up too much.   I tried several sketches, and this one, from the Simon Says Stamp Challenge this week was perfect!

My sewing machine has a lot of built-in stitches that I've never used, so I thought I'd try one out here. Being a fairy project, a leaf stitch seemed like a good choice. I used a meandering stitch on the bg paper, and alternated between zig zag and straight stitch on the vertical panel.

While I had my sewing machine going, I took some wide lime green tulle ribbon, folded about a third of it over, then stitched down the center to make a ruffle for the bottom of the wall hanging. I adhered the mini pompom trim and the tulle ruffle with Scor-Tape.

Every little girl needs lots of sparkle in her bedroom, so I used Stickles on Tink's wings, shoes, eyes, and the edges of the flowers. 

The white dots around the "Hello Baby" sentiment are Liquid Pearls. The yellow center on the pearl flowers are dots of yellow Liquid Pearls, too.

If you've read my blog very long, you know I love making my own rub-ons with transparencies. All the sentiments on the project, except for the Flourishes Hello Baby stamp, were made in Word, printed on transparencies, and rubbed onto the cs. I could just print directly onto the cs, but I prefer the look of rub-ons because it looks more like a stamp.


I like decorating the back of my wall hangings so they double as a card. For this one, I used the Vintage Damask digital dp again, in green and in violet. I paper pierced the edge of the die cut, stamped a Heidi Grace flower, added my rub on quote and sentiment, distressed the green dp, added another Heidi Grace corner stamp, inked the edges, then glued it all down. Oh, and I've learned to add the eyelets to the back layer of the wall hanging and to thread my ribbon through, before adhering the decorative front. It hangs much better that way, and I prefer not seeing the eyelets from the front most of the time.

The flourish stamp at the bottom of the project came from a Heidi Grace set that I won in a Color Throwdown Challenge/Blog Hop. Check out the blog candy I received from DT member, Wanda Cullen! Thanks, again, Wanda!

Here are a couple of photos of what I've been spending my time on lately: making doll clothes! My DD is thrilled with them, but, MAN, are they time consuming!








Thanks for stopping by and hanging with me until the end! ;) Have a wonderful week!

I'd like to enter my wall hanging card project in the following challenges:
Simon Says Stamp: Dawny's Sketch
Flourishes Bring Back Beautiful BBB24: The Beauty of Winged Things
The Shabby Tea Room Week #124: 'Oh-So Pretty in Pink'
Cute Card Thursday Challenge #226: Fairy Nice
Moving Along With the Times Challenge: We Are In the Pink (Pink, Pearly, and Pretty Celebration)
Whimsy Stamps Challenge #48: Punches and Edgers
Crazy 4 Challenges C4C146: Stitching--Faux or Real
Fat Pages & Cards With Attitude #18: Anything Goes
The Poodles Parlour: Use a Digi Stamp
Stampin' For the Weekend #14: Photo Inspiration
Digi Doodle Shop Challenge #117: Anything Goes
Sentimental Sundays #112: Things With Wings
Color Me Creative Challenge #48: Anything Goes With a Girly Twist
Totally Gorjuss Challenge #141: Leaf It In!

~Hugs!

 

Stamps: Little Honey's Tinkerbell (Sassy Studio Designs); Hello Baby (Flourishes); Wild Daisy Road (Heidi Grace)
Paper: Fairy Flora (Prima); Vintage Damask Digital Paper (Print Candee)
Ink: Copic markers; Distress Ink; Colorbox
Dies: Fancy Tags Two, Labels One, Floral Doily Accent, Labels 25, Classic Scalloped Circles Sm, Bird Flourishes (Spellbinders)
Accessories: Abstract Flower Edge Punch (EK Success); tulle ribbon; mini pompom trim; satin ribbon; rhinestones; pearls; eyelets; flowers; Stickles; Liquid Pearls; sewing thread; foam dots; Distrezz-It-All; some sentiments created in Word.
Size: 6-3/4" x 8"

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Psalm 37:4

Hi Friends! I have one last card to share with you before I have to clean up my craft room. I promised my DD that I'd make her some Barbie clothes, so all the dust and ink needs to go away for a little while. :)

I seldom base a card off the bg paper, but the pretty tree and bird image on this paper just called to me. Then, I just added a stamped verse, punches and die cuts, some sewing, a couple of eyelets, sparkly ribbon, shimmery butterflies, and distressing. 

I used the Viva la Verve July 2012 Week 3 sketch almost exactly as it's drawn.

There's plenty of room inside for a personal message. 

Well, I'm off to do some tidying up. If the doll clothes turn out presentable, I'll post pictures of them next week. :)

Thanks for stopping by, and have a wonderful day of rest!

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges:

Flourishes Timeless Tuesday #177: Use a sentiment as the centerpiece

Viva la Verve July 2012 Week 3 Sketch Challenge VLVJul2012

Stampin' Sisters in Christ Challenge #148: Sparkle

Sentimental Sundays Challenge #111: Rough Around the Edges

There She Goes Challenge TSG164: Sewing and Stitching

~Hugs,

 

Stamps: Psalm 37:4 Plain Jane (Verve Stamps)
Paper: So Sophie (My Mind's Eye); Mango Frost (DCWV); kraft
Ink: Distress Ink; Memento
Dies: Std Circles Sm, Fancy Tags Three, Romantic Rectangles (Spellbinders)
Accessories: Binding Edge punch (EKSuccess); Double Loops punch, Classic Butterfly punch (Martha Stewart); metallic ribbon (Wyla-from Joann's); pearls; eyelets; sewing thread; foam dots; Distrezz-it-all (Zutter)
Size: A2 (4.25" x 5.5")

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A Bold & Beautiful, Happy Hello!

Hi Friends! Quick post here...I wanted to enter the Bold & Beautiful new release challenge (FLLCJULRW1) over at Flourishes, so I have a very bright card to share with you today, that was simple and quick to make.

I think this is my first time to use this medallion stamp. Isn't it beautiful? The detail, even with embossing, is amazing! I really like the bright pink and yellow embossing on the neon green cs, and the blue layers keep the card from completely blinding you! :) I added a touch of Stickles on the flower.

The layers are raised with crimped cs. I've talked about how I do it in previous posts, but if you have any questions, just leave a comment or send me an email--it's a very simple technique, and is perfect for large pieces, like on this card. Here, I cut slots in the crimped paper layers, where the pompom trim wrapped around, so that there wouldn't be a bulge in those spots.

I wanted the inside to be bright and happy, too, but also have enough room to write a short personal message. The pink, embossed corners were made with a stamp from the $1 bin at Joann's.

That's it, for now. Thanks for stopping by, and have a BEAUTIFUL weekend!

~Hugs,

 

Stamps: Medallion Motif (Flourishes); Fleur de Lis accent (Inkadinkadoo)
Ink: Distress Ink; Clear Distress Embossing Ink
Dies: Labels Thirteen (Spellbinders)
Accessories: Abstract Flower Edge Punch (EKSuccess); embossing powder (Zing); rhinestones; flower; Stickles; ribbon & mini pompom trim; paper crimper 
Size: A2 (4.25" x 5.5")

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Summer Blossoms

Hi Friends! My DD is busy with her Barbie dolls and Legos, so I'm sneaking a few minutes to post a birthday card. I can't say who it's for, though, because she reads my blog. ;)

I recently got the Summer Blossoms stamp set from Flourishes, and have been dying to ink it up! The image area was small, though, so I masked off the edges of the Floral Oval die cut, then stamped a portion of the largest floral image in the set. I colored it with Copics, then added some Stickles to the centers of the blue flowers. (I'm nature-challenged, so I can't tell you what kind of flowers they are!)

If the layout looks a little familiar, it's because I used the same Flourishes sketch that I did for the Tiny Miracles wall hanging last week. I'd really like to win the new releases this month at Flourishes!!! There's still time for you to enter, too, if you hurry. You have until tomorrow, July 13, at 5PM EST.

And, Color Throwdown is celebrating their 200th color challenge this week with a fantastic color palette. Congrats, CTD! That's quite a milestone!!! Isn't that cupcake display adorable? I just couldn't resist playing along this week!

 Here's a close up of the pearls I used on one of the layers. I love the shape. They were white, but I colored them with my Copics. I tried using my darkest brown, but it just wasn't dark enough, so I ended up coloring them black first, then adding brown over that. Worked great!

This metal flower almost didn't make the cut for this card. I really liked it, and I felt like the buttons definitely needed something else, but everytime I put the flower on top, something was off. So I got out those trusty Copics again and colored the silver metal to get a more coppery color. Perfect!  

I lifted several of the layers. For the two rectangles, I used pieces of paper that I crimped with my paper crimper. I really prefer crimped paper to foam dots for layering, when the area is large enough, because it gives a lot more stability and strength to the layer. If you try it, just be sure the pieces are layered perpendicularly, or they will nest together and you won't get much lift. For the long ribbon layer, I knew it was going to sit up high on the card, so instead of wrapping the ribbon around the card, I cut a piece of chipboard the correct size, and covered that with my ribbons, then put a large foam dot at each end to pop it up, and glued the center of the strip to the bottom of the highest rectangular layer. Oh, and the chipboard was gray, so I just used Walnut Stain Distress Ink to ink up the edges before attaching the ribbon.

I love the dp on this card, so I used it inside, too. The polka dot pieces were cut with an oval punch, cut in half, lengthwise, then glued to the edges of the floral dp. A few Stickles dots finish it off.

Thanks for stopping by, and have a fab day!

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges:

Flourishes' It's Sketchy Challenge FLLCJul12

Color Throwdown Challenge #200: Let's Celebrate!

There She Goes Challenge #164: Sewing and Stitching

Our Craft Lounge Challenge #124: Supply Challenge--Use Die Cuts

~Hugs,

 

Stamps: Summer Blossoms, Botanical Bookplates (Flourishes)
Paper: Fabulous (Simple Stories); solid cs in Brown & Stella (Taylored Expressions)
Ink: Memento; Copic markers; Distress Ink; Colorbox
Dies: Rounded Rectangle Die, Rounded Scalloped Frame (Verve); Floral Ovals, Fleur de Lis Squares, Labels One (Spellbinders)
Accessories: 3/4" x 1-1/2" oval punch (EK Success); ribbon; metal flower; Corner Chomper; rhinestones; pearls; brad; buttons; Stickles; twine; sewing thread; foam dots
Size: 4.25" square

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Happy Snuggles!

Hi Friends! Have you had a good weekend? My DD came away from her birthday party yesterday with a big grin, and she's spent the day today putting together her new Friends Lego House (finally, Lego came out with decent girl sets!). So, our weekend was great!

I hope you don't get tired of seeing new baby wall hangings. I've got another one to share with you today, and I still have four more to make. This one is adorable, and a little unusual, so I think you'll enjoy it.

I talked to one of my nephews at the birthday party, and he said he and his wife don't really care for pink and frills for their new daughter's room, so they are going with a forest friends theme, and are using reds, blues, and whites as the main colors. I had just bought a digital paper pack from Print Candee called Forest Friends, and it is almost exactly what my nephew described. Also, I just got a baby shower invitation from them, and it has the cutest little group of owls across the top, so the owl from Paper Smooches' Chubby Chums set was an obvious choice.

I used the Viva la Verve July 2012 Week 2 sketch for this creation, but I made mine square and used a twig for the narrow strip in the center.

And, the Color Throwdown Challenge CTD199 fit right in with the nursery color theme!

I colored the owl with Copics, used Glossy Accents for the eyes, and put Stickles on the beak. Then, I went outside and found a little twig to stand him on. I tied the twig with twine, but also used some Glossy Accents to hold it in place.

I didn't want to add any rhinestones or pearls, since it's a nature theme, so to give it a little more girly feel, I added some white cotton lace and some dangling, gold sparkly trim.

As I did for the last baby wall hanging, I decorated the back so I could use this as my shower gift card, too. The sentiment was created in Word, printed on a transparency, and rubbed onto the cs. Oh, and I got the sentiment from the book, Words to the Rescue 2.

This was so much fun to make! Now I need to find out what my other nieces and nephews will be doing in their nurseries!

Thanks so much for stopping by today! Hope you have a wonderful week. :)

I'd like to enter this in the following challenges:
Viva la Verve July 2012 Week 2 Sketch Challenge
Color Throwdown CTD199
Flourishes Bring Back Beautiful BBB24: The Beauty of Winged Things
Stampin' Sisters in Christ Challenge #147
Sentimental Sundays Challenge #110: BINGO (Lace-Flowers-Diecut)
Catch the Bug Challenge-July: Anything Goes
Craft Your Days Away #49: Doilies and Lace
Crafty Ribbons Challenge #23: Photo Inspiration

~Hugs,

 

Stamps: Chubby Chums (Paper Smooches); Hello Baby (Flourishes); Burlap background (Stamp Camp); Welcome Baby (Recollections)
Paper: Forest Friends, Hexagon Colorful digital papers (Print Candee); corrugated cardboard; chipboard
Ink: Distress Ink; Memento; Copic markers
Dies: Floral Ovals, Romantic Rectangles, Labels Twenty-Five (Spellbinders); French Pastry Doily (Cherry Lynn Designs)
Accessories: Designer Pine punch (McGill); embossing powder (Zing); lace; gingham ribbon; flower; eyelets; twine; sewing thread; twig; Glossy Accents; Stickles; foam dots
Size: 6.25" x 6.25" (not including lace trim)

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Tiny Miracle in Blue

Hi Friends! I've got a quick post for you today (short on words, several photos). I enjoyed making my DD's wall hanging so much (and, btw, she loved it!), that I wanted to make another one. I have six nieces and nephews who are expecting babies within the next six months, and I've decided to make each of them a wall hanging for the new little ones. 

The two ATC-sized image panels, as well as the blue damask paper are digital papers from Print Candee. The polka dot paper is digital paper from Cupcake Cards & Crafts. I distressed the edges with my Distrezz-It-All, and also with Distress Ink, added two little satin ribbon tags, and a few pearls to the border strip, tags, and the baby's blanket. I added meandering stitching around the perimeter of the polka dot paper, and a mini pompom trim along the edges before added a piece of cardboard backing to the entire piece.

Flourishes Sketch Challenge FLLCJUL12 worked well as a layout for a wall hanging.

I added the "Tiny Miracle" stamp to one of the image panels, and heat embossed "It's a boy!" along the blue dp border strip. Both stamps are from Flourishes' Hello Baby stamp set.

This will also serve as a congratulations card for my shower gift, so I decorated the back, too. I used the same digital papers, but on the polka dot paper, I also added a flourish that is also a digital paper from Cupcake Cards & Crafts. To do that, I just removed all the white background on the flourish paper, then put the remaining flourish image over the polka dot paper before printing it out. Oh, and I also darkened the flourish image a little bit, as it was too light to show up well on the green polka dot paper. The verse is from the same Hello Baby stamp set. The congrats and hand print stamps are listed in my card recipe at the bottom of the post.

Well, I'm off to make my DD's birthday cake for our party tomorrow. She wants a watermelon cake this year. Have you seen the pin for it at Pinterest? I made it last week, just to make sure we actually liked it, and it was delicious--if you love watermelon flavored Jolly Ranchers. For the "real" birthday cake, I'm going to make the watermelon-flavored cake, but will use regular buttercream icing, rather than the watermelon flavored cream cheese icing. All that watermelony-ness was a little too much for us! :)

Thanks for stopping by, and have a wonderful weekend!

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges:

Flourishes' It's Sketchy Challenge FLLCJul12

Cupcake Craftroom July 2012 Challenge: Layers

Simon Says Stamp: Tags or ATC's

Whimsy Stamps Inspiration Challenge #46: Anything Goes

 

Stamps: Hello Baby (Flourishes); Everyday Sayings (Hero Arts); Tiny Hands (Stampabilities)
Paper: Flourish, Polka Soft Moss Digital Paper (Cupcake Cards & Crafts); Vintage Damask, Blue Dream, Girl & Boy Digital Papers (Print Candee)
Ink: Distress Ink; Memento
Dies: Fleur de Lis Squares, Classic Scalloped Rectangles Lg (Spellbinders)
Accessories: Parisian Edge Punch (EK Success); Corner Chomper; Distrezz-it-All (Zutter); satin ribbon (Michaels); mini pom pom trim(Wright's); pearls; eyelets; sewing thread; paper crimper; foam dots
Size: 5" x 5"

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