Ink Up: July 2015

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Anything Goes

The Scrapbook Expo will be in Duluth, Georgia this coming weekend. Paper Sweeties will be there! Hope to see you there, too!

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Sketch Saturday #369 with Simon Says Stamp (turned the sketch upside down)

~Hugs,

Supplies Used:

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Paper Sweeties July Release Party!

Wednesday, July 15, 2015

It's New Release Day at Paper Sweeties! The new Wish and Bee Happy stamp sets, as well as the coordinating Sweet Cuts die sets are available for purchase now! I used the sweet little bee image from the Bee Happy set for my card today.

I'm still trying to figure out the whole watercolor trend and decided to give it a try on this card, and what the heck, I thought I'd try to turn it into a CAS card at the same time. CAS is definitely not my strong suit! I followed the June Week 1 Viva la Verve sketch, which I turned upside down, but instead of a lot of layers, I just watercolored loose color blocks, then painted black lines between them. The white splatters are acrylic paint. I stamped the bee onto another piece of watercolored paper, added Stickles to the wings, and colored over the stripes with a Black Spica pen. After stamping the Bee Happy sentiment, I made a bow from three strands of Licorice Twine, stuck a couple of leaf pins in, and glued three Cotton Candy sequins to the center of the bow. I sprinkled some Marshmallow sequins over the rest of the card.

I used the same watercolors on the inside of the card, just watered down more, then stamped the leafy stem from the Bee Happy set onto paper that I had watercolored in green, then die cut it with the matching Sweet Cuts die.

Check out the cards the rest of the team made, then head over to Paper Sweeties to get your own Wish and Bee Happy stamps and dies!

Angel Johns
Cheryl Lea - That's Me!

Debbie Marcinkiewicz – Paper Sweeties
Emily Frasier
Jill Norwood

Viva la Verve July 2015 Week 1 Sketch Challenge

Have you played along in this month's Red, White, & Blue inspiration challenge yet? You've still got time to join us, and you just might win a Paper Sweeties Gift Certificate!

Paper Sweeties Inspiration #33 – ‘Red, White & Blue’

And, last, but not least, here's a head's up for what's coming in August. PARTY!!!

Thanks for stopping by! Hope to see you again tomorrow!

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Anything Goes
613 Avenue Create Challenge #132: Create Your Own Challenge (A2/Encouragement/Watercolor)

~Hugs,

Supplies Used:

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A Literary Kind of Day

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

This isn't a card post, but it does involve a crafty project.

For all you book lovers out there, did you get to the bookstore today and buy Harper Lee's new book, Go Set a Watchman? It had SO much hype! Based on what I've heard about it so far, I'm not sure how well I will like it, but since I collect books and there is a lot of controversy surrounding the publication of this one, I decided to go ahead and get it, even though with a first printing of 2,000,000, I doubt it will ever be a collectible. I just hope it doesn't ruin To Kill a Mockingbird for me. I loved that book as a kid. Have you read "Watchman" yet? What did you think?

Another book that I am particularly fond of is The Hunger Games--actually the entire trilogy. My daughter just turned eleven, so I finally let her read it and watch the movies, and she liked the story, too. Whenever she reads a book that she enjoys, she often gets her Ever After High dolls and uses them to act out her favorite scenes from the book, so she has been quite busy for the past few days. Today, though, she got me involved when she drew up detailed plans for a doll-sized chariot for the Parade of Tributes scene, and asked me to help her make it. The odds were in her favor! When I saw the amount of work she put into those drawings, I couldn't say no! My daughter took this picture of the finished chariot:

I didn't want to invest much, if any, money in this project, but we didn't have wheels, so after a quick trip to Hobby Lobby, we spent the next 4 hours in the craft room. I thought we'd be done in maybe 15 minutes, but it was fun to make this with her and to hear her ideas about how to make it work with just the crafty supplies we had on hand. Besides the wheels we bought today, we ended up using a dowel rod, 2 pencil grips, rubber bands, pipe cleaners, a cardboard box, yarn, safety pins, a cork, and a couple of die cuts for a "Mockingjay" emblem, and it turned out really cute, and quite sturdy. Surprisingly, our biggest hurdle was keeping the chariot from tipping over when the horse pulled it, since wheels are only on the front of it, but eventually we figured it out. The horse actually walks by itself, and it is strong enough to pull the chariot, even with both dolls in it, so it really is something to see in action. I foresee tributes parading around our house for at least the next couple of days...or until the batteries run down in the horse.

I had so many other things I needed to do today, but I'm glad I put everything off for this. My daughter went to sleep tonight with a great big smile on her face. It just doesn't get any better than this.

Thanks for stopping by! I'll be back soon with my regularly scheduled programming. (Paper Sweeties' July New Releases go live in the store at midnight!!!)

~Hugs,

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Paper Sweeties July Release Countdown!

I'm back with another card made using the new release stamps and Sweet Cuts dies from Paper Sweeties. Yesterday, I made a card using the Wish die. The Love die on today's card is from the same "Wish" Sweet Cuts die set. It, along with the rest of the new releases, will be available for purchase tomorrow!!!

I started this card by cutting the "Love" die 3 times out of black cardstock, and once out of a grayish-blue, then layered them to give the word more dimension. I layered the black pieces directly on top of each other, but offset the top blue layer just a little bit to allow the black to show and define the edges of the letters. To add an ivory frame around the floral die cut, I cut the Labels 18 die two times more out of ivory cardstock, cut one in half lengthwise and the other in half from top to bottom, then attached them to the back of the floral die cut. You can see that there is more than one layer in the corners, but I like that look. The "you to pieces" stamp is from the "Wish" stamp set. I heat embossed it in white. After tying a Blueberry Seam Binding bow, I threaded gold Memory Thread through a red button, curled the ends, and attached it to the center of the bow. A few Silver Sequins with Red Pearl Pen centers are sprinkled around for a bit of shine.

To spice up the inside, I added a red heart cut with a die from the Pretty Posies Sweet Cuts die set. I love that little flare at the bottom of it.

I'll be back tomorrow with a card using the new Bee Happy stamp set--Adorable! I even attempted a little watercolor wash. I'm going to get the watercolor thing down eventually. ;)

Be sure to check out my Teamies' creations using the new releases:

Angel Johns
Cheryl Lea - That's Me!

Debbie Marcinkiewicz – Paper Sweeties
Emily Frasier
Jill Norwood

Have you played along in this month's Red, White, & Blue inspiration challenge yet? You've still got time to join us, and you just might win a Paper Sweeties Gift Certificate!

Paper Sweeties Inspiration #33 – ‘Red, White & Blue’

And, last, but not least, here's a head's up for what's coming up in August. PARTY!!!

Thanks for stopping by! Hope to see you again tomorrow!

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:
SugarPea Designs Sugar Sketch SPDSS28
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Anything Goes
Your Next Stamp Color Challenge #18
613 Avenue Create Challenge #132: Create Your Own Challenge (A2/Thinking of You/Sequins)
Chocolate, Coffee, & Cards Challenge #95: 1 Button & 1 Bow
Really Reasonable Ribbon Challenge #121: Pretty Bows Theme

~Hugs,

Supplies Used:

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Paper Sweeties July Release Sneak Peeks!

Monday, July 13, 2015

Oh My Gosh! I just realized that summer is half over! How did that happen? That old saying, "Time flies when you are having fun" certainly applies in my case. We haven't done anything extraordinary this summer, and our summer vacation was just a few hours away, for my daughter's bowling tournament (she WON in her division!), but this has been a wonderful summer for us. I hope you are enjoying the summer, too!

I just love word dies! Do you? Paper Sweeties' July New Release includes a fantastic "Wish" Sweet Cuts set with two word dies, as well as a coordinating stamp set. I used the "Wish" die for this card. (I'll have another card soon using the "Love" die from the same Sweet Cuts set.)

For the "Wish" layer, I heat embossed the "Wish" stamp with clear embossing powder onto a piece of watercolor paper, then used Color Bursts (links below) to create the colorful background. This was my first experience with Color Bursts and it didn't turn out as dark as I expected, so I added the blue "Wish" die cut over the embossed area for better contrast. I also stamped the "upon a star" sentiment from the "Wish" stamp set onto a star die cut from the same colored paper. The bottom of the card is glitter paper. And, I just had to add some shiny Cookie Dough Paper Sweeties sequins. If you haven't seen Paper Sweeties sequins in person, let me tell you, they are like none I have ever seen before. The colors are AMAZING! And, the scalloped/flower shape is beautiful.

On the inside of the card, I glued the tiny stars from the diagonal die cut on the front, and stamped a "Good Luck" sentiment from the So Sweet of You stamp set.

You are not going to want to miss the cards the rest of the DT has created using this month's new release stamps and dies! These ladies are SO talented!

Angel Johns
Cheryl Lea - That's Me!

Debbie Marcinkiewicz – Paper Sweeties
Emily Frasier
Jill Norwood

Angel Johns
Annette Witherspoon

Have you played along in this month's Red, White, & Blue inspiration challenge yet? You've still got time to join us, and you just might win a Paper Sweeties Gift Certificate!

Paper Sweeties Inspiration #33 – ‘Red, White & Blue’

And, last, but not least, here's a head's up for what's coming up in August. PARTY!!!

Thanks for stopping by, and have an awesome week!

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:
613 Avenue Create Challenge #132: Create Your Own Challenge (A2/Encouragement/Watercolor & Sequins)
Curtain Call Inspiration Challenge: Celebrate
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Anything Goes

~Hugs,

Supplies Used:

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------- Paper Sweeties July Inspiration Challenge #33 ------- Red, White & Blue

Wednesday, July 1, 2015

Happy 4th of July! In keeping with America's upcoming birthday celebration, Paper Sweeties' July Inspiration Challenge is Red, White, & Blue. I hope you'll play along with us.

I went shabby with my card, distressing all the edges with my Distrezz-It-All and with ink. I colored the doily with several colors of ink sprays. The star stitch on my sewing machine was perfect for the top edge of the striped paper. I used Paper Sweeties' Beautiful stamp set for the sentiment and stamped frame, and cut it out with the coordinating Beautiful Little Wishes Sweet Cuts die set. The bow is made from Sugar Sprinkles Seam Binding and I've used Apple Pie and Sugar Sprinkles sequins in several places, including the top of a blue button, which I distressed with sand paper and "antiqued" with brown acrylic paint. To finish off the card, I melted Shabby White Frantage Embossing Powder in a few places.

For the inside, I used scraps from the front of the card to make a patriotic frame around the sentiment panel.

Be sure to visit the rest of the design team, as well as our July Guest Designer, Lin Brandyberry, for more Red, White & Blue inspiration, then pop over to the Paper Sweeties blog and link up your own creation for a chance to with a Paper Sweeties Gift Certificate!

Cheryl Lea--That's Me!

Debbie Marcinkiewicz – Paper Sweeties