Ink Up: August 2015

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Food and/or Drink
613 Avenue Create #137: Anything Goes

~Hugs,

Supplies Used:

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Paper Sweeties August Release Party!

Saturday, August 15, 2015

It's Release Day at Paper Sweeties, and all the yummy new stamps and dies are available in the shop now! I used several of them on my card today.

Sophie is wearing her newest dress, from the Wishing You stamp set, for Paper Sweeties 3rd Birthday Party. After paper piecing it from a piece of patterned paper, I used a Souffle pen to give it some blue accents, and added Stickles for some celebratory glitz. I even gave her a "Diamond" Stickles necklace and bracelet. My daughter had some interesting comments to make about Sophie's purple hair, but I was in the mood for something besides blond, brunette, or red hair, and I think she totally owns her new do! I love being able to add a little something to an image that makes it unique, and I did that here with Sophie's eyes. I'm still learning to add facial features, and it took me three Sophie images before I got this one good enough. For the balloons, which are from the new Happy Cake Day stamp set, I heat embossed them with black onto watercolor paper, die cut them with the coordinating die, then used my watercolors. I also watercolored the background layer, too. (I finally got my own watercolors, and the colors are so much more vivid than my daughter's watercolors!) The sentiment is also from the Wishing You set and is heat embossed as well. After some zigzag stitching, I finished the card with a few Jellybean sequins.

For the inside I die cut a frame, watercolored it to match the front of the card, and stamped a simple Happy Birthday sentiment.

Be sure to visit the rest of the DT for more birthday fun inspiration:

Angel Johns
Cheryl Lea - That's Me!

Debbie Marcinkiewicz – Paper Sweeties
Emily Frasier
Jill Norwood

And, there's still time to enter this month's Happy Birthday Challenge, too! BIG prizes up for grabs!

I'll have one more card tomorrow that incorporates new and old stamp sets together. Hope you'll come back and check it out!

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:
613 Avenue Create #136: Anything Goes
Art Impressions Challenge #166: Anything Goes
Crafting for All Seasons #107: Bright and Beautiful

~Hugs,

Supplies Used:

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Paper Sweeties August Release Countdown!

Friday, August 14, 2015

I'm back with another Paper Sweeties sneak peek card. This one was super simple to make.

I used the new Let's Party and Wishing You stamp sets, and the coordinating Let's Party Sweet Cuts die set to create the gifts. I heat embossed them in white on watercolor paper, watercolored them, and added some white dots to the yellow package. The sentiment is embossed with white EP, and I used a white Sharpie marker to doodle around the edge of the card. Finally, I tied a Raspberry twine bow and sprinkled a few Tuti-Fruiti sequins around, filling the center of each one with a white Pearl Pen.

More sneak peeks await at each of my teamies' blogs:

Angel Johns
Cheryl Lea - That's Me!

Debbie Marcinkiewicz – Paper Sweeties
Emily Frasier
Jill Norwood

613 Avenue Create #136: Anything Goes
Oddball Art Stamp Challenge: Die Cuts

Paper Sweeties began with Sweeties Girl stamps, and my sneak peek for the Release Party tomorrow features Sweetie Girl Sophie in her newest party dress. See you then.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

~Hugs,

Supplies Used:

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Paper Sweeties August Release Sneak Peeks!

Thursday, August 13, 2015

Hey there! Any astronomy buffs out there? My daughter and I spent several hours under the stars last night watching for meteors from the Perseid meteor shower. One of them was amazingly big and bright, with a long wake. Peek viewing time is actually at 4 AM (in about 4 hours). I may have to run out there and have another look then. :) In the meantime...

It's time to share some sneak peeks of Paper Sweeties' August New Release stamps and dies, and you are going to love every single one of them! Paper Sweeties is celebrating its 3rd birthday this month (Be sure to check out the Paper Sweeties Blog to find out about our HUGE birthday celebration, where you can win prizes from any one of a dozen sponsors!), and as part of the fun, all the new releases this month have to do with birthdays or celebrations!

For my sneak peek card today, I'm using the new Happy Cake Day stamp and die set. Isn't that cake adorable? I couldn't resist decorating every layer differently. I colored the cake with Copics then added black Pearl Pen dots to the top and bottom layers and gave it some sparkle in the center layer. I rubbed Silver Inka Gold on the cake plate and in real life, it actually looks metallic. One of the things I really like about this set is that Debbie put in two differently designed candles which are separate from the cake, so you can have as many, or as few, as you'd like. I used three striped candles, of course, in honor of Paper Sweeties' birthday. The other candle has dots on it, similar to the cake layers. The balloons are also part of this set. I colored them with Copics then covered them with Stickles. The look a little spotty in the picture, but in real life they sparkle like crazy. For both the cake and the balloons I wanted a thin black border around them, so I fussy cut the stamped images and die cut the matching Sweet Cuts dies in black, which left the border I wanted. For the balloons, when I fussy cut them, I cut the strings off, then I stamped the strings onto the black die cut in white ink, before gluing the stamped balloons to it.

For the inside, I just used scraps from the front to add color to the sentiment panel and stamped the cute sentiment in black.

You are definitely going to want to see the sneak peeks from the rest of the DT, too, and don't forget about those prizes I mentioned earlier. There is more than one way to win, and one of the prizes is a $100 gift certificate from Paper Sweeties! Now, that pretty sweet, right?

Angel Johns
Cheryl Lea - That's Me!

Debbie Marcinkiewicz – Paper Sweeties
Emily Frasier
Jill Norwood

Angel Johns
Annette Witherspoon

Hope you'll come back tomorrow for a sneak peek of another fun set!

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:
Viva la Verve August 2015 Week 1 Sketch Challenge
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Food and/or Drink
613 Avenue Create #136: Anything Goes
Sweet Stamps Challenge #234: Anything Goes
Art Impressions Challenge #166: Anything Goes
Oddball Art Stamp Challenge: Die Cuts
DoubleClick Skittles: Thank You Cherry Much Food Challenge

~Hugs,

Supplies Used:

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----Paper Sweeties August Inspiration Challenge #34---- Happy Birthday

Saturday, August 1, 2015

Time to celebrate!!! Someone is turning three years old this month!

Happy Birthday, Paper Sweeties!

In honor of this happy occasion, Paper Sweeties is having a month-long celebration! You are definitely going to want to join us for this celebration because, not only will Debbie be revealing 4 brand new, adorable stamp sets and 3 coordinating Sweet Cuts die sets this month, but there are going to be prizes--All Month Long, beginning with a Happy Birthday Inspiration Challenge:

Abigail is all decked out in her best party dress, from the Jelly Bean Time stamp set, for this special birthday party, including pink pearl jewelry. She is colored with Copics and I used Liquid Pearls for her jewelry. The dress is paper pieced, and I colored the sash then added sparkly Stickles on the flowers there, and on her shoes. Her party hat, cake, and gift are from the Celebrate stamp set. The cake stamp was perfect for Paper Sweeties' third birthday, with it's 3 candles, and, of course, for Paper Sweeties, there is plenty of pink, sparkly frosting. I fussy cut the gift from a piece of patterned paper and colored the bow and ribbon with an opaque gel pen. The white dots are made with a Snow Marker, which added a fun texture. The table was paper pieced using a stamp from the I'm Having a Tea Party stamp set.

For the birthday banner, from the Hello Friend stamp set, I stamped the banner image twice onto patterned paper, then die cut it with the coordinating Sweet Cuts die in the Be Happy set. Then, I stamped the Happy Birthday sentiment with Versamark ink, and sprinkled it with both gold embossing powder and pink (Kunzite) glitter. I had to heat it from the back to keep the glitter from blowing away, but I really like the subtle touch of pink it adds. You can't see it in this photo, but after adding the sentiment to the banner, I cut just that center section out and popped it up with foam tape onto the other stamped and die cut banner.

Here's the inspiration photo for the Happy Birthday challenge. Don't those colors (and the cupcakes) look yummy? ;)

The inside of this card has the same white frame as on the front of the card, and I've added a patterned scalloped border inside on the top edge. The sweet little balloon is another image from the Celebrate stamp set.

You won't believe how cute the rest of the DT's cards are! Be sure to check them out. Also, Paper Sweeties Alumni Designers are joining us for this most special of occasions, and you'll definitely want to see what they've created, too!

Cheryl Lea - That's Me!

Debbie Marcinkiewicz – Paper Sweeties