Sew Sweet, Valentine

I saw this Tim Holtz sewing machine stamp at a convention last weekend and thought it would be perfect for a card for my daughter sometime. I had totally forgotten that Valentine's Day was just a week away, but turns out, it makes for a cute Valentine's card. She will especially like that I colored it pink!

I stamped the sentiment with a Paper Sweeties Alpha Set, and the zigzag stamps are from an old Tim Holtz set. Those cute little tags are from the YNS Bookmark/Tag Die Set-Large.

On the inside I used a mix of stamps--Tim Holtz, Hero Arts, and Flourishes. 

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Your Next Stamp Sketch Challenge #32

MFT Color Challenge 39

Cupcake Inspirations Challenge 346

TCP Tuesday 307: Anything Goes

DoubleClick Skittles Challenge: Use a Heart

Pink & Main Challenge #6: Love

~Hugs,

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Be Merry and Bright Card Set

I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving yesterday. Are you still sleeping off all the turkey and trimmings? I definitely ate way too much! ;)

A friend saw a card I made last year and asked me to duplicate it as a card set. I'm not good with making multiple cards exactly alike, and I have almost completely lost my cardmaking mojo since saying goodbye to my little Silkie, Ozzy, 2 weeks ago, so I wasn't sure I would be able to do it. Ozzy was always underfoot when I worked in my craftroom in the middle of the night, and it's just not the same without him around. Since I haven't been able to find my get-up-and-go to design any cards at all, I thought CASing my own card a few times might help me get back in the groove again. 

Here's the entire set. I basically just chose four different groupings of paper, twine, and beads, then colored the image to match it's card. I like how they turned out. You can't tell in the pics, but all the Christmas lights have clear Wink of Stella sparkling on them, and the little puppies' noses are all dimensional with Glossy Accents. Close ups of each one follow:

I didn't take pics of the insides, but they all have the same sentiment and 3 flags in the corresponding papers either sewn or stapled to the card. If you want to see an example of what I did, I do have a pic of the inside of my original card here.

While I haven't made any cards in a few weeks, I have been busy making books. Now that I don't have to reference a book or video every time I want to make a book, I can make them without having to concentrate a lot, for most of the process. I'll post pics of them soon.

In the meantime, thank you for visiting my blog today, and BIG HUGS to all my Paper Sweeties Design Teammates, Facebook friends, and real life friends who have sent me such wonderful messages of condolence. I know Ozzy was "only" a pet, but, to me he was as much a part of my family as anyone else in it, and if you've ever lost a beloved pet, I know you understand how devastating it can be. :'‑(

Have a wonderful weekend!

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes
Your Next Stamp Color Challenge #28 (the first card fits the challenge)
Sugar Pea Color Challenge #7: CCC7 (the first card fits the challenge)
TCP Tuesday 304: Anything Goes
Tiddly Inks Challenge #171: Anything Goes!
The Paper Shelter Challenge #229: A Christmas Card
DoubleClick Skittles Challenge: Christmas Holiday Challenge
Sweet Stamps November Anything Goes Challenge

~Hugs,

Supplies Used:

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Paper Sweeties August Release Sneak Peeks!

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 

Kathy Schweinfurth

Larissa Heskett
Mackie Robertson

Maria Patrick

Michelle Bala
Mynnette Kitchen

Nancy Penir

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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