March 12 Kits of Occasions

I cannot believe that today is the last day of March!  Where is this year going? But the last of the month does mean good news because it's another 12 Kits of Occasions reveal.  Michelle (from Pretty Periwinkles) put together the cutest "Spring Fling" themed kit!  Have you ever gotten something crafty that you loved so much that you didn't want to use it because then it would be gone?  Well, that's how I felt about pretty much everything in this kit.  Cutting this darling paper was almost painful, and some of my very favorite supplies (like the string of sequins, the kraft patterned paper, and the itty bitty stamped bunnies) still didn't get used because I just couldn't part with them yet. :)  Oh, and I hardly added any extra supplies on my projects, so make sure you check out the Kit Supply List here.

I started with a quick and easy Easter card. (The only thing I added was stamping the polka dots.) Then I remembered that we were posting this after Easter, so I made a few non-holiday cards. 

I super loved this grass in the kit as well as the flower sequins, so I decided to combine them.  When I went to pull out my cloud stamps, I happened upon PTI's Watercolor Wonder and the strokes reminded me so much of the actual clouds I've been seeing in the sky lately that I had to use them.  And I LOVE how they look on the card. {happy sigh} I'm also linking this one up to the Simon Says Anything Goes Wednesday Challenge.

One of the big dilemmas in this kit was choosing which side of the patterned paper to use because I truly loved every single pattern. This one in particular was so gorgeous that I didn't want to cover up any of it, so I went with an extremely simple card design.  I wish I had this pattern in a pillow, or a curtain, or even a chair. :) The wood embellishments were from last month's kit. 

This bunny card is probably my favorite. Every single thing on it was included in the kit. And somehow I managed to not color an image that clearly was meant to be colored. :) 

I needed a few last minute tags, so I put the darling Frantic Stamper bunnies in the kit to good use. And to up the cuteness factor, I added the itty bitty pom poms on their tails. In fact, now that I look at the tags all together, every single bit of them except the clothespins came from Michelle's kit. 

And here are my cards all together one last time.  Well, almost all of them.  I have another card that I made that will post tomorrow, but doesn't the spring goodness just make you happy? Now if you want a little more happy in your life, head over to the 12 Kits of Occasions blog to find links to all the other designers and their extra fabulous cards. :) Plus, you don't want to miss out on the chance to win this darling kit...details on the 12 Kits Blog! 

Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge #6...Take Two Sneak Peek

Oh, I am so excited about the cards I'm sharing on the Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge Blog today!  I smiled ear-to-ear while making them.  Hope you'll stop by to check them out. :)

Surprise Birthday Hop for Kim!

Hi!  Today is a super special day.  My teammate Kim (from Cupcakes, Cards, and Kim) is celebrating her birthday this month, and I'm so happy to be participating in a special blog hop in her honor.  Kim is so talented and such an amazing person!  I'm so lucky to know her.  And the best part is that Kylie, the orchestrator of this special hop, has a link-up on her blog here, so everyone can join in the birthday fun.  Let's shower Kim with lots of birthday love! 

Card Supplies (all PTI) 

Stamps: Tulip Time

Ink: Aqua Mist, Berry Sorbet, Melon Berry, New Leaf, Spring Moss, True Black

Easter Blessings

Hello!  Happy Saturday!  There were so many wonderful cards to be inspired by from the March Papertrey release that I decided I needed to make some time to play along with their Create With Us Challenge.   I especially loved a floral card Laurie Willison created for the release.  I'm away from home, but I brought some PTI goodies I ordered a month ago and had never used, some ink, ink blenders, scissors, and glue with me, and this is what I came up with.  Simple, but I love it!  Even though I specifically bought Peonies on Parade because I want to learn how to color better, I still ended up just using the outline images...oy.  Someday I'll work on the coloring thing. :) Thanks so much for stopping by!

Supplies (all PTI)

Stamps: Keep It Simple: Easter, Peonies on Parade

Ink: Aqua Mist, Bright Buttercup, Limeade Ice, Raspberry Fizz, Royal Velvet, Summer Sunrise

Coming Soon...

My awesome Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge teammate Nora has organized a super fun blog hop coming soon.  Hop along and celebrate with fun, laughs, inspiration, and PRIZES on April Fool's Day.  You won't want to miss this. :) 

Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge #6

Hello!  I'm popping to share my card for the latest Stamping Smiles Design's Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge.  Challenge Six is a fun one with so many happy spring possibilities.  I chose the diagonal from the bottom: patterned papers, clean and simple, and umbrella.

I had so much fun making this!  I can't get enough of ombre lately.  (I know, I'm sometimes slow to catch on.) :) I even did double ombre by stamping the raindrops in an ombre fashion on top of my ink blended background.  It seemed to work so well with the sentiment.  Don't challenges seem to get lighter when someone helps carry the load?  I wanted to brighten the feel of the card even more, so I created a little shaker on top of the polka dot patterned paper.  (I know, you've seen a lot of that lately, too...I promise I tried so many other papers and this one just worked best.)  I just love this sequins mix from Pretty Pink Posh.  Look at those adorable flowers. (Thank you to the wonderful, generous Ka for sending them to me!)

I'm so glad this challenge got me to dig out Scattered Showers and Blue Skies from PTI.  It's been far too long since I've used these sets.  And I had so much fun with them that you'll be seeing more of them in a few days. ;) I look forward to seeing how Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge Six inspires you!  Make sure to visit the Stamping Smiles Design's Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge blog to join the fun and admire the fabulous projects the other design team members created.

Notepad Inspired Card

A couple months back I saw some cute notepads at Target, bought them, and forgot about them. :) I found them again and decided to give them to my son's preschool teachers. I really liked the pattern at the top of the notepads, so I used that as the inspiration for my card.  I pulled out Polka Dot Basics for the teeny tiny dot in it only to find it has gone missing. :( So I had to search through my stamps.  I found another not-quite-as-teeny-tiny dot in PTI's Happy Harlequin, which I bought years ago and never used.  I realize I still have hardly used the set, but I can now say that I have used it, so I'm joining in the wonderful Darnell's NBUS Challenge #6.  The flowers came from PTI's Graceful Greetings, and I finished it off with a sentiment from PTI's Fresh Floral Wrap-Ups...one of my faves...I always love the fonts Maile chooses for her sets.

Well, the sun is out (Hooray, Hooray!), so we're heading out to play! Hope you have a wonderful, sunshine filled if possible, week. :) 

Graciellie Design's Stamps Part Two + Giveaway Reminder

Hello!  As promised, I'm back to share another one of the cards I made with the brand new Gracielle Design's Digital Stamps.  

Earlier this week I share a card using the sweet bunny from the Happy Easter Set, but I couldn't leave this cute chick out.  So he is the star of the show today. 

I love the expression on his face.  And I love that with digital stamps you have the ability to adjust the size and direction of the images, too.  

Because of the detail on the images, you really don't have to do much to them either.  A little ink blending and done.  Isn't it fun?

And here are all of my cards together. If you missed the first two, you can find the details in the official Blog Hop here. And you'll definitely want to head there if you haven't already entered the giveaway for the chance to win a free digital stamp set of your choice!!  Hurry...you only have until March 7th to enter.

These digitals stamps really are wonderful.  You can find the two sets I used as well as all of Graciellie Design's Stamps for purchase in her beautiful shop here. :) 

Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge #5

This is my second post today.  For my first post, please go here.

Can you believe it is the beginning of March already?!  Time is flying!  But the good news is that the first of the month means a new Stamping Smiles Designs Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge.  The process of choosing three elements was quick for me this time.  I chose the middle column: beads, gold, rainbow. 

When I was making my cards for January's 12 Kits of Occasions, I loosely watercolored this gorgeous gold embossed Origami Map from Neat & Tangled and then never finished the card.  When I saw this challenge board, I knew it was the perfect time to complete it.  All I needed to do was figure out how to add the bead element.  I had a few ideas, but I wasn't loving them, so I asked my husband for his advice.  Almost immediately he said, you should do beads to mark cities around the world, you know, like in the U2 song.  Well, no, I had no idea what song he was talking about, but I did love his brilliant idea, so I chose some well-known cities I thought were neat and tried to (generally) pinpoint them on the map.  (Oh, and if you were wondering, yes, he did look up the song for me so I knew what he was talking about.)

I don't know why I don't ask my husband for card advice more often.  He's usually pretty quick to give an answer.  And clearly he has some great ideas.  Oh, wait...I do know why.  He's usually sleeping when I craft. :)

Here's one last look at the card. {happy sigh} I hope you'll join us for Challenge #5 over at the Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge blog!  You could certainly go fun and festive for St. Patrick's day with this board or not like me.  I'm looking forward to seeing your takes on the challenge. :)

New Graciellie Design Stamps - Blog Hop & Giveaway

I'm so excited to be participating in today's blog hop featuring brand new stamps from Graciellie Design's Digital Stamps.  I was lucky enough to work with two of Gracie's new stamp sets.  The first was Happy Easter.  Aren't those little critters adorable?

And here is my card using this set.

Though there's a large variety of bunnies out there, I knew immediately I wanted mine to be grey. :)  The color scheme wasn't intentional (as it usually is for me) but just sort of happened.  I'm not really surprised, though.  These are the colors most prevalent in my wardrobe and my home. :) Ink blending was such a great technique to use with these digital stamps...no worries at all about smudging the ink.

The next set I worked with was Patience.  Gracie has a knack for creating beautiful sentiments and this set was no exception.

I loved this particular sentiment and wanted the beauty of the words to stand out, so I used a very simple card design.  I also decided that I wanted a cohesive element for all my cards, so you'll see the polka dot paper on all three.  It's difficult to tell in the photo, but I actually popped up a few of the leaves and petals on the flower.  The dimension really adds so much in person.  The other fun thing is that I actually used the mirror image of the flower.  I definitely love that digital stamps allow you to do that.

I had such a wonderful time working with Gracie's stamps.  If you are familiar with Gracie's work (and I hope you are!), you'll notice that my style of card making is very different.  She is a master of shabby chic and beautiful layering and creates the most breathtaking projects.  Why am I telling you this?  I think the stark contrast of our styles shows how very versatile these digital stamps are.  And the best part is that they are available right now.  These and other new digital stamp sets can be found at Graciellie Design's Shop here.

*GIVEAWAY*

Who doesn't love a giveaway, right?  For a chance to win a new digital stamps set of your choice from Gracie's shop, hop along, enjoy the beautiful eye candy, and leave a comment on the blogs listed below.  The giveaway will run for one week and Gracie will announce the winner on her blog, so don't forget to subscribe to her newsletter here. 

Graciellie Design

Lisa

Samra

Karen

Vicki

Cornelia

Autumn

Many thanks to Gracie for giving me this opportunity to use (and enjoy!) her new stamps.  I know you'll love them, too.  PS You may have notice that I said I made three cards...and I did.  So make sure you check back later this week. :) But in the meantime, head to Gracie's shop here and check out all her beautiful designs!