Sweet 'n Sassy Blog Hop!

Welcome to the Sweet 'n Sassy blog hop and BIG announcement...did you read about it yet? Sweet 'n Sassy is going all digital, all the time! We're so excited about this new change, which will provide customers with more frequent releases, for less. And I'm in love the image quality and design that Korin has developed for our upcoming releases!! On my card today, I used one of the images from the All My Heart set, which contains two hearts and four sentiments for only $4.00! One of the things I like about digital images is that you can change the size of the image. For today's card, I created a smaller heart so it would fit within my circle of patterned paper. This layout continues to be one of my favorites, one I've used frequently with squares; today it's circles. The paper I used is from SU! and October Afternoon and my heart has been covered with rhinestones and stickles. Sure which that the bling was more visible in photos...humm...maybe it's the photographer! :-)

Be sure to hope on over to the blogs of our other design team members!! As part of our blog hop, we're giving away our entire January Digi release to one lucky blog hop participant! PLUS, we have an adorable freebie for EVERYONE who participates in our Spread the Love blinkie campaign! If you came here first, please hop over to the Sweet 'n Sassy Digi Blog to begin. From there hop to each of the following blogs (in no particular order): Micki ♥ Sandy ♥ Deedee♥ Melanie ♥ Nicole ♥ Lynne ♥ Korin ♥ Leah ♥ Ceal ♥ Darsie ♥ Janette ♥ Kim ♥ Lorie ♥ Nancy Thank you for visiting and enjoy our hop!

Faux Cloisonne Technique

The latest issue of Scrapbook News & Review has been posted! This month, I have an article on embossing posted in the stamping section. You'll need subscribe in order to read the entire piece but it's only $4.99/month to join and have access to hundreds of layouts, tutorials, and techniques so get on over their and subscribe! Included with my article is a tutorial on the faux cloisonne technique. For those of you who don't know...I didn't...Cloisonne is an ancient, multi-step metalworking technique that is used to produce jewelry, vases, and other decorative items. The technique can be used for enamel or for gemstone inlays. In either variety, the shape making part of the design is surrounded by a thin metal edge to form a compartment. With enamel, liquid enamel is poured to fill the compartment with gemstones, a pre-cut matching piece of inlay is then hammered and glued into place. Whew!! That's seems like a lot of work...Good thing all you need is a few old magazines and a jar of gold embossing powder to recreate the same look. Creating a cloisonne look is super easy and a great way to add bold, colorful images to cards and scrapbook pages. You'll need to read the SNR article for the entire tutorial but I will provide you with two helpful hints; 1) I found that using a picture with lighter colors worked better than darker and 2) this technique is meant to work with outline stamp images.

And here is my finished card, complete with two faux cloisonne flowers! The floral images are from Papertreyink and I believe (this card was made a few months ago) that the paper is from Bo Bunny, which was purchased at my local scrapbook store, Wholly Scrap. I loved trying out this technique since I never have before...how about you? Have you done this technique before, did you like it, have any cards you'd like to share?? :-) Feel free to leave a comment with a link back to your gallery...I'd love it see your work! Enjoy your Friday!!

Sweet 'n Sassy Digi Release Day!!

Today is release day over at Sweet 'n Sassy and Korin has some lovely digi images in store for you today! One of them is this adorable birdie...how perfect is this for a baby shower or welcome for a new baby?? I love his chubby little body!! Since I was creating late last night I kept my layout fairly simple. This is a 4" square card, one of my favorite gift card sizes, that I've layered with a piece of pale blue (embossed with my new polka dot embossing folder!) and scalloped red cardstock. I added the word 'baby' by punching out letters from an alphabet set. Be sure to check out all of the wonderful creations that will be posted on the other DT blogs; links are on the left! Enjoy!

LuLu Birthday Wishes

About a month ago I started to create a card for an assignment. Got the entire thing assembled and then realized that the paper I'd chosen, which I adore, (Cosmo Cricket paper pack from Taylored Expressions) just didn't work with my image. So I put the entire piece aside and there it sat until one evening last week when the light bulb went on (those light bulb moments don't happen very often! LOL!) and I remembered that I had purchased a few of these darling LuLu stamps, from Stamping Bella, after our Stamping Around VT event that would be perfect with the paper and layout. And this card was born! I love these images! Aren't they just adorable? I can't believe this cutie sat in my closet for so many months without seeing ink! My LuLu, named Harriett, was colored with Copic markers and her hair, stockings, and shoes also got a layer of glaze...isn't that stuff amazing? Love it! (You can see the shine in the first photo). I then added a birthday sentiment from PTI to the bottom of my die cut Harriett and attached her with foam tape to the front of my already completed card....now that was easy! Anyone ever create a card base without an image, just to have on hand when the perfect image emerges? That might be a time saving way to create a quick card when needed! Enjoy your Tuesday!!

Keep it Simple Sunday

Today's tip: Use a textured cardstock and rub ons for added dimension...that....and...copy a friend's adorable card layout to create a quick card! ;-) That's right...I admit it, I used a layout that Julie created during her card class on Friday night to serve as a jumping off point for today's Keep it Simple card. Thanks Julie! My card was created using Bazzill cardstock along with an adorable rub on from American Crafts, which I picked up at Wholly Scrap. I dyed a piece of ribbon, using my Copic markers, to match the coral color cardstock peeking out from the bottom of the card, and added a row of polka dots from a Papertreyink set. This is one of those great layouts that can be used for any occasion or stamp! Good thing Julie has a good eye for design! :-) Enjoy!!

SALT Challenge - Daily

It's time for another SALT challenge and this week's topic is "daily" or more specifically spending time with God on a daily basis. Tanis was our challenge host and she shared a few points regarding her topic: Psalm 68:19 - Praise the Lord; praise God our Savior! For each day he carries us in his arms. Know that you are DAILY accepted and DAILY forgiven if you are DAILY returning to God for forgiveness. 1 John 1:9 - But if we confess our sins to him, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. DAILY trusting Him with our problems and concerns. 1 Peter 5:7 - Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you. Isaiah 33:2 - But Lord, be merciful to us,for we have waited for you. Be our strong arm each day and our salvation in times of trouble. DAILY talking to Him. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 - Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. DAILY claiming His promises. Lamentations 3:20-25 - The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is His faithfulness; His mercies begin afresh each morning.I say to myself, “The Lord is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in Him!” DAILY praising Him in all circumstances. Psalm 42:8 - But each day the Lord pours his unfailing love upon me,and through each night I sing His songs, praying to God who gives me life. Psalm 96:2 - Sing to the Lord; praise His name. Each day proclaim the good news that He saves. As I said to Tanis when she announced this challenge, "excellent topic!" It was a wonderful reminder to not get too caught up in our every day activities that we neglect our time with God. I have a tendency to review the course of my day when I crawl into bed at night and far too often my heart sinks as I realize I failed to spend any quality time with the Lord. Oh, I have study with the kids and as a family but it can be difficult to find time to spend alone with Christ. And how much grace do we need as Moms! (I need lots! LOL!) It's hard to overcome the trials, even small ones, if we've failed to seek God's help. I pray that for today and the days to come that I'll strive harder to be a better committed, DAILY Christian, who is faithfully showing my love and gratefulness to Christ for all that He has done! Please stop by the SALT blog to see the team's amazing work and play along with our challenge!! Card details - I've been getting more and more drawn to the very simple card layouts...This one is no exception! I saw this fun layout from an old CARDS magazine and loved how the matted layers were off center...fabulous! I also just received a few new embossing folders and used one for the main layer of today's card. I portion of a Scripture verse, from a Sweet 'n Sassy set, was cut apart and added up the side of the card. Can't get much easier with this one!! :-) Enjoy!

Sing unto the Lord!

This this guy was posted on the Sweet 'n Sassy blog yesterday, another card created with the darling snowman from the newly released Love You This Much set. I love all of this month's releases but I think he has to be my favorite! He's easy to color and a breeze to cut out...that rates right up there with an all time favorite in my book! I paired my snowman with a verse from the Melody of Love set that was also released earlier this month. With my snowman's arms out to his sides, it looks as though he was rejoicing so I thought the verse was a perfect match! The image was colored with Copics and I created the faux snow by cutting curves out of vellum and attaching to a label die cut (created with Nestibilities die cuts). A thick layer of Stickles was added in various spots on my snow hills for a little sparkle and shine.

Enjoy your Tuesday!