Boys R the Best

Today I'm sharing a scrapbook page created with PSA Essentials stamps (and a whole lotta other goodies!)  I created this page for my husband for Father's Day and will frame it in a black 12x12 frame for display on his office wall.  These photos of our two sweet boys are from a few years ago but I love the sky in the photo, the water in the background, the unsure look on our youngest son's face (he was terrified of the waves), and the joy on the face of our oldest.  He adores the water!  We live pretty close to the beach so we routinely head down around dinner time, when it's cooler and no longer crowded.  It's a great time for us and the kids!

Here's a close up shot of the PSA stamps...Surf's Up!  It's perfect for beach photos and I adore the little surfboard image.  I paired their stamps with a few rhinestones and stickers/die cuts from Bo Bunny.  The kraft tag is from Maya Road.  And check out that great glimmer on the bottom of the page...I created that by first cutting out the star shapes, from the Sweet 'n Sassy Star Die Cut Set, from a piece of kraft cardstock.  I then used the cut stars as a mask and spritzed gold Perfect Pearls all over the page.  Then I used the stars, now glimmering with gold, in various places on the page.

With the negative space from the stars?  I filled those with a variety of papers from a Bo Bunny paper pack.  Love this technique!  It's one that I saw in a recent CARDS magazine.  Fun stuff!  The other elements of the page simply included a few paper banners and stickers.  Feel free to click on any of the photos to increase the photo size.  And be sure to check out all that PSA Essentials has to offer!



Tiny Yawns & Sleepy Sighs

Hey guess what?  We're half way through the week already...can you believe it?  And true to form, my great schedule from Monday has already fallen by the wayside! LOL!  No worries, at least I had time this week to play along with this week's Splitcoast sketch.  PS - I confess that I added one tiny element to the sketch...that little bit of sentiment off to the left.  Once I had my main image on the card I realized that 1) I needed something on the left side of the card to balance out the image and 2) my sentiment was too large to fit with the moon...so I improvished!

This card features a darling baby-themed image is the Sweet Dreams digi from Sweet 'n Sassy.  I stamped the image on watercolor paper and then used my Distress Markers to color the moon and pillow.  The blanket was paper pieced from this fab new paper from My Minds Eye.  And then all those fab layers were assembled to complete the card!

Enjoy and be sure to check out the sketch today and play along!

Wishing you a Beautiful Day

Happy Monday everyone!! 

Today's card came about after looking through a book that I purchased for my boys yesterday...a mini Smash book. (Who has jumped on the Smash book bandwagon??) I thought the Smash books would be a great spot for them to jot down some of their summer memories. Both of them have already filled out a few pages and added some stickers.

One of the Smash book pages was covered with a beautiful rainbow of colors that looked as if someone had watercolored right on the page. When I saw the page I immediately imagined this card!

To create the card I used Distress Stains to color on a piece of sticky backed canvas. Once the stains were dry (you can speed up this process with a heat gun), I stamped my images directly onto the canvas. I started with the Friendship Script stamp, which I stamped in Pumice Stone Distress Ink and then I added a flower image, also stamped in Pumice Stone and Black Soot, from the Nature Silhouettes stamp set. Next, I frayed the edges of the canvas by pulling out a few of the strings from each side of the sqaure. My card was assembled and then I added this great sentiment from the new Make a Wish stamp set.

Super fun card to create and a super fun way to start the week! How about you? Have you tried out any of our Silhouette stamp sets yet? They're great paired with colorful backgrounds. Here are links to some of my favorites that are perfect for all of your summer crafty projects!
-Nature Silhouettes
-Together Silhouettes
-Serene Silhouettes
-Polka Dot Silhouettes

Enjoy!

You're a Lifesaver

Hi there!  Today's card is one that I created a week or two ago for a Splitcoast CAS challenge - to use white on white.  I was happy with the end result of this card but felt like it was maybe too much for a CAS card so I ended up going with this one but this sweet stamp from The Cat's Pajamas is too cute not to share!

I started by die cutting two tags, using my Tim Holtz tag die, and then I embossed them with this fun swirl embossing folder (kinda like waves, right??)  The stamp set, Aye Aye Captian, contains the bunny, great sentiment, and the tiny lifesavers...aren't they so cute?  And they perfectly fit the hole on the tag!

Once the tags were attached, and joined with a piece of twine, (BTW...I found this great tag idea in a recent CARDS issue), I stamped Captian Bunny on a piece of cardstock, colored him with Copics, and cut him out (attached with foam tape).  Then the sentiment was added by using a paper banner!

Enjoy and check out TCP's stamps...they're super fun!

Wishing You a Beautiful Day

I'm hosting Sweet 'n Sassy's Hump Day Challenge today on Splitcoast.  Can you guess what the challenge is?  To use LOTS of buttons!!!  Can you tell? :-)

My card was created using designer paper from Authentique (those fun "cards" are actually part of the paper that I simply cut out and attached) and my new all time favorite die, the Stardie set from Sweet 'n Sassy.  And then...I went plum crazy with my buttons!  I didn't use any thread for the buttons but just attached them all with glue dots.  (I did lay them all out on my card before attaching)  I then added a sentiment from the new Makea Wish set.

 Enjoy today's card/challenge and be sure to create a button card to share with our team!!

I *Heart* You

Hi all!  It's rare that I post on a Sunday but I suddenly remembered that Paper Smooches has started a sketch challenge and the deadline is tonight!  I love Kim's designs but I don't often get much time to just play and tonight, combined with the challenge deadline, was a great opportunity for me to ink up some of my Paper Smooches stamps!

This sweet stamp, Love Monkey, was actually given to us during a class that Kim taught at Wholly Scrap!  How fun is that...not only a great Paper Smooches class but the attendees all received a free stamp!

Mr. Love Monkey was stamped on small grid paper, from My Minds Eye, and colored with Copics.  I stamped the balloons and the monkey's nose on a second sheet of paper, colored each piece with Copics, cut them out, and attached them with foam tape.  The blue background paper is also from My Minds Eye and that beautiful sentiment is from the Pretty Phrases set.

Enjoy today's card and head on over to the PS Sketch Challenge.  The next challenge will be posted on Monday!

Glad There is You

Hi there!  Hey, guess what?  I'm glad there is you!  I'm glad that I have a few of you out there who are still reading my blog...after...maybe six years.  Goodness, I can't believe it's been that long!  And I'm not even that funny or interesting! LOL!  And I'm glad that I have an opportunity to share what I create with a great group of crafting ladies (and a few men...hello Tim, you fabulous crafter you) and an opportunity to help promote amazing companies!  Humm...I'm feeling pretty darn grateful tonight.

So would you like to hear me stop gushing and start talking about today's card?  This is a card that I created for a recent Wholly Scrap! class where we created with the new Distress Markers (have to share that I'm loving them).  I kept the layout of this card simple, only using a few pieces of designer paper, so we could focus on coloring this beautiful floral image from Hero Arts.  For this technique, we used the markers to scribble on a craft sheet and then used a watercolor brush to pick up the color and fill in the image.  I started with a lighter color and added darker (sometimes using a heat gun to dry the paper in between).  I did use watercolor paper with this technique as it holds up better then regular cardstock.  And then there's the darling sentiment, from the Together Silhouettes set from Sweet 'n Sassy.

Enjoy!