Simon Says Stamp Junior Stamper Kit

It's Ellie's birthday today, so a little post about her and some happy mail she got a couple weeks ago.

I was fortunate enough to win a Junior Stamper Kit from Simon Says Stamp. They are AWESOME and addressed the kit to Ellie as a surprise for her.



There's all sorts of fabulous stuff in the kit and as you can see, she was pretty excited to see it all.



The first project she did was the cutting/coloring project and she wanted to taket he finished picture to school for her teachers. She LOVED her last year of preschool. The little flag she added says "Thanks for a Great Year".



She definitely has her own style, it's kind of Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds right now. She spent a lot of time adding extra stripes and scallops and things like chocolate chip cookies and brownies in the clouds. Not exactly sure why, but she had a GREAT time.

She's got LOTS of other things to do and make - she's coming to work with me for a couple hours tomorrow and I told her she could bring the window markers....

Hope you are having a wonderful Ellie's Birthday, and HUGE thanks to Simon Says Stamp!

You're Cool

Sweet Stamp Shop has a new weekly Flickr challenge. This week's challenge is paper piecing, and although there's a lot going on this week, I love Sweet Stamp Shop and I love piecing, so I pulled this together with one of my new sets, Cool Scoop.

The mint and pink papers are from my scrap bag, and I stamped the sentiment on a piece of pink vellum. I scored it just wider than the white base so that it stands up a little. Here are some closer profile shots.





Hope that your week is going well. My attempt to actually work has been hindered by a case of pink eye....(not mine).

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock: CTMH - White Daisy and Chocolate cardstock, various scraps; Michael's Open Stock Pink Vellum
Stamps: SSS - Cool Scoop
Ink: Black
Other: CTMH - Bonding Memories Adhesive; Tombow - Mono Adhesive

Joy

We all need a little right!

This card is for Crate Paper's Patterned Paper challenge. I used papers from two of their 6x6 paper pads: Little Bo Peep and Pretty Party.

It's a little time consuming to put together, but not rocket science. Ellie actually helped punch the little circles using a large (just a bit bigger than 3/8") hole punch.

I traced three circles on the woodgrain paper to use as guidelines and then tacked the pieces on with a teeny bit of adhesive. Then I used the sewing machine going around each ring of circles three times.



Lots of repetition in this one, so I'm going to link up with the Moxie Fab World Card Design Handbook Repetition Challenge too.

Hope that your week is off to a great start! I know lots of kids are back in school already. Carina moved up to her next class in preschool today - the Cardinals - the girl is growing up! And Ellie starts kindergarten next week!!! Crazy!

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock: Crate - Pretty Party and Little Bo Peep 6x6 pads; CTMH - Colonial White cardstock
Stamps: CTMH - Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge celebrations stamp set
Ink: CTMH - Cocoa
Other: Tombow - Mono Adhesive; CTMH - Edge distresser; Sewing Machine

Journaling/Motivational Message cards with It's Your Day and Artiste Stamp Sets

This month Jen Gallacher has been hosting a Back-To-School series on her blog where she's been sharing ideas and challenging us to create some back to school projects.

Ellie starts kindergarten in just over a week. She is SO excited about it, and we're praying that it actually meets her expectations! I've been looking for ways to encourage her since she tends to take a while to warm up to new situations.

One of Jen's challenges was to create a set of Motivational Message cards. Her's have cute sayings like "Hey there! Way to go Smarty Pants" with a pack of Smarties attached.

I wanted to spin it a little. Since I've been so bad about writing in the journal that I have for Ellie, I wanted to make sure I was putting pen to paper and writing down notes about the moment - that I hope she has a great day, or that I'm so proud of her TODAY because of such and such.

So my cards are more motivational journaling/note/message cards. My other ulterior motive is that I can eventually collect them and use them in a scrapbook or smash book type project for her.

The cards are 3" x 4", so you can get 12 out of one sheet of paper. I only have 10 here because I am prone to stamping accidents.





For these cards I really wanted to show off the stamps that come with the Cricut Artiste Cartridge as well as this month's It's Your Day stamp set. LOVE these sets, and they are perfect for creating journaling cards or for Project Life/SMASH books.



As a reminder, It's Your Day is available through September for $5 with a $35 order. BUT if you order the Cricut Artiste cartridge from me, I will cover the cost of the stamp set for you. This is a personal promotion, so you will need to shoot me an email if you want to take advantage: mprantner at gmail dot com.

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock: CTMH - White Daisy cardstock
Stamps: CTMH - It's Your Day, Cricut Artiste stamp sets
Ink: CTMH - Black, Lagoon, Pacifica, Topiary, Gypsy, Cranberry, and Dutch Blue; Hero Arts - Bubble Gum and Butter Bar Mid-Tone Inks

Anni-Verve-Sary ABC Challenge

Another Anni-Verve-Sary Challenge post. This is for the ABC (Anything But a Card) challenge.

As you know, I love and have a lot of Verve's Plain Janes, so I thought a tag mini that showcased them would be great. It's something you could take to work or keep in your purse when you need to be able to remember a promise/verse.

The tags were cut using the Cricut Art Philosophy collection, and then I used paper and trim scraps to add a little decoration to the tags. Here's a shot of all the tags together:



I love how this turned out, and I think these would make great gifts too.

Hope your week is going well!

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock: CTMH - Colonial White Cardstock; Misc scraps
Stamps: Verve Plain Janes: Psalm 37:4, Proverbs 3:5, 1 Chronicles 16:34, Jeremiah 29:11, Philippians 1:6, Psalm 46:10, Psalm 46:1, Philippians 4:4, Philippians 4:13, 1 Peter 5:7, Psalm 31:24, Galatians 6:9
Ink: CTMH - Cocoa
Other: Tombow - Mono Adhesive; Misc trim scraps

Anni-Verve-Sary CAS Challenge

Another quick Verve post (I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'm going to be able to get all five done).

This is for the CAS challenge. I went kind of bold with it, and I think that the verse kind of reflects that.

Just used some black and yellow scraps that I had in my scrap bag.

Hope your week is going well!

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock: CTMH - White Daisy cardstock; Misc - Black and Yellow cardstock
Stamps: Verve - Psalm 31:24 Plain Jane
Ink: CTMH - Black
Other: CTMH - Dimensional Foam Tape; Tombow - Mono Adhesive

Anni-Verve-Sary Sketch Challenge

Another card for the Verve Anniversary tonight - I'm going to make this pretty quick as I am TIRED and am headed back to work tomorrow after two weeks away....it's gonna be a little crazy....

Anyway, this is another one of my new Plain Janes (I love Plain Janes!).

I was planning to use different papers since these don't necessarily scream baby/kid to me, but when I saw the stars on the one sheet of paper, I was sold. These are the new Clementine papers, which are my favorite from the new catalog.

I pretty much followed the sketch. Did a little piecing on the stars on the sentiment piece - cutting those teeny tiny stars from Creme Brulee cardstock.

The little scalloped piece (which ends up being mostly covered up) was cut using my AC Knock Outs Punch - thanks Nina!

And that great seam binding is from Hydrangea Hippo - PERFECT match, don't you love it when that happens?

OK, off to bed. Have a great evening!

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock: CTMH - Clementine papers, Creme Brulee and Colonial White cardstock, Colonial White bulk card base
Stamps: Verve - Little Star Plain Jane
Ink: CTMH - Black
Other: American Crafts - Scallop Knock Outs; Hydrangea Hippo - Blue Seam Binding; Tombow - Mono Adhesive

Psalm 37:4 for Ani-Verve-Sary Color Challenge

There was a big package of Verve stamps waiting for me when I got home yesterday, and providentially Verve is celebrating their anniversary this month with a whole slew of challenges.

This card is for the color challenge: pinks, greens, browns and neutrals. As soon as I saw it, I knew I wanted to use these papers. They are from CTMH's new holiday line called Pear & Partridge. I'm using one of the less 'holiday' sheets, but the colors are just perfect don't you think?

I don't usually use such a bold/busy pattern for card backgrounds, so I kept the rest of the card kind of CAS.



There's a little bit of leather trim that accents the center strip of paper, and then some mocha opaques accent the die cut, which is from the new Cricut Artiste cartridge.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock: CTMH - Pear & Partridge papers; Desert Sand, Olive, and Cashmere cardstock
Stamps: Verve - Psalm 37:4 Plain Jane
Ink: CTMH - Cranberry, Desert Sand, Ponderosa Pine
Other: CTMH - Mocha Opaques, Dimensional Foam Tape, Sponge, Sponge Dauber; Unknown - Brown Leather Trim; Helmar - 450 Quick Dry Adhesive; Tombow - Mono Adhesive

Home Sweet Home

We got home this afternoon from a week with my family in Georgia.

It's fun to be away, but always so great to get home. This was Carina's first time on a flight, and since she's still under two, we didn't get a separate ticket for her. She is a marginal flier, and I'm really sorry lady sitting in front of us. I tried REALLY hard to get her not to kick the seat....

Ellie on the other hand is a real pro when it comes to flying these days.

I've decided that coming home on a Friday is an excellent idea. You have the whole weekend to decompress (from vacation, I know, right?!), do laundry, go shopping, etc.

Hoping to get busy in the craft room tomorrow - I left a bunch of half finished projects, but I did get a couple more stamp carving lessons done while we were away.

Here are a few vacation photos to tide you guys over until I have something crafty to share:



Cousins waiting to go down to the lake



Playing in the sand





Arts and crafts (thanks to my sister)



Hanging down by the lake



Going for a wake board ride



Swimming with the aunts



Anxious to go home (I love that Carina is kind of a home body. I've noticed that when we are somewhere and she is ready to go, she will come over and say 'home?' She lasted about three days before she started asking about home - not that she wasn't having a great time, I think she just loves home, I do too.)

More Stamp Carving

I was itching to do some more stamp carving a few weeks ago, so I got out my tools and knocked out Lesson 4 from Julie Balzer's Stamp Carving 101, which was to make a series of chevron stamps.

It was a lot of fun. Here's what I came up with. You'll notice the chevron that I used in my Triple Take layout from last week too. Some of these I definitely like more than others, but I think it's a good set.



My very favorite is the one at the top right.

I've got some other projects using these in the works, and I've been creating some more stamps too, so stay tuned!

Hello Spring Cards

When I was working on Carina's Before and After Easter layout last week, I ended up with this strip left from one of the sheets of paper that I used.

It's such a cute little scene, and I thought it would be perfect to cut up for a set of cards, so here's what happened:



The paper really didn't need much. I just added some Hello Spring embellishments and a few trims.

For this one, I added the 'Love' sticker, some Amy Tangerine ribbon and stick pins.



This one used used another cardstock sticker that I popped up with some dimensional foam tape and then a clear cut shapes butterfly that was also popped up. So easy!



Finally, this one took a little more effort. I stitchced around a couple of the clouds using Blueberry Trendy Twine. The Hello Spring sentiment is another clear cut shape which I layered over a little piece of vellum so that it stands out a bit more, and then a little more Strawberry Trendy Twine finishes it off.



Hope your week is going well! Thanks for coming by!

Supplies Used

Paper/Cardstock: Little Yellow Bicycle - Hello Spring Garden Rows; CTMH - White Daisy Cardstock; Michael's - Open Stock Vellum
Other: Little Yellow Bicycle Hello Spring Stick Pins, Cardstock Stickers, Clear Cut Shapes; CTMH - Dimensional Foam Tape; Trendy Twine - Blueberry and Strawberry; 3L Large Dodz Adhesive; Tombow Mono Adhesive; American Crafts - Amy Tangerine Sketchbook Chevron Ribbon

Best Day Ever

A card for Basic Grey's sketch challenge today.

I really love the Paper Cottage collection, and I think most of it is kind of light and airy, but it can also be a little more modern.

I stayed pretty true to the sketch.



The stamp is from the It's Your Day stamp set (CTMH's Aug 15-Sept 30 special).

That gold trim is from Hydrangea Hippo, and the red strip is some Target washi tape.



I wanted to add a little more texture to the card, so I actually cut out some of those little circles and adhered them with small Dodz adhesives so that sit up just a little bit.



Hope you are enjoying your weekend!

Supplies Used

Paper/Cardstock: Basic Grey - Paper Cottage 6x6 pad; CTMH - White Daisy Cardstock
Stamps: CTMH - It's Your Day
Ink: Black
Other: Hydrangea Hippo - Gold Trim; Target Washi Tape; Tombo Mono Adhesive; 3L Small Dodz Adhesive; Creative Memories - Custom Cutting System

Mojo Monday 253

It's been a while since I played along with the Mojo Monday sketch, but I really liked this week's sketch, so I pulled out some more of my new papers and got to work.

I'm using the Dakota papers. I really like how they are so balanced and can be used for guys or girls.

I did a lot of distressing on the papers and stitching also.

The round seal stamp is from the Hero Arts Cheer Up set, and the 100% Genuine is from a new CTMH set called Rugged Dude.

Instead of using ribbon, I used one of the Dakota papers and created a paper bow.

Hope you have a great end to your week! We are headed out tomorrow morning for vacation, so there will be frantic packing and cleaning tonight!

Supplies Used
Paper Cardstock: CTMH - Dakota papers, Barn Red and Grey Flannel cardstock, White Daisy bulk card base
Stamps: CTMH - Rugged Dude; Hero Arts - Cheer Up
Ink: CTMH - Pacifica
Other: CTMH - Edge Distresser, 3L - Large Dodz Adhesive; Tombow Mono Adhesive; Creative Memories - Custom Cutting System Circles; Sewing Machine

Triple Take

Who would have thought that I would start to really enjoy these one and two photo layouts? Not me, that's for sure!

But really, this one was just SO much fun to put together.

This is this week's Elle's Studio sketch, and I'm also going to link up at Paper Issues, since I think this kind of qualifies as eclectic, at least eclectic for me.

I wanted my paper patterns to line up with that diagonal from the layout, so instead of cutting the paper on a diagonal and just fitting it onto the page, I cut the papers along the lines of their patterns. Consequently, they don't extend the full width of the page, but I like how it creates kind of a frame around the piece.

It was lots of fun choosing the elements for the layout. That doily stamp is an Elle's Studio exclusive, that I fussy cut. Layered on top of it, is a great embellishment that came in a Polka Dot Whimsy kit. Its from an etsy shop called Citron Faire that is no longer open.



Those flat red sequins also came in the Polka Dot Whimsy kit.



I used the Trinity Alphabet stamp set, and cut out the letters. Those, the doily stamp, and even those red sequins were run through the Xyron machine - makes adhering SO much easier.

I added a little line of Peppermint Stick Trendy Twine at the top, and paired some Cranberry grosgrain with an Elle's studio pennant below.

And what do you think of those chevron stamps? Like them? I've been carving again! I actually have a whole set, that I'll share with you soon.

Thanks for coming by!

Supplies Used

Paper/Cardstock: American Crafts - Garden Cafe; Bella Blvd - Estate Sale; CTMH - White Daisy Cardstock
Stamps: CTMH - Trinity Alphabet; Elle's Studio - Doily stamp; Miriam Prantner ;) - Chevron
Ink: CTMH - Cranberry, Chocolate
Other: Elle's Studio - Red Pennant; CTMH - Cranberry Grosgrain; Polka Dot Whimsy - Flat Round Sequins: Citron Faire - Layered flower embellishment; Trendy Twine - Peppermint Stick; Pigma Micron Chocolate Pen; CM - Photo Splits; Tombow Mono Adhesive; 3L - Large Dodz; Xyron - 5" Creative Station

Every Day is an Adventure

A quick card to share tonight. This is for Pretty Little Studio's Ad inspiration challenge.

That great little journaling spot with the bicycles on it is from PLS's Monsiour collection, and when I saw this inspiration photo, I knew I wanted to incorporate that tag into it.



I've used three stamps from CTMH's It's Your Day stamp set (more on that later). The Happy Day sentiment I stamped and centered into the little bracket which is actually for the date if you're using it to actually journal in.

The word bubble sentiment is a Cricut compatible cut, although I just fussy cut it because my TV that is showing the Olympics is downstairs and the Cricut machine is upstairs....



I used some Tsukineko Fireworks in Tangelo to add some splatter to the piece the bicycle is stamped on and did some stitching on the card also.

The little circle/star are pieces from the Lucky Level 2 assortment that I stacked together.



Now for a little commercial regarding the It's Your Day stamp set. This is a double stamp set that is available for $5 with a $35 purchase between August 15th-September 30th; however, I'm offering a personal special. If you purchase the Cricut Artiste collection during that time, I'll cover the cost of the stamp set. If you're interested, please shoot me an email.



Thanks for coming by! Have a great evening!

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock: CMTH - Dreamin papers; White Daisy and Pacifica cardstock
Stamps: CTMH - It's Your Day
Ink: CTMH - Black
Other: Pretty Little Studio - Monsiour Journaling Card; CTMH - Lucky Level 2 Assortment, Dimensional Foam Adhesive; Helmar Quickfix Adhesive Runner; Sewing Machine; 3L - Large and Small Dodz adhesives

Easter 2012 - Before and After

Looking at these photos together cracks me up. The one on the left is one of my favorites of Carina. She just looks so grown up there. The one on the right is after a hard Easter's day. Note the colored jellybean drool on the sleeve of her right sweater, the chocolate all over her face (partly because she shoved chocolate eggs in her mouth without taking the foil wrappers off), and the grass and mulch all over her legs/stockings. Quite a sight!

Anyway, this is another one of those layouts that is mostly a single collection - Little Yellow Bicycle's Hello Spring line. LYB does a great job with embellishments/stickers and I really took advantage of that here....that tree in the bottom left corner is one of my favorite elements. The tree/leaves are a single sticker, and then you place the flowers yourself.



The only other products I used were the alphas - glittered foam thickers as well as some alpha stickers from Nicki Sivlis' Gingerbread House line - the color was PERFECT.



Hope your week is off to a great start!

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock: LYB - Hello Spring papers; CTMH - White Daisy cardstock
Other: LYB - Hello Spring Fabric Favorites, Cardstock Stickers Favorite Pieces, 6x6 Decorative Edge cardstock, Clear Cuts Shapes, Dimensional Stickers; American Crafts - Glitter Foam Thickers, Eclair; Nicki Sivlis - Gingerbread House alpha stickers

Scraps Cards

It's been way too long since I played along over at Heart 2 Heart Challenges! This week we were challenged to use scraps. I have A LOT of scraps.

I keep them divided up into bags, roughly by the size of the scrap. The larger/medium pieces are reserved for use in other projects, the little ones I use for piecing, but Ellie also has access to the bag for her projects.

So, this week we got out the bag of scraps and both made some cards.

Here's Ellie's card. She's definitely my daughter - see the fussy cutting on the watermelons? ;)



For my card I used scraps from the Stella papers. This is one of my all time favorite collections, so I'm pretty happy that it's one of the four that was carried over from the last Idea Book.

The sentiment is from last month's Stamp of the Month, Live Out Loud, and I colored in the words You and Better with Spectrum Noir markers. It's hard to tell from the photo, but that panel in front with the tiled strips of paper is popped out using some zap dots.

One other thing I wanted to mention. I often collect up the cards I have on hand and send them out when people are collecting cards for different drives. My go-to card size is usually 4x6, but I recently learned that Operation Write Home accepts only A2 (4 1/4" x 5 1/2") cards. So, I'm going to make a conscious effort to make more A2 size cards in the future.

Thanks for coming by, have a great rest of your weekend!

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock: CTMH - Stella papers, Lagoon and Cocoa cardstock, Colonial White Bulk card base
Stamps: Live Out Loud
Ink: Cocoa
Other: Helmar Zap Dots, Tombow Mono Adhesive, Spectrum Noir DR3, BT5