Good Heavens....Sierra's 7!!

Yes, I can't believe it...my niece is going to turn 7 on August 31st. Her birthday party however was Saturday at noon and of course, I had to make her a birthday card. This week was kind of hectic so I was up until 3:30am finishing it, but I must say I'm really pleased with how it turned out! I don't get very many opportunities to do girlie cards since I have a 4-year-old boy so this was a lot of fun for me. :)

These are the Challenges I'm entering my card in:
All That Scraps - Anything Tilda, Edwin, or Magnolia
Oh, Alice! - Little Girl Theme
Allsorts - Park Inspiration
Challenge Up Your Life - Celebrations
Let's Ink It Up - Use Yellow Somewhere
One Stitch at a Time - Girlie
Magnolia-licious Highlites - Birthday Celebration
Stamp with Fun - Card for a Girl
Just Add Ink - Just add Material
Sew Many Challenges - Happy Birthday
Stampin for the Weekend - Anything Goes

Top of Card-Closed (with purple dot pattern behind Tilda)
Top of Card-Open (dot paper folds down)

Easel Card-Full View

Easel Card-Side View

Supplies:

Magnolia Stamp: Happy Tilda (I get my Magnolia stamps from 2 places: magnoliastamps.us and stampingscrapping.com)
Paper: Designer Paper is DCWV Nana's Nursery Baby Boy/CTMH Cardstock
Ink: Memento/Copics
Chalk: I did most of my shading on Tilda with Stampin Up chalk. For the background behind Tilda, I used a cotton ball and rubbed green chalk on the lower part of the circle. For the sky, I cut out cloud shapes and used small pieces of double stick tape to position them on the circle. Then I used a cotton ball and rubbed blue chalk over the top. I pulled off the cloud shapes and voila....blue sky with clouds!
Fence with Sunflowers: This is actually a 3-D sticker made by The Paper Studio (at Hobby Lobby)
Ribbon: Offray Inspirational Ribbon (at Michaels)
Flowers: Gardenia Flower is made by Recollections (their new Boutique Fleur line at Michaels)/ Small Roses also from Recollections (at Michaels)/Medium Size Yellow Rose (in upper right corner) is from Wild Orchid Crafts
Flat Pearls (in corners & on butterflies): Recollections (at Michaels)
Pearl Sprigs on Sentiment: from Hobby Lobby's wedding supplies
Butterflies: Martha Stewart Punches
Sentiment: Hand-written

Here's the Birthday Girl with her cousin Isaiah (my son)

Here's Sierra & her friends admiring the card:

My niece had a great party and she loved the card! It always feels good when the recipient appreciates the hard work that went into making a one-of-a-kind creation. Love you Sierra bunches!

If you get a chance, please leave me a comment! I always appreciate your feedback!

Hugs,

Rosemary

Brandon's PAINTBALL Birthday Party!

My friend Amy threw her son Brandon an AWESOME paintball birthday party on Saturday. Now, I'm not a paintball kinda girl, so I took pictures on the sidelines. But my friend Amy was a real trooper and got down and dirty with the boys! They started on the easy, flat courses and then actually made their way into the woods. She was definitely a brave soul and even had some war wounds to show off at the end of it (those little paintballs hurt!!).

I decided for Brandon's birthday I would make him an Easel birthday card that was paintball related using Soldier Ian from The Greeting Farm. When I was on the Club Anya blog looking for inspiration I found they had this awesome Saturday Sketch to try out from "iheart2stamp" by Jen Del Muro.

I turned the sketch sideways and used this great camouflage paper (The Paper Studio) I found at Hobby Lobby.

The top DP with stars and orange DP are from the MVP Scrapbook Pad by We R Memory Keepers. I cut the orange DP using my Creative Memories circle cutter in various sizes. The paint splatters and SPLAT came from a clear acrylic stamp set called Splat from Recollections. I stamped them in Versamark and then added Close To My Heart embossing powder. The silver pearls in the corners are also from Recollections.

Currently, I don't have very many Copic markers. Until I build up my collection I've been experimenting with chalks. I have an older Stampin Up chalk set and did most of the shading on Soldier Ian with the chalks. I also added Liquid Glass (CTMH) to the goggle lenses and to Ian's boots. The edges of the khaki cardstock are distressed with Distress Ink (pine needles & black soot). Both the khaki cardstock and Ian are raised up on pop-dots.

For the Sentiment, I wrote out "Happy Birthday Brandon" using the brush end of a Versamark pen and added CTMH embossing powder. The orange DP was again cut out using my Creative Memories circle cutter and raised up using pop-dots. I also added embossed paint splatters to the camouflage DP.

My friend Amy and her family were very impressed with this card. I'm so glad they liked it because I worked really hard on it. My husband was surprised I parted with it! He said it's too bad there's not a quick way to clone it so I could have my own copy...my thoughts EXACTLY! LOL!

Happy Scrapping!

Rosemary :)

Sadie's Tie-Dye Birthday!

My friend Amy decided to have a tie-dye birthday party for her little girl, Sadie. I decided I would make Sadie a card instead of buying one. Since I was having a difficult time finding tie-dye paper, I decided to make my own paper. I used colored pencils and layered various colored rings onto the paper and added Stickles Glitter Glue to some of the rings to bling it up. Then I cut it out as the DP for my Easel Card.

The image is from The Greeting Farm's new scrapbooking kit called SUNSHINE. I paper-pieced her bathing suit to match the theme. I cut the scalloped circle using my Spellbinders Classic Scalloped Circle Large Die. I kept the card pretty simple because I really wanted the tie-dye paper to be the focal point.

SUPPLIES:

Stamp: The Greeting Farm Sunshine Kit

Sentiment: is handwritten
Paper: background paper is hand-colored using colored pencils/blue paper with swirls was in my stash (not sure who it's from)
Ink: image is stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black and skin/hair are colored with Copics
Accessories: Classic Scalloped Circle Large Die. White & Pink ribbon from the dollar bin at Michaels/Jewel brads from The Paper Studio

While I was making the card, my 4-year old son wanted to make something too. With the help of his cousin Rachel, he made this picture for Sadie to hang on her wall. I think it was soooo sweet!

Here's the birthday girl showing off her picture! My son (in the back, to the left) handed off the present and then got distracted by the birthday blower, haha!

It was a great tie-dye birthday party and from the looks of it, I'd say the birthday girl was pretty happy with her gift!

See ya soon & Happy Scrapping!

Rosemary :)

Top Tip Tuesday Blog Candy!

Top Tip Tuesday is a new blog that will officially start on September 7th. They will feature all sorts of tips and techniques....what a fabulous concept! I love visiting blogs, but the blogs I love the most are the ones that share their techniques! I'm always trying to learn new things so I think this blog will be a tremendous help. To get things started, they are offering some AWESOME blog candy here:

3 Bon Voyage Magnolia Candy!!!

One lucky winner will receive:

2010 Bon Voyage Tilda with an Umbrella

2010 Bon Voyage Tilda on the Loose

2010 Bon Voyage Farewell Tilda

Visit the Top Tip Tuesday blog to find out how you can enter the blog candy.

This candy will be available until Sunday, September 5th. The winner will be announced in the first post of Top Tip Tuesday on September 7th!

Good Luck!
Rosemary

C.C. Designs' Sugarplums Take a Seat Stamp Set.....sooooo CUTE!

Have you seen C.C. Designs' NEW Sugarplums Take a Seat stamp set over at All That Scraps? They are sooooo stinkin' CUTE!! It’s a limited edition set that is only available until September 20th. If you don't want to miss out, get your order in soon!! You can order this AWESOME set at a fabulous price HERE. The great thing too is that it also comes in a digital format for those of us that need immediate gratification, LOL!

To get you drooling even more....Kellie Winnell is giving you an opportunity to win this awesome stamp set with her fabulous blog candy!! Check out her blog HERE for your chance to win.

You will receive 6 Sugarplum kids and 6 accessory stamps big enough for the Sugarplums to sit on. The rubber kit come to you as two slabs of deeply etched red rubber attached to ez-mount foam ready to be cut out.

The candy will close on Thursday, September 10th, and the winner will be announced on Friday, September 11th.

Good Luck!
Rosemary

Cohen's Name Frame using Surfer Edwin

My friend Tiffany's son, Cohen, just had his 2-year old birthday party. She loves to do party planning as a hobby, but in my opinion, she needs to make it a profession! The theme was Chutes and Ladders and I'm telling you there was no detail of this party left out. From the wooden cut-outs, to the cake/snack table, to the party favors, to the table decorations, to the color of the drinks.....every detail was fabulous!! If you're a "boy" mom, you should definitely check out her blog at http://pedicurestopuddles.blogspot.com. She finds awesome "boy" party themes and cool "boy" clothing (and if you're a "boy" mom, you know how hard it is to find cute, cool boy things!).

 

I was told they were re-decorating Cohen's room from a "little baby" jungle theme to a "big boy" vintage surfer theme. I decided to make him a surfer birthday card and Name Frame using Surfer Edwin from the Magnolia Stamp Company (you can view the surfer birthday card in the post below this one). Magnolia stamps do not have mouths because they are angels and they speak from their hearts, and therefore, do not need mouths. But, since this was a gift for a little boy, I decided to add a little mouth so he wouldn't be freaked out about the "no-mouth" thing.

 

For Cohen's Name Frame, I paper-pieced Edwin's wet suit from a black piece of paper in the DCWV Tahiti Beach paper pack. I colored his surfboard with Martha Stewart Glitter Pens and Office Gel Glitter pens. On this image I added the CTMH liquid glass to the surfboard only to make it shiny.

 

To create the beach scene, I glued sand I bought at The Basket Warehouse (an outlet for Hobby Lobby) to a piece of paper that I tore. It was a huge jar for only $1.00 and there were various colors so I snatched them all up! The palm tree with surf boards is a sticker and so is the crab (Jolee's).

 

I cut out squares from various papers that matched the surfer duvet cover Tiffany bought. I ran all the squares through my Xyron Sticker Maker to get an even coverage of adhesive on all pieces. It makes assembly go so much quicker. Then, I added Bubble Sticker Letters (Bubble-A-Bilities by Paper Studio) for his name. His picture and mat are cut out using my Spellbinders Classic Scalloped Circle Large Die.

 

 

Here's the completed project in a white 12x12 Paper Studio Scrapbook Frame I found at Hobby Lobby.

 

 

Tiffany truly loved it, which made me feel so happy and thankful! I can't even explain in words the feeling that comes from giving a home-made gift and the person on the receiving end is genuinely grateful. She said she likes it so much she may have a hard time moving it from the living room to his bedroom!

 

I hope this inspires you to use your stamps on other projects besides a card. I'm a big scrapbooker too, so I generally try to incorporate my stamped images onto my scrapbook pages. I can't wait to ink up Surfer Edwin again for a future scrapbook page of my son.

 

Thanks again for all your sweet comments and as always Happy Scrapping!

Rosemary :)

Surfer Edwin Birthday Card for COHEN!

My friend Tiffany's son, Cohen, just had his 2-year old birthday party. She loves to do party planning as a hobby, but in my opinion, she needs to make it a profession! The theme was Chutes & Ladders and I'm telling you there was no detail of this party left out. From the wooden cut-outs, to the cake/snack table, to the party favors, to the table decorations, to the color of the drinks.....every detail was fabulous!! If you're a "boy" mom, you should definitely check out her blog at http://pedicurestopuddles.blogspot.com. She finds awesome "boy" party themes and cool "boy" clothing & stuff (and if you're a "boy" mom, you know how hard it is to find cute & cool boy things!).

I was told they were re-decorating Cohen's room from a "little baby" jungle theme to a "big boy" vintage surfer theme. I decided to make him a surfer birthday card and Name Frame. The image I used is called Surfer Edwin from the Magnolia Stamp Company. I did draw a little smile on my Surfer Edwin because I wasn't sure if the "no-mouth" thing would be weird for those that don't know about Magnolias, haha!

The paper on the card came from the DCWV Tahiti Beach paper pack. I colored his skin and hair with Copics. Then, I paper-pieced his wet suit from some blue paper in the Tahiti paper pack. I colored his surfboard with Martha Stewart Glitter Pens and Office Gel Glitter Pens (from Walmart). I added Close To My Heart Liquid Glass to the wet suit to make it look shiny (kinda hard to see in the picture). I found the sand at Basket Warehouse (an outlet for Hobby Lobby)...a huge jar for only $1.00.

The sentiment was printed from the computer, outlined in Office Gel Glitter Pens, and edges distressed with Tim Holtz distress ink in Vintage Photo. I adhered the sentiment and Edwin to the card with Pop-dots. The picture below shows the card from the side so you can see the dimension. I added pop-dots to the bottom rectangle piece also. The flowers at the top of the card were cut from a sheet of DP in the Tahiti Pack and orange buttons glued to the top. All 3 flowers are on pop-dots too.

Tiffany loved the card so much she said it was "frameable." I might just see it on the wall the next time I visit, haha! I kinda feel that way about most of the Maggie cards I see.... FRAMEABLE ART!

I saw the Magnolia Stamp Lovers blog is having a challenge here to use Edwin so I'm entering this in the challenge. The deadline to enter is this Saturday, August 14th....wish me luck!

Have a great week and thanks to all of you who leave me comments! They really lift me up and are very much appreciated! Stay tuned for my next post with the Name Frame using Surfer Edwin.

Hugs,

Rosemary :)

Elisabeth Bell's Design Team Call

While surfing the web this week I visited Elisabeth Bell's Blog here, and found she was having a design team call to showcase her fabulous digital images. The deadline said August 13th, which only gave me a few days. Well, you know me...I'm always up for a challenge!! I bought her digital image, February Flutter, and got busy planning, coloring, cutting, and wiping my brow a few times (you'll see why in a minute), LOL!

I first started off by re-sizing my image in Adobe Photoshop to 5x5 so the details of the faces showed up better. Then, I printed it from my computer. That's the great thing about digital images...you can re-size them to be as small or as large as you want, which is great for scrapbooking too! I decided to use an Easel Card design so I would have room for a sentiment at the bottom.

I can't even begin to tell you how many different routes I went with my card for this challenge. I started with one idea and then went in a completely different direction. I knew I wanted to use pinks and purples for the girl fairy because I had new Office Gel Glitter pens to try out, but after I was done coloring the image, the colors were too bright for the paper I originally chose. That started my next mission: finding some matching paper. I searched through my stash and found some DP from ME&MY Big Ideas 8x8 Scrapbook Kit called ENJOY.

The hardest and most time consuming part of the card was cutting out each hole in the wings with a craft knife....I think I may have a permanent kink in my neck from the arduous process, LOL!! I then backed the wings with some vellum. After many late nights (because with a 3-year-old boy that's the only time I can find to craft), here's my card for Elisabeth Bell's Digital Design Team Call:

Here's a close-up of the top portion of the Easel Card: (the purple brads in the corners are from Paper Studio Spare Parts & the rhinestone accents are from Best Occasions)

I used a variety of pens to color the image. The faces & hair were colored with Copics (skin: E51/E00 & hair: E33/E37/E49/E31). I used chalk to add blush to their cheeks. Their clothes were colored with Copics, Office Gel Glitter Pens, and a purple Crayola Paint Marker. I added Stickles Glitter Glue to the top of her dress, her ribbon sash & the green areas of the guy fairy. It's hard to tell in the pictures, but the dark purple and pink are the Office Gel Glitter Pens (in person, those areas have a little shimmer). The entire image was cut out and place on pop-dots for added dimension.

Here's a close-up of the wings:

The outline of the wings were also colored in the Office Gel Glitter Pens (purple & silver) and Stickles Glitter Glue was added to the girl fairy wings. I then glued vellum to the back of the wings.

On the Sentiment, I used Stampin' UP Vintage Vogue for the border and the quote "Life happens, Love helps." I wrote the word LOVE using Copic V15 and then stamped the quote 3 times over it with CTMH Pansy Purple ink. The roses were 3-D stickers (I think Jolee) that started off white, but I colored them in purple to match my card.


WHEW, I'm tired now and going to bed!! Wish me luck on this challenge!! The winners will be announced on Saturday, August 14th.

Hugs,
Rosemary

Jodi's Blog Candy Give-Away!

Check out Jodi's blog for a chance at winning this Magnolia Summer Kit....can you say AWESOME?! She accidentally ordered two extra sets....so she's giving them away as blog candy!! You can check out the details on her blog here.

This summer kit has a nautical/sailor theme and even includes a mermaid, seahorse and pelican...sooooo CUTE!!

You have until August 30th to participate and the winner will be chosen on August 31st.

GOOD LUCK and Happy Scrapping!!

Rosemary :)