We're More Than Friends

And Happy Monday to all of you!  

It looks gray and overcast here today so I think this afternoon will give way to some scrapbooking or card making!  I wonder where the mojo (if I can find it) will take me!

This was a fun card to make using a circle stamp from a Simon Says Stamp kit to make the background.  I inked it with some different Hero Arts ink and it was quick and simple and fun to do!

I used some Glossy Accents on the hearts to just give it a little extra shine.  Very quick and pretty easy....the hardest part, of course, was for me to give the Glossy Accents time enough to dry!  I just HAVE TO TOUCH!!!  It's part of my DNA...what can I say?!

And today I am giving Inlinkz.com a whirl.  Vicky from Clips-n-Cuts (one of my very favorite bloggers) is the owner of Inklinz and she is having a giveaway to those who use it.   I love the blogs that use that feature so why not?!

Vicky is also having a fantastic giveaway if you use the Inlinkz tool on your blog and you can find out about that HERE!

Happy Crafting!

Pale Tomato Mid-Tone Shadow Ink	Soft Pool Ink Pad	Cup O' Joe Shadow Ink Mid-Tone	Field Greens Shadow Ink Mid-Tone
*Simon Says Clear Stamps CARD EXCHANGING FRIENDS SSS130801	*Ranger Inkssentials MINI GLOSSY ACCENTS Glue Dimensional Adhesive .5oz	*3M Scotch DOUBLE-SIDED FOAM TAPE Permanent	*Neenah Classic Crest **110 LB** SMOOTH SOLAR WHITE Paper Pack 25 Sheets

InLinkz.com

You're So Tweet!

This card looks so familiar to me that I may have already made a version of it before.  I know I was inspired by a card by Stephanie Klauck for Simon Says Stamp so maybe that's why it already feels familiar! 

Well, I searched and found my original cards made with this kit and they are HERE. And here is the Simons Says Stamp kit for October which I just loved!

Anyway, this is the latest version:

I love the way it turned out!  Love blue....love the colors!

It is beautiful today here so I'm out for walk!

Happy Crafting!!!

More Stencil Fun!

Quick post here today...here is another card I made with the Moroccan inspired stencil that I used the other day HERE.

This time I used Hero Arts ink daubers and sloshed in the ink.  I love the splotchy water colored look it left.  And the colors were fun and bright!

The stamps were from Simon Says Stamp and the burlap flower came from the SSS August monthly kit.
Here is a closeup of the burlap and stamps:

And that's it for today...it is beautiful outside where I am and I feel the NEED to get out in the sunshine!!!

Happy Crafting!

Happy Birthday with a Touch of Acetate

I love Shari Carroll.  She used to work for Hero Arts and you know how I love Hero Arts.  Her design style has always been so appealing to me and I have never ONE time seen a card she made and said "Ewwwwww!".  She recently went to work for Simon Says Stamp which is way cool...because not only can she work with Hero Arts things, I assume,  but also with all the great products Simon Says Stamp has to offer.  A win-win situation for me!

She recently posted a card on the Simon Says Stamp Blog which you can see HERE.  I love this card with the die cut sentiment and the touch of acetate.  I thought...well, I can do this. Sort of....when I made mine I was out of town and only had some supplies with me.  But the good news is that I used up some more paper scraps I had from some old Simon Says Stamp card kits.

Yay me.   I used what I had on hand.

Yay me.

Here is my card:

 I was most happy to use up that flair I had....it had been sitting around and I was wondering what I'd ever do with it!  Yay me.
The top layer with the acetate is adhere with some foam tape to give a bit more dimension and lift it off the patterned paper behind it.
I love the look of white on white...and I love that wood grained paper from Simon Says Stamp.  The "happy birthday" sentiment is also cut with exclusive Simon Says Stamp dies.  I do love the die cuts that Shari used but again I used what I had on hand.  And my hand does not own those.  Poor me.

The word "celebrate" was stamped with a Paper Smooches stamp.

It was fun to do...and a big thanks to Shari Carroll for always wonderful inspiration!

Happy Crafting!

Stencils!

I have stencils from at least several hundred years ago when I first started scrapbooking.  I had tons of those letter stencils that I would painstakingly trace and then cut out by hand for titles and sentiments on both cards and scrapbook layouts.  Fast forward a couple of centuries and I couldn't tell you the last time I hand cut letters out with any regularity!  I have the fabulous Silhouette Cameo who does all that hard work for me and I also have some letter dies, as well.

But stencils have made a resurgence in the paper crafting field (at least to me) and it isn't about lettering so much...they are being used in so many other ways.

In the August Simon Says Stamp Card Kit shown below a stencil was included.  It is a Simon Says Stamp exclusive stencil and has that Moroccan look to it.

I got out my Ranger Distress Inks and just splotched here and there...and blended a bit.  It was very fun and quite easy to make the background.

 Kind of reminds me of a winter sunset at the beach...
I used some Sizzix framelits to cut out the circles and create the black circle frame.  I mounted with some popdots and added the flair and thought "how fun!".  I was happy. 
Here is another picture of the flair without out the glare....Flair with no GLARE!  I'm a poet! ;)

Happy Crafting!

Coffee, Chocolate and Wine!

I just love a great stamp set!  I love Hero Arts.  I've said that before.  Before Archiver's closed their doors forever (*sob*), my wallet and I found ourselves shopping one last time.  I bought a couple of stamp sets for old times sake and because I "needed" them.  I feel like I did my civic duty to help Archiver's resolve any outstanding debt it may have.  My friend, Cyndi, also did her duty as well.  Many times.... In fact, we are surprised that we, alone, did not keep Archiver's solvent.  *sigh*....

Anyway, onto new things and now that my favorite store is closed I will just have to order online to get the latest and greatest Hero Arts items!  heheh...

Here is a stamp set I bought and at first glimpse it looks cute and ok....but I only bought it because it had the words "chocolate", "coffee" AND "wine" included.  Three of my great loves.  I thought to myself "This is the perfect stamp set! It covers everything!".  Here is the set:

So, I got busy and basically made 3 versions of the same card.  Here they are:

 

I just used white Zing embossing powder, some basic colored cardstock and some printed papers from Lily Bee which came from a previous Simon Says Stamp Card Kit of the Month.  On two of the cards I used a spell binders scalloped die to cut out the mats.

Here are the 3 together....

What a fun set.  I love it!

Happy Crafting!

Project Life: Christmas Pages

It was rainy here yesterday...I mean, rain pretty much ALL DAY!  So what does one do on rainy, icky days?  Why eat junk food, watch reruns of Gilligan's Island (seriously...but mostly because it came on after Roseanne.  I love Roseanne.  She was my role model as a mother.  ;)  Anyway, I was too lazy to change the channel once the Roseanne marathon was over and it went to Gilligan's Island!), take a nap and CRAFT!  I finished up my Project Life Christmas pages and also made several cards!  I was so productive! 

So here are the pages...not much too them.  I sent some notes to my daughter about what we need to make sure we do this next Christmas in terms of photos.  1.  We need to make sure that we get a group shot of all 3 kids.  2.  I need more photos of the fronts of people and not their back. 3. My daughter and I need to fix ourselves up a bit more for photos.  LOL!  4.  I need to make sure I hand the camera over to someone and get in one or two pictures.  Yep!  NOT 1 PHOTO OF ME OF Christmas, 2013!  Lol.  It's like I was non existent!  Oh well... 

For these pages I used the same Simple Stories paper pad that I had purchased at Michaels in that fabulous sale: 

*ooops....I see I did not journal on the photo of Taylor coming down the stairs .... I will take care of that, I promise!

I made this little 3D paper bow with a die from Simon Says Stamp.  It's so cute!

Now I can sort of officially say DONE.  I do need to add some paper to the backs of the last page in my album so it's not naked....but 2013 is DONE!!! 

Now onto PL 2014!  I still am on the hunt for ways to simplify the process!

Happy Crafting!