Shabby Cabin Cards

Hi everyone! Not much new to report on the stamping front here. Still running around like a chicken, and still no stamping this week! I did find some shabby butterfly cards that I did at the cabin a few weeks ago and forgot to post. These were more quick cards done with some shabby K & Company papers and chipboard butterflies.

I added rhinestones to the butterfly bodies to bling the cards up a bit. There's shimmery glitter on the butterfly wings too, that I added for effect.

I thought I'd post these shamelessly cute chipmunk photos from the cabin over the 4th, too! These little guys are so tame, they've run over our feet if we happen to get in their way. I grabbed my camera and a coffee cup full of sunflower seeds, and sat on the cement and waited for them to dig into the seeds. I was less than a foot away from these little guys! The grapes didn't go over as big as the sunflower seeds did; they stuffed their cheeks full and took off! Enjoy your weekend, everyone!

L.

Flash Card Photo Album Tutorial - Crafty Secrets

Good Monday morning, everyone! Today is posting day for our Crafty Secrets Design team challenge this month! This month, we were challenged to do a tutorial for you on anything we wanted! I've been stressing about this project all week, because I feel like I've done everything there is to do, tutorial-wise (plus my mojo has been MIA)! So it surprised me when I locked myself in my stamp room yesterday and I was able to come up with this kid's school photo album, that holds the mini-wallet size school friend photos. I had a box of school flash cards sitting on my desk, that my sweet friend Bevie Barton had sent me, so I decided to do a flash card photo album with Crafty's new Mice Party stamp set, based on the little photographer mouse in this set!

I tend to save odd-shaped boxes, just in case I can alter them in some way, and it was a serendipitous coincidence that the flashcards fit perfectly in these sudoko puzzle boxes that I had in my cupboard from last xmas.

Aren't these the coolest flashcards? Bevie Pearl works in a school, and I was tickled pink when she sent me these for my birthday in March! See Bevie, I do get around to using stuff eventually! It just took me a while!




The sudoku box was so easy to alter; first, I cut the top flap & the side flaps off of the top of the box, leaving the bottom flap of the box intact.

Then I cut some memo/library card patterned paper to fit the box; this school-themed paper is from Crafty's "Earthy" Paper pad. Since the paper didn't fit completely around the box, I cut a separate piece to go on the backside of the box. I measured the front of the box, and then marked the 2 spots on the paper where I'd need to score it to make a crisp corner. I then stamped "School Photos '09" on the front, and then used a glue stick to adhere the paper to the box front.

I set about decorating each of the flash cards. I cut 6 mats for our little wallet-sized kid photos, and used these as my focal point so that when the kiddos trade photos at school, all you have to do is glue the photo onto the mat. I also had some gold-yellow patterned scrap paper from the earthy pad that I thought would work great for cheese, so I stamped a bunch of cheese wedges on it and cut them out to use on the pages.

I stamped mice and cameras, and the sentiment "Say cheese" over everything, and then added buttons and rickrack as I putzed along.

After I finished the flashcards, I worked on the front of the box. I stamped a photographer mouse scene, and used a Spellbinders deckle-edged nestabilities rectangle die to cut the image out for the front of the box. I stamped "School Photos" with Crafty's "Top Hat" alphabet set, and then colored in the letters & the scene with copic markers.

The other talented design team chickies will all have fun tutorials on their blogs today, so make sure to stop by and check them out!

Vicki Chrisman Team Leader
Anna Wight
Pam Hooten
Heidi Blankenship
Marisa Grosson
Vivian Peters
Michele Kovack
Linda Duke
Melissa Phillips
Michelle Van Etten

Have a great week, everyone! L.

A shabby attempt at stamping~!

AAACK, I've definitely fallen and I can't get up. I have NO mojo, no desire to stamp. What is WRONG with me? I used to be able to crank stuff out whether I wanted to stamp or NOT! These days, I run quickly past my stamping desk and try not to feel guilty for all of the mindless purchases I've made, and not focus on the piles of paper and stamps that are sitting there untouched! I don't want to stamp! My life has gotten crazy; full of summer projects and friend get-togethers, and *GASP* dates! Confession time. I've entered the dating world again. I can't believe I said that out loud.

Anyway, here's my pitiful attempt at trying to throw some cards together tonite. I need just about every type of card occasion now for my non-existent, dwindling work-stash, so birthday will have to do for this attempt. I used scraps of My Mind's eye polka dot papers, and some Bo-Bunny flowery Allissa-Twirls pattern. Bird stamp is Inkadinkadoo from Michaels. I discovered that the fun Pink Persimmon flower greetings stamps are great to use as sentiments! So I stamped, at least! PROGRESS!

May your mojo be plentiful today, everyone!

L.

Basic Grey Marrakech

I swear, if I don't get some uninterrupted stamping time in soon, I'm probably going to BURST. Tonite I snuck in an hour of putzing and decided to make some simple thank-you cards with a little Basic Grey flower stamp that I bought at Archivers a few months ago. They have the cutest single Basic Grey stamps in their hotspot area for $1.99, and this little flower and ladybug stamp set was one of them!

I had a bright, flowery Basic Grey "Marrakech" mini 6x6 paper pad that was gifted to me, so I paired it up with the flower stamp. I love that the patterns are tiny on this paper! I colored in the flower with Copic Markers (Ice ocean, spring dim green, pale olive, cobalt blue & prawn).

I need to make birthday cards soon, so I need to start CRANKING soon!

Happy Tuesday, all!

L.

The Mouse Party Continues!

Tonite I have another little party mouse sample, done with a new Crafty Secrets medium stamp set called "Mouse Party". This set has not been released yet, but it is one of the new releases that will be offered at the CHA July show in Orlando.

Here I used some crackly wood paper along with a blue harlequin pattern from Crafty's "Pastel" paper pad, and stamped a mouse in the corner, as if he's coming out of the woodwork.

I used a Spellbinders Nestabilities "Pinking' circles die to create a fun little spiky mat for my main image. I also glued balloons to the edges of the image so that it seems like the MEECE are watching them float off!

Hope you have a wonderful Father's day this weekend...it's time to appreciate those hard-working Dads!

L.

Crafty Secrets Mouse Party Stamp set!

YIPPIE! The Crafty Secrets new release CHA stamp sets are getting sent to the design team! I got my first set in the mail today, and it's a CUTE one! This set is called "Mouse Party" and is a medium set that will retail for $14.99! I sat down tonite and started playing with all the cute little MEECE (that's mice, plural) and was dying from the cuteness!


The cool thing about this set is that you can create fun little detailed scenes, or keep it simple and stamp a row of MEECE and color them in!

Here I went simple and just stamped 5 mice in a row, stamped a horn in one of their hands, and then just colored them in easily with a "Sand" colored Copic marker. Their ears and tails are Copic "Baby Skin Pink", and the horn is Cadmium Red. SO QUICK to make, in fact I'm going to get back in there tonite and start cranking out more of these little guys. The cards are gonna multiply like, errr...MICE.

Here I went more detailed and created a little scene with the photographer mouse taking a birthday photo of the birthday rodent! I had to use some vintage sheet music with this because it ties in with the mousie's little song book!

I LOVE THESE MEECES TO PIECES!

LZ

Birthday Card Catch-up

Good morning! I'm home today, getting ready to head outside and enjoy some rare Minnesota sunshine in my back yard! This morning I got up and started digging into my to-do list. I'm REALLY low on birthday cards so it's time to build my stash back up again by doing multiples of cards! I scored this cute Stampendous Changito Bubble birthday stamp at Archivers a month or so ago, and am just getting around to inking it up.

I'm getting back into use-it-up mode because I have SO much patterned paper, I'm feeling the need to PURGE and get rid of it. I had bought a set of cuttlebug flower dies at Michaels a while back, and thought it would be fun to use up paper by cutting out coordinating patterned paper flowers to match my Die Cuts with a View Citrus stack paper.

I LOVE the changitos! Don't they look like they're having so much FUN at their bubbly little monkey party?!

Happy Sunday, all!

LZ