Paper Canteen Creations

Sea You Soon!!

noreply@blogger.com (CraftyMomOf2) — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 13:00:00 +0000

Greetings Oddie Fans!! It's June 1st and time for another awesome challenge at the Odd Girl Blog! This month's challenge is one of my very favorites...an inspirational color challenge! Here is your inspiration:

Seriously gorgeous, right?!?! Ok well here's my interpretation using the newly released Under The Sea Mae.

I colored her with my Copics and used the fun "pixelation" coloring that is so trendy right now. I used papers from Bazzill and MME. I used one of my favorite summery color combinations turquoise and gold and paired them with a fabulously rich chocolate brown to make everything pop. I used some classic stitching and fluffy grosgrain ribbon bow.

I can't wait to see what you create for this month's fun and inspiring challenge!

Thanks so much for coming by!!

Crafty Hugs!
Meredith

Psst...More Exciting News!!

noreply@blogger.com (CraftyMomOf2) — Tue, 29 May 2012 17:48:00 +0000

I'm super excited to have been asked to join the new Loves Rubberstamps Design Team! It's the first team that Laura has put together and I'm thrilled to be creating alongside other fabulous ladies who share in my artsy passion!!

Laura Love is the owner of Loves Rubberstamps, a store that has a super huge selection of many popular brands of stamps, embellishments, dies, papers, tools and more! Just some of the fabulous brands that Laura carries are Lawn Fawn, Paper Smooches, Whimsy, Sweet Pea, Stamping Bella,...just to name a few!

The first challenge will be issued right HERE at the Loves Rubberstamps Challenge Blog on Tuesday, June 5th!

I do hope to see you there!!

Crafty Hugs!
Meredith

Psst...Some Exciting News!

noreply@blogger.com (CraftyMomOf2) — Tue, 29 May 2012 10:00:00 +0000

Click to come check it out!!!

Fabulous Birthday Girl

noreply@blogger.com (CraftyMomOf2) — Fri, 25 May 2012 21:30:00 +0000

Greetings All and Happy Long Weekend!! YAY!! We are hanging around this weekend as I vowed to never travel on these busy holiday weekends. The traffic simply makes me insane! So we're sticking close to home, enjoying the pool club opening, lacrosse championship games at Gilette Stadium, and visiting family. We will be celebrating my darling sister-in-law's birthday as well! I took the opportunity to bust out this week's MFT sketch to get me started.

Her favorite color is purple so I started there adding grey and yellow as my accents. I've been dying to ink my new ALM - I've Got Your Back. It has been inked with Momento and she is colored with my Copics. I paper pieced her shirt and the letters U and R using papers from MME.

I used the sketch pretty literally and simply shifted my main panel making it slightly askew to accommodate the large flowers I created. I added ittiy bitty micro pearls to the corners of my main panel and used lots of Hero Hues Latte Chalk Ink to distress all of my edges.

I used the Photo Corner and Chevron Stripes Die-namics to compliment the background. I used an embossing folder to give a bit of richness to the middle layer (white) behind the flowers. It really added just the right amount of texture that I was looking for.

I used both the Royal Rose and Rolled Mum Flower Die-namics layered together to create the fun and fluffy flower cluster. I added a resin flower in the center of each one for some added depth and color.

I kept my interior simple and crisp, using my favorite Finishing Flourishes, for my greeting.

Thanks so much for popping in today!! Don't forget to come join the MFT fun at the sketch gallery here!

Have a fun, safe and creative long weekend!!

Crafty Hugs!
Meredith

Is It Time For The Beach?

noreply@blogger.com (CraftyMomOf2) — Wed, 23 May 2012 13:00:00 +0000

Good Morning Oddie Fans! Yes...it's another fabulous release day over at Some Odd Girl! Today we are showing off the Beach Day Buddies set featuring the always adorable Tia and Tobie!

I've used both sweet kids in my creation:

I inked with Momento and colored with my Copics. I then trimmed each out leaving a tiny white margin around as a border. I like to do this especially when I am using a busy background as it really makes the images pop.

I used the accent elements that come with this set; sandcastle, flag, shovel, pail and wave to create my own patterned paper for the background.

My papers are from Bazzill and Fancy Pants. I used my MFT Fishtail Flag STAX Die-namics to house my sentiment and I added some shells from the Under The Sea Mae set that I had leftover from this project.

I hope you have enjoyed this month's clear release as much as I have!! Have a fabulously creative day!!

Crafty Hugs!
Meredith

A Lightbulb Moment

noreply@blogger.com (CraftyMomOf2) — Tue, 22 May 2012 13:36:00 +0000

Good Rainy Tuesday Everyone!! It's raining like crazy here in the Northeast and I must say that my garden and lawn is soooo happy! I love it. We spent four hours this past Saturday hauling 6 yards of mulch into my gardens and it is just so worth it! Everything looks lush and beautiful.

I did have a bit of time to squeeze in some crafty time to play with this week's MFT sketch challenge.

And here is my interpretation:

I used the newly released ALM - Lightbulb Moment as my focal point. I colored her with my Copics and glazed up the light bulb with Glossy Accents. I let it dry completely overnight.

I paired it with come bold reds and navy keeping it crisp and simple. I added a Bingo card to the background along with a fun blingy flourish to keep things interesting. I used the Well Worn Greetings Die-namics to house my sentiment and added a couple of mini brads to anchor that panel.

I used the last bit of my red May Arts chevron ribbon to finish everything off.

Thanks for popping by today!! Hope you have a craftylicious day!!

Crafty Hugs!
Meredith

Sunshine Come My Way Today!

noreply@blogger.com (CraftyMomOf2) — Tue, 22 May 2012 13:00:00 +0000

Good morning Oddies!! Another fabulous day to show off the next in line of new releases at Some Odd Girl today! The set I am showing today is called Sunny Mae.

I have a new card today and will show you one that I used the other day when I showed you the Emboss Resist tutorial.

My card today is a post card style. I used my circle Spellbinders to cut out a large circle 4.75" around out of watercolor paper. I used the sun ray stamp element, white craft ink and white embossing powder to layer the rays all round the card. I then went in with my Wild Honey and Scattered Straw Distress inks and blended them both together. I sprayed the entire piece with my Pearlized water and zapped it with my heat gun to dry.

I layered another circle in the center - this time using patterned paper from Recollections. I backed it with a sturdy cardstock to give it a bit more stability. I then took another smaller circle and stamped my sentiment. I added the sweet cloud element from the set - stamped with black craft ink and heat embossed. I sponged it with my Peacock Distress ink, trimmed it out and added it using 3-D foam adhesive.

I added three self adhesive rhinestones as an added little touch.

Here is the other card that I made using this beautiful set.

And here is the post and tutorial that went along with it.

Thanks, as always, for popping in today!!

Crafty Hugs!!
Meredith

Yappy Father's Day!

noreply@blogger.com (CraftyMomOf2) — Tue, 22 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

Good Morning!! Today starts a new challenge over at the Paper and Such Challenge blog and I do so hope you'll join us! The challenge theme is Father's Day. Yep! That's it! Super fun and easy! Today I've combined two Paper and Such sets in my creation - Deer Dad and Patriot and Friends.

I started out with the sweet Lab image from Patriot and Friends. I inked him with Momento and colored with my Copics. I decided to pair the kraft cardstock with red and keep it crisp and simple. I pulled together a grouping using my Tim Holtz mini-rosette die, a punched circle and two rustic twine threaded buttons.

My sentiment is a combination of the two sets. I snipped apart the "Yappy Birthday" sentiment from Patriot and Friends and combined it with the "father's day" sentiment from Deer Dad to create a sentiment that would become a perfect "dog to owner" sentiment. (I know all you pet lovers out there will understand!;) I trimmed it out using my MFT Fishtail Flag STAX Die-namics.

I do hope you come join us over at the Paper and Such Challenge Blog!

Crafty Hugs!
Meredith

Make A Splash!!

noreply@blogger.com (CraftyMomOf2) — Mon, 21 May 2012 13:00:00 +0000

Good Morning Oddies!! So excited to be here with you today to introduce you to one of the newest members of the Odd Girl Family - Under The Sea Mae!! You are going to fall in LOVE with this gorgeous clear set. This new set is chock full of gorgeous designs, elements and sentiments. Today I've used one of the stunning Mae Mermaids along with some sea shell elements and a sweet sentiment.

I did something completely different with my stamping this time. I inked her onto watercolor paper with white craft ink and then heat set her with white embossing powder. I masked my image and then sponged all around her with Scattered Straw and Wild Honey Distress Inks (can you tell I'm LOVING on my Distress Inks lately?!) While the image was still masked, I lightly spritzed the entire background with my pearlized water.

I colored her skin with my Copics and then proceeded to paint her with my Distress Inks. For her hair I used Barn Door and Fired Brick, along whit a hint of Spun Sugar. And I used Peacock Feathers FOr her tail, top and decorative seashell hair clip.

I used a micro pen to exaggerate her luscious eyelashes! For my background I used a large background stamp inked with white acrylic paint. I was in a texture "mood" if you will so it was calling to me. I used my MFT Photo Corner Die-namics to embellish the top, left corners, new Washi tape and a Tim Holtz edge embossing folder for the bottom.

I inked, painted and trimmed out a few of the fun seashell elements that come with the set and added them to my creation using 3-D foam squares. As a final touch, I added self-adhesive pearls scattered here and there. I love how they almost look like bubbles floating around her!

Thanks for popping by today!! I know you're going to LOVE this release as much as I do! Please be sure to pop by my fellow amazing design team members over at the SOG blog to see all of the absolutely STUNNING creations there are today!!

"Sea" (heheeh) you tomorrow!

Crafty Hugs!
Meredith

Paper and Such Anniversary Celebration!

noreply@blogger.com (CraftyMomOf2) — Sun, 20 May 2012 15:00:00 +0000

Greetings Paper and Such Fans! Today over at the Paper and Such Challenge blog we are hosting a fun weekend of challenges and prizes all in celebration of Paper and Such's Anniversary! Today I'm hosting a Monochromatic Challenge. I love monochromatic as it allows you to delve into one color family and find all those fun hues and patterns that mix and match so well together.

If you're a follower of mine you know that I have been totally loving on the new Distress Ink colors...especially Peacock! So I with that in mind, I paired it with my neutral - black and came up with this creation:

In this project here I sponged a white doily with Peacock ink while resting it on a piece of white cardstock. I used the negative of the doily as the main focal layer behind my Wild Rose image which was inked with black Colorbox ink, heat set with black embossing powder and then watercolor painted with the same ink and Pearlized Water on watercolor paper.

I added some photo corners, blue staples and some rustic twine to pull it all together. I thought the bling and fun dizzy doily were the perfect finishing touches.

To play along with this and all of the other amazing weekend challenges and to win some fabulous Paper and Such stamps come along to the challenge blog and check out all the fun!!

Thanks for stopping by today!!

Crafty Hugs!
Meredith

Can You Feel The Sun? Emboss Resist Distress Ink Tutorial

noreply@blogger.com (CraftyMomOf2) — Sat, 19 May 2012 14:00:00 +0000

Greetings fellow Oddies!! So excited to be here with you on this fabulous FUN weekend!! Today I have a tutorial for you showing you how to create a beautiful background to any creation! I'm using the GORGEOUS soon to be released Sunny Mae clear acrylic stamp set. I've also used fun elements from the upcoming Under The Sea Mae and Beach Kids - Tobie and Tia sets! Oh they are all just SUPER fabulous, fun and full of amazing images and sentiments.

Today I am going to show you how I created a fun embossed resist background using white craft ink, white embossing powder and Distress Inks. Now I must admit, for the longest time I shied away from fun and funky techniques like this as I didn't quite know how to do them or even what they really meant. So for this technique, I will give you a very basic explanation so that it makes sense for everyone. Let's break it down.

Embossing is a technique that can be done in many ways. It can be done with what is called dry embossing and it can be done with heat called heat embossing. The technique I am demonstrating today is called embossed heat resist which is done with a heat tool or gun along with ink or paint or other viscous medium. The embossing causes whatever image you choose to be raised or popped up slightly from the paper and the resist part comes into play when you rub ink/paint etc. over that raised image and it 'resists' whatever medium you've applied over it.

To start out here are the basic supplies you will need:

Stamps
White Craft Ink or Versamark Ink
White embossing powder
Dryer sheet
Water color paper
Distress Inks
Pearlized water or regular water in a mister bottle
Heat gun

I use this water color paper as I find the quality to be absolutely amazing.

*Note - you do not have to use watercolor paper if you are going to simply emboss. I am using watercolor paper because we will be adding ink and water to this project.

I then went through my Distress Inks and pulled out some colors that I might like to use.
The next step is to lightly rub your dryer sheet over the watercolor paper. I do this whenever I heat emboss as it helps minimize any static cling that might occur causing your embossing powder to stick in places other than your stamped areas. I find this to be especially helpful when using black embossing powder.

The next step is to choose the elements for your background. I used the small accent stamps from the three sets listed above in addition to one sentiment stamp from the Sunny Mae set. I absolutely LOVE my Fiskars Stamp Press and I have one in both small and large sizes. As you can see, I fiddled with the stamps until I had them just where I wanted them.
I always work on my Scor-Mat which is attached to my Scor-Pal as it really allows for a nice spongy surface with just the right amount of 'give' when you are stamping with acrylic. I then generously applied my white craft ink.
I try to work relatively fast when heat embossing so that my ink doesn't dry before I get my embossing powder sprinkled on.

I will stamp once, coat with embossing powder and then stamp again as I found that waiting the few minutes in between can cause too much drying to happen and then the powder won't stick.
I then zapped it with my heat gun until it was shiny and dry.
Once it was all dry, I took out my ink blending tools and started at the bottom with Peacock Distress Ink and worked my way up to the top where I ended with Rusty Hinge. I have a different blending pad for each color so I simply switched out each time I used a different color. I work in circles lightly picking up color from the pad and working it across the paper.

Once I had the desired colors I sprayed the entire panel about 5 times with my pearlized water. Pearlized water is regular water in a mini mister bottle with a scoop or two of Perfect Pearls powder. If you don't have the powder, no worries. Distress Inks work and blend wonderfully with water so spritzing with plain water will give you the super fabulous watercolor effect without the shine that the Pearls powder lends.
I am impatient, so I use my heat tool to dry the entire panel. You can simply let it air dry if you'd like. Once dry, I take a baby wipe (a damp paper towel would work as well) and gently rub the embossed areas to remove any excess ink that may have rubbed off onto those areas - it's usually very little but you want to make sure that those images really shine through! And there you have your brilliant summery background!

Here is my finished product:
Thanks SO much for being here with me today!! If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask! Just leave them in the comments section with a way to get in touch with you and I will get back to you!!

Crafty Hugs!
Meredith

YNS Love!!

noreply@blogger.com (CraftyMomOf2) — Thu, 17 May 2012 18:44:00 +0000

Hey All!! Yes...you do see a new blinkie on my sidebar!! I've been chosen to join the YNS Challenge Design Team!! I'm so excited and very honored to be among so many great and talented artists!!

Come on and check out all the fun at YNS!!

Crafty Hugs!
Meredith

My Favorite Things - Wednesday Stamp Club

noreply@blogger.com (CraftyMomOf2) — Mon, 14 May 2012 19:07:00 +0000

Greetings Friends!! Posting today bringing you my interpretation of this week's MFT sketch challenge. I know I've said it before but over the years of enjoying, learning and sharing this amazingly fun craft I've found that time and time again sketches are just such a fantastic point at which to jump from when you are feeling low on mojo and/or time. The sketches and samples that the designers at MFT post weekly are classic, imaginative and always easy to follow. Every week there is a sweet prize to win as well as lots of fun inspiration to oooh and aahh over!

Without further ado, here is this week's sketch:

And here is my interpretation using Pure Innocence - Cowgirl.

I inked her with Momento and colored her with my Copics. I paper pieced her hat, dress, vest, shoes and arms.

I dug deep into my scrap bins to pull out some fun purple designer papers to pair them with some of my favorite Bazzil colors in Bling (yellow), Mermaid (turquoise) and Classic Purple. I layered and stitched and went a little rogue by adding a few extra Rolled Rose Die-namics Flowers with designer paper and felt. I anchored two of the Country Charms Die-namics tied to the felt flower with rustic twine.

I recently acquired an awesome selection of resin flowers in all colors and sizes and they just needed to adorn the center of my flowers. I use hot glue to hold them all together and to attach them to the card to make sure they simply don't move.

I finished everything off adding a Photo Corner Die-namics to my main image to trim down the expanse of white space that was showing and I used my Oval Tab Die-namics to house my sentiment. I chose to round my sentiment to mimic the shape of the oval tab so that left me with a bit of extra space showing directly under the sentiment. To add a bit "more" to this area, I trimmed out a second Oval Tab using the yellow designer paper from Recollections, and I simply trimmed off the oval part leaving a simple strip that I adhered and then stitched to the sentiment tab. I love how it came out, simple and bold.

My daughter has recently started riding lessons and is totally enamored of the entire world of Equestrians. I am going to be tucking this into her lunch box tomorrow! Thanks for popping in today!!

Crafty Hugs!
Meredith

Some Odd Girl Fun Day Challenge!!

noreply@blogger.com (CraftyMomOf2) — Mon, 14 May 2012 12:00:00 +0000

Greetings Oddies!! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!! I know I did spending the weekend away with my darling hubby and kids! Today is a fabulously fun day over at the Some Odd Girl Challenge Blog as Kristy is changing it up a bit with a Bright Color Fun Challenge! As you can see, I've inked up Cupcake Mae and colored her super brightly with my Copics. (psst...I TOTALLY want a dress like that!!)

I used white gel pen to create the illusion of shine on the cherry in her hair and the reflective dots on her eyes.

Here are the marker colors I used to color Mae.

You'll notice a few Pantone and Prismacolor markers strewn about in there. It's ok...they're all friends ;) I LOVE the Pantone markers because they have three nibs. One large chisel tip, one sort of small pointy tip - similar to the Copic Original markers and then they have a teeny, tiny micro-fine point that allows you to access the tiniest of areas which is helpful when you are trying to get color in one small space but not bleed out onto the areas around it.

I used my Rolled Rose Die-namic from MFT to create this bright and happy felt flower cluster. The pearls were originally white but I colored them with my Copics to match my felt perfectly. I added a bit of bling and a few sewing stickpins to complete this arrangement.

The blue doily in the background was also originally white but I used my spongy ink blending tool to coat it with Peacock Blue Distress Ink. My papers are from MME and Bazzill.

I hope you have enjoyed and been inspired today!! You'll definitely want to check out all of the gorgeousness at the SOG challenge blog!

Crafty Hugs!
Meredith

Mini Album Peek

noreply@blogger.com (CraftyMomOf2) — Thu, 10 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

Good Morning Friends!! I don't know about you but I LOVE mini albums. I think they are a fantastic way to remember a specific event.

The reason for this mini album? My daughter's very first horseback riding lesson. I know...I'm an uber proud Mum. Our daughter is 7 and has been asking to ride since last fall. We were in the midst of trying soccer at the time which she enjoyed but is not so much into the team thing. Which is absolutely fine. So we went through the Winter and once Spring hit I started calling around to the many Equestrian centers we have near where we live. I found the most perfect stable for her and our family. They are wonderful, caring, and nurturing AND they have the most stunning horses and ponies. She's had three lessons so far and is really taking to it. I think this is her sport. Sigh...I just love it. Here is the picture that inspired the color palette.

The pony's name is Spirit. He is sweet and gentle. Perfect for a first rider. Oh and the sweater you ask? It was made my my darling husband's amazing Grandmother. It was made for my sister-in-law when they were kids and has been passed down which I absolutely love. Grandmother is turning 100 this Fall and she is just tickled that her Great-Grand-daughter has taken to riding. She herself was an Equestrian as are two of her daughters (my hubby's aunts). So it runs in the family!

So, to honor this occasion, I'm creating a mini-album with pics from her first lesson. I have the cover done and I'm almost done with the first page but I have a little sneak peek of the cover to show you.

I pulled lots of scrap papers (Making Memories, Recollections, MME, and Bazzill) in blue and limes along with an assortment of stickers and embellishments. I added the pop of red in lieu of pink as it just seemed to work better with the papers I had.

As you can see, I've used some delicious resin flowers that I got here as well as my MFT Fishtail Banner Die-namics to really make the cover pop.

I threaded my sewing machine with red thread to make the entire cover pop!

I promise to share more when it's all done!

Crafty Hugs!
Meredith

Paper and Such - New Release!

noreply@blogger.com (CraftyMomOf2) — Wed, 09 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

Good Morning Paper and Such Fans and Friends!! How are you? I'm great and thrilled that today is a new release day at Paper and Such!! We are mixing it up a bit and have one new set to show you and we are re-releasing an older set just in time to start making those fabulous masculine cards for Father's Day!

I hope you have come here via my friend Kim's blog! If not, make sure you start at the beginning of this fun hop so that you don't miss one fabulous creation!!

My creation today uses the new and so pretty Strawberry set!

Here is the set in it's entirety:

I started by inking the main strawberry plant image onto Xpress blending cardstock and coloring it in with these Copics: (and you'll notice a couple of very OLD Pantone markers in the mix)

I then cut it out using my Spellbinders circles. I matted it with bright yellow cardstock and stitched a portion of the edge. If you've been reading my blog you know that I am very consciously trying to adopt the "use what I have" mentality. (go ahead...laugh...I do every time I write those words!) But I try and try and try. So the papers used in this creation came out of my scrap bin and if memory serves they are from Bazzill, SU! and MME. I did a bunch of fun stitching, added brads to the top corners and added a distressed, manila tag to the background.

I used some delicious May Arts chevron ribbon to finish the front off and you'll notice an actual Bingo sheet layered in there as well!

My interior uses more of my scraps and a sweet sentiment and single stamp from the above set.

Paper and Such's Deer Dad set is being re-released today and would be absolutely perfect for any woodsy man in your life!! I love it because the sentiment words are all separate allowing you to customize your creation for your needs!

That's all for me today!! Off you scoot to see what wonderful creation Mindy has in store for you today!!

Crafty Hugs!
Meredith

Paper and Such Challenge Time!

noreply@blogger.com (CraftyMomOf2) — Tue, 08 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

Hi All and Happy Tuesday!! Yep! It's that time!! Another fabulous challenge over at the Paper and Such Challenge Blog! Today's new challenge is "flowers". Easy, right? Great!! We can't wait to see what you come up with! And don't forget, simply by playing along you have the chance to win a stamp set of your choice from Paper and Such!

Here's what I created to inspire you!

It's a trio of mini cards for my daughter to hand out to the wonderful teachers at her school. I made three identical cards using the Wild Rose set. As you can see, I used the smallest image in the set inking it onto shrink plastic. I wanted there to be lots of textures in these 2.5"x3.5" mini creations. I first sanded my shrink plastic. I then stamped the image using Momento ink and colored the image with my Copics. In hindsight, I should have used my Prisma pencils to get better coverage but no matter.

After coloring, I trimmed out each flower.

I held each one with a pair of craft tweezers and using my heat tool shrunk each one down.

Above is a picture of before and after. I then assembled my card using some delicious Basic Grey Kissing Booth paper. I created the rosettes by hand. I added some stitching and gingham ribbon to bring it all together.

Behind the rosettes, I've placed two of the smallest MFT STAX Fishtail Flags cut from kraft and designer paper and edge distressed with Hero Hues Latte Chalk Ink.

I do hope you come and join us for this fun challenge and a chance to win a fun prize!!

Crafty Hugs!

Simple and Quiet

noreply@blogger.com (CraftyMomOf2) — Mon, 07 May 2012 16:13:00 +0000

Greetings Friends!! I hope you are having a lovely start to your week! We spent the weekend mostly indoors due to a sick kiddo and I'm hanging with him again today as he's not *quite* better but well on the mend. We ended up heading out on a beautiful walk this morning after my oldest headed off to school. It's just gorgeous here in the Northeast! With all of my indoor time this weekend I was able to continue playing with my new spring palette of Distress Inks, this time focusing on my absolute favorite - Peacock Feathers. (talk about swoon!?!)

I needed a (sigh) sympathy card and they are always just so hard to make. I kept it very simple, clean and quiet.

I've been trying really hard lately to adapt the "use what I have" mentality, which I don't know about you but I find extremely difficult especially when new, fun and fabulous products come out just about every day! So with that in mind, I pulled out an old SU! bird stamp and my SU! Shimmering White paper. I first inked the bird onto watercolor paper using white craft ink. I heat set it with white embossing powder and then used my Peacock Feathers ink and an ink blending tool to coat the bird. I then fussy cut the bird out and adhered it to my card front. I used this set from Paper and Such for the sentiment which is inked in SU! Basic Black Ink.

I added a white button with neutral twine threaded through and tied in back. I rounded each corner and lined the interior with ledger style paper from Crate Paper.

Hope you have a great rest of the day!! See you tomorrow!!

Crafty Hugs!
Meredith

Shimmer, Shine, Embossing, OH MY!

noreply@blogger.com (CraftyMomOf2) — Sat, 05 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

Greetings Paper Canteen friends!! Happy Weekend!! I hope you are having fun whatever you are doing! I recently received the new Tim Holtz Spring Distress inks and I've been playing with them ever since! The colors are SO fabulous but I must say that I am totally partial to Peacock Feathers. {swoon}

I started with this Hero Arts/Basic Grey cling stamp and good quality watercolor paper. I coated my stamp in white craft ink and then heat embossed the image with white embossing powder. I sponged the top of the panel with Shaded Lilac and the bottom with Peacock Feathers blending them heavily in the middle. I took a baby wipe and gently rubbed the embossed areas clear of any leftover ink. Using my pearlized water I gave two light sprays to the entire panel then zapped it dry with my heat gun giving the entire piece a beautiful but delicate shimmery shine. (almost impossible to see in the photo) I added some very lush light blue velvet ribbon where the two colors meet.

My friend Abby has an amazing line of sentiment stamps that are all in Spanish. Truly wonderful, truly fabulous and oh so fun to play with!! You can check out her wonderful shop right HERE. I used this set here for the tab sentiment. The sentiment tab was cut with the File Tab Die-namic from MFT. I purposefully placed the tab a bit off center to keep things interesting. (wink!)

I hope you have enjoyed and been inspired! Will be back tomorrow with another creation!!

Crafty Hugs!
Meredith

It's Distress Time!!

noreply@blogger.com (CraftyMomOf2) — Thu, 03 May 2012 16:55:00 +0000

Look at what just arrived in my mailbox from SSS!?!?

I'm SO excited!! Off to stamp!!

Crafty Hugs!
Meredith

My Favorite Things Weekly Stamp Club!

noreply@blogger.com (CraftyMomOf2) — Thu, 03 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

Greetings MFT Fans! It's that time again for this week's sketch challenge and it's another fabulous layout!! I've vowed to myself to start using stamps that have never been inked before so today I pulled out my Pure Innocence - Carnation. I know, wicked...crazy...sweet! She's just too cute! Here's the sketch:

And here's my interpretation of it:

I stamped her on heavy watercolor paper as I was in the mood for a more...texturized paper and the watercolor paper really absorbs the Copic color in such a wonderfully rich way. Once she was colored I focused on the carnation. I wanted to use sort of a spotlighting technique to make the flower really pop. So I inked it again, colored it, cut it out using the second to smallest of my circle nesties and then adhered it with some Jody Boosters. My sentiment panel is cut using the Fishtail Flag STAX Die-namics and the Finishing Flourishes stamp set.

I then cut two Rolled Daisy Die-namics - one from kraft cardstock and the other from ouchless cardboard. I layered them together and rolled them into one fluffy flower. I added a light pink button tied with a natural twine bow in the center to complete it.

I used lots of fun papers from Recollections, cardstock from Bazzill and stitching to finish off my panels. I used itty bitty baby brads on two of my layers and as you can see I sponged distressed most of my layers.

I used my scraps and the Finishing Flourishes stamp set to complete my interior.

I am also entering this into the most recent Birthday Challenge at Simon Says Stamps!

Thanks for popping in!!

Crafty Hugs!
Meredith

Some Odd Girl Feature

noreply@blogger.com (CraftyMomOf2) — Wed, 02 May 2012 13:00:00 +0000

Good Morning Oddies!! So glad to be here with you today posting the latest and greatest Stamp Feature from Some Odd Girl! Today we're featuring Sweet Tiny Tia! Seriously, isn't she adorable?!

I printer her out onto Xpress blending cardstock and colored her with my Copics. I also printed her out onto the green polka-dotted and the pink flowery papers from Jillibean Soup - Sweet & Sour Soup. Here are the colors I used for her skin and hair and shoes:

I used a white gel pen to doodle in her freckles! I then paper pieced her dress. I also pieced her arms to make it look like she was wearing fancy gloves!

Lastly, I pieced the hair ties holding her fluffy side buns in. I used a sketch in my collection as a jumping off point adding my own elements here and there. I grabbed lots of my scraps and using some of my favorite MFT Die-namics, I created the flowery and pearl clusters. Everything is adhered down using hot glue.

I finished everything off with some stitching and beautiful taupe, satin ribbon tied into a bow.

I hope you have enjoyed my creation today!! Thanks for coming by!!

Crafty Hugs!
Meredith

noreply@blogger.com (CraftyMomOf2) — Tue, 01 May 2012 13:00:00 +0000

Hi Oddies!! It's the first of the month and you know what that means?!! A brandie new challenge over at the Some Odd Girls Challenge blog! This month's challenge is one of my favorites...a sketch challenge! I have been asked in the past if I think that using a sketch somehow takes the creativity away from making a card/layout/project. Honestly, when I first started crafting years ago, I sort of gave thought to that. But as the years have gone on I have started to rely on a sketch every time I create as my jumping off point and I let my creativity go from there. Sometimes I interpret the sketch literally and sometimes you can see the basic elements of the sketch layered throughout the other elements of my project. So no, I think sketches are an amazingly helpful tool...especially on those days when the creativity is on the low side. (wink!)

So without further ado...here is this month's sketch challenge:

I have used the crazy adorable Smell The Flowers - Tia clear set for my project today. I inked her with Momento ink and colored her in with my Copics.

I paper pieced her dress but colored the trim using my markers.

After coloring, I used my circle Nesties to cut her out and to create a matte from chocolate brown, textured Bazzill cardstock. My patterned papers are all from MME - Fine and Dandy and my cardstock is from Bazzill. I used my MFT Die-namics to embellish this card along with some stitching, jute twine, baker's twine, mini clothes pin and some self-adhesive pearls.

I finished off the interior keeping it bright and simple:

I do hope you come over to the SOG Challenge Blog and play along with us and this super fabulous sketch! Thanks for popping by today!

Crafty Hugs!

Meredith

My Favorite Things - May Guest Designer Challenge

noreply@blogger.com (CraftyMomOf2) — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 16:32:00 +0000

Greetings friends!! I'm posting today to bring you my entry into this month's MFT Guest Designer Challenge! The theme? Be A Teacher's Pet! So fun!! It's hard to believe that it's almost THAT time of year again but indeed we are almost at the end of the school year and that means thoughtful gifts for those most important and fabulous teachers in our children's lives. I've made a very special chalkboard frame for a teacher in our lives that is extremely special. Our children were very lucky to be able to attend the most amazing pre-school ever. It's warm, nurturing, loving, and extremely special. It's hard to even put it into words but my son only has a few days left and at the end of his three years there he has grown into a wonderfully confident, loving, artistic, bright and kind boy. Large in part due to the amazing lessons that he has learned from his teachers at FCF Preschool. And I don't mean pen to paper lessons...I mean life lessons. Sharing, caring, nurturing, friendship, love and support. It's just the best school...ever. So...with all of that said, I have made this chalkboard frame for his amazing teacher, Lois.

I started with a raw, 12x12", MDF frame purchased at Michaels. I sanded the frame down and painted it with black acrylic paint. I then painted four coats of chalkboard paint. It's a bit laborious as you paint in one direction and then let it set for 24 hours. Then you paint in the opposite direction the next time you paint, and so on and so forth. The painting itself took four days to complete. I then sanded it very lightly to get the surface chalk ready and then I started doodling on it with chalk to condition it further.

The thought behind the chalkboard paint as opposed to regular paint is that each year, Lois can swap out the class photo for that current year's picture and doodle in chalk (her handwriting, as opposed to mine, is BEAUTIFUL!!) the year and any other information she feels like writing. And, I've created a small, soft chalk holder that you see in the upper left hand side of the frame.

(I told you my handwriting is terrible!) The chalk holder is made from yellow felt that I cut with MFT's Layered Heart Die-namics. I used the larger of the two hearts, cut it out and zig zag stitched the edges together. I tied a bow using my recent favorite May Arts chevron striped ribbon and snuggled the end of the heart holder into the tied bow. It holds two pieces of chalk nicely so that it's always on hand when needed. I also added one box of white and one box of colored chalk. Both boxes are decorated to coordinate with this fun gift pack.

I used both ALM set "You Rule" and PI set "You Make The Grade" to embellish the boxes of chalk. I used my fabulous Oval STAX Set 1 and Set 2 to create the focal point in order to house the sentiments. I have to say that I really love the colors and design of the Crayola boxes so for the white chalk box, I left a tiny bit of the box peeking out on the bottom while on the box of color chalk, I used the Solid Bracket Border Die-namics to embellish. Just keeping things interesting and fun! I added a few rhinestones to bling up the front in order to coordinate with the bling on the card. I used awesome Jody Boosters to attach the sentiment panels to the front of the chalk boxes.

I had SUCH a great time creating the decorative grouping that you see on the lower left hand side of the 12"x12" frame. All of the pieces were done by hand. I only have a small die in order to make rosettes from so for this, knowing I wanted a large version, I cut and scored everything by hand. I started with my red cardstock, cutting it at 2" wide by 24" long (made by adhereing two 12" pieces together). I scored at every inch, folded, adhered the two 12" strips together, and hot glued into a jumbo rosette.

I did the same with the notebook paper which is from Recollections (Michaels) but trimmed the paper to 1.5' wide so it would fit within the borders of the large red rosette leaving room for me to add more details in between the two. I added loops of the red chevron ribbon along with natural twill, twisting each one and hot gluing it into place. I had a huge chipboard star that was begging to be used! I covered it with the same alphabet paper used on my card, ink distressed the edges and layered it on top of the ribbon. After sponging the edges with Vintage Photo Distress Ink, I then added the notebook rosette on top of the star. My next layers include a chipboard circle which I coated in Brilliance Aqua ink and then coated with UTEE (hard to see the shine in the pic) and the Swiss Dot yellow paper, also from Bazzill.

Layered on top of the entire grouping, I used the adorable ALM Talk Nerdy To Me sweetie. I inked her with Momento ink onto Xpress cardstock and I colored her with my Copics. I used silver Sakura pen to coat the metal top of the pencil as well as the graphite. I coated the pencil wood with Versamark pen then in clear embossing powder and heat set. It has a super fabulous shine! I trimmed her out intentionally leaving a 1/8" border of white as I really, really love this look with certain images. I adhered her down and then as a final touch added the smallest Hearts A Plenty Die-namics cut in red felt to the top.

I must say, I LOVE the wonderful dimension this jumbo element adds to this creation.

I wanted to do something impactful but didn't want to cover the entire frame so instead of covering the frame in design elements, I decided go to with a more three dimensional effect. To the right of the huge rosette, I have added a large chipboard bracket that I coated with white craft ink and heat set with white embossing powder to sort of anchor the grouping and divide the space between the embellishments and the doodling area. I also added two Royal Roses cut from yellow and aqua felt.

I used my newest addiction, ahem, I mean my new favorite Fishtail Flags STAX Die-namics to add the PERFECT sentiment for a picture frame gift from the WTG set - Teacher's Pet.

I also created a coordinating card using this week's MFT sketch as my muse.

All of my papers are Bazzill and Recollections (Michaels). The small black and white alphabet script is digital paper that I was sent a long time ago that I simply print out as needed.

I stamped my image once onto Xpress cardstock (for the hands and books) then again on the blue dotted paper(body), tan cardstock (pants), red cardstock (apple) and for the body, I only inked the main image not the surrounding frame.

I then paper pieced in this order: pants, shirt, books, hands, and apple. I trimmed out my apple from the red cardstock and coated it with Glossy Accents and set it aside overnight to dry.

Once dry, I added the apple to the image and then trimmed it out with my circle nesties. I used one of the sentiments from the Teacher's Pet set, stamped, trimmed apart, matted and layered in between the WTG main layer and it's red matting. I stitched the edges to keep everything together and to add more texture then I added a fun blingy circle. Once this main piece was done I set it aside to complete the rest of my card. I used the fun chevron ribbon, baby brads and a fun teeny, tiny paper clip to the top right. As you can see I used my Vertical Greetings Die-namics layered on top of the Fishtail STAX to hold the digital paper.

I finished off the interior keeping it bright and sweet with some Crate Paper ledger paper as the main focal point.

I have to, once again, thank Jody and Joanne for the wonderful challenge as well as the wonderful Design Team at MFT for the constant inspiration through weekly challenges and each and every spectacular release!

If you are interested in seeing all of the amazing entries this month please pop by the gallery HERE at SCS!

Thanks so much for popping by to see my entry!

Crafty Hugs!

Meredith

Fabulous MFT products used in this project:

Tiddly Inks - Thank You

noreply@blogger.com (CraftyMomOf2) — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 04:00:00 +0000

Today I'm bringing you another fabulously adorable and oh so sweet Tiddly Inks - Wryn image. I've printed Wryn and Wren - Too Tweet onto Xpress Cardstock. I also printed the image again onto some orange polka dotted designer paper that I had in my stash.

I printed it on the designer paper in order to paper piece her dress. I colored my image first in its entirety and then pieced her dress. I used a nice coat of Glossy Accents on the toes of her shoes. I trimmed her out using my MFT Oval STAX Die-namics ONE and TWO and added her to the card front using awesome Jody Boosters. In the last few months, I have been super into the wonderful 6x6 paper pads that are in abundance all of a sudden in every store so much so that my HUGE collection of 12x12 paper is being sadly neglected. So I've decided to give my mini packs a break and dig back into my 12x12. I've used mostly Basic Grey papers (not sure which company the plaid is from...that was a scrap on my desk) and SU! and Bazzill solid card stock.

I used a sketch from MFT for my layout adding lots of stitching and anchored each skinny panel with mini brads. The on-going challenge right now at Tiddly Inks is to create a 'Thank You' card so I've pulled out my Big Greetings from MFT which has a simple and crisp sentiment perfect for this. I've stamped my sentiment in SU! Regal Rose ink onto watercolor paper and trimmed it out with my new MFT Fishtail Flag STAX Die-namics.

I pulled out my felt stash in order to hand cut and roll three small flowers. I edged my layers with Distress Ink in Old Paper to give each layer a bit more life.

I used more stash papers from my desk to create a fun interior. I quickly cut the doily using MFT's Dizzy Doily Duo Die-namics (say THAT three times fast!) using the leftover BG paper from the front. I layered a Tim Holtz Mini-Rosette on top and a MS Butterfly to finish the cluster off. I stitched on two sides only to anchor the entire interior. I am also entering this into the most recent SSS - Anything Goes challenge.

Thanks for visiting today!! I'm off to color new images for the upcoming Some Odd Girl Clear Stamp release a the end of May!! So fun!!

Crafty Hugs!
Meredith