IBSIC #14

Hi scrappy peeps! It's another wonderful wednesday here in the beautiful hawaiian islands and you know what that means... it's time for another card for the IBSIC! This week Joanna is giving away some lovely stamps as some blog candy, so super sweet of her!

I finally received all my of stamps from this months release and I was so super duper excited to start inking them up! This month Joanna released two GORGEOUS background stamp sets and omg, I just HAD to use them on my card. Hard to believe that with all the background stamp sets I own, I have never actually inked any of them up. I was actually really surprised at how easy it was. I just followed the super talented, Kendra Sand's tutorial which can be found here. If you haven't tried it before, you should definitely check out Kendra's tutorial and give it a try. It's awesome for creating your own design paper when you just don't have that perfect color.

Here is this week's sketch:

I used several different IBS stamp sets, Background Basics I, Vintage Backgrounds (my favorite!), Fancy Labels 18, and Birthday Wishes. I am honestly so, SUPER in love with my IBS stamps! I swear, if I didn't know any better I'd think that Joanna was designing stamps just for me! (hehe!)

"Birthday Wishes" details:

Card stock: PTI True Black, PTI Cream, Bazzil Petal Soft

Paper: Basic Grey Little Black Dress

Stamps: IBS Background Basics I, Vintage Backgrounds, Fancy Labels 18, Birthday Wishes

Trims: Laces & seam binding from my stash

Flowers: IAR flowers

Dies: MFT Well Worn Greetings, MFT Polka Dot Greetings, MFT Oval Open Scallop Duo,

Spellbinders Label 18

Ink: Versafine Onyx Black, Studio G pink

Other yumminess: pearl flatbacks

WMSC #103 & TSTR #119

Hello sweet friends! I hope you are having a wonderful Friday. I know I'm sure glad the weekend is just about here. I'm really looking forward to a nice, relaxing weekend :)

Today I wanted to share with you a card I created for this week's Waltzing Mouse Stamp Challenge and The Shabby Tea Room Challenge. This is my first time taking part in the Waltzing Mouse Stamp Challenge. I have been a huge fan of their stamps for some time now, so I'm so happy to finally get a chance to play along. Here is the sketch for this week's challenge...

And here is the SUPER GORGEOUS inspiration photo for The Shabby Tea Room's Challenge...

From the moment I saw this breath taking photo, I knew I wanted to try to re-create this GORGEOUS bouquet. I was just so super intimidated by its beauty and thought, there is no way I could create anything that would do this photo justice. So at first I actually decided to sit this one out. It wasn't until I saw the WMSC sketch that I knew exactly what I wanted to do and decided why not take a chance and see how it turns out.

As usual, I was working against the clock. I didn't have time to go shopping for some gorgeous pearl and bling centers so I just did my best with the supplies I had on hand. I actually kind of like how it turned out. My favorite is the cream colored pearl flower rosette. I tried to re-create one of the pearl centers in the photo above which I thought came out pretty close. I had to cut apart some gorgeous Karla's pearl trim, but I really like the end result. The pearl sprays are also from Karla's etsy and I thought they were perfect for this card and added the finishing touch to my little bouquet.

It is really late here is the beautiful Hawaiian islands, so I must say good night. I will be back to add in the details of my card and hopefully more photos. Until then, good night sweet friends and have a wonderful weekend!

IBSIC #13 Beach Inspiration Photo

Happy Wednesday everyone! Here is my card for this week's Inspired By Stamping Inspiration Challenge. If you haven't stopped by the Inspired By Stamping Challenge blog, you should definitely check it out, Joanna and her amazing design team has once again out done themselves, creating many beautiful and breath taking cards.

This week for inspiration, Joanna shared a beautiful beach photo that made me feel so calm and relaxed. Since I don't own much beach themed supplies, I decided to go with the gorgeous color combination in the photo: aqua, cream, beige, and a little hint of green. You can't see it too well, but my hint of green in hidden behind my aqua patterned paper. I didn't want to cover the beautiful butterfly on my design paper so I decided to keep this card super simple. The gorgeous sentiment is from the All Year Wishes I stamp set which I thought matched perfectly with the correspondence wording on my design paper.

Once again, I'm fighting the clock to get this posted in time so I have to end this here (I'll add in my card details later). Last week I was in such a rush, that I totally forgot to link my post and wasn't able to play along (totally showing my age, hehe!). Alrighty loves, take care, have a wonderful day and once again, thank you SO MUCH for stopping by!

Inspired By Stamping Featured Artist

Hi everyone! Today I have the absolute pleasure of sharing with you a project I created for Inspired By Stamping. A couple weeks ago, Joanna Munster asked to be one of her featured artists. I was in total shock! I couldn't believe she wanted little ol' me to design something to showcase her BEAUTIFUL stamps. I was SO touched and honored! Not to mention, super duper nervous!!! So today as I sit here nervously trying to think of the right words to say to express my gratitude, I share with you my inspiration board...

I am huge fan of all Joanna's sentiments sets. I thought it would be great to create something that I could sit on my vanity, so that each morning as I get ready for my day, I could be reminded of all that I am grateful for. Joanna's sentiment sets was absolutely perfect for the job. I used several different sets which included Amazing Inspirations, Inspiring Sentiments, & Sweet Valentine's. You can see Joanna's other GORGEOUS stamp sets here.

Here are some close ups of my inspiration board...

"Inspired By Stamping Inspiration Board" details:

Paper: Melissa Frances 5th Avenue Collection

Stamps: IBS Amazing Inspirations, Inspiring Sentiments, & Sweet Valentine's

Trims: Melissa Frances Pom Pom Trim, Karlas001 Pearl Trims & Crochet
Lace, May Arts Crochet Trim & Burlap String, PTI felt

Flowers: Prima Crochet Flower, Prima Flowers, IAR
flowers, Karla's Porcelain Flowers

Dies: Spellbinders Fancy Tags I & II

Ink: VersaFine Black Onyx

Other yumminess: Melissa Frances resins, Corrugated cardboard,
white acrylic paint

I'd like to thank each and every one of you  for taking the time to stop by and for all the encouraging words! I hope you like my inspiration board and will give it a try too :) I'd also like to send out a big hug and warm thank you to Joanna for giving me this opportunity and having faith in me. I would be so grateful if you could stop by Joanna's blog and share some love :)

IBSIC #12

Hi guys! Here is my card for this week's challenge over at Inspired By Stamping. I thought I'd change things up a bit and go with different colors instead of my usual neutrals and pastels. I was in such awe of the super talented, Tammy Hobb's STUNNING card she created here. Ever since laying eyes on her gorgeous work of art, I have been wanting to create a card using the colors red, kraft, and black. My poor little card does not do hers justice, but I think it's not too bad for a first try.

This week's Joanna provided us with a gorgeous sketch for inspiration...

Unfortunately, I have some commitments I need to finish up, but I will be back later to add my details for this card. Thanks so much for peeping in and I hope you join us next week at the Inspired By Stamping Inspiration Challenge!

TSTR #117 "Sweet Summertime"

Happy Sweet Sunday crafty friends! I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend! Here is my creation for this week's challenge over at The Shabby Tea Room. Debbie Marcinkiewicz and her amazing design team are so uber talented and sweet! Please stop by to share some love if you have some time :)

The theme this week was "Sweet Summertime." Along with this yummy inspiration photo, we were asked to create something using the colors teal or aqua, pink, and brown.

This is my first time playing along with The Shabby Tea Room. I've been a huge fan for a few months now and was always so intimidated by all the amazing talent. With less than two hours left, I decided I couldn't take it anymore and wanted to be a part of all the fun =)

For my card, I used some digital images from Janet over at digital paper. I just couldn't resist! The images were SO adorable and I thought they went perfectly with our theme "SWEET" summertime! My little Chloe couldn't keep her tiny little hands off my images either! They kept "disappearing" and when I would turn around to look for them, she would be sitting with them and she'd say "cake". I guess she thought they were adorable too :)

Here are some other supplies I used to create my card:

"Sweet Summertime" details:

Card stock: PTI kraft, PTI cream 

Paper: Melissa Frances 5th Avenue, digital images by Digital Paper

Stamps: PTI Tiny Tags

Trims:  May Arts crochet trim & burlap string,

Webster Pages Chocolate Lace, eyelet lace from my stash

Flowers: IAR flowers

Dies: MFT Doily die, PTI Tiny Tags die

Ink: Vintage Photo distress ink

Other yumminess: pearl trim from Karla's Etsy, 

rhinestone buckle and pearl fatback from Ebay, 

Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by. Happy crafting and have a wonderful day!

IBSIC #11

Omgosh, two posts in one week! Yay! I feel like I'm FINALLY being a good bloggy mommy, hehe! I would love nothing more than to have something to share with you everyday, but mommy duties come first :)

Speaking of two, I have not one but TWO cards to share with you today...

I originally created this card here for this week's challenge over at Inspired By Stamping.

"You're so Sweet" details:

Card stock: PTI kraft, PTI cream

Paper: Prima Meadow Lark

Stamps: IBS All Year Wishes I

Trims: Karlas001 Pearl Trims, Laces from my stash, May Arts crochet trim

Flowers: Maya Road shabby rose trim, IAR flowers

Dies: MFT Polka Dot Greetings

Ink: Memento Rose Bud

Other yumminess: Melissa Frances resins

Here is the inspiration for this week's challenge:

I wasn't quite satisfied that my first card was "special" enough so I created this card instead.

"Birthday Wishes" details:

Card stock: PTI kraft, PTI cream, Bazzil 

Paper: Prima Meadow Lark

Stamps: IBS Birthday Wishes

Trims:  May Arts crochet trim & burlap string, lace from my stash

Flowers: IAR flowers

Dies: Spellbinders Fancy Tags 2

Ink:Versafine Black Onyx

Other yumminess: paper doily

I really like the way my second card turned out. I would love to hear which card you prefer. I'm off to put my sweet little Chloe to bed so good night and sweet dreams!

MOJO #243

Hi there! I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend and doing the things that makes you happy. I for one, finally got a chance to just "stay home and play." Working full time and being a mommy doesn't give me many opportunities to have a play day, so on days like today when I don't have to walk out my front door, boy do I enjoy myself :)

I've been having so much fun taking part in the IBSIC over at Inspired By Stamping that I decided to take part in a few other challenges. I'm still super nervous and debating on whether or not to put on my big girl panties again, but I've really enjoyed being a part of such wonderful community! Not to mention that the sketches and color inspirations helps me jump start my creative process which normally takes hours to start, lol!

I decided to  go with MOJO's round sketch. I can't believe in all these years, I have never created a round shaped card. I also decided to play along with The Shabby Tea Room's Week #116 challenge. I am a new found fan and when I seen this week's color combo, I couldn't pass it by. Unfortunately, I got my deadlines mixed up and missed the deadline...  :( Oh well! I guess there's always next week :)

I used Lifestyle Crafts Nesting Circles, PTI cream card stock, and Melissa Frances 5th Avenue paper pad to create my card base. Then I hand stitched some lace from my stash and glued it along the edge and added another piece of card stock on the back to cover it. My pink doily was created using MFT's large decorative doily die. My sentiment is from one of my favorite PTI sentiment sets, Signature Greeting. I stamped it in Vintage Photo distress ink on a cream circle, added some Karlas001 pearl trim, attached it to my pink doily, and added some IAR flowers. It's hard to see in the photo but behind my doily I layered a strip of paper from the collection, beige lace from my stash, and some pink crochet lace by May Arts. I also layered two hand cut banners and added some pearls for some glam. The gorgeous cupid resin embelly is by Melissa Frances and although it looks super white in the photo, it's actually really pretty in person :) I used some aqua seam binding from Zipperstop to create my bow, and added an IAR flower. The cute, adorable little tag says "thanks" and was created with PTI's Tiny Tags stamp and die sets. The beautiful crystal flower is from Karlas0001 Etsy and the crochet flower was purchased from Etsy. And last but not least, the pretty beige flower is by IAR.

Thank you so much for stopping by and sharing some love! Take care and have a wonderful week!

IBSIC #10

Hi Everyone!

I have two wonderful things to share with you today :). The first is my card for this week's challenge over at Inspired By Stamping. Last week was the first time I took part in the challenge and I had such a wonderful time that I decided to take part again. Everyone was so sweet and encouraging... such a lovely group of very talented ladies! I am definitely hooked! If you haven't joined in on the fun yet, you should definitely give it try. Joanna and the lovely ladies on the design team are the sweetest ever and they make you feel so special and welcomed!

The second thing I want to share with you today is that I am very honored and excited to tell you that my card was selected as the winner for last week's Inspired By Stamping Inspiration Challenge! Can you believe that??? I am still in shock!!! I can't believe out of all the amazing cards, my card was chosen. I want to thank Joanna and her talented design team for selecting my card and making my day! I received some bad news earlier in the day, so it really lifted my spirits to find out my card was chosen and to read all the sweet comments. Thank you so much ladies!

Alrighty now, back to my card for this week's challenge...

For my card base I used Lifestyle Craft's Nesting Frame 8 and PTI cream card stock. I decided to step out of my comfort zone and choose colors from My Mind's Eye Miss Caroline paper pad. I usually tend to stick to my neutrals and pinks, so for me choosing pastel yellow, aqua, and peach was a rare occasion for me. To create my handmade flower, I layered a Prima crochet flower, some May Arts crochet lace, a burlap string bow, and a pale yellow flower from IAR. My framed sentiment was created with Spellbinders Label 15 framed out using Spellbinders Classic Square and the gorgeous IBS Heartfelt Gratitude set. I also used some beautiful crochet lace and pearl flower trim from Karlas001Etsy, a resin embellishment from Melissa Frances, some jute rope, bling, and flowers. The super pretty peach flower is also by IBS and can be purchased here.

I almost didn't make it to this week's challenge. I had so much going on this week and had only a few hours left with no card made. Thankfully this week's challenge was a sketch challenge. Here is the sketch:

Thank you so much for stopping by! If you get a chance, stop by the Inspired By Stamping Inspiration Challenge to check out all the gorgeous creations and join in on the fun! I hope everyone has a happy crafty weekend!

IBSIC #9

Hello sweet friends! I hope everyone is having a wonderful crafty week! As for me, I finally had some free time this weekend to sit down and be crafty. Such a much needed break! Crafting is definitely therapeutic for me.

Back in March, I was "on a mission" for some new Spellbinder Label stamps and happened to stumble upon some stamps by Joanna Munster. Omg, talk about love at first sight! I instantly fell in love with her stamps, and her style? ...OMG! I felt like I was in heaven!!! I think I stayed up for hours that night reading her blog and just absolutely drooling over her style, hehe! I just love her shabby chic style and the way she incorporates lots of lace and sewing in her cards... totally right up my alley :) If you like my style, you'll definitely love Joanna's! Please stop by Joanna's blog and her store, Inspired By Stamping. I promise, you won't be disappointed.

Also in March, Joanna started the Inspired By Stamping Inspiration Challenge. I was so tempted to enter, but the thought of submitting my work to be judged sent chills up my back! I created a few cards but each time I always ended up "chickening out." If you're actually reading this, it must mean that I put on my "big girl panties," held my breath, and hit post. Wish me luck... and some courage too ;)

This is my card that I created for Joanna's challenge. For this week's challenge we needed to use the colors pink, turquoise, and white as show in this photo here:

Isn't that a gorgeous bedroom? I'd love to have such a shabby chic piece of heaven but I don't think the hubby would... shucks!

For my card I used the gorgeous Fancy Labels 18 and Big Notes IBS stamp sets. Two stamp sets that are definitely a must! I can never have enough sentiments and "label" stamps! I also used the London Market paper collection by Pink Paislee and PTI card stock in kraft and cream. To create my flower, I hand stitched some white crochet trim by May Arts and some turquoise party streamer that I had in my stash, then added a flower in the center. The solid pink flower  is also by IBS and is my ABSOLUTE favorite! Definitely hoarding vault material ;) To create my butterfly, I layered two butterflies made from a Martha Stewart and an EK Success punch that were edged with Vintage Photo distress ink, added two pearls, and some Prima bling. The two tiny pink buttons are by Pebbles and perfectly balanced the pink in my opinion. The eyelet lace is from my hoarding vault :) and the crochet trim I used to create my bow is by May Arts. If you have any questions, I'd be more than happy to answer them :) Thanks so much for stopping by and have a wonderful, crafty week!

Shabby Chic Glassine Bag Mini Tag Album

Hello everyone! I hope everyone is having a wonderful crafty week so far. I have a shabby chic mini glassine bag mini that I wanted to share with you. I've had this post forever in my drafts folder and keep waiting to add a video to it, but since my darling little Chloe just loves to require all my attention when I'm trying to film, I decided to just go ahead and post this now and add a video in later. I hope you guys like it!

The size of the glassine bags are 2 3/4" by 4 1/4" and were purchased from Ebay. The papers are digital images I purchased from Iralajima and printed on white card stock. They were the perfect size for my glassine bags. I distressed each one with my Zutter Distrezz It All, which I totally love and absolutely makes distressing a breeze! I also used some prima laces and other laces from my stash and of course, had to use my FAVORITE pearl trims from Karlas001 Etsy. Other products I used were some crochet flowers I purchased from Etsy, IAR flowers, Recollections flowers, seam binding in (my favorite color!) from Zipperstop, chipboard pieces of some of my favorite sizzix dies, a bird cage charm from my stash, and some Maya Road burlap string.

It was super fun and really quick to make. I hope you'll give it a try! Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you'll have a great week!

Easter Cards 2012

I know it's been way too long since the last time I posted anything and for that, I am so very sorry. The past several months have been very difficult and trying at times, and it seems that life has been really testing my strength recently. But, in spite of everything that's come my way, I still have so very much to be grateful and thankful for, and that I am.

With that being said, on to happier things... Easter cards :)

I have always considered myself more of a "scrapbooker," but I think I've spent this last year creating more cards, then I did creating layouts or mini albums. Not only do I feel that it's less stressful and less intimidating, but I also feel that with a simple, handmade card, I can hopefully brighten a lot more days for the special people in my life :) So please forgive me if my blog starts to seem "bombarded" with card posts :)

I really enjoyed making these cards. I've been so SUPER "obsessed" lately with purchasing digital images from etsy. Being a typical hoarder, I found that with digital images, I'll never run out of that special paper or image, so I'm not "afraid" to use "my favorites" hehe! These images are from the famous Iralamija (aka Beatriz Jennings)... I totally love her! I love her shabby chic style and totally adore her creations! If you haven't shopped at her etsy, you don't know how much your missing out on! I advise anyone who loves shabby chic to check her out.

Another obsession of mines is my Karla001 goodies. I'm totally in love with her pearl trims , crystal sprays, and porcelain flowers. I find myself using them in every thing I create. I think they're the perfect fininshing touch! I love using flowers of different textures on my projects, so Karla's porcelain flowers are always on my shopping list!

Other items I used to create these cards are some I Am Roses flowers, PTI card stock, seam binding, Maya Road shabby trim, vintage lace from my stash, crochet flowers, Prima lace, MFT stamps, PTI burlap string, and mini paper doilies.

Thank you to all of you who have "hung in there" with me even with my total lack of posting. I appreciate the love and support of our crafting community and I am so very happy to be back. I know I'm a "little" early but, Happy Easter to everyone and may you all have a wonderful Easter holiday with your family and friends!

Some supplies used to create my Easter Cards:

InLinkz.com