Wednesday, April 30, 2014

MCS Mini Release - Day 1 - Rolled Flowers

Good morning! The design team at My Craft Spot is excited this morning to be sharing sneak peeks for day 1 of a 2 day mini release! There are two fun new metal dies - both of which are available now in the My Craft Spot Store. There is also a giveaway! 


Today we are playing with Rolled Flower dies:


Here is what I made with them:


I decided to make a fun gift bag! I cut the flowers with some handmade paper from a DCWV paper pad - the soft paper rolled up so easily in these flowers! I rolled them up and added a tiny pearl to the centers of them. 


I also cut a tiny vellum doily using Tiny Doilies 2 Metal Dies and tucked that behind the flowers. I used a glassine bag that I got a while back from Michael's - it has gold chevrons on it! So hard to see in the pictures, but it is a lovely soft gold pattern. I adhered that to my gift bag, then added the doily, flowers, and a bow using some Sage Jute String.


Next, I took a tag I cut with my Silhouette Cameo, and stamped a birthday greeting using Chalkboard Sentiments Stamp Set. I heat embossed it with gold embossing powder to coordinate. 


Finished off with a bit of Spring Moss Crinkle ribbon on the top of my tag!


Here is the other die set we will be sharing projects with tomorrow:


And today's giveaway - Kimberly will pick a comment from one of our blogs to win a $15 Gift Certificate to My Craft Spot:


There will also be one winner drawn each day from orders placed - so if you have a little shopping to do, this is a great opportunity!


Thanks for stopping by today! Hope to see you again tomorrow to share my projects with the fun new Washi Tape Dies!

Growing in Unity Day 3 - Watercolor Cameras

Good morning again! I'm excited to be this weeks Growing in Unity gal for Unity Stamp Company! If you don't know how it works, I get to share my projects all week long, and then pick a comment from sometime during the week to win two itty bitty stamps of their choice! So...the more comments you leave, the better chance you have of winning! I will draw and announce a winner on May 5th! I have been so in love with the Watercolor trend lately, that I decided to do a weeks worth of watercolor projects! I am also going to give away a set of the same watercolor paints I have been using all week - so you can try out the watercolor trend as well!

Today I have two projects - same image and layout, just some different colors! I used another darling itty bitty, Angie's Camera for these. The colors were actually each inspired by a photo I found on Pinterest. Here is the first one:



Here was my color inspiration for this one:


For this one, I stamped the camera on watercolor paper, wet the paper down, then just doodled with different colors of watercolor paint, letting them run together wherever they wanted too. The sentiment is from the September 2012 Kit of the Month - I thought it went well with the camera image! Matted it in some yellow cardstock, then mounted it on my card base.



Next up, I have this one:


Here is my color inspiration:


For this one, I also stamped on watercolor paper and wet the paper down, but this time I used some of my distress inks to color it in. I smooshed them down on my nonstick mat, then just dipped a wet brush in the ink and added it to my paper. I also let the colors run together however they wanted too. Added a sentiment from the November 2013 Kit of the Month, matted in solid cardstock, then attached to my card base.


The best part? These cards are both flat and perfect for mailing! YAY!

Thanks so much for stopping by this week! See you again tomorrow!

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Growing in Unity Day 2 - Watercolor Giraffe

Good morning again! I'm excited to be this weeks Growing in Unity gal for Unity Stamp Company! If you don't know how it works, I get to share my projects all week long, and then pick a comment from sometime during the week to win two itty bitty stamps of their choice! So...the more comments you leave, the better chance you have of winning! I will draw and announce a winner on May 5th! I have been so in love with the Watercolor trend lately, that I decided to do a weeks worth of watercolor projects! I am also going to give away a set of the same watercolor paints I have been using all week - so you can try out the watercolor trend as well!

Here is my Day 2 project:


For this card, I used another itty bitty stamp called WILD about you {giraffe}. I love the fun variety of Unity stamps - you can get cute, fun, elegant, serious, and beautiful all in the same place! And the red rubber stamps beautifully! I stamped this again on watercolor paper, and had fun coloring him in with my watercolor paints. I stamped the sentiment in two parts so that it would fit on my panel.  


Added some background paper from Basic Grey, a few sparkly clear sequins, and some jute twine tied with a coordinating October Afternoon button. Also rounded off a couple corners on my watercolor panel before attaching with foam adhesive.


Thanks so much for stopping by this week! See you again tomorrow!

Monday, April 28, 2014

MCS Challenge - Purple Watercolor

{If you are looking for my Growing in Unity Day 1 Post, click HERE or scroll down to the last post!}

Good morning! Time for a new challenge at My Craft Spot, and I think this is such a fun challenge! Can't wait to see what everyone comes up with - the challenge is to use black, white, and one more color of your choice. I decided to use purple, and do a little watercoloring:


I started off with some watercolor paper, and added a wash of purple. I helped that dry quickly (forget being patient!) with my heat gun - which also helps the paper flatten out a little if you time it right. Then I stamped my sentiment using Big Sentiments, and Big Sentiments 2 stamp sets.


Next, I used some Heidi Swapp Color Shine to flick a few drops of black on the there, and added some Perfectly Purple Sequins. Wrapped some Black Jute string around it, then embossed some black cardstock with my Cuttlebug, mounted that on my card base, and added my front panel with foam adhesive.


Also linking this up with a couple challenges:

First up - Iron Craft Challenge Week - Difficult Colors (I purposely picked purple, because I realized that is a color I don't use very often - not sure why, but I figured I would go ahead and tackle it!):




And finally - the Moxie Fab World Hip on Handwriting Challenge - since I used a handwritten font stamp.

Thanks for stopping by today! Hope you will join our fun challenge - can't wait to see what you make!!!

Growing in Unity Day 1 - Watercolor Boots

Good morning! I'm excited to be this weeks Growing in Unity gal for Unity Stamp Company! If you don't know how it works, I get to share my projects all week long, and then pick a comment from sometime during the week to win two itty bitty stamps of their choice! So...the more comments you leave, the better chance you have of winning! I will draw and announce a winner on May 5th! I have been so in love with the Watercolor trend lately, that I decided to do a weeks worth of watercolor projects! I am also going to give away a set of the same watercolor paints I have been using all week - so you can try out the watercolor trend as well!

 Here is my first project:


Living in Wyoming, I absolutely fell in LOVE with this cute itty bitty called Boots, Class, and Sass. Isn't it darling! I stamped it on watercolor paper, then colored it in with my watercolor paints - I purchased them a while back from Michaels.


Once that dried, I stamped my sentiment, then wrapped some linen ribbon from Tim Holtz around my panel. Background paper is by Basic Grey, and I mounted my front panel with foam adhesive.


Also linking this up with this weeks Shop Pumpkin Spice Challenge - Stamping!

Thanks so much for stopping by this week! See you again tomorrow!

Friday, April 25, 2014

Watercolor VW Bug - Unity FWF

Good morning! Dropping by to share another watercolor card this morning, and playing along with Unity Friends with Flair!


I also used the color inspiration for this month's Unity {be inspired} Challenge:






And linking up with the Moxie Fab World Hip on Handwriting Challenge (since it has a handwritten type stamp, as well as my own handwriting), and Shop Pumpkin Spice Coloring Challenge.

This was my first attempt at trying to do a little more background work with my watercolors - I definitely need to work on it more - but it was SOOO much fun! I know I will be doing it much more in the future! I used the VW bug stamp from the stamp set called (appropriately!) Love Bug. It is a beautiful and big stamp - this card is a standard A2 size (4 x 5.5) - and as you can see, it nearly fills the card!


The sentiment came from A Girl & Her Adventures - I thought it was so fun with the car image! To finish it off, after I watercolored the entire front of the card, I drew a freehand black line around the edges to frame it in a bit, hand wrote in the license plate (wish I liked my handwriting better!), then added some jute twine tied around the top.


Planning on practicing lots more - next week I get to be the Growing in Unity Gal for the week - and I decided to do a week of watercolor themed projects! Can't wait to share them with you! Make sure and stop by to see me next week - there will also be a giveaway for comments left during the week!

Thanks for stopping by today! Have a great weekend!!!

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Paper Smooches Feather Love

Good morning! We are still busily working on redoing the floors in our house - so I haven't had much crafty time, but thought I would share a card I made a little while ago:


I did something similar a while ago using a couple of Paper Smooches stamp sets. I used Positive Strokes to make my feathers, then just hand drew in the centers with a black pen. The sentiment is from Scripty Sayings.


Used Hero Arts Shadow ink for the feathers, added some washi strips, some Heidi Swapp color shine in gold, and some enamel dots to finish it off.


Linking this up to a couple of challenges as well!






Thanks for stopping by! Have a great week!!!

Friday, April 18, 2014

Little Hedgehog - Unity FWF

Good morning! So excited to share a card with you this morning for Unity Friends with Flair, as well as the current Simon Says Stamp Challenge - Animal Antics:


I fell in love with this little stamp, and purchased it a couple weeks ago during one of Unity's fabulous weekend sales - it is called Harrison Hedgehog. Eek! Even the name is cute!


I colored it up on Copic blending cardstock, then carefully fussy cut it out. I stamped him again on my pattern paper then glued the colored version down on top. I added a tiny enamel dot for his nose too - just a dab of extra cuteness! I also added some Wink of Stella to his darker parts, and covered the little heart with Glossy Accents - you can see that a little better here in this photo:


Pattern paper is all random from my scrap stash, sentiment is stamped on a folded banner cut with a Simon Says exclusive Die, and I added a couple strips of washi tape to ground the cute hedgehog. A little jute string tied in a bow is the final finishing touch.


Thanks for stopping by today! Have a great weekend!

Thursday, April 17, 2014

Light Bulb Thank You Card

Good morning! Whew...it has been a crazy week here! We had the privilege of hearing Ken Ham speak in Jackson Hole the last 3 evenings - 1 1/2 hours away from us. If you don't know who he is, you can check out this website HERE. We had a wonderful time...but 3 nights in a row of leaving home around 4 in the afternoon and not getting home until 11 had us pretty tired! We are usually early to bed people - so staying up that late kind of threw us all off schedule!

Anyway - that is why things have been so quiet around here the last few days! I thought this morning I would share a card I made a few weeks back and hadn't posted yet.



This was another card I made for the friends who wanted a bunch of masculine cards. For this one I used a couple of Unity stamps - as well as a little Avery Elle freebie that I got in an order a while back. The two Unity stamps are Lightbulb Moment for the image, and Country Pumpkin Chowder for the sentiment - I thought they went so fun together!


Stamped in black on kraft, matted in black, and added some pattern paper from Studio Calico. And then refrained from the feminine temptation to add anything more! Always so hard!


Thanks for stopping by! Hope you have had a wonderful week!

Monday, April 14, 2014

Jar of Happy - MCS Monday Challenge

Good Monday morning! Hard to believe that it is Monday already! But, since it is - it also means it is time for a new challenge at My Craft Spot! This week the challenge is Banners or Tags - I decided to use a tag for my jar of butterflies:


I used the Jar Basics stamp set, and coordinating Metal Dies to stamp and cut out my jar using some pattern paper. I used Jar Full of Flowers to stamp the butterflies on the inside. I inked them up them stamped them a few times to get darker and lighter butterflies.


Next, I used Tiny Tags Dies to cut a tag, and stamped a sentiment from Tiny Tags 3 Stamp Set. Tied it on with some Natural Jute String. Added some white cardstock that I used my PTI Linen Impression plate on, and some pattern paper from DCWV, and added some machine stitching to finish it all off. 


Thanks for stopping by today! Hope your day is full of happy!!!

Saturday, April 12, 2014

Avocado Arts April Cards

Good morning! I'm up on the Avocado Arts blog this morning with a few cards using the new April stamp sets. First up, I have a couple cards with this set - full of so many amazing options for the beautiful women in your life! With Mother's Day right around the corner - this is the perfect time to make use of these:


For this first card, I heat embossed the flower on vellum with some pink Zing embossing powder, then heat embossed the sentiment in black. 


Tucked some fun pattern paper by Crate paper behind it, then added that adorable bird paper clip with a bit of jute twine tied on it. 


Finished off with some pink cardstock that I embossed with my Cuttlebug for some texture, and a generous sprinkling of bling!


Next up, I decided to stamp one of the flowers on some pattern paper from Crate paper. 


I also added a jewel bling to the center of the flower, stamped my sentiment, mounted it on a mat of cork paper, then added two colors of jute twine tied around it. 


Mounted it with foam adhesive on my pattern paper, also by Crate Paper.


And next up, I made a card with this new set - LOVE it so much! I can think of so many fun things to make with this:


For this, I stamped the triangle border several times with Versafine black ink on watercolor paper, then colored over it with watercolor paint. 


I used my paintbrush to flick some additional paint over the card, then stamped a sentiment from Wishes and Kind Thoughts (see below) and watercolored over it as well. 


I also added some Glossy Accents to a few selected triangles for some interest, before mounting it on some blue cardstock.


Thanks so much for stopping by today! Have a wonderful day!!!