CSS Behind the Scenes

Today I have an interview and a new project up over at Clear and Simple Stamps!

Here's a sneak peek:

PTI blog hop

Hey folks, this evening I'm sharing a last-minute addition to the lovely pool of entries for this month's PTI Blog Hop.

Once I saw that gorgeous pile of fabrics, I knew I wanted to use some of the blue and white striped fabric that I have.  I adhered it to a piece of cardstock and cut it with one of my dies.  It looked great, but I couldn't figure out how to incorporate it onto my tag!  So instead, I ditched that idea and made this (using the CAS-ual Fridays sketch flipped upside down):

Look!  I still got to use the fabric! :)

YCU Challenge #9

Today is the 23rd, which means a new challenge at Young Crafters Unite.  The theme this time around is "no coloring allowed."

I don't really ever do coloring on my cards anyway, so this wasn't much of a "challenge" for me....so I decided to go a different route.  

I wanted to make a card that was completely void of color, giving it the look of a coloring book.  I wanted all of you Copic fanatics out there to look at my card and desperately want to color it in!  So I whipped out my outline stamps, and got to work:

Although tough to photograph, there is actually dimension to this card which you can see below:

a little miracle

Last week there was a baby shower at work.  And by "a" baby shower, I mean 5 baby showers!  Yes, 5 women that work at my school are all expecting.  Which for me meant 5 presents and 5 cards.  Here's one of the cards I gave that day:

I'm trying out the inlinkz thing for the first time...see the products I used on my card below:

Mini Circles

CSS Baby Sentiments

CSS Baby Shower

CSS Baby Shower Die

InLinkz.com

Thanks so much for stopping by!

ric#10

This week I have no work, because of Spring Break! Woohoo! I wish it could be a relaxing one, but I am going to be extremely busy.  Luckily, I think I'll have a bit of time to make a few cards :)

Today there is a new challenge over at the Runway Inspired Challenge, inspired by this dress:

source: style.com

I think the metallic skirt reminds me of something my Jem doll had.  (did anyone else out there have Jem?  The one thing that bothered me about her is that she was slightly bigger than Barbie, so they couldn't share clothes!  Jem had the better clothes anyway, since she was all punk rock, hehe)

Here's what I made, using the awesome set Admit One from our sponsor, Lawn Fawn.

I used some copper and orange glitter to reflect the colors in her dress.  Remember when I used to hate glitter?  Well, I am starting to think it is worth the mess.   I just love how it looks!

...and I just know you want to see what the DT has in store for you

Aga

Cristina

Laura

Sarah

Angeline

I hope you choose to play along!

Pax East

Before you get involved with this post, I want to warn you- there are many photos ahead that don't have anything to do with cardmaking.  Leave now if you must :)

I feel like this is well-known, but maybe you are new here: I am a geek.  I love math. I love video games. I love sci-fi. And I love doing dorky things.  More specifically, cosplay. (look it up if that term is new to you...)

This past weekend was Pax East- basically a convention for video games.  My husband and I love to go so we can check out new/not yet released games from big name and indie developers.  And yes, we go in costume.  (completely home-sewn, by the way!)

This year, we dressed up as Gum and Beat, 2 characters from an old Sega Dreamcast game called Jet Set (or Jet Grind) Radio.

This one is Gum:

See the rollerblades?  We wanted our costumes to be as accurate as possible, so we modded out our rollerblades to look like the ones in the game.  Once we got on the convention floor, we put them on, and it was so much fun to skate around!  Sadly, about 2 hours into the day we were walked out by security for being "in violation" of their policies. Grr!  Good thing we had backup shoes, so we were able to go back in and enjoy the rest of the day.

....and here are some of our pictures!

showing Sonic who's boss

This one's for Aimes :)  I'm intimidating GLaDOS from Portal (with Chell)

And since we only had our point and shoot camera with us, the best pictures are ones we found online after the Con.

source: complex

 source: flickr

source: flickr 

source: Sega's Twitter

source: Games Radar

Yea....basically our "thing" was pretending to spray people with spray paint. We should have come up with more poses!

I've got about a gazillion more pictures and fun things about the convention to share, but I know my papercrafting blog is not the place.  Thanks for visiting!

Please Help!

I don't typically ask for favors here on the blog....but I just found out that I am an honorable mention for Stamping Royalty! (see the announcement HERE)

I only managed to squeeze out one card, and sent it off on the last possible day, of course. I'm always last-minute with these things!  I never thought it could possibly be chosen among all the other applicants, so I am surprised and incredibly excited to be an honorable mention :)

So here's the favor:  Please go HERE, click on the VOTE tab, and find my entry!  It is the "Thanks" card (#4).  Then click on "save vote." You may only vote once.  Of course, if you feel compelled to vote for a different one, I can't stop you...but I would be forever grateful if you chose my little old card!

If you are curious how I made it, I embossed with white onto black cardstock, then colored over the embossing in some places with marker for a neon-effect. Fun, huh?

Now get over there and VOTE! Thanks :)

CSS April Group Project

Today the Clear and Simple Stamps DT is sharing a project inspired by this lovely nursery:

I love the idea of a gender-neutral baby's room.  I was inspired by the neutral brown/kraft color, and decided to add a bit of yellow because of the yellow bin of teddy bears in the back corner.

I made a cork board/wall hanging (using a trivet from Ikea!) that can be used in a nursery as decoration, or a functioning pin board.

The animals were die cut and stamped onto adhesive cork sheets- I love this stuff!  It took the stamping really well.  I screwed an eye hook into the top, then glued on a bow:

....and here's the final close-up:

I used the Baby Shower Die and Baby Shower stamp set.

Now hop along to the other talented ladies:

Dana
Denise
Jaclyn
Kim
Laura
Laurie
Lori
Steph
Tracy
Clear and Simple Stamps

Lawnscaping Spring Blog Hop

Good morning!  Today is the Lawnscaping blog hop, celebrating Spring!  The hop will run from now until Sunday at 11:59pm.  There are fabulous prizes to be had if you comment along the way!  Hopefully you got here via Tamara.  If not, you can go back to Lawnscaping to start at the beginning.

When I heard there was going to be a hop this month, I thought "Oooh! I love Lawnscaping. I love Lawn Fawn. Sign me up!"  What I didn't think of was the theme.  With the exception of about 2 sets, all of the Lawn Fawn sets I own are holiday-related.  And of course the 2 that are not have nothing to do with spring. I needed to get a little creative, so here's what I did:

(btw, I hope the teeny bit of coloring I did on the flowers counts towards their current challenge!)

I used snowflakes to make the flowers by stamping, rotating, and stamping again.  I think I saw Kelly Marie do this on the Lawn Fawn blog, but I can't find where.  If I figure it out I'll update with a link.  

Your next stop is Danielle!

sorry for your loss

This is my 2nd post today...please scroll down or click HERE for a super fun CSS Party Hop!

Today's card is doing quadruple duty- DT Thursday for My Thoughts Exactly, Hero Arts April Challenge, the first challenge at A Blog Named Hero, and the paper scraps challenge at the Moxie Fab World!

That new sentiment is from the MTE "More Big Thoughts" set, and I also inked up a new fave HA stamp that I purchased with my winnings from a contest a month or 2 ago.  I got out my big box of green scraps to make the color gradient, and the stamping is all embossed in white.

If you go visit My Thoughts Exactlty, you can see what the other girls made today!

CSS Release Review...Party Hop

Today is a party hop for Clear and Simple Stamps!

Each of us used the Party Elements: Baby stamp set to create a fun party ensemble.  Mine is for a birthday party, made with Joey (my toddler cousin) in mind.

I made the party set to stretch the versatility of the stamps and dies- they don't have to be used strictly for baby projects!  I was trying to think of what Joey would like to see on a party invite.  Bright colors are always great for kids, and the new blue CSS felt was the perfect color to go with the designer paper I used.  And I KNOW Joey would love touching the soft and fuzzy felt!

Since "B-Day Party" is not a sentiment in the new release, I chose to use alphabet stamps.  I used the same stamps to label the treat bag, and to put the name on the recipient's invite (Emma is Joey's big sister...I can't wait for her to see that I "invited" her to the party!).  The slider part of the invite was really easy to make- I layered 2 4.25"x5.5" pieces of cardstock and adhered on 3 sides, making sure to cut a circular notch to help you pull out the invitation.

I knew I wanted the card to say "for Joey"- and I just LOVE the font in "Party Elements: Baby" used for the date/time/place/rsvp stamp.  To get "for" in the font I wanted, I selectively stamped the "or" from the word "honor" and the "f" from the word "of."  Whenever I get a new stamp set, I always think of other ways to use it!

I think my favorite part of the party set is the treat bag- cookies, popcorn, (maybe peanuts for the elephant?) would all be fun little snacks for guests to take home.  I had so much fun creating with this set....I only wish that I lived in the same state as my cousin so I could actually throw him the party!

Now it's time to hop along to see what everyone else made! 

Dana
Denise
Jaclyn
Kim
Laura
Laurie
Lori
Steph
Tracy
Clear and Simple Stamps