CSS - Release Day 5

The party continues! Today is the 5th day of Clear and Simple Stamps' amazing July/August release!  I am IN LOVE with the sweets stamps and dies that you will see today.  I decided to make a fun invitation and cupcake toppers:

I used watermark ink to stamp little squares onto each accordion medallion (umm...is that what they are called?)  You can see it a little bit better in the close-up below:

Here's the invitation:

There are a LOAD of sets being released today, so check out the links below to see them in action.  I'll be back tomorrow with more projects!

Elena

Denise

Laurie

Amber

Laura

Suzanne Dahlberg (guest)

Clear and Simple Stamps

CSS Cardstock- A Blanc Check	CSS Cardstock Orange You Fabulous	CSS Cardstock Coral Necklace	CSS Cardstock Glamazon Green
CSS Cardstock Your Style Blue Me Away	CSS Sunburst	CSS Cake Decorating Extras	CSS Apothecary
CSS All Occasions 2	CSS Party Elements: Critters	CSS Squares Plus	CSS Ink- Orange You Fabulous
CSS Coral Necklace Ink	CSS Ink Glamazon Green	CSS Ink Party Teal Dawn	CSS Watermark Ink From an Anonymous Source
CSS Ink- Perfect Little Black Dress

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CSS - Release Day 4

Today is the 4th day of the new release at Clear and Simple Stamps....with a focus on the new shapes and backgrounds!   All of the products being released this month are absolutely amazing!  Probably the most versatile of the bunch are the new square shapes.  

I don't know how I lived without square dies before I got these- making a window cutout for my card was so easy! In the past, I would have had to measure it all out, use the paper cutter, and make sure I didn't cut too far on a given side...and usually (no matter how hard I tried) I would end up with a window that wasn't so perfect.  Now I'll get a perfect cut every time!

My card set is inspired by this, from Kristina.  I just love the way colors look behind the crisp white die cuts!  I used my trusty watercolor set to paint each:

Other gals posting today are:

Jaclyn
Elena
Kim
Laurie
Dana
Laura
Amber
Virginia Lu (guest)
Suzanne Dahlberg (guest)
Clear and Simple Stamps

Thanks for visiting!

CSS Cardstock- A Blanc Check

CSS Shapes: Squares Die

CSS Butterflies 1 Die

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CSS - Release Day 1

(for my MTE post, please scroll down)

I always get so excited to share the latest stamps from Clear and Simple with you!  This month, we are releasing a part of the collection each day, and today is devoted to the By The Glass series.

I made a cute little box of cocktail charms:

The By the Glass set comes with fun drink stamps, and I adore that drink umbrella!  I also stamped some bubbles on the front. The circle on top was die cut from the CSS Owl/Kitty build-a-critter (there are so many useful shapes in that set!) and I glued a sheet of thick acetate in the window. 

There are my little charms....can you tell what they are made of?

Yep....shrink plastic!  I stamped each glass onto the plastic, colored in the drink area with a permanent marker, cut them out, punched the hole, then blasted them with the heat gun.  I used the heat gun because I am impatient, but if you wanted to cook 'em traditional-style in the oven, they would probably lay a little flatter than mine.

It was fun to bust out my jewelry-making tools on this one!

I took a small length of jewelry wire, and fashioned a little circle (more specifically a wrapped loop) on the end with my round-nosed pliers.  Then I strung on the beads, and curved them into the round shape (make sure to curve the wire before you close off the other end- if you string the beads on too tightly when it is straight, there will be no room left for it to bend!).  Next, I trimmed the excess wire to about a centimeter, folded it so the wire was double thick, strung on a crimp bead, and tightened it so I had no sharp raw edge of the wire sticking out. Then I simply used my pliers to form that into a hook.  The circle is easy to attach and detach with the hook.  Lastly, I attached a jump ring onto the charm and put it on the beaded circle.  Ta da! A drink charm!

Here are the other ladies posting today, including my 2 crafty friends who are guesting this month, Virginia and fellow Massachussettsian Suzanne!!
Stephany
Lori
Amber
Virginia
Suzanne
Clear and Simple Stamps

CSS Cardstock- A Blanc Check	CSS Ink- Perfect Little Black Dress	CSS Coral Necklace Ink	CSS By the Glass
CSS Owl/Kitty Die	CSS By the Glass Sentiments	CSS Lucky Charm

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Up, Up, and Away

Today's my post day for My Thoughts Exactly, and I've got a colorful card using the Up, Up and Away set.

It was VERY difficult for me to not use any of the amazing/adorable/fun fill-ins for the hot air balloon (if you don't know what I am talking about, check out the link below to see the set), but I thought that with the rainbow matting it would be too distracting. So instead I went with a plain outline for the balloon. Thanks for stopping by! :)

MTE Up, Up, and Away

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ric#15

Good morning!  Just popping in to share the newest Runway Inspired Challenge!

source: style.com

I swear that when I selected that outfit for this challenge, I didn't even consider that it was mainly red and blue and would fall on the week of 4th of July!  Total coincidence!  Here's my card:

I used my new linen impression plate to give the paper a fabric texture.  I actually inked it (one color at a time) before running it through the machine to get those dots you see.  I think it looks really cool...like organized splatter!

I put the sentiment on a black band because her purse has a black band on it...I love getting literal!  

I really hope you play along- and you don't even have to be literal with your interpretation- just let us know how you were inspired!  If you win, you will get a gift card to the amazing Simon Says Stamp.  Speaking of amazing, please visit the DT:

Aga
Angeline

Cristina

Laura

Sarah

MTE July Challenge!

Today there is a new challenge up for My Thoughts Exactly!  The theme this time is to make a project with a summer fun or backyard events theme.  The challenge will run until July 22, giving you lots of time to make something!

I decided to continue my self-issued challenge of using more patterned paper (which I actually have lots of!)...here's what I came up with:

...and here's the inside:

If you play along, make sure to use at least one stamp from MTE.  Today they are releasing a cute (and cheap!) mini-set for $2.95, which would be perfect for this challenge if you don't own any of their stamps yet:

...and here's what I used on my card:

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