{SFYTT June} Pretty Poppy

Oops- almost flubbed up again with Jen's SFYTT! I've had this card made for over a week, but with all the things happening lately, I completely forgot to post it! (did just that last month and missed out at the chance for the big prize package at the end:( )
So here it is using a Stamping Bella image (Jen's sponsor this month):

I coloured her with copics, adding spica clear glitter pen to bits of her dress, headband and flower centers. I adhered SU! rhinestones to her shoes, headband and on the card panels. Some black satin ribbon (SU!) in a nice, big bow finish it off:)

I stamped the inside with a PTI handwritten sentiment set. The paper is an old SU pack (rockabilly, I think), and all the CS is Stampin Up! as well.

TCP New Release Blog Hop!

Finally the time is here! The new release from The Cat's Pajamas is available for purchase! And I think this is hands down, the best release Alma has ever put out:) From the super fun summer stamp sets, to the fabulous coordinating Cutup dies, this release is jam-packed full of swank!

As one last new-release-hurrah, the DT and guest swanky stampers have put together a fun blog hop for your viewing pleasure:) You should have arrived here via April's Swanky Stamper, the lovely Linda Nicholson's blog.

Plus it's TCP Tuesday and Leigh has provided with a pretty swanky sketch! Oh yeah, if you want to start at the beginning of the hop, go here to her blog.

For my project, I wanted the focus to be on the fabulous new Lacey Butterfly Cutup die. See what a nice size it is for cardfronts? (this is a standard A2 size).... It's a great accent piece too, but I wanted to make it the main focal point. And I flipped the sketch on it's side.

Here is a cool little fact about this card: See that newspaper clipping? Well, when my grandma passed away, I got a stack of her sewing patterns. When I was digging some of the tissue paper that is used to trace patterns onto, I found that she had traced one of the patterns onto old (and I mean OLD) newspaper. One side was actually WWII updates! Although very interesting, war battles was not the theme that I was aiming for with this card;), So I used the other side, which was regular sorts of articles and advertisements. The add about sunburns that you see at the bottom of the clipping tells you to apply vaseline to any burns:) haha! And the top article about coffee is referring to the public uproar over restaurants raising the price of a cup of coffee to 10 cents! If they could only see the price of a Grande Caramel Machiatto at Starbucks today!!!! lol!

As mentioned, I used tissue paper cut with the new Butterfly Cutup die to make this dimensional butterfly...not sure how many layers, but there were ALOT! I first cut one butterfly with CS to give a sturdy 'base'. I then stitched all of the tissue butterflies to that base. This is a pain. This kind of tissue tears extremely easily! (plus it's 60+ years old, so that can't help) I added SU's adhesive pearls for the 'body' to cover up the stitching and add interest. I did a ton of sponging on this card as well, to lend to the vintage feeling. Even the tissue got an overall inking of chocolate chip ink (carefully;) I embossed my center oval nestie with a large dot folder and inked the top to bring out the pattern as well. Same with the blue floral pattern that was embossed with a vine patterned folder.

Here is a view of the card flat, and you can see how 'fluffy' the butterfly really is. I might have went overboard a touch, but I am kind of a 'more is more' kind of girl;) You can also see that most of the layers are popped up on dimensionals and foam tape.

On the inside, I used an SU! punch with a similar design as the lacey oval spellbinders die, some coordinating paper and a sentiment from the set 'Bearing Flowers'.
Next on the blog hop is colour queen Her Highness Tori Wild;) I'm sure she has whipped up something amazing to share with you!!
As always, thank you for stopping by!
Jenny

TCP Sneaky Peeks- DAY 6

Today The Cat's Pajamas design team are previewing our 7th stamp set for the new release! I think that this is going to be one of TCP's most popular releases- by the palpable excitement over at the SCS forum, to all the lovely comments I've seen here and on my fellow Cat Packer's blogs- People are in love:) What'd you think of that cool 'rolled nest' Cutup? Pretty cool, huh?
Today we have another sweet bunny to show you from the set Away We Go. This little fella's motto is Go Big, or Go Home with his mode of transportation. Nothing screams 'look at me!!!' like rolling in, in a hot air balloon. That's style, right there!

I went with a bit of a CAS look, altough this card took more time than some of my cluttered, layered cards with 4000 details... I think it was the colouring:S lol, but I love colouring, so it's all good:)

I had this vision of a bunny balloon  race. I wanted a really uniform look with the balloons, so I made them all the same colours, only changing the colour of the bunnies to make them individual. I stamped my images on xpress it blending CS where I wanted them placed, then used the Cloud Border Cutup die and cut out sections of clouds from the white stamped sheet (using the die in a 'negative' way). The images were then coloured (I would recommend colouring after in case you mess up the cutting somehow- no one wants to spend a bunch of time colouring an image, then have the whole thing wrecked during the cutting stage;). I then adhered the white piece over a piece of dp the exact same size so the pattern showed through the cloud cutouts. I added some 'positive' clouds cut from a coordinating dp pattern and popped them up on dimensionals to look like the air balloons were floating behind some clouds. This border is awesome! As you can see, clouds are very easy to cut apart to make individual ones- lots of bang for your buck here people! The sentiment was stamped on white CS and then one of the dp scraps from the polka dot clouds was used to 'frame' it, simply cutting around the dp, following the curves of the dies cut line to make my cloud frame (clear as mud?)

And here is the inside, using some of the same elements as the front (negative cutouts over dp and a popped up sentiment)! What do you think? I wanted kind of a retro feel (how couldn't I with the sentiment 'Fly Me To The Moon'?) with this card and I think it came out pretty good!

Okay my friends- if you want to see more of this fantastic set in all it's stamping glory, then get yourselves over to Alma's blog for a list of DT links!

TCP Sneaky Peeks- DAY 4

Well I told you this would be the best TCP release yet, and I wasn't kidding people! I know there are a few fans of the boys in black and white out there, so this sets for you!
What could be cute than a penguin flying a kite I ask you? This new set is called Up, Up & Away and will be available for purchase June 27, right after the Pajama Party.

I stamped 'Larry' and coloured his kite with copics to match the MME Lime Twist DP, cut him out and mounted him on cloud dp matted with olive CS. The sun is made from the new Cutup Sunflower Rosette die (cutting only one, leaving it flat) and Divine Twine in lemon. I then punched a 1 1/4" circle from double sided sticky paper, attached one side to the die cut DP sunflower. Next I peeled off the tape to reveal the sticky side and starting on the inside of the circle, wound the twine around and around, making sure there were no gaps between the twine. You have to keep in mind how 'even' you are in regards to the amount of space left on the sticky circle....you don't want to have no tape left on one side of the circle and 1/4" on the other!

For the grass, I cut 3 squares from various green patterns in the 6x6 pad and adhered their centers to a strip of CS so that I would be able to sew them together using a zigzag machine stitch. I then cut the green strip using the Grass Cutup die, cutting a second in orange patterned dp. The gorgeous ribbon treatment is TCP's new Seam Binding and all I can say is 'Ahhhhhh'...this stuff is to die for! I have used seam binding from other companies and this is the BEST! It is really high-quality- not flimsy like others, more of a solid thread count (I know- thats for sheets but I don't know how else to describle it! lol!)...and soft! Feels like silk!! And super colours as well!

Here's the inside. I have been changing my inside sentiments up lately  and stamping them all over- I used to be pretty fussy about having them dead center, but I like this new look for me;)

That's all for me today folks! Be sure to check out Miss Meowy's blog for a complete list of Designers previewing today! And are you 'In It To Win It'? All you have to do is write a comment, any comment, on this thread for your chance to have this rascally little penguin arrive in your mailbox! That's right- Alma is so generous that she is giving away a stamp a day (2 yesterday!) to random commenters- so come on all you Chatty Cathys out there- if you are like me and have the gift to gab, then this contest was made for you!!

Supplies- TCP: Up, Up & Away set, Grass Cutups, Sunflower Rosette Cutups, lemon Divine Twine, Seam Binding
Other- DP (MME), CS (SU!), dimensionals (SU!), button- unknown, Rhinestones (SU!), bigshot, sewing machine, thread
Sketch- Viva La Verve

TCP Sneaky Peeks- DAY 3

Bonjour- Good Morning Friends! Welcome to day three of The Cat's Pajamas Sneaky peek week! Today the design team are previewing 2 sets! Flutter By and Wheel Love...dontcha just love the names of these super sweet sets? I don't know about you, but I am all about the names of things. I can like or dislike something simply based on the name! If it's got a catchy name, I'm sold!
Today I am using the Wheel Love set. When I first saw this set, the bicycle and basket of flowers made me think of pedalling a bike through the streets of Paris, so that is the look I went for with this card. Although I've never been to Paris or anywhere in Europe and have no idea what kind of bicycles they ride, if nay at all, this is my vision:)

Oh my- Another die??? How's about three? See these fabulous little butterflies? There are three total in the set and boy are they swanky! These Mini Exotic Butterflies are so full of detail and every one is quite different from the next! They cut nice and they are the perfect embellie size! This is a standard A2 sized card, so you get the idea. One I cut from plain black CS and the other is a black CS one, topped with 6 layers of vintage sewing pattern tissue paper (I borrowed the idea from Megan Lock- see her video tutorial here). It's a fun little way to add some dimension and texture and cheap as nails to boot!

I stamped the bunny & bike twice, once on the strip of dp and the other on cream CS. I coloured and cut him out (including the small bike frame) and adhered it over the stamped dp. I coloured the tires on the dp as well. The bicycle frame is also jazzed up a bit with spica pitch black marker. Black glitter brads were attached to the wheel centres. Red satin ribbon, black sdhesive pearls on the butterfly body, a gold CS spellbinders die tucked under the layers and the super awesome die of champions, the Big Scallop Cutup, finish it off:)

For the inside, I didn't want to take any of the spotlight away from this cool dp, so I cut another lacey circle from gold and added a black butterfly. One of the sweet little sentiments included in the set was stamped along the bottom of the dp. I used a fun little trick to draw the eye to the words that I learned from my fellow cat packer, Leigh. Brush a stroke of colour using the chisel end of a copic sketch marker. Not sure if that's how Leigh does it, but that's what I did here. Without the shot of red, I really don't think you'd even notice that awesome sentiment on this busy dp.

Now that I've got you salivating over this new set, head on over to Alma's blog to see a list of the designers previewing today! And check out the forum for your chance to win this set!

Au Revoir!!

Supplies: TCP- Wheel Love set, Mini Exotic Butterflies die, Big Scallop Cutup die

Other: CS- SU!; DP- 7Gypsies (french font patterns), black damask (unknown); vintage sewing pattern (My Grandma); Black glitter brads (unknown); copics; spica; red satin ribbon (SU!); black adhesive pearls (Michaels); spellbinders lacey circles; Bigshot

TCP Sneaky Peeks- DAY 2

Sooooooo, what'd ya think of the first preview Take Off?? Were you a smitten kitten? I thought so;) This is seriously my favorite release yet (I know, I know- I said that last time too;)....I love bunnies and bears and there is a few this time around, so I am a happy stamper:)
Speaking of bears, today's peek is none other than everyone's favorite bear, PJ! And PJ comes 'bearing' gifts.....he has a lovely 'teddy bear' sunflower just for you!

Why is that another soon to be released Cutup Die?? It sure is! That's the amazing new sunflower rosette! I cut two, mountain-valley folded them and adhered the together with score tape. Then I took the embossed circle (Yes, I said embossed) attached it with pop up glue dots. Then cut the fat little heart, pierced it twice and threaded with brown twine. This die has THREE pieces. They can be used together, separately...the possibilities are endless. And check out the inside. I did not fold the flower on the scored lines and left it flat, only cutting one. Different look all together!
Here is a close-up:

I paper-pieced PJ and stamped the flower and stem twice, popping up the flower but not the stem. I added espresso liquid pearls to the flower centre.

And the inside...I stamped the phrase, punched it out with a circle punch, punched a larger circle from chocolate CS and adhered it to the single flower.

Okily dokily...head on over to Alma's blog to see who else has a sneaky peek for you:) And don't forget about the In It To Win It thread on SCS...if you like this set and would like the chance to win one of your very own, all you have to do is comment! There's never been an easier contest than this!

Supplies: TCP- Bearing Flowers, Sunflower Rosette Cutup die, Big Pinking Border Cutup die

Other: CS-SU!, Xpress it blending paper; DP- BoBunny 'A Gift of Love'; Ink- memento; liquid pearls- ranger; twine- walmart, brads-SU!; swiss dot embossing folder- SU!; Bigshot; dimensionals; copics

TCP Sneaky Peeks- DAY 1

Oh My!!!! It's here! Sneaky Peek Week begins today! Today the DT are previewing the wonderfully adorable set 'Take Off'...this release has so many great new sets and this is one of my faves! It is so 'little boy' and I have three little men in my household, so any boyish stamps are right up my alley!

I spy with my little eye......a new cloud border die! Isn't it just the greatest! So versatile and different! And you are definately not limited to using is as a border. Here I have cut off one of the larger clouds with my paper snips and used it on it's own to house my sentiment (actually, only part of the sentiment- I put the other half on the inside using another snipped cloud). The sky panel behind the bunny was airbrushed using the cloud border as a mask. See how versatile?! I did the same on the inside. I love the realistic look of it!
I paper-pieced his plane, coloured him with copics and applied glaze to his goggle lens, nose and propellor (which was stamped twice and layered with a dimensional in between to give it some depth).

Okay peeps! Come back tomorrow for another peek and check out Alma's blog for a complete list of designers previewing today!

Supplies: TCP- Stamps- Take Off; Dies- Cloud border Cutup

Other- CS- SU!; DP- CosmoCricket 'Lil' Man' collection; Ink- memento; Copics; Nesties- oval, deckled oval; Crystal Effects- SU!, Copic Airbrush System; dimensionals- SU!; Olive big brads; sewing machine, thread, bigshot

Bathing Brigitte

This weeks Kraftin Kimmie challenge is solid gold, baby (said in my best Austin Powers impersonation;)...24 krafty karats to be exact!! That's right- use GOLD on your project.

I used some subtle gold SU CS and gorgeous prima guilded flowers, as well as some buttermilk spica pen to accent my gold-ish colouring.

I used the bathing beauty Brigitte. She is living the good life I tell ya! Nothing better than a hot bubble bath in my books!

I was wondering what stamp I should use for this challenge, when I remembered the lovely Brigitte, who has sadly never seen ink before:( I actually had to mount this one before I got to stamping!) I thought to myself that if I ever had a clawfoot tub this is probably what it would look like, with brass feet and fixtures....so the card was born. No layout. No idea what I would do. I didn't even have paper picked when I coloured her! I NEVER do that!! Just kinda went with it and threw it together, finding flowers in my stash as I went along! And the dp was from the worlds ugliest pack of paper, but the colours seemed to be working, so in it went with the rest of the heep! Don't you just love when you can find a purpose for that ugle piece of paper?? It makes me feel like a genuine good person, like the equivalent of adopting a kitten from a shelter. Something no one wanted that you gave a home to. Well, maybe no quite like that;) lol

Here is a closeup of the bubbles (they really do look like bubbles- distressed stickles is the trick with that), and you can see the faucet, but it doesn't look super glittery gold in the pic. IRL it's great! Trust me. I am a saint (as demonstrated with the ugly paper incorporation). Oh yeah- and I glazed the tub with Crystal Effects. I think I am seriously addicted to that stuff!! I need to go into a 12-Step program for it.....it's getting pretty bad.

Okay peeps, I was doing some rad tricks on the trampoline, trying to show off for my boys, and I did a sad flip and pretty well landed on my head. Needless to say, I am 'grounded' for awhile with a pulled neck muscle....the kids thought I was the coolest and didn't even realize the pathetic gymnast that I really am, God love 'em!! Their love is unconditional:) So I think i will be resting tonight and then this weekend guess what I'll be doing.......

That's right my friends- The TCP release is just around the corner and sneaky peeks start Tuesday, so I am a busy kitty for the next few days!



Are You In It To Win It?

 

Did you have a chance to check out the Wednesday Tutorial, right there on the front page of Splitcoaststampers? Our very own Amy Rohl created an awesome tutorial using one of the stamps from our next release on June 28.

We've had so many of you ask about it, that we've decided to give it away!...along with the other stamp sets in the release...like the one we are showing above.

Want to win something?! All you have to do is comment on this thread at SPLITCOAST. And it can be about anything. The tutorial, techniques you like to use, some you'd like to see, the weather. Anything you want.

Then each day during our Sneaky Peek Week, starting on Tuesday June 21, we'll randomly choose a winner from the comments on this thread. The winner will win the set that we are Sneaky Peeking that day.

And all you have to do to win is comment! The more comments the better. Easy Peasy.

Ready? Set? Go!

TCP ATC Blog Hop!

Hi there TCP fans! How'd you like Julie's ATC (artist trading card)? Pretty cute, huh? This swap was my very first ever and first time making these ATC sized little cuties (2.5 x 3.5). Everyone's cards were so jammed packed full of TCP goodness...so many layers and textures! Amazing I tell ya! So you should have arrived here via the fabby Ms Julie Masse, one of the talented Cat Packers, and if you didn't, go back and start at the beginning! Trust me, you don't want to miss a thing on this little hop:)

This little card has some serious layers going on! First, I think PJ kinda looks like he's waving and I thought he's look sweet waving out a window, so I cut a window from the woodgrain dp using a rectangle spellbinder and then cut small strips to run horizontal and vertical. I attached acetate to the back to get the genuine window effect, and made a PJ sandwich, with him and his honeypot between the window and 'wallpaper' dp. The window box is perched up to make room for all PJ's beautiful flowers (cut from felt using the grass and flower button Cutups). Some yummy divine twine and a big orange/red button were strung around the window box. The little sign was made using the deckled rectangle spellbinders, inked up a bit and 'hung' with linen thread and a baby brad nail:)

Next on the hop is the uber-talented Megan Lock! Thanks for stopping by!

Jenny

TCP Supplies: Stamps- A Beary Good Year, Honey Bear; Flower Buttons & Grass Cutup dies, Lemon Divine Twine, Beige Linen Thread

Inch by Inch

Hello!! Happy Hump Day! I am off to Edmonton today with my MIL and SIL for a day of kid-free lunching, MIL's Dr appointment, and maybe IKEA (fingers crossed on that one!)....really I'd take any kind of shopping...Hmmmm, just thought of the Gap outlet store that's on the way out of town! lol
Thanks to my other SIL for watching all kids (with my kids, mandi's kids, her regular day care kids and her own son- it might be a hairy day!!!) We owe her!!
So on to my card! I used the Card Positioning System sketch and My Favorite Things is this weeks sponser. I have been wanting to use this WTG Gardening Girl for quite awhile and I knew the exact paper (cosmo cricket's Garden Variety) that I would have to use, so I went diggin' in the paper stash and found it right away! Nothing worse than knowing what you want, and that you do have it, but never being able to find it:( Totally sucks the mojo right out of you. And no matter how good the finished card is, you know it would have been WAY better with the 'right' paper!
Here is the sketch:

Okay folks, not alot to tell here, so I'll make it quick. First of all, I rotated the sketch to make it work for my horzontal image. I coloured her with copics, paper-peiced her shirt, glazed the boots and tomatoes and popped up the gardening box on boosters. Added some red satin ribbon and bow, and topped the bow with an orange button, which I 'threaded' with a tomatoe brad! I added some texture to the yellow panel using a SU! embossing folder.
Here is a close up of the image. I am giving this card to the lady who owns the greenhouse where my mom works. She is super nice and gives me staff discount even though I never have, or never will work there:) She is just one of those plain nice people! I think that it's a great card for greenthumb like her- and she is a crazy talented, knowledgeable horticulturist! Some of my friends were chatting on the weekend at my sons party and I heard one girl say that it's like harps playing and angels singing when you open the door to the main greenhouse! lol And her tomatoe plants are the hardiest:)

I really love the way this card turned out! The bright colours just make me happy- and it was so quick to put together too- Bonus! Thanks for stopping by! I might have something fun to show you tomorrow (fingers crossed!!!)

{TCPTUES163} CAS for once!

Hey all!! Well, my weekend company is gone and I took down the air mattress and reclaimed my stamping room! This week over at The Cat's Pajamas, our one and only colour queen Tori, has given us some yummy colours to work with:

And if you can believe it, I went with a CAS (clean and simple) card! I used some smaller images from Honey Bear. I used a small circle nestie and cut 5 circles in a white CS panel matted with red CS. I then traced around the inside of the circles lightly with pencil on the card base, so that I would know exactly where to stamp my images. I then stamped the honey pot and bee in memento ink, coloured them with copics, masked them and airbrushed around the images with BG01 sketch marker. I added buttermilk, red and clear spica to the hearts, honey and bee heart wings. I cut a ribbon label die and airbrushed it while still in the die to keep a white border and stamped the sentiment with black ink. Some pink satin ribbon, felt hearts cut with the Heart Trio Cutup die and a pink button tied with aqua bakers twine finish it off! And you'll note the dimension on the next picture- I attached the front, cut out panel with foam tape to make it stick out further than the base.

Get going over to Alma's blog to get the deets on how you can play and win some weekly cat cash! It's just so easy! And with a new release right around the corner, a little money in your Sprinkle Saving Account wouldn't hurt!

And remember how I mentioned that we were going to have my middle son and hubby's birthday party this paet weekend (hence the overnight guests).....well here is a pic of the cake I made Jake and another shot of him with the cake....i made fondant for the first time and had about 4-6 meltdowns friday night. I do not like it. Not one bit. From here on in, it is traditional buttercream icing for this mama. And my dad asked what the heck was with the leather icing??! Thanks dad! I nearly went mad making the darned stuff, so any critism by the guests was not taken well;)



{TCPTUES162} Fur & Fabric

Hey everyone- I'm back from a few days off from stamping! I was wiped from MFT previews and have been cleaning my stamping room to make room for the blowup mattress bed thats going up tonight...we have company for the weekend for my son and DH's birthday party, so the spare room and stamp room will be occupied! This is going to be a quick post, I have to make a  batman cake this morning and then busy busy busy!!
So the challenge from Julie this week was to use fabric on your card...totally fun, right?? I had a bit of a plan forming in my head right from the get-go, but this was another one of those cards that takes control and you have no idea what you're going to be left with at the end!! I wanted to make a denim/fabric flower embellie that could be clipped off the card and used as a brooch, hair/hat clip or whatever, which I did. But soon realized it was waayyyyy to big for the card. So I made a second, smaller embellie and attached that to my card and kept the big flower on its own. With me?
Here is a pic of them together:

A little bit of info for you:

I used PJ from the set 'A Cuppa' and the sentiment from 'Toni's Tea Set'. In place of the steam line coming off of Pj's cup, I ran a line of glue and applied tiny twinkle rhinestones (painful, but a nice touch). I used an assortment of fabrics for my project: (1)denim for the flowers, apron, and on the card as a border, using the Icing Cutup die.  (2)Cord on the apron and cut for the center part of the clip flower using the smallest of the Easy Rosette cutup die. (3) SU cotton fabric on the flowers, and (4) hot pink netting on the card (pleated using score tape) and the center of the flowers (hand cut). Plus the SU dp has a material/ sewing pattern theme, so I thought that was kinda fun! I also used 3 different ribbons and trim.... And the brads are fabric!

Looking at it hurts the eyes a bit (I think I went overkill on this one)..it's pretty gawdy, but sometimes thats okay if you're in the mood for the 'more is more' project! lol!!

If you are interested in how I made my flowers, just leave a comment and I'll put together a photo tutorial early next week!! It's super easy and only requires a gluegun- NO SEWING!!

Check out Alma's blog on how you can play and have the opportunity to win some cat cash!

Thanks for stopping in!

Jenny