With Gratitude

 I needed to make 6 thank you cards for a fun reason the other day, which I will tell you about at the end.  I have been just a little bit obsessed with the "frame" series of stamps and diecuts from PTI lately. I have used them on quite a few projects and these were no exception.

I am also obsessed with felt rolled flowers as well. Thank goodness for My Favorite Things and their fabulous dies. I was trying to keep things simple since I was making six and all in all they look simple, but they ended up taking more time than I had thought.  The sentiment stamp is not from the same frame set as the actual frame. I mixed and matched and I can't remember which frame # they are.

Again, my photos are horrible and I don't know how to fix it.  So...I will get started with my story. First of all, I forgot to announce here that we are expecting another BOY!  I will admit that I was hoping for a girl SO BAD!!!!  Everyone knew it, too. So, when we found out we were expecting a boy one of my sweet friends threw a surprise "3 Amigos" Fiesta. Now, really I will have 4 Amigos, but since the last three are boys, she went with that, which I think is super cute! The guests were supposed to bring gifts for me and not for baby. It was a fun night to chat and laugh! So...I needed thank you cards!  There you have it! Thanks for fluttering by!

*Bloom* Banner

 I made a banner exactly like this one for my Mom for Mother's Day! I liked it so well, I sat down yesterday and made one for myself.  I have a bench directly below the banner which is now empty, but I will hopefully have time today to "shop" my home to get things to decorate it.

I know that you are probably sick of me talking about how my photos look, but if you look at my blog title photo and then scroll down to the post photo, you can totally see the difference. The two photos are exactly the same! If anyone knows how I can get this fixed, please let me know! It would be greatly appreciated!!!!
 I used some butterfly die-cuts from PTI as well as the coordinating stamp set "Butterfly Dreams" for this banner. You all know how much I love using black butterflies! LOL!  Each accordion medallion has some stardust stickles added to the edges for some sparkle and shine.

When  letter doesn't completely cover the center of the accordion medallion, I am always looking for a fitting way to cover it up. In this case, I used some rolled felt flowers, which went nicely with the "bloom" theme.

 The chipboard letters I used for this banner are from "The Paper Studio" found at Hobby Lobby. They were bare, so I used some SU! craft ink and a sponge dauber to turn them green.  I also didn't have a spare "O" on hand since I made one for my mom, so I just turned a Q into and O!  I find myself needing to do that a lot!

I made a large felt flower for either end of the banner. This is a detail that I did not add to my Mom's banner, but I will ask her if she wants me to make some for her. I am only "slightly" obsessed with all of the great 3-D flower dies that "My Favorite Things" carries! I only wish I would have bought them sooner! LOL! Thanks for fluttering by!

P.S. I posted a baby ensemble HERE if you are interested!

My heart is *always* with you....Mom!

 I decided to get a head start on the two Mother's Day cards that I need.  I have been using this set quite a bit lately for some different projects that I have been working on and I knew that I could make it work for a Mother's Day design as well.  I absolutely adore the little house image and coordinating die.  Just the sentiment alone would never give it away that it is for a Mom, so I added the die-cut letters using a felt rolled rose as the "o". I thought it was super cute if I do say so myself.  I added a little pearl to the center. I think Mother's Day and pearls just go hand in hand.  The letters were die-cut using pattern paper, adhered to a second sheet of white cardstock that had also been die-cut and then I added glossy accents to the top.

I haven't really been getting too fancy with my layouts...I am thinking I need to participate in some sketch challenges a little more often. They always help me to get out of my rut.  Once I had the house die-cut and stamped, I added it to a circle with the grass and flowers all stamped out.  You can't tell from the photo, but there is a little dot of stardust stickles in the center of each flower.

I also stamped a little sentiment on the inside of the card, but I didn't photograph it. The final touch was some ribbon with the butterfly attached. I added some more pearls to the butterfly.  Thanks for fluttering by!

P.S. I hope my mom doesn't stop by here before Sunday!

Here comes baby in the baby carriage!

ETA: The baby carriage is from the Papertrey Ink set "Bitty Baby Blessings" and it also has a coordinating die.I have been working on two baby gifts this week and I was sick of sewing, so I sat down to make the coordinating cards. I made two identical cards, but obviously just photographed the one.  I happened to have a Mojo Monday sketch all printed out and waiting for me to try, so I used it.  I used some super old SU! paper for this design because it coordinated nicely with the fabrics I am using.  It's always nice to use up old stuff!

 I die-cut the carriage and then paper pieced the striped paper. Once that was done, I colored the rest of the image using my Copic markers.  I added some glossy accents to the bottom striped part of the carriage.  The finishing touch was to add some adhesive pearls to the handle and hinge.  I wanted to keep it sweet and feminine.

I made some rolled roses that I die-cut out of felt as well as the ric-rac at the bottom.  I had  alot of fun putting these cards together and hopefully I will get the rest of the items made for the gift ensemble. I have to have both of them done by Friday.  Thanks for fluttering by!

Reverse Confetti Release *Blog Hop*

 Can you believe it’s finally here?!! It’s the day you’ve all been waiting for—REVERSE CONFETTI’S VERY FIRST Release Day is today! To get things started, we invite YOU to hop along with the Confetti Crew and a few other talented stampers that are helping us launch this fabulous new stamp company! You can check it out HERE

The hop started over on the Reverse Confetti blog, and you should have made it here from  Dawn's   blog. It would be worth your while to start at the beginning of the hop, so you don’t miss a thing. We have tons of inspiration for you to see using Reverse Confetti’s first 4 brand new stamp sets! The whole list of hoppers can be found HERE

I hope you’ve enjoyed hopping with us today. Be sure and hop with us on the 8th of EVERY MONTH for more REVERSE CONFETTI inspiration! Now it’s time to hop on over to Laurie's blog. If you get lost along the way, you can find the hop order and list of all the participating designers over on the Reverse Confetti blog. Celebrate the creative side of you! Thanks for fluttering by!

Dream In Color *Sneak Peek*

 Hello and Welcome! I was super excited when Jen asked me to be a part of launching her new stamp company "Reverse Confetti! You can check it out HERE. You can see all of the other designer who are helping to launch this set!I am excited to share two projects that I made using one of the new sets called "Dream In Color"! It is a great, versatile set and perfect for anyone who loves to use COLOR!!!  I will admit that when I first received the set and it didn't have any "pictures"...I was worried!  Those worries were quickly put to rest as soon as my mind started churning idea after idea and then I couldn't stop! That is why I decided to share two projects with you today, rather than just one!  I must be excited...all of my sentences have ended with exclamation points! LOL!

 First of all, I am in love with this quote. It is great....so versatile and so true.  I channeled my inner hippie for this one. I didn't intend for it to head in such a hippie direction, but that is where it ended up and I don't mind at all.  Both of my projects today incorporate butterflies. I guess I just link color, rainbows and butterflies together.  The main inspiration for this particular design came from "Gossip Girl". Go figure, right?  Anyway...Serena's head board in the show had a cluster of butterflies flying away from a circle. I have been wanting to incorporate this into a design for years, but never did it....until now! I think the task seemed a little daunting to have to use so many butterflies, but in the end it was quite gratifying and not hard at all.  The hardest part was that my punch was on the fritz and I got an abdominal workout while trying to punch!  Hopefully the baby didn't mind! LOL!

Once I was finished adhering all of the butterflies, it still didn't have quite the impact I was aiming for so I got out my old color spritzing tool...which I have been using alot lately, by the way....and sprayed ink in all of the different colors over those particular butterflies.  I then added some stickles to the middle of some of the butterflies. I love adding gems, but I would have had to use quite a few and you all know, there's a hoarder in me....deep down!!!! Well...maybe not that deep!  It still gave it the sparkle and shine I was after.  I stamped the word color on the side strip of pattern paper. I also added some stickles here. I guess I am not a hippie after all.

For my next project, I decided to go in a "safer" direction...at least safe for me.  I stayed true to the design elements that I use a lot.  During my "brainstorming" I had this idea to stamp onto a butterfly, but also have the same image underneath. I didn't know how well this would work and not have it look too off kilter.  I was really pleased with the results.  I did end up adding some distress ink the the edges of the butterfly to make it stand out a little bit more.

I also added some stickles to every other letter starting with the letter c.  I colored the letters using Copic markers and then used my color spritzing tool to add even more color. I told you I have been using it a lot lately.  I found all of the pattern papers at Hobby Lobby and are a mix...they weren't part of a collection.  The felt border at the top was stitched in place using a sewing machine for some added interest.  I broke up the sentiment into three parts.  I really like this sentiment! This truly is a really fun stamp set to work with.

We have a little something for YOU! Leave a comment on my post today for your chance to win a $25 Gift Certificate to REVERSE CONFETTI! You have until 1 pm EST on May 7th to leave a comment. (Only one comment per blog per day, please!). The winner will be randomly chosen from all the DT blogs and Sneak Peeks for May 5-7th and announced on the Reverse Confetti blog at 5 pm EST on May 7th. Good Luck!!

Wishing you rainbows and sunshine!

 I still haven't figured out why my photos look so blurry and washed out on Blogger. So sorry! It is frustrating me SOOOOOOmuch!!!! This isn't how they look when I am editing them!!!!My sweet niece is celebrating her 8th birthday tomorrow!  I knew I wanted to incorporate a "rainbow" theme into her card, so "Up, Up and Away" was the perfect stamp set to start with. I have never actually used the rainbow image from this set, so it was fun to get it inky.  Because the rainbow only had four stripes, I knew that I would need to incorporate the rest of the colors of the rainbow using the hot air balloons.  These darling images are some of my favorite to work with and I have been using them quite a bit lately.

 Of course they needed to have some Diamond Stickles to really make them sparkle.  I also added some to the clouds for some fun dimension and shine.  The felt border at the top, the number eight and the rolled rose were all die-cut using felt.  I liked the eyelet border at the top because I thought that it looked like a whole bunch of 8s on their sides! LOL!

She isn't super girly so I didn't want to add too much pink or too many flowers, but no girl can resist a little sparkle now and then, right? I had to add some rhinestone gems for some extra detail! I hope she likes it...I enjoyed making it! Thanks for fluttering by!