Darling Damask

Skipping Stones Designs is celebrating their newest release, Darling Damask with a blog hop to go along with the debut of this week's inspiration challenge.

This set is timeless. The patterns are so beautiful. They are designed to create a seamless pattern when covering a large area, or, they can be used just by stamping once too! The sentiments are classic as well, with a beautiful font that coordinates. I went with a modern design for the timeless patterns, by stamping them first in grey and yellow and cutting them into banners and placing on a solid, clean white background. A sentiment included in the set was also stamped onto a white banner, and then a few rhinestones were placed to set the tone for a more fresh design. I'm going to enter this into Moxie Fab World's Stamp It! Cards Week: The Birthday Card Challenge too!

I also wanted to mention that Skipping Stones Design is having an open design team call too! Please read about the details here, and consider trying out. These stamps are fabulous, the team is fabulous, everything is fabulous about Skipping Stones Design!

I'm the first on the hop, next is Stephanie Mino! There is a complete listing over at the Skipping Stones Design blog, as well as all the challenge rules, details and prizes!

Cloud 9

If you paint in your mind a picture of bright and happy expectations, you put yourself into a condition conducive to your goal. ~Norman Vincent Peale

A great new blog called Cloud9 celebrating Wplus9 stamps is having their first blog hop with a fun, bright and happy inspiration photo.

I randomly stamped the petite images from Wplus9's Mother's Day Bouquet in various colors pulled from the inspiration picture and the sentiment comes from Ever After. To reflect the grass skirt, I added some old school crimped paper and tied a bow with some May Arts natural burlap string.

Been Thinking

Hello Friend(s), been thinking about you a lot.  My parents are in town this week so this is a pre-scheduled post. Crossing my fingers and hoping it works. I often times think of all the lovely creations that I'm missing but by the time I go to check my Reader I know I will become overwhelmed...best to just start afresh after the house is back to normal...

Today I have a post up over at the Artful Delight blog featuring items from the new July Card Kit. (One amazing kit, let me tell you! You can find out all the contents here...)

There is no stamping on this card, just some inked edges of the wonderful patterned and solid paper included in the kit (I did add a touch of felt for the tab, but that is the only thing not included besides the ink.)

I also followed the July sketch I designed for Artful Delight. Please consider playing along, because if you win you have a choice of receiving the August Artful Delight scrapbook or card kit!

Bringing the Outside Inn

Happy Birthday to my talented blogging pal, Erin, the mastermind behind the beautiful photos and posts at the Outside Inn. A mutual, and talented, blogging pal Jen, from Jen Shears Designs, and I have teamed up today to wish Erin a happy birthday in a very Erin style, by playing in a challenge (since I couldn't get in gear to organize a hop...but the thought was there!)! Both of us are participating in Lawnscaping's Use Dimension Challenge and using Lawn Fawn sets.

I brought the outside in for Erin's card today by featuring some fussy cutting and use of dimensional adhesive on the ferris wheel from Lawn Fawn's Admit One and clouds from Sunny Skies. The background sky and rolling hills were misted before attaching all to the card base.

(In another nod to Erin for her love of challenges I'm going to enter this in Moxie Fab World's Stamp It! The Birthday Card Challenge!)

I hope that you can swing by Jen's blog to see her birthday card for Erin, and then stop by Erin's blog to wish her a very happy birthday!

Patriotic

The Skipping Stones Design Team is thrilled to be teaming up with the fabulous designers from The Ribbon Carousel to bring you a patriotic blog hop! My card today features a custom background made with white paper, some distress stains and the script stamp from Skipping Stones Design's Garden Kiss Stamp.

Lets talk prizes! Hop along and leave some blog love for our designers for a chance to win one of 2 great prizes! The Ribbon Carousel will be giving away a ribbon carousel and Skipping Stones Design will be giving away a stamp set of the winner's choice! Winners will be announced on Saturday at 8:00 PM EST!

Remember that Skipping Stones Design has an inspiration challenge over on the blog as well. For the month of July we are doing inspiration pictures instead of sketches!

Derek

When I first met Derek-my husband's nephew- he was a shy five year old boy, about the same age as my youngest now. He was fascinated that I could draw people and animals, and I was fascinated with his never ending curiosity. I watched him from the back standing tall and proud walk down the aisle after his father holding the rings for our wedding and a few weeks back, I watched him walk down the graduation aisle, standing about four more feet taller and so much more full of pride as he was about to receive his high school diploma. Congratulations Derek!

There's a new sketch up over at The Craft's Meow Blog today and the playing time is open all month long! My card today features the graduate's school colors three, yes, three! of The Craft's Meow stamp sets: Retro Foundations, Grads & Dads and Typically Teen!

I hope this month's sketch inspires you and that you have a chance to play along. Details and more inspiration can be found on The Craft's Meow Blog !

Embellish

 

Happy! Happy that my folks are here from out of state visiting for the week. Happy that I have a clean house. Happy that the boys are happy!

I have two cards to show today, both featuring the fun embellishments that were included with the June Artful Delight kit. Did you see the July kit?! Ah-mazing! Happy, Happy Birthday features an altered stick pin (it was blue and I covered that color with black enamel accents). The paper, pin and Paper Smooches Goe-Graphic stamps were all in this past month's kit. (The stickers, SRM, were from my stash.) Love the paper, it has a textured side and non-textured side, so I also played that up here.

I was inspired by the Paper Smooches latest Sparks Challenge.

And then for the below card, I used the lovely textured white Bazzill paper, a piece of paper from the 6x6 pad and the fun ribbon from the kit. I looped it a couple of times and stapled it to the sentiment and adhered it all to the card.

Don't Miss Your Life

{A month or so ago...}
Husband: Hey, come here for a minute.
Me: Why?
Husband: Because I want you to hear something. We were just talking about this the other day...

Curious, I got up from the computer and went over by him-he's so much better at hearing the words to songs- and we listened to this song.

(Really, it is worth the extra click and three minutes for a listen, I promise! Especially if you are struggling with a blogging schedule like me! Here's a link to the lyrics if the twang isn't your thing.)

It's Tuesday, and that means a brand spankin' new sketch challenge is up over on the Skipping Stones Design Blog! Stop over to read the challenge rules, prize information and cool, fabulous examples from the guest designers and design team.

We are featuring Margarita Birthday today, so I went with an old school look and inked up the fun glass with some vintage photo ink, lightly colored it and added some glitter glue for the salt. The script from Garden Kiss was added to the focal image. I'll admit that the banners in the sketch scared me, so I opted for a more simple approach with a patterned paper banner and some twine.

Now is a great opportunity to play along with the sketch and send your creations to this wonderful cause- Hereos Card Drive! You can find more about Heroes Card Drive here.

So in the time it has taken me to write this post, I've listened to Don't Miss Your Life five times, might as well multi-task! Strikes a cord, no? (I just substitute the fortune part, hah!)

Two for the Guys

I could go on and on about the benefits of subscribing to a kit, especially one like Artful Delight's card kit, but I seem to be running short on time this week so I'll spare you. Just know that you certainly get your bang for your buck, and each kit contains so many elements.

Trying my hand at two masculine based cards today that feature the solid card stock in the Artful Delight June kit as well as the fun patterned paper.

Short and sweet today, hope you all have an excellent weekend!

A Trio

***For my Skipping Stones Design Tips and Tricks post, please scroll down or click here.***

There's just something that makes me go "awww" when I see a baby fawn. Their wobbly legs, their speckled spots, their big ears... Welcome to The Craft's Meow June Release Blog Hop! If you are following your hop, you should have just arrived from Julie Ranae's amazing blog...

My card today features three stamps from the new release. The adorable fawn is from Oh Deer, the lovely sentiment is from Lovely Labels 14, and the scroll from God's Blessing. Three different designers created the stamps, but I love how they work so well together!

A few amazing details about this release. Summer Fun is June's Gift with a $50 purchase. That means that last month's Typically Teen is now available for purchase! Yay! You can be eligible to win all 6 of June's releases from The Craft's Meow by simply commenting on each blog on the hop. Easy peasy, and I promise, there is great eye candy! The deadline for commenting is Sunday, June 24th, so you have plenty of time to make the few stops. A complete listing is found on The Craft's Meow's blog should you loose your way.

Your next stop is Lindsay Amrhein!