Can Someone?...(and a winner)

Happy first day of August! Can someone call to find out where the month of July went? I can hardly recall it already! I have the delightful task to showcase the new August Paper Smooches release every Wednesday in August as their Guest Designer. (Can someone pinch me please, just to make sure it is real?!)

Daisies and Paisleys is a fun set (wait, all Paper Smooches stamps are fun...) that features build-a-flowers and paisley elements, perfect for making your own backgrounds. I was inspired by an image of paisley wallpaper that I found on Pinterest and set to town stamping a variety of paisleys in kraft ink onto white paper and then filled in the background with aqua and portions of the paisleys in light kraft markers. This panel was adhered to a kraft base and stamped with a sentiment for this set as well. The trim is from May Arts, cute tiny pom poms which is new this summer, as well as burlap string.

Thanks Kim and Paper Smooches for having me guest design this month!

******

Also, I have a winner to announce for Els' Rock Your Kit on-line class! Sherry from Button Junkie, please send me an email and I will get you in touch with Els!

Olympic Fever

Well the Olympics started and I'm slightly infatuated with most prime time events. I've been trying to stay off the sites that leave spoiler alerts about who won or did well or didn't do well, but I just couldn't stop the one time my husband came home from work and told me about what he heard on the radio, in a long about way he finished with the results of the event I was watching.

Skipping Stones Design is featuring Cupcake Cutie this month, the absolutely adorable set that allows you to "build" your own cupcake and has the most fun sentiments. Although this card isn't a re-make or re-do of the last card I posted, I do like it much better! Thank you to those that offered advice! Skipping Stones Design has another inspiration picture up for their weekly challenge, you can check out all the details on the Skipping Stones Design Blog! Please stop by to see the amazing samples from the design team, too! I was mainly inspired by the block of colors and fun elements, how will you be inspired?

Sweet on the Inside

I've talked about this before, I think, right here on The Bald Dragonfly. I know others have mentioned it too. We all go through a lull at times, I do believe! Sometimes you just gotta roll with it. Sometimes you end up with something you just aren't fond of (but don't want to chuck because you've already spent a lot of time on it!) Such is the feeling with this card. Perhaps there is too much going on, perhaps the background is fighting with the focal image, perhaps the color ratio is off. Really not sure, but I'd love some critique.

I'm featuring Cupcake Cutie from Skipping Stones Design-a super cute stamp set that lets you build your perfect cupcake and there are some really great mix and match sentiments too. Also playing along with Embellish's Dry Embossing Color Challenge. All but the card base and sentiment panel are embossed.

Variety is the Spice of Life

Variety is the spice of life, and so are challenges, right?! I have a few cards showcased over on the Artful Delight Blog featuring products from July's Card Kit. The July Artful Delight Card Kit goodies contains products with such a soft color palette, and I put that to work here. I honestly love these kits because of the variety of products they offer which allows me to play in challenges that I might have otherwise missed out on. For instance, the lovely Authentique papers from the Delightful Collection included in the kit influenced a card with Authentique's July Sketch Challenge in mind.

Next up, a more simple card that features the stamp set included in the kit as well as the mist and solid cardstock!

Papers from Basic Grey's What's Up Collection included in the kit gave me the opportunity to participate in the Basic Grey Challenge: Things with Wings.

I'll be entering both these cards in the Simon Says Anything Goes Challenge!  There are a few July Artful Delight Card Kits left, you can check them out here!

Thank you so much to those of you that took time out of your day to send me wishes on this post. Have you seen the Rock Your Kit giveaway? Check it out here!

Woosh, I think that is enough variety for one post. I hope you have an excellent day!

Rock Your Kit: Giveaway

The extremely talented Els Brige from be stamped is offering her very first online class and I'm lucky to be able to give away a spot in the class today!

Here's a little bit more about this fabulous class from Els: Rock Your Kit

'Rock Your Kit - the Clippings Edition' is an interactive online class running over 4 weeks. It is a "stretch your kit" kind of class, working with Basic Grey's Clippings 6x6 paper pad, the Clippings Snippets and Chipboard Elements. We will take this kit as far as we can and make layouts, cards, a mini-album and more. After registration, students will receive access to the class blog, on which there will be two new entries a week. Projects will be explained in great detail with videos, downloadable step-by-step instructions and pictures. Class kits are limited, so don't wait too long get yours. The class starts August 15th and ends on September 8th, but can also be followed at your own pace. Content will stay up on the class blog, even after the class is no longer running, and will be accessible at all times.

Basic Grey's Clippings collection is a gorgeous line filled with warm colors, vintage flair, layers, grid patterns, and stitching accents. It is a versatile collection, which fits both male and female. In our class we will stretch this collection as far as possible. Be ready to get inspired and have fun creating!
For more information and registrations: http://bestamped.wordpress.com/online-classes/. (Check out Els' introduction video here.)

Sounds and looks super cool and fun, right? To win a spot in this class, please leave a comment on this post and I will draw one lucky random winner from all comments. (If you've already registered and purchased a kit and win, you will be refunded.) The giveaway will be open for one week and the winner will be announced on August 1st!

The Art of Racing in the Rain

Dear Blog,
It has taken me a week to write this post. There's no craftiness here today-it was absent all week.

I don't understand Cancer. Why does IT make precious beings in our lives suffer, why does IT have to take things from you, without a care in the world? Why is IT the cause of countless questions from two boys whose parents really don't have logical answers? Cancer is bad and I don't like IT.

Don't be mistaken, Dear Blog, I understand that Cancer affects more than just dogs, and IT makes life difficult for so many family members when IT invades their loved ones. But Tulley, well, Tulley wasn't just a dog. He was our wedding gift to each other. He was our first child. (Our practice one before the two legged version came just two short years later.)

Although Cancer took our dog from us long before we were ready, IT can never take the memories away (glow and the dark skeleton shirts on little boys in the dark can me mistaken for predators) and IT can never steal life lessons already learned (you really can eat all your Easter candy in one sitting and not get sick!) and lessons to be learned (loyalty cannot be taken for granted).

There is a phenomenal book called The Art of Racing in the Rain and all I can say is, Dear Blog, that I'm looking forward to shaking Tulley's hand some day.
 
Signed,
Heartbroken

Tulsa Highwater Raleigh a.k.a Tulley
11/03/01 - 07/16/12

an•tic•i•pa•tion

an•tic•i•pa•tion
[an-tis-uh-pey-shuhn] noun
1. expectation or hope

(You should have arrived from Julie Ranae's Blog if you are following the hop!)

I've been waiting to show you Hope Blooms, the stamp set I designed for The Craft's Meow July release, in its entirety, and today's the day!
{My card today is my favorite that I've created for this release too.}

I stamped the blooms in a green ink onto shimmer paper and fussy cut them, after shading with some very light markers. A bit of selective "hiding" of cut marks allowed me to create a longer stem for one of the blooms.
I love the combination of this set with Love Dwells Here, another featured set from this month. There are a lot of tiny tag sentiments that would be perfect. Go check it out!

Today is our blog hop day! It all starts over on The Craft's Meow Blog. Stop by and leave a comment on the designer's blog for the chance to win all six sets from this month's release.  A couple of things to remember for this release: Summertime with Fibi and Lilly is July's Gift with a $50 purchase. You have until 9:00pm PDT, Sunday, June 22nd, to comment on all the stops.
Your next stop is Lindsay Amrhein!

Sneezing on Miss Muffet

**For my The Craft's Meow release post, please scroll down or click here!**

Little Boy Blue, please cover your nose! You sneezed on Miss Muffet and ruined her clothes. You sprayed Mother Hubbard, and now she is sick. You put out the fire on Jack’s candlestick. Your sneeze is the reason why Humpty fell down. You drenched Yankee Doodle when he came to town. The blind mice are angry! The sheep are upset! From now on use tissues so no one gets wet! ~Darren Sardelli

It's Friday! Woo-hoo! The July Artful Delight Kit had the most amazing patterned papers and fun canvas embellishments, to name only a few of the items included! The patterns, colors and overall designs were just perfect for the inspiration photo challenge at Lawnscaping.

I inked up the canvas butterfly with distress inks, and then sprayed it with mist and allowed it to dry. The stamped butterfly comes from another Lawn Fawn set called Flutter By, not the kit from this month (although the set included, Sunny Skies, would have been a fun fit for this card too)! All the paper is from this months kit. I really like the dimension on this card. The wings of the canvas butterfly and paper butterfly, along with the white banner, are curled up a bit.

Leeanne announced the contents of Artful Delight's August Kits yesterday (see the full post here!) and it is another fabulous kit-I can't wait to get it in my hands. Also, there are just a few days left to join in on either the scrapbook or card sketch at Artful Delight (details on Artful Delight's sidebar)!

Cool Summer?

It's been hot, hot, hot! here in Wisconsin this summer. I can't really recall a summer this hot and humid. Our air conditioning went out over the fourth of July and it was most miserable, luckily, a few changes in the settings on the thermostat brought things back to livable conditions.

Mabelle R-O has another stamp debuting this month for The Craft's Meow, Summertime with Fibi & Lilly, which also happens to be July's Gift with a  $50 purchase! I decided to make a nice addition to a plain ol' water bottle by inking up a kraft envelope with to ink up the cute little sand castle included in the set with some fun kitten images, and colored it lightly with pencils. I attached the envelope to the water bottle with some twine, and tucked in a juice packet. Wouldn't these be fun for a children's summertime party or to take along on a family picnic?

Once again, there are some amazing creations over on The Craft's Meow Blog created by the wonderful designers and illustrators, along with our guest designer Naomi that showcase Summertime with Fibi & Lilly. Please be sure to stop by The Craft's Meow Blog for your chance to win this cute set featured today!

Love Dwells Here

Fantastic name for a fantastic stamp set, I do say!  Are you enjoying this month's release from The Craft's Meow? Love Dwells Here is Nina's contribution to The Craft's Meow July Release and it is chock full of fun, trendy mix and match images and patterns.

I drew some inspiration from the current picture up at Runway Inspired Challenge (the geometric pattern and colors (especially the pop of  pink!)).

The card construction goes something like this: I stamped and fussy cut the roof, house and heart from patterned paper and adhered them to a card base that has a slight polka dot impression.  A punched strip of "grass" was added to ground the house and then a sentiment was stamped onto a white panel and adhered to the card base as well. I think this is also a fun take on Moxie Fab Worlds Stamp It! Cards Week Thank You Challenge.

There are some amazing creations over on The Craft's Meow Blog created by the wonderful designers and illustrators, along with our guest designer Naomi that showcase Love Dwells Here. Please be sure to stop by The Craft's Meow Blog for your chance to win this set featured today!