Getting Settled In the New Craft Room

Hello!  I know it has been pretty quiet around here for quite some time and that is because we have just moved across the country.  Literally from one end to the other...CA to FL!  It has been a very long process of getting everything ready to move on one end, getting a place to move to on the other, and now the settling process has finally started.

We have moved many times, including an overseas move, and we have never had as many problems with the moving company as we did this time.  Our household goods were split into two shipments, the first truck got here on time, but the second did not.  Long story short, they kept giving us the runaround, changing the delivery date, and were horrible to deal with!  Finally got our second shipment though, so that is finally OVER!

And what was in that second shipment? Why...my entire craft room, of course!

My table is so clean right now.  The normal heaps of papers haven't formed yet.  Shouldn't be too long though and I will be right back to having to unearth my table before I can work on anything.  Yoshi is already perched back up there on my lamp where he belongs.

I believe that is the LAST box of craft stuff to be unpacked that you see sitting there.  Never know though, until all of the boxes are gone, one could show up anywhere.  A kitchen box ended up in our bedroom, so anything is possible, LOL!

Still have a lot of sorting and organizing to do, but I can actually use my stuff again, so I am happy!  With everything going on, there were several projects that I made that didn't get blogged.  Here is one that I did for the SP & Company team blog.

I love the black, white and red color combo!  Definitely one of my favorites.  The hat stamp is from Father's Day Fun (SP & Co.), and the sentiment is from Mix n Match Kids (SP & Co.).  The hat is paper pieced with a couple of really fun patterns.

In this second picture you can see the sentiment is overlapped a little and stamped in two different colors.  I tied a little bit of black twine around the middle and topped it off with a bit of black ribbon.

Definitely won't be as long between posts now that we are finally getting settled!

Happy Stampin',

Michelle

Make Your Chalk Pop!

Good morning everyone!  Today is my day over on the SP & Company team blog, and I have put together a little tutorial for a really cool coloring technique you can do with your chalks!


With this technique, you are going to use your chalks to give your stamped image a fantastic POP of color, like the sentiment in this card that I have made.

For this card, I have used a plain white card.  I stamped the hat and mustache from Fathers Day Fun in black ink.  I then stamped my sentiment that I put together with Mix n Match Kids, using VersaMark watermark ink.

You can see the sentiment after it has been stamped in this picture.  There is no color to it, just a watermark image.

Now for the fun part!  These are the chalks that I have used for my project.

Next, you can see where I have started to add the chalk to my project.  You can use whatever applicator comes with your chalks, q-tips, cotton balls, whatever you choose to apply your chalks.  Pick up the color you want on your project and start rubbing it in a circular motion over the image you stamped with the VersaMark.

You can see that the VersaMark ink is picking up more color than the paper around it.  This makes your image POP!  Just keep picking up more chalk as needed and gradually build up the color until you are happy with it.

Here is a close up shot of my sentiment after I finished with the chalk.  The words are nice and bold, with a halo of chalk around it.  Very pretty with the shimmer chalks!

This is such a fun coloring technique.  You can do single images, sentiments or entire backgrounds.  You can also play around with using multiple colors for some great effects!


Happy Stampin',

Michelle

Christmas Stampin' Challenge - CASE Study

Happy Friday!  It's that time again, so here I am with another CSAYL challenge.  This weeks challenge is CASE study.  The challenge is to CASE either a card of your own, or a blog friend. 

As usual, if you play along with us this week, you have a chance to win a fun prize!  Who doesn't like prizes?  This weeks winner will win a guest designer spot on the CSAYL blog in October.

This is a CASE of a card that I made a few years ago that is STILL sitting in my craft room.  Well, it is actually sitting in a box labeled "craft room" right now, since we are moving, LOL! 

It's a really simple design, but it is also nice and flat, and will mail well.  The snowflakes are from My Cute Stamps.  Really beautiful set...one of my faves.  The snowman stamp is an old TAC stamp, and the sentiment is from Hero Arts.

Be sure to check out the challenge blog to see what everyone else made this week and come play along with us! 

Happy Stampin',

Michelle



Christmas Stampin' Tic Tac Toe Challenge

Hello everyone!  It is Friday again and that means it is time for another CSAYL challenge.  Our wonderful sponsor this week is:

Play along with us this week and you can win a $3.00 gift certificate to use in the Digi Doodle Store!

The challenge this week is Tic Tac Toe!  Create your challenge piece from this Tic Tac Toe box:

For mine I chose Blue, Ribbon and Glitter.  Although, my glitter did not show up well in the picture.  Apparently it is shy and likes to hide when having its picture taken, lol!

I love this little mouse, sleeping in the Christmas box!  He looks so snug, and so cute.

Be sure to visit the challenge blog to see what everyone else made this week and upload your project to play along!

Happy Stampin',

Michelle

SP & Company June Blog Hop!

Hello everyone, it's time for another SP & Co. blog hop!

This month's color is Hot Pink! After you're done hopping around today, make sure you play along with this month's Hot Pink challenge (click here for details) for a chance to win some amazing SP and Company prizes!

Join us for our Release Celebration that is happening today and tomorrow on the SP Forum HERE.  You can talk to all of the designers, discuss projects and chit chat with other stampers!It's a blast and you don't want to miss out!

Don't forget that the random prize patrol is watching so leave a comment on every blog to be eligible for the prizes!! Make sure you pop on over to Chrissie's blog - she has an extra prize to give away! The more blogs you comment on, the better your chances are of winning something fun!

Today I have a card for you using the new Mix n' Match Kids stamp set.  This set has all sorts of great words that you can mix and match to make great sentiments for kids cards and a lot more!

For this card I used three different stamps from the set to make my sentiment say "For my crazy kiddo".  My kiddos are pretty crazy, so this is perfect! 

Make sure you check out the SP Blog to see what Samantha did with the new stamps! And don't forget to hop around to each Design Team Member's blog - there are brand new projects with the stamps that came out TODAY to inspire you!

Here is the list of designers that will inspire you today:

Chrissie
Vicki 
Kelli
Michelle <--You are here!
Amber
Vera

CSAYL Friday - Free For All

Hello and happy Friday!  Back again with another CSAYL project for you today.  This weeks challenge is a free for all.  Be sure to upload your project on the challenge blog and play along for a chance to win a prize!

I dug out some of my older Christmas stamps for this CAS card.  The little cactus is from an old Stampin' Up set, and the sentiment is from an old TAC set.  Both are favorites of mine, and came together to make a really fun, if non-traditional, Christmas card! 

My card base is cut using Nestabilities Large Labels (Spellbinders), and I colored the cactus with my Prismacolor pencils.

Be sure to pop over to the blog and check out what everyone else made this week!

Have a great weekend,

Michelle

3D Flowers With Nestabilities

Hello, it's my day over on the SP & Co. blog!  It's 3D week at SP & Co. and I am going to show you how to make some really cool 3D flowers using a Nestabilities die set. 

For this card, I started by picking some pretty patterned papers. These are all from Paradise Beach (Echo Park) and I am in LOVE with this pad. The colors are gorgeous! I cut my flowers from three different papers using the three smallest dies in the Nestabilities Dahlia die set. To give my flower some real 3D POP, I curled up the edges of each layer a little bit. To hold them all together, I just used a little glue.

Here is a closer shot of the flower.

For even more dimension, I mounted it to the front of my card with a dimensional foam dot. To finish it off, I stamped the Happy Day stamp with some brown ink. The beautiful colors from those papers, combined with the flower, and that sentiment are the perfect combination to really brighten someones day with a card!

Be sure to check out all of the other fabulous 3D projects this week for more dimensional fun!

Happy Stampin',

Michelle