SP & Company New Release Blog Hop!

Hello, it's time for the August release party over at SP & Company!  We have some great new stamps to show you and tons of fun, new projects for you to check out along the way.

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

Have you ever wanted to be a Guest Designer on the SP & Company Design Team? Well, this month is your chance to show us what you've got! Play along with our Yellow Challenge and link up your project.  We will pick a Guest Designer that will work with us for an ENTIRE month! For specific details, check out Sami's blog and Good Luck!!!

This month I get to show you the brand new stamp set, Poppy Field Summer.  I fell in love with this set as soon as I saw it and was so happy when it showed up for me to play with for this hop!  There are a few different floral silhouette stamps along with a couple of sentiments in this set.  Love, love, love the silhouette stamps!

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!

Celebrate the Beautiful Moments

Hello friends!  Today is my day over on the SP & Company blog and I have a card for you that I made with the Sympathy and Care stamp set.

I used several patterned papers from the For the Record (Echo Park) 6x6 paper pack to make this one.  The flowers were cut with the Dahlia Nestabilities dies, and I used a large pearl brad in the center of the largest one to really make it stand out from the smaller two.  I stamped the sentiment directly on the hexagon paper with black ink.  Still loving those hexagons!

I really like it when you can stamp your sentiments directly on your patterned papers.  The sentiments in this stamp set work really well for that because they are large and fairly bold, so they really stand out without having to create a separate layer on your project!

Happy Stampin',

Michelle

My Halloween Card is Playing Tricks on Me

You ever have one of those projects that just won't photograph well, no matter how many times, positions, and lighting conditions you try???  Well that is what is happening to me with this one and I am sharing it anyway...

I actually love this card, and you will just have to trust me that it looks MUCH better in real life!  I have been having fun playing with creating scenes lately.  The cat stamp is from Unity Stamp Co., the fence is Martha Stewart, and the bats are Spellbinders.

I know, it might seem early for Halloween, but I love making Halloween projects, so you are probably going to start seeing a sprinkling of them around here.  Can't help myself!  I was at AC Moore and JoAnn's today and both have Halloween stuff out, so I will just follow their lead, lol!

Thanks for stopping by,

Michelle

Cute Critters and a Winner!

Good morning everyone!  I hope you are enjoying your weekend.  It's been nice around here.  Not too much going on this weekend, so I have had some time to stamp!

I made this card for the current Card Cupids challenge.  The challenge is to make a birthday card or use any shade of blue on a kids card.

This one is a combination of stamps from Lawn Fawn and My Cute Stamps.  All of the images are stamped in black to create the scene, then I just outlined them with my Prismacolor pencils.  This is a really fun coloring technique.  The outlines make the images pop, and it just looks cool!

OK, now the winner of my blog candy giveaway is.....

SONYA!

Sonya, send me an email with your mailing info and I will get your prize out to you!  Thanks to everyone who entered.  Be sure to check back soon for another chance to win.  I have another fun giveaway coming soon!

Happy Stampin',

Michelle

It's a Candy Basket....Literally!

Hello everyone!  I have a super sweet Saturday post for you today.  And by "sweet", I don't mean just in the nice way.  I mean in the sugary, yummy way!  I was really excited to give this project a try because I have seen pictures of them before, seen them given as gifts, and have always wanted to make one myself.  This was so much fun to make and I think you are going to enjoy it too!

Here is what you will need to get started.  You will need 4 boxes of candy.  These are the movie theater style boxes that you can pick up at Dollar Tree.  You can use any type of candy you want, you just want all 4 boxes to be the same size.  The other thing you need is some Dry Floral Foam, which conveniently, you can also get at Dollar Tree.  Convenient, and inexpensive!  Not pictured are the bamboo skewers that were still hiding in my kitchen drawer when I snapped this picture, and some paper Easter grass.

The piece of foam I had was far too big for what I needed, so I cut it down to size.  No real math involved here, it just needs to be big enough for the boxes to attach to, and thick enough to poke some skewers into for decoration.  I cut through mine with a kitchen knife.

Once it is cut, you can hold the boxes up around it to make sure you have a good fit and trim any excess off, if needed.  When you are happy with the foam, attach the candy boxes to the foam with some hot glue.  I applied glue where the box would stick to the foam, and also put a couple of dots where the sides of the boxes would meet to help hold them together.

Now all that's left is the decoration!  I made a couple of brightly colored rosettes out of some orange and yellow cardstock.  I punched a couple of circles for the centers of the rosettes from a sheet in the Splash (Echo Park) 6x6 pad, then just added buttons.  The "Happy Birthday" sign is stamped using Boutique Sign and Bold Sentiments III: Birthdays.  The sign and rosettes are glued to bamboo skewers and poked into the foam at the bottom.  To fill in the top, I put in a little bit of paper Easter grass.

It just doesn't get much more fun than this.  I see many of these in my future.  I already have holiday ideas running through my head!

Thanks for stopping by,

Michelle

Sweet Treats!

Hello again!  It's been a slow week here, this week.  Been working on several things that I can't post yet!  It has been busy in the craft room though, and if you could see my table, you might run away screaming.  Yep.  It's bad.

Here is one card that I have been working on.  This one is for the Skipping Stones Inspiration Challenge.  These twine lollipops make me happy!

And here is the inspiration photo...

Love, love, love all the bright colors and the sweet treats!  Happy birthday, indeed.  If you haven't had a sweet overload yet (is that possible?), be sure to stop by tomorrow for an even sweeter birthday treat!

Happy Stampin',

Michelle

CSAYL Friday!

Hello!  It's Friday and that means it is time for another CSAYL challenge.  This weeks challenge is A Pair of 3.  The idea is to use three of everything, like 3 papers, 3 ribbons, 3 brads, etc.

Now, mine might not be so obvious.  Obviously I have used 3 different papers, but my other 3 are not so obvious.  Instead of coloring this image with markers or pencils, I chose to use chalk.  I have blended 3 different colors of chalk and then printed the digital image over it.  Is that cheating??? Naaaaah!

The way I have this standing, it looks like a card, but it is actually a post-it note cover.  This lovely little image is from Digi Doodle Shop who is sponsoring our challenge this week.

Be sure to check out the challenge blog to see what the rest of the team did, and come play along with us.  Three winners will each win free Digi Stamps from Digi Doodle Shop this week!

Thanks for stopping by,

Michelle