Lawnscaping + Caffeine = Happiness Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to my first ever blog hop!!!  I am so thrilled to be hopping along with the fine folks over at the Lawnscaping Challenge Blog!  This hop is sure to energize you - it's full of caffeine filled inspiration - just right to jolt those creative juices!

 There are so many prizes from so many fabulous sponsors and all you have to do to be entered to win is hop along with us and leave a comment on each fabulous project by Sunday, June 28th.  That's it!  Just tell all these uber talented crafters how much you enjoy their work and you could win something from one of these amazing sponsors:   Lawn Fawn, Ellen Hutson, The Ink Road, Crafters Companion, Spectrum Noir, The Alley Way Stamps, Newtons Nook, Faber Castell, and Right at Home!

So for my project I chose to use the Lawn Fawn Love You A Latte stamp set, the Tag You're It stamp sets and coordinating dies by Lawn Fawn, Lawn Fawn's Scripty Sayings stamp set, and the Let's Polka Mon Amie 6x6 paper pad by Lawn Fawn (so I kind of like Lawn Fawn, in case you couldn't tell).  I used a couple of the little stamps from the set - the coffee bean and the tiny hearts - to create a custom pattern paper on some kraft cardstock.  I heat embossed the pattern with Cocoa Zing Embossing powder and then used my We R Memory Keepers Pillow Box Punch Board to create a cute little gift box.

For my tag I stamped the coffee drink from the set on some of the patterned papers from the Let's Polka Mon Amie paper pad and some white cardstock and paper pieced this little guy together.  I used Copic markers to add just the tiniest bit of shading, Wink of Stella on the coffee sleeve for some sparkle, and a wood veneer heart coated with glossy accents for shine.  The tag is stamped on kraft cardstock using the Thank You Tags stamp set and the Scripty Sayings stamp set.  It is heat embossed to match the pillow box.  I die cut the the kraft tag and a patterned tag and layered them up all cute.  I then used some Scotch Foam Tape to pop up my little coffee drink.  Finally, I tied it all together with some brown twine. 

Now it's time for you to get to hopping!  If you encounter any errors along the hop, please email Laurel directly at laurelbeard at me dot com.  Please do not leave them in the comments.  Here is the order for all the posts:

Lawnscaping Challenges

Niki G. 

Gray Whiskers Crafts

Melissa

Kristina B.

Lysa

Dianchik

Yolanda G. 

Jennie M. 

Julie C. 

Ellen 

Nina-Marie

Michele S. 

Anni

Michelle L.

Lydia

Oreet

Tammy H.

Shannon M. 

Kim

Kelly S. 

Trish K. 

Tanja

Amy

Kim H. 

Monica M. 

Beau Monde Designs

Valerie W. 

Maria

Wiebke

Maia Ink

http://melissabowden.com/

Vicki

Chitra

Tracy

Curl E. Cue's - YOU ARE HERE!!!

Coralynn

Carisa

Dawn E.

Kate

Kristina P. 

I hope you've enjoyed my caffeinated creation and happy hopping!!  Don't forget to leave those comments so you can win goodies!  Thanks!

CTMH & TAWS: A Masculine Thank You

Happy Father's Day!  I thought I'd share a masculine card in honor of all the fabulous men out there that are being celebrated today.  I am very blessed to have a father, father-in-law, and husband that are shining examples of what a dad should be.  Love to you all!

For my card today I started with a side folding A2 card base cut from some gray cardstock (I've had this cardstock forever and cannot for the life of me remember what brand it is). I then took the stamp set Thanks by Inkadinkado that has all of these fabulous thank you sentiments in all different fonts.  I started stamping them all over the front of my card base to create a text background. I used Hippo ink by Lawn Fawn for a tone-on-tone look.

Now, let me take a moment and explain that this card was requested by my husband to give to a friend as a thank you for helping him out at his high school theater program.  Hubby's friend wrote, directed, and starred in the spring show at the high school (immensely talented fella, this one)!  His character in that show was Vice Principal Poseidon and spoke mainly in water related puns - I'm DOLPHIN-ately not kidding!  So I decided to bust out my brand new (at the time) set from The Alley Way stamps, Something's Fishy.

I colored this shark dude using my cool gray Copic markers and then used the wave in the stamp set to turn my text background into a sea of thanks!  The sentiment is from the Close To My Heart Balloon Talk stamp set (I am LOVING their products - if you haven't already you have to check them out!) and the bubbles are from the same TAWS stamp set as the shark.  The waves, bubbles, and sentiment are stamped in Deep Sea Lawn Fawn ink.  The shark and sentiment are popped up using some Scotch foam tape.  A little Wink of Stella on my bubbles and this card is finished!

I hope you enjoyed this masculine version of a thank you card!  I appreciate you taking some time out of your Father's Day to stop by and create with me!  Don't forget to visit my Close To My Heart website for some fabulous inspiration!  See you next time! 

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SUPPLIES:

• The Alley Way Stamps Something's Fishy stamp set
• Inkadinkado Thanks stamp set
• Close To My Heart Balloon Talk S1404 stamp set
• Lawn Fawn Hippo ink
• Lawn Fawn Deep Sea ink
• White Singo Uniball Gel pen
• Wink of Stella clear glitter brush pen
• Scotch Foam Tape
• Copic markers C1, C3, C7, 0

Unity {be inspired} #11: Pretty Paper Flowers

Welcome to another Unity {be inspired} Challenge post! The color challenge this month gave me fabulous, bright, springtime, happy feelings so I decided to run with it and create a card using some scrap paper I had left over from other projects.  All of the papers I used are by Doodlebug (except for one tiny scrap of Lawn Fawn) and their papers always bring a smile to my face!

I selected a large sentiment stamp from the Unity February 2015 Kit of the Month: Happiness Looks Gorgeous and stamped it on some Neena cardstock with Memento Tuxedo Black ink.  I trimmed it down, not really measuring but eyeballing the size I wanted, and then used an edge punch to make it look like it was torn from a little notebook.  I then colored in the bubbles in the font with my Copic markers and used my black Gelly Roll pen to add some doodle lines around the edge.  I really wanted it to feel like it was scribbled as daydreams wafted through your mind!  Finally, I used some scraps of cardstock and vellum to create some little banners and used my Crop-a-dile to attach them to the top corner of my sentiment piece.  The whole thing is finished off with a little Wink of Stella on all the colored areas.

For the card base I used Neena 110 lb Solar White to create an A2 side folding card.  I partially dry embossed the inside by cutting a piece of craft foam to the exact size I wanted embossed and using that instead of my top plate when I ran it through my big shot.  This way, there was only pressure on the cardstock where the craft foam was and only part of the surface was embossed with the sweet little hearts.  I added a panel of patterned cardstock to the front of the card and then used a scalloped border die from Lawn Fawn to cut about a quarter inch off the front of the card so you can see the pretty embossing from the front.  I really love this aspect of this design!  It's really unique and fun!

I used more cardstock scraps and some Teal Shimmer Trim from Close to My Heart to create a whimsical background for my sentiment panel.  The panel is mounted using Scotch Foam Tape and surrounded by some super teeny, dainty little die cut flowers (that were a total pain to put together but worth it in the end!).  I threw on some Doodlebug Sprinkles enamel dots to tie it all together.

This was my first time using the little flower die cuts as well as the notebook edge punch and Shimmer Trim and I'm super happy about how it turned out!  I hope you enjoyed today's project.  I have listed the supplies below if you're interested in anything I used.  I would love to hear your feedback so please leave a comment and subscribe to see what fun we can get up to next!  Thanks and have a great night!

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SUPPLIES:

• Doodlebug Springtime and Hello Sunshine 6x6 paper pads
• Lawn Fawn Let's Polka Mon Amie 6x6 paper pad
• Unity Stamp Co. February 2015 Kit of the Month: Happiness Looks Gorgeous
• Black Gelly Roll pen
• Doodlebug Sprinkles Bright Glitter Assortment
• Close To My Heart Teal Shimmer Trim
• Cuttlebug Cross My Heart 5x7 embossing folder
• Lawn Fawn Stitched Scalloped Borders dies
• Impression Obsession flower dies (DIE042-I)
• Wink of Stella Clear Glitter Brush Pen
• Crop-a-dile
• Fiskars Teresa Collins Edition paper notebook edge punch
• Copic markers Y13, B04, RV55, RV52, BV11, BV17, YG06
• Neena 110 lb Solar White Cardstock 
• Tombow Adhesive
• Multi Medium Matte
• Scotch Foam Tape

 

Fun with Puns: Creating a Custom Sentiment

Happy Tuesday, all!  Thank you for joining me on this scorching summer evening.  I have to admit, I am an Oregon girl all the way and this 90+ degree hot streak we have going on is really cramping my style!  The sunshine is gorgeous and the flowers are so happy but I'm melting!  On the plus side, my A/C is working like a champ so that means I can just hunker down in my nice, cool craft room and wait it out until the fall!

For today's card I am entering it in both the current Lawnscaping Challenge: Calling All Critters and the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Make It Masculine .  I wanted to make something fun for my dad for Father's Day.  Now, my dad is a real punny guy.  He enjoys doing things like biting into a cherry and then commenting "Well that's the pits!".  He's a jokester and I thought he'd enjoy something custom made just for him.  I dug out my Lawn Fawn stamps and found several critters from several different sets (all supplies are listed below). 

 

 Then I put on my Dr. Suess hat and started composing a punny poem to accompany the images.  I used two different alphabet sets by Lawn Fawn, Jessie's ABCs and Milo's ABCs to spell out my custom sentiment.  This was something I'd never done before, especially such a long sentiment, and while it did take a little bit of time I am really happy with the results!  The Lawn Fawn alphabet sets are fabulous for a lot of reasons but my favorite is that they are cut in rectangles so you can line up the letters exactly even and all of the spacing is correct.  I would never have the patience without this wonderful feature. 

The critters are colored with Copic and I really had to stretch my colors to make them all look different.  It was very tempting just to use the same brown markers on the moose, the lion, and the bear (oh my!).  But I resisted the urge and attempted a black bear and combined orange and brown for the lion's mane.  I also used some great blue and gray colors to get some neat effects on the dolphin.  When I was done coloring I busted out my handy Signo Uniball White gel pen to color over any outside-of-the-lines oopsies that may have happened.  This trick makes me look like a pro every time!

The card base is 4.25"x8.5" and I trimmed the front panel to 4"x8.25" and then used five shades of Distress Ink (including the new Twisted Citron and Mermaid Lagoon - LOVE!) over a stencil by Teresa Collins to create the background. I used a piece of craft foam to pop the panel up off of the card base and provide support for the large area. And of course, I couldn't resist the little gnomey on the inside! 

I hope you enjoyed this custom sentiment card!  I can't wait for my dad to see it!  Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the sunshine (or the A/C, whichever you prefer!). 

SUPPLIES:

• Lawn Fawn Critters on the Savannah
• Lawn Fawn Critters in the Arctic 
• Lawn Fawn Critters in the Snow
• Lawn Fawn Critters in the Sea
• Lawn Fawn Jessie's ABCs
• Lawn Fawn Milo's ABCs
• Lawn Fawn Gnome Sweet Gnome
• Copic Markers C1, C3, C7, E33, E53, E57, E59, YR18, B21, B24, B28, E00, E02, E11
• Teresa Collins 8"x10" Stencil Set - Remember
• Lawn Fawn Black Licorice Ink
• Memento Tuxedo Black Ink
• Neena Solar White 110 lb cardstock
• Craft Foam
• Tombow Adhesive
• Scotch Foam Tape
• Mermaid Lagoon Distress Ink
• Tumbled Glass Distress Ink
• Crushed Olive Distress Ink
• Twisted Citron Distress Ink
• Evergreen Bough Distress Ink
• Mini Distress Ink pads and applicator
• Signo Uniball White Gel Pen