Dare to bee creative...

Mini tutorial: Book cover/ (stamp storage)

2012-01-26T19:59:00.002-05:00

I'm sure everyone knows how to do this already, I learned that in school when I was 13, but just in case... here is how to make a nice looking book cover for little spiral notebooks and such.

In this case I was making a cover to store my My Thoughts Exactly stamps. :-)

I made an 8X10 cover to match the size of my zippered pouches (found those at Walmart for back to school and I should have bought more... Will definitely be on the lookout for those next August... ;-))

Step 1: Cut some cardstock to desired size. (I used old cardstock containers, because I was out of empty cereal boxes...) Glue to a piece of paper or cardstock slightly bigger then cut the corner. (I used Modge Podge to adhere my designer paper, and ran a brayer all over (the paper) to try to get a good spreading of the glue.

Step 2: Fold the extra paper all around and glue it. Add pieces of ribbon if you want to tie it shut afterwards.

Step 3: Glue 2 pieces of cardstock or paper to finish the inside. They need to bit slightly smaller than your cover. (here I took 3/16" off from my original 8X10 measurements).

Step 4: Punch holes and use binder rings to hold everything together. I need to buy bigger rings because my little album/storage is really full... ;-) I made little reinforcers by punching cardstock with a 1/2" circle punch.

My stamps are stored in the zippered pouches, 2 sets back to back. I used a label maker to write the names of the sets at the top of the pouches, and stapled little tags on the side.

This way I can find what I am looking for in a glance... :-)

All that's left to do is tie a knot and proudly display it somewhere in your crafting area! ;-)
(and what better way to use this beautiful paper you have been hoarding forever for "that special project"? ... ;-))

My Thoughts Exactly Thursday: Cloudy day

2012-01-19T01:05:00.003-05:00

It's my posting Thursday for My thoughts Exactly, and today I used the Many Thanks stamps set.
You know me, I am slightly obsessed with rainbows and clouds... I always say that one day I will end up in a car crash because I am looking at the sky while driving... :-S And let me tell you, we have the most beautiful fluffy clouds here on the West coast of Florida!... <3 :-)

Anyway, I just HAD to use that sentiment one day or another, and the latest craze for Washi tape inspired me to make those colored rays out of patterned paper to kind of look like pieces of tape.... And that background paper from Echo Park that looks like rain drops was just begging to be used with clouds! ;-)

Don't you just love the felt clouds? (dies are by PTI) I love cards that have a textured detail on them, something that makes you want to touch them... :-) Mission accomplished with this one...

Don't forget to check my evil twin's blog and Tracy's blog for their MTE project today. :-)

Also My Thoughts Exactly February release is available for pre-order NOW (to give you more time to work on those valentines with the kiddos... ;-)). The stamps will ship next Monday but you can go check them out on Alyssa's blog and order them here. The 1st 20 orders will receive a mini set for free. You are going to love the candy hearts, and the cute tag, and the puns sentiments... :-P As always the Design Team will have plenty of projects for you on the 1st of the month. :-)

Trendy Twine Tuesday: Love Take-Out

2012-01-17T00:05:00.001-05:00

It's Trendy Twine Tuesday and my project today is a take-out box for which I made a little twine handle.
Sorry for the so-so pics but I took them at night again... :-S

I braided 2 strands of Cherry Cupcake with 1 strand of Posy into a little string that I used as my handle.

I added pins and a tiny knot of more Cheery Cupcake. The word was handwritten with a Versamark marker and heat embossed with navy powder. I LOVE that crackled paint heart... it's actually made using a die and it's from a paint sampler from the hardware store! ;-) I added some touches of paper tape here and there just for fun... ;-)

The angel wings were a special request on my part, and were made by SVGs by Bee. I re-trimmed them to make them a tad smaller. Finally I added a few buttons threaded with Posy twine.

To help keep the top closed I used a loopy brad and more Cherry Cupcake twine.

I kept the back super simple with just some more tape and a glitter heart. :-)

And that's it for today. Don't forget to visit the Trendy Twine Blog to enter this month challenge! :-)

Vintage Floral Tin

2012-01-15T18:13:00.000-05:00

I made another little tin with Trendy Twine around it. I think by now the recipient must have received it so I can share... ;-)

I used double side Tacky tape so the twine will stay in place securely... I used Chocolate Truffle and Strawberry Cupcake, since my recipient's favorite twine color is pink... :-)

Everyone should have a cute little tin like that to leave on their desk to hold paperclips and what-nots!... :-)

Inside I used some more paper from the same pad. I especially love this one.

Those little chocolates feel right at home in there... It looks like it was meant to be!... ;-D

And good news: Annie's Paper Boutique now carries those little tins too! You can find them here. They are really fun and easy to work with and make nice little gifts. :-)
You can find other tin projects I made under the "tin" tag in my margin, or here. If you make one, please link to it in my comments section, I would love to see it! :-)

MTE stamps set winner!

2012-01-15T15:18:00.000-05:00

I know you are anxious to know who won the Birds & Bees stamps set from My Thought Exactly... On my part it is commenter #9, which means Isha at New Ideas.
Thank you to everyone who left a comment, I hope you had fun visiting all the DT members. :-)

My Thoughts Exactly: January project...

2012-01-05T01:00:00.003-05:00

In honor of the new year and the new Design Team term (and new members) things are a little different this month at My Thoughts Exactly.
Instead of our usual group post on the 1st of the month with a new stamps set, each DT member get to be showcased for one day and Alyssa asked us to make a project with our favorite set. And Alyssa gave us a few questions to answer to get people to know the team better...

For my project I chose the Birds & Bees set. It is pretty much impossible to chose a favorite...and I could have gone with Many Thanks or Sweet Thoughts, since they also are both go-to sets for me... but I HAD to go with the bee obviously... ;-)
After all it is my nickname, and I have been lucky enough to be on the My Thoughts Exactly Design Team from the very beginning and this was the 1st set released, so it seemed only fitting to use it... :-)

I found a little bee in my stash (from a Cricut cartridge) that was perfect for what I had in mind... I used lots of foam tape and pop dots because I love dimension and had fun creating a little flower field with my 1/2 inch circle punch... ;-) And of course I had to use a tiny bit of Trendy Twine... ;-)

Below is my little interview, although I am pretty sure you know all that already:

How long have you been paper crafting?

For about 4 years.

How did you get started paper crafting?

I decided one day out of the blue to make my daughter's birthday party's invitations and started looking into rubber stamps and such. I ended up not making the invitations that year after all, but I was hooked and started my blog shortly after that and “met” lots of other papercrafters this way and became slightly addicted!...

What is your favorite type of paper crafting project to make?

I like making cards, home décor, gift wrapping , scrapbooking... but cards are what I make most often because it is fast... ;-)

What is your ‘must have’ paper crafting tool?

Most definitely my dies and embossing folders. <3

What inspires you most?

I honestly don't know. Most of the time it all starts because of a beautiful sheet of paper that caught my eye...

What is your favorite thing about MTE stamps?

I love their versatility, there are SO many options with them. I just love being able to play with the words, and also play with the stamps themselves like bending them to stamp in a curve etc...

What is your favorite MTE stamp set?

I can't pick just one. I especially like the “Birds and Bees” because it was the 1^st one to come out and since my nickname is Bee I tend to use it a lot, also the “Sweet Thoughts” and the “Many Thanks” are go-to sets. But the truth is I like them all! ;-)

And last but not least, to celebrate the new Design Team in style (and as a reward for reading this loooong post! ;-)), My Thoughts Exactly is giving away a stamps set a day till the end of the team's introduction. Since today is my pick, I chose the Birds & Bees set. For a chance at winning it, all you have to do is leave a comment here and I will pick a random winner next week. I am not asking anything from you in return, but I can only recommend that you check out our awesome Design Team. This is a bunch of talented and fun ladies and I am sure you'll enjoy visiting their blogs. :-)

To see the previous posts about the new members, their interviews and projects, visit Alyssa's blog.

Trendy Twine Tuesday: Love is in the air

2012-01-03T01:05:00.001-05:00

It's Trendy Twine Tuesday and today for my project I used the new yummy Cherry Cupcake! :-P

I made a vertical card (fold is at the top for a change) and used only die cuts and stamps. Only once I was taking pictures did I realize that I glued things crooked on my card... Oh well... :-s That's what I get for crafting at night with poor lighting... Let's just pretend that you didn't noticed it... ;-)

I glued the twine in the shape of little hearts to follow the pattern of the die cut. Unfortunately I also applied some Stickles on it afterwards which makes it hard to see the twine real well on the picture... But it's nice and glittery in real life... ;-) I also added a little twine "line" at the bottom...

... which is tied up inside the card. I like it when you can have a fun little detail inside the card for a change. I think sometimes I forget about the inside... ;-)

Don't forget to visit the Trendy Twine Blog to see all of the projects of the Design Team since today is our beginning of the month group post! :-D

My Thoughts Exactly Thursday: Ornament boxes

2011-12-29T02:02:00.002-05:00

I promise, I promise this is the LAST Holiday project! ;-P
I just kept it for now because it is My Thoughts Exactly Thursday today...

So for this project, I started with 3X3 kraft boxes, from Annie's Paper Boutique.

I then heat embossed the ornament stamp from Holly Jolly Tags on each side with white powder, and colored it with Sharpies. I added little Trendy Twine bows.

The sentiment on top is from Holly Jolly Phrases. I love the font of that big H!... :-)

That's it for Holiday projects!! :-D I am ready to move on and looking forward to making a few cards for my next projects.... :-)
I hope you're enjoying a nice Holiday Season and I wish everyone a very Happy New Year! :-)

Paris Butterflies

2011-12-27T11:00:00.000-05:00

Thanks for bearing with me through all those Holiday wrapping projects. I still have one to come this Thursday for the My Thoughts Exactly Thursday and then I promise this is all done with! ;-)

I thought we could use a little change of scenery, and remembered I forgot to post this card that I made a little while ago, using dies and punches only. You know how much I love the basic card, the one that doesn't involve getting the electronic cutter out...
It's one of those cards that got created on a whim... I found the black rectangle with white brads in my stash, something I had made for another project and ended up not using, and then the card came to me instantly... :-) I think I might have been especially homesick that day... ;-) I wish I could fly to Paris...

Cute boxes in a pinch

2011-12-25T15:54:00.000-05:00

I know you must be sick already of all those gift wrapping, but I swear we're almost done... ;-)
I just really wanted to show you those little boxes that are now free with purchase at SVGs by Bee.

They come in one piece so it's really easy to put them together, they can be resized to fit your needs and you can also remove the little tree cut-out in the middle to use them all year long for whatever occasion.

Because they are so cute in patterned paper I didn't add anything to them. I just wrapped them in transparent paper and wrapped a ribbon around. I resized those to hold Ghiradelli squares (what else? ;-)), and I was able to fit 7 in there nice and snuggly. :-)

You can find the boxes here. They are free with purchase for a limited time, and you can find svgs starting at 99c at SVGs by Bee, so pay her a little visit! :-D

More seasonal favors...

2011-12-22T22:13:00.001-05:00

Yep, more little chocolate favors... Those went to my hubby's coworkers. :-)

They contain Ghirardelli squares (what a surprise right!?...)

I started with mini 2X2 Kraft boxes from Annie's Paper Boutique. I stamped a background on them and then went a little crazy with Christmas stickers someone sent me as a little surprise... ;-)

On the top I used the Merry Christmas from Holly Jolly Phrases from My Thoughts Exactly.

And here they are, all finished, wrapped up in Trendy Twine. They were really fun to make... :-)

And next up one last little project....

At Annie's Paper Boutique, I also found those awesome Pinstripe Boxes that I thought were so cool and so different (those are 3X3). I also went a little sticker crazy on that one, I love the contrast of the dark background with the colorful stickers...

For the top I used stickers for Holly berries and added felt leaves (well it is supposed to be holly leaves).

And here it is all wrapped up... :-)

I promise this will all end soon... LOL ;-)

Trendy Twine Tuesday: Happy Holidays

2011-12-20T00:05:00.006-05:00

It's Trendy Twine Tuesday! :-)
This is my project for today. I was scratching my head, trying to think of a new way (at least to me... ;-)) to showcase twine on my card...

...when I thought about twine "photo corners"... :-) Here I used Holly Berry for my corners.
I also couldn't resist adding a little bow to my wreath, and I decided to go with a more unexpected color: Sky

Everything is of course on pop dots, even though it doesn't show much on the picture... ;-)
The papers are from Recollection (Michael's own brand), it's hard to see in the pic but there is glitter in the paper all over. The stamp is from My Thoughts Exactly, and was heat embossed.

And now just because it is the 1st day of Hanukkah today (it starts tonight after dark), I thought I would share with you my little dreidel decoration.

Now I know it's a bit hard to figure out on this little picture but pretty much what it is is little dreidels attached with Trendy Twine to the chandelier to form a sort of mobile... Dreidels are little spinning tops with hebrew letters painted on them that kids use to play a game at Hanukkah (and win chocolate coins... ;-))

I used all kind of twine colors, attached it with hot glue, and added a little bow at the top of each dreidel for good measure... ;-D

Let me finish by wishing you all a very Happy Holiday Season. I hope you get to spend some time with your family and make new happy memories. <3

SVGs by Bee Wednesday: Fancy trees

2011-12-14T00:05:00.001-05:00

Today is our group post for SVGs by Bee! So don't forget to visit my fellow DT members!

* Bee at Bee's Hive o' Drama
* Becky at The Happy Card Encouragement Factory
* Alyssa at My Thoughts Exactly

For my card today I started with the curtain card as my base. Since my mat was too sticky and my paper didn't like it, I ended up not using it like I had initially intended, and I made it a simple panel instead, that I matted with a red base.
My fancy trees are from the Christmas Tree gift bag files. I added a few brads, some Stickles, and a bit of Candy Cane Trendy Twine.
I did toy with the idea of a sentiment, but the card was already busy in my opinion so I just added a stamp in a corner...
Well that's it for today. I hope you are having fun preparing for the Holidays, and don't forget to go check my talented crafty friends... (links at the beginning of this post... ;-))

Gift giving in a pinch...

2011-12-13T17:33:00.001-05:00

It's that time of year again... Teachers and therapists' gifts... ;-)
You have to leave in 5mn, you forgot to pack the chocolates... *gasp*
No time?.. :-( No problem! :-)

1- Head over to Annie's Paper Boutique, grab a pack of those adorable Mini Gable boxes. (obviously this step would have had to be done in advance... ;-) I personally try to always have some of those on hand! You just never know!... :-))
2- Next, buy large Holiday ribbon (in a hurry grab the one from the box of chocolates you just received from your lovely neighbors) , wrap the ribbon around the box, secure with tacky tape...
3- Add a little tag (this one is from My Thoughts Exactly, the Holly jolly Tags stamps set) attached with some Trendy Twine (Holly Berry here).

Or if you're less in a hurry, you can skip the hanging tag and glue whatever embellishment you have on hand...

And VOILA... quick and colorful gift wrapping in a pinch! :-)

And just to satisfy your curiosity, this little beauty holds comfortably 12 Lindor truffles. (you could fit 13 but I got this weird idea that some people might freak out at receiving 13 of something... Oh well, you know what I had to do with poor #13 truffle.. ;-P Yum...)

In the spotlight: Paper, Scissors, and Superheroes...

2011-12-11T16:47:00.002-05:00

(I made this little button for my blog, by snipping part of her banner....;-))

I suddenly realized today, as I was visiting Betsy Veldman's blog, that I didn't put her in the spotlight yet. *gasp* o.O What a weird oversight on my part, when she is the papercrafter I want to be when I grow up! ;-D

I guess I probably assumed that everyone who is into papercrafting already knows Betsy, unless you have been living under a rock... ;-) She is one of the "go-to-gals" from PaperCraft magazine, and also a DT member of PaperTrey Ink.

Describing her style is difficult, she has such a unique touch in my opinion. All I can say is that her attention to details, her use of whimsy and colors are incredible. Visiting her blog always bring a smile to my face.
A picture is worth a thousand words so go check for yourself!... Pay a little visit to Paper, Scissors, and Superheroes, I guarantee you won't regret it... :-)

(and feel free to come back and leave me a comment to tell me how awesome she is... ;-)

My Thoughts Exactly Thursday: Season's Greetings Collage

2011-12-08T10:23:00.001-05:00

It's My Thoughts Exactly Thursday. Don't forget to check the other Bee's blog too for another project.

For my card today I decided to think a little out of the box... and used the tags from Holly Jolly Tags to make some background paper. I also intentionally stayed away from classic US Holiday colors red and green... ;-)

Then I made a slider with the same tag using embossing powders and glitter glue. Of course I had to add a tad of Trendy Twine somewhere... and then some buttons for good measure... ;-D

And there you have it. A non traditional Holiday card... :-)

Trendy Twine Tuesday: Hanukkah Wreath

2011-12-06T01:00:00.004-05:00

It's Trendy Twine Tuesday!
For my project today I used the new Christmas twines: Holly Berry (red/green) and Candy Cane (read/white/green). (2 other colors are also available today: Holly green and Berry Red, that coordinate with the previous ones and are part of the Christmas collection).

Now about the "twiney" details on my project...

At the top of my wreath is a bow of Candy Cane twine.

To spruce up my flowers' centers, I added some twine in a random pattern. I like the little pop of color and texture that it adds... The white flowers have a Holly Berry center.

And the red flowers have a Candy Cane center.

I tied little bows on all my dreidels (little spinning tops used by children for a traditional game at Hanukkah), using coordinating twine colors.
I also added various buttons to add to the "homemade" feel. :-) My hot glue gun got quite a work-out today... ;-)

That's it for my project, but don't forget to check my fellow DT members'projects too: Alyssa and Kimberly.

And also head over to the Trendy Twine Blog for details on this month's challenge (a fun take on Tic-tac-Toes) to win some twine!... :-D

Holiday Blog Hop winner

2011-12-05T22:53:00.001-05:00

And the winner for the SVGs by Bee gift certificate is LYNDA! (she was the very last comment... how funny!...)
Thank you everyone for your sweet comments. :-) I hope you had fun hoping with us! :-D

Wedding cut-out card

2011-12-03T15:38:00.001-05:00

I made this card for my husband's cousin's wedding, using Lettering Delights SVG files. The front of the card is cut-out, I added some white cardstock inside for more contrast. The choice of colors comes from the fact that orange is the bride's favorite color and was used in their wedding's invitations.

This is one of those cards that doesn't photograph well at all (yes, my photographic skills also need serious improvement, if only there was 36 hours in a day...), especially since it needs to stay flat and keeps popping open... ;-)
When I was making the card, it looked to me like a floral cut-out card... but when I was snapping pictures I started seeing some sort of weird monster with orange eyes, pointy ears, and an open mouth, coming out from behind a floral panel... LOL Can you see it too? ;-P

This 2nd part is a little giftcard holder to go with it.

"Hopping thru the Holidays" Blog-Hop

2011-12-02T02:30:00.051-05:00

Welcome to "Hopping thru the Holidays", our blog-hop for the week-end!

Here is our hop line up:

1. Belinda <-- Start here!

2. Julieta

3.Cher

4. Bee <-- You are here!

5. Becki

6. Melanie

7. Alyssa

8. Tracy

9. Angie

Here is my 1st card.I used a tag svg from Lettering Delights, and this beautiful Holly is part of the new Christmas files from SVGs by Bee.

I had planned on posting a 2nd project tomorrow, since the hop is going on from Friday to Sunday, but as I was typing post #2, I remembered that lazy me never goes back to blogs for the 2nd day of blog hops. See, I am not very patient and jumping from blog to blog one day is fun but I wouldn't do it every day!... LOL So just be aware that I won't be posting more blog hop projects this week-end but that some of the other participants might, and if you are interested in seeing more you should check individual blogs Saturday and Sunday... ;-)

For my 2nd card I used a banner from SCAL, and a Star of David wreath from SVGs by Bee. I colored it with a silver Sharpie and embellished it with a bit of Blue Berry Trendy Twine. Everything is propped on foam tape. The sentiment is silver embossed.

SVGs by Bee is my sponsor for this hop and will donate a $5 giftcard to one of the commenter of this post! :-D The perfect opportunity to try her files!... :-) I will pick a random winner Monday.

Your next stop is Becki's blog.
I hope you enjoy hopping with us... :-D

Giveaway winner.

2011-12-01T19:35:00.000-05:00

The winner for the $5 gift certificate from My Thoughts Exactly December release is Kasi, who is already addicted to MTE stamps... ;-) Enjoy Kasi!! :-)

My Thoughts Exactly December release: Holiday Tags

2011-11-28T02:00:00.003-05:00

It's My Thoughts Exactly December Release!! :-D This month, with the Holidays fast approaching, My Thoughts Exactly is releasing 2 sets geared toward Christmas and Holidays... and we are bringing them to you a few days earlier than usual to give you more time... ;-)

The 1st one Holly Jolly Tags is, you guessed it ;-), a set of tags... ;-) As you'll see with my project, it lends himself to more than just Winter Holidays! :-) (for those of you who use an electronic die cutting machine, some svgs are in the work that will match those tags... ;-))

The 2nd one, Holly Jolly Phrases, will be perfect for cards and scrapbook pages, but will also work well with the previous tags.
Actually, they go so well hand in hand that My Thoughts Exactly is also selling them as a bundle! One set is $15 (shipping included) and the bundle is $25 (shipping included also). And we are happy to announce that MTE now ships worldwide! (for an additional fee, calculated at checkout, depending on the destination). Keeping in mind that those ship in an envelope, international shipping should stay reasonable... :-)

So, for my project today I decided to NOT do a Winter Holiday project!... ;-)

I made a trio of Thanksgiving favors to give to my autistic son's teachers...
I started with some adorable 2X2 Mini Kraft Boxes from Annie's Paper Boutique, and stamped all over them with a Martha Stewart stamps set in Fall colors.
I then wrapped some Orange Truffle Trendy Twine all around them and added my tags.

I used the Holly Jolly Tags set, and filled my tags with the Many Thanks set, which I thought was just perfect for the occasion. As you can see those tags are perfect for many projects, not just Christmas-y ones! :-)

I decorated the top with 2 buttons on top of each other and yet another snippet of twine...

Those 2X2 little boxes are the perfect size to fit 6 Ghirardelli Squares, one of my favorite little favor to gift... I was so thrilled when I discovered this!!... :-D (Please don't ask why there are no props... ;-D ) I brought those to school with some Holiday coffee packs... :-)

Now I kept the best for last! My Thoughts Exactly is giving away a $5 gift card to celebrate this new release! :-) Go follow My Thoughts Exactly blog or like their Facebook page, let me know in the comments' section what you did, and I will pick a random winner on December 1st. :-)

Oh and one last thing, you still have till the 30th to apply to be a part of MTE's design team!! Check out the details here!! :-D Come on, don't be shy, we are looking for all kinds of crafters, and your enthusiasm is more important than your experience... Good luck! :-D

Black Friday Trendy Twine and My Thoughts Exactly sales

2011-11-24T22:40:00.002-05:00

For Trendy Twine Black Friday SALE: the coupon code is set to start tonight at 11:00 pm CST and will end tomorrow night at 11:59 pm CST. Enter code BFRIDAY2011 at check out. This code is valid on spools (no sets) and the Extreme Mini Pack (with the 10 regular colors) only. Coupon is for 20% off $35.00 or more (before shipping charges or Texas sales tax). Coupon is valid during the times specified only. :-)

For My Thoughts Exactly, just visit their stamps page here. Every set is on sale for S12 from midnight Thursday night till midnight Friday night, and they will ship Saturday. :-)

Sizzix Eclips on sale...

2011-11-23T17:48:00.001-05:00

As you might now, I have been the owner of a Cricut Expression for 2 years now... Since the big Provocraft lawsuits' scandal, that robbed us of the ability to use SCAL or MTC with Cricut machines, I have vowed to boycott Provocraft and I refuse to buy their products anymore. I have kept using my Cricut with SCAL, making sure not to update either one. But the time has come! :-) I have updated SCAL to the new #3 version today (for free, thank you Craft Edge the maker of the software!) which prevents me from using it with my Cricut anymore.
I plan on selling my Cricut to a loving home where the next owner will be content using cartridges only... ;-) And I will also sell my Cuttlebug, but more about that another time... ;-)

In the meantime, I wanted to let you know that if you are also in the lookout for a new cutter that doesn't break the bank too much, and you want to take advantage of Black Friday specials... Right now at Oh My Craft the Sizzix Eclips + eCal software bundle is $279.99. Use code BLACK15 at checkout (15% off) and it brings it down to $237.99 (with free shipping!) :-D

I think you can guess where my Holiday and (upcoming) birthday money is going... ;-)

My Thoughts Exactly Design Team call

2011-11-22T18:11:00.000-05:00

Just this past summer I was lucky to be chosen as a member of the Design Team of My Thoughts Exactly.
I like it so much there that I am staying for the next term too... ;-) It was a great experience to be there from the get go and see this little company grow and I am looking forward to more growth this coming year... MTE is known for fun and versatile sentiments stamps (each set giving you tons of options!) but they are planning on bringing something new for 2012... yes, I'm a tease but you will just have to wait to know more!... :-D

Because of this, My Thoughts Exactly is looking to add new members to their Design Team... Do you have what it takes??... ;-)

The call is open from now till November 30th. To learn more about this and apply, visit Alyssa's blog. Good luck! :-D

Trendy Twine Tuesday: Baby Carriage

2011-11-15T01:05:00.001-05:00

It's Trendy Twine Tuesday and this week it's my turn to share a project with you. :-)
The color we are showcasing this month is Chocolate Truffle, a beautiful mix of dark brown, caramel and white... :-)
For my project I decided to do a gift-card holder for friends who just welcomed their 6th boy!... :-)

It all started because of this cute little bear giftcard I found at Target and I instantly thought about the awesome little baby carriage Mary designed for SVGCuts.com. I was right because it was the perfect size, and they are quite a smashing duo I think... ;-)

I used some Chocolate Truffle Twine to make a little criss-cross pattern on the hood of the carriage, and also added some little bows on the sides.

Then I used some of the Sky Trendy Twine to make a little stitching on the sides too. It's hard to see in my pic but the cardstock is actually ivory colored and the twine is cream and pale blue colored. It has this soft vintage feel that makes it perfect for baby projects. :-)

If I had more time I would have added a line braided twine handle to mimic the carriage handlebar, but unfortunately time was of the essence... :-( This definitely was a fun project though and I love the result! :-)

My Thoughts Exactly Thursday and my 1st step card...

2011-11-10T01:00:00.006-05:00

It's My Thoughts Exactly Thursday! Today it's my turn and my evil twin Bee's turn to show you our projects.
So I made a step card! Believe it or not in 4 years of papercrafting I have never made a step card. They are really simple to make and they are a lot of fun. :-)

I used a svg file from SVGCuts.com for my card base, but if you like step cards go visit Alyssa's blog, she has an easy video tutorial on how to make them, plus lots of cool step cards of her own... :-)
The clam, seaweeds, starfishes, and crab, are svgs from Lettering Delights. And my sentiment is from the Under the Sea stamps set.

I'm sending this card to my niece who's recovering from pneumonia, I'm sure this will cheer her up. :-)

Trendy Twine Tuesday: Thanksgiving Centerpiece

2011-11-01T14:11:00.001-04:00

For this Trendy Twine Tuesday I made a Centerpiece for Thanksgiving. :-)

I had to take a TON of pictures, and do it again because they were blurry... I think I am suffering from the mental fog of Halloween Candy hangover... So settle down comfortably because there will be a lot... ;-)
My cat absolutely wanted to be part of the photo shoot and I didn't have time to fight him over this, so he is on all the pics... ;-) He was even nibbling at my project!!... >.<

I started with a little wreath from Michaels, then added some fall leaves that I bought on the side with a hot glue gun. Then I took popsicle sticks that I wrapped in Chocolate Truffle Trendy Twine (after putting some double sided tape on both sides of them for extra hold) to make my little posts, and I also used some Orange Truffle Trendy twine to make little "rings" to attach around my centerpiece...

I actually used toilet paper rolls as my base for those. I think I might have to make napkin rings now to match my project!! ;-)

Then I added little Fall details on my poles. I am grateful as a papercrafter to have so many options to get cool svgs so I used some of my favorite companies and put them all together in a happy circle!...
The Give Thanks caption was a freebie from SVGCuts.com.

On the other side I used this gratitude caption, also a freebie from SVG Cuts. :-)

The stunning sunflower is part of the 3D flowers collections at SVGCuts also.

The apple is from Lettering Delights.

The Fall caption and leaves are also from Lettering Delights. (I used Nestabilities for my base)

The Acorn is also from Lettering Delights.

And last but not least, my pumpkin is a tag from the Halloween collection at SVGs by Bee. I added a tiny bow of Twisted Lime Trendy Twine.

I cut every shape (but the Thanks/gratitude tag) twice using a mirror effect so that I could glue them on both sides of the sticks and make it look good from every angle. I used glue at the base of my stick to hold to the shape and then pop dots between the front and back of the shape to accommodate for the added bulk of the stick and give a tad of dimension.

I hope you liked my project today and will be inspired to make some Thanksgiving decorations on your own. If you do feel free to link them into the comments section.

For more Trendy Twine inspiration visit the design team members' blogs:
* Kimberly
* Alyssa

(This is my second post of the day, so if you are looking for the My Thoughts Exactly release post, just scroll down. :-))

My Thoughts Exactly November release: Merci!

2011-11-01T00:05:00.005-04:00

It's the 1st of the month, which means it's My Thoughts Exactly November release! This month the new stamps set is called Many Thanks and it is shock full of options as usual... :-)

Of course I HAD to use Merci to go with my Eiffel Tower... ;-) But the piece of book page is in english because I couldn't seriously consider ripping a french book, LOL... I used 2 different types of ribbons and of course some Trendy Twine... ;-)
Now those colors are a little out of my comfort zone, but I actually really liked the cream and black with a little pop of rouge and will have to do it again... :-) (Cardstock is from Recollection)
The tiny little bow is a sneak peek from the December stamps set... ;-)

Don't forget to check the rest of the design team's projects today:

* Alyssa
* Belinda
* Jennifer
* Jessica
* Lenae
* Thienly

(Today is also Trendy Twine Tuesday so check my other post to come... :-))

Trendy Twine Halloween Sale

2011-10-29T10:45:00.003-04:00

Trendy Twine has a Halloween sale going on this weekend.
Now through Monday the 31st, you can save 15% off twine at Annie's Paper Boutique when you use the code "Halloweenie11" at check out. (That is 2 ones at the end.)

Time to stock up for your Fall projects... :-)

French boarding again... ;-)

2011-10-18T17:53:00.004-04:00

All this talk about french boards reminded me that I had been wanting to make one for my baby's room for about 2 years now and that all the supplies were just sitting in my closet.... :-S Well my "baby" is almost 3 now... so I decided there was no time like the present, even though I was already crunched for time... (yes, that's how we ADHD people function.... it's called impulse... ;-))

I took a picture of the supplies but of course I managed to delete it by mistake... LOL ;-) So you'll just have to imagine:

* a canvas
* nails and a hammer, thumbtacks
* fabric (the one I used has some batting already quilted on the back)
* ribbons
* brads

First you cut the fabric to the right size...

Then you attach the fabric to the canvas' frame with nails. I don't know how to make fancy little arrows on my pic, but the nails are put in horizontally, this way no risk of poking through the front of the project... ;-)

Then you attach a length of ribbon diagonally with thumbtacks.

After that you just keep going alternating colors if you'd like.

I like to weave my ribbons, alternating over and under the previous one...

Then all that's left is poking little holes through the ribbon, fabric, canvas and secure a little brad at the intersections. (You can also glue all the layers together with a hot glue gun, and finish it off with a button like I did here).

All together it took me an hour. The cost is minimal compared to what you can find in stores and the options are endless... :-) Once you start making one you'll make more... ;-)

And voila!... :-) (awaiting family pictures.... ;-))

Trendy Twine Tuesday: Fall mini french board

2011-10-18T01:00:00.003-04:00

It doesn't feel much like fall here in Florida! The temperatures are still in the high 80ies!... >.< I cannot wait for it to cool down... But I am ready for Fall colors as you can see...

For my Trendy Twine Tuesday today I made a mini french board, using Orange/Truffle twine.
I punched little holes at the top and bottom of my strip of cardstock and threaded my twine in a criss-cross pattern, and added some brads.
As you can see from my little felt sign, I am not exactly a born embroiderer... ;-)

I couldn't resist adding some twine to my leaves as usual... ;-)

And here it is above my desk, put to good use as a reminder for all the little projects I would otherwise forget... :-)

My Thoughts Exactly Thursday: Cherry mouse

2011-10-13T00:00:00.003-04:00

It's DT Thursday for My Thoughts Exactly, and today is the "Bee's posting day"... ;-) Don't forget to check out the other Bee's (aka Belinda) project here. :-D

Not quite sure what to tell you about my card for today. I think I was trying to have fun and make something a little different today, and I probably succeeded! LOL ;-)

I used the Sweet Thoughts stamps set, I really wanted to go with a cherry theme, I LOVE everything cherry, it is my favorite fruit and flavor for everything you can think of... ;-) This cute little mouse was feeling lonely in my drawer after I cut her out from A Cricut cartridge (Create a Critter) eons ago... ;-) And I thought it would be unexpected to perch a tiny cherry on the top of her head... And it looks like she is wearing a little french beret... LOL ;-)

The Tag and the Trendy Twine are of course from Annie's Paper Boutique... :-) The tag was just sitting on my desk, and when I picked this yellow striped paper it called out my name!... ;-)

Halloween Blog Hop winner

2011-10-10T15:51:00.000-04:00

I swear this is not the same pic from the last giveaway!! LOL just the same random number! How weird is that? I guess that's as random as can be... :-)

My winner is Brigit from Brigit's Scraps. Congratulations and thank you to everyone for leaving such sweet comments. I am glad you had fun with the hop and enjoyed all the projects you saw. :-D

This Thursday is my My Thoughts Exactly posting day so there will be another card... and next Tuesday is my Trendy Twine posting day, so another project to come... :-)

Have a great week everyone! :-D

A blinkie!!

2011-10-09T21:14:00.000-04:00

A big Thank You to Brian from My Thoughts Exactly (you know he's Alyssa's husband, the tech guy behind the curtains!... ;-)) for making this lovely blinkie for my blog. Isn't it the cutest?!... :-)
Feel free to grab it. :-D

Fang-tastic Halloween Blog Hop

2011-10-07T00:00:00.002-04:00

Welcome to the Fang-tastic Blog Hop! If you arrived from Becki's blog, The Happy Card Encouragement Factory, you are on the right track! :-D

Here is our line up:

Alyssa (our Blog Hop Hostess) at My Thoughts Exactly
Becki at The Happy Card Encouragement Factory
Bee at Dare to Bee Creative (<- you're here! :-))
Bee(Linda) at Bee's Hive O' Drama
Cher at Cher's Studio
Jennifer at Our Change Of Art
Jessica at Crafty Rocket Science
Kim at Kimberly's Crafty spot
Lenae at Sugar Gem
Thienly at Mod Paperie

For this blog hop we have been lucky to have wonderful sponsors help us out for give-away etc... I won't list all of them here (they are on the hop picture above) but I will mention the ones I used products from:

Trendy Twine for the beautiful twines, The Digi Bistro and SVGs by Bee for their adorable svg files.
And all the stamps I used are from My Thoughts Exactly.

Now onto my project... I made some cards for this hop. I had something different in mind but my baby was coughing his lungs out this whole week, and I had to move to plan B... ;-)

But I got a little carried away and ended up actually making 4 cards because I wanted to use everybody's files... ;-)

I am posting all of them today, even though the hop will be going on for the whole week-end. Tomorrow is Yom Kippur and I will not be blogging... ;-)

Because of the amount of pics, I will spare you details pics, you can click on pictures for a bigger version if you'd like.

Isn't that little witch wickedly cute? :-) It's a file from SVGs by Bee. I gave her a petticoat, added some Stickles to her shoes, some glass pearls and twine to her hat, drew some freckles on her face and even gave her bangs... The sentiment is heat embossed with white powder.

This is the inside of the card... :-)

For this one, I just couldn't resist making a little twine broom to go with the sentiments... ;-D I simply made a little tassel out of twine and glued it on my card, the handle is on pop dots...
I used Nestabilities to cut out a window on 2 pieces of paper and swapped the middles. I like the sort of puzzle effect it gives... ;-)

This is the inside of the broom card... ;-)

Don't you just love those little Jack-O-Lanterns? They're the work of The Digi Bistro. :-) I used the same technique as the broom card for the background but this time I popped the frame part with foam tape, which gives a tiny bit of a shadow box effect... :-)

Here's the inside... My Thoughts Exactly Halloween stamps are really perfect for all kind of combinations!... :-)

And this last one is for a little surprise, a Halloween card without Halloween colors or scenery... ;-)
The files are from The Digi Bistro, I have been dying to use this little bat since I 1st saw him... <3

And this is the inside...

Now if you have been very patient with me and read all the way till the end of this post, you'll be happy to know that SVGs by Bee is my sponsor for this hop and that one lucky commenter will receive a $10 gift certificate for her online SVGs store. Since I am not the one giving this away I will ask that you either follow her blog or like her business Facebook Page, in order to be entered in the drawing. It's only fair since you'll want to be kept in the loop to learn about new files and freebies... ;-)

Well, that's it for this LONG post, thanks for visiting and bearing with me! :-)

Your next stop is none other than Bee(Linda) at Bee's Hive O' Drama.
I hope you'll enjoy all the projects of this hop, and remember that each blog will enter you for a different giveaway! :-D

Have a great week-end! :-)

MTE Gift certificate winner

2011-10-05T09:44:00.000-04:00

And the winner of the $5 My Thoughts Exactly gift certificate is Melanie from In Love with a Bug.

Thanks everyone for your lovely comments! (And thanks Tammy for pointing out that fabric softener tip... ;-)) :-)

Don't forget this Week-end (starting Friday) we have our Halloween Blog-Hop going on, and there will be lots of fun Halloween projects and giveaways. :-)

Trendy Twine Tuesday

2011-10-04T12:00:00.014-04:00

It's Trendy Twine Tuesday and here is my latest project with the new fall color Orange-Truffle from Trendy Twine. this color is perfect for everything fall so I decided to make a card for the Jewish New Year which was a few days ago. (Jews use a lunar calendar for their Holidays so it doesn't always fall at the same time.)

I really liked those autumn colors so I decided to make 2 different cards with the same layout and papers but swap them. I am actually not sure which one I like best!... ;-)

Apples and honey are images associated with the Jewish New Year (for a sweet year ahead) so the Autumn Flourish svg collection from Lettering Delights was perfect for my project.
I used the flourish under the apple as a base to glue my twine on. (I colored it brown first so that it would blend together better).

The flowers were made old fashion style... stamped and hand cut! (I can hear Bee(linda) gasps, as she's reading this... LOL ;-)) For the centers I punched a hole in the middle and twirled my twine around and made another hole at the end to tuck my twine in, this gives a neater result than trying to hide and glue the ends. :-)

Then I added a little sewing detail on the leaf (again punched tiny holes in the felt and used a tapestry needle) and tied my little tag with more twine... :-)

I wish I could tell you that no twine was hurt in the making of this project, but you know that I cannot lie... >.< So yes, I have to admit that there was a little bit of cursing involved... ;-) That's what happens when you have big clumsy fingers like me... ;-D
I recommend using a fast drying (and clear drying) glue for this type of project, and the use of tweezers to help hold things down as you go, and you should be just fine! :-)

And here they are, all together... :-)

This month, the twine on sale is Grape Fizz.

And don't forget to visit the Trendy Twine Blog for this month challenge! This time around you have to make a project using a pumpkin or Jack-O-Lantern and some twine... The winner gets a spool of Orange-Truffle, and one random winner will get 30 yards of Orange-Truffle. :-)

My Thoughts Exactly October release: Surprise Pumpkin

2011-10-01T00:07:00.004-04:00

It's October 1st, which means it's time for another My Thoughts Exactly Stamps release, and this month 2 stamps sets are released just in time for your Halloween projects! :-)
I took a lot of pics and you'll be here for a while so settle down comfortably... ;-)

For my card today I used svg files from SVGs by Bee. This cute little pumpkin-cat combo is called Pumpkin has a surprise...

And here is the surprise! The card contains a little cat slider...

Here he is if you take him completely out... :-)

The card opens like a regular shaped card...

Now for the stamps, there are 2 sets released this month and I used both on my project. You won't believe the number of sayings those sets contain. They are perfect for scrapbook pages, cards, and all those little treat bags projects!... :-)

The sign on the front of my card comes from the Fright Night Phrases set.

This cute little tag attached to the cat's neck comes from the Ghostly Greetings set.

The inside sentiment comes from the Ghostly Greetings set also. And let's not forget the cute little bat smiley that comes from the Fright Night Phrases set.

I hand cut the little leaf out of felt and used some twisted Lime Trendy Twine to add some details and make little tendrils.
(To make the tendrils, simply wrap some wax paper around a pencil, drench some twine in glue and curl it around the pencil, let it dry, then fight with it to remove it from the damn wax paper, and voila!! :-D)

Each stamps set is $15 (shipping included) but if you buy both sets together as the Halloween Bundle, it's only $25! :-)

And to reward you for reading all the way till the bottom of this long post... My Thoughts Exactly is giving away a $5 gift certificate to one lucky commenter on this post! (that's like 33% off any one stamp set...). This time I ask that you either become a follower of my blog here, or that you follow me on Facebook. If you do both, post a 2nd comment for an extra chance to win... I usually don't ask for anything from you but I thought it would be nice for once to acknowledge the people that have been kindly following me! :-) (thanks for your support!)

Don't forget to visit the other DT members' blogs for some awesome projects highlighting those incredibly versatile stamps!:

Alyssa at My Thoughts Exactly
Bee at Bee's Hive O' Drama
Jessica at Crafty Rocket Science
Jennifer at Our change of Art
Lenae at Sugar Gem
Thienly at Mod Paperie

And last but not least, let me take this opportunity to announce the Fang-tastic Halloween blog-hop that will take place next Friday (till Sunday), come back for more Halloween projects and giveaways! :-D

Birthday Glittery window

2011-09-29T17:00:00.001-04:00

I made this card for my niece's birthday and I used no electronic cutting machine or svgs!... :-) Yay! I love taking a break from my cutter! ;-) It's hard to see on that pic but the sentiment is on vellum paper... (that's why you have my inky fingers on the pic to keep it closed... ;-)).

The card is actually made of 3 panels and the frame is a window cut out using Nestabilities. The glittery pink frame is also cut out using two Nestabilities inside each other. Of course I had to add a tiny bow of Trendy Twine somewhere... ;-)

The second layer showcases the fun designer paper... :-)

Onesie card

2011-09-29T16:37:00.000-04:00

I made this simple onesie shaped card for my nephew's 1st birthday, using the Peek-a-Boo svg set from Lettering Delights. It's just wide enough to hold a gift card and still fits in a regular enveloppe. :-)

SVGs by Bee, Design Team

2011-09-20T13:03:00.002-04:00

If you follow my blog, you must know by now that my friend Bee (aka my evil twin ;-)) recently decided to take her creativity to a new level and opened a SVGs store: SVGs by Bee. :-)

I know it won't come as a big surprise, but she asked me to be part of her Design team, and honestly how could I say no??... ;-D

So here we are! My fellow DT members are:

* Alyssa from My Thoughts Exactly
* Becki from The Happy Card Encouragement Factory
And of course Bee will also be featuring her SVGs on her blog Bee's Hive O' Drama. :-)

Our little Bee has been busy working on her Halloween collections, and this is what I used for my card today. :-) All those files are from the Bee-Witching Halloween Collection.

Isn't that little bat too cute? I cut her out of shimmery midnight blue cardstock, I love that color. The talk bubble is from SCAL. And the beautiful tri-color twine is of course from Trendy Twine. (I know, I couldn't resist adding a little bit of twine, having those big spools sitting right next to me, it's too tempting!!.... ;-))
It's hard to see on my flat pic but the purple background (hmm yeah, it was supposed to represent the sky with stars, LOL) is on foam tape, as are the branch and the bat... (you know how much I love my foam tape... ;-))

Well that's it for today, I hope you will pay Bee a little visit if you haven't already. Don't forget to check Becki's and Alyssa's blogs to see their adorable projects using Bee's files. :-)

(Today is also Trendy Twine Tuesday so you can see my post here.)

Trendy Twine Tuesday: Sweet forrest tin

2011-09-20T03:00:00.004-04:00

It's TTT! Trendy Twine Tuesday... and this time I made a little tin for my sweet friend Bee and used Trendy Twine in place of ribbon to cover the sides of the tin. The paper is from the Country Drive collection by Echo Park.

Sorry for the pictures' overload but I want to show you from every angle... ;-)

I used Peppermint Stick Trendy Twine for the lid, and Chocolate Truffle Trendy Twine for the bottom.

I love the sort of "rustic" look, and I think it feels wonderful also when you hold the tin in your hand.
I used Terrifically Tacky Tape to hold the twine in place and it was really easy and this twine ain't going anywhere. ;-)

I covered the inside with more paper, and put little crafting goodies in mini zip bags that I decorated with mini twine bows....

And to finish it off, I wrapped it up like a big candy... :-)

Sympathy leaves

2011-09-19T18:42:00.000-04:00

A very simple card I made for my neighbor/friend who just lost her Dad... I never quite know what to do for sympathy cards, I like to keep them ultra simple and often use autumn leaves because someone's passing reminds me of a fall leave in the wind... The paper is from a photo stack from DCWV which has great nature pictures... I just added a little Trendy Twine to "warm" it up...

My Thoughts Exactly Thursday: September

2011-09-08T02:00:00.001-04:00

You might have noticed there was no release for My Thoughts Exactly this month... Not to worry, there are currently several sets in production and things got a little backed up but you will soon get to see the new sets and it will be worth the wait... ;-) But honestly, Alyssa's sets have so many sayings in them that we could post projects for months with just one set!!... ;-)

Here I used the Birds & Bees set again, because it was such a great match for my Fluffles and my Echo Park paper, and I thought it would be a great pick-me-up for a sweet friend of mine... :-) Of course I had to add a little bit of Trendy Twine there too... ;-)

This week my partner in crime is Bee, and don't forget to also visit Alyssa's blog for more DT projects... :-D

Trendy Twine Giveaway winner! :-)

2011-09-06T17:10:00.001-04:00

I apologize for not picking up a winner for the Trendy Twine yesterday, I completely forgot!! >.< Well I guess that gave everyone one more day to enter, right??... :-P

My winner is Tammy, who left me 3 comments and #2 was selected by random generator. Her birthday was the 3rd, so happy birthday Tammy, I hope you enjoy your twine bundle gift!! Please e-mail me your mailing address. :-)
Thank you to everyone who entered. For more chances to win some Trendy Twine, visit the Trendy Twine blog challenge, you have till the end of the month to enter your project! :-)

Trendy Twine Tuesday: RED Project

2011-09-06T01:00:00.010-04:00

As you know, Trendy Twine has just started a Design Team and I am one of the lucky members! :-) This month starts the beginning of our monthly projects. Each month we will focus on a different color and make projects with it. The 1st Tuesday we will all post together, and every Tuesday afterwards a different member of our team will post a project with that color.
For September we chose Peppermint Stick RED as we are all in the mood for back to school and apples come to mind... ;-) In honor of this kick off, Peppermint Stick Trendy Twine will be on sale for $7.50 this whole week. :-)

My husband was in France last week and he brought back some nougats (probably my favorite treat...;-P). He wanted to share some with his coworkers, so I made a cute little packaging for them.
I started with some adorable (and so easy to use) Mini Kraft Gable Boxes from Annie's Paper Boutique. All I had to do was stamp on them and decorate them a little. The beauty of those little boxes is that kraft goes with everything and with all of the twine colors! ;-)

Here I used some organza ribbon and some Peppermint Stick RED twine. I really love the color combo of red with craft and white! :-) I finished it off with a little tag, attached with matching twine, and a little medallion glued over my twine and ribbon using foam tape (this way the medallion is glued to the box and the twine and ribbon can move freely under it).
The square medallion stamp is by Stampin'Up, and this adorable little ladybug with a flower is from Stampendous. :-)
As you can see, I was really good and ate the props only after I was done taking pictures... ;-D

So in order to kick off this month's introduction of twine, we decided to have you participate in a little challenge.
The theme this month is "what's your favorite use of twine". For me aside from cards, I like to use twine on packages and gifts and with tags just like above. I think it always adds a little something happy and fun to gifts.
Once your project is done, head over to the Trendy Twine Blog, where you will find a Mr Linky at the bottom of the post where you can add a link to your project. You have till September 29 to enter.
The DT will pick their favorite project, and this person will receive a big spool (160 yards) of red twine, then we will pick a random winner who will get 30 yards of red twine. I hope to see how you like to use twine on your projects very soon! :-)

And last but not least, don't forget to check Alyssa's and Kim's blogs to see their projects featuring Peppermint Stick Trendy Twine. :-)

Back to School at Lettering Delights

2011-09-03T13:13:00.000-04:00

Have you seen the new collections for Back to School at Lettering Delights?

Those are so cute and come in either Cut-it files or graphic files. Wether or not you are ready for back-to-school those sets will put a smile on your face (or your kids'... ;-))

Isn't the Toad-ally School set so totally cool?... :-P

Or how about the School of fish? :-)

And at check-out time you can grab this fun little set which is only available as a sneak peek for now... :-)
Hope everyone has a great Labor Day week-end, and that you find some time to craft! :-)

I know, you're jealous....

2011-08-31T16:50:00.000-04:00

There's room to add some more... ;-)

My "design team Loot"... ;-)

I hope you have noticed there is some space left in my big jar... ;-) There are 4 new colors of Trendy Twine in the making... ;-P

Don't forget you still have a few days to enter my giveaway to win a sampler pack of the 6 basic colors... :-)

Secrets mini Tags-album

2011-08-30T16:35:00.001-04:00

I made this little album for my daughter to write little secrets she wants to remember later on... I used Echo Park Springtime paper, the stamps are from My Thoughts Exactly (this is the Birds & Bees set) and the other goodies are from Annie's Paper Boutique.

Basically I just made a cardstock and pattern paper cover around little kraft enveloppes/sleeves, and put little colored tags in the pockets...

To keep everything neatly in place, I used magnet tape strips because it is flat.

For the inside I used mini Kraft sleeves that I covered on one side with pattern paper. I LOVE those mini sleeves, they are so tiny and cute and can be used for all kind of things. <3 :-) I punched some holes in them with my Crop-O-Dile and attached everything together with some Trendy Twine...

I left the other side natural since my daughter might want to use stickers in her album or scribble on them. Plus I like the contrast of the kraft with all the other colors. :-)

Inside each pocket I inserted a colorful tag. Those are so fun to use, and they come reinforced, I just added a tiny bit of twine to each one to make a little "pull handle"... ;-)

Each little tag is individually housed in its little pocket... but you could also chose to have a tag every other pocket etc... And the number of tags or pockets is really whatever you want it to be, you just adapt the size of the cover accordingly...

Here it is when you remove the tags. As you can see this is a really easy project that is fun and that kids will love receiving. You can use the pockets to stash little memorabilia like tickets to events or you could glue little pictures on the sleeves and write journaling on the tags, etc... You could also make a booklet without tags and use it like I do: to store those Box Tops for example or other little proof of purchase or clipped off food labels. No more stashing them as is in the kitchen junk drawer... ;-)

7 (very) random things.

2011-08-25T18:59:00.002-04:00

A couple of weeks ago, Becki from The Happy Card Encouragement Factory (say that 5 times really fast ;-)) so nicely gave me a blog award that I did nothing about until now... *shame*

See, it's not that I am lazy, well I am but only a little bit, I think... ;-) but the thought of having to share 7 random things with you totally stopped me in my tracks. It was part of the game of accepting this award, as was passing it on to 8 more persons... Well I know it's not too cool but I won't be passing it on because, it is too hard for me to pick 8 blogs at the moment (well I said I was a little lazy...)...

As for the 7 random things, it's gonna be as random as it gets, and since I don't talk much about my personal life on this blog, here's your chance to learn a little more about me, but feel free to skip the post alltogether and I really won't hold a grudge... ;-)

1- I have recently been diagnosed with ADHD. This came as quite a shock for me but in retrospect sadly explain so much about my life! :-s It's been rocking my world a little as I try to figure out what to do next and how to get better since this won't go away with a good night's sleep... Now when you see in my blog posts that my brain won't connect today or that it took me forever to make a card it will all make sense... ;-)

2- My dream is to be a writer. Now I doubt it will ever happen because, I don't think I could write about something else than my life and I don't want to revisit some events from my past (and seriously nobody would want to buy that book), and also because I have lost a lot of my french and think primarily in english now, but I am not fluent enough in "litterary english" to write something that would be beautiful. I'm bummed about it... Maybe I will have to write my life story anyway for my grandkids... ;-)

3- In the last year or so I have started to believe in reincarnation. That is something that I found really disturbing at 1st and that turned my religious views upside down a little, but the more I think about it, the more it makes sense. I find it a little scary and rather fascinating at the same time.

4- I love (and collect) things in blue glass (bottles, glasses, votive holders...). (I told you it would be random! ;-))

5- This month marks the 10th anniversary of my uninterrupted living in the States (before that I lived here for 2 years before moving back to France for a year), and I will soon look into the naturalization process. (>.<)

6- I love peonies, probably because they bring back memories of my childhood garden. (Although the ones in that garden were hot pink, and I like the pale pink and cream variety...)

7- I have a start-crush on "Brangelina", I believe they are generous people that use their money and fame to make the world a better place and I admire that (plus I think they look good together but that's a different topic altogether... ;-)).

Trendy Twine Giveaway

2011-08-25T10:54:00.002-04:00

I apologize for only posting this now but I currently have 3 sick kiddos at home, they all got "hand, foot & mouth disease" due to an outbreak at the toddler's school... :-S My 5th grader only went to school for 2 days before she had to stay home... >.< So much for back to school week! :-(

Needless to say, crafting time is non existent, and I didn't get a chance to do a back-to-school card like I had initially planned. Instead, I decided to use the time my husband provided yesterday (by watching my pack of little wolves) wisely, and made a card for my Mom's birthday. It is tomorrow and she won't get it on time, especially since it has to travel to France, but unfortunately this is the story of my life... ;-)

I used My Thoughts Exactly Birds & Bees stamps set, some cute Echo Park paper, and Lettering Delight SVG. And because this is all about the twine today, I used some yummy Twisted Lime green Trendy Twine. Nothing fancy, but a little bit of twine goes a long way to make your card fresh and fun!... :-) The floral paper is on foam tape (as are the bird and the talk bubble) which allows for the twine to be around the card and gives a little added dimension.

As you probably know, I have been lucky enough to be asked by Trendy Twine to be part of their new design team... :-) So in order to celebrate our debut, and to give you a little taste of what's to come, Lesley is giving away a Trendy Twine sampler pack to one lucky commenter. Believe me when I tell you that this twine is so much nicer in real life than you can imagine from the pictures only. Now is the chance to see for yourself. Also I want to point out that there are tons of uses for twine even if you are not a papercrafter. Twine makes any gift more festive and it's the perfect little touch to attach tags... :-)

I usually don't ask anything from you, but today I will be a little annoying and require that you go visit Trendy Twine's store page and then leave me a comment here telling me which color is your favorite. BTW, just so you know, more colors are in the making, especially a brown-orange combo for Thanksgiving and Fall projects, and a pale blue and pink combo which will be perfect for baby projects... ;-)

Please only leave one comment per person. For additionnal chances to win you can go like Trendy Twine Facebook page or become a follower of Trendy Twine's blog (this will keep you updated on the new colors to come and on giveaways) and leave me an additional comment here letting me know you did so. So, just to be clear you can leave up to 3 comments, depending on what you did... ;-)

This giveaway will be ongoing till Labor Day (September 5th). Feel free to share the info with your friends! :-) On September 6th we will kick off the design team projects and there will be a challenge and more chances to win some gorgeous twine... :-)

Good luck! :-)

In the spotlight: SVGS By Bee

2011-08-24T16:54:00.002-04:00

My dear friend Bee finally opened her little svgs shop SVGs by Bee! :-)
Go visit her for one of a kind all original svgs, you won't find mere copies of other companies' designs there! And she is also working on different types of files for other machines. She will sell individual svgs and mini collections... :-)

Twine give away to come...

2011-08-18T10:24:00.001-04:00

Do you like twine? Do you like awesome out-of-the-ordinary tricolor twine?? :-P

Then come back next week... In honor of back to school, Trendy Twine will be giving away a sampler pack right here on my blog. :-D And the following week will be the debut of our design team, so there will be a challenge going on all month long and you could win more twine! :-)

Right now you can also win twine on Kimberly's blog! :-)
You can never have too much twine, can you!? ;-P

Enjoy your last days of summer everyone! :-)

(P.S: Yes I love my thumb, and I just couldn't cut it out of the picture... ;-))

40 things

2011-08-15T16:34:00.001-04:00

No project today... So this filler picture is just to show you the furry parasite that constantly tries to put his rear end on my projects... and the new desk calendar that is supposed to help me keep track of my new DT assignments (so that hopefully I can stop doing things at the last minute.... ;-)) and also will be a catch all for what goes through my head while I'm crafting... :-)

I just wanted to share with you one of my on-going projects.... Not that it is super original or anything, but it is something that I have been wanting to do since last year and I hope to finally start this year...
A lot of scrapbooking seems to be about family and kids pics, and vacations and such... I want to do those too, and I am terrible at it because I can't seem to find the time... >.< But I also want to be a little selfish and scrapbook about myself... ;-) Last year I turned 40, it was kind of an important milestone for me for many reasons that are personal and that I won't share here, but the more I thought about it the more I wanted to make a scrapbook album with 40 things about me. I didn't get to it not surprisingly, and now I am 41, but who cares?... I am still going to make this album that I hope to leave behind me so that my grandkids (and maybe great-grandkids) can learn a little bit about who their grandmother was... ;-) I plan on making some serious pages and a lot of not so serious pages. For example there will be a page about my love for clouds, and another one about all the different haircolors I sported in my life (luckily for that one there wasn't always photographic evidence...)...

Have you ever made a project like that? What is your special on-going project?...

The cat is out of the bag (and playing with twine)...

2011-08-12T11:24:00.004-04:00

Yes, the cat is out of the bag and playing with twine!! Trendy Twine that is!!! :-D
Lesley made her announcement so I can share my little secret with you too... Trendy Twine now has a Design Team, and I am in it! :-D I am psyched and totally humbled, and I hope I can do this lovely cotton yarn justice!! :-P

My sweet and talented co-team members are Alyssa from My Thoughts Exactly, and Kimberly from Kimberly's Crafty Spot, I am so lucky! :-D We should start showcasing projects in September so stay tuned!... :-)

Oh and a little reminder that right now and till Sunday night the sampler pack of 6 colors is on sale for only $6 right here. If you haven't tried Trendy Twine yet, now is your chance! :-D

"My Thoughts Exactly Thursday" (part 2) : Birthday fishes

2011-08-11T02:02:00.000-04:00

This is post #2 for the My Thoughts Exactly Thursday, so if you missed post #1 just scroll down...
I took tons of pics and thought it would be better to separate in 2 posts...
First let me tell you I am in LOVE with this card! I hope I don't toot my own horn too often, but it's not everyday that my card comes out exactly the way I wanted it!!... So I am so thrilled about that! ;-)

When I saw this koi fish in the Asia collection of Lettering Delights, I knew right away I would use it... If I ever had my dream house one day it would have a zen garden with a pond with fishes... :-)
But back to my project... ;-P Please bear with me for the load of pics...

I cut out windows in my card front and background paper with Nestabilities, and used blue vellum paper as my "water"...

To have this as a true window, I used the same background as the card's front (origami paper) on the inside to have a finished look...

To reinforce the "water feel", I crumpled my vellum paper before flattening it again, I just love all the wrinkles this created! :-)

For my sentiment I used balsa wood and a Nestabilities tag, and stamped birthday Fishes from the Under the Sea set.

Don't forget to visit Alyssa's and Bee's blogs today for more projects with My Thoughts Exactly stamps! :-)

"My Thoughts Exactly Thursday" (part 1) : Fairy Dust

2011-08-11T02:00:00.003-04:00

It's Thursday and this week it is my turn and Bee's turn to post our My Thoughts Exactly Design Team projects. :-)
I made this card for one of my nieces whose birthday is coming up... Every little girl love fairies, right?...

I used a fairy silhouette SVG that was a freebie from SVG Cuts (cut it out twice to have 2 arms and 2 wings), and used a beautiful dark blue shimmery cardstock (from PTI), and added a little bit of stickles for the "fairy dust"... ;-) (with that sentiment there HAD to be sparkle somewhere!... ;-))
The gift is made by simply cutting out a square and tying Trendy Twine around it. :-) (couldn't decide on the yummy colors, so had to use 2! ;-))

For the sentiment I used the Sweet Thoughts set, and wanted to have a little fun with it so I bent my stamps to give them this little curve and then cut my little banner around it by hand...

This is my post #1 for today since I took a lot of pics for my card #2. If you missed it post #2 is just above this one... :-)
Don't forget to visit Alyssa's and Bee's blogs today for more projects!... :-D

In the spotlight: Trendy Twine

2011-08-07T15:02:00.003-04:00

Ok, unless you have been living under a rock, you know that baker's twine is all the rage in crafting lately. It has been for a while actually, which means that you have more and more options on the market... ;-)
This twine called Trendy Twine is different from the others. Not sure if you can see it very well in this picture, but Trendy Twine is tricolor. I was so excited to receive it that I didn't think of taking a pic before making a mess with it. You don't want to see what my cute little bundles look like now... (sorry Lesley... >.<) So basically, this twine is made of 2 colors (dark + light of the same hue) and then white, which gives it a distinctive look. It's yummy in real life... :-P

My favorites are the Blue Berry blue and the Strawberry Cupcake pink, and that new Krazy for Kraft shade is actually very versatile and add just a nice textural element to cards without taking away from the rest of the design... But let's face it I haven't found one I don't like... :-P
There is also a highly popular black and orange color, sure to be a hit for Halloween projects, and soon to come a new hue made of a baby blue and baby pink together, making it perfect for all those baby projects! :-)

Lesley the owner of Annie's Paper Boutique, (and the designer of the Trendy Twines) is really sweet and I like dealing with someone one of one instead of a big company, so I say if you haven't checked Trendy Twine yet, it is time to pay her a little visit and go see all her yummy colors from closer, she has very cute little samplers packs so you can try lots of colors!... :-D

Cute as a button

2011-08-04T01:05:00.001-04:00

It's Thursday, so I am sharing with you a card made with My Thoughts Exactly stamps... :-)
I used the new set Sweet Thoughts again. When I saw the saying "cute as a", I knew I had to use it with that stamp set from Gel-a-tin. I have had it for years, and the concept of that card has been in my little "Ideas booklet" forever, so it was time to execute! ;-)

To create a frame for my buttons I used a rectangle Nestabilities with the rubber mat (for embossing) on the other side to prevent it from actually cutting through... The key here obviously is to use a thick cardstock... :-)
For my buttons background (and to have my buttons stay in their frames) I did some masking with Post-Its.

To finish it up, I found this cute little button that fit right onto my paper banner! :-) I refrained from putting twine through it because I thought it was too predictable and decided instead to use the twine on a random button on the card for something a little different... ;-)

Don't forget to visit Alyssa's blog for more projects today, and next Thursday is my turn (and the other Bee's... ;-)) to show you another project... :-p

My Thoughts Exactly August stamps release

2011-08-01T01:08:00.003-04:00

It's that time of the month again: My Thoughts Exactly stamps release! :-)

This month there are 2 new stamps sets: Sweet Thoughts and Grillin' & Chillin'. The 1st one is all about, well, sweets!.. LOL And the 2nd one is about BBQ, picnics and pool parties... What better way to keep the summer spirit a little longer before Back to School sneaks on us?... ;-)

As always, MTE stamps allow for a lot of playing around with words and creating just what you want... :-) You will see in the future how you can use those sayings in unexpected ways, but for today's projects I was pretty straight forward... :-)

For my 1st card I went all the way with the cupcake theme! And I used yummy Trendy Twine to make little sprinkles on my cupcake, just like one of the cupcakes on my background paper.... ;-) The digi paper and SVGs are from Lettering Delights. (It was my 1st time using photoshop to print digipaper and I was quite proud of myself, even if I had no clue what I was doing.... LOL Still I managed to make it lighter than the original, I even tried printing it on vellum but then it was a little too subdued...)

For my 2nd card I went with an ice-cream theme and used little tags to stamp my sentiment. Since MTE stamps come in little segments to assemble together, it's really easy to stamp them in all kind of different configurations... :-) I had a hard time picking between the Blue Berry twine and the Strawberry cupcake twine, so I decided to use both... :-D (And I used the new Kraft color to bring my little cone to life...)

Now that you have seen my projects, don't forget to visit Alyssa's blog. She has pics and links to all of the DT members' projects, plus a few interesting things to share with you!
For starters she will give away a stamp set to a lucky commenter, but also this month 2 of our talented DT members who design SVGs created a little surprise for you!: When you purchase the Sweet Thoughts stamp set, you'll receive the Sweet Shoppe Bag SVG (designed by Lenae from Sugar Gem) for free. And when you purchase the Grillin' & Chillin' stamp set, you'll receive the Burger-vite & its 2 envelopes SVGs (designed by my alter-ego Bee from Bee's Hive O' Drama) for free.
Both Lenae and Bee (aka Belinda) have projects using those SVGs on their respective blogs.
The cherry on top is a video of Brian (Alyssa's husband and the other half of My Thoughts Exactly) making his own card!.... ;-)
Don't forget to visit our other DT members' pages: Jennifer, Jessica and last but not least Thienly! :-)

Well I hope you enjoyed this release, and remember that there will be projects all month long (every Thursday) from Alyssa and the Design Team. :-)

For April and Hodari

2011-07-20T12:43:00.002-04:00

This is the season!! Wedding season that is... My hubby's cousin is getting married this week-end... :-)

I wanted a card that was simple, monochromatic, with texture and somewhat chic.

I don't know if I achieved it, but it doesn't matter because I like the card! LOL! :-D

In case you don't know, my very favorite thing to do on/with paper is embossing it... :-) <3Here I combined my 2 loves... dry embossing (background) + heat embossing (sentiment). :-D
My ribbons are getting a little jealous of all the twine I have been using lately... ;-) so I married them together too... white sheer ribbon + colored twine = love. And the 2 pearls also reinforce the idea of a pair...

Now let me reassure you, I don't think about all of this while I make the card, LOL (I am not THAT crazy yet... ;-))... I just like to see meaning in things, so after I'm done I see little details and give them a reason to be there... :-)

Love Always

2011-07-14T00:39:00.001-04:00

Today is Thursday which means more projects from the My Thoughts Exactly's Design Team.
It's Thienly and Lenae's turn today. I decided to add a simple card to their projects...

I sat at my desk with the intention of doing something simple, but it was one of those days when my brain doesn't want to connect... There was no way I was using my Cricut, and I was going in all kind of different directions till I finally took a deep breath and pulled out my heart dies... :-D
I made the card with my daughter in mind, because I think kids need to be repeated sometimes that we love them no matter what... ;-)
I cut out some hearts from an old novel and the big red one is made of felt. See, this is why I love my dies, I can cut though different types of materials, it's faster than setting up the Cricut, and it is rather foolproof. The Cricut completely tore the novel pages no matter what settings I tried in the past... :-(

For my sentiment I used the Birds & Bees set, and mixed several stamps, making my own little saying by inking only parts of them. How versatile is that?... This is a pun set but so much more than that. It's fun to try to come up with more and more sayings... :-D

Don't forget to visit Alyssa, Thienly and Lenae's blogs today... :-)

Happy Bastille Day to my french family and friends! :-)

Paper Dolls Guest Designer

2011-07-11T06:00:00.004-04:00

It's Monday! I hate Mondays, but luckily it means another cool challenge over at the Paper Dolls's blog... ;-)
This week I have the honor of being one of their guest designers, my assignment was to use 3D flowers svgs designed by Jani from Paper Compulsions.
I decided to use them in a more traditional somewhat flat format, which makes it easier to mail, LOL ;-)
Both flowers and leaves/folliage are from Paper Compulsions. The little fence is from Lettering Delights (Easter file in the Simple Shapes collection). And the bees are hand traced. The twine is from the Twinery.
(I didn't used a sentiment since I didn't make it for someone in particular... :-D)

I hope you'll find time to go play with the Paper Dolls this week!... :-D

For Stephanie and Steve

2011-07-10T19:57:00.002-04:00

I made this card for my cousin Stephanie who is getting married next week-end! I doubt my card will make it on time unfortunately.... :-S My cards to Naomi have been talking a week! Insane!... :-(

Anyway, I had a clear vision of what I wanted in my head but my stupid Cricut gave me major trouble, refusing to cut little details correctly, I almost gave up, but you all know I am rather stubborn, and I was not ready to let the machine win!...
I'll spare you the different stages and the un-doing to do something else, here is the finished version and I am happy to say that I like it! ;-)

I used a method called paper toling, which means that you glue several identical shapes on top of each other to give them body and dimension, Here only 2 layers. The files are from Lettering Delights, from the wedding collection in the Simple Shapes. (Told you I love those simple shapes, already use them all the time! Today is the last day to get them on sale...) I just love the simple lines of that dress... <3

The twine is from The Twinery, love this muted color. I used ivory, turquoise and dark chocolate brown (which looks more like black in my pic) for my card since those are the wedding colors my cousin picked. Gorgeous pairing in my opinion... :-D

I didn't want to use a classic "congratulations" sentiment so I looked into my birthday sentiments stamps instead, and I was thrilled when I found this one, exactly what I had in mind! :-D I used copper embossing powder, I love the sort of "antique look" it gives... :-)

I'm so glad I was finally able to have the card look like what I had envisonned... :-)

Whimsy Bee

2011-07-08T14:19:00.001-04:00

As far as I am concerned, papercrafting is about having fun and being creative without boundaries....

So today I made a wacky card and I kind of like it! :-)

I used the little asian girl from the Asia collection of Lettering Delights simple Shapes Super Bundle, and turned it into a funny looking bee! ;-) (BTW, the bundle is only on sale till Sunday, so if you haven't caved already, check it out or you will kick yourself afterwards... I LOVE it, so so many options!...) The wings are from the bee in the bugs collection from the same bundle...

But anyway, when I saw this little china doll I thought bee, don't know why but it had to bee this way... ;-)

Now my hubby says that my bee looks constipated, I guess it's just the doctor in him talking.... ;-)

I finally digged into my hoarded primas, and I made little flower centers with clear dome stickers stuck on some matching paper. I would have liked to use big buttons, but since the card goes to France again I wanted to keep it rather flat... ;-)
I tried to give my bee little arms and really didn't like the results so I followed Alyssa's lead instead (see her Ninja card ) and bundled my bee with twine.... And I'm sure you have recognized the "bee-utiful" as part of The Birds & Bees stamps set from My Thoughts exactly... :-D

And voila, a wacky little card that is sure to have my daughter go "what on earth is this??..." when she opens the envelope! Mission accomplished! :-D

"My Thoughts Exactly Thursday": Bee happy...

2011-07-07T00:34:00.004-04:00

As I said in my previous posts about My Thoughts Exactly, there will be projects for you to see all month long! Thursday is our Design Team day, where we will take turn posting what we make with those cool stamps! :-)

Today Alyssa and Bee also have awesome projects to show you, so don't forget to pay them a little visit too! :-)

Now onto my project... Today I made an accordion card for my daughter. I think I need to stop making all those cards for her or she's going to want to leave every summer after that! ;-)
Let me tell you, this card gave me some trouble. I had a rather clear idea of what I wanted in my head but for whatever reason I couldn't turn that into reality. I had to walk away from the card, and come back to it the following day for things to fall into place!... ;-)

For this card, I decided to use the Birds & Bees set. Trees make me feel more serene, so I had to go with that image to match my "bee happy" saying...

This is my card completely opened. The gorgeous (flowers & stripes) papers are from the "Country Drive" collection from Echo Park. The medallions are made using my beloved Nestabilities... I will write my message on the big white one...

After stamping the main "BEE happy" sentiment on the front, I had the idea of making a back for my medallion and stamping something else on there so I went for "BEE-utiful"... ;-) I am one of those weird people who like things to look good from the back too... ;-) I then made a little mix and match arrangement of happy "BEE" sayings using the same set. Part of the fun of those stamps sets is that you can play along with the words and use them any way you want... ;-)

Then for a little fun I added one of the little bees on some wire... And since it's for my sweet little Mimi I also had to add Stickles to the bees' wings, and had some little rhinestones here and there... We both love everything rainbow, I think she will love those little details...

As always clicking on the pics will give you bigger versions. I hope you enjoyed today's project, don't forget to pay a little visit to Alyssa and Bee for more projects with My Thoughts Exactly stamps! :-D

MTE Stamps release blog-hop winner

2011-07-05T12:01:00.001-04:00

First of all, a big thank you to Rebecca from the happy card encouragement factory who explained to me how to use the snipping tool in windows, so that I can actually put this little random.org pic on my blog!! ;-)

My lucky winner this time around is #27,

Jacki said...
"I love the card! Very cute."

Well Jacki, I hope you'll also love the SVG Attic svgs you are about to receive, courtesy of My Thoughts Exactly. :-) Take a look at the collections in my last post and tell me if you'd like the "Birds & Bees" or the "Give a Hoot" collection. (I'll also e-mail you).

Thanks to everyone who visited for the release and let me remind you that there will be projects with these stamps sets all month long on the DT member's blogs. Starting with this coming Thursday here on my blog and on Bee (my evil twin)'s blog. Hope to see you soon! :-)

My Thoughts Exactly 1st release!!! :-D

2011-07-01T09:01:00.009-04:00

This is it!... The moment we have been waiting for... Today My Thoughts Exactly is finally launching their stamps collection and releasing their 2 very 1st sets! :-)

This is The Birds & the Bees.

This is Under the Sea.

The stamps are acrylic photopolymer (same manufacturer as Papertrey Ink, so you know they're good! ;-)) which enables you to play around with them, like bending them like I did for this card...

The concept behind those stamps sets is a mix and match format enabling you to make all kind of funny sayings or puns. The stamps have been designed so that you can put them all together on one block and stamp in one step, or you can play around and deconstruct the sayings, use a different color for the focus word etc.... Focus words are a different size and/or font for a fun and whimsical effect. A cheat sheet with all the possible sayings is available on the site to help you jumpstart your imagination.

You can see and order the stamps here, and get more details on Alyssa's blog.

Now a few words about my project for today... I made a card for my daughter who is vacationing in France and apparently having a "whale of a good time" so the saying was just perfect for me! ;-) I used the Under the Sea set.

When I thought about using the little whale from lettering delights (the "Something Fishy" set again) I instantly wanted to make the words come out of the whale spout..., which is why I used blue ink to make it more like water, even though a black or grey ink might have brought more contrast.

My whale is of course on foam tape and the saying-spout isn't actually glued to the card, enabling more movement and a little bending away from the card for more dimension.
The wave is from a Cricut cartridge and the top was sanded, and the background paper is digital paper from the Splash collection by Echo Park, it was printed on tracing paper (a much cheaper alternative to vellum, for a very similar effect!... ;-)) The sun is from Lettering Delights.

I'm having lots of fun playing around with those stamps and you will see more projects with them very soon. Next Thursday I will have another project here for sure. If you missed it, my Bird card already uses My Thoughts Exactly stamps (this time the "Birds and Bees" set).

Every 1st of the month MTE will release one or two stamps sets and have a DT group post, meaning we will all post a project and take you on a mini blog hop if you like! The following Thursdays of the month the DT members will take turn posting, Alyssa will have all the details and link to all the projects every Thursday, as well as having projects of her own.

Now here is the line up of the MTE Design Team. To see all the projects for this July release, start with Alyssa's blog and you will then be linked to the following DT members in the order below...

Alyssa:                 My Thoughts Exactly
Bee:                     Dare to bee creative (<- you're here.)
Bee (Belinda):      Bee's Hive o' Drama
Jennifer:               Our change of Art
Jessica:                Crafty Rocket Science
Lenae:                 Sugar Gem
Thienly:               Mod Paperie

I hope you will enjoy seeing all the DT projects today and will be inspired to make your own projects with those wonderfully versatile stamps. :-D If you have been following our line up from the start your next stop is Bee's blog. :-)

Wishing you all a great 4th of July week-end. :-D

Let's play punch buggy!

2011-06-30T20:30:00.001-04:00

A very simple (post)card I made using the cool stickers that come in the Country Drive kit from Echo Park!
My daughter loves to play "punch buggy" with me when we are driving around, and today I saw 6 of them while I was out running errands and it made me think about her so I just had to make her this card! When I saw the car sticker in the paper kit I knew I would use it for her eventually!... ;-) I have to say I am very impressed with those stickers, they are thick and sturdy. :-) I just added a little bit of details with markers and some twine and voila!... :-D

For the back I made it look like a postcard using PTI stamps. Isn't that cute little postage stamp just adorable? I used my favorite little bee from one of my Fluffles stamps on it, the one I use to "sign" my cards on the back... ;-) For the twine I decided to make it fun and just punched 2 holes through the card and tied 2 different colors in the front and in the back.

I think she'll have a kick out of that 5mn card! :-D

Blog Hop candy winner!

2011-06-29T10:32:00.001-04:00

The moment you have been waiting for.... who won the $10 gift certificate to Lettering Designs?

I used random.org but couldn't figure out how to post my little result window here... :-S (I suspect that the site blocks that option when you only use the free generator, LOL...)
My winner is #21:

I counted three times and it is Jamie (from "Ohlala paperie", what a fun coincidence! ;-)) who left me this comment:
"You are sooo talented! I love this mobile idea... Especially sine I have a 3-month-old!! I know she would definitely appreciate something pretty and crafty to look at!
Jamie."

Congrats Jamie, and I hope you have fun selecting files to make your own mobile for your little one! :-)
Thank You to everyone who participated in the blog hop and for all your sweet comments. :-)

Free yourself from cartridges once and for all! :-D

2011-06-26T18:25:00.005-04:00

                                                                CHECK IT OUT!

Wow, Lettering Delights did it again! They never stop to amaze me!
This time they are bringing new types of files to LD, and to celebrate that they are offering a crazy bundle!
Let me explain. There are now a lot of different cutting machines on the market. The monopoly of ProvoCrap is over, we have other options! Now the tricky part is that not all of those machines use the same types of files. The most common files are SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) and that's what LD was selling up until now. However they are adapting to the market fast and just released a collection of simples shapes (meaning single layer) in other types of files to be used with different types of cutters.

Below is their comparison chart for the different types of files and different cutting machines:

To celebrate Lettering Delights style, they are offering this bundle of shapes for $49 (instead of the retail $150) for the next 2 weeks only! (till Friday July 15th if I got it right, LOL).
Now if you have bought stuff from LD before (they also sell graphics, fonts, clip-arts, doodlebats...), you know that every time they send you your invoice by e-mail there is also a 25% off coupon attached for a future purchase... They even send it to you when you're only getting freebies, just as long as it goes through your cart and the checkout process...
Now I'm sure you are following... that means that this bundle, if you apply your 25% off coupon, only costs $36.75!  That is for 50 collections, 780 files alltogether!! I think you will be impressed by the diversity. I say it's time to lose the cartridges alltogether. :-)

You can check this bundle here.

Welcome to the Summer SVGs Blog Hop!

2011-06-24T01:11:00.012-04:00

Hello everyone, and welcome to our Summer SVGs Blog-Hop!

Below is a line-up of our blog-hop participants, if you didn't start at the beginning you can go back to Belinda's blog. If you did start at the beginning, you should be arriving from Alyssa's blog: My Thoughts Exactly.

1. Belinda (aka Bee) http://beeshiveofdrama.blogspot.com/ <- start here

2. Thienly   http://modpaperie.blogspot.com/
3. Alyssa   http://www.mythoughtsexactly.co/
4. Bee   http://dare2beecreative.blogspot.com/ <- you are here!... ;-)
5. Jessica http://jessicascropcorner.blogspot.com/
6. Jin   http://underacherrytree.blogspot.com/
7. Julietta   http://4goofballs.blogspot.com/
8. Ruthie   http://www.septemberninth.blogspot.com/
9.Tamara   http://happylifecraftywife.typepad.com/

My talented crafty friends made awesome projects today using SVGs files with their cutters and 3rd party software. We are trying to bring people's attention to svg files which offer so much more options than silly cartridges! ;-)

So what project did I make for you today?

A sea animals mobile for my little guy's room! :-)

I apologize for the less than perfect pics but my photo op didn't go very well and there was no do-over since my son actually sleeps in the room with the mobile right now... ;-) It is NOT easy to photograph something that is in perpetual motion, no matter how slow... ;-)

It all started with My Expression, S.C.A.L, and the adorable "Something Fishy" SVG files from Lettering Delights. :-D I cut out and glued my little sea buddies, using foam tape whenever possible, and made a mirror image for their back (I decided against a face on both sides because it might be more esthetically pleasing but it's also a little creepy IMO... LOL ;-))

I spent way too much time trying to locate the googly eyes I have apparently misplaced... and decided they would look more friendly without them anyway... ;-) Isn't this collection just adorable?... :-)

Then I simply attached my little sea buddies on this cool mobile picture frame I found on Amazon (here). Believe me I have tried in the past to make my own mobile, and balancing it is a nightmare, so this was definitely worth the whopping $8 it cost me! ;-)

I did consider adding cardstock waves and seaweed, but it was too busy and gluing them on the frame would have kept me from reusing this once Nathan is tired of sea animals (or once he tears them up, which will likely happen first... ;-)) This way I can go with whatever theme next time... :-) So instead I just attached little strips of ribbons to add a little more color...

And there you have it, a cute and fun little mobile to brighten a kid's room. Infinite possibilities, as you can change the display over and over... I think I want one too for my dining room now...

I thank you very much for your visit, and because I like Lettering Delights so much I will be giving a $10 LD giftcard to one random commenter. I will pick the lucky winner this coming Wednesday, June 29th, so you have till Wednesday morning 9am EST to leave me a comment on this post. That's all I'm asking, I won't even bother you with becoming a follower, because I want you to come back because you enjoy what I make, not because I took you hostage for a give-away! :-D

I hope you enjoyed my project today, your next stop in the hop is Jessica's crop corner.

Have a great week-end! :-D

PS: If you enjoyed this blog hop, I'd like to invite you to come back for a mini Blog-Hop with the My Thoughts Exactly Design Team I am a member of. Next Friday, July 1st, My Thoughts Exactly will be debuting their line of sentiments stamps, and I know you will love them as much as I do! :-)

My Thoughts Exactly sneak peek

2011-06-21T17:20:00.005-04:00

My Thoughts Exactly 1st stamps release will be July 1st, but Alyssa gave me the green light to share my very first project with you as a little sneak peek...
When I won Echo Park paper "Country Drive" pad and saw the little birds in there I instantly thought about pairing them with "The birds and the bees" stamps set! :-)
I used tracing paper to make a copy of the bird sticker and made my own cardstock bird, and the birdhouse is an svg from Lettering Delights. (couldn't resist adding little birds at the openings... ;-))

The little window was cut out with a Nestabilities, and the sentiment stamped on the inside of the card.

I'm sending this to my daughter Naomi who left for France today with her grandparents. She is 10 and it's the 1st time she goes on vacation without us! :-S She will be gone for 4 weeks so I plan on sending her a few cards... :-)

(As always click on the pic for a bigger version)

Summer SVGs Blog Hop

2011-06-21T10:05:00.004-04:00

Our blog hop is starting this Friday! We have a great line-up of talented ladies that will design projects with a summer theme using svgs (it's our own little protest against Provo Crap, no cartridges involved!... ;-)).

I think everyone is familiar with blog-hops but just in case I'll explain (for my "non-crafty blogs" visitors). Basically you start with the 1st blog on this list (my evil twin Bee in this case), and everyone will have on their blog post that day the link to hop to the next blog on the list... All you have to do is visit the 10 blogs, some of us will also have give-aways... :-) Comments are always welcome!! Especially if you love what you are seeing, since our only goal here is to entertain and inspire people... :-)

Here is our line up:

1. Belinda (aka Bee) http://beeshiveofdrama.blogspot.com/ <- start here

2. Thienly http://modpaperie.blogspot.com/

3. Alyssa http://www.mythoughtsexactly.co/

4. Bee http://dare2beecreative.blogspot.com/ <- that's me!... ;-)

5. Jessica http://jessicascropcorner.blogspot.com/

6. Jin http://underacherrytree.blogspot.com/

7. Julietta http://4goofballs.blogspot.com/

8. Ruthie http://www.septemberninth.blogspot.com/

9.Tamara http://happylifecraftywife.typepad.com/

Looking forward to "seeing" you Friday... :-D
I know I am looking forward to my partners in crime's projects! ;-)

PS: Thanks to Tamara who made this cool invite for us... :-)

Noah's Father's Day tie

2011-06-19T18:56:00.003-04:00

Well it's Father's Day and thank you LD for saving people like me that always wait for the last minute... ;-) (Oh and before I forget, Lettering Delights is currently having a sale: 50% off everything summer themed! :-D)

Here I used the "Dad is Tops cards and bag kit" and this was a cinch to put together. I asked my autistic son Noah to color some cardstock for me and I cut the tie from this one of a kind pattern. :-D
I used a lot of foam tape between layers but kept everything monochromatic to not take away from the tie.

We also printed the little coupon book (another great limited time freebie!) but I don't know where it is so I couldn't add it to the picture. :-) My cat however was adamant that he was not going to vacate the premises just for a silly picture, so there he is, hesitating to bite the card....

I couldn't resist and took a pic while he was yawning... Look at those teeths!! :-S

I hope you all had a great Father's day with the men in your lives. :-D

My Thoughts Exactly Design Team! :-D

2011-06-13T13:27:00.004-04:00

Do you remember the Design Team call I was telling you about last week?
Well I'm happy to announce that I have been selected to be part of the My Thoughts Exactly design team! :-D I am beyond thrilled and so excited!! :-D *happy dance*
Alyssa is awesome and her stamps are super cute and playful. Believe me when I tell you you'll love them as much as I do! :-D
The icing on the cake is that this team of amazing talented ladies, includes my dear friends Belinda (aka Bee, my evil twin... ;-)) and Thienly! :-D
And just so you can judge for yourself, here is the line up:

* Thienly Azim of Mod Paperie
* Lenae Gem of Sugar Gem
* Jessica Lattimer of Crafty Rocket Science
* Jennifer Rzasa of Our Change Of Art
* Belinda Brown of Bee's Hive O'Drama
* Me!! :-)

I am so looking forward to this! Thank you Alyssa for placing your trust in me! :-)

PS: If my fellow teammates stop by to say Hi, I tried to leave comments on your blogs but Blogger is still having issues and kicking me off as anonymous! >:-(

Nathan's first day of school...

2011-06-07T18:50:00.000-04:00

My little guy went to school for the 1st time today. He is only 28 months old, and it broke my heart to have to let go of my baby so early. After 3 miscarriages and 3 C-sections my body is done having babies, so every little step is a last one for us, since this is our last baby!... ;-)
But no matter how much I enjoy my little Nathan's company it would be selfish to keep him home, especially since he is all over the place, throwing things in the toilets several times a day, or washing his feet in the cat's water bowl, and so forth... ;-)
Nathan seems to be a bit of a late bloomer and because his brother is autistic he has been especially on our radar. We had him evaluated, which didn't bring a definite answer, and it was highly recommended that we put him in school a little bit so that he could interact and play with kids his age.
That's basically why he is starting school this early, to socialize.
But no matter the reason, it was an emotional day for me... :-( When I came to pick him up he was sitting on the floor next to the door, sucking his thumb and with a big tear on his cheek, watching the door... The minute he saw me he got up and started crying!! And he was only there for 2 hours! LOL ;-)

Anyways, to make the transition easier, and because he seems to be quite visual, I made him a little booklet with pictures I took yesterday at his school. We looked at it yesterday night, and this morning again before going to school so that he would, hopefully, know a little better what to expect...

I used SVGCuts files to decorate the cover and a basic font in SCAL.

Inside I put pictures of the playground, the classroom, his teachers, the bathroom...

The toys, the alphabet on the wall (he is obsessed with letters and numbers!... ;-))... everything that could make this space more familiar for him, (and more loveable! ;-))

And I finished it off with numbers on the back cover (from the same SVGCuts file), just for his pleasure... :-)

I laminated everything (which is why the pictures look so weird ;-)), punched holes with my Crop-a-dile, and attached little rings and ribbons.
I think he likes it so far! (the booklet, not going to school, LOL ;-))

Purple Birthday...

2011-06-03T18:30:00.002-04:00

No you are not dreaming, finally a card on my blog!! LOL Well, what can I say, life is crazy! I'm sure most of you can relate... ;-)
This card I made for my friend Bee's birthday is a huge card actually, since it's made of a whole 8.5X11 sheet of ivory cardstock as the base. I really like the DP I used and wanted a big background to really showcase it! (If you want it big too, just click on the pic... ;-))
I cut-out the wings of some of the butterflies right from the paper to give them a little lift... and added one made with a die cut. I played around with transfer paper a little bit to see if it could stand up for vellum at a fraction of the cost and I have to say, it's not bad! :-)
I used a mail themed stamps set from PTI to decorate my paper further and make a mini stamp for the corner. I used as much purple as possible since it's her favorite color... ;-)

For a little bit of a surprise inside I made those buttons with a die, using one layer of DP and one layer of cardstock (cereal box! ;-)). I glued them together with my mini Xyron, perfect for that kind of project when you want glue on all the surface but don't want to use liquid glue which will make the paper warp... The colors of my pic are horrendous, I swear they're not as ugly in real life (but I cannot take another pic since I mailed them today, LOL)!.. ;-)

School project: sorting worksheets

2011-06-02T14:26:00.001-04:00

I know my blog has been very quiet in the creativity department lately.... but it's the end of the school year and I have lots of odds and ends to take care of... >.< I am looking forward to crafting just for pleasure again soon, but right now it's just not happening, especially with a sick toddler in my hair!!... ;-)
One of the things on my to-do list was to finish my volunteer hours for my son's school. I finally got to it and made those sorting worksheets using my Cricut cartridges Everyday dolls and Dress Up Dolls.
I've made those before for a previous classroom and they are fun to make, however they are time consuming since everything has to be laminated then cut again, then velcro added on every piece.
This time to make things a little easier I cut everything out of white cardstock and then colored the pieces with my Prismacolor markers (alcohol based markers).

It's hard to see on the pics for the categories, I did: In the kitchen/in the bathroom, for the beach/when it's raining, musical instruments/transportation, toys/food.

My Thoughts Exactly Design Team Call

2011-06-01T10:33:00.002-04:00

A few days ago I was putting Alyssa and her blog (My thoughts Exactly) in the spotlight. I did mention that Alyssa (and her hubby ;-)) were about to debut a line of stamps. Well they are here! And Alyssa is having a Design Team call for the occasion. If you feel like you have what it takes to showcase her sentiments stamps, head on over to her blog to read all about it here, and to apply for a chance to be part of this exciting new adventure.
You have till June 10th to apply. :-)

Now a little story about me as a side note. :-P I have been stamping and papercrafting for almost 4 years now and I only applied once to a DT in the past. I had been stamping for under a year so I knew I would not get picked but I wanted to try anyway, to get comfortable with the process and confident in my abilities for the future...
The person responsible for handling the call (a member of the DT) was rather full of herself and she wrote a pretty mean post on her blog about people applying to DT without having experience and basically wasting their time! :-S I didn't really take it personally but to me it was just a sign that it was really not meant to be as I wouldn't have liked working with this type of person... I am glad this didn't work out because the company then went into a different direction that I don't like (another victim to the trend of mouth-less faces stamps, one of my pet peeves! ;-)) But I was happy I applied anyway, because it was a boost to my ego that I believed in myself enough to dare applying... :-)
But anyway, what I am trying to say here is that if you don't try you won't succeed. I don't think stamping and papercrafting are such a matter of experience, it's a matter of personal taste and creativity. You never know who will like your stuff and who won't. So if you are motivated and you like the product/company, and think you can do a good job for them, go for it, you have nothing to lose!!... :-)
Now if you decide NOT to apply it's ok too, that's less competition for me!! LOL ;-D

In the spotlight: Under a Cherry Tree

2011-05-29T01:34:00.002-04:00

Since I removed the blogs list from my margin, I have been trying to bring your attention to the blogs and sites that really get me excited. Under a Cherry tree is one of those...
Jin is one of those people with incredible talent and creativity, that bring inspiration and fun in your papercrafting world. :-)
Her blog is about svg files and Make the Cut software, but even if you don't use those you can still visit for eye candy!... ;-)

In the spotlight: My Thoughts Exactly

2011-05-29T01:19:00.003-04:00

Another great blog to share with you tonight: My Thoughts Exactly.

Alyssa is barely 22 and already quite the multitasker: in no particular order ;-) student, wife, volunteer, member of several design teams and now even about to release her 1st stamps set ever!
I really love her style, very simple and fresh, whimsical and colorful. Her cards always make me smile.
If you are into svgs, I can only recommend you pay her blog a little visit, I think you'll like it as much as I do... :-)

In the spotlight: The Paper Dolls

2011-05-23T18:07:00.003-04:00

If you're a papercrafter who follows blogs, chances are you know who Thienly and Tamara are. If you don't, you likely missed my previous "In the spotlight" posts where I was introducing you to their respective blogs: Thienly is Mod Paperie, and Tamara is Happy Life. Crafty Wife.

Those 2 talented creative ladies met on the SVGCuts design team, became friends, and when they left the team they decided to embark on another adventure together: The Paper Dolls was born.
The paper dolls is a new blog aimed at bringing inspiration, fun and creativity in your papercrafting. It is geared around everything svg related, and will host challenges and bring lots of projects to you. Lots of designers will be featured, as well as artists creating their svgs. Everyone is welcome, established companies and individuals alike!... :-)

The blog is just starting so there isn't tons of contents yet but you can already go visit and get to know the dolls if you don't know them yet, and grab a button for your own blog because you are gonna want to go back in a simple click. The 1st featured designer is set to have a project Friday, and the 1st challenge will kick off next Monday. There is also a Facebook page and once they reach 500 likes there will be a give-away.
I can't wait to see what those 2 have in store for us! Knowing them I am sure it won't disappoint!... :-D

ETA: Right now the paper dolls are having a link party, it's the best time to go showcase your blog!... :-)

Lettering Delights sale...

2011-05-20T19:33:00.000-04:00

Yep, another Lettering Delights sale! :-D Till the end of May, save 40% off your order with code "UndertheSea". Start shopping here! :-D

Lettering Delights: May is "customer appreciation" month

2011-05-19T14:10:00.003-04:00

Lettering Delights is dubbing may as customer appreciation's month! :-)
To kick off the celebration, you can grab American Pride Super Bundle for FREE here! (a $50 value set including clip-arts, svgs, fonts, doodlebats...)

And while you are visiting, why not take advantage of this special coupon: $5 off your order of $10 or more. Use code FiveForYou at checkout...

May I suggest the new adorable Something Fishy SVG collection?... :-)

Father's day

2011-05-15T00:17:00.001-04:00

I made this card for my Dad, inspired by Stamp TV's video of this week (Gina was making background paper using paper scraps and her sewing machine). I didn't use scraps but beautiful japanese paper that I cut in various width instead. I created a medallion out of balsa wood (cut and embossed with a Nestability). That inspiration came from Dawn who recently die-cut balsa with her PTI dies on her blog "my favorite things". :-D I then stamped the wood with a text background and my sentiment (both PTI).

I really love this card, the different texture of the wood is really interesting in real life. :-D

Mother's day

2011-05-15T00:01:00.002-04:00

I made this card for my Mom using my leftover blooms from the SVGCuts challenge (I had cut extra on purpose ;-)). The background paper is japanese paper, and the flowers match perfectly (both have that cute little indentation I like so much). I like this card but there's something bugging me, I can't quite put my finger on it... I think it is probably the lack of contrast between the blooms and the background paper (although it's not as bad in real life since there is a texture difference between the 2), and maybe the fact that the dark brown branch is the only thing really contrasting? Also I think I could lose the embossed white band at the bottom, but then it would be even more monochromatic... Or maybe it's because I don't like the color combo pink + purple?...
I'm pretty sure however, that my Mom won't mind and that she will be less critical!... ;-)

Carnet de Voyage

2011-05-01T14:04:00.002-04:00

Naomi is turning 10 next week... and the lucky girl will go to France this summer as her gift. She will spend almost 4 weeks at her grandparents, in the suburbs of Paris. She'll go visit Paris and other parts of France, maybe even the French Riviera where she was born right before we moved back to the States... She'll get to walk to the bakery for a fresh baked baguette and eat all kind of cheeses, or go to the farmer's market and choose from an array of fresh produces. She'll get to spend time with family, meet her distant cousins... and just have a wonderful time! :-)
I am so jealous! >.< But because I am a nice mom still, I made her a little "Travel diary" to take with her so she can write things from her trip that she wants to remember, and write her thoughts when she is homesick too... ;-)
It was the 1st time I used my Cinch and let's say I ran into a few problems... I used svg files from the SVGCuts collection "Cherry Blossom" and the freebie branch, and the Eiffel Tower is from their "Amelie's Accessories" collection. I handcut the leaves and the tag is made with a Papertrey die. I kept everything super flat, the opposite of if this was a card, so that hopefully the decorations will stay on the notebook all summer long, even with this being put in and out of a bag. I still have my doubts, but we shall see!... :-s

Lettering Delights and Provo-Craft?

2011-04-28T09:44:00.000-04:00

Apparently there has been a rumor going around that LD was owned by Provocraft. IT IS NOT.

For details visit this post on Under a Cherry Tree blog, Jin's clarified the situation directly with Doug larson the owner of Inspire Graphics (LD).

Last days for LD sale...

2011-04-27T18:04:00.002-04:00

LD dollars days are coming to an end (they lasted forever though!!), so if you want to grab graphics and papers for $1 and svgs for $2 it's now or never (well, till the next sale I guess...;-)). Sale ends on the 28th of April.
Have you seen the cute Bento box (sample above)?... :-P

Ooh and to save 10% off your order, use code "Sushi" at checkout (without the "" :-)).

Gift cards SVGCuts' style...

2011-04-26T21:03:00.003-04:00

First let me apologize about the crappy picture but those are on their way to school first thing tomorrow morning so I had to take my pic at dusk which is never really successful for me... ;-)

Next week is teacher's appreciation week and Naomi's room Mom wanted to present the teacher with a different giftcard everyday (ambitious project!), so I made little giftcard holders for her. I have no clue what giftcards she got, except one for a massage so I just used a little bit of everything.... ;-)
All files are from SVGCuts. The ladybug was a freebie (because yes, they're cool like that and give a lot of freebies away... ;-)) and the rest is from the "Give a gift card" collection.

My little guy has croup right now so time was of the essence and I kept them rather simple (of course I forgot to run my ladybug in the Cuttlebug before assembly...) but they can obviously be spruced up.
As usual Mary paid attention to the little details, and these are a cinch to put together! :-)

Dare to bee Creative on Facebook.

2011-04-24T12:09:00.001-04:00

Hi everyone! I think I forgot to mention that if any of you who follow my blog (and even the ones that don't! ;-)) have a Facebook account you can also find me there now! :-)
I recently created a page: Dare to bee creative , and my blog will now appear on it thanks to Networked blog's app. The old stuff isn't on there but the new one will.
I did post a full album of pics of my "craft corner" there, but didn't get a chance to post it here yet, I will soon for the people that are not into FB... ;-)

(There is also a FB link-button in my right margin)
Thanks for visiting me, I hope to see you soon!... :-D

Smell the roses...

2011-04-21T20:25:00.003-04:00

Here is my project for the "Cherry Blossom Challenge" on SVGCuts.com's forum.

I LOVE everything cherry blossom, I have fond memories of the huge cherry tree that was in my garden when I was a child... So when the challenge got posted my creative wheel started turning right away... the problem is, my mind was going in all kind of (very) different directions at the same time, and I couldn't decide on one option!...

It quickly became clear I wanted something a little different, so I thought this paper would work well with big colorful blooms. Now if you know me, you know that black & white isn't really a combo I use a lot in papercrafting. I find it too cold and strict. I tried to soften it up here by using a lot of patterns that ressemble old french wallpaper.

I made a little sheet music with stamps, and used the page of an old novel because I like text background a lot... (It cracked me up that the title was "Late Bloomer" so I just had to use it! ;-))

I tried using novel pages in my cricut to cut SVG's but it didn't go well at all! The paper got torn, even on a lower speed... :-(

I made my 3D blooms using the Sakura flower from the cherry blossom collection. I am so glad Mary included this simple flower in the collection as I really really love the little indentation on the end of the petal... It's my favorite one. :-) They remind me of peonies this way, and peonies are my favorite flowers (with lilac blooms and cherry blossoms... ;-)) It's hard to see in the picture but I also cut the foliage twice and added leaves on pop-dots here and there to give it more dimension.

I finished it off with a little tag with a sentiment, and little pearls on the opposite corner, and hung it on the wall next to my crafting desk. Initially it was going to be a card, but as I was adding things on it it got bigger (it's 6X6), and the blooms are so full that they would be an issue to mail, so I glued it on a cereal box chipboard and made a little hanging sign instead... :-)

I love the end result and I had fun playing out of my "color comfort zone"... ;-)

ETA: My entry was 3rd in the challenge! :-D

Birthday cupcake

2011-04-15T20:15:00.000-04:00

Another birthday card for a niece... No, I'm not losing it, I just have 2 nieces and 1 nephew who have their birthdays 3 days apart... ;-)For this one I used Lettering Delights files (Sweet Nothings SVG collection). The card folds up in a sort of frame. I held it closed with a ribbon and little medallion.

When you slide the ribbon that's the 1st layer. For the following layers I added little tags to write my sentiments and make it a little more fun...

The last layer is a little cupcake...

...complete with cherry button, felt mint leaf, and swirly Stickles frosting... Yum! :-)

My hubby thinks it's not very child friendly... I admit I have troubles with children cards, I often make them too "babyish" or too grown-up, but I think this one is fun enough for a child because of all the layers to open... ;-)

In the spotlight: Make Something Splendid

2011-04-14T12:52:00.002-04:00

Envelope Book by Liz Kartchner

I'm sure all of you already know Elizabeth Kartchner! :-D But you might not know that she has a new website called "Make something splendid" where you can purchase video tutorials (with or without kits to complete the projects).
I am tempted by the (soon to come) felt cupcakes!... :-P And that little Glassine Envelopes Book she made for her baby Lola is just adorable... <3
Check it out!... :-D

Strawberry waterfall

2011-04-13T20:52:00.001-04:00

Since I'm on waterfall mode, I made this card for my niece, using again SVGCuts' files.
Instead of the flowers cut-out from the original file, I used a strawberry (from Strawberry Lane) to match my paper.

For the following panels I stamped my sentiments and little strawberries...

I'm sorry about the color of my last pics, they came out really weird and my editor just wouldn't let me fix them the right way! >:-( (It might be time to invest in Photoshop elements...)

Birthday Dino

2011-04-13T20:44:00.000-04:00

I made this Dino waterfall card for my nephew, using Mary's cool files (Waterfall Cards from SVGCuts. com). These files are a breeze to work with!... :-)

This is the inside of the mouth, where I stamped my birthday wishes... :-)
I hope at 7 he isn't too old for dinosaurs!... ;-)

(speaking of which, you can barely see in the pic but a big lizard was sunbathing on my window ledge when I was taking the pic, I thought it was funny so I included him... It's the tiny little black thing at the bottom right corner. LOL)

Got SVGs?

2011-04-05T14:17:00.001-04:00

Just a little reminder that Dollar Days are still on at Lettering Delights! SVGs are $2, graphics and papers are $1... New collections have been released and they are included in the sale...
If you haven't fallen head over heels for their designs already, now is the time! :-D

Oh and also, don't forget that LD has a contest going on right now, all you have to do is create something with their svg files and you could win a Silhouette. Check it out!... :-)

Because my friends are awesome... (Paper heart and leaves card)

2011-03-31T20:49:00.002-04:00

Can I just say this card makes me happy?... I think it's the colors...
In my previous post I was talking about Bargello, this card uses a tiny bit of the leftover strips from the Bargello background (love those patterns and colors so much, I couldn't throw them away! ;-)) and then I added some of my favorite patterns of the moments (scripture, gingham...), and more of my "Que Sera Sera" paper (for the heart and leaves)... Nope, I am never gonna get sick of it... you might soon though... ;-)

This card is for my evil twin Bee from California, just because she is made of awesome and has a heart of gold and cracks me up. :-D She is my "evil twin" because we have the same nickname and same initials (B.B), and we have a lot in common in the way we see things, but she is the naughty one and I am the sweet one... LOL ;-D (She is so getting back at me for that one...;-))
We often chat on google chat too, even if just for a few minutes here and there, and she always makes me laugh... :-) Plus she is really good at explaining technical things to me (like how to open the LD layers in SCAL) and believe me this is a task that requires lots of patience (and hair...)... ;-) So there, she gets a card just because she totally deserves one!... :-D