I don't know if this really qualifies for the Spotlight Stamping technique that was showcased on the MFT blog yesterday, but that was definitely my inspiration for this card.

I had had this idea swimming around in my head last week to use the stepped up chevron Die-namics to make a tone-on-tone background. So I started by diecuting a bunch of those and then laid them all out on a piece of printer paper that was cut to 4.25 x 5.5 inches, spacing them .5 inch. Then I used press-n-seal cling wrap to hold them all in place while I cut out a stitched circle. I used my favorite Distress Inks for rainbows to color each of the chevrons in the circle, being careful not to pull them up from the Press-N-Seal.

Now was the tricky part. I needed to somehow transfer all of the chevrons that were remaining white to my card front without the pesky printer paper in the way. Press-N-Seal to the rescue again! I placed a piece of the wrap onto the front of my chevrons, pressing down really well and carefully peeled off the back wrap and scrap paper. I then used some spray adhesive to completely coat the backs of my chevrons, and lined up the cling wrap to my card front. After pressing down each strip I carefully removed the press-n-seal wrap. I was expecting a bit of the adhesive to rub off the wrap, but was pleasantly surprised that I didn't have that prob-llama.

I carefully removed each of my colored chevrons from the die-cut circle of wrap with my tweezers and applied some multi-medium to the backs and fitted them all back in place.

The Llama and sentiment are both from MFT's Llama Love set, and the llama is colored in with assorted copics.

So as I said earlier, I've decided to get a burst of creativity in today in order to enter MFT's 2016 Card Design Superstar Contest. This is my 2nd card for today, and it is so strange to actually be crafting more than one project in a day. But it seems once I got my creative juices flowing I didn't want to stop.

This one uses one of MFT's older sets which unfortunately has been retired. This is the You're Super stamp and coordinating dies. This little super hero girl is so cute and fun to color. For the girl, I brought out my Prismacolor pencils which probably haven't been used in five years or more. My Prismacolor color combinations are (Hair: PC944, PC943, PC1032, and PC1033); (Skin: PC927, PC939, and PC921); (Cape: PC901, PC996, and PC1024); and (Outfit: PC932, PC1026, PC995, and PC949) and everything was blended with a colorless blender pencil because I was too lazy to go look for my gamsol.

For the front I blended together Chipped Sapphire and Seedless Preserves Distress Inks with a little Hickory Smoke at the bottom. Then I sponged Versamark ink over MFT's Star Celebration Stencil on some heavyweight vellum and heat embossed it with detail white embossing powder. When I laid this over the card front, I was disappointed that the color didn't come through as much as I'd liked so I sponged the same Distress Inks over the vellum and diecut the bottom edge of the vellum with one of the edge dies in MFT's Stitched Basic Edges Die-namics. The sentiments on the front and inside are both from the You're Super set and were stamped with Versamark Ink and embossed with the same white embossing powder and diecut with the starburst image from the die set.

As always, please leave a comment down below if you happen upon this post and feel free to link me up to your creations if you are also entering the contest.

I finally got some time to play and be creative this morning. Oh how I've missed getting my fingers all inky. And it's a good thing too, I almost missed out on entering My Favorite Things 2016 Card Design Superstar Contest!

So first up is an interactive card I made using MFT's new Llama Love stamps and dies. I so adore these little llamas! When I first saw them in the September release previews I knew they were going to be fun to create with. And they did not disappoint!

This particular llama is my favorite of the 4. I love the little ear that is sticking up. The llama and sentiment on the inside were stamped with MFT's Black Licorice Hybrid Ink and I colored the llama with various copics. All of the cacti are stamped with MFT's Jelly Bean Green Dye Ink and then colored with copics. I know normally you shouldn't use dye inks when coloring with copics, but I really wanted the lines of the cacti to blend with the coloring. I think these inks are amazing because I had no bleeding of the ink and I got the result I was hoping for. The sun rays behind the llama were created with MFT's Sun Ray stencil and Distress Inks (Rusty Hinge, Scattered Straw, and Squeezed Lemonade). The "Hay You" was actually created with diecut letters using MFT's Happy Birthday To You Die-namics over some scrap cardstock that I had blended using the same Distress Inks.

So the interactive part of this card comes from using MFT's Circle Flop Card Die-namics. This was my first time using this, even though I've had it for months, and I was a little intimidated with how well it would work. Turns out, it was super easy to line up, cut perfectly and showcases my cute little llama. And speaking of cute, how fun is that sentiment on the inside?

Once I started assembling everything I realized the background of the card front and the inside of the card were too stark white up against the warm colors. So I sponged some Antique Linen Distress Ink over the bottom portion of the card front and used the same ink to stamp the faint lines on  the inside of the card. The lines are from MFT's Distressed Patterns stamp set and add a really nice subtlety to the inside.

I hope you like my little creation and if you do please leave me a comment down below. And if you have any of these stamps, stencils or dies, please link me to how you've used them. I love looking at more inspiration.

I've decided to come back to my blog once again. And once again this is taking place in September.

I know it is generally thought that January is the month of new beginnings and fresh starts, but it seems that for me September fills that role. Maybe it is from my days as a classroom teacher and September was always the beginning of a new group of students and often a new room to set up. Or perhaps it is because now September is when my own children are starting a new school year and after 3 months of not having any time alone I'm suddenly given time to ponder my own projects. Whatever the reason, this seems to be the season that brings me back to this little blog.

As I was looking through the blog today trying to decide if I really wanted to continue it or just delete it, I was reminded of all of the wonderful people I've interacted with and been inspired by over the years. Many of my links were outdated and more than a few are no longer in use. So as I visited each of these sites in order to update my blog, some that I hadn't seen in over 5 years, I remembered what brought me to blogging and scrapbooking/stamping in the first place. This community is amazing not just in talent but also and very importantly in encouraging one another. I originally started out with scrapbooking back in 1996 because I wanted to make a scrapbook of college life. In 2000 I started working and teaching classes at a little scrapbook store on the weekends or during breaks when I wasn't teaching in my middle school classroom. This is where I first became intrigued with using stamping in my scrapbooks. a couple years later when my first daughter was born I stamped and sent out my first actual cards - her birth announcements. I was hooked! I loved the immediate satisfaction I could get from cardmaking and soon after that I became involved with The Angel Company. When my second daughter came along in 2005 I realized I really couldn't continue with traditional scrapbooking because I often left a page in progress on my desk for days as I could only grab a few minutes at a time to work on it, And now with a toddler and a newborn this was risky and meant many ruined pages. Thus began my love affair with digi-scrapbooking. With each new adventure I met new friends on forums or at conventions that shared the same creative passion I had. They were there to give me feedback on my creations as well as to provide a listening ear when I had just had a rough mommy day. Until I no longer made time for them or creating. Even though I've had this blog since July 2006, I've not really been active on it or in anything crafty since 2010. This past spring though, as I was sorting out my craft room to decide what should be trashed, what could be donated to schools, and what I might be able to sell, my oldest became interested in cardmaking. Here just as I was going to get rid of everything and move on, she was wanting to join me in creating! She helped me remember what I loved about being creative, what my soul had been missing over the past 6 years.

Now we create together and so I've decided to once again open up this blog to share our creations. We have plans to work through a few weekly challenges to get us back in a groove and hopefully will even upload a few YouTube videos since this is one area we both enjoy gaining inspirations from. Over the past few months we've gotten lots of new goodies from My Favorite Things, Simon Says Stamp, Lawn Fawn, and a few newer companies that I'm just starting to learn about. I've got so many ideas and I can't wait to share them.

For those of you in the Raleigh, NC area I have tons of goodies that I am getting rid of. Tons of brand new stamps from my days as a TAC demonstrator (The Angel Company), papers, lots of stickers, and even a few tools. I'm still in the process ( and this may take a few days) of photographing everything and putting it into a flickr photostream that you can see here:

If you click on show info at the top of the slideshow, it will give you price info for that item. If you see something you want, send me an email. If you aren't local to me, I can mail stuff and will let you know exact shipping charges.

Ok I seriously don't know what I was thinking when I told Ella, "sure you can have a sleepover for your birthday party." No correction, I know what I was thinking, I was thinking, "sweet! this will be easy! a few friends come over we eat pizza and cake, the girls watch a movie and they go home or go to sleep. Awesome! Only work on my part will be cleanup and surely Jamie will do that." I was thinking "easy peasy!" Oh how I can deceive myself. The party is tonight! I still need to finish cleaning, go pick up a movie from Redbox, and find some more cake decorations for the girls to use to decorate their individual cakes. Not to mention the fact that I'm so sleepy because I stayed up late last night to make these:

Yep, handmade purses for each girl. Inside is a yummy lip gloss, sparkly fingernail polish, pink fingernail polish, and little bead kit I put together to make a beaded ring. I sewed each purse, and added some sweet polka dot ribbon. Both the canvas fabric and ribbon I had left over from a bag I made for Ruthie last year to carry her ballet stuff in. The letters I diecut out of some felt I found at Hancock fabric and bought for a different project that has long been forgotten. I had to do a little stitching with white embroidery floss on each letter because otherwise they looked quite sad. All in all they went rather quick and were easy if only I hadn't started them at 10:30 pm the night before the party.Oh well I hope the girls like them.

As for the birthday cake, Ella really wanted me to make a Train Cake for 2 reasons. 1.) This has become a tradition. Sometime between Christmas and Ella's birthday we always make this cake and decorate it like a cool candy train. Some years have been quite elaborate and some we just dust it with powdered sugar and read the Polar Express. And with our Atlanta trip after Christmas and Ella going back to school as soon as we got back, we just haven't had time to do this yet. 2.) She loves to go crazy with candy as do her friends that will be joining us. So what do I do? I agree to make this. The cake is easy to make and is in fact already done and waiting to be adorned with yummies. However, I always forget how hard it is to find good candy in early January! UGH! So now I must run and hunt out the many options to use tonight. Wait! I just realized I'm going to have 5 eight year olds here tonight and I'm arming them with loads of candy and other sugar! I really need to think things through better.