Hapy Autumn with SNSS!

I am still enjoying my time as a Guest Designer over at the Sweet N Sassy Stamps blog. For today I have created the adorable card you see pictured below that uses the digital stamp set from SNSS called "Leave Me Smiling."

This card uses a technique that I have never used before so if you want to find out what that is, and want more information about this card and the stamp set used, please stop by the SNSS blog for all the details!

Click HERE to go to my post at the SNSS blog!

I am excited to be Growing in Unity also this week, so I will be back

soon with a post using some Unity Stamps!

Happy Harvest Challenge Card

For the month of October I have the pleasure of being one of the Guest Designers for Sweet N Sassy stamps and today I have a great little card to share with you that uses the stamp set designed by Korin called Happy Harvest!

This card meets a couple of challenges. I was able to play along in my first Dirty Dozen challenge at SCS this month! The challenge is called "You want a {Paper} Piece Me?" and it is to use paper piecing on our card and to incorporate Fall (or Christmas) colors as well. The other challenge is a sketch challenge and I based my card's layout off of this week's Mojo Monday sketch which you can find HERE! I didn't follow it exactly, but I definitely let my design flow from that one so I wanted to give Julee the credit!

Here is a picture of the Mojo Monday sketch 109...

And here is my card based (slightly) on the sketch...

When I knew I was going to use the scarecrow image from the Happy Harvest stamp set sometime during this month as SNSS GD, and I saw this DP, I knew I had to incorporate it into the design. I felt like the DP compliments the feel that I was going for on this card. The DP is from K & Co. I paper pieced the scarecrow's face, shirt and the patches on his overalls. The rest of the images were colored with my Copic markers.

Obviously this card is a fall-themed card that is designed to give to some one over the Thanksgiving holidays. So it was important to me that through this card I could elicit feelings of a farm, raggedy fabrics and warmth.

I want to share with you the ways that I tried to accomplish those things...

To create the feel of a farm, I simply used the masking technique and created the scene that you see here. I stamped the scarecrow on the image panel and again on a piece of scratch paper. I placed the scratch paper over the stamped image and then created the cornfield by repeatedly stamping the cornstalks to make the scarecrow to appear that he is in the middle of a cornfield. I colored the ground to look like dirt.

To add to the feel of a farm, I chose to use Burlap which I frayed on all edges and placed under the image panel. Certainly a burlap sack makes you think of a bag of potatoes or vegetables that are harvested from a farm.


Raffia is another accent that can be used to add to projects that are rustic, or country-like. I added the orange button and the orange ribbon to add flair and whimsy to the otherwise muted colors on the card!

To continue on with the rugged feel, I also added staples to attach my image panel to the card base.

I hope you like it and maybe even got some ideas from me on how to carry out your card's themes as far as you can on your projects. Try to think things through and see what you can do to improve upon the theme of your card by adding extra touches!

Don't forget to stop over at Sweet N Sassy stamps! Korin has some wonderful Fall and Thanksgiving stamp sets that are perfect for your projects for this time of the year! And to see some more of the cards that were created for this month's Dirty Dozen challenge by some of the other DD or DDAlumni, enter DCPOM1009 into the SCS Galleries search bar.

Please have a wonderful day and may your bucket overflow with your own happy harvest in your heart!

It's Wednesday....and it's Sweet!!

It's time for another Sweet Sketch Wednesday sketch challenge this week! We are happy to announce that we have a sponsor for this week and there are prizes to be won!!

Our great sponsor this week is Jen from Say it With Stamps. She makes incredible sentiments and word art that are created digitally and perfect to use with your stamped creations! Here is a closeup of one of her button sentiments that I used on today's project. You can purchase this and other stamps of hers HERE!

She has graciously offered the winner of this challenge to choose 2 months of her releases to receive for FREE. That lucky winner can choose from Aug & Sept, Sept & Oct, etc. OR pick and choose up to $10 worth of digistamps from her store.

Here is the sketch that we were given this week...

And here is the card that I created based on the sketch...

Because Jen's digistamps contain only words and sentiments, we had the liberty of using any other image stamps that we chose to. The stamp set that I used to create this scene is from Sweet N Sassy Stamps' Happy Harvest set. It is an acrylic stamp set that comes with multiple fall-themed stamps. Please visit the SNSS blog for today's post where you will see more details about this card including how I used the masking technique to create this scene.

To create the sign you see for the scene, I made my own sign base from a scrap of paper and distressed and inked the edges to give it a worn look. I stamped the sign lettering from the Happy Harvest set. To make the post that the sign is on, I used part of the fence post as my piece of wood. The papers I used are from the Recollections Autumn Paper pad. The images were all colored using Copic Markers.

The stitches that I put on each side of the main image panel are cross-stitches. They are very easy to do, but in case you don't know how to do it, I wanted to share it with you.

I have created a tutorial in pdf form that you can download from here...

Cross-Stitch Tutorial

Thanks so much for stopping by today! Now, please go over to the Sweet Sketch Wednesday blog so you can visit the rest of the DT's submissions. And then, be sure to create a card of your own using today's sketch and then enter it onto the SSW blog with Mr. Linky so you can be eligible to win this week's prizes!

Have a great day and may your bucket be overflowing with all the sweet things that Wednesday's bring!

Having a Blast with SNSS!!

I am having a lot of fun using Sweet N Sassy stamps this month and I have so many great ideas floating around in my head that I can't wait to share with you! Today's project was a BLAST to do! I never have enough boy cards in my birthday card stash, so I decided to use SNSS's Blast Off digistamp set to create one.

After printing the images onto GP cardstock and heat setting them, I used my Copic markers to color in the Rocket! I used Bazzill CS for the card base, moon and mats. The dotted DP was chosen to simulate a starry sky and is from Graphic 45. The striped paper is from Heidi Grace Designs. And I am pleased as punch to tell you that ALL these papers were taken from my scraps stack. Don't you just love it when you can economize???

Another way that you can economize is by buying this stamp set from SNSS!! This set and ALL the sets at SNSS have recently been discounted by 25%!! The stamp set I used for this card is called Blast Off and it comes with all the images and sentiments needed to make an adorable birthday card, or scrapbook layout for your fun loving boy!

Here is a view of the inside of the card! I still had some scraps left, so why not decorate the inside too!

To create the moon, I used my largest EK Success circle punch that I have and then ran it through my Cuttlebug with the Quickutz embossing folder called Polka Dots. It was important that I turned the circle upside down so that I was actually DEbossing and not EMbossing. I was trying to create the craters that are on the moon. I did shim my folder to get extra depth with the debossing. To emphasize the debossed areas I took my C1 Copic marker and ran it around the edges of each debossed circle and then blended it in with my colorless blender. Can you see how it defined the edges of the "craters" a bit?

For added dimension, I popped up the rocket on top of the moon. I am not sure the picture shows it well, but I also added liquid glaze with Inkessentials Glossy Accents to give the effect of glass for the windshield. The finished card size is an A2.

If you want to see my post for today on the Sweet N Sassy blog, click HERE!!

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a great day and may your bucket overflow with enough paper scraps to make your next project!!