Be Our Valentine ... The Twinery Event!

Happy Monday ! ! !

Welcome to The Open Window and a fabulous day !

That's right . . . The Twinery wants to be YOUR Valentine !

Our design team will be sharing inspiration with you

all week long with crafts that focus on a variety of themes.

Today it's Gift Tags!

These are bold, aren't they?

I love mixing bright colors, but it sometimes takes me awhile

to come around to them.

For these tags, I was totally inspired by our baker's twine.

Pink Sorbet

Strawberry

Cantaloupe

{doesn't that sound absolutely SCRUMPTIOUS?!}

I stamped the tag tops & sentiments using terrific stamps from Avery Elle,

then embossed the bottom section of the tag using this

beautiful diamond pattern EF from Lifestyle Crafts.

From there, I simply loaded up on twine and made the

tag full of texture.

For a completely DIFFERENT take on tags . . .

 I focused on our newest 'Platinum' Shimmer twine

paired with 'Ocean' to create a completely different look.

Staying with the stamp set from Avery Elle, I simply 'shadowed'

the images with my inks.

The gorgeous button brads are from The Paper Studio.

Just check out the beautiful metallic shimmer woven into the twine . . .

It's a fabulous celebration and I hope you will join us each day.

There have already been amazing giveaways & each day brings more.

Today's giveaway is a great 'GIFT TAG' PUNCH.

Make sure you stop by The Twinery blog to check out all

the details and to find more inspiration from our great designers.

Thanks so much for stopping by today.

Make sure to leave a little note before you make your

next stop.  I'd love to hear from you  :  )

Happy Valentine's Day Project Recipe:

Stamps: All Occasion Tags & Lots of Love by Avery Elle

Embellishments: baker's twine in Strawberry, Pink Sorbet & Cantaloupe

from The Twinery

 

Be Mine Project Recipe:

Stamps: All Occasion Tags & Lots of Love by Avery Elle

Ink: Memento Angel Pink & Teal Zeal by Tsukineko

Embellishments: baker's twine in Ocean & Platinum Shimmer

from The Twinery

 

Subtle Beauty....

Welcome back to The Open Window.

Are you ready for a bee-autiful color story from

The Play Date Cafe ?

This week's suggested colors are...

Avocado...Blue Mist...Grey Wool

I just bought this embossing folder a couple days ago and I love it.

It's a Wreath EF from Sizzix.  I used a textured cardstock, which is

difficult to see in the photo, but the texture is beautiful.

The sentiment is from EAD Designs Stickerz collections,

the seam binding is from one of my favorite Etsy shops,

Sugar Lump Studios.  

The flowers are by The Paper Studio & Recollections.

I am so excited about this week's brand new sponsor

I mentioned a couple of days ago that my teammate Karola Witczak

sent me a collection of her designs at The ScrapCake and I just love them.

(you can see that card HERE)

Thanks so much for popping by.

I hope you'll have a sec to leave a note to let me know you were here.

I'll be back tomorrow with a VERY special post as I am guest

designing for a terrific website....you'll see!

Project Recipe:

Embellishments: Thinking of You sentiments by EAD Designs
crochet flowers by The Paper Studio,
paper flowers by Recollections
seam binding from Sugar Lump Studios
pearls by Recollections, pearl brad by The Paper Studio

Tools:  Wreath EF by Sizzix

Walk on the Wild Side

Hi ya!

It's time for another fun and fab color challenge from my favorite

How bold and beautiful!!

I went kind of fun & whimsical with my interpretation....

 

This week, all of our designers were able to play with stamps from

our sponsor, DRS Designs and these were mine.

I love this sweet giraffe and to keep with the color challenge, I used

paper from My Mind's Eye.  The perfect shades were right there!

I did a little paper-piecing with the spot and feet and of course,

my denim blue color comes from the clouds, using my favorite dies

from Lil' Inker Designs.

A big thanks to

for providing stamps for all our designers

and for the terrific shopping spree that awaits

this week's winner!

Thanks for popping by...leave a little love,

then check out all the fun inspiration from our design team

over at The Play Date Cafe.

Project Recipe: 

Patterned Paper:  Stella & Rose by My Mind's Eye 
Stamps:  Giraffe & Sentiment by DRS Designs

Embellishments:  3-D flower border by The Paper Studio

Tools:  Clouds die by Lil' Inker Designs, Dot EF by Cuttlebug, Big Shot

A Little Color on a Sunday

I hope you are having a lovely Sunday.

I'm here with just a quick post today.

I am so thankful to have had some free time this weekend

{even if it was self-imposed!}

to make a few cards that had specific deadlines.

 

It has been a L.O.N.G. time since I've had a chance to play

along with my friend Mona's color challenge, CR84FN.

 This is one of my favorite color combinations and has been a trendy

one both in paper-crafting and in fashion.

I pulled out my Authentique 6x6 in 'Blissful' along with the new stamps

from MME called 'Miss Caroline'.

I stamped the large flowers in Slate & the tiny flowers in Lemon Whip,

both inks from A Muse Studio {available from my webstore HERE}

I stamped then, overstamped without re-inking, which is why you

see a shadow-effect.  It's hard to see those tiny yellow flowers,

but they are there and they are a perfect accent.

Labels 18 from Spellbinders is such a nice size for so many cards.

The sentiment was stamped in Tuxedo Black Memento ink.

Tomorrow starts another busy week for me, so I am thankful to have had

some extra 'personal' time to spend with you this weekend.

It's always a joy to have you come by.

Project Recipe: 

Patterned Paper: Blissful by Authentique

Stamps:  Dolled Up Sweet Caroline by from My Mind's Eye 

Tools:  Labels 18 dies by Spellbinders, Big Shot
Embellishments:  tiny heart brads by The Paper Studio

From the Heart

Welcome back to The Open Window!

It's time for another fabulous color challenge from

and look at these beautiful colors....

Mojito....Peony....Sand

This card is a 'quilted' pattern....

I took a little color license with the subtlety and went a smidge deeper

in my shades.  I used the fabulous new collection by Lori Whitlock

for Echo Park as my featured paper and showcased the beautiful

Lovely Labels 18 & Sew Lovely by NinaB Designs from The Craft's Meow.

I love everything Nina Brackett designs and these polka dot frames are

one of my favorites for sure!

I used the brocade embossing folder from Cuttlebug over the design on the patterned paper

for a little more texture to the quilt and on the other side are

the large 'dots' also from Cuttlebug.

I thought I would share this with the folks over at CARDS/Create

as they are having a challenge for 'quilt-style' cards.

I hope you will plan to join us in The Cafe for this great challenge.

Our design team have created a collection of very inspirational projects

to help get your creative juices flowing.

Project Recipe: 

Patterned Paper: Graceful by Lori Whitlock for Echo Park
Stamps:  Sew Lovely & Lovely Labels 18 from The Craft's Meow  
Embellishments: Element Stickers in Graceful by Echo Park
brads & lace by The Paper Studio
Inks:  Latte & Slate by A Muse Studio

Tools: Brocade & Large Dots EF by Cuttlebug, Big Shot

Bejeweled Snowflakes

This month, I have the honor of being the

Guest Designer over at

 

 

and all this month, I will be sharing projects

using the beautiful stamp set

Snowflake Flourishes

 

The moment I laid eyes on this set, all I could think

of was the color of 'ice blue', so this is what I came up with.

It's such a lovely flourish and so easy to embellish.

I selected a variety of gem & pearl brads

from American Crafts, Making Memories & The Paper Studio 

for the centers of my snowflakes.

I hope you will plan to join me each Tuesday in

the month of December over on the

Sweet 'n Sassy Blog

for more winter greetings.

I'm so glad you were able to stop by during

such a busy time of the year.

I value each and every comment that you leave

and hope you will have time to say a quick hello

before you go!

  

Project Recipe:

Stamps: Snowflake Flourish from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps

Ink: Ocean & Slate from A Muse Studio

Ocean Depth from VersaMagic 

Embellishments:

Gem/Pearl brads from American Crafts, Making Memories

and The Paper Studio

Snow Flurry Greetings

Hope you are having a relaxing Saturday evening.

We have had nothing but rain and gray skies today,

but I assure you, it has been sunny at my work table

today as I have been preparing a couple of

projects for a tutorial I'll be sharing over at 

Market Street Stamps.

Until then....

I wanted to share with you a couple of projects I recently

completed.  One for the MSS Block Party and another for

the New Release Designer Showcase.

I am also entering these two cards over on the
CARDS blog for the Christmas card call.

This fun card features one of the newest backgrounds from MSS

called 'Flurries'.  I stamped it in 'Sky' ink from A Muse Studio

and simply used it as a background.

The sentiment is also from the new set 

'Essential Holiday Elegance'

and is a must have for the holiday season.

The fonts and sentiments are all so gorgeous.

The additional snowflake accent stamp is from 'Cool Cats'.

I love my newest set of die cuts from Spellbinders...Labels 18.

I used that as my frame and topped everything off with the

sweet fabric die cut from Little Yellow Bicycle's 'Twig' Collection.

If you are not familiar with the MSS Block Party, make sure you

pop on by and check out the details.

YOU could win a guest spot over on the MSS Blog!

 The card I shared as part of MSS's Designer Showcase...

 Staying with the same color scheme as the card above, as I

adore the designer papers from the Twig Collection by LYB.

I used the 2011 Heirloom Ornaments die from Spellbinders

and stamped the 'Flurries' background once again.

The sentiments, once again are from the Essential Holiday Elegance

set.  I really like the way the ornament shapes and

the snowflakes are 'mirrored' in the background paper.

I really hope you enjoyed this quick peek at a couple of fun

projects for the holidays.  I think it's always good to be able

to do cards that can be quick (once the design is there) and

these both fall under that category.

It would be wonderful if you would pop on over to the

Market Street Stamps Blog and check out the rest of

my teammates projects in the Designer Showcase.

So much inspiration indeed!

Happy Holidays Project Recipe:

Designer Paper: Twig from Little Yellow Bicycle
Stamps: Flurries, Essential Holiday Elegance
and Cool Cats all from Market Street Stamps
Ink: Sky & Slate from A Muse Studio
Tools:  Labels 18 die from Spellbinders, Big Shot

Embellishments: Fabric Favorites from Little Yellow Bicycle

Ornaments Project Recipe:

Designer Paper: Twig from Little Yellow Bicycle
Stamps: Flurries & Essential Holiday Elegance from Market Street Stamps

Ink: Sky & Slate from A Muse Studio

Tools:  2011 Heirloom Ornament die from Spellbinders, Big Shot

Embellishments: Silver cord from Making Memories

Snowflake Brads from The Paper Studio

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like...Well, You Know!

For the H{ippity} Hop
New Ippity Release

click here or scroll down

It's 

Player Appreciation Week

over at The Play Date Cafe.

There are:

Three Brand New Sponsors

Three Terrific Guest Designers

Three Amazing Prizes

 I had lots of fun creating for this challenge.

Our DT was given a set of 'Stickerz' from

and I went to town!

 

Isn't that wreath lovely?

I embellished with fun red pearls,

my favorite Baker's Twine from

The Twinery, and a sweet trim

from Jolee's Boutique.

StampTV had a nice tutorial on creating a

blank space in between embossing, so I 

thought I would give it a try.

I used my Cuttlebug Swiss Dot EF.

But there's more....

This was actually my husband favorite card

for this challenge.

I used the Cuttlebug Ornament EF for

my base card, rounded the corners, aged the

edges of my cardstock using a variety of 

Tim Holtz Distress Inks, and layered each

piece.  There's that twine from The Twinery

once again!  So versatile and fun!

The vinyl stickers from EAD Designs are

repositionable, which is a bonus to be sure.

Yep....there's more....

 This card plays on more of the colors from the

color inspiration photo for the challenge.

 I am in love with that fabulous extra-large snowflake brad

from Paper Studio.  I took the smaller snowflake brads,

which are white metal, and embellished them with

Martha Stewart Fine Glitter and Shredded Glitter.

These colors all work together because it's all about layers.

I added Unity's 'Have a Holly Jolly' sentiment

to the vinyl sticker from EAD Designs.

Here are a couple more little gift tags that I did

with the same set....

What I really LoVeD about using these was they made

for really quick projects. Quick but effective, I think.

So I invite you to play along with us this week.

We sincerely thank all of our regular players and

always welcome new players to our challenge and

this week is all about that!

There's plenty of inspiration over in The Cafe this week!

I will be back soon with the new releases from Ippity!

Yep, it's the Fall 2010 Collection Blog Hop!

So I hope you'll stop back and see what's new....

It's Pure Bliss.....

I had a ball working on this card over the weekend

and thought I would share it with you

and offer it for a few challenges this week.

I love dimension and this card definitely has it!

I used designer papers from the 'Mirabelle' collection

by The Paper Studio.  The vintage writing DP
makes a beautiful backdrop to the Victorian floral
foreground.  The sentiment is from Studio G
and the lace is about 20 years old.

Can I just say that Prima have really outdone
themselves with these flowers and the bling is
by Prima as well.

This creation fits a variety of challenges for this
week, so here is where I am entering:

Challenge #27 ~ Pink & Green
(the hostess used similar colors to mine)

Challenge #29 ~ Recipe
( one type ribbon/2 DP's/3 Embellishments)

 

Challenge #79
Wedding Wishes

Which Anniversary is it?
1st is paper.....13th is lace
30th is pearl.....60th is diamond

Challenge #49
Wedding/Birthday

Challenge #20
All About Weddings

Challenge GC53

Read
(using text)

 Wee Memories Challenge #5
Stitching
 Crafty Ann's #14
Anything Goes
Creative Inspirations #33
Celebrations
Clearly I Stamp #13
Flowers

That's it for now!

I have a busy week ahead.  Soon I will be leaving
for the Twin Cities of Minnesota with my friends
Sue Rothamel & Crystal Copperstone
of US ArtQuest.
We will be at
The Rubber Stamp & Scrapbooking Expo
demoing and having more fun than
anyone has a right to!  : )

So tonight, I will be working ahead on a variety
of projects to share with you and catching up
on a neglected to-do list.
Have a great Monday!