My crafty space.

If you ever wanted to see where I craft, head over to the lawnscaping blog, where I'm sharing my tiny and dark basement studio.

Here's a little peek for you:

Googly eyes and washi tape.

And yes, that is all the washi tape I own.  sad.

And the little espresso cup?  Ten years ago, Amar & I gave away espresso sets for our wedding favors.  Now, one lonely cup houses buttons and tiny die-cuts.

Happy touring!

you are beautiful.

I am so happy to be rounding out day 25 of our 25 days of CSS inspiration!  I hope you've enjoyed having the team show off new ideas and techniques every day for the last few weeks.

My project today is "no-stamps-required" and yes, it feels weird to have written that *grin*



I die cut all of my letters out of masking paper and arranged them on a piece of white cardstock.  I then used crudely cut strips of the masking paper to help me define the wavy lines of sponged colors.  I worked my ink blending tools from top to bottom, orange to dark blue.  In case there are curious minds out there, I did not use Distress Inks.  As long as you are patient, work off some of the excess ink onto a scrap paper first, and use circular motions on your cardstock, you can use almost any ink and get smooth results.

Masking is so addictive.  When you pull up the masks, the heavens open up and tiny little birdies start to sing.



You're hearing it right now, I know it.



It's is the nearest thing to a print that this stampy gal could ever hope to create.  In person, it is even more stunning and perfect looking.

Also, I should have taken a picture of my hands post-project.  So ink-dirty that it's a wonder nothing got smudged...

♥.

Ballerina birthday tags

When I don't have stamps to match a party theme, I pretty much smooch my silhouette in humble thanks.  A dollar ballerina file is all it took to create these cute tags:

I used a tag shape I already owned, and cut the silhouette file out of masking paper.  I don't love handmade decorations to look too matchy-matchy (doesn't that defeat the point of handmade?) so I used both the positive and negative parts of the ballerina cuts to sponge my tags.  A flourishy sentiment (a mix of *you* and *thank...for coming* sentiment) and a few sequins finished things off.

Which version is your favorite?  pink ballerina on white tag, or white ballerina on pink tag?

And, a simple silhouette file can be used for more than just favor tags:



Cut out of 12x12 inch cardstock, they can beautiful hold up either end of a banner ♥.

soft and stitched thank you.

I have a card on the lawn fawn blog this morning.



I used the hot air balloon die-cuts, but also paper-pieced the images.  I love the white border around the images, and wanted to keep that, even if I was doing a lot of hand-cutting...

The card was created for the memorial day OWH blog hop.  The information and links are on the lawn fawn blog!

you need cake to make it a party.

Welcome back to another day of CSS inspiration!

I came across this quote by Julia Child and just had to create a whole card & gift box set inspired by it:

"a party without CAKE is just a meeting."

I'm obviously mourning the loss of party season in our home, and with no excuse for baking a cake, I turned my attentions to the paper kind.

The cake decorating and cake dome sets were perfect for highlighting the sentiment that I created and printed on the computer.  But a flat cake would have been so boring...

With just a few strips of patterned paper, I easily created a fun, 3-D cake image.

Here's a close look at the folded tabs that hold it all down.

And what's a birthday without a slice of cake box?  (a meeting, apparently.)  The birthday gift could easily be tucked inside for a very fun set.  I used leafy dies (in the same patterned paper as the 3-d card cake) and created a soft flower by following my own tutorial. (grin.)  I used build-a-flower dies and *this technique* to get 'er done.

yum! 

you rule! {lawnscaping challenge no. 58}

Good monday morning!  It's time for another lawnscaping challenge - and this one was a challenge for me: create a CAS project (that's clean-and-simple, if you stumbled onto my card-making blog from out of nowhere...)

this is what clean and simple looks like for me:

I created a focal point out of the chalkboard, added some notebook patterned paper and notebook-edged cardstock in behind, and just a few wood veneer stars to balance things out.

Apart from the ruler, the chalkboard is all one-layer.  I just find it looks cleaner that way.  I colored in the frame with copic markers, and masked it to sponge in some green distress inks.  The sentiment was stamped inside the frame more than a few times, and heat embossed.  

I hope you like it and decide to put up your own entry!  You could win a prize from lawn fawn:

Have a great day ♥.

you're the best {saturday creations}

I still don't have the newest Precious Remembrance set, but that doesn't mean I can't provide a little inspiration with some of our older sets.

I used "positive thoughts" and "mom & dad", along with some lawn fawn speech bubbles  to create this fun little card.

True story: I actually created this card for the 10 minute craft dash this week, but ran into two problems.  

1. it took me closer to 30 minutes to get this one done, and
2. i should have looked up the color palette before I got started.  making a card in 10 minutes in hard enough!  it should just be a free-for-all every time *wink*

Sooo, I made another card for the dash (you saw it *here*) and I'm sharing this one today.

I hope you like it!

some housekeeping....

If you follow me on facebook, you've already heard this bit of news, but I wanted to share it here as well:

This camping party, that my sister and I put together for my nephew's birthday, is being featured on Good Housekeeping's website, as part of a summer party themes slideshow.  As much as I love getting recognition for my cards, having a party featured on GH.com feels so amazing...

Click *here* to check out the entire slideshow.  There are some great ideas in that slideshow, to help you be the hostess with the mostess this summer!

10 minute craft dash with Precious Remembrance.

how's that for a fancy title.

The Precious Remembrance team is joining Paulina for this week's 10 minute craft dash!  I have to admit that this was my hardest one.  I never work with lavender  and Precious Remembrance is more sentiment than image oriented.  Apparently, in a time crunch, I rely on cute smiley faces to make my card look more impressive than it really is ;)



The rest of the team will be showing off the new PR set, "little one."   My international mailing saga has taken a turn: the package was apparently re-routed to somewhere in Chicago by the Canadian customs department.  Don't ask.  I have no idea.

Here's how I spent my 10 minutes:

minutes 1-2: immediately turned on my silhouette, selected a speech bubble shape from my library and set it to cut.  In the meantime, I gathered my PR stamps: positive thoughts and mom & dad.

minutes 3-5: stamped the heart in yellow, the sentiment in purple, and the splotches in green.  color combo success. I sponged around the edges.

minutes 6-7: created a folded card base, sponged around the card edges, and rummaged through my stamps for that little lawn fawn smiley.  Apparently, I still needed a smiley face, and even the tiniest one would do.

minute 8: stamped it in the bottom left corner.

I ended with a time of 8 minutes and 4 seconds.  No fuss, no muss.  My quickest dash time ever!

Precious Remembrance is sponsoring this week's dash - click *here* to sweat your way to a 10 minute card.

glitter and thanks.

welcome to another day of Clear and Simple Stamps inspiration!

Awhile back, CSS hosted a "spread the love campaign" and today, I'm using the Limited Edition: Spread the Love stamp set (not for sale) that was a bonus set for those who purchased from their swag bag gift.  The stamp says "thanks for the love" with a little jar attached to it.



The only problem: I wanted to use the jar.... by itself.  It's just so cute!

So true story: a little stamp surgery never hurt anyone.  By cutting the jar away from the sentiment, I suddenly had many more options for my card design.  Do you do that with your stamps?  I'm pretty sure most of my "happy birthday" sentiments are cut in half - I like side-by-side as well as stackable stamping options, hee.

To create my patterned paper, I stamped the jar repeatedly into rows, and then stamped the distressed linen background over-top.  Just for fun, I colored in one jar's heart and glittered it up with diamond stickles.



I gave the sentiment flag a bit of a wave by placing a foam square under the "t" for "thanks" and a glue dot at the other end.  I think it's a fun way to make sure that the banner keeps the shape that I want it to have.

I hope you like it!  If you'd like to see a different take on the same card, download the CSS app today!

Little one {precious remembrance new release}

Hi peeps!

International shipping sucks.  I am still waiting on my sweet "little one" set from Precious Remembrance, but check it out:

Isn't it cute?  I can't wait to play around with it!

Fingers crossed that it comes in time for next week's Saturday Creations post.

In the meantime, check out the blog for inspiration from the rest of the design team!