Fresh Watermelon Wishes

Hi friends! Today I'm popping in with a birthday card featuring the June Paper Pad Club and Sweet Slice stamp set. I love this sentiment from the set and stamped it onto a die cut from the Emily's Alphabet Dies. Today I'm playing along with the This or That hop over on Instagram. This week's prompt is FRESH FRUIT or FRESH AIR. Seemed like the perfect time to pull out some of that Watermelon Summer Ephemera!

I've been into using up scraps lately, so this card started with a 3 x 3" scrap of both the watermelon plaid and watermelon patten paper. I cut the squares in half on the diagonal, then mounted onto a scalloped square die cut. This is layered onto a 2" x 4" scrap layered horizontally on a 4" x 5.25" die cut of the picnic plaid.  A super fun layout.

I finished off with a collage of watermelon images from the Watermelon Summer Ephemera. That watermelon sorbet has me drooling!

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I hope you have a fabulous day.

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You Had Me at Books

Hey crafty friends! Today I'm playing along with the This or That hop over on Instagram. The theme this week is CATS or DOGS. Since I am a cat person through and through there wasn't even a contest on which I would choose!

I've had the Tales of Friendship set from Not 2 Shabby unopened on my shelf for a few months now, so decided it was a purr-fectly good time to pull it out and play. I knew I wanted to use papers from the new The Blue Seas pad, so selected them first. Next I picked my Copic color palette, pulling out some BG70's and E30's and Warm Grays for my furry friend. I stamped with alcohol safe4 black ink, then colored, highlighting the kitty with a stardust glitter pen and some glossy glaze for her shiny eyes.

The sentiment is from the Books Galore paper pad, which has several book themed sentiments on one of the papers. I cut it with a circle die, then inked the edges of my papers with frayed burlap ink and layered together.

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I hope you have a fantastic day.

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A Sweet Hello

Hello friends! It's Thursday again and so I'm hopping with my This or That friends over on Instagram. Our theme choice this week is SWEET or SAVORY. When I saw the prompt, my mind immediately went to this sweet gnome in the Tea Loving Gnomes Bundle! Isn't he so cute?

I colored him up with Copic markers and a few gel pen highlights. I took some scraps of paper I had and created the layout. Aren't those plaids and dots so fun together? The darling sentiment is stamped onto a die cut from the Emily's Alphabet Die Set. I just love this shape. I accented with one of the sweet butterfly stickers from the Pink Blossom Easter PET Tape. The colors look like they were made to go with this paper collection.

That's it for today! Thanks so much for stopping by today! I hope you have a fabulously crafty day!

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Rocking Chairs and Sweet Tea

Hello friends! Today is the Not 2 Shabby quarterly release and there's an ADORABLE new bundle in the shop! I love the soft color palette of this collection that includes a stamp set, 6 x 6 paper pad, and coordinating ephemera, as well as the coordinating Minty Peach Bliss Enamel Dots. You can buy the Tea Lovin' Gnomes Bundle all together at a discount, or pick and choose from what's available individually.

Are you an iced tea drinker? We had iced tea all the time growing up, but I never got in the habit of making it once I moved out. I think I'll try to make it a bit more this summer because sitting out on my back porch with a glass of iced tea sounds positively amazing! Especially when I see this ADORABLE little gnome from the Tea Lovin' Gnomes Ephemera! Isn't he just the sweetest? And I love the sentiment from the stamp set. I used sahara sand for the mats to bring a little contrast between all the prints of paper. I just love this color combo.  For a little accent, I brought in some butterfly stickers from the Pink Blossom Easter PET Tape. I love it when you can mix and match existing products with new ones!

If you've got a little time, be sure to hop on over to the Not 2 Shabby shop to check out the new goodies. I bet this bundle is going to go fast, especially with all the amazing samples I've seen from my fellow teamies! We're all sharing our makes over on Instagram today.

Not 2 Shabby is also hosting a FREE Cottage Rose Virtual Retreat this weekend! 

Retreat dates: MAY 17th & 18th Reserve your spot today! Sign up for FREE for announcements and news. Craft with your stash or get the Exclusive Retreat Kit!

Retreat dates: MAY 17th & 18th

Click here for YouTube Retreat Playlist

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

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Sweet Days with Not 2 Shabby

Hello friends! Today I'm taking part in the This or That hop over on Instagram. This week's prompt is SWEET or SNARKY. In real life, I enjoy the snark, but for cards I usually stick to sweet, uplifting sentiments. So I turned to the Yummy Strawberries paper and Sweet Berry Cottage ephemera from this month's N2S Box of the Month.

I started with that lovely gingham paper, matting with some new to me lacy layering dies. I cut the strawberry print paper from the larger lacy mat, then layered them all together.  I chose a gorgeous, large ephemera piece with the strawberries and blossoms, highlighting the leaves and berries just a bit to match the deeper reds and greens in the paper.

The sentiment is from the Berry Best Friends stamp set in the March box, and I finished off with a butterfly ephemera piece and some sparkling enamel dots. They're always the perfect ending to a card.

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I hope you have a fabulous day!

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Bunny Blooms with Not 2 Shabby

Hey crafty friends! Happy Thursday! Get ready for another This or That challenge on Instagram! This week's theme is Clean & Simple or Intricate. Confession: I'm usually a "more is more" kind of gal, but this sweet little bunny from Not 2 Shabby's Time for Spring collection totally stole my heart and inspired me to create a clean and simple design. Isn't it just darling?

I first cut a panel of white cardstock to 3.75" x 5" and embossed about half of it with a swiss dots embossing folder from way back in the day. I'm pretty sure this was the one that came with my original Cuttlebug, and it's still a favorite of mine! After embossing, I used a scrap of the Time for Spring paper from a previous card to fill in the other portion of the embossed panel.

I used a couple of banners from the EZ Wonder Die #1 to break up the layout a bit and ground the bunny and cart.  I used one of the EZ die cuts to cover the wagon portion of the ephemera, then popped the bunny ephemera up on dimensionals.  I finished with a sentiment from the Enjoy the Ride stamp set.

Thanks so much for stopping by today! If you have some time, head on over to Instagram to see what my crafty friends have cooked up with this week's This or That theme!

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Positive Vibes Only

Hi friends! It's hard to believe it's already Thursday. It's basketball season for my boys and we have 3 games a week, so it seems like the weeks are just flying by! Since it's Thursday, that means I'm hopping along with some of my crafty friends over on Instagram for the This or That Hop. This week's theme choice is DOGS or CATS.

It probably comes as no surprise that I'm a cat lover. We have two polar opposite cats and after just shy of 18 months together, they finally occasionally will sit near each other without fighting. They're pretty cute, even when they do fight, though. But my cat lover era started when I was really young when I was first introduced to Hello Kitty. So I thought it only fitting to make a Hello Kitty card for this week's theme challenge.

This sweet little HK VW van image is from the Travel Cutie set from The Sassy Club. I just love it! I colored it up with Copic markers and added some glossy accents to the bumper, lights, and side mirrors, then cut with my Brother Scan 'n Cut.

I started off the background with a mop up of some Lindy's Magicals from a previous crafty session. I then blended on some kitsch flamingo and salvaged patina distress inks.  Next I used the same color of inks in oxide form to splatter and smoosh onto the background.  When this was dry I scraped a bit of opaque texture paste thinly over some of the brighter areas.

The Postcard stencil is one designed by Vicky Papaioannou for Stamperia. I just rediscovered it in my craft room. I think it was from her first line of products for them. I love it and stenciled it with black soot with varying amounts of pressure for a little extra depth and texture.

The good vibes only sentiment is die cut with the Smile More word die set from Erin Lee Creative. I cut it in black and also in pink. I coated the black version with versamark ink and then embossed in clear for a glossy look. A thin black mat finishes off this A2 card.

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I hope you have a fabulous day!

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Big Heart Hello

Hi friends! Today I'm playing along with some friends on Instagram for the #thisorthat hop. This week's theme to choose between is big or small.

I immediately thought I'd go big and use an unused gem in my stash, the Erin Lee Creative Super Jumbo Word + Outlines Dies. I love the dies, but wasn't feeling like it was Super Jumbo enough, so anchored it with a huge Spellbinders Scalloped Heart from the beginning days of die cutting. The heart only fits on an A2 landscape base, but I decided to go portrait and have my heart hang over the edges.

I'm playing along with Danni's Use Your Stash themes this month for her This & That with Danni's Dreams Facebook Group.  On this card I shopped my stash for the big heart dies, the Reverse Confetti heart paper, a falling hearts embossing folder, and heart rhinestones.  I added a bit of pink lemonade blending to the dry embossed panel, then added pink, black, and white splatters.

I added a small little Seasonal Chit Chat sticker with the xoxo. I felt like the contrast between its size and the size of the die cut sentiment really played to the big or small theme.

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I hope you have a fabulously creative day.

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