"New" Craft Stash Blog Hop - Use it or lose it!

Hi everyone and welcome to the "New" Craft Stash Blog Hop day 3.  A bunch of my crafty friends got together and thought it would be fun to have a little challenge within a blog hop.  Just for fun!!!   We've noticed that most card makers seem to have a stash of supplies that they buy and then set aside for future projects.  You tell yourself you'll eventually get around to using them but........

• Time slips away and before you know it months have passed and you still haven't touched your "new" stuff. 

•  You stored your "new" stuff away and completely forgot it existed (sometimes we even buy it again!).

•  You lost your "new" stuff.  Crazy, but it happens!

• You just can't seem to find the inspiration to use your "new" stuff (that's why we're here today!).  

Sound familiar?   Well, this is our challenge to all our crafty friends.  Break out your "NEW" stash.  Grab something that you've never used or barely used and get busy!  Use it or lose it sistas!

My "NEW" stamp set:  Faithful Flutterings by Catherine Pooler Designs 

 

I'm a little embarrassed to admit I've had this beautiful layering stamp set for months and it's never been out of the package.  Because it's such a large set though, (6x8") it was hard to lose in the crowd.  I've been eyeballing it and I just wasn't feeling inspired I guess.  So, I pulled this beauty out and put it to the challenge today.

 

I also pulled out Faber-Castell's Glass Bead Glitter Gel.

 

I've only used this product once or twice and that was back in November on a Christmas card.  I absolutely love it but never seem to remember to use it on my projects.  Not all cards call for this amount of sparkle but boy when they do the results can be stunning!

Here I stamped a whole background of butterflies and then spread a layer of the gel all over it.  The affect was dreamy!

For this card I also used the following supplies:
Dies:  Postage Stamps, Hello (Catherine Pooler Designs).
Ink:  Sweet Sixteen, Pixie Dust, Sugared Lavender (Catherine Pooler Designs), Haze Blue (Zig Kuretake Real Brush Markers).
Accessories:  Glass Slipper Sequin Mix (The Ton)

Check out that Glass Bead Glitter Gel close up!

Keeping my next card clean and simple, I stamped and cut out this butterfly.  I don't have the coordinating dies but this image is super easy to fussy cut.  For a little more interest I stamped the solid butterfly in Catherine Pooler's Black Jack ink directly onto the cardfront to create a shadow, then popped up this butterfly with dimensional tape.  I worked with a couple more stamp sets to piece together this custom sentiment.

For this card I also used the following supplies:
Stamps:  Delicate Polka Dots background (The Ton), The World Awaits (Stamp of Approval Love is in the Air collection/Catherine Pooler Designs).
Ink:  Tiki Torch, Orange Twist, Black Jack and Midnight (Catherine Pooler Designs).
Accessories:  Glass Slippers sequin mix (The Ton).

And what the heck, since I'm on a roll with my "new" stamp set, let's try one more!  I stamped and cut three of the small butterflies for this horizontal top folding card.  I did some light stenciling on the background and added a border along the bottom before adding the butterflies with dimensional tape.  I pieced together another custom sentiment to stretch along the bottom of the card.

For this card I also used the following supplies:
Stamps:  Eat Sleep Create (Catherine Pooler Designs), Haute Stripes (The Ton).
Ink:  It's a Boy, It's a Girl, Party Dress, Midnight (Catherine Pooler Designs).
Accessories:  Swoop Stencil (Catherine Pooler Designs), Split Diagonal Stencil (My Favorite Things), Glass Slippers sequin mix (The Ton.....can you tell it's my favorite?  ;)

A big shout out to all the companies that sponsored this three day blog hop!  They're giving away some great prizes!  All you have to do is hop and comment along the way on each blog. Winners will be chosen on Monday, July 23rd so take your time and enjoy the hop my friends!

Stampscapes 2 prizes – Choice of Nature Sheet ($26.50 ea)

CAS-ual Fridays Stamps $25 gift certificate

Catherine Pooler Designs $25 gift certificate

Right at Home $20 gift certificate

Stamplorations $20 gift certificate


A few of our hop designers are also giving away some goodies on their blogs too:

  

Ingrid - Prize Pack

Allison - $25 Power Poppy E-Gift Card

Ilina - Prize Pack

Tracie - $25 Catherine Pooler GC

Nanette - Prize Pack from Catherine Pooler Designs

It's time to hop along for more inspiration and see all the different ways to use your crafty stash.  Don't forget to leave your comment down below before you go.

Can't think of anything to say?   Tell me what "new" goodies you have in your stash that need some TLC.


 Next up on today's hop is the awesome Justine Hovey!

Ingrid Blackburn

Ardyth Percy-Robb  

Josefine Fouarge

Tracie Pond

Nanette Tracy

Lisa Harrolle

Justine Hovey <---go here next!

Susan Powell

Jennifer Cerizo

 Here are the links to get started on Day 1 and Day 2 if you missed them.  Have fun!!
Have a great day!!

Stamping for Families Blog Hop

Hi friends!  It has been a while since I've posted here on my blog due to my broken ankle craziness but I wanted to come out healing mode to participate in this really special blog hop.  As a birth mother, adoptive mother,  foster mother and an aunt to 21 nieces and nephews, I am hopping along today to show my love and support for all of the children who are caught in the middle of our country's border policy with Mexico.  

While I'm not here to argue politics with anyone,  I do want to say that my heart always has been and always will be, on the side of the children.   These innocent children were brought here and put in a traumatic situation thru no fault of their own.   They are scared and hurting because of the poor choices and senseless policies that were carried out by the adults around them.  We are all guilty of wanting the best for our kids.  We want them to grow up safe and healthy and happy.  Most parents do the best they can to make this happen but some are faced with many obstacles that leave them feeling desperate and destitute.  I can only imagine how desperate a mother must be to make such a hard and treacherous journey with a child on her hip.  

With that image in mind I decided to make this card.  In honor of  my three girls.  Each one coming to me with a different story.  Each one following their own path but all of them having one thing in common, their love for their mothers.

For this card I used the following supplies:

Stamps:  Shady Canopy (Penny Black), City Girls Park Life (The Ton), Travel Wagon (Unity Stamps).

Ink:  Green Tea, Eucalyptus, Spruce, Icing on the Cake, Midnight (Catherine Pooler Designs), Tumbled Glass Distress (Ranger),  Copic markers.

Paper:  Neenah Solar White 110 lb.

Accessories:  City Girls Park Life coordinating dies (The Ton), fun foam.

In the link below, you can follow along the path of some other beautiful crafters who are expressing their love for these children thru their card making today.  Also, if you are feeling inspired to make and share your own lovely card in this hop, you can add it to the link below.  Sandy Allnock is offering a free seat in her classroom to one lucky hop participant and also for one lucky commenter on her blog.   So be sure to stop  by and say "hi!".

An InLinkz Link-up

Take care my friends.

Thanks so much for stopping by.  Happy Stamping!!

Bike Week Winners!

Congratulations Bike Week Winners!  Please PM me here or on Facebook with your contact info!  Note:  Winners will have until 6am Thursday, May 10th to claim your prize.

1.  cghundley:  you get first choice!
2.  Sharon Jones let me know your first and second choice please!
 3.  Demi1 the final set will be yours!

 Motorcycle Layering Stamp Set

 

 Motorcycle Boss Stamp Set

 Beautiful Day Bicycle

Have a beautiful day!

Bike Week - My kinda ride - Friday

It's' Friday and the final day of Bike Week.  Thank you so much for riding along with me this week as I showcased some awesome stamp sets from The Ton.  Thanks to Effie over at The Ton for offering up some great stamp sets for the giveaway.  The Motorcycle Layering Stamp set and the Motorcycle Boss set are so unique and fun.  I had a blast working with them this week.  But today I'm pulling out a little stamp set that really won my heart.  This little two wheeler is more my speed.  This is what my bike in the garage really looks like!

That's right!   My little blue bicycle created using The Ton's 3x4" stamp set:

Beautiful Day Bicycle

Surprise!
 Add this to the giveaway list!  Three winners will now be chosen from this week's comments so one of you could win this adorable little "bike" set just in time for spring!


For my first card. I made a pretty little scene that I could color with my Zig Kuretake watercolor markers.

• First I stamped an A2 size top fold card base with The Ton's Delicate Polka Dots Cling Background with Hollywood star ink. 
• On an A2 size white card front I stamped the tree branches and birds from The Ton's Autumn Wishes stamp set with Caviar ink, then colored with Zig Kuretake markers.
•  I stamped the sentiment from the Beautiful Day Bicycle set by masking off the word "beautiful" and stamping the other words in Caviar ink.  Then I masked off the top and bottom words and stamped the "beautiful" in The Ton's Hollywood Star ink.
• I diecut this piece with the second to largest die in The Ton's Double Stitched Rectangles (Large) die set.
• I masked off a strip on the bottom of this diecut piece and ink blended The Ton's Smoky Quartz ink for the sidewalk.  Then I adhered it to the Polka Dot card base.

The Bike:

• I stamped the bike and flowers with The Ton's Caviar ink.  I stamped the bike color with Cali Blue.  You can see, this lined up and stamped great!
  
• I colored the rest of the bike and flowers with Zig Kuretake markers, then diecut them using the Beautiful Day Bicycle Coordinating Dies.
• I diecut a couple of blank bicycle pieces to glue onto the back of the colored piece then adhered it to the front of the card.  
• I glued on the flowers and some clear sequins from The Ton's Glass Slippers Sequins mix.

My second card is a birthday card using whole a mix of stamps and dies from The Ton.

• Beautiful Day Bicycle
• City Girls Park Life (balloons and puppy)
• City Girls Snow Day (presents)
• Beer (Happy Birthday Sentiment)
• Summer Blooms (wishing sentiment)
• Modern Labels Dies

• First I masked a strip off the bottom of an A2 size white card front.  Then I did some ink blending with The Ton's Smoky Quartz ink.
• I stamped all of the images and sentiment with The Ton's Copic friendly Caviar ink then colored the images with Copic markers.  I masked off the little baskets before stamping the puppy and flowers.
• After stamping the sentiment I diecut it out using the The Ton's Modern Labels die set.  I added some craft foam to the back.
• I adhered the panel to a card base, then glued on the sentiment label.

 Wait, there's a GIVEAWAY:

• I'm giving away THREE stamp sets from The Ton:  1 Motorcycle Layering set 6x8"  1 Motorcycle Boss 4x6" stamp set and 1 Beautiful Day Bicycle 3x4" stamp set.
• THREE lucky commenters will win one of these stamp sets!  All you have to do is ride along with me this week and leave a comment each day, here on my Bike Week blog postings. (see Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday here.)
• The first random winner chosen will get first choice on which stamp set they win.  The second name drawn will get second choice and the  remaining stamp set will go to the third random winner chosen.  
• (Sorry, open to US residents only, due to shipping restrictions.)  
• I'll give you through the weekend to get your comments in and will announce the lucky winners on Monday, May 7th.  

Just a quick note:  The Ton shipping dept. is currently on hiatus but will be back in the shop on May 10th and will get your orders out promptly. 

Thank you so much for riding along with me thru  Bike Week.
 Remember to comment below for your chance to WIN!  Good luck!

Bike Week - Build-a-Bike Thursday

Hello and welcome back to Bike Week!  Today I'm going to rev things up a notch, pull out all my tools and build my own bikes.  The Ton's Buildable Motorcycle Standalone Dies are an amazingly, fun way to add a motorcycle to your cards.  No stamps are needed, just a diecut machine (my Big Shot is ready), glue and a good pair of tweezers.

Buildable Motorcycle Standalone Dies

OK, I'm not gonna lie.  Just looking at all these parts intimidated the heck out of me.  Lordy, how in the world would I manage to get everything in the correct place....or even begin to know what each part is?  This die set is truly a puzzle and a challenge the first time around.  But I promise, after I put it together the first time, the second one was a breeze!

For my first card I enlisted the help of: 

The Ton's  Motorcycle (Layered) Coordinating Die. 

 This die cuts the basic motorcycle shape and served as base for my Buildable Motorcycle parts.  You absolutely DO NOT need this die to assemble the Buildable Motorcycle but it does help.  I'm going to show you two bikes today, one with and one without this base so you can see the difference.

I started with the background on this card by doing some masking and ink blending

• I cut out The Ton's Geometric Circles Coverplate die in some masking paper then stuck the masking paper to an A2 sized card base.
• I blended three different shades of The Ton's ink over the mask for a soft ombre look starting with the darkest at the bottom up to the lightest:  Coralline, Amber Citrine and Beach Blondie.
• I peeled off the coverplate mask to reveal a nice, crisp white design. 
•  I trimmed down the card front to 4 x 5 1/4", then diecut the large "birthday" greeting with The Ton's Bold General Greeting Word  Plate dies.  I also cut the word from white fun foam and adhered to the back of each letter.
• I glued the inked card front onto the front of the card base, aligning both the top and left side.
• I glued each "birthday" letter into the cut out spaces in the card front.  I felt it was a little too light so I lightly blended Beach Blondie over the top of the letters, then Found Topaz just over the bottom of each letter.  This was just enough extra color to allow the word to pop from the background.
• I embossed a sentiment strip using the "happy birthday" greeting from The Ton's Motorcycle Boss stamp set, Hampton White pigment ink and Ranger White embossing powder.  Then glued it in place.

 

Motorcycle assembly: 

I cut out all of the die pieces twice.  I found that was the easiest way to do it as you will need two of some of the pieces to build your bike and extra parts you can use as fillers.

• The "chrome" pieces were cut out of silver mirrored cardstock.
• The base piece, triangle piece and wheels were cut from black cardstock.
• The seat, fenders and gas tank were cut from white cardstock.  I colored these pieces using Copic Markers then added some clear Wink of Stella over the top for sparkle.
•  I assembled the bike by adhering the tires and "chrome" rims to the base first.  Then the triangular frame piece. I glued on the fenders, seat and gas tank next.  The tailpipes  and all the little parts fit in as shown.  You'll notice some of the little pieces are glued on top of each other to add dimension. Also note that I cut and adhered two handlebar/headlight pieces along with the two long posts that attach to the front wheel. 

For my second card today I diecut and assembled this same Buildable Motorcycle only this time I didn't use  the other die for the base. Now that I knew where all the parts go, I found it much easier to make this die set work on it's own.  

Tips:

• If you look closely at the photo below, you'll see the embossed lines and little cutouts that will help guide you to proper placement of the gas tank and the tailpipes.  
• Once these are all in place it's time to start adding all the little parts.  I recommend a good pair of  tweezers to make this task much easier. 
• Don't be afraid to load up that bike engine with lots of little pieces!  Of course I'm not a mechanic so I have no clue what any of it is anyway.  But I do know that the fuller the engine area looks, the better.  So just have fun and put those tweezers to work! 

I kept this ladies card background clean and simple:

•  On an A2 size 80lb Neenah Solar White card fron I stamped the pretty circle of dots from The Ton's Bokeh Burst Round stamp set in Red Sangria ink.
•  I stamped the "gorgeous" sentiment from the Seriously Amazing stamp set in Noir ink and embossed with a coat of Ranger clear embossing powder.  Then adhered the finished cardfront to the folding card base.

For the motorcycle:

• I blended some of The Ton's ink colors over the white pieces:  Pink Derby and Red Sangria for the fenders and tank, Smoky Quartz for the seat.  Of course some more clear Wink of Stella for some glittery shine.
• The happy birthday banner is heat embossed from the Motorcycle Boss stamp set using Hampton White pigment ink and Ranger white embossing powder.
• I glued the motorcycle directly onto the card front with the wheels resting on the large "gorgeous" sentiment.

 Wait, there's a GIVEAWAY:

• I'm giving away two stamp sets from The Ton:  1 Motorcycle Layering set 6x8" and 1 Motorcycle Boss 4x6" stamp set.
• Two lucky commenters will win one of these stamp sets!  All you have to do is ride along with me this week and leave a comment each day, here on my Bike Week blog postings. (see Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday here.)
• The first random winner chosen will get first choice on which stamp set they win.  The remaining stamp set will go to the second random winner chosen.  
• (Sorry, open to US residents only, due to shipping restrictions.)  
• I'll give you through the weekend to get your comments in and will announce the lucky winners on Monday, May 7th.  

Just a quick note:  The Ton shipping dept. is currently on hiatus but will be back in the shop on May 10th and will get your orders out promptly. 

Thank you for riding along today!  I'll be back tomorrow with a surprise ending to Bike Week so be sure to come back for the final ride!
 Remember to comment below for your chance to WIN!

Bike Week - CAS Wednesday

Is it Wednesday already?  We're halfway thru Bike Week and we're still riding strong.  Today I have three more cards to show you using The Ton's new motorcycle line of stamps and dies.  Today I'm in cruise mode, keeping it clean and simple.  Sometimes the detail of a stamp will let it hold it's own on a card.  That's how I feel about The Ton's Motorcycle Layering stamp set.   It takes six layers of stamping to build this intricate motorcycle.  When I stamped this bike the first time my jaw dropped.  Each layer lines up easily and once you get the hang of which colors to use, it is a breeze to stamp.  Seriously, check out all the bikes I stamped in the photo above.  So fun!

This was the very first card I made using The Motorcycle Layering set and I made it for my 15 year old nephew. (eek! He'll be driving soon!). 

• I stamped The Ton's Mountains layering stamp for the background using Lofty Mint, Crystal Pewter and Smoky Quartz.  Then I cut it out and adhered to the card base.
• I stamped the sentiment from the Motorcycle Boss stamp set, using Noir ink and embossed with Ranger clear embossing powder to make it shine.

• On a separate A2 sized cardfront I stamped the bike from the Motorcycle Layering set in this order:

1. Light Onyx
2. Noir
3. Crystal Pewter
4. Smoky Quartz 
5. Coral Cavern
6. Valentine Red

• I masked off the bike and blended some Light Onyx ink for the roadway.  
• Using the Motorcycle Layering Coordinating Die, I partially diecut the top of the motorcycle to keep it attached to the road.  
• I adhered the whole piece to the front of the card with dimensional tape.
• I added some sparkle over the red parts with a clear Wink of Stella glitter marker.

My next card is as clean and simple as you can get!  Check out this totally mod card using minimal supplies.  

• I started out stamping the "you" using The Ton's Brushed You stamp set and Noir ink on a 110 lb Neenah Solar White card base.  Background done!
• On a strip of black cardstock I embossed the rest of the sentiment using Hampton White Pigment ink and Ranger white embossing powder.  I glued it directly to the card base.

• I stamped the Motorcycle Layering bike with the same color combination as my first card except I exchanged red for blue using The Ton's Hot Tourmaline and Ocean Teal inks. 
• I diecut the motorcycle out using the coordinating die and then diecut two more layers from white cardstock.  I glued the blank layers to the back of  the stamped motorcycle piece to make it nice and thick (like chipboard!).  Then I glued it directly onto the card front.  Voila! 
• Must have shimmery paint on this motorcycle so out comes the Wink of Stella again. 

Ramping clean and simple up a little bit, here's my final card of the day.  A festive gender neutral birthday card using the Motorcycle Boss stamp set.  Now that's a mean green riding machine!  It's no accident I chose Packer colors for this card.

• On an A2 sized cardfront I stamped the confetti background using The Ton's Toned Squares background stamp set.  The inks I chose are Crystal Pewter, Soft Garden and Lemon Drop.
• I stamped the sentiment from the Toned Squares background in Noir ink and embossed it with Ranger clear embossing powder. 
• I masked off a straight line on the bottom and blended some Crystal Pewter ink to give the motorcycle a place to rest.
• I cut  1/4" off of three sides then adhered the card front directly to an A2 sized card base, aligning it with  the folded side.

• I stamped the Motorcycle Boss bike and the balloons from The Ton's City Girls: Park Life stamp set with Copic friendly Caviar ink.  Then I colored both pieces with Copic markers and diecut them with coordinating dies.
• I cut out both images from a piece of white fun foam and adhered to the back of the colored images, then glued the pieces to the card front.
• More glittery Wink of Stella to add some sparkle!

 Wait, there's a GIVEAWAY:

• I'm giving away two stamp sets from The Ton:  1 Motorcycle Layering set 6x8" and 1 Motorcycle Boss 4x6" stamp set.
• Two lucky commenters will win one of these stamp sets!  All you have to do is ride along with me this week and leave a comment each day, here on my Bike Week blog postings. (see Monday and Tuesday here.)
• The first random winner chosen will get first choice on which stamp set they win.  The remaining stamp set will go to the second random winner chosen.  
• (Sorry, open to US residents only, due to shipping restrictions.)  
• I'll give you through the weekend to get your comments in and will announce the lucky winners on Monday, May 7th.  

Just a quick note:  The Ton shipping dept. is currently on hiatus but will be back in the shop on May 10th and will get your orders out promptly. 

Thank you for riding along today!  I'll be back tomorrow with a peek at two cards using   The Ton's  Motorcycle standalone die set.
 Remember to comment below for your chance to WIN!

Bike Week - City Ride Tuesday

Hey friends, welcome to day 2 of Bike Week!  Today we're riding into the city with two fun city backgrounds created with stamps from The Ton shop.

Today I'm featuring The Ton's  Motorcycle Boss stamp set.

My first card is a birthday card. 

• I started out by stamping the background in Crystal Pewter ink using the row house stamp in The Ton's City Girls Winter Edition stamp set. I kept the background neutral so the shiny orange motorcycle could be the focal point. Then I blended a solid Crystal Pewter on the bottom half of the card front to serve as the roadway.

•  I stamped the motorcycle in The Ton's Caviar ink which works great when coloring with Copic Markers.  This motorcycle was really easy to color with just some shades of gray, brown and a oranges.  I cut it out using the Motorcycle Boss Coordinating Die then popped it up with some dimensional tape.

• I hand cut a banner using black cardstock then white heat embossed a sentiment from the same Motorcycle Boss set using Hampton White Pigment ink and Ranger White embossing powder.  For a little added birthday color, I colored and diecut the cute little banner from The Ton's Fireplace Holiday Accessories stamp set.  Then adhered this banner with dimensional tape.

A sunny day in the park and a nice, long bike ride is what this dad wants for Father's Day.  For my second card today, I stamped the background  with The Ton's fabulous Scenes: Fountain Terrace Cling Background stamp.  Once again with a busy background like this, I wanted to keep it soft and as neutral as possible so that the Motorcycle Boss really pops.  This means it was super easy and quick to color.  Gotta love that!

• I stamped the background with Crystal Pewter ink onto 80 lb Neenah Solar white cardstock.  Then I stamped over the top with Versamark ink and Ranger Clear embossing powder.  I used Kuretake Zig watercolor markers to lightly color in the trees and fountain.
• I stamped a couple little birds from The Ton's Palm Tree stamp set in Noir ink.
• I lightly blended some Blue Diamond ink over the sky and Crystal Pewter ink over the roadway.

• I stamped the Father's Day sentiment on black cardstock using Hampton White Pigment ink and Ranger White embossing powder then adhered it with dimensional tape.

• The Motorcycle Boss is stamped with Copic friendly Caviar ink and colored with Copic markers.  Then I adhered the motorcycle with dimensional tape.
• To add a little dimension and movement to the fountain I streaked some Nuvo Crystal drops in gloss white to give the illusion of flowing water.

 Wait, there's a GIVEAWAY:

• I'm giving away two stamp sets from The Ton:  1 Motorcycle Layering set 6x8" and 1 Motorcycle Boss 4x6" stamp set.
• Two lucky commenters will win one of these stamp sets!  All you have to do is ride along with me this week and leave a comment each day, here on my Bike Week blog postings. (see Monday here.)
• The first random winner chosen will get first choice on which stamp set they win.  The remaining stamp set will go to the second random winner chosen.  
• (Sorry, open to US residents only, due to shipping restrictions.)  
• I'll give you through the weekend to get your comments in and will announce the lucky winners on Monday, May 7th.  

Just a quick note:  The Ton shipping dept. is currently on hiatus but will be back in the shop on May 10th and will get your orders out promptly. 

Thank you for riding along today!  I'll be back tomorrow with three clean and simple cards using  The Ton's  Motorcycle stamps and dies. 
 Remember to comment below for your chance to WIN!