FCC Halloween Blog Hop!

"Happy Halloween"

 and Welcome to "Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Design team card swap Halloween Blog Hop" 

 That is a mouthful isn't it? Not everyone on the team swapped cards, but those of us that did decided to do a blog hop sharing our cards with you.

The card I sent out to Diana Martin:


I used an adorable Julie Nutting paper doll stamp by Prima and paper pieced her cute outfit. You can find all the details and close ups on my blog post, here.

The amazing card I received, from Michelle Nutter:


I love the paper pieced Frankenstein! and that sentiment - how cute!!

You can now head over to Liz O's blog to check out her cards!

There are not many on this hop however, should you get lost please check out the line-up below:

1. DIANA L. http://dianamlarson.blogspot.ca/

2. Karla Yungwirth - http://creative-love-affair.blogspot.ca

3.Liz O. -                   http://Unikbyyes.blogspot.com

4.Diana Lynn Martin-http://leeleecarddesigns.blogspot.ca/

5 Michelle Nutter-     http://justanutterpapercrafter.blogspot.com

6.Avril Tanner--         http://totallyscrapaddicted.blogspot.ca/

Thanks so much for joining us today!! I hope you have a very happy - and not too scary - Halloween!

Pretty Cute Stamps - Oh Christmas Tree!

Oh! I was so excited to see the October releases by Pretty Cute Stamps! For my post today for the Pretty Cute Stamps blog I couldn't help but share this adorable set, Oh, Christmas Tree (plus stamps from a few other sets shown below!) There are so many possibilities with this set! So many ways to decorate the tree, and so many wonderful sentiments!

I decided to make a couple cards for my Christmas card stash - I think we definitely have to start thinking about that now ;)

I used some 6x6 ME Christmas themed papers as my background papers and then the fun started! I get so much inspiration from watching my kids craft, and since my 2 year old decided to colour her tree pink - I thought I would colour mine pink too! I stamped the presents and coloured them with gel pens in some non-traditional Christmas colours  and popped some up along the bottom with foam dots.

I used Prismacolour markers to colour my tree, star and ornaments and then gel pens to colour the garland to look like popcorn. I had to add this happy face - soooo sweet! I used the frame from Any Better Than This stamped with Picked Raspberry Distress Ink on a kraft banner and the snowflakes from Christmas Cheer, which I white heat embossed.  I forgot to make sure the ink on the frame was dry before embossing the snowflakes, but I loved how it turned out! The sentiment, Oh Christmas Tree and star garland stamps to the left of the tree are also from the Oh, Christmas Tree set.

Inside, I hand cut some matching paper and layered on a piece of white cardstock and a piece of vellum stamped with one of the sentiments from the set, along with a tiny (how cute!) gingerbread man!

I had to make a second card, similar to the first, but decorated differently - there were so many ideas of what to do with this set! Take a good look at all the little bits included (below) - amazing! For this card I used Prismacolor Markers again on my tree and gel pens on the garland.

I used gold embossing powder to heat emboss the star and ornaments and silver for the little tiny hangers!! I used the frame from the Celebrate Today stamp set around the edge of my banner.

On the left side I layered a gold embossed sentiment on vellum and a silver embossed star garland, and popped up the tree banner with foam dots.

Inside I used gold embossing powder for the sentiment and silver for the stars on top of vellum and then added some white gel pen stitching lines.

These are all the amazing stamp sets I used, available right now at the Pretty Cute Stamps store!

Thank you so much for joining me today!! I had so much fun creating these cards, and I can think of a million more ideas for using them! Be sure to check out the Pretty Cute Stamps store to pick up your favourites.

Linked to:
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge - Use Kraft
Crafty Hazelnuts Patterned Paper Challenge Blog - October
Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge Extra - October
DL Art - Thankful Thursday Linky October Linky Party

Little Scrap Pieces - Show It Off Saturday 10/26

613 Avenue Create - AG #95
Sister Act Card Challenge - AG #80

Deconstructing Jen - Sketch 174 (turned on it's side)

Pretty Cute Stamps October Release Blog Hop

OOOH do we ever have some awesome projects for you today!! If you have come here from Dawn's blog - Sunnyside Up, then you're in the right place. If you happened to stumble across this post and want to start at the beginning of the hop you can head over to the Pretty Cute Stamps blog. All the Design Team members are sharing projects from the new October stamp releases available at the Pretty Cute Stamp Store. 

I am so excited to feature the Christmas Cheer stamp set from Pretty Cute Stamps - one of the new releases that you can pick up at the Pretty Cute Stamps store!  I always make a few special tags to give to those people who love and appreciate all things crafty - people who you just know will appreciate all the hard work and inky fingers you put into making something for them :) I just felt like these two adorable elves needed to be added to some tags for just this purpose!

Check out these sentiments and snowflakes!!

Christmas Cheer!

For the backgrounds I sprayed Dylusions Inks through a snowflake Dylusions stencil with 2 blue mists.  Then I sponged on Distress Inks in Tumbled Glass and Peacock Feathers and added Chipped Sapphire around the edges.  I just love this colour combo, especially for a snowflake background! I used all the fun little snowflakes included with this set (I just love the details...) and white heat embossed them on top of my background.  How fun is that?!

I stamped on watercolour paper and watercoloured these cuties with Tombow Markers using Perfect Pearls mist instead of water so that their sweet little outfits shimmered! I simply had to stamp a sentiment above them - that is one of my favourite things about these sets - all the amazing coordinating sentiments!

I stenciled the red stripes with the Dylusions stencil and some Festive Berries Distress Ink and layered on a glittery red strip of paper.  I stamped another cheery sentiment for each tag, embossed some snowflakes with clear Crystal embossing powder and sponged with Distress Ink, which resisted the snowflakes. Along the bottom, I stapled some embellished ribbon for just another layer of frosty goodness!

For the ribbon I stamped some sweet snowflakes onto some seam binding ribbon with blue Stazon ink and then used Tumbled Glass and Pewter Distress Stains to colour the ribbon.  I came across the jingle bells after my girls had found them in the bottom of a drawer, where they had been "safe" for quite some time, lol! It just didn't seem right to leave them there, so they finally made their way out and onto a project, yay! The red bakers twine added to them on the top of the tag just brought it all together, coordinating with the red at the bottom of the tag.

I had so much fun creating these tags! I will just have to decide now who to give them to... 

All these sets are now available in the Pretty Cute Stamps shop.  These new releases will be on sale!! through October 28, 2014! In case you are finding it hard to choose -you can save even more by purchasing them as a New Release Bundle! How cool is that?! You can also pick up the coordinating SVG files, included in the above sale as well!!

We also have an exciting prize for you! A $15 Gift Certificate for Pretty Cute Stamps!! What will you buy if you win?? 

For your chance to win, 

1) become a follower of each blog

2) leave each of us a comment. 

3) For an extra chance to win LIKE Pretty Cute Stamps Facebook page and/or sign up for the Pretty Cute Stamps mailing list and leave a comment on the Pretty Cute Stamps blog that you did. 

A random winner will be chosen on Friday, October 24, 2014.

Here's the hop line up in case you get lost along the way-

Lisa: http://prettycutestampsblog.blogspot.com/

Kendra: http://www.inkinitupwithkendra.blogspot.com/

Raven: http://www.love4stamps.blogspot.com

Dawn: http://www.dawnmercedes.blogspot.com
Karla: http://creative-love-affair.blogspot.ca/ (me!)

I hope you have an awesome week!! Thanks for taking the time to comment :) It makes my day! Be sure to hop on over to the Pretty Cute Stamps Store to pick your favourites!

Linked up to:

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - AG

DL Art - Thankful Thursday October Linky Challenge

Crafty Hazelnuts Christmas Challenge Blog - Something forgotten/never used (Jingle Bells)

Pile It On Challenges - Use a Cheerful/uplifting message

Halloween Fairy!

I just love this cute Halloween stamp from Stampendous, which includes the very cool background as well as the image to colour in! This was actually in a card kit I picked up from my local scrapbook store, The Scrapmobile. I decided to use the colour challenge this week at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog- perfect for a Halloween image!

I added some black and white polkadot ribbon on each side to fit with the Mojo Monday sketch this week and flipped it over. The sentiment "Happy Fright Night" is from Bewitched, and the bats are from the Spooktacular set by Pretty Cute Stamps. I heat embossed them with purple embossing powder.

I coloured the girl with Prismacolor Markers and added lots of glittery accents with Stickles. I also used a silver Wink Of Stella pen to add some shimmer to the background swirls.

I used some Marmalade Distress Ink to sponge around the edges and added some tulle and a skull embellishment, which came in the kit.

I hope you all are having a wonderful week! Be sure to check back tomorrow for an amazing blog hop featuring the new October releases from Pretty Cute Stamps!! There will be blog candy and fantastic projects by the design team!

Linked to:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Blog - Colour Challenge

DL Art - Thankful Thursday October Linky Challenge

My Craft Spot #155 - Too Cute To Spook

Simon Says Monday Challenge Blog - AG

613 Avenue Create - #94 - AG

Mojo Monday #368 

FCCB #233 - Color Challenge

 Happy Monday and welcome to another Monday challenge!

Challenge #233 Color Challenge

This Weeks Sponsor

 

~This Weeks Challenge~

Color Challenge
Use the colors brown, orange, yellow, red

To qualify for the prize, be sure to use at least 1 Cricut cut on your project and if it's not obvious, let us know what cartridge you used.

Here is my project:

I used the Wild Card 2 Cricut cartridge to create this cute owl shaped card. Of course using brown, red, orange and yellow was easy, since I think owls could really be cute in any colour, but I love the fall look these colours gave him.

I used some Jillibean soup, Simple Stories, and My Minds Eye papers and sponged Vintage Photo distress Ink around the edges of my cuts before layering. 

Inside I used one of the adorable sentiments that are included with the Pretty Cute Stamps Chick With Brains set.

I hope you have a wonderful week coming up! Be sure to check out the Fantabulous Cricut blog to see all the amazing creations the Design Team has come up with - and enter your own project for a chance to win an awesome prize!!

Linked to:

DL Art - Thankful Thursday October Linky Party

Little Scrap Pieces - Show It Off Saturday Oct 18/14

613 Avenue Create - AG #93

Stuck On You Sketches - Anything Autumn Diecuts

Sister Act Card Challenge - AG #79

Crafting From The Heart - AG #41

Pretty Cute Stamps - October Sneak Peek - New 3x4 sets!

I am super excited to bring you this sneak peek for the Pretty Cute Stamps Blog! I've been lucky enough to be able to use two of the new 3x4 sets from the Pretty Cute Stamps Store that are part of the October release.  These stamps are so perfect to use with scrapbooking and Project Life style pocket pages! And of course, I can think of a million ways to use them with cards too!

For my project, I chose to create a scrapbook layout and a pocket scrapbook page of my third daughter, Erica's birth day.  I felt bad recently when her 7 year old sister was looking at her baby album and Erica (who will be 3 in two months) kept asking, "is that one me?, is that one me?".  So, after seeing these darling stamp sets, it was just the inspiration I needed to start. I used a Recollections paper pad from Michaels, Fabulous Girl, which is actually the same as a Simple Stories line, as well as some chipboard diecuts and acetate tags I had in my stash.

Pocket Page:

I stamped this fun outline stamp on watercolour paper and then put some Dylusions Spray Inks on my craft mat with some water and added it with a paintbrush to create a watercolour effect background.  These heart stamps are awesome! I cut them out and popped some of them up to layer on my journalling card.

 I can think of so many uses for this cool stamp!

This card was in the paper pack and I layered on some acetate tags and another awesome stamp, which I watercoloured around the edge of.

For my layout, based on the sketch shown below, I used a printed background paper and started layering on embellishments from the paper pack, chipboard letters, a doily, and some of the acetate embellishments used on the pocket page.

Another amazing journalling outline (I love the hand drawn look of these stamps!) and some fabulous stamped sentiments and hearts embellish my page!

I sprayed some Dylusions Spray Inks on some seam binding ribbon - I think this is my new favourite technique! and finished off the bottom of my photo!

I had sooo much fun creating this layout and using all these fantastic new stamps from the Celebrate Today and Any Better Than This stamp sets.  You will be able to purchase these and the other new stamp sets on October 22nd - but be sure to check the Pretty Cute Stamps blog each day to see another sneak peek look at more amazing sets!!

Thanks so much for joining me, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Linked to:
Stuck On You Sketches - sketch challenge

DL Art - Thankful Thursday Linky Challenge
613 Avenue Create - AG
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - O is for..... October Release!!