Pretty Cute Stamps - May New Release Blog Hop!

Thanks so much for joining us for the May 2015 New Release Blog Hop, where we are all sharing projects featuring the new stamps this month that are now available in the Pretty Cute Stamps Store.

If you came from the Pretty Cute Stamps blog, you are in the right place. If you just stumbled across this post and would like to start from the beginning, please visit the Pretty Cute Stamps Blog. 

For my project for the hop, I've used the Currently stamp set to create a pocket style scrapbook page, along with the Celebrate Today and Any Better Than This sets!

I loved these pics of my girls reading bedtime stories together! Since these were taken Erica has given up her soother and her habit of having to rub a piece of fabric while she sucked on it. It's so cute to look back on her holding Amie's sleeve here. One of those things you never think you'd miss...  I used some diecuts from Ruby Rocket and Maggie Holmes and did some paper piecing with the stamped hearts to add to my photos and journaling cards.

I love the sentiments included in the Currently set!! I used them to stamp directly on my photos as well as my journaling cards. These would be perfect in a Project Life page or on a traditional page to document so many things!

I cut patterned papers into 3x4 journaling cards and rounded my edges before stamping them and adding diecuts.

For my 4x6 journaling card I stamped the border from the Celebrate Today stamp set and coloured it in with Distress Markers. Then I stamped the sentiment from the Any Better Than This stamp set on cardstock, sponged it with Distress Ink and sprinkled it with water to get the droplet effect before layering it on my card.

I premade a bunch of journaling cards so I could grab them quickly when I was doing a scrapbook page!

Here is the featured New Release I used today:

Currently

You can also find these sets at the PCS Store - 

Any Better Than This

 Celebrate Today

Blog Candy!! There is a $15 Gift Certificate to the PCS Store available to win! All you need to do is:

1) Follow and comment on each of the blogs. 

2) For extra chances to win you can LIKE Pretty Cute Stamps on Facebook and/or sign up for the Pretty Cute Stamps mailing list. (Leave an extra comment for each on the Pretty Cute Stamps blog as your entry)

A random winner will be chosen on June 2, 2015.
** for an extra giveaway see the end of the post!

Be sure to check the Pretty Cute Stamps Store to pick up your favorite sets - the New Releases will be on sale through June 4, 2015, and you can save even more by purchasing the May 2015 Stamp Bundle! You can also pick up the SVG outlines for each of these stamps at the store!!

 May 2015 New Releases 

There is also a FREEBIE cut file available for today only at the Pretty Cute Stamps blog!

Now, you can head over to the next stop on the hop- Larissa @ Muffins and Lace

If you get lost along the way, here's the lineup!

Lisa - Pretty Cute Stamps 
Karla - Creative Love Affair 

Larissa - Muffins and Lace

Raven - Love 4 Stamps 

Janna - Stamping With The Dogs

Dawn - Sunnyside Up

Thanks so much for joining me today! Don't forget to leave your comment for a chance to win :)

P.S. For an extra way to win you can LIKE my Facebook page and leave a comment on the 'Giveaway Post' - I will be giving a random winner a $15 Gift Certificate to the Pretty Cute Stamps Store! You have until 10 am Monday, June 1st MST!

Pretty Cute Stamps - May Sneak Peek!

Sooo exciting!! You are going to love the New Releases this month from Pretty Cute Stamps! I'm totally loving this adorable Tea-rriffic set! 

For my project today I made a card and tea gift set by paper piecing these sweet stamped images. I created a stenciled background using the Tim Holtz Doily stencil and Distress Inks in Picked Raspberry, Salty Ocean and Cracked Pistachio. After layering papers from a 6x6 paper pad - Front Porch by Pebbles,  I diecut a star from a Spellbinders die out of watercolor paper and added Distress Inks and a spritz of water to put my tea set on. 

 Inside, I stamped this lovely tea bag stamp and this awesome sentiment on more of that Pebbles paper!

I love how happy this little set is! I made a band with another teacup to decorate my tea bag and added some more stamps to coordinate the envelope as well. 

Thanks so much for joining me today! Be sure to stop over at the Pretty Cute Stamps blog to see the rest of the awesome projects the design team has come up with for this release! There's also a really great free cut file for you to download today! 

I will be back tomorrow with a look at all the stamp sets and another fun project in the New Release Blog Hop!

Giveaway!!

You could win a $15 gift certificate to Pretty Cute Stamps from me just by liking my Facebook fan Page and leaving a comment on the Giveaway post! 

Linked to:

DL Art - Thankful Thursday May Linky Challenge 

Sister Act Card Challenge - AG cards

Cookin' & Craftin' - Thursday Link up

Crafting From The Heart - #61 AG

Create And Inspire - AG 

Mojo Monday #399 Sketch

Project Life Birthday Layout!

My darling big girl turned 27 in March and I wanted to include all the pics from her birthday dinner here in my PL album, but since I had quite a few I decided to collage them into smaller pics within the Project Life iPhone app.

For my first page I had a few pics of my youngest swinging at the park that I wanted to include with my week, so I kept them on the left hand side of the page. Then on the right side I added my title, a PL card from the iPhone app, some birthday pics and a journaling card I made with a Pretty Cute Stamps set Any Better Than This.  I love the cupcake pic on the bottom right of this page! The cupcake is in focus and everything behind it is a bit blurry - I really need to figure out how to do this more!

For my second page I used some Heidi Swapp journaling cards and stickers along with some fun paper diecuts from Maggie Holmes. I cut my collaged pics apart and layered them onto the cards. I also added a couple stamps from Pretty Cute Stamps, and two 3x4 journaling cards from PL.

Thanks so much for joining me today! Be sure to check out the current scrapbook challenge at Bimini Moose for inspiration and your chance to win a sweet cut file!

Linked to:
613 Avenue Create - AG
Cookin' & Craftin - Thursday Link Up
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - AG

My First Pocket Letter!

I'm back today with a very fun Pocket Letter feature for the Scrapendipity Way Of Life Blog! This is the very first Pocket Letter I have ever done, and it was so fun!!

Have you heard of Pocket Letters? Do you remember when ATC's (Artist Trading Cards) were big? Well, I still have all mine stored in a binder in baseball trading card sleeves! These Pocket Letters remind me of them - they are little 2.5" x 3.5" cards, usually following a theme, tucked into these sleeves and then folded into 3 parts so they fit into an A10 size envelope - ready to mail off to a friend! Often people tuck some paper crafting goodies into the back and enclose a letter for the recipient. There are websites, YouTube videos and Facebook pages dedicated to these crafty projects!

I decided to make my letter with a food theme and used papers from the Echo Park Made From Scratch collection as well as a food themed Smash kit and diecuts from a Ruby Rocket Pack. I used some BoBunny background stamps to add stamping and embossed details to my cards before layering my papers on and added some fun foodie washi tape!

On the back of my Pocket Letter I added some goodies my friend could remove and use in her own crafting - some baker's twine, diecuts, stickers, washi paperclips, extra papers, tea and ribbon. I tucked a letter I wrote into one of the pockets with a 'pull' tab and put my paperclips into a fun paper pocket.

Here's a few close ups of some of the pockets:

Background stamping and fun food diecuts-

Tim Holtz mini blueprint coffee stamps-

Twine wrapped around a mason jar diecut-

Cheese and Bread diecuts from the France Cricut Cartridge-

I added a recipe for Tea Biscuits that I've used for the last 20 years, handwritten on a recipe card I had - here it is if you want to try it out! 

This is my pocket letter folded into 3 and wrapped up with a doily and some rickrack! I can see this will not be my last pocket letter!!

Thanks so much for joining me today! I hope you are inspired to try something new today or maybe even send a Pocket Letter to someone you know. Don't forget to stop over to the Scrapendipity Online Store for some Canadian Shopping and have an awesome week!

Bimini Moose Scrapbook Challenge - AG with optional twist This Day In History!

Click HERE for the latest ScrapbookerPhD challenge!
Click HERE for the latest FCCB Challenge!
Click HERE for a Giveaway!!

Happy Tuesday! I'm back today to bring you another Pocket Scrapbooking challenge over at BIMINI MOOSE!

Our challenge this time is...

 Scrapbooking - ANYTHING GOES

With an Optional Twist - This Day in History 
For this TWIST there are several different ways you can create a THIS DAY IN HISTORY page. One way is to take a member of your family or an event (like buying a house). Then put all the details about that day in history that you care to share. What year it was. How much gas costs or how much your house cost (it will seem so cheap years from now when everything is so expensive). Or you can take a member of your family and talk about / compare what things were like when they were born (popular song, movie, headlines, wars they may have lived through) and then list those same things as they are today. However you decide to use this TWIST, we can't wait to see how your creativity shines through.

Our challenges run for 2 weeks. This one will close on Mon, June 8 @ Noon Eastern time - giving us time to pick a Top 3 for the post the following day with our Next Challenge.

We will also be choosing one winner per challenge to win a cut file from our amazing sponsor - 

KaDoodle Bug Designs!

These files are perfect to include in your Pocket Scrapbooking Layouts and in your other crafting as well.

For this week's challenge I've used a day from 2012 that was a very special day - my daughter's first day of school! I've also used our optional twist as a play on words fitting with the school theme. 

I used journaling cards from the Later Sk8r Picture My Life collection from CTMH! The more I use these the more I love them! I printed Reading, Writing and History from the computer and added them to my strip on the left of the page. I layered my horizontal pics on the journaling cards along with some Heidi Swapp rub-ons that look like sequins.

The First Day Of School card is printed from the Project Life App and layered on the CTMH card.

I cut a 3x4 CTMH card which said Fully Amazing Day and layered the banners on top of another CTMH card. The colours in the cards worked so well with this layout!

Thanks so much for joining me!! I love seeing and hearing what you are up to! I have an exciting GIVEAWAY this week too on my Facebook Fan Page - Like my page and comment on the giveaway post for your chance to win!

Be sure to pop over to Bimini Moose and check out the rest of the DESIGN TEAM and what they have created to inspire you to play along. There will be several posts on the Bimini Moose blog during our challenge, so if you want to see the current challenge, click on the CHALLENGES tab on the blog. If you want to browse through all of the posts with ideas, tutorials, and some personal layouts, click on the HOME tab on that blog.

Linked to:

DL Art - Thankful Thursday May Linky Challenge

613 Avenue Create - AG

Inspiration Destination - AG

Giveaway Post Info!!

Giveaway Post!!Woo Hoo!! We've reached over 100 Likes on my Fan Page!Make sure you've Liked the page and comment on...
Posted by Creative Love Affair - Karla's Crafty Fun on Monday, May 25, 2015

FCCB 252 - Sketch Challenge!

 Happy Monday and welcome to another Monday challenge!

Challenge #252-Follow the Sketch

This Weeks Sponsor

Bugaboo Stamps

The prize is 7 digital stamps!

Create a project inspired by the sketch below-

For inspiration see:  http://retrosketches.blogspot.ca/2012/07/retrosketches-22.html

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. If you use a Cricut Explore machine, at least one cut must be from the Cricut catalog of images.

I used the Bugaboo Stamps digi image 'Friends Don't Let Friends Wine Alone' for my card along with the France cartridge (wine bottle), Art Philosophy cartridge (scalloped square) and the Photo Booth Props cart (Cheers bubble). I used some Distress Inks around the edges of my cuts and stamped a script stamp on the wine bottle label cut - I love the look of this! Lastly, a few sequins add to the party feel of my card!

To colour in my image I used Prismacolor Markers and added some gel pens to for some shimmer and shine. I used some older CTMH stamps to stamp a sentiment in grey ink on the bottom right of my card. 

Inside, I used the digital sentiment included with the stamp, layered on another scalloped shape that I altered in Design Space. A few more sequins finishes it off!

Thanks so much for joining me today! I hope you will check out the FCCB blog today to see what the new members of our DT came up with and enter your own!! 

Linked to:

DL Art - Thankful Thursday May Linky Challenge

613 Avenue Create - AG

Sister Act Card Challenge - AG cards

Inspiration Destination - AG

Pile It On - #70 Coffee/Wine

Week 14 Project Life!

I am just so impressed with how my Project Life album has been coming along! I seem to have found a process that works for me to get my photos from my phone to the printer and into my pages so woo hoo! I love that I'll be able to look back on 2015 and see how many little things I added to my album along with meaningful journaling and pretty pages all wrapped together ;)

For Week 14 I used some PL journaling cards printed from the PL app - love adding my journaling this way while I'm sorting through my pics - as well as some Heidi Swapp ephemera, some digital text and images from Rhonna Designs and some word stamps.

I created a journaling card on the bottom right of this page showcasing the products in my photo. On the top right I took a picture of my daughter's painting and then added some digital text over it to create a journaling card.

The journaling card on the top left didn't quite match so I covered part of the words with my photo and added some ephemera so it said 'Today Was Friday'.

I wanted to keep this page fairly simply and focus on the girls decorating their Easter eggs so I used patterned paper in the background pockets and kept the colours to pinks and greens.

Sunday was Easter, but since I have extra pics I'm going to make some traditional layouts along with my pocket pages for that day. Don't worry, I'll be back to share those pics!

Thanks so much for joining me today!! Don't forget to check out the current challenge at Bimini Moose and enter your own scrapbook project for a chance to win a super cute cut file!

Linked to:
DL Art - Thankful Thursday May Linky Challenge
Crafty Hazelnuts Patterned Paper - May Linky Challenge
Cookin & Craftin - Thursday Link Up
Inspiration Destination - AG #34
613 Avenue Create - AG #124