Peachy Keen Stamps Guest Designer Week

Happy Monday!  This week I will be a Guest Designer for Peachy Keen Stamps.  Many of you may already be familiar with these great  stamps - if you are not, you are in for a treat this week.  These are definitely a great addition to any craft room.  The stamps are made in the USA and have a lovely "peachy" color.  They are of very high quality with sharp clear images.

The generous folks at Peachy Keen have provided a stamp set for me to give away to one lucky person.  The details about the stamp set and how you can try to win it are at the end of this post.

My first set of Peachy Keen stamps was a gift from a friend.  It was the Dolly Dumplins Face assortment set and I used it to make some paper dolls.  For a long time, I thought that Peachy Keen only made face stamps but eventually I discovered that they have much more to offer.

I used this sweet star stamp (PK-M20) for the card I am sharing today.  I wanted to make a congratulations card that would be suitable for any age.  I combined the cute stamp with a color scheme that is a bit unconventional for a "cute" card.  Maroon and gold are our local school colors so I could use this card for a young friend or a teacher.

Instead of coloring the stamped image with markers, I decided to heat emboss it with a gold metallic embossing powder.  I stamped the image with Versamark ink on a pearlized textured cardstock from American Crafts.  The Peachy Keen stamps are crisp and sharp and the tiny letters stay quite legible when they are embossed.

The transformation when the powder is heated always seems magical to me!  I cut out the image with a circle Nestabilities die and cut a larger pinking circle from dark gold pearlized cardstock with another Nestabilites set for the bottom layer.

I decided to add a bit of a twinkle to the eyes with some small gem stickers.

The card base is cut from maroon cardstock at 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches and folded for an A2 card.  The first layer is the same dark gold pearlized cardstock cut at 5 3/8 x 4 1/8 inches and the black layer with the star pattern is cut at 5 1/8 x 3 7/8 inches.  The "Congrats" sentiment was cut with the "Everyday Greetings" Cuttlebug combo set.

I'll be sharing a variety of projects with you during this week.  For one of them, I'll be using this set of more "adult" faces called "Blushing Bride." 

This set can be used to create lots of different looks by using eyes from one stamp with the nose and mouth from another stamp.

This example from the Peachy Keen website shows the variations that are possible.

So, how do you get a chance (or ten chances) to win this set?  It's easy.  Just leave a comment on each post I make here on my blog and on the corresponding post on the Peachy Keen blog, every day this week.  If you comment on both blogs on all of the days you will have ten chances to win!  The winner will be drawn and announced on Saturday, July 2nd.  You do not have to follow or subscribe to my blog to be eligible to win but I'd be happy to have you follow or subscribe if you'd like to keep up with my projects regularly!

I am looking forward to a great week.  Tomorrow I'll be participating in the Tuesday Challenge with a project based on a sketch.  Do you have any Peachy Keen Stamps?  Which are your favorites?

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Creative Charms Farewell Blog Hop

Happy Friday - Royal Wedding Day - and welcome to the Creative Charms Farewell Blog Hop.  Our Design Team is transitioning to a new term and we are saying goodbye to some very talented designers and welcoming some new additions.  You should be arriving here from Laura's blog.

If you didn't come from Laura's blog and you want to play along with the blog hop, please go to the Creative Charms blog HERE so you can collect the word clues in order.  If you visit all of the blogs, collect the words to form a message and then send the complete message to Midori via email

(midori@creativecharms.com) you will be entered to win the Grand Prize.

Creative Charms has so many great products to work with - it is hard to choose a favorite.  I find myself reaching for the Gradient Gem Stickers and the Pure Blossoms to give just the right finishing touch to many projects.

Since it is the day of the Royal Wedding, I decided to make a simple wedding congratulations card.  I used two shades of Core'dinations gemstone cardstock (opal and pearl).  This cardstock has a lovely sheen and is very elegant for a special occasion card.

For the card base I cut a piece of the pearl gemstone cardstock to 10 x 7 inches, then scored and folded it in half to form a 5 x 7 inch card.  Next, I punched both sides of a 4 1/2 x 7 inch piece of the opal cardstock with this Martha Stewart "Aster" Deep Edge Punch.  The sizing works out perfectly for a seven inch strip.

The "Congratulations" sentiment is from the Martha Stewart Crafts Elegant Cake Art cartridge.  

I chose this sentiment because it had a short descender on the "g" and I could cut it in a larger size to fit nicely on the punched strip.

 

The punched strip is raised with foam squares to add dimension and a nice shadow line around the shapes.

Adding a pearl to the center of each pure blossom gives a more finished look.

Two more pearls accent the "C" and dot the "i."  You could change the color of the pure blossoms to suit the wedding colors.

If you'd like to see more Creative Charms projects on my blog they are labeled "PR - Creative Charms."  All through the hop you will see lots of ways to use these lovely embellishments.

In case you get lost or confused along the way here is the list of blogs in order.

·         Creative Charms – www.creative-charms.blogspot.com
·         Kristal – www.kandrewdesigns.blogspot.com
·         Amber – www.thecountryscrapper.blogspot.com
·         Sandra – www.scrappinmomof1.blogspot.com
·         Jan – www.papercraftpeasures.blogspot.com
·         Laura – www.lauraachilles1.wordpress.com
·         YOU ARE HERE  Diane – www.capadiadesigns.blogspot.com 
·         Jennifer H – www.jenniferhansenscrapgallery.blogspot.com
·         Michelle – www.chengunation.blogspot.com
·         Lisa – www.lisadorsey.blogspot.com
·         Chris – www.workforscraps.blogspot.com
·         Jamie – www.jamielanedesigns.blogspot.com
·         Amy – www.aimitup.blogspot.com
·         Jennifer Y – www.thepinkroom.typepad.com
·         Trudy – www.truesgiftsfromtheheart.blogspot.com
·         Ellen – www.scrapstampnmama.blogspot.com
·         Joscie – www.cutchens.com
·         Ilene – www.whatabunchofscrap.blogspot.com
·         Midori – www.scrapsforme.blogspot.com

Goodbye and all the best to the designers who are finishing their terms.  The new team is listed in the right side bar.  I am looking forward to working with all of them.

The word you need to collect from my blog is "TO."  

Once you have the complete message you can send it to Midori (midori@creativecharms.com) for a chance to win the Grand Prize - one each of the Kit and Deal for May!  The deadline to send the answer is midnight Sunday May 1st (EST).  The Grand Prize Winner will be announced on Monday, May 2nd on the Creative Charms Blog.

I will also choose one comment from this post by random draw and send that person a package of Gradient Pearl Stickers in white - perfect for a wedding project!  I'll post the name of the winner on Monday.

Your next stop is Jennifer's blog (click to go directly to her blog)

Have fun hopping - and I hope you enjoyed the Royal Wedding if you watched it this morning!

link to Discussion Day 2 - How much is enough?


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Laurel Punch Around the Page Card #3

This A2 (5 1/2 x 4 1/4 inch folded size) note card has a simple border made using just the edge punch from the Laurel Punch Around the Page set.   The border was created from a 1 1/4 inch strip of cardstock punched on both sides.  I added a piece of yarn ribbon in the center strip.

I applied some liquid adhesive (Creative Memories Precision Point Adhesive) down the center of the strip and let it dry to clear before adding the ribbon.  This prevents any glue showing on the thin ribbon surface.

I added a 3 1/4 x 5 inch rectangle punched with the Laurel set as an area to write inside the dark blue colored card.

I turned the leaves up at an angle to add some "fluffiness" to the card.

 I like to coordinate the front and the inside of  card when possible.  This makes the card seem more finished.

You could quickly  make up a set of these cards to give as a gift using different colors and widths of punched trim and adding ribbon or contrasting strips of paper in the center of the punched strip.

If you would like to win a Martha Stewart Laurel Punch Around the Page set for your crafting please go to THIS POST and read all of the details on how you can win this set.  Comments must be left on the original post for the giveaway but please leave comments about this card here .

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I did it!

This is a card that I made for myself to celebrate finishing something that I had been trying to do for a long time!  (Why not make a card for yourself now and then?).

I cut the sentiment from the Don Juan cartridge at 3 1/2 inches.  I used green shimmer cardstock.  Don Juan is the cartridge that normally comes with the Cricut Create.  I do not have a Create but I was able to get a copy of the cartridge through the Cricut Rewards program.  Through this program you can collect points on cartridges that you buy and redeem them for a variety if items.  The rewards program started with the cartridges issued in 2008 and points are not given with the cartridges that come packed with a machine.

The font on Don Juan is a unicase font which allows the shift function to include lots of accents and images making this a more versatile cartridge.  The "you did it" word art has a few stars included.  I cut the layers in a metallic blue cardstock.

I wasn't sure if my piece of cardstock for the stars would be big enough to cut them exactly as they appear on the cartridge so I put three sets of stars on the mat and hid two stars in each set.  Then I moved them closer together so I could cut them from the small piece of metallic cardstock.  This is yet another handy way to use "hide selected contour."

For the background layer I used a piece of glitter cardstock from the DCWV Linen Closet stack.  I just got this recently at Jo-Ann's and I like it so much that I will probably go back and get another one!  I wanted to add a gem to the center of each star and this set from Creative Charms had just the right shade of green and three graduated sizes which was perfect for my card.  I inked the edges of the layer with VersaMagic chalk ink in "Ocean Depth."

Here is a close view of one of the stars.  The colors worked out nicely but I did spend a bit of time looking around for a good background.  This is one of the ways I justify keeping a lot of paper on hand - it is hard to know ahead of time exactly what colors and patterns will work together and so you need lots of options!

I saw this little bear when I was out walking this weekend - he made me smile so I thought I'd share him with you.  I have lots to do this week so I will have to keep him in mind if I start to get stressed!

You Rock - Jubilee

Today was a lovely day - my husband and I went on a garden tour and we saw some fabulous gardens so he now has some new ideas for plants for our house. (Photography is not allowed, so I don't have any pictures to share but it was a very inspiring tour). We stopped by the annual Library Book Sale and picked up a few books. Then I hurried home to teach another online "Getting Started" Design Studio class. The big event of the day, however, was our son's return from his concert tour. He has spent the last 10 days performing at various locations on the East Coast and his bus was due in late tonight in Boston.

I wanted to do a few more trial cuts with the Jubilee cartridge so I thought I might make a page layout for a photo or two from "the tour." On the Jubilee cartridge there is a prewelded phrase that says "You Rock" and I thought that would be perfect! I cut a triple layered version of this phrase - the top layer in orange glitter card stock (he likes orange a lot) and then a shadow in blue and a shadow blackout in bright green.



I also cut the five pointed star shape which is the shift of the "You Rock" key and the starburst which is the shift of the "the Big Day" key from silver glitter card stock, using the shadow key to make the points a bit thicker. When cutting the glitter card stock I use "multi cut" set for two times.



Then I started to play around with the cuts and try to arrange them in a layout. It was just one of those days - I tried lots of arrangements (and I will show some of them to you here) but I couldn't commit to any of them - probably because I wasn't working with actual photos. I normally do my scrapbooking by starting with a group of photos - sometimes I can just put together a "photo ready" layout but tonight it just wasn't working for me! (The blue circles here were to represent photos cropped to show just the faces in the stars).



I decided I needed to add some guitars - there are a couple of guitars on the Indie Art cartridge and I went with the more standard looking electric guitar - I cut it twice so I could mix and match the pieces and I skipped the top layer.



The actual guitar our son took on tour looks like this - it is a "Travel" guitar and is very compact with the neck ending abruptly and the tuning pegs moved to the body of the guitars in the hollowed out areas. It looks odd but it sounds great and can be set up for acoustic or electric style. (So I am really trying to explain that the guitar I used was just a symbol - I wasn't trying to make it an accurate representation!).



I rearranged (I decided that I liked the starburst from "The Big Day" better since it had more points)...



and rearranged...



and rearranged...



tried first one guitar...



then the other...



moved the title a bit to allow some journaling space in the lower right - but none of these pages made me say - "that's it!" so I decided to make a card instead!



I made a five by seven card base from plain black card stock and put my title on the front.



Then I chose the orange guitar for the inside and added the "Congrats" that I cut with the Cuttlebug from the "Everyday Greetings"A2 combo cut and emboss set.



After I stuck down the "Congrats," I realized that I had used a different shade of orange glitter card stock (which happened to be on the table near my cuttlebug). I wanted it to match the "You Rock" so I cut another one and put it directly on top of the paler orange "Congrats" - this makes it stand up higher from the card base and it actually a nice effect (another one of those mistakes that ends up making something you like better!).



Here is a closer view - you may be able to see the added dimension but it is a bit hard to catch in the photo.

I made a few more projects using cuts from Jubilee but it is very late so I think I will wait and share them tomorrow. For those of you who asked about the .cut files for the Home Decor ideas in yesterday's post, I will try to get them ready to share soon.