CSAYL: The Whole Sha-Bang ~

Happy Friday!! I love Fridays with Christmas Stampin’ All Year Long! Creating my own Christmas cards is what got me interested in stamping in the first place! It has snowballed since then into so much more, as it does for all of us, to the point that I don’t always get all of the things/cards done for Xmas as I initially had planned. Being part of this design team has helped me to get way ahead of myself for the holiday season, and I love that!! Plus I get to work with an amazing group of women and tons of fun sponsors!! Speaking of sponsors…

Perfect Presentation is our sponsor for this week’s challenge. Perfect Presentation creates printable and cut-able templates for use with digital cutting machines like the Cricut and Silhouette. Not only are these templates for the perfect presentation every time, but you will also find tags, fancy schmancy circle cuts and gorgeous labels for a slammin’ good deal! When you think about all the possibilities and how you can re-size everything, these templates and goodies are well worth your hard earned cash!! The challenge this week is to create a gift trio – tag, card and package. A random participant will win their choice of one template from Perfect Presentation!

I chose to work with Cute Carton. In this template, you get two sizes – a one sheet carton and a larger, more roomy size using two sheets of cardstock. I worked with the smaller version to go with the small size of the card. It was cut from Midnight Sky shimmer cardstock and assembled with scoretape.

 I cut a little tag from Tag Set 1 at the same time. The sentiment is from PTI’s Fillable Frames 9 and embossed in detail white embossing powder. The snowflake is cut from white shimmer cardstock and attached to the carton with dimensional foam tape. A couple of rhinestones finish it off and tie it in with the card.

The card utilizes the negative space of the snowflake die. I love this card because I can see so many other little cards utilizing negative spaces – whether they be from die cut shapes or shapes cut from some of my Cricut cartridges that I don’t use nearly enough! The sentiment is from Wreath for All Seasons (love that font mix!) and is embossed as well. A couple more rhinestones finish it up! Funny little back story on this set – I made the card for a publication call. After I had everything all typed up, photographed and edited and was ready to hit submit, I realized the call was for winter themed non-Xmas cards! Whoopsie!! So it sat on my desk until I got the challenges from our fearless CSAYL leader and decided I could just make a template and tag to go along with it!! Lol
Thanks so much for stopping by today! I hope you’re inspired to play along with the last of our Christmas Stampin’ All Year Long challenges for July! I can’t believe that next week is August already!! Have a super weekend, friends!! :o) lyss

Make It Monday: White Ink ~

Hello friends and fellow stamping addicts! Hope your week is going well! I just had to play along with the Make it Monday challenge for this week – coloring with white ink. The funny thing to me about the video is that last November, I had an idea for the Made with Snow snowman CAS card on kraft cardstock. I just had to have it, so I bought it off the PTI forum…and have yet to ink it up!! While I could have made a few Xmas cards for this challenge, I didn’t want to seem as if I were copying Heather Nichol’s design. I chose to ink up my Year of Flowers: Mums set instead. This is my favorite of the YOF series I think. It’s just so pretty!  I’m really working more towards the CAS style – especially because I never send my cards out. If they’re CAS and can be mailed without having to go to the post office, perhaps more of them will make it out to my friends and family. ??? We shall see!  I'm also entering this in the Moxie Fab Challenge: Fanatical about Botanical.  What's innovative to me about this card?  Coloring with chalk inks!

I clear embossed the flowers, leaves and a sentiment from Think Big Favorites 3 (stamped in Versafine Onyx Black). I then stamped Background Basics: Tin Types in Spring Moss. In the future, I think I’d do this step first so I wouldn’t have to smear the background when wiping it off the embossed sentiment. I colored the mums by dipping a Q-tip in Fresh Snow ink and swirling it all over. I added a teeny bit of yellow chalk ink to the centers and colored the leaves the same way with green chalk ink. All in all, a pretty quick card!
It needed a little extra something, so I added some white and green embroidery floss tied through the center of a black vintage button. Easy, quick and no bleed through like there would be with my beloved Copics! I can’t wait to try this out with some of the other chalk inks I have and tend to not use (they stain my stamps). Thanks so much for stopping by! I’ll be back tomorrow with a fun little gift set using Perfect Presentation Cute Carton template for Christmas Stampin’ All Year Long! Have a great night! :o) lyss

PTI Hop: You're too Kind ~

Hello fellow PTI addicts!  I'm squeaking in with a card I made today {at work!} for the July PTI blog hop.  Here is the inspirational photo that the hop is based upon

  I used Giga Guidelines, Guide Lines II, Mendhi Medallions and Think Big Favorites 1.  The black dotted centers are super dimensional Ranger Black Enamel Accents {LOVE!!}  Thanks so much for stopping by!   Enjoy the hop!!  :o) lyss 

CSAYL: It's All About You ~

TGIF!!!  Seriously!!  I had a huge shipment yesterday and my boss showed up to do a long store visit...which I failed :(...I'm just ready for the weekend now!!  lol   I'm super glad to have this fabulous hobby that gives me a little bit of stress relief...and a little bit of stress because I only want to put out what I feel is my best work possible!  lol  Anyhow...

Friday for me means another card marked off the list for Christmas!!!  The sponsor for Christmas Stampin' All Year Long this week is the wonderful Amber Ink.  Amber Ink just turned one this very week!  {Happy Birthday Amber Ink!!!}  They are made up of a generous, talented, giving, kind, supportive and - well, just plain fantastic! - mother and daughter duo, Pam and Amber.  Not only does Amber Ink create adorable and funny acrylic and digi stamps, but they also offer gorgeous digital papers!  The randomly selected winner of this week's challenge will win a $10 gift certificate to the Amber Ink store!!
So what's the challenge you ask???  Well...it's all about you!  Pick your favorite color and create a Christmas based project around it!  My favorite color?  I have no idea!  I love orange...and red...and pink...and teal!  I also tend to lean towards black - a LOT!  So I went eenie, meenie, minie, moe and picked  red as my favorite for this challenge.

The image is from the You're the Perfect Package digi set.  I pictured some warm fleece red jammies as I was coloring little Amber up and matched the present she's wrapping to the Figgy Pudding paper...too bad it got covered up in the whole design!  The layout is the Mojo Monday 200 sketch.  Happy 200 sketches, Julee!  They are always amazing and inspiring!!
Again, I hope you play along with us this week!  Have a great weekend!  :o) lyss

COPICS {BG15, BG23, E00, E02, E04, E11, E27,E29, E33, E37, R02, R20, R24, R29, R59, YG95}

Happy First Birthday, Amber Ink!!

Twelve short months ago

we made our big debut,

So now we'd like to commemorate

our 1st birthday with you!

This flash mob of torchbearers

always light our way.

Won't you please jog along

on our special day?

Leave your comments here and there

over the next 48

On Friday we'll announce the loot

Don't wait...let's CELEBRATE!

It's PARTY time!!  The fabulous Amber Ink is turning 1!!  As the above poem states, a ton of torchbearers have created some amazing projects for you to feast your eyes upon.  There are prizes along the way, so be sure to leave comments!!
Since it's such a long list of fantabulousness, I'll keep this short and sweet!  I just love the bunnies in the Amber Ink Love Bunny line.  They're just darling and super easy to color!!  Since 1 is still really just a baby, I chose to use the Love Bunny - New Family digi stamp.  

Happy First Birthday, Amber Ink!!! 

Papers are Smokey Shadow and Sweet Blush.  The SB papers are stamped in SB ink with Polka Dot Basics II and Damask Designs.  The sentiment is from Bitty Baby Basics.

Have fun hopping along to all the other amazing designers blogs! 

Pssst!!!  Before you hop along on the party train, want another chance at lovely Amber Ink prizes???  Of course you do!  Come back here on Friday for my Christmas Stampin' All Year Long post!  Amber Ink is our sponsor and if you play along with the challenge, you'll have a chance at a wonderful prize from AI...plus you'll be one card closer to that long Christmas card recipient list!  Thanks so much for stopping by!  :o) lyss

Let's doodle ~

Happy Monday!  Before I show you my iCopic post from Friday, I'd like to draw your attention over to my right sidebar.  Amber Ink is turning 1!!  We're having a huge birthday blog hop with prizes on Wednesday!  You'll have 48 hours to complete the hop because the list is long!!  That's how much we all love AI!!  The first two cards in this post use the July's Sketch for You to Try.  Without further ado, here's my post from iCopic Lover:

Hi there iCopic friends!  It's Alyssa here to talk about something new I've been trying out - doodling with my copics.  Most of the stamps I have are single images that don't have a background.  You can always add backgrounds with other stamps, but that usually involves masking and stamping and re-stamping, and crumpling and doing over...lol!  At least in my case it does!  Enter the doodle!  Scribble some lines, dot some spots, flick some blades of grass, etc!  A bit ago, I showed you a scene that I had colored up with a faux sky/clouds.  It really wasn't very impressive, as it was my first go at the technique and I haven't tried it again...yet.  I've finally turned it into a card!  Here is Lynette collecting her vegetables

The cute round sentiment in the sun is clear embossed and is from SP & Company's Round Sentiments 1 clear stamp set.  I love how the inverted scallop circle nestabilitie dies look like a sun!  Here's a close up of the coloring so you can see the subtlety of the *sky* 

Next up is a sweet little dragon from Wild Rose Studio named Fergus.  This stamp just happens to be Fergus with Tulips - I think I may be getting all the Fergus stamps...he's so stinkin' cute!!  This next picture is to show that sometimes, though you may be satisfied with your coloring, you may be able to add a couple of things that just give your card that little extra umph! 

The sky is sponged in with Ranger Distress Tumbled Glass ink, the base of the grass with Bundled Sage and his spots in his most shaded areas with BV08 and BV17.  I also added a few blades of grass with G24 and YG67.   

One little extra you can see in this close up {if you click on it to make it bigger} is the addition of a turquoise Spica to some areas of his ears, spines and wings.  I also added the pupil back to his eye and removed the color from his little nostrils with a white gel pen. 

One last pic to show you some doodling I've done with copics.  The ground and trees were added with a little doodling!  I know I probably shouldn't show this on here since it's not a stamp that iCopic carries, but I really just want you to open your mind to doodling!  It's my new favorite thing to do!!  This is the card I made for my hubby for father's day.  You can see my post about it here {and learn that I have to find my inspiration all over too!} 

Thanks so much for stopping by today!!  Please link up in the comments if you're inspired to doodle!!  :o) lyss

Fergus Copics {BG10, BG13, BG15, BG23, BG49, BV02, BV08, BV11, BV13, BV17, C1, G24, RV14, RV17, RV19, YG17, YG23, YG25, YG67}

CSAYL: Sketch ~

Happy Friday, friends! Thanks to Christmas Stampin’ All Year Long I have about 10 Christmas cards done and 4 extra Christmas projects! How about you? Have you even started?? You should play along with us this week!! The uber talented MacKenzie has given us a fantastic sketch to work with, and you all know how much I love my sketches! Sketches mean that all - well, most - of the hard work is done for me! Gotta love that! The winner of this week’s challenge will get to join us as a guest designer in August!

I chose to work with this darling stamp from Rubbernecker called Moose with lights in antlers. If the truth must be told, I’ve had this little guy colored and matted since making Xmas cards last winter. I wanted to feel like I’d done something extra, so I added some glow of the lights to his body and antlers with color pencils. Since he’s stamped on Rustic Cream cardstock, his hat brim and pom are covered in white appliqué and heated for lovely puffiness. I also added Glossy Accents to all of the lights. I needed to add a sentiment and to break up the striped ribbon, so in comes another Tiny Tag. I told you I’d be using those on everything!! Lol The double bow is a little distracting, so that may have to change before he can be mailed.
The end of July is drawing near, can you believe it?!?! That means that Christmas is only 23 weeks away! Why don’t you join in the challenges and get a few cards done before the craziness ensues? This week we are honored to include Linda from The Stamper’s Touch as a guest designer. Please go leave her some love and bop around to the other CSAYL design team’s blogs to see their fabulous creations. As always, thank you so very much for stopping by! Hope you have a fantabulous Friday and start to your weekend! :o) lyss

Failure Leads to Success ~

At least I hope failure leads to success!  ;o)  Here's my iCopic post from Friday...

I've got a card here that was soooooo much better in my head!  LOL  Do you ever do that?  Have an absolutely clever card all mapped out in your brain, you stew on it and figure it all out and then it just doesn't happen the way you want it to?  That is exactly what happened with this card, but I figure we grow from our failures!  Maybe you can give me some suggestions on how to make it better? 

First off, here is the adorable little Kitty with Cake from Wild Rose Stamps.  I don't have cats because I am wildly allergic to them, so I went with whatever colors I felt like playing with instead of leaning toward realistic colors.  The browns are a cocoa combo - E71 & E74 while the creamier spots are a combo of E51 and YR30.  YR30 is one of the new colors that was released this year and I just love it!  It's soft and vanilla like - the perfect cream color.   The cake is covered in stardust Stickles with more glitter spread around the candle flames. 

Here's where the card needs help.  Instantly upon seeing this stamp, I thought it would be darling to only get a peek of the cake from the outside of the card.  So little kitty is stamped and colored inside.  Give me some suggestions on how to make this front work! 

 And here is the inside of the card.  It might just be paper/color choices that don't work for me, but I need help with this one because I still love the concept! 

Thanks so much for stopping by this week!  It's always fun to read your comments!  :o) lyss

COPICS {BG10, BG13, BG15, BG49, C1, C3, C5, E51, E71, E74, R20, R32, R35, Y35, YR30, 0 Colorless Blender}

CSAYL: Heavy Metal Holiday ~

Kenny K downloads is the sponsor for this week's challenge at Christmas Stampin All Year Long!  I love these images...edgy, detailed and fun!  With this challenge, we'll have 3 winners!!  The first will win their choosing of 3 digis, the second will win 2 digis and the third will win 1 digi. 

So what's the challenge?  Heavy Metal!  We want you to incorporate metal into your holiday creation.  You can use hardware, brads, embellishments or whatever your creative mind comes up with! 

I was lucky enough to get to play with this sassy little number called Mistletoe.  I made the card with hubby in mind - too bad I don't look like that in real life!  ROFL  I used my beloved Copics on her (but of course!) and some white flock and superfine glitter for all the fuzzy parts of her outfit.  The mistletoe has just a hint of opal liquid pearls because mistletoe berries are actually white.  It's so hard to not color it in like holly!  lol

The sketch is the July Sketch For You To Try over at i{heart}2stamp.  I've added some metal with the brad centers of the snowflakes and a couple of mini jingle bells flanking the sentiment tag.  I've just got to mention that I am so, so glad I broke down and got the Tiny Tags set and die from PTI...I think you'll be seeing A LOT of these!!  Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope you come around to play with us over at Christmas Stampin All Year Long!  You have 3 chances to win this week!  :o) lyss 

COPICS {E000, E00, E02, E11, E13, E29, E37, E71, E74, G28, R20, R24, R29, R59, RV69, W5, W7, YG63, YG67, 110 Special Black}

Swinging Sweetie ~

Happy 4th of July!!  Here's my iCopic post from this past week...hope you all have a fun, happy and safe holiday!

Good morning! Alyssa here with a little Swinging Sweetie from a new line of stamps called Tutti Cuti.  These deeply etched, red rubber stamps, come pre-cut on foam ready to slap on an acrylic block and stamp away!

When I sat down to create this card, I had a totally different idea in my head.  I was going to create a tree for her to be swinging from with baker's twine ropes on the swing and a blue sky/cloud background...after several attempts to get the tree just so, I gave up!  lol  I went and found a sketch to play with and came up with this little number.  This is Jen's deconstructed sketch #8 and I love it!!!  It's my most favorite sketch ever!!

She is stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored to coordinate, but not necessarily match, the dp.  I visualized the light shining straight down on her which is why the highlights are on the center of her head and legs.  I don’t know why, but I almost always have my light shining from the upper right…maybe because I’m right handed…I don’t know.  iCopic carries a book that is very helpful in determining your light source and how you would shade your image called Shadows & Shading: A Beginner’s Guide to Lighting Placement by the Copic Queen, Marianne Walker.  It’s a great little book that even comes with 4 clear guides to lay over your image to help you visualize the shadows more.  I highly recommend it! 

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  I always appreciate your comments!  If you have any requests of what you'd like to see, bop in and mention them...if I can't make a tutorial happen, I'm sure one of my fabulous design teammates can!  For all my fellow Americans, have a happy, fun and safe holiday!!  And just have a fabulous Monday for all my other iCopic friends!  :o) lyss

COPICS {B14, C1, C3, E000, E00, E02, E29, E31, E33, E37, G00, G02, R20, R30, R32, R35, YR00 Y21, Y26, Y32, 0 Colorless Blender}

CSAYL: She's Krafty ~

She gets around, She's Krafty, She's always down...   LOL  I challenge you to get that song out of your head now! 

Good morning friends!  The challenge with Christmas Stampin All Year Long this week is to use kraft in your holiday card or creation.  We are sponsored by the fantastic Pink Cat Studio stamps again.  One lucky, random winner will get to choose 5 digi stamps!  Tons of cuteness to choose from too!

I decided to try a very clean and simple one layer card this go round.  Every Christmas, I end up spending so much money mailing all my cards!  Once you slap on a bow, knot a ribbon, add some dimensionals, etc. your card cannot be sent through the normal machine, so it has to be sent parcel post and usually costs about $2.  Also, I realize that a lot of my family and friends won't keep these cards that generally take me about 2 hours to make.  *Light bulb moment*  I'll print the image straight onto cardstock, color with pencils (no bleed through from my beloved Copics), a sentiment, a frame and a couple little embellishments and I'll be able to send these babies in the regular mail!  WooHoo!

Only one problem...my printer didn't agree with kraft cardstock.  Ugh.  I nearly threw the thing out the window!!  A 10 minute card quickly turned into another 2 hour card just because of the battle of printer vs. Alyssa.  I outsmarted it though!  Ha Ha!  So glad I did too!  This may just be one of my quickie holiday cards this year!  Meet Friendly Snowman

The snow is Polar White Flower Soft.  The pearls may be a little big for the mail, so for mass production, he may just get some Stickles or black glaze pen. 

Along with all the fabulous samples from the CSAYL design team this week, we are lucky enough to be joined by not 1 but 2! guest designers.  Please stop by Fabiola's and Joyce's blogs to see their wonderful cards!  Thanks so much for stopping by!  :o) lyss