CSAYL: Resist the Temptation ~

Hello friends!  I can't believe another week has passed us by already!  With birthdays and inventories and coming back from vacation, I just don't feel like I'm back on track yet.  Who knows if I ever will?  LOL
It's time for another challenge with Christmas Stampin All Year Long and what a doozy we have for you today!  Brace yourself...NO STAMPING!!  Say what?!?!  Create a Christmas card or gift box or whatever, but you CANNOT stamp!

Our sponsor this week is Perfect Presentation and one random person will win a template of their choice!  As I've said before, I love the templates on this site.  It's amazing to be able to create something beautiful so effortlessly. The files come with the PDF (if you buy for an electronic cutter) and with instructions and dimensions for matting, if not cut-able matting.  So easy!
I chose to work with my absolute favorite, Tall Gable.  It's just so versatile and easy to decorate...not to mention, big enough to put a nice little gift in!

The lack of stamping was the ultimate hardship for me!  I mean, really, every.single.idea I had made me want to stamp some sort of background or something!  Finally, I borrowed a Christmas Cricut cartridge from a buddy and decided on a snowman.  I really wanted to add some stamped snowflakes and keep it simple! lol

The vellum snowdrift was cut out by hand, his scarf was striped with Copics, and the sign is from the Tiny Tags set from PTI with the tag part snipped off.  I added a coal smile and eyes with a black glaze pen and his little buttons are made from black rhinestones.  Pretty simple!  Hope you play along with us this week!  :o) lyss

P.S. I just realized that I stamped the sentiment on the sign!  Ha, Ha, Ha!  Guess you can take a girl out of the trailer park but you can't take the trailer park out of the girl!  Errrr, I mean stamping cave...  ;o)

Winter Friend ~

Good Monday morning!  Just popping in with my iCopic post from Friday!  Hope you all had a marvelous weekend!
  I have a wonderful new stamp from the Gorjuss line to share with you today.  Her name is Winter Friend. 

I am quickly learning that my card making process goes much faster if I pick out my papers first – it just helps to get the whole ball rolling!  I paper pieced her dress with a beautiful gray paper from the Authentique Blissful line.  The sweet stars and sash on her dress are colored over with a Silver AtYou Spica pen - every girl needs a little sparkle!  Since I didn’t want to have a weird fussy cut around her hair, I stamped her head again on a scrap of the vintage cream cardstock and fussy cut the hair out.  Her polar bear friend is lightly colored with R02 (for the ears) and YR30 and YR31 for his fur.  They're just the right shades of yellow to color this guy with!

I wanted to use the oyster Divine Twine with all these wonderful grays, so I tied it into the image by coloring her tights and his collar to match.  To finish the image off, I sponged around the edges with Ranger Distress Antique Linen and added a few black rhinestones.  Thanks so much for stopping by today!  

COPICS: C5, C7, C9, E00, E02, E11, R02, R20, W1, W3, W5, W7, W9, YR30, YR31

CSAYL: Clean and Simple with Karber ~

Hi!  I’m back with another challenge for Christmas Stampin’ All Year Long! 

This week we are sponsored by Karber Digital Images.  One random participant will win 2 digi stamps of their choice!  Our challenge is to make a clean and simple card – just what we all need to mass produce those cards we, as crafters, feel like we have to make! 

The DT was given this adorable reindeer image, Rudolph, to work with.  When I first saw him, I couldn’t get the thought out of my head that he was singing.  So I decided to make a little choir of sorts by lining him up.  I {amazingly!} didn’t go crazy with my Copics – they were bleeding on this paper more than I wanted them to.  Plus, it fills in with the challenge KISS (keep it simple, stupid!) LOL  For a little extra umph, I added Glossy Accents over Rudolph’s nose, Ranger Black enamel accents for the other two reindeer noses, added white flock to their hat trims and heat embossed the sentiment (from SP & Company stamps – Big and Bold II).
Thanks so much for stopping by!  Hope you have a fabulous weekend! :o) lyss

Blue Poppies ~

Hi there, friends!  I'm sad to say that this is my last day of my two week vacation.  It's back to the grind for me tomorrow and I am not at all excited! lol  I stopped into my craft room this morning to begin cleaning and ended up finding a little mojo!  Yahoo!  I pulled out a stamp set that I had to have when I saw my friend Donna make this card.  I haven't had the time, so the set has sat, sadly, uninked for a couple of months.  Today was the day to give it a go!  I picked my sketch - September's Sketch For You To Try - and my papers - My Mind's Eye Hattie and PTI Distressed Dots - and went to *work*   ;o)

Every paper pack I open seems to have more of an off white rather than true white tone, so I stamped the poppies on Vintage Cream.  I don't know that I've ever seen blue poppies before, but that's what went with the papers!  lol  I accidentally cut the left poppy petal out, so I stamped it again and popped just one petal up on a super thin dimensional.  The butterfly is poking out of the circle on the opposite side, stamped and colored again (obviously {eye roll}) and just the body is glued down.

I didn't go as literal with the sketch on this go round.  I went with a larger 5x5" card and didn't round the corners of the panels. I also went with a double ended banner that is scored and folded around the sentiment.  One last little butterfly brings in a little more of the warm golden yellow to the card.

I'm hoping I don't need this card anytime soon, but it'll be a good one to have in my stash.  It's always so hard to create the perfect sympathy card right when you need it.  Thanks for stopping by today!  Hope you have a super rest of your Sunday and that your week gets off to a great start!  :o) lyss

CHALLENGES:
i{heart}2stamp: September SFYTT
Papertake Weekly: Things with Wings
Cute Card Thursday: #182 Anything Goes


COPICS: BG70, BG72, BG75, BG78, C1, C3, YG93, YG95, YR24, Y21, Y32, 110 Special Black, 0.3 Black Multiliner

CSAYL: Bugaboo Inspiration ~

Good Morning!  So sorry that this post is late!  We've been driving back from Branson, Missouri and I think I lost track of the days.  lol  All I can say is that my child is amazing!  Over 10 hours in the car yesterday alone and he only asked, "Are we there yet?" once!  I'm happy to be home because there truly is no place like home!  ;o)  Anyway, on to the post for today!

It's Friday, which means another challenge with Christmas Stampin' All Year Long!  This week we have a fabulous new sponsor, Bugaboo Stamps!  Such darling little digis and one super thing about this company is they give away a free digi stamp every Friday, so you can see how much you love them!  With this challenge, we'll have two winners!  One will win a guest spot to play along with CSAYL in October and the second will win a $21 gift certificate to the Bugaboo site!

The challenge this week is to use this inspiration photo to make a Christmas creation.  It's just so pretty with the white mailbox and winter foliage.  If I had a mailbox, I'd definitely decorate it up like this for the holiday season.  I would think it would make the mailman happy and festive, even if he were only delivering bills! lol

I chose to work with Cupcake Mistletoe for this challenge.  I went with a clean and simple design pulling on all that white space and the pops of color.  The image is printed on white paper twice and also right on top of some patterned paper as well.  Anytime I use a cupcake image now, I use liquid pearls as the icing.  I knew the holly/mistletoe would get lost in the icing, so I colored them up and fussy cut them out.  Each set of leaves and berries is up on a different size of dimensional foam tape.  Pretty simple...just lots of fussy cutting and drying time!  The sentiment is from a retired CC Designs stamp set and is stamped in Versafine Onyx Black and clear embossed.
Thank you for stopping by!  I hope you'll play along and get a couple of your Christmas cards done!  :o) lyss

Lawn Fawn Magnets ~

Hey all!  Since I'm on vacation, I thought I'd bop in here with an iCopic post from a while back that I've never posted here!  Thanks for stopping by!
The iCopic Weekly Challenge #40 is Anything But a Card!  I was inspired by this challenge to make a little game set for my son.  We'll be taking a road trip later this summer to go visit my in-laws in Missouri, so I'll need some things to pass the time with my little guy.  I have some magnet sheets in my stash that I use for various things - mainly for storage cards for my die cuts.  The back of the magnet sheet is white paper... light bulb moment!  I've seen cookie sheet calendars in the past, but I thought maybe I could make my son a set of magnets to play with in the car!
I chose to use the adorable Lawn Fawn Critters in the Forest clear acrylic set.  I took all of the image stamps in the set and put them on my largest stamping block.  Instead of wasting my nice Copic paper, I stamped directly on the back of the magnet sheet and colored everything up with my markers.

Once they were all colored up and cut out, I rimmed the edges with a black marker to finish them off!  Easy!  Now we can make up funny little stories with them while we're driving through corn fields as far as the eye can see!  lol 
  Have a super weekend!!  :o) lyss
Copics {110 Special Black, B21, B24,BG99, BV25, C1, E09, E17, E23, E25, E29, E43, E71, E74, E81, E87, G29, R14, R17, R20, R37, YG06, YG09, YR07, YR30, YR31, W1, W3, W5, W7, W9}  

CSAYL: Teacher's Pet ~

Hi there!  Long time, no post!  Life has been busy here getting ready for vacation, having a stellar week at work, a motorcycle rally...the list goes on and on!  It's time for another challenge with Christmas Stampin' All Year Long!  This week we've been challenged to make a card for a teacher.  The winner of this week's challenge will win a Guest Designer spot with us!
I had such a hard time with this challenge!  Since my little guy just started pre-school, I don't own any school related stamps.  I wracked my brain for a week until I was down to the nitty gritty!  I finally dug through my stash of already colored images and found this little cutie from Whiff of Joy - Henry with Christmas Bauble.  Henry always makes me think of Zane, so it worked out perfectly!  It's like he's holding this up for someone...maybe his teacher?  Yes, it's a stretch!  I just couldn't come up with anything!!

Henry is colored up with Copics to match up with some retired Stampin' Up! dp.  He's sitting on a bed of polar white Flower Soft and glitter, the mistletoe berries are dotted with white opal liquid pearls (been using those a lot lately!), his hat has some white flock on the trim and pom and some stardust Stickles adorn the snowflake of the ornament.  

When I ran him through the bug with the square nestie to emboss it, it crinkled up at the top (I think I've been going against the rules and running the dies through incorrectly...I've since changed my ways and don't have the crinkle problem).  To cover the most prominent crinkle, I added a little felt snowflake and button combo (again from SU).

The sentiment is from the Holly Jolly set by Verve.  It's stamped with Versafine Onyx Black ink - the only ink I use for sentiments.  I love the the scripty font!  I'll leave you with a little close up of this sweet mouse...don't forget to visit all of the lovely design team's blogs to see the fabulous creations they've made!  Then get to creating - Christmas is oh.so.much closer than you think!!  Thanks so much for stopping by!! ;o) lyss

September SFYTT ~

Hiya friends!!  I’m so very ecstatic to tell you that I’ve been selected by the Jen del Muro of i{heart}2stamp to be the guest designer for September’s Sketch For You To Try!!  My very first card related post on this blog was using a SFYTT…no, please don’t go back and look!  lol  As you all are well aware, I love me a good sketch. ;-)  The sponsor for this months’ sketch is Skipping Stones Designs.  Without further ado, here is the fabulous sketch for September

I chose to make a birthday card for a little man with his special day coming up in a few weeks.  My two best friends and I were all pregnant at the same time, and we all had boys.  Carter is 3 days older than Zane (my guy) and Logan is 3 weeks younger than Zane.  My birthday is this month and Carter’s mom’s birthday is about a week before mine - I need lots of birthday cards this month!  lol I pulled out a rubber stamp set from Pink Cat Studio that I just had to have when Z was just a baby.  This is Billy with a little frog on his head – oh.so.boy!

I went super literal with the sketch.  The sky is sponged in with Tumbled Glass distress ink and the grass is flicked in with Copics.  The papers are My Minds Eye Lime Twist Fly a Kite (I think) matted with Wild Wasabi.  The sentiment tag is flanked with a star, button and embroidery floss combo.

That cute little sentiment is from a retired CC Designs rubber set.  I’d have used the *hoppy birthday* that came with the little frog man, but it is curved and doesn’t work with the sketch so well. 
Thanks so much for stopping by today!  I’ve posted the rules of SFYTT below.  Hope you have a wonderful {and safe!} holiday weekend!!  lyss

1. The SKETCH FOR YOU TO TRY {SFYTT} will be posted on the first Saturday of each month on www.iheart2stamp.com at 8am EST and will stay open to participants until the last day of the month, unless otherwise noted.
2. This is for fun! Interpret the sketch as you wish and embellish as desired. There are no vendor restrictions, but we would love to see you use the sponsor’s stamps!
3. Each month we will have a Designer of the Month that will be chosen from past month’s participants.
4. Come and play with us on each and every sketch! On Christmas Day 2011 a prize package worth over $200 will be given away to one very lucky and loyal SFYTT stamper that participates in EVERY sketch for the year.
5. To be eligible for the prize package, you must complete ALL of the sketches by each of the deadlines AND link your creation to the link system on that month’s sketch post (the first Saturday of the month). Everyone except for SFYTT Sisters are eligible for the prize package, including Designer of the Month and international players.
6. When posting your sketch creation on your blog, please post the sketch and link back to the sketch post on www.iheart2stamp.com. When posting to online galleries, please use the keyword “SFYTT.”

Through the porthole ~

TGIF!!  Hiya friends!  Here’s my post for iCopic this week!  It’s a little interpretation of the current iCopic challenge – to color water, something under water, etc.  I’m not brave enough to attempt to color raindrops or reflections in water, so I decided to color something that would be found underwater – a mermaid!  And who better to color than The Greeting Farm’s Syren?!  She’s just so hot!  I wanted to do something a little different though…I made a gel card!

The front is made to look somewhat like the porthole of a submarine.  Having never been in a submarine and too lazy to look one up, this is how I envision one.  lol  I used a textured gray cardstock as the card base and cut a window in the center with my largest circle die.  The gel is inside a bag that my Fizzy Moon stamps came in – I had to fashion it with ScorTape to get it closed, so hopefully this little fish doesn’t turn into an ooey, gooey mess!  Another layer of the textured cardstock is up on dimensional foam tape.  The window’s frame is made with two circle nestabilitie dies and the little *bolts* are made with the larger size punch on the Crop-a-dile.  Before I glued down the *bolts*, I swiped some Ranger Distress Black Soot ink  around for definition. 

And here is the sassy Syren herself lounging on the ocean floor.  The sand is kraft cardstock ripped and sponged with Ranger Distress Antique Linen.  The background *water* is sponged lightly all over with Ranger Distress Tumbled Glass.  The seaweed and coral are cut using the Cricut Life’s a Beach cartridge and pounced with chalk inks in their respective colors for a bit more depth. 

Syren’s hair is colored with RV00, RV10, RV13 and RV14.  Her fishy tail is done in BG10, BG15, BG23 and BG45.  Instead of shading her tail, I dotted the darker colors in the shady areas.  The fin is super sparkly with Turquoise and Silver AtYou Spica pens – love these!  I also used the turquoise pen for her eyes. 
Thanks so much for stopping by today!  You still have a little while to get your watery creation in for your chance to win a $20 voucher to the iCopic store!  This also follows along with the Copic Creations #57: Pretty in Pink. Please stop by tomorrow!!  I have some super fun news to share {wink}!!  Have a super day! lyss 
COPICS:
Hair: RV00, RV10, RV13, RV14
Tail: BG10, BG15, BG23, BG45
Skin and Makeup: E00, E02, E11, R20, W1, W3