Friday, April 01, 2011

Chick Days

Good morning!  I hope this fine Friday is treatin' ya well!  I've got a card to share with you today that was inspired by one of my recent trips to town.  Around here, since we live in the country, a trip to go to any sort of store, is "a trip to town".  City folk always laugh at that statement, but when you live in the country, it is what it is, and we "go to town".  It is kinda funny when you think about it.  Anyway, the other day when I was "in town", I happened to notice that every farm store I passed (and there are a lot of them, BTW) had a banner out front that said "Chick Days".  Well, in the city, I'm sure that banner could have an entirely different meaning, but here in the country, that means these stores have live baby chicks for sale.  You can hear the cheeping and peeping as soon as you walk through the door, and those little chicks are so fuzzy and cute, which made me think of this Cottage Impressions stamp.  Chick days have arrived for this mother hen, too!!
I used a new paper stack from Kaiser Craft called Nan's Favourites Collection, and as well as the pretty patterned paper, it had the cute little die cut piece. that I put at the bottom of this card.  Hmmmm...  I wonder if our friends at The Scrapping Cottage could hook us up with some dies to cut fancy edges like that?  I'd LOVE to have some of those!!  This Hen and Chick's image was stamped with Memento tuxedo black ink and colored with my Copics, and the sentiment comes from Peachy Keen Stamps Sweetie Pie Peepers stamp set.  For embellishment, I used this pretty daffodil colored ribbon, and tie it with a cute little flower button.  

I'm so glad you could drop by today!!   I wish you a blessed and wonderful weekend and as always, happy stamping!


Thursday, March 31, 2011

Li'l Red

I love these photos my daughter took of grandgirl and scrappy buddy, Miss Grace, in her Halloween costume. Daughter, Cyndi, sewed the cape and Grace wore it proudly as she carried her basket trick or treating. :) For this page I've use Mrs. Gnome as Red to mimic Gracie's costume. Her face is stamped using one of the ghost faces from the Peachy Keen Halloween collaboration release, and her basket is -- are you ready? -- a pumpkin from the pick-up truck accessories! Isn't she adorable! For this embellishment, I used the flowers and mushrooms die, also from the Gnome release. I thought they were perfect for the red riding hood theme. My favorite thing is cutting shapes from pattern papers. I love the whimsical look it gives them with an unexpected pattern or color. I hope you enjoyed my layout today. Scrapbook pages are my favorite and it's been too long since my last one. :) Have a great weekend. I hope spring has made its way to your part of the country!


Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Flower Fun!

I finally got a chance to play with this Stitched Flower w/Button die. I love how they have these stitches around the flowers! Of course there are many options with this die as CottageCutz dies are always giving you choices.

I picked up this patterned paper a couple of weeks ago and it was perfect for this die. I made this card for my Mother-in-law who had her birthday last weekend. I always think I'm going to make more window cards but never seem to get around to it, so I was happy that I finally did it and was please with the results. Now if we can just get Mother Nature to give us some flowers. This is what the inside of the card looks like. Hope you have a great spring day! Kay

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

A Birdhouse for all Seasons

 A Birdhouse for all seasons. I was looking through my Cottage Cutz Spring Dies and I came across last years BIRDHOUSE Die. I had used it several times last year but mainly for Spring cards. As I stared at it I thought what about Halloween?, What about red birds?. The first picture shows the birdhouse basically as it was intended to look like, bright and cheer-y. The birdhouse next is a haunted birdhouse with a witch bird (green bird with witch hat). Wacky hanging shutters and spider webs. The bats were cut from the heart on the die, I just scalloped the bottom of the heart off. I used a lot of black and brown ink to shade pieces dark.
The card I finished is a winter-y Valentine card. I used red birds with white flowers and heart. The cloud like shape is the Cottage Cuts Flower from the Stitched Flower with Button Die. I wanted the cloud to have the general shape of the mini flowers. . plus I needed a light color area for the verse. The branch with leaves are  from the Cottage Cutz Blue Jay Die. This die has a lot of uses throughout the year. Red, White and Blue for a patriotic birdhouse. . Red & Cinnamon for a gingerbread house.  . .on and on.

Thanks B


Monday, March 28, 2011

It Looks Like Spring



Good morning friends!  Here is a card I made with the Cottage Cutz Potted Flower.  I used gingham cardstock to paper piece the flowers.  I know I have said this before, but I will say it again.  I LOVE me some gingham!
Gingham and polka dots are some of my faves!    The sentiment is from Pink by Design, Life's a Garden.  Happy Monday everyone!  I will be back next Monday but I hope you will visit us everyday to see all the wonderful creations by the other designers.

Hugs and smiles,
Janice

Sunday, March 27, 2011

With Sympathy

Hello! Here is a picture tutorial for you on how to create your own background paper with your die cuts and distress inks. Here I used the Ornate Dragonfly die. I cut my dragonflies out of Post It Craft paper which is adhesive backed and just perfect for this technique. Ink up your sponge applicator tool and pounce the ink on. Do not swirl it on or you will lift up the "masks" you've stuck down.

Here it is after applying the inks...

Starting to peel up the masks to reveal the magic ;)

Here I inked up a white dragonfly, and then sprayed it with perfect pearls mixed with water in a mini mister. Makes a super pretty shiny effect! And here is my finished card...

Wish the shine would have photographed better...you can see it a little here...

Ok, I hope you likey! :) See you back here next Sunday!

Nikki





Friday, March 25, 2011

Whimsical Wishes

Hello, and happy Friday!  It's late, and I'm waaaay late with my post.  I'm so sorry about that, but I was determined to get my card finished and posted before this day is over.  So, here you are!  FINALLY!!!
For this card, I used the new Filigree Fairy die from The Scrapping Cottage.  I cut her out with some wonderful glitter paper, and I actually used my Copics to give her a little flesh color.  Her dress was cut in pink glitter paper.  I doubled up on the wings, and added some rhinestones, because even with the glitter paper, there still just wasn't enough bling for me!  Is there such a thing as too much bling?  I don't think so!!  

Again, I'm sorry for being late today.  I've got a very sick grandpa to take care of this weekend.  After finally convincing him to go to the doctor today, he was diagnosed with pneumonia.  Hopefully we're on the road to recovery, but it's been a busy, and difficult day getting to this point.  Thanks so much for stopping by!  Have a wonderful weekend, and happy stamping!


Thursday, March 24, 2011

To gnome me is to love me!

Happy Thursday! You know that means....it's Friday Eve, of course!!! The weekend is just around the corner. :)

From the gnomes release, I've used the adorable Mr. Gnome and the older version mushrooms for this card. The sentiment is a digi stamp by Melonheadz Illustrating. Papers by My Mind's Eye, Quite Contrary line.

Hoping spring has sprung in your neck of the woods. I'm happy to report we saw the sun this week! Yippee! Bless you, Mother Nature. :)

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Carrot Delivery

A Carrot Delivery. . . Happy Spring. . .Mr. Bunny is ready for the season with a wagon of carrots. The Bunny is from last years Easter die from Cottage Cutz. Bunny with Overalls. I added a wagon with a piece of rectangle brown card stock, loop of brown rope and I used the Daisy layered with Button Die from this year to make the wheels on the wagon. I cut extra carrots from the Bunny die to fill the wagon.

Happy Spring . . Barry

Monday, March 21, 2011

Happy Spring?

Hello everyone!

Well today is the first day of Spring.  It sure doesn't feel like Spring here in MA.  This certainly has been a long Winter.  For todays card I used the Ornate Dragonfly die.  I used glittered cardstock from DCWV to make the dragonfly.  I framed it with a white background so it would pop off the page.  The background paper is from The Sasha Collection by Prima Marketing.  The ribbon is from Michael's.  Enjoy the day and Happy Spring!

Hugs and smiles,
Janice

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Mushroom card

Hiya! Nikki here with a SUPER simple card. I liked how my mushroom turned out so much that I just wanted it to be my focal point. ☺

See, told ya! SUPER simple! See ya back here next Sunday!

♥ Nikki ♥


Saturday, March 19, 2011

Happy Belated St. Patrick's Day!!

I love St. Patrick's Day and since my scheduled posting day wasn't until today, I didn't get to wish everyone a Happy St. Patty's Day!!

So, I was looking over my dies from the Gnomes and Fairies release and trying to see if I could use any of them on a St. Patrick's Day card. I decided to grab the Filigree Fairy because for one thing, I love her, but more importantly, I thought she would be perfect for sending a little Irish wish!

I also used the Cottage Cutz Frame Die to add my sentiment. I still love the dies from the Love Notes Release!! So much versatility packed into one release!!

That's all from me today! Check back tomorrow for another fabulous creation using your favorite Cottage Cutz dies. Until next week, happy scrapping!!





Friday, March 18, 2011

There's Gnomeplace Like Home

Hello and happy Friday!  I have a card for you today that I made with a couple of the new dies from the Gnome/Fairy release at The Scrapping Cottage.  I used Mr. Gnome and the Gnome Tree Stump House.  I cut everything with white card stock and colored with my Copic markers.  I thought it would be cute to have Mr. Gnome peeking from behind the house.  I hear Gnomes are kinda shy like that.  LOL!!
My post is short and sweet today.  I'm babysitting for little Max, and he's keeping me on my toes!!  I hope you don't mind if I share a picture of his first wagon ride yesterday.  The weather was a warm 75 degrees, and it was so good to be outside.  The dog ran into the picture just about the time I snapped the shot.  I could have done without that, but that's the way it goes!  Max looks a little terror stricken, but he REALLY liked the ride!!  Have a blessed weekend, and happy crafting!



Thursday, March 17, 2011

Your heart in my pocket

This week I decided to use some of the shapes from the Valentine release. They are perfect for everyday 'love' pages, like this one of my son and granddaughter. :)

Papers are mostly Bo Bunny, bling is all pink but the scanner always eats the color right off my bling for some reason.


Martha Stewart border punch


pocket, and hearts from the locket die.

Heart flower and small eyelet circle

Thank you for looking. I hope you enjoyed a little change of pace with a layout vs a card today. Tomorrow is Friday already, the weekend is almost here. Hang in there! ;)