Sunshiney card

I hope you are enjoying The Craft's Meow's previews so far. Today, we're featuring a stamp set designed by my friend Michelle called Baggin' Some Rays. It's so full of sunshiney goodness that will surely bring a smile to your face :-).

I made my card on a rainy day and it sure did bring the MIA sunshine that day into my craft corner, at least. The sun rays, circle and sentiment are from the Baggin' Some Rays set. I added a border of pennants from my It's a Banner Day set, also being released on July 1st.The papers are Echo Park's Dots and Stripes Candy Shoppe collection.

Make sure you go to the TCM blog for more inspiration and info for some yummy giveaways! Come back tomorrow for a blog hop featuring all July 1 release by The Craft's Meow!

HOPE

Welcome to day 3 of The Craft's Meow's July Release previews. Today we're featuring a set, It's a Banner Day, that coordinates with Spellbinders Banner Basics Three dies. And for the first time, I designed my own alpha stamps that fit inside some of the banner/pennant images. One of the best parts about this set is that you stamp and die cut ONCE for 4 pennants, unlike others where you stamp and die cut each pennant. As you can imagine, that could be time consuming, but no more with It's a Banner Day and Spellbinders Banner Basics Three. :-)

This is my favorite card of the ones I made for this release. It's very simple to make. I made a breast cancer awareness ribbon and added the word HOPE using the It's a Banner Day stamps. The scroll on the center bottom is from Timeless Tags set. The papers are from My Mind's Eye's Hazel.

Make sure you go to the TCM blog for more inspiration and info for some yummy giveaways!

Enjoy the Ride!

Welcome to day two of The Craft's Meow's July Release previews. We're featuring Life is a Carnival today. This is a huge set (6" x 8") that includes tons of fair/carnival-themed images and sentiments. I made the images a bit bigger so you can use them on scrapbook pages as well as on cards. I also made the images a little more elegant and vintage than typical for this theme. I hope you will like them :-).

I stamped 3 of the images in the set to match the colors of my papers (Echo Park Dots and Stripes Candy Shoppe).

Make sure you stop by the TCM Blog for more project inspiration and information on release giveaways!

Come back tomorrow for another set I illustrated that goes with Spellbinders dies that I also designed. :-)

Lovely Birds Previews

Welcome to day one of The Craft's Meow's July Release previews. Today we're showing you one of the sets I designed called Lovely Birds. I had so much fun drawing this set. It's unlike other stamps I've illustrated before, but it's nice for me to try new things. The bird bath was colored with Copics. The papers are My Mind's Eye's Hazel.

Make sure you go to the TCM blog for more inspiration and info for some yummy giveaways!

Sorry to make this short, but I cut the tip of my left middle finger that makes it hard to type. On a lighter note, my family and I are enjoying our visiting friends from the US. Today's the first day of English camp and we can't wait!

See you back here tomorrow with another set for TCM.

Hi, there!

I'm sorry I haven't updated my blog in a few days. Things are crazy busy here. We have 15 friends visiting from GA who arrived last night. It took days of prep and now we are getting ready for English camp next week. It'll be a lot of work, but oh so fun!

In the paper crafting area of my life, I will have pre-scheduled posts for the upcoming The Craft's Meow's July release, when 3 stamp sets I illustrated will be sold. Here are some sneak peeks of 2 of them:
Here's today's card that I made for this week's Card Patterns sketch. Our sponsor is Whimsy Doodles, who provided the cute penguin image below. The papers are October Afternoon and the sentiment is from The Craft's Meow's Just Sayin' set.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Learn to Surf

It's been so hot and humid here, so I'm dreaming of cooler beach weather. Today's card uses my friend Michelle's TCM stamps, It's a Shore Thing and October Afternoon's Seaside papers. I added some bling for the water squirt.

The adventure that I mentioned in my previous post ended up being very productive. We drove to Graz, Austria to shop. Crazy, isn't it? that we travel across borders (Slovenia is between here and Austria) to shop. It's only an hour and 15 minutes drive away and the prices for certain staples are much cheaper there. And they have certain items we can't get in Croatia (like the necessary marshmallows and Rice Krispies cereal:-). Not to mention that they have an Ikea, Toys'R Us, and Burger King. It's a good place to visit that reminds us of "home" once in awhile.

I found a winter jacket for my oldest for 9 Euros ($15) and that is cheap! I also found some little items from Ikea that I can't wait to alter. Unfortunately, they still don't have a craft store, but that is probably a good thing. :-)

Enjoy Your Day

We had a gloomy weekend with lots of rain and strong winds. I thought I lost my flower boxes, but thankfully, only a few blooms were affected. Here's a card to hopefully make your day bright. :-).

The sentiment and speech bubble are from TCM's Just Sayin' set. The papers are Echo Park's Springtime collection.

We hope you had a wonderful Father's day weekend with your loved ones. We miss our dear dads (and moms, too!) dearly, but are thankful for skype that makes the world smaller. My hubby and I even got to go on a date. For his special day, he treated me out to a dinner and a movie. God has blessed me indeed!

Well, we're off to another adventure today. I'll let you know what we're up to later. Till then, enjoy your day!

Cute as a Button and Bowling Fun

Today's card is for Card Patterns' sketch this week. Our sponsor is DRS Designs and they're offering a $20 gift certificate to one random participant. I hope you can join us.

I used one of their images, Cosmo Cricket Salt Air papers and SRM Stickers Sentiments Baby. I colored the giraffe with Copics.

Now, onto something not related to paper crafting. I received many comments and emails from my blog visitors saying they don't mind, in fact they enjoy, reading about our life in Croatia. So, here's another glimpse of our adventures here.

My family and I checked out a brand new bowling alley in the capital city. You may not think it's a big deal, but there aren't many family-oriented forms of entertainment here, so we're so excited to have this place within driving distance.

Here's one of my favorite shots from that day. My sweet husband giving our youngest a hug after she bowled her last to see if she could beat her sister's score.

Based on this photo, you can see that she didn't. She lost by one point. Here's my middle child showing the face of victory and I'm so glad I captured it with my camera.

By the way, they both beat my score by a lot! Of course, they had the side rails up that helped them bowl straight...haha. That's my story and I'm sticking to it :-).

SRM goes shabby

My card today is for this week's Card Patterns sketch. Our sponsor is SRM Stickers. It is no secret how much I love my SRM. I used the WGYS Thanks for my card. The papers are Crate Paper's Emma's Shoppe. The doily behind the sentiment is my Simply Delightful stamp set by The Craft's Meow. I did the emboss resist technique on it. I also used Circle and Large Scallop Circle Spellbinder dies on my card.

I hope you can join us this week. SRM is offering a generous prize package to one random participant.

My first The Angel Company stamps!

Hello! I'm so excited to show you the first sneak peeks of my new stamp line through The Angel Company. If you're not familiar with TAC, their products are available through their demonstrators. If you host a party, you get rewards and tons of discounts. Unlike other demo-only companies, they sell products that we all love (Copics, Memento inks, Spellbinder dies, etc), in addition to their exclusive line of papers, stamps, etc. And you get rewarded/discounts for your purchases. If you don't want to host a party, you can shop online.

My new sets will debut on their catalog (and it's chock full of paper crafting goodies), which will go on sale on June 27! Today, I'm joining the TAC's DT as we feature the new Vintage Rides set. It includes 4 modes of transportation, a flying banner, sentiments that fit inside and two other sentiments. This set is perfect for many occasions.

It just so happens that today is Flag Day. So, for my cards, I used the good ole red, white and blue! Both my cards use October Afternoon papers and the images were colored with Copics. The first one also uses Spellbinders' Floral Doily Accents and Classic Rectangle dies.

Here is the full set. What do you think?

Make sure you check out The Angel Company's Savvy Projects blog participants featuring this set today!

Butterfly Sympathy

Hi, friends! I hope you all had a great weekend. My family and I spent it playing, cleaning the house, tending to our yard and flower boxes and hosting friends for dinner. It was wonderful to take a break from the computer and work with my hands. And it always feels good when I have a clean home and a house full of wonderful friends, enjoying our home-cooked meal. It makes me happy :-).

My card today was published in Cardmaker Magazine in May 2011. It uses Layers of Color's Flutterescent set. The sentiment is from GinaK's Fanciful Tags, which was die cut with Spellbinders Fancy Tags dies.

And here's our dinner party, which pretty much consists of the same friends every Sunday. Our dining room is not big enough, so we set up a table on our driveway when the weather permits. My oldest was invited to dinner by her friend's family, so she wasn't there. My two youngest invited their BFFs over. These men are my husbands' Bible students. The two older gentlemen are friends from church. Thanks for letting me share a little bit about our life in Croatia with you. :-)

SRM Tubes for Storage

The SRM Stickers blog is featuring how you can use their super cool tubes for storage. Here is how I use them for storing my beloved paper roses.

If you're a frequent follower of my blog, you know how much I love these little beauties. I buy them in bulk from Wild Orchid Crafts. They're much more reasonably priced than Primas and they come in a variety of colors and sizes. These roses come in bunches like these.

I snip the flowers off the wire stems and store them in tubes, one color per tube. Don't they look pretty? It makes me not want to use the flowers :-).

And a good friend gave me this very cute picket fence basket that is perfect to store these tubes in. I leave it on my desk because it makes a pretty decor too!

Make sure you stop by the SRM Stickers blog to see how my teammates use these versatile tubes to keep their lives better organized.

You can go HERE, HERE, and HERE to see some cards I made using these flowers

Hello Banner and Winner!

Happy Thursday and it's a gloomy one here in Croatia! So, I'm just more than delighted to show you this sunny card that I made for the Card Patterns sketch this week. The sponsor is Catherine Pooler, who's an SU Demo. All the papers I used below were provided by her. The stamps are my brand new Sending You Sunshine by The Craft's Meow.

And now the winner of my Moxie Fab World post giveaway is...Tiffany! Congratulations! Please email me , via tab above, with your address. Thank you all for your kind comments and for playing along!

Cherry picking time and More Exciting News

Thank you so much for your kind words on Monday's post and on the Moxie Fab World blog. I am truly blessed to be a part of this paper crafting community. Oftentimes I craft alone, but you all make this world a smaller place through your daily visits here on my blog. A heartfelt thank you for blessing me that way regularly :-)

Now, I have another exciting news to share. Check this link out, scroll to the 2nd photo and you will know what my news is! I can't wait to show more with you soon!

I don't have a card for you today, but here are some photos from our recent cherry picking time at home. We have two of these trees and the fruit is so yummy. Unfortunately, we don't have a cherry picker machine, but we do have 3 enthusiastic cherry picker girls who enjoy doing it.
My youngest takes cherry eating very seriously. How many do you think she managed to eat at one time?

Something to share

Something exciting is happening to me today. You can check it out HERE. I have a little giveaway to celebrate. Keep reading for more info below!

Today's card features The Craft's Meow's Happiness Is and Timeless Tags and Layers of Color's The Love Chapter (text background). I die cut the tag using Spellbinders' Grommet Tags. The papers are Crate Paper's Portrait collection.

I decided to have another giveaway to celebrate the MFWB post. I will pick a random winner from this post's comments to win the following:

• Layers of Color's Happy Wishes set
  
• The Craft's Meow's Happiness Is set
• Spellbinders Fleur de Lis Motif dies set

The giveaway is open till Wednesday at midnight. The winner will be announced on Thursday! And if you're here to find out more info about the cards on the MFWB blog, here are the links to my posts about them:

Reindeer Joy card
Simple Shabby card set
Welcome Home Butterfly
Thanks So Much 1st Published Card

Happy Day

Thank you all so much for your kind words about my new release with The Craft's Meow. I am blown away by your encouragement and I hope you will continue to be inspired by what you see here on my blog.

Today's card is for this week's Card Patterns sketch. Our sponsor is DRS Designs, which provided the digi flower below. I printed it 3 times; colored them with Copics; fussy cut two then layered. The papers are Cosmo Cricket's Salt Air and the sentiment is by SRM Stickers. I also sponged the Spellbinders label behind the flower.

I haven't been able to create anything lately. I had to pack my craft supplies while our house is undergoing some major renovations. Amid the chaos and mess, though, I've been keeping myself busy with designing. I have lots of exciting stuff coming later this month. And I'm working on something BIG that I can't share till the fall. Stay tuned ;-).

The Craft's Meow June Release Blog Hop

Have you been enjoying the previews? I'm so glad to see you join our hop today featuring the latest stamp releases by The Craft's Meow. If you came from Lynn Miller's blog, then you're at the right place. If not, check out the list order from The Craft's Meow's blog. Take note also of the giveaways during this hop that includes a GRAND PRIZE of ALL the June release stamps. These are now available for purchase at The Craft's Meow's store.

• Celebrating You
• Timeless Tags
• Sending You Sunshine
• Just Sayin'
• It's a Shore Thing
  

My card today features the first two sets above. I stamped the fuschias directly on to the patterned paper (Pink Paislee's Butterfly Garden, which you can also purchase from The Craft's Meow). I colored them with Copics. The tag was stamped with tan ink, then die cut using the Spellbinders' Grommet Tags.

Now, your next stop is my friend Michelle Bertuzzi, who is debuting her TCM stamps for this release!