Did you know...?

...that Bazzill papers now have patterned papers? I was fortunate enough to try out their Grandma's Feather Bed collection and they are so pretty. I love the floral and elegant patterns combined with the classic polka dots and stripes in trendy colors. This collection also comes with coordinating elements like buttons and paper flowers.

Here are some cards I created with these yummy papers and SRM Stickers, which are my go-to products when I need to create beautiful, but not time consuming cards, usually to give away as a gift set. I used the We've Got Your Stickers Thanks on these cards. I love that this sheet comes with images and sentiments in many colors, including my favorite white.

Make sure you check out the SRM Blog posts yesterday, today and tomorrow for more Bazzill paper projects with SRM Stickers.

Finally, The Craft's Meow crew is previewing the June 1 release stamps today featuring my friend Michelle's newest set, It's a Shore Thing. My stamps didn't get here in time before I packed my craft supplies to make way for home renovations going on right now. More info (take note of the giveaway!) on the TCM blog. Tomorrow, I hope you can join us for the release blog hop with more prize giveaways!

Sending You Sunshine and Just Sayin' Previews

The last two sets I designed for The Craft's Meow's June 1 release are being featured today. First up is Sending You Sunshine:

• Includes 8 images (one big tree scene, 6 images that you can add to the scene, and one stand alone image) and 5 sentiments.
• Coordinates with the Just Sayin' set below. All the sentiments fit inside the bubble stamp.
  

This set is somewhat different from my usual style, but I had so much fun illustrating it. I wanted to capture summer in a simple and cute way that is reflective of my country life.

For my card, I did some Copic coloring and paper piecing (dress). The border is my Spellbinders' Floral Doily dies.

Just Sayin' set

• Includes 1 speech bubble stamp, alpha background and 7 sentiments that fit inside the bubble.
• The font matches the Sending You Sunshine set.

For my card, I decided to use my last remaining stash of Echo Park's Springtime Collection. I curved the sentiment so I could cut it into a flag. That's one neat feature that clear stamps can do that is not possible with rubber stamps.

Make sure you visit the TCM team's blogs for more inspiration:

The Craft's Meow Blog
Alice Wertz
Amy Tsuruta
Debbie Pamment
Heather Jensen
Ivana Camdzic
Jean Martin
Jenny Suchin
Jessica Fick
Kim Yu
Lindsay Amrhein
Lynn Miller
Nina Brackett - you are here
Michelle Bertuzzi
Sarah Martina Parker
Viola Mahr

And of course, there will be prizes. Leave a comment for a chance to win Sending You Sunshine and Just Sayin' sets. You will have until 10:00 pm Pacific tonight to finish the rounds and comment. Winner will be announced the next day in The Craft's Meow Blog. Three will be chosen randomly from three blogs above to win each day.

The Craft's Meow Preview of Timeless Tags

Please scroll down below for my blog candy winner.

Today, The Craft's Meow's DT is showcasing one of my 4 sets releasing June 1 called Timeless Tags. This set coordinates with Spellbinders' Grommet Tags dies, which I also designed. This set:

• retails for $15.
• includes 5 images (4 tags and one flourish element) and 4 sentiments
• coordinates with Spellbinders' Grommet Tags dies.
  

I made a card set that was a cinch to put together. I stamped the fuschia flower image from Celebrating You as background using the tone-on-tone technique. I then embossed the card front with Spellbinders Labels 17; then mounted the tag with foam dots.

Here's a close up of the embossed card base. It's subtle, but just enough to highlight the tag.

Take a look at what beautiful projects the TCM crew has for you today:

The Craft's Meow Blog
Alice Wertz
Amy Tsuruta
Debbie Pamment
Heather Jensen
Ivana Camdzic
Jean Martin
Jenny Suchin
Jessica Fick
Kim Yu
Lindsay Amrhein
Lynn Miller
Nina Brackett - you are here
Michelle Bertuzzi
Sarah Martina Parker
Viola Mahr

And of course, there will be prizes. Leave a comment for a chance to win Timeless Tags. You will have until 10:00 pm Pacific tonight to finish the rounds and comment. Winner will be announced the next day in The Craft's Meow Blog. Three will be chosen randomly from three blogs above to win each day.

300K hits Blog Candy Winner!

The winner of my 300K blog hits giveaway, picked via Random.org, is...

Kim W.

Please contact me via tab above with your email, Kim. Congratulations!
Please note that because of shipping issues, I will need to hear from the winner in 3 days (June 2) or I will have to draw another winner then. Thank you!

The Craft's Meow's Preview of Celebrating You

Welcome to day one of The Craft's Meow's June Release previews. Today, the TCM team is featuring the Celebrating You stamp set.

• Retails for $15.
• Includes 2 large fuschia flower images and 4 sentiments
• One of the floral images is line art, perfect for coloring and paper piecing. The solid image for those who like to stamp and go (like I do sometimes).
  

Here is my card. I colored the flowers with Copics. The papers are Crate Paper's Emma's Shoppe.

Make sure you visit the TCM team's blogs for more inspiration:

The Craft's Meow Blog
Alice Wertz
Amy Tsuruta
Debbie Pamment
Heather Jensen
Ivana Camdzic
Jean Martin
Jenny Suchin
Jessica Fick
Kim Yu
Lindsay Amrhein
Lynn Miller
Nina Brackett - you are here
Michelle Bertuzzi
Sarah Martina Parker
Viola Mahr

And of course, there will be prizes. Leave a comment for a chance to win Celebrating You. You will have until 10:00 pm Pacific tonight to finish the rounds and comment. Winner will be announced the next day in The Craft's Meow Blog. Three will be chosen randomly from three blogs above to win each day.

See you tomorrow as we feature a timeless stamp set that coordinates with Spellbinders dies that I also designed.

Make a Wish Fairy

I've been so busy (in a good way) and can't wait to share with you all what I've been working on. I have some new and exciting stuff coming soon! I feel so blessed being part of this paper crafting community, don't you?

Today's card uses The Craft's Meow's Butterfly Kisses set. The papers and die cuts are Crate Paper's Emma's Shoppe. I also used Tsukineko's Memento Lady Bug for the fairy and I just love how well this ink stamps! No blotches, no spots, just even inking. The sketch follows the CPS challenge this week.

Finally, check out my friend Viola's card HERE. She's so talented and I'm old enough to be her mom! I'm so thankful she designs with my stamps from The Craft's Meow. I just love her work.

Have a great Thursday and don't forget my 300K hits giveaway on THIS POST.

Want a take a peek of new stamps?

This set will be released by The Craft's Meow on June 1st. Can you guess what it is? The DT will preview the new release starting on Saturday, May 28th! Did I mention that one of the new sets coordinates with a Spellbinders die set I also had the privilege to design? This is going to be a fun release!

Celebrate Today

Today's card is for this week's Card Patterns' Sketch 116. Our sponsor is Penny Black. The DT was treated to their yummy stamps and Mix and Match paper line. I used the To You stamp set. I colored the layered flower with Copics. Unfortunately, the papers they sent me got damaged on the edges that I couldn't use them for a card base.

The patterned papers are from Crate Paper's Emma's Shoppe collection, which you can purchase samplers of from The Craft's Meow. I die cut the background half circles using Spellbinders Floral Doily Motifs dies.

Don't forget about my 300K blog hits giveaway. More info HERE. Enjoy your Monday!

Celebrating 300K hits with a Giveaway!

Before I share the giveaway, here's today's card using Layers of Color's Embroidered Butterfly and Sent With Love. I heat embossed the butterfly with white on vellum paper and colored it with Copics. I love the transparent look. The card was die cut using Spellbinders Lacey Circle and classic circle dies.

Now, I had to draw another winner for the giveaway I had over a week ago. I never heard from the winner, so I drew again from that week's post. The new winner of the new Parisian Motif dies by Spellbinders is...Vera W. Yates (Ling). Please email me, via tab above, with your address, Vera! Thanks for playing along.

If you didn't win, don't fret. To celebrate my 300K hits, I am giving away two of my stamp sets from Layers of Color and/or The Craft's Meow. You get to pick which two you want of the sets I have released so far from these two companies. And if you already have them all, you can pick from the new sets coming in June from both companies (June is a busy month of releases for me!). And FYI,The Craft's Meow sneak peeks begin soon!

In addition, I have another set of Spellbinders' Fleur de lis Doily Motifs dies to give away.

To be eligible to win:

• just comment from now till Friday's post (May 27). I will pick the winner from one random commenter from one random day.
  
• Feel free to share the info about this giveaway on Facebook, your blog or Twitter. If you do, leave me another comment per day you share it with a link to your post.

Some things to consider:

• You don't need a blog to enter. I've set up my blog so you can comment as "Anonymous." Just make sure you leave me your email or other distinguishing info on your post.
• Leave a comment every day to better your chances. I randomly pick a winner from a random day, not just from today's post.
• I will pick the winner among those who left comments on the posts. So, please don't enter via email or the chat box on the left. I have no way to keep track of them all. Sorry :-(.
• This giveaway is open to everyone in the world! However, you are responsible to pay for taxes incurred.
  

Finally, thank you from the bottom of my heart for your visits. It encourages me to keep going with what I do. I hope you always find inspiration from my work. Blessings to you!

SRM Stickers and Die Cuts

My projects today were for the SRM Stickers highlight of die cuts and stickers on their blog last week. Here's the ensemble that I put together to welcome a little baby. I used the SRM Sticker Sentiments Baby on these. The labels are from my Lovely Labels stamp set by Gina K Designs. They were die cut with Spellbinders Labels 4. The papers are Webster's Pages.

Oh, in case you're wondering (a couple people asked before), this was not taken in my backyard :-). My girls would never leave our home if we had a pool. This was taken in Los Angeles when we were there visiting last year.

Here is a card.

And a tag

I already posted the bag here before. You can see it HERE.

Waltzing Mouse May Blog Waltz

This is my very first Waltzingmouse Stamps Blog Waltz. I hope I'm doing it right :-). I was finally able to ink up some WMS stamps that I got last month from winning their sketch challenge. I love Claire's designs. She's one of the most talented paper crafters I know.
This month's theme is Masculine. I had to go clean and simple for this one. No lace or ribbons like my usual cards. I used the Offbeat Backgrounds set to create the plaid background. The sentiment is from Lovely Labels 3 by Gina K Designs.

More info about the waltz here. The sketch follows the WMS Challenge this week. I flipped it upside down and they ask that you stamp a border, which I did with the sentiment. The buttons and twine make it perfect for the CAS-ual Friday challenge this week.

Have a great day!

Winner of my Spellbinder Dies Giveaway

EDIT: I had to draw another winner since I never heard from Gaby. You can view the new winner HERE.

Well, it looks like Blogger never recovered the lost comments from the first 4 days of the giveaway. I'm so sorry about that if you were one of those who left comments on those posts. I hope blogger will not fail us anymore. Now, the winner, picked by random.org from Friday's post, is...

Gaby Santiago Sayer

Thank you all so much for participating in the giveaway. I will have another one soon as I just noticed that my counter is about to hit the 300K mark. Stay tuned!

Note on how I picked the winner...I assigned a number per day of the giveaway, #1 being the first day. I then randomly drew a number from which day the winning comment would come from. I used random.org again to pick the winner from that day's post.

Meet the new Little Frieda

Welcome to The Craft's Meow's Little Frieda new release blog hop. If you came here from my good friend, Grace's blog, then you're on the right track. If not, make sure you check out The Craft's Meow's blog for the order of the hop.

You will also find the full image of the new sets and card kits being released today. I hear that TCM is also giving away some yummy paper crafting goodies (wink). More info in the TCM blog.

My card today features the adorable Little Frieda At The Seashore set. I colored her with Copics and tried to make her hair blonde this time, but I need to work on that more. I'm partial to brunettes since my girls and I are :-). The papers are again October Afternoon's Seaside. The sentiment is SRM Stickers Sentiments Summer. And a little bit of Twinery twine and a sprinkle of buttons finish the card.

Now, hop on over to my friend Alice Wertz' blog. She will wow you with her masterfully colored images on her cards.

Happy hopping!

Little Frieda, My Girl and Blog Candy Extended

The Craft's Meow crew is previewing today the second Little Frieda stamps, Little Frieda and Lulu - My Girl, that will be released on May 15th. She is so much fun to color. My girls think Frieda looks like them. What do you think? It must be the cute little eyes. :-)

Little Frieda was colored with Copics. The papers are Pink Paislee's Soiree collection.

Make sure you stop by The Craft's Meow's blog for more inspiration, winners from yesterday's previews and giveaway info.

TCM is giving away Little Frieda stamps. Leave a comment on all of the design team blogs so that you'll have more chances of winning Little Frieda and Lulu - My Girl! Three commenters will be selected randomly from three of the design team blogs to win this stamp set! You have until tonight at 10:00 pm Pacific to make the rounds. The winner will be announced in tomorrow's post.

You might also want to pop over to Ivana's blog ... she's also got a bit of blog candy going that you just might be interested in. Please be sure to join us tomorrow for the new release blog hop! We will also be releasing not one, not two, but three new card kits!

Oh, and check it out... TCM is sponsoring Card Patterns Sketch Challenge this week!

Now regarding the winner of my Spellbinders giveaway last week...sorry about the delay, but many people had blogger problems the last two days, including yours truly. As of this writing, blogger hadn't recovered any of the comments left on Thursday's post. Some of the comments from other posts are missing also. In light of this, I decided to extend my giveaway until Sunday night. I'm hoping blogger will fix the problem by then. If not, just comment away the rest of the weekend and I'll pick the winner randomly from last Friday's post till this coming Sunday, May 15. I will announce the winner on Monday!

Hello, Little Frieda

Welcome to The Craft's Meow's Little Frieda release. There will be two adorable sets and we're showcasing Little Frieda At the Seashore today. This is also a sneak peek of my Card Patterns card for tomorrow. I had so much fun coloring Little Frieda .

The papers are Oct Afternoon Seaside. I also used my well-loved Spellbinders Circle and Big blossom dies. Make sure you check The Craft's Meow's blog for more inspiration, giveaway info. And TCM is also showing a sneak peek of two card kits by my friend Jessica Fick.

TCM is giving away free Little Frieda stamps. Leave a comment on all of the design team blogs so that you'll have more chances of winning Little Frieda at the Seashore for yourself! Three commenters will be selected randomly from three of the design team blogs to win this stamp set! You have until tonight at 10:00 pm Pacific to make the rounds. The winner will be announced in tomorrow's post.

The Craft's Meow is PROUD to sponsor the Lily Pad Cards challenge this week, which is to use embossing (wet and/or dry) on your card/project. Be sure to come join us... just CLICK HERE to visit the Lily Pad Card blog to see all the amazing cards created by the design team AND check out the prize up for grabs. I think you will like it!

You might also want to pop over to my friend and DT member Ivana's blog ... she's also got a bit of blog candy going that you just might be interested in (*wink*).

Just a Note

I've been busy working on some future stamp designs and it's taking time away from my card making. It's a dilemma that stamp designers have, at least for me.

I am so blessed to be able to design stamps that I want to use for my cards. I love coming up with ideas and making them into drawings. I love the satisfaction of finishing artwork that I can send off to the manufacturer. I love touching and seeing the stamps in my hand weeks or even many months later.

I also love card making, but sadly it's the last step in the process, so it doesn't get as much attention. After all the work of designing and waiting for the stamps, I don't always have the time to use them, at least lately. Thankfully, I have DT duties that make me sit down, turn off my computer and just create with my hands using stamps, dies, papers, etc. Don't you just love getting inky with your paper crafting supplies?

That's exactly what I did last night and made several cards for the upcoming The Craft's Meow Little Frieda release. And it was so satisfying :-). I also made this simple note card set using Simply Delightful and Happiness Is sets. I stamped the flowers in various inks and created a background. The patterned paper is from Pink Paislee's Soiree collection.

And don't forget my Spellbinder dies giveaway ends tonight. More info on my previous post. Please note that I will pick the winner from ALL the comments from Friday until today, not just on that post. I randomly pick a day (1 being Friday last week, 2 Saturday, etc). Then I randomly pick the winner from the comments on that day. So, you will have a better chance of winning if you comment on the posts with least comments. And FYI, you don't need a blog to enter the giveaway. Just sign in as Anonymous and leave your basic info, so I have a name when picking the winner.

Thanks Sew Much

I always forget that I'm allowed to share my published cards on my blog. Since I didn't get to make anything this weekend that I can share yet, here is a card that was published in the Paper Crafts' May/June 2011 issue.

The stamps are GinaK's Many Happy Returns (sewing machine) and Nana's Needlework Sentiments. These stamps along with other paper crafting goodies are being given away by Paper Crafts Magazine's The World of Seamstress Sweepstakes. I also used my well-loved Spellbinder dies: lacey circle and classic circle.

And don't forget my Spellbinder dies giveaway. More info in my previous post. And FYI, you don't need a blog to enter the giveaway. Just sign in as Anonymous and leave your basic info, so I have a name when picking the winner.

Make a Wish Fairy

Just a quick post today of my card for the Card Patterns sketch 114. Our sponsor is Catherine Pooler who's an SU! Demo. She provided the pretty papers and ribbons that I used on my card. The fairy and sentiment are from the Butterfly Kisses set by The Craft's Meow.

I hope you can join us at Card Patterns. And don't forget my Spellbinder dies giveaway. More info in my previous post. And FYI, you don't need a blog to enter the giveaway. Just sign in as Anonymous and leave your basic info, so I have a name when picking the winner.

Enjoy your day tomorrow, especially you moms out there. We celebrated today with a dinner and a movie. We saw Rio, a Disney film, which was much better than I expected. We all enjoyed it.

CAS card and a Freebie Friday blog candy

***The winner has been drawn for this giveaway on THIS post.***

I have a clean and simple card for you today using my Simply Delightful set by The Craft's Meow. I made a background using Vivid and Memento inks.

I don't have a free digi for you, but how about a giveaway instead? I happen to have an extra set of my Parisian Motif dies by Spellbinders.
Please note that this may be shipped without the original packaging to save on shipping, but it will be a brand new set! I will pick the winner via random.org from the comments on my blog between now and next Thursday. I will announce the winner on Friday. One comment per post, please!

I also have a blog badge on my left side bar, if you want to grab it for your blog. Thank you and have a great weekend!

Beauty-Full birthday and Family Adventure

Before I show you today's card, did you see the BIG announcement on The Craft's Meow's blog today? I am so excited to be working with these ladies, most especially because they are already my friends! I am truly blessed!

Today's card uses one of my latest The Craft's Meow's sets, Fly Free. The papers are Butterfly Garden by Pink Paislee. This card was 100% inspired by the talented Sarah Martina's card kit that The Craft's Meow also sells.

I promised photos from my family's adventure to a Croatian town called Pula. It's a truly fascinating town that boasts a Roman arena that dates back to Biblical times. I'm so glad to live only a few hours drive from there. Here are some highlights:

This is the front of this 2,000+ year old well-preserved coliseum. This thing was standing during Jesus' time!

This is the inside where you can see the seats. Many gladiators and early Christians were killed here for the Romans' entertainment.

This is the Arch of Sergii.

The Temple of Augustus - my girls racing to it.

Here's a close up of the temple. It's hard to believe this was built without the modern machinery.

If you ever come visit Europe, Pula is worth the trip. It's only a couple of hours drive from the Italian border.

Fun Fact about Pula: Georg Von Trapp of the Sound of Music fame lived there. He was born in Croatia when it was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.