Adventure Basket

I love the weeks when Lauren's My Time design team has template challenges. It's such a great excuse to use one of the amazing templates that Lauren has designed for PTI. They are super easy to use, and always make amazing projects.



This is what I came up with using the mini version of the Pack a Picnic template. Lauren provided us all with this image, and although I didn't use all of the colours in the image, I did gain inspiration from it. The woven placemat provided the inspiration for me to weave the basket.



If you want to join us this week, the lovely Pam is hosting, and Mr. Linky will be on her blog.

I used cream, soft sky, and river rock as my colours, but did not use any grey at all in my project.



I printed the template on both cream and river rock cardstock, then cut both templates into 1/2 inch strips.



It was a very time consuming process, but I am really happy with the end result.



Unfortunately, I was so focused on the weaving, that as I folded the top flap down, I did it backwards, and my score lines ended up on the outside of my basket.

In order to mask my error I covered the edges with White Opal liquid pearls.



The river rock edge was cut with decorative scissors, and the sky blue piece was also trimmed then added under the edge to create another layer. I really like the pop of colour it adds.



The medallion was created using my new Labels dies from spellbinders, and stamped with a pre-inked stamp from JustRite that I got from the dollar spot before they were sold out.

The foam flower is from American Crafts, and has a liquid pearl centre the same as the edges of the basket.

Take a look at these amazing peeks provided by the rest of the design team, and leave them some love as you visit their blogs.

If you want to join us this week, the lovely Pam is hosting, and Mr. Linky will be on her blog.



Lauren
Dawn
MacKenzie
Maria
Kendra
Kristin
Tracey
Pam
Jennifer
Odette
Lisa
Dana
Alicia

Christmas in July

The 3 Clovers Thursday Challenge on Kerry's amazing blog last week was Christmas in July. This gave me an excuse to pull out my adorable Oven Fresh set from Claire Brennan.



I had originally planned to make a 4" square card, but when I went to score the card, out of habit, I scored it at 4.25", so the front was much shorter than the back. I made it work by using some scalloped scissors to create the edge, and putting some decorative paper on the inside to add to the design. It was a happy mistake :)



When the card is open you can see the paper on the inside, and the scallops from the front.

The gingerbread woman is stamped on brown foam for something a little different, and maybe to make it somewhat more realistic than paper.



I used Liquid Applique on the shoes, and the icing on the arms. I didn't let it dry well enough before heating, so that is why there are the little "bubbles". I don't mind it though because it looks like dabs of icing decorating the cookie :)



The frame for the image was created with my Labels 2 nestabilities die , purchased from Treehouse Stamps. I embossed the die, then leaving it in place, I sponged all around it to create a frame that remained the base colour, and is embossed.



I then carefully used my xacto knife to cut slits along the embossing for the ribbon to thread through.



The tag was stamped on shrink plastic, and the candy canes were stamped on the back of the shrink plastic, so they appear more faded. This is the first time I have used shrink plastic, and I had a really good time watching it crinkle up, then straighten out. I see much more of it in my future.

Raspberry Suite Colour Challange

I am totally *in love* with Dawn McVey's bright and unique colour combinations, and every week she posts her Raspberry Suite colour challenge, but this is the first time I have played along.



Dawn gave us this wonderful photo, and the colours above. And here is the card that I made.



I chose Pixie Pink as my bright pink, and Bravo Burgendy as my dark red.

It's hard to tell, with all the sponging, but the Bubble Gum Tree image is stamped on cream cardstock and the base is also made of cream cardstock.



I added Prima flowers, dew drops, and crystal effects to add dimension to the various parts of the tree. The tree trunk is sponged with burgundy, and the background is sponged with Certainly Celery.



The ribbons are a cream grosgrain from Stampin' Up, and a burgundy velvet ric rac from May Arts, purchased from one of Jody's previous ribbon sales.

Quilted Canvas

I am totally in love with this project, and I hope you are too!



This week Lauren gave us all this graphic as our inspiration piece.



Although she pulled out the colours, it is not a requirement that you use these colours. The point is that you take some kind of inspiration from the image. It can be the pattern, texture, shape, colours, anything!

I decided to paint a canvas, inspired partly by the canvases Erika Martin has been promoting lately, that copied the photo as close as I could with the stamps I had on hand. Here's a side by side comparison.



I taped off the different sections and painted them with acrylic paint. I have *really* been loving my paints recently, but I also wanted to make sure I had good coverage on the canvas. All of the stamping was also done with paints.



The sections on the left used Shapes by Design from PTI, and the section on the right uses 3 step Hearts and Roses from Kitchen Sink Stamps. I *love* how easily it is to get roses that have interesting colours and shading with just stamps.

The pink paint is pearlecent, and has a nice shimmer to it. The green centre section has stickles around the circles, and the blue lines on the bottom section are covered in fun flock.



After the canvas was painted, and dried for a night I added the text. The "Sister" was cut out using the Sunset sizzlits alphabet. (it doesn't show up on the Sizzix website, so it may be discontinued)



The rest of the text was stamped with cheap dollar alphabet sets from Michael's and reads, "My Sister a special part of our family fabric"

I know that it is somewhat difficult to read the rest of the text, but I wanted to make sure the background was still really visible.



I will be giving this to my sister before she moves to New Zealand in September with her new husband. She has been living in England for the past year, and is coming back to Canada for a month, primarily to get married, then moving with her husband to set up a life in New Zealand. I want her to have this to know that even though she will be half a world away, we will be thinking of her, and she will know that we value her as a member of our family, and that doesn't change with distance.

I know that when she looks at this Heather will think of me, and our family and that makes me feel great.

Now that I have talked for WAY too long, I hope still have energy to visit the rest of the design team and see their take on the inspiration. The peeks below look AMAZING, and I can't wait to see how everyone else was inspired.





Lauren
Dawn
MacKenzie
Maria
Kendra
Kristin
Tracey
Pam
Jennifer
Odette
Lisa
Dana
Alicia

Pink, Brown and Orange? Oh, My!

I really like the bag that Lauren chose for this week's colour challenge, but I was not sure how I was going to use the colours. I *love* pink and brown together, but once you add the orange (or yellow it becomes much more difficult for me.



I knew I wanted to use my new stamps from the amazing Claire Brennan, so I pulled out Celtic Heritage and finally decided on the adorable birds.



My favourite part of these birds is that the baby bird is the PERFECT size to nest right in the wing of the mama (or papa) bird.

This is a 4 1/2 x 4 1/2 square card with a chocolate chip base, and pixie pink for the centre square. I don't have any raspberry cardstock, which is what it looked like to me, so I settled on pixie pink. I also had some trouble with the orange/yellow. The closest I have is summer sun, and although not a perfect match, I think it looks pretty good together, and is fairly close to the colour in the challenge.



The card is really simple and clean, but sometimes those make the best cards. Since I was using Claire's new set, I guess I was taking inspiration from some of her amazing clean and elegant cards.

The ribbon is some cheap white ribbed ribbon from the dollar store, and was dyed by rubbing both sides across my summer sun stamp pad to match the colour of the birds.

The birds, and the sentiment were stamped in versamark, then heat embossed with white detail embossing powder.



The birds, and the punched frame are up on pop dots to add some interest to the simple card.

I hope some of you saw the amazing sneak peaks that were up yesterday, and are anxious to see what everyone else on the team has posted.



Please stop by and leave them some comments.

Lauren
Dawn
MacKenzie
Maria
Kendra
Kristin
Tracey
Pam
Jennifer
Odette
Lisa
Dana
Alicia

My Time to Colour Challenge

So, we are going to be trying something a bit different with Lauren's My Time design team. we are going to be posting the sneak peaks of our projects on Friday. This will give you a taste of what is to come, and maybe give you a hint as to the colours that were chosen before we reveal the actual image and all of our cards. The peaks look GREAT this week (as always), and I can't wait to see the full images tomorrow.



Here is a list of the design team so you are ready to visit them tomorrow for the full reveals!


Lauren
Dawn
MacKenzie
Maria
Kendra
Kristin
Tracey
Pam
Jennifer
Odette
Lisa
Dana
Alicia

High Hopes Blog Candy

If you love High Hopes stamps, and who doesn't, you need to go HERE right now!!

Crissy, one of the illustrators for High Hopes, is giving away *7* FABULOUS prizes on her blog. Go check it out!!