Still loving my Hero Arts Deer Stamp set and dies

I love this set….deerly

hee hee!

In all seriousness I can't get enough of seeing this deer stamp set come to life as you put together the layered images. I do recommend stamping in a dark ink first to 'stain' your stamps to make the images easier to see. First time it took me many times to get one I was happy with but this time with my stained stamps it was no trouble at all!

My card is made with the Hero Arts stamp set and dies and MME Comfort and Joy papers. Here's another tip. I did not take apart my dies in the kit as there were many little ones I was sure to lose. Instead when I stamped the deer I arranged the dies to cut out the deer perfectly on a larger piece of paper. This also allowed me to cut out all the small pieces without taking it apart. Now I tried lining up the stamps to stamp on the die cuts but it was hard to see on my light desktop. So I got a piece of dark paper and put the die cuts on it. This made the white die cuts easy to see on the black paper and so easy to now line up with the stamps and make them perfect!

How are your Christmas cards coming along? I've got 4 down and 30 to go LOL!

Cheers, Andrea

"Fawning" over Hero Arts Deer stamp set!

Seriously…Seriously!!!!

I'm in love with the Hero Arts Deer Stamp set and dies. It is a layering set so you get a dimensional look to your image. Here's a tip when using clear layering stamps if you are having trouble seeing the image to layer them. Stamp them in a black ink first to 'stain' the stamp. Makes lining it up even easier!

I paired it up with My Mind's Eye (MME) Comfort & Joy line of paper. This paper has a gorgeous rustic Christmas look. I can't get enough of it! A few sequins and BAM! A gorgeous card. At least I think so LOL. 

And sending out a big hello to all the ladies at SGD's Fall Retreat. Wish I was there!

Cheers, Andrea

My Mind's Eye and Paper Smooches fun

Here is my card over at the SGD blog today!

Andrea here with a quick card using MME's newest collection and a new Paper Smooches set Scripty Sayings.  I have long adored the little metal pins or 'flair' that I have seen kicking around and finally cracked and bought some when I saw 'Now and Then' set. I used some matching washi tape from the collection as well as some small note cards. I used the Paper smooches set to add my celebrate sentiment and then I was done!

What will you make today?

Cheers, Andrea

Crazy 4 Challenges is seeing Shapes

Hexagons to be specific!

Today's challenge is to use Hexagons in some form on your card. I found some paper by My Mind's Eye I bought last year that did the trick! I trimmed around the design then added a bow, pearls and my sentiment. This sentiment is from Unity- 'Thoughts from the Heart'. 

I can't wait to see how the other Crazies incorporated hexagons into their projects. Head on over to the Crazy 4 Challenges blog to see!

Cheers, Andrea

Color Me Creative- Tiffany Doodles has us seeing Yellow

The current challenge over at Color Me Creative is to use your favourite yellow copic combos. Tiffany Doodles is our sponsor and gave all of us on the design team some fun digi's to play with. Thank you! I used Sweet Butterfly and I loved that it came with 2 butterflies and a sentiment. 

My fave combo for yellow is fairly basic- Y32, 35, 38. I do add darker yellows at time when using this combo but usually just those 3 colours give me what I am looking for. 

I paired my sweet image with one of my MME 6x6 packs and some of the matching embellishments that I totally had to purchase at the same time when I saw them. I do love matchy matchy stuff at times hee hee. I even bought the matching stickers which provided me with the grey panel saying 'today and forever' popped up nicely. I have to say that the card looks even better in person. I had so much fun playing along with this challenge!

To create this card I used a sketch from my friend Jen Shultz's challenge blog- The Deconstructed sketch. It is actually lasts week's sketch but I just loved it and it worked perfectly. She has a new sketch every week! This sketch challenged girl loves her so much for that hee hee. I have already book marked this week's sketch to use this weekend. 

I have also entered my card into the following challenges:

Paper crafting journey- use 3 or more patterned papers

By the cute and girly- Once upon a time (inspired by Nursery Rhyme Butterfly Butterfly)

Oozak- Anything goes

I hope you take some time to grab your fave yellow copic combos and come play along with us at CMC challenge group. There are so many beautifully entries already and we would love to see more!

Time for another Gilli stamps challenge- let's get Springy!

First let me apologize for my late post today. Things got crazy hectic all of a sudden at my house and taking a picture of my card and posting completely slipped my head. When it rains it pours...and in this case it was literally. Yep it started raining in my living room in my brand new home- the shower in my bedroom apparently leaked and it came through the ceiling. So I hope you can understand why pretty much everything else left my mind lol!!! Thankfully the builder has been called and she will get it fixed and the damage repaired. 

On to my card. My fave Gilli is Cozy Gilli due to my daughters love of their Snuggi's. Yep they both have one and they even bought each other theirs as their mom refused to buy it hee hee! I love seeing them all snuggled in with it watching tv late at night or early Saturday mornings. So in honour of our current colours of Spring challenge that I am hosting my Snuggi has been paper pieced in nice pastel Spring colours. I am also dedicating this card to my crafty BFF Sarah- it is because of her that I have this delicious My Mind's Eye paper- in every different colour pack they came out with in this release hee hee! Also she and I have the best time just flaking out in our cozy clothes watching tv, eating 'healthy' snacks and looking at things we think we should buy on our Ipads. We enable each other to a mad degree! If our hubby's new how much they would probably try to limit how much time we spend together hee hee!!! Not that they could of course ;).

Has this ever happened to you? When I was almost done my card and was cutting out my image with a nestability the unthinkable occurred. My sweet Gilli had a dent in the paper right by her face! Apparently a paper scrap was stuck to the plates of my die cutting machine and totally dented it. AAAaaaHHHHhhh!!! After I sat in my chair spinning around and sweating for a few minutes I cut out a sentiment from the MME paper I used on my creation and used it to cover up the dent. Phew!!! I would love to hear your fave way to cover up mistakes and unplanned 'surprises' on your crafty creations. Please leave me a comment below and don't forget to make a card with Spring colours to play along with House of Gilli. We would love to have you!

Cheers, Andi

I'm back and playing with Crazy 4 Challenges today!

It has been forever and a day since my last post. I have been soooo busy getting ready to move, moving and now in the chaos of unpacking that blogging got a vacation. I have to admit I missed crafting and blogging my creations as it really does keep me sane. And moving really tests the old sanity let me tell you!

I dug out a few supplies in my new but far from unpacked craft room to play along with this week's challenge over at the Crazy 4 Challenges blog. Now I am going to be upfront and share that in the group emails I had heard some talk about this week's challenge and some hair being pulled out. I didn't think much of it- I mean I make 2 layered cards all the time. A card base- then my 2 layers. Easy Peasy!

Except I was wrong. So very very wrong. 

A 2 layer card is the card base and one more layer. That is it. Sounds easy right? Now plan a card in your head and when you go to add more papers...remember to stop. See what I mean? It really is a challenge! After some swearing, temper tantrums and my own hair pulling an idea floated through. And truth be told I LOVE being challenged to step outside of my box so obviously the temper tantrums are just part of my creative process hee hee. To help meet the challenge requirements I just made my nice thick patterned paper from Bo Bunny into my card base. PHEW!

The design on my card was inspired by a design I found on my newest obsession/addiction Pinterest. The exception being it did use 2 layers plus a card base. The simplicity of the design but the eye catching impact totally rocked my world! This is my 2 layer take on it. Here is the original card I found on Pinterest that I think Amber Kroening was the original artist- if I am wrong my apologies!

http://pinterest.com/pin/280771357988762727/

See what I mean! Stunning!

I used Bo Bunny's GORGEOUS Almanac paper from the Country Garden line as my card base. I think I may need to buy a basquillion sheets of this particular paper cause I can't get over how much I love it! I had originally planned to use another sheet from that line as my 2nd piece but then this cool blue wood grain piece from MME caught my eye. To create my butterfly cut outs I used Martha Stewart's punch all over the page butterfly punch. Not sure why I haven't use these punches before because they are brilliant! It was missing something so I added a sentiment and some bling and then decided to walk away to keep the simplicity of the card. I am happy with how it turned out. 

Then I had to find my photography equipment- Oi Vey!!!!!

So come on and get crazy with us at the C4C challenge blog. Let us know how you did with the 2 layer challenge!

Cheers- Andrea 

It's time for a High Hopes new Release with a new Artist!!

So happy to share that High Hopes Stamps is having a new release this week and features a sweet Alien set from Dustin Pike and sentiments from Karen- one of the new HHS owners! How cool is that! I am so happy for Karen and her hubby as they embark on this new adventure in their lives and I am honoured to be a part of it. Karen's sentiments have a 'folk art' feel to them which is why I gave this card a shabby look with some of my new MME papers. I coloured it up with my copics and went over some of the areas I wanted black with my copic multi-liner pen to really darken it up. I love love love folk art and these new sentiments have inspired me in many ways! 

I hope you are hopping along on our new release blog hop today as there are prizes along with way. You should have arrived from the talented Anna's blog and from here you go to so crafty Alex's blog. To win some of the new releases for yourself make sure you visit each blog and leave a comment as you don't know which the 'secret' prize blogs will be. 

Now if you can't wait a second longer to own the Alien set or some of the new sentiments please click here to go right to the HHS store and scoop some up! To start at the beginning just pop over to the HHS challenge blog. 

So go grab another cuppa and see all the lovely samples the High Hopes Divas have for you today!

Cheers, Andrea

My first Gilli challenge card of 2012

Hello! Happy New Year!

Andi here with my entry for the anything goes challenge. I love making Valentine's day cards and here is the first one I have made for the year so far. I used Lil Gilli Girly for my card and coloured her up with my copies. I used some of my MME valentine's day papers and hearts everywhere! I love using pink and red together and wore it frequently as a colour combo when I was younger. I still remember how upset and depressed I was when I was told you couldn't wear those two colours together as they 'clashed'. I think those rules may have gone out the window as I frequently see that colour combo all the time now! I gave Lil Gilli a blue outfit to help the image 'pop' on the card- I hope you like it!

Don't forget there is still lots of time to play along with our ANYTHING GOES challenge so link up to win some yummy Gilli stamps! You can find all the challenge deets over at the House of Gilli!

Hugs, Andi xo

CMC is challenging you to do funky coloured hair

*Please click on my card for a closer look at the detail*

Our fearless leader Suzanne Dean has really thought of a fun challenge for us over at the CMC copic challenge group. Simply Betty stamps is our challenge sponsor and let us on the DT pick a digi to play with and instantly I fell head over heels in love with Romance Annie. You still have Thursday and part of Friday to play along with us- it is so much fun!!!

I am also entering my card into the following challenges:

Diva's by design- Anything goes

I brake for challenges- vintage

To get Annie's 'sultry yet playful' pink hair I used the R80's spectrum. Love those colours. I carried them into her shawl and also used E50's in her skirt to get that vintage satin look. I have to say I am in love with my card! She will be a hard one to part with. I will have to make sure she goes to someone who crafts and will love her as much as I do hee hee. 

Cheers, Andi

She's getting married!

I am so excited today because one of my close friends is getting married! Tanya is one of my favourite people and this wedding is probably one I will bawl my eyes out at lol. I am extremely blessed to have a met some amazing ladies at work and the six of us became fast friends. We have been there for each other during the good times and the bad and Tanya is one of the best listeners and supporters any of us could ever have. Yep- I am going to cry. 

Tanya's wedding also represents a milestone for me. I started a weight loss journey on May 31st and buying a new dress for her wedding was one of my mini goals on my way to reach my goal weight. Well I am so proud to share that I am down 4 dress sizes now! I actually could even fit in to the next size down but it was tight. Yippee!! I can't wait to get all prettied up and hang out with my group of gals and watch our friend start a new chapter in her life. In my sexy dress of course hee hee! 

I used a stamp set called Wedded Bliss from Flourishes. I have been buying quite a few of their stamps in the last few months as they are great to colour and their solid image ones have been nice too. Plus they include lots of amazing sentiments. I paired it with some of my new 6x6 paper from MME called Lost and Found 2 Blush.  I used black bazzill for the base, some SU pink satin ribbon and sprayed Pearl glimmer mist all over it to give it a beautiful sparkle. Even my hubby loved it!

Well I better go and start getting ready for TK's big day. I hope you have a wonderful day too!