Picture Perfect Selfie

Hello there and thank you for stopping by today. Today is the first day of the MFT Release Countdown. Only 5 days until the new release (yay)! Be sure to head over to the MFT Blog for full set and die reveals for the day. This release is packed full of adorable new products.

My card today features the new Picture Perfect and Polaroid Shaker Frame. The frame fits the images in the set perfectly, concealing the square frame around them and letting the adorable characters shine. I just LOVE the sentiment I used. SO cute. The images were colored with Prismacolor pencils. 

These products and much more will be available for purchase in just 5 days, on April 9 at 10 AM EDT.  Be sure to check out the MFT Blog to see what the rest of the team has come up with today.

Camouflaged Floral Hello

Hello, hello! It's been so long since I have blogged my creations. I'm always busy behind the scenes at MFT, but today, thanks to Erica who gave me a little push, I am HAPPILY posting my card in celebration of the NEW March Release, available right NOW, right HERE. 

My card features the new Painted Petals stamp set and Die-namics. The set includes several flowers, which I used to create a tapestry feel for my card. The flowers were stamped with Distress Oxide Inks on Sno Cone card stock. I stitched about the perimeter of the card and stacked the sentiment and camouflaged it in the flowery scene. The sentiment is from Anything-but-Basic Encouragement.

Be sure to check out the rest of the team's projects HERE.

Happy Birthday, Kim!

Today I am celebrating a very special person in my life — Kim van der Sanden, THE MFT Lady herself. :) She is turning the big 5-0 this year and the design team has come together for a birthday "blog hop". She wears many hats in my life: part-time therapist, boss, and she is one of my very best friends! MFT has been a big part of my life, and of course, so has Kim. Here is a look at our first meeting, about 10 1/2 years ago at a card swap in Arlington, TX:

So many years have passed since that day, but I am grateful you are in my life and know our paths crossed for a reason. Your heart and my heart are very old friends. <3

Here is the card I made for her. It features a Margarita, which is my drink of choice. I know she is an apple martini kinda girl, but this is from me, with lots of heart (and lime LOL).

The inside reads: Cheers to Your Birthday. And I mean that! CHEERS, Kim. Today is your birthday and I know the next half century is going to be as good if not better than your first 50 years on this earth. Love you and happy birthday!

Tutorial — How to Make the Frog Toad-ally Jump

Hello, there! I have a tutorial for you today on how to make the cute little frog in Toad-ally Awesome leap out of a pond. I just LOVE this stamp set SO much! It's super easy to create an interactive card with this fun stamp set!

Color your images. Prepare the background sky. Prepare the "pond".

Layout your scene roughly so that the frog's legs and "underwater". Put a pencil mark above his head so you know to place the slider channel under that point. 

Move everything aside and die cut the mini slider channel.

 On the back side of the panel, draw a pencil line down the center and then 1/2" to the right and left so it is easier to place your pull tab.

Put the pull tab in place and use post-it tape to keep it in place. Then line the sides of the pull tab with foam tape to keep it in place. Flip it over.

Adhere the slider element at the very bottom of the slider channel. Let dry.

Adhere the frog to the top of the slider element. Let dry. Adhere the "pond" to the backside of the frame.

Pop up the frame panel with foam tape.

See? He jumps!

Add the sentiment strip and accent pieces for your scene.

And you are done!

Be sure to go see what the rest of the team came up with on the MFT Blog. I am sure there are lots of cool techniques and tutorials to learn!

Craft Hack for Cross-Stitching on Paper - You NEED to See This

Hello, hello! I have some valuable tips & tricks to share with you, so kick up your feet and get ready to get excited about cross-stitching on card stock. I'm not a big cross stitcher — I've never created a "real" cross-stitched wall hanging, however, I had caught the cross-stitch bug and with anything I do, even crafting, I like to be efficient! I found that poking out the holes on panels for cross stitching was a little time consuming, and I knew I would want to cross stitch multiple things, so I tried bulk die-cutting and paper poking and it worked!

First, let me show you the eye candy of my post — a little southwest number with 3 stitched cacti and a pink background and border. Just go with it. I know the sky isn't pink, but pink makes everything more beautiful. <3 I found a similar pattern online and changed it up a little and adapted to work on the Cross-Stitch Rectangle.

Now it's time to rewind so I can show you the method behind my madness with ALL of our cross stitch dies (present and future...shhhhh, that was a hint).

Die cut 12 Cross-Stitch Rectangles, one at a time. Be sure to use your metal adapter plate — the dots will be more easy to remove.

Now put them in a stack together like this. All 12 of them!

Now, grab a pair of tweezers with a long "nose" like these. If you hold them all in a big stack, you can poke out all 12 layers at once using the tweezers.

This is a ridiculous picture where I show you how you will be inserting the tweezers in the stack of rectangles. I just like to be thorough. LOL

At this point I was on the phone with Stephanie Klauck and explaining to her what I was doing. She asked if I held the panels together with a banana clip. Um, huh? Ohhhhh you mean binder clips? NO, but I do now. That is a bonus tip! LOL So, put binder clips in place as shown and keep poking. I will warn you, you will end up with dots everywhere, so either do your best to corral them, or deal with dots on the bottoms of your feet for a while.

Here I am about halfway done.

And DONE! At this point, I removed the clips and smacked the stack on the edge of my desk about 10 times just to let the last remaining stragglers fall out.

12 beautiful panels. The tips don't stop here though! Keep scrolling!

These panels are a decent size and you'll be holding it for the next several hours as you stab a needle through it many times. Paper doesn't hold up as well as cloth, so I double stack them for extra sturdiness. In full disclosure, even if it didn't make it sturdier, I would probably still double stack them, because I like to do that to some most die cuts.

I use a Fineline Applicator with Gemtac glue in it and add glue around the outside and a few random dots on the panel. Then I press them together and let them dry. Once fully dry, you are ready to create your masterpiece. :)

When I was doing this I stuck my shirt over my knees and sat in a super weird position so I could catch as many dots as possible. This is the aftermath. This is only about half the dots. LOL

But LOOK what you can create! You can do it. It's such a fun couch activity.

Be sure to check out the Tricks & Tips from the rest of the team on the MFT Blog. I can't wait to see what I learn!

Frog Trio

Hello, hello! Happy hump day! MFT has a brand new feature named Just Add Color that I am SO excited about. It will feature images that are colored via the medium of our choice — coloring can be so relaxing and fun.

I chose the ADORABLE Toad-ally Awesome stamp set and colored the 4 images with Copic markers. Once the frogs were colored, I added blushed cheeks with chalk and a paintbrush, then spots using the fine tip of the Copic markers. These guys are ready to be used on a card — be on the lookout, soon.

Here is a pic of my cute frogs and the couple frog cards I made this past week for the release. I just adore the cute style!

Here are a few close shots showing the adorable frogs!

Be sure to head back over to the MFT Blog to see what the rest of the team has come up with using the Brand-Spankin' New products and their chosen coloring mediums! I'm excited and ready to be inspired. 

Jumping for Joy

Hello all and thank you for stopping by. Today the MFT Design Team is showing you all the new products available NOW, right HERE. It's time for the New Release Launch! Go SHOP SHOP SHOP for all the amazing new products. :)

Be sure to comment on all the designers' blog posts tonight for YOUR chance to win one of 2, $100 Gift Vouchers as part of tonight’s New Product Launch celebration!

My cards use the new Toad-ally Awesome stamp set and Die-namics! I made a dimensional "diorama" (without the side pieces) that is interactive! It has lots of dimension and won't be able to be mailed in a normal envelope, but it's darn cute so I am totally ok with that. LOL I used accent images from the Splendid Swans stamp set and Die-namics to create my scene.

Be sure to head back over to the MFT Blog to see what the rest of the team has come up with using the Brand-Spankin' New products! There is plenty of eye candy!