My Thoughts Exactly Design Team Thursday

Hello and happy Thursday to everyone! This week is actually the design team's week off this month over at My Thoughts Exactly. There are several guest designers this week showing off the fantastic My Thoughts Exactly Stamps, so be sure to stop by and check them out.

Oh that's not all, you all know me I can't say no to these cute little stamps. Yup, I have a project for you too, but there is a little back story to this one. So, in my boyfriend's family there is a tradition of saving cards and reusing them year after year. The first year we were together I even had my name added to one of the recycled father's day cards. Well, when I saw this view finder card file from Lenae over at Sugar Gem I just knew I had to make a recirculation card that could be slightly new every time (trust me this will make more sense in a minute). I took Lenae's file and made it a little bigger and added a little more room to the fold to accommodate a post-it note pad...yes you read that right, you'll see.

All the sentiments are from the Birds and the Bees stamp set. The little giraffe (my boyfriend's mother's favorite animal) is from a Stampin' Up set I have and of course she is wearing a little bow made of Trendy Twine. One really cool technique I learned with this card was cutting a shadow layer for my stamped images using MTC. All I did was stamp my image on printer paper in black ink, scanned it into my computer, and pixel traced it into MTC to create a shadow layer. I am really pumped to try this with the sentiment stamps, it could make some really cool looking cards.

So not only does the front of the card have a pick your own sentiment, haha I just made that up, reminds me of the pick your own adventure book. Where was I...oh yea, to go along with the pick your sentiment front there is a pad of post-it notes stuck to the inside so that for every occasion there can be a fresh message on the inside.

I also added a cute little sentiment on the back of the card, ok so I had intended for it to be on the front but I ran out of room, so it found a home on the back.

Haha I can't wait to give this to the boyfriend's mother! I hope she's thinks it's as funny as I do :) Be sure to stop by My Thoughts Exactly and check out the fantastic guest designers. Have a fantastic rest of your day and be sure to stop back on Monday when we have the August release of My Thoughts Exactly stamps!

One last thing, I have finally made the jump and created a facebook fan page. I would love if you'd come join me.

Happy crafting!

MTC/SVG Monday

Happy Monday everyone. Today is MTC Monday over at the Scrapoholic. Be sure to stop by and pick up your free files and enter the challenge. Today's theme is surfing and waves. I had a really hard time coming up with something to make, but I finally settled on a birthday card. I even broke out my Cri-Kits to draw the waves instead of cut them and to add some text to the surf board.

 I added a little monkey surfer on the surf board and tied the board to his ankle with some Trendy Twine.

The stamps are from My Thoughts Exactly's Birds and the Bees set and of course the Hang Loose sign is hung with Trendy Twine.

Happy crafting,

My Thoughts Exactly Design Team Thursday

Happy Thursday, my new favorite day of the week. Why you ask? 'Cause I get to show off more My Thoughts Exactly Stamp projects and see some great inspiration from the rest of the team! I know I may have an un-healthy obsession with these stamps, I can't help it they are too cute for words. This week I am taking a step out of my crafting box plastered with cards and scrapbooks to show you an altered notebook. I know, so not my usual style! But who can resist a $1 chipboard notebook from October Afternoon?!?

I covered the front cover of the book with kraft paper from Michael's and then put a strip of world map paper from the K&Company Sweet Nectar Specialty Paper pack. The flowers are made from white paper that was printed with a free digital paper design from the Vintage Sheet Music set at My Grafico. The flowers were cut from SVGs from a few different places; Cre8tive Cutz and Paper Compulsions. I inked the edges of the petals and added a button from Stampin' Up! with Trendy Twine tied through the holes to the middles.

See that cute little bee? Yup, that's the little bee stamp from the Birds and the Bees stamp set! I just stamped 'em on kraft paper, cut 'em out with old fashioned scissors (I haven't used those to cut in forever, needed a little dusting off!), colored in the yellow stripes, and popped 'em up with a foam square. The little bee trail is of course Trendy Twine.

I just love these little flowers!

At the bottom I added a cute little sentiment or reminder rather to "just BEE." This comes from the Birds and the Bees set. I had a travel journal in mind when I made this and thought the simple reminder to "just BEE" was fitting for enjoying all the different cultures one might encounter on a trip.

The inside of the notebook has little dividers with tabs and I added a few more reminders to my traveling self. All things I think are good things to remind myself to be.

I hope you have enjoyed my project today! Be sure to stop by My Thoughts Exactly and check out the rest of the design team projects.

Happy crafting!

Pumpkin Spice

So I have been reading about everyone joining the link party for the first ever Pumpkin Spice design team. What's Pumpkin Spice, besides an amazing flavored latte, a really cool online craft supply store! Her prices are fantastic, if you have not done so already be sure to stop by the store and check it out. Also stop by the blog and see what's going on. So for the design team application I had to create a project using at least 2 of the paper lines she carries. I got to choose from:

Bo Bunny

Cosmo Cricket

Crate Paper

Echo Park

Graphic 45

My Mind's Eye (My Favorite!)

For my project, well projects, you know me I can't just make one thing, I choose to make A2 cards that could be used for any occasion. I started with white A2 card bases (4.25"x5.5" finished card), the white card stock is from Stampin' Up. I then cut 1"x1" squares from my designer paper, I used the Nutmeg and DeLovely (Pumpkin Spice does not carry this line) Cosmo Cricket lines and the Alphabet Soup and Fine and Dandy My Mind's Eye lines. Each card has a sentiment stamp from Stampin' Up and some Trendy Twine as well; Circle of Friendship (retired), Heard from the Heart, and Define Your Life (only available as digital stamps now). So here are the cards:

This card uses the My Mind's Eye Fine and Dandy Tickled Pink "Lovely" paper, Cosmo Cricket DeLovely DeLirious paper, the Circle of Friendship stamp set, a paw print stamp I picked up at Michael's, and strawberry cupcake pink Trendy Twine. I popped the circles up with foam squares.

 This card uses the My Mind's Eye Fine and Dandy Tickled Pink "Lovely", Cosmo Cricket DeLovely DeLirious paper, Cosmo Cricket DeLovely DeLicious paper, Heard from the Heart stamp, and light pink Trendy Twine. I popped the sentiment and the My Mind's Eye squares up with foam squares.

 This card uses Cosmo Cricket Nutmeg Falling Down paper, My Mind's Eye Alphabet Soup Girl "Flower Path" paper, Define Your Life stamp, and Blue Berry Blue Trendy Twine.

I hope you have enjoyed these cards, here is a list of supplies:
Stampin' Up! White Cardstock

Cosmo Cricket DeLovely DeLirious paper

Cosmo Cricket DeLovely DeLicious paper

Cosmo Cricket Nutmeg Falling Down paper

My Mind's Eye Fine and Dandy Tickled Pink "Lovely" paper

My Mind's Eye Alphabet Soup Girl "Flower Path" paper

Stampin' Up! Circle of Friendship stamp set

Stampin' Up! Heard from the Heart stamp set

Stampin' Up! Define Your Life stamp set

Paw Print Stamp from Michael's

Various colors of Trendy Twine

Paper Trimmer

Foam Squares

1.5" Circle Punch

Ink, I used Dew Drop Ink Pads

Happy Crafting,

My Thoughts Exactly Design Team Thursday and the Mini Series Finale

Happy Thursday to you. I hope your week is going well. Today I have the finale to my 3x3 card mini series and another card for My Thoughts Exactly Design Team Thursday (I think I may have made that name up but I like the ring so I'm sticking with it). I hope you have been enjoying the mini cards I've been posting everyday, today I will be showing you that last two. I will also be showing you a really cool box card! Don't worry I'll link you to a tutorial so you can make one of your own.

First I have the last mini card for The Birds and The Bees stamp set. I once again used the Lettering Delights Cut Its Super Bundle for the image and used a two-tone inking technique. Although the inking technique can be used with any stamp and ink pad, the use of the mix and match stamps with the Dew Drop Ink Pads makes it super easy! I also used the Dew Drop Pads to ink the leaf, cherry, and cone on the image. Here you can also see an example of how you don't have to use the 'main' words on the stamp sets to make a sentiment, any of the words can be put together to say whatever you want. There will be another example of this later in the post.

So, here are all the cards made with The Birds and The Bees stamp set. What do you think? I think they came out great, I just may have to make a set for myself. As I said before these were made for some blog candy and I loved them so much I just had to share them with you. I hope you enjoy them as much as the lady that received them.

The last Under The Sea card is just a simple shape with simple one color inking. The crab is from the Lettering Delights Cut Its Super Bundle, of course :) Can you tell I just love this set (almost as much as I love the stamps)?!?

And, here are all the cards from Under The Sea. I know the lady that received them just loved them and I hope you have enjoyed them as well.

Now I have a really cool card that I just had to make when I saw the tutorial. It is a box card and the tutorial can be found here. I used quite possibly my favorite paper (I say possibly because I really do love them all), October Afternoon. (I warn you there are a lot of pictures...)

The two paper lines from October Afternoon I picked up at their warehouse sale last fall. If live near the Twin Cities in Minnesota you should stop in and check out their sale when they have it, it is totally worth it! Anyways, I used the Farm Fresh: Root Cellar (card base) and Hometown: Woolworths papers ('belly band'). The flower is from the 3D Flowers Collection by Jessica Bashaw. Her files are amazing you should check them all out at SVG Place or her own store SVG Attic.

Pull the 'belly band' off and open the box to reveal the card inside.

Of course that is Chocolate Truffle Brown Trendy Twine! And the stamps are all from My Thoughts Exactly!

The 'wishing you a' is from The Birds and The Bees set and the 'great day' is from the  Under The Sea set. How cool is it that the sets can be used together?!? I thought that was really neat! Here again you can see how to use the stamps without using any of the 'main' words. The My Thoughts Exactly Stamps really do have endless possibilites!

This card started out to be something completely different and at the last minute I changed the whole plan. I couldn't have been happier with the results. I'm thinking it would be really cool to put a little seed packet inside and send it to a friend as a just because card.

Finally I have a picture of my light box, I know it is crazy that I made my own. It is made out of 2x1s and old under shirts. It was the first time the BF and I have ever made something together so it was a lot of fun. Yes it would have been easier to buy one but the experience was so worth the effort it took to make. He has even been helping me pick out just the right light bulbs to use and he has volunteered to take pictures for me a few times! There was a reason we put the little tab at the top but I couldn't tell you why now, LOL, must not have been too important.

I hope you have a fantastic rest of your day. Don't forget to hop over to  My Thoughts Exactly and check out the other design team projects, they are all sure to amaze you!

Happy crafting,

Day 3 of the Mini Card Mini Series

Hello and happy Wednesday to you! I have two more cards for you today. As has been the case Monday and Tuesday they both feature the stamps from My Thoughts Exactly.

The first card will feature The Birds and The Bees set. The bird is from the Lettering Delights Mulberry Lane SVG set.

The second card features the Under the Sea stamp set. Here you can see one really cool feature of the photopolymer stamps, you can curve them! Bee of Dare 2 Bee Creative is to thank for that idea, I just had to try it after she showed how cool it was! The whale is from the Lettering Delights Cut Its Super Bundle (hope you all got it while it was on sale cause it's a good one!).

Sorry this post is so short, it's just one of those weeks. But be sure to stop back tomorrow for the finale of the mini series and design team Thursday at My Thoughts Exactly. There just may be an extra card thrown in for fun!

Happy crafting,

Day 2 of the Mini Card Mini Series

Hello and I hope you're all having a wonderful Tuesday. I have two more 3x3 cards for you today. The first features the Birds and The Bees stamp set from My Thoughts Exactly. As I have mentioned before it is super easy to ink different words in different colors because of the mix and match feature of the stamps. Well here is another cool inking technique, ink the edges of a word in a darker color. I think it really makes the main word pop. The bee is from the Lettering Delights Cut Its Super Bundle.

The other card features the Under The Sea stamp set from My Thoughts Exactly and another cut file from the Lettering Delights Cut Its Super Bundle. Here I stamped the main word in a different color than the rest of the sentiment.

I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day and don't forget to stop back tomorrow for two more cards and another cool technique for the stamps.

Happy crafting,

MTC/SVG Monday and A Mini Series

Happy Monday everyone! Today is a little exciting for me, you may have noticed a second design team logo over there on the right. That's right I was accepted onto the MTC/SVG Monday design team for The Scrapoholic. Every other Monday Jill, The Scrapoholic, will be posting a free file in MTC and SVG formats for you to create a project with and link it up for a chance to win free files. Hop on over to her blog and grab this weeks freebie and get to work! The theme this week is sun and clouds, here is my project:

 I created a simple A2 card for any occasion. The sun and clouds were cut at 4.5" wide. I popped the bottom three clouds up from the background using foam squares, popped the background up off the card, and added some Trendy Twine. The sentiment is from Stampin' Up.

Now I have the start of a mini series of 3x3 cards. I have been really loving the simple clean looks of projects I've been seeing recently. I made these little note cards as some blog candy, but loved them so much I had to share them with all of you. So, I'll be posting two cards a day until Thursday. As you will notice each of them features the stamps from My Thoughts Exactly and I will feature one card from each of the sets available everyday! Here are the very first two:

 The first cards features the Birds and the Bees set along with a Lettering Delights file from the Cut Its collection (owl) and an SVG Attic file from the Birds and Bees set (branch). In this card you can see how cool it looks to ink the main word of the stamps in a different color. Doesn't it just make the sentiment pop?

The second card features the Under the Sea set along with an SVG from the Something Fishy collection at Lettering Delights. Here I used the same idea of inking one word in a different color, except this time the word was just part of the phrase not the main word. I think it came out really cool, what do you think?

Be sure to stop back tomorrow I have a cool inking technique that is super easy to do with the mix and match feature of the My Thoughts Exactly stamps. If you haven't already be sure to stop by and check out the stamps, then hop over and grab the free files form The Scrapoholic and enter the challenge.

Happy crafting,

And the winner is...

If you are looking for the Paper Dolls post you can find it here.

Lucky number 24...that's Gaylynn "Oh wow. So much detail. Great designs and great use of these cute expressions. Already a follower." Thanks for all the wonderful comments everyone. Gaylynn please send me an email (CraftyRktSci [at] gmail [dot] com) within the next week so I can get you your files.

Happy Crafting,
Jessica

Paper Dolls Guest Designer!

I am so happy to be a guest designer over at the Paper Dolls blog today! If you have not done so already you must head over and check them out. They host a challenge every week with fabulous prizes and feature wonderful artists and designers on a regular basis! This week the challenge is based around a file from Suzan and RJ of Papyrus Jungle.

Head over to the Paper Dolls and grab the file for this week's challenge and get to work! Make sure you stop by Papyrus Jungle to check out their blog and store!

I used the file this week to create a scrapbook page, I'm not sure what I'm gonna use it for but I'm sure it will come in handy someday. I suppose it could be used for a wedding album...anyway on to the pictures.

The large mat is for a 4"x6" picture and the small square mat is for a 2.75" square picture. Both of these mats are popped up off the page to add some dimension. The rectangle in the bottom right corner is for journaling and is flat on the layout.

The title is cut using Old English Text MT, a font that was installed from Microsoft Office. And the star of the day, the castle!

I cut out the file at approximately 8" wide. I opened all the SVG files in Make The Cut and layered them over one another so that the image was assembled as above. Then I re-sized everything all at once so the overall dimensions were to my liking, in this case 8" wide.

I hope you have enjoyed the project today and are inspired to make something of your own.

Happy crafting,
Jessica

My Thoughts Exactly STAMP RELEASE Blog Hop!!!

Hello and welcome to my little corner of the world! If have just stumbled upon my blog, today is a VERY Special day, it's the release of the very first My Thoughts Exactly Stamps! Alyssa and her husband have created some great stamps for you and I have the honor of showcasing them! Can you tell I'm a little excited about it?!? If you have arrived from Jennifer's blog you are on the right track! If you'd like to start from the beginning please hop over to Alyssa's blog to start. Trust me you won't want to miss a thing and there may be some blog candy along the way.

A little about myself first, I'll keep it short you can always read the About Me page to learn more. I am a graduate student about to finish a Master's degree and continuing on to get a Ph.D. I live with my boyfriend and our dog. I love to cook, bake, and of course craft. I craft just about everything, I don't discriminate. However, I love to stamp, ink, and cut paper! I really liked the idea of My Thoughts Exactly Stamps as well as the idea that it was a husband and wife team. I enjoyed seeing all the little sneak peeks that Alyssa has done over at her blog and I knew from the start I just had to be on her design team and if I wasn't...well I was going to be her first customer! I love crafting and I love sharing my knowledge with the world so the My Thoughts Exactly Design Team was the perfect opportunity to combine the two. I have to say I was not disappointed when I got the stamps in the mail, they are better than I could have imagined. Ok now on to the star of the day!

But before I get to my projects, yes there is more than one, I'd like to tell you a little about the stamps. As I am sure you will notice they are sentiment stamps. They are mix and match, meaning there are main words that are big and companion words or phrases that when combined make cute little PUN sentiments. I absolutely love puns so this is very exciting to me. The stamps themselves are cut very close to the image so that you can just line up your whole sentiment and stamp it all at once! No more stamping multiple times and hoping it all lines up. Hop over to the stamp store and check out the two stamp sets (yup there are two!) that are available as of today! Their price point is fantastic and it INCLUDES tax and shipping (international shipping will cost a little more). One other really sweet thing about the stamps, because the main words are on their own if you have the small ink pads like the Dew Drops by Tsukineko you can ink the main word in a different color while everything is all lined up on your stamp block very easily!

Ok on to the projects! Fair warning, you may get picture overload I just love everything about these stamps. First I have a little card I created using the Under the Sea stamp set:

I used the Something Fishy set from Lettering Delights for this card and a few files of my own. I also used Trendy Twine for the fishing line, I just love how it came out. I popped up one leaf of the seaweed, the puffer fish, and the sea turtle to add some depth. I also made the puffer fish look like he was coming through the seaweed. Here you can see how nice it looks to ink the main word in a different color that the rest of the sentiment, doesn't that just make it pop?!? On the hook I attached a little note that has mysteriously lost part of it's message!

Oh, I found the missing part inside. Darn fish got hungry and tried eating it! Here are a few more close ups of the fish.

 
 And a few close ups of the stamps.
 
Just, dropping a, and line are three stamps and the great thing about mix and match is it's easy to put one stamp per line or...
 
as you can see here they can be lined up on one line. Fish and -ing you a (I didn't ink the a because I wanted it on a different line) being two separate stamps.
 

Again a and great day are two stamps that were lined up. The mix and match really does give way to endless possibilities!

My last project is a step card showcasing the Birds and the Bees stamp set. All the SVG files used were created by Jessica over at SVGattic just for the stamp release! How awesome is that?!? Jessica created so many cute little things in the Birds and Bees set, it was hard for me to pick just a few...I know I probably went a little over board but they are just so darn cute!

 

I had everything nicely placed and sized on my mat in Make The Cut so I could write about it all and tell you exactly how to make this card for yourself...thanks to Microsoft update, it's gone. Maybe I'll remember to save my project next time before I fall asleep. At least everything was cut out already! I inked the edges of the tree and clouds just to add a little dimension to the scene. The adorable bee hive and birdhouse are of course hung with Trendy Twine. The daisy 'spikes' in the background are just the daises from the set welded together in Make The Cut. I then glued individual daises over the welded pieces and bent the petals out a little bit to give it a 3D look. It looks much cooler in person, I promise. Ok that green blob thing in the bottom right corner...lets just say me and my stamp block had a fight and it won so I tried to cover up the opps. Normally I would have started over, I'm a little OCD about that kind of stuff but I had everything glued down already...tree top to the rescue ;-) I just trimmed it a little and it kinda looks like a bush...right? I added a little ink to it to try and give it some character, I don't know if that happened but oh well. I wasn't about to start over, my face was just about glued to the table at this point. I thought the sentiments made for a cute little story on this card.

Aren't the bees and the birds just darling, they match the stamp set perfectly!

Here are a few close ups of the sentiments.

I used the a little, bird, y told me, it's your, bee, and -day stamps for these two sentiments. Again you can see how easy it is to put the phrases in so many different configurations because of the mix and match.

The last sentiment I have for you today is four stamps, happy, bee, -day, and the !.

If you are with me still, thanks for sticking around! I hope you have enjoyed seeing my creations today, I know I had a lot of fun making them. Jessica has generously offered a set of her Birds and Bees SVG collection as blog candy! Please become a follower if you have enjoyed what you've seen and leave me some love. You have until 11:59 PM CST on Monday to enter. I will pick a random winner on Tuesday.

Now hop on over to Lenae's blog. Remember if you get lost just come back here or go to Alyssa's blog to find your way again!

The amazing and talented My Thoughts Exactly Design Team is as follows:

Alyssa: http://www.mythoughtsexactly.co/
Bee: http://dare2beecreative.blogspot.com/
Bee (Belinda): http://beeshiveofdrama.blogspot.com/
Jennifer: http://ourchangeofart.blogspot.com/
Jessica: http://craftyrktsci.blogspot.com/ (<- That's me :-D)
Lenae: http://sugargemscrafts.blogspot.com/
Thienly: http://modpaperie.blogspot.com/

Stamp Store!:  http://www.mythoughtsexactly.co/stamps/

Be sure to stop by each one, they are all sure to amaze you, and leave them some love!

Happy crafting!

Jessica