CottageCutz Design Team!

I am so excited to share with you
that I have been chosen to be on the CottageCutz DT!
The new team has such great designers, I am really honored to be included.

Cheryl Walker

Gini Cagle

Lori Leng

Angelica Suarez

Pearl Liu

Erika Taylor

and the returning team

Kay Norman (blog coordinator)
Lorie Souther
Janice Wilson
Barry

CottageCutz dies are so cute! You are really going to love them!






Did you know that the Scrapping Cottage has teamed up with My Little Shoebox! CottageCutz dies are now available to coordinate with each of My Little Shoebox 6 new collections: Playtime, Pretty Little Things, Trick or Treat, Audrey,Enchanted Garden, Destination as well as their very popular Sew Cute Collection.

Robin's Nest Inspiration

I had such a great time on my vacation at the beach last week, I knew that a beachy layout would be a great thing to share with you, for my first post as a member of the Robin's Nest DT.

I wish you could see this sparkly paper in person - it is so much more gorgeous than it looks in my photo. I started out with the Glitter Seashore page, and water distressed the edges. I machine stitched it to a base using metallic silver thread, that looked great with the glitter. I misted the page, which almost made it look like beach water splashing on it. I matted my photo with Brown Fishnet, which is the perfect embellishment for any beach themed project. I snuck in a Crafty Secret Mermaid stamp, that I colored with Copics. And then, I thought that she needed a splash of magic, so I sprinkled Dew Drops in Fairy Dust all around her. My chipboard magnifying glass is from Tattered Angels, but I sprayed the backing paper and added the sentiment and star fish rub-ons from the Water Logged set. Finally, my title is made using the Glitter Letter stickers.

Thanks for looking!

Christmas in July with the Beary Scrap

I've just gotten back from the beach - and I'm jumping from complete summer time mode into Christmas in July! That's right - at the Beary Scrap for the next two weeks, we are featuring a new sketch as well as our Christmas in July theme. Maybe that will keep things cooled off around here.

I used some of my Merry Christmas paper pack from Echo Park. These packs are always great for putting together a quick card, since the papers all coordinate, plus there are matching stickers. I stamped my Holly from Chapel Road Artstamps on a journaling card that was in the paper pack. I added some burgandy Stickles for the holly berries. I made my embellie at the top of the card using my Epiphany Crafts 14 mm round tool, and made the custom acrylic button with the Echo Park Paper. The white setting is also from Epiphany Crafts, but then I put it all on top of a red snowflake sticker that was also in the pack. I finished everything off with a little seam binding.

Layers of Color Stamps card

Just thought I would share with you a card that I recently had published in the May issue of SNR Magazine. The flowers were made using Layers of Color Artstamps. It's a great company with awesome designs.

Chapel Road Inspiration

I have a final card to share with you, using the June's new release from Chapel Road. I used the Sew Much to Do stamps, and made a mini collage with them. I layered the images with some dimensional adhesives, and inked the edges with Viva Decor Inka Gold.

Glitter and Scor-Tape Tutorial

Today I thought I would show you a fun way to make a butterfly for a card or tag. For my project, I used Graphic 45's Once Upon a Springtime. The diecut is from Donna Salazar/Spellbinders. I also added a bunch of layers of UTEE on my tag and stamped into it using a Tim Holtz stamp.

Step 1) Use score tape to cover a piece of cardstock and cut this out with your die.

Step 2) Since this is kind of thick, your center cuts won't pop out as easy. This is good, because we don't want them to at this point.

Step 3) Glue your die cut to a second piece of cardstock

Step 4) Peel away the design elements for your first color of glitter.


Step 5) Add your first glitter color and make sure it covers the areas you like.

Step 6) Add your next color (after removing the paper backing from the Scor-tape)

Step 7) Add your final color of glitter. Use a glue pen to add glue to any missing spots and reapply glitter.

Crafty Secrets Design Team Challenge "Childhood theme"

I'm so excited to sharing one of my first official posts as a DT member for Crafty Secrets! I love their stamps so much, and am thrilled to be designing for them! Our theme for today is childhood. As soon as I heard this, I knew exactly which stamp set I wanted to use - Sweet Kids. My project is a joy-fold card. I colored the sweet little boy with Copics, and added some Flower Soft for my foliage. It really added a nice dimension to my flowers. The sentiment was stamped on velum, and the bird was stamped from Bird Notes.

I made the stamped epoxies using the Epiphany Crafts Studio Tool and stamping the leaf from the Sweet Kids set.

I know you are going to want to see what the rest of the design team came up with, so here's a list of everyone, so you can check it out! Keep your notepad handy, cause I'm sure you are going to want to start your shopping list! So when you finish, you can head to the Crafty Secrets website and get some Crafty Secrets goodies delivered to you! And to make sure you don't miss anything, why not subscribe to the Heartwarming Vintage Blog? There's always lots of inspiration, announcements and giveaways.

• Amy Teets


• Debbie Marcinkiewicz


• Fauve vanMaanen


• Gini Cagle


• Heidi Blankenship


• Jan Hennings


• Julie Campbell


• Linda Duke


• Michele Kovack


• Pam Hooten


• Tammy Roberts


• Vicki Chrisman


• Victoria Warren-Mears


• Viola Mahr

Robin's Nest Design Team!

I'm so excited! I found out earlier this week that I am part of the first ever Robin's Nest Design Team! I'm sure you are quite familiar with their gorgeous dew drops, but they also make a lovely line of papers. If you haven't seen all of their products, be sure to check out their online store.

There will be plenty of inspiration on the blog, by a fabulous line-up of talented ladies! Here's the full design team:
Becky Conley
Clare Dempsey
Gini Cagle
Irit Shalom
Jan Hennings
Kristine Keller
Peg Rounds
Tenny Kusuma
Terri Sproul - DT Coordinator

Chattering Robins Blog
Robin's Nest Online Store

Making Embellishments with the Beary Scrap

We have a really fun challenge going on over at the Beary Scrap. We want to see you make your own embellishments. All of the DT has been trying to come up with fun ways to inspire you, so you will really want to keep checking each day to see what we've got in store for you.

This week, I decided to make a flower for you, using the Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die. What might surprise you, is what I used to make the flower. I'm sure you probably have some baby wipes lying around your studio. Well, here's something new you can try with them. Use your Glimmer Mists to color the wipes. I don't even clean up where I have colors on my mat from other projects - just lay it down, and let it absorb what's there, and then keep spritzing to completely color it.


Dry the wipes thoroughly with your heat gun (they will feel rather stiff). Then cut 3 sets of the flowers with your die. Stack the flowers, and add glue or a brad in the center. You will be surprised how much this actually feels like fabric.

Papers: Bo Bunny Timepiece, Bazzill
Alpha Stickers: Echo Park For the RecordRibbon: Seam Binding Latte
Pearls: Kaisercraft
Tickets: Maya Road
Glimmer Mist: Tattered Angels
Dies: Tattered Florals
Punch: Martha Stewart
Epoxy Bubbles: Epiphany Crafts

Robin's Nest Layout

I always knew that the Robin's Nest was known for their Dew Drops, but really never knew that they have some gorgeous sparkly papers too! And, you know, I love anything sparkly!!! So today, I have a layout that I wanted to share with you that shows some of the Robin's Nest papers as well as their famous Dew Drops.


I began my project by water distressing a piece of Green Stencil Linen. I then adhered that to a piece of cardstock. (My layouts tend to get heavy, so I always have a good solid base). Next, I added ribbons and machine stitched some lines, so I could add some Dew Drops at the end of some of my thread lines.

I cut a circle from Olive Linen and inked the edges with distress ink. I placed this over my intersecting lines. I fussy cut some flourishes from Great Catch. I used Punch Bunch punches and Tim Holtz tattered florals to cut flowers from a mix of Time, Calamity Jane, and Brown on Brown Rope papers. I stacked and shaped the flowers, and of course added Dew Drops for the centers. The swirly leaves were cut from a Heartfelt Creations/ Spellbinders die.

The title was made from Dusty Attic Chipboard, and was painted with two colors of Ranger's crackle paint.


I hope you will check out all of the Robin's Nest goodies at their online store and for more inspiration, be sure to check out their blog - The Chattering Robins.