Fawny Holiday Week & Share Handmade Kindness

Hi friends! Can you believe Thanksgiving is almost here? Yikes. Time has flown by. This year more than others for me.

Over at the Lawn Fawn blog, we are celebrating Fawny Holiday Week. The design team has gotten together with the folks at the Lawn Fawn headquarters and our friends from Lawnscaping to create lots of holiday projects. We are hoping to inspire you to create some handmade kindness to share this holiday season (more on that below).

I've never made cards in bulk before. But inspired by Jennifer McGuire's Share Handmade Kindness project, I agreed to create lots and lots of cards for my Littlest's elementary school fundraiser. Things I've learned: 1. keep it simple; 2. get a Misti, which sadly I didn't have. But I'm working on that. And I have to say that I truly enjoyed making all those cards. There's something about creating multiples of the same thing.

I made Christmas cards and Hanukkah cards. Both simple and super easy to recreate.

Materials used for the Christmas card:
Winter Penguin stamps and die
Toboggan Together set (sentiment)
Various inks
Alcohol markers
Stickles (on the scarf)

For the Hanukkah card:
Love You A Latke stamps and dies
Various inks and gold embossing powder
Alcohol markers
Gold pen
Yellow cardstock

For the tags:
Handmade With Love stamp
Winter Gifts stamps
Tag, You're It dies
Holiday Party Animal stamps (dreidel)
Lawn Trimmings Gold Sparkle cord

The cards themselves were just blank prefolded ones from American Crafts (envies too), and the cello baggies were the ones holding the AC blank cards. I recycled them. Let's make it easy on ourselves, people!

While that looks like a long list of supplies, the real key is to use whatever you have!

Do drop by Lawn Fawn's blog to see many more holiday projects and enter for a chance to win some stamps.

And now, Share Handmade Kindness. If you follow me or other stamping/cardmaking folks on Instagram, you've probably seen Jennifer McGuire's amazing challenge. One of the (many!) things that makes Jen an amazing person is that she's so kind and generous. She's a "what can I do for you" person, and NOT a "what can you do for me". That is so incredibly rare these days.

We, crafters, are prolific makers of the good stuff! But I hardly use any of the cards I make. The idea is to put these creations to use. You know how amazing it is to receive snail mail. And if you get a handmade card? Even better. So please go by her blog, check out the challenges, and share more of what you create.

Thanks for coming by today!

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Lawn Fawn X Chameleon Pens

Hi there! This week, Lawn Fawn is partnering with Chameleon Pens to bring you some fun projects. Chameleon Pens are alcohol markers, but totally unlike anything else in the market. Instead of many pens of the same color in varying tones, each Chameleon pen uses a toning medium to create variety. That means a lot less pens to store. Caveat, you'll need lots of practice! I know I'll need a lot more practice. Luckily, practicing coloring falls under the "fun" category. There are lots of videos and tips on the Chameleon blog.

For this card, I used the Spooktacular stamps and dies, Beachside Petite Pack, Black Tie Lawn Trimmings, Black Licorice ink pad, and the Chameleon Pens Pastel Tones Set.

I made the banner with some orange ribbon and eyelets. I haven't used eyelets in so long! I even broke out the Crop-a-dile. Ha!

Thanks for dropping by! Hope to see you again soon.

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Technique Tuesday: Cath Edvalson Blog Hop

Edited: Yikes! My comments section was not working. Sorry about that. Fixed! Thank you Elizabeth Dillow!

Hey, y'all! After much summer hibernation, I'm back! And for a great reason. Today is the blog hop for Cath Edvalson's amazing stamp and die designs for Technique Tuesday. You are probably arriving from Lisa Adametz's blog. Welcome welcome!

If you don't know who Cath is, you'll arrive at her blog at the end of this hop. Or really, you should go there immediately. And then come back to the hop. She's that awesome. And to top it off, she's a super nice person. Win-win.

Here are a couple of projects I made using the new goodies:

I love this Instagram I took of my parents. They are so cute together.

I used Garden Leaves Die set to cut those vellum leaves. Then I cut one out of green cardstock and trimmed off the lower two leaves for that little detail. I love that the focus is on the photo and story. But that bit of leaves and green pick up the background of photo (Huntington Gardens).

For this card, I used two sets of stamps, Heartfelt Thanks and Garden of Life. I cut out a heart slightly larger than the Heartfelt heart stamp on the top flap of the card base. Then I stamped the sentiment from Garden onto a piece of vellum and embossed it with black powder.

I stamped the heart on another piece of cardstock, embossed that and colored it in with markers. Not the fastest card, but super easy! Just what I like. By the way, black embossing powder? Messy!

So now what? Well, you are almost at the end of the hop. Next up is my dear friend Teri Anderson's blog.

And then, PRIZES! Technique Tuesday is giving away 3 prizes. One person will win all of Cath's new products. Two people will win $25 gift certificates to get whatever they want from the Technique Tuesday store.

For chances to win, leave comments along the blog hop. The winners will be chosen randomly from all the comments from all the blogs. So leave a comment at each stop for more chances of winning. Easy peasy! You have until September 16, 2105, Midnight PST to leave comments. The winners will be announced September 18 on the Technique Tuesday blog.

Here is the hop list, in case you are lost:

Technique Tuesday
Julie Ebersole
Laura O'Donnell
Heather Campbell
Julia Stainton
Daniela Dobson
Kimberly Crawford
Jocelyn Olson
Tobi Crawford
Laurel Beard
Melissa Phillips
Laura Williams
Jaclyn Miller
Donna Mikasa
Birgit Edblom
Kalyn Kepner
Laura Bassen
Julie Campbell
Lisa Adametz
Linda Barber --> you are here
Teri Anderson
Cath Edvalson

Thanks so much for coming by! I'll be resuming my blogging again soon.

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Catch Up Post

Since I'm such a slacker blogger, I end up with projects that I forget to share. Oops.

This is a layout using Your Everyday Stamps Planner set. Alas, my dear friend Ashley has had to close her stamp shop. Here's to hoping it will reopen again soon!

This one was created for Lawn Fawn. I used the Best Pun Ever stamps and dies, Quinn's ABCs stamps and dies, Hearts wood veneer, and Pint-Sized: Beachside petite paper pack.

And lastly, a card created for PageMaps using Technique Tuesday's Here and Now Flair stamps, Happy Day Flair stamps, Lots of Dots stamps,  Hello Pocket die, and Chevron Strip die. You can see what the TT design team created here.

I think I'm caught up. I think.

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Technique Tuesday: Man Week!

This is my kids' last week of school. Woohoo! I can't wait for lots of fun times together. This is also Technique Tuesday's Man Week, in celebration of the men in our lives (Father's Day is June 21, by the way).

I have four guys in my house: three sons and a husband. Meaning, my house is stinky most of the time. It also means that my kids go to a lot of birthday parties for boys. And guess what? I hardly ever have any boy-appropriate cards at hand. The craft world is just geared more towards girls.

That said, boy cards are pretty easy to make. And they don't have to be sports-related, plaid-filled, navy blue projects.

I created this card using two Technique Tuesday stamp sets: Say It - Smile and Smirthday.

I stamped the balloon on cardstock in a variety of colors. I wanted the card to be happy and bright. Then I stamped the "smile" and the sentiment inside a couple of the balloons. The shapes were easy to cut, and some of them are adhered using pop up dots. Then I added the strings with a black marker. I used a neutral grey card base to hold all the balloons. It's a great color that is neither somber, nor too over the top bright.

Super duper easy, right? This card is perfect for many occasions. And by changing the sentiments, or adding a name to a balloon, you can customize it even more.

Don't forget to go by the Technique Tuesday blog for more man-ly card ideas. Also, if you spend $20 on TechniqueTuesday.com by this Friday, you'll get a free Dude stamp. Enter "FreeDudeStamp" in the comments field at checkout.

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YES: Quick and Simple Cards

Hey, y'all! I'm blogging at Your Everyday Stamps.

More info on the YES blog. Thanks for dropping by!

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Technique Tuesday: Happy Spring!

Hey, Crafty Friends! You know when your craft supply order comes in and you are itching to create? Last week, I got my new Technique Tuesday stamps on the same day as my order with Distress Inks. Best day of the week!

I had been waiting for the License Plate Alpha set to come back in stock. It was so popular, the set sold out when it was first released. These stamps do not disappoint. Such an awesome font and size. I wanted to create something quick with the alpha and the new-to-me Distress Inks. I'm so not a Distress Ink expert. But those adorable little minis, coupled with some serious enabling from my stamping friends proved too hard to resist (I'm looking at you Chari Moss!)

When you first stamp with Distress Inks, the look is blotchy and unlike dye inks, it stays blotchy. I love that splotchy look, but I ended up going over the stamped images with a water brush. The water makes the ink spread out a bit, and gives it a more watercolor-y look, which I love.

The other stamps I used are part of the  Smile Borders (triangles) and Love Bug Jar (butterfly) sets.

This card is fast and easy to make. I love the end result, it's so colorful and cheery!

Happy Almost Spring!

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Your Everyday Stamps!

My dear friend Ashley Harris started a stamp company called Your Everyday Stamps or YES. Clever, right? YES stamps are exactly what their name implies: not just for special occasions, but for everyday use. And what's big right now? Planners! Everyone is really into planners, organizing and decorating them. YES has some seriously useful and cute planner sets.

Check this one out! So good!

And this one.

But what if you are not into planners? (I love planners, I have planners, I just don't use planners. I pretty much rely on my phone to remind me to do stuff. Oh, like pick up kids from school...)

Well, then use them for cards/layouts/pocket scrapbooking. Here's a card I made using the arrow from the above set and a small Thank You set.

Follow YES on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to keep up with what's new. And check out the blog for ideas and giveaways! Happy Monday!

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Happy Birthday, Lawn Fawn!

Lawn Fawn is celebrating its 5th anniversary! The Fawnie team is honoring this birthday by posting some special projects.

The owners of Lawn Fawn (Kelly, Mike, and Erica) are some of the nicest people ever. They are hard working, generous, and they make the whole team feel like family.

Dear Kelly & Mike & Erica, 

and the entire Lawn Fawn team, 

HAPPY YEAR FIVE!

I used Years 2, 3, and 4 for this card. The animals, balloon, and present are colored in
with alcohol markers. The confetti is watercolor. Click for a bigger view.

(And just in case you didn't know, Lawn Fawn launches a new "Year" stamp set each, well, year. Here's this year's set. It's already sold out. So do sign up to be notified when it comes back in stock.)

A few of my fellow Fawnies are also sharing Happy Birthday projects today. Do go by and say hello!

Chari

Elena

Latisha

Lynette

Nichol

Nicole

Tiffany

Yainea

Thanks so much for stopping by, and party on!

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Snail Trail

Hi, friends! Lawn Fawn is teamed up with Scrapbook Adhesives this week for a fun blog hop. Scrapbook Adhesives are the makers of my most favorite foam squares. I love the rounded corners, I love how easily they come off the backing sheet. I love the dimension it gives my projects, it's just the perfect height. I'm pretty much addicted to those things, and I have to have at least a few sheets at all times, otherwise I start to feel a bit stressed out. I realize that's a bit weird, but I'm keeping it real here (hee hee)!

Snail trail was created with Versamark, Ranger Perfect Medium pen, and clear embossing powder.

This card was made with the newly released Gleeful Gardens and its matching dies. I also used the new Grassy Cupcake Liner die (as the hill). The sun is a die from the Spring Showers set.

Sorry for the super grainy photos. Dark, light-less day in SoCal. They do exist.

Please go by the Lawn Fawn and Scrapbook Adhesives' blogs for more projects and to win prizes!

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Lawn Fawn: April Inspiration Week

Hello, everyone! Lawn Fawn is having its monthly Inspiration Week right now. That means lots of ideas and lots of giveaways!

I created two projects for this week, both using the Dream stamp set. It's a small, sweet set that has so many uses! It also has an accompanying die set, because it's way easier than hand cutting! (Unless you are Erica Hernandez, but that's another blog post.)

First up, this layout that is all the things I love: simple, clean, white cardstock, bright colors, favorite photo. And rambling journaling.

To create this, the journaling is printed directly on the cardstock. Then, I stamped "dream" five times (with Versamark), and embossed it with white embossing powder (American Crafts Zing). By the way, if you are in the market for a heating gun, you must get the Milwaukee (mine is from Hero Arts). It's amazing. (No, it doesn't cook or clean.)

Once cooled off, I dripped some colored mists (Studio Calico) and held the card stock sideways. I love how it added pops of color, but still kept the layout clean and simple. To finish the project, I glued some matching sequins from Lawn Fawn. Super easy, right?

For the card, I only used the feather dies. I cut them out of white card stock, and colored them with markers. The "hello" is from the Hello Sunshine set, and hemp cord is Lawn Fawn's Cloudy Lawn Trimmings. Love the color and how easy it is to tie (vs. cotton twine.)

There you go. Two totally easy, and fast to create projects. Do go by Lawn Fawn's blog and leave your comments for many chances to win some seriously good loot. Thanks for coming by!

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Lawn Fawn + May Arts

Good morning! It's almost Spring Break around these parts, and I'm super duper excited. So I made a spring-y, beach-y card for the Lawn Fawn + May Arts blog hop.

To make the "sea", I used May Arts' 1/5" Silky Crush ribbon in white, and Caran D'Ache Neocolor in Cobalt Blue (I got mine here).

I blended some of the watercolor crayons with water in a container and dipped only the bottom of each ribbon.

The water wicks upward and you'll end up with a nice mottled effect. I added a little more watercolor with each subsequent ribbon. To dry them quickly, I used a heat gun. Please be careful because the gun will melt the ribbon if you are not careful.

Once dry, the color is a lot more subdued. To add more color, re-dip after the ribbon is dry.

I ended up using only two of the ribbons, adhered to the card with a dot runner. The stamp set I used is called Float My Boat. It has a matching die set. The boat is stamped using Colorbox Pigment in Surf, which turned out to match the watercolor crayon quite perfectly. The sails are from my favorite Lawn Fawn paper line ever, Let's Polka. The sentiment, heart and seagulls are all from the boat set. The inks I used are Colorbox Pigment in Mango Tango, Razzberry, and Wild Hare.

Thanks for coming by! Don't forget to visit Lawn Fawn and May Arts blogs and enter to win goodies all week long.

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Lawn Fawm + Timeless Twine

Still catching up…

Last week, the Lawn Fawn team did a blog hop with the folks from Timeless Twine. So much good stuff. Who doesn't love twine! And they have such cute color combos.

My card is pretty simple. I started by using a pre-printed green polka dot card from Lawn Fawn's new Freshly Cut Notecards. I cut the bottom using the Speech Bubble die (totally ripped this idea off fellow Fawnie Elena - she's super amazing!) I lined the inside of the card with a bit of a striped pink paper from the Let's Polka Petite Paper Pack. The sentiment is from Flying By (one of my favorite all times sets). The adorable bird is from the #awesome set. The heart and swirl (behind the bird) are from Hello Sunshine set. Must confess I've used that bird and swirl combo a few times now… Sharing one more usage tomorrow.

The bird and the heart ballon are adhered with pop up dots. The cute pink+red twine is tucked behind them. I finished the card with a little epoxy dot on the balloon (My Mind's Eye). And that's the scoop!

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Technique Tuesday: Green Week!

Oh how time flies. Lots to catch up!

For today, I'm sharing a card for Technique Tuesday. As you may know, next Monday is St Patrick's Day. So this week, TT is featuring green projects!

Here's my card, which was inspired by Paige Evans and her awesome layered layouts. Love how she's fearless with pattern paper combos.

I used the Nested Hearts die set and a bunch of different green patterned papers to cut out the three different size hearts. I didn't think I had that much green stuff, but as it turns out, there was at least one sheet in each mini paper pad I own (I have a lot of those).

The heart with the U and the arrow are from Heart Card die set.

The bottom two hearts are glued together, and the arrow is adhered with a pop-up dot and then the smaller hearts. So easy! Perfect to show someone love on St Patrick's Day.

Do visit Technique Tuesday's blog all week for lots more green ideas! Thanks for dropping by today.

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Lawn Fawn: December New Stamp Launch

Hello there! It's been a while since I've blogged. Something about the holiday season that makes me forget I have a blog. Hah!

This week, Lawn Fawn is introducing a bunch of new stamps, which are, of course, super cute! You can see everything on the Fawny blog.

I made a couple of cards for this week.

The Yeti one is actually really quick to make. The flowers are from an older set called On The Mend. Lawn Fawn just launched the matching dies. So now it's super easy to stamp and cut those shapes out. The flowers I used are actually in a vase. I didn't stamp the vase part. But I did use the die to cut the whole thing out. I then drew the stems with a black marker, and cut around the stems. Added a little Lawn Trimming as a ribbon to "tie" the bouquet together.

This card is also easy to make. Just a little more time consuming due to the hand stitching. I used Kreinik's Metallic Blending Filament in silver. You can easily find those in Joann's or Michael's. In the embroidery section. So pretty and shiny! The sentiment is from the Peace Joy Love patterned paper line. It's a tag in a sheet full of tags. The sequins are a mix of Peace Joy Love and Into The Woods.

Thanks for dropping by! Don't forget to stop by Lawn Fawn's blog, and leave a comment for a chance to win the new goodies. Oh you know you want them!

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Lawn Fawn: Therm-O-Web Week

Happy Friday, everyone! Lawn Fawn joined forces with Therm-O-Web this past week, and here's what I created for this event.

I think I've mentioned before that I'm not a glitter person. But I do like gold. And gold glitter is so appropriate for all things Christmas and New Year! Therm-O-Web has this super cool spray called Glitter Dust, which is basically glitter in a can. Use it in a very ventilated place, like the great outdoors. Or you'll be sorry. The smell is a bit strong and it lingers... But it dries really fast, and the glitter does not come loose! I initially sprayed it on white cardstock, but then I noticed that the shipping container I was using as a spray box looked even more amazing. Gold glittered kraft paper! Is there such thing on the market? If not, someone needs to make it. Stat!

Then I stamped the trees from the Sweet Christmas set, colored them in, and cut them out. The sentiment is from Let It Snow. And it's stamped on paper from the Peace Joy Love pad. All these pieces are popped up with some 3D Foam Squares.

Go by Lawn Fawn and Therm-O-Web's blogs and leave comments to win goodies from both companies!

Thanks for dropping by! Hope you have a fab weekend!

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A Very Fawny Holiday Week

Hello friends! Lawn Fawn is currently featuring holiday projects all week. And the awesome folks from Lawnscaping have joined us in the fun.

Here's my little project. I used two sets to create this, Winter Owl (one of my all time favorites!) and Trim The Tree. I also used the matching die to Winter Owl.

What I did:
Embossing ink works so beautifully on kraft paper. I used Versamark to stamp all those cute little hearts, gingerbread person, presents, and candy canes. I saved a few hearts to ink with Clearsnap Colorbox Pigment Ink in Scarlet. The kraft paper, by the way, is from Joann's, and it's the real thing! Not a paper printed like kraft. This one is like a grocery store bag. Which I love!

The owl was stamped using Versafine and colored in with Letraset Promarker. The sentiment was stamped using Clearsnap Colorbox Pigment Ink in Frost White. It really is the best white ink I've ever used. It stamps nice and opaque.

There you go. Quick and simple! Go by the Lawn Fawn blog and leave a comment and a chance to win prizes. Thanks for dropping by!

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October Afternoon: Cards

Hello there! I guest blogged again at October Afternoon this past Friday, and here are the projects I shared. Easy to make cards. I really love the new Daily Flash lines they have. It's sized to go with a binder and page protectors, a bit like Project Life. The designs are so OA: whimsical, colorful, and fun.

I made this "encouragement" card using the Milk Money range. I thought it would be sweet to give to one of my kids the morning of a test.

For this other card, I used Travel Girl. As soon as I saw that "Let's Go" tag, I knew it would make a great invite. How fun would it be to give this to a friend and invite him/her along on an adventure?

For more details on how I put the cards together, please visit the October Afternoon blog! Thanks for coming by! See you tomorrow for some Lawn Fawn projects.

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