La-La's Birthday Beach Bash!

It's time!! I don't have a card for you today, but I wanted to remind you that the week of festivities to celebrate the first birthday of La-La Land Crafts has started!! Each day will start at the La-La Land Crafts blog and we will be having 3 games over the course of the week, each with its own prize!! In addition, we each have a mystery stamp to give away to a random commenter, so be sure to comment on every DT, Guest DT and Alumnus DT blog post during the week!

I also wanted to tell you that Irina's dream of drawing her own characters is becoming a reality!! She has created an adorable new addition to the La-La Land family named Marci, and here's the first image in the line - Birthday Marci:


Birthday Marci is available for purchase as a digi for this week only (Aug 1-9) and she and other Marci images will be coming out in rubber soon! I can't wait for you to see them all!!

I hope you'll join us everyday for fun and eye candy! Thank you for helping La-La Land celebrate its first birthday!

YNS Blog Hop Blinkie Contest

Your Next Stamp is about to turn ONE, and to celebrate, YNS is holding a fabulous birthday blog hop on August 5th! Talented friends of YNS will be joining the Starlets for the hop where they will be showcasing new and old stamps, and of course there are some amazing prizes to be won! In the run up to this spectacular event, Karen is holding a pre-hop Blinkie Contest. Hop on over there to read all about how to enter and you could win a special new release stamp prize package!

Daisy with Flowers 4U

I decided to enter the Squiggle Stamps' challenge again this month as the prize is a £20 gift voucher for the store (keeping my fingers crossed)!! The theme is "Scallops, Stitches and Swirls" - all things that I love, so not a challenge at all! Here's my card:


I used Daisy with Flowers and a sketch from Friday Sketchers (which also has a gift certificate prize this week).

Daisy was stamped and colored with Copics, then I paper pieced part of her dress and her headband. I hand dyed the seam binding and made the little roses myself out of tiny milk bottle Prima flowers (remember those from AGES ago?!) I used a Fiskars border punch to make the scalloped edge, then stitched all around that panel. I embossed the background with the Cuttlebug Birds N Swirls folder and added some die cut grass, a tag and some little half pearls to finish it off. I hope you like it and TFL!

LLWWC#49 - Shake It!

It's time for another La-La's Weekly Wednesday Challenge! I'm so excited to be hosting this week and I've chosen to challenge you all to make a shaker card! When I first started stamping many years ago, it was because I saw a guest on the Carol Duvall show make a shaker card! I ran out right away and bought a bunch of supplies (including a heat gun and embossing powder!) to make my own shaker card. It was pretty ambitious for a first project and came out pretty terrible, but it started me stamping so I'm glad I did it! Since then I've made a bunch of shaker cards and they're much easier to do than that first one!

In case you've never made a shaker card before, here's a great tutorial on how to make one. I actually make mine just a little differently, so I'll explain that below. For now, here's the card I made:


I used Princess Lala and my Cricut (I had to dust it off before using it!). I wanted the Lacy Labels cartridge as soon as I saw it and hubby was so sweet to get it for me!

When I make shaker cards, I use foam craft sheets for the innards instead of foam tape (or the hideous foam core board that I used for my very first one - SO hard to cut!!). I use 2 layers of the thin kind, but you could also use the thick kind. Or even just 1 layer of the thin stuff if your shaker contents will fit. Here's a picture of all the parts I used (minus the beads):


Lala was colored with Copics, and I airbrushed the edges of the circle with my Copic system so it wouldn't be so stark white. I also colored the edges of the foam layers with a Copic so it would match the purple card base. I even cut the foam with my Cricut using the deep cut blade and housing! The rollers smushed lines into the foam when it cut, but after sitting around for a while, the foam puffed back up to normal! Finally I just glued the parts together and added some beads for the shaker part.

This card is also for Charisma Cardz - Anything but Square, and Stamp Something - Something Flowery.

Before I go, I want to let you know that whatever image the hostess uses on her project is 20% off for the week of the challenge, so of course this week it's Princess Lala!

We'd love to have you play along with us! All the details can be found on the La-La Land Crafts blog. TFL!

Halloween is Hoppin' at Tiddly Inks

Today I have a card for the Tiddly Inks Halloween in July Blog Hop! No, I'm not suddenly on the DT - anybody could join in, so I did!

I just recently found Tiddly Inks and I couldn't resist getting a few! Here's my card:


I used Peek A Boo Bugg and some fun papers from My Mind's Eye. I colored the image with Copics, then paper pieced just the orange part of the pumpkin (coloring over the paper with a dark green Copic for the tendrils and with a bit of orange for texture), popping it up with foam boosters. Lastly I sponged in some ground and all around the edges.

The giant scallop border is my own creation - I punched out 5 circles, then stuck them down to a strip of paper and used that as a template to trace onto the dotted paper and hand cut it out. The sentiment was also hand cut from one of the papers. It just said BOO!, so I wrote in the "peek a" part, and then the wording was off-center so I drew the little swirly thing underneath to balance it out. I hope you like it and have fun with the Hop! TFL!

La-La's Weekly Wednesday Challenge #48

If you're looking for the Your Next Stamp Challenge #21, it's the post directly below this one. Thanks!

* * * * * * * * * *

Before I get to the challenge, I wanted to invite you all to La-La's First Birthday Beach Bash! It will be August 1-9 and will be a week long celebration featuring games, hops, and prizes!! Please join us starting August 1st at the La-La Land Crafts blog!

~~~~~

It's time for another La-La's Weekly Wednesday Challenge! This week our theme was chosen by Cheryl and is to "upcycle" - "take something that you would normally throw away and "upcycle" it into something fabulous to use on your card!"

A few years ago, my sister gave me a Christmas present with a giant wired ribbon bow that I couldn't bear to throw away and it's just been sitting in my craft room until this challenge came along! Here's my card:


I used Window Lala and a sketch from Get Sketchy. It's a little hard to see the white on white (it helps a little if you click to enlarge), but I cut the wired edges off a strip of ribbon, then cut the ribbon into thinner strips for my card. This ribbon is really great - almost no raveling at all!

This card is also for Charisma Cardz - pink, and Crazy 4 Challenges - buttons.

Before I go, I want to let you know that whatever image the hostess uses on her project is 20% off for the week of the challenge, and this week it's Fairy Lala!

We'd love to have you play along with us! All the details can be found on the La-La Land Crafts blog. TFL!

YNS Challenge #21 - Easel Surprise Card!

Yay! I have another Your Next Stamp Challenge today! Our hostess is Cabio and the challenge is to make an easel card. I love making easel cards and got an idea to do something a little different. I'm calling it an easel surprise card (my apologies if this has been done before - I've never seen it so I'm hoping it's a new idea!) and you'll see why!

Here's the outside when the card is closed:



And here's the card when it's opened: Instead of just having a button or piece of ribbon or whatnot to serve as a stopper, there's actually a piece sticking up to tuck the front panel behind - surprise!!


Here's a shot of just the piece inside:


And here's a side shot so you can see how the piece is attached:


If I do this card again, I'm definitely cutting the orange patterned paper piece in half to cover up the white strip behind the extra piece!

I paper pieced two of the three trees in Tree Trio. Because the patterned paper is so vibrant, the pattern totally showed through when I just colored the trunks with Copics, so I stamped them again on white cardstock, colored and cut out just the trunks to go over the PP.

The grass was all cut out of a separate pattern using the grass die from My Favorite Things. When you cut the grass out, you'll have the negative piece left over and I used that as well. It does look a tiny bit odd because it's the negative, but because my PP is so busy and I used so many layers of the grass, you can't even tell!

Mini Yippee Fhiona was colored with Copics, cut out and popped up on foam boosters. I made the sign myself using a sentiment from Mini Greetings.

We hope you'll play along with us! One lucky participant will be drawn at random to win $10 in YNS Stamp Bucks!! You don't have to use YNS images on your card, but if you do you'll get a double entry in the draw!

Also, the challenge hostess will choose her favorite card, and that winner will get the YNS Challenge "Top Pick" blinkie to proudly display on their blog PLUS $5 in YNS Stamp Bucks! You must use a YNS image to be eligible to be chosen for Top Pick.

Full details can be found at the YNS Challenge Blog. TFL!

La-La's Weekly Wednesday Challenge #47

It's time for another La-La's Weekly Wednesday Challenge! This week our theme was chosen by 1LuvnMama and is "Black and White +1," meaning only 1 color of your choice. I was pretty stumped for ideas for a while, then I thought to try a Twilight inspired card (since I've seen so many awesome ones in blogland and just saw Eclipse recently!). I took inspiration from the cover of the book:



And here's my card:


La-La Land doesn't really have any Bella-ish images, so I just picked the one I thought was the closest - Pumpkin Lala (which is one of the few Lalas not wearing a dress).

Since I wanted her to have an apple and had to cover up the pumpkin in her lap, Lala got the world's biggest apple! lol! I just traced the pumpkin shape onto some scrap paper and modified it ever so slightly to look more like an apple. Then I used that as a pattern to cut the shape out of red cardstock. I added a white colored pencil highlight and then covered the whole thing in clear dimensional adhesive for shine.

Since the skin tones on the book cover are brownish grays, I colored Lala with the warm Gray Copics. She was then cut out and mounted on foam boosters. I cut a slit above her legs to put the apple in over the pumpkin.

For the white heart, I stamped repeatedly with a swirl from There She Goes, and then sponged a mixture of black and linen distress inks (to get a warm gray color) on the edges and also roughed it up a bit with my scissors. I dyed the seam binding with a similar mixture of distress inks and scrunched it up until dry. I put together a bunch of stuff from my stash to make the beaded head pins and poked them through the seam binding to hold them in place.

Finally, I printed a sentiment using the Twilight font (which is actually called Zephyr), cut it into a flag and glued on a tiny red heart rhinestone. I hope you like it!

This card is also for:

• Allsorts - have a heart on your project as a focus point
• Crazy 4 Challenges - Red, Black and White
• Burtonesque Dolls Challenge - Black and White

Before I go, I want to let you know that whatever image the hostess uses on her project is 20% off for the week of the challenge, and this week it's Bubble Lala!

We'd love to have you play along with us! All the details can be found on the La-La Land Crafts blog. TFL!

Color Throwdown #100

I couldn't resist playing with the 100th Color Throwdown:


I used the really old FTL #6 (it's so easy to find old FTLs I'd like to use now that they're all grouped together in PDF format - thanks Natasha!) and of course the colors for this week's Throwdown - Regal Rose, Certainly Celery, Real Red and Baja Breeze. When I was gathering my cardstocks, I was certain I didn't have any Baja Breeze, but when I looked in my file cabinet, there was a whole unopened package! Yay for forgotten stash!

I used my new A Little Argyle set from Papertrey Ink over all the little squares to give them interest and tie them all together, then I used some PTI twine to literally tie them all together! The sentiment is from PTI's Simple Little Things Anniversary set.

This card is also for CAS-Tastic Challenges - make a CAS card using Kraft. I hope you like it and TFL!

YNS Sketch For You To Try

I have a Your Next Stamp card for you today! YNS is sponsoring this week's Sketch For You To Try and there is a really great prize up for grabs!! Check out Jen's blog for all the details!

Here's the sketch:


And here's what I came up with:


I wasn't sure I'd even get it done because I've been really sick the past few days, but I worked on it last night and am pretty happy with it!

I stamped Flying High Fhiona (who also comes in a mini version), colored her with Copics, paper pieced her dress and balloon and popped everything up on foam boosters. I added a Prima flower with a little half pearl to her hair and some old letter stickers from my stash. I hope you like it and that you'll play along with us!

La-La's Weekly Wednesday Challenge #46

If you're looking for the Your Next Stamp Challenge #20, it's the post directly below this one. Thanks!

* * * * * * * * * *

It's time for another La-La's Weekly Wednesday Challenge! This week our theme was chosen by Kristine and is to make a Step Card - it can be a regular step card, a side step card, or even a double step card. If you're not sure what a step card is, please check out the La-La Land Crafts blog for some helpful links! Hey - why not go there anyway and check out all the completely awesome DT sample cards!

I decided to do a double side step card and here it is:


Here's an angled shot:


I used Sunflower Rosie and made up a pattern for the card myself:


The cardstock is 5.5" x 8.5": score/fold on all the dotted lines and cut the two solid lines. In case you can't see the side measurements, they are 1", 2", 3 3/8", 4 3/4", and 6 5/8". And then the middle fold is at 4 1/4" - make sure you only score between the 2 cut lines! Don't fold the entire card in half or it won't work!

I tried to make the steps go up in even increments, but couldn't do it exactly otherwise the measurements would have been really crazy!

Rosie's dress was paper pieced and the rest of her was colored with Copics. I stamped 3 extra sunflower heads, colored with Copics and cut them out. Their stems are just thin strips of the same green cardstock as the "grass." Both the blue and green patterned cardstocks are old Fancy Pants journaling cards that I've had forever. The butterflies are Martha Stewart punches glued to wire.

I'm also entering this card into Charisma Cardz - creations with something metal on it (wired butterflies) and Allsorts - Create a Scene.

Before I go, I want to let you know that whatever image the hostess uses on her project is 20% off for the week of the challenge, and this week it's Lala on a Swing!

We'd love to have you play along with us! All the details can be found on the La-La Land Crafts blog. TFL!

Your Next Stamp Challenge #20

Yay! I have another Your Next Stamp Challenge today! Our hostess is Angela and she has picked the theme "Flower Power" - use any flowers of your choice: papers, embossing, punches, etc.

Here's my card:


I used Fairy Fhiona, a sentiment from Mini Greetings, and some really old papers from Memory Box.

I made a couple different flowers for this card. The flowers in Fhiona's hair were each made from 2 tiny Prima flowers and a small half pearl. I just glued the pearl in the center of one flower, scrunched the petals up around the pearl, then glued the whole thing onto the other flower. The other flowers were made from hand-dyed and scrunched seam binding. I did a loose running stitch on one end of the binding, gathered and arranged the pleats until I liked the look of it and took a few stitches in the center to hold its shape. Finally I stitched the bead cap on just to make sure it was secure and glued a half pearl onto the cap.

Another bit of embellishing are the dangles on the bottom:


I used a single strand of embroidery thread to attach the sentiment tag to the ribbon, then threaded seed beads and little pearls on the ends of the thread.

Other challenges:

• Just Us Girls - sketch
• Crazy 4 Challenges - use two or more ribbons
• Bunny Zoe's Crafts - Nice and Girly
• One Stop Craft Challenge - Distressing (I ran my scissors over all the edges of the layers)
• Pile It On - My Favorite Things (seam binding is my new fave!)
• Splitcoast Try a New Technique - anything OTHER THAN a pre-made flower, stamps or flower punch to create a flower for your card (my seam binding flowers)

We hope you'll play along with us! One lucky participant will be drawn at random to win $10 in YNS Stamp Bucks!! You don't have to use YNS images on your card, but if you do you'll get a double entry in the draw!

Also, the challenge hostess will choose her favorite card, and that winner will get the YNS Challenge "Top Pick" blinkie to proudly display on their blog PLUS $5 in YNS Stamp Bucks! You must use a YNS image to be eligible to be chosen for Top Pick.

Full details can be found at the YNS Challenge Blog. TFL!