DeNami Design Fuzzy Friends Blog Hop

Welcome to the March DeNami Design Blog Hop! This month's hop is all about Fuzzy Friends!!

Hopefully, you've arrived here by way of Linda Monroe's blog, Stampin in the Suburbs. If so, you are on the right track! If not, you'll want to head over to the DeNami blog to start the blog hop at the beginning. (And remember, if you get lost along the way, you can always head over to the DeNami blog to get pointed in the right direction.)

Don't forget, there are some super-fun DeNami prizes to be won! Two lucky commenters will be drawn at random from among the comments left along the blog hop to win a $20 DeNami Design gift certificate! You have until Monday, March 10, 2014, 11:59 pm PST, to leave comments on all the blogs to be eligible for a prize. 

DeNami Design has SO many cute stamps that would qualify for the "Fuzzy Friends" description! Have you seen all the awesome new stamps in DeNami's new Woodland category? If not, you should definitely take a peek--so adorable!

I just had to use the new Little Hedgehog stamp for my creation for today's hop! Here's what I made:

I combined him with four other DeNami stamps--stump from Woodland Logs set, Balloon Trio stamp, party hat from Birthday Celebration 1 set,  and Happy Birthday Script stamp--along with the utterly fantastic Wood Grain embossing folder and orange baker's twine from the DeNami store.

It's time for me to send you along on your way. But before you leave for more DeNami fuzzy friends inspiration, be sure to leave a comment to be eligible for the randomly drawn prizes.  Then you can head out to see the next blog hop participant on today's list: Tenia Nelson. 
 
Thanks so much for stopping by today! Enjoy the blog hop,
Emily

Bazzill Beach House Giveaway

Happy Friday! Can you believe it's already November? I must admit that I've really let the time get away from me. Over the summer, Bazzill Basics Paper asked if I would like to try their new Beach House patterned paper collection and offered to send me two Beach House collection 6x6 pads, one for me to keep and use for myself and one to give away to one of my blog readers. Of course, I said I'd love to!! But the new papers arrived while I was away on our month-long vacation in August, and once we returned I was too overwhelmed to even crack open the new papers. But I'm finally caught up and was able to take time this week to play with them, and I loved what I saw!!

The 6x6 sheets in this mini pack are double-sided. There are a total of 12 different prints, with four sheets of each double-sided combo, for a total of 24 sheets in the pack. And guess what? These sheets are textured!! I LOVE that!! They have a lovely pebbly feel to them and add wonderfully subtle dimension to a card. I also love that the colors used in these patterned papers coordinate with the cardstock colors in Bazzill's Card Shoppe collection.

The prints in the Beach House collection are rather eclectic, I think. And that's a good thing!! They have a fun nautical feel to them, especially color-wise, but aren't overly beachy. There are some nice classics small-scale prints that would be perfect for paper-piecing, as well as some collage-type prints incorporating both ocean-life motifs (think whale, crab, coral, shells) and less obvious ones (such as bicycles, playing cards, cafe receipts, alphabet typography, manilla tags, vintage card game score sheets). I happened to use some sea shell stamps in the card I made with my Beach House papers, but you could easily use them with so many other themes!!

The card I made today is an anniversary card for my in-laws:

I used four different prints from the Beach House collection (House Tags, Weathered Wood, Receipt Dots, and Nautical Stripes), plus two coordinating cardstocks from the Card Shoppe collection: Whirlypop and Peanut Clusters. The shell images are stamps in the Beach Cottage Collection from Unity Stamp Co., and the sentiment is from another Unity set, It's All About Love.

 
My card design was inspired by one of the two sketches featured over at Chick Challenges with Ippity this week.

I'm also linking this up with my friend Jessi's challenge over at Playing in Paradise to make an anniversary project. 

OK, now for the fun part--the part you've all been waiting for: the GIVEAWAY!! Bazzill Basics sent not only a Beach House Collection 6x6 paper pack

but also a 56-sheet multipack of their Card Shoppe cardstock

to give away to one of my readers. Want a chance to win? All you need to do to be in the running is leave me a comment on this post using the word "OCEAN" before 11:59 p.m. EST on Thursday, November 8, 2012. I'll draw one "ocean"-using commenter at random to win  both the patterned paper and cardstock, then post the winner here on my blog on November 9. If I can find the winner's email address, I'll email her as well!

Questions? Feel free to ask! You don't need to be a follower of my blog to enter the giveaway, but I'd love it if you do become one!

A huge thanks goes to Bazzill Basics for letting me try out their amazing patterned papers and cardstocks! And thanks so much for dropping by.

May you find a little slice of bliss in your day today!
Emily

Woodgrain Background Two Ways

Last month I won a spot in the new Stretch Your Stamps online class, and yesterday was the very first day of class. I've never participated in an online papercrafting course before so I was very curious about it and eager to try it out. And I must say, the first day was AWESOME!! I learned soooooooooooo much. The first day was all about stretching your background stamps, and I couldn't wait to try some of what I learned. So I took a little time to make these cards this morning:

Both use the Designer Woodgrain stamp from Hero Arts and sentiments from the Messages set, also from Hero Arts.

The colors I used on the first card were inspired by this Vera Bradley backpack in Lime's Up. I suppose I was also a bit influenced by the pattern, too ;).

My colors in the second card were inspired by the July Hero Arts color challenge:

I'm so excited to be able to play along with A Blog Named Hero: Challenge #7 STRETCH Your Stamps with these two cards, showing how I used the same woodgrain background stamp in two different ways in two very different projects. :D

I'm also playing along again with Kim Kesti's Crafty Month challenge--to create a card (the neon colors one) that combines at least one new item and one item from your stash (at least one year old). For this card, my new item is the Hero Arts Woodgrain stamp, and my old item from my stash is the Websters Pages Bloomers. I've got to stop hoarding that ribbon!!

I have a lot on my list today, so it's time to go tackle it. Thanks so much for checking out what I did with my little bit of "me time" today!

Emily

Stamps: Designer Woodgrain, Messages by Hero Arts

Paper: PTI cardstock, The Paper Company cardstock

Ink: Onyx Black and Vintage Sepia Versafine, TAC Bubblegum

Accessories: circle punch, sewing machine, foam tape, rhinestone, Bloomers by Websters Pages

Techniques: machine stitching