Amber Ink - Lovin' The Rain

Hey Y'all!  I'm here with another Amber Ink creation using the so sweet Amber Girls line - Rainy Day in particular.  Isn't she beautiful?  I paper pieced her coat with the Seahorse Paisley iPaper.  {swoon}  I colored the rest of my image with Copics and then coated her boots and umbrella with Glossy Accents.  I then let it dry overnight.  I LOVEEEEEEE how her patent leather boots look and her umbrella is see through!  I have this exact umbrella.  It's a huge, dome umbrella that is totally clear.  It's fabulous! 

Anyway - after it was dry I used a Sizzix die that I have to cut her out.  I added a sentiment of simply "just saying hi".  I hand trimmed a mat around the back of my main panel and then layered it onto green and white check DP.  The check paper is stitched to the ivory stock below it with a white top thread and red lower thread.  I love how the red lower thread pops through just showing a peek of red.  I used a large teal ribbon tied simply in to a bow.  As a final touch I added green self adhesive pearls scattered about. 

I hope you come oogle the gorgeous creations and images over at Amber Ink!

Have a great weekend!  I hope you have been inspired to create!

Tiddly Tuesday!! Challenge #41 - Kraft With Me

Good Morning Everyone!!  Today's Tiddly Card is one of the most special cards I've made this year.  Today is my sweetie, darling, lovey and huggy son Tyler's 5th birthday.  Astounding, really.  He's just everything and more than we could ever expect him to be.  Sigh...he's just awesome.

So!  With that, I've made a very special card, using a very special image drawn by Christy per my request to have a tap dancing boy - this image is Ty The Tap Dancer.  My son LOVES to dance, takes dance lessons and is excelling at an incredible rate.  (not that I like to brag or anything ;) hehee...what Mom doesn't?  LOL!

This week's Challenge #41 is called Kraft With Me.  I kept my card super basic as I really wanted to focus on the image.  Plus, I wanted my son to be able to keep it on his nightstand (where he keeps special things) and to be able to hold it without a lot of "fussyness" all over it.

I printed Ty out and colored him with all of my newest Copic colors!  I stitched around the edge and using a Doodlebug acrylic stamp set, stamped the first part of my sentiment 'happy' in SU!'s Marina Mist ink.

I added two layers behind my main image - SU! Bashful Blue and a strip of vintage looking chart paper (can't remember whose it is).  I stitched both to make them pop and layered them behind Ty.  I then adhered everything down and tied a simple knot with blue and white gingham ribbon.

I decorated the interior using lots of scraps from one of my many scrap boxes.  I inked the rest of the Doodlebug sentiment and using the same SU! ink stamped on Kraft to make it coordinate with the rest of the card.  

One last shot of my creation along side my son's medal from his first ever dance recital.  He was so proud!!!  Happy Birthday Darling 5 Year Old Boy!!!

Please don't forget to come join us at the Tiddly Inks Challenge Blog to enter your Kraft Creation!!!  I can't wait to see you over there!!!

Robyn's Fetish Week

BLOG CANDY DOWN BELOW!! KEEP READING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! =)

Now back to your regularly scheduled programming....

Hi Everyone!! Welcome to another amazing week of designs from the Robyn's Fetish Team!! Today's challenge was a Sketch Challenge for a Scrapbook Layout!! After all, the entire point of a challenge is to make it CHALLENGING, right? ;)

Here's the sketch that we worked with:
And here is my creation!!

I took 2 pictures of my children, and since EVERYTHING we have is Digital (double if not TRIPLE backed up) and I didn't have any photo paper, however, I just used really good cardstock and the photos printed out just fine!
When using sketches I generally follow pretty closely to the guidelines. I'm trying to let myself break out of that "proverbial shell" that a sketch does impose however sketches are such a great jumping off point that they are a must for any crafter! So that's always the challenging part for me with sketches.

But...I digress. I chose 2 photos of my children, which were taken during our first day of demolition when our home reno started a few weeks ago. We were hunkered down in my office crafting. As this is the place in my home that soothes me the most. =)
I started with a basic piece of ivory cardstock measuring 6" x 12". I printed and matted my photos. Along with the journaling piece that I wanted to add. As you can see I lightly ran over the entire layout with my black ink pad to distress it a bit. I stitched the background entirely as well as around each panel.
I kept it relatively plain and simple as I did not want to overshadow the photos. I used Robyn's Patchy Flower pot for the flower image between panels 1 and 2 and I cut out a heart shaped "leaf" from Robyn's Valentine Tree and placed it between panels 2 and 3. The other embellishments; green photo corner, blue arrow and certified sticker are all from an old SU' Simply Scrappin' kit. The blue and white polka dotted, scalloped border is also a die cut sticker that I had in my stash from Imaginescence.
It's already hanging on my studio wall! I found this so much fun!!

I hope you do too!!

Please play along!! Here are the details!!!

Happy Weekend Everyone!!!

XOXO-

Robyn's Fetish WW with a Twist!! NEW RELEASE HOP HOP HOP!!!

Hello Everyone!! And welcome to a Twisted Wacky Wednesday!!! Today the team and I are creating with BRAND NEW IMAGES!!! Yes!! It's a new release hop combined with a Wacky Wednesday FREEBIE!!! The freebie will be revealed at the end of the hop!!! So come on and hop along with us!!!

If you arrived here from Michelle's blog then you are on the right track!! If not, please start HERE so that you don't miss one of the team's beautiful creations!

I had the great pleasure of working with Valerie Valentine. Seriously? Could she be ANY cuter!?!?!?! My muse if you will was this adorable cupcake box that I picked up at the $ spot at Target. (I love that place!!!)
My card measures 7 by 5.5 and is SU! Tempting Turquoise. I rounded the 2 outer corners of every layer on the right hand side of the card.

My next layer is PTI white cardstock, followed by the zig zaggy, multicolored fabulous paper. I believe it's American Crafts. The next layer is PTI Pure Poppy (such a great color for Valentine's Day!) and on top of that is a hearty pretty pink layer of Heidi Grace Valentine's Day paper. Both of those pieces are edge distressed with my Tim Holtz distressing tool. Hard to find...but AWESOME for distressing. I buy them a few at a time when I can find them!!

The outside layer is stitched with a wide floating zig zag while the pink and red layer is stitched with a sort of loopy pattern.

I printed Valerie on white cardstock, on some turquoise and pink flowery paper that I had lying around in my scrap pile and again on pink Heidi Grace Valentine's Day paper.
Valerie is colored with a combination of Copics and paint pens. Her bows and the heart in her hand are all glazed up. As are the candy hearts at her feet that are cut out and paper pieced from the print out from the pink HG DP. I did color them pink underneath though so that the image didn't look blank if you see it from the side. The candy hearts are set on the card with small pop dots.

Her skirt is also paper pieced (this is my favorite part of the card). I ever so carefully trimmed her skirt out, dipped the edges in my Essential Glue Pad and then again in Martha Stewart turquoise glitter. I colored underneath just as I did with the hearts to give it the most depth that I could. The secondary layer of her skirt was printed out on yet another color of DP - blue and pink flowers, adhered on and then coated with Glaze for more dimension. Her skirt is added on with large pop dots. I left her legs bare - as I was going to put tights on her but I figured that would be going overboard. So I colored her socks a pretty shade of green and left it at that.
Valerie is matted on a piece of acrylic "paper" from Hambly that has turquoise circles on it. I stitched in a zig zag pattern to hold the two pieces together. Once my card was entirely assembled I added 4 layers of SU! Tempting Turquoise ribbon to resemble a sort of pom-pom shape. I fluffed the individual pieces of ribbon out so that they would have more presence.
I have to say THANK YOU TARGET for the color inspiration!!! =) I love how my card turned out!!
Here is a shot of the materials that I used. It's easier for me to photograph then to type it all out.
I hope you have enjoyed my creation today!!

Please keep hopping along onto Leanne's blog to see what deliciousness she's come up with today!!!

Don't forget...at the end of the hop you'll find the WW NEW RELEASE IMAGE FREEBIE!!!

Thanks for hopping with us today!!

XOXO-
Meredith

Robyn's Fetish - Weekly Challenge #14 - Color Challenge!!!

Hello Everyone!! Welcome to our Saturday Robyn's Fetish Color Challenge!!! You'll most DEFINITELY want to play along and create with us for a chance to win 6...yes I said 6 Robyn Fetish Images!!!

Today's challenge is a COLOR challenge...red, yellow, blue, black and white. You can use any RF image or really any image at all!! What you'll need to do is add a link to your creation in the comments section of the Robyn's Fetish Challenge Blog to be entered into our contest!!! Easy peasy!!!

My creation uses the adorable paw prints image from Robyn. Some of you may have read that recently we lost our older poochie. Simply to old age. I still miss him every day but all of the fond memories are starting to heal the wound and dull the pain.
We also have an almost 5 year old fabulous puppy (I call them puppies forever!) here with us in the present. So...in her honor...this card is dedicated. Our entire family purposefully gives her extra love every day so as to not lose sight of what we still have.

I started with PTI Lemon Tart cardstock as my base. Next I used some MS gorgeous blue to really make the next layer POP!! The next layer being from a Mat Stack that I got on super sale at my local Michael's!! I don't usually groove on the stacks because they tend to be on the "cheezy" side but I have to say...they are coming a long way from where they used to be! This bubbly paper is from DCWV. I bought 2 different stacks from them and am very pleased with both the quality and the selection within the stack!

But I digress! I stitched the bubbly layer to the Martha Stewart blue using my NEW sewing machine!! It has 59 stitches and one is cuter than the next!!
I then added some PTI Lemon Tart ribbon tying it in a flat, neat bow.

The next layer is more of the Martha blue layered with American Crafts DP that has water droplets on them. So cute. I stamped LOVE in red and heat set it with embossing powder. You'll notice that the O in LOVE is a paw print. Tee hee!! I used a straight stitch to outline this layer.

I scaled the paw prints down using MS Paint and printed out a bunch of them on good cardstock. I then punched them out and matted them on the same yellow to make them pop. I then adhered them together in a row and used a cool wavy stitch to hold them tight. I then used my glue pen to trace the letters BOW WOW and covered them in red glitter. They are affixed to the card using pop dots.
Inside the card I wanted something really special and heartwarming so I used The Sun image that's available ON SALE at Robyn's Shoppe!!! (as is EVERYTHING!!!) I printed it out, colored it with my Copics, Prismacolor and Pantone markers. I carefully trimmed it out, sparkled up the center and adhered it with another pop-dot.

I hope you like my creation!! I can't wait to see what you come up with! Don't forget to check out my fellow team members creations as well!!!

• Jeanette
• Leanne
• Michelle
• Wendy

Remember the COLOR challenge...red, yellow, blue, black and white. You can use any RF image or any image at all. Then add a link to your creation in the comments section of the Robyn's Fetish Challenge Blog to be entered into our contest!!!

6 FREE images could be yours!!!

Come play!!

Thanks for stopping by!!

XOXO-
Meredith

The Character Cafe New Release BLOG HOP!!

Hi Everyone!!! Welcome to a FAB NEW RELEASE HOP!!! If you came here from Lola's blog then you are on the right track!! If not, hop back to the beginning so that you don't miss one AMAZING creation from the TCC Team!!

Today I was privileged to work with Love Bug Cupid!! I couldn't stop thinking of Pepe Le Pew from The Looney Tunes when I saw this RIDICULOUSLY adorable skunk and his fluttery, glittery bee friend!! ;)
My card measures 5x5 (a standard go to for me!). My base is in PTI Kraft cardstock, followed by DP from the Belle Cafe Stack from DCWV as is its matching piece behind our little friends. In between the DP layers is a slice of PTI ivory cardstock. I used a matching leaf design on my sewing machine to stitch and match the pattern on the red/yellow/black glittery cardstock behind my image.
Our buddies are colored with my Copics, Prismacolor and Pantone markers and then all glittered up in JUST the right places =) I then matted my image on black cardstock and just did a quick straight stitch around them. I added a strip of rhinestones and a silver rivet for balance after I'd rounded 2 of the 4 corners. I then added a bit of hemp twine through the rivet for some extra texture. Lastly, I used some of this gorgeous Summer Sun Swiss dot ribbon from PTI to tie in a cutie bow to tuck our friends into.
I truly hope you've enjoyed my creation with this awesome new image for that special someone!! ;)

Now...onto official business!! LOL!

The code you need from me today is : Love Bug Code "e".

The Grand Prize will be 4 of the January New Releases!!!

The Code that you are collecting along the way is good for 30% off entire purchase at The Cafe Store!!!

To qualify for the Grand Prize, you need to comment on all of the Design Team members blogs and let us know what kind of cards you make most often at the Cafe Blog!!!

Now off you go to Rachel's blog to see what deliciousness she's got for us today!!!

Thanks SO much for visiting!!

XOXO-
Meredith

RF Weekly!! Recipe Challenge!!! Come and Play!

Hello Hello Everyone!!!

Welcome to another week of Robyn's Fetish Challenge !!! This week we were given a 'recipe' to follow.

Here's the recipe:

• any RF image
• 3 patterned papers
• 2 colors of cardstock
• 1 type of ribbon
• glitter or shimmer
• bling
• flowers

Sounds yummy, right??

Ok so here's what I cooked up!
I started with an unfinished, wooden clipboard that I picked up at ACM some months ago. They're cheap to begin with but I think they were on sale so I grabbed a bunch. Always a good 'go to' when you need something different.

I first grabbed some twisties (you know...the things you use to tie up your garbage) and I opened the clip. I then used my Brilliance Pearlescent Gold pigment ink pad to "paint" the front of the clipboard with.
I basically pressed the ink pad into the wood and schmooshed it all around so it was really 'inky'. I then used my super thick embossing powder and covered the wet ink. I used my heat gun and set the embossing powder. From some angles it looks like it's gleaming gold and from some angles it looks like it's just been rained on!! It's SO cool!!! I love heat embossing!!!

For my 'bling' I figured I'd go ALL OUT! I grabbed my sheets of rhinestones and went at the clip part!!! It took a while but with a little patience and some crafting tweezers I got the job done!! It's SO super blingified!! hahahhaah!I chose Robyn's cupcake image (I love anything cupcakes!!) and set to coloring it. I also decided to paper piece the cupcake liner. So I trimmed out some 12"x12" DP (with the cute pink butterflies on it) down to 8.5" x 11" and ran it through my printer printing the cupcake again. I trimmed out the cupcake liner and adhered it to the image already printed on white cardstock.
I then used my Copics to color the frosting, candle and sprinkles!! After coloring the sprinkles I used my glue pen to coat them up and then covered them in chocolate brown glitter. SO FUN!!

I then trimmed the entire thing out and set that aside. I wanted to do a simple matte for the cupcake seeing as there was already A LOT going on so I used a pretty yellow polka dotted DP for my first layer, PTI's Blush Blossom as my next layer and some pinky SU! DP as my third layer. I used PTI light yellow (forget the actual name) for the bottom 'pocket'. I matted it in the same Blush Blossom but just ever so slightly to give it a bit more dimension. I used some SU! rub ons for the 'friend' sentiment and since there was a flower right next to the word that covers my flower part! ;)

Inside the pocket I added the cupcake to which I have added a magnet so that the recipient can put it on their fridge or wherever and a gift card to a local coffee shop!

The matte paper is detachable so that the clipboard can be used on a kitchen counter to hold a pad of paper, on someone's desk to hold post-it notes, etc, etc. I wanted it to be beautiful AND practical!!

The last bit was to add my ribbon. And I will admit that I cheated...JUST a little!!! I used 2 ribbons instead of one ;) One just wasn't doing it for me!! LOL!

I hope you've enjoyed my blingidy, clipboard, pocket gift holder!

XOXO-

Robyn's Fetish Sneaky Peaky!!!

Stay tuned for an amazing upcoming blog hop on November 13th!!! With all new images from Robyn!!!

Here's a little peak of what's to come!!