Fit For a Knit Wit

It's challenge day over at Christmas Stampin All Year Long and this week I have an inspiration photo.

Well??

Are you inspired yet?

I saw this photo on the JoAnns website and couldn't resist.

Here's what I came up with using the inspiration photo quite literally...

Now I know this doesn't look like your traditional  holiday card, but it's going to be perfect for a certain yarn lover that I know.

When in doubt?

Jewels, jewels, jewels.

Here's a peek at the inside...

Ta-Da!

I added a gift card holder to the inside. 

Now all I need to do is grab a gift card to her favorite knitting supply store and stash it away for 27 more weeks!

Hop on over to CSAYL and join in on the fun!

Pink Cat Digital Release Day!

Any cat lovers out there?

Holy-Moly....check out the new release from Pink Cat Studio!

Ahhh....so many cute kitties and so little time! 

I was hoping to have more than one sample for you today, but a kidney infection pretty much made me useless all week.  Oh....and did I mention that I've had three kidney stones in the last five days?!

That's gotta be some kind of record, no?  Geez, how much can a girl take?!  Okay, I'm all done complaining now :-)

Check out this cutie!!

This is "Retro Kitty" and she's fabulous! 

I popped up her glasses and clothes with dimensionals and added all kinds of sparkly goodness.  The sentiment is from the Lily & Billy Accessory set and could be used for a variety of occasions.

Oh, and did I mention that you can get this cutie for FREE today with any purchase from PCS?

Hop on over to the digi shop and check it out!

She's out of your league

Well, the kids are definitely keeping me busy this summer, but I had to sneak in some much needed "me time"!  I just got this beauty from The Greeting Farm and have been dying to ink her up.  To get a little inspiration, I decided to play along with a couple of challenges on this one.

Farm Fresh Challenge Blog - "Get Sentimental"

The Deconstructed Sketch - current sketch #6 (love it!)

The black card base is a 5.25" square and the patterned paper is by Creative Imaginations.

After I adhered the patterned paper, I wrapped some gold cord around the card front.

Then I added these fun green glitter leaves by Jolee's.  They're super SPAR-KA-LAY and remind me of seaweed.  To finish it off, I added a sentiment from the TGF Creeper Set. 

Since the Farm Fresh Challenge involved a sentiment, I tried to be clever.  I was thinking, leagues of water, out of your league......get it? 

A little mermaid humor....

Thanks bunches for stopping by today!

I'll be back tomorrow with a HUGE digi release from Pink Cat Studio!

Black, White and ??

I'm in love with

and they're our sponsor this week over at CSAYL!  Perfect Presentation has a line of amazing templates available in a variety of formats, that are so fun and easy to use.  You can check them all out right here.

For my project this week, I used a template called "Able Gable".

The challenge for this week over at CSAYL is "Black, White and ??" - create a holiday project using black, white and ONLY one other color of your choice.  I decided to use Bermuda Bay as my color.  I just love how it looks with the black and white.

After I cut out my template, I stamped it with a flourish pattern in black ink.  Then I used an oval punch to add some color to the handles and white ribbon to finish it off.

I hope you'll play along with us this week.  You can check out all of the details at the challenge site.

For a *POP*ular teacher

Even though the school year is over for us, I wanted to share one last project I did for Teacher Appreciation Week.  My daughters teacher is a bit of a popcorn nut.  Everyday when the kids came in from recess or lunch, the room smelled like hot buttery goodness.  During the school year, I came in a couple of times and made fresh homemade popcorn for the class and her teacher absolutely loved it.  So when TA Week finally rolled around, our family knew exactly what to get for her.  We picked up her very own popcorn popper and all the yummy fixins to go along with it.  My daughter said it wouldn't be complete without a popcorn card to go along with it...

My daughter drew out how she wanted it to look and I winged it from there.

I started with a 5.5" x 4.25" card with a vertical fold and removed about an inch and a half from the top, as shown.

Then I used a decorative border punch along both top edges.

As you can see above, I couldn't quite get all the way to the left edge with my border punch. 

Then I added some 3/4" white stripes. 

I was planning on just punching out different size circles for the popcorn, but then remembered that I had these cloud dies from PaperTrey Ink.  I thought they could pass as popcorn.

I inked around the edges with So Saffron ink and then layered them onto my card. 

Then my daughter decorated the front with a couple of ticket stubs and alphabet Thickers.  She wrote "Just thought I would pop in to say hi!".

I hope you're all enjoying your week.  Be sure to join us over at CSAYL for our fun new challenge!

Babes In Toyland

Are you all enjoying Summer vacation so far?  The kiddos and I have been keeping very busy and have a whole list of fun things to do before school starts in August.

Today I've got a brand new challenge posted over at the CSAYL blog.  Be sure to hop on over to check out all of the samples from the design team.  The challenge this week is "Babes In Toyland" - make a holiday card for a munchkin who's on your "nice list".

Here's what I came up with...

This is Jack from The Greeting Farm - love him!

The sentiment is from the "Got Treats" set by SU.

I added some silver eyelets for fun....and because I have about 300 of them.

That's it for me today.

I'll be back next week with another fun project I made for teacher appreciation week.

Have a fab weekend!

Christmas Stampin' All Year Long

 It's the first Friday of Summer vacation and I'm soooo looking forward to sleeping in!  It's also challenge day over at CSAYL and our fabulous sponsor this week is none other than PINK CAT STUDIO.  There are 5 free digis up for grabs, so be sure to play along!

Our challenge this week is called "A Little Something From Me to You".

Create a gift card holder.

You can make up your own design or use a favorite tutorial.

Here's what I came up with using an image called "Lily and Tweet in Presents".

The finished project measures 5" x 5" and only took minutes to make.

Start with a 10" square of cardstock and score at 2 1/2" and 7 1/2".  Then rotate ninety degrees and score again at the same measurements.

Cut off the four corners and pre-fold on your score lines.

Without using any adhesive,

fold down the top section as shown.

Then repeat with the right side.

And the bottom.

And finally the left side.

To hold your packet closed, fold the top part of the left panel underneath the first fold that you made.

Clear as mud?

Then decorate each section with a 2" square of patterned paper.

When you open all of the folds, the inside will measure just under a 5" square.  This leaves loads of room to decorate your little heart out and insert a gift card.  Thanks for stopping by (sometimes I wonder if anyone ever does).  Be sure to hop on over to the CSAYL blog to see some awesome samples from the dt and our guest designer!

Pink Cat Digital Release Day

The circus is coming to town and it's gonna be a HOOT!

Ack!  Aren't these the best images ever?! 

As a collector of all things owl-ish, I was instantly in love with these little guys.  And they've almost gotten me over my life long fear of clowns.

I've been wanting to try a side-step card for some time now, and this was the perfect opportunity. 

I used this tutorial along with my scor-pal and it couldn't have been easier! 

Don't you just love quick tutorials that make you look like a card making genius?

The orange and circus patterned panels are from a boy themed slab by DCWV.  Those little owls peeking out from the bottom of the pants just crack me up - too cute!

To keep the star theme going, I punched out three of them for the front panel and added some jewels.

Check out the PCS digi store to get your hands on these cuties!  Did you know that you can now purchase PCS digis that are already colored in?  Too cool, huh?

Oh, and don't forget, with ANY purchase today, you'll get a super cute FREEBIE that coordinates with todays release!