FairyBlossoms & Life

loookie here!!

What an exciting surprise!!  My Sassy & Pink card was chosen as MFT's Favorite Find of the Month!! whoo-hoo!!

 

How cool is that?? Thanks girls, you've made my day!! I am so excited, and I will definitely be shopping with my gift now that it's almost June Release time!! Can you blame me?? Check out these teasers!

..speaking of teasers, be sure to stop by tomorrow June 1st to see what all of us at the Baker's Dozen have cooked up for our June TE release!! Taylor has a teeny little peek for you today too!

Have fun and enjoy this beautiful day!!

Alex

Simply Fun

Hello honeybuns!!  I hope you are all gearing up for a fun weekend!!

I have lots of stamping to do so  since next week we will be doing Taylored Expressions sneak peeks!! YAY!! You DO not want to miss the fun stuff we're cooking up!!

I just wanted to pop in today and share a couple of cards I made the other day that are super simple!  I sometimes forget how fun it is to just do something quick and using as little elements as possible!

Here's an easy birthday card featuring the cutest "cake" from my new Unity Monthly Kit:

I used some scoring on the card just to add a little texture, a button, and a tiny bit of bold ribbon to embellish!  5 minutes flat!  with a stamp as fun as this one you do not need much!!

This next card is just perfect for kicking off a fun summery weekend!  I used this ADORABLE (OMG!!!) stamp from GinaK's Quite a Catch Stamp set, and one of my favorite sentiments from my A Year of Sweet Sentiments by Taylored Expressions!

Absolutely adorable right?? again 5 minutes literally!  Okay maybe a few more if you're fussy with coloring like I am, but still super quick!  I did a teeny bit of distressing on my PP and sponged onto my image panel.  Definitely not a lot of supplies and it turned out SO cute!

I had so much fun with these and I am going to be doing lots more! 

Thanks for stopping by today, I hope you have a fun and sunshiny day!

Alex

Birthday Card Ingredients:

Stamps:  A Little Happy, May KOM from Unity Stamp Co.

Paper: GinaK Pure Luxury CS in Turquoise Sea, Candle Glow Medium Prism, Black Bazzill and Choice Snow White from Taylored Expressions

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black

Accessories: SU! watercolor Wonder Crayons, Autumn Leaves French Twist Ribbon, White Button, SU! Natural Hemp Cord, Glue Dots, stampin' dimensionals.

SandyStar Card Ingredients:

Stamps: Quite A Catch from GinaK, sentiment from A Year of Sweet Sentiments from Taylored Expressions

Paper: Kraft CS, PP from Cosmo Cricket Snorkel Collection

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Memento Canteloupe, SU Soft Sky

Accessories: Blue Ribbon, Martha Stewart Glitter

Snail Mail Greetings!

Hello sunshiny friends!!  The weather in my neck of the woods is improving and I am feeling bright and happy today!

I have been having so much fun playing with my Garden Party Critters stamp set, and I found the coolest way to make a card that can hold a gift card too!   sheer genius, I tell ya!! Take a peek:

Isn't it cute??  and I know you're probably thinking "Um, okay Alex what's the big deal??" but the fun part about this is that I made this gift card holder using one of these cuties:

Yeah, seriously!!  When you purchase these Apron Invitations they arrive completely flat so all you have to do is make a score line in the middle of the apron so that it looks like a little envelope and then you can trim the top flap a bit and embellish as desired!!  Super easy and so cute!!

Here's a look at my gift card all closed up:

I used a set of magnetic snaps attached with glue dots to keep it closed, and it works like a charm! Here's a look at the back of it while it's being opened.

and taa-daa! Here's our gift card all opened up:

Isn't it stinkin' cute??  I used the sun stamp from my Garden Party Blooms set, and all of the cardstock and patterned papers are from the Garden Party Project Pantry Kit.  If you notice the cute scalloped border on my holder, you can see it's from the cardstock sticker sheet included in the kit!  I had a little strip left over from the layout I made the other day and used it right up!! As far as the paper goes, I still cannot get enough of these patterns - aren't they fun??

I am thinking this is going to make a great gift card "card" for teachers, or class helpers now that the school year is coming to a close, simply because there's plenty of room for you to write a nice note and still be able to enclose a gift card (or some cold, hard cash!), not to mention it's a super-quick project and you can easily whip one up in minutes!  I love that the aprons are available in so many colors, and they really look adorable dressed up like this, don't you think??

Well I hope you liked my project for today!!  I hope you'll give these a try - not to get ahead of myself but wouldn't these be perfect for the Holidays??  It's never too early right??

Have a wonderful day, and thanks so much for stopping by!

Smooches!!

Alex

Ingredients:

Stamp Sets: Garden Party Blooms, and Garden Party Critters by Taylored Expressions.

Paper: Choice Buttercream Cardstock, all Patterned Paper and Cardstock from the Garden Party Project Pantry kit.

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Brown Paper Bag and Sunflower Ink from CTMH.  Ranger Distress Ink in Vintage Photo, Bermuda Bay from Stampin' Up!

Accessories:  Glue Dots, Foam Squares, Cardstock Stickers included in the Garden Party Project Pantry Kit, 1 1/4" Circle Punch, Big Scallop Nestabilities Die, White Gel Pen.

Sassy & Pink!

Hiya sugarbunnies!!

I had some playing time this afternoon so I thought I'd pop in and share a one of the cards I made!

Can you believe I hadn't had a chance to ink up this cutie??  She is from MFT's Joy Ride stamp set, and I thought she'd be perfect for me to use for this week's WSC challenge!

The challenge was of course watercoloring, so I dusted off my Watercolor Wonder crayons and went to town! I think I'm a little rusty on my coloring, but overall it was loads of fun!

I used this fabulous sketch from Friday's TESC challenge on Taylor's blog, and used some of this lovely "Lovely" paper (aren't I clever??) from K&CO on my background panel.  I used some SU! ribbon and these adorable felt flowers to embellish my card, and added a little Vintage Photo distress ink to deepen some of the color on my scalloped mat and the image panel, and on the patterned paper too!!  easy but so very cute!

I just love these bright and fun colors.  I think I was feeling a little pink, can you tell?? I don't think I've ever used so many pink tones in my life, but I just love the end result!

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope your week gets off to a great start!!  weekends are never long enough are they?? ... well, at least there will be more time for stampin'!!

Big hugs!

Alex

Ingredients:

Stamp Sets: Joy Ride by My Favorite Things

Paper: Choice Buttercream Cardstock from Taylored Expressions, Watercolor Paper, Creamy Caramel, Close to Cocoa cardstock from Stampin' Up!. 

Ink: Jet Black Staz-On, Ranger Distress ink in Vintage Photo, and Soft Sky from Stampin' Up!

Accessories: Basic Grey Sage Brads, Glue Dots, sewing machine & thread, Circle and Scallop Circle Nestabilities, Stampin' Up! Watercolor Wonder Crayons, Felt Flowers and Ribbon, Stampin' Dimensionals.

Center of Attention Product Spotlight - Stickers

Happy Thursday Lovebugs!!

It's time for another exciting Product spotlight, and I am squealing like a schoolgirl at a Miley Cyrus concert because this one is SO me!! Those of you who have seen me at a crop know that I am the queen of Stickers - seriously, it's a sickness!!!  I lug around a huge expandable file organizer thingy filled with stickers of every type, color, theme - you name it!  Needless to say, I jumped at the chance to show off these gorgeous Cosmo Cricket Joy Ride stickers, and I have 2 fun projects to share with you today!

First up is, of course, what I use stickers mostly on - Scrapbook Layouts!

As you can see, I used MOST of the stickers included in the sheet on this one page, and that is definitely something I do quite often!  One of the reasons behind this is that I love my layouts to have quite a bit of dimension, and by layering my stickers I am able add that easily!  Another thing I love about using stickers as embellishments is that I can make my layouts "pop" with little additions of color throughout.  I sometimes add mats to my stickers using my "theme" colors, and this helps me tie everything together!

The biggest thrill for me right now is that most of the paper companies that I SO love have taken note of the fact that we love "matchy-matchy" and they are offering coordinating stickers to go with their patterned paper collections!  I used Cosmo Cricket's Joy Ride Mini Deck paper on my layout.  This makes it SOO easy to pair up your patterns with a neutral color and you're done!

If you're not much of a scrapbooker you can test the waters by doing something super-simple like what I did on my layout, by just using some of your small scraps of paper and adding a few stickers to embellish your layouts! How easy is that?? I always like to say these are not the stickers we used back when scrapbooking first became popular (and lord knows I am guilty of sticking yellow rubber-duckie glitter stickers onto my son's first bath pictures).  Gone are those days so you don't have to be afraid of using them anymore, trust me, it's totally cool now

Now for my second project I really wanted to show you how MUCH you can get out of your single sheet of stickers.  I decided to turn a couple of pieces of paper and one of the remaining stickers from my layout into a fun card!  You can never have too many of those on hand right??

How cute is that??? Can you believe I made this using ONE sticker and some little scraps of paper?  The sticker I used was originally shaped like a tag, but I wanted to use it as my sentiment so I just cut off the extra "tag" shape and mounted it onto my green cardstock so that it instantly became my card's focal point. Easy huh?? 

I am always looking for ways to use up as much of my supplies as I can, (mostly so I have an excuse to get more ) but seriously, you can get a ton of mileage out of one little sheet, and that my friends, like Queen Martha would say - it's a good thing!!

I hope you guys give stickers a try, you'll love them , I promise!!  If you haven't tried them before, or you're just looking for a great deal, ALL Stickers just like the ones I've used today are 15% OFF at the Taylored Expressions store now through Sunday May 23rd! whoo-hoo!!  I am definitely going to be stocking up on these, and you should too!!

Thanks for stopping by today, be sure and visit these fabulous ladies from the Baker's Dozen to see what they did with their stickers today!

Karen Motz
Jeanie Witmer
Sankari Wegman
Carolina Buchting
Jackie Pedro
and of course, the lovely Taylor VanBruggen

Have a wonderful day!! 

Smooches!

Alex

Ingredients:

Paper: Choice Buttercream Cardstock, all Patterned Paper from Cosmo Cricket's Joy Ride Collection.  Cardstock on Sticker Layers, and on Card Layers from the Garden Party Project Pantry kit.  Black Cardstock from Bazzill.

Accessories:  Glue Dots, Foam Squares, Ribbon from Taylored Expressions' Garden Party Project Pantry Kit, Button on card from Easter Key Ingredients, linen thread, White Gel Pen.

Clownin at the Hop!!

Hi everybody!! It's finally here!! Welcome to our..

 

I'm so excited to be playing along with many of our fellow & fabulous Taylored Expressions fans!!  This hop is all about celebrating the ultra-yummy stamp sets released in 2008 & 2009, so get ready to fall in love all over again as we share some of our favorite sets! 

This is going to be such a fun hop that I just had to go all colorful and cheery on the card I made:

How stinkin' fun is this??  I kind of cheated because I used TWO of my all-time favorites on my card.  First up, this super-cute cuppie clown from my Trick or Sweet II set.  I thought he would be perfect for a birthday card, even though "technically" he is part of a Halloween set!  I LOVE that the images on this stamp set can ALL be used for birthdays, party decorations, fun celebrations and well, pretty much anything - sometimes we just need a little push to remember!  How cool that you can keep using your stamps year-round right??

I colored my Cuppie Clown using Copics, and I stamped him twice so that I could cut him out and add him to my image panel using foam squares.  My sentiment is from A Year of Sweet Sentiments which is by far the best sentiment set I've ever seen, seriously.  I use it all the time since I love the fonts and the fabulous variety of greetings! 

I used Splitcoast's SC280 for my card - I fell in love with the sketch as soon as I saw all the glorious layers!!  Look at all the patterned paper I got to use!!

I stitched all my layers and added them to my card base using foam squares.  Of course, I had to distress all my layers using Vintage Photo Distress Ink.  I finished up my card with some yummy ribbon and White Candy Dots which I covered in Diamond Stickles.  My Clown's "buttons" are two yellow Multi-color Twinkles, and I added some Lime Green Stickles to his hair for some added "glitz!"

I am soo loving this little guy, and I LOVE being part of this awesome hop!! I know there is LOTS of eye candy for you to check out so I thank you for stopping by for a visit today!! Have fun hopping along...

Smooches,

Alex

Ingredients:

Stamp Sets: Trick or Sweet II, and A Year of Sweet Sentiments by Taylored Expressions.

Paper: Choice White Cardstock, all Patterned Paper from Cosmo Cricket's Snorkel collection.  Cardstock on Card Layers from the Garden Party Project Pantry kit.  Dark Violet Cardstock from Bazzill.

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Ranger Distress Ink in Vintage Photo.

Accessories:  Glue Dots, Foam Squares, Ribbon from Taylored Expressions' Beach Bum Key Ingredients, Lime Green & Diamond Stickles and White Candy Dots.

CookieCuppie

Hiya Sugarmuffins!

Happy Monday!! (is there such a thing??) ...My guess is no, BUT I figured I'd at least give it a shot with this sweet little cuppie I inked up!

I just looove this little "cookie monster" from my new Cuppie in the Kitchen stamp set, and I paired him up with some more of this gorgeous paper from Cosmo Cricket's Material Girl Collection!  Can you stand just how cute these two go together?? 

I used Copic Markers to color my Cuppie and the awesome sketch I used for my card was actually last week's challenge on Taylor's Blog (TESC112).  I didn't get to play along last week but I LOVED this sketch and just had to try it!   l loved the soft colors on the patterned papers and decided to keep them nice and clean so no distressing on this one!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  Be sure to stop by tomorrow because I am playing along with a great bunch of Taylored Expressions fans for our Blast from the Past Blog Hop!!

Have a fabulous day!!

Alex

Ingredients:

Stamp Sets: Cuppie in the Kitchen by Taylored Expressions.

Paper: Choice Buttercream Cardstock, Patterned Paper from Material Girl Collection  and Cardstock from the Garden Party Project Pantry kit.

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black.

Accessories:  Glue Dots, Foam Squares, Pink Crystals.

Bloomin' Summer

Hi everybody!!

Are we excited about the weekend or what??  I am looking forward to some nice weather.. it's been pretty icky lately, but now I want sunshine!!

...and speaking of sunshine, look at what I made with the YUMMY sticker sheet from my Garden Party Project Pantry kit:

isn't it cuuute??  I was completely inspired to do this layout (okay, I pretty much CASED it!) from a Kaiserkraft ad in my Scrapbook Trends magazine, and I found just the PERFECT "ingredients" in my Garden Party Blooms set, along with these cute stickers included in my Pantry Kit! 

All of the patterned papers I used are from the Garden Party Project Pantry Kit, and as you can see, I used only small squares to build my background, so it's a great way to use up those scraps!! 

To make my grass, I used my trusty swivel knife (just some random cuts so that it looks uneven), then adhered the strips to my page using foam squares. I used about a hundred of them because they are literally stuck under everything on this page!  I {heart} my foam squares - I just love all the dimension they give to everything!!

I finished up my page by adding my sentiment (which I happen to looove) and also a little mushroom and my butterflies from my Blooms set.  I then borrowed my "butterfly trails" from my Garden Party Critters set to stamp onto my page, and voila!  so colorful, and perfect for summer!!

I hope you're inspired to use up your "stamping" stuff by adding it to your scrapbooking - It's a great way to use the goodies you love while preserving some of your favorite moments!  I love that my new stamps are the perfect size to add to my layouts, and of course, these wonderful papers are perfect for the upcoming sunny weather! 

Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a wonderful Friday!

Alex

Ingredients:

Stamp Sets: Garden Party Blooms, and Garden Party Critters by Taylored Expressions.

Paper: Choice Buttercream Cardstock, all Patterned Paper and Cardstock from the Garden Party Project Pantry kit.  White, Black Cardstock from Bazzill.

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Chocolate, Sweet Leaf, Sorbet and Sunflower Ink from CTMH.  Ranger Distress Ink in Vintage Photo.

Accessories:  Glue Dots, Foam Squares, Cardstock Stickers included in the Garden Party Project Pantry Kit.

Bubbly Cutie

Happy day my lovebugs!!

Hope you are all having a bright and shiny day!!

OMG! I am soo excited to show you what I got the other day!!  have you seen the new Die-namics dies?? SO cool I tell you!! I ordered all of them.. I mean..I won all of them in a raffle.. (that's my story and I'm stickin' to it!)

I have to say, they cut beautifully, and I just love that they are totally easy to store!  I am definitely hoping that this is a new trend that keeps growing - I'd loooove to see lots more shapes (not-so-subtly elbowing the powers that be at MFT)... greedy I know, but I can't help it, they're so cool! (not to mention USA made - so truly, I'm just being patriotic, thank you very much )

Anyhoo, here's what I made using my Jumbo Scallop Die:

 

OH can you stand it??  Of course, I couldn't just get the dies without picking up this stinkin' adorable new Lather Rinse Repeat PI stamp, and some new Banana Split Felt, which I must say is absoutely delish too.. then again, anything called Banana Split is always acceptable in my book!  I made this card using Jen's SFYTT, and I just loooved how it came together! 

I used all patterned paper from the 7Gypsies Victoria collection, and colored my image using Copic Markers.  I wasn't planning on distressing this one but I was totally inspired after seeing Kim's WSC challenge to use distress inks, and frankly, the stuff runs through my veins so it was sheer bliss for me!! I did some stitching on my cards and added some vintage brads from Making Memories.  I finished up my card by adding some diamond stickles to the "bubbles" for some added glitz! :) isn't she cute???

Thanks for visiting today!!  I am off to clean my messy house before I get featured on Hoarders!!    I'm not even kidding!! lol...

Smooches!!

Alex

Ingredients:

Stamp Sets: Lather Rinse Repeat by My Favorite Things

Paper: Choice Buttercream Cardstock, Creamy Caramel, Blush Blossom and So Saffron from Stampin' Up!. Teal CS from Prism Papers.

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Ranger Distress ink in Walnut, Vintage Photo, and Bundled Sage.

Accessories: Copic Markers, Vintage Brads, Glue Dots, sewing machine & thread, Prima Flower, DIamond Stickles, and Stampin' Dimensionals.

CherryPickin'

Hi everybody!

Hope you're having a yummylicious day!! 

I was feeling mighty lazy this weekend so I took a little weekend stamping break, but of course, I went right back to it this morning and made a quick and FUN card using some new goodies I recently picked up!

 

Isn't this fun?? And NO coloring needed!!  I just did some very simple and basic stamping, and look how stinkin' cute the end result was!  I cut out and mounted a couple of the cherries (and my bowl) using foam squares just to give it a little pop, and that was pretty much everything I needed to do for this fun card!  These delicious papers and stamps made this SOO easy!

This is definitely a card that's easy to mass produce and absolutely sure to brighten someone's day! 

I'm off to catch up on my stamping!! I just got some new goodies I can't wait to show off!!

Big hugs!!

Alex

Stamp Sets: Bowl of Cherries by CTMH (exclusive workshop stamp set - email me for info!)

Paper:All Patterned Paper and Cardstock from the Cherry-O Workshop packet from CTMH.

Ink: Ranger Distress Ink in Vintage Photo. Juniper, Sweet Leaf, Chocolate and Tulip Ink from CTMH.

Accessories: Glue Dots, Foam Squares, Chocolate Ribbon from CTMH.