"I Feel Pret-ty! oh, so PRET-TY...!!"*

How 'bout these ruby slippers (and matching necklace**)?! I've always felt a little sorry for female birds, they don't have the splashy colors and plumage the males do, so I dressed this girl up for a wild night out! (Just make a bunch of dots with your red marker for the necklace and dot with Stickles)The inside says "time to kick up your heels!"

Th DP is DCVW All Dressed Up, CS is Whisper White and Basic Gray. Mega Rhinestone Brads to match the necklace. I made this card for Donna's birthday(shhh, don't tell her!)would you like to send her a birthday card, too?? (Do you know Donna keeps up with more than 280 blogs through Google Reader??!!and leaves comments on every one! I hope hse gots lots of cards like she was able to round up for me on my big day. :) Email me for an addy!(I'll be gone the next couple days, though, but will send when I get back, promise!)

So my follow up poll question is a little involved, short version to the right where you vote, but here's the long version :

What is more helpful/inspiring to see on the blog: projects/ideas for your favorite image in a set(which is probably easy for you to work with anyway since you like it so much),

or projects with the image you aren't quite feeling yet since you have no clue what to do with and need some great ideas??

Just wondering, half the people who voted love the zebra best, does that mean I have to make twice as many zebra cards?? (I mean, I'm still gonna make what I want, but good for me to keep in mind ;)

BTW, help me NAME THIS BIRD! I noticed the other day that Faith(who's giving away some blog candy!) had named my ostrich Oscar! I like it! But now we also need some fabulous name for its tail feather-shaking female counterpart, any suggestions? The first thing that comes to my mind is Fanny... (or Dolores, I don't know why!) I'm going blank on "O" names...........Olivia? Odette? what do YOU think??

*or, "I could have daaaaaanced all niiiiight, I could have daaaaanced all niiiiiight..."

or, "I wanna PUT on, mymymymymy boogie shoooooes, and BE with you..."

Kicked-Up Kick Stand Card!*

I've been meaning to try one of these kick stand cards for awhile, but what I started out making never really worked as far as the layout, they always looked too bottom-heavy to me, just not quite the right design so I would always end up making a regular card. But here I had an idea to use a shape other than a square or rectangle for the kickstand, and turning it on it's side to match the DCVW DP so that the front just rests on one point, perfectly balanced, ta da! Isn't that fun? The stars are mounted on dimensionals and the "Jumping for Joy" seal has his horn from the same set, and is further accessorized with the party hat from "Hip Hop Accesssories".

Here's a close-up to see the inside of the card better when it's closed. The dotted lines are from SU!'s All in a Row set. I stamped the seal in Basic Brown and colored him with the E13 Light Suntan Copic (my favorite color I've used for the seal so far, really shows the detail so much more with this lighter brown) , outlined with Pale Aqua. I also added the little "whoosh" on the DP above to make the star look like it was falling, to go with the "zoooom" and the little airplanes on the DP.
I made the star frame with a this star piercing template from Gina K, which she is going to be selling in her online store, wait til you see! First I pierced my white star. I counted 7 over each time to make sure I wasn't going too long on any side. Then I carefully trimmed around the dots. Next I wanted a red mat, so I placed my cut white star on top, chose the track outside that and pierced a hole at the end of each point, and 2 holes where the points join together. (Hopefully you can see when you click on it. You can't just make one hole because of the way the plastic meets up.) Then just connect the dots with your scissors cutting just past the inside whole and then go the other way , cutting just past to meet you first cut. A perfect mat!
The shaped mats Gina K will be offering will give you TONS of ways to kick up your cards and take your piercing and projects to another level, I highly recommend them! (and will be working on more ways cool ways for you to use them here! ;)

*or "Catch a Falling Star!"

All Tied Up!

When I saw this new little Kindred Spirit Dad from Gina K, I was thinking how fun it would be to paper piece his shirt and make a matching shirt and tie to go with it! I'd seen these little origami shirt and ties before but had never tried to make them(well, I made my own version of a tux and collar eons ago, but not the same) Well, check out this great video tutorial from Susannah Boyd! SO simple! So I was able to whip up this matching ensemble in just a couple minutes! (both papers are from the DCVW Spring mat stack), so excited to know how to do this now :) I won't even bother retelling the directions, just grab your paper and go watch! (when you're done reading about my card!)

I was trying to decide whether I wanted to make this for my dad or my kids' dad (DH) because this would change how I colored the people. It was then I noticed the "girl" could be the mom and son or the sister looking on with the brother! (This may have been obvious to everyone but me, but since I had only used it before to make the wallet insert for my father, I'd been thinking of the "girl and boy" as my brother and I growing up, it was just stuck in my head that way.) Once I figured that out, I decided to color them to look like my oldest son and I with my husband(we never give him ties, though*) and kept all the colors within the same palette as the DP's. I pieced the shirt from my scrap and colored the tie to look like the origami, I just love how he's not wearing a tie with the shirt in the image and then it looks like you're seeing the folded ensemble together with the pic of him receiving it earlier, fun and matchy match! :)

I considered putting the family snapshot inside the card so I wouldn't cover up the cute folding, but really wanted it to be on the outside. I also considered having the snapshot hanging off the edge but didn't want to mess with having to make a custom envelope to fit it**! Then I thought about making a huge card out of one folded sheet of 8 1/2 x 11 since I have big envelopes, but I just wasn't liking how much space that left around my shirt and image, even when adding other layers and such. Finally, I decided to just overlap the tie a bit with my stamped image, popped up on dimensionals. That looked pretty good, but it need something else in the corner, besides just the greeting. I decided to make a little sleeve folded over from the extra piece I had from cutting my shirt, and folded up the cuff. (I like how the white edge there echoes the collar and points toward "Dad"). I attached it with dimensionals. Inside I stamped "Thanks for always taking care of us! Happy Father's Day!", also from the Kindred Greetings for Him.

BTW, Susannah gave me a shout out for my Kindred wallet tutorial over at her most excellent blog! Check it out along with some other fab tutorials! :)


* and if we did, he'd never wear this one. (He's got a bajillion plaid shirts, though, similar to this one, all in only slightly varying shades of blue and green...does that sound like your husband??)

** this finished card fits in an A2 envelope

Time to Juggle!

I made this for a friend who's about to have a baby, she's not exactly a "new" mom, but it's been almost 6 years since her first child, so it's kind of new again! I thought it would be really cute to have the seal juggling all the the baby things from Hip Hop Accessories, isn't this what motherhood is like most days LOL!!) I stamped them in an arcing pattern, making sure to turn the second safety pin so it looks like they're flipping around, and stamped the little "whoosh" near each flipper to put all the objects in motion. The "it's a girl" greeting is from Just So Hoppy :)
I stamped them in an arcing pattern, making sure to turn the second safety pin so it looks like they're flipping around, and stamped the little "whoosh" near each flipper to put all the objects in motion. Everything is outlined with the clear glitter Spica.

This layout is the SCS Sketch challenge for the week. I took the colors from my DP(DCVW Spring stack, I thought this print was sort of cool with my theme with all those figure 8's, kind of like the juggling, ya know?) I just had to use my dotted CB folder on the white background like Bee did, and a few of Gina K's little button babies finished it off, no ribbon this time. On the inside I used the hip hop sentiments & "to the new sister, congrats!(congrats is from "Jumping for Joy")

One thing I added after I photographed this is a few little lines on either side of the rattle, to look like it was shakin'... :)

Thanks everybody who answered my poll, the zebra took 50% of the vote(but only a handful of my readers voted) Which just leads me to more questions, I'm posting a new one tonight, come back to check it out! Don't forget to enter Lee's candy, see post below!

Oh my goodness, look at this CANDY!

You've got to go check out what Lee made with the "Jumping for Joy" set, my first "Joy-sighting" (other than theDT members!) Bet you didn't think anyone was gonna make that carousel, did you?? What a GREAT idea!

AND, she's giving away a BLOG CANDY that includes my stamp set and TONS of bling(including the awesome screw and zoo brads!!!) You have until this Sunday 6/1 to enter, don't delay. The catch: she wants you to leave a comment naming what animal you want to see me draw for a future set! Can't wait to read your requests this time! :)

I will be having a blog candy of my own very shortly, but now the pressure's on from LEEEEE to kick it up a notch, holy cow!! ;)

Look What Popped Up!

A sweet and simple card...

...with a kicked-up surprise inside!
To get the right arc for your greeting, lay your acrylic block on top of your scallop. I trimmed my greeting up a little bit to make the curve( to get an even gentler arc, cut each word individually (but don't lose them!)) Then I placed my scallop on the popped out part (see directions to make the pop up below) so I could see how high I would need to stamp my greeting when standing open, I wanted it to be hovering just above. Then press the card back so you can stamp it, the greeting will look higher on the card(with more space in between) when it's open all the way.
To make your layered focal point pop up, after scoring your middle fold, place you CS back in your cutter and make two parallel cuts across the fold in the middle. When you fold the score, push these two cuts out so you have what looks like a little box. Adhere your pop up to the front. (Make sure your focal point is not so big that it sticks out when you close it).
If you look back, to the finished inside, you'll see I added some scallops to the top and bottom of the pink layer(in the pic above I just have it resting inside) To make the scallops, take the corner guide off your large corner rounder and punch across the edge. I added a little dot to each scallop with my marker to match my stamped and punched scallop on the front.



Front of card uses SU! Hostesss Designer Prints Pack, Chocolate Satin ribbon and SAB So Many Scallops, which I colored DTS with my matching SU! markers. I punched out a scallop in Chocolate Chip as well and offset it below the stamped punch to give it some "pop".

Have you read about Gina K's new product that's available now? Gotta get me some of those fo sho! Also, more free bling being offered with orders up until the 31st, go check it out if you have been waiting to place an order, only a few more days! (As far as I know only one or two tickets have been found so far! That means there's a lot left! If you get one in your order, be sure to let us know about your ticket sighting!! :)

Jonathan update: thanks so much for all the comments about his artwork, he really got inspired to make more stuff for his tin (he's been coming and dropping things off at my desk saying "here, scan this", before turning around to go make something else!) Incidentally, I didn't get to share my FAVORITE drawing of his with you, because I can't find it anywahere!!! I was a bit panicked yesterday when I couldn't find it on the computer, I really thought I'd scanned it a long time ago, couldn't find it in email either, so I had to go hunting for the original! I would have never, never thrown it away(packrat/nostalgicmom), fingers crossed it turns up soon!! :)

Tiny Treasures in "Miniature"

If you have children in your life, you're probably almost as proud of their artwork as you are their photographs! Sometimes I photograph or scan Jonathan's artwork*, to email out to family, but I can't part with the originals. (I am also having difficulty storing all the paper and artwork he comes home with, he doesn't want to throw anything away (even all the practice letter sheets, etc) definitely gets that packrat tendency from his dad and I!


I've been meaning to make this for a few months now, but I finally got around to it this weekend: Create a portable keepsake of your child's "most braggable" creations in miniature by scanning, reducing, and printing out their paintings and drawings, then cutting them down to size, and stowing them in a decorated tin. (This size is much more manageable) :) Makes a great gift to send to the relatives, and send more scaled down "originals" over time as they are made and on holidays to add to their collection!

Scale your pics to approx 2" x 3.5", then stamp on your label from "What's In Your Tin? 1" and trim. Choose a favorite drawing for the top and stamp "Tiny Treasures" on that. Make a label for the inside on which the child can sign his or her name ( see below, I inked up just the "made this" from the "I made this for you" stamp from the same set to put below his name) On the back of each you can write their name, age and "title" of their masterpiece or your (or the child's) description of it. Here's Jonathan's "Red eyed tree frog":I intended to send this to his grandma, but Jonathan came into the room, took one look at it and he said, "My ART! Thanks!!" and ran out the door with it (so now I guess I need to make another one!) I found him in his room leafing through them and he looked up and said, "It is so amazing that I made these..." (Gets his modesty from his mom LOL!! ;)

TIP: You could also make two of each work of art, for a little matching game, would make a nice little travel game tin for your budding artist. :)

*Jonathan is a freakin' art prodigy! IMHO... ;) Here's a little about the ones you see above that I really like, for different reasons (please indulge me for a moment!)

One day when he was 4 he picked up a pencil and divided a sheet of paper into 4 sections with an "x". Then he proceeded to fill the entire page with shapes and color(my Su! markers! he chose the colors, have SCS seens this color challenge yet?? Pink passion, Green Galore, and Going Gray ;)), I was really amazed at how well he balanced the colors and sizes! When I asked him about it, he explained they were "animal textures", this side being "fish scales, this is giraffe, and this is zebra". I thought it was so cool he'd created a kind of collage! Below is the second in what I call his "Quadrant Period" LOL! which is very similar to that first one I just described, he gave it to his grandfather) but this time he mixed the different textures into all four areas...

Here is a crayon drawing he did recently after looking through a prism...I love the way he always fill up the whole page...

He really surprised us last November when we asked him one night at dinner what they did in art that day(kindergarten), and he recounted with amazing detail a film they saw about "Leonardo", including "his flying machine", the "clay horse sculpture shot at with arrows by the soldiers", and "his backward writing"(this is not the kind of stuff they taught me about in kindergarten!) We encouraged him to go give the writing a try so he went and got paper and a marker and quickly wrote his name (in reverse, beginning with "N") without help or aid of a mirror!(or looking at his name forwards) We went to the bathroom to check the results, I just had to snap a pic of him to show his teacher :)

Sidewalk artist: he did this by himself, at age 4(almost 5) Part way through I asked him what he was making, he said, "a girl' s face, with a long braid..."
Can you see it now?(I went over the different planes of her face in my Photoshop here, I'm not imagining it , am I??)
Okay, maybe it is just because he's my son, but I think he rocks! ;) It made his day anyway that I posted his creations here on my blog, thanks for looking :)

Have a great day!

Kindred Wallet of Memories

Okay, remember this wallet? Here's a way to add to that wallet (or construct a similar one different style/dimensions) and make a really cool accordion photo insert, what you'd expect to find in the bill fold of a "proud Papa".


First I started at the right hand corner of my CS, and used my Nestabilitie rectangle like a mask putting it into the corner and stamping a Kindred Dad into it, then sliding it to the left, lining up with the previous image, and stamping the next dad. I was able to fit all 4 of these new Dad images (check out the others here!) across the 11 inch side of the CS (with a little extra, which you will need for your insert). (This project would work great with the Kindred Spirits women as well in a wallet like this!) :) Don't worry about the Nestabilitie, you can clean any ink you got on it later with Ultra Clean, but not yet cause you're not done using it!)

Then I went back and used my rectangle like a stencil, sponging ink for the sky and ground around the edges, so then when I took it away, each photo was framed up with the white picture border you see around wallet pics. I went back later and made everything darker, this was just to show me where the borders of each would be for my scoring.
Then I placed my CS on my Scor-pal and put a score in between each image and one at the left end to give it the same little 1/8" border all the rest had. As you can see not all the score lines were available exactly where I needed them, that was okay, though, I just moved the paper, I wasn't measuring here, just getting my score in the middle of each white space between the sponged ink...

Now fold your scores.
Slide and adhere the folded end piece into a pocket you've created in your "wallet". Here you can see the added coloring, done with SU! markers and watercolor crayons.
Finally, I added captions to each of my "photos" using the Kindred Greetings for him set. I love how this turned out. Really very simple to make and a fun way to showcase all these image "memories". TIP: What would be really cool?: if you could find photos of these events(or similar and adhere them to back side of each!I will be making a different kind of wallet to put this in, I'll be back to post it when it's complete, but couldn't wait to share this with you in the meantime! :)

Have a safe and happy Memorial Day!

Mix it Up!

Honestly, I like to leave the mixology to others LOL! But when I saw Rupa's adorable little blender in "Many Happy Re-turns", I knew it was time to shake things up!


Start by stamping your blender(here on a Nestabilites rectangle), then cut out just the "glass" part. (I considered doing the handle too, but then decided, "no way!" Plus you would have seen the foam under my shaker window (not good) and I didn't want beads sliding out of my blender and into the handle!)
Now stamp your blender on a piece of acetate, and adhere to the back of your cut out, just like paper piecing.

Now you need to add a row of dimensionals of foam tape all around the blender area to hold your beads. Leave the paper backign on for now so your beads won't stick when you pour them in!Add beads. I used some light and dark green bugles beads (that matched my paper and the new rain dot eyelets I planned to embellish my card) , along with a few little clear microbead "ice chips!" Remove the paper backing on your dimensionals and press another piece of cardstock to fully cover the dimensionals and keep your beads inside. Then attach it to your card.
I colored my blender and went over the buttons, top, and plug with my Sakura glaze pen to add some shine and dimension. Then I went crazy with the Raindots eyelets! I found that punching a hole first with your Cropodile or other punch and then adding the eyelet REALLY makes it look like a real eyelet, even more so than just sticking it on the paper(although that's cute/fun, too!)
Because I couldn't stop there, I thought it would be fun to accent the corners of my mat and the glitter swirls on my DCVW paper with some of the dots and eyelets, too. (refer to top pic to see how I did the corners on the finished card) As you can see, even though they are called "eyelets", the sheet gives you little "brads", too, and I loved that that you get several sizes and shades of the color on the same sheet, gives you so many options. Now I NEED them in every color!

Last I added the ribbon and "little" together tag, and adhered the focal point a little askew, more of a "party vibe", heh heh!

I created this card with a terrific couple in mind who just got married (and, um likes to make drinks!) Margaritas are very popular here in Texas, so that's what I was going for with my green drink (although I always order my margaritas mango, though, or when I can get it, watermelon! (Manuel's signature drink, sooo tasty and refreshing!)

Hope everyone is enjoying a very relaxing, long holiday weekend! Hey, I read in the forums today that ONE golden ticket has been found so far(not the $100 prize ticket, though, that one is still out there somewhere, maybe waiting for YOU!:)

New Stamps Arriving now!

I'm working on some new tutorials for you today, look for how to "mix the perfect drink" and a special Kindred Dad father's day card idea on Memorial Day. These are really fun!

Here's a quick tip for today, though, now that your new Gina K shipment will be dropping in any time (maybe with a golden ticket?! be sure to let everyone know if you are a lucky winner, so exciting! We have to keep track of how many are still waiting for someone to place that lucky order ;)

When your stamps arrive, before cutting, ink up the whole sheet of rubber with a waterproof ink and press the rubber down on to the shiny side of the paper backing you peeled off which is what you'll be storing your stamps on. Don't worry about getting a perfect image, it's just a reference to tell you "what stamp where".
This is SO helpful in keeping your stamps organized, making sure they all fit on the sheet easily and preventing you from losing your stamps. For a messy/lazy person like myself I find now I am much more likely to pop it right back where it goes when I am done with that image if I see the place it "belongs", whereas before with a blank sheet I would just throw it on my desk, moving on to the next stamp and then have to put 15 some odd images back on when I was ready to put everything away!(which would sometimes be a a week later!) I forgot to take a pic, but remember that unless the image is completely symmetrical all the images will be backwards when you stick them on,so with some of them you will have to turn them upside down, like the ostrich, to make them fit, that's okay it's still on the same spot just doesn't line up)
This month was the first time I realized it is also easy to do this in the Gina K's sets ! Ink up your sheet and carefully press it into the bottom of the tin, it's kind of a tight squeeze, but you can do it! Doesn't that look cool? These are the Kindred Greetings for Him, I'll be using these in Monday's project. If you've already cut them out (with either type of packaging) that's okay, just ink them up individually and arrange them in an order that seems logical to you, or refer to the picture of all the whole image sheet included inside the bag or on the back of your tin. I'm going back when I have a little time and doing this with all my tins(I think I have about 10 now!) it will be well worth it.

Top This!

Here's tent topper with a twist, the arc of the topper is perfect for a spinner track!



You can tilt it back the other way, and it will look likes he's tossing it back and forth. :)


To make this card, cut out your seal and ball. Place the seal on your CS (don't adhere yet), and your circle Coluzzle on top. Pick two tracks that will line up with the flipper and tail. Click on the pic to see I have it lined up with third and fourth track. The fifth track will be the one I go all the way around to cut my mat(and the 6th for my green mat later). Then place your ball on top to see how far you will need to cut. Don't go all the way to the tail and flipper becuase then the ball will overlap once it hits the end, KWIM? Only go half way where you dimensional is...

It was hard to get the tracks photographed but I wanted you to see everything cut before I trimmed out the spinner track piece. You will have two small arcs and one complete circle all the way around.
Take your snips and cut out the circle and a straight cut between the parallel tracks on each end. You will need another circle the same size to put behind it if want the track to be less noticeable, like it's really moving through the air.
Now add your ball first by placing it on a dimensional(actually for this I used some smaller round ones I have for the size of this track, but you can also trim up the SU! hexagon ones) then a penny, then another dimensional, lay it in the track, and last a penny on the back side. Check the placement of your seal before adhering it to make sure the ball is starting and ending in the same place.
Last I added a shadow underneath him with my warm gray 20% Prismacolor marker and my matching Barely Banana mat behind it on more dimensionals so the penny has room to move. Green DCVW textured paper mat behind that. The patterned DP is DCVW mat pack(the different rectangles are embossed, perfect faux frame for your greeting!), and 5/8 ribbon is SU! It still needed a little something so I added the green brads to match the little circle section on the ball.

I gave it to my son last night, he lost his first tooth! After giving it to him(he loved it) he hugged me and said, "Thanks Mom, you've never made me a card before." !!! Yes, I have! After thinking awhile, he said, "You're right, it's just been so long I forgot." :( Note to self: now that Jonathan is old enough not to crumple every piece of paper art I put in his hands, make him cards more often!!

Have a great weekend!! Look for a couple really fun Kindred dad ideas coming up! :)

Jumping for Joy Tip Sheet

Here's some tips for you now that the Jumping for Joy sets are arriving. As always, feel free to copy and paste these tips to print out and keep with your set. You've seen many of these tips used on my sampels already, the rest will be shown in upcoming in blog posts :)

All 4 animals are jumping (when you want them to be!) Try them with your greetings from Just So Hoppy!

The new ostrich is hippy. Tattoo away!

Dress your animals up with the crown and hat from Hip Hop Accessories. The ostrich is really cute running with the kite from that same set.

The bear can be seated ("give yourself a hug!") and they can all perch/pose on the stand. The bear and seal(head or feet first!) look terrific diving into the water (little wave stamped again and again).

The three little lines are a "whoosh". Place it above or below to make the animal look like it's jumping up or diving down. You can also use this stamps with others in your collection any time you need to add some "motion" (something thrown, etc)

The pedestal stand can also double as a cake (when you add the sparklers),a little tub of water if you add the waves, or a drum. Ink up just the top rim (or cut off the bottom) and you have "hoops" for your animals to twirl, juggle jump through, etc.

These animals, when colored as "nature intended", lend themselves to neutral color schemes ( enhance and embellish these with the Gina K Zoo brads and any animal print DP) but the addition of the stand and beach ball give you lots of opportunities to add as much color as you want to your creations! Try choosing colors from your DP or ribbon you'll be using to color in the pedestal's different sections for a perfectly coordinated card.

The pedestal looks great paper-pieced.

Any of the animals can be blowing the little horn.

The beach ball is a great as a spinner, have your animals flip it back and forth "hacky sack" style...

The stars and confetti make great backgrounds! Also looks terrific to have the ostrich tossing out "wingfuls"of it! Don't forget the glitter!

The sparkler can also be a wand, again glitter is a must! can also double as "fuzzball" flowers/dandelions....

Try adding Fun Flock to give your animals a nice fuzzy texture.

Try gluing on tiny feathers onto the ostrick wings and tail.

The bold stripes on the zebra allow for fast stamping no need to color to get a nice graphic look!
-Change it up by stamping in brown or charcoal or stamping in black and then coloring in the white areas with a pastel or other fun color.
-Try stamping it in a color and then go over the eye and lashes with black or brown to make them stand out.
-Bling out your stripes by tracing them with a clear colored Stickles or Spica.
-Ink up just the outline omitting the strips to make a horse, or stamp on colored CS, cut out and flip for a solid, horse, don't forget to add in the mouth and eyes!

Distressed Stripes CB folder looks fabulous in green or neutrals to make a grassy plain or jungle, and with the "negative effect" or DTP with your ink pads, this folder is a perfect complement for the zebra's pattern.

Add Stickles, brads or other embellishments to the star centers to dress up the pedestal.

The font matches all Melanie's animal sets, mix and match to extend your greetings even more.

The long greetings are all meant to be used after both "time to" and "hope you". "Time to" "announces" it, and "hope you" can be great for the inside of the card!

The party greetings and "date", "time", "place" etc can be used to make invites with any of your other your other stamps.

The polar bear in this tucked position makes a fabulous spinner card (into the water or rolling down a hill.)

The bear can be colored black brown etc to look like any kind of bear!

The seal can be made to hop back and forth on his pedestal when doing the Charmaine "tilt card". Have any animal try balancing on the ball and then make it tilt back and forth.

"Time to make a big splash" - perfect for pool parties! Cannonballing polar bear or swan diving seal!

The images and sayings make a terrific set for scrapping kids pages, parties, trips to the zoo or circus.

"Date", "time", "place" etc stamps are great for journaling in your scrapbooks or sending out announcements.

The set is not just for invites, but anything that deserves celebrating, think congrats for graduation, achievements, promotion, job/life change(congrats on taking the plunge!/hope you make a big splash!") retirement, girls night out "shake your tail feathers!", reward charts for kids("time to toot your horn!"), great stamps for teachers etc

Put the individual date, time, etc inside the balloon image and fill in the info, either in a balloon bouquet or in a vertical line on the left on your paper and write out the info to the right like you see on most invitations. They also looks terrific stamped in one section of the ball, and the info filled in on another section!

Stamp the date time place etc on each of the little signs like flags or having them hanging like the signage on my giraffe card.

Many of the greetings are designed to work with the animals from Melanie's 1st three animal sets! Example: "shake your tail feathers" with the chick, "kick up your heels" with any of the Hoppys, make a big splash with the Hoppy frogs, etc...

Bling it ON!

The Gina K Designs Team all received their stamps about the same time last week and our new resident rock star Linsey emailed saying she wanted to figure out some way to put the zebra on a pole like a carousel, funny, I was thinking the same thing! (but really wasn't sure how I'd do it exactly! So we both had a challenge! (Coincidentally I'd also planned making a pink zebra card by the 20th, and then lo and behold, Gina K posted one similar to what I was going to make on her blog! So I had to change what I would create around to give you some new ideas, and incorporate some kind of ding dang pole!) I decided my best option on hand was ribbon(and although I'm not wild about the plain white ribbon, but it was the only one that worked with the colors I picked. I made a slit above and below the body and pulled it through then wrapped it around the card and tied, so you can pull it.



Scroll up and down for the full effect!! :)



I also added some pink gem stickers from Stampendous in the middle of my Gina K zoo brads to bring even more bling to these wild things, is that HOT, or what? The paper is from the same DCVW All Dressed Up mat pack, but I colored my ivory areas with my pretty in pink marker(couldn't locate my foam brayer that would have been better, but hey it worked! I love this trick of coloring in light areas of a monochromatic print like this(I first saw thi suggestion with SU! retired Au Chocolate DP to make any combo of brown and the color you desired, very cool!) and then colored my zebra to match! Looks like it's ready for a very wild night on the town! ;)


Linsey's peek at the party (click on the paperclip you see on the release party thread to view it and all the other great peeks) was TOO cute, I don't where she found/made that real pole!! You could used color straws or strips of paper too. Now I want to see who YOU'd do it! Anyone with some time on their hands want to construct some huge freakin' chipboard, blinged-out carousel?! Wouldn't that be cool?!


Later this week, a tip sheet and blog candy!!!

Red, White and Sky, Easy as Pie!

I think this is my favorite card I 've made so far for this release: Aren't these colors just so fresh and sparkling?! You know I love red, but all the white added it to gives it such a nautical look! I wanted to make the bear floating in the water, and I realized I could take my design a step further to show where he just came from using my new beach scene from the new "Free with Three" set "You are my Sunshine"(don't you love these greetings?!)! Hopefully you can see his big ol' footprints I colored leading to the water's edge! :) The shadow under the umbrella gave the scene so much more dimension than before I added it(took my lighter brown copic I used for the sand and picked up color from the tip of my darker brown Copic to produce this deeper shade) Everything got so much brighter when I dared to go a little darker in that area!


The red and white striped SU! ribbon was just what I need to accent this card, I should probably get a few more rolls of it! The texture of it to just makes you think of canvas awnings and the pattern of beach towels, plus the narrow stripes set off the red mats perfectly! I cut out some matching flip flops and stuck them on a dimensional for the finishing touch(I love flip flops, so exicted to have a little stamo now that I can stick little rhinestones and flowers to for girly flops!) It may be hard to see in the pic, but I highlighted all the water with a clear Copic Spica, the glitter is SO fine and completely clear, you will love it!! (although I don't see them online in her store YET, I believe Gina K is adding these shortly, you'll want one!) I am going to from here on out refer to it as my "beloved Spica" in future posts... :)


Now here's how to make the innertube! Punch your oval first in your cardstock, an then punch the key tag around it, with the oval closer to the top (holding it upside down to see where you're punching) That's it! Now cut out your bear, and plunk his big bottom in the punched oval! I cut a wavy slit about 1/2" down from the top of the water with my hobby blade and inserted the inner tube just below the surface so it looks like he's bobbing along(refer back to card).
Now, here's a fabulous red and white pie, perfect for your Memorial Day weekend! It's so cool and refreshing to eat, and the red berries look dazzling on the table(and the hint of almond flavoring in the cream cheese is heavenly)!

Recipe to follow, but here are pics to show pie assembly(I just anted to show the finished pie first to tempt you into reading further and actually wanting to make it!) First make and bake your pie crust. (You can buy ready-made(boooo!) or use our coveted family recipe...(but I have to go ask Mom if that's okay to share first)
Then fill with the whipped cream cheese mixture.
Last add your berry mixture(see top pic), and chill! Let me know how you and your guests like it! By the way, rent "Waitress" and watch while you eat! "baby, dontcha cry, gonna make a pie, ..." I love that movie!

Strawberry Pie

for the Strawberry Glaze:

4 T cornstarch

3/4 C sugar

7 oz. 7-Up(or other lemon lime carbonated beverage)

3 oz. package Strawberry Jello

Cook and stir the first three ingredients until thick. Add 1/2 of the package of jello, and stir until dissolved. Add a few drops of red food coloring if desired to make it extra red! Cool.

Add 1 quart of strawberries(rinsed and chopped) to the glaze and mix.

Whip 1 packaged cream cheese, softened with a few drops of milk, and 1/4 tsp almond extract until fluffy. Spread in baked pie shell before adding the berry mixture. Chill. Serve. Eat! (and moan over how good it is!)

Easy as pie!! (you know it was easy if I made it!! and it came out looking like this!)

Have great day!

Rock It!

That was SOME party last night!! Oh my goodness, I'll be back to share more details about that later! Was everybody able to tell from that freakishly long last post (just wanted to give everybody props!) that both Bee and Donna won the contest?!* hip hip hurray for Bee and Donna! (I still don't think Bee knows she won, she arrived fashionably late to the party after the announcement was made and I don't think she could find it amid the 200o replies to the thread!)Leave them some love here or run over the their blogs and say congrats when you get a chance!

Speaking of love, I'm kicking up my heels at all the love "Jumping for Joy" got last night! And look, take my poll! ----------->

Here's the card for today :)



This interactive "wobble" card was so easy to make! I might need to look into how to add a video to my blog, if I knew how for this one I'd be wiggling it and humming circus music, can you hear it?(doo-doo-doodle-oo-doo, doo do, doo DOO! doo doo doodle-oo-doo..)

Mask your zebra and stamp the ball so it looks like he is tip-toe atop it! Cut, and on the back of the ball apply a dimensional, a penny, and another dimensional. Punch a half inch circle near the bottom of your mat(I just slid my SU 1/2" circle up til it stopped and then punched) put your last dimensional through the hole, peel off the backing and add a penny on the other side. You're ready to rock!! (I have another greeting in this set which goes with this image: "kick up your heels!" Think what a fun ladies night card that could be with different colors!!) Mount your mat on dimensionals as well to give the penny room to move.

I held off on any Cuttlebugging and patterned DP on this card and just let the bold impact of the stripes and bright colors be the focus. Ball was colored with Copics, the zebra, no coloring needed, just stamp and go, I LOVE these bold stripes!!

Could you die for these brads??? If you have any of my other sets(or have them on your wishlist) you'll find the package in addition to this zebra print also contains patterned brads that would be a GREAT match for my frog, my giraffe, as well as maybe a few CLUES as to what's to come!! ;) The patterns and jumbo size adds so much "rowwwrr!" to your project, can you tell I'm wild about them LOL!

The Cs is SU! Cool Carribbean and DCVW Textured Earth Elements. I used the classic and scalloped Nestaibilites for the focal point and the SU! ticket punch at the corners.


SO! Now you've seen them all, which Jumper is your favorite? (if you missed cards with the new bear, they are coming!! :) My husband's fave is the bear, I already mentioned Jonathan's is the seal, William's is the zebra, and I really can't choose, this is my favorite release to date, but the ostrich has a very special place in my heart :)

*Laurie's Coaster book and Courtney's Pull card were right behind, with everyone else close behind that! EVERYONE was somebody's favorite, I hope you're as proud of your marvelous work as I am, thanks again for creating such inspiring projects!

Hip Hop Entries...the Voters have Spoken!

EDITED TO ADD: The voting is closed, the winner will be announced! You'rea ll winners in my book!(but unfortunately, I don't have 12 prizes to hand out, so...)It was such a close race, I was SO excited to see everybody receiving so many votes, glad to see everyone else thought all these projects were as unique and special as I did! ( If they keep entering, I think eventually they will probably all win my contest!!!) I've added my comments(didn't want to influence the voting earlier) about each of these special projects in red, see below. (I will go back later to try to add everyone's blog link, I couldn't find them all in time, sorry bout that)

This was a tough one, there were so many great ideas! Here are the top 12 finalists, in no particular order.(Just so you know, you can click on all the projects to get a closer look at the fantastic coloring and little details) Please leave one comment only, and vote for just one person (but feel free to gush about how much you like the others) Please give the person's name and the project, so I'm sure to know which one you mean, there are a lot of "C" names here, it could be easy to get confused!) Thanks for your help! (and if you haven't seen today's peek of my new set, please be sure to scroll down to the next post when you're done!) :)

Laurie's Coaster Book
This just made me want to pull out the chipboard coasters I haven't tired out yet and play (I'll share my idea when I get around to it, but she really inspired me!)! It was so creative, the coloring was fabulous, and obviously a lot of time and thought went into it, the little backgrounds are each so different and beautiful. Laurie explained it was expandable to add more animals(I love that! ;)) and the monkey is by himself because he's waiting for a NEW monkey to come join him!(hmmm, you might be on to something there, Laurie!)





Charmaine's Hoppy Waterfall Card
Have any of you ever tried to make these waterfall cards?? I think they are such a pain in the hippy to make(I've only made ONE before), but so worth the time and effort if it comes out as cute as this one (just not my time and effort LOL!)! I wouldn't be able to resist pulling this again and again, flip, fliiip, fliiiip! So smart to have the greeting just keep going with each hop, that Charmaine, she's just so clever!




Angie's Baby Block Set (colored on the front...)
This just gave me the warmest, fuzziest feeling like I got for Linsey's lamp in my first contest, just such a sweetness about it! I'd seen people alter cube blocks before, but I really liked these colored blocks and the different shapes, so cute for a tall giraffe or a long patch of grass! And I thought it was so smart to decoupage the paper piecing on instead of coloring, she really thought about toys kids like, with a plain image on one side and then a colored or patterned on the back, surprise! I love that!
(...and paper-pieced (decoupaged) on the back)
Donna's Princess Hairbow Tin
Once again, I'm glad everyone recognizes Donna's stuff is bombalicious, not just because we're friends LOL! She managed to work four of my sets(even one of the tins) into this project! And it turned out as cute as can be (again polyshrink, another thing I don't "do"!) but Donna would do anythign for her neice, what a fantastic gift for a little girl!(I've actually been meaning to make msyelf a tin for all my little tiny clips, barettes hair bands, but I think I'm a wee bit old to pull off animal bows! I dunno, could be good marketing! ;))

Christi Thorsen's Party Girl Card
Everything about Christi's card just works: excellent lay outs, details, colors, so clean and classy! I'd be just as comfortable sending this to a 5 yare old, 25 year old, 45 year old girl, it's just awesome!

Bee's Baby Giraffe Card

Bee's card was the first entry I received for the contest! (She sent another REALLY cute one, but this was my favorite, and apparently yours, too!) The giraffe peeking out of the buggy(where'd that come from?) was just the cutest thing, and so many other elements she chosemade it so baby shabby chic. The DP, colors and fancy punched edge were great, but I think what really gets me is the white swiss dotted "fabric" behind them, I can just smell and feel a soft, sweet baby in my arms when I look at it!
Annapurna's Birthday Banner Card
Annapurna's stretched banner was fabulous! I love making huge banners with block letters to hang up or spread on the table for the person we are celebrating, it's just so festive, so I loved this "card version" of that! (She printed her lettering on the computer) I also love the background she made, the little "v" of birds, the tall grass, just looks like a complete "storybook page"!

Monika's Kite Flying Motion Card

Monika's little swinging kite on the penny like a mini spinner was so smart, a simple thing like this just adds so much "wow!" and whimsy to a card! Thanks, Monika for showing us all such a brilliant way to bestincorporate the little kite image in our cards! :)

Lee's Hippest Baby Card

Lee's glitterfied baby card is so "Lee", love all the girly bling, sweet pastels, layout and how she cut out all the little matching accessories and put them around the giraffe.
Courtney Fowler's Pull Card
I think we need to all apply firm pressure to Courtney to make a tutorial so we can all duplicate this pull card! Even though I *know* how she did it, she pulled it off so brilliantly I can't help looking at it thinking, how'd she do that?? (like watching some accomplished magician!) It just lines up so perfectly and is the most fun surprise with the balloon greeting, go Courtney! Now pretty please, a tutorial?? back me up, girls!

Carol's Teacher Card

This made me so smile so big! The little line of roos getting out of school and the teacher's smock she made were just so perfect! Carol, are you a teacher by any chance?

Cathy Tidwell's Count on You Card

Cathy's "kite rescue" was just the most creative, delightful idea! I'd been thinking for awhile it would be fun to have the baby giraffe looking up at his stuck kite and have the larger one come save the day, but I had NOT thought about everyone pitching in to get it down (who needs tall grown-ups when you've got freind, right??) SO much better than what I'd have done!

Anyway, who won this shooting match?? Would you believe it was a tie?? Out of 183 votes, Donna and Bee both got the most with 32 votes each! (and if you got something different then I'm saying it was too close to call, cause I recounted 4 times trying to make sure!!) That's cool, though, 'cause guess what?? Gina K sent me an extra set!!! They both win "Jumping for Joy", woo-hoo! (and it's rather appropriate since one is a card and one is a 3-D project, I mean how do you decide really?? )

Thank you all SO much for voting! (it's hard, isn't it??) I will also send a special little prize to SUE(comment #181, randomly chosen by DH), Sue said:

"I would like to vote for Laurie's Coaster Book. All the projects are amazing. Sue"

Please send me your addy, Sue!

I hope you will all (and I mean ALL, not just the ladies above!) try out for my Guest Designer spot this month, hopefully you can see everyone above had very different styles and types of projects and I thought they were ALL great! YOU CAN DO IT!

Voting closes at 5 PM CST on Tuesday, May 20th so I have time to tally all votes before the release party. Any votes after 5PM will not count toward the contest(but of course you are free to leave comments any time:) Voting as soon as possible is greatly appreciated so I'm not counting hundreds of votes at the last minute, thanks!! Feel free to link the contest and spread the word that anyone can come place a vote for their favorite, there will be a prize for one lucky voter! Winners announced during the release party, the hippest, hoppiest celebration around, don't miss it! Did you see the party's already started?? (to the hip, to the hop, hey-eyy...!)