It's "Mother's Day Week" with The Beary Scrap DT

Hello friends! This week, the Beary Scrappy Gals are honoring Mom with a Mother's Day theme. I'll be sending this card to my lovely mother-in-law, Joyce. When it come's to mothers-in-law, I hit the jackpot with her. She's a very kind and generous person, and is fun to hang around. :) (And no, I'm not just saying that because I know what I'm getting for my birthday next month! *grin*)

The gray flowers in the top left corner and along the bottom are actually a subtle metallic finish. In this second photo, you can see the shiny parts of this delicious SEI Poppy paper.

Here's an inside view. It might not be news to any of you, but I just discovered I could use my Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder on the 5.5 x 5.5" Bazzill paper. I ran it through my Spellbinder Wizard once, then moved the unembossed section into the folder, lining up the already-embossed dots with the folder. I'm pretty sure it will work on all folders with a repeating pattern. Yay!

Challenges

• Midnight Madness #50 - Sketch; I found a "happy medium" between the two sketch choices
• Kraftin' Kimmie #26 - Lots o' flowers
• Our Creative Corner - Bloomin' Blossoms
• ATS - Sewing on your project
• Crafty Catz #29 - Stitching
• Paper Cutz #38 - Mother's Day
• Pixie Cottage #15 - Mother's Day

Card Recipe

• Stamp: Kraftin' Kimmie's Clara, from the Moonlight Whispers collection
• Paper: Bazzill Chocolate and Rain; SEI Poppy Collection - "Rattan" front and back sides; Neenah 110lb Cover in Solar White for Clara
•  Medium: Prismacolor pencils with OMS; Stickles - Star Dust and Distress Broken China; Glimmer Mist Pearl (on the large green rose); ColorBox Fluid Chalk in Creamy Brown; Copic Spica Clear
•  Embellishments: Mulberry roses and leaves (coming soon to the store!); lace, pearls from stash; sewing machine

Thanks so much for stopping in today. Don't forget to enter to win our Beary Sweet blog candy!

Cheers,
Susan

CLP Design Team!

Hello friends! I'm very pleased to share with you my very special news: I made the CLP Challenge Design Team! *happy dance*

Together with 9 fantastically talented ladies, I will take Chelsea's beautiful monthly sketches and turn them into something that I hope will inspire you.

There's still time to participate in the CLP #24 challenge. Head on over to the CLP Challenge blog for all the details. :)

Mark your calendars - the CLP #25 starts next Friday, May 1, so please stop by to see the complete design team inspiration. See you there!

Cheers,

Susan

Beary Sweet Blog Candy!

Hello! I'm very excited to announce that we have something "beary sweet" to share with you.  It's our very first "Blog Candy" at The Beary Scrap Design Team Blog!  Whoo Hoo! We have lots of reasons to be celebrating and a million more reasons to be grateful for all that we have been blessed with. We are thankful to all of our crafting friends that come to visit us, shop shop with us online, visit Kimm's little shop in PA, send us beautiful emails and encourage us to keep on keeping on. 

There is over $100.00 worth of sweetness in this blog candy!

• 1 Martha Stewart Border Punch
• Labels 11 Nestabilities
• 1 Magnolia Tilda with Spring Bundler Stamp
• 1 Magnolia Elegant Heart Stamp
• 1 6"x6" Basic Grey Kioshi Paper Pad
• 1 Pack of Prima Vines & Butterflies
• 1Package of Prima "Say it in Crystals" Centers
• 3 Stickles Glitter Glue (Waterfall, Diamond, and Stardust)
• Assorted KaiserCraft Pearls (coordinates with Kioshi)
• 1 jar of "Summer" Flower Soft
• Gorgeous assortment of lace and trim
• Crochet Flowers from Kimm's dear friend Leslie
• 100+ luscious mulberry paper flowers in various colors and sizes

Head on over to the Design Team Blog to learn how to win all this sweet stuff!

Entries will be accepted through Wednesday, May 5, 2010 at 11:59pm EST. Thank you for stopping by and Good Luck!

Cheers,

Susan

April Showers at TBS

Hello! I hope everyone had a great weekend. I met up with an old friend and Husband and I cleaned up our attic Sunday. What a great feeling, on both accounts!

After the warm spell a few weeks ago, flowers are popping up in gardens everywhere, which brings us to this week's theme:

"April Showers Bring May Flowers"

I've got flowers popping up all over my sample this week. Basic Grey's Kioshi papers have lovely flower prints, and I've added a little dimension with Prima and stash flowers. The inside of the card will have "...Bring May Flowers" when it's completed. :)

Her dress and boots are paper-pieced with BG Kioshi's "Lily Child" in the 6x6 paper pad size. The umbrella is pieced with the solid side of "Mokuren".

The Beary Scrap is sponsoring this week's challenge over at Oh, Alice!, and I've followed their sketch. I hope you can pop on over to Oh, Alice! and give the sketch a try - you could win a $20 gift voucher!

Challenges

• All That Scraps - Distressing 
• Meljen's - 3D Elements
• Totally PaperCrafts #12- Spring
• Pile It On#15 - Spring
• Stamp Something - Something Layered
• Allsorts #48 - In Stitches
• Cute Card Thursday #108 - Touchy Feely

Card Recipe
Stamp: Amber Ink Digital Stamp
Paper: Bazzill purple, Neenah Solar White, Basic Grey Kioshi
Medium: Prismacolor Pencils, Glimmer Mist Pearl, Stickles Star Dust
Embellishments: Kaisercraft Pearls, Prima, lace from stash

Thanks for stopping in!

Cheers,

Susan

DZ Doodles DT - Tweet! Tweet!

Hello! It's Tuesday, and that means it's DZ Doodles Day! This week is our first sketch challenge and Gini, our Challenge Chicky Coordinator said, "Find your own darn sketch!" *verybiggrin* So I did! I really liked the sketch over at Sketch Girl, and this is what I created:

This DZ digi is called Sparrow, and I flipped it in Photoshop before printing. This little birdie is perched on a digi stick, but I edited it so I could use a twig of my own. Oh, and I made him into a Robin in honor of all the little birdies in my yard these days. He's layered for dimension (of course!), and colored with Prismacolor pencils. 

I had a little difficulty with the three horizontal elements on the sketch. I originally wanted to do a small branch or three twigs, but it just didn't fly. You know how frustrating it is when what you've created in your mind doesn't translate to real life, right? (Oh man, that's applicable for wayyy more than paper crafts!) I settled on the little crocheted ribbon elements to keep in the spirit of the sketch.

The flowers are a combination of Prima and stash roses. It's a very simple "bouquet" and I'm proud of myself for leaving the Stickles in their jar. The big orange flower came that way - I swear!

So now it's YOUR turn to challenge yourself with a sketch of your choice! Here's how:

• Make any kind of project using a DZ DOODLES image
• Link it up at our DZ Doodles Design Team blog
• Deadline to enter is Monday, April 19th @ 12 midnight

The lucky winner will be announced on Wednesday, April 21st, and will win 2 DZ doodles of their choice! Good Luck :)

Challenges

• Sketch Girl #15 - Sketch
• Creative Inspirations #55 - Green, Brown Blue
• Order of the Opus Gluei #59 - For the Birds

 Card Recipe

• Stamp: Sparrow
• Paper: K&Co/Amy Butler; Bazzill; Neenah
• Medium: Prismacolor pencils; chalk ink
• Embellishments: Prima flower; roses, leaves lace, and pearls from stash; twig from back yard

Thanks for your visit today - I really appreciate it!

Cheers,
Susan

"Things With Wings" Week at TBS

Edit 4/19: I'm really pleased to announce I won over at Roses on Paper for their "Layers" challenge. Thanks Summer and Mr. Random! *grin*
 
Hello hello! I'm here, ringing in another Monday with The Beary Scrappy Gals. Who knew I'd love Mondays so much?!

Spring is such a wonderful season - we had another glorious weekend here in Maryland. I hope you did, too! Our temperatures were considerably lower than last weekend's "heat wave", but the yard work was the same. There's so much to do in the Spring! We pulled a ton of weeds, fertilized the lawn, and trimmed up a few shrubs and a holly tree. I'm pretty sure a Robin is building a nest in the holly tree, so I worked quickly. She chirped at me quite a bit!

Speaking of birds, it's "Things With Wings" week at The Beary Scrap. I start the week with Magnolia's Edwin, and Gini will end our week with a great Tattered Angels tutorial. In between you'll be inspired by fabby projects from Patricia and Jamie, and perhaps a bonus from yours truly. *wink* I'm really inspired by this theme!

If you've been reading me for a little while, you'll know I'm obsessed with a new convert to Magnolia stamps. This is Edwin, chasing after these beautiful MS punched butterflies.

Oh my! I was thrilled when Kimm told me about this Monarch punch, so much so that she loaded it onto The Beary Scrap store site while we chatted just so I could order it right then and there. How's that for incredible customer service? Thanks Kimm! 

The bottom butterfly layer is punched from BG Kioshi "Sayuri" and edges are inked with purple. The top layer is purple vellum, and was an adventure to create. I started with "Stickling" the edges... they curled up a bit but it wasn't too bad. After that dried I decided "More is Better!" and Stickle'd one whole wing. Can you imagine the curling from that much glue? Haha! (No, I didn't learn my lesson from the first application.) Fixing this involved a heat gun and a certain amount of contortion to keep it from rolling up as it dried. Good thing I have that third hand... just kidding!

Ok, so here's a better way of Stickling vellum: put a few dots of Tombow Multi 2-way glue on the back of a fresh butterfly and let dry so it is repositionable. Adhere this to scrap paper and Stickle away! Either let air dry or use your heat gun to dry the Stickles. Once dry you can remove it from the scrap paper. So much easier!

I have a special 'Thank You' to our very own DT Patricia for inspiring my pearl butterfly trails. Thanks sweets! :)

Oh, and the neato grass technique is from Paula Tracy's tutorial at Splitcoaststampers. Isn't it cool?

Challenges

• Midnight Madness #48 - Sketch (top and bottom ribbon elements are replaced with pearls)
• Oh, Alice, Chapter 8 - Flowers
• Stamp Something - Stitch Something
• Sew Many Challenges - Stitching
• Just Magnolia #50 - Punch It Out
• Quixotic #20 - Joys Of Spring
• Roses On Paper #35 - Layers
• Flutterby Wednesday #104 - Sparkle w/Butterfly
• Allsorts #47 - Petals and Pearls

Card Recipe

• Stamp - Magnolia
• Paper - Basic Grey Kioshi - Lily Child, Sayuri, Plum Blossom and Mokuren (green layer) from the 6x6 paper pad; Bazzill Mauve Ice; Neenah
• Medium - Copic E000, E11, R20 for skin; Prismacolor pencils; Stickles Star Dust; Glimmer Mist Pearl (painted onto butterfly net)
• Embellishments - Kaisercraft pearls; Prima roses; vintage pins and stash; sewing machine

Thanks for stopping in!

Cheers,

Susan

The Beary Scrap is Bloomin' Fun!

Hello hello! Thanks so much for stopping in today. I hope everyone had a beautiful weekend. It was stunning here in Maryland! We had sunshine and temperatures in the 70's. The whole neighborhood was out doing yard work, and more than a few of us have sunburns to prove it. *wink*

This week your Beary Scrappy Girls are full of Bloomin' Fun! Here's my take on this week's theme:

Today I would like to introduce you to Stampavie's "Star Girl with Bouquet". Isn't she a breath of fresh, Spring air? While this delightful stamp is the focus for this card, I don't want you to miss the incredible Daisy Bucket Design's "Playful" paper.

While shopping online for this week's theme, I fell in love with the paper's colors and blooms, and when I received it I couldn't believe the texture. I know, I know, Kimm says on the listing that it's textured paper, but I was thinking it would be something like Bazzill's Grass Cloth or another slightly textured paper. Oh, no! It's this wonderful 3-dimensional texture on paper that has a thickness falling somewhere between thin scrapbook paper and card stock (like Bazzill). I'm not exaggerating when I say it's lush... LUSH! Ok maybe a little, but I am absolutely in love with it! 

(Click for a detailed peek)

Ok, back to the darling "Star Girl with Bouquet". Here's a close-up of her layered and Stickle'd flowers. If you look closely you can see a slight shimmer on her apron. I dipped a tiny paintbrush into Glimmer Mist Pearl and painted it. How cool is that?

I know a lot of folks use Copics, and there are few really good papers "out there". I'm happy to tell you that The Beary Scrap now sells one of the best available: Neenah Classic Crest Cardstock in Solar White. This is a beautiful coloring surface for both Copics *and* Prismacolor Pencils. You'll find Neenah 110lb in stock today, and 80lb is on it's way!  

To finish this card off, I've used a host of Prima flowers, including ones from Kimm's special stash she sends with everyone's order. Thanks Kimm!

I used the sketch from Midnight Madness #47, and I have to say it kicked my butt! I recently found a Crop-A-Dile II on a clearance rack and figured I'd give it a try. It made this challenge SO much easier!

Challenges

• Midnight Madness #47 - Sketch
• Stampavie #21 - Recipe (5 flowers, 2 ribbons [er, how about lace and floss?], one punch/shape/die-cut [cut-out flower and leaves on bottom left], anything pink or blue
• Colour Create - Pastels 
• Little Red Wagon #22 - Spring
• Order of the Opus Gluei #49 - Sparkle

Card Recipe

• Stamp - Stampavie's "Star Girl with Bouquet"
• Paper - Neenah cardstock; Daisy Bucket Designs Playful; Bazzill Grenadine; misc. blue bit
• Medium - Prismacolor Pencils; Stickles Star Dust; Glimmer Mist Pearl
• Embellishments - Kaisercraft Pearls in Snow (one is colored with a pink Copic marker); Prima flowers; snaps, embroidery floss and a flower from stash

That's it for me! Thanks again for stopping in, and I'll see you soon.

Cheers,
Susan