TBS DT: It's Beary Sweet Sketch Week and BSC #3

Hello hello dear friends! I hope everyone is having a wonderful extended weekend. Here in the States it's Memorial Day, where we gather with family and friends and honor fallen soldiers. Of course, there are pounds of burgers, hot dogs and potato salad consumed, too. :) Best wishes for a happy and safe Memorial Day to each of you.

So it's Monday, which means I get to ring in a new week for the Beary Scrappy Girls and introduce our next design team challenge. This week we have a sketch challenge, designed by little ol' me. It's my first sketch and I think it turned out OK (if I do say so myself!).

"Hello, my name is Susan, and I'm a Basic Grey Kioshi addict."

Or so it seems, anyway! I can't get enough of the delightful patterns in this line of papers. Here I've used the larger 12 x 12 patterned paper for the background as well as the smaller 6 x 6 pattern paper. I love those itty bitty paper pads!

This little sweetheart is Bubbling Tilda, from Magnolia's Fairytale collection. I've layered her and cut out her bubbles. Her dress is lightly colored with cranberry and very pale yellow Prismacolor pencils. Her wings are colored with the same pencils and enhanced with Stickles. I used a Copic Spica pen to highlight random strands of her hair. Even though the sparkle is visible when I view this photo in Photoshop, it's washed out once uploaded to blogger. *sigh* That's what imagination is for, right?

The big flower is hand made with a strip of chiffon and Fabri-Tac. Cool, huh?

Card Recipe

• Stamp - Magnolia's Bubbling Tilda
•  Paper - Bazzill Basics in truffle and avalanche; Basic Grey Kioshi; Neenah for Tilda
•  Medium - Prismacolor pencils with OMS; Stickles Star Dust and Tattered Rose; Glimmer Mist Pearl
•  Embellishments - Homemade chiffon flower; Mulberry flowers (coming soon to the store!); lace and miscellaneous from stash

Challenges

• Flutter By Wednesday #111 - Must have a butterfly, fairy or angel
• Simon Says Challenge - Pink or Blue with Green and Brown
• Just Magnolia #57 (ends 6/3) - Hot & Spicy (Hot = summer = kids playing outside = blowing bubbles)
• Totally Gorjuss #32 (ends 6/4) - Wings
• Magnolia Down Under #48 (ends 6/5) - Flowers
• Magnolia Stamp Lovers #11 (ends 6/5) - Summer (blowing bubbles is a great childhood memory for me!)
  

Thanks for stopping in! Tomorrow is a new Beary Sweet Challenge, so be sure to visit the Design Team blog for all the details. Don't forget that today is the last day to enter your project into our current challenge - Fancy Folds. You could win a Scor-Pal!

Oh, and if you're a blog candy kinda gal, today is the last day to enter my birthday blog candy. Good luck!

Cheers,

Susan

TBS DT: No More Pencils, No More Books/Updated!

Ok, so I had to rework this original card. The 3am version wasn't so good the next morning, so I've changed and added a bit. I'm much happier now! *grin*

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Hello friends! I hope you had a wonderful weekend! I spent mine with my lovely in-laws. They came all the way up her just for little old me (last Thursday was my birthday). *grin* Husband and his father put up pegboard and did some other garage organization while my mother-in-law and I wandered the garden center. What a happy place! We all get along well, so visits usually fly by way too fast. *sigh*

This week at The Beary Scrap, the DT's are celebrating that school-age feeling that comes around at the end of May. Remember how excited you were for summer? Ahh, the exhilaration as that last bell rang out the school year.

No more pencils! No more books! No more teacher's dirty looks!

For my card, I've used two Magnolia stamps and the "joy fold" technique. (Click here for an SCS tutorial.) For some reason I decided to use loads of layers... hehehe. I can't help but think about my "inner Gini" again. *grin*

The front Tilda (Tilda with Pencils) is layered 3 times - the top layer is the pocket and left arm with books. "Happy Tilda" on the inside is layered twice.

The "reworking" includes the dogwood and crystal jewels, as well as changed-up charms: I added the chains and a homemade pearl bauble. I colored the pearls with a pink Copic on the front (as well as the butterfly trail on the inside). 

This is the first time I haven't used a white "signature"panel - I'm on the fence about the green (or more accurately, I'm unsure of *anything* but white.) Ah well, the sewing machine had it's way with that panel, so green it stays!

Haha! How about that ladybug on Tilda's head? It's one of those unforseen quirks of homemade cards... right? I'm tempted to make it official and pop another ladybug on her head "for real". I added grass with Prismacolors, similar to the grass I did on this card. It's not quite as good as that Edwin card, but it gives enough of a hint of the grass she's frolicking in that I'm happy. The little butterfly is cut and layered from scraps of the MLS paper.

So, you know how much I LOVE my Star Dust Stickles, right? Welll, I was chatting with Kimm the other day, whining about something wanting a white Stickles without the iridescence, and she turned me on to Frosted Lace. It makes me think of a fine white Distress Stickles, if there was such a thing. I used it on the inside flower (with a touch of Star Dust in the center of the Frosted Lace), as well as on the front around Pencil Tilda's white frame. You can't really see it in the photo, but it's there!

Challenges

• Stamp Something - 2 of Something (2 Tildas)
• Fussy and Fancy #11 - Recipe: 3 images, 3 kinds of embellies, 3 patterned papers (whew!)
• Practical Scrappers - Felt, Fabric or Tulle - I used tulle ribbon
• Charisma Cardz #20 - 3D
• Sir Stampalot - Butterflies and Blossoms
• Flutter By Wednesday #110 - Flowers and butterflies

Card Recipe

• Stamps: Magnolia
• Paper: Bazzill Basics in Brown, Green and Cream; Neenah for stamps; Cosmo Cricket; My Little Shoebox "All A Flutter"
• Medium: Prismacolor pencils with OMS; Stickles Star Dust and Frosted Lace; ColorBox Fluid Chalk Ink on edges; Copic
• Embellishments: Prima flowers; Bazzill Tulle; Kaisercraft Pearls, colored with Copic; sewing machine; charms from stash
• Behind the scenes: Scor-Tape adhesive in 1/8" and 1/4"

While you're looking for project inspiration this week, don't forget our Beary Sweet Challenge #2 - Fancy Folds. You have until May 31 to link up - you could win a Scor-Pal! 

*And* if you're interested in trying out Kimm's excellent mulberry tearing technique, hop on over to this Store Blog post and enter to win her Boston Kitty pattern with mulberry paper. She's so adorable!

Thanks for stopping in, and I hope to see you at the challenge!

Cheers,

Susan

The Beary Scrap Blog Candy!

Hello friends, 

As you might know, our Beary Scrappy Leader Kimm makes the cutest mulberry paper "Tear Bear" acrylic patterns, and is now making a variety of fabulous animal patterns in addition to the bears. With her patterns and wonderful guidance, you can easily create precious Tear Bears and Tear Animals of your very own!

Without further ado,  I would like to introduce "Boston the Kitty", the newest tear critter pattern by Kimm at The Beary Scrap. Isn't she just adorable?! Kimm is offering Boston Kitty Blog Candy, including the easy-to-use acrylic pattern and mulberry paper to make a kitty of your very own! 

These mulberry creations are perfect on scrapbook layouts as well as greeting cards. Kimm even has a whole Tear Bear Tutorial blog devoted to helping *you* perfect your tearing skills.

Kimm has patterns for her original bear, as well as Oliver the Dog, Bella Bunny, Charlie Chick and Emma Elephant. Boston Kitty will be released June 1, and you have the chance to win the first ever Boston pattern! 

Go HERE by May 31 to get all the details and enter to win. Good luck!

Cheers,

Susan

TBS DT: Fancy Folds Week and Challenge #2

Update: the fabulous ladies over at Practical Scrappers chose this card as one of the winners for their Patterned Paper challenge. Thanks so much!

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Hello!

What a beautiful weekend we had! We worked non-stop on the landscaping, and still have much to do. Where do all those weeds come from?! Yesterday we went to the garden center for flowering goodies and it seemed like the whole town was there, too. Yay for spring!

Over at The Beary Scrap this week is our second Beary Sweet Challenge, and we're looking for 

Fancy Folds!

All week the design team will show you our take on this fun challenge. We hope to see you each day for new inspiration.

I fell in love with this folded frame technique when I saw it on Theresa Pollack's entry in our last challenge. "Hmm...", I thought to myself. "What can I do with this?" I pondered and poked and poked and pondered until I thought, "Ooh, even better... What would our dear distressing Gini do with this fancy fold?" Of course, light bulbs clicked on above my head as I channeled my "Inner-Gini". (Ok, so maybe I only distressed the flap edges and not the whole card, but I'm still claiming Gini. *grin*) She's got a really cool style and constantly inspires and challenges me. 

Now, before I forget or go off on a tangent, this technique can be found over at Splitcoast Stampers, an excellent resource for all kinds of new-to-me ideas.

The flaps are rolled a bit to give dimension. They're distressed with scissors and inked, and I'm still on the fence about using a brown Distress Ink on the edges. The dogwood branches were made some time last year for a scrapbook layout and never used. Now they finally have a home!

Challenges

• Stamptacular Sunday #59: Lovely As A Tree!
• City Crafter #4: Pink and Green (Ok, this might be a stretch... *grin*)
• PaperPlay #19: Brown and ?
• ABC-Challenge: U is for Unused (homemade pink dogwood branch made last year)
• Your Next Stamp #16: Cut It Out And Pop It Up
• Creative Inspirations #60: Fairies
• Pile It On #19: Photo Inspiration - I chose the pinks/greens/browns of the photo
• Practical Scrappers: Patterned Paper
  

Card Recipe

• Stamp - Magnolia's Heartbreaker Edwin
• Paper - Bazzill Basics inTruffle; Basic Grey Kioshi; Neenah for Edwin
• Medium - Prismacolor pencils with OMS; Glimmer Mist Pearl; Stickles Star Dust and Lime Green; Colorbox Chalk Ink
• Embellishments - Kaisercraft Pearls in Snow; Miscellaneous stash

Thanks so much for stopping in - I'll see you soon!

Cheers,

Susan

It's Fancy Folds Week at TBS!

Here's a peek - click the photo to see what Heartbreaker Edwin is up to; I'll be back later with all the details!

Thanks for visiting! 

Cheers,

Susan

Birthday Blog Candy!

Hello friends! It's been a fun year so far... I've passed my 2-year bloggy anniversary (March; although my first year+ is kind of sparse in the posting department); been lucky to be on design teams with fabby ladies; and watch my own card-making style evolve into something I really love. I've "met" countless wonderful people and I'm amazed every day to see your projects. I am inspired by *you* each and every day!

Since I'm looking at another candle on my cake this month, I thought I'd give *you* the presents. I know, I know, all the presents should be coming my way, right? Hahaha! Maybe I'm having a senior moment, then. (Am I allowed to blame things on "senior moments" at fabulous 42?)

Here is what I offer to you:

Blog Candy Contents

• Magnolia Ink Magazine, Fairytale Edition
• Magnolia Fairytale Tilda stamp
• Martha Stewart Heart Punch
• Prima Flutter Vine
• Yards and yards of lace (thanks to Grandma)
• Tons of mulberry flowers
• Assorted embellishments

Here's how you can become eligible - Please follow these requests!

• Post my candy on your blog - either in a post, on a sidebar or on a blog candy page (like mine, above)
• Link your Inlinkz entry below to your blog candy post or blog candy page *or* your main page if you placed my candy on your sidebar
• Look through my 2010 archives and tell me a card you really like (see sample entry at #1 below).
• Become a follower *only* if you want to keep up with me. (I would rather have real follower "friends" who like what I do and want to share what *they* do, too. I'm quirky like that! *grin*)
• Enter by May 31 at 11:59PM

So that's it. Pretty simple! This is open worldwide to everyone with blogs. I want to see you, too!

Cheers,

Susan

TBS DT: The Boys of Summer

Hello friends! I hope you had a lovely Mother's Day weekend. I cleared 4 yucky ant-attracting shrubs (viburnum)  and countless daylilies from a flower bed that will become an herb and tomato bed. Yay! I've missed fresh herbs and home grown tomatoes and really look forward to their yumminess.

This week the Beary Scrappy girls are challenged to make a project that is boy-related.  Our theme is "Sticks & Stones/For The Boys". I found this "Digital Pencil, Too" image ages ago and have looked forward to using it.

I'm really pleased with this card. Admittedly, I didn't see "boy" when I received my Pink Paislee 365 paper pack, but it worked out really well. My little baseball player is double layered - luckily it doesn't weigh him down as he sails through the air! Notice the orange "8" on his shirt? It's my homage to Cal Ripken Jr., one of baseball's greats and a hometown hero. :)

Challenges

• Sketch - err... it was Sketch and Stash #34. Y'know, the one that ended the day before I posted this card... duh! Hey, it was a great sketch!
• Crafty Ann's #14 - Anything Goes
• Cute Card Thursday #111 - Boyz to Men
• Stampin' for the Weekend - A Card for a Male
• Crafty Calendar #8 - The Great Outdoors
• Secret Crafter #82 - Recipe: 3 Embellies, 2 Papers, 1 Image
• Dare U To Digi #37 - Anything Goes
  

Card Recipe

• Stamp - Mo's Digital Pencil, Too -  Tuesday's Child
• Paper - Pink Paislee 365 Degrees from the 6x6 paper pack (love those!); Bazzill  Basics in Truffle; Neenah for the stamp
• Medium - Prismacolor pencils blended with OMS; glossy dimensional on the star
• Embellishments - Karen Foster Mini Charms - Baseball; Karen Foster Sports Mini License Plate; Bazzill Tulle in French Vanilla; Robin's Nest Dew Drops - Flame; button and raffia lace from stash

Well, that's it for me! I hope you visit the Beary Scrap Design Team blog all week for more fun and fabulous creations for the boys. Don't forget that our current challenge is on until the end of the day on May 14th. The theme is May Flowers and you can find all the details here. I hope to see you again!

OH! And be sure to come back here tomorrow to see my birthday blog candy!

Cheers,

Susan

May Flowers are Bloomin' at The Beary Scrap

Update: I'm over the moon to  announce this card won a Top 3 for the "Girly Creations" challenge at Charisma Cardz! Thank you so much ladies!

Hello friends! I hope you had a wonderful weekend. My husband and I had grand plans to do loads of yard work, but went outlet shopping instead. We have just a few more weeks before tourist season hits and travel around the Delaware/Maryland peninsula becomes difficult. At least, travel to the Delaware outlets, anyway!

You know how, every once in a while, you want to try something new in your garden? Weeelll, I'm trying something new with this week's theme. I've wanted to try homemade organza flowers for a while and decided this week was it. After all, it's...

May Flowers Week!

I cut rough flower shapes from pink fluffy organza and -using tongs- hovered it over a burning candle. It doesn't take much to curl the edges, that's for sure! Luckily, I also discovered that you can snip off the burned bits and re-curl. :) Hey, I've said it before - I'm here to make the mistakes so you don't have to!

There are 3 organza layers on each flower, all held together with a fabulous Basic Grey fabric covered brad. Once everything was tamed with the brads, I used Fabri-Tac to adhere the lace to the back. Not one to do more than necessary, I just squeezed a ring of adhesive around the back and stuck the lace to it. :)

My flower stalks are made from May Arts leaf ribbon - how cool is this ribbon? Sadly, I couldn't capture how well the flowers and leaves pop off the page - holding this card is definitely a different experience than viewing it on screen. :)

Card Recipe

• Paper - Bazzill Truffle; Basic Grey Kioshi "Lily Child" and "Motochi"

• Embellishments - Homemade flowers (Squee! I made 'em!); Basic Grey Kioshi Stitched Brads; May Arts leaf ribbon; Pearls from stash

Challenges

• Papertake Weekly - Do Something Different
• Sweet Stampin Challenge - It's Summertime!  
• Creative Card Crew #49 - April Showers Bring May Flowers
• Alota Rubber Stamps #34 - Flowers
• Charisma Cardz #17 - Girly with Flowers
• Crafty Angels #33 - Recipe: 3 flowers, 2 papers, 1 ribbon 
• My Partner In Crafting Crime #1 - Anything Goes! 
• Cute Card Thursday #110 - Make Your Own!

Have you seen our Beary Sweet Challenge #1? The challenge theme is "May Flowers" and all week you can view inspiration projects on our design team blog. Enter your project here any time before the end of the day on May 14th and you could win!

Oh! And definitely don't forget to enter our blog candy by Wednesday, May 5th. The prize is incredible!

Thanks for stopping in. I hope you check the design team blog tomorrow to see Kimm's wonderful project!

Cheers,

Susan

CLP #25 DT

Hello friends! Today is May 1st and time for the Crafting Life's Pieces monthly sketch challenge. If you've read my ramblings for a while you'll know I am a huge fan of Chelsea's sketches, and I'm very pleased to be on the inaugural Crafting Life's Pieces Design Team. Whoo hoo!

I've used one of Chelsea's Gurlee Girl stamps, called "Kisses Girl". Isn't she adorable?

I've used Basic Grey's Urban Prairie "Monarch" paper as embellishments on the front and inside - the butterflies are pretty cool! I painted them with Pearl Glimmer Mist - a very subtle effect that doesn't show up well here. That's what our imagination is for, right? *wink*

Here is Chelsea's wonderful sketch - please pop on over to the CLP Challenge Blog to see the other team member samples and play along!

Card Recipe

• Stamp  - Gurlee Girl "Kisses Girl"
• Paper - Bazzill; Basic Grey Urban Prairie collection - Monarch, Bountiful; Basic Grey Bittersweet "Mousse"
• Medium - Prismacolor pencils with OMS; Stickles; Glimmer Mist
• Embellishments - Prima rose; all others from stash

Challenges

• CLP #25 - Sketch
• Creative Card Crew #49 - April Showers Bring May Flowers
• Alota Rubber Stamps #34 - Flowers
• Charisma Cardz #17 - Girly Card with Flowers
• Creative Inspiration #58 - Easel Card 
• Paper Play #17 - Pretty Pastel
• Creatalious Challenge #9 - Flowers and Wings
•  Basic Grey #19 - Photo Inspiration (little girly doll, hearts, pink & blue)

Thanks so much for stopping in - you make my day!

Cheers,
Susan