TBS DT: You're The Cherry On Top!

Hello hello dear friends! Whew - can't believe it's already Monday. Weekend was crazy busy at our house and I'm glad for a Monday break. :)

I am the "caboose" on our Beary Sweet "Friendship or Love" challenge. Today is the last bit of inspiration before a new challenge starts on our design team blog tomorrow. I consider this card 'light and airy' compared to my other samples. It's pretty versatile, don'tcha think?

It's the first time I've inked up a stamp in weeks - can you believe it? Sweet Tilda is a single layer... *gasp!* It's kind of refreshing to make a single layer image. Not sure how often I'll do it this way, but I do like this one! :)

All of the glitter detail (banners, dots, bird, etc.) is Stickles - the paper isn't glittered. I know! MME putting out a paper without glitter - what's up with that? Hee hee. This Tickled Pink line is absolutely adorable!

Challenges, Please

• Papertake Weekly #52 (1/31) - Sketch (love this!)
• Creative Prompts #50 (1/31) - Merry-Go-Round of Color! (This is such a fabulously creative challenge blog - check 'em out!)

Card Recipe

• Stamp: Magnolia
• Paper: Bazzill Basics in Ruby Red; My Mind's Eye/Fine and Dandy/Tickled Pink in the 6x6 pad
• Medium: Copics for skin; Ranger Distress Ink in Worn Lipstick topped with a little Antique Linen to tone down the pink; Glimmer Mist in Pearl (on the flowers); Stickles Glitter Glue in Star Dust, Fruit Punch, Cotton Candy, Aqua
• Embellishments: My Mind's Eye/Fine and Dandy/Tickled Pink blue felt ric-rac; computer-made ticket printed on paper from the Tickled Pink pad; all others from stash
• Adhesives: Scor-Tape; Glue Dots 1/2" Pop Up Dots; and Glossy Accents
• Tools: Scor-Pal

Thanks so much for visiting me today. If you wish to enter your project in our "Friendship or Love" challenge you have until midnight EST. If the LinkyTool expires before that time, just add your link in the comments and I'll sort it out. :)

Tomorrow begins our next challenge with a spiffy new sketch and another $20 gift voucher prize. I'm sure Gini will wow and inspire you with her design team sample!

Don't forget that almost everything at The Beary Scrap is at least 20% off every day. A delicious assortment of German Glass Glitter arrived recently, as did all the new Stickles colors. Speaking of new, check out the Pre-Order section to snag the 12 new Copic colors at 25% off.

Cheers,
Susan

What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday #86

Oh my, it's still Wednesday, right? Sheesh. Dinner is cooking and I just remembered about the WOYWW photo I took this morning. Where does the time go?

I abandoned the work desk shortly after snapping this with my phone. I'm pretty sure it looks that way now, too. So, I changed things around a bit recently so the workspace is bigger. More room to spread out and maybe I won't use the floor as much... ha! Like that'll happen. The far left corner holds the Pile Of Stuff The Will Never Be Put Away. As it grows I'm forced to deal with things that fall off, but otherwise it's always there. I can't tell you what is on the bottom because I don't know.

The heart on the craft mat is from a T!m grunge pack. I painted it... then painted it with crackle paint... then slathered on Glossy Accents. It's drying in the photo. I'm not sure what else I could do to it... I'll put it behind the cage and throw away the key. There's a sentiment or quote "out there" about caged or locked-up hearts. Fore the life of me I can't find it/them.

See the bin of ribbon next to the open drawer*? I just got my first stash of crinkled seam binding from a fabby Etsy shop - Prairie Bird Boutique. It's so pretty I don't want to put it away.

*Open Drawer Syndrome - if you ask my husband, it's an incurable sickness *I* have from which *he* suffers greatly. I have bouts of it in the kitchen and bathroom, too. He's a good egg and shuts them behind me.

Thanks for visiting my work desk - you can have a snoop at tons of fabulous spaces at Stamping Ground.

Cheers,
Susan

{Share} Card Watermark

Hi crafty friends! I had the best intentions of sharing this a while back, but, you know, life got in the way.

I sell my cards through Etsy, and have a couple of very nice customers who order regularly outside of Etsy. I've never been satisfied with the way I identify my projects as mine once they get out into the "real world". Sometimes I would sign my name, other times I would write "Killam Creative".

Last November-ish Whimsy Stamps was have a sale on their custom stamps and I worked with designer Ann Vento to come up with a beautiful solution for me to watermark the backs of my cards. I'm tickled with it!

Here's the final mock-up:

Here's the watermark in action:

I use Versamark ink which will create the watermark on any colored paper. (One of my goals is to get that website up and running properly... now that it's on a stamp I shouldn't daudle, eh?)

So, that's all! If you are interested in viewing all the awesome custom choices, check out Whimsy Stamps HERE.

Cheers,
Susan

TBS DT: I Adore You

Hello dear friends! I hope you had a great weekend. We had arctic temperatures here on the Eastern Shore. Brr! I'm feeling *really* lucky to have the new furnace. (Yep - the old one died and we were able to replace it right before our HVAC guy went on a Caribbean cruise.)

As you know we're smack in the middle of our current Beary Sweet Challenge - "Love or Friendship". While you're working on your fabulous entries the design team is adding a little bam! to our "love or friendship" projects in the form of a heart shape. 

My card is made almost entirely of My Mind's Eye's Union Square paper and embellishments. Oh how I love this whole MME Lost and Found Collection! Besides Union Square, there are three more lines I haven't even touched yet. I can't wait!

The background paper is "Birds of a Feather" dry embossed with a Cuttlebug folder, and the Love layer is simply cut from the 12x12 Love Glitter Paper. The rosette, banner (also dry embossed with a Cuttlebug folder) and pearly brads are from Union Square accessory packs.

On the inside is a Spellbinders-cut panel edged in red Stickles. The top flap with the red banner is just the top left corner of the same 12x12 paper from which I cut the "Love". The "I Adore You" die cut panel and mini pearly brads are also from Union Square accessory packs.

Challenges, Please

• Order of the Opus Gluei #87 (1/29) - Key to your heart
• Bunny Zoe's #8 (2/13) - Love is in the air

Card Recipe

• Paper - My Mind's Eye/Lost & Found/Union Square; Bazzill Basics in Mud Pie
• Medium - Distress Ink in Walnut Stain; Stickles in Red
• Embellishments - Union Square assorted accessory packs - die cuts, 3D, brads; Pearl pins, lace doily, lace scraps and heart bauble from stash
• Adhesive - Glue Dots - 1/2" Pop Up; Scor-Tape; other from stash
• Tools - Scor-Pal; Spellbinders Nestabilities; Cuttlebug embossing folders

Thanks so much for visiting us today! Tomorrow Gini will have more inspiration, and we all hope you can join us for our Beary Sweet Challenge #18: Friendship or Love. It's open until January 31st and you could win a $20 gift voucher from The Beary Scrap!

Cheers,

Susan

I'm positively vibrating with excitement for my DT sister!

Big huge monster congratulations to my Beary Scrap design team sister Gini Cagle Williams on her win of the Spellbinders "To Die For" grand prize. Gini is so talented and makes wondrous art with Spellbinders and Heartfelt Creations dies that I couldn't think of a better winner. Congratulations sweetie!

Also, dear Gini has made it to the Cosmo Cricket Top 10 and needs your vote! One of those lucky ladies will be chosen as a new Cosmo Cricket DT, and since she's "family" I'm asking you to reach out and give her your vote. Check out the Cosmo Cricket blog and you'll see the poll on the right sidebar. Click on Gini Cagle and I'd be ever so grateful!

Cheers,
Susan

TBS DT: Tag, You're It

Hello friends! I hope you had a swell weekend. I'm not really sure what we did... oh, right... took down the Christmas trees and decorations and stored 'em away for another year. Post Christmas shopping found a great ornament organizer that now hold scads of glass ornaments without a single piece of tissue wrap. Yay! Besides carrying the bins from the attic to the first floor, the "job" we hated the most was unwrapping (and rewrapping) all those darn keepsakes. Now we can decorate directly from the trays and have more time for eggnog. *wink*

This week the Beary Scrap design team will show you new interpretations of our BSC #17 Sketch Challenge. We're also adding a "new" element to our projects:

Sketch Plus Something New 

Everyone who comes to see my newest colored Magnolias will think I've fallen off my rocker this week. I'm OK, really! I've always been a fan of collage style and especially like what Tim Holtz has to offer our crafty community. I'm hugely inspired by vintage - be it ephemera or textiles, new or reproduction, I'm all over it. You might have seen oversized tags on blogs throughout the internet over the Christmas season - mostly inspired by the very same Tim Holtz. With this project I've dipped my toe in the water. My "new" is a tag shape made with a new Tim Holtz die!

Kinda cool, no? All of the papers are My Mind's Eye Union Square, from the beautiful and brilliant "Lost and Found" series.The "Home is a Little Slice of Heaven" die cut is from the Union Square accessory sheet. The pointing hand brad is from the same line (although the brad pack is currently sold out - sorry!).

I have to share a happy accident. The tag was assembled with Frosted Lace Stickles on the top flourish. I decided it needed to be a little flashier and added a layer of Platinum Stickles and used a heat gun to dry it. Little did I know that the heat gun was also doing interesting things to the Bazzill tulle! It curled edges and made much of the tulle wavy - luckily I caught it before it burned the edges brown. I like the tattered effect!

This was a really simple project to conceive, and agonizing to finish. I'm still thinking I need to balance the glitter swirl on the top with a touch of the same on the bottom. What do you think? I'm open to suggestions!

Challenges, Please

• Flourishes Bring Back Beautiful #6 (1/31): The Beauty of Vintage (Tatting lace is vintage)
• Die Cut Dreams (1/16): Quotes

Card Recipe

• Paper - My Mind's Eye Lost and Found, Union Square line: "Home Sweet Home" tag paper; "Favorite"- red circle layer and embossed layer under the "home" die cut
• Medium - Distress Ink in Walnut; Stickles; Glimmer Mist in Suede - spritzed the red and ivory corner tulle bits to "dirty them up"
• Embellishments - MME Lost and Found, Union Square line: Glittered Accessory Sheet; Bazzill Basics Tulle (in stock but not on the site - email Kimm for more info if you would like to get some in your hot little hands); metal bits from my stash; vintage tatting lace from my much-coveted stash
• Adhesive - Scor-Tape; 1/2" Glue Dots; Fabri-Tac

That's it for me! Please come back throughout the week to see new samples for our sketch challenge by all the fabulous design team. You can get all the details and enter your own creation by clicking on the sketch below. You could win a $20 gift voucher from the Beary Scrap! 

Cheers,

Susan

TBS DT: Santa Edwin is Checking His List

Hello hello! Wow, it's already January 3rd - what's up with that? Time, she is a-flying'! I hope you had a happy New Year weekend. Husband and I had a quiet one - just like we like it!

We started a new Beary Sweet challenge on Saturday, and since it's the 1st of the month, you know what that means: 

It's Beary Sweet Sketch Time!

I have one last Christmas card to share with you. I know, I know, you're probably all Christmas'd out and well on your way to Valentines, Mardi Gras and Easter. I made this card back in mid-December for a customer using our January sketch. Time saver!

Isn't Edwin the cutest? I love him, and admit that the Magnolia chair with letters to Santa was difficult. How does one color white envelopes? I used a combination of french grays with a little yellow-ish. I used Distress paint in Rock Candy for a subtle texture... not fabulous, but effective. 

What *is* fabulous is the Echo Park papers. Once again those EP folks have hit it out of the park - I can only ask/plead/beg them to print 6x6 versions of their papers in the future. They've done it on some of the collections and I look forward to more for my smaller canvases!

Of course it's an easel card. I really like this style to show off the details. This Naughty or Nice list includes the actual recipient of this card - dear young Wesly. I purposely left the space next to his name blank, as if Santa Edwin hasn't decided about Wesly yet. What a fun little surprise for a 5 year old!

Card Recipe

• Stamp - Magnolia Santa Edwin and Christmas chair
• Paper - Bazzill Basics in Mud Pie, French Vanilla; Echo Park  "Merry Christmas" in Holly Berry (both sides) and Winter Wonderland
• Medium - Copic skin tones; Prismacolor pencils with OMS; Stickles in Star Dust, Diamond and Crystal;  Glossy Accents on the envelope seals; Distress Crackle Paint in Rock Candy; ColorBox Fluid Chalk Ink in Chestnut Roan
• Embellishments - lace, tinsel, gems from stash
• Adhesives/Tools - Scor-Tape; Cuttlebug script embossing folder

Here's the challenge sketch - don't ya wanna play? *grin* You could win a $20 gift voucher from The Beary Scrap!

Thanks so much for visiting today!

Cheers,
Susan