LLLC - Photo Inspiration Challenge...

Hi, everyone! This week, the team at La-La Land Crafts is using a photo as our inspiration challenge, with colors that you've seen me use often!

This card...

was inspired by the colors in this challenge photo:

Across the card front, the Large Lacy Border Die and Small Lacy Border add a wonderful textural lacy look...and the Feathers Die is becoming one of my new favorites to use as an accent...

I used quite a bit of foam tape to accommodate the layering of the small tags beneath the center strip...

The Cherry Blossom flowers are accented with leaves from the Berry Flourish, loopy twine bows, and pearls (with a bit of cheesecloth beneath them for more texture). I colored the flowers just a bit brighter using Dried Marigold Distress Ink, so they'd stand out a bit more from the subtle background colors...

Supplies:

LLLC Dies:  Large Lacy Border,  Small Lacy Border,  Feathers,  Cherry Blossom Flowers,  Berry Flourish

Patterned papers:  Graphic 45 Couture collection (aquas) and Ladies Diary (coral dot);   

K& Co Ancestry collection (brown)

Pearls:   Recollections            Miscellaneous:   cheesecloth,  twine

Thanks for visiting today. I hope you'll visit the  La-La Land Crafts inspiration blog to see the projects my teammates have made for this week's challenge.

LOTV - And the Winner Is...

Happy Friday, everyone...and what a fun way to end the week by announcing that the winner of the drawing for the LOTV blog hop prize of a full set of the newly released stamps is.....

Sharon!

Sharon's name was chosen from the comments left on Mindy's blog.  Congratulations, Sharon!

I wish you all a wonderful weekend!

LLLC - For The Boys

Good Wednesday to you all!  If you came by for the LOTV blog hop, please scroll down just past this post to find the hop. But then please come back up to check out this week's designer inspiration challenge at La-La Land Crafts  - "For the Boys."

I've mentioned often that masculine cards are harder for me...I'm a frilly, flowery card-makin' girl. :) But thanks to a few newly-released LLLC dies, today's card was a fun and relatively quick one to put together!

Across the front, the newly released Stitched Zig Zags add a sturdy masculine accent, and at the top, the newly-released Tools Border Die also helps to break up the "square-ness" of the card. With both dies, I shaded using a Stabilo All pencil to give a little bit of shadowing and dimension (you'll see some shadow layering on some of the other die cuts below)...

Flowers don't usually appeal to the boys, so instead, there's a large button with a loopy twine bow that sits in the center of a cluster, and is accented with some of the tool punchouts from the Tools Border Die at the top...

and feathers cut from the newly-released Feathers Set - the edges of the feathers are accented with black ink and white craft paint...

Last but not least, the sentiment is stamped onto a banner from the Stitched Elements Set ...

Supplies:

LLLC Dies:   Stitched Zigzags,  Tools Border,  Feathers,  Stitched Elements

Patterned paper:  Basic Grey Manila Basics collection

Black gems:   Kaisercraft            Miscellaneous:   cheesecloth,  button,  twine

Thanks so much for visiting today. I hope you can take some time to visit the LLLC inspiration blog to see what my teammates have made for this week's challenge.

LOTV - Hope Your Dreams Come True...

Hi, everyone! Sorry for the irregular blog posting schedule these days...crafting is still happening, though, and soon I'll get caught up!

Today is a fun blog hop with my Lili of the Valley teammates, to give you a peek at some of the wonderful new stamps that will be available in the shop on January 31.  There are new rubber stamps, and clear stamps, 2 sets of cute mini images, and some fairy sentiments (one of which I've used on my card).

As always, there's a prize up for grabs...one lucky commenter will be picked at random to receive a set of all the new stamps in this release. But we on the team don't know whose blog the lucky commenter will be chosen from, so to increase your chances of winning, be sure to leave a comment on all the participating blogs!

The winning name will be pulled on Friday, so check back here then to see who the lucky one is.

In the meantime, here's a full linked-up list of the participating blogs...hop them all and have some fun!

Andrea

Anne

Becky

Dawny

Fleur

Gretha

Jen

Kathy (you're here! :))

Lou

Mary

Mindy

So here's my card for today. You might remember that my focus on the team are the sentiment stamps and papers, so for this card, I chose one of the larger sentiments from the new Little Fairies clear stamp sheet as the main focal point, and backed it with one of the pretty spring-colored papers from the Butterfly Kisses paper pad. In fact, it was the name of the paper pad that gave me the idea for the theme of this card, and inspired me to use the butterfly die border...

I die cut the border on both the front and back of the card, and on the front only, diecut more pieces of the butterflies and flowers in pink as an accent...that way I could turn up the butterfly wings slightly on the front piece for a bit of fun dimension and use the diecut edge on the back as a "shadow cut" when the card is closed...

There's a bit more double-die-cutting around the pretty sentiment with the frame die. The frame die is cut in both green and white, then alternated, with the white "negative space" portion used for the sentiment, and the white frame portion used beneath the green, offset just a bit to add a white shadow...

The sentiment frame is bordered beneath with bows, flowers, and pearls...

Supplies:

LOTV Patterned Papers:   Butterfly Kisses

LOTV Sentiment Stamps:  *new* Little Fairies Clear Stamp

Dies:   Memory Box Kensington Border and Tiffany Frame;   Poppy Stamps Massa Leaf Background

Lace:   TheFunkieJunkie.com            Flowers:   Wild Orchid Crafts            Pearls:   Recollections

Miscellaneous:   twine,  white craft paint

Here's a pic of some of the new stamps that are coming out in this new release...

And don't forget about these, coming soon,  if you're a needlecrafter!...

Thank you for stopping by for a visit...and have fun hopping!

LLLC - Funky Colors...

Hi, everyone! We have another fun designer inspiration challenge this week at La-La Land Crafts and it's the use of "funky colors."

I used the colors in the scalloped patterned paper as inspiration today, and here's the fun card I ended up with...

On the right side, I took inspiration from the scallops on the paper and stacked a couple pieces of the Scallop Border Die for a fun accent.

The edges of the new Heart Fan Die are accented with Stardust Stickles, then the fan was pleated before adhering it to the front above the flowers...

The flowers are made with the Cherry Blossom Flowers Die Set and sit on top of a turquoise Berry Flourish...

And on the sides, pieces cut from the new Small Lacy Border Die are trimmed with tiny pearls (there's also a tiny pleated piece of this die tucked in at the top with the Heart Fan and cheesecloth)...

Supplies:

LLLC Dies:   Heart Fan,  Scallop Border,  Berry Flourish,  Cherry Blossom Flowers,  Small Lacy Border

Patterned papers:   Kaisercraft "Spring Bloom" collection

Pearls:  Recollections and Paper Studio            Miscellaneous:   cheesecloth,  Stardust Stickles

Thank you for visiting today...I hope you'll take a moment to visit the LLLC inspiration blog to see what my teammates have made for this week's challenge!

What a Great Friend...

Happy Monday, everyone! Today's card is just a bit of a different style for me. I have a crafty friend who's a whiz at a style called "freestyle collage."  She's able to take bits and pieces of seemingly unrelated papers and embellishments, and transform them in a wonderful, eclectic way so they all fall into place to form a fun, "pulled together" piece.

I'm not able to pull that style off as well as she does, but every now and then I like to give it a try - especially when I find some patterned papers that lend themselves to it so well that I have no excuse but to make it work...or at least make the attempt. LOL

All those small pieces behind the sentiment block piece were from another patterned paper piece in the same collection as the paper piece with the flowers and bird  (so I guess I kind of "cheated" a bit while collecting the ephemera to use on the card...heehee), and tucked behind the sentiment, they add a nice bit of dimension and "shabby" feel to the card. 

That upper right corner looked a little empty to me, so I pulled out a stencil and some modeling paste and added some small textural dots up there - I guess I added a little "mixed media" into my version of "freestyle," too!

Here are a few closeups of the bows and flowers...

Supplies:

Patterned papers:   Kaisercraft "Telegraph Road" collection (6x6)

Sentiment stamp:   My Favorite Things "Forget Me Not"

Stencil:   Stampers Anonymous/Tim Holtz "Dot Fade"            Die:   Spellbinders "Foliage Two"

Pearls:   Recollections            Flowers:   Wild Orchid Crafts            Lace:  TheFunkieJunkie.com

Miscellaneous:   Golden modeling paste,  white twine,  cheesecloth,   Hug Snug seam binding

Thanks so much for visiting today...I hope your week is starting with a smile!