A Shabby-Chic Spring Birthday

Hello friends, I hope your weekend has been a wonderful one...before the grind begins yet again! ;) I got a late start to my craft room today but once I gazed at all the awe inspiring creations from the design team ladies of the 5 challenges I've entered at the end of my post, I had get crafty too! Hope you click on the links to play along--there's just so much stunning inspiration, fun challenges and goodies too! Gotta love it :) Also, I've been itching to ink up my brand new My Creative Time "Hello Spring" stamp set, one of Miss Emma's most sensational stamp sets to date--- so here it is!

 I'm actually quite pleased with my card because I've been in awe of many ladies cards I've seen lately that have this amazing shabby-chic feel and seem to be chocked full of glorious flowers, ribbons and gorgeous trims, lace and have an all-around beautiful vintage-style feel to them. But my budget is tight at the moment and I'm not able to splurge on all of these lovely, yet expensive embellishments--soooo I decided to try to create my own with supplies I already have--and Lord knows I have enough! I used some Fresh Cuts images from Rebecca Sower that I've had for seriously, like 10 years for my flowers. I had some kind of fun distressing and sponging the flowers and leaves and tried to create more dimension with buttons, brads, lace trim and twine.

I'm trying hard to improve my coloring skills and along with my limited budget (ugh, I hate that word lol) I have a limited amount of Copic markers, which can make blending difficult when creating that look you really want with depth and dimension. So I'm working with what I have right now and after watching Annika Ryan's coloring tutorials over at Kenny K. Downloads, I tried to apply some of her tips, which I've accomplished at only a very elementary level. Annika is a master at coloring, a true artist, and she explains the the process with easy-to-follow steps as she's coloring an image, showing each copic color (this is how I know that I need ALOT more Copics! Lol) Anyway, she's just amazing and so humble--she actually says during her tutorial that her way isn't necessarily the right way and someone else's is probably much better......pshhhh WHATEVA!!! If you wanna watch a master at work, check her out--just sayin cus I learned alot just by watching those and I stink at coloring! But practice makes perfect, I suppose! :) I really enjoyed creating my card today, I found it very soothing and I hope you have enjoyed taking a peek too!

Chicks in egg from MCT Hello Spring, Birthday sentiment from MCT All Around Birthday. You can't really see it in the picture, but the chicks are attached with homemade "wiggle wire" and adds a lil extra fun. I made my first wiggle wire card recently using Amy's blog "Love To Crop" and her wonderful Wiggle Wire Tutorial. Totally addicted now! :D You should visit Amy's blog for some supah sweet inspiration, she rocks my crafty world!

I've entered this card into the following challenges:

Paper Sundaes Challenge #108- BIRTHDAYS!

 Card And Scrap flow challenge #26-BUTTONS

Crafter's Companion #21-ANYTHING GOES

Repeat Impressions DCC215 Designer's Choice Challenge-LEFTOVERS!

Truly Scrumptious Challenge #74- All Things Great and Small

Thanks for stopping by my blog and I'm sorry for the long ramblings tonight lol!!! Big Hugs and Crafty Dreams to all!!! xoxo

Happy Weekend, Let's Party!

Hello my crafty peeps, happy Saturday! Here is a fun Birthday Party themed project I made for the Cooking With Cricut 2012 design team call. Of course, my Cricut Expression was the main tool I worked with and also a variety of other supplies.  Just a few ideas for creating your own birthday party masterpiece! Hope you enjoy! And click above if you would like to apply for the new DT too--there's still 1 more day to do so (nothin like procrastination haha!)

**Simple Tip: make your own custom confetti with mini punches and/or small cut Cricut shapes--I call it FUN-fetti!

 3-D flower centerpiece designed with "Sweet Treats", place card party hats and centerpiece sentiment from "Birthday Cakes" (Cricut Cake cartridge)

Clear plastic treat boxes from Denami Designs, small and lg oval punches from SU!, "For You" sentiment Teeny Tag Greetings from MCT

Party hats and flower elements were embossed with Cuttlebug's "Swiss Dots" and "Divine Swirls" embossing folders.

Circle sentiment from "All Around Birthday" and Lollipop Holder Die both from MCT

There ya have it! I hope you've been inspired today, as I always am by YOU too! Enjoy the rest of your weekend, my friends!

Throwback Thursday with My Creative Time!

Welcome to another Throwback Thursday Challenge! This is one week before My Creative Time's November happening next Friday, Nov. 18th! So, you know what that means.... right? That means if you participate in this challenge, you will have the "Golden opportunity" to qualify to win the ENTIRE release next week! This is probably the BEST release to date!;) The deadline for this challenge will be on Wed, Nov. 16th! So you only have one week to complete your projects in order to qualify! Good Luck!:)

Now, for our challenge, we should make a "kid friendly" card or project! You can use a "Kid Friendly" cartridge--any Disney, create a critter, nursery tails.... etc...........the challenge should be for all of us to create a card or a layout or a treat bag........ for a CHILD! Feel free to use any of Emma's stamp sets of your choice!  I inked up My Creative Time's All Around Accessories (cupcake) and All Around Birthday Time (sentiment) in pretty in pink to make a cute birthday card for my niece's upcoming 4th birthday. I used the Scallop & Stitched Circle Dies for the circle sentiment and added a purple bling flower to the center.  I applied white paint to the cupcake topping and sprinkled white chunky glitter on top. The candle is highlighted with silver pen (even though you can't see it here) and a bit of ribbon to finish.

I hope you have time to join in our Throwback Thursday challenge this week too! I can't wait to see what you create! Thanks for visiting today my creative friends!

My BIG Announcement!

This is a very happy day for me indeed! If you are new to my blog, hello! My name is Linsey, I have been papercrafting for as long as I can remember and fell in love with stamping some 4 years ago. I  enjoy creating handmade gifts and I love thrift store shopping for anything I can get my hands on to alter!  I am  a Cricut junkie all the way. My Expression, Cuttlebug and of course, trusty Gyspy are my best friends in my lil world-o-crafting! These tools combined with My Creative Time stamps makes for a beautiful relationship!

Well, I am nearly bursting with joy to announce that I am a new design team member for MY CREATIVE TIME! Emma V. Aguilar is a most incredible artist, Gyspy extraordaire and also owner and designer of the delightful My Creative Time stamp line.  It is a tremendous honor to be a part of this stellar team of designers and I am seriously pinching myself just to make sure that this is REAL!!! I know that Emma's fans are some of the most talented, fun and kind-hearted people in the crafting world and I can't wait to make many new friends, have tons of fun and laughs and be as inspired by YOU as I hope to be during my wonderful adventure with My Creative Time!
Here is my very first ever card stamped with Emma's stamps! These stamps are amazing, for real--they are etched from polymer of the highest quality--I know this because probably like yourself, I own many many stamps from many different companies and Emma's transfer ink so beautifully and clean to your paper, you hardly even need to clean the stamp afterwards, no kidding! I love that. Below, I played with All Around Accessories and All Around Birthday Time to create a fun dinosaur bday card for my nephew This is called a "telescoping card" and I simply followed Beate's easy tutorial HERE to make my own.  I love the versatility of Emma's sets, they mix n match so well together, it's super easy to coordinate images and sentiments from different sets into one project!

 Thanks so much for visiting me and allowing me to share my news! I look forward to what I know will be an unbelievable journey with My Creative Time and with YOU!
In celebration of My Creative Time and my happy news, I wanted to share a lil bit of crafty joy with you!
**BLOG CANDY TIME** Comment below and I will pick 1 random person to win the Just Because Cards Cricut Cartridge tonight at Midnight. Now that's worth celebrating, right?!

Hope you have a DINO-MITE day!