Monday, April 30, 2012

Karber DT Card of the Week: Aquarius!

This week for my Karber design team card I used the Aquarius digi for their Zodiac line. Isn't she cute with her Snorkel gear on? I added a die cut doily, some orange baker's twine, and some neat self sticky turquoise round sparkle embellishments. I edged everything with a Tim Holtz ink from his winter line. I Copic colored her and made her snorkel mask orange and her bathing suit aqua. I left out the bubbles as I ran out of room, sadly.

An all new Karber Challenge starts on the first. Be sure to enter!


Also don't forget that Karber has an all new Flickr Group, be sure to check it out! Periodically the owners of Karber will be picking random winners for prizes, as well as guest design team spots to those who upload to their Flickr group page!!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Inky and glittery fingers for all!
-Gaby

Made Especially For You: Color Challenge!

Above is the color pallet for this week's challenge at Made Especially For You's weekly challenge. Pretty, yea? I love this color pallet so much and have a lot of papers in my stash with them!
Here's what I came up with. I'm a Facebook a-holic and I found theses Like stamps at Thing Geek, it also came with a dislike stamp. It was pretty much the only thing I used that wasn't in the pallet scheme, but I felt that it made it stand out more. :) I used stickers for most of the card's embellishments, which I hardly ever do. Was fun and fast! The girl raised sticker is from Amy Tangerine and the letter stickers are from Doodlebug. I stamped the News Print Hero Art's stamp in brown Memento ink on the pale blue paper and love how it looks. Chocolate and light blues together make me happy! I also wrapped a linen thread bow around the green cardstock to even out the dimension from the Amy Tangerine sticker. All the papers were edged in my trusty and always faithful, Tim Holtz Vintage Photo.


This week's sponsor is Di's Digi Downloads. The randomly selected winner will receive a $10 gift card to use at her store!



Thank you so much for stopping by my blog today. I also wanted to thank Ashley from Made Especially For You for the amazing opportunity she gave me by choosing me for the design team! I also want to thank the other amazing DT members for all the good times we had. The past three months have been so inspiring and I've had so much fun! This will be my last project with the Design Team as I am stepping down from my spot on the team. I will definitely be checking in as time permits to enter some of their awesome challenges.

Inky and glittery fingers for all!
-Gaby

Sunday, April 29, 2012

CAS-ual Fridays CFC50




This is my card for the CAS-ual Friday's Challenge this week. I don't know why, but I have a really hard time photographing white cards, so please excuse my poor photography skills today. I posted two photos in hopes of it helping to see my card better. I stamped six flowers from the Flutter By set from Lawn Fawn and colored them with Copics in pale teal and purple hues. I placed clear gems in the centers of the purple flowers. I outlined the layer with teal woodgrain washi tape from Amy Tangerine and added a sentiment flag with a sentiment from the same stamp set hanging slightly off the edge of the card base.

Thank you so much for stopping by my blog today!

inky and glittery fingers for all!
-Gaby

Saturday, April 28, 2012

I am pleased to announce I am now a memeber of the all new Ginger Snap Scraps design team!

Good Saturday, blogger friends! I am so excited to be able to announce I am on the new design team for Ginger Snap Scraps! They're an all new paper craft store with awesome customer service that carries all my favorite brands!! They're friendly and ship super fast! And now they have a design team to show case all of the many companies they carry! They carry brands like Lawn Fawn, My Mind's Eye, Crate Paper, Tim Holtz, Provo Craft, Copic, La-La Land, and soooo many more! They even have the new Limited Edition Tim Holtz Spring distress ink pack and re-inkers! From now till Monday April 30th you can get 10% off your entire order (except for Provo Craft) using promo code: CelebrateDT ...be sure to let them know I sent you!

The card in this post is one I made for my application for the DT using mostly Lawn Fawn and Tim Holtz distress inks. We all know how much Gaby loves her Lawn Fawn and Tim Holtz goodness! :)


Click the banner above and it will take you directly to the store.

Inky and glittery fingers for all!
-Gaby

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Inspired Stamps Weekly DT Card



This week the design team was given free reign when making our weekly projects. I hadn't done a scripture card in what seems like forever, so I chose to make a card with Isaiah 30:15. I also added some flags with words stamped on them from the Fruitful Flourishes set with my Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher. I made the colorful base out of Washi tapes placed diagonally on a scrap piece of cardstock. Then I took a circle Nestabilities and ran it through my Cuttlebug to cut a frame for the scripture. Before adhering the frame to the Kraft card base, I embossed the scripture with white embossing powder ...albeit a little off center, sorry about that!

Next week will be the new release reveal over at the Inspired Stamps Blog and you won't want to miss it! There will be some awesome giveaways and some beautiful work to inspire you from my fellow designers!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Inky and glittery fingers for all!
-Gaby



Entered into: Party Time Tuesday's Anything goes + Kraft challenge.

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Sweet Stamping Treats: all about baby week


This week at Sweet Stamping Treats the design team was asked to make a card about a baby. I chose to use an unconventional image for a baby card, but turn it into something that would work. I love how it looks as if the birds were getting ready to expand their nest for the new arrival. I die cut this super cute card base on my Silhouette and lined the inside with some Doodlebug swimming pool tiny dots cardstock. This way the cute polka dots peeked through the heart and also provided a cute space to write on inside. I Copic colored the image and made the branches a tad thicker by running different brown colors over them to make fussy cutting easier. The finishing touch was a Lawn Fawn sentiment on a flag underneath the birdies.

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today!

Inky and glittery fingers for all!
-Gaby

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

CAS-ual Fridays: CFC49 Challenge


Here's my entry for this week's CAS-ual Fridays sketch challenge. I chose to use two die cuts with boarders I cut out on my Silhouette for the shapes on my sketch. Inside the frames I stamped a sun and a rain cloud from Lawn Fawn that I Copic colored and paper pieced. Stamped the sentiment on the bottom with a heart, then added a strip of Washi tape.



Here's the sketch, click it to take you to the official challenge if you'd like to play along! :)

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today!

Inky and glittery CAS fingers for all!
-Gaby

Monday, April 23, 2012

Made Especially For You: Earth Day Challenge

This week at Made Especially For You we're celebrating Earth Day by making cards with recycled materials.  My recycled (or as I like to call it, up-cycled) material was some packaging from a Nestabilities die cutting template.  I cut it with my paper trimmer (I have a cheap-o $14 one, I think pretty much any one would work) and then ran it through my cuttle bug with the Swiss Dots embossing folder.  I added a little bit of Frost Blue Copic marker re-inking ink on the back of the sheet to give the little dot grooves a hint of blue.  Since it's alcohol based it will cling to the plastic pretty well. For the stamping I used one of the Sweet Stamp Shop's sets called Happy Bugs, isn't that lady bug adorable? It comes with a separate stamp for the wings that I stamped on velum with Stazon silver ink and paper pieced onto the ladybug. I put a little gem in the center to hide the glue. I added washi tape to the edges of the plastic to also hide the glue and I really like how it looks! When working with clear or see through papers you have to become a little creative to hide the adhesives. Though I did hear there's a new tape runner specifically made to use with vellum, but I like a challenge! :)

Here's the official deets for the challenge:

Challenge runs from now till April 29th

Create a card using a recycled material (for Earth Day! :) You could use old book pages, bottle caps, newspaper, basically anything that has been used before and is now being re-used on your card)

Sponsor: Jessica's Craft Shaque

Prize: Winner will receive a set of decorative corsage pins


create your own banner at mybannermaker.com!

I'm also entering this into Sweet Stamp Shop's current challenge on their blog.

The details for this challenge is to use one of their new releases from either their March or April releases. The project must be new and you also have to attach their logo to your blog post as seen above. :) Be sure to check it out, lots of cute stamps from those two releases!

And also into Simon Says Stamp and Show use your favorite word challenge. My favorite word is Cute. :) I also like to use Kawaii at times too, which is Japanese for cute.


Thank you so much for stopping by and I really hope you'll enter this contest! I can't wait to see all the innovative ways to use recycled materials!!

Inky and glittery fingers for all!
-Gaby

Karber Digi Design Team: Gemini!

This week for my Karber card I used the Gemini digi for their Zodiac line. Aren't they adorable?? I may be biased as I'm a Gemini, but I think they're the cutest! ;) I used bold colors with hints of distressing and natural fibers. I added a bit of bling to match their bright sparkly eyes.

Don't forget about Karber's monthly challenge! You still have a week to enter.



Also Karber has a new Flickr Group, be sure to check it out! Periodically the owners of Karber will be picking random winners for prizes, as well as guest design team spots to those who upload to their Flickr group page.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Inky and glittery fingers for all!
-Gaby

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Runway Inspired Challenge #10 - Nanette Lepore



This absolutely fabulous challenge is a Fashion and Runway inspired challenge. Making a card inspired by fashion, how awesome is that??!!! I am a die hard Project Runway fan and I always snoop the fashion blogs. Of course I can't afford it till it comes to Target, but a girl can oogle, can't she?


OK so here's this challenge's inspiration, each challenge has a different look from the runway to inspire your work. I'm sure if you're a fan of my bog, you've noticed I'm head over heels for chevrons lately! So I couldn't have asked for a better inspiration look!
So here's my take on the image, as Project Runway would say, I took it quite literal. Which I was aiming for, I love it! I painted some old ruffled paper trim that's been hanging around my craft nook with gold acrylic paint to mimic the skirt. Heat embossed the large silver chevron from Lawn Fawn and fussy cut the coral Lawn Fawn brightside cardstock also stamped with a Lawn Fawn chevron stamp. I'm also a huge fan of the British comedy called Absolutely Fabulous, which is also known as Ab-Fab. So I pieced together the sentiment, "You're Fab" in homage to my favorite show. I don't know why, but it just reminded me of something Edina would wear once it was on my card, but she'd probably put it together all wrong. :)
ETA: my second entry.  I had some more of that ribbon and I thought I'd try and come up with a similar, yet different second entry.  This time there wasn't any embossing or Kraft cardstock.  Instead the silver was Stazon and the black was Memento Tuxedo and I just used the coral Lawn Fawn paper for the entire background with the white card base as a thin frame. 

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today!

Inky and glittery fingers for all!
-Gaby

Thursday, April 19, 2012

CAS Lawn Fawn Card

I'm trying to hone my CAS card skills, so that's what I made this week for some challenges. I was inspired by the CAS-ual Friday challenge, but was too late to enter it. However I just love the teal and orange together, plus I got to use my new May Art's chevron ribbon!

I first stamped the butterfly directly onto the Kraft base. Then I Copic colored the butterfly from Lawn Fawn in orange hues on white cardstock and fussy cut it. I adhered it onto the stamp I had already stamped on the Kraft with Glossy Accents only in the center of the butterfly. Measured out how much room I'd need with the ribbon strip before laying it down and stamped the sentiment first. Then the most taxing part of this card was to get those loops just right. It's a lot harder than it looks and has me thinking I need some proper ribbon glue if I ever do this again!! Those little buggers did not want to stay at first! To finish off the card I added two Doodlebug orange gems and cropped the top right corner. Oh and I also went back to the butterfly and curled up the edges of it to give it a lil dimension, this is why I only put adhesive in the center. I tell ya, CAS cards are no joke! When you can't hide your flaws behind heavy embellishments it can be hard, but I'm really pleased with how this turned out! :)

Thanks so much for dropping by!

Inky and glittery fingers for all!
-Gaby

Entered into the following challenges:
Ribbon Carousel challenge: RCC49
Whoopsiedaisy Challenges
Simon Says Stamp and Show Challenge: Anything Goes
Paper Sundaes Challenge: Anything Goes
Challenge #1 at Just keep on creating

Inspired Stamps, All about Flowers!


This week the Inspired Stamps Design Team was asked to make cards with beautiful flowers! Of course my favorite bloggers will know that I am absolutely obsessed with the new Butterflies and Blooms stamp set, so it wasn't too hard for me to pick out the stamps I wanted to use! This week I used a technique called paper piecing that Antoinette, the talented owner of Inspired stamps, did a tutorial on this week. You can find the tutorial by clicking here. I used random bright colored scraps for the flowers that I had laying on my desk, always a good feeling to use them up! I Copic colored the leaves and the butterfly, then adhered the butterfly with foam and added some bling. I then cut a piece of cardstock and cut out a scalloped circle with a Nestabilities die and framed the flowers and butterfly with it. Finished off the card with a sentiment flag with bling and the card was complete.

Thank you so much for stopping by today, I really appreciate it!

Inky and glittery fingers for all!
-Gaby

Monday, April 16, 2012

Karber Digi Design Team Card of The Week: Balloon Leslie!

This week for my Karber Design team card I used Balloon Leslie, isn't she cute? I Copic colored Leslie and her hot air balloon and cut a small square of burlap for the basket. For the background I used Tim Holtz Distress Stain in Tumbled Glass and a Glimmer Mist Chalk mist in Peacock and then edged the edges in Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Stormy Sky. For the clouds I used Liquid Applique and a heat tool. Lesile and her Balloon were adhered with foam adhesives. For the finishing touch I rounded two of the corners with my Corner chomper doo-dad.

Copics Used:
Face: E00, E000, E11, R11, R20, R32
Hair: E25, E27, E47, E31
Balloon: YR02, YR04, YR07, YR61, Y000, Y00, Y02, Y06, RV00, RV10, RV02, R37
Shirt: BV0000 and I think BV08


Thanks so much for stopping by today and I hope you have a wonderful week!

Inky and glittery fingers for all!
-Gaby

Made Especially For You: Three Flowers Challenge!

This week's challenge at Made Especially For You is to use three flowers on a card. I used the paper I made a little over a week ago for my Made Especially For You Craft and Chat post. I finished up the white wash on the cardstock I had previously stamped with a combo of mists and let it dry. Then I adhered it to the craft base and layered on a piece of Crate Paper cardstock with rounded edges on top of my handmade patterned paper. For the stamp on this card I used the Kiyomi stamp from Sister Stamps and colored her and her butterfly with Copic markers.

Make sure to head over to the Made Especially For You blog and enter this week's challenge! The sponsor for this challenge is Three Girl Jam and the randomly chosen winner wins a two-piece bundle of crinkle ribbon!





3 Girl JAM


Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today!

Inky and glittery fingers for all!
-Gaby

Sunday, April 15, 2012

SYC, Use Only Paper!


This month the challenge at SYC is to make a project entirely out of just paper! I cheated a little and used Thickers, but in the end they're made out of paper ...so that counts, right? I started out laying down three pictures of me last summer when I had a frizz explosion on a 12x12 piece of Kraft cardstock. My husband and I were meeting friends down in Wilmington, NC and I was running late. I knew I wouldn't have time to let my hair air dry curly. So I went against my better judgment and blow dried my hair knowing once I went out, it wouldn't be long till my hair frizzed out. So I took a picture before I left the comfort of my central air conditioned house, one when we got the the restaurant, and one when I returned home. Anyways, that's the back story to this layout and my evolution of frizz! Gosh, it is tough being a curly girl in the South!!

After adhering the three 4x6 photos I cut up different scrap paper in two by four inch pieces on my paper trimmer. I inked the edges lightly with Hero Arts ink in Wet Cement to give them all something to tie them together. Then I adhered them down laying each on top of the other piece. This gave it a little more dimension. I cut a die cut in Cream out on my Silhouette and then cut a tiny strip of Kraft cardstock. I took the tiny piece of Kraft and adhered it to the die cut and then rounded the edges. I took a white gel pen and wrote summer sideways on it, then took the Thickers and spelled out my title. Underneath the pictures I placed a cream strip that I cut with a punch. Then I took the gel pen and journaled a bit and then took a black marker and wrote on the punched trim, "Humidity is a curly girl's worst enemy!"

I hope you liked my layout and will try out the challenge this month at SYC!! I know you all have heaps of paper you have been hoarding or scraps that are taking over your crafty nook! Get to it ladies and show me what you can do with paper!!! Click the blinky below to see more inspiration!




Inky and glittery fingers for all!
-Gaby

Friday, April 13, 2012

Rockin' Robin Combined Design Team Blog Hop!



Welcome to the Monthly Combined DT Hop hosted by Made Especially 4 You!!!

The outstanding talent of the Creative Cutter Room and Made Especially 4 You have joined together to bring you projects with a Rockin' Robin Theme.


The spotlight goes first to our Grand-Prize Sponsors...
A $25 Gift Certificate to Paper Piecings by Nikki online store.

Ginger Snap Scraps
A $10 Gift Certificate to the NEW Ginger Snap Scraps online store.

Photobucket

3 Birds on Parade Cartridge



 Rules for Grand-Prizes 

1. You MUST comment on every stop of the hop.
2. You will have until Sunday, April 15th to hop & comment.
3. Check Made Especially 4 You on Tuesday, April 17th to see who Mr. Random Number Generator chooses as winners.
4. Not required, but I would love for you to follow my blog!  Once I reach 200 followers I'll be having a huge giveaway that you won't want to miss! 


Now that all the details are out of the way, here's my hop project ....



This is a tent card with a Kraft base.  I took a digi from The Cuting Cafe and printed it using my Silhouette software.  Using your Silhouette software for printing digis you're going to use with die cuts helps a lot when it comes to sizing.  Copic colored the two robins and the tree branch and cut it out.  I cut out a large flag in the Crate Paper floral cardstock on my paper trimmer and adhered it to the Kraft base.  I then cut out a tree on my Silhouette on white cardstock.  Let me tell you, each and every leaf was hand colored.  Tedious yes, but I love the dimension it gave them!  I took the tree trunk and stamped Hero Arts' Designer Woodgrain rubber stamp on it in brown Memento Ink.  Then went over it with various brown Copics.   I then cut a strip of the same cardstock I used for the floral flag, but used the other side of it and stamped the sentiment from the new Lawn stamp set called Grand Greetings .  All the cardstock was edged in Hero Arts Wet Cement for continuity.

Copics used: B00, BG000, E31, E55, E25, E27, E55, YR02, YR07, C2, G14, G17, G000, G29, G99

It's time to get hopping. Remember the Grand-Prize rules! :)

Next Stop------>Tracy –  http://www.owlbecraftin.blogspot.com

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today and for hopping along!!

Inky and glittery fingers for all!
-Gaby

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Inspired Stamps, Mother's Day!

Good Thursday, bloggers! This week the Inspired Stamps design team is making Mother's day cards featuring the beautiful Proverbs 31 Women 4x6 stamp set. I also included the new Butterflies & Blooms set, I'm seriously in love with it and it's such a great set for Spring! I distressed the card base a smidge and adhered a green Echo Park paper from last year's summer set. Then I cut a pouch and a tag on my Silhouette and adhered it to the card. Cut the Proverbs 31:28 in a rectangle on my paper trimmer and cut another rectangle slightly larger. Distressed the white cardstock a little and adhered them together and attached them to the pouch with the flowers. Distressed the tag a little and adhered the butterfly and blooms I Copic colored to the top slightly hanging off the edge.

Copics used:
G14, G17, G29, YG06, V04, RV00, BV11, BV0000, YR02, YR04, YR07, Y32
Studio Calico Shine Mr. Huey painted on butterfly.

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today!

Inky and glittery fingers for all!
-Gaby