A complete departure

from my usual style. I was inspired by Julie Lacey’s take on this week’s Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge. I needed to make a birthday card for my awesome boss (OK, I had plenty on hand to choose from – I just wanted an excuse to play), and I wanted to use more of the yummy papers from the Echo Park Be Mine Collection, because she is totally into the whole black/white/grey thing.

A little bit of Raspberry Fizz (Papertrey) made the card pop. You will notice that I actually used my sewing machine. Yup, I sewed on paper! Of course it helped that the machine was already loaded with black thread (I hate changing thread). Peeking out from under the ribbon is some of the BG adhesive paper lace, and the swirls are pieces cut from some Zva Jet Crystal Flourishes.

The center piece is cut with Labels 13 Nestabilities, and stamped with PTI’s Damask Designs.

So even though this is the complete opposite of my usual clean & simple style, I rather like the way it came out. Don’t get too used to all this fussiness from me, though!

Yummy

Just a quick share. I spent the afternoon making these for my boss’s birthday tomorrow. She’s a terrific boss, and a really awesome woman. And she LOVES m&m’s.

These are triple chocolate cupcakes with buttercream frosting. They were fun to decorate, and yes, I did sit and sort the whole bag of m&m’s out by color.

And yes, I did lick the bowl(s).

IHP March DT Challenge: What’s New?

This month the i {heart} papers Design Team was given a bit of free reign – we could make whatever we wanted, but it had to use some of the NEW stuff that Kate ordered from CHA.

Since Easter is right around the corner, I decided to use some of the spring-like and delicious paper from the Stella and Rose Hazel pad by My Mind’s Eye to make an Easter basket and some eggs. I just LOVE these colors and prints! (Yes, I know there are a few of you out there asking what a nice Jewish girl is doing making an Easter basket ☺)

I found some styrofoam eggs when I was cleaning up my craft closet (you wouldn’t believe some of the stuff I had hiding in there!), so I took a few and covered them with punched out flowers, using some glass head pins that I picked up in the sewing notions section at Wal-mart a long time ago.

The basket is made with an 8x8 square of kraft cardstock, scored 2-5/8” inches from each side. This post on Splitcoast Stampers has a link to the directions. The strip left from trimming an 8-1/2x11 sheet was enough to make the handle. I applied squares of various papers from the Hazel pad before I assembled the basket. Here’s a closer look at just the eggs:
How have you been using the new goodies introduced at CHA? Would you like to join our challenge? Just post your project to the SCS or PCP gallery and use the keyword ihp0311 so we can find it.

Now go take a look at what Kate and the other very talented ladies who comprise the IHP Design Team made with their new stuff:

Kate
Deb
Gretchen
Kendra
Loretta
Lori
Lynn
Megan
Tracy

And be sure to stop by i {heart} papers to see the new and wonderful goodies that are coming in almost every day! Kate’s legendary outstanding customer service, and free shipping on orders of $50 US and up, just can’t be beat!

IHP & OCL Partner Challenge Day

Today I’m happy to join my fellow i {heart} papers design team members in partnering with the Our Craft Lounge Challenge #55. The challenge is to pick a card made with an OCL set (there are soooo many awesome ones to choose from!) and do our own version using a different OCL set. 

Above is my card, and if you click here you’ll see the card that the very talented Denise Marzec made, and which I used as my inspiration. While Denise used Pat the Good Dog for her card, I used Tweet Trees for mine. She had some adorable die-cut clouds floating over her image panel, and I decided to pop up the body of the bird over my image. The oval image panel and scalloped mat are cut with Large Oval Nestabilities, and the scalloped border is cut with the Jumbo Scalloped Petite Borderabilities. My patterned paper is from the October Afternoon Seaside collection. And these are the Copic markers that I used to color the image:

We’d love to see your take on this challenge too! Here are the details:
Play along and you might even win one of OCL’s monthly prizes! Details are on their blog. 

Go take a look at the cards that the rest of the IHP Design Team came up with for this challenge:
Deb
Gretchen
Kendra
Lori
Lynn
Tracy
Kate

Happy stamping!