Funky Valentine Betty Preview

Last day of previews before release day tomorrow at Simply B Stamps!  Meet My Funky Valentine Betty...squeeeel!!  I had fun pairing her up with some not quite Steampunk paper, out of my stash and old as the hills from My Minds Eye!

Here'a a close shot at her...isn't she a doll???

I made the card into a Buckle card by inserting half the strip behind the panel on the back piece and then the top half folds and slides into an opening cut into the front of the card.  Sentiment is from Stampendous!

-Cyndi

More Steampunk Previews...

My Hearts a Flutter with this adorable new stamp...My Heart A flutter Christian from Simply B Stamps! He's just wickedly adorable and I couldn't help but pull out the Steampunk papers and accessories for this one.  The papers are from the Steampunk Debutante line by Graphic 45.  The gears are die cut with Tim Holtz gears and gadgets die by Sizzix.

I also added some stamping to the corners using the timepiece, sentiment,  and swirl edge from the Time Flies set by Stampendous! embossed in Aged gold Embossing Enamel.  Here's a close up of Christian:

And here's a better peek at the pocket watch and gears...

Please hop over to the Simply B Stamps blog for more great designs featuring Christian!  Thanks for flying by today!  More Simply B Stamps peeks tomorrow and its a new Challenge for the Dream Team!

-Cyndi

Heart for You Rio

'Sup??  Its Tuesday and I'm finally heading back to the gym this morning!  (yeah me... not)  But first I want to share a peek of another new Steampunk Valentine from Simply B Stamps!  This is Heart for You Rio.  For her I picked some We R Memory Keepers paper that I picked up in Charlotte.  Funky colors, but hey, thats fun!

I also used one of the tag dies from the Tag It kit from Lifestyle Crafts as well as one of the borders from the Edge It kit.  Can you tell Ive gone die cut crazy?  The sentiment is punched from the background paper then layered on my tag.

Be sure to hop over to the Simply B Stamps blog to see more ideas with Rio, and join us this Friday for release day, a Blog Hop, and lots of prizes!!

-Cyndi

Steampunk Valentine Preview Week

Its time for sneak peeks at Simply B Stamps!  We are rolling out the Teen Scene Steampunk Valentine's all week, so be sure to keep checking back!  Today's peek is with Kitty Love London.  Is she precious or what??  (Kitty freak here you know)

I started with some ancient Bo Bunny paper and picked my copic colors from that.  Then I found this fun heart accent in a K & Co sticker pack in my stash.  The bottom of the black panel is cut with a Tim Holtz edge die, and I just had to use this yummy Red scrunchie May Arts ribbon as a bit of border!

Be sure to head to the Simply B Stamps blog for more awesomeness with this stamp!

Challenge List:

Pile it On: Anything Goes

Top tip Tuesday: anything Goes

Make it Monday: linky party

Scrappy Chick Sunday Sketch Challenge

Happy 2012!!  I'm back with my second sketch challenge for you!  But first, you want to know last challenge's winner, right?  I had Random.org pick my winner for me and it chose Linda B!  (She had two cards in the drawing so odds were in her favor!)  Linda, shoot me an email with your snail mail!  Here's Linda's fabulous card:

Linda's blog is Linda B's Crafty Creations.  Here's her other entry, I have to share them all since I had only 3 entries this week :)

 And here's Lea of Ink-Positive's entry.  All 3 cards were so awesome I had to share!

Thanks for playing my friends!  So without further ado, heres the next challenge.  You have until Friday night January 13th at 10pm EST to enter.  PLEASE use Mr Linky so I can find your creations and everyone else can go check them out too!

For my card today I've used the cool Belly Bands with inserts from Lifestyle Crafts.  I cut the piece out, then inked the whole thing with my versamark pad and embossed it with Aged Ivory Embossing Enamel from Stampendous!  (What's that you say?  Thats new!! ) Yep, and here's a sneaky peeky of that plus a couple of more new releases from Stampendous!  These products technically aren't releasing til CHA, but your local stores will be able to start ordering them next week, so be on the lookout!

I looped the ribbon through the whole in the Belly Band insert and tied it up adding some Gold twine for an accent.  The background is a new stamp from Stampendous! called  Garden background.  And the sentiment comes from a Perfectly Clear NEW set called Wonderland (wait til you see this one!!) 

The background was inked with Pearlescent Beige Brilliance from Tsukineko and heat embossed with Clear Detail EP.  The sentiment is embossed with Detail Gold EP and cut out with Lifestyle Crafts Nesting Scallops dies.  For a final touch I added some gold metallic Dew Drops.

Here's the Tile Belly Band inserts:

The Belly bands:

(I cut off the extra pieces that would fold to the back)

And the Nesting Scallops:

Alrighty!  I'm done with another massively long post, sorry!  I do hope you'll play along with my challenge!  The sketch can be flipped around and sentiment moved or interpreted of course to be elsewhere, LOL.

Oh! And what would a challenge be without a prize??   For this challenge I am offering up 2 large and 3 small jars of gorgeous Stampendous! ultra fine glitters!! Can you say ba-ling??

Bringing new life to old papers with Die Cuts!

Well, 2011 is coming to a close in just a few short hours.  I have high hopes for 2012 and am looking forward to it!  I thought I'd share a layout today with some pics of my kids from our DC trip this summer.  I had no idea where this layout would take me with the love theme, but I do love my kids!

I started with a pile of Bo Bunny paper from last year (have you seen the new Valentine's BTW, ca-ute!!) and pulled out all 3 of my new It Kits from Lifestyle Crafts.  I also used the 4x8 Chocolate alphabet for part of my title and the numbers on the tag in the bottom right.

I cut lots of little tag envelopes with the Tag It Kit and then lots of little tags to stick down into them.  For my journaling I simply punched some windows, adding some words then adhered them over the tags.

All the scraps of ribbon are from my stash, from May Arts, Stampin' Up!, and Michael's.  The brads are Bazzill, both the large and small ones.

For my title the large LOVE is from the Chocolate alphabet and the smaller MY LIFE is part of the Clip It kit from Lifestyle Crafts.  The circle tab and heart are from the same kit.

Another clip from the Clip It Kit, as well as a heart from the Tag It Kit.  The scalloped border is part of the Edge It Kit.  These 3 kits are wonderful, working great by themselves, or combining them together for endless possibilites.  They all provide lots of fun accents when you just need a little something extra as well!  below are the pics of the 3 kits:

Edge It Kit $39.99

Clip It Kit $39.99

Tag It Kit $39.99

Lots of fun, right??  I'll have more fun from Lifestyle Crafts for you tomorrow for my next sketch challenge, as well as announce the winner from the last challenge!

I hope you have have a very Happy New Year, be safe!

-Cyndi

A Dreamweaver New Year

Time flies...its almost 2012 and with the New Year I am adding a new Design Team to my mix!  I'm thrilled to be joining the DreamTeam at Dreamweaver Stencils!  I know, you have never seen any stenciling on my blog, but thanks to my peeps Pam and Wendy I have been oohing and aahing over these beauties for a while now!  I will also be Repping for Dreamweaver and will be offering monthly technique classes at my local stores...so be sure to be on the look out!

Today's challenge was New Years.  Hmmm.  The generous Lynell Harlow, the queen bee herself, sent me a huge box of goodies, but no New Year specific themes, so I had to be a bit creative.  I went with the time flies idea since I can't believe 2012 is upon us already!

For my first stenciled endeavor, I used the Gears Stencil embossed in Matte Black Paste.  I first tried to add some gold mica, but I decided I liked the matte version better...more of a steampunk look.  And along with the gear theme and steampunk look I pulled out my Gears and Gadgets die from Tim Holtz for an accent.  Here's a peek at the actual embossed area.

The paste spreads beautifully for a wonderful dimensional effect!  My sentiment is stamped with  Time Flies by Stampendous!  Be sure to check out the other projects from the Dream Team at the Dream It Up blog, and enter our challenge while you are there!

I am signing off, to go play more with my new toys that Santa Lynell brought me!

-Cyndi

Skipping Stones Design Sketch Challenge!

Good morning!  I am trying to stick to my daily blogging resolution before the new year even hits....so today I am playing along with this weeks Skipping Stones Design Sketch challenge!  I have quite a few blogging friends on this team so I have fallen in love with these stamps over the last few months!  

Most of my favorites are the quirky, off beat humorous ones...but todays card uses an elegant set called   Victorian Summer that I actually won last year :)  I have stamped the rose twice, masking part of the stems then colored it with copics.  After it was all colored I went back with the large rose and stamped it off in a pale aqua to give a hint of texture or almost a background paper look.  I did the same with the sentiment tag.

Theres small touches of glitter using my Gelly Roll Stardust pen and I just had to pull out the handy dandy sewing machine and stitch the edges on this one.  The eyelet border is actually one edge of a large square die that I cut with Cheery Lynn Designs Scandinavian Hearts.

Here's the sketch if you want to play along. You have til next Monday!

And here's the Victorian Summer set all together, I only used a few of the gorgeous images!

Thanks so much for visiting with me today! Have a happy Hump Day!

-Cyndi

A little lone bird...

Happy Tuesday!  I hope everyone had a wonderful break and enjoyed their families over the Holidays!  We had a great Christmas, very little arguing amongst the kids, LOL.  I haven't done much crafting the last few days BUT I have finally started reading a series that my DD Rachael has been trying to get me to read forever...The Hunger Games Trilogy.  Its amazing if you've never read it.  Finished the second book this morning ( I could only read 320 or so pages last night before sleep took over). I will begin the final book, Mockingjay tonight, so I have birds on the brain!

Here's a card I designed for my January Stamp-a-Stack in Charlotte using the new Lone Bird from Stampendous!  HE was embossed with Clear Bark EP from the Scenic Collection over some pattern paper from My Minds Eye.  The cirlces were both cut with Lifestyle Crafts Nesting Circles...a great value!  20 dies for just $24.99!!  Thats 3 times the dies you get for the same price from Spellbinders!!

At the bottom of the card I've layered three rows cut with one of the dies from the new Lifestyle Crafts Edge It Kit...2 in the brown and 1 in a pattern.  What a gorgeous yet easy to achieve look!  Here's a peek at this set:

Well thats it today, I must go to my Stamp Room!  Its calling my name :)  Thanks for popping in! Don't forget about my sketch challenge!

-Cyndi

Season's Greetings

Here's a card for you today from my archives.  I'm not sure why I've never posted it, LOL.  The stamp is Cling  Chickadee from Stampendous!  It's  been colored with copic markers and paired with some older paper from my stash.  The sentiment is also from Stampendous! called Chris-Moose Greetings.

Only 5 shopping days til Christmas, are you ready?? I'm not!!

-Cyndi