if you need me...

...i'll be taking a reallllllllllllllllly long shower...

under hot RUNNING WATER...

in my WELL LIT bathroom...

whilst waiting for my microwaved oatmeal to cook!!!!!!!!!

(by which i mean:

hooooooooooray!!!

THE ELECTRIC'S BACK ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

and thus:

♥ happy wednesday, darlings! ♥

is the cat's name IRENE??!?!?!

HELLO DARLINGS!

many thanks for all of the kind inquiries and well wishes to those of us who were in the path of hurricane irene this weekend. being nearer to the pennsylvania border than the atlantic coast of new jersey, LHJ and i were only on the edge of the storm and completely safe from flooding; unfortunately, we have found ourselves in the wide band of folks whose electrical service went out saturday night and is not yet back on. i realize this is NOTHING compared to what others have suffered both in this occasion and during other disasters, and thus i'm trying not to whine toooooo much, but let me just say that when our power is finally restored there will be no one in the USA more appreciative of their electricity and (especially) their running water!!!

until then i am on limited blogging, emailing and commenting service (i need to physically take my laptop to my mom's house or other "civilized" location!) so please bear with me!

xoxoxlauren

return of the poppies!

i know, i know, you've seen me use these gorgeous pti poppy stamps before, but this time i'm doing so in a pixie dust paperie context, which makes them completely different... and EVEN BETTER, imo! plus it's really hard to be the combination of the poppies, the round layered shape of the card, and the pairing with the beautiful papers found in august's PICNIC BASKET kit, am i right?!

more photos on the PDP blog; plus there's a new pixie project every single day over there; and also it's the place that pixie-in-chief kirsty vittetoe announces sales and specials, challenges and giveaways... so it's good to check in regularly, you never know what kind of cool stuff you'll find!!! :)

JB35: midas touch

you know that friday, being jingle belles day, is my favorite day of the week. and fridays on which we have a lovely guest star are obviously my favorite fridays. this week that star happens to be miss leslie--one of my very lovely blogging friends; so we're in GOLDEN TIME, as far as i'm concerned!

actually, we're in golden time as far as EVERYONE is concerned because leslie's prompt is called MIDAS TOUCH and she is challenging us to use silver and/or gold with white and/or cream.

well shoot, there's nothing hard about THAT, i use metallics all the time! what's that you say, leslie? you mean we're using ONLY silver and/or gold with white and/or cream, and NO OTHER COLORS?! not even black??!?!?! ah. ok, yeah. that's a liiiiiiiiiiiiiiittle bit trickier!!! :)

but still really, realllllllllllly fun!

(patterned paper: pink paislee, chatterbox, paper co, anna griffin; transparency: creative imaginations; silver metallic chipboard letters: mambi; silver flower & pearls: michaels; ribbon: may arts; reindeer die & fabric rose: tim holtz; tree die: sizzix; brad: my mind's eye; tiny silver stickers: paperchase; gold metallic ink: colorbox; adhesives: tombow monorunner, 3m foam tape, low temp hot glue gun)

ok, so i doubt anyone's surprised that i used EVERY SINGLE OPTION available and worked in multiple shades and textures of each! i did it quite unselfishly, though, and in leslie's honor--because i know she's a crafty rebel who appreciates that sorta thing! (at least, that's my story and i'm stickin' to it!!!)

so what are YOU going to do?! go nuts and throw together every shiny object in the tri-state area the way i did? or be completely refined and elegant--but still glittery as all get out--like miss stephanie? or strike a balance somewhere in between, like our lovely prompt setter leslie? whatever you do we cannot wait to see it, so link up over at jingle belles by next wednesday night! ♥♥♥

they say...

...you know you're getting older when police officers start looking "too young" to you. turns out, this is true for all emergency personnel!

strictly speaking, niece madeline and nephew matthew are not yet OFFICIAL firefighters, but they did have a great time meeting firemen and women and dogs (!) recently, at a special summer program.

matthew's favorite part was that they got to sit in the real fire engine!!!!!!!!!!! (believe me when i tell you, it is impossible for anyone who is not a four-year-old boy to say that with the correct amount of enthusiasm!) maddie (who at 7 still very much enjoys dressing up, and has started to like PERFORMING, as well!) thought it was cool that there were kid-sized-- but quite authentic looking-- firefighting uniforms to try on.

no one asked doyle the dalmation what HIS favorite part of the day was, but seeing as the weather here in the northeastern US has been seriously HOT for several months, i'm guessing there was a fire hydrant involved! :) :) :)

C&S fail!!! :)

i told you the other day that my (kinda) pared down sketch card for this week's JINGLE BELLES + clean and simple stamping blog crossover was not my first attempt. would you like to see an even less C&S version that makes the one i used look totally minimalist in comparison??

ok, first, a reminder of what natasha's fabulous sketch looked like:

and now HERE is attempt #1... aka "lauren's bigtime C&S FAIL"!!!!!!!!!! :)

(vintage: sheet music and re-sized book illustration; patterned paper: tim holtz, cosmo cricket, dcwv; cardstock: core'dinations; stickers: little yellow bicycle; brad: we r memory keepers; florals: making memories; inks: ranger & colorbox; edge punches: recollections, martha stewart; adhesives: uhu gluestick, tombow monorunner, 3m foam tape; other: decorative scissors)

don't get me wrong, i actually really ♥LIKE♥ this card. but it's probably got a few too many patterns-- (big and busy ones, as well!) --to call it "clean"; and a few too many layers to call it "simple". however, since the point of the whole exercise is to A) try new things and B) make as many cards as possible before december... well, i think this constitutes a "win/win" situation!

head on over to JINGLE BELLES and the clean and simple stamping blog in the next day or so if you'd like to try your hand at a "clean and simple" sketch card... while you're there you can see stef's and natasha's cards... ANNNNND a picture of the *prize*!!! :)

tiny butterfly window note cards!

you know me, i like A LOT of layers and i tend to work BIG!!! so this is a week of FIRSTS for me--the other day i showed you my (comparatively) "clean and simple" card for the current JINGLE BELLES prompt; today i'm going to show you some teeeeeeeeny note cards i made with this month's pixie dust kit, PICNIC BASKET!

believe it or not, those babies are only 2 x 3" each! i made them specifically to fit the sweet little envelopes, which i got at a garage sale. i don't think you can MAIL anything as tiny as this* on its own; but what i need are little "all occasion" cards to tuck into a parcel or gift, so that's ok with me.

hop over to the pixie blog to see more photos and read a bit about the products used. plus you can see the other pixies' projects using the PICNIC BASKET kit, and enter the august challenge, "that's my girl"... in short, as always, it's worth the trip! ♥

*you can't; the smallest USPS mailable item is 3.5 x 5"... i checked... you're welcome! :)

that's my girl!

august's pixie dust paperie challenge is a good one: for THAT'S MY GIRL all you have to do is make the papercrafting project of your choice... (card, layout, altered piece, ATC, whatever!) ...and include an image of a girl or girls on it. not hard, eh?! i made a card. because that's what i do! :)

i used pixie paper leftovers from the COUNTRY FARM STAND and LA DOLCE VITA kits, plus a fun vintage-style perfume label sticker, assorted florals, and a bit of bling from my stash!

why not pop over to the PDP blog and see the other pixies' entries pixies? whilst you're there, you might also check out the ♥PRIZE♥!!! (sorry, did i forget to mention that part??! off ya go!!!) :)

JB34: holiday "fall to" layout

this week at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ we're thrilled to be teaming up this week with the fab folk at clean and simple stamping! miss natasha made us a special sketch and everything, see?

this means you can make ONE pared down holiday sketch card and use it to link up with us and with the clean and simple stamping blog! nice, right?! there's even a little prize on offer at JINGLE BELLES this week, just to sweeten the deal!

now i know what you're thinking. you're thinking, "hey lauren! have i come to the right blog??! did you REALLY manage to pull off the C&S vibe this week??!?!?!"

welllllllllllll... you tell me:

(vintage: book image & sheet music; patterned paper: basic grey, pink paislee; snowflake stickers: k&co; poinsettia die: bosskut; edge punch: recollections; brad: my mind's eye; merry xmas stamp: hero arts; inks: stewart superior and ranger; adhesives: tombow monorunner, 3m foam tape; other: avery clear label; decorative scissors, sewing machine)

ok, ok, on the one hand, it's not exactly minimalist, is it?! on the other hand, if we're awarding points based on how far we've pared down from our natural inclinations, it's a triumph of restraint!!! just goes to show ya, perspective is EVERYTHING, right?! ;)

but seriously, one of the best things about doing crossovers and letting others set some of the prompts is that i get the chance to TRY NEW STUFF! because i already know how to do the stuff i'm GOOD at, and it's really fun to branch out a little bit! i *ADORE* the C&S style when others assay it, even if i'm not ready to give all my rhinestone flourishes and bold patterned papers to the goodwill quite yet!

so c'mon then, C&S cardmakers--show me how it's done! grab the sketch, make your cleanest, most elegant holiday statement, then link it up at the C&S stamping blog AND jingle belles!!! i am more than usually excited to see the entries this week since i'm VERY keen to learn from you all! ♥♥♥

ps: you don't need to include stamping on your card, but can if you'd like!

pss: if you think this card is "over the top" wait'll later this week when i show you my FIRST try!!!!!!!!!! :)

two-for-one (pixified!) GUY CARDS

so you know i've been on a bit of a mission to make a "guy card" per month from my pixie dust paperie kits. for one thing, i enjoy proving definitively just how flexible the kits are, and how easily one can adapt them to fit any style. but also, i happen to know--or be related to--quite a few guys; and from time to time, they need cards. :)

using the rather fab august kit, PICNIC BASKET i've made not one, but two cards. they look a bit like this:

actually, they look EXACTLY like that, and if you'd like to see individual photos and read a little bit about the techniques and products i used, why not pop over to the pixie blog? i am sure you will find many things there to enjoy!!! ♥

advice nobody needs (except ME!)

you know that this year i've been LOVING the process of making my christmas cards one-unique-card-a-week at JINGLE BELLES... and i am totally excited about the fact that i'll be doing something other than stress over cards this december! (which ok, granted, the "something else" might turn out to be stress over gifts... or stress over holiday logistics... we're in UNCHARTED TERRITORY here folks, this has NEVER happened before, lol!) :) :) :)

however, something i realized the other day when mentioning that all i'd have to complete in december is the addressing and mailing, is that i've been a bit lazy about the INSIDES of the cards in question. because... and here's a shocking true confession for you: YEAH, i am THAT SORT of card-maker; one who does the "fun bits" of creating the gorgeous outside and then--after photographing & posting--moves on to the next thing. sometimes i leave the insides soooooooo close to the last minute that they either get a quick and imperfect stamp of greeting... or (worse yet!) i just write "merry christmas" or "happy birthday" in pen before signing my name.

oh the shame!!! :)

but not this time, no sirree bob! this time i've seen it coming! so the other day i sat down and printed a couple of sheets of clear labels with holiday greetings in all shapes and sizes and i used them to adorn the insides of every single card i've made so far!!! which, by the way, is 41 cards, woohoo!!!





i saved the file as a JPG and i think you can click through and save it to print out for yourself if you'd like to. if that doesn't work, i do also have it made into a PDF which i know prints perfectly, but the instructions for embedding it were rather complicated, so if you want that, just email me using the addy in my profile page, ok?!

as i was adding my greeting stickers, i realized i hadn't signed the back of the cards (i usually put my name and the year) so i did that, as well; then i went "the extra mile" and grabbed my entire envelope stash, brought it downstairs and chose the right sized one for EVERY CARD! (note to self: couldja think about size BEFORE cutting card blanks?! and would it kill you to make a "standard" size once in a while??!) after a marathon session, i can now declare that i am "caught up" and i'm vowing publicly to try to do this as i go along in future!!! :)

and now, i believe i've earned THE GOOD ICE CREAM, dontcha think??!?! ciao, darlings!!! ♥

oh NO lindsay!

last week marked a bit of an event in niece lindsay marie's life: a head injury that turned out to be a *CONCUSSION*!!! on the other hand, when one considers she is nearly eight and this is her first trip to the emergency room... well, i suppose that is below average in terms of childhood trauma, isn't it? luckily, she is FINE, and we've been told there will be no lasting effects, but it was a bit of a scary day!

i planned to make a traditional "get well" card, but somehow when i went to put the sentiment on, it seemed wrong. afterall, she wasn't sick, as such. i had everything else completed, and was still dithering about wordage... and considering just leaving the front blank... when i decided to go with the phrase that popped into my head when i first heard the story:

(patterned paper: bo bunny, basic grey, paper co, doodlebug, pink paislee; thickers: american crafts; flowers: prima & making memories; brad: making memories; pen: copic outliner .25; ink: colorbox)

"oh NO!" sort of sums it up nicely, don't you think?! i went with purple because it's lindsay's favorite color and realized quite happily whilst making the card that a "purple heart" is associated with both injury and bravery. however, when i showed the card to LHJ, he asked if i had been trying to create something which resembled *A BRUISE*??!?!?! ummmmmmm... not reallllllllly, no!!! yikes! :) :) :)

i used this week's fabulous sketchy thursdays sketch as a "road map" for my design:

i also forewent (is that the past tense of "forego"? anyone?!) my usual stitching in favor of some outlining in pen... and a few scallops around my doilies... in honor of this week's magnificently titled city crafter challenge DO-YA-DOODLE?! ♥

"in the pink" birthday card

do i even have to mention how much i ♥LOVE♥ the color pink??! i know not everyone does, and actually, i was not a real "girly girl" type as a kid. i think it must've been having three adorable nieces which swung me over! my own dear pixie-in-chief kirsty vittetoe, likes pink, as well. pixie dust paperie kits quite often have at least a little bit of that color, though of course they are quite flexible; in fact every single one of these papers is double-sided... so if you don't happen to love pink you can just flip them and go in another direction entirely!

for this card i've used august's PICNIC BASKET kit, which is full of the most delicious goodness! hop over to the pixie shoppe and see it, if you like; then check out the pixie blog for additional photos, and to see the brilliant ways my fellow pixies are ROCKIN' this lovely kit!

JB33: bling on the holidays!

i might've gone slightly overboard.

i know, i know, you're *SHOCKED* aren't you, at the thought of my being over-excited by this week's ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ prompt in which we invite you to create cards using rhinestones, beads, pearls, studs, glitter, stickles and/or any other sparkly shiny thing which takes your fancy! afterall, it's so unlike me!!! :)

what can i say, this one had LAUREN written allllllllll over it, and i reveled in the opportunity!

(transparencies: hambly; patterned paper: ki memories, basic grey; chipboard snowflake & rub-ons: basic grey; poinsettia: we r memory keepers; snowflake punch: ek success; metal & glitter snowflakes: making memories; brad: my mind's eye; bling: oriental trading co; sparkly wired ribbon & pink acrylic paint: michaels; adhesives: tombow monorunner, sewing machine)

i adorned my giant basic grey chipboard snowflake with glimmery pink paint, smothered it in white rub-ons, and loaded it with really sparkly (but almost totally flat) pink and silver flourishes from oriental trading company; and then i covered a lot of that up with flowers and die cuts and a pearl brad. go figure.

seeing as some of the snowflake's embellishments got hidden by successive layers, i added pink shimmery patterned paper, glitter-embellished wired ribbon, and rhinestone flourishes to a white grid hambly transparency base. when left in a dark room by itself, this thing emits a subtle yet comforting glow, lol!

so what do you think? will you try to beat my record for the sheer number of glittery things on *ONE* christmas card? or go very understated and elegant like miss stephanie, and just choose one perfect, dramatic, sparkly element? whatever you do, c'mon over to ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ before next wednesday night and help us BLING ON THE HOLIDAYS!!!

the fastest blog header i've EVER made!

my dear friend june knows how much i love both a design challenge AND playing with my digistuffs, so when she asked me if i felt like playing around with some ideas for a new blog header, of course i said, "YES!"

she was happy to leave the whole thing to me, but i asked for a little wishlist, just to get me started. she wanted something a little "trendier"; (her last header was made by our friend kristie and was totally BEAUTIFUL, elegant and understated... somehow june KNEW mine probably would not be, lol!!!) plus i already knew her favorite color is red, and that she likes polkadots, A LOT! unfortunately i couldn't find the email with the other ideas until after i finished my first draft. to my shock and amusement, some of the other things june had mentioned were pennants, stitching, and scallops!!! clearly my SUB-conscious memory is much better than my CONSCIOUS ONE!

(red paper & doily: cherry kit, pink trike designs, design house digital; blue paper: love bandits kit, mindy terasawa, designer digitals; banners: house of 3 sampler kit, rhonna farrer, house of 3; scallops: you are awesome kit, crystal wilkerson, jessica sprague.com red ribbon: back2school free pea kit, shannon freeman, two peas; rick rack: memories kit, sweet shoppe designs; ticket: love word labels, katie pertiet, designer digitals; flowers: prisian holiday kit, o'scraps; font: manuscript)

i did most of the laying out on my laptop, during two almost-an-hour car trips, in which LHJ was driving! :) then i came home and let it simmer for a little bit, and to my surprise, it was looking good enough that i sent the "draft" to june. and then it turned out she loved it too, and i was DONE! well, obviously, i had some FAB products to work with, so that really helped!!! :)

here's my number one digi-tip for ya, free of charge, lol: if you only want to investigate *ONE* digital technique, learn how to add drop shadows to your elements. it's the difference between something that looks good, and something that looks WONDERFUL, imo. here is a second version of june's header. the only thing i've removed are the shadows. all the same products are there, and they are still *utterly lovely*... but it's not the same, is it?

i have to confess that although i love photoshop for editing photos, and you absolutely can not beat it for filters, blending modes and many more "artsy" effects on photos and digi-products... when i'm just "laying out" a digital project with pre-made elements my fallback software is STILL broderbund's printshop. i just prefer the way layers work. and yeah, there's a comfort factor because i've used it for years, but even when i first started with it, the learning curve was a lot less steep. and as i say, i would definitely not want to part with photoshop because it is an amazingly useful and sophisticated program. luckily, my hard-drive... and my heart... have room for both! ♥

SOS12: dogs, digistamps & denim!

i was *TRIPLY* thrilled when carla asked if i'd like to guest design with the shopping our stash team because:

1. they are some of the nicest and most talented gals around (& include my friends leslie and lisa! hi guys!!!)
2. i *LOVE* using up my treasured (and/or embarrassing) older supplies... and...
3. they have the coolest and most inventive challenges out there!!!

case in point... this week's dare! here's how carla put it:

Challenge 12- Dogs, Digi Stamps and Denim: Celebrate the dog days of summer by using your canine themed images, sentiments, and/or paper, or use a digi stamp you haven't used in a dog's age, or use denim- color, images wearing denim, denim fabric.

i tried to work in a little bit of all three... in my own unique and laureny way, of course! ;)

(patterned paper: tim holtz, chatterbox, october afternoon, american crafts, my mind's eye, crafty secrets; felt dog sticker: paperchase; plastic letters: produced by heidi swapp during the rennaissance... (i'd forgotten all about them until i stumbled on this post of jamaica edgell's the other day! on the other hand, have you seen THESE NEW ONES?! flashback, baby!!! :) fonts: mom's typewriter & susie's hand downloaded free from dafont.com; edge punches: ek success, recollections, martha stewart; inks: colorbox; adhesives: tombow monorunner, 3m foam tape, sewing machine; other: denim ripped from a pair of ragbag jeans, vintage seam binding, avery clear inkjet labels)

the dog is the strongest and most obvious of the three elements--he's a little feltie patch from a super-sale in borders' crafts department, i have had in my "baby stuff" stash for years. not because i didn't love him, just because i haven't made many baby cards lately. this one for my cousin and his wife seemed the perfect opportunity! for "digi" i've somewhat cheated, by not using a digi stamp or even a paper, but i did use multiple fonts on the quotation, which is integral to the design of the card. the denim was my strongest inspiration, and sadly you can see it the least. in fact, here's a closeup to PROVE it's even there, lol!

you know that at the moment i am in love with the idea of using torn denim strips as ribbon. i tried it out on a father's day package and did something similar again the other day. plus, i have a zillion ideas for cards and other projects. i actually think it looks WONDERFUL here, but then the vintage seambinding was cool too, and i did such a good job of artful ruffling it kind of covered the denim. ah well.

with the exception of the tim holtz kraft card stock base, absolutely every single thing on here was a scrap, a leftover, or elderly enough to apply for medicare. which is sort of nice on a baby card, don't you think? yin and yang. really old stuff for a really young recipient. i dig it!!! :)

what have you cast off, hoarded or forgotten about??! does any of it involve dogs, digi-stamps or denim??! well then, COME AND PLAY! i cannot wait to see what you will make!!!

"beach babies" altered frame

i realize that all proud aunts and uncles believe their nieces and nephews are THE CUTEST CHILDREN IN THE WORLD... but somebody has to be right, and i'm pretty sure it's *ME*!!! where's my evidence, you ask? right here, baby:

told ya!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ♥♥♥! hard to beat those photos, innit?! matching pink swimsuits for the gals, and tiny blue trunks for young matthew; this "photo shoot" is from a couple of years ago, and even though i do not scrap, as such, i have always longed to do SOMETHING with them, i just didn't know what. then i got the august pixie dust paperie kit. it's called PICNIC BASKET and it totally ♥ROCKS♥; and also the girls' paperie "kitch" patterns within are just soooooo right for the photos. i had to make a frame for my sister... and then a second one almost immediately for my sister-in-law. because i just could not imagine the carnage that would ensue if only ONE set of parents received this!

hop over to the pixie blog if you have a minute... there's a bit of text describing the products and methods; plus lots more close-up photos of the "beach babies"! since i'm pretttttttttty sure these guys are going to be featured on the cover of the sports illustrated swimsuit edition any minute, you'll wanna see them BEFORE they are too famous to speak with us, right??! :) :) :)

you are TOO COOL! ♥

here is a little thank you card i made for my very kind and thoughtful friend miss amanda, who sent me the popsicle stickers i used on it (& a gorgeous card & a sweet note--thank you missus!) just because she saw them and thought of me! happy mail doesn't get much happier than that, right?! ♥♥♥

(patterned paper: sei, prima, creative imaginations, colorbok, doodlebug, mustard moon; stickers: recollections; thickers: american crafts; adhesives: tombow monorunner, 3m foam tape, sewing machine)

i used the entire pack of stickers (had to be done!)... a bunch of scraps leftover from last week's CCCB card... and this wonderful sketch by francine clouden for write click scrapbook:

i found it a bit belatedly via allison fillo's sketch roundup--and also, my entry is neither simple NOR a scrapbook page-- but that didn't stop me loving and wanting to use it. i printed it to save, as well, and i've a feeling you'll be seeing it again in future!

and now, i really wish i *HAD* a popsicle, it's been very hot here in the northeastern US! hope you are keeping cool enough (or warm enough) and being crafty enough wherever you are, darlings! ♥

JB32: shape up for the holidays!!!

this week at ♥JINGLE BELLES♥ our theme is shaped cards, by which we mean anything apart from a square or rectangle. my "go to" on these occasions is generally a round card. i think they're dynamic and interesting... and they have the added advantage of not being at all hard to make! :)

this time i thought i'd branch out a little bit. i've collected some really fun digikits here and there; one of my favorite xmas ones is "jolly lil friends stickers" by mindy terasawa. i adore the sweet little faces of the characters and find them really flexible and adaptable to a lot of ideas. (for example, i made these kid gift bags last year, and these the year before last!) in this case, i also thought the relatively simple shapes would not only look fabulous, but be pretty easy & quick to cut out!

the "easy to cut" factor became crucial when i decided that i'd make cards for my nieces and nephew as well as for my bestie's little ones; which meant i'd need SIX! i decided on two designs that i'd print out three times each on glossy photo paper which i glued to some thin patterned paper so the inside would not read "kodak-kodak-kodak"!

i'm well known for making "single sided" cards (basically shaped POSTCARDS, lol!) rather than enmesh myself in a lot of engineering, but while i was manipulating the kit images in printshop, i realized that if i used the two simpler tree you see above, the left side of the tree would give me a nice straight line on which to score and fold the hinge of the card. it did mean i needed to place the finished design (basically a character with a drop shadow layered over a tree) on a bit of an angle... like this...

...so that i could fit two (just slightly smaller than A2) cards to a page. i also flipped the reindeer horizontally, so that i'd only have to cut out ONE antler, rather than two. this is what's nice about digi; a little thought can solve a lot of problems!!!

i thought i'd do a bit of "real" embellishing at the end, but the cards resisted this entirely. they kept telling me they were DONE! so we compromised by printing the kids' names on a clear label, punching a circle & a scalloped frame, and adding a heart shaped gem at the end.

i cannot wait to see what everyone else will do for this prompt, i'm thinking we will see some AMAZING creations this week! as usual, we're open until next wednesday at 6pm eastern time, and we'd ♥LOVE♥ to have you jingling along with us!!! ♥

"magnetic personality"... i has it! :)

can you believe it is AUGUST already and time to debut a brand new pixie dust kit??! with PICNIC BASKET, pixie-in-chief kirsty vittetoe has really outdone herself in terms of putting together a fabulous and fun mix of papers, cardstock, ribbons, embellishments and accessories! i'm dying to show you the stuff i've made with this kit... and i really can't wait to see the gorgeousness that my fellow pixies have devised over on the pixie blog all month!

here's my first project, i am really proud of it:

ok, so you can see i've "upcycled" a tin that held small florals; i love things with windows in because it gives you a chance to add even more LAYERS! but wait, there's a surprise inside:

yepper, it's a little gift set built around the adorable paper doll images found on cosmo cricket's "trinkets" paper: a sweet minature card and half a dozen pint-sized magnets!

there are loads more photos on the pixie blog, as well as a bit of description on how i put this together, which was surprisingly easy! i do hope you'll pop over and see that! ♥

sketchy AND photo inspired (with a BLOOM!)

did you see the inspiration photo this week at CCCB (67)? miss ros outdid herself with the gorgeousness here, it's called "vintage garden"... can you say YUMMMMMMMMM??!

speaking of deliciousness, sketchy thursday's 7-28 scheme is rather wonderful, as well; thank you, diana!!! :)

also, shopping our stash is utterly BRILLIANT this week: for #10 they've given us, buttons, blooms and bananas!!! we need only incorporate ONE of those into our designs... oh how i *WISH* my card had a banana on it like leslie's does! alas, i went with the much less interesting, but easier to come by "bloom". for the STASH part, however, i've acquitted myself with honor by mostly using very old and very treasured papers that i bought when either niece lindsay or niece madeline was born; which has to make them--embarrassingly-- AT LEAST 7 years old. i still love them, though, and will continue to use them enthusiastically in little bits and bobs! :)

and now here is the card:

(patterned paper: creative imaginations (diamonds + both blue patterns), doodlebug, imaginisce, mustard moon; bird, sparkly flowers & cupcake stickers: jolees; wordfetti & border sticker: girls' paperie; flower & leaves: prima; thickers: american crafts; ink: colorbox; adhesives: tombow monorunner, sewing machine, low temp hot glue gun)

there is quite a lot going on here, but i hope i've kept it light and bright enough to not feel cluttered. my favorite part is the greeting, with the little wordfetti stickers i am now addicted to ever since kirsty put a girls' paperie sticker book into july's MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM kit!

my other favorite part is the white machine stitched border around every single piece of patterned paper, which is doesn't look all that impressive in the pics but in real life it adds a "certain something"! it's times like these i wish i enjoyed sewing ON FABRIC because wouldn't this be a gorgeous quilt??! ah well, i think i'll let another crafter tackle that project whilst i go and make some more cards!

♥ciao, darlings!♥