Sweet Stamp Shop: Petaloo & Core'dinations Event

Sweet Stamp Shop is teaming up with Petaloo and Core'dinations this week for a fun promo. The design team is showcasing back to school projects using product from all three companies. So stop by every day this week to see all the inspiring projects! 

There will be a giveaway of a $50 prize package featuring product from all three companies to one lucky participant who leaves a comment on any of posts this week. Here is a sneak peek at my project which is on today's post along with fellow designer, Kari's project and a tutorial by the owner and illustrator of Sweet Stamp Shop, Nicole. 

If you like the stamps, there is a sweet coupon in their newsletter which you can sign up for on Facebook.

Thanks so much for stoppin' by,

Paper Made Bakery: August Summary

Hello  scrappy friends, today I have a summary of all 6 projects I made this month for Paper Made Bakery along with today's new reveal.

The Kit

Everything was made from August's Garden Art kit, which is currently sold out. It features a garden themed stamp set from Lawn Fawn and a mixed media themed She Art collection from Pink Paislee. 

Garden Art Kit

Purse Gift Card Holder

For today's reveal, I made a little purse which is the perfect size to hold a gift card. The base is actually made from an A-2 card envelope that is included in the kit. For more info or a tutorial on how to fold this, please see today's post on Paper Made Bakery. 

Purse Gift Card Holder

Former Projects

These are the rest of projects from earlier this month when I could only give a sneak peek. For information on any project, please click on the caption underneath the photo and it will take you to the corresponding post.

Cathedral Quilt Layout

Striped Butterfly Card

Butterfly Window Card

Flowerfall Card

End of the Month Shaker Card

As you can see, this was a really fresh and fun kit and it was so easy to create all these projects. Please join me along with the rest of the DT on Monday, September 3rd, for the reveal of the next kit along with a blog hop and giveaway.

Thanks so much for stoppin' by, 

Sweet Stamp Shop: Pucker Up Layout

The Challenge

Free Digi-Stamp

Hello scrappy friends, I have another post to share with you today. Sweet Stamp Shop is hosting a new weekly challenge over the course of the next four weeks, starting every Thursday morning. You could win some of your own sweet stamps or even a guest designer spot. This week's challenge is to make any project using paper piecing, and you don't even have to use Sweet Stamp Shop stamps to participate. Just load your entry using Flickr to join in the fun.

I used the free digital stamp file from the blog for my layout. For more information about the challenge, or to download the free digi-stamps, please see today's post on Sweet Stamp Shop's blog.


The Reveal
I really liked the lemon/lime digi-stamp and wanted to paper piece it in two colors, but thought it would be too tedious to X-Acto knife out all those internal segments, especially since I needed 16 limes.

I imported the file into Silhouette Studio Designer Edition and created a cut file for the rind and the segments. It only works on with Silhouette Design Studio and is not a general SVG file. If you would like to cut some cute limes or lemons with your Cameo, here is the file:

Downloadable Silhouette Cut File: Sweet Tart Lemon

I ended up not actually stamping anything for a stamp challenge, but I have to go as the project leads. 

The Photo

I wanted to accentuate the green in the limes so I printed my photos in black and white. Then in the largest photo, I highlighted just the green in the trees. If you have Photoshop and want a tutorial on this technique, this tutorial is the one I used. This is actually the first time I tried this technique, I just googled highlighting one color in a photo, and read over the results. 

Green Highlight

The Supplies

Digital Stamp: Sweet Stamp Shop (Sweet Tart)

Software: Silhouette Studio, Photoshop

Digital Cutter: Silhouette Cameo

Cardstock: Bazzill

Patterned Paper: Imaginisce

Die Cut: Imaginisce

Sticker: Imaginisce

Photo Paper: Red River Paper (Polar Pearl Metallic)

Pen: Pentel

Miscellaneous: Buttons

We would love it if you joined in any of the four challenges in the upcoming weeks. If you like stamping or paper piecing, then show us your stuff here. 

Since I used so many limes in my layout, I decided to enter it Moxie Fab World's repetition challenge.

This layout was also featured in the last issue of ScrapStreet MiniMag.

Thanks for stoppin' by,

Paper Made Bakery: Baby Clothes Inspiration

Hello scrappy friends, happy Thursday! It is time for my weekly sneak peek with Paper Made Bakery.

Was that too tiny of a reveal? I can say that I made a card based on my niece, Zemira's, shirt. Here she is:

I like making cutesy projects, and what is more cutesy than baby girl clothing? So that is a great source for design inspiration. I've previously made a card based on another one of her outfits, which you can see here.

To see the complete card, please see today's post on Paper Made Bakery's blog. Or for more design inspiration, see PMB's Flickr gallery, where you can upload your PMB projects too!

Thanks for stoppin' by,

Scraplifted

I previously made this layout for Paper Made Bakery, which you can read more about here. A scrapper, besskin,  saw it on a 2Peas gallery and asked to post it on her blog feature "Scraplift Tuesday". I was totally honored that she asked. 

Here is her version. Isn't it totally darling? I would never have known it was based on my layout if she didn't tell me. 

Thanks so much for stoppin' by. I'll have a new card to reveal on Thursday. 

Sweet Stamp Shop: Door Hanger

Hello friends! I wanted to let you know today is my first post over at Sweet Stamp Shop and it features a reversible door hanger I made for my nephew's room. I gave it to him yesterday and he was intrigued by it although he didn't know what it was. Here is a sneak peek:

Reversible Door Hanger

I totally loved the stamp set I used, called Watchin' TV. I was immediately drawn to the retro 70's TV set and the static lines, so I designed a project featuring those two stamps.

Watchin' TV Stamp Set

To see the whole project, please stop by today's post on Sweet Stamp Shop's blog. There are also many great projects from the entire design team throughout the month.

Thanks for stoppin' by,

Paper Made Bakery: Shaker Card

Back in Action

Hello friends! I just returned from my vacation to the Big Island of Hawaii and am now delving back into the scrappy world and my blog. I spent a week with my hubby and my dad touring the varying terrains of the Big Island. My favorite site was the Hawaiian Vanilla Company, which is an orchid farm. The black tents house some of the new orchids. 

I never knew vanilla beans grow from hand pollenated flowers on the vanilla orchid plant, which is then soaked in oak barrels of Everclear for 8 months to make vanilla extract. I bought three beans to make my own extract. I'll tell you in 8 months how it turns out. 

The Reveal

Today is also my reveal day over at Paper Made Bakery, so please stop by to see the whole card and tips to make your own. I'd love it if you left a comment so I know you dropped by. I utilized a lot of the fun elements from this month's Garden Art kit. 

Thanks so much for stoppin' by, 

Sweet Stamp Shop: Cherry Blossoms Blog Hop

The Hop
Welcome to Sweet Stamp Shop's August release hop and one year anniversary celebration! There is a different hop each day this week featuring a different set of stamps. Today's hop is featuring their Asian themed Cherry Blossom set. Here is the blog hop order:

Sweet Stamp Shop
Emily
Stephanie
Michelle (←you are here)
Nicole (←go here next)



The Reveal

I stamped two styles of lanterns onto patterned paper and cut them out. 

I strung the lanterns together using brown & white twine from Timeless Twine. I love their assortment of colors. I adhered the strands of lanterns at varying heights and varying dimension. 

For my background I stamped Kraft cardstock multiple times with one cherry blossom stamp. I created a gradient effect by stamping some images directly onto the cardstock, then stamping some once on scratch paper and then onto the cardstock, and finally stamping some twice onto the scratch paper and then on the cardstock. This created three different levels of ink saturation. 

Previous Projects
I've had the pleasure of working with the Cherry Blossom set through Paper Made Bakery, which included it in their monthly card kits. For this layout, I incorporated the love stamp into my title, so it reads, "I Love Taiwan." I recreated the Polaroid look when I printed out my photos and strung them on a ribbon to simulate the look of hanging lanterns, like in the card above.

I Love Taiwan Layout

For my paper lantern, I stamped the cherry blossom stamp onto vellum and then colored in the flowers with Copic markers.

Paper Lantern

I created the template for the lantern in two versions if you would like to make your own.



Version I: lantern hand cut template

Version II: lantern Silhouette cut file download








Your next stop on the hop is Nicole's blog. 

Thanks so much for stoppin' by, 

Paper Made Bakery: Butterflies in the Sky

The Reveal

The garden images in this month's Lawn Fawn Flutter By stamps are just so cute and they match perfectly with the Christy Tomlinson patterned papers in PMB's Garden Art kit. I designed a card with colors that reminded me of the grass, leaves and flowers in a garden. This card features a window with a spinning butterfly. For more information and to see the whole card, please hop on to today's post at  Paper Made Bakery. 

Buttery Window Card

Thanks so much for fluttering by,

Paper Made Bakery: Flutter on By

Paper Made Bakery's August Hop
If you would like to participate in PMB's August release blog hop and giveaway, please go to this post on my blog, or to start from the beginning, please go here. You have until midnight on Friday to join in the fun.

The Reveal
I have a new card up on PMB's blog today featuring August's Garden Art kit. I used papers by Christy Tomlinson and stamps by Lawn Fawn. The papers have a trendy mixed media feel to them, so I tried to use as many of the patterns as I could on one card for that effect. To see the entire card, please stop by today's post on PMB.

Butterfly Card

Thanks so much for stoppin' by,

Sweet Stamp Shop & Other News

If you are here for Paper Made Bakery's August blog hop, please go here. 

New Design Team

I just wanted to share that starting today, I am on Sweet Stamp Shop's design team! You can read all about the new designers here. Sweet Stamp Shop makes really cute clear stamp sets. If you've seen some of my designs for Paper Made Bakery, like the Tea for Two and Cherry Blossom kits, Sweet Stamp Shop stamps were featured in those kits. Since I already love using their stamps, I'm really excited to be on the design team. I'll be sharing several stamped cards with you each month. The August release blog hops will be from August 6th - 10th, and my reveal date will be on August 9th. So please join all the fun starting next week!




ScrapStreet Magazine

I made an engagement album for my cousin, which I blogged about here and here. I submitted a few of the pages to ScrapStreet Mini Magazine and two of the pages are in the August edition which came out today. I didn't clear this with my cousin beforehand, so I hope she doesn't mind. One layout is in an article about using two photos on a page, which can be viewed here. That layout is actually part of a two paged layout. The second layout is in an article about using strips of paper, which can be viewed here. I didn't actually use paper, but used strips of ribbon instead.





July Summary
I usually post a summary of my Paper Made Bakery projects for the month. These are from PMB's July Tea for Two kit featuring Cosmo Cricket papers and Sweet Stamp Shop stamps.

Two a Tea Layout

Negative Space Teapot Card

Pouring Tea Card

Mirror Mirror Card

Strawberry Matchbook Card

More information for each project can be found on Paper Made Bakery's blog.

Thanks so much for stoppin' by, 

Paper Made Bakery: August Reveal + Blog Hop + Giveaway!

The Hop:

Welcome to Paper Made Bakery's August release blog hop as brought to you by a new design team! If you've just arrived from Wida's site, then you've come to the right place. If you would like to start from the beginning, please hop on over to Paper Made Bakery's blog. If you are lost, this the blog hop order:

Paper Made Bakery

Wida Miller

Michelle McClure (←you are here)

Lisa Arana (←go here next)
Jennifer Cuthbertson
Amy Tsuruta
Alicia Thelin

The Kit:

August's Fresh Baked Kit entitled Garden Art features bright, graphic designs from Christy Tomlinson's She Art line by Pink Paislee and cute garden images from Lawn Fawn's Flutter By clear stamp set. I just love the bold colors and design in this month's kit!

PMB August's Fresh Baked Kit

The Reveal:

I like to start each month by making a layout with my Fresh Baked kit. Since the patterned papers are 6 x 6" and the white cardstock I added is 12 x 12", I'm always looking for ways to integrated the two sizes. I was thinking that quilts use smaller blocks to build up to the larger whole so I went with a quilt theme for this layout. 

Cathedral Quilt Layout

The Details:
I've made a patchwork quilt design before and wanted to try a new quilt pattern. I really like the look of a cathedral quilt so I replicated that design. 

Actual Cathedral Quilt

Since I decided upon a quilt pattern, I continued the theme by stitching all my components together at the end with a sewing machine. 

For my title block, I used the manilla tag from the kit and cut out some of the words with my Silhouette Cameo. It was easier for me to use the negative space backed with patterned paper as opposed to cutting little patterned paper letters and then gluing them onto the tag. I hand-stitched one of the words to continue the quilt theme. I also used part of two of the Christy Tomlinson rub-ons as a finishing touch. 

The patterned paper quilt blocks, title block tag, ribbon, buttons with string (untied from the tag) are all from the kit. I added one piece of white cardstock, thread for sewing and floss for hand-stitching. The sewing and stitching are optional, you can always draw in stitching lines or skip these steps. 

The Tutorial for One Quilt Block:

Here are some guidelines to making your own cathedral quilt block.

1. Cut a circle in the size you need along with a square that will fit to the edge of the circle. I punched out a 2.5" circle and the corresponding square that fits is 1.75". The circle will be your quilt block, the square is your reuseable template.

 2. Place the square in the center of the circle and trace along the four sides.

3. Score along the four lines.

4. Fold along the score lines toward the center of the circle. You can leave the four flaps loose or you can adhere or sew them down for a flatter look. This is your finished block. Repeat the steps for the number of blocks you need.

5. I measured out the space on my layout that I wanted to fill. I determined where my photo and title would go and calculated how many blocks I needed in the remaining space. This way I wouldn't have to waste time making extra blocks. 

The Giveaway:

As a way to say thank you for participating in today's blog hop, Paper Made Bakery is giving a  goodie bag to one lucky participant. You can enter by using the Rafflecopter widget below. The giveaway will end at midnight on Friday, August 3rd and the winner will be posted on PMB's blog on Saturday. 

Good luck to all! Your next stop is Lisa's blog. Remember there are daily inspiration projects and tutorials on the PMB's blog all month long. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway