A Sweet Challenge

Hello sweet friends! Did you know Sweet Stamp Stop hosts bi-monthly stamping challenges on their blog? It is a great way to utilize your stamp stash and qualify to wins some cute stamp sets. The challenge that begins today is a sketch challenge. Just make a card based on the following sketch and load your picture onto their Flickr group. Read about all the challenge details in today's post on Sweet Stamp Shop's blog. Here is my take on the sketch.

Birthday Boy Card

Sweet Stamp Shop Sketch Challenge

I hope you'll visit Sweet Stamp Shop's Blog and play along or just take a peek at all the DT's creations. Remember you don't have to use Sweet Stamp Shop Stamps in order to play along. 

Thanks so much for stoppin' by,

Paper Made Bakery: I ♥ U Card

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

Do you know what this is? To see the whole project and the tutorial, please see today's post on Paper Made Bakery's blog.

I totally love this month's Sweet Life kit. The colors, patterns and stamp images are just so adorable. You really can't go wrong with anything you make from the kit.

If you haven't entered the release day giveaway, you have until midnight tonight. 

Thanks so much for stoppin' by,

Paper Made Bakery: October Reveal + Blog Hop + Giveaway

The Hop:

Welcome to Paper Made Bakery's new October release blog hop. 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:

October's Fresh Baked Kit entitled Sweet Life features cute country designs from the Avalon collection by Bazzill Basics Paper with matching images from a brand new stamp company called Fresh Squeezed Stamps. This company is started by Shannon, our fearless leader from Paper Made Bakery, and Ryann, one of PMB's talented designers from last term. This kit is so sweet, you won't have a need for dessert anymore.  

October's Sweet Life Kit

The Reveal:
To celebrate the launch of Fresh Squeezed Stamps which officially begins today, I wanted to make something a little out of the ordinary. I altered this wall hanging into a rainbow picture frame. 

The Details:
I went to my local thrift store to find a diamond in the rough to alter. I saw this lil' guy sitting forlornly in a corner on the floor and thought it would be a perfect match for this kit. I knew some TLC would breathe some "sweet life" into this decorative piece. It was in rough shape with a lot of chips and scratches. Even the cashier was asking me, "What is that? Are you going to repaint it?"

Since it was only $5 and I liked the wrought iron, I decided to take a chance on it. I took what I already owned, a small bottle of brown craft paint, and rubbed it over the wooden frame. I then wiped off the paint with paper towel like a stain. The wood turned a vibrant brown color.

I punched out some photos and patterned paper with a circle punch. I glued it to the back of the wrought iron with some Fabric-tac. I stamped and embossed some images and colored them in with 

Copics.  

For the patterned paper circles, I decorated with the colored stamp images, buttons, brads from the kit and added some Memory Thread of my own, which is a cloth covered wire from DMC. You can curl the wire (green vines) or leave it straight (brown stem). 

For the central portion of the wall hanging, I wanted to leave it open but still have some decoration there. I decided to have some buzzing bees flying around. I curled some craft wire around a skewer and attached it to the bee on one end with some Fabric-tac and tape, and on the other end curled it around the wrought iron. 

I also curled wire stemmed flowers around the wrought iron to finish out the scene. The kit comes with two flowers, I added a few more Prima flowers of my own.

I hung the completed project above my craft room door. It repeats the shape of the stained glass of my front door, so this project was totally meant to be.

The possibilities are endless with these kits, so just let your creativity be the guide. If you are thinking about purchasing one, the last two kits completely sold out, so don't wait too long.

The Giveaway:

As a way to say thank you for participating in today's blog hop, Paper Made Bakery is giving away two goodie bags which include a set of Fresh Squeezed Stamps inside. You can enter until midnight on Thursday, October 4th. by using the Rafflecopter widget below. 

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

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks so much for stoppin' by today,

Sweet Stamp Shop: 3 Uses for 1 Stamp

Hello friends, today I have three projects up on Sweet Stamp Shop's blog. I chose one stamp and used it in three different capacities - on a card, layout and altered item. I wanted to show the versatility of using just one stamp. Here is a sneak peek at one of my projects.

I used the stamp set entitled Lil' Sweet Peps and focused on the camera stamp. 

To see all three projects, 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. Sweet Stamp Shop's October release and blog hop and giveaway will occur the week of October 22, so please remember to join us then.

Thanks for stoppin' by,