Prickley Pear Tutorial - Tea Bag Art

Hello there!  Today I have a fun project to share using a tea bag and Prickley Pear Rubber stamps and dies!

   Begin by soaking a tea bag in hot water.  I make myself a cup of tea and save the bags! 

Open tea bag and remove tea leaves, allow it to dry completely before stamping.

I drink a wide variety of teas and it's a lot of fun to see the different stains they create.

 Dried Papers

To create this card I did not let the tea bag dry but cleaned off the tea leaves then dripped TH Reinkers directly onto the wet tea bag.

 I used my heat gun to quickly dry the inked bag, then I stamped "PPRS GG0187 Black Capped Chickadees" on the tea bag and tore the edges to center the image.  The stained tea bag looks a bit like linen now!

I stamped the sentiment, "DD0199 Happy Spring 2" in the lower corner and 

 created the flowers from a second inked tea bag using "PPRS D012 Beautiful Flowers die".

TFL

Prickley Pear Rubber Stamps Spring Blog Hop Day 3!

Welcome to Prickley Pear CHA Release Hop Day 3!  Spring has Sprung in the Prickley Pear catalog, and the design team has been working hard behind the scenes!  We look forward to sharing our creations with you! 

 We are giving away two prizes valued at approx. $75 each!  Both are pictured below:

 We are hopping for THREE DAYS to show you our new CHA/SPRING Release!  You will want to hop to each design team member's blog each day and leave a comment.  We will select our winners randomly from comments left, so the more love you leave us, the better your chances to win the awesome prize packages!

Today's card was such a delight to create!  This little sweetheart is Penny and she's all dolled up in pink including pink gloves!

HH0157 Penny

For the inside I used EE0182 April Showers and  die cut the flower using Flowers Die Set.

Thanks for looking and don't forget to leave a comment for your chance to win the fab prize shown above!

If you came here from Tracie's blog your next stop is Jessica's blog.

Day 3 Hop Order:

PPRS

Heidi 

Tracie

                           Angela - You Are Here

Jessica

Michelle 

Supplies used:
Stamps - PPRS HH0157 Penny, EE0182 April Showers, 
Dies - PPRS Flowers Die Set, Cheery Lynn Burlap Border

Paper: MME MME In Bloom

I am entering the following challenges:

Sister Act Card challenge - Anything Goes

Cheery Lynn Designs - Tickled Pink (Burlap Border)

Prickley Pear Rubber Stamps Spring Blog Hop Day 1

If you are looking for "Speedy Fox & Friends Challenge" please scroll down or click HERE  

Welcome to Prickley Pear CHA Release Hop Day 1!  Spring has Sprung in the Prickley Pear catalog, and the design team has been working hard behind the scenes!  We look forward to sharing our creations with you! 

 We are giving away two prizes valued at approx. $75 each!  Both are pictured below:

 We are hopping for THREE DAYS to show you our new CHA/SPRING Release!  You will want to hop to each design team member's blog each day and leave a comment.  We will select our winners randomly from comments left, so the more love you leave us, the better your chances to win the awesome prize packages!

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Squeal!  We have a new spring kitty to share with you today and her name is, Penelope!  Isn't she the cutest?!!!  

GG0190 Penelope,

For the inside I used CC0060 Penelope (Small), and a sentiment from CLR0130 Scalloped Circle - Oval 5 Spring.

For my second card I created a pink, pink Valentine!  I used the sweet GG0193 Heart Grass, for my focal point and for the sentiment I masked off all but the words, "Forever Yours" from  EE0186 Kiss Me Circle.  I stamped GG0187 Black Capped Chickadees and fussy cut out one of the birds to rest on the sentiment.

Thanks for looking and don't forget to leave a comment for your chance to win the fab prize shown above!

If you came here from Heidi's  blog your next stop is Brenda's blog.

PPRS

Heidi 

                           Angela - You Are Here

Brenda 

Jenn 

Michelle 

Speedy Fox & Friends - Newsprint/Bookpage

Happy Saturday!  It's time for a new Speedy Fox & Friends Challenge and this week's challenge is to use newsprint or a book page.  

I just love it when I start a project with a bit of an idea and it turns into something unexpected!  For this card I started with the notion that I wanted to use the umbrella on a pink background book page, then I noticed that  "Umbrellas and Fans" stamp set has the sentiment, "Be Still".  That sent me on a hunt through a free devotional my husband had found for me and sure enough there was a page titled, "Be Still".  

I dipped the book page in distress ink that was stamped onto a craft mat and spritzed with water, added gesso and stamped the umbrella.  I colored the umbrella with Inktense pencils, and added white gel pen dots to the blossoms.  

To view the gorgeous creations my teammates are sharing and to enter your project head over to Speedy Fox & Friends Challenge HERE.

Have a great weekend and try to stay warm out there!!!

Prickley Pear Monday Inspiration - Happy Birthday

Happy Monday!!  I hope you had a good weekend!  We are actually still enjoying the weekend as there is no school today so that we may observe Martin Luther King Jr. Day.  

 There are several January birthdays on my calendar so I thought I would create a birthday card for  Prickley Pear Monday Inspiration to share with you today!

I used Flourished Ovals 2 Fall Clear Stamp and Mini Butterflies 2 Clear Stamp then die cut the butterflies and label with Mini Butterflies Die set and Flourished Oval Die Set.

For more Monday Inspiration stop by PPRS Blog!

Challenge entered:

SCS Featured Stamper (GardenDiva) 

Speedy Fox & Friends Challenge - Center Step Card

Happy Saturday!  I hope you had a good week and have a little relaxation time built into this weekend!  We have extra kids here today to help our son celebrate his birthday a bit early.  I am hoping for a bit of stamping time later but for now I am going to share with you this week's Speedy Fox & Friends Challenge!  We are making "Center Step" cards this week.  This was my first time creating a Center Step and much to my delight, I found it very easy to create.  If you need a bit of instruction I have included Patty's youtube video on how to create a Center Step card: Center Step 

Card

I am participating in the Christmas Challenge right here at MFPSpeedyTV so I thought that the center step challenge would be a great time to add a card for my goal!  It's not too late to join and there is a prize up for grabs at the end of the year too!

To see the beautiful projects my teammates have created this week and to find out how you can enter Speedy Fox & Friends challenge click HERE!

Challenge entered:
Christmas Cards All Year Long - Anything Goes
MFPSpeedyTV - CCC2014

Supplies:

Stamp: Mark's Finest Papers & Stamps a HC - Wise men

Paper: MME Lost & Found Christmas, Paper Doily

Acces: MFT - Fishtail flags, ribbon

Prickley Pear Rubber Stamps Monday Inspiration

Happy Monday!!!  I hope you enjoyed a restful weekend!  

Ok, the holidays are over BUT you know how much I love creating holiday cards.  I start right back up in January so that I can give out as many cards as my heart desires come Christmas.  No mad dash of last minute card making for me!  I even had enough to give to our sanitaion workers and mail lady this year!

 For my inspiration card today, I paired the sweet image: "Presents with Holly SM Red Rubber stamp" with the sentiment: "Gift of the Season".  The sentiment is a perfect fit for the "Flourished Oval Die" which I sponged to add a hint of drama.   I had a great time creating with these sweet stamps and die using my favorite color combo!  I will add this card to CCC14 February Challenge to use non-traditional colors as well as the challenges at the bottom of this post!  

For the inside, I kept it simple with just the black and white image in the lower corner.

TFL!

I am also entering the following challenge:

Jingle Belles - Old and New - The OLD is the Candy Button which was included in a prize pkg.  I received a couple of years ago from RRR.  I was entry 440 something!  For the NEW I used stamps that were recently given to me by PPRS!

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Today my husband and I celebrate our 24th Wedding Anniversary!  I get excited every January 13th as  it means we weathered another 365 days of ups and downs and are still together!  I thought it would be fun to share this gorgeous card my FIL picked out for us.  My Mom in-law had a bad few days struggling with Meniere's Disease and couldn't leave the house so she sent Dad to do the job, and what a beautiful job he did!  My photography doesn't do it justice.  It's beautiful with an abundance of glittering gold goodness!

Speedy Fox & Friends - Sponged Circles

Happy Saturday!  Has weather played a major role in your week?  I have heard from friends and family all over the country and it's been rather bitter out there!  Our kids had a couple of freebie days off of school due to the cold and we thoroughly enjoyed the extended holiday break!  Everyone went back to their normal routine on Wednesday which gave me time to work on our challenge this week!

This week at Speedy Fox & Friends we are challenging you to show us "sponged circles" on your project!

What a fun challenge!  I sponged circles with TH Victorian Velvet, using a circle mask I created by die cutting then I used just a hint of water on my paint brush and swirled the brush through the circles.  I splattered a bit of TH Fired Brick on the CS.  Butterfly and sentiment are from the Mark's Finest Papers & Stamps a HC "Lots of Words" stamp set.  

Hop on over to "Mark's Finest Papers & Stamps a HC" to see more great inspiration and to enter this week's challenge! 

Thanks so much for looking!!! 

I am entering this card in the following Challenge:

Sister Act Card Challenge: Anything Goes

Top Dog Dies Tuesday - One Little Word Album

Hello!  I hope everyone is staying warm and safe!  From the weather maps it looks like much of the U.S. is in a deep freeze today!!!  

I can't say that today's project will warm you up but maybe it will distract you from the ridiculous temps you might be experiencing!

For Top Dog Dies Tuesday I created a circle album. Last year some online friends and I chose a word to kind of focus our attention throughout the year and I chose "DO".  Wow! What a year of DOING it turned out to be.  This year I decided to turn a little more inward and I gave thought to what I was neglecting.  With that in mind I chose CHERISH as my little word.  Quite often I don't ACT like I cherish the most important individual in my life, the one I hope to spend several more decades with! So I made a little album to encourage my focus. 

For the album I used the following Top Dog Dies: Circle Mini Album Die, Vintage Alphabet Die, and Purse Card Finishers Set.

The inside of the cover gives the definition of Cherish.

 For this album page I created pockets to hold my Random Act of Kindness cards.  Little things that I can do to show Steve that he is important to me.

On this page I used more of the sweet dies from the "purse finishers" set and left a lot of empty space to journal my little experiment in cherishing!

I included quite a few empty pages to fill out as I walk through this year with a focus to cherish!

For a closer look at these dies and many more please visit TOP DOG DIES.

Challenges entered:
DL Art thankful Thursday anything goes
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - Something New (a new album for a NEW One little word)
Word Art Wednesday - Anything Goes

Prickley Pear Rubber Stamps Monday Inspiration

Brrrrrr and good chilly Monday morning to you!  I think we need a little Prickley Pear Rubber Stamps Inspiration to warm us up today!  

 I stamped Amaryllis Red Rubber Stamp, twice.  I colored both images then cut out three of the blooms and layered them.  Next up it was time to add some butterflies.  I used, Mini Butterflies 2 Clear Stamp Set and  D023 Mini Butterfly Die Set.

For more beautiful Monday Inspiration visit PPRS Blog.

Supplies:

Stamps: Prickley Pear Rubber Stamps - Mini Butterflies 2 Clear Stamp Set, Amaryllis Red Rubber Stamp, 

Dies: Prickley Pear Rubber Stamps - D023 Mini Butterfly Set, Cheery Lynn Burlap border

Paper: MME - Miss Caroline Dilly Dally, Misc. - White CS

Speedy Fox & Friends - Use a Stencil

Happy Saturday everyone!  I hope you had a good New Year!  Are you enjoying a little more holiday or did you get back to business as usual this week?  I did a little of both.  I enjoyed late nights with the kids and not so early wake up times but I also hit the craft room to bring you a little inspiration! 

This week at Speedy Fox & Friends our challenge is to use a stencil!  If you don't have a stencil it's easy to make one, just take a favorite die cut, then use the negative as your stencil!

We are currently in the middle Paper Doll Madness at MFPS a HC so I thought it would be fun to join in and use my paper doll set for this challenge.

I stenciled the bg of my card with Prima Stencils - Sunrise Sunset Collection and repeated the theme on cocktail dress.  Check out the fun bling at the throat and hair band!

For the inside of the card I made pockets to hold clothes and accessories:

Being a pink lover I think the ball gown is my fave!!!!  I used a circle stencil on the tennis dress, check out those cute tennis shoes!

Clothes are colored with Inktense pencils, a birthday gift from a dear friend!!!!  If you happen to read this, THANK YOU, I am having a ball!

Thanks for looking and enjoy your weekend!

New Year Review!!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

We say good-bye to 2013 and hello 2014, as we do, I thought I would share a look back at a few creations of 2013!

I love this happy card I made for Feb/Mar VSN at SCS

Also in March:

I Created this set for MFPS a HC blog hop and it was selected as

my first ever spotlight on Splitcoaststampers FB page!!!

April:

 My 2nd entry for the MIX challenge at SCS (MIX12).  I learned how easy it is to make a chipboard piece using a cereal box.

I was asked to be a guest designer for the June Christmas Fan Club challenge at SCS, theme: "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer".  

In July I started an art journal but I didn't get very far.....there's a goal for 2014!

August was DTGD: Create 42 cards in 7 days. Ummm.....that one just about did me in because I take a good bit of time to think about a card, and then execute it but I finished all 42 and was quite proud of myself!

September VSN

Well, If you know me, you know why this would be high on my favorites list!!!

This definitely makes me think of me and my sis!  The girl in the back is Shell and I am holding the cat of course!  We just facetimed each other HAPPY NEW YEAR and she showed me her two dogs and I showed her Storm! (Lil Bits was sleeping off the New Year somewhere)

October was a HUGE month for me.  I was asked to be part of Top Dog Dies first design team and Prickley Pear Rubber Stamps asked me to move up from a Guest position to take on a regular term.  It's been so exciting to design with these wonderful companies! Along with the new design opportunities I played along with SCS HYCCT challenges all month long.

October did not end there.....About mid way through the month Lydia of SCS asked me if I would be interested in becoming one of the Dirty Dozen!!!!  OH MY!!!!  What an honor!!!  I still can't quite believe that I am playing in the dirt pile!!!!

December - I turned a half century and my family surprised me with the best gift EVER!!!  If you didn't see that post you can view it here.

I don't have a single Christmas photo to share because our family didn't feel like pics.  We had our celebration early and it was a bit rushed so that Steve could get to bed and no one was in the mood for photos (including me).  I thought we might reenact the next day but again, no one felt like it.  I am sure I am going to be sad about that in the future but sometimes you just have to roll with it!

I did take this photo of the gift our DD made for us!!!!  Isn't this fun!  She delved into my die cut scrap box and decorated the jars, then filled them with cocoa and candies! What a super fun surprise!

I received a prize for playing along with HYCCT.  Storage units from Stamp N Storage!!!  It came just in time to give me brand new storage for Christmas!!! 

2013 was an amazing year.  I grew so much in the art of paper crafting, I said yes to many things in my personal life (some of which were very uncomfortable),  and my faith deepened as I learned to rest more fully in Christ.

 If you have hung with me and read all the way through this post I think you are AMAZING!!!!  THANK YOU so much for taking part in my journey this year.  I am so appreciative of your visits and your comments!  You could spend your time in a zillion other places so THANK YOU so much and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!