My creative rumblings

Saturday, May 26, 2012

McMahon Five Designs New Releases w/ a freebie!

I am late this week for the McMahon Five Designs new releases- I am blaming it on jet lag........ the release this week includes a cute freebie digi that coordinates perfectly for the weather here in Chicago! Check out what the DT made this week:

Patched Up Accessories FREEBIE

Waterfall card by: Paige

Card by: Fran

Card by: Kelly

Family Time JPG and PNG

Card by: Paige

For more details on the projects above, visit the Design Team blogs!

Angie

Fran
Jeni
Kelly

Sue

Thanks for stopping by!
Shelly

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Sweet Stamps-Anything Goes

Anything goes is this week's challenge at Sweet Stamps- we would love to see what you create! Please take a moment to drop by the blog to see all of the DT cards for inspiration!

I had a blast challenging myself to create with no stamping........ I used some great Dragonfly stickers mounted onto a sticky sheet and micro fine glitter was added to the sticky area. I cut out around the edges of the dragonflies. Next, I colored the dragonflies with Copic markers- using yellow, green and a yellow/red color. I added dimensionals under the wings (close to the body) to give the dragonfly wings 3-D dimension.

The flower and leaf die cuts are by Marianne Designs. The flower is from white cardstock and colored with R32 Copic marker. For the bottom layer, I used the negative of the flower die and traced it on the Coordinations cardstock Berry Reds-Raspberry and cut it out. The top of the flower has shimmer added with a Copic Spica in clear. Over that, I added sugar microbeads glued on with Crystal effects.

The bottom brown color is Coordinations cardstock in Sandy Tans. The DSP is Bo Bunny Vicki.
The stitching in brown is to accent the brown in the DSP. The ribbon is SU.

*Join us in this challenge for a chance to win $20 of rubber stamps from Sweet Stamps. Rules are listed on the challenge blog in the sidebar. Winner is chosen by Random.org- and if you use a Sweet Stamps image- you will get two entries in the draw.*

Challenges:
365 Cards challenge- 5 colors of Spring (pink, yellow, orange, green, coral-colors of flowers)
Always Crafting #8- stitching
Crazy Challenge- 3-D
Stampin Sisters in Christ- layer it
Ribbon Carousel- Fancy Flowers

Thanks for stopping by!
Shelly

Monday, May 21, 2012

Blog Candy WInner

Thanks to my daughter Stephanie for posting my blog candy while I was in China- I really appreciate it!

The winner was chosen by Random.org

Leanne said...: Sometime's its nice to take a break! I hope you enjoy yours! I'll be here when you get back! I wanted these inks back when they were released and didn't get to order them!! Thank you so much for the chance to win them! Hugs, Leanne
tobusyscrapping at bellsouth dot net

Congrats Leanne- and Thank you to everyone that stopped by and joined in my candy!

Shelly

Shimmery Floral Fun+China

Look familiar? I used one of my ATC's from the calligraphy swap posted recently and paired it with a background called Opalite Smoosh (from Technique Junkies Feb/March 2005) .

Image are from Rogue Redhead Designs.

We are just back from a trip to China. I wanted to share a couple of pictures.......cannot narrow it down.....

Dinner in Shanghai with the Alcatel-Lucent group. This is just a small selection of all of the food we ate. The shrimp was my favorite- it is a Shanghai specialty. Ray liked just about everything......

You have to know where you are going when you head out..........

In Shanghai at the Yu'Yuan Gardens

We went to West Lake in Hangzhou (outside of Shanghai) for a day:

We took a boat ride with this young couple.

Next, we were off to Beijing- and when we drove to our hotel- we saw blue skies and clouds in the sky- and stars at night- which is quite rare there! You will notice the haziness in the photo's- that is a regular sky everywhere we went.......

We climbed the entire wall at Badaling- that was quite a work-out. The wall is quite steep in segments.....we had perfect weather for a day of climbing the wall with a little bit of a breeze- which we really needed. In this picture- people are retreating to the shade for a break...!

The next day, we toured all day again- here we are at The Forbidden City:

We went to eat with Melissa Mack - she is teaching in Beijing. It was relaxing after visiting Tienanmen Square and The Forbidden City.

We explored Ghost Street with Melissa- it is a long strip of this road with lanterns hung outside- alot of outdoor tables for eating and evening entertainment, as well as some good shopping.

On our last day, we went to the Olympic Village and The Summer Palace with friends, then had a delicious Duck dinner at a local restaurant.

This is my favorite landscape shot at The Summer Palace:

And, last but not least- our friends from Beijing- Robinson and his wife and SIL at dinner:

A wonderful ending to a fabulous trip!

Thanks for stopping by!
Shelly

Monday, May 14, 2012

Blog Candy

I am taking a break from Blogging for a short time with no computer access. I thought it would be fun to offer some candy while I am away!

This is the WINTER Distress ink by Tim Holts- 3 pads-colors: Evergreen Bough, Festive Berries, and Iced Spruce.

To enter:

Leave a comment on this blog post.
For a second chance: post this on your sidebar and leave a separate comment.
You do not need to follow my blog to win; just leave me a way to contact you if you do win!
I will ship worldwide.

The winner will be posted on May 21st.

Thanks for stopping by! Shelly

Monday, May 7, 2012

Sweet Stamps Challenge- Parchment with Rubber Stamps

A Parchment challenge with Rubber stamps is this week's challenge at Sweet Stamps- this is what enamored me with Sweet Stamps- please take a moment to drop by the blog to see all of the DT cards!

Card One- is done in Gold embossing powder (this is cut out with the 4 needle tool)

and Card two..... done in white embossing powder.

There is a great instructional video. at Sweet Stamps- check it out- this is not difficult and Oh- such a great look! SweetStamps.com is sponsoring an Online Parchment Crafting Class through My Creative Classroom, which is being taught by past DT member Sandy Hulsart.

Join us in this challenge for a chance to win $20 of rubber stamps from SweetStamps .orghttp://shop.sweetstamps.com/main.schttp://shop.sweetstamps.com/main.sc Rules are listed on the challenge blog in the sidebar. Winner is chosen by Random.org- and if you use a Sweet Stamps image- you will get two entries in the draw.

I will list all of the supplies I used here:
White Dye Ink, Ranger Queen's Gold EP, White EP, Mother's Day stamp, Parchment stamp (Dresden Rose Circle), Copic Marker Sets: Rosey Reds, Tea Rose and Victorian green.
Sweet stamps has a kit for getting started with Parchment crafting HERE- on sale right now. In addition to the tools included in the kit, I used the 2 needle piercing tool as well. There is a single needle and the 4 needle tool in the kit. On the bottom of the gold card, I used the Dancing Doily Lace Border back to back- one of my absolutely favorite dies!
When I initially found Sweet Stamps, I tried this technique with 'other' vellum...... Well, it did not look the greatest- so I highly recommend the Parchment Vellum- give it a try! The shimmery cardstock is from Paper Temptress. I used Gold Sparkle and Russo Incandescent for my cards. The Parchment is attached to the cardstock using Vellum Adhesive Spray- works beautifully!

Challenges:
Addicted to Stamps- Mother's Day
Dream Valley- for a special lady
Great Impressions- Anything Goes
Pan Pastel- Anything Goes
Sentimental Sunday- For a Special Woman
I Brake for Challenges- Floral
2 Sisters- Anything Goes

Thanks for stopping by!
Shelly

Saturday, May 5, 2012

ATC-Calligraphy

Today was my monthly ATC meeting. Our theme- Calligraphy-letters or numbers. Here is what I created:

I used Rogue Redhead images from the Floriculture plate and used the color palate from the Rogue Redhead current challenge-Spring color palette for my designing. I used Ranger Distress inks, a paint pen and a Stardust Gelly Roll pen for my ATC. I used the sentiment from the set and left off the F when stamping- and added my own 'F' in calligraphy.

Challeges for my ATC's:
Rogue Redhead-Spring Fashion Colors
Crazy 4 Challenges-Gardening or great outdoors
ATC's and cards with Attitude- Anything goes/one layer
Wicked Wednesday ATC challenge- Spring Fever
Alphabet Challenge- G is for garden

In addition to our theme swap, we make one ATC for a 1-4-1 exchange.

I used a napkin adhered to my ATC base, added a border punched and added my Calligrapgy sentiment- made with Distress Ink and cut out, I added Sakura Gelly Roll Pen for shimmer on the letters and on the dragonfly.

Here are the rest of the ATC's I traded for:

Cindy- she said this is a stamp with added doodles and painted with Twinkling H2O's

Carol- this is either a picture of Carol OR her Mother......awesome!

This pretty one by Debbie

On the Lt- tis is by Mari and on the Rt- Harriet

And this beauty is by Mary.

Finally, this is the 1-4-1 ATC I rec'd- done by Harriet.

Thanks for stopping by!
Shelly

Friday, May 4, 2012

McMahon Five Designs-Here comes the Bride

'Tis the season for the Music to start playing, "Here comes the Bride"..............Bride is a digi by a new designer at McMahon Five Designs, aka LS Designs.

The Bride image is printed on Cryogen White cardstock- which has a shimmer in it. (Cryogen White is also currently on sale at McMahon Five). I colored the image with a very pale Copic Marker. I printed the image a second time and popped up the top portion of the skirt with a dimensional (approx 1/4" under the arm) and then glued down the edges of the skirt- that gives it a subtle dimension.
I had some netting in my stash, so cut a length ~ 18 inches long x's 1" and wrapped it around my card- tied a bow then added some white flowers. I recently saw a post where the designer made curly cues out of the stems of the flowers, so I took a paint brush handle and made curly cues with them....here is a close up: