Crocheted Flowers

I have totally loved the crocheted flower trend, but I am not at ALL skilled in crocheting! :) Luckily, I have a (VERY!) talented friend who does happen to be quite skilled at crocheting! On a side note, Amanda has been my friend since we were in middle school! We are both now about to be Thirty and Flirty and Thriving (my birthday is one week from today, actually!!), so it's been a while. What a sweet, godly woman and a wonderful mom she's turned out to be.

Anyway, I had Amanda create a sampling of crocheted flowers for me to create with myself AND to give away on my blog (to YOU, my friends!). If you would like to follow Amanda's projects on Facebook (or contact her to order any of her wonderful creations... I can tell you first-hand that they are top notch!), go to Knot Another Project. :)

As for my card, I used the new PTI color Fine Linen. I can tell I'm gonna love this color! I embossed an SU plate onto a second layer of Fine Linen, and inked it up in white ink for definition and "color" (not really color if it's white, huh?). I tied some Melon Berry satin ribbon around the embossed part of the card and tied a side knot. I added the crocheted flower (this one happens to perfectly match Fine Linen!) with a Melon Berry button in the center. The sentiment at the bottom, stamped in Dark Chocolate, is also from PTI.

Wanna win SEVEN assorted crocheted flowers made by Amanda? Thought so. :) Enter a comment here telling me something wonderful about being 30 (if you aren't 30 yet yourself, you can still tell me what you think is wonderful about 30!). I'll draw a random winner (and perhaps share a few of my favorite comments!) Friday afternoon or evening!

SKETCH 56 WINNER!

Good evening, folks! I'm here to announce our lucky Sketch 56 WINNER! :) Did you know that Cosmo Cricket makes BUTTONS now? And they're SO cute. They coordinate with the colors of their new lines. If you aren't Tami, you should head to Limelight and pick some up! That's right, Tami, you've won the package of buttons! Let me know if you'd like Matilda, Mitten Weather, or Togetherness buttons, and I'll send them out. Take a look at Tami's super fabulous card:


And here are a few other favorites this week... Enjoy!

Emily:


Janice:


Maureen:


Ujjwal:


Jennie:


I hope to be back tomorrow with another giveaway!! Stay tuned! :) This will be a fun one!

SKETCH 56: TAGS!

Happy Thursday, friends! Thanks for checking in even though I've been MIA for a bit. ;) We've moved, been busy with life, and have found out we are expecting a baby (our third...and last)! So to be honest with you, I just haven't felt like stamping! I am slowly but surely feeling better, though, and so I expect to slowly get the ball rolling again. :)

I love the card I made for this week's sketch! I love snowmen, and I LOVE the new Basic Grey Jovial line! I started with a kraft card base and stamped a build-a-snowmen from the Jovial Stamps-Snowmen set. I love the idea of customizing my snowmen, and I know my kids with love using this stamp set this holiday season, too! The sentiment is from the Unity Itty Bitty Snowbody Warms My Heart. I tied a knot of new May Arts Grosgrain/Satin Edge Ribbon in Light Turquoise around the top of the card, snipping the ends for style. I just love this ribbon...it ties so well, and the satin edging is GORGEOUS!! I punched the tag using my SU tag punch, and I punched the scallops on the side also using an SU punch. For both, I used the same Basic Grey Jovial paper. I layered on an SU felt snowflake and a natural-colored button. I tied my tag onto the ribbon knot using some Black Burlap String.



The Deets:
**Use the sketch above - our focus is TAGS!
**Keyword for SCS upload is LLPC056.
**Post a comment with a link to your card right here on the challenge post by Sunday, Sept 19, at midnight (or really just before winner is drawn Monday!).
**PRIZE ~ One lucky random winner will a pack of the NEW Cosmo Cricket BUTTONS!!

Sketch 55 WINNER!

GREAT job, everyone, with the fabulous cards you created for this week's sketch and product challenge! I mean, we were just WOWed by all the gorgeous entries! The lucky winner of the Jillibean Soup Sugar Picks is RACHEL! Rachel, I am pretty sure I've got your address. ;) I'll send the picks along! Here is Rachel's GORGEOUS card, using the Itty Bitty Oh Joy stamp:

Check out this beauty by Toni! I love the flowers in the paper AND the stamp!And look at Piali's bunny card, chock-full of cuteness! Love the patterns, colors, colorING, stitching...everything! :)
I wanted to be sure you know... We are carrying ALL of the Suzi Blu stamps!! We have another shipment coming in Thursday with all of the stamps, so preorders are being accepted NOW on the site!

DT Challenge: Back to School

Happy Sixth of the Month! AND...Happy Labor Day. :) I've been out of the saddle for a bit, but I wouldn't miss creating a project for our Limelight monthly challenge for the world! This month, we have focused on creating back to school goodies and cards for teachers and students. My children are starting preschool this Tuesday (Cameron is going to be in Pre-K, and Katy is in the 2-year-old class), so I knew I wanted to create a little treat to tuck in their bags for the occasion.

Remember the pumpkin basket I made last fall? I loved that basket!! :) It was my inspiration for today's project. I made an apple container in the same fashion as the pumpkin basket. The difference here is that, since I wanted this apple to be completely closed, I used my Crop-a-dile to punch through both ends of the twelve (6x1) strips of patterned paper and fastened both ends with a brad. This apple actually contains a Gala apple. I will probably, however, tuck a muffin (packaged in a glassine bag) inside for the kids' lunches on Tuesday. Cameron has been asking for blueberry muffins lately, so I'll be making a batch tomorrow. I think several of these paper apples could also be very cute piled into a decorative bowl for a centerpiece, too! So many possibilities!

The patterned papers I used for this project are all from Jillibean Soup. For the fruit, I used Minestrone - Chopped Tomatoes. To create the stem, I used Minestrone - Olive Oil. I started with a 3x1 strip of the brown paper and curled it into a spiral stem for dimension. To create the leaves, I used a short length of Parrot Green Twill. I simply tied a knot in the middle of the ribbon, then trimmed the ends to resemble leaves.

To create the 3x3 card, I decided to just cut an apple by hand using the same patterned papers. I forgot to photo the inside, but the sentiment inside reads "You're crazy cool!" It's from an SU stamp set.

I hope you enjoyed my project today! Be sure to visit each of the DT members on my right sidebar to be totally inspired!

Jillibean Soup WINNER!!

All right! We have a lucky winner of the Jillibean Soup prize package! Congratulations to FibreJunky! Carole, send me your address, and I'll get this out in the mail for you! Enjoy it!

On another note, LOTS of things have been preventing me from stamping. I may cry. Seriously. But perhaps today is the day!! I have a few projects to work on, and I'm feeling like maybe I could get it done today. So stay tuned! And if you haven't played along with our sketch challenge, make sure you DO! I'll race you...it's first on my list. :)

SKETCH 55: Patterns!

Happy Thursday! ...it's Limelight Sketch Day!

This week our focus is PATTERNS! (paper OR stamps)

The Deets:
**Use the sketch above - our focus is PATTERNS! (paper OR stamps)
**Keyword for SCS upload is LLPC055.
**Post a comment with a link to your card right here on the challenge post by Sunday, Sept 6, at midnight (or really just before winner is drawn Monday!).
**PRIZE ~ One lucky random winner will a pack of the NEW Jillibean Soup Sugar Picks!!

I'll be back soon with my card!

Off you go to see what the Limelight DT has created...

Your 1st stop is JenMarie