Be Counted

Well I feel like I am still catching up from the birthday party week...did you see my post from the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Party?  You don't want to miss the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse cake and Mickey Glove Balloon favors...the invite was nothing special, but I was pretty proud of the cake and favors.  So make sure to check it out if you missed it.  Anyway, like I said, trying to catch up...laundry still hasn't been started, but oh well!  I was happy, though, to be able to have a chance to get a little crafty...and what better way than with the most recent Freebie from Paper Makeup Stamps!

Yup remember how I said in my last post that Paper Makeup Stamps is doing Freebie Fridays? Well there is another great wordart up for grabs at the PMS Blog (or in the PMS Store...and while you are there, might as well browse the Inventory Reduction Sale going on!!).  I took the Be Counted Digi and opened it up in Photoshop Elements.  In that program, I was able to color the different parts of the digi in different colors...to go along with the Splitcoast Stampers Color Challenge #324: Baja Breeze, Soft Suede, and Perfect Plum.  If you search in SCS, you can find files that have the RGB values to put in when coloring stuff so you get the SU! colors printed.  Pretty cool, right?!  Even cooler is the Cryogen White cardstock from Paper Temptress (which is on sale...30% Off) that I printed the wordart on to...it has a beautiful sparkle that you can see in the detailed shot.

I also used the Clean and Simple Challenge #120 on SCS too.  It was a sketch challenge this week.  The bow should be offset for the sketch, but that just did not work with the wordart...just had to be centered.  Plus as a bonus, the SCS Free For All challenge #66 is to use something that you got for Free...well a Freebie Digi from PMS certainly qualifies!  So a very simple card to get myself back into stamping...now to get to that to do list of cards I need to make!  Don't forget to submit for the Paper Makeup Stamps Design Team...you only have until June 4!!  Thanks for checking out my kind of engineering!

The Engineering Details

Stamps - Be Counted Wordart Digi (Paper Makeup Stamps); Paper - Baja Breeze, Soft Suede Textured (SU!), Iridescent Cryogen White (Paper Temptress); Ink - Printer; Accessories - Ticket Corner Punch (SU!), Amethyst Satin Ribbon (Offray), dimensionals

Totally Non-Stamping Related

So like the title says, this is totally non-stamping related.  But one picture I thought was pretty fun and the other I was pretty proud that I got.  So the first is this poor fly!  My son was about to get on the trampoline and came calling for me asking me what a bee looks like again.  I ask why, of course, and he says that there is a bug buzzing on the trampoline and he isn't sure if it is a bee or not.  I walk out there expecting to find a bee/fly dying on the surface of the trampoline and instead find a fly that somehow managed to get himself stuck in the trampoline netting.  I mean did he fly into in?  Did he not see the netting?  Or did he try to crawl through the opening and ate a bit too much pollen (or whatever it is that flies eat) that day that he got stuck?  So after I grabbed my camera and got a picture of him (which by the way, you can see the little hairs on him...pretty crazy), I helped him get out and he buzzed away happily.


My second photo to share is one that I was really excited about.  One, I finally got a decent picture of my son with his missing front tooth and two, I just love the water splashing around him but he is in focus.  So yay for me and my camera!  


Well that is all for me...just had to share my pics with ya...back to stamping stuff.  Thanks for checking out my kind of engineering!

A Whole Lot of PMS!

So I am finally catching up and feel the need to talk about some PMS....not the too much information kind of PMS, but Paper Makeup Stamps!  There is so much going on right now and it is all super exciting!!  So here is the breakdown:

1) First and foremost, Paper Makeup Stamps is having a DESIGN TEAM call.  So if you have ever thought about being on a design team (or want to add another to your list) and you love what Paper Makeup Stamps has to offer, check out the Application Information.  I have loved working on this team...a great owner and a very friendly and supportive team!  So give it a try!!  You only have until June 4 to apply!!

2) Freebie Fridays are Back!!!  Ok I will admit these were new to me...that means they did this before I was a member of the team, but basically, the owner, Katie, puts up a Free Digi on the PMS Blog every Friday (well most Fridays unless there is something else going on such as releases, blog hops, sponsorships, etc) for everyone to enjoy!  So far we have had a couple fantastic wordarts and there will be another one this Friday! So make sure to check the PMS Blog on Friday for the latest (and go back and snag the previous ones HERE and HERE before they are gone!).

3) PMS is sponsoring a bunch of challenges this month...which means a bunch of chances for you to win some Paper Makeup Stamps!  So here is the list:

Copic Creations Challenge #50:  Use Yellow ($20 Gift Certificate up for grabs) due May 31

Through the Craft Room Door Challenge #2:  Any Winged Thing ($15 Gift Certificate up for grabs) due May 31 (This is what my card above it for...details on my card below)

Fab & Funky Challenge #73: Make Your Own Blooms (3 Digi Images up for grabs) due May 24 by 10 pm (that is TONIGHT!).

So make sure to check out all of the great happenings with Paper Makeup Stamps.  Thanks for checking out my kind of engineering!

The Engineering Details

Stamps - Penelope, Friends are Angels Wordart (Paper Makeup Stamps); Paper - Elegant Eggplant, Very Vanilla (SU!), Pattern Paper (Making Memories); Ink - Elegant Eggplant (SU!), Brilliance Graphite Black (Tsukineko); Accessories - Gold Alpha Stickers (Making Memories), scallop edge punch (SU!), amethyst satin ribbon (Offray)

A Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Birthday

 Wow, sorry that I have been a little non-existent on the blog here for the last couple of weeks.  I had my daughter's 3rd birthday over this last weekend and I had invitations, party favors, craft projects, and a cake to make for it...all at the last minute of course!  Seriously, I saved most of it till the week of for some reason....no idea why!  But now that it is over, I need to get back into some normal crafting...although I promised some graduation announcements for my nephew...so I better not procrastinate on those!!


So I thought I would share with you today all that I have been doing...all to make a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Birthday Party as special as my sweet little girl!  This is a long post, so grab a cup of coffee (at least that is what I need right now!) and enjoy.  First I made the invitations.  Since I was running way later than I would prefer, I kept them very simple. Most of it was designed on the computer and then I added the stamped/embossed/colored Mickey Mouse on top.  Again nothing spectacular but I thought they turned out cute.


Then came the party favors.  See I follow Jessica Witty's blog (she is the amazing former Go-To Gal for Paper Crafts magazine whom I have actually chatted with via FB...my brush with fame! hehe!) and she did this adorable project during a Papertrey Ink release of a paper mache hot air balloon.  Well when I decided to do Mickey Mouse Clubhouse as the theme for my daughter's party, I immediately thought back to that project and how I could transform it into the Mickey Glove Balloon from the show.  Yah....fantastic idea...one I definitely should have started weeks before the party...one that I started the week of the party.  I blew up some latex gloves, taped down the pinky finger (Mickey only has 4 fingers), taped on a paper ring on the bottom, and paper mached it with tissue paper and gluey water.  Near the end I was sort of cursing Miss Jessica's name (really I still love her) as paper mache is a very time consuming process for 7 party favors!  After I paper mached them, I paint them white and added the black marks like Mickey's glove.  All of this would have been fine and dandy really until I decided to pop one of the "balloons" too early (i.e. before it was completely dry) and it imploded!  Mind you I only had exactly 7 gloves to work with!  Thankfully my husband was smart enough to think about blowing up a small regular balloon inside to get it to blow back up, we re-glued it, and let it dry for days...just to be sure!  Again all during the week of the party.


I then built a paper basket and glued it all together with some cookie pop sticks.  I printed all of the kids names out and attached them to the basket.  Then I filled the basket with the silly little trinket toys that kids love and parents hate!  My kids have loved them...they put animals and figures in the basket and fly them around.


Next up was the cake.  Of course I had to make the cake into the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse!  I did my typical research online when thinking up a cake...to see what others have done.  No sense in re-creating the wheel!  But alas, as I have often found, a lot of others use Fondant to create a lot of cool stuff.  I do not know how to use fondant nor do I like the taste of it.  So I took some of the ideas and came up with my cake.  The base is two 9 x 13 cakes and the Clubhouse body is a cake made in a bowl that was the roundest one I had.  The shoe, head and ears, and the slide are all made from Rice Krispie Treats.  This is where the challenge was.  One, the ears did not want to stay on the head.  Two, warmth makes the ears not want to stay on the head even more.  So there was 4 toothpicks in each ear holding them in place and I frosted quickly and threw them in the fridge so they wouldn't fall off...again!  I got a little smarter with the slide and stuck it in the freezer for a little bit before I tried to frost it.  

 

 I normally would have tried to smooth out all of my frosting, but due to the warmth / things falling off issue, I decided against it cuz I didn't want to mess with them anymore than I had to!  I kind of like the look though...kind of artsy looking...or am I just making myself feel better?!  The circles around the sides of the base were to mimic the circles on the invitation.  That Mickey Mouse head was heavy...didn't really think a big ball of Rice Krispie treats would be that heavy, but it was!  I had to walk very, very slowly when carrying the cake around because the head was kind of teetering on there a little bit.  I was so nervous it was going to fall off!  But all worked out, and my daughter loved it! 


I will leave you with my big 3 year old girl!  Just now noticed that she has a lovely snotty nose in this picture...ah well, kind of goes with the girl...and I do LOVE the girl!

Soaring to New Heights

 Well another release for Paper Makeup Stamps has come and gone!  How did you like the latest release...what, you didn't see it yet?  Well then click on over to the PMS Store to check it out.  But before you go let's visit a stamp from the release that will have you soaring to new heights!


This is Lea and she is flying along with her kite!  Looks like fun doesn't it...a lot better than standing on the ground trying to get the darn kite up in the air.  Yup that is me...for some reason I just do not have the knack for getting a kite to fly!  Anyway, I thought it was fitting for her to have a sky behind her, so I created one...pretty cool right?!  Done by sponging over top of a scallop circle and moving that scallop circle around to form the clouds.  A little paper piecing, some rhinestones, and some baker's twine later, she looks complete...just wish it would have come together that fast and easy.  This was definitely a labor of love!  Oh and I used the first week Viva La Verve Sketch Challenge for May for my layout.


You cannot see it in the big picture, but check out the detail shot.  See that slight sparkle on all of the white cardstock?  That is the Cryogen White Iridescent cardstock from Paper Temptress.  It has a lovely sparkle that just makes you smile.  I have heard it is fabulous with Copics.  I used ink and a blender pen here...it definitely acted different than my other cardstock I color on...hard to explain.  It is almost like it was absorbing the "water" too fast and wasn't allowing me to blend like I am used to.  It is so pretty though, so I will definitely keep playing with it.  If you are interested, it is on sale right now for 30% Off at the Paper Temptress Store!


Make sure to jump over to the PMS Blog to see what the other makeup artists are showing off today.  Until next time (which may be  a little bit scattered here as I have to make birthday invitations for my daughter's birthday and then make a cake), thanks for checking out my kind of engineering!

The Engineering Details
Stamps - Lea Fairy (Paper Makeup Stamps); Paper - Bashful Blue, Apricot Appeal Pattern Paper (SU!), Cryogen White Iridescent (Paper Temptress); Ink - Bashful Blue, Apricot Appeal, Crumb Cake, Pink Pirouette (SU!), Brilliance Graphite Black (Tsukineko); Accessories - Stardust Stickels (Ranger), Scallop Circle Punch and Ticket Corner Punch (SU!), Tangerine Blast Rhinestones (Bazzill Basics), Baker's Twine (unknown), sponge, blender pen, dimensionals

Tempting Mother's Day Card

Well I hope that everyone's Mother's Day was wonderful.  I actually had some time alone sitting outside reading and having a cup of coffee...that never, ever happens!  It was so nice!  


I had to share one more Mother's Day cards with ya.  Yeah, I know we are past the actual day, but this one is special...it is made completely with cardstock from Paper Temptress.  I highlighted this card on the Paper Temptress Community Blog last Friday...check it out HERE.  I am tellin' ya, this cardstock is just so fun to play with!!

Using the Sweet Stop Sketch Challenge #106, I stamped the Stipple Rose (long retired SU!) and embossed it on the Classic Solar White Linen cardstock.  This was cut out with Oval Nestabilities...which was  tad bit tricky with all of those bits hanging over the edge.  Then I layered it with Aqua Basis cardstock.  Then came the really beautiful cardstock, Copper Mica/Metallic!  So gorgeous!  I tried to show how much this stuff shimmers and sparkles.  All of this was then mounted on a base of the Heavenly White 100# cardstock.  A lovely, smooth yet heavyweight cardstock.  See why this card was special?!  


And now I feel I need to show a picture of my daughter.  My last POST focused on my son, so to give her some love too, I will show off her new haircut.  She originally asked for "boy hair"...I have no idea why, but she has been requesting it for a long while.  So finally took her in to get her haircut to a short "girl" bob.  Adorable right?!  Which is what made her looking in teh mirror and crying "I want short hair" even funnier!  We convinced her to give this a shot...and yeah she is only 2....imagine what I am in for as she gets older!  

Thanks for checking out my kind of engineering!


The Engineering Details
Stamps - Stipple Rose (retired SU!), Sentiment from Women of Life set (Papertrey Ink); Paper - Heavenly White 100#, Copper Mica/Metallic, Classic Linen Solar White, Aqua Basis (Paper Temptress); Ink - Versamark (Tsukineko); Accessories - Oval Nestabilities (Spellbinders), Scallop Edge Border Punch (SU!), white satin ribbon (Offray), Copper Embossing Powder, dimensionals, heat gun

Happy Mother's Day

Well Happy Mother's Day to all of the Mommies out there! I was awoken to children this morning, which is nothing new, but this morning my husband got to get up with them and I "slept" in. Hard to say I slept since I could hear every conversation as my children have a hard time understanding the concept of quiet! I was blessed with a "Mother's Day Tea" at my son's school on Friday...so cute. The kids greeted their Moms with a flower and then escorted us to our table, took our order (what kind of drink), and gave us a bunch of handmade gifts. Then they sang four wonderfully sweet songs to us. I was literally balling my eyes out! It was just so cute and sweet...and that of course makes me cry! See below for one of the funnier things that my son made for me.

But first I thought I would show off the card I made for my husband's Grandma for Mother's Day using the Mojo Monday Sketch Challenge #189.

I used the flower from the Beautiful You set by Verve Stamps, sentiment from the newly released Build a Sentiment set by Paper Makeup Stamps, and the Green at Heart paper pad by Basic Grey. Very cheery...so love the colors in that paper pad!

Now for my funny gift from my son. They made a book that went along with one of the songs they "signed" and sang. He was suppose to draw a picture of me and decorate it with yarn for the hair. Notice the white yarn!!! Haha! When I mentioned it to him, he said "Yeah Mommy, like right here" and pointed to my hair! Apparently I am overdue for dying my hair!!

But then I got this sweet picture to go along with it! Not much better!

Thanks for checking out my kind of engineering!

The Engineering Details

Stamps - Beautiful You (Verve Stamps), Build a Sentiment (Paper Makeup Stamps); Paper - Melon Mambo, Always Artichoke, Certainly Celery, Rich Razzleberry, Whisper White (SU!), Green at Heart Paper Pad (Basic Grey); Ink - Whisper White Craft, Melon Mambo, Sahara Sand (SU!); Accessories - Half Pearls (Oriental Trading), Pink Fairy Rhinestones (Bazzill Basics), Labels 14 and Oval Nestabilities (Spellbinders), Scallop Edge Punch (SU!), Swiss Dots Embossing Folder (Provo), Sponge, Dimensionals

Sprouting a PMS Blog Hop

So have you been enjoying the sneaks at the May Paper Makeup Stamps Release! So many great ones...I haven't had a chance to play with everything yet! You should be arriving to my blog from the lovely, Christi (isn't Lars just the cutest little boy fairy ever!), but if you didn't, never fear, you can start at the PMS Blog so you don't miss a bit of the wonderful creations!

I used the CPS Sketch Challenge #216 for my layout. Not sure if it was the simplicity of the layout or if I just did this one too late at night, but I kept this one really simple...hopefully simple and not boring! So you know how silhouettes seem to be all the rage right now (in case you missed it, silhouettes are popping up everywhere!)...so PMS decided to put their own spin on the silhouette with a couple of fairy silhouettes. Sprout (shown here) and Kirsten were turned into silhouettes...which are a little smaller than their normal counterparts.

Now you are off to see what Randee has in store for you. Before you go, though, don't forget to collect your letter and we hope to see you at the PMS Release Party tonight at 9 pm in the PMS Forum! Thanks for checking out my kind of engineering!

The Engineering Details

Stamps - Sprout Silhouette, Plant & Believe Sentiment (Paper Makeup Stamps); Paper - Always Artichoke, Rich Razzleberry, So Saffron (SU!), Green at Heart Paper Pad (Basic Grey); Ink - Whisper White Craft, Always Artichoke (SU!), Accessories - Small Purple Pearls (Oriental Trading); Big Scallop Circle Nestabilities (Spellbinders), Corner Rounder (SU!), dimensionals, white embossing powder, heat gun, white gel pen

Presents for You

Is it truly spring where you are? I'll tell ya...it looks like spring around here...flowers blooming, trees getting leaves, grass the greenest it will ever be...but the temperature is no where near spring. It is still darn right chilly out and we are in May already! I tell ya, it is killin' me! I need warmer weather!!

Maybe that is why you need some sunglasses for my Paper Makeup Stamps Sneak Peek Card! All bright and cheery to make me think it is warmer out than it is. There is an adorable new boy fairy named Lars and he is surrounded by presents (you can get a peek at him from the other Makeup Artists on the PMS Blog). This is a separate image of just presents to go along with little Lars. I had the wavy striped pattern paper for a long time and finally decided to use it. I used the Card Patterns Sketch #113 for my layout. I originally didn't have the circles on the base, but decided it was just too plain...faux dry embossing to the rescue! I justed punched out a bunch of circles of the same color and adhered them to the card front. Just gives it a little more interest, don't ya think?

Make sure to check out all of the other PMS Sneak Peeks at the PMS Blog and then join us for a little fun at the Release Party in the PMS Forum on May 7th (9 - 11 pm EST). Oh and you might want to check out the Paper Temptress Blog for the latest post there...hint, hint...its my first as part of the Paper Temptress Design Team! Thanks for checking out my kind of engineering!

The Engineering Details

Stamps - Lars Fairy Presents (Paper Makeup Stamps); Paper - Regal Rose, Pumpkin Pie, Kiwi Kiss (SU!), pattern paper (unknown), watercolor paper; Ink - Regal Rose, Riding Hood Red, Pumpkin Pie, Kiwi Kiss (SU!), Brilliance Graphite Black (Tsukineko); Accessories - white taffeta ribbon (SU!), Oval and Scalloped Oval Nestabilities (Spellbinders), Striped Orange Brads (Making Memories), 1" Circle Punch (SU!), dimensionals, aquabrush