Fun Announcement!

Hi all!  I have such a fun announcement to blurt out today, AND a fun share! 

I am excited that I have been added to the  Design Team of a fabulous little Etsy shop and creative blog... The Curtsey Boutique (Shop and Blog)!  If you are a fan of sweet, vintage and shabby-chic, you really need to check out what all the Curtsey Boutique has in store.  I believe you will fall in love with all the cute hand-crafted elements!  Today the shop's blog featured my very first project and tutorial and I would love for you all to check it out and comment (there and here) to let me know how I did for my very first go of it!  ;)  HERE is the blog post!  I'm not going to go into depth here with the tutorial since it can be seen on the Curtsey blog, but I will share the picture here of the finished card.  Since St. Patty's day is coming up, I went with that theme.  I paired my green up with some lovely "SPRING" yellow!  Anything to set that spring mood of course! ;) 
 

 

 

The elements I used on here from the Curtsey Boutique include the hand-dyed yellow doilies, the seam binding and the green pearlized heart pin.  The green seam binding was originally white but I sprayed it with some wonderful Fairy Green Glimmer Mist!  You can see I also packed this card with loads of wonderful new Core cardstock too...the fabulous NEW Tim Holtz Shattered collection, as well as some beautiful softer shades of yellow and green from the current Graphic 45 Signature Series in Lights!  My die cuts were cut from Cricut cartridges. I used the Paper Lace cart to cut out a heart shape... I used 3 different hearts pieced together to form a clover design.  Then I also used the Teresa Collin's Sophisticated cart to create the banner to house the sentiment which I stamped on with Vintage Photo Tim Holtz Distress ink. 

 

So there you have it... my first design for Curtsey Boutique!  I'm hoping you liked it and that you'll go check out the shop!  There are tons of beautiful goodies in there to spark your creativity!

And, one more thing before I forget to mention... my favorite company to design for is now hosting an open Design Team call!

 

  Yesss... that's right, Core'dinations is having a new designer call and you do not want to miss out on this fabulous opportunity.  Believe me when I say, this is one design team that I DO NOT WANT TO GIVE UP... like EVER!! So now maybe your chance.  Break out that Core and create in a frenzy!  Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of the week :)

Core Blog Hop with Peachy Keen!

Are you  ready for some mid-week fun and inspiration from your favorite cardstock brand?  Look no further... you have come to the perfect spot.  A few designers here with Core'dinations have teamed up with some Peachy Keen Stamps designers to bring you a blog hop full inspiration, so put in a load of laundry, grab your favorite drink and spend some hopping time with us! You know you want to, lol!  And this is a 2 day hop so please do visit us again on Thursday. 

Sooo, let's get started!  You will want to make sure you hit every blog along the way, and may I add, there are giveaways up for grabs!  So here's a complete list of our first day's installment...

Day 1
Core blog: http://www.coredinations.com/index.php/cat...scrapbook-blog/
Nikki Foraker http://scrappinnavywife.blogspot.com
Andrea Amu http://imlivinonscraps.blogspot.com/     *YOU ARE HERE*
Michelle Criswell http://www.scrappinwithmybug.com
April Derrick http://memoryvilla.com/blog/
Leanne Garner http://www.createdbyLeanne.blogspot.com
Debbie Standard http://debbiestandard.blogspot.com/
Raven Baca http://love4stamps.blogspot.com

Today for the hop I'd love to share with you a card set that I created using some way cute stamps that I got to play with in our swap with Peachy Keen stamps.  I had the chance to use an adorable collection called, Bee Happy (PK-244).  I designed two different cards using these super adorable bees...

Aren't they just so stinkin' sweet? 

Tons of other cool product went into making these cards.  Of course I cut out those beehives with my Cricut Expression using the Walk In My Garden cartridge.  Just too perfect for those bees.

Absolutely no patterned paper was used for these designs... strictly Core'dinations cardstock and tons of embossing!  The yellow beehive and the yellow background on the second card is Core Impressions Basic Grey Whimsy cardstock in the "Simon" embossed pattern.  The kraft background and kraft colored beehive is the Heritage Kraft (GX-3100-09) from the Graphic 45 Signature Series Core collection.  The cool hexagon embossing on the kraft was created by using the " So Trendy " Spellbinder's M-Bossabilities folder. 

The paper flowers on these are all from the Petaloo Core Color-Matching Series.  I used the larger Camelia flowers in Tulip Yellow and the Mini florals in Mantis Green and Tangerine.  I added some fine pastel yellow glitter to the centers of all the florals.  All the ribbons here are from May Arts Ribbon.  I used some Grosgrain ric rac in orange and Chevron twill ribbon in both yellow and lime green. 

Here are some more closeup photos...

To make the bees I stamped the images onto the backside of some Snowflake (GX-FB010) Core Essentials with a Jet Black Staz-On ink pad.  All the colors to the bees were added using Spectrum Noir markers from Crafter's Companion!  Love those markers... similar performance and impact as Copics, but very reasonably priced.  On the wings I also added a touch of Sugar Shimmer Fairy Dust glitter from Donna Salazar.  After stamping the images, I cut out around each bee, but I cut off the antennae and if you look close, you can see I added my own with some May Arts black Burlap Twine.  I poked a small hole in each bee head and inserted two pieces each of the twine into the holes.  I secured the twine from the back with some double stick adhesive and then I tied knots at the end of each piece of twine.  It was so much fun to create with and embellish these stamped images.  To complete these cards all I had left to do was adhere the bees to the cards with some foam sqaures for added dimension. 

Well, I do hope that my cards were Buzz-Worthy enough, bwaha-haa!  Get it?  Buzzz... bees?!  Okay, I'm finished, lol!  But you are not... still more stops along the way!  Next you will want to be sure to go to visit,  Michelle Criswell http://www.scrappinwithmybug.com .

Enjoy and remember to come by again tomorrow, June 7th for more creativity with Core cardstock and Peachy Keen stamps.