Sweet 16

Good morning folks! So umm, remember last week when I posted my "last" project for Paper Romance??? LOL...I may have unintentionally fibbed a little! I forgot that Amy had invited me to play along for one last challenge. So this is officially my last contribution to the Paper Romance Team as a guest designer.

This week's challenge is brought to you by the incredibly talented Vicki Garrett!! She is asking to see projects with a "Teen" theme this week. I decided to pull out this adorable Popcorn the Bear set called "Someone Special", available at Paper Romance. I decided to make this into a "Sweet 16" card. The pretty papers are from Cloud 9 and KaiserCraft...I really love yellow, pink and green together! I layered two Fancy Tags from Spellbinders for the sentiment which was done on my computer. Add a little machine stitching and a few pearls, and voila! Happy Sweet 16th!

Copics used on Popcorn: E50, E31, E33, E37, E25, E47, E59 (sorry...forgot to record my colours for the grass and flowers :( )

My good friend Krista gave me some Beckett Expression paper to experiment with, so thought I should try it out! It's quite different from my regular Neenah...it actually reminds me a bit of Prism Simply Smooth which is what I used when I first started colouring. I do like it, but I think that Neenah is still my favourite. I really would like to get my hands on a new paper called X-Press It Blending Card, but I think it's only now coming to the USA...hope it will be in Canada soon! It's supposed to be "the best of both worlds"...the blending abilities of Neenah, but with very little bleeding as when using the Prism. When colouring Popcorn stamps, I always use tiny "flicking" motions to create the texture of fur. Be careful not to overblend when using this technique...you want to see your marker strokes! Try to keep light-handed with your markers as well, to avoid "blobs" of ink.

Hop on over to the Paper Romance Challenge Blog to see the beautiful cards made by the rest of Amy's DT. You will also spy cards by her new August Guest Designers! Join in the fun for your chance to win a great prize from Paper Romance!

Once again, my thanks to Amy and her lovely DT for allowing me to play along over the last several weeks. You ladies rock!

Blessings,

Melanie

Stamps: Popcorn the Bear "Someone Special"

Ink: Memento, Copics, Distress Ink in Bundled Sage

Embellishments: Crochet trim, pearls, Glossy Accents

Tools: Spellbinders Fancy Tags

Celebrate...Elephant Style!

We've got another challenge for you today at the Paper Romance Challenge Blog! Your hostess is the lovely Angela Wood, and she has challenged us to make Birthday themed projects this week!

Amy has so many great birthday stamps at Paper Romance...you're sure to find something to suit everybody's taste! I decided to pull out another cute High Hopes Stamp from the latest Dustin Pike release...this is "Ele-fun"!! My Copics of choice for colouring elephants lately are the warm grays. I also added some Smooch Illuminate and Stardust Stickles to the party hat, cupcake and parts of the design paper.

How would you like to win a great prize from Paper Romance this week? All you have to do is hop on over to the Paper Romance Challenge Blog and link up your birthday creation for the chance to win! You will also be able to see all the wonderful projects by the rest of Amy's very talented design team.

This is my last week as a guest designer for Paper Romance. I just wanted to say a big thank you to my good friend Amy for inviting me on board this month...I've had so much fun playing alongside the entire Paper Romance design team! (You can always find a link to Paper Romance in my side bar, along with a link to Amy's Challenge Blog.)

Blessings,

Melanie

Stamps: High Hopes Stamps "Ele-fun"

Ink: Memento, Copic markers

Paper: Neenah, Bazzill, birthday paper (unknown company...sorry)

Embellishments: Ribbon

A Paper Romance Colour Challenge

Time for another Paper Romance Challenge! Your hostess is the Amazing Andrea, and she has a fantastic colour challenge for you: Chocolate, Teal and White! Hmmm...wonder if Andrea knows that she picked one my all time FAVOURITE colour combos?!!

This stamp is yet another new release from the High Hopes Melissa Jenkins line. It's called "Puppy Love Frame"...how cute is that little dog?? I just love the style of High Hope's newest artist! That little panel of teal design paper with the brown and green branches is the last scrap of some WRMK paper that I LOVE. I'm kicking myself for not picking up several sheets when I bought it. (I've since learned my lesson, and pick up at least two sheets when I see a paper I fall in love with.) It was just perfect for Andrea's colour challenge though, and I paired it up with some fun polka-dotted paper from October Afternoon.

We'd love to have you join us in Andrea's colour challenge this week! Amy always offers up a great prize from Paper Romance, so head on over to the Challenge Blog to see the projects that the very talented design team made! (they are STUNNING!!) Then, you can link up your project for the chance to win!

Did you know that Amy has all the newest High Hopes Stamps in stock at Paper Romance?? She also has many other stamps in stock including older High Hopes stamps, Popcorn the Bear, Cute Companions, Your Next Stamp and Bildmalarna. Grab yourself a tea or coffee and head on over to Paper Romance to do some crafty shopping!

Have a wonderful day, and thanks so much for stopping by!

Blessings,

Melanie

Stamp: High Hopes "Puppy Love Frame"

Paper: Neenah, Bazzill, WRMK, October Afternoon

Ink: Memento, Copics

Embellishments: Crochet Trim

Tools: Martha Stewart border punch

Stitching it up at Paper Romance

(This is one of two posts....the Kraftin' Kimmie June Previews start today! Check back for that post at 7:00 am EST!)

Time for another challenge over at Paper Romance, and this week your hostess is the lovely Cindy Haffner. She would like to see some STITCHING on your project. I have to admit that I was thrilled when I saw this challenge as I LOVE to use stitching on my cards. Your stitching can be done by hand or by machine...or it could even be faux stitching!

I pulled out another High Hopes stamp for this week's challenge. This is "Hangin' Around", one of the newest Dustin Pike images. Now, the actual image is not exactly as it appears on my card. I altered it slightly. This little frog makes me smile...I love how he's just hanging out on the bull reed. He strikes me a chap with personality plus, who is perhaps inclined to do things a little differently from the other frogs. We all know somebody like that, right? Who likes to march to the beat of his/her own drum? lol I decided that he should be celebrating his birthday, and enjoying every minute of it! So, I pulled out one of the High Hopes accessory stamps "Party Hat Two" and plunked it on Mr. Froggy's head...voila! He's all ready to PARTY! I did cut the trim off the party hat so that it fit his head a little better, although, it's still a bit too big...but I think it adds charm! I also drew in the bank with grass, extra reeds and a rock. The sentiment is my own, printed on the computer. It reads: "It's your birthday. Go ahead...get a little crazy!"

We'd love to have you join us for this week's Paper Romance Challenge! Amy always offers up a fantastic prize from her online store to one randomly selected participant. Hop on over to the Paper Romance Challenge Blog for some inspiration from Amy's very talented DT. You can link up your project there...we can't wait to see what you stitch up!

Amy has a TON of great stamps in stock including all the new High Hopes release by artists Dustin Pike and Melissa Jenkins. Amy will also do custom High Hopes order, so don't despair if she does not have the exact stamp you are looking for...she can always order it in for you! Paper Romance is your one-stop shop with several popular stamp lines, inks, paper, envelopes, adhesives, embellishments...so many fantastic products!

Hope you have a wonderful Thursday!

Blessings,

Melanie

Stamps: High Hopes "Hangin' Around", sentiment by Melanie :)

Ink: Memento, Copics, Distress Ink Bundled Sage, Copic multiliner

Paper: Neenah, Bazzill, Fancy Pants, October Afternoon

Paper Romance

Today I get to share some happy news with you! My good friend Amy, owner of Paper Romance online store (and who was the very first follower on my blog!!), has asked me to be a guest designer for the month of July!! (I've had a link to Amy's store for quite some time in my sidebar) Amy is a busy gal...not only does she carry a great variety of rubber stamping supplies, but she also has a wedding stationary business. She has assembled a very talented group of stampers on her design team, and I feel so very blessed to be working alongside these lovely ladies.

Amy has also started a weekly challenge blog which can be found HERE. Each week, one of her talented design team members will set a new challenge...if you participate, you will have the chance to win a great Paper Romance prize! This week your hostess is another stamping pal of mine, the fantabulous Andrea!! Her challenge this week is "Let's Get Your Glitter On!"

For my very first Paper Romance project, I used a gorgeous stamp from High Hopes. This is Fancy Flower Pony...one of the recently released images by High Hope's newest artist Melissa Jenkins! I just love High Hopes stamps...I had the privilege of being a guest designer for them earlier this year. I fell in love with this stamp as soon as I saw it, and told Amy that I NEEDED it.

I stamped the image on Neenah cardstock and coloured with my Copic markers. I paired her up with some pretty vintage paper from KaiserCraft, and just a touch of glitter paper from My Mind's Eye. I coloured the pony in warm greys and browns to keep with the vintage feel of the papers. The Distress Inks came out once again to age the paper panels, and I used little touches of Stardust Stickles in keeping with Andrea's glitter challenge. Those gorgeous flowers are Prima hydrangeas with jewelry spacers as centres...jazzed up with some more Stickles.

Will you join us this week at the Paper Romance Challenge Blog?? I'm pretty sure we all have glitter in one form or another in our stash of stamping goodies.

Click HERE to go shopping at Paper Romance. If you liked the image I used on my card today, you can pick it up at Amy's store...she has the entire High Hopes new release in stock!

Thanks for having me on board this month Amy!

Blessings,

Melanie

Stamps: High Hopes Fancy Flower Pony

Paper: Neenah, Bazzill, KaiserCraft, MME

Ink: Copic markers, Memento, Distress Inks

Embellisments: Ribbon, Prima flowers, Stickles, jewelry spacers

A Warm Welcome, and a Little Popcorn Too!!

Good morning sunshine!! How's your Monday morning going so far?? I'm still trying to recover after a busy weekend! Ainsleigh had a highland dancing performance at the County Ceilidh on Saturday...it was lots of fun, with some great Celtic bands and lots of dancing throughout the evening. My son Nathan helped the teens lead our worship music at church on Sunday...he played electric guitar. Did a little gardening, a little work from home, caught up on housework...not much time to rest! This week is busy too as we are gearing up for Ainsleigh's ballet recital this weekend and Scottish Night tomorrow evening. Whew!! After next weekend, I should have some time to breathe!

Now I do have a card to show you today if you stick with me to the end of this post, but let's take care of some Town Scrapper news first!

• Phebe is currently running a sale at The Town Scrapper until the end of June: buy one stamp, get the second of equal or lesser value for 50% off!! Also, she has in stock Distress Inks and the new microfine glitter...buy 5 and get your 6th for free! You'll find all her contact info on her blog here.
• Sadly, we are saying goodbye to a few members of our team. Leah, Kylie and Kim S. have all contributed so much to our team, and we want to thank them for all their hard work. We wish you all the best in your future endeavors. God Bless!
• On a happier note, we are welcoming four new Scrapettes!! Robin and Danielle are our new blog managers, and our two new senior Scrapettes are Dawn and Donna!! We're so glad you are joining us ladies, and we look forward to seeing your work!!
• Don't forget to stop by for our Showcase Monday to see what some of the Scrapettes have made with some of the fantastic product lines Phebe carries!

Ok...as promised, here's a card featuring Popcorn the Bear. My inlaws "hired" me to make a card for a birthday party they were going to. They needed something with a more masculine flair, and I immediately thought of a particular Popcorn the Bear set. Lucky for me, my pal Amy carries Popcorn sets at her store Paper Romance!! Make sure to hop on over to Paper Romance and check out all the great products and stamps Amy carries!!



I stamped Popcorn on Neenah cardstock and coloured him with Copic markers. This is actually a Father's Day stamp set, but as you can see it works well for other occasions too! I went for a very simple layout, and just matted the the main image with cardstock. This striped paper is from KaiserCraft. The sentiment was requested by my inlaws.

I hope you all have a fantastic week! My blogging time may be a bit limited this week, but I will be back for sure on Friday with two posts...one for The Town Scrapper and one for Wags 'n Whiskers. You'll also want to check in on Saturday for Kraftin' Kimmie's weekly challenge and Sunday marks a new challenge at Sundays With Crissy!!

LOL...I'm thinking that with all our family activities and stamping projects for this week, I just may look like sweet Popcorn when it's all done! I'll definitely need a cuppa tea to wind down!

Blessings,

Melanie

Stamps: Popcorn The Bear Father's Day set
Ink: Memento, Copic markers
Paper: Neenah, KaiserCraft, Bazzill