Sunflower Studio

DARE TO GET DIRTY CHALLENGE WEEK {scs}

Are you a Fan Club member over at SPLITCOAST STAMPERS?  Well, if you are then GREAT.  You're already in-the-know.  If not, what have you been waiting for?  The powers that be at Splitcoast keep their all seeing eyes out for fresh new stamping talent each and every month.  They select the best of the best and those people become member of the DIRTY DOZEN design team.  Each month a new theme is revealed and the team works on dozens of cards and projects that will WOW and inspire.  They truly are amazing!  The catch is that you've gotta be a member to see all of that fabulousness.  How do you become a member?  Go HERE for lots more info. 

More to the point though is that you've gotta sign up now!  Each year, right at this time, past Dirty Dozen designers come up with seven days of fun and unique challenges for fan club members to try out.  New ones are revealed each day.  And each challenge is accompanied by eye-goggling samples that are made by still more DD designers.

Here's my first sample.  It's one of yesterday's challenges but I can't give you the challenge details since you've gotta be a member for that, silly!  My card uses another of my new digital stamp images from TIDDLY INKS.  This one's called ROYAL PROCLAMATION.  I love her.  In my mind she's the Red Queen.  I used patterned paper from October Afternoon (red check) and Basic Grey (floral).  I colored some cream seam binding ribbon red with a Copic reinker for my fluffy bow and then added small paper flowers (Prima). She's even got glittery gloves and boots!

I'll have a few more samples that I've made for other challenge hostesses later in the week.  And then I'll have a challenge going as well on Thursday, 8/4.  Check in at the DTGD thread and give something a try, why don't ya?!

IN THE CLOUDS OVER YOU {tcptues169 - stamp challenge}

I'm checking in for this week's TCP TUESDAY CHALLENGE. SUSAN'S up again and that means that we're in for a STAMP centric challenge...Use any form of TRANSPORTATION stamp from The Cat's Pajamas for this week's card or project!  We have lots of really great images to choose from too.

I chose the bunny in the plane from the TAKE OFF set.  He's one of my fav-o-rites right now.  I'm also sorta hooked on this Curry colored cardstock from SU!  I matched that up with this city patterned paper from the Wander pad from Basic Grey.  I also incorporated the fun new CLOUD BORDER and the PINKING BORDER CUTUPS dies.  I embossed the Curry CS with a large polka-dot embossing folder for added texture and placed the sentiment in a Nestabilities circle combo to finish it off.  

Join us this week...you should.  (That's in my best Yoda voice! ha)  Use keyword TCPTUES169 when uploading to SCS or elsewhere and add your photo to the slide show on ALMA'S BLOG to be included in the regular swanky contest goodness.

(Edited to add that I based this card on this week's SWEET SUNDAY SKETH #127.  I turned it up on it's side though.  You can see that sketch HERE.)

THANK YOU DOGGIE!

We have a neighbor that always brings treats for Trixie (our dog) when she comes back from trips to Boston.  She's so sweet to think of our puppy when she's away.  She actually brings the treats for both of the dogs that live on our court.  So nice!  So I figured that it was high time for Trixie to send a little thank you note. 

I found some really fun cat/dog papers from We R Memory Keepers called Friends Furever when I was at the LSS this weekend so that got the ball rolling.  I chose the little dog from the CHUBBY CHUMS set from PAPER SMOOCHES for my main image.  Trixie is a Cockapoo with curly hair so I tried to add curliques to the image with both Copics and a white gel pen.  I added the grass with colored pencils and gamsol.  The tiny flower shaped thank you tag is from the TINY TAGS stamp and die sets from PAPERTREY INK.  I stamped a little paw print from a stamp cube that was so old up on my shelf.  It may have come from Michael's - back in the day!  And here's something fun...I saved the red tag with the rope twine from a top that I found at Target last week.  It's chipboard and the writing was fairly small in the middle of one side.  The perfect embellishment, right?! 

Now, to pop it in the mail...tha's always the hard part for me.  Have a great weekend all!

YOU ROCK!

Gotta love new stamp images!  In this case...digital images.  AMY reminded me this week about TIDDLY INKS.  That's where you can find these adorable images drawn by Christy Croll.  They really are irresistable so that's why I found myself there a couple of days ago with a cartful of cuteness.  And, I swung by the LSS on Sunday and found this sheet of cool number paper in the MME Lime Twist Out Of The Blue collection.  How did I miss that before?  I am a freak for anything in the mustard color range and this had some teal too.  EEK!  LOVE IT! My card layout is based on this week's SWEET SUNDAY SKETCH CHALLENGE #126.

As for the details, I colored my printed image, YOU ROCK, with Copics.  I'm still not quite there with my "halo" technique.  (Not sure if that's what you call it but it's something that I admire in some of my most favoritest stampers!)  I started with pale yellow colored pencils and used Gamsol to pull that color out around the little boy.  That lead to lots of Walnut Distress Ink sponging around the die cut shape.  (I think I got a little outta control.)  I also added some "dirt" to his face and clothes and the ground with the pencils.  A little sentiment stamp from A MUSE, some rhinestones, and matching buttons and twine complete the look. I'm actually thrilled with how it all turned out!

IT'S YOUR DAY! {tcp tuesday 168}

 
TORI is today's Hipster Hostess with the Mostess for TCP TUESDAY CHALLENGE #168.  She's given us the fab color combo of Watermelon Red, Pumpkin Orange, and Green Grass.  What a great color palette for summer.  Our CAT'S PAJAMAS DT has a group hub where we discuss all things TCP and there was plenty of discussion for this combo.  AND, we share our cards for each challenge.  Well, that WATERMELON came up a lot and you will just die when you see the cards!  With watermelon on the brain, this card sort of came to mind.  I'm not sure it came out exactly as I would have liked but it's still pretty cute, I think.  Although, PJ might be having a little skin condition on his tummy - note to self:  no dots on PJs tummy!

I used the new BEARING FLOWERS set along with the SUNFLOWER ROSETTE, GRASS, AND JUMBO SCALLOP CUTUPS dies.  My background is part of an actual vintage Bingo card that I bought on eBay...love those things!  I finished it off with a big ole button, Divine Twine, a rhinestone and some black pearly things.

Join us in this week's challenge and add your card to the slide show on ALMA'S BLOG.  Please use keyword TCPTUES168 when uploading to SCS so that we can all find your card and ooh and aah over it!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM!

This was for my mom's birthday this week.  I didn't get a chance to photograph before we had to leave for the birthday lunch on Sunday so I had to take a pic with my iPhone in a dark-ish restaurant.  (There's my disclaimer on the crappy photo taking..ha!) 

Anyway, I just love this adorable bunny in his plane from the TAKE OFF set...it's THE perfect image for paper piecing...from THE CAT'S PAJAMAS.  In this case, I used various patterned papers from the Cosmo Cricket Pixie-Licious pad.  I used the new CLOUD BORDER CUTUPS die - cutting to separate the clouds and then doing a little piercing at the bottom of each.  The "happy birthday" sentiment is from the SENTIMENT SAMPLER set from PAPER SMOOCHES.  I adhered it to the block in this shape before stamping and then cut my banner to fit afterwards.  Cute, cute baker's twine and buttons finish it all off.

HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM!

NEST {tcptues167 - technique challenge}

I'm back from vacay and ready for stampin'!  AND...it's TCP TUESDAY #167 and time for a TECHNIQUE CHALLENGE from our hostess, JULIE MASSE.  She's challenged us all to pick up the ole waterbrush and do some watercoloring!  Remember those days?   I used to watercolor all the time...before those MARKERS came along and took over my coloring world.  I found it to be a lot harder than I remembered too!  Plus, I had to get out all of these ink colors and I didn't even do that much watercoloring on my card.  Again, though, that's why they call it a "challenge", right?

I used the MFTWSC27 sketch from last week for my layout.  My card features the ROLLED NEST CUTUPS die along with the NESTING stamp set from THE CAT'S PAJAMAS.  I also used the branch and leaves from THE TWEETEST THINGS.  My nest has some faux turquoise beads for eggs and some Linen Thread for grass.  I added our new CREAM SEAM BINDING RIBBON in a crinkled bow to pretty it up.  Oh, and I also sponged the edges all over the place with Walnut Distressing Ink...another oldie but a goodie!

Add your watercolored card or project to the slide show on ALMA'S blog so that you'll be included in the weekly winner and SWANKY STAMPER contests.  Use keyword TCPTUES167 when uploading to SCS too.

UP, UP & AWAY BIRTHDAY

Here's the best that I can do for a CAS (clean and simple) card....nearly impossible for me to do.  I don't have the "stop already!" gene in me.  So here's a quick birthday card for a friend.  I found these cute little tiny gingham check papers by A Muse while on vacation at the beach last week.  I tried to add a little check detail to the balloon from the AWAY WE GO stamp set from THE CAT'S PAJAMAS with my Copic Blender pen.  The sentiment is included in the UP, UP AND AWAY set.  I used the new CLOUD BORDER CUTUPS die on some white felt as well.  And I even finished the inside with some gingham clouds too!

EAT DRINK AND BE MERRY PELICAN

Here's a quick coupla 4th of July cards that I mailed out to family.  I found this pelican stamp and sentiment from Inkadinkado in the $1 section at JoAnn's. (They're in the same pack too.  Funny that that sentiment was with the pelican though, huh?!) We see lots of pelicans both in FL at the in-laws and at the beach we go to in summer so I just had to have it. But what's the pelican have to do with the 4th?  I think it just goes back to the fact that we go to the beach for this week each year and, you know, pelicans...beach...fireworks...etc.  Sounds good to me...let's go with that!

I used various patterned paper from October Afternoon and Cosmo Cricket on these.  I also used a few different dies:  the large label and the circle from Spellbinders, the stars from PTI (These are solid dies but I used a tiny piece of tape to put the small one in the center of the larger one and cut them at the same time.  Voila!  An open star plus another star for decorating!), and the word bubble from MFT.  I added baker's twine and a little rhinestone to finish it off - wanting to keep these fairly low profile so that I could pop 'em in the mail without the major search for envies to fit.  Worked! 

Hope you and yours are celebrating a fabulous

Independence Day today!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAWN!

My friend, Dawn, has a big birthday comin' up next week but since it's a holiday week, and most people are out of town, we had a little pre-birthday gathering for her last night.  This is the card that I made up for her using the BIRTHDAY PRINCESS set from MY FAVORITE THINGS.   I also followed along with this week's Wednesday Sketch Challenge for MFT (MFTWSC26).  I used patterned paper from the MME - Fine & Dandy Tickled Pink paper pad along with the MFT Rolled Rose die, TCP Mango Seam Binding ribbon, and some Dew Drops.  It's all colored up with Copics, of course.

Hope you have an awesome birthday, Dawn!