FSS: Over the Moon for You

Hello friends!

It's the February release and Spring Cleaning Week at Fresh Squeezed Stamps. Yesterday we previewed Close Your Ears: Deer and today we are dusting off some previously released sets and showing them a little stampy love.

My card uses the amazingly versatile set, Weather Through.  I have used this set on a few different cards previously (here and here), but I realized that I had not inked the moon and star images.  I am remedying that today!

I stamped and heat embossed the moon and star with white embossing powder onto a blue die-cut panel.  Next, I die-cut some clouds and a banner from a couple shade of yellow cardstock.  I stamped the sentiment in navy ink on one of the yellow clouds.  As a finishing touch, adhered a few white sequins. 

Be sure to stop by the Fresh Squeezed Stamps blog today to check out even more inspiration from the design team!  

Thanks for stopping by!

Katie

Introducing Close Your Ears: Deer

Hello friends, 

It's release time at Fresh Squeezed Stamps and today, we are showing off a super fun and trendy new set called Close Your Ears: Deer.  This set features a stylish deer head silhouette coupled with a couple sentiments that the deer may prefer not to hear.  

For my card, I matted and adhered some patterned paper at an angle onto a white card base.  Next, I die cut a rectangle and stamped the deer head.  I die cut a speech bubble from patterned paper and stamped the sentiment, "oh shoot" in black ink.  I adhered the speech bubble to the card with foam tape and added a couple wooded chevrons as accents. 

Be sure to stop by the Fresh Squeezed Stamps blog for more creative uses of Close Your Ears: Deer from the Design Team!

That's all for me today!  Thanks for stopping by!

Katie

FSS- Love you this much!

Hello and Happy Saturday!

I am on the Fresh Squeezed Stamps blog today with a double-header, two sweet cards for the little loves in your life! I am still thinking about Valentine's Day and this time I wanted to create a card that would work for the kids.  I hit upon a design that will work well for both boys and girls by just swapping out some colors and patterns.

Since I have daughters, I started first with the girly palette.

I was inspired by the I Love You This Much sentiment from Love Signs and in thinking about things that are vast, (to represent a large amount of love), I hit upon the idea of the ocean and combined a few of my favorite FSS stamps to make this scene.  

First I stamped the sentiment from Love Signs and the whale from Breath of Fresh Flair on a white cardstock.  I masked the whale and used the scalloped border stamp from Background Check to create the water and waves.   Lastly, I stamped and masked the cloud and sun from Weather Through.  I rounded the corners and adhered the stamped panel to a pink cardstock base that I covered with some fun polka dot patterned paper. 

By swapping out some ink colors and the patterned paper, here's the same card in a more boy-friendly color scheme.   I think this one will go to my nephews.  

That's all for me today!  Thanks so much for stopping by!

Katie

SPARKS Challenge: Quill you be my Valentine?

Hello, hello and Happy Sunday!

I hope you are having a cozy kind of weekend.  We are snowed in here in NE Ohio with no end in sight to the snow + cold for the next few days. Good times.

Anyhoo, I wanted to share my card for this week's Paper Smooches SPARKS Challenge.  This week's challenge is a Designer Drafts and here is what I came up with based on the sketch.

Looking at this week's sketch, I wanted to play with some color blocking and I saw the large circle as a target. Using my Silhouette, I created and cut two sets of nested circles in red and white + white and red.  I trimmed the targets and adhered them together to make a complete circle.  

I used one of the hearts from the Sweet Hearts set to dress up the inside of the target.  The arrow and sentiment is from the Love Struck set + dies. 

Here's a look at this week's sketch: 

You have until Saturday, February 1 at 11:59 PST to link up your take on this week's sketch to the SPARKS blog for a chance to win a $30.00 gift certificate to the Paper Smooches store!  Woo hoo!  

Be sure to check out the amazing inspiration from the other members of the SPARKS design team playing along with this week's challenge: 

Rachel

Taheerah

Trisha

Savannah

I can't wait to see what you create! Thanks for stopping by! :)

Fresh Squeezed Stamps: Let's Play a LOVE Game

Hello and Happy Saturday friends!  

I am on the Fresh Squeezed Stamps blog today with a little LOVE game I made using When Hearts Collide and Games People Play.

First, I die cut some thin lines from black cardstock and glued them to white cardstock with a glue pen. Using a computer, you could also create and print the tic tac toe grid onto a cardstock panel or draw your grid with a black marker.  Next I replaced the traditional "O's" with one of the small hearts from When Hearts Collide stamped in red ink.

The "X's" are from Games People Play.  I stamped the sentiment, also from When Hearts Collide in black ink, matted the stamped panel on black cardstock and adhered it to a white cardstock base. 

Three hearts in a row!  Looks like Love Sweet Love has won this game!  :)  

That's all for me today!  Thanks so much for stopping by!  

Katie

Classroom Valentine Treats

Hello friends, 

Every year I struggle with the question as to make Valentine's for my kid's classes or to buy them.  I will be perfectly honest and admit that over the past couple years, I have done both. While it's easy to toss some money at a box of Valentines at Target,  I do enjoy making these sweet treats, but sometime I feel like I am working in Cupid's Sweatshop than making something memorable for (and with) my kids. 

This year, I think I have found a happy compromise and I wanted to share some of my prototypes today. 

I used the Paper Smooches Cupcake die to cut cupcake tops and wrappers from various colors of cardstock. I embossed the tops with swirly embossing folders from Provo Craft/ Cuttlebug and Lifestyle Crafts and stamped the cupcake wrappers with graphic designs.  The polka dots are from Paper Smooches Geo-Graphic and the diagonal lines are from Kissables 2. I adhered the cupcake to the wrapper and added a tag which I stamped with "You're Sweet" from Paper Smooches Giddy Gumdrops.  I used twine and a bit of foam tape to keep the tag in place.

I used the Hearts die to cut some various sizes of hearts from cardstock.  The sprinkles started life as a the hashtag from the Cardbooking Die collection.

On the back of the cupcake, I adhered a small glassine envelope that I found at a local paper and party supply store.  I tucked a chocolate inside the envelope and secure it closed with a bit of washi tape.

The girls can write the To and From on the back side of the cupcake wrapper before we adhere the chocolate.   Here's a closer look at a couple more cupcake varieties: 

Vanilla Cherry

Chocolate covered strawberry- YUM! 

I am excited about these Valentines because there are lots of little steps that the girls will be able to do like embossing the cardstock, putting the chocolates inside the envelopes and taping them shut, adhering the heart to the top of the cupcake with foam tape and signing the Valentines (of course). 

I am sharing this project with the Simon Says Stamp Emboss It Challenge and the Paper Smooches February Guest Designer search. 

Thanks so much for stopping by!  Have a sweet day!

Katie

XO

Hello friends!

I got some crafty time with my girlfriends yesterday and got a chance to play with some of my Paper Smooches goodies.

This card uses the Sweet Hearts set which was the Thanks A Million set for December.

I used my Silhouette Portrait to cut XO from a piece of cardstock.  I lightly traced the letters onto my cardstock and filled in the shapes with various sized hearts. I adore this set for the variety of sizes and shapes.  Plus some of the hearts nest inside other hearts which is super fun!  I used ink from Hero Arts (Pale Tomato, Fresh Peach, Bubblegum, Forever Green, and  Field Green).

Once I filled in the shapes, I erased my pencil lines and rounded the edges of the stamped panel.  I then adhered the panel to a Berry Sorbet card base. 

I am sharing this card with this week's Paper Smooches SPARKS Challenge- this week's theme is Anything Goes and I LOVE seeing what the players dream up using their Paper Smooches stamps!   You have until January 25th to enter. 

I am also going to link this project up to the Paper Smooches Feburary Guest Designer search.  Please wish me luck! The competition is fierce! So many talented stampers love their Paper Smooches just as much as I do! :)   The deadline for the February Guest Designer search is January 22nd. 

Well that's all for me today!  I hope you are having a great weekend! 

Katie