CardMaker Magazine Blog

Good morning!

Today I am sharing a post over on the CardMaker Magazine Blog for one of our newest features - "U Inspire Me".  Here's a little sneaky peek:

I hope you will head over there and check it out!

Have a great day!

Anya

Birthday Butterflies

Happy Friday to you!

I love the prospect of a lovely weekend. Getting up without an alarm makes me happy.

Here is a birthday card I'd like to share. I used the colors from this week's Play Date Cafe Challenge to get me started.

Bright, bold butterflies!

I started by die cutting the butterflies from Oatmeal cardstock. I'm sorry, I love it so much and can't stop using it. Stamped them in Melon Mambo ink.

Then I stamped and embossed the label and sentiment onto Orange Zest cardstock and cut it out. I layered the label onto a little piece of doily and adhered it to my card base. The large butterflies were arranged and adhered, and I snipped of the bits that extended beyond the card base. I added a few little orange butterflies to fill in the spaces, stamping them off once on my scratch paper so they weren't quite so bright. Filled up the left side of the card with a simple row of stitching. That's my go-to-space-filler-upper now it seems. I like that it adds a little something without being overwhelming.

This is on its way to my husband's great Aunt, who is celebrating a birthday next week. I hope it makes her smile!

Big hugs to you, hope your weekend is wonderful!

Anya

------------
Recipe
STAMPS: Pretty Peonies, Beautiful Butterflies - Papertrey Ink
CARDSTOCK: Raspberry Fizz, Orange Zest - Papertrey Ink; Oatmeal - Wplus9
INK: Melon Mambo, Pumpkin Pie - Stampin' Up!
OTHER: Detail White Embossing Powder - Stampendous; Beautiful Butterflies Die Collection - Papertrey Ink; Doily - Wilton; Sewing Machine - Janome

CardMaker Blog Team Hop

Hi there!

Today I am participating in my first blog hop as part of the CardMaker Blog Team.  How exciting!

This month we were challenged to create a card inspired by a song.  I went old school on you guys - can you guess what song my card was inspired by?

Yep - Yellow Submarine, a Beatles classic! (I am a huge Beatles fan, which I completely attribute to my parents - I knew song lyrics when I was just a little girl). It is definitely one of my favorite makes-you-happy-to-sing-it songs!

Here is the card in full:

Isn't the blue ombre fun?  Sky of blue and sea of green in my yellow submarine!

The submarine and other complimentary images are from the Half Pint Heroes set from Waltzingmouse Stamps. Got into some serious fussy cutting with those little fishes, but it was well worth it!

I'm so glad you've stopped by today, please make sure you hop on over to visit the other Blog Team members!

Kimberly Crawford

Carolyn King

Colleen Schaan

Anya Schrier - You are here!

Trudy Sjolander

Michelle Woerner

Have a great day!

Anya

------------
Recipe
STAMPS: Half Pint Heroes - Waltzingmouse Stamps
CARDSTOCK: Fine Linen, White, Lemon Tart, Hawaiian Shores - Papertrey Ink; Soft Sky, Cool Caribbean, Taken with Teal, Bermuda Bay, Poppy Parade - Stampin' Up!
INK: Smokey Shadow - Papertrey Ink
OTHER: Banner Trio Die - Wplus9; Medium Scallop Border Die - Papertrey Ink

Spread Your Wings

Hi there! Today is the Waltzingmouse Stamps Blog Party for April. This month's theme is 'new beginnings,' a perfect theme for springtime, don't you think?

Here is the card that I made. I have a friend that I used to work with that just accepted a new job - it was a big change for her and I wanted to let her know how excited I was for her and how proud I was of her courage. I thought a butterfly would be a perfect image for this theme. I used this week's WMS Sketch for my card.

I used the butterfly body and wings from Earth Angel to build my butterfly shape. I colored it with Copic markers, cut it out, and added some glitter to the wings. The butterfly was layered onto one of the circle images from Vintage Circles Small. The patterned paper at the bottom was custom stamped using the smaller flower images included in the Big Blooms - Poinsettias set.

I won't keep you, since you've got lots of partying to do. You have until 1:30 pm EST tomorrow (April 18) to link up with us if you would like to create something for the party, too!

Have a great day!

Anya

------------
Recipe
STAMPS: Earth Angel, Vintage Circles Small, Big Blooms - Poinsettias - Waltzingmouse Stamps
CARDSTOCK: Melon Berry - Papertrey Ink; Oatmeal - Wplus9
INK: Melon Berry, Aqua Mist, Spring Moss - Papertrey Ink; Barely Banana - Stampin' Up!; Antique Linen Distress Ink - Ranger Industries; Tuxedo Black Memento - Tsukineko
OTHER: Copic Markers (R00, R02); Filigree Border Die - Papertrey Ink; Banner Trio Die - Wplus9; Standard Circles Large - Spellbinders Paper Arts; Washi tape - American Crafts; Dazzling Diamonds glitter - Stampin' Up!; Sewing machine - Janome

Thinking of You

Happy Monday morning to you!

I hope you had a great weekend - our weather warmed up again, so we're supposed to have a beautiful day today.  Lucky for me, I have an office full of windows at work (that open!) so I can still enjoy a bit of the day even though I am inside.

I have a little card to share today using one of my all-time favorite Wplus9 sets, Flora and Fauna I.

I like this soft color combination of pink, yellow, and tan.  The background was stamped with the medallion image from French Country in Lemon Whip pigment ink from Amuse.  The yellow layer is stamped with the Chicken Wire background, but this Pebble ink is so light it tends to disappear.

The butterfly and dogwood flower were stamped onto white cardstock and fussy cut, then adhered to the yellow layer.

The sentiment is from Very Vintage Greetings.

Don't forget that tomorrow is the Waltzingmouse Stamps Blog Party. This month's theme is new beginnings, you can find all the details you need here. I hope to see you partying along!

Have a wonderful day!

Anya

------------
Recipe
STAMPS: French Country, Chicken Wire - Waltzingmouse Stamps; Flora and Fauna I, Very Vintage Greetings - Wplus9
CARDSTOCK: Lemon Tart, Soft Stone, Rustic White - Papertrey Ink; Blushing Bride - Stampin' Up!
INK: Pebble, Lemon Whip - Amuse|Studio; Sahara Sand, Blushing Bride - Stampin' Up!; Antique Linen Distress Ink - Ranger Industries
OTHER: Big Scalloped Circle Large, Standard Circles Large - Spellbinders Paper Arts

Flowery Friend

Ooh, I am so excited to share today's card with you - I just love the way it came together! Inspiration struck right away after I saw this week's Play Date Cafe Color Challenge.

This is the sweet, bright, fun color story for this week.

Didn't Jaclyn do an awesome job? It is so cheery!

And here is my little card:

Eeee! I love it!

I combined the A Pocketful set and the new Mother's Day Bouquet set from Wplus9 for this card.  Let's talk for a moment about this Mother's Day Bouquet set.  The flowers are gorgeous and I adore the little leafy spray images that are included.  The Mother's Day sentiment is perfect, but I know I will use the set again and again for so much more than that.  And with a $6 price tag, it is a steal.  I just thought you should know. ;)

Just makes me happy, and I'm sending it off to a friend in the hopes that it makes them happy, too. :)

I also wanted to remind you that voting is still open for the Stamping Royalty Honorable Mentions. If you haven't voted yet, head over to the Paper Crafts Connection and check out the cards. The other gals really did a great job!

Well I hope your day is fantastic, our weather here is supposed to warm up a bit headed into the weekend and I can't be more excited about the sun shining! Hugs!

Anya

------------
Recipe:
STAMPS: A Pocketful, Mother's Day Bouquet - Wplus9
CARDSTOCK: Brocade Blue - Stampin' Up!; Oatmeal - Wplus9
INK: Brocade Blue, Daffodil Delight, Real Red, Wild Wasabi - Stampin' Up!; Smokey Shadow - Papertrey Ink; Antique Linen Distress Ink - Ranger Industries
OTHER: Adhesive rhinestones - Recollections; Sewing machine - Janome

Project Life Weeks 10 and 11

Hi there!

It has been a while since I've shared a Project Life post. I am currently working on Week 14 (last week) but I think the last time I shared was week 5 or 6. I thought I'd just pick some of the recent weeks to show you and try and do a better job of getting back on track. Seems like I'm doing a lot of that recently.

So here is Week 10.

Dinner out with my family, a hockey game with my hubs.

An ice cream cone for a lousy day, some weekend activities.

I cut a slit in the top of the page protector to make room for the ticket stub from the hockey game. Also finally got my Silhouette Cameo working, so some of the elements I used this week were from that - like the Wednesday journal card and the 'Memories' 4 x 6 card on the second page.

I used lots of elements from Elle's Studio on these pages. Here I've used the Daily Tidbits, the Date Tidbits, and the Lil' Snippets: This Week. I love their stuff!

Here is Week 11.

Right around this time I decided it was no longer convenient for me to print my pictures at a retail store, I actually felt like it was keeping me behind a bit. So I purchased an Epson PictureMate Charm photo printer and have loved having it. I also started adding some digital elements to my photos with help and inspiration from Ali Edwards.

Page two usually ends up being the weekend's activities. Dinner with friends and a trip to a local nature preserve.

Here is some of my digital journaling, overlaid right onto the photo. Love doing this.

More products from Elle's Studio. Here are the Collected Large Journaling Tags and the Collected Tiny Tags. Love the coordination!

Thanks for stopping in, I hope you like seeing my Project Life as much as I enjoy doing it - really has been so fun!

Oh! Just one little thing before I go.

One of my cards was chosen as an Honorable Mention for the Paper Crafts Stamping Royalty contest! Seriously. I am pretty excited about that. And on top of that, PC readers get to choose their favorite. So if you are so inclined, I would love for you to head over to the Paper Crafts Connection blog to check out the contest. Vote for your favorite - if it happens to be my card, that's great - but the other ladies have created AMAZING cards that you should see!

Have a lovely evening, friends!

Anya

Dear Friend

Good morning. I hope your week is off to a good start.

I wanted to share a little card with you today that I made for this week's Play Date Cafe Challenge.

Such beautiful colors - gray is one of my favorite neutrals.

All the card elements were die cut using the Folk Art Florals Die from Wplus9. I also want to interject that the cream cardstock I used on the card base is the new Oatmeal cardstock that Wplus9 released last week. It is fantastic! It is smooth and cuts and stamps like a charm. I love it and can't wait to see what other colors are released - Dawn, how about a nice, neutral gray? ;)

The little sentiment is from the Spring Tags set. I love all the mix and match possibilities with these. This was a quick one for me - I assembled the die cuts, ran a row of stitches across the bottom and inked up my edges. Good deal!

Before I head out, I just wanted to give you a reminder that the 17th of the month is approaching and along with it the Waltzingmouse Blog Party. This month's theme is new beginnings (such as new baby, wedding, etc). You can find all the details here on the WMS blog.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Anya

------------
Recipe
STAMPS: Spring Tags - Wplus9
CARDSTOCK: Going Gray, Lucky Limeade, Baja Breeze - Stampin' Up!; Oatmeal - Wplus9
INK: Going Gray - Stampin' Up!; Antique Linen Distress Ink - Ranger Industries
OTHER: Folk Art Florals Die - Wplus9

Magazine Winner

Hi there, my dears. I've been MIA, I know. I just popped in quickly today to announce the winner of my little stash of magazines. I have felt so guilty about not getting here sooner.

I am having computer issues, motivation issues, and time issues but I really am working on being more present.

Anyway... the winner of my CardMaker Magazine issues is Lynn Mangan! Lynn, if you would be so kind as to email me your contact information, I will send these out to you right away! Hope you have a great day!

Anya

Friend

Good morning! How are you today?

I finally broke down and cut my grass this weekend (well, to be honest, Bill was the one that actually cut the grass, but we're on the same page here). It was really getting long, and we finally conceded - but now we have a good 6 months of grass cutting ahead of us!

I have a card to share with you today, but first some news...

I have been asked to join the CardMaker Magazine Blog Team! I am really excited to join this fantastic group of designers and have the opportunity to work with such talented ladies. I was fortunate enough to first be published in CardMaker Magazine in November 2010, and I can't tell you how much I have enjoyed working with them since then! I am honored to have been asked to join the Blog Team - look forward to my first post coming up in the next few weeks! Until then, be sure to check out the CardMaker Blog for fun and inspiration.

Now how about a card?

I pulled out an old Stampin' Up! set - Cottage Rose - to make this one. It has been quite some time since I've used a red rubber stamp! The background was stamped with the Defining Words set from Wplus9. The strip of Crumb Cake cardstock was embossed with the Houndstooth embossing folder and then swiped with white ink. The roses were layered onto a Label Layers 2 die cut.

I so love this color combination, too - Melon Berry is one of my favorites.

Ok! So you've stuck with me this long, how about a little gifty giveaway in honor of my announcement and just because you are so awesome? I have SEVEN issues of CardMaker Magazine here (March, May, July, September, November 2011, January, May 2012) packed full of wonderful inspiration that I would love to send you! All you have to do is leave me a comment telling me what you did this weekend (maybe you gave in and cut your grass, too!). Random.org will choose a winner on Wednesday evening to receive the whole bunch.

Thanks for stopping by today - hope you have a great start to your week!

Anya

------------
Recipe:
STAMPS: Definitely Decorative Cottage Rose - Stampin' Up!; Defining Words, A Special Lady - Wplus9
CARDSTOCK: Vintage Cream, Melon Berry - Papertrey Ink; Crumb Cake - Stampin' Up!
INK: Groovy Guava, Ruby Red, Pear Pizzazz, Garden Green, Crumb Cake, Whisper White - Stampin' Up!; Antique Linen Distress Ink - Ranger Industries
OTHER: Houndstooth Embossing Folder - Provo Craft; Label Layers 2 Die - Wplus9