Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Tiddly ABC's

Good Morning Tiddly friends. Don't forget to check out the Tiddly Ink's DT's today. I've said it before, these ladies are awesome.

Get ready for today's Tiddly Tuesday Challenge - Reading Fun! Create a reading inspired craft! To me, this meant create a craft that helps inspire someone to read.

I've made a lot of crafts for my DD lately - today was time for my DS to get some mommy crafting attention, plus Crazy 4 Crafts is having a Male inspired challenge C4C102 too. Buddy is starting Junior Kindergarten next week. This year they will work on learning the alphabet, phonics and early beginner reading. Since my little guy is a BIG eater, I thought these alphabet pretzels would be a fun way to SNACK and LEARN.

I cropped Tiddly Inks - Carpenter Joe into a circle frame so that he would fit better on this SU Top Note die packaging. Since he is a carpenter, why not BUILD some WORDS with our alphabet pretzels.

There are also new images available today at the Tiddly Inks store. Two new fabulous Minnie's and she is the cutest! I chose Minnie's Gift - my DD had a birthday party to attend so this Minnie was just right.

And thanks to Card Patterns for inspiring the layout with their Sketch Challenge #130.

Thanks for stopping by, have a Tiddly-tastic day!

Friday, August 26, 2011

Paper Pinwheels

I made up these paper pinwheels for my step-Grandmas party. If the colours aren't correct to use as table toppers, I can bundle them up as a pin wheel bouquet for the birthday girl. Did I mention she is turning 90 - Wow!

I used 6" x 6" squares so that one sheet of DP would make 4 pinwheels as apposed to the tutorials 8" x 8" squares. The DP is by Tada Creative Studios: Kaleidoscope, Mums the Word, and Flora & Fauna.

My tip, not all the tutorials I read mentioned this; is to use a long bead in between the paper pinwheel and the dowel to allow for the pinwheel to still spin.

Thursday, August 25, 2011

August 25th New Releases

Check out Little Miss Muffet Stamps 3 new images released today. The DT Team have been working their magic again, you MUST see how they inked up these great new releases at the Challenge Blog.

New Images: Paprika, School Turtle and Summer Monkey

I used School Turtle. I guess I just have back to school on the brain. I wanted to take a different spin however, and try a "classy"-er back to school card. I have no idea why I chose a monochromatic theme, but I just decided that I wanted to play with my Warm Grays. And the green, well, I thought originally of just doing the turtle green, but decided to add a hint of green cardstock instead.

The DP is from a 6x6 scrapbook kit I bought from Walmart, I can't find a name on it - sorry.


I would like to submit this card into the following challenges:
Card Patterns - Sketch Challenge #129
Crazy 4 Challenges - C4C101 Bingo (Diecuts, square card and 2 or more DP's) I love these bingo challenges.
Scrap-Creations - Back to School - How could I not think back to school with this sweet image.
Party Time Tuesdays - Back to School

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Grandma's 90th Birthday Bash

This is a trial run for the "chocolate covered cookies" I am making for my Step-Grandmother's Ninetieth birthday party bash on Labour Day weekend. Yes that's correct, 90.

As you can see, I haven't done the chocolate dipping part yet. I will be making 50 of them this coming weekend - ooey gooey fun!

My darling 6 year old daughter chose the image. She just couldn't wait to get her crayons onto Annie's Hat, which is now marked down at the Tiddly Inks Basement.

Here is Boo's lovely card. I printed Annie's Hat twice so that Boo could join in the fun. Isn't she crafty ;D just like mama.


Thanks for stopping by and please leave Boo some love. I will be reading all the comments out loud to her.

Monday, August 22, 2011

Squiggle Fly - Water Works!

It's time for the Squigglefly's Monday Challenge - SFC #112 Water Works! What do you think of when we say Water Works? The beach, bubbles, someone crying?

I just HAD to use this cute image Feeding Frenzy by artist Cheryl Alger. It's so fun when combined with Echo Park's Splash DP.

As you can see, I made another Gel card for my project. It was such wonderful messy fun, I had to give it another go. Here's an easy gel card tutorial from Splitcoaststampers so you can make your own.

Head on over to the Challenge blog and be inspired by other DT projects and play along with us this week. You don't have to use a Squigglefly image to play along, but if you, you will eligible for a prize.

I'm glad you could drop by and I hope you have a wonderful week.


Thursday, August 18, 2011

Little Miss Muffet - Multiples

Are you read for today's Little Miss Muffet Challenge? Challenge # 16 is to Use Multiples. Simply use more then one Little Miss Muffet image on your creation. Here is a quick and easy Make It Crafty YouTube tutorial on how to combine digital image in a Word document.
I merged (left to right) Little Miss Muffet's - Cinnamon, Rosemary & Peppermint. They are all dressed up and ready for the new school year. Kids here don't go back until after the Labour Day weekend in September. I combined these Dolls with Tiddly Inks - School House and Tiddly Inks Basement's - Blackboard on a scrap piece of Echo Park paper, added some rhinestones and a sparkly apple sticker.

Don't forget to head over the challenge blog and see all the other artwork by the Design Team, these ladies are crazy good!

Challenges I am entering this card in:
Try it on Tuesday - Anything Goes
Creative Craft World - For a Child
Paper Creator's Crafts - # 5 Red & Blue

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Tiddly Cootie Catcher

Before I get to the Challenge, one side note: please consider joining us in donating a card for our dear Meredith's family friend, Ryan, who was seriously injured recently. You can read Meredith's post HERE, or click on the top sidebar badge to see how this wonderful crafting community is lending their support.


My 5 year old daughter made a darling little Cootie Catcher two weeks ago at one of her afternoon Library classes. I knew we had this upcoming Tiddly Challenge - Inch My Way Along # 62; to create small things for the small ones in our life and be inspired by Inchie Arts which can be found here. I thought the Cootie Catcher could be just the right ticket - yes pun intended. Don't forget to hop over to the Challenge Blog and check out the other AWESOME projects by my fellow Tiddly Inkers. How can you not be inspired by all their amazing creations. Plus Christy Croll has the cutest "teacher's first aid kit" freebie for you over at the Tiddly Inks blog.

I thought to myself, there is no need to re-invent the wheel. Some one out there must have made a Cootie Catcher template. Sure enough I found one on a "Do It Yourself - Wedding" site, which forwarded me to a Teacher Learning Resource site. This template is amazing and Sooo easy. All you have to do is remove their wording or images and drop in your own. How simple! All the formatting is done for you. It's a Power Point template from GailLovely.com.

My kids have been having so much fun with the Library Cootie Catcher that I just HAD to make a Tiddly one for each of them.

I coloured my Tiddly - Tickettomylife (Boys & Girls) in Copics with the corresponding colours after changing the "life" in PS. I have to admit, colouring these little images was a bit tricky since they are less than 1.5 inches high *sigh* so I definitely got the TINY bit correct.

I also scanned both catchers before I folded them to see how they would work out for mass production. I thought they could make a fun party favor.

Here's a tutorial on how to fold your Cootie Catcher. One hint though, for the first step: I DID NOT extend the crease the whole way over the square, just in the middle. so as to not crease over my coloured Tiddly images. This crease is mostly used to find the center mark for the next fold, so you don't need to fold all the way to the edges.

I thought this could be a clever and unusual submission for any CAS or Single Layered card challenge.

Here is the challenges I have submitted for:
Less is More - Single Layer Card week 28 (It's one layer - folded several times, lots of white spaces, clean lines, no embelishment and was TRES easy I didn't make the template. It's just 4 small coloured images.)
Cute Card Thursday - CAS #177
Craft Us Crazy - Anything Goes #14
Allsorts - Anything, BUT a card week 116

Thanks for stopping by and have a fantastic day!

Friday, August 12, 2011

Swinging Bookmark

Morning all. I saw one of these adorable corner bookmarks a while ago and thought it would be great back to school gift for my DD who starts Grade 1 this year. She loves to get "chapter" books at the Library even though I end up reading them out loud to her. They still have too many words for her to read on her own.
I was thinking of reading quotes and "swing into reading" came to mind which immediately reminded me of swinging Agent Cupcake Descending by Little Miss Muffet Stamps. I later altered the quote to read "Swing into Adventure with a good book!"

Now truth be told, I don't always plan my challenge submission while I am making my card, BUT I decided to be true to my word and ALL of the listed challenges dictated the making of this card.
Splitcoaststampers - CC335 (although I admitted the Kraft - didn't work with my DP, IMO)
Amber's Crafts and Stuff - Challenge #22 Back to School (for my daughter)
Cupcake Kraft Challenges - Cupcake 154 Sew Mad (I was going to machine sew, but forgot before gluing down my first piece of DP so went with the doodle stitch)
Scrap-Creations - Bingo (Digi Image - Die Cut/Punch - Flowers)

I used this tutorial to make the corner bookmark.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Annie Cheer's

I am having such trouble getting back into the swing of things after my vacation. I think I left my scrappin' brain at the beach.

I have never attempted a 'regular' easel card, only the twisted kind. So I thought I would give it a swing using this tutorial for a Circular Easel Card found on Splitcoastampers.

I copic'd up Annie Cheers by Tiddly Inks and paired it with Jillibean - Seedless Cucumber DP and random cardstock. This is meant for my niece who loves cheer-leading and is rather great at it, she just doesn't like doing the football games.

The chipboard "Cheer" was done 3 times on cereal box from the Twinkle Toes Lite Cricut cartridge that my hubby bought for me. My one of many complaints about the Cricut stuff is that it takes so many tries to get the right sizes and then if you use Layer feature, you have to figure out the size all over again. It wastes so much cardstock.

I am entering this card into the following challenges:
Digi Doodle Shop's Challenge - A Shaped Card
Send a Smile 4 Kids Challenge - Anthing Goes for Kids

Monday, August 8, 2011

Butt Ends

My apologies in advance for being a little saucy with this post, but I think I have been hanging around Marlene's blog Disguised as a Grown-Up a bit too much. She is starting to rub off of me.

I figure it this way, I'm just getting home from vacation, and will have a HUGE bundle of things to unpack and wash. I'll need a sense of humor today. So I used one of Marlene's "saucy" images called Live a Little available from the Squigglefly's Store. I would say saucier image, but they all have a bit of spice to them.

Can you guess what the theme for Squigglefly's Challenge blog is? That's right challenge #110 is Button Blowout! I just had such a giggle when my brain read butt ends and not buttons. Hence the image and this silly card.

I glued a whole lot of "button" obviously on a simple layout using Echo Park - Little Boy. The sentiment is from my own foolish brain.

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Little Miss Muffet - Hurray!

Just a reminder that this post is being "auto published" while I am away with the family camping. I will be back next week to see and comment on all of your gems.

I was very sad to hear that Barbara of Forgotten Scraps was ending her Guest Designer spot over at the Tiddly Inks Challeng blog at the end of July. Her colouring has become such an inspiration for me - and I DO NOT mean that in a suck up kind of way. I honestly, carefully scrutinize her images, and thoroughly read her blogs to figure out how she does it. Not to mention the dozens of emails she has sent me letting me know the little details I ask about. I have practically stalked the poor woman.

But alas her Guest stint is done, but I have great news! I don't just have to "creep on her" from afar - that's what my 20 year old daughter calls it. Barbara has asked me to be part of her Design Team for the Little Miss Muffet - Challenge Blog: featuring her very own digi's from Little Miss Muffet Stamps.

Here is Nutmeg, my first submission to the Little Miss Muffet Challenge Blog. Today's challenge #15 Outside the Diecut is to have your image come outside the die cut frame. Quick tutorial how to use your Nestabilities for this technique found here.

I only own 2 Spellbinder dies, so it was an easy choice for me, I depend heavily on my SCAL, and haven't figured out how to accomplish this technique using that program.

This Nutmeg is the spitting image of my little Boo who is 5, although I coloured the hair darker then IRL. I thought this would make a sweet gift bag to surprise Boo with when she sleeps over at Nana's. Just a little something to remind her that we will miss her. Oh the original image had a dog on the Night Shirt, I covered it with a sticker to go with the October Afternoon - Fly A Kite DP set.

This is also my very first attempt at sponge clouds. I followed the tutorial found here, and used a sponge dabber with Broken China Distress Ink. Easy technique, although I need more practice. I used the Rolled Paper Roses tutorial found here.

These are the Challenges I would submit this gift bag for, if I were home:
Crafts 4 Eternity - #30 Anything But a Card
Allsorts Challenge Blog - Free & Easy
Phindy's Place Challenge Blog - #66 - Delightful Diecuts

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Tidldy Heck of a Challenge

Just a reminder that this post is being "auto published" while I am away with the family camping. I will be back next week to see and comment on all of your gems.

So Christy has thrown us a HUGE challenge over at the Tiddly Inks Challenge blog, at least for me it was a doozy. We had to make a gel / water card. First off, I had NO idea what the heck a gel card even was, so had to go fishing on Google. Good thing we are so good about blog posting, because I finally GOT it. Our own Tiddly Inker - Meredith has this awesome tutorial to show us just how to do it. Of course I had already made my card before seeing her tutorial. TRUST ME her method is WAY easier then the way I made it.

I was trying to think a bit outside the box and not just have a huge circle hole in the middle of my card with a fish showing through some hair gel. NOT that there is any thing wrong with that. I just wanted to think of something else. It was a struggle. Here are a few of the things I considered, a mug of beer, glass of bubbly, lava lamp... hmm... lava lamp that almost won out.

Then I was digging through my paper stash and saw this DP by Echo Park - Big Waves. I instantly envision the cut out / peak a boo wave with TI's - Tanker Fairy Sits floating along on this Sailing Leaf from Make It Crafty. Just perfect for this challenge. Okay, so, it really isn't all that outside of the box, but I avoided a giant hole in the middle of my card, again NOT that there is anything wrong with that.

I had such high hopes for this card, but by the time I was finished, I was COVERED in glue & hair gel and my card was more then a tad sticky everywhere. PLEASE follow Meredith's instructions and save yourself a major headache, my way is TOO messy.

Thanks for to my fellow Tiddly Inkers for suggesting Rangers - Glossy Accents for the water droplets, it worked perfectly. The corner SVG is from Images by Heather M.