MFP Blog Hop Day 2 - Joyous Season

Aug. Blog Hop! 

This month's New Stamp Set Releases are

 Featured Aug 13th - Pocket Watches

Featured Aug 14th - Joyous Season
 Featured Aug 15th  - Country Charm

 Featured Aug 16th - Wealthy Fish

Please hop along with us! You have a chance to win one of the above stamp sets! Just comment on the following blogs (don't forget this one), each day for more chances to win! (You do NOT have to comment on all the blogs each day! The names are drawn randomly!) All four winners will be announced on Aug 17, 2013 on the Mark's Finest Papers blog. You can go back and comment if you missed a day. (HINT: The more you comment, the more chances you have to win and comments on the MFP blog count twice!) The deadline for commenting is 10 PM EST on Friday Aug 16, 2013.

 The special stamp set we have for you this month is:

"Lucky You"

 The mini stamp set we have for you this month is

"Take Time Mini"
                                                      

Today's Technique Junkies Newsletter-inspired card is called a Z Foldover Card.  It is similar to a Joy Fold card, except for the extra panel, which is formed by the Z-fold.  Because of the plaid designer paper, I used just the pine bough and some red and green bling on the front.

The inside uses a sentiment from another MFP Christmas set called You Are an Angel -- and again a little bit of bling.

My second card is more simple.

My friend Rosemary said that the cardinal sitting on the deer's back looks like one of those Angry Birds!

Make sure you check out the rest of the DT members' blog and comment for a chance to win a free stamp set.  Here's the Design Team:

Patty, Lois (that's me), Jane, Debbie, Pam, Pat, Thrfity Stamper, Marilynn, Karen, Bonnie, Kathy, Angela, Cathy, Toni, Sue, Janine, An'Jenic, Shirley, Marks Finest Papers, a Heinrich Co.

MFP Blog Hop Day 1 - Pocket Watches

Aug. Blog Hop! 

This month's New Stamp Set Releases are

 Featured Aug 13th - Pocket Watches

Featured Aug 14th - Joyous Season
 Featured Aug 15th  - Country Charm

 Featured Aug 16th - Wealthy Fish

Please hop along with us! You have a chance to win one of the above stamp sets! Just comment on the following blogs (don't forget this one), each day for more chances to win! (You do NOT have to comment on all the blogs each day! The names are drawn randomly!) All four winners will be announced on Aug 17, 2013 on the Mark's Finest Papers blog. You can go back and comment if you missed a day. (HINT: The more you comment, the more chances you have to win and comments on the MFP blog count twice!) The deadline for commenting is 10 PM EST on Friday Aug 16, 2013.

 The special stamp set we have for you this month is:

"Lucky You"

 The mini stamp set we have for you this month is

"Take Time Mini"
                                                      

At the end of June I attended StampFest Orlando and purchased several technique CDs from the Technique Junkies Newsletter.  One of them, called Move It, had some really cool ideas; so each day during this month's hop, I am going to present a different technique I took from this CD.  My first card today, which uses both today's set (Pocket Watches) and this month's mini set (Take Time) is made using the directions for an Upright Diamond Fold Card.  I love fun fold cards!

My second card is made with this month's extra set (Lucky You) and is made with the directions for a Peek-A-Boo Card.  BTW, it took me three times to get this one right.  If nothing else, I am persistent!

And here's where it gets the name "Peek-A-Boo."  Notice that the circle up in the corner has changed from the "Lucky You" sentiment seen through the round opening on the front to an oriental coin.

Be sure to check out all the cards in today's hop.  The rest of the Senior DT has been working hard to present some inspiration to you.   Here's the Design Team:

Patty, Lois (that's me), Jane, Debbie, Pam, Pat, Thrfity Stamper, Marilynn, Karen, Bonnie, Kathy, Angela, Cathy, Toni, Sue, Janine, An'Jenic, Shirley, Marks Finest Papers, a Heinrich Co.

Speedy Fox and Friends - Plaid

This week the Speedy Fox and Friends challenge is all about plaids!    I love using plaids on masculine cards, and my card today is a sneak peek at a new mini set from Mark's Finest Papers, a Heinrich Company, called Take Time, which will be available on Tuesday.

Inside the card it says, "Happy Belated Birthday!"

Be sure to check out all the plaid cards on the MFP Blog that the rest of the design team has created.  If you'd like to play along, just post your card on the blog and you could win a free stamp set.

Stamps:  Mark's Finest Papers - Take Time
Ink:  Memento Rich Cocoa, Color Box Gold pigment
Paper:  MFP Flecked Chocolate Cake, Cream Linen; Basic Grey Oliver DP
Accessories:  Detail Gold embossing powder, Sizzix Spritely Sprockets

CCEE1332 - Make Your own Embellishments

This month's CCEE hostess, Vicky, gave us a real challenge this week -- make your own embellishments, plus use two different designer papers and an embossing folder.   Whew!  She wasn't asking much, was she? LOL!!!  My handmade embellishments were the three buttons, which I made using an SU embosslit.   I glued six "button" die-cuts together and then covered them with 3-D lacquer after I poked the holes for the cord in them.  To keep the lacquer out of the holes, I stuck a paper clip in the holes while waiting for the lacquer to dry.  The two designer papers are from an MME stack called Dolled Up.

Be sure to see how the other members of the team met Vicky's challenge.  Pop on over to the CCEE Stampers blog to view their handiwork!

Dare to Get Dirty

Each year in August, Splitcoaststampers has a week-long challenge for members of the Fan Club called Dare to Get Dirty -- named that because all of the challenges are made by present and former members of the Dirty Dozen, the best of the best on SCS!  I was able to get a card done for each of the 42 challenges.  Here is a sampling of my cards:

I love this sun ray technique.

Channeling my Florida neighbor (about 15 miles away) Kittie Caracciolo.  I learned how to make poinsettias look realistic several years ago by following one of her remarkable tutorials.

I love to weave strips of paper or ribbon.

I learned a new technique for this one -- Polished Stone.  Can I just say that I will probably be using this technique again and again.  It is so pretty.

This particular technique -- Faux Mosaic -- always reminds me of stained glass.  It adds something special to a Christmas card.

After the week was over, I packed up many of my DTGD cards and added a few more -- for a total of 55 cards -- and mailed them off to Operation Write Home, my favorite place to send my cards.  OWH boxes up packages of handmade cards and ships them to military bases for use by the men and women in the Armed Forces to write home to their loved ones.

Speedy Fox and Friends - Cooking

This week the Speedy Fox and Friends challenge takes us to the kitchen -- the theme is Cooking.  I combined three MFP sets to create my card.  Not sure what Santa has in mind for dinner, but he's going to town in the kitchen!

Pop on over to the Mark's Finest Papers blog and see what's on the rest of the DT's menu.  Link up your cooking card and you could win a free stamp set.

I have entered this card in the Crazy 4 Challenges challenge this week -- paper-piecing.

Stamps:  Mark's Finest Papers - Holly Jolly Greetings, Recipe Card Starters, Recipe Completers
Paper:  MFP Deep Scarlet, Snow Storm Smooth; unknown DP
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo Black, Rhubarb Stalk, London Fog
Accessories:  Copic markers, Snow pen, Curly label punch

CCEE1331 - Masculine Birthday

The hostess for the CCEE Stampers for the month of August is Vicky Gould.  Her first challenge this month is to make a masculine birthday card -- BUT in brown, tan and green.  Even though I am not a big fan of boxers (I was bitten by a boxer as a kid), I do love coloring this image.

Masculine cards are not always easy, so be sure to check out the CCEE Stampers blog and maybe you'll get some inspiration.  If you do, be sure to link up your card.