Newton's Nook Designs August Release - Day 2

Welcome back for Day 2 of Newton's Nook Designs' August Release.  Today Jen has 'Simply Sentimental' - a versatile sentiment set for you:

Even though this set coordinates with SO many of Jen's adorable NND sets, I really wanted to try to create a card that focused on the sentiments themselves and let them shine.  So first I created this brad-laden masculine birthday card (I got through those quickly in my family!) using some Making Memories papers that remind me of men's shirts:

Additional Challenges for which I am submitting this card:

Perfectly Rustics Challenge #29: Masculine, 

Milk Coffee Challenge: Add Stripes, 

DRS Designs Challenge #135: Birthdays, 

Wags 'n Whiskers Challenge #135: Birthdays, and 

Seize the Birthday: Anything Goes Birthday.

I was ready to stop there but wanted to give you guys more, and I was in a colorful mood so I created this card:

These fun rainbow stripes were also from the DCWV Flower Shower mat stack I used for paper piecing my 'hanging Around' critters yesterday.  I created the boxes by punching a 1/4" square from a scrap of vellum (so I could see through it to line it up with the different occasion choices) and tracing the edges inside the negative part that remained.  At first I was going to check off 'birthday' but then I thought 'You know, if I leave it blank I can wait until I need it and just check off the appropriate occasion....'  Isn't that a cool idea?!!  I am going to make a BUNCh of these with different patterned papers and just check off the occasions as they arise!  LOL!

Additional Challenge for which I am submitting this card:

Milk Coffee Challenge: Add stripes.

Then I wanted to get a little playful with this set.  So I created this last card which I have entitled "Happy Around You" (hopefully you will 'get' the title when you see the card...):

I used a ruler and found the center of the 4.25" x 4.25" card and placed a 1/2" circle that I punched from a Post It notes in the center.  I used another post it to cover the half of the card I was not stamping on so the tail on the 'y' wouldn't continue to the other side.  Then I just kept stamping 'happy' in a spectrum of rainbow colors, moving the post it each time, and when I was finished I removed the post its and inked up the 'you' in the set, punched it out with the same 1/2" circle punched and popped it up in the middle.  Cute huh?  I like it!

Additional Challenges for which I am submitting this card:

Country View Challenge for August: Word Play (I call this one 'Happy Around You'),  

Art Impressions Challenge: Show Off Your Sentiment, and 
Cute Card Thursday Challenge 334: CAS.

Would you like to win 'Simply Sentimental'?
This set will be given away to TWO lucky winners!!

Here's how to win:

Comment on the NND blog and Design Team and Guest blogs (see list below)!  Two winners will be chosen at random from the collective blogs' release posts.  Make sure you check out each of their blogs and comment for your chance to win.  You will not know which blog has been chosen so the more you comment on the better your chances are of winning!  You have until Tuesday, August 19th at 9 pm Central Daylight Time to comment -- winners will be announced on the blog post on Wednesday, August 20th.

Check out all these awesome Design Team & Guest Blogs below to enter:

Newton's Nook Designs
Taheerah Atchia
Lydia Brooke
Larissa Heskett
Samantha Mann
Crafty Math-Chick
Shellye McDaniel
Jess Moyer
Stephanie Muzzulin
Danielle Pandeline
Tessa Wise

Chitra Nair (Guest Designer)

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I hope at least one of my cards has inspired you to see the versatility of this pretty sentiment set.  Shellye is next on the hop list, I am sure she has created something fabulous for you to see!  Happy hopping!

~ Crafty Math Chick

Newton's Nook Designs August Release - Day 1

Hello Everyone!  Time for another adorable release from Newton's Nook Designs!  WOO HOO!  Today we are revealing a set featuring several cute critters called "Hanging Around":

See?  Told you they were cute!  I couldn't decide which to feature so I decided, 'why choose?' and used 'em alllllll:

I've seen card in the past that have critters stamped on patterened papers and I always think it looks so nice so I decided to give it a try with a bunch of coordinating prints from DCVQ's Flower Shower mat stack (they were a bit thinning than their 12 x 12 stacks and easier to fussy cut, and there was a whooooole lotta fussy cutting going on on this card!) and most of the critters have two different prints on them.  They all have popped up sections and were designed to look like they were grabbing on to that pretty piece of Twinery Twine 'held' in place by the shiny little clips (though capturing their shine without glare was difficult).  So, you likey?

Would you like to win 'Hanging Around'?
This set will be given away to TWO lucky winners!!

Here's how to win:

Comment on the NND blog and Design Team and Guest blogs (see list below)!  Two winners will be chosen at random from the collective blogs' release posts.  Make sure you check out each of their blogs and comment for your chance to win.  You will not know which blog has been chosen so the more you comment on the better your chances are of winning!  You have until Tuesday, August 19th at 9 pm Central Daylight Time to comment -- winners will be announced on the blog post on Wednesday, August 20th. 

Check out all these awesome Design Team & Guest Blogs below to enter:

Newton's Nook Designs
Taheerah Atchia
Lydia Brooke
Larissa Heskett
Samantha Mann
Crafty Math-Chick
Shellye McDaniel
Jess Moyer
Stephanie Muzzulin
Danielle Pandeline
Tessa Wise

Chitra Nair (Guest Designer)

I am also entering this card in the following challenges:

Creative Moments Challenge 49: Anything Goes with Animals, and 

Tuesday Throwdown #209: Our Furry Little Friends.

Thanks so much for stopping by!  Shellye is next on the hop list, I am sure she has created something fabulous for you to see!  Happy hopping!

~ Crafty Math Chick

Grateful Peacock

Hello again!  Today I wanted to show off a card I made for one of the DTGD challenges over at Splitcoaststampers.com.  I used 'Pretty as a Peacock' by my friend Asela for Gina K. Designs along with some colors that I think look terrific together:

The pretty peacock image panels & sentiments were heat embossed in black on Bermuda Bay cardstock along with Pacific Point, Lucky Limeade, and Eggplant Ency accents and lime colored rhinestones.  The peacock square was cut out and popped up, and that lime accent under the sentiment?  It was a strip of cardstock that I double punched on both sides with a fiskers border punch that didn't center in an asthetically pleasing way, so I snipped off a symmetrical piece and positioned it under the sentiment, I think it looks pretty there!  I think the peacock feather background paper was by Recollections...

Since a peacock is featured I am also entering it in 2 Cute Ink's Challenge #112 - to feature an animal.

I made this card for a dear friend who has been SUPER kind, patient and generous to and with me as I am attempting to learn how to crochet from videos on the internet.  I am extremely grateful and wanted her to know it.  I hope she won't mind that I shared it here with all of you as well (I am guessing not, she is pretty awesome!)

Have a great day!

~ Crafty Math Chick

Little Tangles Challenge 42

Hello everyone!  I hope your week is off to a great start!  While playing along with the DTGD challenges on Splitcoaststampers.com I decided to play along with Little Tangles' Challenge 42: Happy Birthday using their Party Dots set:

I was really happy with how this came out - gold embossed on white with gold sequins scattered about, but I do have to give props to Chari Moss who made a card with this set with a very similar layout but different colors, she is such an inspiration to me!

Additional Challenges in which I am entering this card:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Make it Sparkle,  

WOW Embossing Powder's August Challenge: Monochrome, and
Art Impressions Challenge 141: Embossing.

Thanks so much for stopping by!  Have a great day!  :)

~ Crafty Math Chick

My First Peachy Keen Card!

Happy weekend everyone!  I recently purchased my first stamp sets from Peachy Keen Stamps (dog themed of course, really, any surprise there?  Did you know that the Peachy Keen stamps are actually peach colored?!!  So cool!  Really nice quality too!) and was happy to break them in when I saw the Peachy Keen Challenge 14-11 sketch:

I used my PK-1333 Faceless Puppy outline alone with the PK-442 Happy Go Lucky Dog Face Assortment (largest face) with this sketch to create this card:

I had so much fun coloring this little puppy with my Copic markers (I like that you can change the faces and their expressions, so cool!).  The patterned paper is by Imaginisce that I found recently at Tuesday Morning and I just matched the colors in them (Hello Honey, Tangelo, Chocolate Chip, Ridinghood Red, Night of navy and Pear Pizzazz by Stampin Up!).  The rhinestones are by the paper studio.  Creating that array was a little tricky, used some blue painter's tape on the back side to hold it in place.

Additional Challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - 'In the Family' (anyone who knows me knows that my furbaby Ty IS family, not 'just a dog'), 

Two Cute Ink Challenge 112: Animals, and

Crafting for All Seasons Challenge 83: Feature a Creature, 

in addition to one of the DTGD challenges over at Splitcoaststampers.com.  

Hope to have more for you later this weekend, until then, hope you are out there enjoying it!

~ Crafty Math Chick

Paper Smooches Sparks Challenge

Hello!  Here is a card I made for one of the DTGD challenges at Splitcoaststampers.com and Paper Smooches' Anything Goes Sparks Challenge using some fun stamps from Paper Smooches' 'I Heart Art' set:

I punched out a circle from a Post It note and put it in the center of the card to make sure the colored pencils were centered around it evenly (I am not good enough to eye ball it without a guide).  Figured this would be perfect for popping into a RAK I send one of my crafty friends sometime.

Well, that is it for me for the evening, hoping to have a few more to post for you tomorrow or Sunday.  Until then, have a terrific weekend!

~ Crafty Math Chick

Hope this isn't too 'Cheesy'...

Welcome back!  That's right, two posts from me today!  At least, so far...  ;)

I wanted to share a fun card I made for another DTGD challenge on Splitcoaststampers.com using 'Just Say Cheese!' by Newton's Nook Designs:

SQUEEE!  Isn't it cute? (if I do say so myself).  I used different sized circle punches and the EK Success Swiss Cheese border punches to create the 'Swiss Cheese' top layer.  Here is a close up on the little mousie who was stamped twice - once on the yellow cheese slice and once on white paper to be cut out and colored (preserves the tail that way), then masked to stamp the cheese wedge over him so it looked like he was sitting on top, then colored with Copic markers, cut out and paper pieced back onto the yellow cheese slice.  

Isn't he just darling?  LOL, oh I love him!

Challenges:

Tuesday Throwdown #207: Mellow Yellow (yellow is the predominant color used),

Seize the Birthday: birthday card where yellow is prominent,

Great Impressions August Challenge: birthday bash, and 

Inky Impressions Challenge #171: shaped cards,

Thanks so much for stopping by and looking at my card.  I hope you like it as much as I do and have a great day!  Off to stamp some more!

~ Crafty Math Chick

My First Sweet Stamp Shop card

... I don't know how that can be - I have several of their adorable stamp sets... how is it that I have only been admiring them rather than using them?!!  Well, corrected that today!  I made this card for one of the DTGD challenges over at SCS using SSS's 'Artsy Fartsy' set, watercolor pencils, regular markers (didn't know how much ink the WC paper would suck up, so I didn't use my Copics), some sequins & homemade enamel dots made from melted pony beads:

My watercoloring technique definitely could use some practice, but I had fun with this card.  Since I was using watercolor pencils, I heat embossed the crayon box & sentiment so they wouldn't run when I dragged my wet paintbrush through them (wasn't sure how embossing powder would do on watercolor paper, did just fine!).

Challenges:

AAA Cards Challenge #14 - create a card with watercolor techniques, 

Art Impressions Challenge #141: Like an EM-BOSS (use embossing),

Gem of a Challenge #125 - embossing, 

Shopping our Stash Challenge #163: Splish Splash (use a water medium), and 

Little Red Wagon Challenge #249: embossing.  

Thanks so much for stopping by!  Hope you will check out my other post today too!

~ Crafty Math Chick

Lawnscaping Challenge 87

Hello everyone!  I am so excited to show you the card I made today for the Lawnscaping Challenge 87: Back to School (get it?  'School'?  As in 'of fish'?  BWHAHAHA... I crack myself up!), I feel like I should have 'Beyond the Sea' by Bobby Darin playing in the background...  I must say, I am not always thrilled with every single card I make, but I am very proud of this one.

Do you like it as much as I do?  Not only did I use SIX (YES!  SIX!!) Lawn Fawn sets to create this Underwater 'Back to School' scene but I used purple - this is HUGE for me!  I hardly EVER use purple!  LOL!  I figured it was a nice way to make the octopus 'teacher' stand out.  One of the little fishies is popped up with dimensionals and is dragging a calculator (which was really difficult for me as a math teacher to add) which is also popped up with a teenie piece of twine, can you see it?  Maybe I will post a close up of that later.  The fishies are not only colored with Copic markers but have Shimmerz Marigold paint on them and the book has some gold Stickles on the bottom edge (you know how some books have gold leaf on the edges of their pages?).  Since I didn't have one of Lawn Fawn alphabets with a smaller font (adding that to my looooong Lawn Fawn wishlist now, LOL!) the 'Back To' blocks at the top are actually from one of those $1 wooden Studio G alphabet sets from Walmart, they fit perfectly inside a 1/4" square punch and I love the varsity look that font has, very collegiate.  I tried to pick primary colors ('school' as a theme always makes me think 'primary colors') that matched the ones used elsewhere in the card.

I am also entering this card in Whimsy Stamps' Inspirations Challenge #74: Back to School.

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog to look at my card.  I hope you have a terrific day!

~ Crafty Math Chick

Life's a Beach with Newton's Nook Designs

Welcome back!  Today I have a fun beachy scene that I created for you using not one, not two, but three Newton's Nook Designs sets: Newton's Summer Vacation, Beach Party and Newton's Day Dream to play along with the current Inky Paws Challenge #13: to create a beach scene ).  

A whole lotta masking went into this one I tell you!  And I haven't reverse-stamped in ages (see the alligators playing volleyball with the beach ball?).  I colored everything with Copics and then sponged some Crumb Cake ink over the sand to give it the appearance of some texture.  I was psyched when I unpacked those little shells too, knew they'd be perfect for the current Inky Paws Challenge.  Hope you will play along too - there is still time left for you to join us!  You could win a gift certificate to NND!!

Thanks so much for looking at my card!  Have a great day!

~ Crafty Math Chick

Dare to Get Dirty 2014 Begins!

Hello everyone!  Still not completely unpacked or settled in here, but DTGD (Dare to Get Dirty) - a fun week of challenges hostessed by the past & present design team of Splitcoaststampers.com specifically for members of their fan club - has begun so I paused the unpacking process (isn't like the stuff is going anywhere or anything, right?) to participate and try to complete all of the challenges.  Last year I was successful in completing them all, but I combined several and didn't make separate cards for each one; I am trying to this year, but it might be a little too ambitious considering I do still have a lot of crafty things in boxes.

The first one is for Angie's challenge (we aren't supposed to disclose the details of the challenges, since they are for Fan Club Members only) and I used a sketch from this week's Tuesday Morning Sketches Challenge 261:

My card based on this sketch:

I am pretty happy with how is came out!  I used MFT's 'Have Hope' stamp set and 'Support Hope' dienamics for the pretty bra and some pink ribbon themed Mambi papers.  It felt weird that the only thing I stamped on this card was the sentiment, but I have so many cool dies, I really do need to make apoint to use them more.

Thanks so much for stopping by!  You should be seeing a lot of cards from me this week as I crank out some more DTGD challenges - wish me luck!!

~ Crafty Math Chick