Jungle Birthdays

Still playing with Melanie's furry friends, I made those birthday cards for my twin nephew and niece. She gets the zebra, he gets the giraffe. I used giftwrapping as my background because I thought it looked so cute. The banners and added animals are on foam tape, of course... ;-)

Somebunny's birthday...

It had been too long since I last played with Melanie's little critters... So today I used her bunny to wish my 2 years old niece a happy birthday. I love this springy paper by DCWV, and cut out some of the flowers to place them in the bunny's basket, same with the little butterfly I added on the ear. Bunny is on foam tape for some added dimension.

This card makes me happy. :-D

Melanie's blog hop and my frog prince...

Melanie Muenchinger is celebrating two years of blogging and illustrating for Gina K Designs, and today she has invited 25 designers and YOU to join the party!

First hop through the following designers' blogs using every set she has created since January 2008, from the first to the 25th! Then go to Melanie's'blog to leave a comment for a chance to win a number of different prizes! So let's get hopping!

Here we go!

Just So Hippy-Charmaine
Just So Hoppy-Donna
What's in Your Tin 1 & 2-Donna
Hip Hop Accessories-Bee (you are here! :-))
Jumping for Joy-Barb
Cuddles and Hugs-Jessie
Little Tees-Cat
Just So Sporty-Pam
A Year of Flowers-Theresa
Say it with Flowers-Selma
Have a Cookie-Carolina
Tee Talk-Gabby
Hand in Hand-Ally
The Best Things in Life-Shannon, Sankari
A Charmed Life-Cathy
Wee Tees-Libby, Laura Jean
Arranged with Love-Selma
Sporty Accessories-Tina
Inspiration Mosaic-Jennie
School Sports Spirit-Melissa
A Year of Leaves-Geri
Hip to Be Square-Karen
Festive Frame-Linda
Tech Talk-Tech Talk- Lee


Finally, Nina and Jessica from the GinaK Senior Design Team have joined in, too!
You can also get in on the hop yourself and increase your chances of
winning a prize by creating your own project with any one of Melanie's sets and linking it in the Mr. Linky in her post, see full details here.
Hope you can join the fun! Enjoy your first hop of the year!

As for my card, it's pretty straight forward. I chose the little frog in honor of the new Disney movie "The princess and the frog" that I enjoyed with my daughter the other day. I made a simple pop-up inside with a little heart that says "kiss me".

Wishing you a wonderful NEW YEAR! May it be happy, healthy and peaceful! :-) <3>

Toothfairy Tin

My niece just turned 5, and I expect she will lose teeth soon... so I made her a little toothfairy box to put under her pillow... I made a little "cup" for her tooth with a prima flower and added a little pocket to leave messages to the toothfairy... I used Melanie's tins stamps set and drew the tooth by hand. I think she'll have fun with that... ;-)

Butterfly baby

A card I made for my cousin who had a little girl...2 months ago...the card hasn't left the house yet...Ooops.... This new set by Melanie is gonna be perfect for my scrapbooking pages of baby Nathan! :-D The butterfly wings are covered with flock. (Awesomely cool paper by DCWV Nana's nursery baby girl)

Ladybug 2

This is the "reverse" card from the one I made for Naomi's birthday, I used the opposite frames.I think it will likely be my Mom's mother's day card...

For the little 'Lady Burg"

I made this card for Naomi's 8th birthday. The paper frames are done with the Nestabilities, the white background is cuttlebugged with leaves and pierced, and the ladybugs are covered with crystal effect.

V-card for Naomi

Long time no see... Adjusting to life with one more family member is proving to be challenging! LOL!... Needless to say the creativity is on hold, not that I don't have the mojo but I just don't have time and the sleep deprivation makes me functionate at a sloooow pace...

Anyway, here's a little card for the fun, for my 7 1/2 years old daughter Naomi for Valentine's day... slightly flashy but it was intentional... ;-) The colors of the pics are slightly off because I used the laptop and I'm not familiar with the photo editing there...oops...

I used JustRite stamps for my custom sentiment. And funnily enough the superwoman stamp from the "kindred spirits" collection by Gina K. is called "Naomi"'!

Melanie's blog-hop : my closet dividers

As I mentioned the other day, our dear Melanie is having a blog-hop to celebrate her blogaversary! :-) She nicely decided to feature the people that have been her guest-designers or have won one of her contests that past year! I was lucky to win (it was a tie with Donna) one of her contests so here I am! :-)

My project is closet dividers that you use to separate your baby's clothes by size. You might have seen those in baby stores, I used to think it was useless, but it is frustrating to put baby clothes aside because they are too big at the time, only to find them again when they are actually too small! ;-)

It's a simple project done using my Nestabilities, and Melanie's "Just so hippy", "Just so hoppy" and "Hip-hop accessories". I colored the images with Prismacolor markers (I didn't want to use OMS while pregnant), I made 2 of each so that they look the same on both sides, and I laminated them afterwards for durability and ease of use. You could certainly add little ribbons or other blings after laminating them, but I kept those simple since they are for my little one who should join us in less than 3 weeks now! :-)

{ETA: Not sure where my step by step pics disappeared over the years?... o.O But it's simple:

1- Cut ovals (I recommend layering 2 for durability or adding another layer like I did with the scallops.)
2- Punch out a circle at the top.
3- Color/decorate (keep it FLAT). Write the sizes.
4- Laminate.
5- Repunch the circle, then cut a simple thin slit (like 1/8 inch) on one side of the circle hole to be able to slide those on the hanging rod.
6- Decorate mote if you like, add ribbons etc...}

Melanie also asked us to answer a few questions so below are my answers:

Favorite technique: Paper dry embossing (I'm in love with my Cuttlebug folders ;-)) and I also love embossing with powder and my heatgun.
Favorite colors/color combo: I'm a rainbow kind of girl! The only color I don't like and use very rarely or in small touches is yellow. My favorite color is blue and I love pairing it with all kind of colors. Most of the time when I make a card or project it is with someone in mind so I get my color inspiration from the person or from the paper I feel like using that day, or the ribbon...
Favorite type of project to make that’s not a card: Anything with my kids in mind, and maybe giftcards holders. Oh and those mini albums I have been making lately...:-)
Favorite Gina K set by Melanie: It's hard to say, but I would go with "Have a cookie" and "Hand-in-hand" even though I have neither of them (yet! ;-))...
Favorite Gina K sets (from any illustrator): Same as above! :-)
Craft supplies I can’t live without: Well the basics: paper & cardstock, ribbons, stamps, coloring pencils and markers... for the "extras" I would say my Cuttlebug and the embossing folders and my Nestabilities... Of course Prima flowers and brads and... ;-)
I've been stamping for ...a little less than 1 1/2 year.
I get my inspiration from ...anything! But I am certainly influenced by all the crafty blogs I visit!.. ;-)
The most important things I’ve learned about stamping/cardmaking/scrapbooking are ...that's it's all about you! LOL! It's not about following rules or doing a perfect job or something that everyone will rave about, it's about having fun and expressing yourself! If in the process it makes someone else feel loved or appreciated then it's even better! :-D I started papercrafting to have something just for me that I enjoy and that relaxes me. It is definitely liberating and rewarding. I had no clue I would "meet" (over the net ;-)) so many wonderful people in the process! ♥...
Some of my stamping/crafting goals are: Make my kids' photo albums (much catching up to do in that area, years!!!..). Scrapbook more. Make a recipe book for my daughter with traditional french recipes from my grandmother. Maybe one day (years from now!) design my own stamps? Who knows?...
Some of my stamping/crafting accomplishments are: I still see myself as kind of a newbie in that field so my accomplishments are still ahead of me!... ;-)

There you have it, don't forget to visit Melanie's blog and check the talented ladies I was lucky to be featured with. Plus there are tons of fun stuff to win.... Now that's a celebration!!

Happy blogaversary Melanie! You sure deserve your success! :-)

Melanie's blogaversary.

Please go help Melanie Muenchinger celebrate a year of blogging and stamp designing over at her blog “Hands, Head and Heart”.
Melanie and her guest designers will be sharing cards and projects from all her sets released through Gina K Designs this past year and prizes will be up for grabs every day!
Sponsors include, Gina K Designs, My Favorite Things, Scor-pal, Paper Temptress, and Melanie herself, who is donating, among other goodies, a brand new box of Copic Ciaos! There will also be challenges, contests, and a Who’s Who “Where are they now?” on several of her past contest winners and guest designers!
Come join in the fun and help spread the word, see you there!

http://melaniemuenchinger.blogspot.com/

(I will post my "Melanie project" later this week... ;-)...)

NEWS!!!!...

What do you think?.....

The cover of a planner I bought recently....

Detail on the first page of my planner.....

With this obvious clues, you now understand why I have been absent from "paper-blogs-world" over the last months!... I was feeling exhausted and nauseous, among other things...

Yes, I am pregnant!! :-D After a long wait and a 3rd miscarriage in March, I am now 17 weeks along in a new pregnancy. It hasn't exactly been smooth sailing, the first trimester was very stressful and we spent way too much time in the doctor's office with reasons to believe that this baby would not make it. :-(

But he/she did! :-) We are now in a much better place, even though there are still some issues that might become problematic, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it (if we ever have to!). We are so grateful to have this little life with us, and I want to thank the people that were in the know and prayed for us. Your support was greatly appreciated!♥ :-)

Our baby is due end of January, and I bought this little planner (in the back to school section ;-)) to record some of my thoughts and/or facts about this pregnancy. I thought the little tees would be a nice fun little touch... :-) I might decorate it a little more once I know the baby's gender... ;-) ...

Giraffe window tri-fold

Lastly, the card to go with my niece's gifts for her b-day. She likes pink and purple, like any 4 years old girl ;-), hence the choice of color for the cardstock!...(and the addition of Stickles around the windows).

I colored the image with Kooh-i-noor pencils and baby oil. I was a little worried by the oil stains the baby oil makes on the paper but it almost completely disappeared when it dried and, since the panel is then glued on another layer, you don't see the stains that are on the back of the picture! ;-) I find it much harder to blend colors with oil than with OMS though.

For the budding writer

underside of the tin...

This is the other project for my niece Laura. There is also a little scrapbook album with pictures from her visit in Florida last summer but as you can see I am slightly behind, so that one won't make it on time for her b-day!... :-(

For the tin I used the same model than the one I made for Naomi months ago (http://dare2beecreative.blogspot.com/2008/04/message-tin.html) , with Melanie's stamps sets "What's in your tin 1 & 2".

Since my niece is only turning 4, and her Mom told me she loves little boxes of all kind and can carry them around all day, I decided to stick with a flat design (no flowers or raised embellishments on the top) this way it is also easier to slip them in a little bag without damaging anything! This time also, I added a layer of Contact paper (self-adhesive transparent paper) on the top and the bottom, that way the ink won't run and the paper won't get scratched.

The inside is pretty much identical to Naomi's tin: Mini Post-it notes and little gel pens, so she can leave little notes all around the house! :-D... The little heart is a paper clip.

Berry sweet tee

I was waiting for the 15th to post this one, because of Gina K. guest designer call, but then it hit me that I used stamps from Paper Trey Ink alongside Melanie's "little tees" and that I am probably expected to use all Gina k. stamps for my submission... I guess that will give me an excuse to make more tee cards! (Heee!) ;-)

This card is for Lee, who has such a big heart it sure wouldn't fit in a little tee. She knows why I have been MIA and sent me the sweetest little note (in a beautiful handmade card of course! ;-)) alongside some pearl stickers and ribbon! She's so sweet I had to use that stamp from PTI...

And since it's for Lee, I just had to put some pink somewhere and some glitter, so I put Stickles on some of the stripes of the DP, it's hard to see but as always click on the pic and you'll get the giant version with all the details! ;-)

Going coastal tee

This new set by Melanie Muenchinger is so fun to play with... I just had to make a little "french sailor tee" because I adore them!

You know I like to mix up different stamps set from different companies... so here I used Melanie's set "Little tees", as well as Lizzie Anne's "Shore thoughts" and "By the sea", since it was perfect for my nautical theme...

I'll send this card to my friend Sandrine who just moved to New Jersey, she left the Florida coast for the Jersey coast so I guess she is still "going coastal".... She used to come scrapbook or make cards with me almost every week and I miss her and that special time! :-(

Bear Hug

Melanie's new stamp set arrived today...so I had to play with it (to reward myself for the rubber cutting! ;-)).

I made this simple little card for my hubby, cause we all need a bear hug sometimes!... It took me a few tries to get the bears exactly the way I wanted and decide what to erase before stamping or what to mask.... The background is embossed vellum (through the Cuttlebug) over stripped paper, it's hard to see in the pic. I colored the bears with prismacolor pencils and my paint thinner. This is a technique I need to work on, but I like it so far. (I found a 50% off coupon for Michaels so I finally bought the coveted pencils! ;-))

Hoppy Father's day

This is the card I made for my husband for father's day, "from" the kids! ;-) Noah cannot make one so he'll use this one and Naomi will write a little note in there, plus she will make her own card.... And I might make a different one just from me... When Naomi saw it she immediatly said "this is me and dady flying our kite!..."

This all started with me trying for the very first time paint thinner + colored pencils. I guess I should refer to those as "mineral spirits" and prismacolors, but I have the cheap version of all that!! LOL! So I used "oil paint thinner" found at Walmart in the arts & crafts department (I figured it should be about the same thing?...) and my Rose Art pencils (=school suplies, about $5 or $6 for 100 colored pencils...).
Now let me tell you I never used the "real thing" but I suspect it makes a slight difference because Rose Art pencils are kind of hard and they sometimes like "scratch" the paper (KWIM?) or leave pigment unevenly on the paper. So I suspect softer/smoother pencils would give a better result, but so far I haven't splurged on Prismacolors... I might soon though, since this was kind of fun and I won't be able to afford Copic markers anytime soon! :-S I am a little tired of the "kid coloring" where you can see all the pencil marks!! ;-)
Obviously I need to practice a little to figure out where to put more color and where to put less, etc... My sky is made with my favorite method: press your finger on the ink pad and press your finger on the paper! cheapest dauber ever! ;-) Of course you need a pale ink with chalky finish for that.... And the whole thing was made on watercolor paper, I have yet to try on regular cardstock to see the difference.
Now a little note about the design of this card. If you are wondering what the heck this ribbon is doing in the middle of my frogs, you are totally right! What happened is, I tried to make a little jumping mark below my frogs and hated it!! I had already finished my scene so I didn't feel like doing it all over again!...so I erased the mark as much as I could (which peeled the paper a bit...) and had to hide that mistake with the ribbon. I have to say I kind of like it because this was all pretty plain before, but it's not the way it was intended to be! ;-)
Sometimes you just have to find a way to transform your mistake into whatever pretend creativity!! LOL!

Florida life

This morning I went biking, and this is what I saw. It might seem like a weird scene to people who never came to Florida, but that's the way it is where I live. A lot of little (artificial) lakes, sometimes with lily pads or water plants, bordered with palm trees...

It is truly quite beautiful. :-) On my way back I saw 3 orange butterflies in my garden, so I decided to add some butterflies on my card too....

The grass and waterlily are from Melanie's new set "Hip-hop accessories", the butterflies are form her "So hoppy" set. The water ring and the tall grass are from PaperTrey Ink (Madras Design) "Pond life", and the palm tree is from an "Aloha" set from Oriental Trading, the sentiment is from MFT...

I think I'll send it to my parents.

Froggy Love

This is my take on Lauren's sketch-challenge for this week-end ... ( http://laurenm.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/2008/04/26/happy-day-its-sketch-time/ )

I made it late last night and my eyes were tired, I wanted to keep it very simple, but I still like it in the daylight, LOL!... I thought Melanie's stamps would be perfect for those tiny little circle windows.

The card is, obviously, for my husband!... (even though, technically I am the "froggy" in our couple, since I'm 100% french and he only is 50%... ;-))

Baby& Mom giraffe

If you have been reading my blog for a while, you might remember my giraffe card and the matching memory box that I made for my sister-in-law who was expecting: http://dare2beecreative.blogspot.com/2008/02/melanie-has-contest-going-on-on-her.html

Well I now have a new niece! :-)

I was waiting for my "hip-hop babies" to arrive so that I could make a baby card that would sort of match the previous one since I had a little bit of paper left over! :-)

So here it is! Everything is on dimensionals, and there was quite some cutting, which was a little bit time consuming (one of the reasons why there is only one parent, LOL). The baby carriage I cut out of pattern paper I found at Target, I just added little buttons brads on the wheels. I tried to paper piece the carriage using the same striped paper that is at the bottom of the card but it was "too much" of the same pattern and colors for me. The balloon tie is made with a piece of hemp twine. The bottom lace pattern is made with a Martha Stewart punch.

(As always, click on the pic for the giant version ;-))