DeNami Design Happy Monsters Sneak Peeks

Welcome to Day 3 of the DeNami Design Spring/Summer 2014 Release Sneak Peeks!! Today DeNami DT Member Tammy Hobbs and I are giving you sneak peeks of brand-new DeNami stamps about to be released on January 10!! Today's sneak peeks are in a brand-new category of DeNami stamps: it's the HAPPY MONSTERS! Be sure to read all the way to the end of this post for details on a great giveaway :D.

These little monsters definitely aren't the spooky kind {wink}. Let's see what kinds of projects you can make with them:

1) My first project is a Father's Day card! I used two cute little happy monsters from two new stamps, E173 Happy Monster w/Balloons and N146 Happy Monster Party. I stamped and fussy cut a large monster from the Happy Monster Party (leaving off his party hat). I also fussy cut the smaller monster, leaving off his party hat and balloon so the daddy monster and kid monster could hold hands! I also used the DeNami Happy Father's Day sentiment, Tuxedo Black Memento ink, Teal Chevron Washi Tape, and one of the new Chevron Embossing folders carried in the DeNami store.

2) My second project is a perfect card for saying hello to a far-off friend! It features the new I69 Happy Monsters in Car stamp, as well as the new E175 Balloon Trio. My card design was perfect for pairing up with the Sending You Smiles sentiment. And doesn't the Cloudy Sky embossing folder make a great background for my road-trip scene?

3) And finally, for my third project, I turned the new N146 Happy Monster Party stamp into a Valentine's Day card! I also used the brand-new F240 You Make Me Feel sentiment and some hearts from the Whimsical Valentine stamp set. Isn't it perfect? And so is the Layered Hearts embossing folder that I used as my on-theme background.

Are you still with me? I mentioned a giveaway way back at the beginning of this post. DeNami is giving away multiple gift certificates today, so be sure to leave a comment here on my post and then check out the DeNami blog for all of the different ways you can win today. :)

I'm so glad that you dropped in to check out some of the new Happy Monster stamps in the DeNami Design Spring/Summer Release! Be sure to tune into the DeNami blog tomorrow for giveaway winners and release full reveal.

Until then, have a day filled with bliss,
Emily 

DeNami Wonderful Washi Blog Hop

Good morning, friends! I am so excited to be a part of today's DeNami Design blog hop! Today the DeNami Design team and DeNami Design customers are showing off wonderful ways to use washi tape. If you have heard my news about my new monthly blog feature {Ways With Washi} over on the DeNami Design blog, then you know that this is right up my alley!!

I am the last stop on today's hop. Hopefully, you've arrived here by way of Donna Bowman's blog, The Crafty Corgi. If so, you are on the right track! If not, you'll want to head over to the DeNami blog to start the blog hop at the beginning. (And remember, if you get lost along the way, you can always head over to the DeNami blog to get pointed in the right direction.)

Don't forget, there are some amazing DeNami prizes to be won! Two lucky commenters will be drawn at random from among the comments left along the blog hop to win a $20 DeNami Design gift certificate! You have until Monday, January 14, 2013, 11:59 pm PST, to leave comments on all the blogs to be eligible for a prize.

So, shall we get on our wonderful washi way? Here is what I created with some wonderful washi tape from DeNami Design.

You can click on this photo for a better view!

It's a set of mini note cards for my 10YO son! They all measure 3" x 3". I used DeNami Design's super awesome Road Washi Tape for these. And a bunch of DeNami Design rubber stamps, too, if you can believe that! The Cars & Trucks stamp set, Medium Double Line Square, Birthday Celebration Set 1, Make Way! It's Your Day!, Sending You Smiles, and You're "Wheel" Nice all made it to my crafting table. I was inspired to make these by the Make an Itty Bitty Card Challenge in the Moxie Fab World, celebrating the release of the new special issue, 75 Creative Card Challenges.

Anyway, my mini cars were fun, quick, and easy! All that was left to do then was package them up in a DeNami Design boutique box and tie them up with some baker's twine.

I hope you have collected tons of great ideas for using washi tape! I am the last stop on today's hop. Be sure to leave a comment before you go to be in a drawing for a Denami Design gift certificate.


Thanks for hopping along today!
Emily

Keen on Neon

Hello! It's been super busy here since Thanksgiving, and I've been away from my blog much more than I've wanted to be. One of the reasons for my busy-ness is that my son celebrated his 10th birthday over the weekend. We had a bunch of celebrating to do!! (And oh my goodness, where has the last 10 years gone? It seems like he was born just last week!) I'm also still struggling with some carpal tunnel issues, which become aggravated by all that pointing and clicking with the mouse. So many of you have been so sweet to come visit me here on my blog and it kills me not to be able to return the favor for right now. But I've got to get healed up first!! So please, bear with me. I'll try to get around to visit soon!!

Well, now that my son's birthday is over, he needs thank you cards to write notes for his birthday gifts. He has early-release days for parent-teacher conferences the rest of the week, so it's the perfect time for him to tackle his note-writing list! I wanted to make up a stack of fun note cards for him to use, so that was at the top of my list yesterday.

I haven't been able to play along with any of the challenges over at the Moxie Fab World in a very looooooooooooong time, but I was so very intrigued by Cath's latest challenge, Keen on Neon. I've seen a whole lotta neon out there in the world recently, and I thought it might be fun to see how to incorporate some in a card design. When I think of neon, the very first thing that comes to mind is highlighters!! Neon is always "in" where highlighters are concerned, and that's one of the very few neon items, crafting or otherwise, that we have in the house. I tried to think of how to keep the neons from overpowering a card design and decided that the best way to do that is to balance them out with a bunch of white space. Here's what I came up with.

Yes, I used a neon yellow highlighter to color in the chickie on this card! I also thought it would be fun to use the same neon yellow to highlight the punny part of the card ;). I used two rubber stamps from DeNami Design, Race Car Chickie and You're "Wheel" Nice, along with some markers and scored lines to make a simple flat design that will be super simple to mail.

My son loves how it turned out, and so do I! I ended up making a set of four duplicates. I'm also linking up to the Playing In Paradise challenge which has the theme of Mr. Masculine this week. I think these "wheel nice" cards I made for my son to use should qualify ;)!!

Well, I've gotta keep moving here or I'm not going to finish my to-do list for today. Thanks so much for stopping by to check out my little slice of bliss!!
Emily

DeNami Back-to-School Blog Hop

Good morning, friends! And welcome to the DeNami Design Back-to-School Blog Hop! Today the DeNami Design Team and customers alike are showcasing projects that are just perfect for this time of year: anything having to do with going back to school!

Hopefully, you've arrived here by way of Pattie Goldman's blog, Paper Silhouettes. If so, you are on the right track! If not, you'll want to head over to the DeNami blog to start the blog hop at the beginning. (And remember, if you get lost along the way, you can always head over to the DeNami blog to get pointed in the right direction.)

Don't forget, there are some super-fun DeNami prizes to be won! Two lucky commenters will be drawn at random from among the comments left along the blog hop to win a $20 DeNami Design gift certificate! You have until Monday, September 10, 2012, 11:59 pm PST, to leave comments on all the blogs to be eligible for a prize.

So, for my back-to-school project I made packaging for a yummy back-to-school muffin! Perfect for surprising your favorite student or teacher with a good-luck breakfast send-off. :D

Isn't that DeNami Cupcake Boutique Box absolutely adorable? It's a 4.25" cube, the perfect size for packaging up decorated cupcakes or gourmet muffins. You can order them directly from the DeNami web store in packages of six. You can also purchase an awesome downloadable cupcake holder template from DeNami. It fits in the Cupcake Boutique Boxes perfectly! I printed my template directly on a sheet of white cardstock and trimmed it down. Then I used the DeNami Small Apple in red to stamp a background all over the cupcake holder.

My other back-to-school accent for this first-day-of-school muffin box was made by stamping the sweet Chickie School Bus on white cardstock and then coloring it in with my colored pencils blended with odorless mineral spirits and a paper blending stump.

All that was left then was to pop in a yummy muffin and tie it up with some red ribbon! Perfect for getting the new year off to a great start with a special breakfast treat!


That wraps it up for me! Before you leave, be sure to leave a comment to be eligible for the randomly drawn prizes and then you can be on your way to the next stop on the hop, the blog of Virginia Larsen, GinnyLou Studio. 

Thanks so much for stopping by today! Enjoy the blog hop,

Emily

Sending You Smiles

I know, it's been a while since I've posted, right? With company, appointments, doing stuff with the kids, and dealing with a tree that was blown down in our yard by a nasty thunderstorm last week, I've had my plate full to overflowing! But I'm here today to share a quick friendship card that features a brand-new sentiment from DeNami Design, "Sending you smiles across the miles." Don't you just love that? I know I'll be using it a lot :D!!

This fun sentiment stamp just happens to be the DeNami Product Spotlight this week, which means it's on sale for 10% off for the next week! Just drop it into your shopping cart--the savings has already been applied.

Be sure to drop by the DeNami Design blog today to see all the creative ways the rest of the DeNami Design DT used this awesome stamp!

Thanks for visiting!

Emily

Stamps: Sending You Smiles (cling), Race Car Chickie (cling), Retro Borders 1 Set (cling) by DeNami Design

Paper: DeNami Sky Blue cardstock, PTI white cardstock

Ink: Onyx Black Versafine, PTI Hawaiian Shores

Accessories:  Prismacolor pencils, odorless mineral spirits, paper blending stumps, scoring board, foam tape

Techniques: Gamsol Magic

DeNami Sneak Peeks: CHICKIES

Welcome to Day 1 of the DeNami Design Fall/Winter Release Sneak Peeks!! Today DT Member Lisa Petrella and I are giving you sneak peeks of brand-new DeNami stamps about to be released in the always-fun CHICKIES category! Be sure to read all the way to the end of this post for details on a great giveaway :D.

If you are a DeNami chickie lover, you will positively swoon over the chick-tastic new release! There are new chickies for Halloween, new chickies for Christmas, and some fun new chickies for everyday. I had SO much fun with my new chickie stamps getting ready for this fall/winter release! It was hard to decide where to start, but in the end I went with some of the new everyday chickies. Are ready to see them? OK, fasten your seat belts--here we go!!

What could be more fun than a racing chickie?!? For my first card I used the brand-new Race Car Chickie (CL-G154) and Make Way! It's Your Day! (CL-F224) stamps. My hubby is a huge car fanatic, so this will be for his birthday in September. I know he'll love it! I stamped the race car on watercolor paper in black Versafine ink and heat embossed the image with clear embossing powder. Then I watercolor-painted this fun little guy and his wheels with dye inks.

Up next I played with the new Swinging Chickie (CL-D146) on a pair of clean and simple cards. I wanted to make the swing ropes ultra long for this card design, so I extended them with a ruler and an ultra-fine tipped Sharpie. I paper-pieced the chickies on white cardstock so I could color them with Prismacolor pencils.  So, why two nearly identical cards? Well, I couldn't decide which I liked better: underlining my design with some scored lines, or tying on some baker's twine. This card was so quick and easy to make, that I did it both ways!

So are you starting to think that these new chickie stamps are just like potato chips? (You know, because you can't stop after just one--one card, that is!). Well, what I did with the new Business Chickie (CL-C92) would certainly make you think so! This little guy is SO cute! He made me think of some kind of bureaucrat or government agent--of the cutest, fluffiest kind, of course--that might come 'round to "chick" up on you. :D

And there you have it--my chickie sneak peeks for the new release!



Congratulations for making it to the end of this looooooooooooooong post :). I mentioned a giveaway way back at the beginning, and here's what's up for grabs: 

Paulina is giving away TWO of these Chickie-themed prize packages today, one on the DeNami blog and one from today's featured blogs (that would be my blog here and Lisa Petrella's blog). The winners will be randomly selected from the comments left on the three blogs, so be sure to comment in all three places to maximize your chance of winning!


I'm so glad that you dropped in to check out some of the new chickie stamps in the DeNami Design Fall/Winter Release! Be sure to tune into the DeNami blog tomorrow for more sneak peeks and another giveaway.


Have a day filled with bliss!
Emily


Race Car Chickie card:
Stamps: Race Car Chickie, Make Way It's Your Day, Steam Curl, Stitched Rectangle, Holiday stamp set--all from DeNami Design
Paper: Canson watercolor paper, patterned paper from BasicGrey's Wander collection
Ink: Versafine Onyx Black, Versafine Vintage Sepia, Versafine Crimson Red, various dye inks for watercolor painting
Accessories: sewing machine, foam tape
Techniques: watercolor painting, machine stitching


Swinging Chickie cards:
Stamps: Swinging Chickie, Hang In There--from DeNami Design
Paper: DeNami Iridescent Aquamarine cardstock, white cardstock from PTI
Ink: Noir Black Palette
Accessories: ruler, ultra-fine tip Sharpie, scoring board, Prismacolor pencils, odorless mineral spirits, paper blending stumps, baker's twine from DeNami's Summer Twine 3-pk
Techniques: scoring, Gamsol Magic


Business Chickie card #1:
Stamps: Business Chickie, Just Chickin' Up On You--from DeNami Design
Paper: DeNami Lime cardstock, patterned paper from BasicGrey's Green at Heart collection, white cardstock from PTI
Ink: Versafine Onyx Black, Noir Black Palette
Accessories: sewing machine, scalloped border punch, Prismacolor pencils, odorless mineral spirits, paper blending stumps
Techniques: Gamsol Magic, machine stitching

Business Chickie cards #2 and #3:
Stamps: Business Chickie, Just Chickin' Up On You, Retro Borders 1 Set (cling)--from DeNami Design
Paper: white cardstock from PTI
Ink: Versafine Deep Lagoon, Versafine Crimson Red, Noir Black Palette
Accessories: Prismacolor pencils, odorless mineral spirits, paper blending stumps
Techniques: Gamsol Magic

FWF: Enjoy the Ride

A new Friday means a chock-full-of-inspiration Friends With Flair blog hop over at the Unity blog. I'm linking up this card:
This clean and simple masculine concoction is already winging its way to my father-in-law, whose birthday is Monday. I used three stamps in the Authentic Man stamp set from {ippity} by Unity, some twine for the Tangled Twine challenge over at Ribbon Carousel Challenge, and not a whole lot else! I was inspired by the Potpourri Challenge in the Moxie Fab World, which offers this photo for inspiration:
I love that bold monogram on the mug, and picked up that idea for the start of my sentiment. I also latched onto that neutral color palette. :)

Finally, I'm adding this to the mix over at {ippity}'s Free-for-All challenge.

Can you believe that we are heading into the last weekend before Christmas? We are all pretty excited here. Luckily our preparations are all under control. Both of my kids are in our Sunday School Christmas pageant, which will be this Sunday. Should be fun!!

Thanks for stopping by for a little slice of bliss today!
Emily

A few to share for Friends with Flair

A new Friday means a new blog hop for yummy Unity inspiration: it is Friends with Flair Day!

I have exciting news!! Today I'd like to share one of two cards that were published in the recently released special Paper Crafts issue, 365 Cards. These are my first-ever cards published by Paper Crafts, and I am just tickled pink!! Both cards feature Unity stamps exclusively, 'cause I just love Unity Stamp Co. :)

I'll share my card that appears on page 101, for August 22, 2012. The stamped image and sentiment are from {ippity}'s Authentic Man kit.
My other card appears on page 114, for September 21, 2012. I used stamps from {ippity}'s Regal Greetings kit. You'll have to grab a copy of 365 Cards to get your peek at that one!

Be sure to swing by the Unity Stamp Co. blog for a ton more inspiration as part of today's FWF hop. You can find a list of all of today's participants there.

Thanks so much for dropping by today to share in a bit o' my bliss. Seeing my very own creations in print is such a hoot!

Have a great weekend!
Emily

A few cards for my hubby

Know what's making me happy today? It's just been a great, feel-good day today. I got to talk on the phone with my dear friend who moved away over the summer. Both of my kids had great days at school and couldn't wait to tell me all about it. When they got settled here at home, they took charge of their school paraphernalia and got right down to work on their homework all on their own--no handholding required! Supper was quick to fix, delicious, and appreciated by the entire family. The fact that I found time to make not one but three much-needed note cards to be used by my dear hubby was icing on the cake! I had such a light-hearted, fizzy feeling inside the whole while. :)

It is no secret that my dear husband is, in addition to being an EE and my main IT squeeze, a complete gearhead. He is, always has been, and always will be totally into cars. He subscribes to four different automotive magazines, has two different car projects in the works, never misses a Formula 1 race, and claims Top Gear (both UK and US series) as his favorite TV show. So what's a crafty gal to do when her gearhead guy needs a supply of note cards for writing thanks yous and such? Dig out the car stamps in my collection, that's what!! Unfortunately, I don't have that many, and the cars I do have aren't exactly his style (he's more into exotics than classics). But the classic convertible in {ippity}'s Authentic Man kit is, well, just classy! So I'm pretty sure my husband will still be happy to write his missives on what I created.

My idea for this card started with wanting to try my hand at Piali's stamp blocking challenge over on Do More With Less. I'm also playing in the All Things Unity challenge to make a one-layer card, as well as the {ippity} challenge to tie it up with twine, ribbon, or string on your project. Finally, I thought it would be fun to join in the challenge to "alter your spooled items" in the Ribbon Carousel Challenge. I choose hemp twine as my spooled item and altered it by tying it into a decorative knot called the Long Single Strand Plait. You can find a picture tutorial here.

I started by stamping ink-coated acrylic blocks on scraps of watercolor paper to get the hang of it, and I also experimented with lightly misting the inked blocks with water. Once I got the kinks worked out, I was ready to block stamp directly onto my one-layer watercolor paper card base! Turned out great! But I also liked how all of my warmup stampings turned out, so turned them into these CAS cards.

I am inordinately pleased with my results. :D They are all ready to turn over to my dear hubby!

Thanks for dropping by to see what's making me happy today!
Emily

One-Layer Card:
Stamps: Authentic Man from {ippity} by Unity Stamp Company
Paper: watercolor paper
Ink: Ranger tea dye distress ink, Ranger antique linen distress ink, Versafine vintage sepia
Accessories: hemp twine
Techniques: clear block stamping 
Blue Card:
Stamps: Authentic Man from {ippity} by Unity Stamp Company
Paper: watercolor paper, SU Marina Mist CS, yellow CS from The Paper Company
Ink: SU Marina Mist, Versafine onyx black
Accessories: washi tape
Techniques: clear block stamping, sponging 
Rust Card:
Stamps: Authentic Man from {ippity} by Unity Stamp Company
Paper: watercolor paper, DP from Provo Craft, cream CS 
Ink: Ranger tea dye distress ink, Ranger antique linen distress ink, Versafine vintage sepia
Accessories: MS modern garland border punch, foam tape
Techniques: clear block stamping

Christmas Car Thank You Note

So today we finally got to celebrate DS's 8th birthday in earnest!! I got up early to bake bread and start on some cards I needed to make, while the kids worked on homework. Then all four of us headed out to lunch at Fuddruckers, chosen by DS for his birthday celebration meal. Yum, yum!! We stuffed ourselves on mammoth burgers and hot dogs, french fries, and milk shakes (for the other three in my family; I stuck with light lemonade. Gotta fit into my dress pants for church tomorrow morning somehow!!). Oh, and the kids got freshly baked cookies with their kids' meals. I don't think any of us will need to eat again until Monday!!!

After our lunch out, there was a pile of birthday presents waiting here at home for the birthday boy. He has been waiting very patiently since his actual birthday on Thursday for the presents part of his celebration!! And he was just thrilled with everything he received from us and his extended family. He and his sister are having a ball right now playing with some of his new stuff. He will have thank you notes to write tomorrow, so I had fun making this one to add to his stack: He will just love that there is a car on it! I was inspired by this adorable Santa car ornament that I found on the Bronner's Christmas Wonderland website as part of today's Inspiration Challenge IC261 on Splitcoast Stampers.
I incorporated these challenges into this thank you note:

• Simon Says Stamp Challenge: sketch (I had to rotate this 90 degrees clockwise and then reflect it in the y-axis to make it work with my image, so the little car would be driving into the page, not heading right off the edge!)
• Card Creations: Favorite Occasions Week Thank You Challenge in the Moxie Fab World
• Speedy the Cat's Friends Challenge: red and green
• Challenge Up Your Life: Advent/Christmas creations
• Stamp Something: Christmas color combo

Thanks for checking out my little slice of bliss for today!!

Card Recipe:
Stamps: Mark's Finest Papers Thankful Mums and Pumpkins (sentiments), Studio G
Paper: SU old olive CS, Little Yellow Bicycle Christmas Delight DP collection, various scraps
Ink: Palette noir black, SU old olive, SU bashful blue
Accessories: MS nordic snowflake punch, SU modern label punch, sponge, Prismacolor pencils, OMS, paper blending stump, foam tape, red brads, SU blender pen
Techniques: sponging, Gamsol Magic

Jazz Cat of the Week

I have some exciting news!! I just found out a couple days ago that I was selected as "Jazz Cat of the Week" in the Jazzy Paper Designs Inspirational Challenge #13 for this card. As Jazz Cat, I have the honor of serving as Guest Designer for the new Jazzy Paper Designs challenge, which is to be inspired by this awesome jazz album cover: Street of Dreams by Grant Green.
As soon as I saw those street signs on the album cover, I knew I had the perfect DP for this project!! And the arrows on the street signs reminded me of my fun Along for the Ride stamp set by Unity. With this card, I'm also playing along with this week's colourQ Challenge #52, which is to use this sketch and one of the past year's color challenges. I chose colourQ #17.

If you'd like to take a crack at this fun jazz album-inspired challenge, then be sure to visit the Jazzy Paper Designs blog for more on the prize and for details on entering.

So, the past few days we in eastern Massachusetts have been plagued by the remnants of Tropical Storm Nicole. We've had warm temperatures, high winds, high humidity, and lots of moisture--feeling very tropical, but not in a good way (especially with no sun). Yesterday morning, I was awakened by my dear hubby at 5:45 a.m. (I am normally up at this time for my daily date with our stationary cycle, but I hadn't been sleeping well or feeling well this week, so when my alarm went off at 5:30 I reset it for 30 minutes to catch up a bit more on my sleep.) He had tried to leave for work at his normal time (5:40) but found that the high winds overnight had toppled a dead tree across the end of our road, completely blocking it. The tree, about 14 inches in diameter, was too big for him to drive over and too heavy for him to move by himself, so he was stuck. Our street has only one outlet (yup, Bliss Road is a dead end!!), and the project he's on at work these days doesn't allow him to work from home. In order to beat the heavy Boston commuting traffic, his only option was to get help. That was me!! So I threw on some clothes while he gathered up some work gloves, a 2x4 for leverage, and our hand truck, and off we set into the pre-dawn blackness while violent winds swirled through tree tops above us. Luckily, it wasn't raining at the moment. While stumbling around looking for clothes, I hadn't registered his request that I bring a flashlight, so we worked in the faint light of a distant streetlamp and managed to raise up the tree trunk with our 2x4 lever just enough to wedge the handtruck underneath it. I maneuvered the handtruck under the middle of the trunk while DH hoisted one end, and together we managed to pivot the whole thing just off the edge of the road. Success!!

The winds blew and gusted hard most of the rest of the morning, with intermittent showers, until suddenly it stopped and and a steady rain started. And that was it!! The temperature started dropping and the tropical-ness of the system was over. At the end of the school day, my middle-schooler daughter and I put on our rain boots, grabbed our umbrellas, and walked in the thankfully straight-falling rain down to the elementary school to meet her brother after school. We had carried his rain boots along with us, and once he had changed out of his sneakers, the three of us enjoyed a leisurely walk home, wading through and stomping in every puddle we came across. And that's my little slice of bliss for today--the joy of sloshing through deep puddles while keeping your feet dry in bright rubber boots!!

Thanks for dropping by today!!

Card Recipe:
Stamps: Unity Along for the Ride
Paper: SU basic black CS, DCWV The Travel Stack DP, SU DP, The Paper Company CS
Ink: Palette noir black
Accessories: SU scallop border punch, CM oval cutting system, dimensionals, Prismacolor pencils, gunmetal eyelet brads