DeNami Tasty Treats Blog Hop

Welcome to the DeNami Design Tasty Treats Blog Hop!


Hopefully, you've arrived here by way of Laurie Willison's blog, Soapbox Creations. 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.)

This month's blog hop is all about Tasty Treats!! Hop along for some great inspiration and comment along the way for a chance at some free DeNami products! Here are the details:

When: The blog hop starts on September 11 at 6 AM, PDT. However, you have until September 12, 2011, 11:59 pm PDT, to leave comments on all the blogs (to be eligible for a prize).

Why: To be inspired by tasty treats creations featuring DeNami Design stamps and also the chance to win mini shopping sprees on the DeNami Design website!

Prizes: DeNami is giving away THREE $20 gift certificates to their website! They'll be giving away one gift certificate to a random blog hop participant (DT members not eligible) and then they'll also be giving away TWO gift certificates to TWO people who comment along the hop!

Well, you may already know that the DeNami Design rubber stamp lineup is just packed with Tasty Treats possibilities. (And if you didn't already know that, you should run, not walk, directly to the DeNami Design online shop to check out all of them!) I mean, there's an entire stamp category in the DeNami web store devoted to just the "Sweet Shoppe" stamps!! How yummy is that???

Now, I am a gal with a mammoth sweet tooth. I don't believe that I have ever met a cookie, cake, brownie, cupcake, pie, candy, or ice cream that I didn't like. And while a small sweet treat is often a highlight of my day, I'm also an equal-opportunity kind of gal. I like the "other" food group, too--you know, the savory one! So I thought that with my Tasty Treats project for this blog hop, I'd pay homage to one of my favorite savory treats (in fact, this is my top pick for a lunch go-with, and I eat it with my lunch several times each week): baby carrots with roasted red pepper hummus. YUM!!

I know, I know what you're thinking: "But hummus is made with chick peas! You're featuring the wrong kind of peas on this card!!" And of course, you are absolutely correct about that. But do you know what color chick peas are? Yeah, I can't describe it either. Whatever color that is, it can't possibly look as good as the beautiful spring greens I used along with the carrot orange on this card. (There's a reason that moms have for years been serving up that old veggie combo standby of peas and carrots at suppertime: it looks great on a plate!) Fab colors AND tasty treats--SCORE!

OK, and the fun part of this card is that it's an easel card (for a great tutorial, see here). So you can open it and stand it up like this:

I just couldn't resist adding a computer-generated sentiment: "PEAS be with you!" printed in the CK Limerick font. I figured this card would be great as a get-well card or for anyone who needs a little peas peace spread his or her way. :)

So, in case you are interested, the carrot and pea pod images from the DeNami Veggies Petit Four set played starring roles in this creation, with a supporting role played by the "for you" sentiment from DeNami Everyday Greetings Petit Four set. I pulled out my Stamp-A-Majig to place all those tiny carrots so precisely and brought my cute little veggies to life with colored pencils. That fun peapod-patterned paper comes from the Cosmo Cricket Garden Variety collection.

Before you hop off to your next stop on the blog hop, be sure to leave a comment here for a chance at some free DeNami products. Then skedaddle on over to visit the sweet and talented Tammy Hobbs at her Creating Somewhere Under the Sun blog for her creative take on Tasty Treats à la DeNami!

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

Card Recipe:
Stamps: DeNami Veggies Petit Four set; DeNami Everyday Greetings Petit Four set
Paper: DeNami Desert Orange cardstock, Mark's Finest Papers white cardstock, scraps of textured green cardstock, Cosmo Cricket Garden Variety DP
Ink: Versafine onyx
Accessories: 3/4", 1", 2.75" circle punches, scalloped circle punch, EK french scroll border and corner punches, foam tape, half pearls by Queen & Co., colored pencils, white gel pen, stitched grosgrain ribbon from Target's Dollar Spot, Stamp-A-Majig
Techniques: pen stitching, easel card

Back to School with Friends with Flair

Today I'm sharing a project I made for Unity's Friends with Flair blog hop. Anyone with a project made with Unity stamps can join in! You can find details, prize information, and a full list of players on the Unity Stamp Company blog. It's great to be back with FWF again after a busy summer!

I made this card for the Unity Back-to-School Challenge and for the current {ippity} 1-2-3 Challenge, which is to use 1 stamped image or sentiment, 2 colors of cardstock, and 3 different patterned papers. This was a little trickier than I thought it would be! But I love the result.

My 1 stamped image is from the {ippity} set Books a'Flutter and was colored with my trusty colored pencils. For some reason, when I think "back to school," I think red, yellow, and green. Why is that?? I really couldn't envision this card any other way, so I just ran with it--straight to my trusty BasicGrey June Bug pad for some scraps of great DP for the 3 different patterned papers requirement. And, obviously, I went with red and golden yellow (it's actually Crushed Curry, a retired SU In Color from a few years ago) for my 2 cardstock colors.

I kept this nice, flat, and mailable--just adding some black zig-zag stitching for contrast and popping up my stack of books on foam tape for depth. Done!!

Thanks so much for stopping by for my little slice of bliss for today!
Emily

Stamps: Books a'Flutter from {ippity} by Unity Stamp Co.
Paper: Crushed Curry textured CS from Stampin' Up!, red CS from The Paper Company, white CS from Mark's Finest Papers
Ink: Versafine onyx, Ranger antique linen distress ink
Accessories: 1" circle punch, 1.25" circle punch, colored pencils, foam tape, sewing machine, sponge dauber
Techniques: machine stitching, sponging

Flashback Friday

I've missed playing in the Flashback Friday challenge while we were away on vacation this summer, but--YAY!--there's a great and super easy challenge up right now. It's Flashback Friday 15.0: re-post your very first fall card. Mine was from 2009, way before my blog, so it was first featured in my Splitcoast gallery:

Hmmmmmmm, basic but not bad. I kinda like that layout. I think I may have to revisit it soon. :)

Thanks for taking a moment to take a peek at my blast from the past!!
Emily

A Single Layer for My Hubby

OK, so I don't think I've been running on all of my cylinders since returning from our vacation last week. First I completely forgot how to run our clothes washer. Then I totally forgot my daughter's orthodontist appointment. And until yesterday, it hadn't dawned on me that the fact that my hubby's birthday is coming up this week meant that I needed to make him a birthday card!!

I scrambled to make something today, but my mojo needed a shot in the arm. I spent waaaaaaaaay too much time sifting through challenges that might help give me a direction for his card. I finally came up with this one-layer CAS card for him:
If you've read about our camping adventure this summer (which you can find more about here), you'll understand why I chose this Unity Destination: Happiness stamp! I have to admit that while on our extended journey, I was the happiest and most at peace as I've been in quite a while. It was definitely all about the journey!!

I found direction for this card in these challenges:

• All Things Unity #39: create something with a sticker/rub-on (the large red heart), a Unity/Ippity stamp (Destination: Happiness), and an embellie (the little red rhinestone I used for the camper's taillight!).
• Ribbon Carousel Challenge #19: Anything goes, but be sure to include some type of ribbon, twine, hemp, lace....basically, anything that comes on a spool.(I used some spooled-up baker's twine!)
• The Play Date Cafe #97: Black, white, and splash of red
• CAS-ual Fridays #18: Create a Clean And Simple project inspired by a book, and use the colors black, white, and red. My camping card was inspired by a wonderful little book called The Happy Camper: An Essential Guide to Life Outdoors.

Here's hoping that my mojo soon returns! Our kids start back to school tomorrow, so perhaps that will help--having some time to myself again. Time will tell. :)

Thanks for dropping by for my little slice of bliss today!
Emily

Card Recipe:
Stamps: Unity Destination: Happiness
Paper: heavyweight white cardstock from Mark's Finest Papers
Ink: Versafine onyx
Accessories: baker's twine, heart sticker, red Prismacolor pencil, red rhinestone from Queen & Co.

Happy News and a Farmyard HI!

(I apologize for the delay in getting this post posted. We've been having extreme connectivity issues in the past 24 hours. I think we finally have it solved, though!)

I have been having the hardest time keeping a secret for the past six weeks: I am September's Guest Designer for DeNami Design!! I've had theeeeeeee best time with DeNami rubber stamps ever since I first discovered them last spring. So many cute and sophisticated images. And now I get play with DeNami stamps all month long as a bona fide GD?? Too sweet!!! A huge thanks goes to Paulina at DeNami Design for giving me this opportunity. :D

Paulina first contacted me about joining the design team as the September guest designer back in July, just two weeks before we left on our 31-day summer vacation (a roadtrip of nearly 9000 miles--you can read more about it here). I eagerly gave her an enthusiastic YES and was so relieved that she gave me all of the details of my September DeNami creation assignments so far in advance. My first assignment was for the September Theme Challenge: Animals, debuting today, and my creation was due to Paulina by August 29. I had just enough time before we left on vacation to make my animals card, but figured since we were due to return on August 28, I'd have plenty of time to email my photo off to Paulina when we returned.

WRONG!! A little thing called Hurricane Irene intervened, and we had to extend our journey by an extra day to avoid traveling the last leg of our trip through a tropical storm. On August 29, we drove home through storm-ravaged New York state. The weather was beautiful, but a 40-mile stretch of the New York Thruway was closed due to flooding, and we had our work cut out for us. The detour around this stretch took us 6.5 hours. It was torture!! Traffic was bumper to bumper on two-lane country roads. There were no facilities to be found. By the time we reached home that night, it was far too late to email my card off to Paulina. Even though it was late, she graciously accepted it from me the following morning. Whew!

So, without further ado, here then is my sample card for DeNami Theme Challenge #7: Animals:

I created this card using these DeNami stamps:

Farm Animals stamp set
Barn
Everyday Greetings stamp set

The path to the barn was clipped freehand from a piece of fine sandpaper I picked up in a sandpaper variety pack for $1 at our local Dollar Tree store. I stamped all four animals onto watercolor paper and used dye inks to watercolor paint them.

This DeNami Animals challenge runs through Sunday, September 25. To play along, just use at least one DeNami Design rubber stamp to create any card or project featuring animals! Then link it up to the challenge post HERE. If you play along, you'll be in the running to featured in the "Fabulous Three Spotlight," and the top winner will receive a $20 gift certificate to DeNami Design!!

Thanks so much for dropping by to check out my little slice of bliss today. See you again soon!
Emily

Card Recipe:
Stamps: DeNami Design: Farm Animals stamp set, Everyday Greetings, stamp set, Barn
Paper: Cardstock from DeNami Design; all patterned paper from Provo Craft, Canson watercolor paper
Ink: Versamark, Versafine onyx
Accessories: SU scallop trim border punch, EK picket fence border punch, SU 0.75" circle punch, EK 1" scalloped circle punch, white embossing powder, heat tool, dimensionals, embroidery floss, paintbrush, sandpaper
Techniques: embossing, watercolor painting, hand stitching

What I Did On My Summer Vacation

Bryce Canyon National Park, UT (taken by our 8YO son)

If you think you haven’t heard from or seen much of me lately, you’d be right. I am pleased to report that we have just safely returned (late Monday night) from what my husband has been calling our MOAV (that is, Mother Of All Vacations). It could also be termed our “America the Beautiful Tour.”

"Park Avenue," Arches National Park, UT

As you might guess, this trip has been in the making for a while. You could say the idea for it started three years ago when my husband and I started mapping out the kinds of vacations we wanted to take with our kids before our oldest turns 18. We hoped to take the kids on a road trip to Disney World, which we did in 2009--along with stops at George Washington’s Mount Vernon, Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, the Blue Ridge Parkway, and NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. We thought that we’d like to start camping with the kids, which (after buying a small used pop-up tent trailer for the purpose) we did in 2010 with both a few local trips and a longer one to Michigan. We decided that if all that went well (and it did), we wanted to take the kids on a grand camping tour of the American West, visiting as many National Park Service sites as we could fit in.

Alpine Visitor Center, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO

Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park Campground, Redwood National and State Parks, CA

But the idea for this trip went back much, much further for me. When I was growing up, both of my parents were teachers who had the summers off. In 1978, they took my older sister and me on our first extended camping trip—out west for four weeks. Two years later in 1980, we went on an even longer trip, eight weeks camping out west on a loop path that took us to the Pacific Ocean. Finally, the summer after I graduated from high school in 1988, we took our last family camping trip, a six-week journey that followed the Rocky Mountains from the Mexican border all the way north into Canada. I suppose that ever since that first trip in 1978, I’ve always expected to take my own kids on a similar trip some day. This was a dream come true.

Our 2011 Vacation Route

So, some statistics:

Number of days away from home: 31 (originally we had planned for 30 days, but Hurricane Irene had other plans.)

Number of miles traveled: 8964

Number of photos taken: 4480 (amongst three cameras)

Number states traveled through: 19 (MA, NY, PA, OH, IN, IL, IA, NE, CO, UT, AZ, NV, CA, OR, ID, WY, MT, SD, MN)

Number of National Park Service sites visited: 24

in order of visitation:
Chimney Rock National Historic Site (NE)
Scotts Bluff National Monument (NE)
Rocky Mountain National Park (CO)
Colorado National Monument (CO)
Arches National Park (UT)
Bryce Canyon National Park (UT)
Zion National Park (UT)
Kings Canyon National Park (CA)
Sequoia National Park (CA)
Yosemite National Park (CA)
Redwood National and State Parks (CA)
Crater Lake National Park (OR)
Newberry Volcanic National Monument (OR)
Craters of the Moon National Monument (ID)
Grand Teton National Park (WY)
John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial Parkway (WY)
Yellowstone National Park (WY)
Bighorn National Forest (WY)
Devils Tower National Monument (WY)
Jewel Cave National Monument (SD)
Mount Rushmore National Memorial (SD)
Wind Cave National Park (SD)
Badlands National Park (SD)
Minuteman Missile National Historic Site (SD)

Hottest temperature seen: 111 degrees F (in the Mojave Desert in CA)

Coldest temperature seen: 38 degrees F (in Bryce Canyon City, UT)

Highest elevation: 12,183 feet above sea level in Rocky Mountain National Park, CO

Lowest elevation: 100 feet above sea level (here at home in Massachusetts)

Now, here's a peek at some of the sights we saw on our "America the Beautiful" tour:

O beautifulGrand Teton National Park, WY

for spacious skies,Lake McConaughy State Recreation Area, NE (taken by our 8YO son)

For amber wavesChimney Rock National Historic Site, NE

of grain,Corn Palace, Mitchell, SD

For purple mountain majestiesNewberry Volcanic National Monument, OR

Above the fruited plain!Grand Junction, CO, as seen from Colorado National Monument (taken by our 8YO son)

America!Bryce Canyon National Park, UT

America!Lower Yellowstone Falls as seen from the base of Uncle Tom's Trail,
Yellowstone National Park, WY

God shed His graceMount Rushmore National Memorial, SD

on thee,Alpine Visitor Center, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO (taken by our 12YO daughter)

And crownStout Grove, Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, CA

thy goodBison, Yellowstone National Park, WY

with brotherhoodMud Volcano Basin, Yellowstone National Park, WY

From seaBeach at Thomas H. Kuchel Visitor Center, Redwood National & State Parks, CA

to shining sea!

Sonoma Coast State Beach, CA

The post-trip laundry is all done now, but we're still working on unpacking and going through 31 days worth of mail. As soon as we get completely re-settled, I'm looking forward to getting back to creating again! And I also hope to find some time to visit your blogs. It's been too long! :)

Thanks so much for stopping by for my not-so-little slice of bliss that has been my summer. That's all for now!!
Emily

Brown, Black, and Ivory for StampinB Challenge

It's been a busy week, but I really enjoyed making my sample card for this week's Stampin' B's DT challenge. It was an excellent excuse to sit down and create! I'm not sure anything would have been made otherwise. ;) Yup, that busy.

So, this week our Stampin' B's challenge is hosted by Vicky Gould, who is challenging us to use brown, black, and ivory. This combo had me stumped for a while. But while I was flipping through a Pottery Barn Teen catalog during breakfast earlier in the week, I stumbled across this photo and had an "aha!" moment:
I'm sure it's easy to see how these "Style Tiles" inspired my card:

This will be going to my dear, dear friend who, along with her family, is embarking on a job-dictated move to a different state in a few weeks. Boo hoo! I am going to miss her desperately. Oh, sure. We'll still keep in touch by phone and email. But it just won't be the same as getting together in person. I have quite selfishly hoped for months that the move could be averted somehow. And as much as I have hoped this, I think that she has hoped and wished for it 100 times more. She does not want to move. Normally, I would make a congratulatory "new house" card for a friend who is moving, but that just didn't seem appropriate in this situation. So I wanted to make a card of support for what has been and continues to be a difficult situation, and I think that this sentiment ("Where there is love, there is a home") is perfect.
My friend has been packing over the past several months, and she has been trying to down-size her family's belongings as she goes. She recently gave me a bag of craft supplies that she no longer needed. All of my embellishments for this card, including that precious little key, came from the stash that I inherited. I hope she'll recognize some of them!
Thanks for dropping by today. If you'd like to try your hand at this week's Stampin' B's Challenge, post your project on your blog or SCS gallery, and link it up to the Inlinkz tool on the Stampin' B's blog. We'd love to see what you create!! :)

See you soon!
Emily

Card Recipe:
Stamps: SU Good Neighbors
Paper: Neenah natural CS, Paper Maniac kraft CS, brown CS from The Paper Company, black/ivory patterned paper from Recollections, Gertie patterned paper from Stella and Rose Collection by My Mind's Eye
Ink: Versamark, Versafine onyx, Versafine vintage sepia
Accessories: EK Success 1.5" square punch, white embossing powder, heat tool, twill tape, dimensionals, rescued buttons, satin ribbon rose, embroidery floss, key embellishment
Techniques: embossing

A Shaped Card Flashback

Just a quick post to share my entry for this month's Flashback Friday Challenge 13.0: your first non-traditional shaped card.

I haven't made very many cards with non-traditional shapes, mainly because I don't have dies to help with that kind of thing. But last year my good friend Colleen sent me a packet of Stampin' Up! paper scraps that her SU demo sells for $1, and included with those things was a beautifully die cut scalloped circle card which I turned into this:


This card is coming to you from August 15, 2010.

I hope that you are having a great weekend! We aren't doing much of anything exciting this weekend, just getting caught up with laundry and yard work and such.

See you soon!
Emily

DeNami Lovely Layers Blog Hop

Welcome to the DeNami Design Lovely Layers Blog Hop!



Hopefully, you've arrived here by way of Karen Larkin's blog, My Life. 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.)

This month's blog hop is all about LAYERS!! Hop along for some great inspiration and comment along the way for a chance at some free DeNami products! Here are the details:

When: The blog hop starts on July 10 at 6 AM, PST. However, you have until July 11, 2011, 11:59 pm PST, to leave comments on all the blogs (to be eligible for a prize).

Why: To be inspired by beautiful frame creations featuring DeNami Design stamps and also the chance to win mini shopping sprees on the DeNami Design website!

Prizes: DeNami is giving away THREE $20 gift certificates to their website! They'll be giving away one gift certificate to a random blog hop participant (DT members not eligible) and then they'll also be giving away TWO gift certificates to TWO people who comment along the hop!

Well, without further ado, here is my layer-full card (7 in all) for today's hop:

My DeNami Owls Petit Four set plays a starring role. I had such fun watercolor painting these little guys and then layering them up. And the pennant banner was a hoot to put together!

Before you hop off to your next stop on the blog hop, be sure to leave a comment here for a chance at some free DeNami products. Now head on over to visit DeNami Design Team member Wendy Elliot at her Created by Wendy blog for some fabulous DeNami layering inspiration!

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

Card Recipe:
Stamps: DeNami Owls Petit Four set; alphabet set by Studio G
Paper: Mark's Finest Papers natural vanilla bean fleck CS, Canson watercolor paper, Garden patterned paper from the Fly a Kite collection by October Afternoon, Stampin' Up! cardstock: bashful blue, chocolate chip, old olive
Ink: Versafine vintage sepia
Accessories: 1", 1.25", 1.5" circle punches, scalloped circle punch, scallop trim border punch, sewing machine, foam tape, mulberry paper roses, baker's twine from The Twinery
Techniques: machine stitching, watercolor painting

Friends with Flair: a Card for Summer

Happy Friday, and welcome to Unity Stamp Company's Friends with Flair blog hop! Anyone with a project made with Unity stamps can join in! You can find details, prize information, and a full list of players on the Unity Stamp Company blog.

Today I'm playing along with several challenges:

• Unity Challenge: Summer Sun & Fun
• All Things Unity #34: Using Butterflies
• {ippity} Challenge: use Ippity/Unity quotes or encouraging sentiments
• Clear It Out Challenge: Wings

And here's what you get when you mix all of these up:

I used all {ippity} stamps for this creation, including images from The Best and Now & Always (my fave {ippity} set!). The patterned papers and ribbon came from the Target Dollar Spot last year. I think they are so much fun!!

I must confess that the wild zig-zag stitching along the side was an experiment. I'm not really sure how I feel about it except that it certainly is different! Well, regardless, it was good for me to try something out of the ordinary. Yup, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it!!

Thanks for dropping by today to check out my little slice of bliss. Have a great weekend!
Emily

Card Recipe:
Stamps: {ippity} The Best, {ippity} Now & Always
Paper: cardstock from The Paper Company, DP from the Target Dollar Spot
Ink: Versafine onyx, Palette orangerie
Accessories: MS butterfly punch, sewing machine, ribbon from the Target Dollar Spot, sun charm from Mark's Finest Papers, dimensionals, Queen & Co. rhinestones