My Pink Stamper Birthday Challenge

Today is my challenge day! This is my entry for My Pink Stamper's latest challenge. It is a birthday card I made for my friend's one year old son. I used the frog cut from the Playtime cart at 3 in, and mounted it with pop dots onto yellow cardstock and the cutest gingham check paper. Simple, but sweet!

Scrapping With Rosa June Challenge

This is my entry for Rosa's challenge. It is wedding themed, so I entered my card for Shell's sister's wedding. I used one of my KC Croppers cut swap cuts, and a new border texture folder I got on clearance from Hobby Lobby- Ornamental Iron. I backed the cut in pink because the wedding colors were pink and silver.

Kitty's June Cut Swap Cuts

Kitty’s June Cut Swap Recipe

Radish:

Cut “veggie radish” from Savory at 3 in. ( I would actually recommend cutting it larger if possible. The little writing is hard to work with at this size). Use a patterned green paper for the large leaf cut and the veggie word. Use a solid green paper for the small leaf and word background. Use a white pen to draw on leaf details, if desired.

Piggy Bank:

Cut piggy bank from Playtime at 2.5 in. NOTE- This image seems to cut large- 3 inches was a BIG step up in size. Use Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder to emboss the body layer. NOTE #2- I initially tried to use my larger polka dot folder, but the bigger dots looked disproportionate on this size of cut. Cut shadow in dark contrast color, snout and ears n lighter paper, assemble.

Rosemary Sprig freebie:

I started to cut herb bundle 1nfrom Savory, but found the second layer to be VERY difficult to cut at 3 in. So, I just threw this in as an extra. If you do cut the herb bundle, I suggest cutting large and on light weight cardstock like the sprig.

Provo Craft- One Step Forward...

Our local Walmart is clearancing out a bunch of Lite Cartridges for $29. I bought Savory, as I have been wanting that one for a while, but I wasn't willing to pay $39 for the cart. When I opened it up, I found that Provo Craft apparently heard the feedback from me and other scrappers who didn't like the flimsy paper charts, and upgraded the charts to a laminated paper. So, yay for that. On the other hand, I noticed they have knocked down the Rewards points to 30 per cartridge, instead of 50. Pretty convenient, considering they are offering double Rewards this month on Lite carts. So, instead of getting 100 points, you are getting 60- a measly 10 over the regular points. It's not as if the Rewards program is that great anyway- selection is limited, and by the time you get done paying shipping, you've really paid for the "reward"- but I hate bait-and-switch-y stuff like "double" Rewards that aren't.

If you are big on Rewards points, and you want to take advantage of the clearance prices, I would advise trying to take a cartridge from the back of the display. There are no guarantees that those will be the older ones, but it might work for you.



I also recently bought Twinkle Toes after they restocked it for $25, and it was an older, paper-chart cart with the 50 point Rewards coupon. I'm guessing that some of the second group of Lite carts that were released for Thanksgiving Blitz didn't sell as well, except maybe Four-Legged Friends (Just try finding that! Even on Ebay, the price is crazy.) Twinkle Toes was hard to find for a while, too, and Jolly Holidays has been virtually non-existent from the start, but I'm not sure if that is due to popularity or other factors. Zoo Day, Inspired Heart, and Cupcake must have been flops, though. They can't seem to give those away at my local store. Perhaps slower sales mean they may not have gone into second production.

Long and short- new, sturdier charts- good. New, skimpier rewards- bad. Provo Craft seems always to take one step forward, and two steps back.

PS- Note on cutting Savory images- cut those images LARGE for best results. I cut the first Herb Bunch and the "Veggie" Radish at 3 inches, and the fine detail on both was super hard to cut and to deal with.

My Scrap Room

I apologize for not posting in awhile...
thanks to Kitty for keeping the blog going!
She is a scrap-fanatic!! I'm planning on getting more
scrapping done as soon as my Sisters wedding is over.
Hopefully, Kitty & I will get many opportunities to
get a lot of scrappin' done together this summer.

Here are pics of my scrap room... finally....

Enjoy your weekend!

~ Shell ~

Why Kawaii and Stamps by Sliekje

The original "little king" digi stamp that lead me to Sliekje. Hat tip to Jessica for her use of the image on a great card.


I am not really sure when I started loving "Kawaii", but I know the love affair began young- before I even knew what "Kawaii" was! I remember having a very earnest discussion with my mother one day in the car when I was six or seven about how I loved Hello Kitty items so much, I wanted to open a "Hello Kitty Superstore" when I grew up. Although my husband probably believes I have amassed enough Kitty stuff to realize my dream, I never became a Sanrio products distributor. I did, however, keep my love for cute alive all these years, and I embrace this newest wave of Kawaii conciousness that is sweeping the world at the moment.

"Kawaii" is a Japanese loan word that means cute. Not just anything cute is kawaii, though. Kawaii refers to innocent, child-like cuteness most often associated with little animals, children, or child-like adults. Kawaii images often feature anthropomorphic animals, foods or objects. You can see then how Hello Kitty, my favorite faux feline, fits neatly into this category. A subcategory of kawaii, anime or manga-style drawings, is also making inroads into the craft world. "Chibi" (another loanword that means 'little') style drawings of little children are popping up everywhere.

I am also a big fan of vintage, so it is no surprise that when I find something that looks a bit vintage AND kawaii, well, I'm hooked. Today, I found just such a pairing in the artwork of Sliekje- a Dutch blogger who makes free digistamps and posts them on her blog.

First, I am amazed at this artist's generosity. She could clearly be selling these images for profit, but here she is, giving them away for anyone to use.

Secondly, I just love her work. Although Kawaii is usually seen as a Japanese inspired artform, the Dutch have a history of Kawaii-style illustration, too. Dick Bruna's Miffy is a great example. Sliekje continues this tradition with her artwork. It is very kawaii- especially her children- She draws many chibi style children with their big, innocent eyes and sweet faces:

Could anything be more kawaii than this chibi sweetie?

Third, the feel of her drawings, especially of her animals, is very reminiscent of old embroidery patterns. Remember those? My grandma still has closets full of fabulous old hand-stitched towels and doilies from the ladies who lived in her nursing homes. I have a few of these pieces, and I treasure them.

A vintage embroidery pattern.
Sliejke's Cupcake Hamster. This would be just as adorable on a tea towel as a card!

Of course, I have downloaded tons of these digis, and I will be using them all over the place. I just wanted to offer a shout out to Sliejke and a sincere thank you to her for her generous gift of these images to the crafting public. If you like them as much as I do, stop by her blog and leave her some love (and download a few of these great images!)

Made It Myself Mondays Entry

This is a little card I actually made a few months ago for a friend, and forgot to post. He loves anything 80's video game related, so I searched out some Pac Man graphics. I also happen to have "Pac Font" installed on my computer. It's a "guy card", but even so, I had to put on some sticky gems- they look like Pac Man's power pellets, so it's all good, right? ;-)

Pac Font is too much fun!