SMC: May New Release Blog Hop

Welcome to another Sew Many Cards Blog hop. If you've been following our blog hops, you know that you have a chance to win just by commenting on my blog. SIMON SAYS STAMPS is our monthly sponsor again and the Prize Package is a $10 Gift Certificate to their store.

This blog hop will run from today, April 30th until May 6. On the 6th, the winner will be announced so check back here next week to see if you are a winner. Thank-you for taking the time to hop along. You should have come from Carol's blog. When you are finished hopping, why not check out the Sew Many Cards Store! There you can find the current challenge and this week's Friday Freebie.

I'd would like to also remind you of the monthly challenges we have at Sew Many Cards Challenge Blog! You can also find the blog hop list if you happen to get lost along the way. Check out the Sew Many Cards layout challenge blog on Saturday, May 1st and meet their new Design Team too.

My creation this week is more than just a card. I made a Card Holder with 4 cards all featuring Elie the Ewe.

And here's a close-up of each individual card...

Fred She Said has the challenge to Create a 3D Gift for a Loved One...This is for my Mother in Law (I've made sheep cards for her in the past). I printed Elie in 4 different sizes. I used Fun Flock in White, Yellow and Cantaloupe and watercolor markers for the nose and hooves. The cards are made from a Stampin' Up Christmas paper pack in olive and pink (I bought it at a garage sale last year then again this year so I must have liked it - LOL). I also printed out the sentiments using MS word and a bunch of different fonts. For each card, I raided various "odds & ends" (except the ribbon) for pretty and different ways for decoration. I hope you enjoy looking at my cards. Now to continue on your hopping way, please go see Karen.

Little Boy in Blue

Blue Cardstock: Paper Company Value Pack
Brown Cardstock: DCWV textured
CuttleBug Embossing folder: Ornamental Weave... sanded a little to show white core
Eyelets: Making Memories
Markers: Bic and Sharpies
Brown distressing Ink: ColorBox Cat's Eye Pigment Cocoa
Image of Boy: Sew Many Cards Owen with Flowers
Inside Sentiment: MS Word



Challenges to enter:
Dietrich Dare Sketch by Jack
Stamp TV Monday Color Challenge: Blue & Brown/Tan STVCCTG8
Quizotic challenge: Distressing
Whoopsi Daisy : For the Boys

SMC CHALLENGE #12: Anything Goes

KLM DESIGNS -- KATHRYN & SUE -- OWNERS

URL LINK -- www.klmdigistamps.com

Sponsor Prize Package: 3 digital images of winners choice from the KLM Designs Store

Sponsor Blurb: KLM Digi Stamps (KLM Designs) was started by a Mother & Daughter team. Kathryn (owner of KLM Digi Stamps) and Sue (Company’s artist) started designing digital stamps for their own creations. After much response & excitement to their designs they formed KLM Digi Stamps.

KLM carry’s a large selection of designs from clowns, which are the company’s signature design to digital sentiments. All images are delivered ZIP format. Each image file contains JPEG and PNG format files. Images can be resized, reversed and altered to your likings.

**********

This week at SMC, the challenge it open to do anything you'd like. Well, I had these tee-shirt my boys outgrew but I have a niece that should be able to wear them. But a plain white shirt isn't a fun gift so I decided to dress them up with the cutest images around. I have an inkjet printer, so I just printed one image that was enlarged to fit, sprayed a little water on the paper, then ironed it on the shirt.

Then I went over the black lines with black sharpie, and colored it with my sharpie and bic markers.To finished it off, I ironed it again thinking that would heat set the colors but it caused the blue patches to bleed. I guess I should have let it dry longer before I tried to heat set just to make sure that it was truly dry. (Alcohol markers...who knew they wouldn't dry quickly on cotton)

Here's the finished product and the other projects

So then I washed the shirts since I had bleeding from the ink. Ink then went over all the others in other spots! So I decided to take my markers and decorate each one differently to disguise the mistake smudge.

I like the speckles with Jovi the best.

Head on over to the Sew Many Cards Challenge blog and check out the rest of the NEW design team's projects. Then play along for a chance to win 3 digi images from KLM designs.
Come back next week for our May release blog hop. I can't wait to show you what I'm concocting.

Challenges: Penny's Challenge - Anything Goes

Hang in There!

Hang in There

Background paper: Jillibean soup Black Bean Choppen onion

Red cardstock: JoAnn’s Scrap pack

Girl Stamp: The Angel Company wonder and joy

Ink: JoAnn Craft Essentials Pigment

Ink in black

Sentiment: Printed with computer, Comic Sans MS font

Ribbon: No Name from Target dollar bin

Colored with colored pencils (crayola, rose art, and some literally with no name on the side)

Embellish Magazine Red,Black.White,Kraft

Play Date Cafe Black, White & splash of color

Love You!

Background paper: Jillibean soup Black Bean Choppen onion

Heart Stamp: Sew Many Cards digital stamp Heart Present

Ink: JoAnn Craft Essentials Pigment Ink in black

Sentiment: Stampendous Personal Notes Mini Quad Cube

Embossing Powder: Stampendous Midnight Black

Colored with colored pencils (crayola, rose art, and some literally with no name on the side)

Challenges:

Embellish Magazine Red,Black.White,Kraft

Play Date Cafe Black, White & splash of color

SMC CHALLENGE #11

SUNSHINE STAMPS -- CHRISTINA "SUNSHINE" and ROB -- OWNERS

STORE URL Link --http://www.yourspecialdelivery.co.uk/sunshine-stamps.html

BLOG URL LINK -- http://sunshinesstamps.blogspot.com/

SPONSOR PRIZE PACKAGE -- 3 IMAGES OF WINNERS CHOICE FROM SUNSHINE'S STAMP STORE

SPONSOR BLURB --

Sunshine’s Stamps is the brainchild of Christina {Sunshine} and Rob. Angus Argus was launched into the paper crafting world on June 27th, 2009 and the rest as they say is history! We have a wide variety of stamps in our inventory - all of which are hand drawn by either Sunshine or Rob.
We love to “sunshine” masculine vehicles and give them personality. We also have our signature image - Sunny Bunny - who will continue to be altered to celebrate all holidays and occasions. If you have a suggestion for a Sunny Bunny send us an e-mail and we will happily consider it! Whether it’s a card for your husband, boyfriend, man-cub or daughter, wife etc. we have an image that will suit your crafting needs! Our images are constantly evolving and are unique in the paper crafting world. We are very pleased to say that we respond to customer suggestion on images and sentiments. If you have an idea for an image or sentiment that you cannot find elsewhere on the web let us know. We will respond to all suggestions and let you know if its "doable". Finally,
be sure to hop to our blog http://sunshinesstamps.blogspot.com/ to check out our wonderful design team "Sunshine's Dream Team" blogs! We are so very proud of our gals! They are all rock stars and continue to create amazing cards and projects to showcase our imagesand to inspire you all to create!!

-----------------------------------

This week Jeri has a sketch challenge going on this week and this is what I came up with!

I colored the heart pillow with colored pencils (see tutorial here) and picked more hearts for the card background from Born to Be Wild by Momenta.com (I believe I bought it at the Tuesday Morning store). The ribbon came from Oriental Trading Co.

I'm entering this card into the following challenge:

Crafty Creations: Limited Supplies (one paper, one image, one embellishment)

-------

Here’s another card I created.

I used the color scheme from last week’s PaperCraftPlanet challenge: Monochromatic Orange pcpcolor62 and the current Tuesday Sketch for my Create a Card group. I again colored the ink bottle (today’s Friday Freebie) with colored pencils. I didn’t have a stamp that said what I wanted to say, and I don’t have orange ink in my printer so I hand wrote the sentiment. I need to use this card for my friend in Alaska that I need to write to.

Why don't you hop on over to the Challenge blog and join in.

How I color with Colored Pencils

Disclaimer1: This is my first tutorial.
Disclaimer2: I used my scanner for the photos and I'm just now noticing the glass surface needs to be clean.
Disclaimer3: Pardon the quality of the stamped image...my printer is starting to give me trouble and I used a ultra fine sharpie to fill in where it would skip (it doesn't do it consistently but I'm not going to print 1000 copies hoping to get a good image eventually). Someday, I'd like to get a new printer/scanner combo (my printer is so old that I'm starting to have a hard time finding replacement cartridges) but I just found out today that I'm not going to be working summer school (budget cuts) so there won't be extra money this summer this after. :(

**********

As you can see...I don't have to use fancy colored pencils. I have some, and I would love to have the entire color collection on a particular brand (probably prisma) but I can achieve what I need with what I've got. I have pictured here a Crayola pink, Pentech pink, an unknown brand of pink and another unknown red. I also have Rose Art brand colored pencils (I just didn't pull one out of my bag for this photo). I chose my colors by picking out several colors that are similar (think "Monochromatic"). The three pinks happen to look the same when I did a tiny test swatch so I only used one pink pencil and the red for my coloring below.

I wanted the ribbon to look like a satin ribbon and I know that the lightest part of the bow is near the highest point on the bow. I lightly colored up to that point.

Next, I colored the outer edges and the part next to the knot another layer of pink, pressing a little harder. As you can see, I didn't go all the way to the edge of pink/white border.




Then I used my red pencil to color the inside of the ribbon and the crease lines near the knot and the tie ends under the knot.

Then I used the pink to blend the red.

Now I'm ready to color the heart. This time I used the red to lightly outline where I wanted the shiny spot to be so I'd know where to stop.


And colored it lightly with the red pencil. There isn't a big difference between the red and the pink yet.


Then I colored a little bit more, but didn't go all the way to the red/white edge again.


Since I did not want a stark white "shiny" spot (to me that is for things that have a high gloss finish like hard plastic and I wanted this to look like a soft pillow), I took my pink pencil and lightly colored over the white area so that it blended in.

The finished product !!!

ALL Sew Many Cards Images are on sale

Get all of your Sew Many Cards digital stamps at a GREAT price!


ALL Images are on sale

It's that time again!
All of the Sew Many Cards digital stamps have been packaged up and put on sale- but it's only for a few short days, so make sure to get yours today! Visit the Sew Many Cards shop and look for the Specials

Packs:
2009 All Images - $25.00
2010 All Images- $25.00

**If you want both Packs, use coupon code APRILSALE and get 20% off **

For those that want smaller Packs:
January 2010 stamps - $10
February 2010 Stamps - $10
March 2010 Stamps - $10
April 2010 Stamps - $10

2009 Packs with 30 stamps per pack are $5 each




(C) 2010 Sew Many Cards

one stamp - two different cards

I was sent these images for a swap.
And here's what I came up with.

I used colored pencils on the first image.
I also followed the current challenge at PaperCraftPlanet. Raise the bar challenge wants to see me "Spring for it" with flowers. I have the flowers in the vases and one on the ribbon plus the brad is a flower too. That makes 6 flowers total. I also used a thick chipboard tag from Flower Fairies (freebie set that came with a magazine bought at Barns & Noble). All edges were inked with Rubber Stampeed lilac ink (qualifying it for One Stitch At a Time's distressing challenge and Your Next Stamp's challenge to use purple.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

For my second card I used watercolors. I also tried out my Alcohol Inks. They were a lot of fun to play with (I made several "papers").
I colored the vases with aqua and blue pan watercolors (those are the kind you had as a kid in school). The flowers were colored with watercolor markers (various brands). I chose to use Lili of the Valley's color scheme of blue and silver (thus the color combo of Stream and Silver inks in the blending handle) and follow a sketch that is coming up on Create A Card. Lots to Do wants to see embossing so I embossed the bottom rectangle using Morroccan Screen, the side block with Checkerboard (both tilted) and the image mat using Oriental Weave (all Cuttlebug folders).

April Blog Hop winner

(Please forgive my blog layout, I'm in the process of re-doing it)

The winner from my blog is Sheena
To claim your free image, please contact Jeri @ sewmanychallenges.com (remove the spaces)

SMC CHALLENGE #10 - Stitching

LAST CHALLENGE FOR CURRENT DESIGN TEAM: Sherry L, Kim G, Deanette W, Mary S, Amber H, Audrey E, Ceal P, Dawnn S, Gloria M, Jeanette C, Kym B, Kym W, Maria L, Mary D, Melissa W, Michele L, Sarah T, Suzanne K, Tammy M, Sarabeth, and Jeri

Come back next week to meet our new team and see who stayed.
AND
If you need to know how to use digi-stamps,
go to SewManyCards Tips and Tricks page to learn more.

Don't forget to go to Sew Many Challenges to get this week's Friday Freebie.
I'm sorry I don't have it ready to show you today, it's been one of those busy weeks.
Some of it good - like the Kindergarten "Barnyard Moosical" while some of it was just plain busy.
Nothing bad happened (thank goodness) but I'm behind (got over 70 emails to take care of). Husband and older son are camping with their Boy Scout troop this weekend so with any luck, I'll be able to find time to craft and do something with it.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Who is the sponsor this week?
STITCHY STAMPS -

http://stitchybearstamps.com/shop/
SPONSOR PRIZE PACKAGE -- 3 Free Digi stamps of winners choice from the Stitchy Bears Store

Hi Everyone, my name is Stitchy and I create under the name Stitchy Stamps...I have been creating digital images for designers for almost a year now and try to learn something new everyday...I started out in paint shop pro about 8 years ago and started making digital scrap kits...then I was introduced to the wonderful world of paper crafts and card designing...like I said, learning new everyday, the rest is history...I can't draw enough to keep me satisfied anymore lol...
Living in a small town in upstate New York, tucked away where cable doesn't even go...friends are far and few between...But being on the internet for the past 10 years, I have gathered quite a few from around the world...Just like I learn something new everyday, I also try to meet someone new every day too...
Thank you Angela and Company for allowing me to sponsor for you...I am truly honored...

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

What's the challenge? TECHNIQUE CHALLENGE -- PROJECT USING STITCHING. It can be real stitching with a machine, faux stitching, pen/marker stitching, whatever your fancy.

On my Create a Card group, the "Make it Monday" challenge was to make a bookmark card so that's what I have tried here. I used Michelle's measurements because I liked the idea of a skinnier bookmark (in relation to the height). I cut it 10 1/2" x 5 1/2". I then scored at 4 1/4" and perforate at 8 1/2". I used a 12x12 cardstock by Heidi grace Designs called Loving You Stripes. Then I used Cowboy Boot Donkey for my image and colored him with my alcohol markers. I did decorate the patch on Donkey with white dots to make it look like a scrap piece of fabric was really sewn on him. I used a white gel pen an a green ultra fine point sharpie to create my faux stitching. I chose three prima flowers (the ones with O's are called Abby but the solid pink I don't have a name for it), two green glitter brads and one Oriental Trading Co. pink gem brad, and the buttons came from a grab bag from Walmart. I screwed up the sketch and had to add a circle that I had punched out extra for another card but didn't use (luckily it was mostly pink and green on one side). The pink border was also left over from a card making evening. Below you can see the bookmark that the recipient will be able to tear off.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Challenges:
Stamp with Fun: 3 Papers, 3 Flowers, 2 Buttons
Cuttlebug Spot: Celebrate Our Colors - Pink & Green
Stamp Something: stitching
Die Cut Dreams: Boots/Shoes
Crafty Card Makers: Challenge yourself - Try a new Technique
Crafty Angels online: Sketch (that I messed up when gluing my flowers so please forgive that mistake LOL)

Happy Easter

I colored SMC's Jovi with Dragonfly with my alcohol markers then used the Spica glitter markers on the dragonfly to add some sparkle. I used my Creative Memories oval cutting system to cut out Jovi and the mat then adhered it to the top half of my card. I chose two flowers from my Oriental Trading Company Purple blossoms jar and a coordinating brad also from OTC. Then I took some lavender ribbon from my ribbon holder, put a bow in it, and glued a button in the middle of the bow. I could not find a Easter stamp (I swear I have one but I guess I don't have everything put away yet LOL) so I took a light purple Sharpie marker and wrote "happy Easter" myself.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Ooh-La-La-Creations: Challenge #50 - A Button, A Bow and some Bling
Scrapper in Romania: 1st Challenge - Lavander, and Cream White/Ivory
Stamp Scrap and Doodle Saturday : Flights of Fancy/ Anything with Wings
One Stitch at a Time: Anything (also Crafty Creations)

SMC's April Blog Hop

APR MONTHLY SPONSORS (prizes will be awarded during the New Release Blog Hop)

APR 1st -- APR 29th

THE CUTTING CAFE ... OWNER -- REGINA EASTER

http://thecuttingcafe.typepad.com

Prize package -- 3 Stamp Sets of winners choice

Hello my name is Regina Easter. I have 4 wonderful children and an awesome supportive husband. I have for as long as I can remember loved all the aspects of creating things with paper and drawing. So it was only fitting that I decided to open up The Cutting Cafe'and I am loving every bit of this new venture. The Cutting Cafe offers affordable Printable Stamps and Cutting Files. The Cutting Files which are basically just like templates are files that you Print out using your home printer, Cut, Assemble and then Embellish.....Very Easy.....The Cutting Files also come in the format where you can cut out the files using some of the latest Machine Cutters like the Pazzles Inspiration, Bosskut Gazelle and Cricut (with Scal software). The Printable Stamps are just that, images that are sent to you through email that you print out using your home printer. After the images are printed out, you can just color them in like you would any other stamped imaged...One great thing about the Printable Stamps and Cutting Files is that you no longer have to worry about finding space to store all of your stamps....You can keep them all in a folder in your computer and use over and over again.

---

MONTHLY SPONSOR for 2010 --SIMON SAYS STAMPS

APR 1st -- APR 29th

Sponsor Prize Package -- $10 Gift Certificate

---

This blog hop will run from today, April 2nd until April 8. On the 9th, the winner will be announced. Thank-you for taking the time to hop along. You should have come from Mary S.'s blog. When you are finished hopping, why not check out the Sew Many Cards Store! There you can find the current challenge and this week's Friday Freebie.

I'd would like to also remind you of the monthly challenges we have at Sew Many Cards Challenge Blog!
My creation this week is a card....they are my favorite thing to make. I love to color, as you know if you've visited my blog much! Angela is ushering spring in with some very cute images. I have GIRL WITH HEARTS to show you.

I colored the girl with my alcohol markers (my one Copic flesh color and the rest of them are Bic, Sharpie, or Prisma color markers). I used a teal green ink and a makeup sponge to sponge the edges of the light blue cardstock. I also used it on the smaller orange flower. I used 3 orange brads from Making Memories Citrus and the flowers are Making Memories Hulabaloo. The Springtime sentiment was in a grab bag from Boni back when I was on the SSDS design team. I'm able to find everything now that I'm finally getting my craft room back. :)

Now, to continue the blog hop, please visit Amber and if you'd like to see the Friday Freebie in use, please scroll down to my next post. Don't forget to leave me a comment if you'd like a chance to win a free SMC digi-image.

And now for the challenges:________________________
Sketch & Stash Challenge: Their Sketch
PaperTake Weekly Crafty Creations: Anything
Quirky Crafts: flowers
Stamptacular Sunday: Flower Power
Totally Paper Crafts: Digital
Stampative: Friendship
The Crafty Pad: Green, Orange, & Yellow (I know there's not much yellow but hopefully enough)

Friday Freebie & CAC sketch

I followed the above sketch to create my card using today's Friday Freebie that you can find in the store, newsletter or challenge site. The sketch looked like a good way to use scrap paper but I thought it would also be a good way to use scrap ribbons. I didn't choose wide enough ribbons to angle them (I tried and it didn't look good IMHO). After attaching the ribbons, I took it to my sewing machine (uncovered after so many months of not being able to get to it) and sewed the border twice with white thread.
I colored the watering can with my alcohol markers. I tried to make it look like an old tin watering can by using a colorless blender in the middle of the spout and the can part and at the top of the carrying handle. I used one shade of aqua blue in the puddle then blended the lines with Cool Shadow (one of my copic colors). After trimming it down (trying to get it on the same angle as the ribbons) and rounding the corners, I inked the edges heavily with a pink ink pad followed by a purple on the outside only. I then finished off the bottom corner with a Making Memories Hullabaloo flower and yellow Making Memories Citrus brad.

Challenges to enter this card into:
Crafty Cardmakers, Sassy Design Studios, Everybody Art, Fab N Funky, Forever Friends, Little Red Wagon, Nutshells: Spring into Spring
Simon Says Stamps: Distressing (I wish I had Tim Holtz inks but alas, I used other inks)
Incy Wincy Designs: Sewing/Stitching
The Pink Elephant and Mo's Digital Pencil: Pastels
Digital Tuesday: Scrap it
Totally Paper Crafts: Digital
Crafty Creations: Anything