Good News: I'm Guest Designing with TCM this month!

I'm SO happy to share that I'm guest designing for The Craft's Meow this month!! Somebody pinch me!! You can read all about it here. Wheeeeeeeeeeeee!

And today is the first day of previews for the TCM October stamp release. The TCM design team members (and that includes me!) are sharing creations made with two new fabulous stamp sets for Christmas:  Christmas Angel and Hearth & Home.

Let's take a look at what I made with the Christmas Angel set:

I took an understated approach with this set to let that beautifully detailed Christmas angel really shine! I embossed her in gold on a Night of Navy SU cardstock base. The "Glory to God" sentiment also comes from this Christmas Angel set. I stamped it in Night of Navy ink on Vintage Cream PTI cardstock and embossed a beautiful label (from TCM's Season's Greetings set ) around it in gold.

My second card for today comes from the Hearth & Home set:

There's a great selection of images and sentiments in this new set! I chose to focus on the parts that "jingle" ;). I colored the jingle bells image with my colored pencils and blended with odorless mineral spirits and paper blending stumps. I just had to add some silver glitter for a bit of pizzazz!! The musical score background is digital paper that I recolored (it was originally black and white) and printed out from the Echo Park Hybrid Mini-Theme kit called Melody of Life. I would have loved to tie on some silver jingle bells with my button and bow treatment but discovered that all I had were gold!! Gotta put some silver ones on my shopping list . . .

Be sure to check out the fantastic creations that the rest of the TCM designers made for today's preview of Christmas Angel and Hearth & Home over on the The Craft's Meow blog. There's a giveaway going on, too, and you can find out all about that over there as well. :D

I hope you'll join me tomorrow for some more previews of new TCM stamp sets!

Until then, have a day filled with bliss!
Emily

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

Blue Christmas Joy

OK, I am really excited about the card I made this morning. After yesterday's less than stellar creation, I am super pleased with this one!!
Today I focused on completing the last of the {ippity} release week challenges, INRC3FALL2010, to use {ippity} stamps to create a Christmas or Holiday card that is in non-traditional holiday colors. So no red or green. . .

I don't have any {ippity} holiday stamps, so I had to think a bit on this one. In the end, I thought that the woodgrain star from Authentic Man would be perfect. The sentiment was a little harder, as I have nothing {ippity} that was Christmas-y. I decided to make a pennant banner {one of my fav techniques!} spelling out JOY with letters from the {ippity} sentiments that I DO have. The "J" comes from Authentic Man; the "O" comes from Love in Return; and the "Y" comes from Faith Blooms.

Oh, I've discovered an even better way to easily make pennant banners!! Want to know my secret?? I recently found this fabulous EK Success diamond punch (available from Amazon.com) As soon as I saw it, I knew it would streamline making pennant banners, especially when it comes time for stringing up all those little pennants. Punch a diamond, score across the middle, fold around a piece of cord for stringing, and adhere the front to back on the inside. Couldn't be simpler!!

I also used these challenges in the making of this card:

• Splitcoast sketch challenge SC307: I flipped the sketch to make it work with my pennant banner design element.
• EtsyInspired: #114, to be inspired by the wares of the Happy Day Designs Etsy store. I was inspired by the colors of this beautiful bracelet.
• Tuesday Taggers: Peace, Joy, Love, to use one of these words featured somewhere on your project. I'm tickled pink that I have both JOY and PEACE on this card!
• Critter Sketch: Texture (added with embossing)

We will be having our Thanksgiving dinner away from home next week, so DH requested that we have a turkey of our own either before or after, primarily for the leftovers we so enjoy!! So last night I roasted a turkey breast for supper, and oh, it was heavenly. The house smelled so good! We gorged ourselves and still had enough left over for turkey sandwiches for tonight's supper and two portions of turkey chunks for the freezer (these will be made into one of our FAVORITE turkey dishes on rush-rush nights in December).

Last night I also was finally able to finish getting my Thanksgiving cards to family and friends ready for mailing: jotting a note, signing, sealing, and addressing each one. I stopped at the post office this morning after delivering DS and my neighbor's daughters to school. Another task crossed off my list for this week!!

So, that just about does it for my little slice of bliss today. I hope you are having a super day of your own!! See you again soon :)

Card Recipe:
Stamps: {ippity} sets: Authentic Man, Love in Return, and Faith Blooms
Paper: PTI kraft CS, The Paper Company CS scraps, DCWV Winter Mat Stack DP
Ink: ColorBox frost white, Marvy LePlume II prussian blue marker
Accessories: EK diamond punch (for pennants), white EP, heat tool, buttons from my stash, hemp cord, white embroidery floss
Techniques: embossing

Christmas Kitty in July

Happy Friday, everybody! The weather is going to be perfect here this weekend, and I'm so psyched. I wanted to share my little bit of happy with you today to get a fun weekend rolling!

The stamps I used on this card are another sneak peek of the Mark's Finest Papers set Tweet Blessings, to be released in August. This set is not a holiday set, but the little flower elements remind me of poinsettias, so this was perfect for a couple of Christmas in July challenges I wanted to enter! Here's the scoop on challenges for this card:

• Color Throwdown #103: These just screamed Christmas to me! I had to sub from my collection of generic card stock for the red and river rock, but I think I got pretty close.
• Stamptacular Sunday #69: Christmas in July
• Tuesday Throwdown #10: Christmas in July
• Free for All #23 on SCS: Side-Swiped! To give some special attention or treatment along an entire side. I used a scallop edge border punch along the bottom and then dolled it up with lots of buttons :)
• EBTKS Challenge #20: to use buttons (preferrably buttons you found around the house!). The 14 buttons I used came from my rather extensive button collection. About half the buttons are vintage buttons that came from the button tin I inherited from my Gramma.
• Jazzy Paper Designs Challenge #11: card sketch based on this awesome jazz album cover.

Well, it's just about time to get our Friday pizza night started! My DH makes the most awesome hand-tossed homemade pizza. Yum! And afterward we'll have a movie night with the kids. Thanks for stopping to visit me on Bliss Road today!

SUPPLIES:
Stamps: MFP Tweet Blessings
Paper: SU certainly celery CS, SU whisper white CS, various Paper Company CS, DCWV Christmas Mat Stack
Ink: Palette moulin rouge, SU certainly celery
Accessories: CM 1.25" square punch, SU curly label punch, SU scallop border punch, sewing machine, dimensionals, chipboard alphas from the Target Dollar Spot, assorted buttons from my stash
Techniques: machine stitching