Can You Believe It!!

Okay, picture this. My nieces are all here(4 under the age of 7) and I am desperately trying to get caught up from whatever mayhem my life was in that week. It was a Monday night, and it was stormy. The girls are all FINALLY asleep in my bed, and I realize I hadn't entered Melanie Muenchinger's guest designer contest and it ended the next day!! So, I sucked up all my mojo, stayed up til midnight(which I paid for DEARLY the next day) and cranked out two WILDLY cute cards-in my humble opinion(or in the words of Jan Tink-yes, I love myself!!) I sent them to Melanie without any hope of hearing back. Imagine my surprise when in my inbox appears a simple note from Melanie---"What are you doing on the 20th?". COULD IT BE????? Yep you guessed it-I WON!!!WOOHOOO!!


I have to tell you that I am a huge Melanie fan(not just as an artist, but as a person). She has created some of the CUTEST animal sets I have ever seen and I love what her stamps allow me to do. On top of all that, she is so helpful to us all with her tip sheets and super duper cool projects. I am honored to be her guest designer and I can't wait to be featured during the Gina K. release festivities this week. Thank you Melanie and Gina for this wonderful opportunity. I can't wait for the party. Do you wanna come to? Well then, meet us at the member forum on SCS tomorrow night at 7pmCST. There will be awesome games, challenges, prizes, conversation, EYE CANDY, and then the stamps get released and it is like a feeding frenzy to get to the Gina K site fast enough. I have already spotted some MUST HAVES in the releases. And trust me when I tell you, YOU WANT Melanies new set, it ROCKSSSS!!! If you already own some of her stamp sets then you need to check out her contest she is having on her blog. She is giving away one of her newly released stamp sets as the prize(again, trust me, you WANT IT!!). Visit her blog for more details, and I hope to see you at the Par-TAY!!!

Bloomin' Ric Rak

Today's Ways to Use it challenge is to use ric rak on your card. I am not a huge fan of ric rak, but I did happen to have some here so that I could play!! The ric rak I used was part of the Beachfront Ribbon Originals from SU. The main image was stamped on watercolor paper with Black Stazon and water colored using my SU markers and ink pads. After coloring it, I cut the whole image out and cut the base off of the flowers. I glued the whole base to the paper and then popped up the flowers just a bit. I then covered the whole image with crystal effects. I cut out the layers with my square nestabilities dies and pierced holes around the edges. The card base is 5 1/4sq. and it is Chocolate Chip then Soft Sky. The DP is from the Afternoon Tea DSP. I wrapped around a piece of Chocolate wide grosgrain and then layered the ric rak on top of it. I then added a spiral clip with some Soft Sky ribbon and Chocolate taffeta. The sentiment is also from the Bloomin' Beautiful set and it was stamped in CC, then pierced along the paper at the top and bottom. I thought it looked kinda bare, so I put some tiny flowers with pearl brads through them at the bottom. I am not sure if that is the direction I should have gone, but what's done is done!!

stamps-Bloomin Beautiful

paper-Soft Sky, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, watercolor and Afternoon Tea DSP

ink-Black Stazon, Soft Sky and Chocolate Chip

tools-aqua painter, white pen, SU markers, spiral clip, ribbon, pearl brads, flowers, crystal effects