Clear Dollar Stamps November Release Day 2!!

Ready for another day of sneak peeks??


Today, I've got 2 more sets for you ...

The first one is called Rooster Sunrise. I love this sets - particularly the sentiments in it. They worked perfectly for this birthday card I made. I don't think I could have found a more fitting sentiment.

Yep ... used the Cricut and SCAL for this one - the card base and the shadows. The beautiful layered labels that the Happy Birthday is on were cut from Clear Dollar Stamps' Designer Labels dies which were released in October.





Stamps - Rooster Sunrise
Paper - black, yellow, orange, white, glossy
Ink - Memento Black and London Fog, Copics (YR16, YR04, Y02)
Accessories - Designer Label dies, pop dots, Cricut, SCAL, ribbon, Scor Pal, brads
Technique - shadowbox card



The second set that I'm previewing today is called Thankful Pockets. It's the stamp set of the month at Clear Dollar, and you can get this set FREE just by placing a $50 order in the month of November! How cool is that? Super set ... and free!


This is actually a packet of tissues. I covered it (it's a folding pack) and embellished it.

To give the pocket a faded, washed look, I rubbed my stamp straight down the ink pad. Love the effect for this stamp.

Watercolor crayons were used to color the flowers ON the stamp. Water was spritzed on it, and then, it was stamped on the paper.




Stamps - Thankful Pockets
Paper - dp, white
Ink - Memento black, turquoise
Accessories - ribbon (grape jelly), watercolor crayons, water, tacky tape




The last stamp for today goes along with the Stamp of the Month (Thankful Pockets). It's the Thankful Pockets Quote.

I used this set on the inside of the altered tissue packet.




Stamps - Thankful Pockets Quote
Paper - dp, white
Ink - Memento black
Accessories - tissue packet (folding), tacky tape




Wander on over to Lori's blog and Katie's blog to see the other samples and sets for today. Don't forget to check over there tomorrow, too!!



Have a wonderful day and a great, big, beautiful tomorrow!!


~*Shell*~

Clear Dollar Stamps November Release Sneak Preview Day 1!!

Woohoo! Another month of wonderful stamp sets and samples being released at Clear Dollar Stamps.

Today, I'm showing off 2 fantastic sets - Get Well Critters and Get Well Sentiments. Both sets will be available on Monday, November 1.



Oh my gosh!! Isn't this mouse just absolutely adorable?! I just LOVE him. I just hate that he has a boo boo. But, wouldn't he make you feel better if you got him on a card? I just know he would. :)

The gray layer has been crinkled and distressed. I, then, rubbed it with white pigment ink to highlight the distressing.






Stamps - Get Well Critters
Paper - gray, pink, white blue
Ink - Memento black, white pigment Copics (R81, C1, C3, C5, YR61, B000, B00, blender)
Accessories - ribbon, Cricut, SCAL, sewing machine, crystals, flowers, pop dots



On my second sample of this set, I used the precious turtle and 'feel better' sentiment. Stacking several flower shapes together on top of an oval punch was a little twist, but one that paid off.







Stamps - Get Well Critters
Paper - gray, black, white, yellow, apricot
Ink - Memento black, caramel, Copics (C1, C3, C5, E33, E37, G21, G24, BG72, E71, E77, B21)
Accessories - Cricut, SCAL, Cuttlebug, folder, brad, flower, ribbon, pop dots, oval punch





The next set that I'm previewing is made to go along with Get Well Critters and is called Get Well Sentiments.

What a great set for get well cards. Doesn't need a ton with it to make it an effective message to a friend or relative.




Stamps - Get Well Sentiments
Paper - green, yellow, orange
Ink - Memento black, London Fog, Copics (Y11, Y15, Y17)
Accessories - Designer Label dies (CDS), Cuttlebug, folder, ribbon (Tangelo Smoothie), flower, pop dots, crystal brad, sponge dauber




The last sample I have for you today is an altered tin. Fill this with some mints or cough drops, and pass it along to a sick or hurting (physically or emotionally) friend. I guarantee that they will feel better - at least for a minute or two. :) :)

I used a sentiment from Get Well Sentiments and the cute, little skunk from Get Well Critters.








Stamps - Get Well Critters, Get Well Sentiments
Paper - gray, black, rose, blue, white
Ink - Memento black, rose, Copics (E09, E08, C1, C3, C5, C7, E38)
Accessories - metal tin, ribbon, Cricut, SCAL, sewing machine, brads, flowers, pop dots, sponge dauber
Technique - Altered tin



Can't wait to show you more samples tomorrow! And, I know you can't wait to run to Clear Dollar on the 1st to grab these sets. To see more samples or what is included with each set, head to Lori and Katie's blogs.



Hope you have a great Thursday and a great, big, beautiful tomorrow!


~*Shell*~

M I C .... K E Y ....

Mouse. :)

I wanted to make a special little gift for the concierge that assists us when we check in to our resort next week.

I found this great jar for only $1 at Dollar Store ... and it's glass! When I found it, I knew that I would be etching that baby!


For this one, I went with a classic Mickey theme.



I put Mickey heads on each flat side, and turned them different ways to give it a little more personality.












Here it is up close.










I plan to fill it with candy and give it to our very helpful concierge. :) I hope he or she lilkes it.



Have a wonderful Wednesday and a great, big, beautiful tomorrow!



~*Shell*~

Another Challenging Thought ....

Maggie sent our challenge kits out for the month of October. My life has been so busy lately that I wasn't able to work on any of the pieces until today. The pieces were Halloween-themed, and since I don't 'do' Halloween, it was definitely a challenge for me! :)


The Frankie image is colored with Copics, and the background layer is embossed with a Cuttlebug folder. Everything came from the challenge kit, except the orange ribbon.












Before I finished, I gave in to the temptation to use my new Shimmer Spritz. Wow. What a cool little spritz bottle that is! Love the effect it gives to a piece.












Tomorrow, I'm going to share a glass-etched jar that I will be giving as a gift.


Hope you're having a great Tuesday and that you have a great, big, beautiful tomorrow!! :)


~*Shell*~

Happy Birthday, Mom!

My precious mom is celebrating her 76th birthday today! She is such a wonderful lady and is loved by all who know her. I hope that she has a most wonderful day.
Happy, happy birthday, Mom.




Today, I'm offering a free file in her honor. She loves hummingbirds, so the free file today is a flittering hummingbird .... or two. :)





Let me know what you think and what you do with these files. I'd love to see a link to your creations!!




Have a great Friday and a great, big, beautiful tomorrow. Happy birthday, Mom!!! :)




~*Shell*~

Wet Snow

The challenge for the Technique Lovers from last week was to do "wet paper stamping." It's a very cool effect on a card. I'm very glad that I tried it.


The layered shapes were cut using the Cricut and SCAL, and the label was cut and embossed with the combo folder/die for the Cuttlebug. The ribbon was purchased at Hobby Lobby just for me to use with this set. Works great, I think! :)














Stamps - Snow Flourishes by Clear Dollar Stamps
Paper - white, tropical mist, dp
Ink - silver, pink, blue, lavender, black, glitter pen
Accessories - Cricut, SCAL, Shapelies, ribbon, Cuttlebug, folder/die (labels), sewing machine, sliver dot
Technique - wet paper stamping



Have a beautiful Thursday and a great, big, beautiful tomorrow.





~*Shell*~

Simple Snow

The Clean and Simple challenge for today was to get inspiration from kstamper. My project didn't turn out with quite the same feel as Karen's, but I think I do like it. What do you think?


It's a one-layered card, which is not easy nor typical for me. After embossing the frame on the white, I stamped the snowflakes from Snow Flourishes. I added a few sparkly dots on the snowflakes and, then, stamped the sentiment from Winter Critters.

That's all it took to make this card. Very simple and very easy.

The photograph makes it look as though there is a little pink in the middle of the image. There is not, but it looks neat that way. :)






Stamps: Snow Flourishes and Winter Critters
Paper: white
Ink: blue
Accessories: glitter pen, Cuttlebug and Scrollworks folder




Have an awesome Monday and a great, big, beautiful tomorrow.



~*Shell*~

Free File .... Saturday? :)

Want a free file today?

Recently, a friend asked me to create a nativity for her to use on a glass block for a Christmas display. I cut it from black vinyl (Oracle 631), but cut it from paper first. I wanted to make sure it cut the way I wanted it to.


So ... here are the files. One is for the stable and one for Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus. I put them all in one SCUT file when I cut the vinyl.





Please comment back to me, and let me know what you think and what you do with the files! :)


Have an awesome Saturday and a great, big, beautiful tomorrow.



~*Shell*~

WooHoo ... Disney again! :)

For years, we've gone to Walt Disney World every other year, but the last time we went for a big trip was in 2006. It was an amazing trip, but instead of going back to the parks in 2008, we went on our first Disney Cruise and took our second in 2009. This year, though, we decided to go back to the World.... I've missed it!!!! :)

In 2008 and 2009, I created 'memory/autograph' books for Jaydin to use on the ship. She had so many comments about it and we enjoyed it so much that I created another one this year. Jaydin wanted me to change the style just a bit this year, so the spirals were moved to the top.





The Jaydin, WDW, and 2010 were cut using the Cricut and SCAL. The fantastic metal accents - Mickey and the castle - were in a couple of scrapping kits I found at Hobby Lobby. The colored accents on them are brads, and they hold the metal shapes in place. The characters dancing at the bottom of the page are part of the background paper. The 2010 is on pop dots, but I had to cut them very small to make them fit.


Because we often have to search for the Sharpie to use for autographs, I decided to secure the pen to the book. I used that fabulous Mickey ribbon, and I sewed it on the book spirals and on the pen. I can slide the pen off (with difficulty) in case it runs out of ink, but it won't slide off by accident, I don't believe. I used a little clear glue to make sure the ribbon doesn't unravel on both ends.




The inside of the front cover looks like this. The inside pages are decorated with stickers and chipboard Disney shapes. That saved me a lot of time. If I want to add stamps and such, I can do that when we get home.

I have particular pages dedicated to particular characters that we will see. We will have them sign one page and will put the picture of them with my daughter on the opposite page. :)








TO keep track of where certain characters' pages are in the book, I placed tabs on the ends of the pages. This will allow us to quickly access certain sections so that we can find the characters' pages more efficiently. You can see the Mickey and Friends tab in the picture above.




All of the tabs are shown here.
















We can't wait for our Disney trip and to be able to use our book. Once again, I know that Jaydin will enjoy using her book and will have a great memory book when we get home. :)



Have a great Thursday and a great, big, beautiful tomorrow (I will hear that in person very soon!!!).


~*Shell*~

On the Wall .... Fantabulous Cricut Challenge

The challenge over at the Fantabulous Cricut site is to create something to hang on the wall. My recent project to redecorate my daughter's bathroom fits this challenge perfectly! :) I painted the bathroom, too


For my princess, Jaydin. I used the little diamonds cut out of the crown to be the jewels dancing lying around the area. I used the cut out letters in another area of the bathroom ....














The letters! :) Here, I used the letters, as well as some stars, butterflies, and flowers to decorate the north wall.















The 'castle' wall.

















This scene is above the mirror in the bathroom. I LOVE how this turned out. The doodle swirls were just big enough to accent the unicorns. The scene plays all the way across that wall. Perfect fit.












Materials - Oracle 631 vinyl (gold, purple, pink, black), Cricut, SCAL


Jaydin is thrilled with her 'new' bathroom, and I'm thrilled to have it done. You should try it! You can totally transform and personalize a room without a lot of cost or work. :)


Have an awesome Monday and a great, big, beautiful tomorrow!!




~*Shell*~

Compute This ....

Whew. What a week. I'm sorry!!! I've not been great about updating this week. I've, honestly, not had much crafting time this week, either - and I hate that! Hopefully, next week will be a TOTALLY different story. :) I have much to accomplish next week.

Today, there was a challenge on SCS that was centered around our computer. I have no computer images or sentiments, but thought that, perhaps, I could USE my computer to create my project. Yeah .... 'cuz I never do that?! :) That's ok. This challenge just acknowledges what we all know is true .... I canNOT craft without my computer. :) I'm good with that, though. The computer adds a fantastic element to my crafting that I do not wish to replace. :)

This is my Jabez Prayer plaque. It was created on a paper-mache' plaque purchased at Michael's (I think) a LONG time ago.


I used 3 layers of my Shapelies to add the dimension to the shaped layers. Each one has been brushed, from the edge inward, with gold ink.


Small gold dots added a very classic element to the sides.












The flowers were made with twine, glue dots, and brads. They were very simple, but added a rustic feel to the plaque. I really like the way they turned out and the feel they gave the project. The brads do not go into any of the paper layers, but are, instead, wrapped around the twine in the center to pull it all together - after the twine was initially held with a glue dot.













The complete plaque. It hangs from the cord shown coming from the eyelets at the top. The prayer is placed on a gray layer, which was brushed with silver and black along the edges. The white layer was brushed with brown on the edges. Twine is added to the background to add interest and dimension.



Without my computer, I could not have created the shapes for this plaque.





Stamps - The Jabez Prayer (Clear Dollar Stamps)
Paper - Ripe Olive (Clear Dollar Stamps), Worn Parchment (Clear Dollar Stamps), gray, white
Ink - black, brown, white pigment, gold, silver
Accessories - Cricut, computer, SCAL, Shapelies, plaque, twine, brads, gold dots, pop dots




Sure hope I can get my rear in gear for next week!! I'm looking forward to it ... how about you?!


Have a beautiful night and a great, big, beautiful tomorrow.





~*Shell*~

Fun Technique Time

Today, I went on SCS looking for a fun challenge to tackle. I found one!! Splitcoast has challenges for every day of the week, and one of the ones for Mondays (yes, I'm well aware that it's Tuesday) is the Clean and Simple challenge (today is CAS87). That's one of my favorites. It's all about a clean and simple design, and this one was using the Faux Letterpress technique.

I chose, today, to use the Wedding Bells set. It's a set of 3, but I used only the main image on this one. I thought it would be perfect to use with the swirls folder for the faux letterpress tech.


I inked up the Cuttlebug folder and embossed the white sheet. I cut it down so that it would layer on the gray card-base background. The bells are colored with Copics and layered with the scalloped circles using pop dots on both layers.

The ribbon was used in lieu of other embellishments to keep the card simple. That ribbon is amazing, isn't it?? :) I love it. The sparkles are fantastic!!


Stamps - Wedding Bells by Clear Dollar Stamps
Paper - pink, gray, white
Ink - pink, memento black, Copics (C1, C3, C5, R81, R83)
Accessories - swirls folder, cuttlebug, pop dots, ribbon
Technique - Faux Letterpress





What challenges are you trying this week? I'm hoping to find a few more for some fun.

Hope you have a fantastic Tuesday and a great, big, beautiful tomorrow!! :)


~*Shell*~

Clearly Inspired Challenge #18 .... A Color Challenge!

The Clearly Inspired Challenge for today is a color challenge. It's been a while since we've had a color challenge on this one.

So, get out your Clear Dollar Stamps, and take on the challenge.

Color Challenge for October ... CIC #18

Shades of orange and black - with the option of shades of purple

Neutrals - white or cream

I absolutely love the Monster Mash set!! Is this little guy not adorable? This challenge inspired me to grab this set and stamp!












Coloring with Copics has become one of my favorite things to do. There are so many things you can do with them and so many textures you can emulate with the markers. I love the way this monster turned out - all furry looking. :) That blender pen is a blast.











Stamps - Monster Mash by Clear Dollar Stamps
Paper - Night Eclipse, Tangelo Smoothie, Grape Jelly, white (all by Clear Dollar Stamps)
Ink - Memento Black, Copics (BV11, BV13, C3, YR61)
Accessories - Cuttlebug and folder, crystal brads, ribbon, pop dots



There are some changes to the way this challenge will be done each month. The new requirements are as follows ....

• These challenges will occur the 1st Friday of the Month
• You have until the following 1st Friday of the next month to link your project using Mr. Linky (below)
• Challenges will vary each and every time
• Your work is important so there will be 3 Inspirational Cards/Projects chosen to be featured here.
• New requirement is to use CD stamps in your project. If you don't have any, we are offering a FREE DIGITAL DOWNLOAD.
• We will have a different FREEBIE each and every month.
• FIVE random winners will be chosen to win a $10.00 gift certificate good towards any Clear Dollar Stamp(s).
• If you upload to Splitcoast Stampers or another online gallery please use CIC18 as one of your keywords
• Multiple Entries are welcome.

Join us for the fun each month. Get CLEARLY inspired. :)



Have a fabulous Friday and a great, big, beautiful tomorrow!!




~*Shell*~