Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Memorial Day Cards

This weekend I had the awesome pleasure of participating in the Operation Write Home Memorial Day Blog Hop--in preparation for that I hop I prepared SEVERAL cards but because I wanted to follow the rules of the hop, I only posted the one card. The hop had over 140 stops and was MASSIVE but awesome to see all of the talent in one spot.
So, on to the cards! The first is a new favorite designer of mine--her name is Amanda and she has a new shop at AJs Digi Shoppe! Her images are unique and cute and I can't wait to see what else she brings to the digi shoppe! This card is using one of her sweet ducks! I hope you enjoy my card!



The second card is using another of my favorite designers for digis--this is from Wendy's [aka Louby Loo] collection!! This is Private Peter--he's probably one of my favorites in her collection of digis at Digital Delights by Louby Lou! I have recently been named a Senior Designer for Delightful Challenges--the challenge Design Team at Digital Delights! I'm having so much fun with Wendy's digis too! I hope you enjoy my card!


I hope everyone had a peaceful Memorial Day! Thank you for stopping by!

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Operation Write Home's Memorial Day Blog Hop

Welcome to Operation Write Home's Memorial Day Blog Hop!! This wonderful 3 day blog hop contains more than 145 fabulous bloggers! I am honored to be among them. I created several cards for this hop but since they've asked us to only post one to help make this go smoother and quicker for our wonderful hoppers, I picked my favorite! I will post the other two cards next week!



















This card is one of my favorite House Mouse images. I colored the image with BIC Mark-Its for the flag and watercolor crayons for the mousies. I highlighted the stars on the flag and the background with a gelly roll sparkle pen. The offray bow is enhanced with a crystal bling and a Jenni Bowlin stickpin. The cardstock is Bazzill Basics and the pattern paper is Tim Holtz. The sentiment is from Stampin' Up.

Thank you for looking! A Happy Memorial Day to you and yours!

The next super hop stop is : Jan at  She's Gone Stampin'

Friday, May 27, 2011

Festive Friday Blog Hop #10 | The Magic of Christmas

It's time for the Festive Friday Blog Hop hosted by Terri Sproul again. This bi-monthly blog hop features Holiday cards from 13 talented card crafters as we get our Christmas cards ready early this year.

If you reached this stop from Fab's blog Fab's Big Christmas Card Challenge , then you are in the right spot! If you would like to start from the beginning, you can return to Terri's blog.


For this easel card I used an older Close to My Heart set called Christmas Magic. I stamped my image on Kraft cardstock with Frayed Burlap Distress ink from Ranger. I then used my blender with the distress ink to color the images. I swiped around the edges of the cardstock and it's layers with the distress ink. I highlighted areas of the stamped images with Diamond Glaze and then sprayed the entire Kraft and Green cardstock with homemade mister made from Perfect Pearls, Reinker, and water. The images is then mounted with Bazzill Matte Brads. The punched accent is an EK Success border punch.

detail of Santa's Workshop sign

detail of rocking horse

detail of inside sentiment


Thank you for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed my card.

The next stop on the hop is Laura Fisher's blog. If you get lost on the way, the entire list is on the right hand side of the blog under Festive Friday Blog Hop!

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Weekly Challenge | TAGS!! & Announcements

This weeks challenge at Delightful Challenges is TAGS!!! I love tags and making tags! I knew for this challenge I would need some cute little bee tags--the mascot for my children's schools are bees/yellow jackets. Honey Pot Larry would make the perfect little favor to add to end of the school projects for the kids classes! I hope you enjoy my Honey Pot Larry Tag!


ALL DDSTAMPS USED: HoneyPot Larry, Blank Circle Sentiment from Circle Sentiments Set
CS AND PAPERS: Busy Bees Digital Paper
ACCESS. AND EMBELLISHMENTS: yarn and fiber
COLORING MEDIUM (if any): Staedtler Watercolor pencils, SU Blending pen
SPECIAL TECHNIQUES (if any): Diamond Glaze and gellyroll glaze pen, foam tape, Marvy Scallop Punch and EK Success Circle Punch

So for this weeks challenge we want to see your tags!!! You do not have to use a Digital Delights image to play but if you do you will receive two entries. Just add your card twice to inlinkz to enter twice you need to when you use a Digital Delight image 1st entry use your card link, 2nd entry use your blog address and add 2nd entry after your name .

We have a wonderful sponsor this week,


Our very own


is offering a $10 Certificate


...and now for an ANNOUNCEMENT....
Delightful Challenges--the challenge blog for Digital Delights by Louby Loo--has a few openings for new designers!!!I joined this team in February and it has been a BLAST!! I love Wendy's digital designs [stamps, papers, cutfiles]. She has such cute ideas and they really inspire me! If you've enjoyed seeing the many projects I've created with her digis and love to work with digis, read

here for more information on how to submit your work to the call. Decisions will be made next month and I would love to have some new DT friends join me!

...and for my 2nd ANNOUNCEMENT!!!Wendy has asked me if I would like to step up into the Senior Designer position on the Challenges DT and I of course said YES!!! I am thrilled that she sees my love for her product and would like to give me more resposibility in her company!!! So my previous designer badge is being retired for this new shiney SENIOR DESIGNER BADGE!!!! Thank you Wendy and Lisa F and Lisa V!!!



Making Halloween Cards Challenge #1 | 3D Popup Card & AJ's Digi Shoppe Opens!

This week I'm joining my friend Fab at Making Halloween Cards Blog in his first challenge: 3D Popup Card! This is a great bi-weekly challenge that will focus on one of my favorite holidays- HALLOWEEN!! For this card since it was the 1st of a challenge, I attempted a new popup card type and used my friend Amanda's new monster and celebration digitals from her brand new AJ's Digi Shoppe.


For this card I combined elements from her monsters set and from her celebrations set to make a Monster Bash invitation. I followed Vince and Fab's directions on how to make their version of the easel card~thanks guys! I love these little monsters and I hope you enjoy my card!
Halloween Easle Card up

Halloween Easle card closed

Images were colored with Staedtler watercolors and the Stampin Up Blending pen, Cardstock is Bazzill Basics and Stampin Up. Offray Ribbon, Cuttlebug diecuts, Diamond Glaze and Zots glue dots added embellishment to the card! The details of an event could be included on the inside of the card and concealed by the easel stand.

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Challenge #95 | May Flowers


House Mouse Challenge #95 | May Flowers

I stamped Bed of Flowers featuring Mudpie and Monica with Stazon in Black and colored with my Staedtler Watercolor pencils and blended with my Stampin Up Blending pens. I added Ranger Distress Ink Walnut stain to the colored piece and matted it with green Bazzill Basics card stock. I embossed yellow Bazzill Basics with a Tim Holtz Sizzix Texture Fades and again added Walnut Stain to the edge.
The front cover is cut short and the colored piece is attached so that it hangs over the edge. The textured piece is added to the "inside" of the card and is seen peaking out from the edges of the colored piece.
I added some beaded ribbon to the side to bring out the lighter green of the leaves and to add a little sparkle.
Thank you for stopping by! I hope you enjoyed my card!

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Weekly Challenge | Masking and New Release!

This week at Digital Delights we have a super new release Grillin' and Chillin! The images and their accessories are perfect for creating scenes, making awesome Father's Day and summer cards, and creating unique invites for the backyard barbecue--super cute sets with matching paper!!


Photobucket


This week's challenge at Delightful Challenges was to do the masking technique with an image manipulation program to create a scene using the new release sets!
Grillin George Father's Day Card
To make my card, I chose to create a background scene with GIMP a free image manipulation program available here. As a novice to image manipulation with the computer, I found this program extremely easy to work with. My friend Amanda from Who You Calling Crafty wrote up a great review of how GIMP compares to a top-notch program like Photoshop--you can read her review here.




I've added the images and image sets that I used to create my card. For the background I used the sun, trees and fence from the Barbecue Accessories Set and merged them together with GIMP. I printed out the background on my all-in-one HP inkjet printer and then watercolored the background using Staedtler watercolor pencils and crayons.





For the foreground of the scene, I created a file with George, Barbecue dog and the grill and accessories on the Barbecue Cooking Set. This image was printed out and colored with BIC Mark-Its! I highlighted the shiny of the grill and the eyes of the images with Diamond Glaze. I then fussy-cut around the image and added it to my scene with pop-dots.






I completed my card by mounting my scene on Bazzill Basics Kraft and mounted that on a red piece of Bazzill Basics edged with the picnic cloth paper image in the digi paper pack!




I love these summertime images and hope you find them as fun to work with as I have! Thank you for stopping by! I hope you enjoyed my card!



This week's challenge is sponsored by Crafty Emma's Store! It is a  £10 Store Gift Certificate!


Thursday, May 12, 2011

Festive Friday Blog Hop #9 | Holly Jolly Reindeer

I am so excited to be part of the Festive Friday Blog Hop hosted by Terri Sproul. This bi-monthly blog hop features Holiday cards from 13 talented card crafters and I'm proud to be among them.
If your reached this stop from Fab's blog Fab's Big Christmas Card Challenge , then you are in the right spot! If you would like to start from the beginning, you can return to Terri's blog.


Holly Jolly Reindeer
For this diecut reindeer card, I used the Bigz Sizzix die Animal Dressups Reindeer in my Big Shot Express. I made the card hinged by folding the cardstock and diecuting just inside the top edge of the dies on its antlers. I used the big Bazzill Brads for his eyes in white and the red for his nose. To accent the eyes, I used BIC Mark-its. The holly buttons are some old Making Memories buttons from my stash and the ribbon is $1 bin ribbon from Target! I accented the reindeer with penstitching and Ceramcoat gleams.

This is a great kid's card and I made a less blingy version for a benefit card drive that friends and family did last fall for Operation Write Home--an organization that sends cards to the military that they can then in turn send home to their families! It's a wonderful organization and I'm proud to be a part of their work. To learn more about Operation Write Home, click here. I will be participating in a Memorial Day Blog Hop with OWH at the end of the month!

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed my card.

The next stop on the hop is Laura Fisher's blog. If you get lost on the way, the entire list is on the right hand side of the blog under Festive Friday Blog Hop!




Guest Designer Craft Us Crazy Week #8|Favorite Embellishment and/or Something New

If you are looking for my Weekly Challenge for Digital Delights by Louby Loo, look here.

It is my EXTREME pleasure to be a Guest Designer for the biweekly challenge over at Craft Us Crazy. They offer challenges for all sorts of crafting~not just cards! You're welcome to use any and all company brands and products. They love to see all walks of crafts ...decoupage, stamping (Rubber or Digital), altered, 3D, LOs, Die cut projects, anything as long as its made by your talented hands and it follows the Challenge theme!!! How great is that!

This weeks challenge is sponsored by Digital Delights by Louby Loo and is to use your FAVORITE EMBELLISHMENT and/or SOMETHING NEW!! Anyone who knows me knows my FAVORITE embellishment is GLITTER!!! A close second on embellishments is punchies and bling!
New Car by DigitalDelightsbyLoubyLoo
For this card:
ALL DDSTAMPS USED: New Car
CS AND PAPERS: SU cardstock and Bazzill Basics Cardstock
MARKERS (if any): BIC Mark-Its
ACCESS. AND EMBELLISHMENTS: Glitter, basic grey Bling, flocking, SU flower punches, Diamond Glaze, Extreme Glitter Paint

http://craftuscrazy.blogspot.com/

I hope you enjoy my card! Thank you for stopping by!

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Weekly Challenge | Must Use Flowers

If you are looking for my Guest Designer spot with Craft Us Crazy, look here.

This week on Delightful Challenges, the challenge is to use FLOWERS! Our sponsor sent cutting files for the design team to use in making their creations as well. As I do not *chirp* [I do not own a cricut], I was delighted to see that The Cutting Cafe includes PDFs of their files! This little flower opening bag was so easy to cut and fold from the pattern that I simply printed on the backside of my cardstock! I refashioned Lara's antennae with some wire for her spot on the bag! Thank you for stopping by! I hope you join us on this fun challenge!
Lara Ladybug Flower Bag
ALL DDSTAMPS USED: Lara Ladybug
CS AND PAPERS: Bazzill Basics
MARKERS (if any):BIC Mark-Its
ACCESS. AND EMBELLISHMENTS: wire, SU punch, prisma glitter, Diamond Glaze, foam dots, ribbon, 6×3 Bag from Cutting Cafe

We have a Wonderful Sponsor this week



Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Introducing the leslierahye blog button!!!


How cool is THIS!?!? My friend Manda of A. J.'s Arts and Designs is in her own right an amazing fine artist. She also has talents in digital imagry and recently demoed how she does her digital scrapbooking for her son who is not quite 2 years old. She has been very supportive of me as a crafter, artist and business woman. She and my friend Fab of PaperMood.com have continually commented that my zentangling is awesome and especially the more figurative ones. In particular I think we all agree that the sunflowers are a favorite. Personally the sunflower is more than just a pretty flower. To me they are me! Proflowers.com share this:

Much of the meaning of sunflowers stems from its namesake, the sun itself. Wild sunflowers are often photographed with their tall stalks and bright petals stretched towards the sun. This unique behavior, known as phototropism, is a motif that has appeared in many ancient myths and is viewed as a symbol of loyalty and constancy. Their physical resemblance to the sun has also influenced their meanings. The sunflower's petals have been likened to bright yellow rays of sunshine, which evoke feelings of warmth and happiness. In addition, the sunflower is often associated with adoration and longevity.
 The sunflower particularly represents the path that I'm taking with my creativity this year. I've had a seed planted within this fall, that has survived the cold of the winter and the drought of the fall and now has germinated and is beginning its growth to a spectacular bloom. Even when the bloom is done, the sunflower is then reinvented to serve other purposes--food for birds, humans--oil and even dye. The versatility of the sunflower speaks volumes to me. The traditional meanings of the sunflower echo in my  mind and my heart. It is truly my representative.

I'd like to first share a few images that I have taken of my own beautiful sunflowers that bloom in my yard every summer--this summer will be no different.







So, I give heartfelt thanks to Manda and Fab. I love my new button and hope you do too! It's from an original image that I zentangled. I then asked Manda to do some photoshop magic and bring me a beautifu new blog button! I love what she came up with. I hope you do too! You may get my button for your blog by copying the codes in this scroll box!Manda has a great tutorial on how to make this for you own blog.
Copy all and paste into your blogger design!

<center><a href="http://leslierahye.blogspot.com"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaok2HRsyoBmSVxhAZrL5UtjbbDwSjri7E_CReNKgzgZK-WF64M3kR8mbqnSoCwv4MufkwHFRKGjJ22u7b3nenA4chrksW0pt9qVE1yZb4a8WEVorlg3a29aJjFn2CfWMpWhxfT0HzacFc/"/></a></center>

Monday, May 9, 2011

Ribbon and Crystal Bookmarks

Last year my boss' mother commissioned me to make for her some bookmarks for her Women's Club in a variety of colors to go with her presentation--each color represented each woman and what a "jewel" she was for volunteering with her that year. The bookmarks were so well received that this year I received another call to make them, this time for my boss' aunt!

close-up of crystal focal piece with dangle.
For this bookmark you will need some wire--I used 22 gauge--a variety of crystals in graduated shapes and colors, some silver beads for accents and some small seed beads to act as stoppers on the nail head pins which you will also need, cord ends, jumprings and some  3/8" velvet ribbon.

entire bookmark
 The ribbon was cut to a length of 9½" and a cord end was crimped to each end with flat pliers. crystals and beads were added to nail head pins and a loop was formed at one end so that a jumpring could be added to add the dangles on the nail heads to the bottom of the bookmark ribbon and to the focus piece of the top of the ribbon
Finally a piece of wire was bent to make a loop on one end, the beads were added onto the wire, and then a loop was fashioned to the top of the focus piece. This was then attached with jump rings to both the top end of the ribbon bookmark and to the small dangle piece that adds movement to the focus piece.
I think they turned out beautiful! Thank you for stopping by! I hope you enjoyed my bookmarks!
all 9 lined up in a row.

Saturday, May 7, 2011

Happy National Scrapbook Day! Come2Crop TONIGHT!!!


6:00 p.m.--midnight CST
7:00 p.m -- 1:00 a.m. EST
Join me and the Creative Edventures Team for our first ever Virtual Crop! Lots of cropping, sharing, demos, laughter and fun!!! OH!! and there will be giveaways!!! See you there!

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Weekly Challenge | Mother's Day or Someone Special

Thank you for stopping in! This week at Delightful Challenges we are asked to create a card for Mother's Day or Someone Special.
Happy Mother's Day!
ALL DDSTAMPS USED: Flower Pot Faces Set
CS AND PAPERS: Stampin' Up & Flower Pot Faces Paper Set
MARKERS (if any): BIC Mark-Its

This card was easy and fun to make! I hope you enjoyed it! Thank you for stopping by!

Our fabulous sponser this week is one of our regular's with a $20 gift certificate as the prize!!!

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

A Cinco de Mayo Ruffle

A letter came home today with Sam's backpack saying that she needed to wear a skirt to perform a dance for Cinco De Mayo. Sam really wanted a traditional Spanish Folk Dance outfit but her teacher and I convinced her that a shorter skirt with a ruffle perhaps would be perfect as she needed to be able to shuffle her feet for the dance.
I went to my stash of fabric from my mother-in-law's quilting days and found this beautiful colorful striped piece. We decided to add it to Sam's denim skort and make a new Cinco de Mayo ruffle skirt!
fabric and skirt before.



I cut strips of fabric about 4 inches wide and then attached them end to end to each other so I would have  a long enough strip to ruffle. Next I did 2 running stitches on about 10 stitches per inch to have strings to pull up to make a ruffle.

adding straight stitching to make a ruffle
 Once pulled, I placed the ruffle on the skirt, insured I had enough to have a full ruffle all the way around the edge and stitched it in place.

fabric gathered and ruffled
 After successfully stitching all the way around the skirt to add the ruffle, I folded over the bottom hem and stitched,
ruffle added to skirt and now being hemmed
I really love the look of the completed ruffle on the skirt! 
finished ruffle
My little amiga does too! She and I wish you a very happy Cinco de Mayo!
One happy amiga ready to dance with her amigos!
Gracias amigos!

Monday, May 2, 2011

Blog Hop Winner and a Tutorial Download

Thank you to everyone who stopped by my blog during Nicolette's Mom's Day Blog hop! I enjoyed greatly making my projects and sharing them with you!

I used random.org a few minutes ago to select my winner and it was #33 Anna Dowdy!! Congrats Anna, I have sent her an email and www.cutnpastememories.com will send her the gift certificate!!

Tonight on In The Zone, I demonstrated how I constructed my Mother's Day Bracelet and explained how I created the photo fragment charms. You will find the playback to the Beat It! Episode of In The Zone on the Creative Edventure's Blog soon [I will link to the video here when it becomes available].

In the mean time you can check out my Download Tutorial of how to make the digital paper to match your photos! If you have ANY questions, please feel free to post them and I will answer to the best of my ability!
Creating Digital Paper to Match a Photo
Thank you for stopping by!

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Nicolette's Mom's Day Blog Hop | Day 2

Welcome to DAY 2 of Nicolette's 2-day Mom's Day Blog Hop! I am thrilled to be a part of this wonderful blog hop with nearly 30 talented crafters!! If you arrived here from Martha's blog you are in the right place! If you just happened to my blog in mid-hop and want to start from the top, Nicolette's blog is the starting point and can be found here.

a keepsake bracelet for the box!
 For the present in the box, I chose to make a keepsake bracelet with photos of my children and flowers from this spring, Tim Holtz's Fragment Charms, sterling silver 22 gauge wire and some fun crackle beads that my daughter and I picked out at WalMart.

I began by selecting the photos I would use to fit the fragments charms for this bracelet. I used the 1" and 5/8" square charms for this project. I sized my photos on a publisher document. Then I also created a pattern to print on the back of the photos [inspired by Tim Holtz's paper stacks, they are two sided so when using the fragments you have a decorative size showing opposite the chosen side.]

To create the pattern, I made a rectangle and used the color selector tool to pick out a shade of pick in the rose image that I was using. Then I made a series of stripes to make a plaid-like pattern. I again used the color selector tool to choose a color to color them, this time a darker shade in the rose.

This was printed on one side of my cardstock and the images were printed on the otherside. I used Diamond Glaze on the fragments and placed them on the photo images and placed that to the side to dry. Afterwards I cut out the charms close to the plastic of the fragment.


I created links with the beads and wire. Making one small trinket with a nail head so that it could dangle from the bracelet. I created joining jumprings by wrapping twisted wire around a dowel and cutting with jewelry snips. A lobster-claw clasp was added to make the bracelet easy to get on and off.

What a fun suprise for my Mommie to have the Zentangled wooded, cheetah plush lined box to open to find another fun present inside!

Stay tuned to my blog, in the future will be videos on making your own jumprings and on making the links that made up the bracelet--they are currently going through the editing process. 
If you missed my project yesterday, you can see it here. I hope everyone takes a moment on Mother's Day to celebrate the special woman/women in their lives.



Thank you for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed your stop! I have a $15 gift certificate that I am giving away in honor of Nicolette's Mom's Day Blog Hop! It is to my FAVORITE papercraft store that just happens to be owned by my Mommie!!! Cutnpastememories.com carries the glue and Tim Holtz Fragments that I used in this project as well as the tools and glue I used yesterday. They carry all of your papercrafting supplies and if there is something you need that you don't see in the store, the awesome news is that they will special order things in for you too!!!

To be in the random drawing for the gift certificate, become a follower and add your comment to this post or to yesterday's post and you will be in the drawing!!! It's that simple! I hope you decide to play!


The next stop on the hop is Kathryn's blog.