MFT Idol Week 3 Project

Edited to add: Here is the link for voting for MFT Idol. Voting is open now until 10pm EST on Wed.

Man am I ever ready for some wine!! Or is it whine? Regardless, this was a labour of love in a short amount of time.

Our assignment this week was to use this unreleased set - Girls Night Out (available Wed. at 10pm EST). Simple right? NOT! I finally decided to make a "Girls Night In" kit. My friends and I still have young children, so we love to get together at someones house after the kids are in bed and just visit and enjoy each other's company. I actually have a particular group of 4 friends and we (tongue in cheek) refer to our group as the Wondermommies. We enjoy wine, but our tastes are pretty simple, and so a blind tasting just isn't our style. I decided instead to do 5 wine pairings - keeping all the wines from Australia and pairing them with various cheeses. Here's the entire set.

I've been wanting to try to stamp coasters for a while, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity! I used unglazed tumbled tiles and stamped in Brilliance Ink. I shot them with my heat gun and let them sit for a half hour or so. I coloured them with my copics and sponged the edges with distress ink. I then sprayed them with a sealer and put felt on the bottom.

I also made some wine charms. I used the Bling Bet alphabet for the initials (aren't they cute all shrunk down?), stamped in Brilliance on Shrinky Dinks and cut out. I also stamped the wine glass in Brilliance and coloured the reverse side with copics.

Since we're pairing wines with cheeses, I decided to make some cheese pics. I stamped a portion of the main image in the set behind the name of the cheese in a light pink ink.

I think that sitting with Sherrie at copic certification must have inspired me 'cause I decided to stamp some cloth napkins. I adhered ribbon using heat and bond and then stamped in Brilliance, heat set, and coloured with copics.

Finally I made a menu so we would know which pairings were coming next and I made wine journals so we could take notes and jot down names, varietals, and years.

The paper is all Basic Grey Bittersweet. What do you think? I'm excited to put all this to good use and have my Wondermommy friends over! So L, K, N, and B - let's pick a night o.k.?

Voting for MFT Idol opens at 10pm EST tonight (Tues.) and remains open until 10pm EST Wed. night. Would you consider voting for me if you like what you see? You can vote for as many entries as you like, but you can only vote once. I'll edit later tonight and post a link to the voting thread once it's up! Thanks so much for reading!

Still Here!!

I am still here - but we were away all weekend in St. Paul and now I'm madly working on my MFT Idol project for tomorrow!!

Can I just say that you guys are the best?! I really appreciate all your awesome comments and just the fact that you come here to read.

Back tomorrow!!

Copic Certification Pics

How lucky am I??? Not only did I get to attend copic certification yesterday, I got to do it with some amazingly talented women!
First I need to shout out to Andrea and Amy!! For some reason I didn't get pictures of them (I'm a big loser!) but they are both SO sweet and amazing!

This is me and Tara! I couldn't have asked for a nicer person to sit beside for the day! She is so sweet and she has a Snow White obsession! She is also an amazing card maker!
This is none other than Kim Reid!!! I was so excited to find out she would be there. I have stalked her for a while - she's on the MFT design team and is a hoot at release parties! When I met her she gave me a big hug - what a sweetie! Love, love, love her!!
Here's one of my other awesome table-mates Julia Stainton! I think Julia's was one of the first blogs that I started reading. She just oozes talent and she is so humble. She also has 5 kids!!
And last but not least, we were lucky enough to sit at the same table as Sherrie Siemens. I've been following Sherrie's blog for a long time! Before she was on any design teams, and she was the reason I started buying copics. It was so nice having her at our table as we got some extra tips and hints. Sherrie will be teaching the Canadian copic classes now and we are lucky to have her!
Anywho!! That's it for me!! I'm off to spend some time with my kiddos! Hope you're all having a great week!

MFT Idol Week 2 Project

Edited to Add: Here is the link for voting! Voting is open from 10pm EST Wednesday until 10pm EST Thursday. You can vote for as many contestants as you like, but you can only vote once. My user name is kerryj106. Thanks so much for your support!

What the heck was I thinking when I decided this was the project I wanted to do this week? Our challenge was masking and so I decided I wanted to make a counting book for my daughter. She loves books, and loves counting so it seemed like a good idea at the time.

I am really happy with how it turned out, it was just a LOT of work! I altered a board book with Basic Grey Oh Baby paper and then found images that I could mask in groups. I didn't want to just have a page with a number and an image, so a good friend of mine took my ideas and wrote me a story to go with my images. And it all rhymes! How cool is that?? Thanks so much Laural - you rock!!

I masked Isabelle's tutu for the first page. The second page is actually the only image which wasn't masked. But I flocked it - does that count?!

The cupcakes were masked together and the ice cream scoops were masked onto each other and onto the cone.

The clouds were masked together into a group/storm (I also rock and rolled them) and the sundaes were masked into a group as well. The sundaes are one of my fave MFT images to mask.

On the seventh page, I used the pot from the Chives stamp, and masked it so that I could mask and stamp some flowers coming out of it. I wish I had polka dotted rubber boots - they're just so cute!!

The gifts were masked and stamped 3 times and the balloons were masked and stamped 10 times. Hey I just noticed that the balloons are kind of making a heart shape - cool (and totally unintentional!)!

The books were masked and selectively inked in order to get 11 of them. The butterfly was also masked and stamped repetitively. I pierced some trails on the lower butterflies and added some Doodlebug paper frills for grass.


I think my daughter is going to get a kick out of her personalized book!

Hey will you come vote for me again tonight and tomorrow over in the MFT forum on Splitcoast? I'll edit tonight with the link for voting. Voting is open from 10pm EST Wednesday to 10pm EST Thursday.

Hope you're having a great week! I'm off to copic certification in Toronto today - yippee!!!

A Dreamy Cased Sketch!

I was dying to stamp yesterday just for the fun of it so I made time to sit down and make a couple of cards. I wanted to play along with Michelle's Dreamy Challenge to CASE one of her design team members. I chose to CASE this card of Tosh's. I actually won this stamp set when Our Craft Lounge released their new sets. For my card, I changed the layout and the colour combo but kept the stamp set, the gingham ribbon, the sponging, and the three circle embellishments at the top. The layout I used is actually the sketch challenge over at SCS for this week. Thanks for the inspiration Tosh!

Top 9 and Sympathy Card

First off I wanted to let you know that I survived the voting and am continuing on to compete next week in the MFT Idol competition! Thank you for your kind comments, your support and also for your vote!!!

Unfortunately, I have need for a sympathy card. My husband`s aunt lost her father and I didn`t have anything ready. I used Stampin Up`s Fifth Avenue Floral on a top note die cut and added a sentiment from Papertrey`s Out on a Limb. Pretty simple but I need to pop it in the mail tout de suite (french for right away!).
Thanks again friends and I`ll be back soon. I`m off to think on my project for next week!

Celebrate - MFT Idol Week 1

Alrighty Peeps! Here goes nothing! Here's my entry for the first week of MFT Idol. Our assignment for our first project was the following:

"The theme for the first week is "Celebrate!" We want you to create a card or project that lets us know just how happy you are to be one of the TOP TEN!!!!"

I decided to express my happiness by spreading a little MFT love throughout my house. I made a framed piece to hang on my wall, which makes me celebrate every time I see it! The theme celebrate also reminded me of Celebrate MFT day which is on the 20th of every month. For Celebrate MFT day we are encouraged to use MFT colours - pink, black, and white; so I decided to stick to those guidelines as well.

The final stamped piece measures 12x12 (I mounted all my squares on a 12x12 piece of cardstock) and then mounted it into a 15x15 RIBBA frame that I got at IKEA (love that place!).


I used my favourite images and each one was stamped, coloured, and paper pieced (every one! I've been working on this for days!). I used PTI's raspberry fizz cardstock and patterned paper and intermixed the stamped squares with some old Basic Grey patterned paper (I think the line is Fresh and Funky/Aged and Confused). All the squares are matted on black cardstock and I finished it with a felt flower from SU's flower fusion and a button. I tried to embellish more, but each time I added something it took away from the stamping - and I really wanted the stamping to be the focus.

So hey!! If you're a member over at Splitcoast, would you consider visiting this thread between 10pm EST tonight and 10pm EST on Wed. and vote? I'd love for you to vote for me, but really you should vote for your favourite project!

Enjoying the Moment!

Alright, I admit it - I'm basking in the moment just a little! I'm still grinning ear to ear about the MFT Idol contest. I've been thinking lots about my next project - it has to be uploaded by Tuesday night and then voting starts. I've actually been doing more than thinking, I've been working on it - hope it turns out o.k.

I was itching to stamp something just because, and found Amy R.'s Friday sketch. This one's a replay of her first sketch and there's a prize at stake! A gift certificate to Stamping Bella. So I decided to play along with my Bellas. A pretty simple card and I am just loving using some fun spring colours! I am so done with winter and am ready for Spring - bring it on!!

And speaking of Bellas, I was lucky enough to win one of Joanne's blogoversary blog candy draws and won a gift certificate to Stamping Bella. I have a million on my wish list and am just trying to whittle the list down! Thanks Joanne!!

I'm thinking I'm not going to be back until Tuesday, when I post my MFT Idol project! Have a great couple days!

I Made It!!

I was lucky enough to be chosen as one of the ten finalists in the MFT Idol competition for this card. All of the entries were amazing so I feel incredibly grateful for the opportunity. The competition continues American Idol style for the next 10 weeks until only 1 remains standing. That person will receive a $250 shopping spree at My Favorite Things. Worth playing for? (bonus points if you can tell me who I stole that line from!)

Coraline Guest Designer Entry

This month's guest designer contest for My Favorite Things was to use buttons on your project. I had a movie theatre gift card to give and kept thinking about the movie Coraline, where some of the characters have black buttons for eyes. So I ran with it. I stamped Isabelle - to become my other mother from Coraline, masked her, and selectively inked the chair and carpet from Let's Hear it for the Boys. I also paper pieced the chair. I gave the other mother some red lipstick and a little mole and cut a title with my quickutz typist font. I used a tutorial by Jessie Rone to make the gift card holder - it was super quick to put together!

Hope you had a good weekend! We had a quiet one - visiting some family and I took my Mom to the airport yesterday (miss you already Mom!). Have a great week!

MFT Idol Entry

Hey All! I finally finished up my entry for My Favorite Things Stamping Idol contest. I decided to do a couple techniques that have been on my must try list for a while. I used these cute bunnies from the Tea for Two set and I made a tilt card with that cute little bunny bum. The bum tilts back and forth as you move the card. I used this tutorial by Charmaine and it worked like a charm!

I also wanted to try this Sentimental Slide technique that Lisa Johnson posted on her blog a while ago. The sentiments are on either side of the paper strip and by pulling the ribbons, you expose the sentiment. I shortened the sentiment by selectively inking it as it was too long for the strip (it originally said "To A Tea-rific friend").

Here's a pic of the bum moving and the other side of the sentiment. I also used Crystal Effects on the tea cup polka dots and liquid applique on the bunny tail.

I distressed both top note dies for a little texture.

This card is pretty thick! Everything is up on foam dimensionals to keep it working properly. The bunny bum needs them to tilt, and the sentiment needs them in order to slide.

I'm super nervous about this contest and hope I get a chance to move on!! Thanks for reading and Toodles!!

Fishy Entry

This was my entry for the High Hopes Guest Designer call that happened last week. I don't have any High Hopes stamps yet - but love their images so I decided to apply. I used Isabelle Paper Doll and after colouring her with my copics, I went over her body and tail with a Versamarker and embossed with Iridescent Ice embossing powder - she's all sparkly and pretty. Her tail is also popped up 3 times. The paper is My Mind's Eye Laundry Line and is all sparkly as well. The layout is a sketch from High Hopes that we were required to use for our entry.

I actually didn't make the High Hopes team or the Whimsy team either. I'm so not good with rejection - so it's hard for me to put myself out there. But I'm going to do it again - MFT is having a Stamping Idol contest - a la American Idol. I'm working on my entry but am a little apprehensive after my recent rejections.

Things have been pretty exciting around here. We ended up having to call an ambulance after my Mom had a seizure on Sunday. Turns out she has pneumonia - so we're super thankful that it wasn't anything more serious, but it was the scariest couple minutes of my life.

Hope you're having a great week!