Side by Side at The Craft's Meow

Welcome back to The Open Window !

It's a great time to be 'peeking in' because it's

NEW RELEASE PREVIEW WEEK at

Today we are sharing the beautiful new stamp set

designed by the talented Karen Baker

'Side by Side'

I kept this card very CAS.  I love the sentiments in this set

and how they can randomly be placed on the front of the card

OR

you can use on on the front and the another inside to complete the greeting.

I simply paper-pieced the flower and wound beautiful, subtle baker's twine

from The Twinery between to bright copper brads.

It's always fun to add little pearls here and there, isn't it ?

How would you like a chance to win this set ?

All you have to do is stop by the TCM blog and leave a note

to say you stopped by for a visit.

Each day of the previews will bring another set up for grabs.

You have until 9pm PST tonight to comment to be eligible.

I'll be back tomorrow with another fabby preview.


I sure hope you'll leave a little note here as well.
I'd love to know you stopped by.
See you again tomorrow for another
aMAZing preview from TCM!

Project Recipe:

Stamps: Side by Side by The Craft's Meow

Embellishments: pearls by Recollections

baker's twine in Shore from The Twinery

Tools: Swiss Dot EF from Cuttlebug, Big Shot

 

Day Two of New Release Previews at The Craft's Meow

It's Day #2 of our New Release Previews over at

We have another terrific set to 'sneak peek' with you

illustrated by Nina B Designs

'Wildflowers'

This one has so many fabulous possibilities.  I love creating

fields of flowers using light & shadow and that's what I did

with this card.  I simply added tiny pearls here and there

and stamped my butterfly in teal for a bit of color.

How would you like a chance to win this set ?

All you have to do is stop by the TCM blog and leave a note

to say you stopped by for a visit.

Each day of the previews will bring another set up for grabs.

You have until 9pm PST tonight to comment to be eligible.

I'll be back tomorrow with another fabby preview.


I sure hope you'll leave a little note here as well.
I'd love to know you stopped by.
See you again tomorrow for another
aMAZing preview from TCM!

Project Recipe:

Stamps: Wildflowers by The Craft's Meow

Embellishments: pearls by Recollections

The Start of a Fabby Week...Oh Yeah! It's Friday!

I am so glad you came by because, while it's the end of the week

for all of us, it's the BEGINNING of the

NEW RELEASE PREVIEWS WEEK

at

This week, we have five...count 'em FIVE new releases

that are going to knock your socks off!

And...in case you missed the news earlier this week...

THREE AMAZING NEW DESIGN TEAM MEMBERS

who are joining us for the first time this week!

Angi Barrs

Amy Crockett

&

Jinny Newlin

Let's get things started here with a beautiful sentiments set

'Beautiful Hymns Two'

illustrated by Nina B Designs

I can't wait to send this card to my mom to keep her spirits lifted!

If you are familiar with the original 'Beautiful Hymns' set, you will

see that this set is a variety of more inspiration for your cardmaking.

I simply stamped one of the coordinating flower flourishes along

the side of the frame, used my Swiss Dot EF from Cuttlebug to give

some texture, added fabulous bling from Zva Creative and

finished with the wonderful sentiment from the TCM set.

How would you like a chance to win this set ?

All you have to do is stop by the TCM blog and leave a note

to say you stopped by for a visit.

Each day of the previews will bring another set up for grabs.

You have until 9pm PST, tonight to comment to be eligible.

I'll be back tomorrow with another fabby preview.


I sure hope you'll leave a little note here as well.
I'd love to know you stopped by.
See you again tomorrow for another
aMAZing preview from TCM!

Project Recipe:

Stamps: Beautiful Hymns Two by The Craft's Meow

Embellishments: crystal flourish by Zva Creative 
{CRW-06CA-143 & CRS-05CA-108}
Tools: swiss dot embossing folder by Cuttlebug, Big Shot

Goin' Retro at The Play Date Cafe

Just a quick check in to let you know 

The Play Date Cafe Color Challenge

has a brand new color story just waitin' for ya!

This week's sponsor is

How fun would it be to win a workshop of YOUR CHOICE!

Capture the Good Times

Hello !  I'm really glad you came by today !

It's Thursday...at least on the East Coast ; )

so it's time for ...

My dad had a small collection of vintage cameras

and when I saw the 'Oh Snap' collection from Taylored Expressions,

I knew I had to have it.

I simply used the colors for the challenge and made

them work for this design.  The patterned paper around

the base card is from Prima.

I found this uber-BIG gem from Teresa Collins in my stash

and thought it was a perfect 'add' for the lens.

This week's sponsor is sharing a $25 Shopping Spree

to the 'Cup of the Week'

I hope you'll join us in The Cafe !

Hope you had fun with this card...I sure did !

Project Recipe:

Patterned Paper: Rondelle by Prima

Stamps: Oh Snap by Taylored Expressions

Embellishments: gem from Teresa Collins

 

 

A Floral Spring

Hello . . . so great to have you stop by today !

It's blog hop day with the designers of

If you are hopping with us, then you should have come from

Jessica Fick's blog

If you just happened by, then get yourself over to

The Craft's Meow blog

Someone is going to win a stamp set of their choice

simply by visiting all 13 blogs & leaving a little love.

Deadline to be eligible for prize is

11:59 EST, Thursday May 9th

Winner will be announced Friday, May 10th

There are some pretty fabby things coming up at TCM

and you won't want to miss anything!

This month's theme is:  FLOWERS

I pulled out a design I created about a year ago when the set

'Beautiful Spring' was introduced.  I love how simple it is

and couldn't help but use it again.

Here is the original design created for Mother's Day 2012.

This time, I paired it with the sentiment from the 'Rejoice' set.

I used the Sizzix 'Wreath' embossing folder for my base.

I simply stamped the flower image on three different paper from

Prima and cut them out in layers.  I added a beautiful gem flourish

and pearls from Zva Creative to complete the look.

I thought this was a great color combo for this week's challenge over at

The next stop on the hop is my friend & TCM Illustrator

Karen Baker's blog

Don't forget to say hello before you go!

Our designers await your visit!

ENJOY!

Project Recipe:

 Patterned Paper: Romance Novel by Prima

Stamps: Beautiful Spring & Rejoice by The Craft's Meow
Tools: Wreath EF by Sizzix, Big Shot
Embellishments: pink gem flourish {CR-06CA-120}

white pearls {PEW-03CA-104} from Zva Creative

 

A Mother's Day 'Thank You' Gift

Welcome to a very special Sunday post here at The Open Window

I'm so glad to be able to join these fabulous ladies today

with projects to inspire you to create for Mother's Day.

You should have come by way of 

Angi Barrs' blog

If not, I'd love for you to start at the beginning at

Donna Bowman's blog

There are some pretty fabby prizes up for grabs
and ONLY TEN BLOGS in the hop

{more on that below}

My mom recently asked if I would be willing to start making 

'Thank You' cards for all of the kindess people have been showing

since she started her chemo treatments.  Of course, I am happy to.

I just thought it would be fun to have a nice place for her

to keep them stored as I add to them.

This is going to be a lengthy post, but I thought it would be

fun to show you how I created the designs on the box, so let's get started !

I recently purchased a set of stamps from HSN

and they arrived in this terrific box.

Because there was already so much bold color, I thought it would

be great to keep the box base and most of the lid the way it came.

So I grabbed a few dies, an embossing folder and stickers from

SRM Stickers and proceeded to make my own frame for the lid.

From there, it was time to choose some fun borders to place

on the edges of the lid, so I pulled out my collection of

stickers from SRM.

From there, I knew I wanted to include some fabby baker's twine from

The Twinery, so where to start . . .

I chose to use The Twinery's Mandarin, Marigold & Carribean,

which I also used on each of my cards.

Each of my cards use My Mind's Eye 'Sunny' Collection, SRM Stickers

along with a variety of embellishments such as Stickles, pearls & gems
from Zva Creative & KandCompany.

and fabric flowers (also from MME) & baker's twine from The Twinery.
I also used dies & embossing folders from Spellbinders, Sizzix
and LifeStyle Crafts.

I sure hope you enjoyed this project and find inspiration to
do something fun & colorful for the 'mom' in your life !

To be eligible for prizes from this hop, simply leave
a little love along the way on each designer's blog
and YOU could win !  To see a list of the prizes up for grabs
and a complete list of participating blogs
{ and there are only 10, so it's very do-able }
make sure you start at the beginning.

The next stop on the hop is my dearly creative friend
Jen Cuthbertson's blog

So glad you stopped by today !
Fingers crossed that one of those great prizes is yours !


Products used in this post include:
baker's twine from The Twinery
stickers from SRM Stickers
patterned paper from My Mind's Eye
dies from Spellbinders & Sizzix
embossing folder by LifeStyle Crafts
gems from Zva Creative, KandCompany, Recollections
 cardstock from Bazzill
 

Heartfelt Thanks!

I'm so glad you stopped by today.

I am happy to share a colorful card with you today

to say 'Thank You' to teachers everywhere !

Yes . . . The Twinery is sharing all kinds of crafting goodness

this week in honor of educators.  

 

Our design team will be

sharing both cards & gifts using fun & fabulous baker's twine

in hopes of inspiring you to create something for the teacher in your life.

With four grandsons ranging from 4th grade to pre-school, I have had

the pleasure of making cards for their teachers for Christmas

 and the end of the school year.

I am definitely a card maker at heart & did I have fun putting

this card together !  I created the tag first and layered from there.

Both the tag & card base have washi tape from Freckled Fawn.

These alphabets remind me so much of grade school

[which was WAY too long ago]

I love putting a whole bunch of baker's twine together for

a tag 'tassel' and for this one, I used:

Charcoal, Mandarin, Buttercream, Marigold and the brand new

Rainbow Teal Shimmer.

All of these can be found over in The Twinery Store.

I used stickers from SRM for the sentiment & fun polka dots,

a fun pencil embellishment (which I've had for years)

and the flower is from Prima.

 

I hope you will stop by The Twinery blog this week and enjoy

the projects our talented designers have to share.

 

Thanks so much for stopping by today !

 

 

Project Recipe:

Cardstock: Bazzill

Embellishments: washi tape from Freckled Fawn,

pencil button by Dress it Up, stickers from SRM Stickers

flower from Prima, all baker's twine from The Twinery