The Craft’s Meow

TCM October Release Blog Hop – Happy WCMD!

Posted by Sarah Martina on Oct 1, 2011 in Fall/Autumn, The Craft's Meow, WCMD | 35 comments

Hey y’all!

Best Wishes

Posted by Sarah Martina on Sep 2, 2011 in Embellish Magazine, The Craft's Meow | 8 comments

Hey y’all! Happy Friday!

I love Fridays… the sense of accomplishment of making it through the week. The “let my hair down and kick my heels off” feeling that I get when I get home… It’s such a sense of relief…

TCM September Release Blog Hop

Posted by Sarah Martina on Sep 1, 2011 in Halloween, The Craft's Meow, The Girls Paperie | 28 comments

Hey there, sweets!

I have a cute, fun, funky kinda trendy card to share with ya today…. (say that 3 times fast!) in celebration of the September Release at The Craft’s Meow. This month, TCM is debuting the following two stamp sets…

Embellish Color Trends Challenge – Embossed Flowers!

Posted by Sarah Martina on Aug 19, 2011 in Cricut, Cuttle Bug, Embellish Magazine, The Craft's Meow, Video | 9 comments

Hello & happy Friday!

I hope youre doing well. This week I’m feeling a sense of accomplishment as it was my first week back in law school after taking a year out to enjoy my family a bit. I’m back and ready to put in one last year before graduation. I can’t believe I’m almost there! Thank you Lord for a husband who supports my efforts and gives me strength when I’m ready to give up. Thank You for my two biggest cheerleaders who never stop telling me, “You can do it, Mommy!” And thank you Lord for the support of my family and close friends who pray for and with me regularly. I’m so, so grateful…

I’m sorry guys, I guess I’m in a thankful mood today. Lol… I sometimes delete my rants before posting, but I think I’ll leave this one up. There’s nothing like expressed gratitude, no?

Colors: red, cream, green, kraft
Theme: Embossed Flowers
Deadline: Thursday, September 1, 11:59pm EST

Well in the crafty world, today we have a new and totally fun challenge for you over at Embellish! This rich color palette begs for something holiday themed, but I thought I’d go against the grain and stray away from the obvious…

So I went back to an old technique that I love to play with, and that is creating these faux corrugated flowers! Do you remember the video tutorial I did on these back in April? I was too excited when I saw the theme for this new challenge because I knew I could pull out my ol’ crimper again!

In keeping with the “embossed flowers” theme, I pulled out a pretty CuttleBug embossing folder, and embossed my background panel. I don’t do this often enough, and I really should, because it adds such fun to cards and projects without being too much of a distraction.

I thought I’d re-post my video on creating these flowers for ease of access, so here’s the tutorial on how to make your own faux corrugated embellishments:

And here’s the link to view the video on YouTube if you’re having trouble seeing it from here. You can also view my original post with the tutorial here.

I wanted to also try my hand at embossing fabric with an embossing folder, and here are the results:

Hmmm, not as bold, that’s for sure. The back of the flower shows more definition of the embossing than the front of the fabric. But that’s probably because I backed the fabric with Heat ‘n Bond before I die cut it with my Cricut.

After I die cut it, I left the backing on the fabric, and then embossed it with another Cuttlebug folder. I inked it up a little bit in attempt to help show the embossed pattern more, but I’m not sure I like what that did, lol… Anyhow, we’ll see if Syd likes her new bow – I hope so!

I covered a hair clip with some green twill and glued it to the flower. You can see the back flower that I embossed, and you can see how well the pattern shows on the side with the fusible backing on it. Maybe I need to do something else to stiffen my fabric on the front side before embossing it… I dunno – any tips are welcome! Lol…

Well, I can’t wait to see what you come up with for the new Embellish Color Trends Challenge! You can add your link down below any time before Thursday, September 1, 11:59pm EST.

Happy embossing! And have a beautiful weekend!

Xoxo,

Embellish Color Trends – Coloring

Posted by Sarah Martina on Aug 5, 2011 in Embellish Magazine, The Craft's Meow | 9 comments

Hey everyone!

I’m popping in to share my card for the current Embellish Color Trends Challenge:

Sponsor: The Craft’s Meow
Theme: Coloring (Copics, markers, pencils, pastels, watercolor, ink, paint)
Colors: yellow, pink, green, kraft

Don’t those colors just make you happy?

I used the following stamps sets from The Craft’s Meow on my card: Telegram, Happiness Is…, Timeless Tags, and Life is a Carnival.

So the challenge is to use some form of coloring your images… so I cheated a little and just used my ink, lol. Truth is I totally made a boo boo and forgot to color like I was supposed to. I got in a creative zone and completely left that part out. Thank goodness dear Ashley is so forgiving, .

Anyhoo, there are lots of different techniques for coloring images (other than using your ink pads) – you can use water color pencils, paint, mists, chalk, markers… whatever you want… I’ll be giving this challenge another go over the weekend, and adhering to the rules a bit better than I did this time.

The rest of the DT did such a great job with the challenge, and you can see their projects on the Embellish blog. I’m really, really inspired by Ashley’s showcase of coloring techniques in her mini-album, so be sure to pop by there and check it out.

Then come play with us in the challenge…

You can link up your creations here:

Ok, I’m outta here y’all… lots to do, and my energy tank is on E!

Hugs to you all! Xo!

The Craft’s Meow August Release Blog Hop

Posted by Sarah Martina on Aug 1, 2011 in The Craft's Meow | 26 comments

Hey everyone!

The Craft’s Meow has a really special release for you this month with 4 great sets by Jenny Suchin, TCM’s newest stamp designer, and Nina Brackett of Nina B. Designs. The four sets being released are:

- In Tandem,
- Telegram,
- Owl Be Thinking of You, &
- Owl Be Seeing You In Class

I used Telegram and In Tandem on my card today. I have some back-to-school projects that are in progress using Owl Be Seeing You In Class, and I’ll be sharing those with you soon.

There are so many little sentiments and images in the Telegram set, that it was hard for me to decide which ones to use on this card. So, to squeeze some more stamping in, lol, I stamped up a little Melissa Frances tag to tuck into the card front.