My Thoughts Exactly April Release!

Happy Sunday everyone! Today is an awesome day because it's release day at My Thoughts Exactly! If you have arrived from Jennifer's blog you are on the right track if not be sure to start from the beginning you don't want to miss anything. April's release is a must have in some form. There are four total sets being released and they fit so many occasions you for sure need to buy at least two if not all four! That will make more sense once you see them. Ok are you ready to see them? I won't make you wait today ;)

Introducing:

Big Thoughts:

 Mini Thoughts:

More Big Thoughts:

More Mini Thoughts:

Aren't these just awesome?!? So if you can't tell there are two big sets two corresponding mini sets. The big sets are 4"x6" and the mini sets are 3"x4". As always the stamps are 100% clear photo-polymer and made right here in the USA. Each of the big sets will be $15 a piece, the mini sets will be $10 each, and there are also several bundles to choose from to save some money. If you are interested in any of the bundles please see the stamp store for details. Alyssa has decided to do a little giveaway for the release and one lucky commenter from all the blogs will win the entire set! That is awesome, each comment you leave along the hop counts as a new entry so be sure to stop at all the blogs! In case you get lost here is the full lineup:

Alyssa - www.MyThoughtsExactly.co
Ashley - hearthugsdesigns.blogspot.com
Bee - dare2beecreative.blogspot.com
Belinda - beeshiveofdrama.blogspot.com
Benedicte - benelun.overblog.com
Jennifer - ourchangeofart.blogspot.com <- you were just here
Jessica - craftyrktsci.blogspot.com <- you are here
Kendra - luv2scrapnmakecards.blogspot.com <- your next stop
Lenae - sugargemscrafts.blogspot.com
Tracy - queeniesscrapmad.blogspot.com
Becki (Our Guest Designer) - happycardfactory.blogspot.com

Ok are you ready to see some projects? Yup I said PROJECTS!!

The first card is a fun little birthday card I created using the Big Thoughts set. The paper is from My Mind's Eye Lime Twist Life of the Party collection. The little epoxy circles were created using Echo Park's Playground paper and an Epiphany Craft's shape studio. The eyelet edge punch is from Stampin' Up! as is the ribbon.

The second card is super fun! I used the new skinny pop up slider svgs from Sugar Gem. These SVGs are the perfect combination of pop up cards and zipper cards. All the patterned paper is from Echo Park's Country Drive and Playground collections. The twine is from the Twinery and the little epoxy circle is from Epiphany Craft's shape studios, I just used the title from the Playground paper to create it (I hate to throw anything away!).

When you pull on the little play epoxy the sentiment is revealed. I used the More Big Thoughts sets for this card.

Last but not least I have a fun little gift card holder card that I have been dying to make forever! I used two sets for this card, More Big Thoughts and Mini Thoughts. Here you can really see the difference in size between the Big and Mini sets. The designer paper is from My Mind's Eye Lime Twist Life of the Party collection and the twine is from Trendy Twine. The coffee cup was a set I got at Achiever's awhile back, it came with the instructions to make this gift card holder. Where is the gift card well untie the twine!

 It's inside the cup! How fun is that?!? Now it's kind of hard to see in these pictures but I ran the cute little cupcake sleeve through my paper crimper and then flattened it out some before adhering it to the card. 

Here's a better angle to see the crimping. 

That's all I have for you today, now hop on over to Kendra's blog. And remember to leave everyone a little love for a chance to win the entire April release!

Happy crafting,

Jessica

Happy Spring!

Happy Thursday everyone! Today is design team Thursday at My Thoughts Exactly. I have a fun little card for you today that showcases the new Easter Greetings set. Even though the set is called Easter Greetings it really can be used for anything spring related! So I'm going to show you a non-Easter related way to use the set :)

Isn't it just fun and bright? If you didn't already know the Springtime collection from Echo Park is my favorite paper line right now. All of the paper is from the Springtime collection, yes even the card base :) I just love the colors and designs, they go so well with the Easter Greetings stamps too! I also used some Stampin' Up! pom pom , Trendy Twine, and a  few Epiphany Crafts shape studio flowers to embellish.  The card is a standard A2 but it folds over on the right hand side and is held closed by a little twine and a brad. The sentiment is stamped on one of the journaling cards in the Springtime collection. Here is what it looks like open.

I'm not really sure who this is going to yet so I left the inside blank. Be sure to stop by the My Thoughts Exactly blog to check out all the other design team creations today!

Happy crafting!
Jessica

Conversation Hearts...

Good morning everyone! I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend. It has been a nice relaxing one for us. I did a little, well actually a lot, of crafting. Today is my design team day at SVG Attic and I am in love with this project. It started out as a much smaller project and before I knew it there were 41 different elements cut out and assembled! So I won't make you wait any longer (be prepared for picture overload):

Well?!? This turned out better than I expected. The basket and little heart boxes inside are from the Heart Shaped Box collection, the roses are from the Be Mine collection, and the butterflies are from the new Valentine Elements collection. Each of the strip weaved in the basket and the handle are stamped with background stamps. The light pink strips and the handle are stamped with a SP and Company and the dark pink strips use a stamp from October Afternoon. Here's a look at a few of the heart boxes, any guesses of how many there are?

Here's a little close up of the roses and butterflies, there are 3 of each on both sides of the handle. Both are spritzed with glimmer mist (my new found obsession...).

There are 4 colors of heart boxes inside and each of them is stamped with conversation hearts from My Thoughts Exactly's Candy Heart Stamps. In case you are wondering each of the hearts has a different message on it, none of them are the same! All the little boxes are tied shut with Valentine Trendy Twine.

Here are all the kraft heart boxes.

All the pink ones.

All the read ones.

And all the white ones.

Ok did you keep count? Well there are 28 in all!

Have you asked what's in all those little heart boxes yet? I promise they are not empty, any idea how little they are? Well here is the answer to all of those questions...

Each heart box has a little dove chocolate heart in it. As you can figure out everything is pretty tiny for this project. The basket is approximately 6" x 6", the roses are about an inch in diameter, the butterflies are also about an inch, and the candy heart boxes are just under 2" big. I could never have imagined cutting anything this small before my Zing arrived!

Well I hope you enjoyed today's project. Be sure to stop by SVG Attic and pick up all your favorite files. Oh yea there just might be a 50% sale going on right now through Valentine's Day!

Happy crafting!

My Thoughts Exactly February Release Hop!

Happy Wednesday everyone! Today is a super exciting day. As you may know My Thoughts Exactly released some oh so cute Valentine's Day stamps. Well today is the official release day and blog hop! If you have arrived from Jen's blog than you are on the right track! If you have just stopped by to see what's going on, you really want to start from the beginning. There is so much talent on this team that you won't want to miss a single project.

Before I get to my projects just a few details about these amazing stamps. They are all manufactured here in the USA out of 100% clear photopolymer. The price you see in the stamp store includes shipping and tax within the USA! Now for all of your international readers no fear because My Thoughts Exactly does ship internationally for an additional fee! Usually there are only one or two sets for each release this month there are SEVEN! That's right seven: Lovey Puns Animals, Lovey Puns Food, Candy Hearts, Candy Heats Add On 1, Candy Heats Add On 2, Candy Heats Add On 3, and Love Label! There are also several money saving bundles that you can choose from including an I Want It All Bundle. For today only, the day of the release hop, if you purchase any of the new sets you'll get the Love Label set for free! Ok have I blabbed enough yet? :)

I made four cards for today's blog hop, I know that's unheard of for me, but don't get too excited they are all fairly simple ones. The first two are very girly, like me, and inspired by projects I've found on Pinterest :)

 I used the Lovey Puns Animals, Lovey Puns Food, and the Love Label for this first card. The 'I love you', love heart, and 'xoxo' stamps are all from the animals set. The plain heart inside the small heart cutout can be found in the food set. I used the love label to create the circle doily looking thing on the top.

The second card uses the Lovey Puns Food set for the sentiment. I used an October Afternoon stamp for the doily and the whole card is spritzed with glimmer mist. I think this might be the first single layer card I have ever published on my blog. I need to do more of these simple cards. They are so fun and fast to complete.

Ok so there you have two very girly cards, I thought we needed something for the gentlemen in our lives as well. When I first saw the design for the Lovey Puns Animals set there was on word that really stuck out to me...HOPPY and HOP! The funny thing is I was not thinking animals at all!

I total had beer in mind! My father is an award winning home brewer so I knew exactly what I would be using HOP and HOPPY for :) Of course I added a little Trendy Twine to the card and created a fun little beer paper with an old Stampin' Up! image I found. So you may have noticed on my FB page that I did a major cleaning of my craft room this weekend well let me tell you I found things I didn't even know I had! Perfect example this beer stamp, I also found multiples of some stamps sets >.< But all is right in my craft world now, I'm all organized and all my stamp sets are now alphabetized! Yes, I may be a little OCD.

For my last card I found this awesome sketch over at Card Positioning Systems and thought it would make a fun beer card.

I created a frame using Make-The and changed the circles out for a square and a heart. I colored the beer glasses in on this card and used stickles to accent the foam (it's kind of hard to see in the picture but it's there I promise).

Well that about does it for me today. Your next stop will be the ever talented and one of our newest design team pals Kendra! Now be sure to check out all the blogs on the hop and leave lots of love, the stamp fairy will be picking one lucky commenter from ALL the comments on all the blogs on the hop to win an I Want It All bundle!!!

Just in case you get lost here is the complete list of blogs:

Alyssa

Ashley

Bee

Belinda

Benedicte - Her blog is in French but there will be an option to translate once you get there

Jen - You were just here

Jessica - That's me

Kendra - You're next stop

Lenae

Tracy

Kim - Or Guest Designer this month, you'll get to see more of her work at the end of the month during the DT's break

Happy Crafting!

I love you!

Hello everyone! It's Thursday which can only mean one thing...it's Design Team Thursday over at My Thoughts Exactly! I am in the Valentine's day mood lately, I think it just may be my favorite holiday to craft for. So today I have a fun little love themed card using the Under the Sea and Many Thanks sets.

This is not the original project I had in mind for today, but I do love how it came out. The 'I love you' stamp is from  Under the Sea. I got the idea for the rainbow effect from the Runway Inspired Challenge blog, they have the best inspiration pictures! Now you'll notice the 'I love you' is stamped a bunch of times with no smudges, I'll even let you look under the cutout if you'd like. Usually I have trouble getting my stamps to line up this perfect with no smudges. Well a few weeks ago Lenae, one of the fabulous ladies on the MTE DT, posted a video about how she stamps. Her little 'trick' is pure genius! I will never again have smudged images, you can check out her video here. Do you all know the Love sculpture in Manhattan? Well I just love it, one day I'll get to go see it, and it was the inspiration for the love block cutout. I spritzed the love cutout with  red chalkboard and pearl glimmer mists before foam taping it to the card...I'm not kidding I think I used 20 foam squares (someone got a little over zealous with the glimmer mist and the love cutout no longer laid flat). Now a card would not be complete without a little sentiment on the inside.

The hearts are from the Many Thanks set and the 'I do' is from the Under the Sea set.

In case you haven't head the February My Thoughts Exactly stamp release went live a little early. You see all the stamps are themed around love so they are perfect for all the Valentine's day projects. Alyssa wanted to make sure you all had ample time to create with them so she released them a little early :) There are a total of 7 sets to buy! How awesome is that?!? Be sure to stop back on February 1st for the official release party blog hop. Now head over to see what the lovely Kendra and Benedicte have created today. Happy crafting!

My Thoughts Exactly Design Team 2012!

Hello...hello...is there anyone out there? It seems like it has been forever since I posted anything here. The holidays this year were just crazy for us! I am looking forward to life getting back to 'normal' whatever normal may be. 

It's hard to believe that 2011 is over already but I'm ready for what 2012 has in store for us. As it is the new year that means a new design team at My Thoughts Exactly. There are a few new faces and one new title :) If you haven't noticed yet over there on the right hand side my design team badge for MTE has had a little face lift. Alyssa asked if anyone would be willing to help her out as design team coordinator and of course I offered up what assistance I can provide her. It is going to be a fantastic year for MTE I can feel it now! As a fun little way of introducing the new DT Alyssa decided to do little introductions for each of the ladies on the team. So starting today for the next 9 days you will get to meet a new DT member each day and have a chance to win their favorite MTE stamp set! How awesome is that?!?

We were all asked to create a project with our favorite MTE stamp set, one that describes us as designers. My favorite set...wait do I really have to pick just one?!? Well as you may know I'm a little indecisive so I used four different sets and you have the chance to win one of them, details will follow at the end of the post. Are you ready to see my project? I think it's my favorite project yet. It uses all my favorite MTE stamps, my favorite paper company, my favorite twine, my favorite color, and one of my new favorite SVG files...here it is!

Well what do you think? I think it's super fun! I was thinking of all the things I love about my boyfriend and all the amazing things we have been able to do together as I put this together. I think this will be the perfect decoration for Valentine's Day. Can you pick out all the stamp sets, each letter features a different set? We'll go through them all in some close up pictures.

The L features the Birds and the Bees set and the O features stamps from the Under the Sea set. Obviously my favorite color is pink :), my favorite paper company is October Afternoon (all the designer paper is from OA), my favorite twine is the new Valentine Cherry Cupcake from Trendy Twine, and one of my new favorite SVG files is the 3D letter collection from SVG Cuts.

The V features stamps from the Sweet Thoughts set.

And the E features stamps from the Many Thanks set.

Now you have a chance to win one of the stamp sets featured in my project...which one you ask? Well, the set that got me hooked on MTE stamps: the Birds and the Bees set. Entering the giveaway is quite simple just comment on this post and be sure to include an email address so I can contact you if you win. The winner will be announced on Wednesday January 11. I hope you are having a wonderful start to your New Year and may your heart be filled with love throughout the year.

Happy crafting,

Gifts From the Heart Blog Hop!

Hello and happy weekend to you! Today was the last day of classes for us so it will be a joyous weekend for me. I'm also headed to a cookie exchange party at my mom's house so that will be a lot of fun. Enough of my babbling and on to what you came for!

Today is the start of the Gifts From the Heart Blog Hop! The ladies at SVG Attic are putting on a blog hop full of cute little gift ideas for all the people you see on a daily basis but just need a small gift for. If you just came from Kasi's blog you are on the right track! If you are just popping by my little corner of the world and you missed the beginning of the hop you can start at the SVG Attic blog. Trust me you won't want to miss any of the projects. In case you get lost along the way here is the line up of talent:

SVG Attic

Jessica B

Ruthie

Kasi <-- You were just here.

Jessica L <-- That's me!

Laura <-- You're next stop.

Lisa

Jearise

Corri

Katie

Sandra

So are you ready to see what I made? Well I'm going to tell you a little story about my project first, I know I'm a tease :) As you may have seen earlier my great-grandmother passed away last week and we had her funeral earlier this week. Well at lunch after the service we were all sitting around sharing stories and memories. One of the things that all the kids remembered was great-grandma's candy and marshmallows. She made sure to have them at all times cause you never know when one of those grand-kids was going to stop by. Now these were not any old candies or marshmallows, it was always Nips (the chocolate filled ones) and the pastel fruit flavored marshmallows. So I decided to make a snowman for someone special with all the special things great-grandma always gave us. Now a snowman has three sections so I needed one more treat to complete the goodies...kisses! There was always a kiss ready and waiting for you when you got to great-grandma's. So without further ado here is my little snowman full of great-grandma's goodies.

Isn't he just too cute?!? I used the gift favor box from the Holiday Cheer Boxes set and cut them at 3 different sizes to create the snowman. The snowman's eyes, nose, buttons, and arms are from the Build A Snowman set. I just made the snowman's hat with out any SVGs (it didn't come out that great either) but you could use the rosette from the gift card box in the Holiday Cheer Boxes set for the brim if you wanted and the hat in the Mad Tea Party set for the hat shape, just cut it really small :)

Here is a close up of the snowman's face and hat. Of course I wrapped the hat with a little twine to create the band.

Here is a close up of the snowman's banner and his mid section. The banner says "wishing you the happiest holidays." Of course I used some more twine to attach the banner to the snowman's arms.

Last picture is a side view of the snowman so you can see how I attached all the boxes together...more twine! I think I have an obsession with twine :) It just goes so well with all the SVG Attic files.

I hope you have enjoyed my project today. Stop by SVG Attic to pick up all your favorite files and for the rest of the hop they will all be 50% off with code GIFT at checkout. Also be sure to get your free file set, O Christmas Tree, with every purchase of $9.98 or more with code FREE at checkout. Now what's a blog hop without candy? Jessica will be giving away two $50 gift cards to lucky readers! The rules are you have to follow the SVG Attic blog, become a follower of all the hop blogs, and leave a comment on each of the blogs.There are also a two opportunities for extra bonus entries: 1. become a fan of SVG Attic on Facebook 2. share the blog hop on Facebook and tag SVG Attic in the post (1 entry per share). Now on to your next stop, the lovely Laura!

Happy crafting,

Spooky Tree

Hello and happy Sunday to you! I hope you are all enjoying your weekend, I know I am. Today is my design team day over at SVG Attic. I found a really cool tree on Pinterest

I knew I had to try this as a card for Halloween right away! How cool would it be to have a spooky tree pop out of a card base like this? Ok, maybe only I think that would be really cool :) So I went to work using the 3D spooky tree from the Happy Haunt Halloween Party Kit. I'll explain what I did as you look at the pictures...

I really wanted to use paper that you couldn't really tell what was about to pop out of the page so I went with black, then added the cool spooky eyes to be like creepy crawlies peering out of the dark at you. Are you scared yet? Of course I had to add a little warning in the corner; you never know what may happen. You can see there are a few little spots where the tree is lifted up a little, well if you tug on them a little, this is what happens...

Ahhh the tree is alive! Ok so you could see the face on the tree the whole time but it's still pretty cool. I used the awesome node editing feature in Make the Cut to remove the slit at the bottom of the tree base that would normally be used to put the stand in to make it 3D. I also used the node editing feature to remove the bottom edge of the tree, so that it would just fold up from the page.

It's hard to see in the picture but the background paper is covered in red creepy crawly spiders.

I ran out of my favorite glue as I was finishing this card, so rather than go get some I just used the other glue I had on hand...big mistake! You can see that glue was too wet and made my card curl up, I was sad but not going to start over, it took about 40 minutes to get the tree to cut out using my Cricut. Because the tree is so small, about 5.75 inches square, I had to use the slowest cut speed to get the little intricate cuts to come out ok. Of course I decorated the back with a little message using a set of $1 stickers I got from Target, I think it was. I inked the edges of the back too, white was just a little too harsh of a color contrast from the front :)

Well, I hope you have you weren't too scared by my spooky tree. Here is a little sneak peak of some projects to come. Be sure to stop back September 30 - October 2 for the Sook-tacular Blog Hop, October 1 for the My Thoughts Exactly stamp release party, and October 7-10 for the Fang-tastic Blog Hop! I know there is a lot going on here in the next few weeks and it is all going to be AWESOME!

Happy crafting,