Birthday Giveaway Winner

The response to the birthday wishes for my real life petunia was overwhelming.   She felt so incredibly special.  Thank you so much to everyone that commented here, on Instagram and Facebook.

The little petunia choose Bear as the winner.  Bear wished her a happy birthday and had Connie Pickard relay the message on Facebook.  If Connie can please email me so we can send Bear the prize.

Taylored Expression with MISTI

I was quite flattered when Taylored Expressions contacted me to do a video using their cling mounted stamps.  Butterflies zoomed around in my stomach at the opportunity.

I had never owned their stamps and was amazed at the quality.  The stamps come on this plastic sheet with pre-punched holes to store in a binder.  Simply Stamped Tulips had a combination of sentiments that caught my eye.

At first I was planning to do an Easter card, but I did not allow enough space for the sentiment.  So now I am prepared for Mother's Day.  It's a little early but time is valuable right now and that is at least one thing I can mark off my to do list.

My mom has always loved plants and flowers.  I love them too but I do not possess the green thumb that she has.   My mom can grow anything.  She can take a stem and make it sprout roots.  We do share the crafty gene.   Growing up I remember my mom crocheting, sewing, flower arranging and making ceramics.

The last time she came for a visit was when I was still packing boxes in my home and I was transitioning to a fulfillment center.  I had flown her up to help me because I was scheduled to work full time for two weeks.  She stayed for three weeks and I was too tired to teach her to stamp.  Her next visit I will induct her into the MISTI community.

Thanks to the wonderful people at Taylored Expressions for helping me make my mom an awesome card by sending me these beautiful stamps.   Here is the video that I prepared for them.


Supplies used:
Stamp: Simply Stamped Tulips
Ink Colors: Lawn Fawn
Celery Stick
Freshly Cut Grass
Wild Rose
Cranberry
Lobster

Versafine Black Onyx Ink

Dies:  Lawn Fawn
Stitched Large Stackable Rectangles
Stitched Small Stackable Rectangles

Pattern Paper:  Lawn Fawn
Perfectly Plaid
American Crafts:  Dear Lizzy Lucky Charm

My Little Petunia's Birthday Giveaway

Happy Birthday to my sweet little petunia.   This beauty turns 11 today.  How time has passed.  This little girl has the sweetest heart I know.  I am not just saying this because I am her mother.  I am saying this because she just is and if you met her, you would agree.

She has so much love in her, my heart soars knowing that God has blessed me with a little piece of Him in her.  Knowing how much I love her reminds me of how much God loves me.

So today we have a birthday giveaway.  We have the last Young at Heart Stamp of Approval collection there is.  I snagged this box of goodies when there were only two left.  I have been saving it for this since the theme was birthday. The next Stamp of Approval is set for April 20th.

If you missed this collection,  here is a chance to win it.  Just leave my sweet little petunia a birthday message for her to read and let her know what you liked to play with at her age.  I will let her pick the winner.

Giveaway ends at midnight on March 26, 2016.

Photos are by Nicolinger Photography.

Stamp of Approval: Young at Heart

I promise I will do a CHA wrap up post soon.  But I will tell you that I did get to meet the classy Catherine Pooler.  Let me just say, she is so beautiful.  We clicked right away.  She is definitely my sister from another mother.

Catherine was kind enough to send me the latest Stamp of Approval Collection: Young at Heart.  I wasn't expecting the package, so when it arrived I squealed with excitement.

I came up with another way to use the MISTI with stencils. I took advantage of the fixed corner and the magnets for positioning the stencil in the same spot.

There are so many possibilities with this collection.  It is a birthday themed collection.  Hopefully, with this I can get back on track with my birthday cards.   I have let my duties in the card ministry fall to the wayside.

If you hurry you can get the last of the collection.  Thanks for stopping by.

Giveaway Winner

The winner to the Neat and Tangled giveaway is Jessica.  Jessica is a blogger and can be found here.  Congratulations!!!!

Jessica, please send me an email here.

Bonus Day with Neat and Tangled

I hope you all have been enjoying my first collaboration week.  It was a pleasure to have them here.  Neat and Tangled really pampered me with providing with their  wonderful stamp sets.  Due to the weather my package was a little late.  So I just completed this card in hopes of participated at the end.

I created the background using the Clouds stamp set and a lot of masking.  The sentiment from that same set was stamped on the cloud on the Just Thinking of You stamp set.  

This card is a great reminder to me that when things are tough that there is always something good hiding in it.  Sometimes, I focus on the dark and not the light.  It is so easy to get wrapped up in the trouble and forget to look around at all the people that lift you up in encouragement.

Neat and Tangled has been a great example of that silver lining.  They did an awesome job this week with their talented design team.  Especially, Miriam Prantner that orchestrated this whole collaboration.  Thank you Neat and Tangled.

Please enjoy this video.

Hey everyone!  Today is the last day of our Neat & Tangled takeover here on the My Sweet Petunia blog.  We have been having such fun sharing projects with you here, so if you're just tuning in now, be sure to look back at the rest of this week's posts! 

OK, I have a dirty little secret:  I am a horrible stamper.  Seriously, not good.  I can't stamp in a straight line let alone create a pattern that doesn't get all cattywompus (sp?) on me, and even when it comes to sentiments I'm forever stamping them crooked or I don't get an even inking.  I have wasted a good forest worth of paper on mess ups in my crafting career.

That's why I'm so enamored with the MISTI.  Not only does it allow you to do a lot really great techniques, but it's a huge time saver and paper saver because it allows you to stamp correctly and re-stamp when you don't get it quite right.



One quick tip before we get to the card:  when I first got my MISTI (and I'm right handed), I was using it so that it opened like a book that you're reading.  I've since discovered that the opposite direction works best.  If you open the life left to right, it's easier to ink and more natural to shut, at least for me.

OK, so let's talk about the card.  I am a big fan of multi-step stamps.  I love the way they look, heck, I even designed a set for the N&T January release, but I've kind of stayed away from them because, as we established earlier, I am a horrible stamper.

So to really test out my MISTI, I pulled out my new Ornate Frames set and went to work.



The frame is all stamped in Memento Tuxedo black, but the first layer is second generation stamped.  Now when you do this you won't get a really even stamping, that's to be expected, especially with darker colors, but for this application, a kind of vintagey/antique frame, it works.



The second layer is stamped in first generation.  The MISTI made it super easy to line things up, and a tip on this stamp set is to center the frames using the middle opening.



Finally the last layer.  I actually stamped this three times, twice with the Memento to get a darker color, and then a third time with Versamark as I wanted to clear emboss that last layer to not only make it even darker, but to give it some extra shine/texture (sorry this photo is HORRIBLE, I almost didn't include it, but I wanted you to see the darker areas - this is before the embossing)



Here you can see the embossing powder on it.

The MISTI is also great with positioning.  Here I placed my frame (which I had die cut) on the card, then I was able to place my sentiment using the frame as a reference, especially helpful too since I didn't want to use the whole sentiment (from Be My Valentine) and needed to do some masking when I inked.



Once that was stamped, I added a bit of coloring to the stamped heart, popped the frame up (with two layers of foam tape) and placed a few of my Scored Shapes Dies in the center, also popped up (with one layer of foam tape)



I really can't say enough good things about my MISTI.  I would not be stamping multi-step images if I didn't have it!

Just a reminder that there are some BIG prizes up for grabs this week.  Leave a comment on each of the posts this week here on the My Sweet Petunia blog to be entered to win a $100 credit to the Neat & Tangled store, and be sure to hop over to the Neat & Tangled blog.  One lucky commenter over there will win a new MISTI!!!!

On behalf of the Neat & Tangled team we just want to thank Iliana/MySweet Petunia for collaborating with this this week.  To say that the team is excited about their MISTIs is a HUGE understatement.  We love them and we had so much fun taking over the blog here!

My Sweet Petunia MISTI Stamping Tool

Neat & Tangled Clear Stamps, Ornate Frames

Neat & Tangled Dies, Ornate Frames

Memento Ink Pad, Tuxedo Black

VersaFine Ink Pad, Onyx Black

WOW Embossing Powder, Super Fine - Clear Gloss

COPIC Sketch Marker R29, Lipstick Red

Scotch Double-Sided Foam Mounting Tape