You're the Man Day 4

I loved hearing about who all you would make cards for! Here's my list of masculine cards I have to make from time to time:

1. Dad and Father-in-law

2. Brother Daniel

3. My two bother-in-laws

4. Chase's grandfather

5. Are many many uncles

6. Our co-workers

7. Our guy friends
8. Well and off course my number one guy, Chase

That's a lot of guys, and even if you just made cards for their birthdays that would be a lot of cards. For today's card I wanted to show you another card utilizing that fabulous bolt. I just love how versatile that thing is (and just wait in the video I have another way to use it that can be used for any card background).

For this card. I stamped the top of the bold eight times, and embossed the image. I punched out all the squares, matted them, and created this clean grid style card. 

This card so reminds me of the Brady Bunch. Weird huh. 

Today I also have two videos to show you how this set works. I've broken the videos into to parts for easy viewing.

Part 1: You can also view at YouTube here. 

Part 2: You can view over on YouTube here.

And now the fabulous Dana! Just like the last two days I challenged the Design Team and Guest Designers to not only make cards for men, but to also make an everyday card as well. Both of Dana's cards are just so cute!

Aren't those so cute. I just love the real screws she used. And see that "O" pattern on her girl card? That's the "O" from Bro! That's one idea I'm certainly going to use from Dana.

Don't miss tomorrow! We have two very special guest designers that will be showing off their creations! And then at midnight on May 6 the set will be available, just in time for Father's Day next month!

I'd love to hear your favorite technique or stamp from the set so far! All comments enter you into a chance to win the set, which will be given away at 10 pm central May 5.

And I just wanted to thank all of you for your continued support! I know you all have tons of choices when it comes to where you buy stamps, and I don't take that lightly!

You're the Man Day 3

Well yesterday was a very interesting day. Nashville has had major flooding, and honestly it's been very scary. My family specifically had a scary day trying to get my sister home from work. I can honestly say I've never seen anything like we've experienced in the last two days. We've actually had a quarter of our yearly rain in two days. Is that not crazy?

Well moving on to much more fun things, I'm loving hearing your thoughts on the new set! I've been so excited to hear that many of you have the same difficulty with guy cards. I truly think this set is perfect for that.

Today I wanted to show you a card with more layers. And I wanted to show you this great bolt. I designed it so that it will big enough to use in a lot of ways.

I love that bolt, and again I'll give my husband credit. He's the one that drew it. And actually in this card you can't see the end of it. I've cut the end of the bold off clean with the bottom of my card. One thing that is hard to see is the DAD pattern I've stamped on the black with VersaMark. I love how these bold sentiments can be used for making a background as well.

And now I have these amazing cards from Alice to show you! Again I challenged the Design Team and Guest Designers to not only make cards for men, but to also make an everyday card as well. You are going to love these! Alice's use of the inside of her masculine card is just genius!

OUTSIDE

 INSIDE

And check out her super feminine card!

Alice has created these gorgeous patterns using the chevron/tires and the sentiments. She's simply replaced the frame's screws with pearls... gorgeous! Visit Alice's blog for more details! 

And here's the schedule for the rest of the week!

May 4: Dana will showcase her cards and I'll have a video showing you You're the Man and all the little tricks to the set!
May 5: I have two very special guest designers that will be featured! I've already seen their cards and you don't want to miss them!
May 6: Release of the new set!

Oh and don't forget I'll be drawing one winner to receive the set from all the comments through May 5th at 10 pm central. So who is the first guy you would use this set to make a card for?

You're the Man Day 2

Well, I just wanted to see how hard I could make our little guessing game, and well it's looks like I achieved that! It's funny because I can still see the set, but obviously that's because I designed it!

So let me tell you about this set. My husband Chase played a huge part in this set. Actually if you remember this video, Chase was testing some of the images for me back then. This set, just like For the Love of Dots, was a set that I needed. I did not have one masculine set before this set. I knew I wanted something graphic and clean and truly for the men in my life. As our Design team member Dana says, "I love that it is truly masculine." Chase was great in making sure it was just that, masculine.

Today I wanted to show you have great just the images from the set. I've stamp all of the images in black to create these three simple, clean cards. 

This set has several background building pieces as well as interchangeable sentiments that can be used with the frame featured in these cards or without.

Thanks to Kristina Werner there's been a lot of talk about one layer cards, and this set is super easy to use for that exact thing. The only extra thing I used on these cards was a little crystal effects on the screws!

And this is truly the beginning of what this set has to offer! I'll be breaking down all the pieces as we go along this week!

And I have a special treat to show you.  I challenged the Design Team and Guest Designers to not only make cards for men, but to also make an everyday card as well. You are really going to be amazed at their work and how great the chevron/tire tracks look on any card! First up is the fabulous Paulina.

 

For the above card she used You're the May, Key to My Heart and Look Up! Don't you love how well the sets work together? And that first card!!!! So fun yet. I love how just adding your own coloring to the background stamps gives them such a great look! Visit Paulina's blog for more details!

And here's the schedule for the rest of the week!

May 3: Alice will be bringing you her latest creations, and I'll show you more peeks from me!
May 4: Dana will showcase her cards and I'll have a video showing you You're the Man and all the little tricks to the set!
May 5: I have two very special guest designers that will be featured! I've already seen their cards and you don't want to miss them!
May 6: Release of the new set!

Oh and don't forget I'll be drawing one winner to receive the set from all the comments through May 5th at 10 pm central. So what do you think? Do you think masculine cards are hard? I hope I've created a set that will help us ALL in making them easier!

Release Week Begins!

Are you ready to guess? I think this might be my favorite distortion job to date. For those of you that are new to Practicing Creativity, this is an EXTREMELY distorted (although cool in my opinion) image of the set that will release on May 6 at our store.

So what do you think? I think this is my favorite post each month, so let me hear them, the crazier the better!

This is another set that I was completely missing in my collection. I hope you'll feel the same way.

I'll be giving away this set to one person that comments between now and May 5 (there is not a limit on comments).

I hope you all are having a great weekend!

EBTKS Challenge 14 - Envelopes

Lynnette has an awesome challenge for us! Actually when she first posted it I thought, "Why didn't I think of that?" I feel like I've been saying that a lot lately!

And I thought this would be a pretty easy challenge, but I just kind of froze. Thankfully it came back quickly when I pulled out some of my new goodies from Glitz.

I used a coin envelope more as a background than anything else, but I do like the way it turned out!

Patterned Paper: Distressed Couture Paper - Blocks (Glitz)
Cardstock: Ocean Tides (PTI)
Rub On: Vintage Extras (Glitz)
Ribbon: Neptune Cabbage Roses Ribbon (MemrieMare)
Misc: Shipping Tag

And you're definitely going to want to play along with this challenge! Our sponsor for this challenge is the fabulous Ashley N. Newell for Ippity. The winner of this challenge will have the opportunity to be our next guest designer and will get this great set:

You can view more Ippity sets on Ashley's blog, Heart Hugs.

So come play along and see the other girls fabulous cards on the EBTKS blog!

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I wanted to thank you all for your kind words for the new design team! I've already seen some of their fantastic work for this release and you are going to love it! And speaking of the next release, the fun starts TOMORROW! See you then!

Introducing the Practicing Creativity Design Team

Remember how I was really unsure about doing a design team? Remember how I was nervous about having to actually choose? Well... I was totally correct in feeling that way. It was so hard to pick, and trust me I know how it feels to not get picked. It's just not fun. I do want to encourage everyone that applied to keep trying, there was seriously not one untalented person that applied. I'm always so impressed and inspired by the community of paper crafters out there!

But without further ado,  I'd like to introduce you to three fantastic card makers. I'm seriously so excited to see what they create next!

 Alice's {Little} Wonderland

I am a happy card maker living in Northern California with my husband and two lovely cats. I started scrapbooking about 3.5 or 4 years ago and started making cards soon after. I fell in love right away with card making and that's has taken over most of my scrapbooking time. I love and enjoy being able to make all my "thank yous" and "Happy Birthdays" tangible so that my family and friends can feel and treasure them. =) 

 

Kimet, Art, and Life

I'm a left-handed art and craft lover! I enjoy paper crafts, altered art, knitting, cooking, gardening, and music. I fell into the stamping world by accident in 2000 when I purchased my first rubber stamp at a yard sale! Cards have always been my specialty and my style is pretty eclectic because I like to dabble in just about everything from vintage/shabby to clean and simple. My husband and I are the proud parents of 2 adopted boys, 2 cats and 1 dog. We live in beautiful upstate New York. I am a PPQ Officer with the USDA and spend most of my workdays outside, but in the early morning hours you can find me in my studio covered with ink. 

 Pretty Pink Posh

I'm a girly girl who has a tendency to be a perfectionist. I started stamping when I was a little girl and my love for it has grown over the years. I love pink, scallops, polka dots, bows and anything
sparkly- elements that can be seen on almost all of my creations. During the day I'm a manager at a rubber stamp company and at night you can usually find me stamping away in my studio. Yes, I enjoy stamps so much that I spend almost all my waking hours around them! When I do step away from my stamps, I enjoy shopping, watching movies, exercising and spending time with my friends.

I am so excited to be on board with the PCD design team- I can't wait to share my love of these stamps with you!

You'll get to see these ladies fabulous work starting with this release which starts on Saturday!

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By the way if you have not seen Dana's tutorial on using the You're Dandy rays you are totally missing out. It's brilliant!

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Speaking of You're Dandy, both You're Dandy and For the Love of Dots will be back in stock this weekend!

Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger

I rarely post about decorating these days, but besides paper crafts I love to decorate. I also love decor blogs and magazines. I can make a list of changes and decorating I'd like to do to my house a mile long. In many ways it's like creating on a larger scale. And trust me my love of neutrals and textures seriously comes out in my home. All that to say when I saw this image for today's Tuesday Trigger .... I just thought... ahhh...

I wanted to make a mostly white card. I started with my background that I embossed with white. I wish you could see it in person!

Stamps: Woodgrain Silhouettes Additions (WPlus9); Truly Appreciated (Hero Arts)
Ink: White Craft (Stampin' Up)
Cardstock: White (Gina K); New Leaf, Spring Rain (Papertrey Ink)
Ribbon: Celery and White Stripe, White Satin (May Arts)
Thread: White (Coats and Clark)

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I'm off to watch Chase play softball with my little sister! We are going to bundle up... it's cold here!