Nautical or Patriotic... that is the challenge!

Welcome to the Mountain Plains Crafters Summer Challenge!  You have not one, but two choices; go nautical or go patriotic with your creation.  It's that time of season and we want you to choose whichever theme strikes your fancy.   Create a craft project (card, layout, DIY, etc.) and scroll to the bottom of this post for the InLinkz to link up.  We do have a few house rules, so read those at the bottom as well.

Before you read further, please visit May Arts Ribbon on Facebook and tell them "thanks for sponsoring the

challenge at MPC!"  You might wish to follow them as well.  There's always something fun going on over there and lots of crafty inspiration as well.

Well for my creation, I kinda did BOTH! Not really intentionally but that's what I ended up with

Where's the May Arts Ribbon, you may has asked yourself? humm, you see the wide blue/white stripes & the wide red/white stripes? That is May Arts Ribbon! Yes I was really thinking out of the box on that one as I really love both those ribbons

The lighthouse image is from Viva LasVegas Stamps Plate #923

For the water, I just blended several Faber-Castell Gelatos then rubbed lightly with water

Those amazing alphas? Well those are from my friend DeeDee at UmWowStudios AlphaOne

Now leave me some love, make something amazing & get it linked up!

Happy Father's Day

Welcome to the Mountain Plains Crafters celebration honoring Father's Day!

This year I'm celebrating big....

no not my biological dad

no not my adoptive dad

no not even my husband

My Brother!

You see my niece, Autumn, and two of her school-mates (all in the 7th grade when this occurred) did a National History Day presentation & won locally so they advanced to state!

Then at state, the did so well that advanced to nationals!

On June 12th, my brother will be borrowing my car to drive to Maryland for the competition, he's doing it up big, visiting his friends (aka free lodging) along the way. I'll get to see him {and my car} again on Father's Day

I am so proud of the dad he is!

Fancy Pants Be Different Paper, Embellishments & Stickers

therm-o-web 3d Foam Squares (to pop-up the Monster Dad)

Embossing Folder from The Paper Studio (clearance for $1.50.. whoop whoop)

Unity Blog Hop Time

Welcome to the Unity Stamp Company Blog Hop!

Our blog order for this one is:

Amy

Lynda

Teresa

Brittany

Maria

Doreen

Tifany

Wynne

Me!

I was surprised to receive ...everything Christmas

but happily surprised! Hope you enjoy what I created!

 I chose to leave off the star at the top of this sentiment & not use one of the great frames, the red ribbon is very blingy which contrasts nicely against the lace

Maybe I went a little crazy with the sequins but I thought it needed something different on the right side and the poinsettia flowers just seemed too obvious of a choice

Although I'm very much a traditional Christmas color kinda girl, on occassion I do enjoy using different colors... like this paper just screamed "use me", who was I to argue with the paper?

2 lucky people will win the Frankly Said Sentiment Kit... 

so make sure you comment!

Blog Hop winners with the GIU post on June 3

Unity Challenge

I'm so happy I got to participate in 

{May 14 - June 10}

Again with the random stamping, well I like it so it works for me!

I used two different Unity SMAK sets for this one:

Flowers are from Feb. 2015

(life is what you make it)

Sentiment from Nov. 2015

Trust Your Soul

Art Journal Update

I have been having So Much Fun with Donna Downey's Inspiration Wednesday

Art Journal classes (one every other Wednesday for 2015)

of course, I'm two lessons behind

meh, oh well... it's about the fun learning process and I'm having a great time

I'm just going to list what I remember doing different from the class

and these are in reverse order of classes (most recent shown first)

the most current one... well I changed A LOT about it since I didn't have the same paints or the paint marker and I don't care for the face stencils so I swapped that for this very cool bird, used an old Methodist Hymnal for my printed parts and used this awesome diamond stencil instead of the script, oh and I added that black framework that I think really makes it stand out.

this one I used the exact same paints as Donna but she went one layer further with black & I decided to keep it more nature-ish, I went with smaller wood letters so I could change up the sentiment by adding "me", and on the flip of the inclusion (back side of ing) I wrote "a better version of" so when it's flipped it reads

"be a better version of me", I also added butterflies {I obviously have a problem there}

 I didn't have all the supplies Donna had... made my own "wall tape" using cardstock & a hole punch, I didn't like all the black she had so I just used the Fine Liner to make tie-shaped scribbles, wrote my own thing on the left side and I added BLING!

This one I chose to use this paper that I've been hoarding for many years now because I love it so very much, the butterfly I stamped & hand-cut (it's double sided as well, kinda a sandwich so you can see this exact same thing on the flip side) 

 now This One, oh this one I adored and the same niece did as well, so our first shot at it again 16x20 canvas but in my Art Journal I changed up the tags to metal rimmed round and skipped the spray painting, used a different stencil on the inclusion and I don't have copper metallic paint so I went with gold and I left off the inspiration word but I'll tell you, the one hanging in my living room says

"Breathe it in, Let it out"

 this one is SOOOO not my favorite or any where even near "like" but hey, I did it

I used a stencil I had on hand, added the butterflies & made them this yellowish/greenish color and added the huge floral stamp

 this one I didn't change much on, I used orange, a different sentiment, the dotted stencil and for the nest I used old ripped up blue jeans - This one my 13-yo niece & I both loved so much that we made 16x20 canvases

Well now, on to the lesson from two weeks ago!

Thank You Peacock

So Suzy Stamps wants to see Thank You cards this month,

I just now got around to joining in the fun!

And since I adore this peacock, I just had to showcase him

for this one I did a little ink resist using Clear Embossing Powder and VersaMark

ink is all from Tattered Angels

The Sentiment paper didn't photograph well but the darker is the same color as the purple ink and the sentiment ink actually matches the darkest blue behind the peacock. Also both of the sentiment papers are sparkly!

It's one of those "looks better IRL type of things"

Happy Blogoversary Deb

My friend & sister Design Team Member, Deb is having her very first Blogoversary!
We're doing a little Hop so make sure you go visit her blog: Meticulosity and leave lots of love

To help her celebrate, I created this with her in mind.

Her favorite colors: Lilac & Pink, plus she loves turquoise!

 this is an 8x10 canvas

inspired by Vicky Papaioannou

I selected this song just for Deb from an old Methodist Hymnal 

I used Penny Black's stamp Devine

along with Tim Holtz Bird Crazy 

and the stars are a Mask from UmWow Studio topped with Faber-Castell Glass Bead Glitter Gel

a little mixed lilac & purple sequins to detail out the purple flower

 along with a little Faber-Castell PITT in Dark Sepia & black

A little detailing on this one using Faber-Castell PITT in  Pink Madder Lake

and some Sakura White Glaze pen

All Paints are from Golden

To celebrate my crafty friend, Deb
I am having a little Blog Candy!
So be a follow of this blog, comment below with a way to contact you
(due to price of postage, my drawing is only open to the U.S.)
I will select a winner via randomizer.org and announce the winner on Sunday, May 24th.

*****MAY ******
WINNER WINNER Time
and my lucky commenter is......
MARY!
I've sent you an email on what to do next!