Latest happenings.....

Hi friends!
I have some exciting news to share, plus projects from my latest LWP show! It's been such a busy month with school ending, baseball, creating new projects, tours planned and of course lots of work with CHA coming up just around the corner. So I wanted to let you know what I've been up to:

Bryan's little league team finished the season in first place and now they are in the playoffs with one more game left! It's been so exciting to watch the games and they have played like champs all season. I am so happy for him and his team! Let's hope Wednesday night brings the final win in the playoffs...

Jack finished his last final yesterday, bringing his freshman year to an end. He worked so hard all year long, including many days staying after school for study sessions and late nights working on papers, projects, etc...I am very proud of him and how hard he worked this year :)

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And now for some scrappy news....Prima has a new Education team!

We have a brand new Education team at Prima and I am so fortunate to be on this team with some amazingly talented girls! Today is the announcement on the Prima blog, so check it out when you have the chance. This year- the team is going to be creating videos, sharing some amazing projects and you will see some of these talented girls on Live with Prima in the months to come.....

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Sweet Card Set on Live with Prima with yours truly.....

This was such a fun class to teach and I just love Prima's Songbird collection-it's a great line to create cards with. I stamped, layered and embellished to my hearts content....

I also created two more cards after the show had aired. I demonstrated how to cut the base of the cards, but did not get the chance to finish them on the show....so here they are!

To create the little card base, I used a piece of the Songbird paper, my Cuttlebug and a Tim Holtz Sizzix die (Ornamental). I folded the piece in half and ran it through my machine with the fold inside the die. Tie a piece of twine around the card and create a faux ribbon with a strip of paper, notched at the ends. Then tie a piece of ribbon around the twine and decorate!

This card flips at the top, instead of the side (like the card above), with a piece of ribbon tied around the front. Add a stamped label over the ribbon and embellish! These little cards were so fun to create and this is a great idea for using leftover paper pieces......

These are the four cards I made on Live with Prima. If you would like to see how they were created, just grab a cup of coffee and watch the recording here! And be on the lookout for an exciting show schedule coming up in July! (There may be some new CHA sneak peeks....;)

I will be back shortly with some tour news! I am headed to Brazil in August and I can't wait to share more details on that....
Thanks for stopping by!
xoxo Cari

Ranger Tags!

Hey friends! 

I have more tags to share using Ranger art mediums, Tim Holtz products and of course-Prima! I was thrilled when Patti from Ranger emailed and asked me to create some projects for the Ranger booth for Winter CHA...swoon! So I thought I would share some of the tags here with you....

Not all of the projects made the cut, but they are still some of my favorites just the same...And i figured i had better blog about them before i forget how i made them :)

This first tag-I added a few layers of images for the background. I stamped the flourish a couple times using a Prima stamps and espresso paint. Then I brushed some Studio gesso over the background and stamped a bunch of little flowers using Aqua, Mountain Rose and Red Pepper acrylics. I just kept stamping the little flowers until I was happy! I applied gold acrylic paint that I washed out with some water over the entire background. Then I colored some seam binding with Distress Stains-Broken china and Crushed Olive. I added a Ranger metal frame with tissue tape inside and embellished with Gold Prima flowers. The Prima resin bird was colored with alcohol inks and coated with Rock Candy Distress crackle...

For this tag-I applied a few colors of acrylic paint-again added water to my brush and basically watercolored with Lettuce, Mountain Rose and Terra Cotta. Then I placed the Prima mask over the tag and sprayed with Espresso colorwash and added a sprtiz of water to it with the mask still on the tag so the color wasn't so dark. I cut out little clouds from book paper and colored them with Antique Linen Distress Stain. I embellished with

 Prima lace at the bottom and colored seam binding with crushed olive Distress Stain. Then added one of Tim's keys to the bow..This tag didnt make the cut, but I just love it!

 For this tag-I dry brushed a variety of Adirondack acrylics to the tag-Lettuce, Mountain Rose and Red Pepper. Then I added Silver to the center-again-dry brushing the paint onto the tag. I added a Prima Antique mirror with Aire Flowers and colored the Prima bird with Lettuce Colorwash. The Tim Holtz bookplate is painted with Mountain Rose. Then I applied Red Pepper over it and wiped of the excess, leaving the color in the crevices....one of Tim's tickets was added to the inside of the bookplate-it was colored with crushed olive Distress Stain. Then to finish it off-I added a knob to the top of the tag.

The background of this tag has many layers: First I colored it with a variety of color-washes and then added gesso over it. I used a Prima stamp with Aged Mahogany in areas, for a textured look on the background. I embellished with a Prima felt Devine and lace. Then I painted white eline flowers with Mountain Rose and Terra Cotta paints. I also painted the metal flower centers by Tim and added Prima crystals to create one of a kind flowers. 

The tags are a mix of Ranger manila and standard shipping tags. The Ranger tags are larger and give you more surface to work with. They also have Kraft and Black-very cool!

Thanks for stopping by and i hope this post inspired you to create some fabulous tags of your own!  Have a great day everyone!

xoxo Cari

Prima and Faber-Castell blog hop!

Is there anything better than two companies combining their amazing products? Today I have a joint venture project by Prima Marketing andFaber-Castell! 

Not only do their products work perfectly together, but they provide wonderful platforms for inspiration and creativity! Both of the design teams were challenged to create projects combining products just for YOU! Hopefully this will get your creativity going too. 

I created three ATCs using Donna Downey canvas ATCs by Prima. I colored them with Gelatos by Faber-Castell and I have to say--I am in love with these little sticks of color! These acid free pigment sticks have a creamy consistency that glides on smoothly to many surfaces...dark paper, textured cardstock and canvas to name a few. And you can mix and blend colors so easily with or without water, stamp, alter embellishments and more...the possibilities are endless!

The ATCs are blank canvas pieces with stitching around the edges. I chose a trio of colors for my backgrounds and went to town. It's so simple-just start coloring like you would with a crayon...place the variety of colors where you want darker and lighter shades. And you can color over another color.... I spritzed the backgrounds with water and rubbed the colors together with my finger. If the color didnt blend as easily-I simply added more water and it worked like magic. 

On this ATC-I blended orange, red and light pink together on the background. Notice how the black stitching really pops after the color has been added. I embellished with Prima's Antique Mirror, Gillian flower, mini roses and black Say It In Crystals. I made a little bow with black seam binding and tucked it into the flower cluster. Then finished it off with little words from Prima's Doodle Deux tiny alpha set and Donna Downey pom pom trim in light blue.

This silhouette is from Prima's chipboard canvas set that comes in cream, ready to color and it also has a mixture of images on one sheet. Butterflies, birds and more--so fun to color! I added black gelato to the image, spritzed with water and worked the color into the image. Even when you add a little bit of water-the color remains highly pigmented and covers evenly. I found a little metal crown in my stash and it was originally gold. I colored it with silver gelato and then sealed it with FC's glaze. I used the same three colors for the background on this ATC and then embellished with a black Gillian flower, velvet leaves and mini roses. The little sentiment is from Prima's packaging. I cut it out and added it to my cluster.

 For the background on this ATC-I blended four colors. Orange, red, light pink and silver. I tied a piece of black seam binding through the eyelet, added an Antique Mirror image and flowers. I also tucked in a Prima Vintage Button with resin centers and another little sentiment from packaging....

So now-I am completely addicted to Gelatos and I hope you get a chance to try them out for yourselves. They really are that easy to use and the color is fabulous! 

Prima and Faber Castell have also included a chance to win some of their products. Hop around to the other talented design team blogs and leave a comment on each of their blogs. Once you are done, go  back to the PRIMA and Faber Castell blogs and let them know your favorite technique. They will pick a random winner on the Prima blog May 30th! Faber Castell will also have a prize so make sure you go to their blog for details on how to win!

Blog Links for Prima:

• Prima Marketing Blog: www.prima.typepad.com/prima
• Sharon Laakkonen:   http://sharonlaakkonen.blogspot.com/ 
• Heidi Kelley:  http://seesterk.blogspot.com/
• Marie-Nicolas ALLIOT http://ma-ni.creation.over-blog.com 
• Maiko Kosugi http://maimaipiano.blogspot.jp/
• Stacey Young: www.staceyeyoung.blogspot.com 
• Emeline Seet : scrapvilla.blogspot.com
• Leslie Ashe:  www.leslieashe.blogspot.com
• Jamie Dougherty:  http://www.jaylynnscraps.com
• Anna-Marie Mondro: http://annamarie-mondro.blogspot.com/
• Anna-Maria Wolniak :  http://annamariawolniak.wordpress.com/
• Anna Dabrowska: http://tworzysko.blogspot.com
• Cari Fennell: http://meandmymaryjanes.blogspot.com/

Blog Links for Faber-Castell:

• Faber-Castell: http://designmemorycraft.typepad.com/design-memory-craft/
• Jill Foster:  http://stampinginspiredby.blogspot.com/
• Jennifer Matott:  http://arttalk-sigmagirl.blogspot.com/
• Rita Barakat:  http://letsembellish.blogspot.com/
• Mou Saha:  http://collagecollagecollage.blogspot.com/
• Tiffany Johnson:  http://iheartartblog.com/

Thanks so much for stopping by...Happy blog hopping everyone!
xoxo Cari