**EXCITING NEWS** involving a New Die Company

AND A GIVE AWAY . . .
(This post will remain at the top of my blog until prize winner is selected.  Please scroll down for other inspirational postings and DT creations)  Thanks!
 
HELLO EVERYONE!

WOW!  I have some very exciting news to share with you today!!

I've been BUSTING AT THE SEAMS waiting to tell you about

a fabulous new die company called ... "Tutti Designs"

Not only will I have the privilege of representing this company as a member

of their very first Design Team, but I'm honored to say I will also be their DT Coordinator.

 Wait until you see this new line of dies ... they are not only BEAUTIFUL, but are very reasonably priced!  Each die is so intricately detailed!  I'm thrilled to say I've already had the opportunity to die cut this product and they cut BEAUTIFULLY!!!

There is an announcement today on the Tutti Designs Blog

introducing you to all the DT members ... please pop over and give them a warm welcome!

Inspirational samples using these dies will begin on the Tutti Designs Blog - JUNE 1st.

In hopes of helping to spread the word about this new die company,

I am offering up a prize to one lucky random winner.

You have from now until midnight June 30th  ... when that one lucky person

will be chosen to win ONE DIE (of my choice) from the Tutti Designs Store Photo shown above. 

Here's all you have to do:

1.  Follow MY blog AND the Tutti Designs Blog

2.  Add a blurb on your blog and the badge (below) to your side bar.

3.  Please leave a comment here on my blog so I know you did both.  (please no 'candy' only blogs)

4.  IF you have a Facebook account, please head on over to our Facebook Page and LIKE us!  

(This is NOT a requirement to enter for the prize!)

OH AND WAIT!

Would you like another chance to win one of these fabulous new dies?

Well then, pop on over to DT member Diane's blog ... 

GOOD LUCK 

and

Tutti Designs - Tea Time

HELLO EVERYONE!

Happy Sunday!

I'm here today to share my design team creation

for the fabulous *NEW* Tutti Designs Store!

 NEW RELEASE COMING ... BE SURE TO CHECK IT OUT!

It is FABULOUS!!!

 Today I've made for you a TEA TIME creation

 using two dies from our first release.  They are:

Stacked Butterfly Cups

and

Teapot Panel

Here are a few tips on how I created my card front panel . . .

 I cut the original panel from white card stock.  Then I decided I wanted to make the focus tea pot pink so cut again from a scrap piece of pink card stock.

Then I fussy cut around the pink tea pot and adhered it on top of my white panel.

I chose to mat it in black to really make it POP.  So, I laid my white panel on a piece of scrap black card stock and fussy cut around the outside edge.  TA DA ... now I'm ready to build my card!












 Another fun thing I decided to do was shape all my matting panels as well as my card base to match my die cut image by rounding all the top corners ... even on the inside!

 I decided to use the Butterfly Cups die for the inside of my card ...

both the positive cut ... and the negative cut outs!

No sense in throwing away these perfectly good pieces ... RIGHT!!

Well that's it for me today!   I hope you have found

inspiration and fun in my creation!

For your convenience, here are some TUTTI DESIGNS quick links:

Tutti Designs Store

Tutti Designs Blog

Tutti Designs FB Page

and to see all the current DT creations in one spot ... Tutti Designs Pinterest Page

There will be a NEW inspirational sample provided for you EVERY DAY OF THE WEEK on our Tutti Designs Blog.  I will be posting a new creation using these fabulous dies each and every SUNDAY!  I hope you will pop over to see what this talented group of ladies will have to share with you!!

Until next time and as always . . .

Recipe:

Papers:  White cs, Black cs, Bright Pink cs

Dies:  Stacked Butterfly Cups, Teapot Panel

Accessories:  White Gelly Roll Pen for faux stitching, Michaels zig zag ribbon, Cuttlebug 'swirls' embossing folder, Creative Memories Corner Rounder, Computer generated sentiments

Hello Again fom the Regatta Cruise Ship

Hello Everyone!

No crafting for me today since we are still cruising

Alaska and British Columbia.  In fact, Alaska's beauty is behind us

and we are on our way to Victoria B.C. and Vancouver B.C.

This is my view today looking out over our balcony while I'm typing this.

Yep ... nothing but Pacific Ocean as far as the eye can see.

But had a fabulous day in Sitka yesterday.

We enjoyed another trip out on the water to see marine life.

 Bald Eagles were everywhere.  We saw these beauties on our way out to the beachcombing location.  And even though I didn't grab any photos, I truly enjoyed sitting on our balcony last evening ... preparing to leave Sitka and watched SEVERAL eagles flying around from one location to another in the beautiful tree background of the town. 

As I scanned across with my binoculars ... I could see eagles speckled through out the forest!  Beautiful!

We even had one fly right past our window the other evening ... up close & personal ... what a beautiful bird!!

 The gentleman who was driving the shuttle bus taking us  back to our ship after our adventure in Sitka told us that the area around Sitka housed 50% of all American Bald Eagles.  I would have to say he was correct!

And when you see one in flight ... OMG ... such majesty!!

While out on the water we saw these fun loving sea otters swimming around and just enjoying their morning!  LOL

 I think they were as curious about us as we were of them! 

We also got to see another humpback whale ... even closer than before.

Mark was taking a video of the event which was awesome but unfortunately it wasn't

focused very well and there was a lot of 'blank' waiting for the whale to appear again.

We having taken several videos via my phone or our camera during the

whale watching ... really the only way you can get a photo in time before they go back down.

Now I need to figure out how to 'edit' these videos ... LOL!

OH and while we were out on the 'beach', it was low tide so there were tons of clam shells,

actually found one that was live and not opened yet.  Here's a photo showing you how many muscles are attached to the rocks ... still alive and waiting for the high tide.

 Here are a few 'critters' the guides found when they rolled over a few rocks. 

A 'Sea Star' and a 'Red Crab' ... and yes the crab was doing his best to pinch our guide so she would put him back where he came from!  He got her a few times!

I was in AWE of how many muscles were on this beach ... truly an amazing sight to see!

The wooded area of the island was dense and filled with moss ...

along with a few bear and black tailed deer.  We all had to wear a whistle JUST IN CASE

a bear came to visit.  We did see deer tracks in the dark sand along the tree line but didn't actually witness any wildlife during this excursion.

Well that's it for me today.  

I'm anxious to walk through the beautiful gardens in Victoria. 

You'll be seeing some gorgeous flower photos next ... just a warning!  LOL

Have a great day!

Another beautiful day in Alaska . . .

Hello Everyone!

We are having a fabulous time in Alaska and the weather has been amazing!

Today we ventured out to the Hubbard Glacier.

OMG what a site and we did see a few parts of the glacier fall into the water.

This glacier (not the mountains in the background) is taller than the Statue of Liberty 

and more than 7 miles long (left to right).

Check out this view from our stateroom ...

 

 The glacier was amazing!

And, yesterday while walking through the town of Haines

look at the beautiful lilies and delphiniums I came across!

How exciting tonight while we were having dinner with a couple we met on one

of the excursions ... we looked out and there was not one but 2 or 3 Whales breaching the water right from the dining room windows.

I spotted the blow first and then there was more and more so several people were at the windows oooing and aaawwwing!  What fun!!

More fun tomorrow as we are going out on another Whale watching expedition and marine animals.

Catch you later ... 

Hugs from ALASKA!!

Create Your Own Background

Hi Everyone!

There's a fun new challenge starting today at

The Sisterhood of Crafters Blog.

The theme is:

CREATE YOUR OWN BACKGROUND

The design team have created some FABULOUS 

samples to help inspire you ... be sure to pop over and see for yourself.

Here's what I came up with:

With all the beautiful dies on the market today you 

can create a work of art in no time at all!

Today I've created my background using Tim Holtz distress inks

and large sponge daubers.  And then I got busy choosing dies that would

help showcase my simple color scheme.

 I recently purchased a few new dies from Dies R Us and was

anxious to try them out.  So, today's the day!  

They are Sue Wilson dies:

Perspectives - Hugs - CED8307 and

Finishing Touches - Daisy Cluster - CED1450 (which is evidently OOS)

I do hope you'll come join in our challenge fun!

I truly look forward to seeing everyone's creations and drawing inspiration ... Lord knows I could use some additional inspiration these days!  LOL

Thanks so much for stopping by and hope you have a fabulous day!

As always . . .

Recipe:

Papers:  White cs, Black cs

Ink:  Tim Holtz distress inks: Salty Ocean, Faded Jeans, Broken China

Accessories:  Dies identified above, pop dots, large sponge daubers

Lovin' Alaska

Hello All ...

We have been having fabulous weather for our Alaskan Cruise!

Today it started to sprinkle during our excursion but that was all. 

Today was an exciting day of Whale Watching,

hiking through the rain forest and seeing Mendenhall Glacier!

While walking the trail through the Rain Forest headed to the glacier,
we saw where the entire forest bed was covered in moss ...
what a site!  AND, there were purple Lupin EVERY WHERE!
GORGEOUS!

That is Mendenhall glacier behind us
and 2 waterfalls to the right of us ...
what beauty!

I was able to catch a few awesome videos of the whales.
There was a mother with her calf in one spot and another set of whales
just left of where I was video taping.  
Never saw any jump clear out of the water but seeing what we did was exciting!
Also spotted some bald eagles too ... will share those photos another time!

Well, it's time to go to dinner ...
Headed out to Haines at 8 pm (Alaska time)
Have a great day ... Hugs from Alaska

Tutti Designs - Happy Golfing

HELLO EVERYONE!

Happy Sunday!
I'm here today to share my design team creation
for the fabulous *NEW* Tutti Designs Store!

If you haven't seen these new dies ... you really owe it to yourself
to pop over there RIGHT NOW!

I for one am NOT a golfer (too old and can't see where that little ball is going, lol)
but I do have a lot of friends ... men & women ... who truly
enjoy the sport so thought this new Tutti Designs 'Golf Bag' would
make a perfect birthday card for male or female.

 Here's a couple little tips on how this GOLF BALL card was created:

For my golf bag I die cut two panels ... a brown suede panel
and a silver metallic panel (for the clubs).
Since the 'accent lines' cut out, I laid my suede golf bag
onto a scrap piece of designer paper and fussy cut
around the bag ... then adhered the 'metal'
clubs to the club portion of the original suede die cut panel.

VOILA!

Now for the 'golf ball card' . . .
I first cut out my folded card base leaving a gap at the fold
so it would stay together . . .

Then die cut another circle from white card stock, ran it through with my
swiss dot embossing folder and adhered it to the front panel
of my card base ...

I computer generated the sentiments for both the outside and inside of my card.
I can see I'll be making a lot more GOLF cards with this
fabulous  Golf Bag  die in various colors ... I'm sure they will be a
hit at my annual craft fairs.

Inside Sentiment
(computer generated)

Well that's it for me today!   I hope you have found
inspiration and fun in my creation!

For your convenience, here are some TUTTI DESIGNS quick links:

Tutti Designs Store

Tutti Designs Blog

Tutti Designs FB Page

and to see all the current DT creations in one spot ... Tutti Designs Pinterest Page

There will be a NEW inspirational sample provided for you EVERY DAY OF THE WEEK on our Tutti Designs Blog.  I will be posting a new creation using these fabulous dies each and every SUNDAY!  I hope you will pop over to see what this talented group of ladies will have to share with you!!

Until next time and as always . . .

Recipe:

Papers:  White cs, Garden Green cs, Lime Green cs, DCWV suede designer paper, silver metallic cs

Accessories:  Cuttlebug Swissdot embossing folder, Memory Box stitched circles, pop dots

Cruising Alaska . . .

Today was our first excursion in our Alaskan Cruise itinerary.

Our first port of call is Ketchikan, Alaska where we took a float pane to see the

sights from above.  What beautiful weather we were blessed with to enjoy this adventure.

Here's a few photo ...

Next stop ... Wrangell

Hope your day was as fulfilling as ours was!!