Cute Snails and Happy Birthdays!!

By Debbie Seyer

Hello Everyone! Hope you are having a great week! You can never have enough birthday cards, can you? I know I don't. You see, I try to send a birthday card to everyone in our parish for their birthday, so I always need birthday cards. One of my favorite stamps from the upcoming new release is this cute flowery snail! What do you think?




I used the new Flowery Snail (E724) and my favorite Happy Birthday sentiment (A1081). This made a quick and easy card, too. I colored in my snail using regular markers and used my Labels 2 nestabilities for the image. Its a fun image to work with and I know whoever gets this card will really enjoy that smiling snail!

One trick I have learned when making cards is I never make just one. Since I usually have to cut into a whole sheet of paper, I just make 2 cards that are the same! I might use the same sentiment on both, so that I can add the senitment I need later. Its a good habit to get into. You should try it. Be sure to check back often this week for some great sneak peeks and other great info!!

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Wanna get the latest dirt & SNEAK PEEKS?!....

Posted by Vicki/ Stamped Smiles

BWHAA!! HAA!! OK, I have to tell you that this turned out to be one of my favs from the new rubbah stash that DRS wanted to me to create with!! I knew that I had to use this luscious piggy with his snout popped out over the embossed fence holding the "Stop global whining" sign!! TEEHEE!!

OK...you can "get the dirt" with sneak peeks of upcoming brand new releases from DRS Designs RIGHT HERE along with the other design team members blogs!! The cute grinning piggy, the stop sign and fence are all apart of the up-coming new releases that will be available for purchase around April 4th....so be watching for that!! It's always nice to catch a little inspiration and what fun things DRS has in store for us!!

Here's another one I created with yet another fun piggy:

Is this not the funniest little pig with his sparkly smile!?! There's that fence again along with a cute little pig & a saying that's so perfect to go along with it!
I created my own "mud" by cutting out some brown card stock, attaching to the front of the card and then covering it with some crystal lacquer for a "wet" mud look!
The "grass" was created with the Butterfly Four Corner Background stamp! The sky, the "dirt", the mud were all created by me, but the rest of the images are part of the up-coming new releases! OK...you talked me into it...just ONE more.............

TEEHEE!! Don't cha love these sooweet piggys!? I thought this would be perfect for those college grads out there!! :) I used the small beer mug for the background on my yellow card base. Both the piggy and sentiment are brand new up-coming releases!! How funny is that?! I colored in this fun pig with my Copic Markers and sponged around the white panel and layered it onto a grey panel. Added some brads and it came out perfect for a guy card!
I have to say that my hubby loves this image as he's a big sports fan and he even helped me by telling me the pig should be above the sentiment! :) so thanks for your help hubby!

OK...that's all the "dirt" I'm going to show you from the new releases for today! But don't forget to stop by often and check out more inspiration from the design team right here!

**More of the latest dirt: Not only did I want to remind you about the up-coming NEW releases April 4th, but did you know that DRS has decided to hold their very own blog hop on April 3rd? HOW COOL IS THAT?!! Be watching this blog & the DRS website for up-coming details!!**

I would ALSO like to remind you about the #17 one-layer challenge on this blog! When you play along with us by linking your creation to the comments section of the challenge post, you will be entered into a drawing for some YUMMY blog candy!!! You have all week to play!! Now, I'd say that's most certainly worth making a card for, wouldn't you?! Check out the challenge HERE!

Thanks so much for popping on over here today to get the latest "dirt" on DRS! :)
Looking forward to seeing what you create with one-layer!!

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Everyone is short on time...

posted by: Cathy

these days so how about a quick, easy and inexpensive Easter project!

Start with a Plain Jane pail from the Target dollar spot...



and dress it up with Easter images from DRS Designs for a fun centerpiece or side table arrangement...



The smaller scallops that sport the lamb (I just inked up the smaller one for this project) and chick are cuttlebug dies, the larger Happy Easter sentiment is on a giga scallop punch and the Mr. Carrot is on a sizzlit tag die. I added some ribbon from Target and stamped the fuzzy chick along with the mega flower oval onto a mega scallop punch and tied it onto the ribbon with embroidery floss and a button.

I added some Easter grass and styrofoam eggs from the local dollar store to finish things off.

Thanks for stopping by today...have you made some fun Easter projects using the DRS Easter images?? If so, post a link to your creation in the comment section, we'd love to see it!

Reminder - there is one week left to make a one layer card and enter yourself into a drawing for blog candy that consists of notecards, an ink pad and a DRS image. Click here for some inspiration.

Stay tuned for more info as the week goes on...later this week we will be hosting our very first DRS Designs blog hop!! You do not want to miss it!!!

See you soon...

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Another Saturday, Another Plaid

by Sue W.

Welcome!

Does it seem to you that I've been using our plaid stamps alot lately?? It sure seems like it to me! Maybe it's because there's so many fun things to do with it! And just a warning - I'm not done yet!!!

Todays plaid is probably my favorite. I call it the Easy Plaid and there are 2 ways you can do it, either horizontal and vertical (like you'll see here today) or diagonal which you can see on our website http://www.drsdesigns.com/ in the Online Demos section. Either way the first thing you need to do is choose your ink colors. I've seen several cards this week with light blue and green and they inspired me!

First thing I'll do is show you the stamps I used -

As you can see here I stamped my first ink color (turquoise dye ink) in the center of my card both horizontally and vertically ( a large "plus" sign).

Step 2 is to clean my stamp and using spring green dye ink, I stamped the plaid again directly above my horizontal lines of the "plus" sign

Step 3 is continuing to use the same green ink as I rotate my card and stamp above my original "plus" sign. Based on the size of your card, you may need to clean your stamp and return to your original ink color (turquoise) and stamp any remaining blank areas. (you can see in the picture that both sides of mine need a little more turquoise ink)

That's it! You now have a custom plaid of your chosen colors. How cool is that? I've been know to say that the plaid stamp is one of a very few stamps that you can use for practically everyone, from grandpa Joe to baby Jill. All you have to do is change the ink colors. You can even go crazy and use more than 2 ink colors!

Now to finish my card - I trimmed my plaid so it wouldn't fill the entire front of my card and adhered white ribbon along the bottom edge, and attached it to my folded green card.

I stamped the Happy Birthday giga circle using cyan pigment ink, then stamped the cupcake inside it using black pigment ink. After embossing with clear embossing powder I colored them both in using my Bic markers. I punched it out using my giga punch and also giga'd a plain lime green piece of paper. I adhered both pieces to a bright blue piece of cardstock and used an oval punch to curve the corners. I attached this layer to my plaid and was finished except for adding my blue jewels to both the dots on the circle and on the white ribbon.

My fun was over - but only for a short while!!!

Now on to the new addition to my post -

Introducing -

Last week I asked the question if I should add this to my Saturday posts, and it seems to have gotten a favorable reply. So as long as I have a tip or a trick, and as long as you keep supplying me with yours I'll continue to add this to my posts. (to submit a tip or trick please email me at: submitdrs@yahoo.com - please don't leave them in the comments section, so they'll be fresh and new when I post them!) Please note that I am bribing you by offering blog candy for all tips and tricks that I use here! (Shameless aren't I???)

Here goes -

My Tip: If you have problems lining things up straight (like the plaid shown here), stamp it on the diagonal, lines that aren't particularly straight will be harder to notice!

Your Trick -by Vicki S. : When I have a wonderful DRS stamp that I have not taken time to mount yet, I simply put a piece of double stick tape on my clear mounting block and stick the stamp on and I am good to go :-)

Thanks Vicki!! Your blog candy will be on its way!

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to email me your tips!!!

Sue W.

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Featured Friday Designer #2

Hi There - Welcome back to our second Featured Friday Designer!! As you know, back when we had our Guest Design Team call we were so impressed by all the entries we received that we just couldn't limit our decision to only Guest Designers so we came up with our Friday Featured Designer to give even more people a chance to inspire us!

So today we would like to introduce you to Jennifer Taylor aka JenMarie on Splitcoaststampers. You can find more of Jennifer's work on her blog Taylor Made by JenMarie.

These are the stamps we asked Jennifer to work with...





and here is what she did with them...






Here is another one, just for fun, using images that Jennifer just "had" to have from the extensive DRS Designs catalog!!!






Didn't she do a great job?! Be sure to stop by Jennifer's blog to check out more of her awesome work and for more info on these cards!!

Thanks so much Jennifer, we wish you continued success!!!

See you soon...

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Birthday Cutie Pie Kids!

Posted by Jessica G.

Aren't these Cutie Pie Kids appropriately named? And so wonderful for Copic practice, too -- they are perfect images for the vivid colors these markers produce.

Stamps by DRS Designs: Best Present Ever, Birthday Ribbon Slide, Family and Friends Birthday Greeting. Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Real Red, Copics. Cardstock: GP110 white, Real Red, CM yellow, Ballet Blue. Accessories: Circle punches, dotted green organdy ribbon.

This is is my favorite birthday Cutie:

Stamps: Here for the Party, May Your Birthday sentiment. Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, copics, Versamark. Cardstock: Real Red, Ballet Blue, GP110 white. Accessories: white EP, Nestabilities Tags, circle punches, striped grosgrain ribbon, scallop border punch.

How can you not love this face??

Be sure to check out all the newly released Cutie Pie Kids and the old favorites, too!

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Rubber Mania Monthly!!!!

Last fall I posted about Rubber Mania Monthly, but I thought I would revisit it since there are some cool new stamps added to the Rubber Mania free options!

One of the absolute coolest things about DRS Designs...

Rubber MANIA Monthly!

Rubber Mania Monthly is a free membership club at DRS Designs. Here's how it works...

*Flyers are sent to your home address every 4- 6 weeks. Inside each flyer you will find terrific stamp designs like the ones you can find on the DRS Designs website.

*If you purchase just 5 stamps within a 12 month period at regular prices, you will become a Preferred Member of Rubber Mania Monthly. From then on, you will be able to take advantage special prices for all stamps purchased through the club. You will also receive an additional discount on the DRS Designs featured stamp each month.

*In addition to the discount, becoming a Preferred Member also means you get 3 stamps absolutely free! Now who doesn't love free stamps!!!!! There are 19 wonderful free stamps to choose from and you can choose wood mounted or unmounted!
To see the free stamp choices click HERE

**There are no automatic shipments - The flyer will feature a special stamp each issue but it will NOT be sent to you automatically**

**Membership is Free**

All you need to do to become a member is click HERE and follow the directions.
Easy as pie!

The cards I have to share today were made with some of the Rubber Mania Monthly free stamp options. There are some awesome stamps to choose from!!!!

I decided to try another no layer card. The butterfly and the sentiment (which is part of a bigger sentiment) are both free Rubber Mania options!

This wonderful sentiment stamp is one of the free Rubber Mania options!
This adorable kitten stamp is a free Rubber Mania option!
The cute little frog that I used to make the background paper is one of the free Rubber Mania choices!
This cool "live" flower is one of the many awesome Rubber Mania choices!
I can't show you this whole card because I used one of the next month's stamp releases on it but I can show this tiny bit of it. This totally adorable bee is also one of the free Rubber Mania options!
Thanks for stopping by today. I hope you all have a wonderful day!

Heather

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One of those days!

by Sue W.

We all have them - those days that everything just goes wrong and it would have been much better to just stay in bed.

I was having one of those days recently, and I made myself feel better by going a little wild in the stamping room. Nothing like getting away from it all to cure a bad day. Now, because of everything going wrong I wasn't expecting much, but I was relatively happy with this card once it was done. It cheered me up!

Here are the 2 stamps I used ~




and here's what I came up with

I simply pulled out some bright and colorful paper and stamped our new "lines O' plenty" background on each using versamark ink and embossed with white powder. I mega'd 4 and giga'd 2 and taped them to my black card. After trimming the sides flush with my black card I moved on to my sentiment.

I stamped the saying using cornflower blue ink and dry sponged around it using spring green ink. After layering it with both purple and black paper I attached it on top of my black strip of paper and added my silver rivots.

Let's hope those bad days are few and far between for all.

Happy Tuesday!

Sue W.

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Challenge #17

Welcome back to the 17th DRS Designs Blog challenge!!! This week the challenge is to make a no layer card! Yes, it's time to get back to basics!!! Sometimes you need a quick but not overly done card and with this challenge we hope to inspire you with ideas on how to make your own quick, no layer cards. We would love for you to participate because sharing is the best source of inspiration right? If you do participate, please post a direct link to your creation in the comment section of this post and if upload to a public gallery, please use the keyword DRSC17.

To sweeten the deal, we're offering a set of notecards, an ink pad and an unmounted image to a random participant. Be sure to link your creation by 8pm on Sunday, April 5 to be included in the drawing.

Check out some inspiration from our design team below...get more details on each creation by visiting each members blog...

See you soon...

*********************

Jessica G's 'Easter Blooms' /Jess' Obsession:





Cathy Indelicato/Crafty Thoughts...



Debbie Seyer - A Peek Into My Stamping Room:
Heather Lee-Reppen / The Best in Life




Vicki's A Rose For You one-layer card:


'Beer is the Answer' by Jennifer
Judith Rozema / "The Lord Be With You" (charm) / Joy in a JAR

Sue W. - One Day at a Time - DRS Designs

Dawn Knight

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Moving Right Along...

posted by: Cathy

to Easter! Now, that St. Patrick's Day has passed it's time to start thinking of Easter and all the fun times it brings. Today I have a treat idea for you...it's very simple...the hardest thing is dragging yourself out to the store to get the candy!!!

When I spied this box of chocolate carrots in the grocery store I just knew I had plenty of DRS Designs images that would make it look much better than this...



Here is what I came up with...



I simply opened the package and then dismantled the box so that I could use it as a template. This particular box fits on an 8.5 x 11 sheet of cardstock. I traced with a pencil and then cut it out. I then stamped the easy raindrop background in bliss blue ink. I used my Creative Memories cutting system to cut the oval and adhered a piece of acetate inside the window. The "dirt" is a torn piece of kraft paper that was stamped with Vicki's versatile background...the grass was stamped with the grass background and then snipped with scissors!! I thought the grass needed a little something so I added two of the flower ribbon slides. I've had this ribbon forever and I thought it would be cute to blend in the with the grass, yet still be the center for the flowers. This was a really fun project!!! I added some clouds using just the edge of this flower stamp...the happy bee and "for you" sentiment finished things off.

Here is a shot of the inside...once you finish the candies...



...the Easter Bunny is there to wish you a Happy Easter!!!

Here are the markers I used in the project...



I hope this provides inspiration to jump start your Easter projects...be sure to come back and post a link so we can see what you create with your DRS Easter images!

Be sure to check back tomorrow for the start of another DRS Designs Blog challenge...

See you soon...

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It's a Spring Thing!

by Sue W.

Welcome to the 2nd day of spring! I hope the weather is cooperating wherever you are - it is here in Connecticut and it difinitely got me in the mood! I think it's working for everyone because I'm seeing a lot of pink and purple lately.

What's the first thing everyone thinks of when they think spring? Okay baseball if your a fan, but I think it's flowers for the rest of us! So that's what I went looking for this week. Here are the stamps I found that just screamed spring to me ~

And here's the quick and easy card that came together for me - well, quick if you don't count the coloring!

All I did was stamp my flower background (in my neat and orderly rows) on white cardstock using black pigment ink and clear embossing powder. Once I embossed it coloring it in wasn't quite so bad. When that was done I found some matching 1/8" ribbon and then added the jewels. I stamped the top half of my saying using versamark ink and white embossing powder on purple paper, popped it out with my giga punch, then giga'd one out of orchid paper and lined it up the best I could in my mega punch (actually I ended up taping a 2" tab on it so I could have more control. Once I punched it out I simply removed the tab.) All that was left was taping/gluing it all together. I decided not to stamp the inside so I can save it and use it for any occasion. And my job (?) was done!

Now I'm going to work on my card for Monday's Challenge - Wish me Luck!!

One more thing befor I sign off - Samantha, Cathy and I were chatting today about this blog and Cathy (I believe) mentioned adding a Tips and Tricks section to my Saturday post - What do you think? I was thinking that it would be cool to not only offer my tips, but ask you to join in as well. Can I bribe you with blog candy???? Maybe a free stamp to the "Tipster" of the week?

Let me know either by commenting here or by sending your Tip or Trick to submitdrs@yahoo.com.

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Spring Has Sprung!

Posted By Jennifer

Today is the first day of Spring and nothing is more appropriate than Easter Eggs, butterflies and pastels. Wouldn't you agree? This card displays each of these aspects along with this weeks sketch challenge.

All 3 images on this card are new releases by DRS Designs. Have you gotten your new Spring and Easter Stamps yet? You can see their entire collection of Easter images here.

I colored the Butterfly on Eggs image with Prismacolor Pencils and blended the colors with Gamsol. The background was created by stamping the 4 in 1 Egg Background in purple and pink inks. I assembled this card following the sketch and decorated it with some yellow brads and yellow satin ribbon.

Stamps: DRS Designs- 4 in 1 Egg Background, Butterly on Eggs
Ink: Versafine Onyx Black, Colorbox Fluid Chalk Ink in Wisteria and Pink Pastel
Paper: Smooth white cardstock by Office Depot, Colored Cardstock by Bazzill and American Crafts
Accessories: Prismacolor Pencils, Gamsol, Ribbon by Offray
Finished Card Size: 4.5" x 5 5/8"

Thanks for visiting today, we greatly appreciate you stopping by! Make sure to check back here on Saturday and Sunday for more great projects and stay tuned for a new blog challenge on Monday!

Hope you have a wonderful Spring weekend!

Smiles,
Jennifer

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Spring -- New Beginnings

Posted by Jessica G.

Spring is in the air, at least every few days, here in the Midwest! Easter will arrive at the perfect time this year to be celebrated surrounded by signs of the Earth's rebirth -- daffodils and dogwood blossoms -- and all the new births, too. One of our daughters is already asking if she can bring the chicks from a school hatching observation experiment home for a visit!

Here are a few of the less messy card versions of Easter babies featuring newly released Easter images. We have just-hatched ducklings:

Stamps: Easter Sleepover, Spring is Creeping verse, 4 in 1 Egg Background. Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Lovely Lilac, Yoyo Yellow, Copics. Cardstock: Yoyo Yellow, Lovely Lilac, GP110 white. Accessories: green grosgrain ribbon, rectangle Nestabilities, scallop border punch.

And ducklings out enjoying a walk in the rain with their floral umbrella:

Stamps: Duck's Decoration, Medium Script Happy Easter, Lines O' Plenty Background, Raindrop Background. Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Ballet Blue, Versamark, copics. Cardstock: Ballet Blue, CM green and yellow, GP110 white. Accessories: Oval Nestabilities, Papertrey grosgrain ribbon, white EP.

My favorite for this round are these adorable sheep:

Stamps: Fuzzy Sheep, Wordy Egg Border. Ink: Memento Tuxdeo Black, Copics. Cardstock: Textured white, CM yellow. Accessories: Prismacolor pencils, turpenoid, rectangle Nestabilities, Offray plaid ribbon, flocking.

Not only do they have the sweetest faces, but I also added flocking for a touchable wool coat:

Enjoy the warm weather, spring babies, and new stamps by DRS Designs to celebrate the arrival of spring!

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