Another SWEET April Release!

I probably say this about every release but this is totally my favorite!  ;)  If you love critters with tons of personality, you are going to love this month's 2nd Sweet Stamp Shop release.  It's full of cuteness and versatility.  If you haven't checked out the Sweet Blog, make sure you do.  There is tons of inspiration from the design team and you won't want to miss it!  Now I get to show off the two stamp sets I got to play with for this release!

First up, the world's cutest owl set.  I just love Owl Be Genius for graduation, teacher, class, etc cards.  Heck, I'll be using this little guy on my mom's Mother's Day card...she's a sucker for owls.  I made two cards using this little guy and I have a ton more ideas in store!

My first card pairs Owl Be Genius with Monogram Alpha, Outline Lower Alpha, and Too Hip to make an awesome Grad card. 

I lined up my sentiment on my stamp press and stamped it all in black ink.  I also positioned my hat and stamped it in place.  Then I used a post it to create a mask for the "grad" part of the sentiment and my little graduation cap.  With the masks in place, I stamped in my sweet little owl.  With some coloring and a few bits of bling, it all came together to make a pretty fun little grad card!

My next card could be used for a graduation or just a note of congratulations!

For this card, I used a pocket scrapbooking card that seemed perfect for a wise owl.  I stamped my branch in place and colored it directly onto the card.  I stamped my owl onto lined patterned paper and then colored him a bit, placing him on the card front with a little dimensional adhesive.  I found this fun graph paper in my stash and some school related border stickers as well.  I made a fun little border on the card edge with the stickers, layered my owl card on top and finished it all off with some cool banners that totally fit the feel of the card.  Hope you like it!

Next up, Mr. Octopus.  He is SO cute and the laptop and calculator...just perfect in every geeky way.  LOVE!  I think Nicole really knocked it out of that park with this set.

He's perfection and the sentiments...ha ha!  So fun!  My first card is pretty straight forward but SO much fun!

Again, I let a fun pocket scrapbooking card be my guide.  Can you tell that I love LOVE pocket scrapbooking but I use all my supplies up on cards instead of in my scrapbooks.  Ha ha!  ;)  I colored my little Mr. Octopus and cut him out.  I knew I was going with black, white, and pink because of the pocket card but I love a little lime in that mix so that's what my guy was going to be.  When I first saw the "Gemme yo digits" sentiment, I seriously died laughing.  I love it and I knew I would be using it with this card.  So, I found a scrap of pink paper, stamped it on, layered it with another banner I had, and trimmed the edge to follow the angle of the other banner.  I love the fun little sentiment that the two banners make together.  I went through piles of patterned paper to find just the right background and this chevron paper was just perfect.  I knew I wanted a peek of pink glitter paper at the bottom but didn't want just a straight cut along those chevrons so, I trimmed off the bottom by hand to give a peek of glitter.  I hope you like how it all came together.

This next card, pretty much sums up the kind of day I was having when I made it.

Most of the time, I try not to craft on days where I'm feeling blah.  Usually when I try, I hate everything I make.  Thank goodness this day was the exception.  In fact, my day felt a ton less meh when I finished this card.  I started by stamping my background of gray scale octopi to really emphasize the blah nature of the day.  I trimmed off the rounded corners of a pocket scrapbooking card and added it to my background at a bit of an angle.  I got my color inspiration from the two banners I had that fit the feel of this card perfectly and decided to go for an orange octopus.  He turned out WAY too cute.  I knew he needed some things that made his day meh and some things that I would need to make my day less meh if I were him.  So, I started coloring his coffee and donut (Who doesn't want those on a meh sort of day?) along with the very peeved laptop and calculator.  They all just looked too cute together that they turned my crappy day into a great one.

I hope you enjoyed my cards and will come visit us at the Sweet Stamp Shop.  To make things even sweeter, Nicole is offering 10% off the new release today using the code AR10.  Get yourself over there, you won't want to miss it!  Have a great Tuesday and I hope you day isn't MEH!  ;)