Flower Soft Birthday

 

I know it has been awhile since I posted. I have been occupied with family things and also my card making mojo has gone on an extended vacation. Cards for fun don’t exist right now, but cards for birthdays still have to be made. I took the easy route, and made this using Flower Soft 3-D elements. This is from the Spring window collection. I made it for my sister and hopefully by now she has received it. These are very easy to put together, just cut, apply foam tape and glue flower soft down. Here is a close-up:

There are three layers to the window. As I wrote to  my sister, who has a window without a screen? Not down here in the South I tell ya. I would also love a garden like this to look at. Chuck has a green thumb, but so far, my view isn’t this. I did make another one of these in a different season for a certain store owner, but the darn camera batteries are dead and I can’t find anything to steal them from.

Oh well, another exciting week ahead…two council meetings this week, Hurricane Igor 2200 miles out to sea and heading west (the models show it curving north, we will wait to see) and I am on the hunt to find a cheater recipe for PF Chang’s lettuce wraps! Til next time… Live, Love, Laugh

Remaining “class” cards

 I spent the rest of the afternoon creating these three cards for my Mom and her friends. The first one actually has watercoloring on it. If you know me well, you know I don’t like this coloring medium. I am pleased with this image though. I used cold press paper which I think made a big difference.

The image and sentiment are by GinaK. I wanted it to have a summery feel. I layered the image with SU Pink Pirouhette and Regal Rose. Behind the patterned paper is Pesto coredinations.

The next card uses the shaving cream technique. I used Bashful Blue and Mellow Moss re-inkers for this. The sentiment is new from JustRite Designs. I used coordinating paper for the sentiment and popped each one up on foam strips.

The final card used the shaker kit from Impression Obsession.  

The wild flower image is from Penny Black, the sentiment is from IO and the butterfly inside the shaker is from Memory Box. If you click on the picture it will enlarge and you can see that I lightly colored the wings and added some microfine glitter. Inside the shaker is Sweet Pea Flower soft with a hint of lavender.

I think the ladies will enjoy working on these, don’t you? Now to just cut out the kits!

Tilda with spring bundle

 

Tonight I wanted to make a card just for me. I had ordered this cute Tilda a few weeks ago and finally inked her up. I colored her with my copic markers. The colors were picked to coincide with the Melissa Francis (Ella and Josaphine) paper for the background. After stamping the image I used my Labels 10 nestie to cut it out. For the middle layered panel, I used a Martha Stewart border punch (the arch one). The leaves were also punched with a Martha Stewart punch. The flowers are from Wild Orchid. There is a hint of stickles on the ribbon in her hair and I added Flower Soft to the bunch of flowers. The final addition was a few Kaiser pearls on the corners of each panel. I didn’t have the shade of blue that I wanted, so I just used white pearls and a my B93 marker.

We are off to Panama City Beach in the morning for a work conference. Hopefully the oil hasn’t reached there yet. The family is coming along because we have never visited that part of Florida before. I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Day 79 color theme for Dad

 

I struggled with the title of today’s post. My first thought was Nauti Bird. Then a Pelican for Pops. You can see I just went with the challenge theme.  Today’s card is based on the color theme for Day 79 at 365 Cards. When I looked at the colors this morning on my break, I immediately thought nautical. Most others doing the challenge went patriotic. I guess is was the different shades of blue that my brain focused on. I choose the set Guiding Light by Gina K Designs. I am very proud to say that all the cardstock (except the base) was pulled from my scrap bags. I stamped the image in black and colored it with copics. I used my Labels 4 to cut out the center panels. I sponged Memento Summer Sky and Versa Magic Wheat for the background. The netting is also from Gina K. The birds flying near the sentiment were stamped in Memento London Fog. I added a bit of Flower Soft in Sand for texture at the base of the image.

I am doing quite well keeping up with the challenges this week at 365 Cards. I just might make the weekly all-stars!

Out of the box, err I mean Oval

 

That title caught your attention I bet. It has been a week since I have really been able to work on a card/challenge. Being out of town at a conference was part of my obstacle, but I have also strained a muscle in my lower back. Staying in one position for any length of time is painful. Today’s card is made for two purposes. It follows the sketch at 365 Cards and it will be my swap card for the animal theme on Thursday night at Stamp & Deliver. Let me show you the entire card:

 To explain the title of this post, take a look at my stamped image. I used my Large Scalloped Oval nesties, but didn’t want the bird’s wings cut off. I used the Out of the Box technique. Start by stamping your image. Lay the nestie on top and see what part of your image lays outside the edge. Trace the inside of the nestie close to the image. Using scissors, cut the image out that lays outside the nestie. When you place your die-cut back down on the image, flip the cut image on top of the metal die so it is not cut out. If this sounds confusing, please go to SCS, there is a tutorial on there. After cutting out the nestie, I colored the mouse with a base color and then mixed Toffee and Sand Flower soft to obtain the color I wanted. I also glued plain Sand down around his feet. I finished coloring the image with copic markers. I added some dashed lines around the oval to help it stand out. The card base is SU Almost Amethyst and the pp is SU Tea Party. I popped the oval up on foam tape and glued a few Robin’s Nest dew drops in the corners. Now to just make 3 more!

Lately I have seen bloggers showing pictures of their work space to see if they are “clean” crafters or “messy” crafters. You decide!

For you eye spy fans, can you find two entirely different types of candy? Leave me a comment with the correct candy names and I will send out some blog candy. I will take comments all week and announce the winner this weekend:)

Wacky colors and early birthday gifts

 

Do the colors of the above card look wacky to you? I must state, the shade of purple is not really coming through on this picture. Today is wacky color Wednesday at 365 Cards. We needed to use Orange, Purple and Blue. I began with looking for some patterned paper and found some scraps from Basic Grey Sugar Rush. The image is a RAK that I received from a stamping friend in the UK (thanks Joan) and I believe it is a Sugar Nellie image. I colored her with these copics:

I added some ultrafine Flower Soft in Citrus Crush to the flowers. A strip of ribbon and pearls were added along with a butterfly punch. The sentiment is by A Muse and stamped on a Labels 4. I am also going to submit this card to Challenge 94 Recycle at A Spoonful of Sugar and Challenge 100 at Flutterby Wednesday. All three of these challenge blogs have some wonderful creations for you to look over.

I would also like to show you some early birthday gifts from my stamping buddy Char:

Isn’t that card wonderful? She knows my love of butterflies (especially blue ones). I can’t wait to try that pop-up butterfly punch!!! The big day is actually this Sunday, sigh.

Hooray for Mojo Monday!

 I had some new craft items that I have been wanting to play with and tonight I sat down while watching the American Idol results show. I went to 365 cards to see which designer was being showcased. Today is Amy and her style is fun, bright and whimsical. I next headed over to Mojo Monday to take a look at their current sketch. I really wanted to do the circle sketch, but the image was just a bit too large for my largest circle, so I went with the square.

I knew I wanted to use this image by Hero Arts so I pulled out my new Basic Grey paper pack Sugar Rush and looked through the pages. I choose two that were similar in brightness to Amy’s color choices. I used a scallop square nestie to layer the image in Almost Amethyst. The ribbon is from May Arts that has a nice shimmer to it IRL. I choose square brads for the corner since I made a square card and the color is almost spot on. To finish, I took my new pot of Citrus Crush Ultrafine Flower Soft and covered the flowers. The color blend fit the colors in my background paper perfectly. I couldn’t ask for a better match. And for those inquiring minds….

here is the handful of copics I used to color the little gal.

Be sure to enjoy your Friday and the last remaining days of February:)

A green snowflake?

 What? You mean you have never seen a green snowflake before? Well this is all we really get in Florida! You can’t really blame me. I made this card to fit into 4 different challenges and the color scheme at Copic color challenge was YG03, BV02 and B93. I had to fudge a bit and used BV01.

The card also completes sketch challenge 82 at A Spoonful of Sugar, week 80 at Penny Black was to use a charm and finally Day 306 at 365 cards asked us to Dig Deep into our stash to use something we have hoarded. The sketch challenge is self explanatory. My “charm” is also my hoarded item. I must confess, it is really a brad with its points cut off. I looked through all my stash and couldn’t find any more charms in a Christmas theme, so I improvised. The image is by Penny Black from the Christmas Critters clear set. The green snowflake is a Spellbinders die from the Snowflake Wonder set. Here is a close-up of the adorable hedgie. I used Polar White flower soft on the stocking. The following copics were used to color: YG03, BV01, B93, E11, G28, R29, RV10, E00, W1, the blender and a clear spica pen.

It is 11:30pm as I am posting this so let me wish you all a very Happy New Year. I am going to head to the living room to watch the ball drop with the family.

Viva Las Vegas slots of fun sketch challenge

Last weekend, while I was packing for the trip to Chicago, I attempted to participate in SCS Virtual Stamp weekend with the theme of Las Vegas. This was the Satuday 3:00 pm challenge which gave us the sketch to follow that resembled a slot machine. I immediately thought of this Penny Black stamp that had the three images in progression. I colored the image in using copic markers and then added flower soft to the flowers and grass areas. The patterned paper is by Basic Grey. It is a retiring line called Blush. A few dew drops and a corner punch finished the card. This lovely creation is now on its way to my Aunt Sue for her birthday on Thursday.

A flower soft birthday

Next week is my Mom’s birthday and I wanted to make her a special card. I keep buying new stuff and sat down tonight to finally try some of it out.

I began by cutting a piece of white cardstock with the Labels 4 nesties. While keeping the die in place I sponged Pink Pirouette ink inside. I attempted to use Sweet Blush by PTI to match the cardstock, but sadly the ink pad had bit the dust and was just an oily pad with no color. I looked through my flower stamps to find one that would work well with the flower soft and came across one by Another Stamp Company. I colored the stems with a copic marker and used Sweet Pea flower soft on the blooms. I set that aside to dry. The Basic Grey Wisteria pad arrived a few days ago and I knew I wanted to use some of that paper. Using a color wheel, I looked at what would be complimentary to the Sweet Blush I had already chosen. Some of you might say, since you used Pink Pirouette ink why not use that paper? Because I didn’t have matching ribbon and I had this twill that did match from PTI. So I discovered that a soft green would go well and pulled the green and white dotted piece from the paper pack. In keeping with the dots, I used my CB swiss dot border from the Just My Type set and embossed the middle of the green panel. I used a Martha Stewart butterfly punch, the SU ticket corner and the SU window word punch. I added different size pearls to the label diecut, butterflies and green panel to keep with the stick pin I created for the knot. I bought the beads and hardware at Michaels. After assembling the card front, I bent the wings on the butterflies to help add dimension. I am so glad I don’t have to mail this!

So one more item ticked off my list, now to work on masculine cards….