Feeling Blue?

I waited until the last minute to make my swap cards for this month at Stamp and Deliver. The theme is monochromatic cards. All day at work I went over different colors in my head and what image I would use. My first thought was purple but when I got home and started pulling out paper, it was blue that won out. The layout fell together pretty easily. After looking at it, I realize that it will work fine for the daily challenge at 365 cards. It was to create a sympathy card without any writing on the front. I think this will work nicely.

I began with stamping the faux postage on a scrap of SU Cool Caribbean. After laying the template over the image, I inked the flower (from my new clear Allegro set from Penny Black) with SU Night of Navy. I cut out the faux postage with my postage scissors. I put a layer of SU Night of Navy cardstock behind it. Next I ran a piece of CC through my Cuttlebug using my new Victoria folder. You can’t tell by the photo but that piece is what opens up for the inside of the card. The base cardstock is just a single layer of Night of Navy. The flower is popped up on foam. Finally, the part I am most proud of, the bow. I totally suck at tying bows which is why I bought a Bow Easy from Sharon Johnson's Stamp Simply Ribbon Store. She has a great tutorial on her blog as the directions look a bit daunting. I made a cute double looped bow for the edge of the card!

I wonder what will be the predominate color for the swap tomorrow night. Any guesses? I will report back with the answer.

Super Sketchy Butterflies

It seems I am still a day late on the Sunday sketch at 365 cards. It is Day 141 and I worked on this tonight while watching Raising the Bar on TNT.

Above is the sketch we were given to follow. Below is my take on it.

I began with a piece of June Bug paper from Basic Grey. Add a strip of ribbon, a left over red oval from a creation that didn’t work. I stamped the sentiment and the butterflies in VersaMagic Mango chalk ink. The sentiment is from IO and the butterfly from SU. For the butterfly I stamped it first on white cardstock and again on vellum.

Thanks for looking and enjoy your week!

If friends were flowers

I was browsing on the Daily Dare challenge blog this afternoon and I found this one called  Stamptacular Sunday. Today the challenge was to blog hop across the ten Design Team Members and build a card as you go. Here is what I came up with:

The ten requirements we had to include were: start with blue, add an oval, mat a layer, stamped image, add 2 more colors, ribbon, flowers, a charm, sparkle and last but not least a sentiment for friends. I began with light blue bazzill and added soft peach scrap and SU creamy caramel that I punched with the SU eyelet border punch. The patterned paper is by Karen Foster called Flowers for Mother. I stamped Tilda with flowers in Memento Tuxedo black on GinaK paper. I colored the image with copics, used a long rectangle scalloped nestie and sponged Colorbox chalk ink in French Blue around the edges. I cut my sentiment out for my oval and added Prima Nursery tales flowers. The charm is by Blue Moon Beads and I strung some thin light blue ribbon for tails. Yes I know that a butterfly does not have a tail, but let’s pretend for this card :) For my sparkle, well the flowers have some glitter on them, but I also used atyou spica pens in garnet and sky blue on my Tilda. This was extremely fun to do this evening and I hope to frequent this challenge blog more often.

copic colors: face – E000, E11, E00, R20, white gel pen

hair – E59, E33, Y21, E11

dress – YR01, YR02, B93, B95

shoes- E33, E37, blender 0

I hope you have a great week and thanks for stopping by!

Is it time for Autumn yet?

 It is the middle of July, over 90 degrees out and I am making cards for Autumn. Actually, I am in a swap for fall or Halloween cards and this is what I made.

I took a look at my stamp sets and decided to use two sets by GinaK  - So Grateful and Whimsical Autumn. I stamped them in Memento Tuxedo Black on GinaK luxury cardstock. I used my copics to color all the images in . The squirrel: E31 and E33; the basket of apples: R08, YG63, E42, YR21 and YR 24; the pumpkins: YR12, YR04 and YR16. I also used my Red atyou spica pen on top of the apples. Once these were colored, I cut them out and set them aside. For the background, I used a sheet of Coredinations Vintage collection Flower Power pack. I ran it through the Cuttlebug with my new Harlequin folder. I sanded it and distressed the edges with my Tim Holtz tool. I added a layer of PTI Dark Chocolate behind this and my Riding Hood Red layer. After distressing the red layer I tied a strip of ribbon into a knot, then added the images, popping up the pumpkins on foam. The sentiment is from PTI Mailbox Greetings and I used Memento Rich Cocoa ink.

Last night was a mini Paper Chef VSN challenge over on Splitcoast. There were four challenge beginning at 6 pm and I was able to do all of them. You have 45 minutes to work on the challenge and another 15 to upload your creation and get ready for the next one. The challenges are all based around food in some way shape or form. Here is what I made:

 This one was for the challenge Swiss Cheese Please. We had to use holes on our card. I took a piece of BG Eva paper and made a chunk of moldy cheese. I stamped Mudpie, colored him and had to hand write the sentiment as I am having printer issues. I sponged a bit of Soft Suede around the edges.

The next challenge was Dragon Fruit Salad.

For this we had to use the colors of dragon fruit which are pink, green black and white. The Bella image was a RAK from ages ago. I colored her with copics and then used my nesties for the ovals. The patterned paper is from BG Eva again. The card base is PTI Hibiscus Burst. I think the ribbon is curly and resembles her hair!

The third challenge was Wilted Lettuce. We were to use various shades of green, beige as our neutral color (we could use a bit of red for Italian lettuce) and we had to crumble the paper somewhere on the card. The writing on the card also had to be in Italian.

I began with a scrap of green Bazzill paper that I stamped an image from the Tropical Flower set by GinaK. I used SU Wild Wasabi ink. I then took a scrap of ivory and crumbled it numerous times. I stamped the same tropical foliage image with Wild Wasabi and Purely Pomegranate. I stamped off a few times before stamping on the paper. I used the ticket corner punch and rhinestones. The butterfly is from Prima flowers. I looked up the translation for butterfly and it is Farfalla.

The final challenge of the evening was called Sodium Reduced Soup. We had to make a background for the card using salt. I used Kosher salt and re-inkers in Agean Blue and Leaf green. I had never tried this technique before, but it turned out pretty well.

 Once the background was dry, I stamped Great Impressions sea grass in black. I used a gold pen to highlight the edges of the grass. I stamped GI fish in versamark and gold powder. I colored the fish in copics and used Robin’s nest dew drops for the bubbles. I added a layer of gold and put it on Bermuda Bay cardstock from SU.

My craft table looked like a tornado had blown over it this morning, but I really enjoy participating in the Virtual Stamp Night. It pushes me to try new things and not over analyze my work.

I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Copic Precious Moments

Good Morning! This is a first for me, getting up a bit earlier to finish a card and post :) I was looking over Deb Felts Daily Dare challenge blog and found this challenge for yesterday Copic colour challenge. When I saw that it was a sketch challenge with a longer image I knew that I could finally use my Sarah Kay image that I have had for over a month now.

I began by stamping in Memento Tuxedo Black ink on PTI paper. I used the following Copic markers to color it in: B02, B24, G24, R01, R20, R29, YR12, Y000, Y02, Y21, Y26, Y38, E000, E13 and E33. Next I cut out the image using a Labels 4 die from Spellbinders. The patterned paper is from Basic Grey’s new Junebug 6 X 6 pack. The sentiment is SU Warm Words and was cut out with the window word punch. The flowers are by Prima and the red pearls are from Kaiser. After putting the card front together, I felt it needed more layers behind the pp so I used SU Dusty Durango and Crushed Curry (the new in-colors). 

I hope you like her…and if you do, please feel free to leave a comment. Have a great day today!

New Cuttlebug Folders!

So I thought today was going to be like most other Wednesdays. The middle of the week hump to get over. I had plans to visit my best stamping buddy after dinner, Char, to show her a few things on the computer. So after dinner I drive down to her house. I brought with me a Copic marker that I had bought doubles of to give her as she didn’t have that color. So I get there and I hand her the marker and she says, “Oh I have a little something for you.” She hands me a pretty gift bag that is a bit heavy for something “little”. I look inside and there is a white box that is safety sealed for your protection. My nail wouldn’t even penetrate the tape! I open the box finally and inside was:

the entire new 2009 collection of embossing folders! My mouth dropped, I was speechless. When I could find my voice, I gave her a big hug and a huge thank you. She made me a fabulous card that I would take a picture of but my camera died and I can’t find the extra batteries. Next post I will show her card, promise. Now to browse the galleries and blogs for ideas on how to use these babies :) And Char…I think you are one of the good ones too!

365 Cards Day 134

 I recently came across this challenge blog called 365 cards. This was the challenge for this past Sunday. It was a sketch to follow. I didn’t get the time to work on it until this afternoon.

I used my new Rich Razzleberry cardstock from SU as the base. The patterned papers in the corner are from my new Basic Grey Lemonade paper pack. I used the SU scallop border punch on the top layer. I also used a scrap of paper to punch out the brackets. The sentiment is by Stampendous. I stamped it on a scrap then sponged SU crushed curry and rich razzleberry on it. The image is by Penny Black. I just love that hedge hog! Colored with copics and prisma pencils then popped up with a bit of foam tape. Instead of using a strip of paper or ribbon to complete the sketch, I chose to include this line of flowers called Sweet Petites by Petaloo.

I hope you all have  great day!

Under the sea

My youngest has been bugging me to make a card using a seahorse image for his girlfriend. Well, first I had to purchase a seahorse image which I did at Stamp and Deliver. The main image is by Impression Obsession and the background is June’s stamp of the month by Great Impressions.

I began by cutting out the scalloped circle with my Cuttlebug and Spellbinders Large scalloped circle dies. Next I cut out a plain circle die from Dusty Durango (new 2009 SU in color) for the backing. I stamped the main image with Memento Tuxedo Black ink since I would be using my copics. I colored in the image using these markers:

 I started with E11 then E08 for highlights. The seaweed was YG03 with YG63 for highlights and the water effects were BG01 lightly feathered on with BG10 as filler. I went over the seahorse with Chocolate Atyou Spica pen and the seaweed with the Melon for sparkly highlights that are not showing well in the pictures sorry. The background paper is a new sheet from the Basic Grey Lemonade 6 X 6 pack. I took the GI stamp and inked it with SU Bermuda Bay. I sponged a bit of Dusty Durango near the bottom of the paper.

 I popped the main image on foam squares and added Pewter Kaiser pearls on the bubbles. I wrapped a bit of twisty ribbon around the BG before gluing it to the front of the card. The card is 5 1/4 square and I used a piece of Bazzill for the base.

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend!

July Make and Takes

Today was Make and Take day at Stamp and Deliver. It was my off month for demoing so I got the chance to make all 4 cards. This first card used a new stamp by Paperbag Studios called Thistle.

We stamped it with black ink onto the designer paper. Next we added partial stamping with a script stamps. The follow your dreams sentiment was added but as you can see, I didn’t align it very well. Purple chalk was added to the flower, green for the stem and black to accentuate the frame around the flower. Put the layers together and it was finished.

The second card I am showing you used a cute cupcake stamp. It was stamped on yellow textured cardstock for the frosting and pink patterned paper for the cake. Each was cut out and put back together to form the image. The same patterned paper is on the bottom of the card along with the sentiment and a strip of silver glittered candle stickers. Larger candle stickers were added to the main layer. A glue pen and extra fine glitter were outlined around the frosting for added glitz.

The third card uses a faux postage template by Just For Fun. We stamped it in black then used chalk to color in the backgrounds. The purses were stamped next and a gold gel pen for highlights. The sentiment was stamped and layered on the reverse side of the paper. Postage scissors were used to cut the two images out. A strip of ribbon from May Arts runs along the left side of the card. A ribbon punch was used to thread it on the paper.

The fourth and final card uses a color combo that is a favorite of mine, pink and brown. We began by stamping the main image in Colorbox Chalk Toffee. Then added the flowers in Colorbox Chalk Pink Pastel. The main image panel was also sponged with Toffee. The pink layer was distressed using a Tim Holtz distress tool then sponged with Pink Pastel. The main card base was also sponged with Pink Pastel. May Arts ribbon was wrapped around the top two layers of cardstock. A tan layer of cardstock was added. The flowers were layered together with glue dots and a small pearl glued in the center. This one has a shabby chic look to it.

This was how I spent my afternoon, what did you do? After dinner we are meeting friends up at Barnes & Noble to relax with a caramel frappuccino.

A little birdie told me..

 

Yes you few faithful readers…I have two posts today. Please make sure you keep scrolling down when you are done with this one :)

I joined an ATC swap over at the Stamp Shack with the image sight unseen. The hostess, Chris aka mydogstinks, picked the image and stamped it for us. I had no idea what to expect and never expected a hippo!

So I stared at the image for a day  and wondered just what I would do with it. I knew that I would color the image with Copics but after that…..

Well my brayer was sitting on my table from Savannah and the Zindorf class. So I thought, you need to use it. I used all Adirondack inks on the ATC. I began by brayering I think it’s called Stonewashed (I bought it so long ago it was Name this color) on the top of the ATC. Next I added Sail Boat Blue. Here is what they looked like -

So far so good. I brayered Willow on the bottom third of the card. 

Now time to sponge. I lightly sponged Sandal on top of the Willow and Denim on the top edge of the ATC for shadows. I stamped seagrass from the GinaK set Best fishes with Lettuce ink and then swiped my Melon atyou Spica pen for highlights.

The sentiment was added in black. I cut out the hippo and yes I cut off the tail. I added a piece of knotted black hemp to create my own tail. I wanted to add a small bow to the tail, but it seemed too big for the ATC so I opted for just a knot. I put the image on a foam square and added Rain dots and Dew drops. Here are the final cards:

Not too shabby especially since I had not practiced with my brayer for over two months.

Impression Obsession Class

Last week I was fortunate to attend a class by the owner of IO herself, Mitra! She was in town for the Stampfest show in Orlando and our wonderful store owner Claire of Stamp and Deliver invited her to do a class.

Mitra had four tables set up with all the supplies needed for that card and we rotated around. The card above was by far the easiest card for me as it didn’t involve watercoloring. It used Copics!!! We began by stamping the stripes in chalk ink and then on the green cardstock. Next we took the watermelon stamp and stamped it once in pink then flipped the circle around and stamped it again in black. The sentiment was added and then quickly assembled the card. Not very hard at all.

Now on to the cards I struggled with.

This stamp is a very cute scene with the wooden chair, towel and shells. We stamped it on a piece of kraft cardstock then used markers and a water brush to color it in. Once that was done, we used a scor-pal to score a frame around the image. We also scored the background paper that we created with a bubble stamp. The sentiment was stamped and cut out. We added a bit of diamond glaze and sprinkled sand for a realistic effect. Miniature shells were added as a final touch.

The third card was a fun card to color since it was images of candy! Again we used markers and a water brush to color. Once that was done and the two layers assembled, we used diamond glaze with vintage glass glitter so the rock candy looked good enough to eat.

 

The final card seemed to be the favorite of most of the ladies.

To save time for us, Mitra had already stamped and embossed the image in gold detail powder for us. She also pre-made the cute shrinky dink sentiment. This was a bit easier to color with the lines being embossed. I still am not very happy with my sky but I was tired of painting at this point. We attached the sign with a piece of hemp and set the eyelets. I will share a tip that Mitra did with us for watercoloring. She gave us each a square of white plastic tablecloth to use as our palette. Just swipe the marker on the plastic cloth and it is easy to pick up with your water brush.  

 

Mitra is a super sweet lady and very talented. I am so glad she agreed to take the time and teach us this class.

Have faith

 When I bought this patterned paper, I did not have any specific card in mind….I just liked the colors in it.  I am glad that I purchased two sheets as I would need all of that to make 5 cards with it. This is the second card that I taught at my Mom’s get together. As you can see, there was very little stamping, but alot of cutting out with my Cuttlebug. I had all the pieces pre-cut for the ladies. Let me tell you, it is not easy to cut that ring of melon. For everyone that I got centered correctly, I threw away two.

I used the Labels 4 die set, petite circle nestie, standard circle nestie, petite scallop oval nestie, and the fancy scalloped piercabilities all by Spellbinders. The patterned paper is by Graphic 45 the Baby & Bride collection. The cardstock used for this card was Very Vanilla and Sage Shadow by SU and Melon Berry by PTI. The ink and ribbon is also Melon Berry by PTI. The stamp set is Tiny Words by JustRite. The card is folded off center. The ladies had a wonderful time and went home with fabulous personal creations.

Speaking of the Cuttlebug…

 

Did you know that new folders will be coming out soon? They will be showcased on the Cuttlebug Challenge blog for the next month which you can find right here. 

 

I can’t wait to start seeing the new projects!

New technique for me Embossing to de-emboss

 I learned this new technique yesterday at Stampfest. The instructor at the Stamp On It booth was showing the many different ways to use your cuttlebug. For this technique, you begin by running a piece of cardstock through the CB using the Distressed Diamond folder. Then take the same piece of cardstock and place it in the Everyday Greetings folder. Run it through the CB four times to get a really good embossing. This second folder will de-emboss the first one making it a background image only.

I painted the flowers using Shimmerz paint. Then I sponged Antique Linen ink over the diamonds so they could be seen better. I found some bazzill scraps to use under the image and finished it with a bit of ribbon and rhinestones. This will be a cool technique to try with other folders.

My second card to show today is for a small get together at my Mom’s later this week. A few of her friends wanted to make some cards and this is the first one they will do. I bought the faux postage stamp at the stamp show along with the plastic template.

I began by stamping with versafine black. This ink works really well for fine detail. I laid the plastic template over the top of my stamping and used a stipple brush and Adirondack Butterscotch ink for the background. I took a script background stamp and inked it with Terra Cotta. I stamped off once on paper because I didn’t want a dark image. I stamped my flowers using Tombow markers direct to the stamp. The two sentiments were done using Terra Cotta also. I cut the image out using my Fiskars scissors in the stamp pattern. I layered it with shimmery Bazzill. I am bringing a variety of sentiments so the ladies can choose what type of card they want.

In other news, Pugsly has gone home today and the house is quiet again. Although, I think our little Zoey misses him. The boys made it home today shortly after lunch. They woke up yesterday at 4:00 am and drove from Vermont to New York City. They took in the sights until around 5:00 pm. There was so much construction and traffic it took them 2 hours to get out of the city and into New Jersey. They drove all through the night and are extremely tired. Alex brought me home a nice sized bottle of Maple syrup in the shape of a maple leaf. He said he tried looking for stamp stores, but sadly there were none. At least he thought about me :)

Happy Hedgie sketch challenge

 Let me start by saying that my first attempt at a Magnolia card was well received at the swap tonight. Although some ladies asked why I had forgotten to add her mouth…. I tried to explain that she didn’t have a mouth. The discussion thereafter involved MFT Who’s that girl stamps without a head and Amish dolls. We will leave it there.

Tonight’s card is for the sketch challenge on Splitcoast. I have good intentions of doing these weekly challenges and finally completed one. The details can be found here. I picked up this stamp set by Penny Black called Wonderful tonight at the store. The main image is stamped on a Label 3 die and colored with copics. I sponged a bit of Colorbox chalk in Ice blue around the die because it looked naked just white, but yet overdone if I layered lit ike the other two rectangles. I stamped just parts of flower images from the same set on the smaller rectangles and colored those with copics also. I used my Martha Stewart butterfly punch for the butterflies and bent their wings for dimension.  Kaiser pearls were added to their bodies and along the corners of the card. I love the background paper and hated to cut into it. It is by Karen Foster and called Flowers for Mother. I layered coordinating Bazzill cardstock behind it.

All was quiet when I came home today with the dogs. Actually I think the heat is getting to Pugsly. Here is what he has been doing most of the evening..

How can I stay mad at that face? We heard from the boys tonight. “They went kayaking and fishing in an awesome lake.” My son is sooo talkative :)

My first Tilda card

 I have finally jumped on the Magnolia stamps craze. The other day I saw a post that the Chasing Butterflies collection was in stock at Scor-Pal. Well, I had to investigate if it involved butterflies. I promptly ordered a few stamps and they arrived yesterday. I created this card for the monthly card swap at my LSS Stamp and Deliver. The theme is Graduation or Summer. I went with the Summer side.

I began by stamping the image in Memento Tuxedo Black ink on Papertrey cardstock. I followed Suzanne Dean’s  tutorial on the Scor-Pal website to learn how to color her face and hair with Copics. After she was colored in, I cut out the image and put foam tape behind her to pop her up. I chose the background paper by Foof-a-la which I came across this weekend while organizing my stuff. After picking out the paper, I then chose coordinating cardstock colors to layer it with. I used the two largest Labels 4 dies by Spellbinders to layer the image on top of. I sprinkled Flower Soft Summer instead of coloring in the flowers on the image. To finish the card, I added mini pearls to the ticket punched corners of the card and threaded some hemp through the button to secure a smidgen of red taffeta ribbon. Now to find the right sentiment for the inside…..

On a lighter note we are dog-sitting a Puggle named Pugsly for the week while our son Alex and his friends are in Vermont. This is what I came home to yesterday.

It seems that Pugsly didn’t like our couch. I freaked and promptly took the picture and emailed it up to the boys. We waited and waited for a response. It seems they get no cell phone reception at the cabin they are staying in. Finally, they went to Wal-Mart and Alex saw that I had emailed, called and sent a text. Luckily when Chuck got home he saw that it wasn’t as bad as it looked. There was only a small tear behind the left cushion and he put the stuffing back into the cushion. We have been wanting to change the look of the living room from “country cottage” to a more Floridian look so we will start with the couch. I never liked the couch anyway. We are counting the days until the boys come home.

Love at First Touch

I have been needing to make this baby card for a while now and finally sat down today with a set by GinaK and designed by Melanie M. My cousin in the Boston area is expecting a baby next month. Sadly this didn’t make it in time for the shower last week, but I am sure they will still appreciate it. I began by cutting out the various ovals with my Nestabilities then stamping the image and coloring it with the two Copic colors shown. The ribbon tag is from Spellbinders and the sentiment was added. The ribbon is Vanilla taffeta from SU. The patterned paper is from the DCWV pack called Nana’s Nursery Baby Girl. I ran that through the Cuttlebug using my Swiss Dot folder. I used my scallop and lace border punches from SU to finish the edges. Mini buttons were added as a finishing touch. Now to get to the store for a gift card so I can get this in the mail!

A new look and the promised class cards

So let’s begin with the new look. I have to say that I was never really happy with the blog background I had before.  I loved that it incorporated  blue butterflies, but it covered my posts and made you scroll up alot!. So while searching for other backgrounds today, I found joyfulblogskins.blogspot.com . She had this wonderful one that is soooo much cleaner looking AND still has my beloved blue butterfly in the corner. I showed this to Chuck tonight and he was like, finally! I didn’t want to tell you that I never cared for the other as it was very busy. Men, why do I even ask his opinion?!

 

Now on to the class cards.  All the cards were made using one sheet of Penny Black floral stickers. We began by taking all the images off the sheet and putting them on a piece of white cardstock. The image was then cut out. This gave a better backing to the sticker and it was easier to position the image on our cards. The first two above are square cards. The one on the left involved using decorative scissors to cut the image out and simple layering of cardstock. A bow and spiral clip completed the note card. For the one on the right, the image was actually a seven inch sticker that was cut in half and layered on. The sentiment was randomly stamped in Rocket Red and Timber brown inks. There is another birthday sentiment inside, but sorry no photo. As I am looking at the card, I see that my ribbon loop on the right side has been pulled under the layer when I tied the bow :( It is now corrected so when I send the card, the receiver will have a nice balanced card.

One of these cards has a mistake on it but I bet you will never see it. One of the rules of cardmaking is there are no mistakes, just creative maneuvers. The card on the left also used decorative scissors to cut out the image. I used a gold krylon pen to edge it. The card is folded off-center so the strips of cardstock inside can be seen through the punched border.  To pinch the ribbon, the prongs of the brad are wrapped around it then poked through the hole. The card on the right used pinking shears to cut the image and sentiment out. It was layered on mulberry paper and paper run through a crimper. Brads and ribbon were added as finishing touches. So do you see my creative maneuver? It is on the left card. The image was supposed to have a scalloped edge. I cut it out backwards and made them inverted. Oh well, Spellbinders is coming out with dies like that now, so it must be the in thing :)

 

Final two cards from class. Both used fun techniques for two different looks. For the one on the left, we made an alcohol ink background. A strip was cut and run through the Cuttlebug using the swiss dot embossing folder. We used a corner rounder and decorative scissors for the sentiment. The card on the right was made using Stamp N Bond and glitter for the frosted effect. This was layered with textured cardstock and finished off with sheer dotted ribbon and a fancy holder. 

Wow, I actually got two posts in one day accomplished. I am off to finish the MFT atc’s from earlier. Please let me know what you think of the new background. If you don’t have a google ID, click on the anonymous button under comments and you can post your thoughts.

How to relax after work....

Today's creation is an ATC for a swap on The Stamp Shack. We had to use an image by MFT. No problem there, I have a few of those :) I chose this image as I would like her to be me relaxing after a long day at work. There are a few problems with the picture though....I don't own a brown and white dotted dress and I don't own the furniture either. Now the chocolate is not a problem. I am a Chocoholic!

I used copics to color in the image. It may seem like her dress is paper pieced, but it isn't. I colored her using E29 then added my white gel pen to make the dots. Since I just received my new SU colors a few days ago, I used Melon Mambo as a background layer. I gave the chocolate pieces some sparkle with an Atyou Chocolate spica pen. The dew drops are a new bottle named Dark Vanilla. Now to just make 9 more and get them in the mail.

I took an awesome class a few nights ago at the LSS called Altered Stickers. The instructor Nancy uses one sheet of Penny Black floral stickers and creates wonderful cards. I will try to upload my pictures after work tonight to share with you. I hope you have a wonderful Thursday!

It has been awhile.....

I apologize for not posting in awhile. My sister and my two nephews are in town for a few weeks and I have been preoccupied with them. They are in town because my mom had knee surgery and they are taking care of her.

My first card to show you was made for the swap at my LSS last month. The theme was masculine/Father's Day cards. I used my set from GinaK called Guiding Light. I began with kraft cardstock and stamped the rope image around the four sides with Sahara Sand ink. Then I stamped the main image on white and used my curvy rectangle nestie to cut it out. This was layered on Pacific Point and black cardstock. I colored my images with copics and put just a touch of Shimmerz paint on the seagulls. I cut out the tag with a ribbon diecut from Spellbinders, sponged the edges and used hemp to tie two knots.

The second card is one I will be demoing on Saturday at our monthly make and takes at Stamp and Deliver. I apologize for the blurry picture in advance. The layout is the same one I used during the recent VSN for a five layer card. The paper and colors were changed a bit and brads were used instead of dew drops. Here is a quick tip, if you want to use brads but don't have the color you need, take a sharpie marker in the color you want and color over them. This will permanently change the brad. I couldn't find a sharpie in the color green so i used embossing powder. I heated up plain white brads with my heat gun then dipped them in the powder and re-heat brad for a few seconds. You can make any color you want providing you have the embossing powder :)

The last card I am showing you is the alternate card to show another use for the stamp set at the Make and Take. I used all MFT products on this from the current Chocolate Kiss collection - ribbons, paper and bling.

The stamped image and bottles were colored with copic markers. I used Shimmerz paint for the background of the stamped area and did apply Diamond glaze on the nail polish bottles so the looked more realistic. The robe has Fun Flock on it to give it a terry cloth effect. I didn't come up with this idea, I saw it from one of Kim's DT gals. That is it for now, please leave a comment if you liked any of my cards :)