You look Mahvalous!

 Yesterday was Day 202 at 365 cards. The challenge was called Once Upon a Time. We were to base our card on a favorite fairy tale. I have to honestly say that I don’t have a favorite. So while at work I Googled fairy tales. There are a lot that I had never heard of before. But I came across one, The Ugly Duckling, that intrigued me. I switched to a search of images and found this one that I fell in love with.

I layered the image on a scrap of SU Orchid Opulence and a scrap of white. It is hard to tell from the picture, but I used a gold Atyou Spica pen around the mirror so it would shimmer. The background paper I have had for a while. A local stamp store was going out of business a year of so ago and they had this line of marbleized paper. I bought a sheet in every color they had thinking it was the greatest thing. Well, I haven’t found many times to use them but this card seemed to work ok. The sentiment is in the font of “Cheri”. I added the heart by Rain Dots and the flower gem by Hero Arts.

……And they lived happily ever after.

One Two Buckle My Shoe

 Today the challenge at 365 Cards was to use a shoe on your card. I looked through my stamps and the only true shoe stamp I have I used just recently from Ginak. I know that I could have googled images but there were so many to choose from. I settled on this stamp by Paperbag Studios. I hope it is okay that I have more than shoes on my card. They looked funny if I cut off the pants. 

I first stamped the image in brown then again in blue ink. I cut the pants out and used foam tape to pop them up for dimension. I used a script stamp with brown ink for the lower half of the card. The word adventure is an unmounted stamp and I used screw brads to keep the feel of a masculine card.

Very easy card to put together. I should make a few more to have on hand.

Three in one Tilda

I have been wanting to color one of my many RAK images of Tilda. Today I looked at a few challenge blogs that I follow and I was able to make this card and complete three challenges. To begin, 365 Cards asked us to create a card with what’s inside that counts. The front should enable you to know that Tilda is missing her friend. See, she is sitting all by herself on the wonderfully colored bench. Be kind, it was first time coloring wood. The second challenge using sparkle for Flutter by Wednesday #75. I used Stickles on her dress and hair bows. I also painted her wings and the flowers with Pixie Dust Shimmerz.

The third and final challenge was for Just Magnolia Week 22. We needed to use embossing on our card. To begin with I colored the bench and Tilda with copics. I cut out Tilda and placed her on the bench. I then set out to find some patterned paper and settled on this piece of SU from last year’s Holiday mini. I embossed the paper with my CB Moroccan Screen folder. I cut out the bench using my Labels 5 nesties and sponged SU Baja Breeze ink. It looked naked without the ink. I added a button with a cool heart imprinted on it (click the picture to make it bigger and you will see it), new primas I purchased this past weekend and Robin’s Nest teardrops. Get it , I told you Tilda was sad as she is missing her friend.

Here is the sentiment inside the card. It is from Hampton Art.

Here is a close-up of Tilda so you can try to see her sparkle.  That’s all for tonight, it is after 11, the Leno show is over and I need to get to bed.

You can’t put a price

 I am sure you have heard the saying “You can’t buy love”, well this cute little stamp takes it one step further. I picked this up over the weekend at my LSS. Click on the picture so you can see a larger picture.

 Today’s challenge at 365 Cards was to use a hexagon as the focal shape on your card. Well, please don’t look too close as I cut this shape out free hand. To help straighten it, I purposely chose a busy background paper *wink*. The stamp is by Shirley’s 2 girls, paper and brads by Basic Grey Bittersweet, a hint of copic and Atyou spica pens for color. I choose to use Kraft cardstock to bring out the color in the paper.

My second photo today is for an ATC swap at the Stamp Shack. The theme is Sweet so I used the sundae from MFT What’s the Scoop and sentiment from MFT How Sweet it is.

The paper is from Basic Grey Two Scoops collection. I cut a layer of vellum so the paper would seem muted. I colored the image with copics E59, E50, BG10, BG11, and R29. It is hard to see in the photo, but I spread Diamond Glaze on the sundae cup so it would resemble glass. Mini buttons were added to the corners.

Now to just put together the other 8 cards. Hopefully I will finish before the Jay Leno Show. If you watched it last night, what did you think? Was it too much like the Tonight Show?

Making a Mosaic

 This morning after getting up early I checked the 365 Cards blog and saw the day’s challenge was to make a mosaic. Hmmmm

I began with a wildflower corner stamp by Stacy stamps that I have had for quite a while. I inked it with markers and stamped. Next I took yellow h2'o paint and brushed “rays” of sunlight shining on the flowers. The sentiment is by Hero Arts. I let it dry while I made up our lunches and then used my paper trimmer and cut it to pieces. I layered it all on  a piece of SU Certainly Celery and cut the corners so they looked a bit fancy.

Semi-quick and easy. Enjoy your Monday!

Super Sketchy Pink Butterflies

 I made this card today after my quick trip to Michael’s. I needed extra small wiggle eyes for this month’s card swap coming up at the end of the month. I also picked up some white chocolate candy melts to make some Oreo eyeballs. While looking for the eyes I came across these gems that are dragonflies and butterflies. I bought them cuz a gal can never have enough bling!

This card completes two challenges: 365 Cards and Flutter by Wednesday #74. It was a sketch challenge by Pam and for FBW we needed to use pink on our cards. The image is by Inkadinkado and the pp by Best Creations. I stamped and embossed the image with SU pretty in pink ink. It came out a bit fainter than I wanted. The card base is PTI Hibiscus Burst. I used my scalloped oval nesties to cut out the main image. I was going to add another layer behind it, but didn’t want to cover my paper so I sponged ink instead.

These are the cards we made yesterday at Stamp and Deliver’s Make and Take.

 

Stamp is by American Art Stamp that was embossed in silver.

Stamp by Magenta embossed in gold. Paper by Graphic 45.

Stamps by Great Impressions. The pumpkins are the stamp of the month for September. We used Prisma pencils to color. (Gasp!)

Final card - Sadly I didn’t pay attention to what company made the leaves. They were clear stamps. We used a kaleidoscope pad to stamp. Yummy ribbon by May Arts. Sentiment was stamped in Vintage Sepia.

Tomorrow starts another work week for me. I think I will go and help my hubby make banana muffins. We have a few that are a bit brown um ripe!

My recipe to learn how to fly

 I must say, this card came together sooo quickly. This is my final card to catch up at 365 cards. This past Wednesday, Day 193, was a card recipe challenge. We were required to use a 5 by 5 card, 4 patterned papers, 3 blossoms, 5 rhinestones and a stamped image.

I had my pile of Basic Grey paper out from the past card so I began looking through them for 4 that would go well together. I used the following: Infuse – Salt, Two Scoops – Butter pecan, and Archaic – Fossil and Dirty. The stamped image is by Artistic Outpost. I thought it would stamp well on the patterned paper. My nesties were sitting out as well and I choose to use the deckled rectangles. I used my deckled scissors to cut the edges of the main piece to keep the unity. The blossoms are by Prima and the rhinestones are K & Company. I think real life butterflies should all grow gold tipped antenna don’t you?

Catch ya back here tomorrow!

A touch of the Wild

 This card is for today’s challenge at 365 Cards. It is called Just a touch. The challenge was to stamp something in black and white and add just a touch of color. I saw this posted this morning so I had all day to think about what image I wanted to use.

Today’s was make and take day at Stamp and Deliver. It was not my month to demo, so I was able to make all the cards. I will post those later. While I was there I thought about my wolf from Sarasota Stamps. He is one of my go to images for masculine cards.  I stamped him in black and used Prisma pencils to color his eyes and outline his ears, nose and neck. My copics stood there watching me color with my pencils and were extremely jealous. I told them not to worry, that because I am a mom I could love more than one thing equally. I used my curvy rectangle nesties to cut the image and a piece of Dark Chocolate by PTI. The patterned paper is from Basic Grey Infuse, Archaic and Hang Ten lines. I purposely didn’t add a sentiment for two reasons. I didn’t think there was any room on the front for one. Secondly, I don’t know when I will use this one and will stamp something on the inside.

One more card to go tonight.

Gingham Ghouls

 It is Saturday and I am playing catch up again. The challenge for yesterday Day 195 at 365 Cards was to create a piece of clothing with gingham as the pattern. You can stamp it, print a digital image, hand-draw it, or whatever you wish to do. So I thought about the few stamps that I had that were clothing and decided to use this set by MFT. It is called Totally Wicked.

I began by stamping the image on white cardstock. I stamped the two dresses again on pieces of gingham paper. I pieced the dresses onto  my original image. I colored in the remaining parts with copics. I had to decide whether to keep using the softer tones from the dresses or create a traditional Halloween card. As you can see, tradition won out. I used two different patterned papers cutting them into funky triangles. I placed all this on a piece of black cardstock. I felt They needed something to “tie” them together, a sewing machine would be good about now. But I don’t have a cute little Janome. So instead I used brads and some hemp. The sentiment was stamped and cut out with nesties. The bats are a Martha Stewart punch. The small panels with the brads were an after thought. The image panel even though it was layered, looked bare.

I have two more cards to finish so I won’t be too chatty right now.

I love my computer!

 The theme at 365 Cards today was technology. We were to be inspired by it. After working on a computer all day, then coming home to browse on the internet, this card was a natural to create.

I inked up Changito by Stampendous and cut him out with my Labels Seven nesties. He was colored with my Copics. The background paper is by Basic Grey Archaic. Great paper for a “manly” card. The sentiment was typed on the computer and put inside the metal holder. The screw brads are from GinaK. I knew one day I would actually use them!

It’s after 11pm here and I am beat. A long full day of work, my monthly recipe swap at the LSS (fun) and then open house at the high school (nightmare). I didn’t stay for the whole thing. Tomorrow is another long day. After work, I have to stay for our End of Summer Bash. The city is sponsoring a Low Country Boil at a local restaurant on the pier. (I live on the Atlantic Ocean for those of you newer to my blog). We sold 160 tickets and guess who gets to check them all in? See ya on Saturday.

Three cones of Sweetness

I thought I would never get home tonight. I had a meeting after work that should have lasted only 45 minutes but instead lasted over 90 minutes. Thankfully, I had peeked at the challenge earlier in the day over at  365 Cards. The word sweet had to be somewhere on the card. Easy enough. 

I pulled out my stamp set from MFT What’s the Scoop?” I began by stamping the ice cream cones on kraft cardstock and the scoops of ice cream on white. I colored the scoops with copic markers and added some diamond glaze so they would look wet. The shine doesn’t show very well in the photograph. I cut these out and raised them on foam tape. I pulled out my Basic Grey paper Two Scoops (how appropriate don’t cha think?). I used the pages called Pistachio Almond, Mint Chocolate Chip, Strawberry Smoothie and Spumoni. Are you ready for a scoop yourself by now? I layered the papers and added some brads, ribbon loops, piercing and pearls for extra oomph.

That’s about it for now as I am still working on a project that needs to be finished by tomorrow night.

Celebrate in Style

 Today’s card took some thinking on my part. It is Day 191 at 365 cards Musical Monday and we were to make something inspired by the song Chantilly Lace. I listened to the song numerous times, looked at what the others had already created, looked through my stack of stamped images and then went to sweep and mop the kitchen floor.

When I sat back down, I was drawn to GinaK’s set Retro Boutique. I used the dress and one of the sentiments. I paper pieced the bottom half with a scrap of polka dot paper. The cardstock colors are SU black, Riding Hood Red and River Rock. I used my CB swiss dot folder to keep with the dotted theme. I choose to use the circle scalloped nesties because they resembled a record. I used my paper piercer to make a hole in each of the scallops. I used the SU word window punch for the sentiment. A small piece of dotted ribbon tied in a bow finished off the card.

Now will I ever get the song to stop playing in my head?

Sunday Ghoulish Greetings

 It is not midnight yet and I am uploading my final card for today. This meets two challenges. The first is Sunday’s Sketch at 365 Cards and the second is a recipe challenge at the Stamp Shack. The recipe called for two brads, ribbon, glitter and using a punch.

The few of you reading this who personally know me are going to say “You actually made 2 Halloween cards on the same day?” You see, since my boys are older now, I really don’t get into the spirit of Halloween anymore. And for me to even make two cards in the same year, let alone the same day is AMAZING!

The paper is by Cosmo Cricket (last year’s again), the cardstock is SU Dusty Durango. The ghosts are my ribbon, the brads are glittered, the bats are Martha’s punch, sentiment by MFT Fright Night, and the main focal image is a rub-on by K & Company. I would like to say that I meant the triangle to look a bit crooked like a witch’s hat, but I have to chalk it up to the late hour and the fact that I just completed my fourth card tonight. All I can say, is thank goodness I work for the government and I am off tomorrow for Labor Day.

A charmed affair

 This card came together really quick. I looked through my stack of Halloween paper and decided to just let that “speak” for itself.

The paper is by Little Yellow Bicycle Frightful. It was last year’s pack. The stamp I just picked up at my LSS. It is part of this month's Great Impression stamps. I stamped it on a scrap of grey with versamark and embossed it using clear powder. The stamp actually had a small spider hanging down, but I clipped it out on purpose when I trimmed it. The charm I picked out at Joann’s on the same shopping spree I mentioned two posts ago. This catches me up with last week’s challenges. Whew! I am going to relax with a piece of Apple pie and a mocha Frappuccino.

Fun flock meets Flower Soft

 This little number was for the Friday Challenge on 365 Cards. Touchy Feely was the challenge. You could use either felt or fun flock. I didn’t own any felt flowers so I went with fun flock.

This cute little hedgie will stay warm with his scarf flocked. I used copics to color him and Polar White Flower soft for the snow. The papers are from last year’s Debbie Mumm Harvest & Holiday pack. This little card is a 4 inch square that was left over from a kit. I have really been trying to use up my leftovers before I cut into a new piece of paper.

I hope to charm you next…..

Eat Drink & Be Merry

 Today I am trying to play catch up on a few challenges. Last week we were trying to find a new bed for our youngest and finally late Friday night we were successful. Saturday was spent rearranging the bedroom to accommodate a larger bed. This card was made for Thursday’s challenge at 365 Cards. A label needed to be somewhere on your card.

I found this with my misc. embellishments. The label is by Remember When. I went with the colors of the label for my card. I tried looking through my paper stash for a checkerboard type but couldn’t find anything that would work. These papers came from a Making Memories paper pack called Poolside & Greenhouse. These two came from the Poolside half *wink*. I know it seems a bit fancy for a floor, but you need to understand he is a very flamboyant French chef. The stamps are from SU Viola and he is colored with copics. 

On my travels the last few days, I stopped into Joann’s for other project material and bought a small table top OTT light for my photo tent. The picture above was shot with the navy backdrop and the light. Does it look better (clearer) than my older shots? I sure hope so. On to my next card…

A new toy

 Today I got a new toy to play with when I take pictures of my cards. I bought a photo tent! My oldest son who is in school for photography kept telling me he would make me “something” but I got tired of waiting. I found this at OBN photo.

So now I just need to try the different backdrops and see which one I like the best. It came with four; white, royal blue, olive green and black.  Here is a new photo of an old card that I took just to practice.

I think I am going to like this tent. Stop by tomorrow and I should have a new card to show you. We spent the evening looking at new mattresses bed for our youngest. He had a blast laying on many different types. We found that he has expensive taste. He loved the Serta Perfect Day Ultra Cushion Top Mattress. Let’s just say I could buy a ton of stamps at what it cost. The salesman assured us we would not have to buy him another mattress for 20 years. My husband looked at him and said, “He is 16. I don’t have a mattress that cost this much and I won’t buy him another mattress in 20 years, he better be out of my house.” We are going to look again tomorrow night.

I hope you have sweet dreams.

Birthday Wishes

 I was able to squeeze in another card tonight. It is Danni’s birthday on Flutter by Wednesday and she is celebrating all month long. For this week’s card we needed to make her a birthday card. I received this Magnolia image in the mail today and felt it would work fine for a birthday card. You might be saying “These are not normal colors for you” well that would be a true statement. I also wanted to play in the Copic colour Challenge and these are the colors for the week.

After coloring her in with my Copics, I used my petite oval nesties to cut the image out. I layered a scallop oval underneath in SU So Saffron. The patterned paper is Basic Grey Marrakech. I thought the colors matched pretty darn close. For a different layout, I choose to use triangles. Maybe it was the Geometry homework earlier. For the sentiment I used my stamp from Stacy Stamps. I love how she has the sentiment both vertically and horizontally. I went with the vertical arrangement since my oval was placed lengthwise. A few pearls in the corners and a small MS butterfly near the flower and it is done. Now you diehard Copic fans who have a true color screen will say – Hold on, she didn’t use the three colors we gave. And that would be true. I used E08, YR21 and YG97. I got as close as I could. Here are the rest of my colors:

Now it is off to bed for me. I do hope I don’t dream about math!

Shoes & Friends

The challenge for today on 365 Cards was Ad Inspired.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were given the image on the left for inspiration. I kept the colors used in the ad and the high heels. I knew that the set Retro Boutique from GinaK would do the trick. I stamped the line of shoes beginning at different points on the white panel. The sentiment is from Penny Black. I layered the white panel onto a black than red panel. The corners were rounded with a punch from EK Success. A thin strip of red ribbon, a score line and one shoe colored with my red Atyou Spica pen with a rhinestone added completes my card.

That’s it for tonight. I am trying to help my son with Geometry and learning about the rotational symmetry of hubcaps!

Feeling Blue with Bows

 Tonight’s card fulfilled three different challenges. The first is for Day 185 at 365 Cards. The challenge was to use three shades of blue on our card. Check!The second challenge is for Just Magnolia Week 20. The card needed to have ribbons and bows on it. Double check! The third challenge is for A spoonful of sugar #67. That one required distressing on the card. Triple check!

I began by coloring a RAK Magnolia image that I recently received. I used the following Copics to color her in: E000, E00, E11, E33, E59, B21, B24, Y21, YR21, R01, R20, R81, R83, R85. I cut her out and placed foam strips to pop her up. I used my SU Top Note die and distressed the edges with my Tim Holtz distress tool. I sponged SU Bashful Blue on the diecut and went heavily on the edges. I also sponged Bashful Blue on the pp and cardbase. I added two strips of ribbon with small white bows to the top of the card. The mini hearts and ice cream cone are buttons by Jesse James Dress it Up. A hint of Crystal Ice Stickles was added to her ice cream scoop. The sentiment is from MFT What’s the Scoop set.  Thanks for stopping by today:)