Coloring Hedgehogs

Just a quick post for the 30 day coloring challenge over at The Daily Marker.  

I colored some cute little hedgehogs from Lawn Fawn.  :)

I scraplifted this idea from this card by Jennifer McGuire.

For the shaker, I used some tiny heart confetti, Pretty Pink Posh sequins and some glitter.

Here's a close-up of my hedgehogs.  I colored them with Copic markers.

Now it's off to bed.  Nighty night!

Happy Bee-day and World Card Making Day!

I made a fun card for a friends birthday!  :)  I love how it came out and thought I'd share.

I used some fun patterned papers from Papertrey Ink and Lawn Fawn for the background panels.  The cute hexy circle is from Simon Says Stamp.  Doesn't it make a fun background for these adorable bees form Papertrey Ink?  The bees and the cute sentiment are from the Honey Bees stamp set.  I diecut the bees from Summer Sunrise paper and stamped them in black ink.

Oh, the stitched flag is from Lil' Inker Designs and was perfect for this size of sentiment.  And the awesome sunflower is from My Favorite Things.  I love how the petals are embossed with lines on them.  It really makes them appear to have some extra texture and dimension.

The sentiment inside is from the Boutique Borders: Birthday mini stamp set from PTI.  I just HAD to add another little bee here because they are so cute!  Plus it helps pull the inside and outside together.

I thought I'd share this for World Card Making Day!  I'm a little late to post it since WCMD was yesterday, but I didn't have time to sit down with my laptop, because I was too busy making cards!  :)  I have more to share, but it's time for bed, so I'll have to work on that later.

Happy [belated] World Card Making Day!  TTFN!

Yeti Hugs?

I wanted to share this card really quickly before I hit the hay.  My friend, Angie, recently slipped and fell at work and hurt her back.  She's been slowly improving with help from a chiropractor, but I thought I'd cheer her up with a fun and cute card.

I think this little Yeti from Lawn Fawn is probably my cutest stamp of all.  He's so happy and adorable you just can't see him and not smile, right?  I knew my hubby had this cute little stuffed Yeti that I put in his Christmas stocking once, so I went to get it for the pictures and realized that my stamped and colored yeti is a perfect match!  It's hard to see his hands and feet under all that fur but they are blue like the yeti that I colored with my Copics.  (My hubby is a believer of the Yeti and Bigfoot myths, so I occasionally humor him with silly gifts like this and cards made with this stamp set.  In fact, he's the biggest reason that I HAD to have this stamp set when it was released.  :)

Here's a close-up of the card.  The awesome background die-cuts are from Papertrey Ink, and the patterned papers are from a 6x6 paper pad by My Mind's Eye.  I white embossed the sentiment, but I felt like it didn't quite POP as much as I wanted, so I stamped a shadow of it with Green Hills shadow ink from Hero Arts.

The inside sentiment is from Papertrey Ink as well; from the Inside & Out: Well Wishes stamp set.  This is also stamped with Green Hills shadow ink.

Now, as I was checking my email just a little while ago, I found a comment that was left on my last blog post inviting me to visit Word Art Wednesday so I thought I'd check it out.  It is a Christian card makers blog and the focus is on uplifting others and sharing scripture.  I think this card certainly qualifies as uplifting, so I thought I'd go ahead and link it up.  :)  

Thank you, Karen L. for the invitation!  

Now it's off to bed for me.  Nighty night!

Autumn Blessings

I have a super quick post today.

I'm playing along with Papertrey Ink on their September Blog Hop Challenge.

I've been meaning to try the chalkboard technique for ages and finally got around to it, thanks to their inspiration photo and the challenge.  It's acutally the PERFECT challenge photo to match the story behind this card!  :)

A friend and co-worker of mine recently had to move her mother into an assisted living apartment that's actually not far from where I live.  Her mom has been struggling with this transition in her life, and is struggling to adjust.  She had to leave the home she's been in for quite some time and move to a different town, which is never easy for someone to do in these situations.

I thought I'd send her a little "housewarming" card to hopefully boost her spirits.  The town I live in is truly lovely and has the "hometown" spirit of a much smaller town than what it actually is.  It's a wonderful, safe community and I hope that she will come to love it here.  I grew up not far from the home she recently left, and I've only been here for 5 years.  My family has truly blossomed here and feel that we have found "home".  (Although, I still hate Illinois weather!)

I added a cute little bumble bee on the inside and stamped him again on the envelope, which I forgot to photograph.  BTW - these photos are not as good quality as I usually post because I took them with my Hubby's cell phone.  My camera battery was dead.  O-well!

The majority of the products I used are from Papertrey Ink.  The inside sentiment is from a set called Find Joy from Hero Arts, and the curly trail behind the bee is from a set by The Craft's Meow called Beautiful Spring.  Everything else I used is PTI.  And I found that ADORABLE owl mug at Cracker Barrel a few months ago.  They have the best stuff in their Country Store!  ;)

TTFN!  And be sure to give your parents a call, just to say hi and let them know you love and appreciate them.  BYE!

Filled with Good Times

Just a quick post today.  I made this card for my big brother's birthday.

I used a label stamp from the Papertrey Ink Craft Beer Collection to stamp a custom background page.  The rest of the stamps are from the City Station mini stamp set, and the dies are part of the scene it collection.  I found a sparkly black ribbon in my stash to create a "road" for the pick-up truck.

These images are so fun to play with!  I couldn't resist using the little dog, even though the gas station isn't a place you usually see dogs.  My theory is that Fido is sitting outside the door waiting for his master to come back from paying for his gas.  Then he'll hop in the back of the truck and enjoy the breeze on the ride home.  Makes me think of the old Lassie show for some reason.  o_O

The truck is popped up on foam adhesive and I tucked a small piece of foam tape behind the garage door so it will stand open slightly.

For the sentiment on the inside of the card, I used the same stamp that I made the background paper with for the front of the card.  I like the play on words; Let the good times "roll".  :)  The little scooter is from the Main Street stamp set, but the fire truck and pick-up come from the City Station mini set.

I thought this card was a great example of stamping on die-cuts, so I'm sharing this on the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge blog.  This week's theme is Stamp And Punch/Die Cut.

Simon Says Stamp is one of my favorite online stores!  I love their exclusive stamps and dies, but they also carry lots of other brands I use as well.  Check them out if you haven't already.  :)

On my way to the sleep clinic now.  My son is having a sleep study tonight and I get to go sleep in am awful recliner in his room.  Yay!  Stiff Neck City, here I come!  :-P  

But I'm actually looking forward to the study.  I'm hoping we'll finally be able to treat his sleep apnea effectively after this.  He was having 30+ apnea episodes each hour while he sleeps!  (That means he stops breathing while he sleeps.)  Because of this, his brain doesn't get any rest because he keeps partially waking up.  He has had 2 sleep studies already, and both times he had absolutely no REM sleep what-so-ever.  REM is the restorative phase of sleep.  That's when your body heals itself, and is the most restful.  It's also the dream phase of sleep.  My son has always claimed that he doesn't dream, but I assumed he just didn't remember his dreams.  Looks like the kiddo was correct!

Please say a prayer for Jacob that we'll finally get some good results.  If we can successfully treat his sleep apnea, it will change his life!  Right now, he's tired, withdrawn, irritable and generally unhappy from lack of sleep.  He can't focus in school, falls asleep in class, and has trouble understanding and doing his school work.  Sleep deprivation is a terrible thing, and I hope we can control it after this.

Nighty night, everyone!

Birthday Songbird

Here is ANOTHER card that was accidentally saved as a draft instead of published!  I don't even remember who I made this one for or when!  O-well.  Enjoy!  :)

Here is a birthday card I made for a friend using my new stamp and die sets from Papertrey Ink called "Songbirds".

Products Used:

Stamps by PTI:

Songbirds, Inside & Out Birthday II

Dies by PTI:

Songbirds

Papers by PTI:  Stampers Select White, Smokey Shadow, Tropical Teal, Orange Zest, Raspberry Fizz, Hibiscus Burst, Simply Chartreuse, Aqua Mist, & Tropical Teal patterned paper

Inks by PTI: 

Ripe Avocado, Terracotta Tile, Raspberry Fizz, Hibiscus Burst, Orange Zest & Simply Chartreuse 

Other Ink:

VersaFine Black

VersaMark

Embossing Powder by PTI:

White Filigree Detail

And some random orange rhinestones

OMG! A little Sparks!!!

Ohmygosh!  I made this card in January, but for some reason I didn't click publish!  It was still listed as a draft!  So, the baby in question is actually a month old!  And by the way, she's absolutely beautiful.  Mama and Daddy are truly blessed with a sweet little princess.  <3  

Ok, this post needs a little explanation.  I've had the same best friend since I was about 14 years old.  When she got married in 2004, her last name became Sparks.  And when I met MY husband in 2006, he became best friends with her husband.  They were the best man and matron of honor at our wedding in 2007.

Now, my friend has never been a big fan of babies or really small kids.  I have never gotten the impression from her that she would ever be interested in having children of her own, however, I've always known that her hubby wanted kids.

It was still a surprise to me to find out last week that they are expecting a baby this June.  I'm so excited I can't even begin to tell you!!!!  A little baby Sparks!  I just can't believe it!!

So, naturally, I had to make them a congratulatory card for the occasion!

I used stamps from a variety of companies:  Winnie & Walter for the little diamonds or "sparks" flying from the baby buggy, MFT made the little lightning bolts, PTI made the baby buggy, and My Thoughts Exactly for the majority of the sentiment.  The word Spark is from a Hero Arts stamp set, but the stamp actually says Sparkle.  I just masked of the "le" and only inked up the the "spark".

All of the papers used are from Papertrey Ink.

The sparks and lightning bolts, the baby buggy outlines and the word Spark are heat embossed with silver powder to make them shine.  I wanted them to seem like they were electric or something.

I created a mask for the baby buggy that left only the body of the carriage and the bonnet exposed so that I could stamp the pattern on it.  Then I used a dry water brush and ink to paint the stripe, the edge of the bonnet and the wheels.

I also added some clear mirrored pearls for a little extra bling.

After seeing the embossed word Spark, I felt like it just didn't stand out well enough.  So I decided to stamp it again in matching ink for a shadow.  I also clear embossed the rest of the sentiment so it would also "pop" a little more.

The little "sparks" coming from the baby buggy are probably self explanatory, but I feel I should enlighten you on the reason for the lightning bolts.  My girlfriend and her husband have a dog named, Lightning, who they adopted from the pound.  Until now, he has been their baby.  Her nail salon is named after the dog, and she has a tattoo of a lightning bolt on her foot in his honor.  I'm sure that, as soon as she sees the card, she will immediately make these connections and hopefully be as thrilled to get it as I was to make it!

Congratulations to you, Mr. and Mrs. Sparks!  I can't wait to meet little Sparky!!!! 

Have a beer on me!

So, I totally forgot that I have one more card to share that I made over the weekend!  :)

Our junior high band teacher for the past two years has moved on to bigger and better things.  He was hired as a band director at a high school in another nearby town.  I wanted to send him a card to congratulate him, and since he is a connoisseur of craft beers, choosing a card theme was very simple.  :)

This stamp set is called Craft Brew and is a recent release from Papertrey Ink.  Most PTI dies are solid dies, however, some of the Craft Brew dies are not; so I was able to stamp the beer glass first and then die-cut after.  I inked up the beer stamp with Summer Sunrise and rolled the edges in Canyon Clay.  It took a few practice tries to get the look I wanted.  The best part of this stamp set are the detail stamps for the beer glass.  See the darker line running down the glass and the other at the bottom?  They add so much dimension and make the glass look so realistic!  Love it!  I die-cut the foam from some white felt that is actually sparkly on one side.  I just put the sparkly side down since it didn't fit with the theme of the card.

The sentiments are designed to look like beer labels and this one was perfect for the occasion.  I added some drops of glossy accents all over the glass to appear as sweat drops.  That awesome patterned paper is from the Three Piece Suit paper pack.

The sentiments on the inside are from the Watercooler Talk stamp set and are stamped in Enchanted Evening ink to match the card base.

I'll be linking this one up on the MFT Summer School blog for for Color Temperature.  

The majority of this card was made with cool colors and neutrals, but the beer glass is a distinctive and bright pop of warm color.  

I'm done for tonight, but let me just say that I've been watching the other link-ups for the Summer School challenges and there are some gorgeous cards to see!  If you haven't already, check them out!  :)

Good night!

Rosie Posie for Summer School

I'm back again!  [I spent a lot of time this weekend in my crafty space, ignoring my housework and yard work.  ;) ]  I have one last post for the MFT Summer School challenge.

This time, I pulled out my Misti and made 5 different cards with the same design but different color palettes.  Truth be told, I just couldn't make up my mind which colors I wanted to play with most, and I have a few new inks that I wanted to try out.  :)  The Misti made it really easy to make multiple cards this way.

I left the first three unfinished since I haven't decided what I'm using them for just yet.  I'll list the inks I used below each card.  All of the cards were made with the PTI Rosie Posie stamp set and Rosie Posie Step Two.  For one card I used PTI Vintage Cream card stock and the rest were made with PTI Stamper Select White card stock.

For this card, I wanted to try out my new inks from Simon Says Stamp and My Favorite Things.  I used SSS Coral Reef for the darker coral shade, MFT Peach Bellini for the lighter coral color, and SSS Fog for the leaves and second step of the hexies.  Unfortunately, I used a darker color on my hexie stamp right before this and didn't apparently get the stamp clean enough, so those came out a lot darker than the leaves.  But no one would know it was unintentional if I didn't tell them.  I still love how the card turned out.  :)  

This next one feels much more like Fall to me.  :)  This was made with Vintage Cream card stock, PTI Orange Zest and Pure Poppy inks, and Hero Arts Charcoal shadow ink.  I LOVE this shade of gray!  It reminds me of Russian Blue cats, African Gray parrots and Weimaraner puppies!  :)  See?

Photo Credit

Photo Credit

Photo Credit

I think gray animals are some of the most beautiful creatures on the planet!  :)  

Anyway...moving on....

I had the same issue here with my hexies from using a darker ink prior to this lighter ink.  Obviously, I need to find a better stamp cleaner than I'm currently using.  O-well!

This one is stamped with PTI Pure Poppy and Scarlet Jewell inks and Hero Arts Tide Pool shadow ink.  You can see how the hexies on the right match the leaves of the flower but the rest of them are a little bit darker.  Almost blue-er.  That's because I used the Charcoal ink right before this.

This one is similar to the first card, except I used a different shade of gray.  The gray on this one is PTI Soft Stone.  I wanted to see how it compared with SSS Fog ink when stamped with the Coral Reef and Peach Bellini inks.  In person, this gray has a slightly more yellow-ish hue to it than Fog does.  However, they both look stunning when paired with these coral hues.  :)

The sentiment is from PTI's Signature Greetings II stamp set.  This is going to the third and final new addition to my staff at work.  :)  The sequins are the Moonshine mix from Simon Says Stamp.  Aren't they great!  They truly shine in person!  :)

And last, but not least...

This one is the same Peach Bellini and Coral Reef inks paired with PTI Hawaiian Shores.  Again, I was comparing colors between the Hawaiian Shores and Tide Pool.  And again, I love them both!  This card is for another co-worker who has a birthday this week.

I added more Moonshine sequins and another Signature Greetings II sentiment.

Over all, I love every one of these cards.  If you asked me to pick a favorite, I'm not sure that I could.  All of these companies have such wonderful ink colors to choose from and I enjoyed mixing and matching for these cards.

Here's one last shot of my two finished cards together for comparison.  Exact same design, but I think they each have a unique feel to them.  I think the one on the left feels bright and cheery and even celebratory, while the one on the right feels soft and inviting while still very cheerful.  

What do you think?  Do colors strike an emotional cord for you?  They certainly do for me!

I'll be sharing these in the MFT Summer School challenge.  On all of these cards I used mostly "warm" colors paired with neutrals and a little bit of "cool" aqua.

I also used repetition by including the repeating hexie background pattern [not to mention repeating the same card design!  ;)  ]

That's it!

Bye!

A Pop-up Challenge and more Summer School

I'm playing along today with Kathy at The Daily Marker blog for her first Pop-Up Challenge.  :)

The challenge is using lines in your artwork.  Although her examples used hand-drawn or die-cut lines, the first thing I thought of was this stained glass stamp image from The Cottage Stamps, Inc.

The popcorn is in honor of the Pop-up Challenge.  Cute, huh?  I bought my son a box of popcorn last weekend, and I think he already ate about the whole thing!  I snatched a handful for my photos.  However, my other shot turned out blurry so I had to retake it later [sans popcorn].

I was excited to try out my new Zig Clean Color Real Brush pens and this seemed like a great image to use them on.  I wanted the colors to stay really vibrant so I didn't add a lot of water to the flowers; just enough to blend the colors a bit.  For the "glass" around the flowers, I colored the narrow, darker strips heavily with a Zig marker and then used a brush and water to drag color onto the lighter areas.

The background panels are PTI Tropical Teal, which I stamped with a WPlus9 background stamp from their Defining Words set in Tropical Teal ink, and PTI True Black for the actual card and the mat around the focal image.  That incredibly awesome ribbon is something I found at a scrapbook store near Chicago and was sold by the yard.  Unfortunately, that store was going out of business at the time.  :(

I used a Jelly Roll glitter pen from Sakura to add shimmer to the flower stamens [I think that's what they're called?], and some Simon Says Stamp sequins for accents.  The sequins look especially sparkly and gorgeous in person!  :) 

Can you see why I chose this image for the Pop-up Challenge?  All those wonderful lines representing the leaded panes of glass?  I only wish I knew how to make it look as if light were shining through it.

I'm also sharing this card in the MFT Summer School challenge for it's very saturated colors.

I'll be gifting this card to another of the new teachers at my school.  I have one more day of semi-peacefulness before I get bombarded!  LOL