Calendar

As part of my "not being with it" in the past, I waited until January to make a calendar! Why am I showing this to you today.....in March? Because the 2012 templates are out and we can get a head start on next year!

I found the calendar template on SCS (click HERE for 2011 and HERE for 2012). I printed them off my computer onto some GP 110 cardstock. I cut them to the size I wanted (just made up a size that centered the calendar in the bottom and left stamping room at the top).

The idea for the physical structure of the calendar came from THIS blog posting. I loved that paper insert and it works amazingly well (and made it easy for me to fold this an take it to work).
Here's the rest of the calendar pages include a side shot of the structure. In case you are wondering....September and October are my absolute favorite!

PS: January uses Clear Dollar Stamps Snowman Wishes and my Snow Drift Tutorial is here.

February: Stampin' Up Happy Hearts


March: High Hopes St. Pattys Day Hat


April: Pink Cat Studio Limitless Limbs


May: My Favorite Things Bundles of Bouquets

Check out my Ground Sponging Tutorial I used here.


June: My Favorite Things Can Ya Dig It?


July: Verve Up, Up and Away


August: Hanna Stamps Pool Party


September: Papertrey Ink Through the Trees


October: Gina K. Spooky Silhouettes


November: Stampin Up Voila to Go and you can see my Table Tutorial HERE (except that I had to sponge in the base color first instead of using a piece of cardstock).


December: Papertrey Ink Take a Bough

And here's a side shot of the structure.

Enjoy!
Michelle B.

Surfer Riley

Oops, I made this card last October for a challenge but I don't think I ever posted it. Can't remember what challenge I was trying. I think I didn't quite make the deadline for the challenge and well....here we are.

Uh....what supplies did I use? Your guess is as good as mine! Ha! I'm seeing Surfer Riley, MotherMark Clouds, D'Vine Swirls embossing folder, Real Red DP, Copic coloring, EK Success Dotted Wave Punch, Nesties. I remember that the "waves" have a darker ink sponged on the bottom of them and white across the top.

Enjoy!
Michelle B.
"Queen of the Scene" and forgetful too!

Here Fishey, Fishey

Hello! I went downstairs the other night intending just to kinda work on my idea on this card and before I knew it....It was done and it was 1:00 am! Oops. I created this using the recipe challenge from Artful Inkables. Sorry but no Artful Inkables stamps here .... yet! The sketch is from the new challenge blog Crazy 4 Challenges.

I colored the image using Copics and then I masked it to sponge in the water and a few Mother Mark clouds. I wanted the scene to match the DP a bit more so I added some Creamy Caramel sponging to the water line and all the edges.

Stamps: Hanna Stamps Fishing Riley
Paper: Tangerine Tango, GP 110, Cosmo Cricket DP
Ink: Creamy Caramel, Baja Breeze, Momento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: Scallop Edge Punch, ribbon from Pink Hedgehog, Double Rectangle punch, White Prismacolor pencil

Enjoy!
Michelle B.
“Queen of the Scene”

HSSEPT09 Relax Hanna….

….its just sewing! Here’s my entry for the Hanna Stamps sewing challenge. This would only be the 2nd card I’ve ever sewed. Who would have thought sewing crooked lines would be so difficult? At least this time I didn’t try to sew through adhesive! Ha! You know what else is interesting about this? I actually made this during daylight hours and was able to photograph it outside!

Thank you so much for your kind comments about my card yesterday and how you've missed my usual style. I miss doing those types of cards too! I have been doing some Clean and Simple cards lately to try to learn how to speed up my card making and to give me some more flexibility in making deadlines (for the DT or for contests). Don't worry though....I'm not going to give up on these sketchy scenes!

To make this card, I stamped and colored Hanna. I colored over here with a Virsmark pen and embossed her. Now here's a little trick I learned at the Zindorf class....when embossing a light colored object, you may want to emboss it twice! I have embossed people before but the ink always seemed to leak into the skin colored areas. Today I embossed Hanna twice and she's as pretty as when I started. I sponged the ground in using a torn paper mask (cause I started off brayering and messed up!). I brayered in the sky. Finally, I sewed the curvy lines in.

Stamps: Hanna Stamps Lazy Days
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Certainly Celery, Whisper White
Ink: Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery, Momento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: Copics, Virsamark pen, clear detail embossing powder, Martha Stewart Punch, sewing machine

Enjoy!
Michelle B. aka “Queen of the Scene”
Designer for FireCracker Designs by Pamela

SC244 End of Summer & Hi to Lori!

Ahhhh......a return to my classic style of scene split across sketch and red frames. It's been a while since I've had time to do this much. So, today is the last day of summer for my kids as they return to school tomorrow. To honor the day, I chose to do a beach scene for today's sketch challenge. (more deets below)

I've had so many exciting things going on I just can't keep up with telling you everything! When I was on vacation last week at Mall of America, I surprised my friend Lori McAree with a message saying "I'm here!". She dropped everything and ran down to the mall to meet up with me. We had a wonderful time chatting while my kids played. I felt like I've know her forever...she is such a doll! Thanks for meeting up with me Lori! Here's a pic of the two of us in front of Spongebob's pineapple house at Nickelodeon Universe (the amusement park inside the Mall).

Wow, I was having a bad hair day!

Ok, back to the details of the card if you are still reading along......

I brayered the sand and sky. The ocean line was sponged in using a post it note as a mask for a straight horizon line. I used a white gel pen to add the wave line. Next I stamped in the sea shells. I colored my palm trees, cut them out, and glued them to the main panel. I used my Nesties to cut the sketch elements out and layered in my red cardstock frames. Finally, I colored Riley, cut him out, adhered him to the center panel, and used a white gel pen to add some waves across his toes!

Need more to read? Ha! Here's a link to a tutorial on how I cut my scenes.

Stamps: Hanna Stamps Fins Riley, High Hopes Palm Tree, High Hopes Shell Two
Paper: Whisper White, Real Red
Ink: Bashful Blue, Cool Caribbean, River Rock

Accessories: Copics, Nesties, White Gel Pen, White Prismacolor Pencil

Enjoy!

Michelle B.
"Queen of the Scene"
Designer for FireCracker Designs by Pamela

Happy Father's Day 2009

This was the result of deciding not to decide....I just couldn't decide what kind of scene to make DH for father's day. Then I saw the Bella sketch challenge and had a light bulb moment...Why not do a series of mini scenes! Each of these scenes represents something my husband does with our children. I think it turned out really fun!

I think it would take me 3 hours to write up all the steps I did here so please forgive me for cheating this time!

Stamps: H and M Dad’s Outdoors, H and M ATV, Hanna Stamps Pool Party, Pink Cat Studio Dress Up Billy, Pink Cat Studio Lily & Billy Accessories
Paper: Baja Breeze, Chocolate Chip, GP 110
Ink: Baja Breeze, Chocolate Chip, Basic Black, Momento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: Copics, Prismacolor pencils and Goo Gone, Nesties, Word Window Punch, 1 ½” square punch, Embossing Folder Spots and Dots, Copic Air Brush System

Enjoy!

Michelle B.

"Queen of the Scene"

SC224 Up on the Rooftop

Eek! It’s the 15th of the month and I haven’t made a single Christmas card yet this month (I'm in a challenge to make 5 a month)! So I’m using Sketch Challenge SC224 to get me started!

My "roof" was created by punching a few strips of dark green cardstock with the Scallop Edge Punch. I then drug the scalloped edges across my Whisper White ink pad for "snow". The "snow" on top of the roof was drawn in with my blender pen and Whisper White ink.

I've noticed that dipping my blender pen into Whisper White is TOXIC! I could never seem to clean all the white out of that tip. So I wrapped a piece of tape around that end of the blender pen and it is now "reserved" for Whisper White only.

Stamps: Hanna Stamps Santa Chimney Riley, Itty Bitty Backgrounds
Paper: Night of Navy, a dark green from Bazzill, Basic Grey Wassail
Ink: Whisper White
Accessories: Copics, Prismacolor pencils and Goo Gone, Scallop Edge Punch, Artichoke Ribbon from SU, Navy Ribbon from Pink Hedgehog

Enjoy!
Michelle B.
“Queen of the Scene”

CC213 Easter v1 & Cutting a Sketch w/DP

THIS IS POST # 2 TODAY - BE SURE TO SCROLL DOWN!

Can you believe I did a color challenge today? I NEVER do them as I can never think of anything using only 3 colors. I watch what everyone else does and think...."Brilliant". Well for whatever reason today, I decided to peek at the colors and something came to me! Woo Hoo! (Maybe its because I work well under pressure and need to get these Easter cards done!).

AND....I'm going to show you how I cut a sketch when I'm working with a DP background (its different if I ink the background and I'll show you that soon). I know you guys are dying to get your hands on my wood floor digi - I am working on it (found out it doesn't print well on all printers).

OK, so first, cut your DP to size (in this case 4" wide by 5.25" tall). Then cut your floor piece to size and attach the floor over the top of the DP. In real life, the baseboard would stick out a bit from the wall so it makes sense to me (excuse the quality of the pics - I work in a dark basement!).

Flip this piece over and take it to your cutter. I use my cutter as a ruler and a straight edge. I pencil in my lines of where I want to cut. I prefer to do this on the backside so I don't have to worry about erasing as I sometimes have to tweak this a bit. If I had Nesties to do this cutting with my life would be a LOT easier but there have just been too many stamps to buy! Also notice that my Cocoa layer hangs out the bottom. This is because I shorted the DP a bit - its not quite 5.25" tall. Cheapskate!
When you have all your lines drawn, place your images in position and make sure it looks right (notice the lines with "X"s on them....this is me changing my mind. I always place an "X" on those bad lines so I don't confuse myself. I learned this from some construction guys on TV). I'm also noticing here that I'm going to need something up top.When you are happy with your sketch, go ahead and cut it out. You need to be precise in those corners so you don't cut out into your design. Again, Nesties would really make this much easier! You'll end up with this:

Cut a layer of cardstock as your mat for that center square and make your card base. Lay these pieces together to check your work and make sure you like what you've got.
Place the main elements of your scene into position to ensure you still like what you've got going on. Last chance for changes!

Finally, I'll finish up any work I need to do on my scene elements (finish cutting Riley, attach fringe to rug, etc.) and attach everything into position.

Hope that helps! Soon, I'll show you how I do scenes I ink and I'll cut more than one piece out in that one!

Additional notes: I cut out Riley's hooves with a craft knife in order to place the items under them. I also shortened the handle on the basket by cutting it off where it meets the base of the basket.

How I color

Making the rug

Stamps: Couch Riley, Loads of Love Accessories, Dress Up Lily, the floor is a hand drawn image I digitized to make it reusable
Paper: Close to Cocoa, Bashful Blue, SU DP
Ink: Close to Cocoa
Accessories: Copics, Prismacolor pencils and Goo Gone, Cricut George (for ovals), Stamp-a-majig, glitter pen

Enjoy!

Michelle B.

"Queen of the Scene"

SC222 Riley Irons

I was tired this morning and thankful for the easy sketch challenge but….I decided to use some ribbon. I was quickly reminded why I never use ribbon. I tinkered with that knot forEVAH! Of course, now that I’m sitting here typing, I just realized what I should have done. Oh, well, there is always next time.

The tile floor was an image that was hand drawn by me and turned into a digital stamp. I simply colored every other tile with my Copics and added a little Prismacolor pencil shadows and its done.

To get everything to line up on this indoor scene, I cut a piece of Georgia Pacific 110 Cardstock to use as the base. I attached the DP and the floor to this base piece. Then I turned it over and marked my cut with a pencil. I then cut it out and I was ready to insert a layer of Pixie Pink cardstock and still have everything lined up.

Stamps: Hanna Stamps Laundry Riley
Paper: Pixie Pink, Basic Grey Urban Prairie, GP110
Ink:
Accessories: Copics, Prismacolor pencils and Goo Gone, Certainly Celery Ribbon from SU, horizontal slot punch

Enjoy!
Michelle B.

“Queen of the Scene”

FS110 O’s Bday

Today I’m casing a card from Twinshappy, our featured stamper of the day. Wow, I think she was described as prolific and that is an understatement. How could a girl choose from that many awesome cards?!?!

So, I narrowed it down by trying to find something I could case for a birthday card I need to make for “O”. He and his wife have a white camper and white truck that they travel around in quite a bit. So, I choose this card to case. I kept the outdoors, woods, mountain feel but changed up the main images to camping rather than fishing. I also changed up the sketch and color scheme. Shocker - I even made up my own sketch today!

Here's how I made the mountains. Where the base of the mountains hit the tree line, I just drug the ink down into the tree area letting it just fade off into nothing. The tree area follows one of the rules of perspective .....Things in the back are lighter and have less detail and things in the front are darker and have more detail. The tree area was first sponged roughly with Kiwi Kiss. Then I stamped small trees in Old Olive up near the sky line. Next, I stamped the larger trees in Garden Green and put them down closer to the "road". This created a fabulous sense of depth in my woods....like they go on and on into the distance. Here is how I color my Riley's.

Stamps: Hanna Stamps Trailer Riley, Hanna Stamps Van Riley, Hanna Stamps Things Hanna Would Say, Rubbernecker Kittie Kits The Moose Is Loose
Paper: Whisper White, Chocolate Chip, Baja Breeze
Ink: Soft Sky, Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip, Kiwi Kiss, Old Olive, Garden Green, Going Grey, Basic Black
Accessories: Copics, Prismacolor pencils and Goo Gone, Glitter Pen, White Gel Pen, Nesties

Enjoy!
Michelle B.
“Queen of the Scene”