Baby It's Cold Outside

Hi all!  Man, it's sure been awhile and I just want to say a huge sorry for the absence.  As some of you know I sell my cards and, suffice it to say, the holidays are very busy for me :)  While the extra income is awesome this time of year I also struggle with how to do it all- work full time, do cards almost full time and still try to have a life!  But I just delivered an order of 21 Christmas cards this weekend so that's helped lighten the load a little and, while I didn't have time to blog the cards while I was doing them, I still managed to take pictures of them all so I could blog them later- so I shouldn't be doing any more massive disappearing acts.

The first card I'd like to share is a personal favorite from the batch- it features an adorable Saturated Canary image called Hot Cocoa that I had an absolute blast coloring up with my Copics!  These stamps are some of my favorites for practicing shading in facial features like noses.  And this little gals hair brought about a new favorite color combo too- dontcha just love it when that happens?  Anyways, I paired it with some My Minds Eye paper from the Merry Little Christmas collection which has a great combo of blues, reds and pinks and even some green thrown in the mix which is perfect for those nontraditional color pallets.  I couldn't resist adding a few of my favorite embellishments like a bling flourish (gotta have some bling somewhere!), a Tim Holtz snowflake charm and some flowers.  Now these cards all had to get mailed so there's not a lot of dimension I could do but I sure tried to work with as much as I thought I could get away with!  I hope you enjoy and I also hope to be spending a lot more time in blog land with you now :)

Copics:
Skin- E000, E00, E11, R21, R30
Hair- E50, E51, E97, E99
Clothes- B91, B93, B95, B97, R24, R29, R59, R43, R30, YG61, YG63, YG67, E40, E41, E42, E43, E44, BG0000, BG11, BG13
Mug- E74, E77, W1, BG72, BG75, BG78

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges:
iCopic- Holidays
Cupcake Craft- 'Don't Look at the Light'- make sure it sparkles and shines
The Pink Elephant- Snowflake & Sparkle
There She Goes Challenges- Color Challenge- Blue, Pink and Red
Paper Sundaes- Anything Christmas

Supplies: Cardstock- American Crafts and Bazzil; DP- My Minds Eye Merry Little Christmas; Snowflake Charm- Tim Holtz; Bling & Flowers- Recollections; Red Glitter Embroidery Floss- my stash

Undeniably You

Hi All!  Remember when I said that you'd see more Saturated Canary images coming soon?  Well I didn't want to be a liar so I figured I'd better get on that asap :)  When I saw this image called Pink Punkette in Krista's Etsy store I knew I just had to have her and I wanted to make her the pretty side of punk so I did something different with her hair and have to say I LOVE it!  If I could get away with this at work I would soooo die my hair like this.  She was a blast to color with my Copics as are all of the Saturated Canary images :)  I used the new sketch from Sketch Saturday and then just embellished it with some bling and flowers- always a staple for me :)  I used another fabric tag from my stash- I got these years ago and for the life of me can't remember where at.  In fact I've just been holding onto them waiting for the perfect opportunities to use them...they're one of those things that you don't want to waste on a card that's just 'not that good'.  I'm keeping an eye out for anything similar and promise to share where if I come across them again so as not to hoard them all to myself :)  Hope you like my card and thanks for stopping by!

Copics:
Skin: E000, E00, E11, R21
Hair: BG10, BG11, BG45, E50, E51, E53, E57
Clothes: BG15, BG18, BV02, BV13, BV17, B91, B93, T0, T1, T3


I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges:
Fairy Fun Friday- Girly
Totally Gorjuss- Ooh La La
Sketch Saturday- sketch
One Stop Craft- Anything Goes
Paper Sundaes- Favorite Color Combo (Purple and Teal)

Supplies: Cardstock- Bazzil & American Crafts; DP- Fancy Pants Oct 31st; Bling Flourish- Recollections; Wings- Tim Holtz; Flowers- Prima & Recollections; Pearls & Fabric Tag- my stash

A 'Maggie' Birthday

Hi All!  Just a quick post before I head to bed :)  I bought this gorgeous 'Congratulation Tilda' Magnolia stamp from ICopic recently and just had to put her to good use right away!  I've been trying to expand my coloring skills so I followed a tutorial by the amazing Zoe over at Make It Crafty on how to color folds/pleats in clothing and I do have to admit there were a few images that went straight into the trash bin but I feel like I'm getting better and am pretty pleased with how Tilda's dress turned out here.  I used the gorgeous sketch by Cheri over on the Pink {Ink} Sketch Challenge blog to pull the design together and had a blast (I love her sketches!).  I didn't end up putting to many embellishments on it (I know you're shocked- no gems!) because I wanted the image to take center stage.  Well, I guess that's about it as I hear my bed calling my name :)  I hope you enjoy!

Copics:
Skin- E000, E00, E11, R21
Hair- E42, E44, E47, E49
Clothes- R02, R14, R17
Present- YG41, YG45

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges:
Pink {Ink} Sketch Challenge- sketch
Paper Sundaes- Use a Magnolia stamp
Craft Us Crazy- Anything Goes

Supplies: Cardstock- Bazzil; DP- My Minds Eye Lost & Found II 'Rosy'; Bakers Twine- Jillibean Soup; Flowers- Recollections

Bring on the Birthday Celebration!

Hi All!  Boy, every time I think I can't possibly get busier Mr. Murphy hears a challenge and decides to throw a little more at me :)  I've been making cards like crazy but don't seem to ever have the time to sit down and post them...but that changes right now!  I've had this little beauty just waiting patiently for her little piece of blog space and am finally getting my bum into gear and making it happen.

I have a few people who order birthday cards throughout the whole year by sending me an email around the 1st of the month with how many they need for that month and any special ideas for how they'd like it to look.   As a result I'm always drawn to birthday images because I know I'll need lots of them and I always try to keep things fresh and new.  Enter this gorgeous digi stamp from Mo Manning over at Mo's Digital Pencil called Veronica- she just looks like shes having a blast no?  I colored her with my Copics of course and then used some 6 x 6 papers from My Minds Eye Fine and Dandy Tickled Pink collection...the bright colors seemed to suit her and I love the banners!  Now as long as the person who receives this has as good of a time as Veronica seems to be having I think the birthday celebration will have been a success!

Copic's List
Face: E000, E00, E11, R20, V12, V17, R32, R35
Hair: E21, E23, E27
Dress: V09, V12, V15, V17
Presents/hat: YG03, YG11, B000, B02, B04, B06, YR02, YR07, R32, R35, R37, G14, Y06, Y08

I'd like to enter this card into the following challenges:
Paper Sundaes- Recipe: Purple, Gems, Wings, Paper Piercing ( I did Purple and Gems)
Crafty Catz Weekly Challenge- Add a Charm
Rainbow Lady's Challenge- Digi Day
Stampin' for the Weekend- Use Your Favorite Things (Copics, Digital Stamps, gems, shoes)
Supplies: Cardstock- Bazzil, American Crafts; DP- My Minds Eye Fine and Dandy Tickled Pink; Gem Flourish- Recollections; Charm- Michaels; Tag, Ribbon, Rub on Sentiment- my stash

Groovy Baby

Hi All!  I hope that everyone had a great weekend- I'm so sad it's over!  I had some time to do some coloring recently and had to take the opportunity to put together a pair of stamps from the new Perfect Match release over at Tickled Pink Stamps.  I love the concept of making matches to stamps that were already in existence, and after seeing an inspiring line from Little Yellow Bicycle called Free Spirit I knew that the first pair I wanted to get on a card would have to be '60's Willow and Stefan.  I love using digital stamps because of the versatility and this is a perfect example of that- I tried something new and actually cropped and merged the two stamps leaving a heavy black circular border that I cut along once they were colored.  I'm pretty pleased with the results and will definitely try something like this again...especially since there are so many perfect matches now available at Tickled Pink!  Plus, instead of only offering the digital version of the stamps for one week like usual, the owner Kellie is offering digi's for the whole month of June...Is it sad how excited that makes me?  Anyways, moving on :)  I hope that everyone has themselves a very groovy week!

 Here's the requisite close up and list of Copics:
Skin: E000, E00, E11, R20
Hair: hers- E50,E51,E53,E55 his- E41,E44,E47,E49
Eyes: hers- BG10, BG45, BG49 his- E53, E57, E59
Clothes: hers- V12, V15, V17, G21, G28, YR00, YR07, Y15, RV21, RV25, R29 his- E30, E33, E99, Y11, Y15, YR04, YR07, R29, R59, G07, G28



I'd like to enter this is the following challenges :)
Tickled Pink- Texture (canvas sentiment, flowers)
Totally Gorjuss- Flower Power
Papertake Weekly- Anything Goes
Paper Sundaes- Girly Girl
Totally PaperCrafts- Summer
A Spoon Full of Sugar- Here Comes Summer
Supplies: DP- Little Yellow Bicycle 'Free Spirit' and 'Boardwalk'; Canvas Sentiment Stickers- Little Yellow Bicycle 'Free Spirit'; Bling Star- KaiserCraft; Flowers- Prima; Ink- Distress Ink Orange Marmalade

A Football Graduation

Hi All!  So I know we all as card makers know the benefits of someone ordering a custom card- they get to tell you all about the person it's for and get in return a one-of-a-kind, just for them kind of card.  Which is great when the person they tell you about fits nicely into your wheelhouse of what you do well.  But what about when they ask for something out of your comfort zone?  You have a few moments (or in my case MANY moments) of head scratching and wondering how to pull it off.  Such is the case of a graduation card that is for a guy who 'likes cars, plays football- his number is 26 and their school mascot is an antelope (say what?!?) and has blond hair and a goatee- you know, just in case you do one of those cool stamps you color and want to get one that looks like him'...so my translation is I'll need to find a stamp that somehow works into one or more of those categories and then figure out how to get it all on a card so it looks good- oh, and yeah, it's for a boy which means I can use none of my favorite things like flowers and lace and bling.  I mean, what's a girl to do?  Well, this girl thought football- yeah I can work with that, and bonus is if there's a helmet I won't have to worry about hair color or goatee :)  Thank goodness for Kenny K images because I found just what I was looking for with the 'Football' digi stamp.  Then I glanced through all my embellishments and stash for 'non-girly' stuff that I could also add.  As luck would have it I actually did think of a pretty cool way to pull in the #26- I was looking over some of the challenges and saw that Paper Sundaes is doing 'Pop It Up' and after looking at the DT inspiration had a moment of my own inspiration for 'popping' the number off the design paper.  All in all, considering how out of left field, or in football terms 'far from the 50 yard line', this card felt to me, I think I managed a pretty cool guy card that still has those personal touches.  But sometimes, I'm just not sure I charge enough for all this mental turmoil :)

Copic List:
Skin: E000, E00, E11
Football: E57, E59
Clothes: G21, G24, G28, N1, N3, N5, N7, N9

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges:
Charisma Cardz- Card for a Male
Crafting for All Seasons- Anything Goes
Do It With Digi's- It's All About the Boys
Paper Sundaes- Pop It Up

Supplies: Cardstock- Bazzill; DP- We R Memory Keepers 'MVP' 6x6 pad; Twine- Shabby Green Door 'Farmers Market'; Metal Embellishment- Tim Holtz Muse Charm; Brads- my stash

Butterflies and Peonies

Hi All!  I've just got a quick post tonight before I head off to bed :)  I was asked to make a sympathy card for a coworker and just knew that something simple and classy like this Peony flower digital stamp from Just Inklined would be perfect.  I followed the sketch over at Papertake Weekly which gave me a great base and then, silly as it might sound, I just tried to create a 'pretty' card.  I used a rub on sympathy sentiment from My Sentiments Exactly which completed the card.  I hope that it offers a little comfort to a friend in need.

I'll be entering this card in the following challenges:

~Papertake Weekly- Sketch

~PaperPlay- Lets Get Sentimental

~Crazy 4 Challenges- Flowers

~Stamp Something- Something with Flowers

~Paper Sundaes- How Charming- the butterfly charm on the ribbon

Supplies: Image- Just Inklined Peony 2; Color Medium- Copics; DP- DCWV Matstack: Mariposa, Luxury, Metallic; Charm- My Minds Eye for Stella & Rose; Sentiment- MSE Sympathy Rub On; Ribbon- stash

Time To Celebrate!

Hi All!  I've got a 'funky' little card to show you!  The challenge over at Stamp Something is to do something Funky and that truly was the jumping off point for this card :)  First off I've used a Kenny K image named Bling Baby from the new Glam Gang set 2 (grab them here)- it just screamed Funky to me- and I have to admit I own a scary amount of Kenny K digi's but I just can't resist them...I love their urban feel!  To keep the urban feel I had some DP paper from Basic Grey in mind, the Wander line, with it's kind of cityscape design and used those more subdues colors throughout- including some of the new lines from My Minds Eye that matched perfectly.  For the Kenny K challenge they want there to be something that starts with the letter R on the card so I used my Rectangle Nestabilities to cut my image out and then threw in a couple of Rhinestones as well for good measure.  My style is usually a little more bright but I have to say I really do love this card!

Here's a close up of the image that I colored with my Copics- I was a little worried about the hair but it turned out just like I pictured in my head so I'm happy with it!

I'd like to enter this card in the following challenges:

Stamp Something- Funky

Kenny K- It's All About R's

Card Makin' Mama's- Happy Birthday

Totally PaperCrafts- Do It With Digi's

Do You Stack Up- Dots (the green and yellow DP paper)

Paper Sundaes- Use Masculine Colors

Supplies: Digital Stamp- Kenny K Downloads Bling Baby; Sentiment- My Favorite Things Ala' Mode Time to Celebrate; Color Medium- Copics, Sakura Glitter Pen, Tim Holtz Distress Ink Vintage Photo; Tools- Spellbinders Nestabilities Rectangle Large, Sizzex Big Shot, Imaginisce Distresser; Solid Cardstock- Bazzil Lakeshore; DP- Basic Grey Wander, My Minds Eye- Gertie 'You and Me', Hattie 'Buddies'; Paper Flowers- Bazzil; Rhinestones- Little Yellow Bicycle Autumn Bliss Sharon Ann