Happy Birthday Cupcake!

Hello blog friends! Want to see some color? This card has got COLOR, lol. I think it's got every color under the sun, thanks to this Indie Bloom paper pad. I don't often use such bold colors, but when I do it makes me happy.

This card features a purple cupcake (grape icing, maybe?) which I personally have never seen, but think someone should make one! I used the 'Never too old for Cupcakes' stamp, colored with Copics and colored pencils. 

I did some hand stitching around the borders of both label die cuts. I think it adds just the right finishing touch!

How about those tiny little sentiment tags? I've seen this idea used many times, but was always too chicken to try it myself. Kind of neat though, and not as hard I thought it might be. 


The week is almost over, phew! Just two more days to go till the weekend. Thanks for dropping by!


Stamps: Lili of the Valley
Ink: Memento
Paper: Basic Grey, Core'dinations, Hammermill, Heavenly White card base
Tools & Accessories: Spellbinders Labels, PTI Bloom Builders dies/button, ribbon, Copic Sketch & Spica markers, embroidery floss 

Indian Summer

Hello everyone! My weekend was too short, and here it is time to go back to work again. Not a happy time, lol. But I did get some stamping done and I have some cards to share with you. 

This one was made using PTI's new Harvest Berries set, a must have for me. I love the shape of Ginkgo leaves. They're so unique! I've only seen real Ginkgo trees a few times, they're not really common around here, but they are absolutely beautiful.  

I stamped these in two colors, Cranberry and Caramel Adirondack inks. It goes perfectly with the Indian Summer papers from Basic Grey.

The doily die is from Cheery Lynn. I cut it in half so more of it would show behind the Spellbinders Label die cut. Those dies are so beautiful it's hard to cover them up at all, hee hee!


Well I'm off! Thanks for visiting!

Stamps: PTI, Gina K
Ink: Adirondack, Memento, Versamark
Paper: PTI, Basic Grey
Tools & Accessories: PTI satin ribbon, Martha Stewart tag punch, Spellbinders Label, Cheery Lynn doily die, brown EP, Stickles, PTI Harvest Berries die

Frosty Winter Wishes

Don't forget the Lili of the Valley blog hop is still going on, with a new stamp up for grabs, check it out here.

Well I apologize for being absent for a little while, it was crunch time for the Dirty Dozen over at Splitcoast Stampers. I procrastinated till the last minute, then really had to get my butt in gear to get my cards done for the midnight reveal! Shame on me, lol! Take a look at the beautiful stuff from all the Dirty Girls. 

Now onto our regularly scheduled programming...

I have a sweet snowman card to share with you all today. I LOVE snowmen stamps. This is probably one of the first ones I purchased when I got back into stamping, from Sunshine Designs. 

I colored him up with my pencils. I made one of my favorite snowflake embellishments out of coordinating papers and added lots of glass glitter to sparkle them up.

Isn't he just the cutest thing you've ever seen?!

Well I'm off to work, have a great week!

Stamps: Sunshine Designs, sentiment from PTI
Ink: Memento
Paper: Heavenly White, PTI, Basic Grey
Tools & Accessories: Clever Lever snowflake punches, Tonic ticket corner punch, PTI button, tan twill tape,  colored pencils, OMS, Liquid Glass, Viva Decor paint pen, Crop-a-Dile, glass glitter, Martha Stewart tiny tag punch

Rose Garden

What can I say? I just love simple outline flower stamps. So simple and clean, just waiting to be colored a million different ways. I chose to gold emboss this trio of flowers, because I loved Michelle Wooderson's gold Larkspurs featured on her blog yesterday, and wanted to try it myself with these. Admittedly, my gold embossing powder is VERY old, and I suppose it does go bad over such a long period of time. It did not want to emboss very easily, and I almost burned the paper! Time to add new gold embossing powder to my next shopping trip, in preparation for Thanksgiving and Christmas! 

I colored the flowers in with my colored pencils, and one thing I learned about coloring/blending with colored pencils recently is that the smoother the paper I use, the lighter the colors appear. I usually use Bristol vellum, which has a tiny bit of 'tooth' to it, so I can really build up the colors in as many layers as I want, which I can't do easily on smooth paper.

I figured this out because I always tried to print my digi stamps on Neenah or Heavenly White heavy white cardstock, but the paper did NOT want to go through my printer. I would have try over and over to get it to feed through, and eventually I'd get lucky and it would finally print. Well, this was a huge waste of time, so I opted to get the lighter weight Heavenly White cardstock to print my digi's on. Worked beautifully. So I was printing some digi's a couple of weeks ago, thinking I would color them with Copics, but changed my mind at the last minute and opted for my colored pencils. I didn't think it would work very well, but surprisingly, I liked it. The colors blended much more smoothly and were much lighter. Actually it was kind of hard to get really deep shading, so I have to keep that in mind. But for soft, pale colors, it was perfect.

See, I do learn something new all the time in my rubber stamping adventures, despite how long I've been doing this! It's why I always try to remember to experiment. Despite what I've been taught by the many tutorials and lessons available out there, if there's something I wonder about, I just have to try it and see. Sometimes, I'll be pleasantly surprised.

Stamps: Stampin Up
Ink: Versamark
Paper: Heavenly White, Basic Grey, Memory Box, SU, Stardream
Accessories: Martha Stewart edge punch & ribbon, colored pencils, OMS, gold embossing powder, Spellbinders Labels

Swingin' by to say hello...

I love embossed paper, but don't use it as much as I'd like to. Know why? The embossing folders are NOT big enough for my size cards! Hmmph! So I have to cheat and use it for only half a card or just an accent piece. I have noticed certain embossing folders are coming in larger sizes, but what about the beautiful old textures, like dots, swirls, argyle??!! As many products as there are on the market, it seems like there is never enough...

I colored up this pretty Lili of the Valley stamp with my colored pencils, using colors pulled from Basic Grey's Kioshi. Gorgeous paper! I am in love with that collection.
I didn't have a sentiment stamp to go with the card (other than the usual Happy Birthday and Thinking of you, etc) so I printed my own. It took me a while, but I eventually figured out how to print my own sentiments in a circle in Photoshop. Now I can say ANYTHING on my cards, lol!

Hope you like it, thanks for dropping in!

Stamps: Lili of the Valley

Ink: Memento

Paper: Basic Grey, Memory Box, PTI, Bristol vellum, Gina K

Accessories: Sizzix texture plate, Nestabilities, Cuttlebug border EF, McGill Flower punch, seam binding ribbon, pearl, PTI med. scallop die, colored pencils, OMS

Angel of Love

While browsing Etsy a few days ago, looking at all the wonderful new digi artists popping up I came across this wonderful image from A Day for Daisies. How sweet! I love this artist's unique style. Her angel series particularly caught my eye and I quickly purchased several of them. I couldn't color this angel fast enough and a card came together in no time.

Lots of Stardust Stickles for her wings, some beautiful Kioshi paper and voila! A pretty card.

I love finding new images to color for my cards, and I am so grateful to all the talented illustrators out there who are willing to let us use their images for our hobby. Thank you!

Have a great day!

Stamps: Digi stamp from A Day for Daisies

Paper: Basic Grey, Memory Box, Papertrey Ink

Accessories: EK Success edge punch, colored pencils, OMS, Stickles, silk ribbon, Liquid Glass

CreativiTea

I've always wanted to try this box that Claire from Waltzingmouse Stamps made quite a while ago, but was kind of waiting for a tutorial. Well, I'm sure she got entirely too busy making all her wonderful stamps, so I had to figure it out myself. It wasn't too hard, actually!
I painted the main box part with Lavender Crackle paint, I love that stuff! Just slather it on with the built in brush, let it dry and you have a gorgeous distressed finish. The box top and bottom were cut out with Labels 5 from chipboard and then from Basic Grey Kioshi papers. Notice the beautiful little wild rose image from Taylored Expressions new tea set. So pretty!
Instead of coloring the tea pot for the card, I stamped it onto a scrap of patterned paper, and added some shading with very light grey Copics. Stick some of your favorite tea bags in the box, and you have a perfect little thank you gift for someone.

I have to make a couple more of these boxes....

Thanks for looking!

Stamps: Taylored Expressions, PTI

Ink: Memento

Paper: PTI, chipboard, Basic Grey, Memory Box

Accessories: Spellbinders Labels 1 & 5, PTI ribbon, colored pencils, OMS, Stickles, PTI medium scallop die, Ranger Crackle Paint

While I was away...

Hi everyone! We're back from gorgeous Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, where we had a wonderful time! It was way too short a vacation, but it was so rejuvenating to my winter weary soul I am grateful to have had it at all! Take a look at a few of these gorgeous pictures:

The beach of course, was stunning. Crystal clear aquamarine water, soft tropical breezes and gentle swells felt so good in the sun.
Me and my sweetheart Jimmy, posing in front of the resort 'shops' doing a little shopping. We really had a fantastic time.

BUT, I did miss my hobby! One of the first things I did when we got there was to make sure we had internet access from our room, so I could make sure to place my order on Papertrey Ink's new release night! How obsessed is that?! I had gotten a gift certificate for my birthday the week before, so I had money burning a hole in my proverbial pocket. While I didn't miss the PTI party, I did miss out on Waltzingmouse Stamps blog hop. :-( I totally forgot to take pictures of my card so I could join in on the hop from Punta Cana. But, I am so fond of the card, and of course I couldn't resist Claire's beautiful shamrock digital drawing, so I'm sharing it with you all now.
Basic Grey's Origins collection was perfect for the St. Patrick's Day theme. I used quite a bit of Kraft cardstock to tone down all the green too. It's a very strong color.
I colored the image with my colored pencils, blended with some OMS, added some Stickles to sparkle things up a bit.

Hope you like it, thanks for visiting!

Stamps: WMS digital stamps

Ink: SU

Paper: Basic Grey, Heavenly White, PTI

Accessories: Spellbinders Labels 10/ovals dies, McGill punch, PTI scallop die, colored pencils, OMS, green pearls, twill ribbon, sheer polka dot ribbon, Stickles

Best Friends

This beautiful stamp is also from the UK company called Buzzcraft. There's a whole line of adorable images of these little boys and girls called Oliver's Orchard. I fell in love with them a long time ago and finally purchased a couple of sets. There's a lot to color with these stamps. Takes a bit of time, but the end result is to die for!
Since the image is reminiscent of the lazy days of summer, I used Basic Grey's Lemonade papers and bright pink ribbon to tie it all together. You can't see it in the picture, but I also added some accents to the water with a clear glaze pen.

Thanks for visiting!

Stamps: Buzzcraft

Ink: Memento

Paper: Heavenly White, Basic Grey, SU

Accessories: colored pencils, OMS, PTI ribbon, Sakura glaze pen, Spica pens

Moo, baa, cluck...

Just a quick post to share this Elzybells card with you all today. I love the farm animals they are so adorable! I laboriously colored them with Copics, took me forever, I don't know why. Maybe I need more practice.
I added little white swirls to the sheep's coat using a Sharpie extra fine poster pen. Best white pen on the planet IMO, and I've tried them all! The paper is Basic Grey's Nook and Pantry. I love the little sentiment, 'Have you herd'? Inside I'm going to put something to finish it off, haven't decided on what yet.

Thanks for visiting, let's try to have a decent Monday!

Stamps: Elzybells

Ink: Memento

Paper: Basic Grey, Bazzill, Core'dinations, Heavenly White

Accessories: Martha Stewart edger punch, half pearls, Copics, Twill ribbon, PTI button, white extra fine Sharpie poster pen

Rub a dub dub...

I fell in love with Mel's bathtub card from a couple of weeks ago. Her tutorial on how to make bathroom tiles, Dew Drop and clear seed bead bubbles was simply stunning, and I knew I had to try my own version using this Elzybells stamp. I LOVE how this sweet little bear came out! I plan on using this technique from here on out, in many different way. Thanks Mel!
I colored the little guy with colored pencils, cut the whole thing out and adhered it to the bathroom tile background. The paper is Basic Grey's Lily Kate. I cut out a bunch of little squares using my square Nesties, applied Versamark and heat embossed using clear embossing powder after I glued them to my background paper. Then I cut the whole thing out with the Labels die.

I already made another card using the tiles, this time a kitchen scene with Tilda. I'll be sharing that soon. In the meantime, thanks for stopping by, enjoy your day!

Stamps: Elzybells

Ink: Memento, Versamark

Paper: Heavenly White, Basic Grey, Memory Box

Accessories: Stitched ribbon, Spellbinders Labels 1 & Nestabilities Squares, Martha Stewart edger punch, Ranger clear embossing powder, Dew Drops, seed beads, Liquid Glass, Prisma colored pencils, OMS

Valentine Mail

7 Kids College Fund has the new Spellbinders dies for pre order! Woo hoo! I love Labels 10, these went right in my shopping cart, LOL!

These large scalloped circles are on my wish list too, they are so pretty, I can see making gorgeous layered flowers with these!
Anyway, I'm just a bit excited... now onto my card...

I have another Joy Fold card to share with you today. I used a twill double bow to hold the card closed again. The image is colored with colored pencils, blended with odorless mineral spirits (OMS).
The paper is Basic Grey 'Bittersweet'.

That's about it for now, just a quick reminder that Thursday is another Impression Obsession Challenge. The challenge this week is 'Shades of Green'. Should be interesting.... Hope you join in!

Thanks for visiting me today!

Stamps: Art Impressions

Ink: Memento, Distress

Paper: Basic Grey, Stardream, Bristol vellum

Accessories: colored pencils, OMS, twill ribbon, heart stick pin, Fiskars edger punch, Nestabilities

Abby's Celebrating!

Look at the pure joy in this girl's face! I love the way Mo Manning captures emotion in her character's faces and body language. What an incredible artist! I colored Abby with my Prisma colored pencils. I added the red polka dots on the hem of her dress with a Copic Spica pen for a little shimmer. I then cut the entire image out very carefully and mounted it to some shimmery blue cardstock I cut out with my Labels 1 die. To get a narrower border between the 2 labels layers, I simply traced outside the first die onto my pink paper and cut it out by hand. I do this a lot, because I prefer the smaller border. I applied some Liquid Glass to the balloons, although you can't see it in the pictures. :-(
Since her shoes have to be black patent leather, I colored them in using a Sakura Glaze pen, so they have a raised, shiny surface, just like patent shoes. The striped ribbon is adhered to a strip of cardstock that I punched with my Fiskars sunburst punch. The sentiment is computer generated and cut out with SU punches.

I wish I got birthday cards like this....LOL!

Thanks for visiting!

Stamps: Digital Pencil

Paper: Basic Grey Urban Couture, The Paper Co. Heavenly White, Bristol vellum

Accessories: Sizzix texture plate, Fiskars border punch, striped ribbon, Spellbinders Labels 1, colored pencils, OMS, Copics (E0000, E00, E11 for flesh), Red Spica pen, Liquid Glass

I followed my heart....

Another adorable Mo Manning digi stamp. I really, really wanted to use the new paper collection from Basic Grey 'Origins', and in the Basic Grey newsletter there was a Valentine card using these papers, with a similar layout that inspired me to make this card. The colors were so unique, I had to try it myself. I decided on this little guy holding a big heart. And not a speck of red or pink anywhere! This could be a cross between a Valentine's Day or St. Patrick's Day card!
I colored him all in my Prismacolor pencils, blending everything with OMS. I used a Spica pen to outline the heart, just for a little sparkle. I love those pens, they have such a subtle shimmer, but add so much to a card! The white borders were punched out using Martha Stewart's scalloped dot punch. I printed the sentiment on my computer and stamped a little heart onto a scrap of BG paper, then covered it with Star Dust Stickles. I LOVE-me-do this card, it's going into my favorites bin. Who will be the lucky recipient, I don't know. Maybe I'll keep it...hee hee.

Thanks for visiting!

Stamps: Digital Pencil, PTI heart

Paper: Basic Grey, Heavenly White, SU

Accessories: MS edge punch, Stickles, brown satin ribbon, colored pencils, OMS, Copic Spica pen

IODT Love-Spring Challenge

The Impression Obsession design team is up to another challenge this week! You can play along as well, just check out all the details on the IO blog. While you're there, be sure and check out some of the sneak peaks of new stamps coming out real soon, they are to-die-FOR!

Isn't this sentiment stamp just the most beautiful thing ever?! I love the saying, and I love the combination of fonts! I stamped it on some shimmer white cardstock just to add some sparkle.

Now how about the floral border on the left? I am lovin' this clear stamp set, Wreaths & Garlands-Floral. Such pretty vines and little flowers to put together in endless combinations. I used the 'black magic' technique again, stamped everything in white pigment ink, then colored over with colored pencils. I added some little pearly dots with Liquid Pearls for added dimension, too.

Need more? Go check out the other IODT ladies' blogs for more love/spring inspiration:

Jeanne

Dina

Jenny

Deborah

Julie

Laura

Thanks for stopping by!

Stamps: Impression Obsession

Ink: Memento, Perfect Match

Paper: Basic Grey, PTI shimmer white & chocolate, Gina K, Heavenly White, Bazzill

Accessories: Fiskars edge punch, satin ribbon, Spellbinders Labels die, Liquid Pearls, colored pencils

Spring Planting

I am lovin' making spring cards! It's been freezing cold and windy lately, so the thought of warm breezes and colorful flowers is just what I want to focus on. This new Elisabeth Bell stamp 'Flowers with a Wish' from Ladybug and Friends was just what I needed! I colored it with my colored pencils, blended with OMS. I added little yellow and purple flower centers with Sakura glaze pens.
It seems I can't make a card without using an edger punch lately, lol! I LOVE 'em! They make a perfect strip to wrap my ribbon around, so the edges don't show. My fave trick for ribbons. The paper is Basic Grey Wisteria collection.

Thanks for stopping by!

Stamps: Ladybug & Friends

Ink: Memento

Paper: Bristol vellum, Heavenly White, Basic Grey, Memory Box, SU

Accessories: Prima Say it with Pearls, satin ribbon, Martha Stewart arch lattice punch, colored pencils, OMS, Sakura Glaze pens

Pure Innocence

I've been seeing these adorable little girl stamps for a little while from My Favorite Things. I thought they were the sweetest things ever right from the start, but kept putting off getting some for myself. Well, my resolve finally caved, and I ordered a couple. They came the other day, and I colored this little beauty right away. I colored her with my limited collection of Copics. She's a fairy so of course I had to add lots of sparkle to her. I used Star Dust Stickles for her wand and shoes, and Starry Night Stickles for her wings.
The soft blue sky behind and around the image was done with a colored pencil, blended with OMS. I broke out my new Basic Grey Sugar Rush paper pad for this card, such pretty colors in that collection!

I hope you like it, thanks for visiting!

Stamps: MFT

Ink: Memento

Paper: Heavenly White, Basic Grey, Prism, PTI

Accessories: PTI ribbon, Copics, colored pencil, OMS, Stickles, Liquid Glass, Fiskars edger punch, Scor-tape (to adhere ribbon)

Too many shoes!

I wish I had this problem....LOL! A girl can never have too many shoes, right? Actually, I am probably one of the very few women on this planet that does NOT collect shoes at all. Just give me a couple of pairs of comfy sneakers and I'm happy! But I love this stamp. I colored the image with my trusty Prismacolor pencils. Added a little bit of Star dust Stickles to some of the shoes. It's my favorite Stickles, because it's got just the right amount of glitter and the color of whatever is underneath still shows through. I added some dots of yellow with a Sakura Glaze pen to the centers of the daisies, too.
The paper is new from Basic Grey's Sugar Rush kit.

If you like this or any of my other recent cards, I've posted a bunch in my Etsy store. I have got to unload some of these cards, I make way more than I can use!

Thanks for visiting, and enjoy your New Year's Eve celebrations safely!

Stamps: Forever Friends

Ink: Memento

Paper: Bristol vellum, Basic Grey, Bazzill, Heavenly White

Accessories: Martha Stewart Punch around the Page, silk ribbon, heart stick pin, colored pencils, OMS, Stickles

Wassail

Another Christmas card to share with you today, with a big fabulous striped bow on it! Lately I've been loving the wide ribbons. The card layout is from a past Mojo Monday sketch. I have a bunch of them printed out so that I can refer to them when I get stuck on a layout. AWESOME resource, check it out here.
I'm off to do some Christmas shopping, ugghh... I hate, HATE shopping. Especially the store-to-store-to-store kind. I'd rather sit on my laptop and shop online, if I could do grocery shopping this way I'd be one happy camper! But I do need some stocking stuffers and other small items, so I do have to go. Plus I promised my daughter that I'd take her to the mall. The worst of the worst places to go shopping, but sometimes you just have to do things for the kids!

Off to brave the mobs....

Stamps: Forever Friends, PTI sentiment

Ink: Memento, Perfect Match

Paper: Heavenly White, Basic Grey, SU

Accessories: Nestabilities, The Punch Bunch snowflake punch, SU striped ribbon, PTI button, colored pencils, OMS, Fiskars apron lace punch, Fun Flock, tiny red rhinestone

Plum Purdy Santa

Well yesterday was a bit of an ordeal! I started feeling sick yesterday at work, tightness in my chest, indicating a whopper of a chest cold coming on, congestion....all that fun stuff. I come home, lay down for a nap when I get a phone call that my son had been taken by ambulance to the ER! He had stayed after school to see the football game, and was with a bunch of friends in the Walmart parking lot next door. Apparently, he was fooling around on a shopping cart, slipped and fell, hitting his head. Supposedly, he was unconscious for a few minutes. He doesn't remember any of it. They did a CAT scan (I got to watch, now I can say I can see into his head, lol!) and everything seemed fine. Thank God! So other than a massive headache and a sore neck, he got off easy. Phewww!
Now, onto happier things. I looooooove this Santa and Gingerbread image from Plum Purdy! I know, I know I say I love them all. But I really, and truly love Renee's style, from the first time I saw one of her painting books many, many years ago!

I added a little Liquid Glass to the candy cane to really make it shine, and there's a bit of glass glitter on the holly berries to make them look 'frosted' with ice. Awesome stuff.

Thanks for stopping by, have a great weekend everyone!

Stamps: Plum Purdy

Ink: Memento, Distress, Perfect Match

Paper: Basic Grey 'Wassail', The Paper Company, Bristol vellum, PTI, Heavenly White c.s

Accessories: colored pencils, OMS, SU felt stitched ribbon, glass glitter, Liquid Glass, Martha Stewart simple scallop punch