Sunday, May 31, 2009

HM Birthday Challenge


Well, this isn't last minute, but it is last day. This week's challenge on HM is a birthday challenge. Anything Birthday-themed. I chose to use one of the images I won from the HM challenge awhile back and I love the image. It's a smaller one so I think it could be used for a lot. I love the idea that they're popping pop-corn over the candle flames. Only a little mousie could think of that. They look like they're celebrating in grand style. I colored this with my Copic markers. The balloons are from Crafty Secrets "Birthday Kids" enhanced with SU's Crystal Effects, the DP's are from Basic Grey's "Cupcake". The ribbon and ribbon slide are SU, as are the main two pieces of CS. The corners are adorned with red Kaiser half-pearls and the sentiment is from PTI's "Year-Round Puns". Thanks for looking at my close-to-the-last-minute entry and have a wonderful Sunday. Tomorrow launches our 5th Copic Creations challenge, so please join us if you can.

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Sweet Violets

I love this set from Flourishes called Sweet Violets. I've always loved violets anyway, and this image really captures them in my opinion. I colored them with my Copics and I'm learning to be VERY careful with reds and purples combined with my blender. That is why there is a cute yellow bow in the midst of the bouquet. I spread too much violet color on one of the flowers and in my attempt to "blend it away" I ended up spreading green from the stems. I managed to get most of it back to normal after several rounds with the blender pen, but I decided I would still add the bow. I think it brightens it up, though, and I'm very pleased with how it turned out. I used my argyle embossing folder for my Cuttlebug and my half-pearls and that seemed quite sufficient. Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely week-end.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Birthday Wishes


Today is my grandson's birthday - he's 13 today -and I made him this card. The image is from Victoria Case Art Designs and it is called Boy Gamer. They have some great new stamps, both digital and rubber and I know I'll have to add some to my collection. The sentiment is another one in the group that America sent me. I sure am getting use out of those. I colored this with my Copic markers. There are just a few days left to get in on our Copic Challenge #4 with the prize being 3 Magnolia stamps. June 1 starts our next challenge so hope you'll join us. Thanks for stopping by and happy Friday.

Monday, May 25, 2009

Memorial Day wishes


I hope you all have a wonderful day with family and friends and remembering those who sacrificed that we might enjoy the freedoms that we have. I was inspired to make a card for today and I pondered the idea for some time before coming up with this. I incorporated a fun technique that we learned at our last SU stampin' class which was to make a "quilt" by punching squares and adhering them to CS, then cutting it out with the Top Note Sizzix die. With this idea I had to improvise because I wanted to add the words in the corners. That was a bit tricky so if I do another like this I'll go about it differently. At any rate, I got it to work. The star squares are from the "Try It" sheet from PTI in their DP section. They were too small for my punch so I had to print it out, scan it, enlarge the sheet and then print it again. Then they were just right. The eagle and sentiment are from Our Daily Bread Designs called "In God We Trust". I experimented with a technique using VersaMark and ink/markers, but I forgot the step of "blotting" it before re-applying the VersaMark. I still was pleased with it overall. I designed the sentiment in Adobe Photoshop and printed it out on the CS before adhering the main design. I think I will frame it somehow and display it since we usually have people over for a cook-out. Stay safe and enjoy your day and as always, thank you so much for stopping by my little "korner."

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Sketch and a Bubble Bath


Once again I'm posting at the last minute, but such is life lately for me. I think I need to do what this card says, but I don't have time. Sigh..... I did this for this week's sketch challenge at House Mouse and I still love sketch challenges. I used my Basic Grey "Porcelain" papers for all of the DP's and Sahara Sand for the main CS. I colored my image with Copics and tried my new Shimmerz on the bubbles. I plan to send this to a friend who hosted a huge but lovely party for mutual friends. She deserves the bubble bath, but knowing her, she doesn't have time for one either. Hope you like my cute little mousie and I'll be back tomorrow with a Memorial Day post. Have a wonderful holiday tomorrow.

Friday, May 22, 2009

"Celebrate"


I am not only celebrating Memorial Day and a long week-end, but I'm also celebrating getting to play with some fabulous new craft stamps from Janlynn called "Stamps Happen." She carries some awesome images and this is one I fell in love with. It's called Dancing Bunnies and I thought they looked like they were having the best time celebrating. I decided this would work for a number of occasions so it would be pretty versatile. They come with a colored image so for this first one I decided to color it pretty much per their suggestion. I cut it out with a Long Rectangle Nestie and then sponged it with Bashful Blue and Pink Pirouette. The papers are a combination of Stampin' Up, Basic Grey and the green plaid is from DCWV Nursery from Michael's. The flowers are Martha Stewart and the sentiment is from Flourishes' "Summer on the Patio." I hope you'll check out this great line of stamps....there is sure to be at least one you'll fall in love with. I have more to stamp and post for you including some adorable winter images to get you jump-started on Christmas. Hope you have a wonderful week-end. I have a patriotic card coming for Memorial Day, so "stay tuned." Thanks for stopping by.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Great idea with Flower Soft



I'm featuring a card today that I CASED from Leslie Miller using Flower Soft. I love how it turned out, and as you can see I did two versions of it.....one was for a birthday, the other I used for a young man we know who graduated. If you check out Leslie's versions, she did "His and Hers" cards and by switching things a bit you can do a lovely feminine card as well. My papers are all SU! and the tree is from SU's "Lovely as a Tree". I also used my Kaiser half-pearls which are still one of my favorite embellishments. I hope you have a lovely day. The weather here is absolutely gorgeous....wish we could have lots more of this. I'm off to work but wanted to get this posted. Thanks so much for stopping by. I love reading your comments.

Monday, May 18, 2009

Sharing a cute project


I just had to share this cute project with you that I got from Carolyn's post a few days ago. She made a card and backpack and I flipped over both. She has the link to the backpack tutorial, which was pretty easy, for the most part. I took a side picture, but I was working on creasing mine and this one side got a little messy. The picture on Carolyn's blog will be much more appealing. I wanted you to see that the back has ribbon for the straps, held on with large eyelets. At any rate, I made this for my granddaughter's pre-school graduation yesterday and I filled it with crayons, mechanical pencils, some small markers, and in the front pocket I enclosed some stamped images for her to color. She loves asking if she can stamp, which pretty much means "would you stamp something for me to color, Grandma?" She's getting very good with her coloring and I do trust her to stamp with supervision, but she seems to love to color. Anyway, I hope you like this and don't be afraid to try it if you're liking it as much as I did. Happy Monday and thanks for stopping by!

Friday, May 15, 2009

Copic Creations Challenge #4

Wow, it is the 15th and time for the Copic Creations Challenge #4. The theme of this challenge is "Blonde Hair" and it is sponsored by Magnolia-licious. They are offering 3 stamps to the winner of the pick....what fun! I had fun with this one, and I colored the flowers and butterflies in the background with my Spica glitter pens, although I'm not sure if you can see that. Those pens really make it sparkle. The hair colors that I used are Y000, Y00, and E53. I like that color combo and tend to use it a lot. The sentiment was sent to me by my friend America as a bonus along with the stamps I won from the House-Mouse challenge a few weeks back. Thank you, America, for including those stamped sentiments. They'll come in handy, as this one already did. Be sure to check out the great cards the rest of the team did and play along if you can. You do not need to use Magnolia images and you have two weeks, so pull out those Copics and find some hair to color blonde. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a wonderful week-end.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Quick and Easy


This is a quick and easy wedding card done with Flourishes Ornamental Elements and my Just Rite Harmony Classic Circle Stamper II. It was stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black ink. The black circle was cut with a circle Nestie, the ribbon is from Flourishes and the silver embellies came from Michael's. The card measures 5 x 5. That's it. I think it makes an elegant card and goes together very quickly. The inside was "lined" with white CS and stamped on the left with the other image included in the Flourishes set. Just thought I'd share this simple idea. Thanks for taking a look.

Saturday, May 9, 2009

House Mouse Gate-Fold Challenge



This week's challenge at HM was to make a gate fold card. While the card itself was extremely simple to make per the link to the instructions, it didn't address keeping the card closed, and as you can see I put my prong on the wrong side of the card......DUH! Now that would have worked if I had applied the adhesive to the right side (as you're facing the card) of the image, but I didn't, so I'm still pondering a way to close it without having to attach a velcro shape on there. I decided to make it a Mother's Day card as I still have people I need cards for. Since it will be used for that, there will be more added as a sentiment, but I'm not going to finish it for the recipient to see on my blog (in case they even look.) The image is one of the ones I won from the challenge that America sponsored a few weeks back. I'm so tickled that I got this one. It was fun to color and I think it's adorable. Be sure to stop by and see the other cards that the DT did. They always make the cutest cards. Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful week-end.

Friday, May 8, 2009

Happy Mother's Day


I had to make Mother's Day cards to send out and I was so anxious to try out these cute flower pots I've seen everywhere and to color my new Tilda. I was happy to find out that the May challenge on PCP for KL Stampin' and Scrappin' is to do either a Memorial Day card or a Mother's Day card.
So here is my entry for this challenge. The DP on the front of the flower pot is from Basic Grey's "Porcelain" and my flowers are Primas. My edge is punched with a MS punch. I colored my Tilda with Copic markers, trying to capture colors in the Porcelain paper pack.
I love these little flower pots. I hope you like them. They really are easy to make and so much fun. You can see the basic tutorial here. Thanks for stopping by. If you get a chance why not participate in this challenge. Happy Mother's Day to all you moms and I hope you all have a wonderful week-end.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Childhood Memories

Do you remember being a little kid and being scared to go to bed? And why were you scared? Was it, perhaps, that there were........

MONSTERS under your bed??!!!







Of course, we know there's no such thing, but c'mon - as a little kid there COULD have been, right? I am excited about this and several new stamps I acquired from Victoria Case Art Designs. They have both digital and rubber stamps, and I'm just in love with so many of their images. This one happens to be a rubber stamp and I couldn't wait to put it together and post it. I'm hoping to post the others I bought soon, but at least you can be looking at this one and maybe checking out their stamps. I colored the image with my Copics, cut it with my Label 1 Nesties, mounted it on Basic Grey DP cut with another Labels 1 Nestie, and used background papers from SU's East Coast Prep. I used my MS lace punch for the borders at the top. I pondered a sentiment for awhile and then realized this image goes perfectly with "Wish you were here!" I made up the sentiment with my Just Rite "Special Occasion" font. I hope you can check out their other stamps. I'm really liking them a lot. Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful Tuesday.

Friday, May 1, 2009

Copic Creations Challenge #3


Happy May to everyone. Today is the first day of Copic Creations Challenge #3 and the theme is Purple Flowers and Lilacs. We so appreciate all of you who took time to post to our last challenge and there were some wonderful cards with some fabulous coloring in there. Thanks too all who participated. I hope you'll stick with us, and if you haven't played along yet, come on and jump in now. We're not only having fun but we're learning and honing our Copic coloring skills along the way. My image is from Flourishes and thanks to the wonderful way their artist Marcella Hawley adds the shading, I didn't have to spend as long coloring this as I thought I would. My cardstock is from SU and the beautiful silk ribbon is from Flourishes. I can't wait to see what you all come up with between now and the 14th, so pull out those markers and think "purple".