Neapolitan Challenge and a "Featured Artist"

Is it hot enough for ice cream where you are? It is here for sure! Does ice cream sound good to you? That's what comes to mind when I think Neapolitan. That is the theme of the HM challenge this week, although they're talking those colors - not necessarily ice cream. I just happened to pick up this stamp last week and I'm so glad I did. It's called "You Snooze You Lose". I colored it with Copics and used my SU Candy Cane DP's, my Curved Rectangle Nesties, and the sentiment is from SU's Crazy for Cupcakes. I've missed a few weeks of participating in the HM challenge which was my first challenge to hear of and enter, so I hate that I'm missing any.

I also wanted to post a card that my 5-year-old granddaughter did for her new baby brother (see Sunday's post.) She colored the image all by herself and I told her I was so proud that I'd post it to my blog. She helped me pick out the papers and put together the rest of the card based on the sketch from last week's Mojo Monday. She brought it to her mom last night at the hospital, and today new brother is home and doing well. Shelby, I'm proud of ya, girl! You're gonna be a stamper at a young age and Grandma LOVES that. Family members, if you follow my blog I'm thinkin' that you want to get on here and leave a comment for that young artist, if you know what I mean. Thanks for stopping by and I'll try to get by and say howdy to y'all on your blogs real soon.

Copic Creations Challenge #6

Happy Monday to you and welcome to the Copic Creations Challenge #6 post. The theme of the challenge this time was coloring wood and our sponsor is Unity Stamps. I chose to use my "Bridge Gate" from Magnolia stamps and created my own scene to go with it. I added a small pond of water and some flowers growing out of the wee bit of dirt at the base of the fence, (not sure why it's called a "bridge gate", but it is. To me, it's a fence.) Tilda is sweetly tending to these few flowers. The colors I used for the fence are E43, E53, and E33. I wanted it to be a more faded fence. I colored Tilda with colors similar to those in the Marrakech DP because I love those colors. If you posted to the last challenge and I didn't get around to commenting on your post, please forgive me and I'll try to get back on track for this challenge. The new baby's arrival threw the whole day off Sunday from things I had planned to do.....not that I'm complaining in the least. He's a cutie and a keeper for sure. Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful week.

GLAD Announcement

No cards at the moment, but I had to share a picture of our newest grandchild born not 12 hours ago to our son and DIL. This is little Will, and he weighed in at 8lbs.6ozs. Today is our 41st anniversary, so I think this was a pretty cool present. This is our 9th grandchild. Mom and baby are doing well and I'm on my way to help take his 3 siblings to meet their new little brother. I'll be back tomorrow with our next Copic Creations challenge so stay tuned. Have a blessed and wonderful Sunday.

Summer Notes

Don't know if you caught it last week-end, but the DT for Magnolia-licious had a fun blog hop. They all did a cute project with a post-it note holder and carrier using preferably a summer-themed Magnolia stamp. The projects were all amazing and the DT members were offering their own give-away, as well as the main project sight which is here. I was so inspired that I did mine right away, but then I took it down to work to show it off and forgot to get a picture of it to post. Alas, now I am posting it on the last day. But, you have until tonight to do yours and post it, so I suggest you go for it! I used Riding Hood Red CS and matching ribbon, and Western Sky DP from SU! I was inspired by my granddaughter's excitement about horseback riding, which she is getting to do today for her birthday, so I wanted to create that theme. Wouldn't these be great little gifts with a Christmas theme! I used my Summer Tilda with Hat and my Bridge Deck. I love this little project and the tutorial was very good, although I had to tweak mine a little to make it hold a regular-sized post-it note pad. Hope you like it. Thanks for stopping by and if you've got Magnolia stamps it's not too late to get in on this. At least take a peak at the fun projects they all did. I promise they'll put a smile on your face. Happy Friday!

First Birthday

I just love this set from Crafty Secrets called "Birthday Kids". It has a lot to the set and I love the adorable, chubby-cheeked children in the set. My grandson turns 1 in a few weeks so my daughter and I made up 10 of these invitations to send out to friends. The set has single candles so you can use the number corresponding with what birthday it is. It also has all the numbers from zero to 9 so you can get a lot of use out of it. We used DP from SU's Summer Picnic. I colored the image with Copic markers and drew my own string for the balloon. My ovals were cut with my Nesties. That's it - pretty simple but rather cute, don't you think? Thanks for stopping by. I hope you're having a good week.

Snowmen in June

You may not want to be reminded of snow this early in June, but I got another Christmas card done to add to my self- challenge of doing one Christmas card a month. I'm still behind, but thanks to this adorable craft stamp by Janlynn, I'm catching up. This one is called "Cheerful Snowmen", and I'm sure you would agree they look cheerful. I colored them all with Copic markers and cut them out. They are mounted on a SU Top Note die cut in Not Quite Navy and then brayered with white craft ink. I had to add a bit more white with my gel pen to try to create the idea of a snowy night. All of that is mounted on Night of Navy with a Sentiment from PTI's "Made of Snow". The main CS is white. The stars are punched from a SU punch, and the trees are from SU's "Lovely as a Tree". I am just loving these little guys and plan to make more because they really are cheerful little fellas. Janlynn is having a SUPER SALE until the 14th of June, so be sure to check it out. They carry a big variety of items and their craft stamps are beautiful! Thanks for stopping by and I hope you are having a wonderful start to the week.

Not Your Usual Grad Card

This is not what you're used to seeing for a graduation card, right? I colored this adorable dragon from Victoria Case Art Designs and have been waiting to put it together. This week I added the pink background from PTI (Berry Sorbet), and then the DP's from Basic Grey's Euphoria. I had need of a graduation card for this week-end and I brought out this sentiment from PTI's Pond Life Sentiments that I decided would be perfect with a graduation card and my "fairy dragon". I do have a stamp with the cap and diploma that says Congratulations Graduate which I stamped on the inside of the card. It just happened that the hat, cut out, fit my dragon's head perfectly. Now this is no ordinary dragon. Her wings are colored in Atyou Spica glitter pens and her belly is alternately Stickles and Flower Soft. She's one smart, diva dragon, and don't you just love those eyes! Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a wonderful week-end.

Happy Blooms

I am just loving these flower pot stamps from Lockhart Stamps from Ellen Hutson. I have one other one that I haven't done yet, but I couldn't wait to finish these and post them. They're quick and easy to color and I think they're just bright and happy. The papers I used for the Petunias, as well as the ribbon on both cards, are from PTI. They're part of their Perfect Match products. The daisy card uses SU papers. I ran the bottom panel of both cards through my Cuttlebug with Swiss Dots, and the green and purple with Divine Swirl. The flowers are a MS punch that I love with a SU circle-punch center. The "Hello Friend" and "Thank You" came from the Sweet Violets set from Flourishes and were mounted on dimensionals. (I do mix and match, don't I.) I used SU's orange CS for the back of the Petunias, but I sponged it first in Chocolate Chip and then Riding Hood Red. The edges are sponged with Chocolate Chip as well. I wanted to try to bring out the flower pot colors. These went together pretty quickly and I'm really liking them, so I'd like to finish the 3rd one ("Heather") and then make some of these as sets. Hope you like them and I hope your day is a good one.

Relax with a Cup of Tea

A few posts ago I shared a card done with a great craft stamp from the "Stamps Happen" line by Janlynn. Today I am featuring another one of their stamps called "Pot and Cup." I decided to color this in one of my favorite color combos which is yellow and blue. I used my gold pen to "etch" it in gold. The sentiment is from PTI's "Tea for Two". The DP is from Basic Grey's Urban Prairie and I made my own little version of a tea bag for an additional embellishment. My blue papers and brads are SU's Not Quite Navy. I can't wait to stamp the rest of the stamps I got from them. I'm really liking them and can't wait to show you the skaters! Thanks for stopping by. I think I'll go have a cup of tea. Care to join me?

Copic Creations Challenge #5

Happy Monday to you and can you believe we're on our 5th challenge with Copic Creations. The theme this time is transparencies. We are being sponsored by Gina K Designs, and we were graciously provided with a stamp set from Gina K to color. It's a beautiful set called Friendship Blooms with 3 images and 5 sentiments, but the one I used was the only one of the 3 that really lent itself to being transparent. I used Copic markers N1, YG91 and my blender for the water in the pitcher. I also added stems in the pitcher because the Gina K image does not include them inside the pitcher. I used my new Marrakech DP from Basic Grey, and "Vintage" Cuttlebug die cuts, cut in half, for the fancy background behind the image. I decided to keep the sentiment for the inside of the card because I thought it might take away from the image. I hope you like it. If you have Copics, check out the tutorials and play along. It's a great way to sharpen those coloring skills. Be sure to check out the cards the rest of the DT made. They're quite impressive. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a wonderful day and week.

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.

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.

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.

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."

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.