Inspired by Mojo Monday and Featuring Newton's Nook

Okay, so I'm not really a fan of a skinny card, but I liked the sketch and I thought it was the perfect way to combine one of my newest dies from Simon Says Stamp with a Newton's Nook image I colored a week ago.

I gave away my last baby card the other day, so this seemed like the perfect way to start to replenish my supply.  I used the Echo Park 6x6 paper pad from the Everyday Eclectic line, which has some adorable prints that were perfect for a paper card.  I colored the cute little penguins from the Newton's Nook Wild Child set then cut them out with a die from the Frames set from Simon Says Stamp.  I added the sentiment from the stamp set to a banner cut with the die from American Crafts/Crate Paper Maggie Holmes Styleboard dies.  I found a button in my stash and added some baker's twine from Hemptique to finish it off. 

 

Where's the Mojo?

I've been home the last two days and yet really haven't had the mojo to get some serious crafting done.  Yesterday, I chalked it up to being tired from the whirlwind trip to Seattle.  I did some playing, but not a whole lot.  I expected today to be a marathon day in the craft room and, yet, I didn't really get much done.  I finished up a card and then decided I needed to clean my craft room a bit.  Hubby was home today so I mentioned a shelf I would like built for my craft room and we talked through a bit of a move around.  Well that, of course, meant a trip to Lowe's.  While there, I got the call that my intern died over the weekend.  I was shocked.  He had the flu last week and I sent him home to rest (and keep the rest of us from being exposed).  We emailed every day but it didn't seem like it was anything out of the usual for a flu and now he's just gone.  It seems a bit unreal.

So needless to say, I'm not feeling very crafty right now.  I've finished cleaning my craft room and I think that's all that's going to get done today.  But at least I have this card I finished up to share with you.  I posted the background I was working on it back on Instagram on Sunday.  It's a background stamp I bought at Impress while I was there for Sandy's copic class.  I stamped it with Versamark ink and heat embossed it with some clear embossing powder. I sponged on three colors of Distress Ink in overlapping stripes (I just love those new mini round applicators - I get much nicer results).  Then I added some watered down Distress Ink over the flourishes but then toweled it off after a minute or so.

I cut the completed panel down with the smallest frame from Mama Elephant's Femme Frames.  I practiced my copic coloring on images from Lawn Fawn's Home Sweet Home set then cut them out (fussy cutting for the birds and leaves and dies for the branch, banner and house).  I stamped the banner in Smoke ink from Simon Says Stamp, but the rest were the standard Memento Tuxedo Black ink.   Once it was all cut out, it was just a manner of gluing them in place and adding some pop dots on the sentiment. Then because I'm obsessed with Wink of Stella and Glossy Accents lately, I added Wink of Stella to the banner and Glossy Accents to the bird, the leaves and the heart on the bird house.

Fun with Sandy Allnock at Impress

I'm a big believer in education.  As people close to me know, I spent a long time in school and I really loved it.  Even though I've been out of school for nearly 20 years (so hard to believe it's been that long already), I've never really stopped learning.  I've taken community college classes on everything from landscape maintenance to stained glass.  It's not been any different since getting into scrapbooking, Project Life and card making, I've watched a lot of You Tube videos by talented artists and have taken a number of classes, mostly online since there's not a lot of live offerings near us.

I've been following Sandy Allnock for quite some time.  Her talent to make beautiful things with copic markers is amazing.  I found out a few months ago that she teaches classes at a rubber stamp store called Impress in Tukwila, Washington and I really wanted to take a class.  It's about a four to five hour drive from here (depending on traffic) so the time and day of the week of the class became a very important consideration.  Then I saw that she was teaching an introductory class to copics using Lawn Fawn images and it was on a Saturday morning!  Well, it was time to bite the bullet, but what people who know me might be surprised about is that I actually get a little nervous about doing things like going someplace I've never been before and don't know anyone.  I'll do it, but it's not my first choice.  So I was delighted when my mom and sister agreed to go with me.

We turned into it a great overnight girls' trip by driving up Friday afternoon after Mom got back from her casino trip and I finished up a conference call at work.  We picked up Michele and spent a lot time in traffic (when did it get that bad) heading up to the big city.  After a wrong turn and night with horrible Wi-Fi, we packed off to class. 

Oh my goodness, it was so much fun. Sandy is as much fun in person as she is on her YouTube videos!  If you don't already watch her, go check out her channel here (or https://www.youtube.com/user/colourfulvideo).  You won't regret it. 

So there was an extra special surprise during the class.  Sandy got a text from none other than the amazing Jennifer McGuire (another of my absolute favorite people to watch).  See her videos here (or https://www.youtube.com/user/jennifermcguireink).  Sandy took a picture of us and sent it to Jennifer who sent back a picture of her waving to back to us.  What an absolutely surprising extra!

Also it was so much fun because Sandy got to share with us the next onlinecardclasses.com class subject (but they still have many classes available at a work at your own pace right now).  Now, I already knew what it was going to be because I took Stretch Your Stamps 2 and they announced it as a surprise at the end of the class, so if you took that class too, you already know, but what you might not know is how absolutely excited Sandy is for it.  It was so neat to see how excited she is.  I just love her positive, cheery personality. 

I also got the opportunity to talk briefly with a couple of the other women in the class.  They were really nice and I'm even following a couple of them on Instagram so I can see what beautiful work they do.  It made me comfortable that I could even go by myself if I had to next time.

I had a fabulous time and, even though it's a really long drive, I know I'm going to do it again and hopefully soon.  If you get the opportunity to take a class with Sandy or at Impress, do it.  You can find Sandy's online and in-person class schedule here (or http://sandyallnock.com/icse/) So go get your class on!

Congrats!

Yesterday I found out that a friend is engaged!  So, of course, I needed to make a card and yesterday I blogged about my failed attempt.  Of course you know I was in a hurry because I needed to pack for a quick trip to Seattle to take a class by the amazing Sandy Allnock.  In fact, as this post goes live, I'll be on my way with my mom and sister for the girls' trip. 

But, I still needed a card.  I inked up the Hero Arts Antique Flower Background again and this time, changed the order of the inks and got exactly what I was meaning to have in the first card.  I found a cut for Congrats for my Cameo and cut four to layer together.  I adhered them together and then to the background and then to my card base.  I added some Wink of Stella and some Glossy Accents to finish it off.  Fun and fast!

 

Sometimes a Failure is a Success

I was working on quick card tonight, but the idea I had didn't quite turn out.  I was trying to do a nice color background with Distress Ink over the Hero Arts Antique Flower Background stamp to make a quick congratulations card, when it turned out a bit grey and not at all the cheery look I was going for with this one.  Boo.  But the more I looked it, the more I thought it would work for something just a little different. 

I looked around my craft desk and saw the banner from the Dotted dies from Avery Elle and the many thanks sentiment from the Hero Arts Sending Smiles set and a new idea was born.  I made a quick banner stamped with Slate ink from Simon Says Stamp and added a little wood veneer heart (with Wink of Stella and Glossy Accents, of course) and, all of the sudden, that failed background was perfect. 

You Are the Apple of My Eye Take Two

I had another apple floating around on my craft table and I had this idea to make my own background paper so I thought "why not use that apple.  So I pulled out my Simon Says Stamp Apple Green ink and the apple image from the Stampendous Fresh Fruit set and started making my own background.  I stamped rows of apples, added in some seeds using another stamp from the set and some Espresso Truffle Memento ink.  I added a stems to the apples and then added my colored apple to the free space I left in stamping. I finished it off with a stem. I then realized I didn't really have any place for my sentiment that would work other than on top of the apple.  It worked out perfectly and placed it on top of a red card base from my stash, but it still needed something.  So I added some Glossy Accents and called that good.

 

Oh, and this came was what I was working on when I let this sneak peek go out on Instagram:



We Make Such a Pear!

Today I continued to play with my Stampendous Fresh Fruit stamp set.  I had already stamped my pear, masked it off, stamped a second and added the stems and colored the whole thing the other day.  So I just had to fussy cut the image and decide what to do it with it.  Fortunately, it all came together very quickly tonight.  I used the Femme Frames set from Mama Elephant to cut a scrap of green paper from my scrap bin and the smaller frame to cut another piece of paper from the Jillibean Soup Homemade 6 Bean Soup 6x6 pad.  I just layered these on my white card base.  I found a cute die cut called from the Pinked Elle-ments set from Avery Elle to make a cute flag for the sentiment from the set.  Then it was just adding that to the edge of my pears and adding the whole thing with some pop dots to the front on the card.  I decided to finish it off with some Wink of Stella and Glossy Accents like I had for the apple card.

You Are the Apple of My Eye

Since I managed to catch up Project Life over the weekend (love doing one month at a time), I had a little time last night to play in my craft room after cleaning it up (because why should it stay clean?). I decided I wanted to use up some stamp sets that I've bought but not really used.  I have them sitting in box near my craft desk for just this opportunity.  I pulled out one called Fresh Fruit from Stampendous and just started stamping images out in Memento Tuxedo Black ink.  I loved this apple image and the card practically made itself.  After I had stamped, colored and fussy cut the image, I pulled out my Paper Wishes Basic Notebook die and found the cutest quilt type paper in my Jillibean Soup Homemade Six Bean Soup 6x6 paper pad for the background.  I cut it down just smaller than a red A2 card base I had in my stash.  I then layered the die cut and added my sentiment.  I popped on my apple with pop dots, added a bit too much shadow under it, then topped the apple with some clear Wink of Stella and a lot of Glossy Accent.  I found some Peppermint Lawn Trimmings to tie on the top of the note paper and set it aside to dry. 

Thinking of You Inspired by Stretch Your Stamps 2

Since I still had the Hero Arts Antique Flower Background stamp sitting on my desk and I loved how it look embossed in the JudiKins White Diamond embossing powder, I decided to do another card to show off how pretty it is.  Kristina Werner had made a beautiful card on the Onlinecardclasses.com Stretch Your Stamps 2 class using a background stamp and a large die.  I didn't really have the right die to replicate that, but I saw the recent stamp from the Simon Says Stamp card set for July and knew that was perfect for the sentiment.  I couldn't believe how quickly this card came together and all I needed was a few Pretty Pink Post sequins to finish it off. 

Thanks for Things on My Craft Desk

This card was completely born from things sitting on my craft desk as I spent an evening doing odds and ends, like writing in cards, sending email, posting pictures and putting together a list of copic colors I wanted to pick up for an upcoming class.  By the time I was done, I pretty much ready to go to bed, but then I saw the Hero Arts Antique Flower Background stamp and some JudiKins White Diamond Embossing Powder sitting on my desk.  It was calling my name.  So I found a scrap of black paper, stamped it with some Versamark ink and added the embossing powder.  It was so pretty.  I cut it out with the stitched frame from Mama Elephant's Femme Frames (although you can't really tell) and then cut a white background with the scalloped frame from that set.  I wasn't sure about the sentiment, but the Scripty Thanks die from Lawn Fawn was still on my desk, so I pulled out some beautiful blue paper from Pop Tone that I've been hoarding since Paper Zone closed down and I knew I wouldn't have a local supplier anymore.  But now that I've seen how pretty the Audrey Blue paper is from Simon Says Stamp, I'm feeling more comfortable about using my stash.  I die cute the thanks several times and inlayed then stacked them.  I think if I were to do the card again, I'd put the sentiment in the bottom left corner rather than the middle.  I finished it off with some clear Wink of Stella and some Glossy Accents.

A Lawn Fawn Birthday Inspired by Stretch Your Stamps 2

I signed up for the Onlinecardclasses.com Stretch Your Stamps 2 class and I love it, but it's pretty bad timing because life is just crazy busy right now so I haven't had as much time to play as I would like.  I was trying to clean my craft room when this card just sort of materialized out of things I had on my desk. I'm a crazy messy crafter so it seems like I'm always cleaning my room, but at the same time, the mix of crazy stuff all together brings up some of my best mojo.  Today's card started when I stamped the Impression Obsession Circle Fusion stamp and heat embossed it.  Then I just added some Distress Ink that were on my desk and yet seemed to go together well.  Then I decided to cut it down using the Avery Elle Dotted die.  I found this navy colored card base in my stash of pre-made card bases as I was putting it away.  I wasn't quite sure where it was going until I found the Into the Woods set from Lawn Fawn.  I just had to color and cut the cute fawn, but, for the sentiment, I needed a different set.  I picked the Chit Chat set, also from Lawn Fawn.  I looked at a few ink colors but finally settled on Audrey Blue from Simon Says Stamp.  I really love that color.  To finish it off, I added some crystal clear sequins from Pretty Pink Posh that I picked up at Impress during my trip to Seattle last week. 

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my Mom's birthday so it's only fitting that I post a birthday card.  Now this is not the card I'm giving her, but it is a birthday card.  I had this idea for the card and it didn't really turn out the way I had pictured in my head.  I loved the background technique that I saw on the Onlinecardclasses class Stretch Your Stamps 2 where Kristina Werner made the most amazing background with a heat embossed background and some watercolors.  It was so amazing and my version, well, it's not.  I used the cutest background stamp from Impression Obsession called Sketchy Flowers with some Versamark and clear embossing powder.  I then used some Distress Ink markers to watercolor in the flowers and the background.  I'm just not in love with it, but often these cards grow on me after time.  So I used my Simon Says Stamp Postage Stamp dies to cut a white background with the largest and then the next size down on my background stamp panel.  I layered them on an orange card base.  For the sentiment, I pulled out the Lawn Fawn Chit Chat stamp set and stamped the cute birds in Momento ink then colored with copics.  I stamped out the Happy Birthday set with some Orange Peel Simon Says Stamp ink and then added them all to the card with some pop dots. 

Another Sympathy Card

While making the last card, I made another panel using that same technique demonstrated by Jennifer McGuire in the Onlinecardclasses.com Stretch Your Stamps 2 class using the Ornate Florals Cover-a-Card stamp from Impression Obsession, Versamark and Perfect Pearls.  This time I stopped after adding the Perfect Pearls and did not add the clear embossing powder.  I think it liked it the effect better without it.  I wasn't sure what to do with the panel at first, but I decided to inlay it as is so popular right now.  I used the same With Sympathy die from Simon Says Stamp.  It was not particularly fun to inlay because there were sooooo many little bits of paper to fill in the spaces.  I guess I wasn't thinking about that when I settled on that technique.  Once it was done, it still needed something.  I had just watched a video where Kristina Werner used Glossy Accents to make her sentiment stand out, so I thought I would do that.  Big mistake.  This sentiment is so dainty that it was really difficult to add the Glossy Accents without making a big old mess. 

 

With Sympathy

I saw this clever technique in a video from Jennifer McGuire in the Onlinecardclasses.com Stretch Your Stamps 2 class using a reverse background stamp, Versamark and Perfect Pearls.  I knew I had to give it a try.  I had picked up this beautiful background stamp from Impression Obsession that I thought would be perfect for the technique.  I inked it up with Versamark, stamped my image, swirled on the Perfect Pearls in Blue Patina and Green Patina, then covered it with clear embossing powder and heat set it.  So pretty.  I cut it down just smaller than my black card base. 

I added some Heirloom Gold Perfect Pearls using Versamark ink on some white card stock.  I then die cut it with the flag shape from Lawn Fawn's Large Stitched Journaling Card and cut a plain black one as well.  I then layered them with a bit of the gold peeking out.  For the sentiment, I used the tiny With Sympathy die from Simon Says Stamp.  It cuts the thinnest sentiment.  There's no way I could do something so thin anyway else.  I decided that I wanted it to be out of the Verdigris embossing powder from Ranger, so I just added some Versamark to some white card stock, covered it with the powder, heat embossed it and then cut it out.  I layered it on top of the banner to finish off the card.

 

Miyako and Kate Take Two

Since I wasn't happy with some of my choices on my first attempt with the Miyako and Kate stamp from Whimsy Stamps designed by the amazing Sandy Allnock, I immediately decided to start a second one so I could leave the shoes a lighter color.  I changed up a few things, such as the colors, but followed quite a bit of the same technique.  I even built the card the same way, but this time used a piece of paper from the Maggie Holmes for Crate Paper Flea Market 6x6 paper pad.  I like the overall look of the coloring of this one better, but I like the cat on the first one better (it looks more like my beautiful Smoke). 

Miyako and Kate

While at my conference, I saw a notation on Sandy Allnock's blog about a sale on her stamps at Whimsy Stamps so I quickly snapped up a Miyako and Kate stamp before it was gone for good.  I cannot believe how incredibly fast it got here.  I think I ordered it on Wednesday morning and it was here when I got home on Thursday.  Lightning fast!  So I had to ink it up.  I'm not ready to do something quite so detailed with copics yet, but I was willing to give watercolor a try.  So I pulled out my Distress Ink markers and did a little coloring.  I even posted a sneak peak on social media.  Once it was done, I didn't like the shoes.  I had these glossy black mary jane's in my head, but they seemed too dark for the rest of the image.  I added some Glossy Accents, but I still don't like how they turned out.  It was good enough that wasn't willing to scrap it altogether, so I cut it out using the Femme Frames dies from Mama Elephant.  Then I used a piece of the 6x6 Kate & Co. paper from My Mind's Eye for the larger frame and mounted it on a white card base.  Super simple and cute, but it means the sentiment has to be on the inside because I totally wasn't thinking about what I was going to do for that.

A Load of Thanks

At the last minute, I decided to whip up some thank you cards to take with me to my conference.  I wanted to thank a bunch of people who have helped me in the last few months who are also attending the conference.  I picked a card I have made recently that I knew would be fairly easy to replicate in mass production.  The only change up was that I inlayed the thanks using the die from Lawn Fawn and I cut the watercolor paper in the stitched frame die from Mama Elephant.   I was able to make all ten in less than two hours!  

PS - I'm interested to see how this post turns out because it's the very first one I've done with Blogger on the iPad while traveling.  All the previous posts have been preset before I left.  If this works out well, you may see a bit of travel posts from this trip.  We'll see because I'm on a pretty packed schedule this trip.

Wishing You Were Here Card Three Featuring Newton's Nook

Today is the last card with the images I stamped from the Newton's Summer Vacation set from Newton's Nook.  Because this card has a beach theme, it fits the current challenge over at Newton's Nook to make a beached themed card.  If you haven't played along yet, go check it out on their blog here.  There's still time to play along and, if you've already played along, why not do another?

I kept this card pretty simple because I absolutely loved the sunburst pattern paper from the A Perfect Summer 6x6 pad from Echo Park. After cutting that slightly smaller than my card base, I adhered it to the card.  After coloring my image, I die cut it with the Lawn Fawn Stitched Journaling Card die and added it with some pop dots to the card base.  I added some Doodlebug sequins to the corners.  I brushed the umbrella and towel with Wink of Stella and topped the sun glasses with some Glossy Accents to finish of the card. 

Wish You Were Here Card Two Featuring Newton's Nook

I really had a great time with this stamp set and since it's a beach themed card, it fits the Newton's Nook challenge to make a beach themed card.  There's still time to play so head over to their blog and check it out.  You can find it here.    The cards just seemed to make themselves and I loved coloring all the kitties.  I've colored them to look like the furballs, Tigger, Cha-Ching and for today's card, I decided to try my hand an orinch one (yes I know that's not the correct spelling).  After coloring my panel, I ran it through my Sizzix with the Lawn Fawn Stitched Journaling Card.  I cut some sand paper from the Summer Stack from DCWV to a slightly larger size and chomped the corners with my We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper.  I messed up my sentiment (missed that I had a piece of lint on it), so I stamped it again on a scrap of the sand paper.  I then used the banner from the Lawn Fawn dies to cut out the banner and then ran it through again with the stitched journaling die to get the stitched look on the end.  For the background, I used a couple sheets of paper from that Echo Park 6x6 paper pad A Perfect Summer.  I added some Peppermint Lawn Trimmings at the join of the two papers.  I added my panel with pop dots and then finished it off with some Doodlebug sequins. 

Enjoy Your Day Card Two Featuring Newton's Nook

Today's card is another image from the delightful Newton's Summer Vacation set from Newton's Nook.  I actually fussy cut this image after coloring it with my copics.  I hate fussy cutting, but it was the perfect thing for this card.  I used two sheets of paper from the Echo Park 6x6 pad A Perfect Summer.  I love that paper pad and it seemed the perfect one to go with this stamp set.  I die cut the wave paper using the largest die from the Avery Elle Pinked die set.  I then stamped my sentiment on a scrap piece of white paper and cut it out with the banner die from the Avery Elle set.  I then ran it through again with the large die to pink the other end to match the background.  I cut the polka dot/pie chart paper to cover the entire card base.  I adhered my wave paper and then tied it with some Martha Stewart baker's twine, adhered it my card base and then added a few Doodlebug sequins to finish it off.  It was cute, but still needed something.  So I covered the floatie with some Glossy Accents and called it good.

Enjoy Your Day Featuring Newton's Nook

Since I had my new stamp sets on my desk, I thought I would stamp out the images and play with them.  So the next few cards all come from one of Newton's Nook's newest sets called Newton's Summer Vacation.  For this card, I colored it all with copics the cut the panel out with the smallest banner from Lawn Fawn's Stitched Party Banners.  I ran some Lawn Fawn Sky Lawn Trimming through the banner piece.  I cut a piece of paper from the Echo Park 6x6 pad A Perfect Summer pad using the scalloped, largest die from Mama Elephant's Femme Frames and then adhered it to a orange card base.  I used pop dots for the banner and finished it off with some Glossy Accents on the mask and bubbles.