Happy Meow-oween, Take Two

After I finished my card for the Inky Paws Challenge over at Newton's Nook, I just had to start working on an idea that had been percolating while I made my challenge card.  I inked up the Newton's Day Dream stamp but then wiped off the flowers.   I then stamped it on my card stock and then again twice more on two post-it notes so I could have both sky and land masks.  I masked the kitty before I inked up the small pumpkin from Newton's Perfect Pumpkin and stamped it on both sides. I also cut two more masks for the pumpkins.  Once the kitty and pumpkins were stamped and masked, I used Lawn Fawn's Starry Backdrops inked in Versamark and then heat embossed in clear embossing powder to make the starry background.  I used a variety of Distress Inks to sponge on the background starting with Squeezed Lemonade at the horizon, adding Seedless Preserves and finishing in Chipped Sapphire at the top and then blending back down.  I wiped the excess ink off the stars and removed my kitty mask to replace it with the one to let me finish the ground.  I sponged on Shabby Shutters and Mowed Lawn Distress Ink for the ground, leaving me with just white pumpkins and kitty.

My sister's cat Gus, a gorgeous house panther, isn't doing well.  She's pretty sure he has kidney failure and, since he's 16, it's probably a pretty good guess.  She's taken him to the vet for blood work and, when I was working on this, we were waiting for the results.  So I decided that Gus would be my inspiration for this kitty.  Not much technique involved in coloring an all black kitty, but I still had fun with my new Prismacolor colored pencils and gamsol.  The pumpkins were a bit more of a challenge on the coloring scale.  I was going to finish them off with one of the pumpkin faces that come in the Newton's Perfect Pumpkin set, but, of course, I can't for the life of me find it. I had pulled it off to size the stamp for the pumpkin and then set it aside to finish the coloring and now I can't find it.  That happens to me all the time and the stamps eventually turn up stuck the back of another package or the side of my pencil case or whatever.  My bet is that it will turn up just after I finish my last Halloween card of the year....

To finish off my panel, I wanted to do something a little simple.  I bought the Simon Says Stamp Frames dies because I love the frame it cuts out.  I saw so many ways it would be useful and I thought it would be perfect for this. So first I cut the panel down using the largest stitched die from My Favorite Thing's Blueprints #13 set and then centered up the Simon Says Stamp Frame Die over my panel and die cut it.  I then die cut a white piece with the same frame.  Then it was just a matter of piecing them all back together on my card base.  Once I had it together, I added my sentiment from the Newton's Perfect Pumpkin set and washed the sky in Wink of Stella. 

After the card was done, I was left with a starry frame that was perfect to frame Chewie!  Of course, she would sit still so I could get an in-focus picture.  This was the best I could get...

Happy Meow-oween! Inspired by Newton's Nook's Inky Paws Challenge #14 and Mojo Monday #366

We're back from vacation and, sadly, hubby is sick.  I don't feel so great either, but I think my issues are just the upcoming weather change playing havoc with my sinuses.  So I didn't have much creative mojo today but I so desperately wanted to play in the Inky Paws Challenge #14 over at Newton's Nook.  I just love their stamps (maybe it's the whole kitty thing?) and I love a good challenge.  Fortunately my most recent stamp acquisitions from them were waiting in the mail (along with yet another vehicle registration bill - why is it that every single vehicle we own has tabs that renew in the same year?  It's a crafty budget killer.) just begging to be inked up.

I spent a time today stamping and cutting out masks and coloring, of course, in between loads of laundry and doses of cold medicine for the hubster and catching up on Project Runway, Survivor and Resurrection.  I used the Newton's Perfect Pumpkin set to stamp out the kitty and pumpkins, but I needed some trees and leaves, so I had to look to some other sets to finish out my scene.  I used Avery Elle's Let it Snow set for the trees, and the leaf from the Lawn Fawn Winter Sparrows set to finish it out. 

I wasn't sure what to do with my image, but loved the sketch over at Mojo Monday (Sketch #366) so I decided to use it for my layout.  For the paper, I pulled out the Simple Stories Take a Hike 6x6 pad just to extend our camping vacation just a bit and the Dark Chocolate Simon Says Stamp card stock.  I used a bit of vellum to add my sentiment.  I picked a heavy weight vellum and, in retrospect, I wish I had used a lighter weight.

Hello Friend

Today's card came together in a snap. I had the Lost and Found Two 6x6 paper pad from My Mind's Eye sitting on my craft desk.  I love the paper in it even though it's a bit more distressed and fancy than what I usually like.  I loved this blue script paper and I thought it would be nice as a background so I cut it to just cover the entire card.

I've been watching a lot of Nichol Maguirk's videos lately and I love how she uses vellum.  So I ran some vellum through the largest frame from the Femme Frames from Mama Elephant.  I layered it over the blue paper then cut down my watercolored image from Simon Says Stamp Stamptember exclusive Tim Holtz stamps using the Lawn Fawn Stitched Journalling Card.  I added it to the top of the vellum then finished the card off with some Pretty Pink Posh sequins. 

I picked this card for today because today is my sister-in-law's birthday.  We had been best friends before I married her husband's brother and we became sisters.  Now we don't talk as much as we used too and this card kind of reminded me of that.  Happy birthday Val.  I hope it's a good one.  Coincidentally, it's also my Uncle Jim's birthday.  So I'm sending big birthday hugs to him too.

You Are Sew Special to Me

For today's card, I used another image from the now (sadly) sold out Stamptember set from Tim Holtz.  This card came together so fast once I saw sketch 155 for Freshly Made Sketches.  I had the Miss Caroline 6x6 paper pad from My Mind's Eye sitting on my desk and these two designs from it just called out to be used to together.  I used the frame from My Favorite Things Blueprints #13 to cut out both sheets and then cut down the floral print to layer over the other.  I little Sky Lawn Trimmings finished off the seam.  I then cut my image out with the pennant shape from Lawn Fawn's Stitched Party Banners and finished it off with some of the same Lawn Trimmings and adhered it with pop dots.  Perfect!

Happy Birthday Spring Chicken!

Ahh... It's Thursday.  Just one more day before opening night of hockey and I just can't wait.  This time tomorrow I'll be yelling and cheering and celebrating one of my favorite things about Fall:  the return of hockey!

In the meantime, I continue to make birthday cards using that Simon Says Stamp Birthday Farm Animals set.  Today's card features the chicken (which is so stinking cute).  Once I had it colored, I was back to that same place:  what do I do with it now?  This time I pulled out the tag die from Lawn Fawn from the Winter Gifts set.  It was the perfect frame for the chicken.  I cute a second one from patterned paper from the Pebbles Sunny Side 6x6 pad, which was still sitting on my desk.  Then I cut down another piece using the stitched frame die from Mama Elephants Basic Set and some vellum from the scalloped die from the same set.  Then it was just a matter of layering the papers together, added some Hemptique baker's twine and finishing it off with some Pretty Pink Posh sequins and Glossy Accents on the eyes.  Super cute!

Celebrating After the Fact

Last week I got the surprise news that a friend and co-worker was getting married (yes, two in one week) when I asked her to set up some equipment for my staff meeting.  She's been very quiet about her engagement and even quieter about the fact that she and her fiancé were planning to have a simple wedding at a local cottage and then take a quick honeymoon to the beach last week.  While others expressed surprise at such a quick wedding, I really wasn't in a position to say anything since Matt and I went from engaged with no concrete wedding plans to married in the space of about a week.  Since it will be ten years next month, I guess that plan worked just fine for us and I hope that she's as happy ten years from now as Matt and I are.

The occasion called for a special card.  I'm still enjoying the Monster Mash set from Lawn Fawn.  I love these cute little monsters.  I colored them with copics, cut them out added the cute bow ties and then had to stop to think about the rest of the card.  I pulled out my box of 6x6 paper pads and was immediately drawn to the Day Dreamer pad from Dear Lizzy and American Crafts.  I found the pretty heart paper, cut it out with the stitched frame from Mama Elephant's Basic Cuts set and then cut some vellum using the scalloped frame die from that set.  I layered them up on my card base.  It still needed something so I pulled out the Home Sweet Home set from Lawn Fawn for the cute little banner in it.

Heartfelt Sympathy and a Celebration of a Gifted Photographer

Yesterday was an interesting day.  I attended both a memorial celebration and wedding on the same day (and, thankfully, in that order).  I was just going to pull a sympathy card from my stash, but yesterday  morning I woke up early and because I had an idea about the cornucopia stamp from Lawn Fawn's Harvest Season that was percolating. So I had to wander down to my craft room to develop the idea. I stamped in Memento Onyx Black ink and used my colored pencils for it.  I don't have many and they are just a cheap set I picked up from Michaels a while ago, but they have been good enough to some simple coloring and blend okay with gamsol.  I know I could do better if I had better quality pencils so the other day I did order a huge set of colored pencils that should be here later this week.  Yes, I know, it's crazy that I ordered colored pencils when I'm taking the copic class at onlinecardclasses.com later this month and I'm sure I will be order markers I need to fill in the gaps of what I have.  But I've wanted this set of pencils for over year now and haven't ordered them.  After a bit of a rough couple of days, I thought some retail therapy might help.  So I expect you'll see a lot of coloring in my future both in pencil and in copics.  Good thing I find coloring therapeutic too!

Anyhow, back to this card, after I finished coloring the cornucopia, I added a sentiment from the new Simply Sentimental set from Newton's Nook Designs (love the script on this one) and added random leaves using the leaves from the Harvest Season set and three colors of Simon Says Stamp ink (Leaf Green, Burnt Orange and the new Goldenlocks).  I finished off the card by cutting the panel out with the Simon Says Stamp Frame Die, cutting a second one in black and then cutting the whole background using the stitched frame from my new dies from My Favorite Things, Blueprints #13. 

The memorial was for my intern who passed away suddenly a couple weeks ago at only age 44!  Way too young, especially when I saw his teenage sons at the service and intensely realized what a huge gap it would be leaving in their lives.  It was actually quite a beautiful memorial service and they showcased many of his pictures, as he was a gifted photographer.  During his interview, his photography hobby came up and he shared with me this picture he took for a designer.  I found it on Google and am sharing it here (at the service, his friend encouraged us to share his pictures):

It's such an amazing shot.  I assumed he used a lot of Photoshop on it, but his friend explained that Jeff came to him asking how to use Photoshop and the friend was amazed that the photos hadn't already been through Photoshop (that's how gifted Jeff was at capturing the shot). 

I remember one day shortly before the state fair, Jeff showed me four photos on his phone asking me which one he should enter.  There were four amazing shots and it was so hard to choose between them (the fourth was one similar to the first picture below, but there was a man and his dog in the shot - I looked all over for it because it was one of my favorites, but I couldn't find it):
 

This next one is the one I actually choose, maybe because I love tulips so much.  He entered it and won (the same weekend he died):

 

At the memorial service, they showed many other shots that were equally stunning.  I encourage you to go check them out.  You can find them here:  http://500px.com/Masterlender.  But I'll leave you today with some that were a few of my favorite examples of the beauty that is this great world of ours that Jeff eye's was able to capture to share with the world:

 

 

 



Trick or Treat?

Today's card was inspired from my childhood when Pac-man and Ms. Pac-man were popular.  When I saw the adorable ghost on the Lawn Fawn Monster Mash set, I knew I had to do a Pac-man card.  I colored the ghosts in the pac-man colors and made my own pac-man by tracing around a nickel (because I can't draw to save my life) and then used a straight edge to make the mouth.  I then fussy cut the two I had cut and colored out.  For the inside of the card, I flipped the switch on the ghosts and made them on the run just like when pac-man gets a power pill (is that what they were called?). 

Have You Heard the News?

I'm having so much fun with the Monster Mash set from Lawn Fawn along with some new goodies from Simon Says Stamp and Hero Arts.  For Labor Day, Craft Warehouse was running a 40% off coupon and I hadn't been there in a while.  I wandered around and got some inspiration and decided I needed a new background stamp when I found the Newspaper Background stamp.  I immediately knew it would work as a perfect neutral for cards that need a little something extra and that was the perfect extra for the card that I had in mind today.  I inked that new stamp up with some Versafine Onyx Black ink and heat embossed it with some clear embossing powder.  Now, of course, I had to ink that up using some of my favorite colors of Distress Ink of Worn Lipstick, Broken China and Spiced Marmalade. 

Then I broke out my new Frames Dies from Simon Says Stamp.  I've played with one of them, but I wanted to use the oval frame and thought this card was perfect for that.  I used the frame to cut through my inked layer and the front of the card. 

I added the large and small one-eyed monsters from the set that I colored in copics with pop dots so they came through the top of the card.

I printed the sentiment on some cardstock and cut it out with a die from Mama Elephant then adhered it to the front of the card before stamping the sentiment from Lawn Fawn on the inside.

Sending You Monster Hugs

I was so excited to pick up the new Monster Mash set from Lawn Fawn.  These monsters are so cute!  I stamped them all out and just started coloring for fun.  Since I now have a bunch of pre-colored monsters in my stash, I pulled them out and made a clean and simple card with some of them.  I just used some green grass cut using the Lawn Fawn Grassy Border Die with some green paper from the Echo Park 6x6 Paper pad For the Record 2, a few of my pre-colored monsters and one of the cute sentiments from the stamp set to make a card in record time.  To finish it off, I chomped the corners with my Corner Chomper.

The Last Baby Card with Newton's Nook Wild Child

Okay, so the title may be a bit misleading because I'm sure sometime in the future there will be another baby card from this set because it's so adorable.  But, for now, here's the last baby card I've made with the Newton's Nook Wild Child set that I colored the weekend we went to Seattle for Sandy Allnock's class.

I used paper from the Day Dreamer 6x6 paper pad from Dear Lizzy/American Crafts but I wanted to change things up a bit.  I had bought the Pretty Pink Posh Stitched Border Dies a while back with the idea of cutting some fun edges to my cards, but had yet to break them out.  I had an idea of adding the sparkly polka dots on the background of the white paper that colored the image on, but it didn't look right, so I ended up fussy cutting the image out.  I just used the patterned paper cut with the border and cut the border again on my card base. 

I used that American Crafts Project Life banner to cut out the banner to stamp with the sentiment from the set.  I added some Lawn Fawn Sky Lawn Trimmings to the top with a Glue Dot holding the bow in place. A few pop dots gave some dimension to the image and the banner.  Then I decided to try my sparkly dots on the inside bottom of the card since it would show through to the outside at the bottom.  I used a dot stencil to pounce on some VersaMark and some JudiKins embossing powder in White Diamonds.  It worked much better there, but is harder than heck to photograph with a curved front panel...

 

Another Baby Card Featuring Wild Child from Newton's Nook

I'm still working on using the images from the Wild Child set from Newton's Nook that I inked up and colored while on our quick trip to Seattle for Sandy Allnock's class at Impress.  For today's card, I was inspired by a past sketch up at Freshly Made Sketches. I was looking for something to use as the layout.  I didn't exactly follow the sketch, but it gave me an idea of what to do. 

I cut the colored Wild Child image out using my Lawn Fawn Stitched Journaling Card (I love that die!).  I cut a panel of paper from the Day Dreamer 6x6 pad from Dear Lizzy/American Crafts and cut a few banners from other paper from the pad.  Then it was just a matter of layering them together and using some pop dots for focal image.  I finished it off with some sequins from Doodlebug topped with some Stickles. 

So in Love with Birthday Hogs and Kisses

I absolutely love this Birthday Farm Animals set from Simon Says Stamp designed by the talented Sandy Allnock.  I just had to order it (in fact, I mistaken ordered two to my mother's benefit).  When it came in the mail, I had to get inky.  I had been playing with copics that day but had switched to colored pencils and decided that the colored pencils would be perfect for this cute little hog. 

I picked out the pretty chevron type paper from the Pebbles Sunnyside 6x6 paper pad for this card and used the colors to help in my decision making for the balloon and hat.  I, of course, added a bit of Wink of Stella to the hat and the balloon and topped the balloon with Glossy Accents.  I used the Lawn Fawn Stitched Journaling Card to cut out my panel and finished the card off with some Doodlebug sequins in Swimming Pool.  In retrospect, I would have left of a lot of the sequins.

 

Party Animal!

I just love this Avery Elle stamp set.  I've loved it but never bought it until I saw it at Impress when my family was up there to take Sandy Allnock's class.  I knew I just had to have it when I saw it in person and perfect timing too because I need a lot of birthday cards coming up. 

For this card, I was playing with the background,  I'm really enjoying sponging on Distress Ink with the round blending tool.  It's so much easier to use.  I then used a new chevron stencil from Memory Box to add some embossing paste for more texture and then dripped water onto the Distress Ink for a little more texture. 

Then I stamped out the cute little balloon animal from the Avery Elle Party Animal set in some Simon Says Stamp Sunshine ink and then sentiment from the Lawn Fawn Chit Chat set using Slate ink from Simon Says Stamp. I cut them both out, added some Wink of Stella and then Glossy Accents.  Once they were dry, I added them to the card with some pop dots and finished it off with some Pretty Pink Posh sequins. 

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.

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. 

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.

 

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.