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.

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. 

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. 

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.

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. 

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.

Wish You Were Here Featuring Newton's Nook

This week and next week are going to be crazy busy at work. I'm basically covering the work of three people for two weeks and one of those weeks I won't even be in this state. So, although, we're really short handed, I decided to take last Friday off.  I had been scheduled off since the beginning of the month to use some use-it-or-lose-it time before I lose it at the end of this month and I had worked long hours all week so I really needed a break, plus hubby had the day off.  We spent some time together doing a lot of nothing, which was nice.  He worked on Saturday, so I had thought about going into the office, but I also realized that I had things around the house I wanted to get done since I knew I was going to be working long hours and wouldn't to have any time this week or next.  So I stayed home and cleaned the house, snuggled a furball or two (at the same time!) and watched a few crafty videos in between loads of laundry.  It was the perfect break to feel like I was human again and not just a working machine.  Then I it was time to spend some time in my craft room to exercise a different part of my brain with some new goodies I've picked up recently.

Specifically, Newton's Nook recently released some new (adorable) stamp sets.  I'm such a sucker for Newton so I had to pick up Newton's Summer Vacation and my sister loves flamingos so, of course, I had to get Flirty Flamingos.  When I was catching up on my blog reading, I noticed Newton's Nook had a new challenge to create a beach themed card and thought it was the perfect opportunity to play with my new stamps.  You can find out all about the challenge over on the Newton's Nook blog here.  It's open until August 8th so go check it out and play along.

For my card, I started with the Flirty Flamingos set.  I inked up the solo flamingo in Memento Tuxedo Black ink and colored it with copics.  I then created mask for my flamingo so I could sponge in some waves with Distress Ink and sponge daubers and then colored in some sand and sky with my copics.  I used the Amy Tangerine dies to cut a polaroid shape.  I stamped the sentiment from the Newton's Summer Vacation and colored in the little heart with the same copics used for the flamingos.  I remembered having some "sand' paper and found in an old DCWV Summer Stack.  I used the Dotted Die from Avery Elle to cut out that paper and mounted my "polaroid" on it.  To finish it off, I added a few Doodlebug sequins, some Glossy Accents on the floaty ring and a some Wink of Stella on the waves. 

Hello Card Inspired by Jennifer McGuire

As I posted before, I was completely enthralled watching Jennifer McGuire use Distress Inks with embossing folders.  You can see her beautiful work and check out her video here.  I immediately knew I had to give it a try by making several panels.  For this card, I used the Cuttlebug Script Texture with several colors of Distress Ink (Tea Dye, Gathered Twigs and Walnut Stain I believe). I cut the finished piece down and matted it on some cream card stock. I used a piece of brown linen card stock for the base of the card and then cut the hello several times using the die from the That Arrow Card die set from Technique Tuesday with some left over paper.  I stacked the hello cuts to give it a bit of thickness.  I also die the banner from the same cream card stock as the mat using Avery Elle's Pinked Elle-ments that I just picked up around the holiday.  I decided to the leave the card as it was without any extra embellishment.