Simon Says Stamp October 2014 Card Kit: Inspired By Me!

After making some card inspired by the sample pictures, the creative mojo just started coming through on it own and I began making cards without any outside inspiration.  For this card, I started by stamping the mug and adding the coffee and the sentiment.  I then fussy cut (yes, again) the mug out.  I wasn't sure what to do with the background but I loved this brown paper with swirls on it even though it seemed a bit bright and psychedelic.  Because I loved the pattern, I wanted to show it off, but maybe tame it down a bit.  I cut the page down just slightly to fit the card base with a bit of a frame.  Then I centered the Simon Says Stamp Frames die on the paper and cut a second frame in white.  Then it was just a matter of inlaying the center panel, the white frame and the outer panel on my card base.  I added my mug and a few Pretty Pink Posh sequins from my stash to finish it off.

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...

Life Is Sweeter with You in It

I love the die cut inlay craze that's so popular right now.  I'm not the best at it so don't look too closely at this card.  I used the scalloped frame from the Simon Says Stamp Frames die set to cut through this cute polka dot paper from the Miss Caroline 6x6 paper pad from My Mind's Eye.  I then die cut the same frame into some leftover watercolor paper.  I then tried to inlay the watercolor paper into the polka dot paper.  That was a funny experience.  By the way, if you try to inlay with polka dots and something doesn't look quite right, check if you didn't get one piece of the paper turned the other way.  Yeah, my dots didn't line up.  Thankfully my tape was very forgiving and I was able to peel the paper off and turn it around.  No one would have known, well except for the fact that I can't keep my big mouth shut.

The rest of the card was a breeze.  I die cut out my stamped piece from the Simon Says Stamp Stamptember Tim Holtz exclusive using the straight frame from the same Simon Says Stamp Frames die set but used my We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper to round the corners.  I liked that better with the curves of the other frame.  I then adhered the panel with pop dots and called it  day. 

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.