You're Tea-rrific!

You might have seen a shot on Instagram of my watercolor of a tea cup.  I've never inked it up because it just isn't my style; it was part of some supplies that a friend gave me when she cleaned out her closet.  But once I started playing with watercoloring with Distress Ink markers, I realized that I just hadn't yet seen the potential in this vintage Stampendous China Tea Cup stamp.  It was the perfect stamp for a little watercoloring.  I finished the coloring and it's sat on my desk for a while.  I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it, but then I remembered I had bought this Fiskars Latte Love stamp a while ago and I was pretty sure it had something tea in it too.  Sure enough, it had the perfect sentiment.  I opted for a simple treatment.  I cut out the panel using the stitched frame from Mama Elephant's Femme Frames and used the larger scalloped piece to cut our some vellum.  I topped my card with piece of paper from the 6x6 paper pad from Crate Paper called Flea Market cut to fit the whole card base, then topped it with the vellum and watercolor piece.

Card Deconstruction

After getting the photos for my sister, I pulled apart the entire card and played with the pieces to make something totally different.  This card just came together from nothing but I love it.  I started with a Heidi Swapp stencil to add my falling snow.  Before my embossing paste was dry, I added some Judikins Embossing Powder for a little sparkle.  I then added a night sky with about six (!) colors of Distress Ink (Scattered Straw, Seedless Preserves, Faded Jeans, Chipped Sapphire, Tumbled Glass and Black Soot).  I cut out the rolling snow hills with my Mama Elephant Landscape Trio dies.  To the two in white card stock, I added some Versamark Dazzle and the same sparkling embossing powder.  I stamped the sentiment from the Hero Arts set with the houses in some Simon Says Stamp Soft Navy ink and fishtailed the banner.  Love this card, even though it not mass production friendly.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Happy Bird-day Featuring Newton's Nook

I had so much fun playing with my Newton's Nook stamps, that I thought I would keep going.  For today's card, I wanted to play with the Landscape Trio dies from Mama Elephant.  It took me forever to get these dies.  They were always sold out; I mean everywhere!  I've always thought that the scalloped one would work well for surf too so I cut it out a couple of times, inked it up with some Distress Inks and used one of the sloped dies to cut out some more of the DCWV paper for the beach.  On the background panel, I stamped the double bird stamp and colored with copics.  I covered it with a mask and used the negative from the die cuts for the surf to sponge in some background clouds in the sky.  I added a few birds to the background.  I had to cheat for these. I had pulled the bird stamp off the Flirty Flamingos set, but when it came time to stamp I could not find them anywhere!  I'm sure they will turn up when I clean off my craft desk (it's embarrassing to admit this, but this happens all the time).  So I used the birds from Lawn Fawn's Life Is Good set.  I layered everything together and then ran it through my die cut machine using the stitched frame from Mama Elephant's Femme Frames, which I also finally find this week after stalking the various websites for a long time to try to find a place where it, too, wasn't sold out (Ellen Hudson had it in the Basics set).  I then used some cute yellow paper from the Echo Park 6x6 paper pad A Perfect Summer to cut out the larger frame.  I tied some raffia around the beach and then used pop dots to place the panel on the yellow paper and adhered that to the card base.  I added Wink of Stella and Glossy Accents to the flamingos.  I added white Wink of Stella to the "surf" and some clear sequins to finish it off.  Because it's a beach themed card, it fits the challenge over at Newton's Nook to create a beach themed card.  You can find lots of inspiration on their post here.  The challenge is open until August 8th, so go check it out and play along!

Hippo Birdie Two Ewe Revisited...

Since I already had the stamps out on my desk, I decided to make a second card with the Year Four, Critters on the Farm, Hello Sunshine, Technique Tuesday Grid and Jessie's ABC's stamps and dies along with the Mama Elephant Landscape Trio dies.  This time I also pulled out the Stitched Journaling die from Lawn Fawn as well.  I used the same green polka dot paper from DCWV but this time I used a sheet from the 6x6 paper pad from the Maggie Holmes collection for Crate Paper for the sky background and some DCWV polka dot paper left over from a prior project to cover my card.   It turned out so different even though it mostly the same products: 

Hippo Birdie Two Ewe!

Last week was rough.  I got some bad news about a co-worker and it just sort of threw me for a loop because there's nothing I can do to "fix" the situation (I don't like not being in control).  I also realized that the next few weeks are going to a be a bit rough at work so that means I need to really relax during my down time to keep my sanity.  But Saturday I had a headache that didn't seem to want to go away so I curled up in a chair with a kitty and watch crafty videos most of the day.  I know I don't feel well when I don't want to run into my craft room after a few videos.  Fortunately, Sunday I felt a whole lot better (the weather change had completed) and all I wanted to do was play in my craft room.  That means I managed to get a few cards made.

I've been playing with some Lawn Fawn stamps I recently got my hands on, including the oh so cute Year Four set.  I've had this idea for a card using the phrase hippo birdie two ewe, which I often use for birthday greetings when I'm just dropping a quick line to the birthday boy or girl.  I colored the die cut the hippo and bird from the Year Four set and two sheep from the Critters on the Farm set (for which I just finally got the dies - yay! no more fussy cutting). 

I also broke out my Mama Elephant Landscape Trio dies.  I've seen so many crafters using these and I love the cute little stitched elements.  I drug some DCWV polka dotted paper from my scraps bin and sheet of blue graph paper from the Snap Life 6x6 paper pad from Simple Stories for the background.  I found a scrap of yellow paper, stamped it in Simon Says Stamp Lemon Chiffon ink using the Technique Tuesday Grid stamp for a little added interest then cut it out with the die from the Hello Sunshine set from Lawn Fawn.  I used the Jessie's ABCs set from Lawn Fawn to spell out my sentiment.