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.

Happy Fall Take Two

After our class at Runaway Art and Crafts, Pat bought the cute scarecrow stamp.  The next day we stamped in out on various papers with different inks so we could play with it later.  I was supposed to be practicing my copic coloring because I'm taking the Copics for Card Makers class at onlinecardclasses.com, but I just couldn't wait and, by the end of the weekend, I had to pull out my Distress Ink Markers and start watercoloring.  Those markers are my favorite for watercoloring. 

I put on my class videos in the background and just started painting.  It didn't take terribly long but it is definitely the most detailed image I've ever watercolored.  I was a little intimidated when I began, but it just came together so easily.  When it was done, I pulled out a box of my paper pads and was immediately drawn to the Awesome 6x6 paper pad from Simple Stories.  It was just the right colors and feel for a fall card.  I cut my image down, but it needed some kind of frame.  I first looked at some striped paper from the same pad, but it wasn't quite what I was looking for.  I finally decided just to add a little Walnut Stain Distress Ink to the edges of my watercolored image.  That was the perfect edging I was looking for to tie the watercolor to the pretty polka dot paper I selected.

But something wasn't quite right.  I looked at it for a long time before I realized the pumpkins just looked a little too bright.  So I toned them down with a wash of Vintage Photo and Tea Dye.  It was just the right touch to tie the colors in the watercolor to the paper.  Once I had the image adhered, it just seemed right so I called that good and sent the finished product off to Pat to thank her for coming to class with me and letting me use her stamps. 

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. 

Flying By Inspiration from the Lawn Fawn blog

I recently purchased the Flying By set and matching dies from Lawn Fawn.  Have I mentioned they are my absolute favorite?  So I did a Google search of images where I discovered the original video introducing the set when it first came out.  You can watch that here and a blog post on the Lawn Fawn blog with a post with a super clean looking card that you can find here. 

It inspired me to try may hand at it.  Well, it turned out to be a little trickier to do it in real life than it was in my head.  The airplanes were super fast and easy to stamp on three sheets of paper form the Jillibean Soup Blossom Soup 6x6 paper pad.  I ran into trouble, however, when I started building the background.  I chose not to cut the sentiment apart, but rather to selectively ink the stamp.  I couldn't seem to get my pressure even and I really had a hard time when it came time to stamp those little dotted lines.  I guess I haven't spent enough time in my craft room lately and my skills are a bit rusty.  But eventually I got a version I was willing to live with, even with it's imperfections (note I did not say a I was happy with it).  I used some yellow striped paper from the Snap Collection from Simple Stories to mat it and called it good.   

Happy Birthday Card Inspired by the Artistic Avenger

Last week was a week filled with birthdays and I had tons of fun making cards.  For this card for my cousin's husband, I was completely inspired by the Artistic Avenger.  I simply loved this card.  I loved the colors and style.  For my version, I wanted to a little more masculine so I went right to the Swagger collection from Fancy Pants.  I really love this paper pad for masculine cards.  The brown background and the candles are all from the Swagger paper.  I used some of the Snap line from Simple Stories for the centers of the flame and the yellow paper from the Park Bench pad from Fancy Pants that was on my desk from the last card for the base of the flame.  The sentiment is from Fiskars and I stamped it with Momento Espresso Truffle on some twill ribbon in my stash.  I just love how this card turned out.  Nice and masculine.

Bee-You-Ti-Ful

I love the honeycomb and bee theme I've been seeing around for a while now, but I've never used them myself until I found inspiration in SwanLady21's card on the Silhouette blog.  I purchased the honeycomb background and bee at 50% off with Silhouette's sale earlier this week (love those sales - I always have a wish list of things that I want to get some time and those sales are the perfect time to clear out that list).  I didn't have any bee stamps or sentiment stamps that fit, so I cut the "you" and hand stamps the rest with my Ginger alpha stamps from American Crafts.  I used some paper from the 6x6 Take a Hike pad from Simple Stories for the bee body and a page from the Beautiful Moments 6x6 pad from Carta Bella to back the honeycomb.  When I was done, I thought it still "needed something."  I pulled out my black Stickles to accentuate the "you" and added some Stardust Stickles to the dots and the bees wings.  I then still thought it wasn't quite enough so I added some dots of Glossy Accents to the honeycomb.  It's pretty subtle, but I like it. 

Happy Birthday Love of My Life

Today is my hubby's birthday so I made him this card with stars on it to celebrate that he is the star of my life.  I found the original design on Julie Davidson's blog Julie's Stamping Spot.  I just loved that the design worked for something a little bit masculine since making cards for men is the hardest of all.  I used some scrap orange paper for the background and some lovely cream card stock for the base of the card and the elements.  The rest of the paper comes from the Simple Stories Awesome 6x6 paper pad.  I just love the masculine nature of the paper.  For the background, I used Versamark to stamp the stars from the Autumn Leaves set Scribbles Hearts and Stars.  Then I finished it off with the sentiment from Fiskar's Happy Birthday set stamped in Chocolate Chip from Stampin' Up.   I just love how the card turned out, but I love my dear hubby more.  Happy birthday!

A Little Bit of Rest

All my to-do's are done until Monday when I have to bake the pies, so I have a little time to rest.  It's a good thing too because Thursday night I sneezed hallmarking the start of a cold.  Fortunately, I was only planning to work a short day on Friday to make up for the extra hours lately.  I managed to get everything done just before I ran out of energy.  Then it was home to make a quick coffee cake and some cupcakes for last night's get together.  But I ran out of energy again and we had to come home early so I could get some sleep.

Today I had absolutely nothing to do but I also didn't want to sleep all day either.  So I headed into my craft room to play for a bit.  But I can tell I don't feel well because I wasn't making much progress on this card.  I found it on Julie Davidson's blog Julie's Stamping Spot.  I made the tree using my Cameo.  I had a tree pattern but it didn't quite fit the card.  So I cut the trunk apart and created my own leafy canopy.  I then used the rhinestone feature to create the cutouts and then, when layered, had a pretty decent substitute for the tree in Julie's card.  While all the plain paper is from my stash, the striped paper is from the Simple Stories Awesome 6x6 paper pad.