Hello Sweet Friend

Today's card was designed for the Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge 275. I loved the trio of circles in the provided sketch and decided not to make any changes to it, with one exception: I left a small white border around my background patterned paper. For my papers I chose some cute patterns from the We R Memory Keepers Simply Spring 6x6 paper pad and mounted that on some 110 lb white card stock that I get at Staples.  I stamped the adorable chickadees from the Technique Tuesday Chickadees stamp set in the first two circles and colored them with Copic markers BG000, BG01, BG02, RV000, RV52, RV55, and Y04. Then I stamped the sentiment Hello Sweet Friend in the remaining circle and love the way it turned out! And because I never know when to leave well enough alone I added some black dashed lines all the way around the panels and fish tail banner but I like the nice contrast it gives to the soft pastel colors on the patterned papers. The circles were cut using dies from Spellbinders and Simon Says Stamp and the fish tail banner was cut with a Jillian Vance Designs banner die. Thanks for popping on over to check out my card!

To The Perfect Pair-A Before and After

Okay, this will be my last post today...I promise! I'm just a little blog heady right now. LOL. I wanted to post a before and after, so to speak. I had made a card in a hurry the other day for a friend for her mom and dad's anniversary. She said they like the outdoors and were country folk so I instantly thought of my new C.C. Designs Spring Couple stamp I had picked up on a group destash on Facebook. Here is a pic of the first card I made. Sorry for the lighting...it was pretty overcast that day. 

Now, there really isn't that much wrong with this card but I didn't think it was my best work. I gave the card to her and she took it on her merry way without complaint. But it bugged me that I had given her what I thought was a less than perfect card and felt I could improve on it. So, the next morning I remade the card. Again, I used the C.C. Designs Spring Couple and paper pieced the clothing using patterned papers from the Heidi Grace Sunshowers 6x6 paper pad. Love how they turned out. I even added some shadowing using my warm grey Copic markers before I fussy cut the images out. I used a Fiskars punch to create the clouds, and stamped the kite and tree with the tire swing from the Avocado Arts Perfectly Perfect Day stamp set and the sentiment is from Amy R Stamps Wedding Sentiments II stamp set. On the second card I decided to leave a 1/4" white border all the way around the card and decided not to round the corners as I did on the first one. I then took my Memento tuxedo black dual marker and added some dashed lines around the edge. I think it really makes the images stand out even more. I think I like this second card much better. What do you think? 

Rawr-Mojo Monday challenge

I just have to say that I love having my own blog and I'm not sure why I waited so long to start one. I'm just having too much fun with it! For my second card today I decided to join the challenge over at Mojo Monday and create a tall and skinny card. They give you two sizing options and I decided to go with the small card size, which measures 3.5" by 5.5" and still fits into a standard A2 envelope. For my base I started with some new leaf green cardstock from Papertrey Ink and layered on some adorable dinosaur themed papers from the Basic Grey Archaic 6x6 paper pad. For my focal image I stamped the adorable dinosaur from My Favorite Thing's Little Loveosaurus stamp set and then made a small banner using the "Rawr" sentiment from the same stamp set. I colored the dinosaur using Copic markers E00 for the skin on the boy, and YG11, YG03. YG63, AND E17 for the skin on the dinosaur. I then made small dots all over with my 0 colorless blender. Love the end result. I know it's a busy card but thought the addition of some faux stitched lines in black around all of the patterned paper would really help define them from one another. The inside of the card reads Rawr stands for Happy Birthday! Love how adorably this turned out! 

Season's Greetings-Anything Goes Christmas Card Challenge

Today's card was created for the Christmas card challenge-Anything Goes over on the Sparkle Creations blog. For my card I stamped out the adorable little snowman from Inkadinkado's Christmas Characters stamp set using Memento tuxedo black ink. I stamped the sentiment from the same stamp set using Versafine onyx black ink for a nice crisp stamped image. I colored the snowman using my Copic alcohol markers and then cut the image out using a circle die from Spellbinders. I edged it out by adding some faux stitched lines using a Memento tuxedo black dual marker. Love how it defines that adorable image! The patterned papers are from the We R Memory Keepers Silver & Gold 6x6 paper pad and I used an American Crafts metallic marker in gold to add the awesome gold faux stitched lines around the outer edges of the card. Love this simple and adorable card and will have to mass produce it to give out at Christmas!

Mountain Plains Crafters Summer Challenge 2015: Nautical or Patriotic

I have created two cards especially for the challenge over at Mountain Plains Crafters. I chose to go patriotic on both of my cards since the Fourth of July is right around the corner and I can send these cards out to friends and family. For my first card I used two holiday stamps from Taylored Expressions and layered the images up with some pretty patterned paper from Authentique's 6x6 Pride collection. I just love this fun and patriotic subway poster image!

For my second card I used the fun fireworks stamps from Lawn Fawn's Happy 4th stamp set and stamped them in red and blue and then added some shimmer by embossing them with some Enchanted Gold embossing powder by Ranger. Love the way it turned out. The cityscape was created using a die from Paper Smooches.