Rawr-Send A Smile 4 Kids

 

Hello and happy Saturday! My card today was created for this month's Send A Smile 4 Kids challenge. Our challenge this month is to create a card for boys. I started by stamping the adorable images from the Neat & Tangled Prehistoric stamp set onto some white Copic-friendly cardstock and colored them using my alcohol markers. I fussy cut the images leaving a small white border all around. I die cut a focal panel using more white cardstock and a pierced edge oval die from My Favorite Things. Using my Tim Holtz distress inks I ink blended a background and spritzed it with some water to create some fun texture. I matted that panel onto another larger oval I created with some early espresso cardstock from Stampin' UP and an oval die from Spellbinders. I popped the adorable boy and his dino up off of the panel using some 3M foam tape. I then created the background my layering some patterned paper from the Basic Grey Archaic 6x6 paper pad and some seafoam green cardstock from Hobby Lobby that I added some detail to using the Altenew Scales Debossing cover plate. I layered all of that onto more early espresso cardstock and then adhered it all to my white A2 card base to complete my card. Now be sure to pop over the Send A Smile 4 Kids blog to see what the rest of the designers created to inspire you this month!

Thinking Of You-Coffee And Cards With Celeste And Deb

 

Hello and welcome to another Coffee and Cards with Celeste and Deb! We are at the end of August and rapidly approaching Autumn so, we thought it would appropriate to create an Autumn scene on our card collaboration this month. To create my card I started with a piece of Canson cold press watercolor paper and stamped the images from Altenew's Birch Land stamp set using Versafine onyx black ink because it's water proof. Using my Tim Holtz distress inks I stamped the leaves around the birch tree, the basket, and in various spots along the ground using both direct ink to paper stamping and ink pad with a spritz of water. Using a fine water color brush I added some details to the bird house, the basket, and the birch tree. I die cut the watercolored panel using a Gina Marie stitched edge rectangle die and then matted the panel onto some rust cardstock I picked up at Hobby Lobby. I matted the entire focal panel onto my A2 white card base and that completes my card. I love how this turned out. 

For my coffee choice this month I opted for a nice iced cinnamon latte from one of the food trucks at my local farmers market downtown. I chose to walk the 2 miles down there and it was muggy so, this was a much needed icy treat!

Thank you for visiting my blog. Now, be sure to hop on over to Deb's blog and see what fun Autumn scene she's created for us this month!

With Deepest Sympathy

Hello and happy Monday! It's been snowing here but unfortunately not sticking. I did manage to get a 5 mile run in this morning but spent the rest of the day holed up in the house eating Chinese food, watching Netflix, and making a few cards. This card was created for the latest Sunday Stamps weekly card challenge. To create my card I started by layering some Stampin' Up's basic black cardstock onto my white A2 card base. I then embossed a piece of white cardstock using a Cuttlebug swiss dot embossing folder.  I added some sheer black ribbon that I picked up at Hobby Lobby onto the right side of the panel and then adhered the whole thing down to the card. I cut down a piece of black and white polka cardstock from Basic Grey's Little Black Dress 6x6 paper pad and made three fish tail banners out of them. I layered them toward the bottom of the card following the sketch. I then stamped the floral image from Unity Stamp Company onto some white cardstock using Memento London fog ink and die cut it using a double stitched circle die from Gina Marie Designs. I matted that circle panel onto some more basic black cardstock that I die cut using a Spellbinders die. I stamped the sentiment from the Altenew Birch Land stamp set using Versafine onyx black ink. To finish this card I added some 6mm black sequins from Pretty Pink Posh. Thank you for stopping by my blog today!

Happy Birthday

Hello and happy Sunday! I've been so busy with work and running/weight lifting that I've literally not had time to sit down and get crafty all week. I forced myself to get inky this morning though. Today's card was created for this week's Just Us Girls photo inspiration challenge. To create my card I started by layering an embossed panel onto my white A2 card base that I had embossed using a Lifestyle Crafts decorative embossing folder. I then layered a thin decorate strip of patterned paper from the Bazzill Basics Antique Aged Papers 6x6 paper pack at the center of the card to help break up the white a bit. I then die cut and stamped the roses using the My Favorite Things MPD Rose Bouquet stamp set and coordinating dies and some beautiful inks from Altenew to coordinate with the inspiration photo. I die cut a circle using a My Favorite Things pierced edge circle die and some basic black cardstock from Stampin' UP and adhered it directly to the center of my card. I then layered the roses and leaves around the center to create a nice balanced cluster. I stamped the sentiment from the Sweet Stamp Shop's Just The Basics stamp set using Versamark ink and some Recollections white detailed embossing powder in snow. I popped the sentiment up off of the card using some Scrapbook Adhesives foam squares and that completed my card. I hope you like it!

Happy Birthday-Coffee And Cards With Celeste And Deb

Hello, and welcome to the March Coffee and Cards with Celeste and Deb collaboration. We decided in honor of Spring we would create a floral card in honor all of the beautiful things that are blooming right now. To create my pretty little springtime card I started by layering some pretty yellow patterned paper onto my white card base. I'm not sure who made the paper since it was sent to me by a craft friend in a destash sale she had. But I loved the buttery color and decided to let that dictate my color palette. I die cut a wonky edge panel from white cardstock using a Gina Marie Designs rectangle die and then stamped the birthday sentiment from the Verve Stamps Poppy Birthday stamp set at the bottom using Versafine onyx black ink. I then stamped the floral images using fresh lemon and citrus burst Altenew crisp dye inks and then stamped the outlines on top and cut them out using the coordinating dies from the same set. I then die cut the stems and the leaves and stamped the outline image for them and colored them in using a Copic alcohol marker in YG61. I glued the stems directly onto the focal panel using my Zig two-way glue pen and then popped the flowers and leaves up using some scrapbook adhesives foam squares. I added some white enamel dots to the center of the flowers using Ranger enamel accents and then popped the whole thing up off of the card using some foam tape. I added a few buttery yellow enamel dots from My Mind's Eye Now and Then collection and added some beautiful shimmer to the leaves and flowers using my Spectrum Noir clear shimmer pen. I love this clean and simple look. 

For my coffee choice this month I opted for Barissimo Seasonal Blend Pumpkin Spice iced coffee! It really hit the spot after my run this morning! 

Be sure to pop on over to Deb's blog and see what she created for us this month. And if you like my card be sure to leave a comment. I read and appreciate them all!

Happy Birthday-Words 2 Craft By

Hello and welcome to our March Words 2 Craft By word challenge. Our quote this month is Happiness held is the seed; Happiness shared is the flower-John Harrigan. Since I always have a large need for birthday cards I thought I would use the "happy" theme and create a beautiful birthday card. To create my card I started by stamping the sentiment from the Winnie & Walter The Big, The Bold, and The Happy stamp set directly onto my white A2 card base using Versafine onyx black ink for a nice crisp look. Then using a border die from Stamplorations I created a beautiful decorative edge with some textured black cardstock from Hobby Lobby and layered a piece of pretty plaid patterned paper from Authentique's Lovestruck 6x6 paper pad directly onto the card base. I then stamped the cluster of roses from the Waltzing Mouse Old Country Roses stamp set using some gorgeous Altenew inks. I fussy cut the roses out and popped them up off of the card using some foam dimentionals from Scrapbook Adhesives. To finish my card I added some large clear rhinestones from Recollections and rounded the bottom corners using my We R Memory Keepers corner chomper. I can't wait to see what fun and beautiful creations everyone else comes up with this month!

Love You Coffee-February Coffee And Cards With Celeste And Deb

Hello and welcome to the February Coffee and Cards with Celeste and Deb! Since February is the month where we focus on love Deb and I thought it would be fun to step away from traditional Valentine's cards and do a coffee/love themed card. To create my card I layered some grey Stampin' UP cardstock onto the base and layered some patterned papers from the Crate Paper Main Squeeze 6x6 paper pad on top. The sentiment was created using some creative masking and stamping and sentiments from Altenew's Coffee Love stamp set and Versafine onyx black ink. I stamped the awesome coffee cup using the Stamplorations Coffee Cup stamp set and some white cardstock, more of the grey cardstock, and some more the patterned paper from that same Crate Paper paper pad. I fussy cut them all out and adhered them to each other and added some shading on them using my Copic alcohol markers. I die cut a heart using a Paper Smooches die and stamped the "XO" sentiment using Lawn Fawn's Claire's ABC's stamp set and more Versafine onyx black ink. I adhered that directly to the mug and popped it up off of my card using some Scrapbook Adhesives foam squares. 

For my coffee this  month I opted for an iced toasted almond latte from Dunkin Donuts. I know it's cold here in Southeast Missouri but I'd been out running errands and was having a hot flash. This tasty treat really hit the spot! Now, pop on over to Deb's site and show her some blog love in the way of a comment!

Season's Greetings

Hello, happy Sunday! It's been snowing here in southeast Missouri so I've only left the house today to shovel my front porch and walkway. I've spent the rest of the day holed up in my warm fuzzy lounge pants watching True Blood episodes and creating fun things with ink. Today's card was created for the latest The Paper Players challenge and is pretty clean and simple, which if you follow my blog you will know doesn't come easily for me. I like a lot of layers and complexity with colors and patterned papers. But this one was fun and easy to create. I started with a plain piece of white cardstock that I treated with my anti-static tool by EK Success and then stamped the snow from Altenew's Snowing mini-stamp set using Versamark clear ink. I then heat embossed it using Recollections fine detailed embossing powder in Snow. I then stamped Altenew's Winter Cottage image below using Versafine onyx black ink. Once that was dry I went over the trees and the roofline with my Zig two way glue pen and sprinkled some detailed clear sparkling glitter by Wow over the images and knocked the excess off. I then die cut the panel using a stitched edge rectangle die by Gina Marie Designs and inked the top of the panel using my Tim Holtz distress inks. I love how this card turned out. I hope you do too! 

Season's Greeting

Today's card was created for the latest Jingle Belles card challenge. The challenge is to create a card with a building on it. To create my card I started by layering a piece of dark blue patterned paper from the Colorbok Watercolor Rainbow 8.5x11 paper pad onto my white card base. To create my winter scene I had to incorporate several different stamp sets. I started by stamping the birch tree from Altenew's Birch Land stamp set onto some Copic-friendly cardstock. I then stamped Altenew's Winter Cottage to make it look like it was in the background. I then selectively stamped two of the little trees from the Memory Box Deer In The Field stamp set next to the fence row to create a nice balanced scene. I then stamped the sentiment from the Hero Arts Merry Christmas Trees onto the top left corner. I die cut the entire scene using a stitched edge rectangle die from Gina Marie Designs and colored the images in using my alcohol markers. I adhered the panel to the card using some inexpensive fun foam from Hobby Lobby and then added some Wow extra fine white glitter to all of the snowy areas on the trees for a fun glittery finish. Love how serene this scene looks! Thank you for visiting my blog and if you like my card please be sure to leave a comment. 

Coffee & Friends

Today's card was created for the latest Just Us Girls challenge. I have to admit, I never think to use my smaller stamps to create all over stamped backgrounds but I really had fun with this one! I picked up the awesome Altenew Coffee Love stamp set during a recent Blitsy sale and thought it would be the perfect set for this technique. I started with a white card base and layered on some Stampin' UP early espresso cardstock. I then stamped some of the images from the stamp set onto some white Copic-friendly cardstock using Memento tuxedo black ink and colored them in using my alcohol markers. To fill in some of the blank spots I stamped the coffee beans from the stamp set using Gina K. charcoal brown ink. I mounted that panel directly onto the card. Using the same brown cardstock as the base I prepped it with my EK Success powder tool and then stamped the sentiment using Versamark ink. I heat set it using some Recollections white embossing powder and my heat tool. I trimmed the sentiment down to a proportional size and mounted it onto my card using some 3M foam tape for some added dimension. I plan on sending this card out to my January partner for the Coffee Lover's Card Swap. I hope you like it!

Thank You

Hello, and happy new year! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season. Mine certainly came and went quickly and I can't believe we are standing on the doorstep of 2017. I know everyone gets crazy with new year resolutions but that has never really been my style. I just try to focus on living life to the best of my ability, but this year I do have one resolution I'd like to keep. I would like to find better photography and lighting options for my blog. I think I would feel more like blogging if my photos excited me more. They just seem so bland and boring. I am currently working on that as we speak, so be watching for more polished pics on my site soon! 

Anyway, I always send out thank you notes to friends and family for all of the wonderful treats and gifts I receive over the holidays. This year I wanted to mass produce something bold but simple that offered a lot of visual impact. I absolutely adore the Winter Cottage stamp from Altenew and love the beautiful starkness of the scene. But it's a tiny stamp and I struggled to find a way to add impact to the image, so I decided to add a big, bold sentiment to the card and just let them share the stage. I had to do some surgery to the stamps but I used the Big, Bold, & You stamp set from Winnie & Walter. I cut the "s" off of the "thanks" stamp and the tail off of the "you" stamp. I love the versatility that performing stamp surgery gives me when stamping and using my new Misti tool and Versafine pigment ink made the task go quickly. I thought about adding some glitter to the roof line and trees and embossing a few glittery, silver snowflakes but decided to leave the card clean and simple. Anyway, I hope you like it. Happy new year to all of my blog friends!

Christmas Wishes-Coffee And Cards With Celeste And Deb

Hello and welcome to another coffee and cards with Celeste and Deb collaboration. We loved our October collaboration so much that we decided to continue it as a monthly feature on our blogs and, as a special twist, we thought it might be fun to invite some of our fellow crafty friends to join us each month. This month we have Deb's friend Lynne Mizara. I have to admit that I was not familiar with Lynne's work up until our collaboration but after looking at her blog and checking out her work I am smitten. It's beautiful and very detailed! Deb and I let Lynne select the theme for this month's collaboration and she chose snow. It seems fitting since we are rapidly approaching the winter months. I wanted to keep my card subtle and simple. I don't typically do clean and simple cards but I had recently picked up a fun new stamp from Altenew and thought I'd try something different with it and put a slightly masculine twist on it. I started with a clean white card base and stamped the sentiment from the Simon Says Stamp mini Christmas stamp set using Versafine onyx black ink. Using a separate piece of Copic-friendly cardstock I cut a rectangular panel and added some dashed lines using a Paper Smooches edge die. I stamped the pretty winter cabin image onto the cardstock using Altenew's Winter Cottage mini stamp set and then stamped the trees from the Close To My Heart Always Grateful Seasons & Nature stamp set. I love how the trees frame out the scene. I took my Copic B60 pale blue gray maker and added some interest the sky. I then took my Zig two-way glue pen and added some glue to the roof and the trees and sprinkled on some pretty and shimmery clear micro glitter to look snow. To finish my card I popped the focal panel up off of the card using some 3M foam tape. The photo honestly doesn't do the sparkle and shimmer justice...it's so much prettier in person! Now, pop on over to Debra site and Lynne's site  and see what fun they have in store for you today!
As for my choice of beverage, I went for cocoa with a big pile of fluffy marshmallows instead of coffee. Don't get me wrong...I had coffee but it's a chilly 55 degrees here this morning in SE Missouri and after my morning bike ride I wanted something really warm and comforting. So, cocoa it is!

Thank You

Today's card was created for The Challenge sketch #63. I started with a piece of Canson cold press watercolor paper that I die cut using a stitched edge rectangle die from Gina Marie Designs. Using Altenew's Painted Poppy Stamp set I stamped the outline poppy image three times using Versafine onyx black ink and the leaf outline image on one of the poppies. I created a mask for each of the outlined images using Inkadinkado masking paper and adhered those onto each image. I created a simple mask for my panel using some typing paper and adhered that down to my panel using temporary adhesive. I inked up my Stampin' UP French Script background stamp using some Tim Holtz black soot distress ink and gave it a mist before stamping it onto my panel. I wanted a nice loose, watercolored look and I like the way it turned out. Once that dried I removed all of my masks and inked the inside of the poppies using Tim Holtz distress inks in spiced marmalade and fired brick and for the leaf I used brushed corduroy and picket fence, misting each color before stamping it onto the paper. I mounted the panel to a piece of black cardstock from Stampin' UP and adhered that to my card base. Using the thank you sentiment from Simon Says Stamp Handwritten Borders I and some Versamark ink I stamped the sentiment onto the same black cardstock and heat embossed it using some white detail powder from Recollections. I cut the fishtail banner by hand and adhered it onto my card. I could see making a whole collection of these and just changing the sentiment out. 

Witching You A Wicked Birthday

My card today was designed specifically for my best friend Alana's birthday but thought it would be perfect for the Casology Cue Card challenge. My bestie absolutely loves Halloween and all things witch-related. I knew immediately when I found this fantastic witch image on Pinterest that I would have to color her and create a fun birthday card worthy of my friend. I started with a white card base and then created the background by stamping the Altenew Moon stamp in Colorbox grey chalk ink and then the solid moon image over it using VersaMark ink and heat embossed in with clear embossing powder. Love how that allowed the grey to slightly show through to make the moon look like it had craters and dark spots on it. The night sky was created with some Tim Holtz distress inks and a smooshing technique. I spritzed some water over it and then dropped a bit of white distress paint onto an acrylic block and used a wet watercolor brush to flick light splatter over it add a nice mottled look. After I colored the witch with Copic markers I fussy cut her out and mounted her onto some Stampin' UP foam dimensionals and added her to the card. A bit of clear Wink of Stella on her hat, bodice, and stockings added a bit of glimmer, printed the sentiment on my Windows word program using a free font I'd found online and I called this card done. My bestie loved it and I hope you will too!