Headed Out for Some R & R

We are headed out of town tomorrow for a long holiday weekend. I was hoping to get another card made and posted this evening, but it didn't happen. Maybe I'll be able to catch up when we get back home.

I made this card several months ago for a challenge on Splitcoaststampers. It's posted in the gallery there, but this is the first time I've posted it on my blog. I am very proud of this card. I think it's one of the best coloring jobs I've ever done. I just wish I could remember exactly what I did that made my coloring so much better than it usually is. It's the same technique I always use, but just seemed to turn out a little better than usual.

I hope everyone has a great July 4th holiday! I'll catch ya when we get home!!

Supplies
Stamps: Happy Hopper - Apple a Day (Stampabilities); Enjoy (Studio G)
Ink: Onyx Black (VersaFine); red pigment ink and warm red chalk ink (Colorbox)
Paper: Yellow cardstock (Archiver's); DP - Front Porch Collection (My Mind's Eye)
Embellishments: Circle and scalloped circle punches (Paper Studio); ribbon (unknown)
Technique: Prismacolor pencil blended with mineral spirits
Finished card size: A7 (5" x 7")

Just Magnolia and Simon Says Challenge

It's been a few days since my last card. I have just been so busy this week at work, I'm totally exhausted in the evenings and haven't had much mojo. I finally found a little bit. I created this card for two challenges this week - Just Magnolia and Simon Says Challenge.


The Just Magnolia challenge this week is a sketch, which I have posted below. The Magnolia image I chose is Tilda in Jeans. I like to perch the sitting Tildas on the edges of circles, so the sketch worked well for that. I colored the image with Lyra colored pencils (except for the face, which is Prisma) and popped her for added dimension. For the flowers I used my retro flower punches and buttons. I also added a punched butterfly, some ribbon and a butterfly charm. I stamped the sentiment directly on the background. I sponged the inner circle where Tilda is sitting with sky blue pigment ink. I also chose a bit of a different color combo for me. I don't know if I have ever used green and orange together, except for Halloween cards.


The Simon Says Challenge this week is Happy Mail. They requested that you create a card for an ill child and send it through Post Pals (UK) or Make a Child Smile (US). Both of these organizations are awesome. It is so beneficial for children who are going through such a trying time to receive positive and happy thoughts from people and to know that they are cared for. Since I am in the US, i will send my card through Make a Child Smile. I hope that you will check out these organizations and consider using some of your own cards to make a sick child's day a little brighter.

Supplies
Stamps: Tilda in Jeans (Magnolia); Sentiment (Hero Arts)
Ink: Onyx Black (VersaFine); blue pigment ink (Colorbox)
Paper: Orange and green cardstock (Bazzill); DP (Kay and Co.)
Embellishments: Circle and scalloped circle Nestabilities (Spellbinder); border punches (Fiskars); retro flower punches (EK Success); Royal butterfly punch (Martha Stewart); buttons, ribbon, twine, gems, butterfly charm
Technique: Lyra colored pencil
Finished card size: 6" square

Laundry Day

Here is my card for this week's House Mouse and Friends Challenge. This week's challenge is a sketch, which is shown below. It's just a one challenge card this time. :)


The image I used is one of the new Gruffies stamps - Laundry Line. I don't own this stamp. My Friend Jenny RAK'd me some images recently. She also gave me the one with the Gruffie sleeping in the hammock between the sunflowers. The new Gruffies stamps are just so darn cute!

I colored the image with my Prismas and mineral spirits. I sponged in the sky with blue pigment ink. Since the image is very detailed, I left the background of the card fairly simple and used a soft blue/green color scheme. I think the DP in the circle looks like bubbles, which matches the theme of the image. Because of the size of the image, I didn't have room on the circle to put the three gems in a straight line, so I added them to three scallops on each side. I also added a ribbon. Once I decide what I'm going to use this card for, I will most likely add a tag or something with a sentiment. I have some mini clothespins that I thought would look cute with this image, but they didn't really fit anywhere. I may try those next time I use this image with a different layout.

Supplies
Stamp: Gruffies - Laundry Line (Stampabilities)
Ink: black (unknown); blue pigment ink (Colorbox)
Paper: Cardstock - Tropical Breeze and Apple Crush (Bazzill Basics); DP - green gingham (DCWV); green circles (unknown)
Embellishments: circle and scalloped circle Nestabilities (Spellbinder); gems (Paper Studio); ribbon (unknown)
Technique: Prismacolor pencils blended with mineral spirits
Finished card size: A7 (5"x7")

House Mouse Christmas Card - CK Sketch Challenge

I'm on a roll with my Christmas cards the last few days! It has been so unbelieveably hot here lately, anything that helps me think about cool weather is helpful.

I made this card for a sketch challenge on the CK/PaperCrafts message board this week. My dear friend Susan created this sketch and I think it's so cute. I totally CASEd her sample card - except she did a birthday card. I did use her idea of the three different images to fit a theme. I had these three small House Mouse Christmas stamps that fit the sketch perfectly. I added Stickles to each of the images and embellished the card with ribbon and three red gems. Susan's original sketch has a sentiment in the lower right corner, but I couldn't find a stamp that was fitting the space right and didn't want to take the time to print on on the computer. I used the little bow instead.

This is such a great sketch - so cute and simple the work with. I'm definitely going to be using it for other cards later.

Supplies
Stamps: House Mouse - Muzzie's To/From (I just inked the image part), Having a Ball, Santa's Little Helper (Stampabilities)
Ink: Onyx Black (VersaFine)
Paper: Green cardstock (Paper Studio), red cardstock and DP (Paper Salon Swatches)
Embellishments: Circle Nesties (Stampabilties); gems (Paper Studio); ribbon (Target); Stickles
Technique: Prismacolor pencils blended with mineral spirits
Finished card size: 5 1/2" square

A Few Swap Projects

When I first started stamping and paper crafting, I did a lot of swaps. Since I started participating in the challenge blogs, I don't do as many, but every once in awhile one comes along that I want to do. I set a limit for myself of no more than two swaps due in a month, but apparently, I wasn't paying attention this month and ended up with about six. I spent today catching up on the last of them, so now I can get back on track with my limit.


This first card is for an all-white card swap that I am participating in on the Splitcoaststampers site. I posted a similar card a few weeks ago for a challenge I did. I simplified it for the swap and added a butterfly die cut. The image/sentiment is two stamps from an Inkadinkado clear set. I stamped with Versamark and heat embossed with white EP. The embossed background is made with the Birds and Swirls Cuttlebug folder and the vertical piece is the Script folder. The butterfly is a Cuttlebug combination die and embossing folder. The circles are cut with my Nesties and the scalloped border on the left with the Fiskars scallop border punch.

The ATC above is for a Penny Black swap my friend Chris is hosting. I wanted to do a little more with this one, but the image ended up being a little bigger than I thought so I didn't have much room. The image is called Ooh La La. I colored it with my Prismas and cut it with my Label 1 Nesties. I inked the edges in Warm Red Chalk Ink. The sentiment is from the SU Paris in Spring set. I punched it out with a circle punch and matted it with red cut with one of my scallop circle Nesties. I scalloped the bottom of the yellow and added a black and white ribbon. I mounted the whole thing on piece of black cardstock cut to ATC size.

This final project is a recipe page. My 2nd favorite hobby is cooking and I used to participate in and host a lot of recipe swaps. This is my first one in a long time and it's being hosted by my friend Barbara. It was to be for a favorite family recipe. This is one I make for my son and husband quite frequently. It's super easy and we all love it. You can also make with fat free/sugar free ingredients and it's just as good. I also sometimes use graham crackers instead of Oreos. When I do that, I use two packages of chocolate pudding and no vanilla.

I used pink and brown Bazzill cardstock. The DP is some that I have had forever and I think it's from Paper Wishes. I used to belong to their scrapbook kit of the month club. The pink behind the recipe and in the flower is from My Mind's Eye. I made the flower with my retro flower punches and small circle punch. I ran the flower parts through my Big Kick with my D'Vine Swirls embossing folder and the center through with the Swiss Dots folder then layered them. I finished it off with some pink and brown polka dot ribbon and pink pearls.

From the Heart - Father's Day Card/Penny Black Challenge

This card is for this week's Penny Black Saturday Challenge. I'm also giving to my husband for Father's Day. If you're wondering what a hedgehog playing guitar has to do with Father's Day - I chose the image because my husband plays the guitar - and I just thought it was cute!

The Penny Black Challenge this week was to use embossing. I love to use my Cuttlebug embossing folders so this challenge was right up my alley. I used the Script folder because it fits a masculine style better than some of the others I have and it also went well with the papers I chose. The gray cardstock is also embossed with a pin stripe pattern, but it came that way, so I'm not sure it counts for the challenge.

I find it a bit challenging to make the cute little hedgie images masculine, but I also enjoy a bit of a challenge. To accomplish that, I chose masculine papers and colors - cream, red, gray and black. I also used Old Paper Distress Ink over the image and sentiment to work with the distressed style of the paper. I kept the layout and embellishments simple as well.

I was afraid the contrast of styles between the papers and embellishments and the hedgie might not work, but I like the way it turned out. Hopefully, my husband will like it too.

Supplies
Stamps: Hmmm...(Penny Black); From the Heart (Hero Arts)
Ink: Onyx Black (VersaFine); Old Paper Distress Ink (Ranger)
Paper: Gray pinstripe cardstock (Club Scrap); red cardstock (DCWV); DP (Autumn Leaves)
Embellishments: Label 1 Nestabilities, circle Nestabilities (Spellbinder); Script embossing folder (Cuttlebug); flowers (Prima); square gem brad, ribbon (unknown)
Technique: Prismacolor pencils blended with mineral spirits
Finished card size: 5 1/2" square

Lazy Summer Day

I'm back with another challenge card. I created this one for three different challenges - Roses on Paper, Just Magnolia and Stampin' for the Weekend.

For the Roses on Paper challenge, you must follow the challenge theme AND use a Magnolia, Rachelle Anne Miller, Sarah Kay, The Greeting Farm or Alota image. The current theme is to use flowers and to combine the ROP challenge with any other challenge. I chose Relaxing Tilda for the image, and there are flowers in the image itself, my DP and as embellishments on the card. And obviously, I met the requirement to combine challenges with the other two that I am doing with this one.

The Just Magnolia challenge theme this week is Summer. I don't have any Magnolia images with an obvious Summer theme, but I have a couple on my wish list. I think maybe this image is supposed to really be Spring since Tilda is wearing her little jacket, but I decided that maybe where Tilda lives it isn't 95 degrees with a heat index of 105 like it is here. :) I thought the image was perfect for the summer quote that I found. I printed the quote on my computer and cut it out with my Nesties. The quote, by Sir John Lubbock, says "To lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time."

The final challenge for this card is Stampin' for the Weekend. This is the third week for this new challenge blog and I've really been enjoying their challenges. So far they've been a little different than some of the other blogs. The challenge theme for this week is Rock n Roll 60's. When I first saw the title I kind of panicked because I wasn't quite sure what it was going to be, but it turned out fine. They provided three song titles from the 1960's and we were to use one of them as our inspiration. We were only to consider the title and not the lyrics. The three songs provided were:

"Whiter Shade of Pale" by Procol Harem

"Time of the Season" by The Zombies

"Please Mr. Postman" by the Marvellettes

The song I chose for my inspiration is "Time of the Season" which by the way is one of my favorite songs of all time - even though I was only four when it was popular. I love 1960's songs. The tie-in - obviously - is the summer theme of my card. I did consider "Whiter Shade of Pale" (another of my favorite songs) because I'm working on some all white cards for a swap I'm in, but I wouldn't have been able to combine that with the Just Magnolia challenge and I posted an all white card not too long ago anyway which was similar to the one I'm working on.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you'll check out the other great creations on these awesome blogs. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Supplies
Stamp: Relaxing Tilda (Magnolia); quote is computer generated
Paper: Yellow and blue cardstock (DCWV); DP - Spring Stack (DCWV)
Embellishments: Circle and scalloped circle Nestabilities and rectangle Nestabilities (Spellbinder); large flowers - Chloe's Closet (Making Memories); small flowers (Prima); flower brads (Making Memories); button, twine, ribbon
Technique: Prismacolor pencils blended with mineral spirits
Finished card size: 6" square