Cloud 9

It's Twisted Thursday time on the Outlawz Challenge Group and this week our team is creating an Anything Goes project with a twist to use red.

My card uses stamps from the Our Craft Lounge Crafty Clear Love in the Air set.   

We would love to have you play along, you can check out the details HERE.

Miss Big Bear

Good Morning!  I have a quick post for you today.  It is a busy week as I prepare for CHA.  I am looking forward to meeting some of my online friends while in Anaheim.  I will have my camera ready and hope to share some pictures while I am there.

I created this card using Big Bear from The Cat's Pajama's.  She was paper pieced with some fun spring print cardstock and a little pink for her nose and ears.  The card was finished off with a pretty little field of flowers.  I used the January Sketch for You to Try.  There is still time to play along, you can find all of the details here.

Have a great day!

Happy Valentine's Day

Hi there!  This week on the Our Craft Lounge blog challenge #101 is to create a card/project using the oh so popular chevrons (aka: zig zags)

I was inspired by the little card in the middle left of the graphic below.  I started with a pretty carnation pink base card that measures 4 1/4" square.  Next I cut some charcoal gray, red and white panels.  I stamped the chevron pattern from the OCL Every Heartbeat set in pink ink repeatedly across the white cardstock to create a fun background print.  It is difficult to see in the pic, but I lined each side of the wide stripes with a Stardust pen to give the stripes a little pop and then I rounded a couple of the corners to match the base card.  Next, I wrapped some gray/white striped twine around the card and panels.  I stamped the heart in red ink, cut it out and attached it to charcoal and red scallop circles.  

There is still time to play along with this challenge, head on over the the Our Craft Lounge blog and play along.  You could win a prize and some awesome bragging rights!

My Heart is Yours

Hello!  This week on the Tombow blog we are continuing our journey through some of the past Pantone colors.  Today I am sharing the 2010 color which was Turquoise.  Tombow's Dual Brush Pen #373 (Sea Blue) was a great match so I decided to use it along with some of the Irojiten Colored Pencils for today's card.  

I stamped this adorable Benton Heart Bear from Inky Antics and then colored the heart with Dual Brush Pen #373.  I then added some Tombow Glue pen and sprinkled glitter over it to make the heart really pop.  

I colored Benton with Irojiten Chestnut Brown and Autumn Leaf colored pencils and blended them out with some odorless mineral spirits.  I used Tombow Mono Adhesive Dots to adhere all of the layers together.  The buttons were attached with the the small Tombow Foam Tabs.

Happy Birthday

Hi there, today I have joined up with the rest of the Outlawz Twisted Thursday team to bring you birthday themed cards.   

When I sat down to create this card, I had lots of scraps left over from this card on my desk so I decided to use them up.  The base card is Bubblegum Pink from American Crafts.  To create the main panel I stamped the Big Fabric Background from Hero Arts onto some Neenah Classic Crest Solar White cardstock with Orchid Brilliance ink and then trimmed it down to the size I wanted.  The image panel was layered onto GKD PL Chocolate cardstock.  The sentiment (from GKD) was stamped in Memento Rich Cocoa ink and cut out with Spellbinders Fancy Tags die and layered to a Spellbinders Petite Oval Scallop die cut piece.

For the finish I tied some chocolate/cream striped grosgrain ribbon (May Arts) into a ginormous bow. 

This card came together very quickly and was easy peasy!

Be sure to pop over to the Outlawz Twisted Thursday challenge and check out what the rest of the team has created.  We would love to have you play along as well.  You could win some nice prizes too!

Pretty Little Ella

 Good Morning!  I have created a card using the BLD Challenge #22. 

Isn't this image the sweetest? Her name is Ella, and I think she is adorable. Some friends of ours have a sweet daughter named Ella and I think about her every time I see this image. 

The colors for the challenge are pink, orange and lime green.  I chose to use papers from the Basic Grey Green at Heart collection as it has all of these pretty colors together in one nice package.  Ella was colored with Prismacolor pencils and a tiny bit of odorless mineral spirits.  I added some Spica Glitter pens to her hair and the dots on the dress.  If you click on the small pic, you can see how pretty the shimmer is. 

I know LORi would love it if you would play along, you have until 10 pm EST tonight to play along.

February Calendar

Hello and happy Monday Y'all!  Did you know that Our Craft Lounge announced it's 100th challenge last Friday?  The theme for this challenge was to use numbers.  I have to admit, I was stumped at first and didn't know what I was going to do.  I e-mailed my OCL partner in crime, Debbie Fisher, and she came up with a boatload of suggestions for me.  All of a sudden, the light came on and I knew exactly what I wanted to do.

I decided to make a 5 x 7 calendar page for February.  Yeah, I am ahead of the game!  I printed the calendar and then cut it down to the size I wanted.  I stamped the adorable hot air balloon from the OCL Spilling Over Cling Set onto some white cardstock with black ink and then stamped it again onto this adorable light blue paper from Pebbles.  There are the cutest itsy bitzy white stars all over the light blue background.  LOVE!  I paper pieced the balloon, basket and the little heart.  I used a piece of Cranberry Distress Dots cardstock from Memory Box for the little hearts.  The hearts that are spilling out of the basket are pink and sparkly!  I attached the calendar panel to a red layer that was diecut with a Spellbinders die.  The calendar panel is attached to the base with foam tape to give just enough lift to allow the ribbon to slide underneath.

There is still time to play along with this challenge, head on over the the Our Craft Lounge blog and play along.  You could win a prize and some awesome bragging rights!

CSS Sketch Challenge

Hi there!  Tonight I am joining in with some of the gals from the Gina K. Designs Center Stage Team to bring you our first challenge for 2012.  Tonight we are using a sketch that I created as our inspiration. 

You should have arrived at my blog from Linda Payne's amazing blog, if not you can go back to StampTV and start from the beginning.  

Being a California girl I knew I wanted to use the GKD Stately Flowers 1 set that was illustrated by Melanie Muenchinger.  Can I tell you how much I LOVE this California Poppy image?  I stamped the image in Memento Tuxedo Black ink onto GKD PL White cardstock and colored it with Prismacolor Pencils.  I added a wee bit of Diamond Stickles to the flowers to give them that sunkissed look.  The image panel was layered to GKD PL Black and GKD PL Apple Green panels and added to the card base with Tombow Foam Tabs.  "California Poppy" was stamped in Memento Black ink as well and popped up with a foam tab onto a GKD PL Black Scalloped circle.  The card base is GKD PL Green Apple cardstock with a layer of GKD PL Black and an orange print (from my stash).  I finished the card with some ribbon, a bow and rhinestones.  

Now here is the good part.  Be sure to leave a comment on each of the blogs along the hop for a chance to win a HUGE grab bag of GKD stamps.    The winner will be chosen on Tuesday morning (January 17).

I have kept you long enough, so I am going to send you on your way to Sharri Seffens awesome blog.

Inky Butterfly

Good Morning, whew I have made it to the end of the work week and look forward to a little time with my family this weekend.  


This month the Tombow team has been sharing projects created using colors that coordinate with the Pantone "in" colors for the last few years.  Today I am sharing a card that I created using the 2011 color, Honeysuckle.   

 Tombow's Dual Brush Pen #743 (Hot Pink) is great match.  I used the marker to color in this beautiful butterfly image from the Inky Antics Brush Calligraphy #3 set and stamped it onto some white cardstock which I then cut out using some cirlcle nesties.  I wanted the wings of the butterfly to have some subtle color so I used the Tombow Dual Brush Blender Pen to pull some of the ink from the stamped image.  I really like how soft the wings look.  I added a touch of glitter to the butterfly for a little sparkle.  I used Tombow Permanent Stamp Runner to adhere all of the layers together and some of the Tombow Foam Tabs to pop up the sentiment panel.  

Hello Friend

Helloooo my dear friends!  Today on the Outlawz challenge group the Twisted Thursday challenge is to create a card/project with "Friendship" as the theme.  

I love the look of layered backgrounds so I pulled out a couple of my favorite Hero Arts background stamps and went to work.  First I inked up the Large Fabric Design with Orchid Brilliance ink and stamped into on some ivory cardstock and then I inked up the Friend Definition stamp with Rich Cocoa Memento ink and over stamped it.  I trimmed the panel down to the size I wanted and then layered it onto some GKD PL Chocolate cardstock.  I die cut another piece of Chocolate cardstock with the Cat's PJ's Pinking Cut Up die and added it to the print piece.  Next, I added some crochet ribbon from May Arts and created a rolled flower with some May Arts Striped Grosgrain ribbon.  For the flower, I folded a strip of ribbon in half and then cut it about 3/4 of the way down every 1/4" or so.  I then rolled it up and secured the bottom with a Tombow Power Tab.  I fluffed the flower a bit to give it a shabby look and then plopped a big pink brad from American Crafts right down in the middle and layered it onto a American Crafts Bubblegum pink cardstock. To finish off the card, I added a few Kaisercraft pearls and some leaves from the Poppystamps Meadowleaf die.  

Why don't you head on over to the Outlawz challenge group and play along with the challenge this week.  You could have a chance to win some fabby prizes.

Check this out!

My super, duper, uber talented friend Melanie has done it again!  Not only does she create amazing stamp sets, she also shares awesome ideas.  Check out her blog:  Hands, Head & Heart to check out her latest tutorial.

OCL/Lily Pad Challenge

Happy, happy Friday!  So we are nearing the end of the first week of 2012.  I hope 2012 brings many fun, happy and exciting things to your life.  

This week Our Craft Lounge and Lily Pad Cards

The colors we chose for this weeks challenge are:

Navy, Light Blue and Silver

I chose to work with the Our Craft Lounge's new Every Heartbeat set to create this masculine thank you card.  I inked up the large chevron with Versamark ink and embossed it with silver powder.  For the triple chevron image, I inked the inner zig zag with Cyan Versacolor ink and the outer zig zags with Royal Blue Versacolor ink.  The sentiment was stamped onto a scrap of white cardstock with Royal Blue Versacolor ink and then I colored in the words with Copic B23 marker.  

Be sure to play along on both OCL's and Lily Pad's blogs as there is a chance you could win $20.00 for OCL from both places.  Now, whats not to love about that?

Dogwood Thinking of You

Woo hoo, it's Outlawz Twisted Thursday time again.  This week the challenge is to use dies/punches.  Oh how I likey my dies and punches.   You can find all of the details here.

For my card this week I am using the beautiful Dogwood image from the Gina K. Designs, Dogwood and Butterfly set illustrated by the very talented Theresa Momber.  I used the Classic Oval and Classic Scallop Ovals from Spellbinders, Medium Scallop Edge Die-namics die from My Favorite Things and my MS Butterfly punch.  The embossed background is a Sizzix Embossing Folder.  The print paper is from Authentique and the ribbon is from Gina K. Designs.  The flowers were colored with Copics and Prismacolor Pencils. 

We would love it if you would play along with us in the Outlawz Twisted Thursday challenge.  

 

Vintage Beauty

Hi there, I hope 2012 is getting off to a good start for you.  I am diving into 2012 head first and look forward to each and every day.

This week the Tombow Design Team has been creating projects that use the Pantone 2012    "in" color.  This year the color is Tangerine Tango.  Tombow's Dual Brush Pen #855 is a perfect match.  

I inked up the Every Season Plain Jane from Verve with the Tombow marker and stamped it onto cream cardstock.  I created the flower using 3 sizes of Nestabilities Classic Scallop Circle Dies.  Each of the circles was spritzed with pearl shimmer spray and scrunched into little balls and set aside to dry.  Once they were dry, I stacked them an added a cute little dotted brad in the middle.  The pearls were a light peach color and I wanted them a tad darker so I gave them a little extra color with the Dual Brush pen. 

Gotta run, see you soon! 

Frosty Butterfly

Oh happy day, oh happy day!  Hi there everyone!  I hope you all are having a wonderful day.  Today I am thrilled to announce that I have been asked to join the Our Craft Lounge Design Team.  I am so excited to be joining the amazingly talented girls on the OCL Team.  

Each week on the OCL blog there is a new challenge and this week is a photo inspiration week. Be sure to check out the beautiful photo below.    Now it's your turn to play along.  Add your link to the OCL Blog post today for a chance to win a gift certificate from Our Craft Lounge.

As you can see, the photo is of a beautiful, frosty snowflake.  I was inspired by the colors and the shimmer of the snowflake.  I started with a base layer of dark blue cardstock and then embossed a piece of white with a Sizzix snowflake EF and gave it a spritz or two (or three) of pearl shimmer spray.  I stamped image from the Our Craft Lounge Crafty Clear, Butterfly Kisses set with a variety of blue pigment inks and then embossed it with crystal EP.  It is so pretty and sparkly in person.  I finished off the card with ribbon, pearl cording and a button.  Click here to play along.  

Five Years Old

I can't believe it, today my blog turns 5 years old.  When I sat down on New Year's Day 2007 I never would have dreamed that I would still be here and posting more than ever.  I am so thankful to each and everyone of you who come by for a visit or leave a comment.  Most of the time I share my love for stamping/cardmaking/papercrafting with you, but every now and then I throw in a little something about my wonderful family, the beautiful area where I live or the wild critters that roam through the property from time to time.  I hope you will stick with me for many years to come.  Here is hoping that all of your dreams and wishes will come true.  I know mine are :)

Be sure to come back tomorrow, I some exciting news to share.

Hugs,