I finally finished this month's sketch over at "Fans of Karen Lockhart" on PCP.
It was kind of fun, but a little difficult for me. The biggest hurdle for me was using blue...I just don't get happy with blue; I know a lot of people love it, but I really have a hard time with it.
I made this card with my kids' art teacher in mind. She loves blue, and most of her house has blue in it...so I just thought of her while I made it, and it made coloring so much easier....
For some fun, I stamped & colored 3 Itty Bitty apples and applied Glossy Accents to them. I cut them out, then glued them to the lower right of the card...you know, because teachers like apples? The sentiment was computer-generated and I wanted it to look like a tab on a file folder.
SUPPLIES:
Stamps...Pencils, IB apple (Lockhart)
Ink....Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Paper...Natural White (Neenah), Blue Awning (K & Co.), dark blue (Martha Stewart?)
Copics...YG03, YG91, E55
Prismacolor pencils...violet blue, lt. cerulean blue, cream
Misc....sentiment (AFL Nonmetric font), Glossy Accents (Ranger), dimensionals, rectangle & Labels 1 Nesties (Spellbinders)
I just realized that most of my posts start with a close-up of my card, followed by the entire card...that's getting a bit predictable, so I'll try to not do that next time :) Just for variety, you know...
This is the first time I've done a CPS sketch...I check their sketches every week, but I never seem to get any done.
This card was inspired by the gloomy weather we are having, and somehow, PTI's Summer Sunrise paper reminds me of a delicious, sunny day.
SUPPLIES:
Stamps...sun (Inkadinkado "Blossoms" mega pack from Costco)
Ink....Thatched Straw, Mango Madness, Persimmon (VersaMagic Chalk Ink)
Paper...Summer Sunrise, Lemon Tart (PTI), Solar White (Neenah)
Misc....Clear (Atyou Spica), computer generated sentiment, Labels trio (Nestabilities), corner rounder punch, Scor-Pal
Saturday was Anastasia's baptism! She's my yellow girl, so I wanted to make a card that was mostly yellow to celebrate the occasion.
I have to laugh at this one, because I originally intended to make a yellow card with black accents, because I think that combination is really striking...but I had this shimmery yellow-gold paper that was screaming to be used, so I just had to use it. I completely copied the card design from Debbie Olson's card here.
Once again, I am so thankful that people are willing to share their designs online; it helps so much when I can't figure out what to make!
You can't really tell from the photo, but the paper is so shimmery! I added some Liquid Pearls to accent the ends of the cross, and a bling for the center (I didn't have enough rhinestones for the entire cross, so I just did the center)
SUPPLIES:
Stamps....Everyday Blessings (PTI)
Ink....Noir (Palette)
Paper...Solar White (Neenah), shimmery yellow gold (unknown manufacturer, from LSS)
Misc...Liquid Pearls, yellow bridal ribbon (Joann's), dimensionals
This photo was taken during the reception afterwards...her youth group leader gave her the prettiest rose...
Last month's Inchie Challenge was to create an Inchie with a flower image. I didn't feel like doing the lavender one again, so I used a portion of my Lockhart Picnic stamp.
I stamped it on some Memory Box Homespun paper, and colored it with some Copics (they did okay on this paper, but not great). Added some Sakura Stardust to some of the flowers, and GLITTER to the edge of the Inchie...
The little pearls are just snipped off from a strand of pearls (you can buy them at Joann's), and I put them there to cover up a bare spot :)
SUPPLIES: Stamp...Picnic (Lockhart), Tiny Words (Clearly Wordsworth)
Ink...Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Paper...Homespun (Memory Box)
Misc...Rose Quartz glitter (Martha Stewart), Mono-multi glue, Copics, Sakura Stardust pen, white pearls (Joann's), white Inchie squares
And, today...we had sunshine!!! My furry girls looked so sweet out in the sun, so I snapped a quick photo (one of the few times that they weren't chasing eachother). They look so much better today; yesterday, their beards were covered with yellow paint, because both of them decided to eat a tube of yellow artist oil paint.
And I had nothing better to do than spend a few hours at the Vet's office and shampoo a few carpets...oil paint is really hard to get out of the rug, I might add...
But today, the sun did shine, and we had no disasters :)
A few more Valentines...just some I made for my other kids. I found a neat website that has free! vintage images, so I just downloaded some of those and printed them out for cards. I was in a hurry, so I didn't make the images smaller, and ended up making fairly large Valentine cards (which isn't a huge deal, since I'm not mailing these guys).
These are really easy cards, that have a WOW effect just by adding glitter to the mat. It is best to glitter up the mats on like-colored cardstock (which I forgot to do this time, and it took so many coats of glitter to hide all the white paper)...it also is a good idea to do the glitter process the day before card assembly (to give the glue time to dry)...
Peter's card (5 x 7"):
SUPPLIES: Paper...Wild Cherry (PopTone); Glitter...Garnet (Martha Stewart); Misc...Embossed Floral Vines border sticker (K&Co.), red ribbon (stash)
Sophia's card ( 5.5 x 8")...
SUPPLIES: Paper...Rose Light (Prism), Solar White (Neenah); Ribbon...Pink Blush (PTI), Glitter...Rose Quartz (Martha Stewart); Ink...Pixe Dust on edge of border (Versamagic chalk); Misc...Lace Border punch (Martha Stewart), Wavy blade on my paper cutter
Finally, Anastasia's card...she LOVES yellow, and I found a vintage print that was yellow; too exciting!...
SUPPLIES (card size 5.25 x 7.5"): Paper...Sunflower Medium (Prism); Glitter...Yellow Barite (Martha Stewart); Ribbon...bridal ribbon Joann's)They loved the sparkle. The layout of the cards is so basic and easy to put together, but by adding glitter, it makes it such a "Happy, Wow" card...
Okay, so today was Valentine's Day, and it being the weekend, seemed weird (we do more with it when it's during the week for some reason). I'm still kind of tired from surgery and wasn't sure what to do as far as celebrating goes. The kids made cards for everyone (including some stuffed animals), and people brought us dinner (with 2 desserts!). I wasn't sure what Ziggy wanted to do, since he is 15 now.
What he wanted most was to look through our Valentine collection, which is 2 boxes filled with different hearts (paper, wood, stone, boxes, etc). Hearts are his favorite shape, and even at 15, he still loves to took at them; so that's what he did...here's a photo of him looking at a heart book (I made it for him when he was 4 years old, and he still loves it)...
I guess that's all you really need on Valentine's Day: a box full of hearts to look at...
Although chocolate is good too...
Quick post today, because I'm late...this morning I realized we hadn't made a valentine for the kids' piano teacher...not usually a big deal, but she is actually the person who got us interested in papercrafting, so it seemed appropriate to make her a card. Now, she's not really in to patterned paper cards, and she seems to like pastels. I thought it would be neat for each of us to decorate a heart and put it on the front of the card in a row...
Now, the hearts are made with my Martha Stewart punch, and 4 hearts in a row is kind of long, so this ended up being a non-standard sized card (not a big deal since we will hand deliver it today during piano lessons); finished size is 4.25" x 7"...
So, from left to right, we have a heart designed by Peter (red & pink w/ Sakura stardust pen), Sophia (diamond stickles), Anastasia (pearls, each one glued on individually), and me (tee hee, it's a leftover heart from previous projects).
Ziggy doesn't take lessons from her, so he didn't have to make a heart :)I think she'll like it, even thought the colors are a bit different. Yes, it kind of has a baby shower look to it, but she likes the lighter stuff, so there you go...Hope the Stickled heart dries quickly, because we have to go to piano lessons soon (please dry, Stickles, you can do it!)
SUPPLIES:
Paper...Razzleberry, Wild Cherry, Cotton Candy (PopTone), Pink Carnation (Martha Stewart), Solar White (Neenah), Yellow (stash)
Misc....swiss dots embossing folder (Cuttlebug), Heart punch (Martha Stewart), threading water punch (Fiskars), Sakura stardust pen, diamond Stickles, string of pearls from Michael's, white paint pen, dimensionals, fuschia satin ribbon (stash)
I decided to try and make one more Valentine before the weekend...I used my Peapod of Hearts stamp again, but this time I tried to make it a bit more sparkly and sweet. I guess the sparkliest part is the matting behind the image: I cut out a Labels 1 mat, coated it with tacky glue, and drenched it in some Martha Stewart Rose Quartz glitter. That didn't seem sparkly enough, so I did a 2nd coat of glitter.
I wish you could see the ribbon in real life...it is really shimmery, and is made of green and raspberry fibers; the photo doesn't show the shimmer.
I wanted some bling, but am out of pink jewels, so I used some dew drops...
Had to do something for the inside, so used some leftover hearts from yesterday's card, paired with a $1 stamp I bought at Michael's last year:
Easy Peasy!!!SUPPLIES:
Stamps...Peapod of Hearts, Sentiment (Lockhardt); inside sentiment (Michael's $1 bin), polka dot backgrounder (CHF)
Ink...Versamark, Tuxedo black (Memento)
Paper...Solar White (Neenah), RazzleBerry & Cotton Candy (PopTone)
Misc...Labels 1 (Spellbinders), heart punch (Martha Stewart), threading water punch (Fiskars), ribbon (May Arts), rose quartz & garnet glitter (Martha Stewart), clear dew drops, white paint pen
Okay, finally got Mom & Dad's Valentine card done! I made it on Kraft so it wouldn't be too girly for Dad. 
Mom & Dad love gardening (especially vegees in the summer), so I thought the Peapod of Hearts image was perfect for them! I kind of messed up on the polka dots, but they'll forgive me. Finally go a chance to use my Scor-Pal and Labels 1 Nesties on it (Christmas presents from dh!)...
the vine ribbon is May Arts from a craft store, and I dressed it up by attaching punched hearts with jump rings (found in the beading section at Joann's).
For the inside I punched out some Martha Stewart hearts, and doodled on some dots and dashes for fun:
Peter said he's glad I used Kraft paper on it because" it's like dirt, you know, and the bean is like growing in the garden in the dirt." SUPPLIES: Stamps...Peapod of Hearts, Peas Be Mine (Lockhart); "valentine" (Inkadinkado mega pack from Costco); Polka Dot BG (CHF)
Ink...Tuxedo black (Memento), New Canvas (Palette)
Paper...Solar White (Neenah); Kraft (PTI);RazzleBerry, Cotton Candy (PopTone); green (stash)
Misc...Labels 1 (Spellbinders), ScorPal, Heart punch for inside hearts (Martha Stewart); vine ribbon (May Arts); jump rings (Darice), Copics (R81, R83, YG13, YG21), Pen-Touch white pen
Maybe a better name for my blog would be "A Day Late, and a Dollar Short," because I can't seem to post things in a timely manner...I still have things from October that I haven't posted yet...
Anyways, last week was Chinese New Year, so my girls decided to make some cards for the occasion. I had purchased some cute, gold dragon stickers at a huge discount in November when our LSS was going out of business (sniff)...these stickers really made it easy for my girls to make nice looking cards.
After the cards were made, Anastasia got inspired and decided to make a few twinches (2- inch Inchies) using a new doggie stamp she got for Christmas (from moi!)...
Nice job, ladies!
Isn't this jester cute? He's from the Medieval Collection, which will be released on February 14th from Whiff of Joy (Katharine gave us permission to post this photo of her card on our blogs). Katharine's blog, Stamping with a Whiff of Joy, has more details on the previews for this cute set, and some really cute card samples.
I don't know...I hate having nothing to do. So whenever I have to sit and wait for my kids (like at piano lessons), or watch TV, I knit....I'm not a great knitter, but I enjoy it...only squares and rectangles, though; I have never tried anything fancy.
So right now I'm working on this cute baby afghan. It's a feather and fan pattern, and is one of my favorites. When we lived in Michigan, I would knit this in a wool/acrylic blend. Now that we live on the West Coast, I just do it in baby soft acrylic (it doesn't get that cold here)...
I have the hardest time finishing these though; like what if it is for a big baby?...this one is close to being done, but I keep measuring and I think, "oh, just a few more inches would be better..."
This week at Stamp Something, the challenge is to make something for your Valentine...so I thought I'd show the one I made for my daughter, Anastasia. She loves yellow and dogs, so that's where I got the color scheme. The DP was just scraps I had, and the stamps are from Amuse.
This is the first time I've done the challenge at Stamp Something, so I hope I'm doing it correctly...
Thanks for stopping by!
Well, I'm still recovering from surgery, so can't do much in the way of papercrafting, but I couldn't resist this one from PaperTrey...after I took the photo, I realized I cut the base for the hearts crooked, but I'm too sore to do it over; hope that's okay...I just had to put the 3 brads at the top left...Ziggy likes them there, and when they are arranged that way, they form a Braille "L"...for "Love"...SUPPLIES: Stamps...Mixed Messages (PTI), Polka Dot BG (CHF); Ink...Moonlight White (Brilliance); Paper...Kraft, Berry Sorbet (PTI), Wild cherry, Razzle Berry (PopTone), Black Small Dots (MM); Misc...heart punch (Martha Stewart), Threading water border punch (Fiskars), white brads (LSS)
I haven't been able to make any cards this week, so thought I'd post one that I made last month for my son's bus driver...I must have been in a scalloped border/image lower right mood, because it looks like the same layout as yesterday's card...oh well, I still like it, and made a few more to have ready for next year...
SUPPLIES: Stamps...Mouse (Art Impressions);
Ink...Noir (palette); Paper...Solar white (Neenah), red (stash), Vellum (PTI); Misc...ribbon (KI Memories), snowflake punches (green Marvy, Martha Stewart), Stickles (Stardust & Diamond), Copics, Prismacolor pencils, OMS, blending stumps, Classic square Nesties,
threading water border punch (Fiskars), Snowflakes folder (Cuttlebug),
Okay, so this card was obviously done last month, but I didn't want to post it until I was absolutely sure my sister-in-law received it...she has a mid-December birthday, so thought I'd do a holly-type card for her. I used Ellen Hutson's stamp-of-the-month (for December 2008) idea. Really easy and fun card to make...
And for the inside, I printed this using Curlz MT font on my computer: 
SUPPLIES: Stamps....Holly Cupcake (Lockhart), Pretty Pattern BG (CHF); Paper...Meadow, Chili Pepper (Memory Box), Solar White (Neenah), Jonquil (Martha Stewart); Ink...Noir (Palette),
Versamark;
Ribbon (May Arts); Classic circle Nesties; Threading Water border punch (Fiskars); Clear EP...COPICS: YG21,YG63, YG67, YG91, R20,
R27 (basically the ones recommended by Ellen here )
I finally finished this month's sketch over at "Fans of Karen Lockhart" on PCP. It was kind of fun, but a little difficult for me. The biggest hurdle for me was using blue...I just don't get happy with blue; I know a lot of people love it, but I really have a hard time with it.
SUPPLIES:
