Hello, Theme Week is starting today at The Paper Players and sweet Joanne is our fabulous hostess. She has chosen Beside the Seaside as our topic. I was just delighted when I saw this challenge as it fit nicely with a stamp set I still had sitting on my desk. I posted a tag yesterday of this cute little Surfing Santa by Sunny Studios for the first time, and I wasn’t quite ready to put him away. I paired him with another great Sunny Studios set called Sending Sunshine. Two great purchases for this Florida girl!
I had this Oxide Ink panel also laying on my desk and I was itching to put it to use. I think next time I make this card I am going to just mask off the background and do it right on the card base itself. I added the sand piles as an after thought as it looked a bit stark when I was finished. It was a bit tricky as I had to work around all the die-cuts that were already glued down, so it’s definitely not perfect. Santa has some glitter on his hat and pop-pom, If you can’t tell.
Card Details: Sunny Studios-Surfing Santa and Sending Sunshine-stamps, Background was made with Oxides and a Spellbinders deckled edge die. I used Copics and Prisma Colored Pencils as my medium.
For more amazing inspiration, be sure to visit the rest of the Design Team!
Hello, Here we are time for another Topping at Seize the Birthday! Sweet Ashwini is our hostess and has asked us to use an Embossing Folder this time around. If you are anything like me you have plenty EF to choose from. This particular one has no label on it whatsoever so I couldn’t even begin to tell you whose it is. It is one of my favs for sure.
Card Details: Embossing Folder-who knows, The Peony Bouquet and die – Crafter Companion, All the Stitched Dies – MFT, The sentiment -Verve. Some very quick coloring with some Prismas.
I hope you dust off some of your old Embossing Folders like I did and you will come and play along!
Hello crafters, Today at The Paper Players we have a Clean and Simple challenge beginning and the fun theme that sweet Joanne has chosen is Fruits & Berries. I had to dig deep in my neglected stamps bin to find some fruit for this challenge. Luckily, I came across this stamp set with these cute bananas in it. Now, this stamp set is very poor quality as I probably picked it up at Michaels eons ago, so just ignore the jagged black lines on the edge of the bananas.
I am pairing this challenge with the Tic Tac Toe Challenge that is going on right now. I saw that they also had a choice of CAS so it was very easy to incorporate the center row of Any Color, Free, and CAS in my design.
Card details: I have no idea what company makes this stamp and or greeting. The scalloped edge die is from MFT. I used some Copics and Prismas for some really quick and haphazard coloring. CAS is hard for me so I decided some small paper punched dots might liven it up a bit.
For more amazing inspiration, be sure to visit the rest of the Design Team!
Hello, It is the middle of the month and time for the next Hues of Color at Color Hues! Sheri has chosen a color combo that I really, really love…Aqua and Black. I just adore these dragons from MFT, don’t you? A dear friend of mine’s hubby was having some heart issues and I made this especially for him. Over at Color Hues we have the fabulous Trina Pham joining us as our guest!
Here is a close up of my cute dragon.
Card Details: Dragon, sentiment, and both types of clouds are MFT. The stars are dies also and from Your Next Stamp. I used both Copics and Prismas as my medium.
There is no shortage of inspiration over at Color Hues by the Design Team and Trina, come be inspired! Nanc’
Hello, Over at The Paper Players we have a perfect challenge for this time of year, at least for those of us in the beginnings of Summer that is. I am waving my hand and saying me of course!! Although I must say our mornings and evenings are still rather pleasant. Ann is our fabulous hostess and came up with this perfect theme and pics to inspire us!
As soon as I saw this challenge coming up I jumped right in an cracked open my new stamps and dies from Sunny Studios. How cute are these seals? Sealiously they make me smile every time I look at them.
Card Details: I first started with a background that I feel is becoming rather my go to our signature look, but hey if it works why change it? The stencil is from MFT and sponged with Oxide Inks. The darling seals are new to me and are from Sunny Studios. The sun die is one that I adore and have had for some time from Lawn Fawn. I used a mix of Copics and Colored Pencils as my medium as I haven’t mastered Copics by themselves and at this rate probably never will. Hey, but that is okay!
I am linking up once again with the sweet Darnell over at NBUS and with the fun over at Addicted to Stamps and Morefor Make Your Mark.
For more amazing inspiration, be sure to visit the rest of the fabulous Design Team and see how they showcased SUMMER!
Hello, I hope your weekend is off to a good start! I have been wanting the MFT Otterly Love You stamp set for so very long and finally had the perfect excuse to buy it. I had a request for more cards using these cute little critters and I ran out of the ones my dear friend Barb had stamped, die-cut and sent to me. So I consulted the hubster and said, “Go for it!” Woohooo! I want to clarify he would never tell me no, he just helps me decide if he thinks it’s a good purchase and a stamp and or die I would use a lot. It also helps me diminish the guilt, as you know I need more stamps! LOL Who wants chocolate, perfume, or flowers for Mother’s Day anyway? Give this girl some stamping supplies and she is one happy momma! I may have thrown in a couple extra items in the shopping cart too, in order to get free shipping! Shhhhh!
Anyways, As soon as my box full of happy came on Thursday afternoon, I knew exactly what I was going to do with it. I have been wanting to join in the MFT Sketch and MFT Color Challenge this week. The colors were so vibrant and the sketch was going to work perfectly for what I had in mind. Plus, SSS is having an IG challenge to use your favorite technique this month. I think you all have probably figured out by know that I love making stenciled backgrounds. So that is where my card began.
Card Details: I first ripped some old construction paper to make my masking pattern. I like to use something a bit heavier than copy paper, as it doesn’t curl as much when I hit it with a blending brush. I then got out my MFT Perfect Pool Water stencil and my blue tone Oxide Inks and made the background, making sure to use the four stripes in the sketch. If you look closely at the seafloor it has a very light Antique Linen Oxide edging as well. I used an old speckled stamp to make the sand look more realistic. I colored my otters with Copics and Prismas since I am still not very good at Copics alone. Since coloring isn’t my strong suit, I decided to use some die cuts that are also MFT- from the Beach Scene Builder and Under the Sea Die sets to finish off the seafloor. In the end, I am pretty happy with the way it came together.
Here are a couple more shots!
In case you were wondering why bubbles are in my design. Otters Blow Bubbles under water:Sea otters spend a large part of their waking hours grooming and blowing air into their fur to keep it in tip-top condition. The tiny air bubbles they work into their dense fur keep their skin dry, provide insulation and help otters stay buoyant on the water’s surface.
Thanks for stopping in. I love your visits! If you are a mom out there, I hope you have a very Happy Mother’s Day! Mine is going to be rather quiet, I do believe.
Hello, Today over at The Paper Players Joanne has a fun theme challenge that is starting-Cards for Boys. I actually made three cards that would have worked for this challenge before I settled on this one! The rest didn’t jump out at me. I just think this little penguin in his swimming trunks is so gosh darn cute. I also hope you are not tiring of my heart backgrounds, as I just can’t help myself.
I am linking this card up at NBUSas my stencil is brand new to me and over at Addicted to Stamps and More where it’s Any Occasion.
Card Details: MFT- Penguins in Paradise, The stencil is from Whimsy Stamps. I used Colored Pencil and Copics for my medium. I made my own heart stencil from an MFT die. I used a corner punch from SU to give my sentiment strips some interest. Enamel dots to finish it off.
For more inspiration, be sure to visit the rest of the Design Team!
Hello, Here we are again, as the calendar keeps changing and it’s already May 1st. Can you believe it? I can’t! However, in the crafting world it’s a good thing, as that means it is time for the next hues of color at Color Hues. Kristie is our hostess and she has chosen Red and Orange as our color duo. I had some fun with this color combo. I also knew I was going to be making this a Mother’s Day card and thought it would work perfectly for the Addicted to Stamps and MoreAny Occasion Challenge. So I am linking up over there as well.
Card Details: I have a mix of supplies for today’s card: The background was inked with a fun stencil. The heart die cut is from MFT. The flower array is from SU and from the bloom and Grow set. I colored the flowers TOO HEAVY handed with Copics. I tried to come in with a white Prisma pencil to give the flowers some shading, it only helped a wee bit! The white sprigs are also SU and from Forever Fern. The sentiment is from Paper Roses. I did an inlay with the heart and added a few gems.
Now, it’s time to pop on over to Color Hues, if you haven’t already, and check out what the Design Team and our fabulous sweet and talented guest Tracey McNeely have done. You are sure to be inspired!
Hello, I hope your week has been going well. Today’s post is titled Furry Friends and it’s the next topping we have starting over at Seize the Birthday. Design Team member Cathy has selected this topping for us. I only have a little over a handful of animal stamps in my collection and my first thought was to use one of my favorite MFT cat sets, so that is what I did.
It just so happens that Time Out Challenges and TGIF Challenges both have Pets as their challenges this time around too, so I will be joining in the fun over there as well.
Card Details: For my background I used some Oxide inks. The stamps were colored with a mix of Prismas and Copics. The greeting is from Avery Elle. The large dotted background die is from Sunny Studios. In hindsight, I wish I would have masked it off and not gotten ink on the edges. The stitched circle die is from SU. The circle die was cut out and then double matted to give it a bit of depth. The cat is also double matted and popped up with dimensionals. I double mat all the time…do you? I think it makes the card so much sturdier and improves the quality.
Here is a better pic.
I hope you will pop on over to Seize the Birthday and see what my fabulous Design Team have done and you will consider playing along with us. Remember the topping is optional as any type of Birthday card will do.
Hello, I have been thinking about this gorgeous photo I saw over at the Card Concept- Loads of Lavender for the past week and I snuck away some time today to make a card. I have this fun SU set called Country Home that comes with a milk jug type stamp that I knew would work perfectly for this challenge. The set also comes with a pitcher but I like the can so much better.
Card Details: To start off, I decided I would make my own background paper and incorporate some of the black check from the ribbon. I used the SU Buffalo Check to get started. When I was done I decided it was a little overpowering and my black lines were too heavy, so I covered half of it using a fun edge border from MFT and the same lilac paper that I started with. Next, I stamped and colored my milk jug using Prisma colored pencil and fussy cut it out. I decided to not use the flowers that come in the set, but to get out the SU set Forever Fern along with it’s dies and use that as my foliage for the can. I finished it off with some faint clear Nuvo drops on the white panel. If I was to classify my card for this challenge I would say…CLEAN AND LAYERED.
I tried using green in my design but It just wasn’t working for me, and that is why I ended up with two shades of kraft.
I am going to link my card up over at Happy Little Stampers as well for Anything Goes with Dies.
