Flowers in Vase

Evidently I am in a green mood! This was another image that I colored in the Beginning class this weekend. This vase was a little on the tricky side to color, to try and create the shadows to keep the appearance of the rounded parts of the vase. It took me a little while to get that right, or at least where I was happy with it. This class was mainly about laying down color and shading with the Prismacolor pencils. Since I have no real art training, getting the shadows and highlights in the right places are a little difficult for me.  I am not sure who makes this paper, but I do remember getting it at Michael's and that it wasn't a common brand that I have seen before. I have been reading Cheryl's blog quite a bit and she makes the most gorgeous bows for her cards. Mine is nowhere near as pretty as hers are, but I thought this card could use a bow right there in the corner. Stamp is from Lockhart stamps, paper is unknown, ribbon is from Hobby Lobby and the little pearls are Dew Drops.

I just realized today that it is the end of the month and thanks to the 4th of July, I have Friday off from work! Does anyone have anything exciting planned? I am sure we will grill out with my in-laws, that is what we normally do. Kip's dad has a birthday on the 2nd so a lot of time we combine the two celebrations. Thanks for stopping by tonight!

Chocolate Therapy

Chocolate does solve everything, doesn't it? To me, it looks like Riley had a rough day and it making everything feel better with a box of chocolates. This sketch is from the challenge in the Hanna Stamps forum on SCS last week. I decided to use Sofa Riley and create a little living room for him to hang out in, eating his yummy chocolate. I started by making a wall by picking out my "wallpaper" and added that to a piece of white paper that was about an inch of white space left at the bottom and then drew and colored my hardwood floor. Riley was colored with Copic and Prisma markers and then cut out. He is attached with foam dots. I stamped and extra and only colored the candy box and lid, cut them out and used some thin foam dots to attach them. The sentiment is handwritten and punched out with the SU Word Window punch. I added some ribbon and flowers and called it done! I am happy to say that all items came from my stash, and I am getting an early start on my self challenge. Thanks for stopping by!

Petunia

Good Evening! We just got home a little while ago from Indiana and I wanted to make a quick post before I crashed. Wow what a trip! My card tonight uses one of the images that we colored in the Karen Lockhart class, this is one of the images that we colored in the beginning class. During the classed we focused on coloring techniques, not card making, so I have several images ready to make into cards. I don't know the name of the stamp but it is a Lockhart stamp. I was impressed that I was able to get this much shading done with just pencils and no OMS and blending stumps. Image is Lockheart stamps, paper is making memories, ribbon is from Hobby Lobby and the image was colored with Prismacolor pencils.

I can't wait to show you some of the other things that I learned. There were so many new techniques and cool ways to use my pencils. My brain was full of information by the end of the beginner class. The second class was mostly new information and then the advanced class was all new to me. All in all, it was worth the trip. My mom found a Flea Market/Antique Mall that she wanted to go to that a little closer to Indianapolis that we thought we would be and since I knew there was an Archivers there, we went ahead and drove into Indianapolis to find it. I have never been to one of those stores before. We found it and did a little shopping  there too. I am beat and headed to bed now!

Oops!

I had a couple of projects made, photos taken and totally forgot to
schedule my posts for the weekend while I am gone! I guess I was
excited and ready to get on the road. Check back on Monday and
hopefully I will have tons of things to show you. We are getting ready
to leave the hotel now headed to Papertrix for the class I am taking.
Have a great weekend!!

Guess Who?

I wanted to include one more card for my Secret Sister, revealing my identity, so I put this in the top of the box that I mailed off at the beginning of the week. I have just been wanting to use that Groucho Marx mask for something fun. Isn't it funny? It's from River City Rubberworks, if you are looking for funny out of the ordinary stamps, definitely check them out. They are a great source for quotes and sentiments too. This card actually uses several stamp sets and from three different companies too. The notebook page is from a Clear Dollar Stamps set called Just a Note. The letters spelling out guess who are from the CTMH Solo G, U, E, S,W,H, and O sets. The letters were stamped with CTMH Chocolate ink and then randomly cut out and glued down, I wanted it to have that ransom letter look so the letters were cut out a little crookedly on purpose. I colored the nose with a Copic marker and used Glossy Accents on the glasses. Paper is DCWV and ribbon is American Crafts.

I will be leaving tomorrow, but I have a post or two scheduled to post over the weekend while I am gone. I have mentioned a couple of times that I have made several projects by challenging myself to use supplies that have been sitting around for a while or from papers from my scrap pile. I have decided that for the entire month of July that I am going to try and make as many of those type projects as I can. My plan is to finish up some half empty packages of embellishments, spools of ribbon and papers that have already been cut up. I have tons of stuff that I have been saving for no apparent reason, stuff that I like too. Remember the flower brads from my Far Out card below? I love those brads, but I was saving them because there were only two left. I'm not even talking about the things that I look at and wonder what I was thinking when I bought them (those get quietly moved to the girl's supplies), but useful things. If you want to play along, please leave a comment with a link to your creation. Susan did this the other day and it was fun to see what she created and how she changed it to suit her needs. So feel free to leave me links and let me know how your stash is shrinking. Also, I try and start Christmas cards in July so I may pick one day a week to show them. Have a great night!

Stars and Stripes Hanna

Hello! The week is half way over and I am starting to get excited about my trip this weekend! I can't wait to head out on Friday. I will be traveling back to Indiana and Papertrix to attend Beginning, Intermediate and Advanced classes in Coloring Pencil techniques. It is funny, when I travel, I end up throwing clothes in a duffle bag right before going out the door, but for this class and the Copic class I took last month, I had my craft bag packed a week a head of time! Karen Lockhart is teaching the classes and I have been checking out her website and am excited to learn some of her techniques. Hopefully, I will come back with tons of ideas to show you. 

I made this card for the challenge in the Hanna Stamps forum which was to use stars and stripes on your card. I started with this image from the Patriotic Mini set and the stars from a CTMH mini set. I stamped the stars using CTMH Indian Corn Blue, Cranberry and Moonstruck inks and then cut out each one. I added them to my card using foam dots of two different thicknesses, some are on very thin dots and are just slightly above the paper and some stand out a little more. I wanted the flag to stand out too so after coloring the image, I cut it out and glued Hanna flat to the white panel but used another thin foam dot under just the flag. Stamp is Hanna Stamps, paper is DCWV, image is colored with Copic markers, ribbon is Offray, image is colored with Copic and Prisma markers.

Another Foil Card

I am having fun embossing with foil. Taking the picture of the embossed foil? Not quite as much fun! I have been using my Ott light when taking pictures for my blog and it is had to not get a huge glare. One of our final challenges for the Secret Sister exchange was to use something from around the house to create our card.  I used the TAC set Hat's Off and stamped it with brown Memento ink and then colored in the image with Prismacolor pencils and OMS. The emboss the foil, I use a large piece of foil folded into quarters to give it some extra strength and then put it inside the embossing folder, trim away the excess and then run it through the the Sizzix. Stamp from The Angel Company, Cuttlebug paisley embossing folder, flowers from Joilee's, card stock from DCWV, image colored with Prismacolor pencils.

***I do leave all the layers of foil when I put my card together. I have not had an issue with them separating. You can also use heavy duty foil, but I did not have any on hand.

A Scrapling and Blog Awards

I know I am late posting all my Secret Sister challenges. We had a challenge a week and I did them as we went but they have all been in various stages of complete until last week. This was the one that I had the most trouble with. I haven't done a scrapling before and whole I was familiar with the term, I wasn't quite sure what constituted a scrapling. I looked at tons of examples on SCS and they all looked different. I came to the conclusion that a scrapling is a small something that uses scraps! I saw book marks and cards of differing sizes. This is my version! It is actually a long, skinny card that can also be used as a bookmark if desired. I used all scraps from my scrap boxes. The white squares are 1x1 and I used CTMH's Holiday Jubilee set and picked out the 4th of July related stamps. Inks are also CTMH.

My designing D.I.V.A.S. sis and friend Sue has awarded me with the honest scrap award. I met Sue through a blogging group and have enjoyed her friendship so much. 
There are a couple of requirements for accepting the Honest Scrap Award and they are as follows:

1. I must thank the person who gave me the award and list their blog and link and
2. I must list 10 honest things about myself .

Umm, I will try to come up with 10 things, but I  will probably have to come back later and add some more.

1. I am very much a homebody. I love going places and traveling but after about four days I am ready to be home.

2.  I am pretty much a loner. When I was a little kid and people would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would often tell them I wanted to be a hermit.

3. After 5 back surgeries, including three failed fusions, I deal with a lot of chronic pain issues on a daily basis.

4. I will absolutely lie to anyone that asks me how I am feeling. I will almost always lie and say I 'm great or fine! Isn't that a great thing to admit on an honest award! It brings people down when they realize that the pain is there every day and that it affects everything you doit depresses them. My husband knows and a very few friends know sometimes but I have been dealing with this most of my life and hide it fairly well or become a hermit until I can.

5. I am afraid of ticks. Spiders and snakes and all those things are okay, I mean I don't want to see them unexpectedly, but the idea of ticks gives me the heebie jeebies.

6. I am a very clumsy person which earned me the nickname Grace when I was a child.

7. I have a very dry, sarcastic, slightly warped sense of humor.

8. When I get excited, I am like a little kid. Kip and I went to Disneyland a couple of years ago, and I was like a 6 year old.

9. I am very shy.

10. It bothers me that I am so shy. At times it does prevent me from doing things that I would enjoy. I am working on it. Going to  the classes I have been taking in Indiana alone has been a huge step.

Michelle from Inky Scraps passed along this to me. I have only recently discovered her blog and have enjoyed seeing her creations and getting to know her a little better.

The rules to this award are:

1.Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who granted you the award, and include his or her blog link

2.Pass the award to 8 other blogs that you have newly discovered
Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know you have been chosen for this award

1. http://susanscreativespace.blogspot.com/
2. http://sandcastlestamper.blogspot.com/

I will come back and add my blogs a little later. Gotta run!

Happy Father's Day

Good afternoon! I hope you are enjoying the day with you Fathers or the other important men in your life. We went out with Kip's dad last night and we won't see my dad until this weekend. This is the card that I made for him that I wanted to give him in person. I was very fortunate to grow up with a wonderful man as a dad and I have tons of great memories of doing things with him. It's funny what we remember about our childhoods. One of my favorite things that we did was our weekly trip to the dump! When I was little I would go with him a lot on Saturday mornings and after we were done, we would stop at a convenience store and get a snack. As with most of my memories with both parents, it wasn't memories with material things that stick out, it was the things that we did together. Giving time to someone is the most precious thing you can do. We all have different talents, different monetary abilities and different ways that we can touch someone else's life. But we all only get 24 hours in one day and to bestow that gift to someone is priceless. 

Anyway back to my card here! One day were we driving somewhere as a family and my dad says "Hey look!" and he pulls over, gets out a camera and everything and starts pointing out and taking pictures of this owl on a billboard. You guessed it, it wasn't real, only a decoy to scare away birds! To his credit, it was a very realistic one, not like the ones that are obviously plaster. Now owls show up periodically in gifts and things that I give him. I made this card using the owl from a mini Inkadinkado stamp set. The sentiment is from the same set and is broken into two pieces so you can use one part on the outside and the other for the inside. I can't remember what the other part says, I only wanted this part because I wanted to write my own thing on the inside. The outside says "A wise man once said.." and then on the inside I wrote "Hey look at that owl". He will get a kick out of it and that's why he is getting it late so I can give it to him in person. Stamp is Inkadinkado, paper from DCWV, image colored with Copics, and brads are from Making Memories.

If you have visited my blog before you know that my husband makes his own cards to give. Not only does he make the cards, he also has his own stash of supplies. This is the stamp that he made for his dad. I am not sure of all the supplies, but I think the mountains and maybe the tree came from one of my SU sets and the boat is from Stampscapes. He stamped those onto his paper and then drew in his lake line and then colored everything with his Prismacolor pencils. 

Far Out...It's Your Birthday

Wow, it has been really hot here today! We took Kip's dad out for dinner tonight and made a quick run to Target, and that was it for us being out today. This set I have made here is a birthday gift for someone like me who was born in the 70s. I started the Hippy Hanna and then stamped and colored her with Copic and Prisma markers. My dad's sister is actually closer to my age than to his and she was teen-ager in the 70s and I was the pesky little kid that followed her everywhere. I remember watching her get ready to go on dates and out with her friends. She had some of these multi colored jeans! I also remember her having jacked and jeans with those fuzzy iron on patches. To create that look here, I used Liquid Applique on her jeans. That is the only tie-dyed paper I have been able to find anywhere and I love it! You can see the outside of the card says "Far Out", and the inside that you can't see says "It's Your Birthday".

I decided to make this little treasure box full of '70s memories. The box is an A2 card size box that I stamped with Versamagic inks and then added some foam stickers that I got from the girls' collage box.
Inside the box are things that I remember enjoying from my childhood in the 70s; Chicklets chewing gum, Pop-Rocks, Dr. Pepper flavored Lip Smackers, a ring pop, candy necklaces, a Mad-Libs game, some smiley face stickers, and this cool keychain that I made using the accessories from the Hippy Hanna set stamped onto Shrinky Dink film. Thanks for visiting. This is my last entry for the Hanna Stamps Guest DTS call. I don't envy whoever is judging that, there are some fantastic entries. Have a great night!!
Stamps from Hanna Stamps, paper is Paper Pizzaz, brads are Making Memories (I believe) and images were colored with Copic, Prismas, and Spica Markers, card stock is DCWV. Other items used: Shrinky dink film, pony beads, jump rings and a key chain.

Riley bookmarks and Reading Log

Hello and Happy Friday! The other night when I when I was at their house for a cookout, Jenna asked me if I would make her a bookmark. This is a little unusual because that is normally a project that she enjoys doing herself.  Almost every time that they request something they also request that a Riley stamp to be used. Samantha calls this little guy Reading Riley although the name is actually School Riley. I decided to combine to bookmark with a reading log. I started with a sheet of paper from the DCWV Pocket of Posies mat stack ( I think the papers are 4 x 6) and simply scored it down the middle to create a little pocket. I used a scalloped Marvy punch to create a cut out spot then added the adhesive to keep the pocket closed. Riley was then stamped and colored with Copic/Prisma markers and then punched out with the pink Marvy punch and I chose a coordinating color to punch out two scalloped circles the same size as my cut out portion on the pocket.To make the reading log, I used this library card stamp from SU's Stamp of Authenticity set. I measured a matching piece of card stock so that it was the length I wanted and adhered the largest circles onto the top and the card onto the bottom. When you slide it into the pocket, the scallops match up with the open part at the top. Of course I had to make one for Samantha and the friend that stays with them during the day while their moms work. Each girl's bookmark uses their favorite colors. They were very happy with them when I dropped them off this afternoon. Being little girls, I knew they would love some sparkle, but since it needs to lay flat in a book, I added some glitter dots around my main scalloped circle. I used some Glossy Accents on Riley's glasses.
You still have one more day to enter to Hanna Stamps Guest Design Team call, details can be found here. Thanks for stopping by! My project uses: stamp by Hanna Stamps, paper from DCWV, Copic and Prisma markers, scalloped circle punches from Marvy, glitter pen from Sakura and Glossy Accents by Ranger.

CAS Butterflies

Hello everyone! Are you as excited as I am that Friday is almost here? Just a quick post tonight, hubby and I are both off work this evening so we can spend some time together. The clean and simple (CAS) on splitcoast was to used to layout used here. I thought these butterflies would make a cute card. I really like this layout a lot and will definitely use it again. The butterflies and sentiment are all from a set from Clear Dollar Stamps called Butterfly Wings. I like this set because the wings, body and the decorations on the wings are all different stamps so it easy to customize your butterflies any way that you want. After stamping the sentiment and the main butterflies, I went in and scattered some of the smaller ones throughout. The butterfly in the center was stamped twice, once onto another piece of paper and then cut out and applied here with foam squares. I also went over the decorative part of the wing with a clear glitter pen. Paper is DCWV, ink is CTMH, glitter pen is from Sakura and Stamp is from Clear Dollar Stamps. 

Purple and Yellow Challenge

This was a real challenge for me! I really had to think on this one for a while. Angie issued a challenge to the Designing D.I.V.A.S. to make a card using any yellow and purple plus a neutral color. In addition the card needed to use a flower somewhere on it and at least one other embellishment. I started with a background from Stampabilities and embossed it with clear embossing powder and then heat set it. Using the emboss resist technique, I sponged yellow and lavender inks over that panel and then wiped off the excess ink. The image is from the Close to My Heart set Flower Child and was colored with Prismacolor pencils. Stamps are from CTMH and Stampabilities, ink is Versamark chalk inks, paper is DCWV, button is from Making Memories and ribbon is from Hobby Lobby.

I appreciate everyone's advice on the airbrush system. I am still trying to decided so I would still love the hear about your preference or experiences. Thanks for visiting!

An ATC

We were given the challenge to make and ATC card for our Secret Sisters in the Designing D.I.V.A.S. group. I have tried these before and not been very happy with the results, but I really like this one. For some reason, I can't normally seem to get the right balance on the smaller work space. I think having the right size image and picking that out first is what helped me this time. I started with a pack of papers by Memories on the Go that are designed for ATCs. Both the background and the little pictures are from that pack of papers. The stamp is from Hero Arts and is one that I picked up on my birthday weekend--there were three of the little dolls in the set. I hope my Secret Sister enjoys this as much as I do! Paper by Memories on the Go, Stamp from Hero Arts, card  stock is DCWV, ribbon is from Hobby Lobby, ink is Memento, image is colored with Prisma and Copic markers.

We have had some storms moving through the area this afternoon, but it has cleared up now. I am happy about that since I am on my way to a cook out with some friends. I am bringing the chicken for the grill and she is preparing everything else. I have had the chicken marinating for a couple of hours in an orange-soy sauce marinade. We will add some cracked black pepper as we get ready to grill and that will be it.  Have a great night!

I Love My Garden Guest DT Entry

Good afternoon! This is another card that I made for the Hanna Stamps Guest Designer Call (you can find all details here). I think this is a card that I will be keeping to hang in my crafting space. I love red and yellow, especially together and I love all the flowers in this card. I have been hoarding this paper from K&Co. for some time and decided to use it for this project. The paper helped me pick the colors for the rest of the project. I started with the I Love My Garden Hanna set and stamped the Hanna image and the flower pot and colored them with Copic markers.  Both were then cut out. Then I colored in my sky and grass, also with Copic markers and then stamped the lattice thingy with white ink and embossed it with white powder. I also stamped it onto a spare piece of paper so that I could use the flowers, which were also colored and cut out. After all the sky and grass were colored, I added all the pieces and the field of flowers. Stamp is from Hanna Stamps, paper is K& Co, card stock is DCWV, buttons are Making Memories and thread is DMC.

About the flowers: I have been trying to teach myself some quilling basics. So far, these fringed flowers are my favorite thing. I love the way they look and I think I have mastered the technique. This is the first time that I have tried making them with more than one color and I think the are he perfect complement to go with this stamp set and the paper. They aren't terrible difficult to make, but they are a little time consuming. You have to take the strip of paper and make all these little cuts into it before rolling it. If your aren't careful, it is easy to cut straight through the strip or to rip it when it is being rolled. I won't admit to how many were ripped before I came up with these seven flowers! Someone left my a comment on the other flowers I made and asked if I was fringing them by hand or using a machine. There's a machine that does this? 

I am thinking of getting an air brush system. Does anyone have one to go with their Copics? Any hints or information that would help me make a decision? I can't believe I am even asking that. I remember when Angela got her Prisma markers, I said, "Oh. I would never pay that much for markers". Then she let me try them. The first thing I colored was Riley with the little chicks. I was in love with both before I was half way done with the image. Then I got the Prisma markers too, because they were cheaper. Then I needed some skin colors and that led to getting Copics. Now I am looking at air brush systems! 

Motorcycle Riley Guest DT Entry

This is another card I made for the Hanna Stamps Guest Designer call. All the details are here if you want to play along. First, I started by stamping Riley with Memento ink and coloring him and the motorcycle with Copic markers. Then I used Nestabilities to punch out my image and the black frame. I purposely punched it so that Riley is a little off center so that it looks like he is racing out of the frame! I wanted another touch of color and knew if I added another layer of card stock that it would cover part of my background so I inked the edges f the image panel with CTMH Orange ink. What do you think of that background? I first saw my friend Julie use aluminum foil to emboss with a couple of weeks ago and had to try it for myself. Here I used the Skulls embossing folder from Cuttlebug. the sentiment is from a Clear Dollar Stamps Tool set. Paper is from DCWV, brads are from Jo-Ann's and the foil is from my kitchen.

I am excited! When I was in Indiana last month, I found out that there was going to be another class this month that I really wanted to attend. I have been going back and forth trying to decided if I was going or not. I really wanted to go but didn't know how excited Kip would be about me going out of town without him again and so soon. I mean, he understood the Girl's Weekend trip to celebrate my 40th birthday, but I thought it would be a little harder to convince him that I needed to take another road trip to celebrate the six week anniversary of my 40th birthday! I am fortunate to have a very supportive and encouraging husband that understands my crafting addiction. On June 27th, I will be making another almost five hour road trip to Indiana to my favorite stamp store in the entire world, Papertrix. Honestly, I am like a six year old at Disney World in that place! The class is being taught by Karen Lockhart and will cover coloring pencil techniques. It is actually a Beginner class, and Intermediate class and an Advanced class all in one day. The class lasts all day and will cover techniques at each level. Some of them I have never even hear of before! Have a great night!

Star Box

My Designing D.I.V.A.S blog group thought it would be a good idea to start a Secret Sister challenge and exchange as a way to get to know each other a little better. Each of us filled out a little survey with our likes and dislikes and then each week we had a challenge to do with that secret sister in mind. At the end of the period we will be mailing all of our items to the person that we were matched to and reveal our identity. Our last challenge was this week and we will mail them off next week. I haven't posted many of my projects because they have all been sitting on my desk getting continually tweaked! I am always a little more antsy when it comes to sending things to other stampers. Don't know why, just one of the crazy things about me. It has nothing to do with who I am sending them to either. One of my best friends rarely gets anything from me because she is a stamper too. Angela and everyone in the blog groups are so kind, helpful and encouraging so I have no reason to doubt my ideas, but I still do at times. This swap has been very good for me for getting me to step outside my comfort zone. Hang on Angela, you might even get something one day soon!!

Another reason I have been happy that I chose to participate has been the selection of challenges that we were given. I have tried several new things, and more importantly, found that I have enjoyed them. This challenge was to make a box or a bag that we could put in a small treat. The challenge went even further by asking us to make a box or bag that we had never made before. So I went to the main place I always go when I need a project like the, the Scor-Pal website. I swear that is one of the best craft purchases I have ever made. No way I would have gotten this right without my Scor-Pal. There are tons of idea on the site and the directions are very clear and concise and easy to follow. Every project that I have attempted has been a wow project! My star box here uses paper from one of the DCWV Luxury packs, but I am not sure which one. The tag was punched out with the Sizzix Traditional Tag Combo die. The word "inspire" was stamped with CTMH's Solo I set and the flower came from the Solo N set. Both were stamped with CTMH inks and the flower was then painted with Twinkling H20.

I have the whole day today to play around in the craft room, I am so excited. Thanks for stopping by and spending a few minutes of your Saturday with me.

Hanna Stamps Guest Designer Call

Hanna Stamps is having a Guest Designer call and I decided to throw my hat into the ring. If you are interested, you can read about it here. I really do love these stamps, you know how often you see Riley on my blog! I have enjoyed making cards with the Hanna sets that I have too, the images are fun to color and with all the accessories, you can change things up and make things look different even though you are using the same set. But lately, I have been having soooo much fun combining different sets to create different scenes. It's fun to see how many different ways you can use these stamps and accessories and get so many cool scenes.

This is the card that I made for the guest design team call. I combined the Granny Hanny, I Dream of Hanna and To the Beach sets. I made the beach scene by drawing in my sand line, then the water, then colored the rest to be sky. The water has some Liquid Applique on it to mimic waves. The genie is colored with copics. I wasn't quite sure what to do to create the shear look over her legs until I decided to lightly go over her legs with some pink Twinkling H20 paints. Since you can see through those paints, you can still see Hanna's legs, but there is also the appearance of shear material. I outlined the pant legs with Copics to match the rest of the outfit and then added the paints. The lamp was stamped, painted and cut out, but I needed to be sturdy enough to hold this panel closed so I glued it to a thin piece of chipboard and then cut it out again. Are you wondering what Granny's wish was? 

When you open the panel you can see that Granny's wish came true! He is none other than the body builder from the To the Beach set. 
It took me a while to come up with a layout that covered him and had the continuity of the scene on the genie panel and the body builder panel. I wanted to make sure that my sand, water and sky matched whether the card was opened or closed. I tried a couple of different layouts but this worked best. To do this I cut my card base at 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches, and scored on the long side at 3 inches to make the panel. Since Copics bleed through, I cut another 5 1/2 x 3 inch panel to stamp the genie on.

I think I have started to figure out how to take decent pictures with my camera. I can tell a difference anyway. Thanks for stopping by!

Pink Dress

Good afternoon! It's been a great one here today. Kip and I both had a rare afternoon free and were able to each lunch together which was very nice. We have a new restaurant near us that has Japanese, Chinese and hibachi food. The sushi is pretty good there! Several months, or maybe a year ago I decided I wanted to learn how to do paper quilling. I taught myself several basic things using a small kit and a book that I was able to find. I really like the fringed paper flowers. I made a couple of them to use on this card to see how I like them as embellishments. What do you think? The directions mention using a wider quilling paper but this is the only size that I have been able to find. Onto today's card; I used the card sketch challenge from SCS for the layout of this card and for my colors, I used the colors that were in this patterned paper that I really like. The stamp is from Stampabilities and was stamped onto watercolor paper with Memento ink. The dress was painted using Twinkling H20 paints. I embossed the center panel with the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder and then went over it lightly with a sanding block to distress it just a little.  Thanks for stopping by, hope you liked tonight's card.

Gardening Riley & Blogaversary!!

Okay, I know I have been showing you lots of Riley cards lately! Since taking the Copic class, I have been practicing coloring a lot and these images are just lots of fun to color and play with. It also helps that coloring Riley was one of the projects that we did in class, so I can kind of gauge my progress. And I am seeing some progress, for one thing it doesn't take me as long to actually finish an image. This card was for a challenge in the Hanna Stamps forum on SCS. It was a color challenge with a twist. The colors given were apricot and ballet blue and the twist was to add an additional color of your choice. I chose this rusty red color. I don't have any SU colors, so I picked the closest colors I had on hand based on the sample card. Stamp is from Hanna Stamps, image was stamped with Memento ink and colored with Copic markers, paper is DCWV and ovals were cut out with Nestabilities.

One year ago today, I made the first post on my blog! I can't believe how much fun I have had in the past year. I have "met" so many people, some of whom, I have even gotten to meet in person. One of the reasons I decided to start a blog was to encourage myself to craft on a more regular basis. I definitely have! I just wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone that drops by to visit and leaves me such encouraging comments. I am working on putting together some blog candy, so check back in the next few days! Thanks again!

Summery Notecard Box

This is the other notecard box and card set that I made. I decided to go with a bright summer theme with this set. I made eight cards in each set and this set had two different designs. The sentiments are mixed, I included some birthdays, some say thank you and some say thinking of you. The stamps are from the Everyday Blessings set from Papertrey Ink. I stamped the flower in the orange ink and then went around the edges of the stamp with a pink ink pad and then stamped it onto the paper. I forget the name of that technique, I think it is called Rock and Roll or something like that. The box is the same one that I made for yesterday's post with the scalloped lid, but the top of this one is decorated.
Papers are from DCWV, stamp set is from Papertrey Ink, inks are from CTMH and the scallops and circles are punched with Marvy punches.

Notecard boxes

I had someone ask me if I could make them some notecard sets. Just general sets that would be suitable for gift giving. Sure I can! Even better, she had no color scheme that she wanted or anything in particular, she just wanted coordinating sets. It was also my choice if I wanted to do each set exactly the same design or if I wanted to mix them up. This is one set that I made. I used Papertrey Ink's Borders and Corners Monogram Edition set. This is one set that I made all the cards the same. The cards can be used individually as wedding cards to give or the entire set can be given to the bride and groom. You can add a gift card to the decorations on top of the box or on the inside and the  newly married couple has some handmade thank you cards ready to go. If I make this and know the wedding colors, I will coordinate the cards and box to match. The cards use DCWV card stock, the  Swiss Dots Cuttlebug embossing folder, CTMH inks and American Crafts ribbon. Here is the box that was made with the same papers as the cards. I haven't decided how I want to decorate the top yet, or if I just want to add a big bow.  
I will show you another box and card set tomorrow. It's a lot different than this one! I love making boxes and things now. All thanks to my Scor-Pal! I couldn't believe what a difference having that made in my projects. Now when I make boxes and things they actually get given away instead of ending up in the trash. If you are on the fence about this one, go for it. It's one of those purchases that was worth every penny and I use it almost every single day.

The box template came from Splitcoaststampers. It is in the resource section under A2 Card Box. Thanks for stopping by and visiting!

Create a Scene

One of the monthly challenges in the Hanna Stamps forum was to create a scene on your card. I really do love Hanna Stamps for several reasons, in part because they are cute and fun to color but the other reason is all the little accessory stamps that come with each set. It does make it easier to create scenes and to use the same stamp over and over in different ways without it always looking the same. So to create my scene here I combined stamps from four different stamp sets; I used Anthony, Lazy Days, the Patio Mini set and the sentiment from But I Need It. This card really did take me a long time to make, I think it shall become a framed piece of work in my house! Like in the entry way so that everyone that comes in the house can see it. There was a lot of masking involved which is something I don't do a lot because of the time factor. All in all I am please with the little scene I created and colored here. I have mentioned to Kip that we don't really need a pool to have a pool boy to wait on me hand and foot, but he doesn't agree with me. I decided Hanna could have someone waiting on her, and bringing her trays of girly looking drinks. For some reason, I have a harder time photographing larger cards and this one measures 6x6 so I took the picture sitting at my desk. Those are my lovely embellishment drawers behind the card, I forgot to put up a backdrop! Images are stamped with Memento ink, colored with Copics, flowers are from Michael's, rhinestone brads are from Making Memories and paper is DCWV. What do you think of my scene here?

Cupcake Fun

This is our cupcake decorating session! Our monthly craft night is tonight at church and since we have a few younger girls that have joined our crafting group, I decided that cupcakes would be a good snack to take. They are normally a big hit with any age group. Samantha loves going to craft night with me and she loves helping to cook. I got off work about an hour and a half early today so I had time to make homemade icing. Is there anything better than homemade chocolate icing? Yuuumm!!I had the cupcakes baked and cooled when her mom dropped her off so all she had to do was decided on sprinkles. She narrowed it down to four or five choices. She loves those funny feet cupcake holders that Wilton makes so half are done in those and then half were baked in regular cupcake liners. Here is the final tray: 
As if there wasn't enough sugar in those things, the extra pound of sprinkles made sure that everyone will get a sugar high!!

Get the Milk

Good evening. We just got home from Kip's nephews tenth birthday party. Between the two of us we have three nephews and they all have birthdays within a two week period. The nieces are spread out, but the boys are all together. Jacob loves airplanes and I found a really cool kit called "Everything that Flies" and it had the supplies and directions for different planes, gliders and rockets. I got a "Oh that's cool" so I think it was a success!

My card tonight uses an image from Shirley's 2 Girls. I had seen these online but found then when I was at Papertrix last month. For some reason, I thought the images were a lot smaller than what they really are, but they are a great size for coloring. I will get some more of their stamps when I have they chance. I colored everything with Copic markers and the paper is DCWV. Those little flat discs are wonderful (and also a Papertrix find). They are available in at Stamping Bella and come in three different sizes and several colors. They also have a great glittery shimmer to them. I am so thankful the weekend is almost here. Thanks for stopping by! 

I want to ride my bicycle...

I want to ride my bike. Bicycle. Bicycle. Oops sorry, that song from Queen gets stuck in my head all the time! I don't know why but that is one of those songs that I catch myself singing or humming all the time. This is another Riley from my coloring session yesterday and this time Riley is riding his bike. I think this is one of the first Rileys that I ever bought. Riley was stamped with Memento ink and then colored with Copic markers. All the paper and card stock are from DCWV and I think those cool square eyelets are from Making Memories. To keep from adding another layer of paper under the images, I ran the edges over my CTMH Holiday Red ink pad, it adds a little something without adding extra bulk. Have a good evening!