Ahhh, Coffee

I love the look on Hanna's face here, it just seems like she is so enjoying that cup of coffee! I know I enjoy my first cup that much. Just imagine if I had a Keurig, I bet I would look as happy as she does here!! My card tonight was made using the sketch provided by Sandra for the Hanna Stamps November release. I started with Cafe Hanna, colored her with Copic markers and then used an oval Nestie to cut out the portion that would fit the sketch.  That cute little mug is one of the accessories available in the set; I colored it with Copics and then covered it with Glossy Accents. IRL my colors match a better than they do in the picture, when I edited the picture it looked fine, but now the colors look a little off. The orange panel is much more vibrant but here looks rather washed out. Supplies: Cafe Hanna from Hanna Stamps, flowers from K& CO (I think), Copic markers, glossy accents, oval and circle Nestabilities. Thanks for visiting and have a great night!

My odd sense of humor

Okay, I admit, I do have an odd, quirky sense of humor. But it runs in my family so they understand me. About a week and a half ago, I got a phone call from my mom while I was at church. It was one of those phone calls that you knew something was up immediately. She was at the E.R. with my eighty three year old grandfather. Everything turned out okay. Here's the story: he was pulling his truck either into or out of the garage, put it in park and then got out. when he got in front of it, the truck started rolling, hit him, flipped him and then ran over his arm and his leg. Fortunately his neighbor was outside, stopped the truck before it went through her house and was able to help him into the house. By some miracle, he had no broken bones or permanent damage and only has cuts and bruises. So I call him to see how he is doing he is cutting up and saying he should have the truck arrested for attempted murder. So here is the card he is getting in the mail; a truck in a jail cell. The closest thing that I have to a truck stamp is this Riley in a van stamp. To make the jail, I added the Lockup bars from the Busted Hanna set. He will get the joke and it will give him a chuckle. It's a very basic, simple card because that is what he likes the most. Sorry for the wonky angle of the photo, I forgot to take a picture so I pulled it out and took a quick one. I also used a wishing you well stamp from EK Success, CTMH White Daisy ink, and a photo corner punch. Oh yeah, this was his old work truck that I think my mother has forced him to finally retire.

Hanna Fans Blog Hop

Good evening! Here is my card for the first ever Hanna Fans Blog Hop! I actually made this card as part of a gift set that I will be giving a friend just before Thanksgiving. The card uses Chimney Riley and the image was stamped with Memento ink and then colored with Copic markers. I used  white Fun Flock on the Santa suit and Liquid Applique on Riley's beard. The snow is a combination of Liquid Applique and chunky glitter from Martha Stewart. All papers are from a Hobby Lobby paper pack, sentiment is from Studio G, and the button is Making Memories.
This is also part of the gift. It is an altered coffee tin that I covered in the same paper from Hobby Lobby, white card stock and plaid ribbon from Jo-Ann's. I used this adorable Elf Hanna that I colored with Copic Markers, a Spica pen and a silver gel pen. After coloring everything, I cut it out. I stamped the fireplace and drew in my floor directly on my scalloped oval and then added Hanna when I was ready to decorate the tin. My friend that is getting this has three small children and she loves to do different activities with them. On each piece of the rolled paper, I have written and activity for the family to do and there is one for each day from Thanksgiving until Christmas. Some examples of activities: make cookies, make a card to send to a service person, call or visit a relative that lives far away, and draw a picture to give a friend. 

Instead of sending everyone in this family an individual gift, I send family gifts. So in addition to the tin of activities, I will also send a box with supplies to do most of the activities. They are also game lovers so I will include a gift card to a toy store so that they can pick out a new game. I made the gift holder with the same paper pack and the image is done the with the same supplies as the card above.

Thanks for stopping by! The next stop on the hop is Jacquie. Here is the entire list of participants:

1. Frances http://stampowl.blogspot.com/
2. Cindy http://cindyhaffnerscorner.blogspot.com/
3. Silke http://silli-silli.blogspot.com/
4. Sandra http://paperfuntastics.blogspot.com/
5. KelliJo http://mommachull.blogspot.com
6. Mary http://alatteinkinfun.blogspot.com/
7. Gina http://ginasmakingsandmusings.blogspot.com/
8. Jacquie http://jacquiemakescards.blogspot.com
9. Kimberley S http://faerietaleswithpaper.blogspot.com/
10. Jen http://designsbyboo.blogspot.com/
11. Maria http://www.riacreations.blogspot.com/
12. Jackie http://stampingsister.blogspot.com
13. Joycelyn http://stampsncoffee.blogspot.com/
14. Joy http://daiseyfreak.blogspot.com/
15. Tracey http://www.trays-spot.blogspot.com/
16. Sparks http://sparklecreations.blogspot.com
17. Lorie http://www.thethinkinspot.blogspot.com/
18. Tanya http://lovepapernstamp.blogspot.com/
19. Laurie http://stampinvirgo5.blogspot.com/
20. Bek http://www.bloomingpink.blogspot.com
21. Janet www.corrosivecreationsbyjanet.blogspot.com
22. Kelly http://sandcastlestamper.blogspot.com/
23. Michele www.enchantedstamper.blogspot.com
24. Angela http://inmyquiettime.blogspot.com

Captain Kangaroo Day

The challenge in the Hanna Stamps forum today was to make a card to celebrate an obscure October Holiday. I googled a list of October holidays and saw that Captain Kangaroo day was on October 3rd. No doubt about it, that was going to be my holiday, I didn't even read the rest of the list. I was a huge fan of the Captain Kangaroo show, I had a serious crush on Mr. Green Jeans, couldn't wait to see the little family that lived behind the books on the bookshelf, and sang along with the "Now you know my name is Simon, and the things I draw come true...". So yes, my card had to honor the greatest show my childhood. I started with School Riley and colored him with Copics, added some Glossy Accents to the glasses and cut out only the top part of Riley. Since Mr. Moose was a puppet, he was always behind a shelf so I tucked him behind the brown paper along with his friend Bunny Rabbit. If you aren't familiar with the show, Mr. Moose was always trying to trick the Captain into saying something that would cause ping pong balls to rain down, often involving a knock-knock joke and Bunny Rabbit was always trying to get carrots. I punched out a bunch of "ping pong balls" with a regular hole punch, some are glued directly onto the paper and others were added with pop dots. The papers are DCWV, ribbon is American Crafts, the button is Making Memories and I used some green DMC embroidery floss.

Not quite sure who will end up getting this card! I think I will give it to my Mom because during my days of loving Mr. Green jeans, she bought me a pair of green jeans and had to wash them a lot because I wanted to wear them every day. Wonder if she will remember all that, based on this card? 

I think this is one of those times that my being a couple of years older than Kip really comes out. He didn't remember all these characters! Not only did he get a very detailed description, but I also managed to find some clips on You Tube and made him watch them. It's a good thing he loves me so much, because sometimes he thinks I am a little weird, I mean unique! If you remember Captain Kangaroo, leave me a comment letting me know what your favorite character or segment was.

Halloween Poppers

The challenge in the Hanna Stamps forum on SCS is Trick or Treat, I made these Halloween Poppers that can be filled with treats. My image is Vampire Riley from from Hanna Stamps. I made them basically the same way you would make Christmas Poppers, but I cut them a little smaller. One of the reasons I did this is because I thought that a bunch of these on a platter would look like those peanut butter candies that are wrapped in the orange and black papers. My image was colored with Copic markers and then punched out with a Marvy scalloped oval. Due to the size of the popper, I didn't have enough room to add a backing piece of paper so I took a marker in the color that I wanted to use and then used the brush tip to go into the grooves of the scallops. The ribbon is from Wal-Mart.

To make these, I used a cardboard tube (paper towel or toilet paper roll) and I cut my tubes into 2 1/2 pieces. I measured out my papers to the length that would completely cover the tube and slightly overlap. For the width, I  measured 3 inches past the ends and cut there. As a general rule, I just kind of eyeball this step. If I am using longer tubes, such as a full size toilet paper tube, I will make the ends about half the length of the tube. You will need to add about 1/2 inch to what you have decided to make those sides, that much will be used when you bring in the sides to tie your bow. This does not work very well with card stock unless it is very thin, DP works better. I had bought some cheap card stock for this project and it is very thin and easy to work with. After adhering the covering, I gathered up one side and tied my ribbon. This is the point that you will fill your popper. After you have added your goodies and tie the other side closed. Then decorate them if you want and you are done. If my directions don't make sense or if you have any questions, feel free to email me and I will try to explain it a little better!

Color Challenge

I made this card for the October release challenge in the Hanna Stamps forum on SCS. The challenge was to use the colors rust, olive and teal on a card. Now, the rust and olive were easy, adding teal was not! I so rarely work with that color that I was surprised to even find a piece of teal card stock in my paper stash. I started with the Farmers stamp from Hanna Stamps, stamped it with Memento and colored it with Copics and Prisma markers. The ovals were cut out with scalloped oval Nestabilities, the papers are from DCWV and the ribbon is from my stash. Well, I am off to grab a healthy snack and then to play along with the Hanna Stamps release party!

Friday Night Card Class

This is the card we will be making Friday night at Craft Night. There are several of us that are learning to work with our Copic markers to their fullest potential and a couple of people that are interested in getting started with them. I thought this would be a good image to play with, so this is the card that we will be making on Friday night. I started with the Pumpkin Patch Riley from Hanna Stamps and colored everything with Copic markers. For the background embossing I used the Cuttlebug Pumpkin Harvest embossing folder, but I used the recessed side, not the raised one. All papers and card stock are DCWV and the ribbon is from my stash, I wish I knew who made it because I love the rust color. Thanks for visiting!

Copic Class Cards

Good evening! I had two more cards from my recent Copic class to show you. This first one uses Gardening Hanna from Hanna Stamps. One of the things we learned was how to add texture on our images. It's kind of hard to see in the photograph but we added denim texture to Hanna's overalls by using the colorless blender solution and real pieces of denim. I really liked this card, it's not a color combination I use very often but I love the fall look we achieved. 

I am not sure if I should thank Candice for this next card or not! I have been wanting an airbrush system for a while. kind of going back and forth, yes I need one, no I don't. Candice brought hers to the copic class and we made this cute little card. There is no doubt now, I really want an airbrush system! Thanks (I think!) Candice. 

Happy Saturday!

I hope everyone has had a great start to their weekend. I was able to have a fairly nice low key Saturday. Originally my parents had said they were going to come for a visit but there ended up being a conflict with something else. That left me with a Saturday with no plans! I wasn't going to leave the house but then I realized we were out of coffee and I wouldn't have any if I didn't go to the store. No thinking was even required, I went out to buy coffee! I also spent some much needed time creating in my happy space. I made this card using School Girl Sophie from Hanna Stamps. The image was stamped with Memento ink and colored with Copic markers. I made this card to give to Jenna, using the school colors at her new middle school and tried to color the uniform as close to hers as I could. It's funny that I have about 8,000 spools of ribbon and not one that is blue and green plaid! Instead of plaid, I used this green and white ribbon from the Paper Studio. I am not sure of the maker of this charm, Cindy gave some of these to me when I visited Papertrix last weekend.

I have been on the lookout for the perfect storage system for my Copics. I wanted something that would keep them somewhat organized, not take up too much room and something that could be easily transported when I go to crafting get-togethers.  Someone posted on SCS the other day asking for storage solutions and Karolyn posted a picture of her system. I loved it! It is large enough to hold all my markers, Copics and Prismas too. It also has handles so that I can carry it to different places. Right now on the inside I have the acrylic cases that the sets of markers come in, but if ever get most of the colors, I will switch to dividers that take a little less room on the inside. This works for me right now since I am teaching Samantha how to blend colors and to choose the colors so they are all laid out in numerical order by color family.
This is one of the cards that we made in the Copic class taught by Candice last weekend. Great class! I will show you the other cards in the next day or so. 

Riley Birthday Card

One of my blogging buddies, Peggy has a son in Basic Training. His birthday was this week and she wanted him to get as many cards as possible. I don't blame her, happy mail is good anytime, but especially on your birthday while you are away and working so hard. I decided to use this Riley stamp from Hanna Stamps. Somehow this guy made it to my house and has been sitting here a while and had never gotten inky. I colored the image with Copic Markers then used papers from DCWV for the card. I am not sure of the maker of the kraft paper though. I picked up a pack of it somewhere and can't remember where I got it! The Happy Birthday sentiment is from CTMH and was stamped with their Chocolate ink. I hope he enjoyed his birthday card.

The weekend is almost here! The bathroom project is officially completed and now it is time to start another room. I really want the crafting space done, but it is such an overwhelming project, I don't even know where to start. Maybe inspiration (and motivation!) will hit me in the next 24-48 hours. 

Watercolor Challenge

And what a challenge this was for me! The challenge in the Hanna Stamps forum was to use watercolors. Normally if I am using watercolor paints it is to create a background of some sort. I rarely (only once I think!) them to actually paint and image. I bought some Peerless watercolors a while back and have only used them a time or two so it was time to pull them back out again. Have you seen these before? The color pigment is on sheets of paper, you simply trim off a small snip and then add them to water. It reminds me a little of those painting its I would get when I was a little girl, it would be a picture and then three or four strips of paper that had the paint on them. Anyone else remember those? The colors are much more vibrant with the Peerless watercolors though and you actually have enough to use over and over again. Back to the card; I stamped Riley onto watercolor paper using Memento ink and then painted him with my watercolors. I was able to get some shading on the water, but never did with the Riley image. Oh well, I guess I need more practice with this medium. I am happy with the way it turned out though. I raided the girls' beading supplies to find this white beading cord and tried to tie a cool nautical knot with it. You should have seen me sitting at my craft desk with my iPhone in one hand looking up sailor knots and the cord in the other trying to tie the knots. My name is Gina and I am a nerd!  The paper is DCWV, the star brads are from Color Bok and I used my square Nestabilities to punch out my image and the frame behind it. Have a great evening!

I love my computer

I loved this set from Hanna Stamps last release party. I spend just a little too much time on the computer and get just a little teasing about it. I used a computer generated sentiment. I heard this somewhere a long time ago and it stuck with me. Actually it makes me laugh! Here is the rest of the sentiment on the decorated inside of my card:
There was a challenge in the Hanna Stamps forum; it was to use this stamp set and to also use the colors pink, gray and black. I really like those colors too, that combo is on the short list for the color scheme when we redecorate downstairs. I wanted something fuzzy or furry for the rug below the desk. I couldn't think of anything until I saw some felt flowers on my desk and remembered that I had some felt squares that the girls and I had used for some project or another. I was very happy to see that there was some pink left! I stamped Hanna with Memento ink and then colored everything with Copic markers and then cut her out. The rug was also stamped using Memento ink directly onto the felt. It worked and it didn't smear, but isn't very dark. I drew in the wood floor and colored it with Copics too, added my section of "wallpaper" and then added in a white strip for my baseboard. The ribbon was just tied in the middle and then I spread them out a little so that you can see both colors. I used Fiskars Scallop punch on the border and then decided I wanted some more black so I added the black brads.

School starts back here tomorrow so my schedule changes too. I am not sure how it is going to work out yet, but hopefully I will still have time to craft and post on here every day. I have decided my personality is a lot better if I have some daily creative time! 

Jenna's Party Invites

My friend's daughter call the other night to let me know that she had decided on a mini-golf birthday party for her upcoming birthday. I normally make the invites and other things for her and her sister whenever they need anything. Since their mom is not crafty and I don't have kids, it works out well for both of us! So I got a phone call on Saturday night from Jenna letting me know about the mini-golf and I asked if she had any other requests for the cards and she didn't. That's pretty rare for an almost 10 year old! She knows that I will make something that she will like, taking her likes and dislikes into consideration. This is version 1 of her invites. She hasn't seen them yet, so they may change a little. Jenna and Samantha both love Riley and that is what I normally use to make their things with. Since I am still in the month of my self challenge to use only stuff on hand, I decided to see if I could find enough coordinating papers to make all of her invites plus hopefully her thank you cards to send after the party. I found this DCWV paper and the matching card stock and it is perfect for her. Riley is colored with  Copics and the scalloped piece was cut out with Nestabilities. "Join Us" and "Party" come from a Fiskars party set and the "Fore" is from a TAC set of the same name. The pink and green inks are both CTMH. Jenna is all about pink and shiny things so I used these metallic spots that I got from Jo-Ann's as a golf ball. Hopefully she will like them! 

Ready for a Swim?

Good afternoon! I made this card for one of the challenges in the Hanna Stamps forum. It was a sketch challenge provided to us by Sandra. I thought this sketch was so cute! I know it is on that I will use again. You know how much I love Riley and this was the perfect sketch to use. I love this color combo too, it just says summer to me and is perfect for little boys. I use these colors a lot when I am making things for my nephew Silas. When he was born, I helped my sister start a scrapbook for him and the book used these colors. So I always think of him when I use this combo. I started by stamping Fins Riley with Memento ink and then colored him with Copic markers. The paper is from a Making Memories pack with all these great coordinating patterns and the brads are from The Paper Studio. That's it for today! i am going to try and sneak in a quick nap before I have to leave again.

Wishing for Sunny Days

Thank you so much for all the tips for the acetate sheet, I couldn't wait to try another card. I embossed my acetate again with a Cuttlebug folder, this time it is attached behind my image and then the brads are also helping hold it to the blue paper. I stamped my Rainy Day Hanna with Memento ink and then colored everything with Copic markers. I am not sure of the maker of the ribbon, since it is from my stash, but I believe it is from one of the DCWV accessory packs from last spring. Everything on this card came from my stash and those were the last three brads from that pack! I am making progress with my self challenge, I have finished off a couple of packages and the scrap pile is getting smaller. The only thing I need to work a little more on is to make some cards with the images that have already been colored. Enjoy your evening and thanks for stopping by!

Christmas in July

It has been a great day off! I slept in, no waking up to an alarm clock for me today and then got up and headed straight to my craft room. well first I jumped online to check out the challenges on SCS. The challenge in the Hanna Stamps forum today is Christmas in July. Perfect for me since I am planned a craft day with the same theme on the 18th and I pulled out some Christmas paper and embellishments last night and they were sitting there on the desk ready to go. The challenge also fit in with my self challenge to use only supplies that I have on hand. I was able to find several good deals on Christmas stuff last year so they were put away and have been waiting to be used. To make this card, I started by using the tree from the Tis the Season Hanna set to create my tree farm, masking some of the trees to make it look like rows of trees. I colored these trees with Prismacolor pencils. To make the snow on the ground, I added some Martha Stewart Glitter. I stamped Riley onto a separate piece of paper and colored him and his tree with Copic and Prisma markers. After cutting him out, I added some foam squares to the back and was going to add him to the scene, but decided I wanted to have more distance between Riley and the rows of trees so I added a second layer of foam squares. See Riley's pink cheeks? It must really be cold! I hardly ever add clothes to any of these stamps, it just looks kinda weird when I do so I leave him au natural. Stamps by Hanna Stamps, glitter from Martha Stewart, paper from the Paper Studio, sentiment from Studio G, and the snowflake is from the stash.

Speaking of Christmas in July, if you live nearby or are my real life friend, plan on joining us on July 18th for our monthly craft event at church. Normally we meet the first Friday night each month, but because of the holiday, we changed the date. We will be celebrating Christmas in July and will have some quick and simple gift ideas and Christmas cards on display. Hope you can join us! I normally start making cards in July so I may try and post these on Fridays, since that it a day that I don't always post.

We are headed out in a couple of hours to meet my in-laws. We will be grilling out tonight and heading out on the boat to watch fireworks at Nashville Shores. I am so not a boat person though. Have a great day if your are celebrating and be careful!

Little Dresses

Whippeeee!!!! It is the end of the week and it came a day early and I am so excited about that. I thought today would never end at work. And of course about fifteen minutes before I was supposed to leave, someone needed me and I ended up being there late. That doesn't happen too often though so it was okay. I was just ready to get a start on this long weekend. I had a great time last weekend but when I travel on the weekends, it wears me out. My card tonight uses the Five Dresses set from Hanna Stamps. In keeping with my July challenge, I used what  had, even though some hot pink ribbon would have been great here! I started with this pattern paper and pulled my color palette from there. My flowers used to be a pale pink that didn't match but I used the same Prisma marker that the images were colored with to color my flowers. See, I am working on that self challenge! Stamps from Hanna Stamps, images colored with Prisma and Copic markers, flowers are from Jo-Ann's, brads are Making Memories, ribbon is from Hobby Lobby and the paper is DCWV.

This high fashion card is in honor of my new favorite Thursday night TV show She's Got the Look. Have you ever watched that show? I am surprised that I liked this show as much as I do. It's funny since that is not the type of show I normally watch, but I am enjoying this one. All the models are at least 35 years old and there is one woman competing that is 72. She is my favorite and who I would like to see win. Have a great night!

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!

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.

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.