Jingle Bells

Yesterday was stamp-n-play day and I was hoping to get three cards done, nope, only this one! We talked, laughed, stamped just a bit, and had fun. These bells are so easy to colour and look great, especially with stickles on them. I also used smooch spritz on the background with a little change. I used the spray before and didn't like how it covered so I changed it up a bit. I put 1/3 smooch spray and 2/3 99% alcohol into the spritzer and it covered much better, smoother. The only thing is sometimes a drop of the liquid would drop on my paper, I think I need a new spritz bottler! I've entered this card into a few challenges. The first is a sketch challenge on stamptv. I love white on white and that is the challenge at colour create. Charisma Cardz this week is anything goes and One Stop Craft Challenge is to use snowflakes.

Stamps: Gina K Designs Very Merry Christmas, Stampin Up warm words
Paper: whisper white
Ink: real red, more mustard, basic black
Other: red/gold stickles, ice stickles, Stampin Up classic/scallop oval punch, spellbinders scallop ovals, cuttlebug snowflakes and candycane embossing folders, MS snowflake punch

Dart Frog

Meet my adorable dart frog. This stamp is from Gina K Designs and I've had him a week and had to use him. Yesterday was stamp-n-play day so two friends came over and we played. I didn't know what green to use and my friend told me to look up dart frogs on google images, man are those frogs colourful! They come in all colours and this one was the least colourful. There were blues, yellows, purples, and then combinations, weird ones, like 1/2 dark blue and 1/2 bright yellow, totally wild! So I chose the least wild and made this card, lol! I've entered him into the stamptv sketch challenge and Charisma cards, which is a hot, hot, hot theme. These dart frogs come from tropical jungles where its hot, hot, hot!
Stamps: Gina K Designs Hang in There, Impression Obsession Leaf Print Minis
Paper: Cajun Craze, basic black, whisper white, mellow moss
Ink: craft/classic mellow moss,
Other: crystal effects (eye), crimper, brads, MS branch punch, prisma markers, clear embossing powder, spellbinders classic/scallop oval, ribbon

Glass half full

Finally back to making cards! Those 40 thank you cards took a while to make and then a mini vacation, I missed creating. This hilarious guy is a digital stamp from Digishack. The inside says "I say, slam it down and decide later! Happy Birthday. The color challenge from Stamp TV was to use blue, green and pink in a card, so our sun bather gets a sunburn, lol! The Secret Craft Saturday Challenge is "its a man's world", yep nailed that challenge. Cute Card Thursday's challenge is "whatever", did that too! Stamp Something's challenge is a photo challenge. The picture is of balloons and birthday cake. Great challenges.
Stamps: Digishack digital, Rubbernecker sentiment
Paper: Glorious Green, brilliant blue, pretty in pink, whisper white
Ink: glorious green, brilliant blue, ballet blue, pretty in pink, blush blossom
Other: crimper, ribbon, stampin up oval scallop punch, oval classic/scallop spellbinders, stampin up square lattice embossing folder, brads, crystal effects

gifts of Christmas

Here is the last of the three cards we'll be doing Wednesday July 21/22. With the cuttlebug/wizard/bigshot, whatever cutting machine you have cards can be so fast and yet elegant. I LOVE my cuttlebug, the backgrounds are just too cute; add some pearls and ribbon and you're done. I've entered this into an inspirational challenge at stamptv and I've taken the gold and sprigs of holly as my inspiration for this card.

Stamp: Stampin Up Gifts of Christmas
Paper: gold, whisper white
Ink: gold
Other: pearls, ribbon, sizzix embossing folder snowflakes, Spellbinders label 4, spellbinders shapeabilities pendant, gold embossing powder

I lost my head

I thought a long time before making this card and then woosh I made it in 15 min. I wanted to enter a stamp tv challenge and it was to show me your Christmas style. Well I have a lot of "styles" which one was really my style. Then I remembered buying this stamp right after Christmas because it was meant just for me. I LOVE humour and as soon as I "found" it again I knew what I wanted to create. The inside says "I hear that you've been naughty... So listen...here's the scoop. Santa's low on coal this year... So you get snowman poop!" Yes this is Impression Obsession-A bump in the snow
Paper: brilliant blue, whisper white
Ink: brilliant blue, bashful blue, prisma marker 20% gray, close to cocoa, ridinghood red
Other: cuttlebug snowflakes, MS snowflake punches, spellbinders large deckle

Strawberries

This card is sooo not my style but I thought I'd give it a try. I very rarely use design paper and when I do its usually just one piece! I saw a sketch I wanted to try on stamp tv. Melissa described using different patterned paper so I thought why not give it a try. Well, I now have lots of little pieces of dp in my craft room. I'm not very good at grouping dp together, so it took a lot of trial, lots of errors and two days of trying, lol! I do like how it turned out. Secret Crafter Saturday challenge is to use the theme of Strawberries and Cream. Cute Card Thursday is Lets get fruity.
Stamp: digital Strawberries by Beccy's Place
Paper: Early espresso, kraft, apricot appeal, wild wasabi, hostess pack dp by stampin up, whisper white
Ink: crumb cake
Other: prisma markers, ribbon, crystal effects(you can't see it but I put drops of crystal effects on the centres of the flowers and strawberry seeds, looks great IRL), spellbinders label 4, photo corner punch, pearls, stampin up embosslit butterflies, vellum

Charlene's Birthday

This card I made for a fabulous friends birthday yesterday. She adores animals and I knew she would love this image. This was a free digi from Karen's Doodles, great images! I've entered this into 4 different challenges. The first is stamptv and is a sketch challenge. I really like the panels in the background. Charisma Cardz challenge is to use bling. Stamp something challenge this week is summer. And last but not least Drunken Stampers is to use Peg and Spikes favorite which is to colour and use bling. I love using my prisma markers they shade so well. Four challenges awesome!
Stamps: free digi from Karen's doodles, sentiment stampin up best yet
Paper: basic grey, pumpkin pie, summer sun, whisper white
Ink: summer sun, basic grey, mellow moss, bashful blue
Other: prisma markers, crystal effects, sakura gel pen, spellbinders large deckle rectangles, rhinestones, stampin up finial press embossing folder

Christmas peace & joy

This was a challenging Christmas card because both sets are not from Christmas sets. There is a challenge on stamptv to make a Christmas card but to focus on the sentiment. I really wanted to use a Gina K stamp set but I don't own Christmas sets. The background stamp is from Life is good and has the tree backgrounds, animals, a log cabin (which I could've used too) and a train. The sentiment is from Many Wishes which has dandelions and words. It proves you don't need a Christmas set to make a Christmas card!
Stamps: Gina K Life is good, many wishes
Paper: Night of navy, whisper white
Ink: craft/classic night of navy, ballet blue
Other: MS snowflake border, cuttlebug snowflake embossing folder, spellbinders oval classic/scallop, sakura glitter pen, spellbinders shapeabilities fancy tags, ribbon

Cruisin' the parking lot

This is so me except I'm not that old yet! I can lose my car sooo easily, I always park in the same area so that I can find the van. My husband tries to lose me by parking in different places when he drives, he's soo bad! The inside says "getting lucky means you found you car in the parking lot." This card is for three challenges, the first is Kaboodle challenge which is anything goes with a dash of purple. Stamp tv's colour challenge is purple and green with a dark neutral and light neutral. Finally Stamp Something is a Happy somethings challenge and this is a happy birthday card.
Stamps: Gina K Tickle your funny bone, Stampin Up Special Day
Paper: basic black, green galore, whisper white
Ink: basic black,classic/craft green galore, gable green, elegant eggplant, blush blossom, going grey, almost amethyst
Other: clear embossing powder, brads, ribbon, circle/scallop spellbinders oval spellbinders, stampin up oval scallop punch

Winter Bouquet

Christmas in May, yeah! Christmas is my favorite time of year! Its time to start thinking about my July Christmas card workshop so this is one possibility. I'm not really good at bows and I don't really like this one but it'll do. This card is for two challenges the first one being Flourishes Christmas/sketch challenge for the month of May. The stamp I used was quite large, a smaller stamp does come in the set but the image is also smaller and I wanted the larger flower. The second is a colour challenge for StampTV using black/white/gray. Awesome combination!

Stamp: Flourishes winter bouquet
Paper:basic black, whisper white, basic gray
Ink: basic black
Other: prisma markers gray (they have a set that has 9 shades of gray in it, I used 10%, 20% and 30% gray), diamond stickles, cuttlebug snowflake embossing folder, stmapin up perfect dots embossing folder, MS snowflake punch, spellbinders standard and petite scallop circle, pearls, stampin up photo corner punch, ribbon

Hibiscus

This gorgeous flower is from Innovative Stamp Creations, the set is called Hibiscus Flowers. This is the second largest flower stamp on the sheet there is even a larger one, its huge! I've made this card for a couple of different challenges the first one is at Innovative Stamp Creations and is an inspirational challenge. I chose to use the flowers and butterflies. The butterflies are from the set Birch Tree Paintings also by ISC. The second challenge is by Card Positioning Systems (CPS) which is a sketch challenge. The third challenge is at Stamptv and it was to take some flower stamps and stamp up a garden. I would love to stamp more than one of these hibiscus flowers but they wouldn't fit on the card! I love this huge flower and if I got only one of these to grow in my garden I would be sooo happy!
Stamps: Innovative Stamp Creations Hibiscus Flowers, Birch Tree Paintings, Stampin Up Ivy
Paper: Dusty durango, summer sun, whisper white, dp hostess pack
Ink: summer sun, always artichoke, dusty durango, pumpkin pie, versamark
Other: glass beads, crystal effects, butterfly punch, rhinestones, ribbon, clear embossing powder

Peek-a-boo

This adorable digital stamp is from Squigglefly and is one of many Shybears you can purchase. I have a lot of them, not all, yet...,but a lot of them. This is suppose to be a Christmas digital you can see the hat in the bottom right hand corner. I coloured it teal but if you coloured it red, perfect for Christmas. The challenges I'm entering are Squigglefly's blue and green challenge as well as Stamptv's Monday challenge. For Monday's challenge you had to pick which colours you would use from a lot of different colours. The green is slightly brighter than Tina's card but its close.
Stamp: Squigglefly Shy Bears Peek-a-boo
Paper: basic black, taken with teal, tempting turquoise, green galore
Ink: none
Other: prisma markers, brads, ribbon, cuttlebug candycane embossing folder

Alexandra

I love the look of Alexandra, she's so classic. Rubbernecker has a full line of ladies, and has recently added more with awesome outfits. This card is for two challenges, the first Frosted Designs, is to use masking. I masked Alexandra so I could do the background wallpaper and floor. The second challenge is from Stamptv and is to use tone on tone for a background, done.
Stamp: Rubbernecker Alexandra
Paper: chocolate chip, mellow moss, very vanilla
Ink: mellow moss, basic black
Other: prisma markers, ribbon, curl clip, labels 3 spellbinders, clear embossing powder

gift Box

I did this gift box for a challenge at stamptv. The paper I used for the top is so cool, it looks like a sheet of stamps. It would make a great card background. I used Gina K stamps, I love anything antique, and labels three from spellbinders. Now I just have to make something to go in it!
Stamps: Gina K timeless Treasures
Paper: 20cent clearance dp paper
Ink: Close to cocoa, creamy caramel, more mustard
Other: brads, lace, crystal effects, clear embossing powder

Explore, Dream, Discover

I did both of these cards for the Stamptv April release challenges. The brayering on the colour challenge card, blue and yellow, took me a while to figure out but I did! Once the brayering was done the card was so fast. Its minimal and for me that was its appeal, and that it was fast!
The second card is for the sketch challenge. Again I brayered the background and just added, this time embossed, the dandelions. I didn't emboss the french script background I wanted it softer.
The nature scenes from Gina K Designs are so gorgeous!
Stamps: Gina K Designs Life is Good and Happy Camper
Paper: basic black, yoyo yellow, whisper white
Ink: Tempting turquoise, yoyo yellow, always artichoke, basic black
Other: brad, ribbon,stampin up perfect dots embossing folder
Stamps: Gina K Designs Many Wishes and Happy camper
Paper: basic black, mellow moss, whisper white
Ink: mellow moss, always artichoke, more mustard, versamark
other: clear embossing powder, ribbon

Dream

I did another card with the Hero Arts Dandelion stamp, I love it! I brayered the background with brilliant blue, summer sun and then ridinghood red. It was perfect... then I promptly dropped the brilliant blue stamp pad on it! So then I started again and redid everything. I added a horizon with brilliant blue and sponged a sunlight strip onto the water. Stamped the dandelion stamp in black and the butterflies are from Stampin up beautiful wings. I'm entering this into two challenges the first one is Frosted Designs and the challenge was to create something with the word dream in it, done. The second is stamptv color challenge and it was to use royal blue (brilliant) yellow (summer sun) and red (ridinghood red), done.
Stamps: Hero Arts Dandelion frame, Gina K Designs Botanical Dreams
Paper: Basic black, whisper white
Ink: brilliant blue, summer sun, ridinghood red
Other: Stampin Up embossed beautiful wings, ribbon

Think of You

These incredibly gorgeous flowers are from the Flourishes set sweet peas. The stamp is so large you really can only do it on an oversize card. This is a 5 1/4"square (13.5x13.5cm) and the stamp just fits. I did this for a friend who's going in for major surgery Tuesday. This is for the stamptv challenge to use white, black and yellow. What an elegant combination.
Stamps: Flourishes Sweet Peas, Stampin up Cheery Chat
Paper: Whisper white, basic black
Ink: yoyo yellow, summer sun, basic black, mellow moss
Other: Stampin up perfect dots embossing folder, ribbon, circle punches

spring has sprung box

You can create this gorgeous box from the template found on stamptv. I'm sure there are other templates out there but this one is so easy to follow. The one exception to very easy to follow is there should be a warning for first time makers (me) who forgot that with a lid on the box centering the bottom panels is a bit different lol! I should have made the topnote panels just a bit smaller AND there should be no space between the patterned paper and the bottom of the box. That way you'd be able to see the entire topnote image, the top of it wouldn't be cut off. Clear as mud? The second caution I would say (because I don't use patterned paper very often I forgot this
when scoring dp be very careful, its so thin that it tears easily! That being said this box would amke a gorgeous gift! Put some seed packets in it, or a small plant, a planter of dried flowers, the possibilities are endless. Yes Tanis this will be a class in the spring, probably May! I entered this box into two challenges. The first on is stamptv anything but a card and the second is Charisma Cardz Challenges which is spring has sprung! With the flowers on each image this is a definite spring has sprung box. Stamps: Flourishes from the garden
Paper: Night of navy, bashful blue, dp, whisper white
Ink: night of navy, bashful blue
Other: ribbon, stampin up markers, nestabilities label #4

Morning Marigold

This gorgeous marigold is from Stampin' Up! I haven't been water colouring for a while, you can tell my highlights aren't very good, I've always had trouble with highlights and painting. If anyone knows of a good website that gives tips on watercolouring please let me know in my comment section. I did this card for three challenges; the first one is Saturday Spotlight with Hidden Potential. The challenge was to make a birthday card the colour of my birthday. Mines in January so the colour would be garnet which is a deep red. Bravo burgandy comes close but doesn't have the gorgeous hue that a garnet has, but close, lol! The second challenge is on stamptv and is a sketch challenge. The third is One Stop Craft Challenge and that was to make something shine. I took the photo of my card on an angle so you can see the embossing on the background(which is shiny) and the glitter on the marigolds(which is also shiny). Great challenges!
Stamps: Stampin Up morning soft, Floral, Teeny Tiny Wishes, Vintage Vogue
Paper: Bravo burgandy, whisper white
Ink: Bravo burgandy, garden green, basic black, versamark
Other: clear embossing powder, ribbon, swiss dots embossing folder, sakura glitter pen, curely label punch, ticket corner punch

Glenda's Birthday card

I'm off to Tuscon in the morning for a week but I had to share this last birthday card I did today. The inside says "You're so screwed!" Glenda not only is still my friend but she loved the card. There were two challenges I had in mind when I made this card. The first was Saturday Spotlight with hidden potential and the challenge was to clean things up a bit. I chose to not sponge around the image, which is unusual for me and not to add any embellishments. The second challenge was from stamptv and was a sketch challenge. The only thing I changed was the oval, at stamptv its a circle, close enough.
Stamp: free digi stamp, computer generated sentiment
Paper: pixie pink, whisper white
Ink: primsa markers
Other: stampin up border punch, oval nestabilities, swiss dots embossing folder