Happy Easter Basket

I made this card to play along with this weekend's Cupcake Challenge over at Taylored Expressions. The basket of flowers, Happy Easter sentiment and chicks are from Flourishes' Signs of Spring set. I colored the images with Copic markers and added a little Sweet Pea Flower Soft to the hyacinths in the basket. I stamped the two chicks separately, cut them out and popped them up with some foam squares.

The image was cut out using my Labels Two Nestabilities and I used my Stampin' UP! Really Rust marker to add some dots around the edge of the main panel. The flower is from Stampin' UP! and was airbrushed with a Copic marker to match the mat color. I topped it with an orange button, tied with some Scrapper's Floss. All the papers are from Basic Grey's Marrakesh 6x6 paper pad.

Here's a close-up of the Flower Soft. It's pretty neat stuff and adds some nice texture and interest to flower images.

That's about it for this card. Hope you had a nice weekend and that your week is getting off to a good start!

Thanks for stopping by!

CPS108 - May the light always find you...

The first line of this sentiment certainly fits our weather here in Atlanta today - it's a dreary, rainy day. The last line of the sentiment is just a bit silly....but good for a chuckle. And these little frogs are pretty cute and very fun to color!

I used this week's CPS108 sketch for this card, and I can also use this card to play along with Sharon's Mix and Match challenge today. I thought the green polka dot paper was perfect for frogs, so I started with that. It's from the DCWV Nana's Nursery Baby Boy paper pack, so it was easy to find a coordinating stripe to add for the little strips. I weaved them together in the corner and added a purple Dew Drop in the center where they intersected.

The frogs were colored with Copic markers to match the colors in the striped paper. After I colored the frogs, I used the pale yellow marker and pounced it on the frogs to give them some texture. Then they got a little Diamond Stickles on their eyes to make them sparkle.

I stamped the set of frogs twice and then cut out the individual frogs from one set and mounted them with foam tape on the top of my Labels One die. I punched and embossed the bottom edge of the polka dot paper using the replacement punch that Fiskars was kind enough to send to me when I complained about the one I bought recently. Unfortunately, this one isn't much better, but it's not as noticeable on patterned paper.

I don't usually show the insides of my cards here, but I always decorate them to coordinate with the front. For this one, I repeated the woven paper strips and used a section of the punched polka dot paper. I stamped and colored one more frog, then cut it out and mounted it in the corner.

I think this card would be a good 'pick-me-up' for someone who is down in the dumps.

Hope you've had a good week and that there are no frogs in your underpants...eeeewww!

Card details:
Patterned paper: DCWV Nana's Nursery Baby Boy 8x8 paper pack
Stamps: Repeat Impresssions
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Markers: Copic - Y21, Y23, YG03, G24, BV000, BV11
Other: The Robin's Nest Dew Drops (Water), Ranger Diamond Stickles

WSC73 - Happy Easter

This card was made using Beate's weekend sketch challenge, hosted this week by Cambria Turnbow.

I received this Signs of Spring set from Flourishes last week and thought it would be perfect for this sketch and combined with this patterned paper from Dream Street Papers Heartsong collection. The card stock is all from Prism - the Teal Pack and the Desert Coral Pack.

I stamped the two little chicks and the daffodil on Cryogen White paper, then colored them with Copic markers to match the colors in the patterned paper, and then added a little shimmer by coloring over each image with a Copic Lemon Spica glitter pen. Each image was punched out using a 1" punch, then matted on a scalloped square. The top edges of the white and teal mats were cut with a Fiskars Lace border punch.

The Happy Easter sentiment was also stamped on Cryogen White paper and cut out using a Circle Nestability, as was its mat. I added three Dew Drops from the The Robin's Nest, Water collection. I think that about covers it!

Thanks for looking, hope you have a great week!

Spring Birthday wishes

When I went on the road last week, I took a bunch of supplies with me to make some cards for Scrap Chic Boutique. I had tried to plan ahead the cards I wanted to make using the patterned papers I had been given. I was a bit overzealous with the amount of paper and stamps I took with me, thinking that I was going to have lots of time to work on cards. I only completed 4 cards, and ended up lugging most of it back, unused.

This is one of the cards I did manage to complete. As soon as I saw this patterned paper from Dream Street Papers' Heartsong collection, I knew I wanted to pair it with this Fiskars eyelet punch, which I had seen before, but did not own. So that meant a trip to JoAnn's to use my 40% coupon and pick one up. I have to say, I'm not particularly happy with it at this point. It doesn't cut a smooth, continuous border and it doesn't emboss as well as I'd like. I'm a bit frustrated with it, but still trying to get the hang of it and make sure it's not the paper I'm using or operator error. Time will tell...

At any rate, I stamped the butterfly and the sentiment from Papertrey Ink's Butterfly Kisses set. Since I was on the road, I didn't have my Nestabilities, so I just cut the layers using my portable paper trimmer and then used the eyelet border punch on the bottom of the panel with the stamped images. I tied a bow using Papertrey Ink's Aqua Mist satin ribbon and then added some Taylor's Tiny Twinkles above the bow and throughout the butterfly. The pink patterned paper is just the back side of the Dream Street Paper. Definitely not much to this card, but I like the color combo and the spring feel it has.

Hope you're having a good week! Thanks for looking!

The bad blogger is back....

Wow...forgive me readers, it's been 11 days since I've blogged...sounds like confession...

Anywhooo, here I am again. This has just been one of the craziest of months around here - please forgive me for being so bad about blogging. I am finally home, after being out of town for 8 days - partly for work and partly for pleasure. The part that was for pleasure was very fun and included attending a Copic Certification class this past weekend! So, now I'm not only certifiable, I'm also certified! Probably the most important thing I learned from the class is the need to continue to practice, practice, practice.

This card is one I made before I went out of town, and intended to post it from the road, but time just got away from me. This is some more glittery patterned paper from My Mind's Eye's Laundry Line - Coastal collection. Since I've needed so many sympathy cards lately, I guess I was still in that frame of mind when I made this one. The quote is a little hard to read in the photo, but it says "May hope sustain you, friends surround you, and love give you strength.".

The main panel was stamped with Brilliance Pearlescent Copper ink and I used Papertrey Ink's With Sympathy set and a Nestabilities Label One die to cut and emboss the panel. The rhinestones in the flower centers and the butterfly are Taylor's Tiny Twinkles. The buttons are from Papertrey Ink and 7 Gypsies and were threaded with embroidery floss. The flower behind the center buttons was a plain white one from Stampin' UP! that I colored with the Copper ink. The crochet trim is from my stash.

The chipboard pieces on the top and bottom of the card are also from the My Mind's Eye Laundry Line collection, and were originally a single, 12" long piece, that I cut it into sections to fit the card. I added some Dew Drops in the left corners to add a little something to it.

I think that's about it! Hope your week is going well so far! Thanks again for bearing with me - I'll try to be a better blogger this week!

Spring is here!

It appears that Spring is here in Atlanta, at least for the foreseeable future. It's supposed to be in the 70s for the next five days. I'm looking forward to it! The birds are chirping like crazy outside and it's driving one of my cats nuts! She sits and looks out our sunroom window at them and swishes her tail and whines. Then she gets frustrated and takes a nap. Ahhh, the life of a cat!

I made this card a couple of weeks ago for Beate's weekend sketch challenges (WSC69), but didn't get to submit it. I love this little Garden Friends stamp set from Penny Black and decided it would work perfectly with this American Crafts Backyard Crackle paper.

I stamped the chick with the egg three times on white paper using Memento Tuxedo Black ink, and then stamped it over the eggs on the patterned paper so I could paper piece the eggs on the chicks to match the paper. All of the chicks were all colored with Copic markers (Y11, Y15, Y35, Y38). The panel with the three chicks in the eggs was popped up with some foam tape.

The sentiment and the group of chicks stacked on top of one another were stamped on Cryogen white paper and colored with the same Copics as the other chicks, plus a green for the grass and a pink to highlight the word spring, but I'm afraid I didn't note the colors I used for those areas.

The blue brads are from Queen & Co. and the striped grosgrain ribbon is from Stampin' UP!. I layered a couple of buttons and tied a bow around them with a burlap string and adhered them to the center of the bow. That's about it for this card!

Hope you're getting some spring weather wherever you are! Have a great weekend!

Plant a seed of friendship

I created this card using the CPS104 sketch from March 22nd. The embossed and glittered patterned paper is from Mind Mind's Eye's Laundry Line collection (Sundress Heirloom) and the rust colored paper I used for my mats is from BasicGrey's Marrakech collection (African Nectar).

The flower stamp is an old one from Hero Arts and was colored using Copic markers (E11, E35, R02, YR00, YR41, Y26, YG95, G99,0). The sentiment is from Cornish Heritage Farms. Both stamped panels were sponged/distressed using Ranger Distress Inks (Antique Linen and Vintage Photo). The ribbon is from May Arts. Here's a close up of the glittery embossed background:

Hope you're having a good week! I'm excited about going to see A Chorus Line tonight at the Fox Theater. Thanks for looking!

HOTlanta???

This was the scene here at our house yesterday afternoon. Welcome, March.

It's kind of entertaining to get snow in Atlanta occasionally, but it was icy out this morning, which makes for an interesting rush hour here. Luckily Tim made it to work this morning, safe and sound, but he did pass a vehicle that had flipped over on its roof. Many of the local schools are closed, so it's a bit interesting here in 'HOT'lanta today. We're due for another freeze this evening, so tomorrow's morning commute may be another adventure.

Since we were out of town most of last week, attending to Tim's mother's funeral, I don't have a lot to show. This is a card I made last month for the Spring Flowers Inchie Challenge. There isn't much to it. The geranium stamp is from Lockhart Stamp Company, and the sentiment is from Amuse Artstamps. The little crystals are Taylored Expressions Tiny Twinkles, and I'm afraid I don't know who makes the patterned paper.

Hopefully this cheery Spring card will drive the cold and snow away!

Hope you had a nice weekend! Thanks for looking!