My creative Therapy

Hanging up my blogging hat...

2009-07-06T14:53:00.000-07:00

After weeks and weeks of pondering, I've decided to hang up my blogging hat. I'm trying to de-stress my life and blogging has become another thing to add to the to do list. I won't be deleting it just in case I decide to start it up again sometime in the future. I look forward to just checking out what you all are up to and starting a new job! Till later....bye!

MIA...

2009-05-18T19:16:00.000-07:00

...no, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth! With the end of the school year, everythings wrapping up and I'm super busy. My posting will be very sporatic in the next month unless I get a block of time to do a bunch of posts together. I haven't even made it into my craft room for 2 weeks:( I can't wait till the girls' activities are done!
Have a great day!

Hummingbird card

2009-04-29T19:28:00.000-07:00

Here's another from my last class using the same Inkadinkadoo set.

The hummingbird was stamped with black stazon and colored with tombow markers. The swirls are a basic grey set that were stamped with a glue pad and then dusted with perfect pearls. The wings are covered in stickles.
Inside, the swirls are repeated with cranberry adhirondak ink.

Have a great day!

Swan card

2009-04-24T07:37:00.000-07:00

Here's the second card from my class last saturday. It is also from the patterned birds and bugs set from Inkadinkadoo.

The swan was stamped in black stazon. Her body was stickled and then fun flocked and the water was created using twinkling H2O's

Inside is a simple dragonfly, also from the same set.

Have a great day!

Owl card

2009-04-22T21:33:00.000-07:00

Here's a card I dod for a class on saturday. It is using an Inkadinkadoo set called patterned birds and bugs.

Here's a close-up. The owl was stamped with black stazon, cut out and then perfect pearls were used all over using a glue pad.
The inside has a simple bumble bee that is also from the same set.

Have a great day!

PMS Friday Feature

2009-04-17T02:01:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited to be today's Paper Makeup Stamps' friday feature! I made these tiles to hang in my girls' room. They are made using 4" x 4" 1/2" acrylic blocks that I had cut and then I asked them to round the top edges.

Here's a close-up of each one. The first one uses Kirsten. It is absolutely perfect as my middle daughter is named Kirsten and it's nearly impossible to find anything with her name!

The second tile uses Lauren in Love.

The third tile uses Jaina fairy.

The fourth tile uses Sprout (which I told my youngest is Caitlyn fairy because she was jealous of Kirsten:))

All of the images were stamped with Black Stazon ink onto watercolor paper. They were then watercolored with Stampin up! watercolor wonder crayons. I also used twinkling H2O's on the wings and for their hair streaks.

Here's another angle of the tiles.

This is what the girls' wall looks like. I'm hoping to make more as new fairies are released and add to the collection! The girls are absolutely thrilled with them!

Thanks for looking and have a GREAT day!

Hydrangea card

2009-04-15T06:58:00.000-07:00

Here's a super quick card using Stampin Up!s Bloomin beautiful set. It is made with watercolor paper and watercolored using Watercolor wonder crayons.

A close up....
Have a great day!

One Layer Lily

2009-04-12T06:56:00.000-07:00

This super simple one layer card was done for a one layer challenge in the Pink Cat studio forum over on Paper Craft Planet.

Lily is colored with prismacolor pencils using the gamsol magic technique. The 'ribbons' were created by scoring 2 lines 1/4" apart on all 4 sides using my score pal. I then colored them with the same pencils that I used in the image and blended them with the gamsol technique. I added the flower for the finishing touch!

Have a great day!

Happy Easter

2009-04-10T06:43:00.000-07:00

Here's a card I made using a retired Stampin up set called 'Gifts of spring'

I absolutely love this image with the 3 bunnies!

The image is watercolored on watercolor paper using Stampin up!s watercolor wonder crayons. I've had them for a couple of years now and haven't really played with them much until now. now I love them and couldn't live without them! Okay that might be a little dramatic....but they're AWESOME!

A close up view....

Here's the inside....also done on watercolor paper.

Here's hoping for spring to come soon!

Have a great day!

ATS anniversary challenge

2009-04-06T17:23:00.001-07:00

I love challenges! I think they push me to do something that's a little different for me. The All That Scaps blog issued a challenge for their second anniversary and this is what I came up with. It is using the CC Designs Olivias birdies set. I chose to make a book mark cuz I really needed one! The image is stamped and paper pieced onto pearl paper that I bought at my LSS. It is a DREAM to use the copic markers on! The long rectangles and scallop rectangles were cut out with Nestabilities. The trim on the bottom puts it a little over the top for a bookmark, but I LOVE how it turned out! Have a GREAT day!

paper pieced hippos

2009-04-06T07:37:00.000-07:00

Another card from one of my June '08 classes. The background was watercolored with shimmerz paints. Once the shimmerz were dry, the hippo was colored with tombow markers. The umbrella is paper pieced on top to match the background paper. Can't wait for summer:)

Paper pieced starfish

2009-04-05T07:33:00.000-07:00

I did this card for a class last June. The starfish stamp (yes, the whole image is one stamp) was stamped on the tan shimmer cardstock as well as a dark purple, an orange and a dark red( I was trying to mimic real starfish colors) and then each of the paper pieced starfish were cut out. Some were glued directly to the tan piece and others were mounted with foam dots to make them pop out a little. I love the final effect. Makes me wish it was warm enough for the beach:) Hope you are having a great day!

Enchanted Gamsol Magic class

2009-04-04T11:39:00.000-07:00

I'm using the enchanted Lily set from Pink Cat Studio today to teach a class using gamsol and the gamsol magic technique...

I kept the cards really simple so the beauty of the technique would shine through as well as giving the ladies a chance to take their time (I've been told I'm a slave driver:) )
I used plastic canvas as a guide to get the brads evenly spaced. Line it up and pierce holes in every second hole. Turns our perfect every time!

Have a fairy nice day!

Birthday mice

2009-04-03T20:50:00.001-07:00

Here are a couple of super quick water colored cards that I made to put into my etsy store. They are using a Penny Black stamp and Stampin up Watercolor wonder crayons.

I added stickles to the cupcake top and candle flame.

This one has a blue cupcake for a boy

But it still needed stickles on the cupcake top and candle flame!

Have a great day!

April Showers

2009-04-01T09:16:00.000-07:00

I colored this cute image when I was taking the copic certification class last november! I finally got a card together to share! I colored the image 2 times and then cut out the umbrella and mounted it with pop dots.

Both the umbrella and the puddle were also colored with spica glitter pens and then covered with diamond glaze. It looks awesome!
You can see the effect a little better here!

Have a great day...Hopefully not too many april showers!

Playful christmas

2009-03-27T07:40:00.000-07:00

This quick card uses Kitchen sink stamps' Playful christmas set. I was a super quick card. The 'Happy Holidays' was done with a nestabilities label set. This was another card I sent out this past christmas and made using scraps from my scrap bin!

Winter trees spring brayer class

2009-03-22T09:00:00.000-07:00

I did these cards in the fall for a winter class and had a request to do one for the spring, so this is what we did:

Supplies used:
Stampendous winter trees
Hero Arts Fantastic Flourishes
Removeable adhesive
Brayer
tombow markers
Scrap paper
Adhirondak ink
Circle punch

Vertical card
Cut list:
1 – 8 ½ x 5 ½ - pink bazzill
1 – 5 ¼ x 4 – blue-grey bazzill
1 – 5 x 3 ¾ - white 80lb cardstock

Inks used:
1 – olive stazon – to stamp hill scene
2 – cloudy blue – over whole sky
3 – stream blue – over upper edge of sky
4 – salmon – sponge on horizon and around sun
5 – lemonade – sponge inside sun
6 – willow – over grass area
7 – lettuce – over lower grass area
8 – saddle brown stazon – to stamp deer
9 – lettuce – swirls on the grass area
10 – white versacolor – swirls on sky

Horizontal card
Cut list:
1 – 8 ½ x 5 ½ - blue-grey bazzill
1 – 5 ¼ x 4 – pink bazzill
1 – 5 x 3 ¾ - white 80lb cardstock

Inks used:
1 – olive stazon – to stamp hill scene
2 – cloudy blue – over whole sky
3 – denim blue – over upper edge of sky
4 – salmon – sponge on horizon
5 – willow – over grass area
6 – lettuce – over lower grass area
7 – saddle brown stazon – to stamp trees and deer
8 – lettuce – swirls on the grass area
9 – white versacolor – swirls on sky

Have a great day!

PMS party challenges

2009-03-21T16:46:00.001-07:00

THese are my challenge entries for the PMS march release party on March 15th over in the Papercraft Planet PMS forum.

The first challenge was to create a 3D item. I decided to pull out the polyshrink and make a necklace from PMS' Kirsten fairy. I made it for my middle daughter Kirsten, who is now proudly wearing it! I used 2 pieces of polyshrink and stamped one with the image in black stazon. I cut out one as a circle and one as a scallop circle using nestabilities. After they were shrunk, I used a versamarker and pearlex to add the color to the back of the stamped piece. I then layered the 2 and put them back in the oven for the 2 pieces to fuse together.
The second challenge was to use the colors orange green and white. I kept it simple and watercolored this card:

The last challenge was a sketch challenge, so I created the following card from the sketch.

This is the inside:

What fun challenges these were! Hope there's another PMS party soon!

Have a great day!

cards and gift box set

2009-03-20T07:03:00.000-07:00

I did this gift box and cards set for a class in february.

Box bottom: Score 9 x 7 ¾ cardstock at 1 ½” on all 4 sides.

Box top: Score 8 1/8 x 6 7/8 cardstock at 1” on all 4 sides
I absolutely loved this paper and think it looks so nice as a box lid. No stamping at all!
The flowers were painted with shimmerz paint.

They look so pretty IRL.

I couldn't decide which side of the printed paper I liked best, so we did 2 of each card and just reversed the paper. The swirls and butterflies on this one were stamped with a versamark dazzle pad. It gives the watermark look with a touch of subtle shimmer. The final touch was the silver dew drops on the upper right hand corner.

For this one, the flowers in the background were stamped with the versamark dazzle pad and then the happy birthday sentiment was stamped with a cranberry adhirondak ink pad. I added 3 dew drops to the bottom right hand corner of one of the cards.

Each card had envelopes stamped to match. I love the color of this stream adhirondak pad. The flowers in the last 2 cards were also painted with shimmerz paints.

Ribbon puff Lily

2009-03-17T07:25:00.000-07:00

Ribbon Puff card
1 – 10 x 5 sweetheart bazzill
1 – 2 x 2 white 80lb cardstock
1 – 4 ¾ x 4 ¾ Just in Jersey print
1 – 4 ½ x 4 ½ the fifth add print
1 – 2 ¼ x 2 ¼ rust bazzill
1 – 4 x 1 ½ rust bazzill
1 – 3 ¾ x 1 ¼ Just in Jersey print
1 – 3 x 2 Finished birthday cake
1 – 3 ¼ x 2 ¼ rust bazzill

Other supplies:
7” green ½” grosgrain
15” green polka dot sheer ribbon
15” brown polka dot sheer ribbon
15” pink polka dot sheer ribbon
15” pink ric rac
15” orange plaid ribbon
6 dew drops
black stazon
tombows
piercing foam and paper piercer
Plastic Canvas square

Cut 15” pieces of ribbon into 3 - 5” pieces and stack them on top of each other. Use one of the pieces to tie the stack onto the green ribbon. One by one, starting at the bottom of the pile, tie the ribbons around the one use to attach them Alternate tying them first on one side of the knot and then on the other. Continue until all ribbons are tied and make a ribbon puff.

Picture tutorial can be found here on splitcoast stampers

Have a great day!

PMS blog hop

2009-03-15T08:50:00.000-07:00

I'm going to be playing along with the PMS Party and blog hop today. Here's my card using Chelly the clover fairy.

I wanted to make this card with a St Patricks Day theme. Chelly is watercolored and the flowers were colored with copic markers to match the card.
I added stitching detail to the card and love how it turned out.

I also added layers and stitching detail to the inside of the card, as well as a copic colored flower.

Have a fairy nice day:)

Watercolored Jaina

2009-03-13T13:00:00.000-07:00

Here's a card I whipped up last night using Jaina Fairy from Paper Makeup Stamps

I have really gotten back into watercoloring this week. I haven't done it since I was in Fashion Design, and I forgot how much I really enjoy it, So I think I'll be doing a lot more watercoloring in the future!

Lily and Billy standing pop up card

2009-03-13T09:23:00.000-07:00

Free standing pop-up card
Cut list:
1 – 11 x 4 ¼ - parakeet bazzill
1 – 5 x 2 ½ - white 80lb cardstock
1 – 5 ¼ x 2 ¾ - Just in Jersey print

Other supplies:
6” lime ½” grosgrain ribbon
2 flowers
2 brads
sticklestombow markers

Instructions are here on splitcoast stampers

Have a great day!

Lily and billy sweethearts card

2009-03-12T07:16:00.000-07:00

This was the image that made me fall in love with the Billy and Lily swwehearts set. Although I love all the Billy and Lily stamps, I imediately knew what I wanted to do with this one...a step card.

Step fold card:
Cut list:
1 – 10 ½ x 5 rust bazzill
1 – 5 x 5 sweet heart bazzill (for largest large scallop nestabilities
1 – 5 x 5 Finished birthday cake print (for largest large circle nestabilities)
1 – 5 x 5 white 80lb cardstock (for largest small circle nestabilities)
1 – 5 x 4 parakeet bazzill
1 – 5 x 3 – parakeet bazzill

Other supplies:
Tombow markers
Adhirondak ink in lettuce and aqua
Sponge
White gel pen
Dew drops

Pink cat studio Lily and Billy sweethearts
Stampendous winter trees set

General instructions:
On the 10 ½ x 5 piece, score at 1 ¼, 2 ½, 4 ¼, 6 and 8 ¼” marks

This pic over on splitcoast was my inspiration for the card.

Swinging Lily

2009-03-09T04:21:00.000-07:00

Here's another of the cards for my upcoming copics class. I used the Enchanted Lily set from Pink Cat Studio.

I added stickles to the wings and flowers and 'rubbed' the sides of the card and glittered them for extra sparkle.
The flower is also colored with copics to match the card.

Have a great day!

Four Dolls class

2009-03-07T14:22:00.000-08:00

As this post goes live I'm teaching my second four dolls class today. Hows that for double tasking!

The first card is simple using paper piecing and masking to create a group of girls. The lanter in stamped onto a seperate piece and attached with pop dots. Stickles adds a finishing touch.
Our second project is a Folded Kimono with a bookmark inside.
Some General instructions:
1 – Score at the 2” mark on both of the short sides
2 – Score 1 ¼” from the top to the bottom edge at the 1 ¼”, 2 ¾” 4 ½” and 6” marks
3 – Cut from the top of the 1 ¼” score line across to the top of the 2 ¾” score line and from the 4 ½” score line across to the top of the 6” score line. These cut marks will be 1 ¼” from the edge on one of the 7 ¼” sides.
4 – Fold card creating the arms of the kimono. The other scored pieces fold to the inside of the kimono. Fold the top edges over to create the kimono.
5 – Wrap the obi (yellow printed piece) around attaching at the back. Decorate with primas and glue dots.
6 – stamp the doll on the top of the cream piece and cut around the top leaving the doll attached to the bookmark.
7 – stamp the doll onto the printed paper and cut out the kimono and paper piece it to the bookmark.

You can find a picture tutorial here.

The last card we're making is a coat card.
This is what it looks like closed:

And this is what it looks like open:

Some general instructions...

1 – to create the outer coat, score the red cardstock at 2” on both short sides. Score the 11 ¼ x 2 printed piece at 2 7/8” on both short sides. Attach together. Attach eyelets using the A1 setting on the crop-a-dile.
2 – to create the inner card. Score the purple piece at 5” to create a 5x 5 card base. Round all corners and attach layers.
3 – Dolls kimono is paper pieced and the fan is stamped on purple print, cut out and attached with a foam dot. Flower is also stamped on purple, cut out and attached.
4 – decorate with stickles.

Here's my original inspiration for the coat card.

Have a great day!

Lily and the frog

2009-03-06T04:25:00.000-08:00

This is the last of the cards for my copic class using the Enchanted Lily set by Pink Cat Studio.

The flower and the frog were colored twice and then cut out and mounted on the card using pop dots. I added stickles to Lily's wings and diamond glaze to the frogs eyes. The purple cardstock matte is glittered with Stampin Up! dazzling diamonds glitter. The flowers are colored to match.
I also made an envelope out of extra cardstock using my Scor Pal....love that tool!

Have a great day!

Paper Make-up DT submissions

2009-03-04T06:58:00.000-08:00

I am applying to be on the Paper Makeup DT and here are the cards I submitted:

Lauren in Love is colored with copics. I did a couple of different layers with her. Her wings are stamped onto vellum and then cut out and covered with micro fine opalescent glitter. They look so pretty!

I mounted the different layers with pop dots for exta dimension. This is one of my most favorite techniques for cards...I think it really brings them to life!
The circles, ovals and scalloped circles were cut out with nestabilities. The scallop ovals and circles were also finished with the microfine glitter around the edges.

My next card uses Chelly with lucky clover.
She is also colored with copics. I used Spica glitter pens to add shimmer to her wings and to the 4 leaf clover. The edge is done using a Martha Stewart edge punch.

The flowers I ussed used to be white. I colored them with the same copics I used on the clover and VOILA! They match perfectly!

I added a layer of Diamond Glaze over the Spica colored clover. It looks awesome together! So sparkly underneath the gloss of the diamond glaze.

I did the last card with one of Paper Makeups awesome quote stamps. As soon as I read this one...I knew I had to get it. It just something I really want my girls to learn!

The ovals are done with nestabilities. The quote is stamped in brilliance ink and embossed. The purple around the edge is done with copics and then blended out with the blender pen.

The brad is a filigree brad from Stampin up! and the butterfly is a Martha stewart punch. I punched the butterfly out of vellum and then colored it purple to match the quote oval. I trimmed the edge with stickles.

Keeping my fingers crossed:)

Have a great day!

Mushroom Lily

2009-03-03T16:07:00.000-08:00

I am so in Love with the new Enchanted Lily set that Pink Cat studio just released and Here's one of the first things I came up with....Isn't it adorable? I'm doing this card for a copics class in march and can't wait!

Lily is colored with copics (of course!) I cut out Lily and the top of the mushroom and raised them with pop dots.
I also added glitter, stickles and diamond glaze. The flowers were custom colored to match the rest of the card!

Have a great day!

more PMS:)

2009-03-03T08:39:00.000-08:00

Another cute fairy from Paper Makeup stamps.

This little cutie is Jaina Fairy. She is colored with copics a couple of times and then cut out and layered with pop dots. You can see the layers better here:
I've added stickles to her lantern and wings as well as the flowers on the card. The card layout sketch is from the Whiff of Joy blog.

Have a great day!

I've got PMS!

2009-03-01T08:36:00.000-08:00

I recently found Paper Makeup Stamps and their forum on Paper Craft Planet. This company has got the most ADORABLE fairy stamps and of course because I have 3 girls....our whole house just adores fairies of any sort!

This particular card was done for the sketch challenge over on the PMS blog.
Lauren in Love was colored with copics and then her wings and cheeks were covered with stickles cuz every fairy needs some sparkle!

Have a great day! I have a bunch more fairy cards to come....I've been having the best time playing with these cuties!

Brayer and the cuttlebug

2009-02-28T19:28:00.000-08:00

Here's another oldie that I forgot to post. The center piece was brayered with a spectrum pad and then the butterflies were embossed with clear EP. I then sponged black ink over top which really made the butterflies pop! The colored background was made with a piece of paper that I put through the cuttlebug with an embossing folder. After the paper was embossed, I brayered it with the same spectrum pad that I used for the butterfly piece. The butter fly on the tag was also stamped with the same spectrum pad. I love the look it created!

Made of snow christmas cards

2009-02-27T19:10:00.000-08:00

The girls and I have had a great time playing with this papertrey set called 'Made of Snow'.

These snowmen are so much fun to put together!

This one is stamped in brilliance inka dn embossed with clear EP and then colored with copics.
The little puddle of snow is covered with stardust stickles for a finishing touch!

Have a great day!

winter birds

2009-02-26T07:25:00.000-08:00

Another one of the christmas cards I sent this year. It is using the Winter Birds set by inkadinkadoo. The bird with the snowflakes was stamped in silver ink and the other swirl was stamped with green ink overtop. I love the effect. I made the rest of the card with scraps from my scrap bin!

butterflies

2009-02-25T07:20:00.000-08:00

This card was done using the tombow markers to create a water color look with the blender pen. The ink was scribbled onto a transparency and picked up with the blender pen and then colored onto the butterflies. The background kind of happened by mistake as I kept coloring and coloring and wasn't happy with the look until I started adding a few other colors onto the background with the blender pen. now I love how it turned out! Sorry, I don't know who makes this stamp either as I did it albost a year ago!

Pansy card

2009-02-23T19:16:00.000-08:00

I did this card in a tombow marker class last year and forgot to post it! The pansy stamp (don't know who made it....sorry!) was colored with the markers and then I huffed on it before I stamped it. The primas were white. I colored them with the markers and then misted them with water to run the ink. Let them dry and attach to the front of the card. The ribbon was also white and was colored with the markers.

card holder

2009-02-22T07:05:00.000-08:00

Here's the card holder we made for the cards in the Jewel insect class. Perfect if you want to make them into a gift!

The tag with the bumble bee was added inside simply because she was too cute not to and she looks AWESOME with her body covered n yellow stickles!

Here are some general info and instructions. I'd love to add a template, but it's on paper and I have no idea how to make a temlplate on the computer!

1 – 10 x 6 – Leapfrog Bazzill
1 – 6 ½ x 4 ½ - Pear Bazzill
1 – 2 x 2 – cream woven texture cardstock
1 – 2 x 2 – Leapfrog Bazzill

Other supplies:
22” green plaid ribbon
3” printed pink ribbon
Champagne versamark Dazzle pad
Cranberry adhirondack ink
Black stazon
Yellow and stardust stickles
1 ¼” circle punch
1 3/8” circle punch

General instructions:
1 – Score the 10 x 6 Leapfrog bazzill piece at 4 3/4 “ and 5 ¼”. Stamp the butterfly on front. Ink the stamp with the dazzle pad and then only the butterfly with the cranberry ink and stamp.
2 – Score the 6 ½ x 4 ½ Pear Bazzill piece at ½” and 1” along the 2 short sides and 1 long side.
3 – Remove corners and fold along score lines.
4 – Attach to holder
5 – Stamp bee onto cream 2 x 2 piece. Punch out with 1 ¼” punch. Punch leapfrog 2 x 2 piece with 1 3/8” puunch. Layer and attach to the inside of the holder. Attach ribbon knot with a glue dot. Decorate with stickles. Set aside to dry.

Enjoy and have a great day!

Hang in there spider

2009-02-21T07:00:00.000-08:00

This is my absolute favorite card from my jewel insects class! The web is a cuttlebug embossing folder which was brushed with a versamark dazzle pad that emphasized the web and added extra shimmer that is very subtle but so pretty!

The tag with the spider is 'hanging' off the web with 1/8" sheer ribbon.
And of course the spider is finished off with gemstones that match the adhirondak lettuce ink perfectly. I also added a touch of stickles. Just love her! Have a great day!

Ladybug thinking of you

2009-02-19T18:56:00.000-08:00

The third card from my gemstone insects class was a super simple ladybug.

Lady is stamped with cranberry adhirondak ink and then finished with pink gems.
Sweet and simple! Have a great day!

Dragonfly Happy Birthday

2009-02-17T18:52:00.000-08:00

Here's another card that was part of my gemstone insects class.

I love, love, LOVe these 2 blues together! They are Adhirondak inks in stream and aqua.
The dragonfly is finished off with a gemstone and my favorite stickles! What ever did we do without stickles!

Winter trees

2009-02-16T21:39:00.000-08:00

Here's a class I did in the fall and haven't posted yet. I just did a spring version of this one and will post it in a month or so as I have a request to run it again and won't post it untill the class is done.

All of the images were stamped with brilliance ink and then embossed with clear EP. I then colored the images with copic markers.
I used a versamarker and clear EP to protect the images before brayering and sponging.

I love the look of this one with the snow. So peacefull looking:)

Have a great day!

Butterfly happy birthday

2009-02-15T18:47:00.000-08:00

Here's a card I did as part of a class last week using an Inkadinkadoo set called gemstone insects. We did 4 cards total. This one uses the glue pad and perfect pearls.

Stickles were added instead of gemstones. It looks so sparkley in real life.
The funky shapes were cut out with the label two nestabities set. I'll be posting the other cards from the class throughout the week.
Have a great day!

PCS LOVE challenge

2009-02-09T21:30:00.000-08:00

Here's the card I made for the LOVE my Pink Cat Studio stamps challenge over on the Paper craft planet PCS forum

We had to do something for each of the letters in the word LOVE, so here's what I did:

L - Lily and Lace (which I tried to make the outer edge look like)

O - Orange - the color of Lily's dress and Opalescent stickles

V - Vellum and Valentine

E - Embellishment - dew drops

I didn't take a picture of it, but the layer inside also opens, so the writing won't show through to the front. Thanks for looking, have a great day!

Treat holder

2009-02-02T20:30:00.001-08:00

I taught this valentines treat holder for a class this week. Inside are mini milk containers

made from cardstock, printed paper, velum and acetate.
Here's my christmas version. I made these for the girls' teachers this year for christmas. I filled them with chocolates, candy canes and other sweet treats.

I thought they would be really neat too if they were filled with bath stuff.....maybe nest christmas! Have a great day!

Merry and Bright

2009-01-26T15:36:00.000-08:00

I'm going to try and get the last of my christmas cards posted this week as next week is feb (can't believe it's almost feb already!) and it just seems wrong to still be posting them then!

All of these cards use the Merry & Bright set from Papertrey Ink.

This one has the red tree cut out and attached with pop dots.
I also stamped over the trees with a glue pad and added glitter. The 'snow' under them is made with stickles.

This one has all three trees cut out and attached with pop dots.

The sentiment is punched out with a SU! oval punch. It was glittered with a glue pad after it was punched.

The silver frame around this sentiment is SU! hodge podge hardware. It is the styled silver one.

I have been busting my butt getting samples done for my classes that are starting up again this week, so I'll be posting some of those soon!

Have a great day!

Lily the Fairy

2009-01-17T17:49:00.001-08:00

The Pink Cat studio blog had a contest this week using this Lily the Fairy image. Melissa says she's come up with a Lily the Fairy set that will come out next mont. I CAN"T wait!

Here are my entries:

For this card. I printed Lily onto Vellum and then colored her with copics on the reverse side. I cut out a window with one of my nestabilities sets (it's name excapes me at the moment!).

Once the card was put together, I colored the wings with a versamarker and embossed them with SU!s Irridescent ice EP and added a gem in the centre of the wand. I also added stickles to the flowers and held them together with a rhinestone brad.

For the next one, I cut out part of the flowers on the DP and slipped the Lily image in behind.

Lily was colored with copics again and I colored over her wings with a spica glitter pen. It's too bad it doesn't show up in pictures, it looks great IRL! The last step was adding the gems to the centre of the flowers.

For my last card, I colored lily with copics again (big surprise!). I used the Spica glitter pen on all the blue parts.

Here's a close up of Lily:

I think she's so adorable! Can't wait till the set comes out!

Another christmas Cardinal

2009-01-16T07:24:00.000-08:00

Another card using the christmas cardinal set. This one was also colored with copics. Sponged with red ink and then with black ink around the edges for more depth.

To you and yours

2009-01-14T07:12:00.000-08:00

Here are a bunch of card I made with Stampin up!s to you & yours set. I kept most of them super simple, just ink and stickles.

If I remember correctly, this one was blue Bayou on whisper shite cardstock.

Chocolate chip ink on Kraft cardstock

Always Artichoke on whisper white cardstock

Using the leftovers from the Homemade Holiday card elements kit

Blue Bayou ink on whisper white. The printed paper was from the scrap bin. Sentiment was embossed with White EP on Night of Navy cardstock.

Season of Simple Grace

2009-01-12T07:08:00.000-08:00

Here's a super simple card using Stampin up!s Season of Simple Grace set. I had bee playing around with a brayer and a piece of cardstock and the background is what happened! After waiting for it to dry I stamped the images with versamark and embossed them with Gold EP. Matted with gold cardstock and the card base is Blue Bayou cardstock. Enjoy!

Serene Spring

2009-01-10T14:58:00.000-08:00

I made this card months ago, but never uploaded it because it wasn't the right season. Now that spring is just around the corner I thought it was just right. Can't wait for this weather to warm up a touch! I stamped and embossed the image 3 times and colored them with copics. Cut each layer out and popped it up paper tolle style. The terra cotta pot is covered with diamond glaze and looks awesome IRL! I still have a tonne of christmas card pics that I didn't get aroud to posting over the christmas holidays, so I try posting most of them in the next couple of weeks as I'm trying to get a few samples done for classes.

Have a great day....

Think Spring!

Heart tags

2009-01-04T09:40:00.000-08:00

I made these heart tags to attach to my heart and lip pillowboxes and wanted to share how I made them with Stampin Up!s small and large oval punches

First I folded a scrap of Pirouette Pink cardstock in half and punched it with the small oval punch like this:
I used my bonefolder to flatten out the crease.

Next, I folded a scrap of ridinghood red cardstock and used the punched piece of Pirouette pink to trace a guidline for my large oval punch.

With my guideline, I can see exactly where to punch to make a perfect matte for my heart tag.

I erase my guideline and glue the 2 pieces together.

I used the Hugs & Kisses stamp from my all holidays set to stamp the tag and added a circle fire rhinestone brad.

The last step is to attach it to my pillowboxes. Who needs a heart punch?!

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-25T13:46:00.001-08:00

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and all the best for 2009!

Valentine Lily

2008-12-21T18:21:00.001-08:00

This is my submission for Pink Cat studios challenge #3 over on papercraft planet.

Solid papers are bazzill and the prints are from bo bunny smitten papers. Lily is stamped with momento ink and colored with copics. I colored over her dress with spica glitter pens so they are REALLY shimmery. The balloon is colored with copics, cut out and then layered with stickles and then covered with diamond glaze. It is popped up on the card with a pop dot.

Pillow box hearts and lips

2008-12-18T13:56:00.001-08:00

So when I saw Lindsay's tutorial on how to make a longer pillowbox, I wondered what would happen if you angled the paper, would it make a heart shape? So I decided to try it and found out it WORKS! And then just by accident, I discovered that the same shape also looks like lips!

I love how they turned out, and at the moment I think I'm quite smart (and I'm not biased at all!)

Here's the first 'heart' one that I did....
Here's how I did it. I used:
1 piece of 9 x 5 cardstock - folded in half to make a 4 1/2 x 5" piece
1 piece of 1 x 2 1/2 cardstock

I put a mark on my bigshot pillowbox die 1 1/8 inches from the end, so I would have control over how big the dip in the top of the heart would be. I lined up the folded corner with the centre fold on the die and the edge of the paper with my little mark on the die and ran it through the big shot with the crease pad to come up with this:

This is what it looks like as it comes out of the machine. As you can see at the top of the picture, I cut off the corner of my folded cardstock so it wouldn't catch as it was being run through the bigshot.

This is what the piece looks like when it's opened up.

I folded the 1 x 2 1/2 piece of cardstock lengthwise and put adhesive on both sides. I also put adheive on the 2 tabs.

Glue one side of the scored 1 x 2 1/2 piece as shown in the picture.

Glue the other piece to create the back of the pillowbox like this.

Glue the 2 tabs to complete the box.

Stuff with goodies and close the flaps of the pillow box and here's what you have! This is the point where I noticed that the shape also looks like lips and decided to run with it and and make the red one into lips.

Here's the pink one with some ribbon, a bow and a heart shaped gem.

I sponged some Bravo Burgundy inp onto the red oneand the pink one to make it look even more like lips. I added tags make from Stampin Up!s All Holidays set. The Hugs and Kisses sentiment was perfect!

The 'From the Heart' sentiment is from the Holidays & Wishes set

To make a flat bottom and more of a lip shape, I used the cutter kit to add a score line on the bottom of the lips.
I folded it so the tip would be inside the pillowbox.

This is how it looks like finished.

To see how I made the tags, check out this post.

Have a great day!

You can't win if you don't try...

2008-12-12T20:00:00.001-08:00

So I tried out for a spot on Pink Cat Studios design team and found out this week that I didn't make the cut. It's funny, I'm more disappointed than I thought I'd be (could also be due to a crappy week and a half before this news:) ). At least I'm proud of myself for trying. So, on to the cards I made for applying...

The images were colored with copics and cut out with nestabilities. A self-adhesive gem was put in each scallop and a row of them on the ribbon. The sentiment label is also from a nestabilities die.
This one looks so cool IRL. I colored the image with copics and then went over it again with Spica glitter pens, so the Kimono is really shimmery, it looks just beautiful! (and I'm not being biased AT ALL!) The dew drops were colored with copics so that they matched the Kimono.

My original plan with this one was to do a tilt card, so that Billy and Lily would move and look like they were actually making snow angels, but their heads moved also and it looked funny, so I changed it. Billy and Lily are colored with copics (big surprise, I know!) Billy's mittens, scarf and the top of his hat were flocked with matching flock. The trim on Lily's outfit was stickled and flocked, and both pairs of boots were covered with diamnod glaze so they look like shiny rain boots. The tag was stamped on acetate with white stazon and then sprinkled with dazzling diamonds glitter for shimmer and sparkle. I cut the tag and the red tag behind it with a scallop circle nestabilities and trimmed it with more glitter! One can never have enough glitter:)

On the edge of the white piece, I put a line of tombo multi glue (I had just gotten it that day and had to try it out) and dumped (technical term) some SU! Dazzling diamonds glitter on top and let it just sit and soak in. I love the look it created.

Wow! I don't know if I have ever been that long winded!
Have a great weekend! I'm hoping ours is quiet and non-eventful!

challenge cards

2008-12-07T17:46:00.000-08:00

I spent some of the day today doing the first 2 challenges in the Pink Cat Studio forum over on Paper craft planet. The first challenge was this:

1-2-3 Challenge! You can use any Pink Cat stamps you have, but you must limit yourself to...

1 - ribbon

2 - forms of a background (whether embossed, stamped, designer papers...)

3 - embellishments.

so this is what I came up with:

The 2nd challenge was this:

This is a 3 Part Challenge:

Part 1Project Size:Your Project is to be 6" by 6" Card or 3-D items welcome!

Part 2You are to use 3 of 3 different things example: 3 different ribbons and, 3 different Pat. Papers and 3 different Stamps
The third part was a choice of color scheme and I chose:

Old Olive, Night of Navy, and Ruby Red, and Kraft

So, it's a 6 x 6 card.

The 3 x 3 part is:

3 layers to the image

3 different textures - fun flock, diamond glaze and perfect puff,

the stickles are just a bonus (and maybe a cheat!)

3 different cuttlebug embossing folders on the background

Such a cool challenge! Can't wait to do more!

double viewmaster...a work in progress...

2008-12-06T13:01:00.000-08:00

So, I've had this idea in my head for a while. When I first saw the Lily and Billy accessories set from Pink Cat studio, I thought 'How cool would that be if you could make a card where you could change Lily's outfit?'

Then I thought 'It would be even cooler if you could change her outfit AND the sentiment to go with it!'

So, the double viewmaster was made. I'm not totally content with it. I think the card itself should have been a solid color so it didn't compete with Lily and her changing outfits.

However, it does work pretty cool. Lily herself is colored with copics, cut out and glued to the background and her outfits are colored, cut out and glued between 2 pieces of acetate (so that the edges don't catch when you turn the viewmaster to change her outfit). The second viewmaster piece is done on white cardstock and colored with copics.

Don't worry! She's wearing a dress, so she's never completely nude! I'll probably be re-doing this one at somepoint, but I thought I'd share it now anyway! Have a great day!

Christmas Silhouettes

2008-11-27T10:10:00.000-08:00

Here's more of my christmas cards from the scrap bin.

These ones were the easiest yet! Just stamp them, layer the card and add a touch of stickles!

The Holly image is inked (carefully) and then double stamped to get the different shades.

Super simple. Let me know if you have any questions. I kinda thought they didn't need many words! All the images are from inkadinkadoos Christmas Silhouettes set.

Winter Post

2008-11-22T08:44:00.001-08:00

I loved this set the second Stampin Up! Came out with it and thought it would be perfect for a Zindorf Style card with the reflection technique.

I'm so happy with how it turned out and really want to play with it some more. I've seen some beautiful cards using the skaters and the Lovely as a tree set which is what I'll do next, I think!

The top one if my favorite. This one I put the ribbon on because I tried stamping a sentiment and embossing is but it turned out aweful and I just couldn't toss it! The snowflake flourishes is from an Inkadinkadoo set. I think it's called winter trails. Have a great day! The frost is on the ground here, but the sun is SHINING! It's going to be a great day!

Kitty Christmas angel

2008-11-21T15:06:00.000-08:00

Yet another card using scraps from the bin. I wanted to keep the angel super simple and wanted to try NOT using the bright yellow on the eyes like I usually do! Love how simple she is! The Kitty is from Pink Cat Studio and is in the Christmas Kitty set.

A Cardinal Christmas

2008-11-17T12:15:00.000-08:00

Another card from the scrap bin! The cardinal was stamped with Brilliance ink and Embossed with clear EP. It is colored with copics and the background was sponged.

Here's a closer look at the image....

Just makes you feel like christmas doesn't it!
Have a great day!

Snow swirled

2008-11-15T08:42:00.000-08:00

These super simple cards are made with Stampin Up!s Snow swirled set.

The base has been run through the cuttlebug using the snowflake folder. The first 3 are done with gold EP and the next one is done using Holographic EP. Is that stuff ever COOL!
Here's a pic that shows a bit of the Holographic 'shine'. I love the color to it.

As you can tell I ran a versamark over the embossed part and added the Holographic EP to it as well. The edge of the image piece is done using a versamarker with the samd Holographioc EP.

Have a great day!

Lily builds a snowman

2008-11-13T13:45:00.000-08:00

Here's one of the Christmas cards in the stack that I made. It is made with stamps from Pink Cat studio. I'm positive I cased it from somewhere, but I have no idea where. If you know...let me know! Anyway, I love that it's non-traditional christmas colors! I used perfect puff for her earmuffs and for the trim on her outfit.

Have a great day! The sun is shining here, so I'm off to go enjoy it while it lasts!

Certified!

2008-11-11T11:36:00.000-08:00

I'm certified and have the certificate to prove it! A bunch of us from the LSS I teach at went to copic certification yesterday. We had a tonne of fun and learned so much! I've been playing with the markers for a while and still learned a bunch of stuff!

Thanks Marriane and your crew!

What I've been up to!

2008-11-08T20:46:00.001-08:00

I gave myself a challenge to make as many

christmas cards as I could using my scraps.

I pulled out all the christmas colors in both solids and printed papers.

This is what I've come up with.....

I've been having so much FUN!

I haven't worried about the finished sizes of the cards (which I might regret when I go to mail them!). I've just enjoyed being creative and using the supplies I have!

The scary part?

This is what I still have in my scrap bin!

I still have a TONNE of scraps in there!
I'll start posting some of the cards individually this week, I still need to take a few pics.

Happy 100th birthday!

2008-10-28T11:41:00.000-07:00

Here's my DH (Dave) and his grandma on her 100th birthday Oct 23.

We went back home to celebrate with family. The kids were so excited and their Great grandma was totally drawn to them. She kept singing "Happy Birthday to me!" It was so sweet.

I wish it was still summer!

2008-10-18T20:35:00.000-07:00

This card just makes me wish I was on a beach somewhere!

It was part of a class I did in June and hadn't posted yet....

Man! I wish it was still summer!
I asked my 5yo when she thought it might be summer again (we were on the way to kindergarten and it was pouring rain) and she replied:
"2 weeks"
I wish!
Have a great day!

Happy World Cardmaking Day!

2008-10-04T09:48:00.000-07:00

I'm teaching a world cardmaking day class today. The layout is from the Aprill 2008 issue of Sheetload. Here are the cards:

Hope you all have a GREAT day!

Poppy card

2008-09-28T13:18:00.000-07:00

This card is made from SU!s blooomin' beautiful set. It's colored with copics and the flower is popped out to add dimension. A super quick card but I like how it turned out!

What Cheryl means...

2008-09-26T15:13:00.000-07:00

What Cheryl Means

You are very open. You communicate well, and you connect with other people easily.
You are a naturally creative person. Ideas just flow from your mind.
A true chameleon, you are many things at different points in your life. You are very adaptable.

You are truly an original person. You have amazing ideas, and the power to carry them out.
Success comes rather easily for you... especially in business and academia.
Some people find you to be selfish and a bit overbearing. You're a strong person.

You are friendly, charming, and warm. You get along with almost everyone.
You work hard not to rock the boat. Your easy going attitude brings people together.
At times, you can be a little flaky and irresponsible. But for the important things, you pull it together.

You are wild, crazy, and a huge rebel. You're always up to something.
You have a ton of energy, and most people can't handle you. You're very intense.
You definitely are a handful, and you're likely to get in trouble. But your kind of trouble is a lot of fun.

You are a free spirit, and you resent anyone who tries to fence you in.
You are unpredictable, adventurous, and always a little surprising.
You may miss out by not settling down, but you're too busy having fun to care.

You are relaxed, chill, and very likely to go with the flow.
You are light hearted and accepting. You don't get worked up easily.
Well adjusted and incredibly happy, many people wonder what your secret to life is.

What's" Your Name's Hidden Meaning?

Teacher gifts!

2008-09-18T20:34:00.000-07:00

I made these for Thank you gifts for the girls' teachers in June. I used Stampin up!'s Embrace life set. This was the first time Ive done the stamping onto tissue paper and creating a stamped candle and I was so thrilled with how it turned out. All the images were colored with copics and stickles were added at the end for a little sparkle! So easy! It's a project I'll definitely do again!

Pink Cat Studio September Release

2008-09-10T07:37:00.000-07:00

It's release day!

Be Warned! This post has a LOT of pictures!

The new Christmas Kitty set from Pink Cat Studio is being released TODAY!

Isn't it adorable? I just love all the images and how versatile it is for cards and projects throughout the year!

I love the angel kitty that I made another card with her. I masked her and then sponged the navy around her. Added flock, diamond glaze and stickles. The little gold starbursts are an additional stamp in the set and are perfect for this little angel!

As soon as I saw this set I thought the tree would be so cute flocked in green so that's what I did on this little card. The glittery brads are some more of the doodlebug sugared brads. They are just perfect for the ornaments!

The last card here kind of happened but accident! I wanted to try a never-ending card that I saw on Dawn's blog and happened to have the Christmas kitty set out, so I used it and just LOVED how it turned out so much I decided to use it for one of my classes in september! All 3 of my girls can't stop playing with it!

Hope you enjoyed all the cards! I had so much fun being a guest DT member! Thanks so much Melissa for this opportunity!

Pink Cat Studio sept release day 2!

2008-09-09T07:00:00.000-07:00

The next 2 Pink Cat Studio images in the release are the kitty in the christmas tree and the kitty with the fish bowl. Here's what I came up with:

I love the kitty in the christmas tree! I think she's so funny! She is colored with copics again and then all the ornaments were decorated with stickles and once that was dry I gave them a thin layer of diamond glaze. Copic markers are perfect for this because they don't run AT ALL when you put stickles or diamond glaze over them! I layered the image with the green and red cardstock and then attached them to a tent style card. At the last minute I decided to try my hand at piercing the corners and messed up the last one! Go figure! Despite my mess up I love how sparkly the ornaments and shiny the candycanes came out!

The next image is the Kitty with the fish bowl. This is another image in the set that can be either christmas or non-christmas. The santa hat in the first picture is cut out and attached to make it a christmas card.

I intentionally used exactly the same papers, colors and layout in both cards to show you how easy it is to change it into a christmas card! She is colored with copics and the eyes are covered with diamond glaze (I think this really makes them pop and looks super cool!). The christmas kitty is flocked the non-christmas isn't (for no other reason than to show you that it's optional!)

The second I saw this image I wanted to do my bext to make the fishbowl look glass! So I stamed it with stazon onto a piece of acetate, cut it out and attached it to the card with diamond glaze. I love how that glass-like look is captured in the first picture! I tried to re-create that with the other pics, but that wasn't happening! I have since tried just covering the fishbowl with diamond glaze and it aslo works just as well! The brads are sugared brads (I think they are by doodlebug!)

Pink Cat sept release day 1!

2008-09-08T07:00:00.000-07:00

To say I was excited when Melissa asked me to be one of Septembers guest designers for Pink Cat Studio is a TOTAL understatement! I was over the moon! I absolutely love their images and the Christmas Kitty set is no exception! So here is 2 of the images in the new set....

The Christmas angel is so cute! She is lightly colored with copic markers and then her body was flocked with white fun flock. Her wings were stickled and then fun flocked so they sparkle underneath. Her Halo, dress and horn were colored with spica glitter pens and then the horn, halo and collar got a coat of diamond glaze. The ovals are cut with nestabilities and the shadow was then sponged. The daisies are one of the new cuttlebug border embossing folders with sugar brads (doodlebug I think!). I added more stickles to the outside of the oval and the daisies for extra sparkle!
I used the kitty with the gift twice to show how versatile she is! The first one is an everyday card and the second a christmas card. Both are colored with copics again and the grey cat is flocked. The gift is paper pieced to coordinate with the paper on the card.

The santa hat is one of the stamps in the set and is really what turns the christmas card into a christmas card! The holly was hand cut and the berries are just sticky gems that I had in my stash!

Pink Cat studio contest

2008-08-27T13:24:00.001-07:00

Check here on the Pink cat studio blog for a chance to win the stamp set that is being released Sept 10 (it's super cute!)

Pink Cat Fall theme DT challenge

2008-08-26T07:34:00.000-07:00

A DT challenge was issued to create a fall themed card. I decided to use the cat plate and cover the little cat pillow with leaves to make it look like she's sitting on top of a leaf pile. I'm pretty happy with the results! Pink Cat is colored with copics and then her body is flocked and her eyes and nose are covered with diamond glaze to make them shiny. This is my absolute favorite thing to do with these super cute cat stamps from Pink Cat Studio.

I originally wanted to have the cat in black to tie in with Fall and Halloween, but she's so dark that you couldn't see her detail, so I changed her to the sable color. She is popped up on pop dots to add even more dimension. The leaves were punched out with punches and then inked and rubbed with a stylus to curl them.

Exciting news!

2008-08-14T09:53:00.000-07:00

I finally have a chance to post a quick post. I got home from holidays to a computer with 100 viruses on it. What fun! I had a computer genius come over to fix it so now all is well. I got some SUPER exciting news just before we left. I got asked to be one of the guest designers for Pink Cat Studio for september!!!! check out this post! I'm so excited! The stamps came while I was gone and I've been playing away with them, they're so stinking cute!

On vacation!

2008-08-08T20:10:00.000-07:00

Taking the girls to see grandmas and grandpas....we'll be back after the 18th! I'm going to try and post a post without pics on sunday, but I don't know if it will work on my parents' computer as it's not the most co-operative machine!

Pink Cat Fabric Challenge

2008-08-05T20:47:00.000-07:00

Here's what I created for Pink Cat Studio's challenge to use fabric on a card. Now I worked at a fabric store for 11 years and so I've aquired a LOT of fabric! I first stamped the image from Lily and Tweet onto my card base.

I then stamped the same image onto shimmery fabric and used the same technique as paper piecing to add the fabric to the card.

I colored the parts of Lily and tweet that were not going to be covered in fabric with copic markers.

I trimmed the fuzzy fabric (it's name escapes me at the moment) over and over, bit by bit till it fit Lily's boa.

My final touch was flocking tweet, adding stickles to their glasses and adding the flower jewel to Lily's hat. I kept the card super simple and am so pleased with how it turned out!

I used SU!'s word window punch on the lower left corner, stamped the sentiment inside and highlighted it with a coordinating copic marker to make it pop! Enjoy!

beaded lip balm

2008-07-31T16:56:00.000-07:00

After Stampin up! gave the demos a sneak peak of the lip balms that would be available at the momento mall at convention, someone over on SCS made their own version with Designer paper. I thought they would be super cute if they were beaded! I haven't made mine yet (still trying to unpack the boxes and find my paper) but I did find my stash of sticky strip sheets and micro beads, so I made these beaded ones for each of the girls! They are just lip balms that I found at Walmart with Disney themes. I think they would be SO CUTE as a goody bag treat for a birthday party! My (almost) 5yo think she's so special to have her very own 'make-up' and keeps asking if she can go put make-up on! I think they like them!

All moved

2008-07-24T12:40:00.000-07:00

So the move went great! Now I just have a gazillion boxes to get through and no time to create! I didn't win for the Pink Cat studio August guest designer submission, but I'm so proud of myself for actuall entering(usually I chicken out in the end!)! I thought since I can't make anything new, I'd share my submission.

I made Billy and Lily a dress-up playroom out of a DVD tin. Everything is done on cardstock on top of a sticky magnet sheet. The images were stamped in brilliance ink and then colored in with copic markers. Here's the DVD tin closed with everything inside:

This is how it looks when it's opened up: Here's Billy and Lily in a couple of different outfits:

The dress-up box is made from a mini Altoids tin covered with printed paper:

The Window was cut with nestabilities and a clear piece of acetate was placed behind and then the 'outdoors' were stamped and colored with copics. The curtain rod and shelves are a strip of the self adhesive magnet:

I guess now I can let the girls play with it! They've been itching to get their little fingers on it! Gotta go, I hear the boxes calling my name!

Light House

2008-07-16T18:12:00.000-07:00

I made this card to give to my grandma as a thank you for a gift. It is an image from Our Daily Bread Designs. I love the lighthouse image and the scriptures that come with it. It is stamped in brilliance ink and colored with copics (my new favorite coloring tool!) The light house is stamped and colored a second time, cut out and adhered with foam dots. I used a Spica pen to add some sparkle to the light on the light house and the scripture. My last addition was diamond glaze on the top of the light house. I love the dimension on this one and almost didn't want to give it away!

Exciting Week!

2008-07-14T17:21:00.000-07:00

We've been building a house for the last 1/2 year or so and it's finally almost, nearly done! There's just a few odds and ends left to do and of course the yard isn't finished, but we're moving in on saturday! I can't wait to move out of this little rental that we've been in for 4 months and unpack stuff that I haven't seen since we sold our house and moved out of it in March. I'm so excited! I'm also excited because I submitted something to Pink Cat Studio (only one of my most favorite stamp companies, but I'm sure I've mentioned that once or twice!!) to try to be a guest designer in August and The winner will be posted on the 19th (moving day!). I can't wait till the 19th!

Meowy Christmas in July!

2008-07-13T16:54:00.000-07:00

Another sample from my copics class! She's done with copics and fun flocked as well. I love having a christmas card that's not quite the norm! This is another image from Pink Cat Studio.

This one has the fur trim on the hat and the snowballs on the sentiment stickled and then flocked. The gift is also stamped again and attached with a pop dot. Have a great day!

Another cat card!

2008-07-12T08:06:00.000-07:00

This is another card from my upcoming copics class. Again, the stamps are from Pink Cat studio and they are colored with copics. Pink Cat Studio stamps are so perfect to use with the copics because the lines are just a bit thicker. I have left off the sentiment, so it could be used for any occasion or to leave the option of adding a sentiment when I go to use it! Just like the others from this class, the eyes were covered with diamond glaze and the glasses were stickled. Enjoy!

Cool Cat

2008-07-10T07:49:00.000-07:00

Another from my upcoming copics class. Just like the last one, this card uses Pink Cat Studio stamps and is colored with copics. After she was colored I used fun fulock on the cat and diamond glaze on the eyes. It's amazing how the diamond glaze really makes those big eyes pop!

My first class

2008-07-09T19:00:00.001-07:00

I thought I would post the project I created for my first class last september( I still love it!)

All the letters and swirls were cut out on the Cricut. The swirls and leaves have perfect pearls added to them for extra shimmer and the letters are raised on pop dots. All the papers are cosmo cricut Wanted papers and the bases are on 4 x 4 chipboard coasters

It's amazing how much easier it is to post regularly when the kids are off of school! Thanks havens for summer holidays! Have a great day!

Glamour Puss

2008-07-09T19:00:00.000-07:00

Here's a card for my upcoming copics class. I haven't told any of the ladies who take my classes about my blog yet, so I figure its safe to share it! I used Pink Cat Studio stamps for this class. I used the Scor Pal for the score lines and my handy dandy crop-o-dile for punching the holes and setting the eyelets. This card is done paper tole style and the second picture shows the dimension. The cat is stamped in Brilliance ink and colored with copics. I love how vibrant the copics are! She's also flocked with white fun flock, I've added diamond glaze to the eyes and stickles to the flower. I just love how she turned out!

Another from the Archives!

2008-07-07T07:00:00.000-07:00

I found this one on my computer that I hadn't yet posted. It uses the Just so Hippy set from Gina K's stamps and was for one of Julies color concoctions ( can't remember which one and I'm too darn hot to try and find it!) The image was stamped in stazon and colored with SU! inkpads and a blender pen. I added stickles and diamond glaze to the balloons to make them pop!

Waterfall Card

2008-07-05T07:00:00.000-07:00

This is the second part of my Cards that move class. It's a waterfall card. These are so cute and easy, once you've got it all figured out!

Waterfall card:
Cut list
1 – 8 ½ x 5 ½ Candy Apple Bazzill
1 – 5 ¼ x 4 – Bo Bunny – Ella Enchanted
1 – 9 x 2 Hong Kong Bazzill
1 – 4 x ¾ - Wildberry Bazzill
1 each 2 x 2 of Hong Kong, Limeade, Wildberry and Arizona Bazzill
4 – 1 7/8 x 1 7/8 – white cardstock

Other supplies:
2 brads
Hero arts Sparkle Clear – Hello Birdie
6” green plaid ribbon
Black Stazon
crop-o-dile or hole punch
tombow markers
553 – Blue
025 – Gold
743 – hot pink
847 – red
126 – olive green
969 – dark brown

General instructions:
1 – Stamp your 4 white pieces with the bird stamps and color as desired.
2 – Attach stamped squares to the 4 colored 2 x 2 squares.
3 – Score your yellow 9 x 2 strip at 2”, 2 ¾”, 3 ½” and 4 ¼”. Fold along score lines.
4 – attach 4 x ¾” wild berry strip to printed piece using a little adhesive on the 2 ends (NOT in the middle!) and then Punch holes and attach brads on the 2 ends.
5 – Attach yellow scored piece to the wild berry strip. To do this, slide the longest section between the wild berry strip and the printed piece and center it on the front of your card. Line up the very edge of the scored end and attach with adhesive.
6 – Attach the first stamped image to the bottom 2 x 2 space at the scored end of the yellow strip. Apply adhesive to the 3 remaining ¾” scored sections on the yellow strip. Attach the last 3 stamped pieces one at a time working from right to left and lining up the left edge of the square with the score line. When you are finished you should be able to pull the bottom of the longest section of the yellow piece and watch the stamped images flip one at a time.
7 – Punch a hole in the yellow tab and attach the ribbon.
8- Fold the red base and attach behind the waterfall piece.

Have a great day!

You're Super!

2008-07-04T19:37:00.000-07:00

One of the girls had a boy's birthday party to go to so I made up this quick card. He's stamped in Brilliance ink and colored with copics. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE Pink Cat Studio?! Their images are just too cute!

Viewmaster card

2008-07-03T18:57:00.000-07:00

This card was part of a class teaching cards that move. I love the cute little owls in this little Hero arts set!
Viewmaster card
Cut list:
1 – 8 ½ x 4 ¼ - Wild Berry Bazzill
1 – 4 ¼ x 4 – Bo Bunny – Honeysuckle
1 – 4 x 4 – white cardstock
1 – 4 x 4 – photocopy paper

Other Supplies:
Large Circle Nestabilities – largest circle
1 3/8” circle punch
Hero Arts sparkle clear You Hoo Owl stamps
Crop-o-dil or 1/8” hole punch
Black Stazon
1 brad
Cuttlebug

Tombows:
126 – Olive
969 – brown
992 – tan
025 – yellow
899 – chestnut brown
N79 – grey brown
553 – blue

General instructions:
1 – Using a pencil, X the back of the Honeysuckle print piece and trim down to 4” x 4”.
2 – Cut 2 circles out of the 2 white pieces using the nestabilities and the cuttlebug.
3 – Set the cardstock circle aside and fold the copy paper circle into quarters and then into eighths. Use the hole punch or crop-o-dile to punch notches at each of the fold lines. Add one notch between each of the fold lines ( I just eyeballed it!) Use this as a template for the cardstock circle and punch notches into it. Pierce a hole into the center.
4 – Stapm the owls onto the cardstock circle and color with tombows. Set aside.
5 – Using the X on the back of the printed piece as a guideline, punch a large dip on the side that was trimmed (you can tell which side was trimmed because the pencil lines won’t go to the corner, they will go to the side). Turn a quarter turn to the right and punch out the hole for the owls to peek through.
6 – Fold the wild berry piece in half to create the card base. Lay the printed piece on top and punch out the dip into the front of the card and pierce the center hole through for the brad.
7 –Using a brad, layer the printed piece with the owl stamped piece. Turn over and attach adhesive to the corners. Push brad through the hole in the card front, straighten the layers and adhere firmly. Push open the brad back.
8 – Stamp “You Hoo” onto the front of the card and “Friends Forever” on the inside.

Nestabilities

2008-07-02T11:49:00.000-07:00

I love, love, LOVE nestabilities! Here's a class that I put together in the spring and just realized I hadn't posted it yet!

I first saw this basket on Lauren Meaders blog

Basket
Cut list:
1 – 8 x 3 ½ - print – to cut out 2 scallop squares
1 – 12 x 3 ½ - Old Faithful bazzill – to cut out 3 scallop squares
1 – 3 x 2 – cream – 2 cut and emboss rectangle and stamp hippo
1 – 3 x 2 ½ - Old Faithful bazzill – scallop rectangle
1 – 8 x 1 – print
1 – 8 ¼ x 1 ¼ - Old Faithful bazzill

Other supplies:
2nd largest scallop square nestabilities in the small set
Scor Pal
Med rectangle nestabilities
Med scallop rectangle nestabilities
Stone grey stazon
2 brass brads
crop-o-dile
tombow – 528 – blue grey
blender pen
scrap of acetate to use for coloring

General instructions:
Cut out the scallop square pieces. On the two printed scallop squares, score on one side only between the first and second scallop. On two of the blue scallop squares, score along three sides between the first and second scallop. Cut out the 2 bottom corners along the score line. You will be cutting out the corner scallop only. The remaining scallop square is the bottom of the basket. Glue the pieces together and attach handle with a brad, using the crop-o-dile to punch a hole first.

Gate fold card
Cut list:
1 – 8 ½ x 5 ½ - Harvest Bazzill
1 – 5 ¼ x 4 – print inside
1 – 3 x 2 ½ - cream – inside oval
1 – 3 2 ½ - Root Beer Bazzill – inside
1 – 4 x 3 – cream – front
1 – 4 x 3 – Old Faithful bazzill – front

Other supplies:
Score pal
Medium oval from the small set – inside cut and embossed
Medium scallop oval from small set- inside
Largest oval from small set – front
Largest scallop oval from small set – front
Tombow markers:
228 – moss green
879 – lt brown
723 – pink
977 – dk brown

General instructions:
Score at 2 1/8 and 6 3/8 mark

Scallop rectangle card
Cut list:
1 – 8 ½ x 3 ½ - Pomegranite bazzill
1 – 4 x 3 – print
1 – 4 x 3 – cream to stamp image on

Other supplies:
Largest scallop rectangle nestabilities
Largest and second largest rectangle nestabilities
Stone grey stazon
Tombow markers:
228 – moss green
837 – burgundy
blender pen
Card with scallop circle edge
Cut list:
1 – 8 ½ x 3 ¾ - Dark Rosey Bazzill
1 – 3 ½ x 3 ½ - print
1 – 3 ½ x 3 ½ - cream

Other supplies:
Largest scallop circle in large set
3rd largest scallop circle in large set
3rd largest circle in large set
tombow markers:
228 – moss green – branch, colored directly onto stamp
977 – brown – branch and eye feathers
837 – burg – beak and feet
723 – pink – tummy and ears
10” ribbon

Have a great day! I'm taking the girls to the park!

So Inspiring

2008-06-21T08:25:00.000-07:00

I just saw this on Dawn's Blog and had to share....grab your kleenex, you'll need it!

Incredible video about the relationship between a father and son.... and God's relationship with us.

A son asked his father, 'Dad, will you take part in a marathon with me?' The father, despite having a heart condition, said 'yes'. They went on to complete the marathon together. Father and son went on to join other marathons, the father always saying 'yes' to his son's request of going through the race together. One day, the son asked his father, 'Dad, let's join the Iron man together.' To which, his father said 'yes' too. For those who don't know, Iron man is the toughest triathlon ever. The race encompasses three endurance events of a 2.4 mile (3.86 kilometer) ocean swim, followed by a 112 mile (180.2 kilometer) bike ride, and ending with a 26.2 mile (42.195 kilometer) marathon along the coast of the Big Island. Father and son went on to complete the race together. View this race video below .

I don't know how to embed the video properly, you'll have to watch it on Dawns blog, you won't be dissappointed!

Have a great day!

Birthday card

2008-06-17T21:14:00.001-07:00

Alrighty! We've survived dance week and I thought I'd post something quick! This is a card I did in april when I first got this set from Papertrey. It uses their coodinating ink and cardstock!

Drowning in Dance!

2008-06-12T07:28:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd let you all know that I haven't fallen off the earth, we've just been drowning in dance practices for the past 2 weeks and this week is filled with dress rehearsals and shows! I'll post next week, but for now I'm just too darn tired to even see straight!

Peel and stick and Sakura pens

2008-05-21T18:34:00.000-07:00

This is for a class on the peel and stick stickers line and the Sakura gel and soufle pens. The are so much fun to play with! The gel pens give a stained glass look wheras the Soufle pens are more opaque.

This first card uses a dragonfly peel and stick. I colored it with a sharpie before I put it onto the transparency. I then colored it with the gel pens and sprinkled with glitter. Looks so pretty in real life! The piece with the dragonfly is popped out on pop dots to add dimension!

For this card, I put the butterfly peel and stick onto the transparency and set it aside to dry. The card is a square with a window cut inside using the nestabilities dies. Once the gel pens were dry, I adhered the transparency into the window of the card and placed a piece of printed paper inside to make it pop!

This last card is a gel card that was cased from Candice's card here on Nichole Headys blog. For this one though, the fish stays in place when you pull out the tag.
Have a great day!

So what's the secret?

2008-05-20T20:13:00.001-07:00

Try as I might, I just can't seem to get the hang of posting to my blog regularly. I've tried doing it on weekends, but lately that hasn't seemed to work either! So, if any of you have some secrets to posting regularly, would you mind sharing? I have a ton of pics of projects I've done, but I just can't seem to get to blogging them. I also can't seem to get to posting them on SCS anymore either!

So here's a card I did a few weeks ago for a contest at my LSS. Now I am not actually eligable for the contest because it's where I teach classes, but we were encouraged to make a card as a sample so people didn't feel intimidated by being the first one. The cards were supposed to be funny, so this one says " A kitty by any other name..." on the front, and the inside says " ... is still a furball that poops behind the couch"

I was totally inspired by the layers and texture that snap-scrap-stamp over on SCS puts into her cards and decided to case her technique. I absolutely fell in love with it and hope I've done her justice! The stamps are from Pink Cat studio, the cat has been flocked, the eyes have diamond glaze and I added stickles to the flower. Love the look!

Easy gift!

2008-05-03T20:04:00.000-07:00

I had this idea at 10pm last night. My 4yo had a birthday party to go to today and I had the idea of stamping all the dress up Lily images onto white cardstock that I had put self adhesive magnet onto. I cut out each image and placed them into the DVD tim that I got from Effectuality earlier this month (great experience...totally recommend them!) I also put a package of Crayola twistable pencil crayons into the tin (perfect fit!) so my DD's friend can color them herself. Now of course I need to make them for my girls cuz they want them too!

Scrap Cards

2008-04-27T12:05:00.000-07:00

I had some scraps left over from some projects that I decided to put to use instead of finding a place to streo them:) It just happened to coincide with Jany's challenge to use your scraps. I ended up making 8 cards altogether using scraps ( I did need a bit more cardstock for the card bases, but the rest is scraps!)

The images are from Pink Cat studio. I just discovered them 2 weeks ago and fell in LOVE with Lily! All the images were colored with copic markers are were super quick to make! I love productive days!