MarkerPop Challenge #125 - We're Going to The Fair!

I have been so busy sewing that my beloved stamps and copics have had a bit of a vacation, but this week I pulled them back out to create a card for the MarkerPop Blog as a Guest Designer on Challenge #125 - We're Going To The Fair!

At our summertime County Fair there are lots of animals shown and always different cooking contests so I figured why couldn't this cute little piggy enter her yummy cupcakes in the competition!

Products featured on the card are linked for you on the MarkerPop Blog, come on over there and join us at the fair!

Be My Valentine Series - Day 9 - Bookmark Cards

Today I wanted to share with you an idea using a sketch from Scrapbook and Cards Today.  This is their challenge sketch for February and I thought it would be perfect for bookmark cards!  These cards are perfect for Grandparents, parents, aunts or uncles for any occasion and Valentine's Day is no exception!

The important thing to remember about a sketch is that it is meant to be a starting point but if you want to CASE it completely that is okay too!  Sketches are a great way to get your creativity flowing.  I followed the sketch pretty closely on these card but tweaked it to work with the supplies I had on hand.  I created two cards; one more manly and the other a bit more feminine.

These adorable bears were colored with Staedtler Watercolor Pencils, Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers, and Prismacolor Premier Colored Pencils.  I was going for a specific look with these images; I wanted them to look like illustrations.  The bear stamp sets are Cub Cuddles and Bear Hugs both from Mama Elephant.

The cards are just basic white side folding cards.  The patterned paper is from Lawn Fawn's Polka In The Meadow Petite Paper Pack (note:  I backed each bookmark with the same paper as the card front) The epoxy hearts, washi tape and red twine are from my stash. The green hills were all cut from one piece of watercolored paper using the Mama Elephant Hillside Cover die. I used some thin but strong double sided tape on each side of the extra little hill on the card front so I could slip the bookmarks into them yet keep the bulk down.

I know my Mom will be really excited to get this card!  Let me know if you end up making any of these cards, I would love to see them!

Be My Valentine Series - Day 8 - Dynamite Dies

Some people just aren't stampers, I get it as I wasn't always either.  So today I went back to my first love... die cuts!  Each of these cards was created using only die cuts and really they could be used for any occasion but are perfectly suited for Valentine's Day!

The card above features dies from Lawn Fawn, the heart die from the Stitched Party Banners and  a few of the smiley faces from the Make Me Smile die set!  I used some micropore tape to hold the smiles in place for die cutting and it worked perfectly to keep them in just the right spot on the hearts!

The next card features a water colored background done with Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers on some Canson XL watercolor paper.  This amazing Heart Beat die is from SugarPea Designs; I used it on both the background and a piece of black cardstock to create the inlaid panel!

My final card features the Rose Background Die from Wplus9, I love that this die covers the entire card front!  I cut it from some Doodlebug bubblegum crushed velvet cardstock (I have been hoarding this paper for the last 9 years so it was high time I used it!  But wait, Joann.com still has it in packs, I need more, it is so darn awesome.  You can click the link above to order.)  I then spritzed a black card base with Shimmer spray and adhered it using the 3L adhesive sheets!  This card is so stunning in person but very hard to get a good photo of.

I hope you feel inspired to break out those dies and create a Valentine for your loved one!  See you soon with a few more days of heartfelt cards.

Be My Valentine Series - Day 7 - Outdoorsman

I had really wanted to share some cute lunch box love notes that I created but they have disappeared! I even tried to recreate them but I can't find the die anywhere... it is a BIG die... I am feeling beyond frustrated.  I hope to find them in time for Day 10, but if not I will share a variation on that theme.

Today's card is on the more masculine side.  My hubby isn't one for sequins and roses so I created this card with some great wood grain texture and the adorable squirrels from My Favorite Nut by Neat & Tangled!  The images were all painted using my daughter's Crayola watercolors since I was painting with her at the time, oddly they have a bit of sheen to them but I am pleasantly surprised at how well they did work for blending and creating colors!

See you back here tomorrow to spread more love!

Be My Valentine Series - Day 5 - Minimal Cards

Today's cards use minimal supplies, minimal time and mini stamp sets to help you send big love!  Each of these cards uses the following supplies:

• 1 Mini Stamp Set from Lawn Fawn - Whale You Be Mine, Love You Tons and Cutie Pie (I also used the coordinating Lawn Cuts but you could easily cut these by hand)
• 2 Colors of Lawn Fawn Ink - Sunflower & Hippo, Wild Rose & Cranberry, Merman & Deep Sea
• 1 Die Cut Set from Lawn Fawn - Stitched Party Banners (heart and circle used)
• 1 pinch of clear micro-fine glitter
• 2 Colors of Cardstock (I used some from my scraps stash)
• 1 White Card Front Panel
• 1 Colored Card Base
• 1 4x6" adhesive sheet from Scrapbook Adhesives (I only used one for all the cards)
• 1 Epoxy Heart (from my stash & totally optional)

It only took about 10 minutes to create each card; I definitely became faster as I went too!  

1. Place your sentiment stamp on an acrylic block and fill the white card panel, using the lighter of the two ink colors, leave room in between the sentiments for a cute heart!
2. Stamp your hearts in between each sentiment with the darker ink color
3. Adhere your card front to the matching card base.
4. Place your circle die on the darker piece of cardstock and tape in place, now center your heart die inside the circle and tape in place, run through your die cutting machine!
5. Remove just the circle die from the darker paper and place on your lighter paper and cut one circle
6. Place the lighter circle on the adhesive sheet, rub well to transfer the adhesive and remove the cover sheet exposing the adhesive, adhere the darker circle with the heart on top, your negative heart shape should now be sticky!  
7. Place a pinch of glitter inside the heart and burnish it onto the adhesive with your finger, brush off any excess with a large dry paintbrush.
8. Using foam tape, or squares, attach the circle in the middle of the card front.
9. Stamp your images and color.  Cut your images and adhere to the card front overlapping the circle edges.
10. If you want to place an epoxy heart in the center of the glittery heart!

Be My Valentine Series - Day 3

Critters in love, what could be cuter!?

Today's card features some adorable Lawn Fawn critters in love!  This card was inspired by this fantastic card by Nichol Spohr. I think her use of the washi tape with this polaroid die cut is just too cute!

Each set of critters was colored with Copic markers and then die cut with this adorable Polaroid Fun die from Mama Elephant!  I did run each die cut through my Big Shot with a piece of 110lb cardstock to smooth them out and help them to fit together without gaps.

I wanted to showcase these cute couples so I chose a deep black cardstock for my background.  Once I laid out my design I used the new Lawn Fawn Valentine Borders to cut out the row of hearts which I backed with a piece of pinkinsh red paper.  I did end up adhering a few of the black hearts back into the card as I felt this looked better under the die cut sentiment. The sentiment is created using the hello stamp from Lawn Fawn's Hello Baby stamp set and their fantastic Scripty Love die.  I glued three individual cuts of the love die together to create a bit of dimension. Finally I adhered everything down and added some cute heart washi from my stash!

Stamps sets used in this card:  Happy Howldays, Merry Christmouse, Baaah Humbug, Flamingo Together and Sunny Skies So sorry some of these were exclusive Stamptember sets and one is retired, I did link those that are still available.

Be My Valentine Series - Day 1

We are closing in on the end of January which means Valentine's Day isn't too far away!  I have always loved Valentine's Day, doing the mailboxes and classroom Valentine's as a kid, roses and chocolates as I got older and then helping my kiddos with their Valentine's as a Mama Bear... I love it all!  In the spirit of love I am going to share ten Valentine's Day cards with you, one each in the coming days, some feature new to me techniques (like today's card), some will be for your Love and others for your little love bugs.  I hope you'll find something to inspire you to create a card for your sweetie!

Let's get started... today's card features ink smooshing (yes, that is the technical name!) to create a fun background!  I have been trying this technique out for the past week and I found these two video tutorials to be really helpful... Kari Webster and Laura Bassen... make sure to check them out!  I really want to say 'Don't get frustrated!' it took me quite a few tries with all different supply combos before I was happy with my smooshed panel. 

Ink Smooshing Supplies:

Distress Inks 

Ranger Spray Bottle 

4x6" piece of acetate (I used some old packaging)

Ranger Watercolor Paper (I prefer the smooth side)

Paper Towels (I don't recommend Viva, they left lint on the project)

I did add a little extra flair by flicking on some Kuretake Gansai Tambi Starry Colors (Red Gold) to the background!

For my adorable Octopi I stamped them with Ranger Archival Ink in Jet Black onto Ranger watercolor cardstock. I then colored them in with Distress Inks and then went over them with my clear Wink of Stella, I can't resist the sparkle!  I cut them out with their coordinating dies once they were truly dry.

I really felt that the Octopi needed a 'landing spot' on the card and as I thought about it I saw this card on my desk and I decided that a heart shaped shell wreath would be perfect!  I stamped the shells from Life Is Good onto vellum with Hero Arts Unicorn Pigment Ink and then heat embossed them with white powder, finally I fussy cut the wreath and adhered it with tiny dots of Ranger Multi-Medium Matte.

To assemble the card I adhered my smooshed background to a white card base.  I laid out my greeting in my MISTI stamping tool and stamped it next to the wreath with Momento Tuxedo Black Ink.  I applied some foam adhesive to my octopi and placed them over the wreath ( I love how they are holding tentacles!) and Voila! a finished card!

Thanks for getting all the way to the end of this post, I hope you come back tomorrow for another Valentine's Day card!

Spotlight Coloring

I love a good card challenge and when I created this card I was excited to realized that it fit the bill for two of them!

The design for this card was inspired by the My Favorite Things Sketch Challenge #314 (see photo below).  I really wanted to try something new, so after browsing the web I decided to try some spotlight coloring; it is a fantastic way to make a big impact on a CAS card.

I started out with this awesome My Favorite Things Bundles of Blossoms Background Stamp and stamped it with Momento Tuxedo Black ink onto two pieces of white card stock, then I got down to some serious coloring with my Copics!  Once I had colored a decent sized area I die cut it with one of the Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies to mimic the stitching on the background that was cut with the My Favorite Things Blueprints 25 Die-namics.  I then popped the colored piece up on some fun foam and added it to the card.  Holy moly, I LOVE spotlight coloring!  I had never tried this technique before but it has such an impact on this card that it is definitely going to become more of a 'go to technique' for me!  For my sentiment I white heat embossed the Thank You from Avery Elle's Fabulous Florals Stamp Set onto a black banner cut with the My Favorite Things Blueprints 25 Die-namics ( I cut my banner first and adhered it my Misti mouse pad with removable adhesive, then I carefully manipulated the stamp to fit nicely with the shaped banner). To finish the card I added some iridescent sequins and a few sparkly gems!

I am entering this card in the following Card Challenges:

My Favorite Things Sketch Challenge #314


Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge New Something

I used a technique that was new to me... Spotlight Coloring!!!


***I have been doing some organizing and purging.  I can't be creative in a mess.  I have so many beautiful products that are not being used, I would love to find them some new homes.  You can check out my Facebook Page for a destash sale posting later today and more throughout the week!***

You've Got Mail

Okay, okay, I know the title is super cheesy but I'm a sucker for cheesy movies, puns and titles!  With the idea of cheesy romance in mind I wanted to share with you these super cute Valentine's Day Coupons that I made for my hubby using the new Lawn Fawn Valentine's Day Release.  As soon as I saw the Stitched Heart Envelope I knew I wanted to make these!

Please excuse the strange redness in the photo, 
it is snowing outside and I had the toughest time getting 
a shot that wasn't too blue!  I will try and get some better photos posted soon!

I began by cutting a dozen of the Stitched Heart Envelopes out of some mid-weight patterned paper in my stash (I believe these are all from a Dear Lizzy release).  I really hate to waste any of my pretty papers so I cut them to 7" x 12", held up the die and cut outside of the die to make two envelopes out of each piece.  Next I cut 12 of the cute scalloped tags out for the front using a fun polka dotted paper, and then the sentiments using a red paper all from the same Dear Lizzy collection.  After folding all of my envelopes I adhered the labels to the fronts with glue dots.  I ran the sentiments through my little Xyron sticker maker and adhered those.  On the envelopes where I used two heart dies (I had three)  I stamped some sentiments from the new Love Letters stamp set with Cranberry ink, they look like little candy hearts... seriously too cute!

To finish off my coupons I had to create the actual coupons... I just created a Microsoft Word document and came up with ideas that would be fun for my Honey (I would be happy to share after Valentine's Day).  I wanted the insides to be cute too so I cut each little coupon out with one of the dies from the Small Stitched Rectangles set.

I found this super adorable little felt mailbox in the $1 spot at Target and it is the perfect little container for these coupons!  For once I am actually super early and really excited to give him this Valentine's Day gift!

Happy New Year everyone!

Merry Christmas From The Whole Gang - Lawnscaping Challenge#144

This Lawnscaping Challenge is bittersweet as it is the last one in their amazing five year run.  I only discovered the Challenge this year but I have gleaned so much inspiration from everyone who participates and I have also received so much encouragement through the Challenge.  Thank you to Laurel Beard for creating, designing and hosting this awesome challenge.  Thank you to the Lawnscaping Design Team who has spent so many hours creating amazing cards and commenting on all of our blogs.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday filled with laughter, tasty treats and lots of memories.  I am sure the Lawn Fawn Critters have some pretty rowdy celebrations and with that in mind I created this card for the Challenge... Merry Christmas From The Whole Gang!

This card features lots of the adorable Lawn Fawn critters that I have colored throughout the past year. I gave them a few Christmas-y accessories to so they would all look their merriest for the group photo!

Listed below are all of the Lawn Fawn stamp sets I used...  

Baah Humbug, Critters Ever After, Critters In The Snow, Critters on the Farm, Critters on the Savanna, Dad + Me, Fairy Friends, Flamingo Together, Happy Everything, Holiday Party Animal, Jump for Joy, Lovable Legends, Mermaid for You, Thankful Mice, Turkey Day, Winter Alpaca, Yay Kites.

Wishing everyone a fantastic 2017!  Thank you for all of the crafty love and encouragement this past year! 

xoxo

Houston

Whale You Be Mine

Valentine's Day will be here before you know it so I was really excited to find the Whale You Be Mine stamps and dies at my LSS Scrap2It. I rushed home and made a card with them during naptime☺

This card features the following products:

Lawn Fawn Whale You Be Mine Stamps and Dies

Lawn Fawn Mermaid Ink

Lawn Fawn Deep Sea Ink

My Favorite Things BG Wave Background

My Favorite Things Blueprints 27 (longer banner)

Versamark

White Embossing Powder

Copic Markers

QuicKutz 4x4 Heart with Scalloped Border (no longer made, sorry)

Thanks for stopping by, so sorry for such a short post, but my Littlest didn't sleep last night and I need a naptime today!

Snow Much Fun

The current Lawnscaping Challenge is all about the fluffy white stuff!  We usually have lots of it here in Colorado but this year we have only had a couple inches and few flurries :(  My little one is impatiently waiting for enough snow to go sledding down our neighborhood hill.  In the meantime we have been keeping cozy inside getting crafty for the holidays.

I have to admit that when I was creating this card I had a little yearning for the white stuff too! I began by browsing my Lawn Fawn critter collection and I instantly thought that these cuties from Yay, kites! would definitely be out building snowmen during the winter!  Luckily, the snowmen from Ready Set Snow were the perfect size to pair with these critters.  To build my scene I used glitter mist for a snowy background and then built up my scene using the Stitched Tree Border, Stitched Hillside Borders, and framed it out with the Leafy Tree Backdrop.  To finish it off I added a sentiment from Making Frosty Friends.

You still have another day to upload your creations for this winter challenge and I can't wait to see what you create!  Stay cozy!

Fairy Friends

The latest prompt over at The Lawnscaping Challenge is Clean & Simple (CAS) which is the style I have really been gravitating towards lately!

For my design I used the adorable Fairy Friends stamp set.  I colored all of the images with Copic markers, then added a bit of clear Wink of Stella, white gel pen details and some washi tape to complete this sweet little thank you card!

Thanks for stopping by!  I can't wait to see what you create for the challenge!

Hi Cutie Pie

I am so excited to be a Guest Designer for the latest MarkerPop Challenge! If you haven't played along with them before I highly encourage you to join in the fun!  This time around the challenge involves a highly versatile sketch that you can customize in so many different ways!

This time of year I try to focus on all of the things that I am thankful for. With that goal in mind I created a card with a Thanksgiving motif. This year I want to make sure I let those all those amazing people in my life know how thankful I am for their love and friendship by sending them some handmade happy mail!

I started by using my Misti to repeatedly stamp the knife, fork, and mug images in Desert Sand on a kraft card base for a tone on tone background.  The Misti makes it really easy to stamp these little images repeatedly and create fun custom backgrounds for your cards!  Next I pulled out my masking paper to create a fun photo of these cute Lawn Fawn friends (Turkey & Mice) and their favorite Cutie Pie;  I used Copics to bring these cuties to life!  The sentiment is also from the Cutie Pie set and that Polaroid style frame from this fantastic Mama Elephant set was the perfect way to finish it off!  The photo is mounted on some foam for dimension and the card base was cut down just a smidge so it will fit perfectly in an A2 envelope!

Thanks for stopping by today and don't forget to hop on over to the MarkerPop Blog to join in this fun challenge!

You Light My Fire

I had so much fun creating this card for the current Lawnscaping Challenge!  I started by blending Distress Inks onto cardstock.  Next, I sprinkled water over top and pulled it off with a cloth to create that mottled look, I love how it turned out!  I used Momento Luxe in Tuxedo Black to stamp the background stars and hearts, from Critters Ever After, then I embossed them with the amazing Hero Arts Sparkle embossing powder!  I filled in a few with some white pen for contrast.  The hills and circles were all cut using Lawn Fawn's Stitched Circle Dies and Stitched Hillside Dies. Finally, I stamped the adorable dragon from Critters Ever After and colored him with Copic markers before fussy cutting so as to not have any white borders in my night time scene.

There are still a few hours left to join in the Lawnscaping Challenge fun, hope to see your creations there!

MarkerPop Challenge #106

MarkerPop has a fantastic challenge for this time of year... create a Halloween card with any brand of products they sell in the shop!  This is easy-peasy even if you don't have a ton of Halloween themed items, no seriously, I only have one Halloween stamp set and it's retired!  Luckily the set I have is from Lawn Fawn, a brand MarkerPop carries, so I did some clever masking to add the witch hat to the adorable retro cat from Avery Elle's latest release!

The background is stamped with the Wplus9 set 'Ink Splats' using Distress Inks in Picked Raspberry, Twisted Citron and Seedless Preserves.  I did spray the splats with a light mist of water to get them to blend a little betters since these inks are not really made for stamping with, but I like the sort of splotchy look you get with them on these stamps. This witchy kitty is colored with Copic markers and fussy cut before being mounted on the focal panel with a little foam tape.

The greeting is a combo of the Lawn Fawn Stinkin' Cute sentiment and Concord & 9th's amazing Sophisticated Script.  The focal panel is cut with the largest stitched rectangle in the My Favorite Things Blueprints 29 Die-Namics set.  Finally I added a few sequins from Craft Medley's Rhythm n' Blues to give this kitty a little sparkle!

Make sure you check out all the other amazing Halloween creations over at the MarkerPop Blog!

MarkerPop Color Challenge 105

Due to my recent Copic Marker addiction I discovered MarkerPop's online shop and guess what... they have a color challenge!  This color combo is so awesome that I had to join in!  

When I was looking at the colors I was reminded of our time living in Florida; one Christmas we made a sand 'snowman' on the beach and used it in photos for our holiday cards!  It was so cute and I thought it would be fun to use some of the new stamps and dies I had purchased from MarkerPop to create a 'sandman' shaker card!

I used the Lawn Fawn Ready, Set, Snow stamps, dies and add-on dies, 

plus their fabulous Mermaid for You stamps and dies!

Be sure to hop on over to the MarkerPop shop and check out all the awesome sales they currently have going on!  Thanks for stopping in, see you soon!

Lawnscaping Challenge 139

The fantastic Lawnscaping Challenge team had a beautiful Pinterest board for our inspiration this time! 

All those beautiful fall leaves inspired me to create some cute place cards for our Thanksgiving table, we are pretty casual so these pops of color will be a fun addition!

I used the Stitched Leaves Lawn Cuts to cut paper from the Fall Perfectly Plaid Petite Pack, Polka In The Meadow Petite Pack and Polka After Dark Petite Pack.  Each leaf was cut in two different papers to create a front and back since I knew they would be visible from the sides.  I then cut some stitched rectangles using these Lawn Cuts and folded them in half to create the base.  Of course I needed more stitching, can't get enough, so I cut smaller stitched rectangles from the Fall Plaid papers to create nameplates and message mats.  Next I wanted the scripty thanks die to pop so I went with some solid red cardstock from stash.  The stamps above and below the thanks are from Critters in the Forest and Cutie Pie, they were selectively inked to create the message I want each of my guests to see across the table!  To finish up, I wrote each name in with a Picket Fence Distress Marker for a cute chalkboard look!

Thanks for stopping in and don't forget to check out the next Lawnscaping Challenge!

Lawn Fawn Love

The weeks are just flying by!  Now that fall is here I want it to stay forever, it has been so gorgeous here in the Rockies, sunny days, cool mornings that are perfect for walking with Tiny Boss and warm afternoons that are great for soccer games and playground time!  This is hands down my favorite season of the year!

This week I was fortunate enough to have some crafty time to play with some of my favorite Lawn Fawn products... critters of course :)

This first card features the new Jump for Joy Stamp Set and coordinating Lawn Cuts.  I was lucky enough to be able to score these and the Perfectly Plaid Fall Petite Pack at my local scrapbook store Scrap2it!  One of my favorite things about fall is the crunchy leaves and beautiful autumnal wreaths hanging all over town.  The small stamps in this set were perfect to use for creating a wreath!  I colored them very simply with Copic markers, die cut them, adhered them to a circle frame (I made this with two of the stitched circle dies) and then added some details with gel pens and Wink of Stella in gold once they were all in place!  I loved the idea of tiny red heart berries, but after coloring them I realized there isn't a matching die :(  oh well, fussy cutting worked and then I added some glossy accents on top to make them pop a bit.  I had planned to adhere my critters over the wreath but they just didn't look quite right, they looked better off to the sides but needed something to bring them together... da, da, da... big scripty words!!! seriously the best sentiment set EVER!  The thanks sentiment made the card come together perfectly!  Yay!  The rest of the card features the adorable plaid papers and a little bit of white gel pen detail!  

My second card was completely and totally inspired by the amazing Jennifer McGuire and this recent video.  I used the Lawn Fawn Baaah Humbug stamp set, their dye ink in Freshly Cut Grass, some Copics, masking paper and my MISTI.  I was able to complete 12 cards with Tiny Boss napped!  That is a record!  Definitely going to be making more of these for sure!

Thanks so much for stopping by!  See you soon!

Lawnscaping Challenge 138

Lawnscaping?  It's just a fun way to say creating with Lawn Fawn!  I am a Lawn Fawn addict and I was so excited that I had time this week to join in on the current challenge 'Geometric'!

I knew I wanted to create some fun windows or insets in my card front so I grabbed some Lawn Cuts and started playing around with a layout, it took three tries but in the end I was really happy with how it turned out!  I backed each opening with papers from the new 6x6 Perfectly Plaid Fall collection and then added some Copic colored images on top of each one!

Hope you get a chance to get crafty today!