Sweet Valentine

I received the new Color Cubes this past Christmas and finally tried one out. I replaced the really dark almost-black green with black, which I think makes the colors pop. The black also grounds the pinks so that it doesn't look too Shockingly Pink. I think this color combo is appropriate for my not-very-pinky youngest daughter. She actually prefers Earth Tones, but I thought those colors would be too drab for a Valentine card. 

I stamped the cupcake with Memento Ink on Neenah Solar White cardstock, then colored with Copics and Prismacolor Pencil. The hearts were inked with shades to match the Color Cube selection. I added a few hearts via a stencil and also embossed and inked the center panel. 

This card was made using Sketch #720 at Freshly Made Sketches. Love their sketches & all their designer cards!

Supplies Used:

Stamps: Simon Says Stamp: Sweet Birthday; MFT: You're the Sweetest

Dies: Simon Says Stamp: Sweet Birthday; Hero Arts: Infinity Hearts; Nestabilities Card Creator

Inks: Memento: Tuxedo Black; Distress Oxide: Kitsch Flamingo and Picked Raspberry; Distress: Fired Brick; Copics; Prismacolor Pencils

Other: Heidi Swapp hearts stencil; The Paper Studio Medium Polka Dots EF; Color Cube #393

 

Pumpkin Patch FMS713

Had some fun with inking this weekend...brought out my Honey Bee Pumpkin Patch Stamps, Dies and Coordinating Stencil. At first I thought I'd only ink up a few of the various pumpkins/leaves/acorns, but in the end, I stamped and colored them all. Of course that meant I could easily make a few Thanksgiving cards, so here's the one I made for Freshly Made Sketches: 

Supplies Used:
Stamps: Honey Bee Stamps: Pumpkin Patch; Verve: So thankful 
Dies: Honey Bee Stamps: Pumpkin Patch; Sunny Studios: Fancy Frame Rectangles; MFT: Essential Stitched Sentiment Strips
Ink: VersaFine: Vintage Sepia; Distress Inks
Paper: Colorbok: Marble; Bristol

FMS#675

 What a great sketch this week at Freshly Made Sketches! I had a few ideas for this one and they all had me using some graphic stamps. I knew when I bought them that they would be very versatile, but I haven't had the chance to really use them as much as I would have liked. So inspired by this sketch, I inked up the lines then stenciled some stars to go on top. I grabbed a red grad cap out of my stash (red is a popular school color for my family!) and then I got to use a brand-new sentiment stamp/die set for the Congrats. This card has a lot of white space and I really like how it turned out! Again, thanks much to FMS for the inspiration!

Supplies Used:
Stamps: MFT: Distressed Patterns; Simon Says Stamp: XL Greetings & Dies; North Woods Wooden Stamp (Grad Cap)
Ink: Hero Arts: Soft Granite; Memento: Tuxedo Black; Gina K: Red Hot; Copics
Other: Heidi Swapp: Spray Stencil

Kitties & Cookies

This set from MFT was really appropriate for this week's sketch at Freshly Made Sketches. Stamped and colored the kitties with copics. Carefully fussy cut them, then arranged in a line over two strips of metallic cardstock. Die cut the hearts out of the same cardstock, stamped the sentiment and mounted on a panel of that same metallic cardstock. Entering this for Sketch Challenge #655: 

Supplies Used: 

Stamps: MFT: Chip, Chip, Hooray!

Inks: Copics, Memento: Tuxedo Black; Catherine Pooler: Pucker Up

Dies: SSS: Stacked Hearts

FMS#649

While laying low during my last episode with covid (not fun), I found a few card examples that made me want to create. The first was this eye-popping card from Wanda Cullen that was made for FMS#644. I have a similar typewriter stamp and the design looked easy enough to CASE....but before I could actually make a card, I found a second card that had another cool color combination that I had to try. And, and as usual when I just try a technique on a scrap piece of paper, I end up not wanting to toss it....I truly hope I learned my lesson: whenever I'm going to 'just experiment', I am going to use a full-size piece of paper so that I don't have to spend so much time trying to figure out how to use a pretty 'scrap'! 

I combined the inspiration from these two cards along with another fabulous sketch (FMS#649) at Freshly Made Sketches, and ended up with three coordinated cards. It is so true that it is way more effecient to make multiple cards when you have all your coordinating supplies out. Instead of having only one card after crafting for say five hours, I just spent another hour to complete two more and now I had three for those six hours spent. 
I'm grateful again to Freshly Made Sketches for providing the inspiration for me to make a clean & simple card - still a challenge for me! Thanks for stopping by!

Inspiration Card by Wanda Cullen

Inspiration Card by Jen Shults

Supplies Used:

Stamps: Honey Bee: Just My Type; Altenew: Sentiments and Quotes; Crafter's Companion: Floral Note;

Ink: Catherine Pooler: Be Mine; Distress Oxide: Picked Raspberry; Derwent Drawing Pencil: Chinese White; Memento: Tuxedo Black;

Dies: Nestablities: Scalloped Circles; Sizzix Originals: Framed Circles; MFT: Stitched Circles STAX; Sunny Studio: Fancy Frame Rectangle and Fishtail Banners; 

Other: Echo Park: Polka Dots Stencil

Paper: MFT: Sweet Celebration Paper Pad

FMS587

I started making the card for my daughter's 21st birthday by stamping a bunch of beer stein and pretzel images. I then colored them all with copics, and fussy-cut each one. I used Glossy Accents for the glass and a SNO paint pen for the foam (it bubbles up when you heat emboss it!). I then saw the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches which inspired me to use this radiant rainbow bubble paper for the background on my card.  I love the bright colors of this really fun paper pack. Thanks to FMS for the inspiration!

Supplies Used: 

Stamps: Funny bones by Riley & Company: Beer Stein; pretzel by Stamps by Judith

Inks: Copics

Paper: Brutus Monroe: Radiant rainbow; various colored cardstock

Dies: MFT: Cheers; Nestabilities: Circles; Concord & 9th: Double-cut Numbers Dies
 

Another one for #FMS571

I made another card using sketch #571 at FMS. I hope it's okay that I am submitting more than one entry - this one is more 'clean'/less busy...I am quite challenged by this design requirement, but I think I am getting closer to clean with practice! It's such a great sketch for a simple but cute design-and these sketches really help me get creative, so thanks so much to the FMS Crew for sharing them!

For this card, I chose the color scheme based on the birthday gift paper I found in my stash. I just love these little bears in the MFT stamp set and this image went goes so well with the paper! I brought the green and pink colors to the sentiment, and added some blue distress ink and a few sequins to the background to finish this card. 

Supplies Used: 

Stamps: MFT: Beary Special Birthday

Dies: MFT: Beary Special Birthday; SSS: Happy Birthday Brush Script; 

Inks: Copics; Distress Oxide: Broken China

FMS #571

I'm missing a friend who moved away recently, so I made this card to let her know that I'd really love to chat. Funny how I can't seem to find the time to pick up the phone....maybe it's because I'm too busy crafting! Adding this to the current challenge at FMS (FMS#571). 

I die cut several phone pieces using the fun and bright papers from Doodlebug Designs, stamped the cute sentiment and stenciled a few stars to match the tiny stars on the phone.  Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies Used: 

Dies: Sizzix: Telephone & Diary; MFT: A2 Stitched Rectangle STAX

Stamps: Simon Says Stamp: Stronger Together

Ink: Distress: Spiced Marmalade; Stampin' Up: Tempting Turquoise

Paper: Doodlebug Designs: Take Note; MFT: Candied Yam

Stencil: Heidi Swap

Beary Special Birthday

I was excited to finally get to use this adorable birthday set. To begin, I headed over to Freshly Made Sketches and, as usual, found a great sketch and lots of inspiration! I based my colors on the strip of washi tape - Peacock Feathers and Blueprint Sketch were used to ink the Sprinkles using a stencil. I colored the bear/cake image with copics, then cut it out using the matching dies. I added a few extra layers to pop up the image a bit, for extra interest. The sentiment was inked with VersaMark and heat embossed with White Detail embossing powder. I used a fishtail banner die to cut the sentiment and lastly, I cut the stenciled background panel with a stitched rectangle die (which matches the stitching on the banner). Entering this in the Challenge for Freshly Made Sketch #569. Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies Used: 

Stamps: MFT: Beary Special Birthday

Dies: MFT: Beary Special Birthday, A2 Stitched Rectangles STAX; Sunny Studio: Fancy Frames Rectangle

Ink: Copics; Distress Oxide: Peacock Feathers and Blueprint Sketch; VersaMark

Other: Washi Tape, SSS: Fine Detail White embossing powder; Altenew: Mixed Sprinkles Stencil

Autumn Camping

Entering this in the colour challenge over at Fusion. I love how the camper stamp goes so well with the Happy Campers paper pad...I am sure to be making a whole lot of camping cards for my outdoors-loving family members. The colors from the paper match almost perfectly with the Colour Challenge: Autumn Leaves at Fusion. I also used the sketch. Love all the inspiration I get at Fusion! I had a lot of fun inking up the images from the stamp set and coloring them in. I decided to use the star map for my sky background - wouldn't it be so much easier if all the constellations were so easy to identify irl? To add interest between the two halves of my circle, I cut and copic-colored a small mountain range. My husband & I have plans to buy a camper someday....can't wait to go on some fun outdoor adventures! Thanks for stopping by!

 

Supplies Used: 
Paper: We R Memory Keepers: Happy Campers 

Stamps: Lawn Fawn: Happy Trails 

Dies: Lawn Fawn: Happy Trails; Spellbinders: Sentiments One; MFT: Stitched Circles Stax 

Ink: Copics; Versafine: Vintage Sepia

 

 

Fusion Seagull Beach Challenge Card #1

I just loved the summery colors chosen for the Seagull Beach Challenge at Fusion! For my entry, I used both the sketch and the color palette to create my card. I struggle with young adult birthday cards but I thought this whimsy flower stamp fit the bill. The colors are perfect for a young lady whose 29th birthday is in late summer. I had fun choosing the inks to match up with the challenge - I think they go so well together! I decided to stencil a few light pink circles for a background, and then I framed the whole panel in gray. Such a fun challenge! I had some extra circles left over, so I made a second card too. TFL!

Supplies Used: 

Stamps: The Stamps Of Life: Back2Basics; My Sentiments Exactly: 

Inspirational Birthday Innies & Outies

Dies: MFT: A2 Stitched Rectangles Stax; 1" Punch

Inks: Colorbox: Sky Blue and Mint; Altenew: Sand Dunes; MFT: Cement Gray; Gina K: Blush; Distress Oxide: Spun Sugar

Paper: MFT: Cement Gray

Other: Heidi Swapp Stencil

Dots, Dots & more Dots

I started this card by applying distress oxide inks over the Flowing Drops Stencil from Altenew. Then, matching the dotted paper that is behind the stenciled panel, I used Altenew's Halftone Stencil over the first stencil. I stamped the flip flops with the lighter ink and created the polka dots by applying darker ink using the Halftone Stencil again. The pink scalloped circle was die cut from more dotted paper and of course i couldn't let the white circle be plain, so I embossed it with more dots! The little star fish added a nice touch to the circle, and a few sequins added a little more pop to the background. Thanks for stopping by!

Adding this card to the Stencil Challenge at Happy Little Stampers.

Supplies Used: 

Stamps: The Stamps Of Life: flipflops2stamp; Simon Says Stamp: Sending and Wishing and You Matter

Inks: Distress Oxide: tumbled glass, mermaid lagoon, picked raspberry, fossilized amber

Dies: Spellbinders-Nestabilities: Scalloped Circles; MFT: A2 Stitched Circle STAX; Simon Says Stamp: Wishing

Other: Altenew: Flowing Drops Stencil and Halftone Stencil; The Paper Studio: A2 Medium Polka Dots Embossing Folder; Sequins

Billiards Card

Masculine birthday cards are challenging in and of themselves, but as my 'little' nephews grow up (now in their thirties!!) it is getting harder and harder to find just the right design for their cards. One can make only so many guitar or basketball cards! Luckily my soon-to-be-thirty-year-old son came up with a great suggestion: Pool!

Not having any stamps remotely close to the game, I spent some time googling pool tables, billiard balls, cue sticks, etc. Then I spent more time unearthing every circle die/punch I could find in order to find the perfect sizes for those tiny little billiard balls. All the numbered balls represent my nephew's birthdate and age ('32' on 4/5/89). (I did have to point this out to most, but my clever nephew did figure it out with very little coaching.) One of the trickiest tasks was to make the 'stripe' on the No. 9 ball. The table was easy enough and so was the cue stick. A bit of blue ink for chalk, white pencil for the tip and a few strokes of brown copic markers for the bottom made it look rather realistic. 

A fun card to make and I thought of another good idea for these young adult men: Poker! I'm ahead of the game for next year! YAY!

TFL!

Supplies Used: 

Dies:  MFT: Hot Cocoa Cups Die-namics (larger circle die), standard hole punch (circles for numbers); corner rounder punch; Concord & 9th: Double-cut Alphabet;

Stamps: SSS: You Matter

Celebrating 21st Birthday

Created this card for a nephew who is turning 21. Got my inspiration from Sketch #548 at Just Add Ink. Decided to use various distress inks in masculine colors with my stencil. I usually don't ink up the card base itself, so I don't use 'good' card stock for my card bases. This fact made inking not as easy as it could've been had I used the shinier Ranger Speciality Paper which is much kinder to Distress Inks. I think it still came out okay, though filling in all those tiny spaces was a bit tricky. I used lots of tape for masking! I tried hard to go with a CAS design here, and I think I finally succeeded. I stopped myself from adding more embellishments (like sequins) to keep it clean and also to keep it more masculine-looking. 
I'm also adding this to the Challenge #194: Birthday at Addicted to CAS. Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies Used:
Stamps: Riley & Company: Beer Stein; Stampabilities: Everyday Expressions
Ink: Distress: Chipped Sapphire, Fossilized Amber, Walnut Stain and Fired Brick; Memento: Paris Dusk; Copics
Other: Picket Fence Studios: Point of Interest Stencil, Glossy Accents, Marvy: Snow Marker
Dies: MFT: Stitched Circles; Spellbinders-Nestabilities: Labels One

Tempting Turquoise/Gold Flower Power (4 of 4)

 

This is the third card that I am adding to the Wednesday Card Challenge - Two or More Patterned Papers at Simon Says Stamp. I really had fun making all of these different cards using those cute little freebie flower stamps! Now I definitely need to switch back to my obligatory birthday cards because I need at least 10 for April & May! Thanks so much for stopping by!

SUPPLIES USED:
DIES: MFT: A2 Stitched Rectangles STAX; Spellbinders-Nestabilities: Labels Eleven
STAMPS: SSS: Beautiful Day; Picket Fence Studios: Flowers For Picking; Fiskars: Friendly Flowers
INK: Stampin' Up: Tempting Turquoise, Old Olive
PAPER: Stampin' Up and various
OTHER: Nuvo Crystal Drops: Calming Aqua

Tempting Turquoise/Gold Flower Power (2 of 4)

Since I had a few extra stamped/cut flowers and all the extra paper still out on my craft table, I decided to make more cards. I spend most of my crafting time making cards that I 'have to' make - the calendar dictates who gets a card - so I don't often get the chance just to 'play'. With the supplies all out and all the color choices made, all I needed was a sketch to get me started. Once again, Splitcoaststampers came through with SC845! 

For this card, I added some leaves that I stamped and fussy-cut. The sentiment is from MFT's You're The Sweetest and the stitches were added to the sentiment strip by using my stitched rectangle dies and carefully cutting one edge at a time using a longer but much wider rectangle die. Love the added touch the stitch marks bring! 

I found two more coordinating patterned papers, so this card will be entered into the Wednesday Challenge at Simon Says Stamp. Since it is also a birthday card, it will be entered into the Game #23 - Patterned Paper Birthday Challenge at AAA Birthday.  Thanks for looking!

SUPPLIES USED:
DIES: MFT: A2 Stitched Rectangles Stax 
STAMPS: MFT: You're The Sweetest; Picket Fence Studios: Flowers For Picking; Fiskars: Friendly Flowers

INK: Stampin' Up: Tempting Turquoise, Old Olive

PAPER: Stampin' Up and various
OTHER: Nuvo Crystal Drops: Bright Gold

Tempting Turquoise/Gold Flower Power (1 of 4)

Received these adorable flower stamps for free with my recent purchase at Scrapbook.com and when I found this old paper in my stash,  I just had to use them! I stamped a whole bunch of these cute little flowers with Tempting Turquoise Ink. Since the ink matches the paper, I stamped several times using my MISTI in order to make the outline darker. I never stamp without using that wonderful tool - it has made stamping accurately so much easier! 

I fussy-cut the flowers and added some Nuvo drops for just the right amount of shine. Fussy-cutting these was not difficult at all! I die cut the beautiful edges border from Altenew out of Old Olive paper. Used that same color along with a lighter turquoise for my die-cut circles, then adhered everything using Gina K Connect Glue. I really like how easy it is to use that glue and how good it works. I know this glue is out-of-stock frequently, but I managed to buy some more so hoping that my supply lasts awhile.

Thanks for stopping by!

SUPPLIES USED:
DIES: Altenew: Creative Edges: Lace Die; Spellbinders: Nestabilities: Circles & Scalloped Circles; MFT: Stitched Circles Stax; 
STAMPS: Simon Says Stamp: Sending & Wishing; Picket Fence Studios: Flowers For Picking; 

INK: Stampin' Up: Tempting Turquoise

PAPER: Stampin' Up
OTHER: Nuvo Crystal Drops: Bright Gold

 

Sweet & Simple Valentine (#SC839)

Made this quick little valentine for my daughter who is experiencing her first year away at college. Valentine's Day can be lonely when you don't have a special someone, and the pandemic has really put socializing on hold, making it more difficult to meet people and just hang out. Hoping this little card (along with some homemade chocolate chip cookies) will brighten her Valentine's Day at least a little bit! Thanks for the sketch inspiration at Splitcoaststampers.com!

Inked and embossed the cute little cupcake stamp, then decided to mat it with several squares. Used the Mixed Sprinkles stencil for the larger square and some SU dp. Die cut some matching hearts, popped up the cupcake with foam dots and stamped the sentiment to complete this card. TFL!

Supplies Used:

Stamps: Picket Fence Studios: You Are Icons; Sunny Studio Stamps: Sweet Shoppe; MFT: You're the Sweetest

Dies: Hero Arts: Nesting Hearts Infinity Dies

Ink: Stampin' Up: Real Red; VersaMark; Red EP

Other: Altenew: Mixed Sprinkles Stencil

 

MOJOSKETCH552

 Created this card for the sketch challenge at Mojo Monday Sketch Challenge #552. I found this great background paper which I knew I could use for some Cooks/Bakers in my family. When I set out to make cards, however, I didn't have the right elements to go with the theme. I thought about drawing a chef's hat and some utensils, but then I found the perfect Stickers and everything sort of came together after that. I ended up making three cards, with more stickers to use for the future. I can't believe how easy it is to create a card when you have the Perfect Embellishments! TFL!

Supplies Used:

Paper: American Crafts; DCWV: The Sweet MatStack

Stickers: The Paper Studio

Dies: MFT: Stitched Circle Stax, Hero Arts: Nested Frame Cuts: Hearts

Other: Heidi Swap: Spray Stencil

Ink: Altenew: Grapevine

Loads of Birthday Wishes

My husband's nephew was born on my father-in-law's birthday which also happens to be the same birthday as one of my nieces! Because I like to make each card especially suited to the recipient, that means I have to come up with three very different ideas each October 11. I do try to get a head start whenever the mojo is flowing, and I was able to use a few pieces that I had made earlier which did help things along this year. 

For my first card (the one for my father-in-law), I was once again inspired with the sketch at Freshly Made Sketches. It kind of morphed into a bit more than the sketch, but that certainly was my inspiration for this card! For my focal image, I used a pick-up truck that I had colored awhile back while practicing with my Prismacolor colored pencils. I usually use Copics to color my images, but I actually like the 'grainy' texture the pencils brought to the truck. I then stamped and colored the gift packages to add to the truck. I fussy-cut both images out, which is quite easy to do. I grabbed an orange-gold rectangle leftover from a Thanksgiving place card project then stamped and embossed a sentiment from the coordinating die set onto it. I still had some leaves from my previous card lying around, so I used these as little bushes/trees for some added interest (and to add a somewhat rounded look to more resemble the circle of the sketch). I was going to stencil a very subtle cloud background, but I thought the rectangle was too plain, so I opted for cloud diecuts instead. I also added a few puffs of smoke by stamping pieces of popcorn that I inked with Hickory Smoke Distress Ink. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies Used:

Stamps: Honey Bee Stamps: Little Pickup and Sending You Sentiments, Sunny Studio Stamps: Autumn Splendor, The Stamps of Life: popcorn2stamp

Dies: Sunny Studio Stamps: Autumn Splendor, Nestabilities Rectangles, My Favorite Things: Cute Cloud Outlines

Coloring: Distress: Various, Prismacolor Premier Colored Pencils