A Day At The Pier

Good morning. Did you enjoy my birthday present? I sure did.

Ok, back to business at hand. This week's My Favorite Challenge required us to use buttons, sooooo since I wanted a beachy theme to my card I pulled out my dusty Stampin Up! neutral buttons and my July My Favorite Kit, Just Add Color.

First, I dry embossed my card using my cuttlebug forest branches folder and my sizzix, then sponging Stampin Up! brocade blue dye ink around the edges. I figured the branches flipped on the side would resemble the ocean reeds by the seashore.

I stamped my image in memento tuxedo black ink on MFT perfect panels and colored with prismacolor markers, layered, and added the vintage brads that came with the kit. Pulling out the jute twine, I punched two small holes where the dog's leash would be, threaded the jute, and using a Martha Stewart glue pen, glued the jute down to my image to give the leash some dimension. Kind of cool, huh?

I then pulled out the twill tape, punched three holes into it, added more brads and glued it down with mini glue dots. Then I added my main image popped up with dimensionals before adding my buttons, of course with thread. (I just had to follow the Jody rule this time. )

Once the outside of my card was done, I started with the inside. Now, normally I don't decorate the inside, but lately, I've been doing that for some reason. I pulled out some sand dollar/starfish Martha Stewart punched pieces I had laying around and glued them to the left side of the card before stamping the saying.

Stamps: July Just Add Color Kit

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin Up! Brocade Blue

Cardstock: Brocade Blue, Creamy Caramel, Apricot Appeal, MFT Perfect Panel

Accessories: Brads, MS Glue Pen, MS Punch, Hand Punch, Sponge, Prismacolor Markers, July Kit Just Add Color, Buttons, Mini Glue Dots

Happy Birthday To Me!

"When you wish upon a star......" Remember the opening line of Disney's famous song? It's tied to pretty much anything Disney.

Yesterday was my 42nd birthday, and what a birthday it was. Besides dealing with a sick cat, and my mother in law having the outside of the house painted causing a migraine, I did get some stamp time as well as taken out to dinner. I would like to introduce you to my birthday present/thank you for taking care of me for 3months with my broken ankle present from my husband.

Yes! Those three Thomas Kincade "paintings" in the picture. They are actually gallery wrapped canvas prints of actual Thomas Kincade paintings from his Disney Dreams collection. We were watching ShopNBC one night as Thom was guest starring and un-veiling the newest painting in the collection - Cinderella! Well apparently ShopNBC got a special deal since he was there so my husband got the three that have been released in the gallery wrap (Cinderella hasn't been released this way yet) for the price of two!

Here they are closer up.

I have never owned, let alone dreamed of owning, a real Thomas Kincade painting/print. Now I have three! Thank you honey for a wonderful present.

Little Drummer Boy

Remember the song Little Drummer Boy? Well, I found this cool stamp from Stampendous at Michael's over a month or so ago and it just reminded me of that Christmas song. The stamp is so simple looking, the TV show is, and the song reminds us of the true reason of Christmas so I decided to keep my card simple as well.

Stamping my main image in memento tuxedo black on white paper before coloring with prismacolor markers in earth colors and minimal embellishments. The saying is from a retired Stampin Up! set called Warm Words and I just used the "Joy" simply with only a marker around the popped up ovals to make them stand out from the rest of the image. Then I dug through my stash and found some twine that I've had for years and never used (funny how that is) and just wrapped it around the card to finish everything off.

Splitcoaststampers has a Christmas Card Challenge every year that I participate in so I make my Christmas cards a little at a time instead of cramming them all in between Thanksgiving and Christmas. So I start in January and by October I'm done and can enjoy the holiday season instead of stressing. These cards will be my August cards for the challenge.

Stamps: Stampendous, Stampin Up!
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Cardstock: White, Stampin Up! Kraft, Creamy Caramel, Close To Cocoa, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Twine, Prismacolor Markers, Brads, Dimensionals, Oval Punches

Mr Roboto & Chocolate

Hello. Let me introduce you to Mr. Roboto one of MFT's Kit of the Month. With the kits, you get an unreleased stamp set, ribbon, MFT's Perfect Panels, Bitty Baby Brads, and pre-folded cardstock. This month a specially designed digital paper was also included. All that was missing was color and imagination.

I had so much fun making my card and matching tin. I kept thinking about my robot being in love and wanting to give his true love some chocolate even though it's Halloween.

So, I started by stamping my robot in memento tuxedo black twice on MFT's Perfect Panels so I could cut one of the robots out later. Then I colored both robots with prismacolor markers before lightly stippling Stampin Up! soft sky dye ink around the edges of one robot. Once I cut out the second robot, I added some of the metallic bitty baby brads to the center of his belly and forehead; kind of making him look like The Tin Man from Wizard Of Oz. Then I popped him up on mini pop dots before adding more brads to the corners of the panel. Since the card is a trifolding one, I added a small Velcro sticker under one of the flaps to help keep it closed.

Here's a close up of Mr. Roboto. The layer he's "on" is helping cover up the Velcro sticker as well so it's not noticeable until you open the card.

Once the outside of my card was done, I decided I needed to work on my tin and the chocolate. Taking strips of digital paper and Stampin Up basic black, I made a "slip cover" for each piece of chocolate going inside the tin and one for the tin itself before tying some of the gorgeous ribbon around the tin itself.

Below is a close-up of the tin.

So since I had already toyed with the idea of Mr. Roboto having a girlfriend to give the chocolate to, I had to make something to go inside the card. Taking a Stampin Up! silver lined tag from a box of embellies from a friend of mine, I stamped my robot again in memento ink on a scrap piece of MFT perfect panel and colored with pink prismacolor markers, cut out and using mini glue dots added "her" inside the "picture frame". Then I stamped the heart in memento rose ink around the picture for character before adding the saying as shown below.

Seriously, if you haven't tried MFT's Kits Just Add Color, you really need to since they are a blast!

Stamps: Mr Roboto

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black & Rose, Stampin Up Soft Sky

Cardstock: MFT Perfect Panels, Stampin Up! Black,

Going Grey, MFT Digital Paper

Accessories: Stipple Brush, Brads, Mini Glue Dots, Prismacolor Markers, Vellum Tag, Velcro Sticker, Dimensionals

Old Fashioned Christmas Candle

Today I have another Thomas Kincade from the archives only this time instead of a card, how about a Christmas present? This image is the Thomas Kincade Village Christmas Vignette stamped in pallet noir on vellum cardstock. Once the ink is dry, flip the cardstock over and color on the "reverse" side.

Once the coloring is done, wrap your cardstock around the outside of a candle with a hole drilled into the top of it with a drill press. (Most husbands will love helping you out with this part. I know mine did.) The outer wrap can be secured with glue dots easily and it'll hold there just fine as well.

Once the wrap is in place, just place a small votive holder, with votive candle, inside the drilled out section; and you have a beautiful gift for someone.


Now, to "spice" up your gift a bit, try adding some ice stickles to some of the snow covered areas on the roof-tops, or to highlight some of the iced over areas where you want just a little bit of sparkle.

Here's a side view of our lit candle. If you look closely on the right hand side, you can see some of the ice stickles I added next to the cars.

Once my husband drilled out the holes in my candles, my gifts took a total of 15-20 per candle to make not counting drying time for the ice stickles.






Stamps: CHF Thomas Kincade Village Christmas Vignette
Ink: Pallet Noir
Cardstock: Vellum
Accessories: Rose Art Colored Pencils, Candle, Drill Press, Ice Stickles, Glue Dots, Votive Holder, Votive

Sandra Kuck Sisters - 3 Ways

I totally love this now retired Sandra Kuck Sisters image by Cornish Heritage Farms. I can get so many different looks just by changing how I'm coloring it.


For the particular card, I stamped the image with pallet noir on white cardstock, let it dry completely, and colored with prismacolor markers before layering.


Once I was done layering, I added some fabric bridal seashell confetti I had found at Michael's last year making sure to double layer the shells and securing them with a jeweled brad. The saying is from Cornish Heritage Farms Mona Lisa Moments and is also stamped in pallet noir.


Overall the card is pretty much kept clean and simple, with no background stamping.




For the second image using the Sisters stamp, I once again stamped it with pallet noir but this time used vanilla cardstock. In order to achieve a softer look this time, I decided to try coloring with plain old colored pencils and boy did they NOT disappoint!


To keep everything tied together, I dug out some pink parchment cardstock to layer with and some lavender mulberry paper from my stash before adding an embossed prima with a gem center and some silver brads.






Now for the third way to color the Sisters image, I stamped it in pallet noir on watercolor paper. Pulling out my Stampin Up! Watercolor Wonder Crayons and aquapainter brush, I started watercoloring to my hearts delight again keeping the tone as soft as possible before layering.


Pulling out my pink parchment paper again, I sponged rose ink around the edges of the card before adding fibers and square page pebbles as embellies.


Stamps: CHF Sandra Kuck Sisters, Mona Lisa Moments
Ink: Pallet Noir Black, Stampin Up! Regal Rose
Cardstock: Stampin Up! Vanilla, Ballet Blue, Black, Pixie Pink, Creamy Caramel, Blush Blossom, Watercolor Paper, Pink Parchment
Accessories: Rose Art Colored Pencils, Prismacolor Markers, Stampin Up! Watercolor Wonder Crayons, Aquapainter, Fibers, Page Pebbles, Brads, Primas, Bridal Seashell Confetti

From The Archives - Framed Light Of Peace

Framed home decor is normally not one of my specialties. I was just playing around one day with Cornish Heritage Farms Thomas Kincade's Light Of Peace and my new (at the time) Prismacolor markers, when I decided to try framing one of the images I was coloring.

So, after stamping the image in Memento Tuxedo Black ink and coloring with Prismacolor markers, I found one of my $2 special antique looking frames from Walmart and lined up the lighthouse scene inside the matte opening and taping it down. After re-assembling the frame, I found it actually looked pretty good. I mean, not art gallery quality, but not too bad either especially for using alcohol markers for the first time too.

I ended up giving the framed Light of Peace to one of my nuclear technologists that was leaving and moving back east. She really seemed to appreciate it too.


How about using framed stamped images for holiday presents? Or what about birthday or anniversary presents?

Stamps: Cornish Heritage Farms Thomas Kincade Light of Peace
Cardstock: White
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: Prismacolor Markers, Walmart Frame

Wish

Another card from the archives. I submitted this one for publication earlier in the year and unfortunately, it wasn't selected.

It uses one of my new favorite color combos for simple cards. I stamped the background in Papertrey Ink's Damask Designs in Raspberry Fizz ink before layering. I then inked the saying with Stampin Up! going grey dye ink, then wiped off the flower, and re-inked it with Papertrey New Leaf and Hibiscus Burst before stamping. A double layered prima with a gem in the center was added to finish the card off. A clean, simple, and perfectly easy card done in under 15 minutes.

Stamps: Papertrey Ink Damask Designs, Wishing You
Ink: Stampin Up! Going Grey, Papertrey Ink New Leaf, Hibiscus Burst, Raspberry Fizz
Cardstock: Papertrey Ink Raspberry Fizz, Stampin Up! Going Grey, White
Accessories: Primas, Glue Dots, Prima Gem

Friendship Has It's Perks!

Friendship sure does have some very special perks and java is definitely one of them. I love this set from My Favorite Things called Coffee? Tea? and it was perfect for this week's My Favorite Challenge. This week we had to use metal somewhere on our card or project. No sweat!


I started by stamping my image onto MFT Perfect Panels with memento tuxedo black ink and coloring with prismacolor markers before layering. Since I had some of the bitty brads left from my August Just Add Color kit I used the silver ones in the corner; so there's my metal...check! Now, I also had some Colorbook metal stickers I had found in the Michaels $1 aisle during the spring so I pulled out the "friends" sticker to use as part of my saying, and masked off the rest of the saying before stamping it (as seen below). Now I have two sets of metal on the card...double check! Yet, something seemed to be missing. Oh yes, ribbon!! A Jody favorite!


So, I pulled out my coffee/tea ribbon from MFT and tied it around my card between the image and saying to finish it off. Perfect, right? No! It still wasn't right. Something was still missing! Flowers!! That's what's missing. So I start to dig through all of my primas, telling my husband that I don't have enough primas to finish my projects off with only to have an ugly grunt in the background come my way. Now what do you suppose that was for? When I ask him about that, he says "You don't have enough flowers? You have more flowers than Michael's does". That, my friends is a definite exageration. If I had more flowers than Michaels I couldn't live in the house AND I would have enough to finish my project. After digging, and digging through my stash, I finally found a set of primas I had received from a secret sister a year or so ago that were embossed. The only thing they needed to have was a bitty brad in the center as seen below.



Close up of saying.



















Close up of image detail.
















Just remember, friendship has it's perks and it's more than just coffee or tea.


Stamps: MFT Coffee? Tea?
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Memento Cocoa
Cardstock: MFT Perfect Panels, Stampin Up! Chocolate Chip, Creamy Caramel
Accessories: Primas, Prismacolor Markers, Bitty Brads, Ribbon, Stampin Up! Word Window Punch, Colorbook Word Sticker, Glue Dots, Mini Pop Dots

MFT Sketch Challenge98

Can you believe it's time for another weekly MFT sketch challenge? It's been a while since I've done one, so I'll have to be playing catch up to try and get as many done before the 100th sketch is posted. However, for this week's sketch, I got it done early.

I decided to use Annie LaPointe's Sow Seeds Of Love for the sketch. I love pansies, not to mention purple, so it's a perfect combo for me. First, I stamped my image in memento tuxedo black and colored it with prismacolor markers before layering. Then I decided to pull out my dusty sizzix machine (yes the old red one) and use my cuttlebug floral screen background embossing folder in it. Once my lavender lace layer was embossed, I rubbed some purple memento ink over the cardstock to highlight the embossing.

Once that was dry, I added the ribbon (held down with glue dots) and the primas I had found at Michaels on clearance using a MFT jewel brad in the center. I cut the saying that came with the set apart so I could use it anywhere I wanted, so I stamped it on a punched out circle with Stampin Up! almost amehyst ink stippled around the edges.

Stamps: MFT Sow Seeds Of Love
Cardstock: Stampin Up! Elegant Eggplant, MFT Perfect Panels, Almost Amehyst Scrap, Lavender Lace, Pixie Pink
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin Up! Almost Amehyst, Memento Grape Jelly
Accessories: Stipple Brush, Circle Punch, Primas, Jewel Brad, Bitty Brads, Glue Dots, Prismacolor Markers, Sizzix, Cuttlebug Embossing Folder, Ribbon

Too Cute Girlie

Fourth post today, quite a record! Now normally, I'm not much into Halloween cards, but this set by MFT/Stephanie Fizer called Too Cute To Spook is just too cute to be scarey. The layout is part of the 100MFTSketches and is MFTSC96.

So, I stamped my tree in memento cocoa ink and the cat, fence, clouds, and girl in memento tuxedo black; colored and cut the girl out before popping the girl and clouds up on pop dots/dimensionals. I had wanted to add some spooky looking clouds but didn't feel like digging out my old Stampin Up! stencil that was just way too big anyways for this sketch. So I found a piece of scrap paper, tore it into the shape I wanted, and stippled over the torn edges moving my "template" around as needed. Once I was done making my clouds, I lightly stippled soft sky around the tree and then going grey over that.

Once my sky was the way I wanted it, I added jewels to my tree to highlight the branches before popping the whole panel up on dimensionals. Where the saying was on the sketch, I added primas with a purple gem instead.

Stamps: MFT Too Cute To Spook
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Memento Cocoa, Stampin Up! Basic Grey, Going Grey, Soft Sky
Cardstock: Karen Foster Designer Paper, Stampin Up! Black, Gable Green, Glorious Green Scrap, MFT Perfect Panels
Accessories: Primas, Glue Dots, Gem Stickers, Border Punch, Dimensionals, Prismacolor Markers, Brads, Stipple Brush

Mazel Tov!

A friend of mine son is having his Bar Mitzvah today and I wanted to send him a card to celebrate the occasion.

Thank goodness Papertrey Ink came out with the Mazel Tov set. This way, I could create a card I felt was worthy for the occasion; especially since there are not many stamps out there with Jewish symbols or sayings. Thank you Nichole!

For my color combo, I decided to just copy the invitation or red, black, and gold. I started out by stamping my background in Memento Tuxedo black on Stampin Up! riding hood red cardstock using the Mazel Tov! saying and the Torah scroll before adding a layer across the middle of Stampin Up! black and riding hood red cardstock. Then I stamped my saying on the riding hood red cardstock scrap, layered on a black cardstock scrap, and outlined the black with a Pentel ziggy gold paint pen before layering. For the Torah scroll, I stamped that twice in Memento ink and cut one layer out to pop up on dimensionals, again layering on black and outlining with the gold paint pen. For a final touch, I wrapped gold cording around the center of the card before tying it off.



Close up of the Torah scroll.






















Close up of the saying.







A clean, simple, masculine card for a teenage boy. Mazel Tov! Robbie. Enjoy your day.

Stamps: PTI Mazel Tov
Cardstock: Stampin Up! Riding Hood Red, Black
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: Pentel Gold Paint Pen, Gold Cording, Dimensionals

Cobblestone Bridge Compare And Contrast

Hello. Two more Thomas Kincade cards from the archives called Cobblestone Bridge from Cornish Heritage Farms Thomas Kincade series.

The card on the left I stamped in Pallet Noir on watercolor paper and then water colored using Stampin Up!'s Watercolor Wonder Crayons. I love to watercolor the Thomas Kincade images because they tend to look more like a mini painting then a stamped image. For this particular one, in order to make it look a bit more "rustic" I stippled some Tim Holtz tea stain distress ink over the image once I was done water coloring. Adding punched photo corners with vintage brass brads only helped add to the "rustic" look I was trying to achieve.

Now for a contrasting look, try stamping in white on black paper. I've been wanting to see if I could make this village look like it was covered with snow and this is the closest I could come. I totally love the effect though.

The Cobblestone Bridge village is stamped in Pallet Canvas White on Stampin Up! basic black paper before being layered on silver designer paper. A clean and simple card with the wow factor already tied in.

Stamps: Cornish Heritage Farms Thomas Kincade Cobblestone Bridge

Cardstock: Stampin Up! Black, Always Artichoke, Brilliant Blue, Watercolor Paper, Silver Designer Paper

Ink: Pallet Canvas White, Pallet Noir, Tim Holtz Tea Stain Distress Ink

Accessories: Stampin Up! Watercolor Crayons, Aquapainter, Stampin Up! Photo Corners Punch, Vintage Brass Brads, Dimensionals, Stipple Brush

Still Waters Church

Wow!! Can't believe how long it's been since my last post. Life sure has been interrupting my stamping and posting.

Found this Thomas Kincade card in my computer archives that hadn't been posted yet. In fact, I found a lot of Kincade cards that I'll be posting over the next week or so.

This image is called Streams of Living Water and was stamped in Pallet Noir then colored with Prismacolor pencils with a blender pencil. I really love the softer tone the pencils give the image, yet, totally bring out the details of Thomas Kincade's painting as well. Off to the left of the stream are two deer coming to drink and they just add to the peacefulness of the whole image. Sections of the stream are highlighted with diamond ice stickles to look like the water is going over rocks, or the sun is reflecting off the water.

Stamps: Cornish Heritage Farms Streams Of Living Water

Cardstock: Stampin Up! Brilliant Blue, Handsome Hunter, Black, White

Ink: Pallet Noir

Accessories: Prismacolor Pencils & Blender Pencils, Brads, Diamond Ice Stickles