Follow Your Bliss…

Happy Cinco de Mayo!!!

I worked on several designs yesterday, and was so pleased with this one! This card is for my Uncle’s birthday. Masculine designs can be so difficult sometimes, but this one came together rather quickly.

I haven’t made a matchbook card in *ages* it seems! They are so easy, and the recipient almost always thinks it’s a “wow”. I stamped the CHF woodgrain backgrounder on kraft cardstock using Adirondack mushroom ink. I re-inked a portion of the woodgrain and stamped it horizontally on the bottom flap, then stamped it again without reinking to give it a teeny bit of dimension.

The focal image, Lockhart’s adirondack chair, is on shimmery cryogen white cardstock, and colored with my Copic markers. I cut and embossed it with my square Spellbinders Nestability die, then I masked the chair, and airbrushed the sky with B21. I colored the rest of the image with: E31, 55, 57, 99, R59, G99, YG17.

Rather than going with the customary scalloped matting, I chose to keep the lines straight on this. I selected a larger embossed square from Prism birchtone dark cardstock, and added the tiny tab for the sentiment, using SU! everyday flexible phrases. I added 3 Karen Foster thumbtack brads to the bottom flap, then adhered that together with a strip of redliner tape, because I didn’t want to have the brad prongs showing through the back of the card.

Here’s how the card opens:

Thanks for stopping by today! Have a great Cinco de Mayo, and join me with a burrito and margarita!

Last week I created a card using the Karen Lockhart chintz butterfly. After I created that card, I made this one, using the flowers in chintz image. This was one of the images I colored when I was at the cabin in GA.

As with the other images I colored with my Copics while I was away, I colored it “freestyle”, using nothing but nature as my inspiration. As I looked through my stash for things to coordinate with it, I came across this Memory Box homespun patterned cardstock. I thought it worked nicely with the blues and yellows in the image.

I added a strip of the striped cardstock to the blue print, then cut and embossed it with my narrow rectangle Nestability die. I added the PaperTrey sentiment, some silver brads, and some of this *divine* May Arts ribbon.

I chose Prism’s sunflowers medium for the cardbase, stamped with CHF’s petite pattern backgrounder in Adirondack butterscotch ink. For some added detail, I added Stickles to the flowers, and covered the pitcher in Ranger glossy accents. I used the following Copic markers: B21, B23, Y21, Y17, Y38, YG03, YG17, V12, V15, RV34, RV17, E77, W3.

Thanks for stopping by! Any plans for this weekend? Tomorrow is National Scrapbooking Day, and I’ll be spending it with some friends doing something crafty! If mine comes out OK I’ll share it with you! Bye for now!!!

Hello! Here I am writing my blog entry at 1am….zzzzzzzzz… It’s been a long day!

I went to the nursery this morning to pick out several plants for my new landscaping!! OMG I am SO EXCITED about it! Right now the front of my house is pretty “blah”, and I’ve wanted to have it landscaped for a long time. Thanks to Uncle Sam, it’s possible. I’ll be sure to share before and after pics with you!

I created this card this weekend, and am really happy with how it turned out. Hope you like it too?

I haven’t used my Lockhart La Fleur Couture stamps in awhile, and I don’t think I’d ever used this lavender/primrose one! It’s one of my very faves, though. I paired it with another fave…Memory Box sprout patterned cardstock. It’s colored with my Copics, (YG03, YG17, V15, V17, Y17, Y21) then cut and embossed with my petite oval Spellbinders Nesties. It’s matted with a scalloped Prism frosted amethyst panel, and popped up on another scalloped layer from the sprout paper pack.

I wanted to do something a little different with the Spellbinders double ended tags. I decided to cut and emboss the largest one from the striped pattern, then adhere it to the center of the cardfront. I then added some Bazzill eyelets, and threaded the Creative Impressions ribbon (from my LSS) through. I mounted this to a white cardbase, then adhered the focal image.

Lastly, I stamped the Verve Visual sentiment, and blinged up the dress with my favorite star dust Stickles!

Hope you all have a wonderful day! I’m going to BED!

I went out of town for a few days last week to my friend’s cabin in the Ga. mountains. I knew it would be a quiet, relaxing time with the dogs, so I decided to bring a few stamped images with me, and my Copics. I colored several images, and you’ll be seeing them in the next few days.

This was a bit different for me, because usually, I color my images to coordinate with my patterned paper. I knew I wanted these Karen Lockhart Tulips to be orange, so I just ran with it. This stamp is Ellen’s Stamp of the Month for April, so you still have time to grab it!

I chose Copic YR14 and YR09 for the flowers, with YG03 and YG17 for the stems/leaves. The sky is B00 with some shading of B23. The pot is E39, 99, and 27. As it turned out, the colors worked beautifully with this Memory Box Aerial patterned cardstock! The image was trimmed, and mounted on a Prism intense orange square scalloped Spellbinders mat. The plain embossed square is also a pattern from this Aerial pack.

I couldn’t wait to use my new Spellbinders double ended tags, so I cut and embossed one from that same subtle pattern, and added some orange eyelets to dress it up a bit. I added the Lockhart sentiment, then attached to the machine stitched panel with some orange striped May Arts ribbon. A few orange Bazzill brads, and some Stickles on the tulips finish off the design!

Hope you’re having a great weekend!

Hello there!

I am rushing to start work today, but wanted to post some inspiration for you.

This design features Karen Lockhart’s chintz butterfly, as well as 3 CHF backgrounders. The image was colored with my Copic markers, then cut, embossed, airbrushed, and matted with my Spellbinders circle Nesties. All of these items are available in Ellen’s store!

Prism cardstock, and Adirondack inks (from CHF) were used, as well as some Creative Impressions ribbon (from my LSS). A bit of Stickles on the butterfly make her sparkle.

Supplies:

Paper: Prism nautical blue med, sunflowers med, intense kiwi, cryogen white. Ink: Adirondack denim, butterscotch, lettuce, pitch black. Copics: B23, Y21, 38, YG03, E27. Backgrounders: paisley, spanish script, leaves.

Have a great day!!

Ahhh Spring has returned, and it’s so pretty out this morning! Hope it’s nice where you are, too!

I have a couple cards to share, using Karen Lockhart’s Striped Lighthouse. This is such a great image for masculine cards. The first one uses red as the predominant color:

I used the NEW Basic Grey Boxer 6×6 paper pad for both cards. I colored the lighthouse with the following Copics: E31, 34, 39 for the sand, B95, 97, 99 for the water, YR31 & Y 38 for the sky, R27, 59 for the red stripes, W2, 4, 5 for the gray stripes and roof.

I cut and embossed the image with my rectangle Spellbinders Nestie die, and embellished it with some pewter SU! and WeRMK hardware. Sentiment is from PaperTrey’s faux ribbon set. A bit of yellow Stickles for the sun and lighthouse finish it off!

Next, is the same image and layout, but predominantly blue:

For this lighthouse, the sand, sun and water are the same as above. I used Copics: B41 for the sky, N7 and 100 for the roofs, and B99 and N7 for the blue stripes and house.

Isn’t it funny how a card can look so different just by changing the main colors?

I have some really exciting news to share, but you’ll have to come back on Friday, cuz it’s one of my VERY favorite things!! Bye for now!!

Happy Monday! Well it’s freezing here this morning. 30 degrees and a few snowflakes are flying. Thankfully, it will be 70 again by the end of the week. So in the meantime, I’ll just bundle up in my comfy fleece!

I’ve been using a good bit of my new Basic Grey 6×6 paper the past several days. This design features the Boxer line, as well as one print from the Sugared line.

This is an anniversary card for my Aunt and Uncle. I think these Lockhart socks are so adorable, and perfect for an anniversary! I used the paper piecing technique for this design, stamping the socks on the plaid print, the pink print, and the bluish-green solid. For the background, I colored it with my Copic markers in B41, G85, G99. I also added some black shiny dots with my Sakura glaze pen. I colored the toes and heels of the sock with Copics YR24, E99, G85, G99, and a bit of shadow with W3.

The pink sock is raised higher than the blue plaid for extra dimension. Some faux stitching, and a sentiment created with Karen Foster Snap Stamps finish off the design. (I purchased those snap stamps a few years ago, and don’t know if they are still available.)

Have a great week!!!

I was on Mish’s blog the other day, and saw her use Anna Wight’s snail image from Whipper Snapper. All of a sudden I was inspired to put something on the back of the Itty Bitty Escargot (LOL!) Karen Lockhart designed. Since I needed to make some birthday cards, I thought her Itty Bitty cupcake would work nicely!

This NEW Basic Grey Cupcake 6×6 paper pad is SO cute, and perfect for birthdays! I’ve been making my cardfronts using the solids from the paper pack as my mat, and building up from there. The cardbase is white. (either PaperTrey, Neenah, or SU! –whatever I grab first!)

The snail was stamped 3 times: once on the patterned paper, and twice on cryogen white cardstock. I did this, because of his antennae. I wasn’t about to cut around those tiny things, so by stamping him on the patterned paper, then layering on top of that, I got the look I was going for. I layered one fulll colored snail on top of the first image, then added just his shell popped up on dimensionals.

I did the same process with the cupcake, only stamping it twice, and layering it with a thicker dimensional, so that it was higher than his shell. Copic colors used were: R29, RV34, R83 (for the frosting and cherry), YR31, Y17 (for his head), YG93, YG95 (for his shell), B23, B97 (for the cupcake base), and the colorless blender (to remove some color from the shell for highlights). I also used the red Copic to custom color my 2 bling brads. They were clear, and I simply colored the center with my Copic! LOVE that! I added an AMuse bling for the cherry, and finished off the design with a glittery snail trail~ Stickles, of course! Sentiment is also Lockhart from Ellen’s store.

Hope you’re all having a great weekend! They are calling for SNOW here tonight!! What in the world??? Crazy weather! Sheesh. LOL!

Hi there! Well, we are still having issues with our blogs today. I have no blogroll or categories, which makes me a little sick, LOL. Hopefully this will be fixed soon.

I was so thrilled to receive my latest shipment from Jacksonbelle Embellishments! It included all of the new Basic Grey paper and embellies. My first choice was the Sultry 6×6 paper pad. YUM! I paired it with Karen Lockhart’s Cottage Flowers.

This is one of my favorite layouts for a tall card. This card measures 3 1/2″ x 6, and used two patterns and three solids from the paper pack. The flowers were stamped on cryogen white shimmery cardstock, colored with my Copic markers, and the jar was covered with Ranger glossy accents. I airbrushed a bit of light blue around the flowers, and added some shadows with the same B00 marker.

I found these Lasting Impressions “matte” brads at a LSS several months ago, and this is the first I’ve used them, I think. I really love the matte finish! The sentiment is a Basic Grey rub-on, which I added to the intense pink distressed paper. I trimmed it to fit in the WeRMK hardware, added it to the cardfront on dimensionals, then applied the hardware on top, attaching to the card with pale pink grosgrain. This entire panel was then adhered to a plain white cardbase, and the focal image was added on dimensionals. A bit of Stickles added to the flowers finish off the design.

Thanks for stopping by!! Have a great day!

Oh man am I ever glad it’s Friday!!! I LOVE Fridays! So, I’m sure you’ve noticed over the past couple months, that I have been using Inchies. At first, I didn’t really “get” the whole inchie thing. What would I do with them? What’s so special about them?

Well, after I started making projects with them, it didn’t take long for me to fall in love with them. They are cute, easy and fun to make, and versatile. As you’ve seen on my blog, you can use them individually on a card, or like tiles as a “quad”. You can stack them vertically for taller “tiled” images. You can make darling little magnets, ornaments for little Christmas, Easter, or Halloween trees. There’s no limit!

You can find fun ideas from Inchie Arts, as well as Ellen’s blog and store. Ellen has also created a special blog dedicated specifically to inchies, called Inchie INKlings. Several of us are designing ideas for you on our blogs: Sharon, Cindy, Mish, and Debbie. Also Karen Lockhart has ideas on her website. (click highlighted links to go to these sites!)

Ellen is carrying a really fabulous line of products from Inchie Arts, that make creating these projects a dream! You can see all of the items in Ellen’s store HERE. I really love the black and white inchie squares that are made of museum quality archival matboard. She also carries a pack of 108 precut patterned paper squares, for those that don’t care to cut these small little squares. There’s magnets, pins, glass squares…so MANY cool products. There’s also a Gotta Have it All kit that gives you everything you need to get started.

Here’s a couple inchie magnets I created using the white matboard squares, and magnets from Ellen’s store:

I used Karen Lockhart’s Itty Bitty vase and fishbowl, and colored them with my Copic markers. (for the fishbowl: Y21, T3, B000, B00. for the flowers: Y21, Y38, YR24, R46, R59, BV04, YG17, E77, B000, B00, T3) The vase and fishbowl are covered with Ranger glossy accents. The fish, rocks, and plants were colored with Copic Spica glitter pens, as were the black dots for the background. I matted the inchies with a black scalloped square, created with my Spellbinders Nestability die, then snipped a piece of magnet from the roll, and adhered it to the back. (the magnet is self adhesive on the back-just peel off the protective backing!).

I encourage you to give these Inchies a try. I think once you start playing with them, you will fall in love just as I have! Be sure to link your projects here, so I can come take a peek!

Have a great weekend!