Christmas cards

Good afternoon! I hope you are having a good Wednesday. I made a few more Christmas cards to get a little head start. I got this adorable little C.C. Designs monkey in WRAK. This paper is pretty thin, so I went out of the lines like crazy, but I didn't want to waste the adorable image, so I cut him out. I love the C.C. Designs monkey! He is just the most adorable little thing! I wish they had a set that was just the monkeys. Anyway, I colored this image a couple of weeks ago, so I don't remember which colors I used. -Stamps-C.C. Designs Christmas Around the World, PTI Take a Bough
-Paper-Real Red and White cardstock, Dashing DSP
-Ink-Memento, Real Red
-Accessories-HPH, Red grosgrain, glitter


I did this one for Taylor's Sketch challenge 59. This is such a great sketch!

-Stamps-Inkadinkado Penguin Pandemonium, SU Crazy for Christmas
-Paper-Real Red, Old Olive and White
-Ink-Old Olive, Memento
-Copics-R27, R46, R59, YR09, B00, C1
-Accessories- Cuttlebug folder, Brayer, Olive Grosgrain

Hey BTW, does anyone know of a brand of pattern paper that matches SU's Real Red and Old Olive? If you do, please let me know! Thanks!

Lovin' my Nestabilities!

Good morning! I made these last week and just kept forgetting to post them. I only have the rectangle and circle nestabilities so far, but I wanted to do a square, so I just cut some out of the rectangle. I can't believe it worked! Now I don't even need the squares . Hehe, my ribbon is pretty crooked in the picture. It's not glued down though, so I can fix it.

-Stamps-Impression Obsession Small Hydrangea Sprig, PTI Papertray
-Paper-Pink Pirouette, Chocolate Chip, Bashful Blue, and Whisper White
-Ink-Memento tuxedo black, Chocolate Chip, Copic Markers
-Accessories-Chocolate Chip grosgrain, swiss dots Cuttlebug folder, nestabilities

These next two, I made for the Viva la Verve Challenge. It was a sketch challenge, but with a twist. You had to use hardware on it too. I did use some hodgepodge hardware on the first one, but I just couldn't make it work on the second. I got some new Christmas stamps recently, so I can't resist in making a couple of Christmas cards! These stamps are fun to color too! Man, everything is fun to color with these markers! Ever since I got them, my solid stamps are kind of getting neglected.

-Stamps-Rubber Stampede Cardinal, PTI Take a Bough
-Paper-Whisper White, Kraft, Bravo Burgundy cardstock; Basic Gray Figgy Pudding DP
-Ink-Memento tuxedo black, Bravo Burgundy, Copic Markers
-Accessories-White grosgrain, swiss dots Cuttlebug folder, HPH, Circle cutter, Circle nestabilities

-Stamps-Stampabilities Vintage Poinsettia, PTI Take a Bough
-Paper-Whisper White, Kraft, and Bravo Burgundy cardstock; Basic Gray Figgy Pudding DP
-Ink-Memento tuxedo black, Old Olive, Copic Markers
-Accessories-Mini half pearls, swiss dots Cuttlebug folder, Circle cutter, Circle nestabilities

Hope you all have a great day!!

Stamp Something Challenge

Good morning! This weeks Stamp Something Challenge is sponsored by our very own Denise of Whimsy Stamps! They are such cute stamps! The theme this week is Red, Green and Gold. Perfect for Christmas! I hate to think how many Christmas card I have done now. I've been finished for a while, but I can't seem to stop making more! Isn't this the cutest frog?! He sits on a lily pad, but I don't have enough different green copic markers yet, so I cut him off, since he looked like he was kind of blending into it. The Santa hat is from Inkadinkado Penguin Pandemonium. I started off using Jen's Sketch For you to try, but I made a few changes to make the image I was using work with it.

-Stamps-Whimsy Frog, PTI Take a Bough
-Paper-White cardstock; Real Red and Wild Wasabi prints & Dashing DSP; Gold paper..unknown
-Ink-Brillance Black and White Craft; Copic markers
-Accessories-Clear EP, Real Red grosgrain

Head on over to the Stamp Something Challenge blog to see what the rest of the DT came up with!

ETA: Totally off topic, but I just saw a thread on SCS about http://www.freeshippingday.com/ On December 18th, there are a bunch of stores that will be offering free shipping and guarantee delivery by Christmas. How awesome is that? There are already a lot listed, and it says there will be more closer to the 18th.

Glittery snowmen

I got my Copics yesterday!! Those things are neat! I spent like half the day just playing around with them. They definitely aren't what I'm used to, but I really like them. I'm kinda kicking myself on some of my color choices though. I didn't get a skin color ...or grass...or sky, lol. The browns I got were a lot darker than I expected too. Oh well...Maybe hubby will get me some more for my birthday or Christmas . I've only made one card with them so far, but that one is for this weeks Stamp Something Challenge, so you'll see that tomorrow.

Want to see some really cute stamps?! My friend Denise has started her own stamp company called Whimsey Stamps! Isn't that exciting! The website doesn't launch until next week, but she is offering a preorder on her blog, and a chance to win one of the new stamps!! I'm telling you, these stamps are CUTE!! You can see THIS post on her blog to enter to win and for details on how to preorder.

-Stamps-Wishing You Cheer, PTI Take a Bough
-Paper-Whisper White, Real Red (textured), Pretty in Pink and Old Olive cardstock; Bashful Blue, Real Red and Pretty in Pink Prints DSP (retired)
-Ink-Palette Black
-Accessories-White grosgrain ribbon, Elmer's glue, Martha Stewart crystal fine glitter, Paper Piercer, Mat pack & Real Red, Basic Black, Only Orange and Old Olive markers

Remember THESE ornaments I made? I made a tiny one! I didn't realize quite how tiny it would be though! Or what a pain in the but! It's only 1 3/4". It looks really cute hanging on my tree though.


Hope you all have a wonderful day!

Sketch cards

Good morning! I hope you are all having a good day. Guess what? I finally ordered some Copic markers! OMG, I am so excited! I've been dying to get some for a while, but I was scared to start buying them and then getting sucked in and feeling like I need them all, which I'm sure will happen . I got 16, so I'm hoping I can get by for a while with those colors. I can't wait to get them! They shipped yesterday!

Yesterday my best friend Caroline came over to stamp with me. I managed to get two cards done! Both of them use the CPS sketch from last week-CPS90. I LOVE this sketch! It's so versatile, and has a bunch of layers.

The image on the first card I made few weeks ago. Just one of those things I couldn't figure out what in the heck to do with.

My blog is doing that double spacing junk again, but it's so weird! It's only doing it under the pictures. It's fine where I'm typing right now. It won't let me change the size of the text down there either, but it will let me change the font and the color. So anyway, I just didn't skip spaces, because it was just too long!

-Stamps-Inkadinkado Dogs, Upsy Daisy -Paper-PTI white, Basic Black, and Pink Pirouette cardstock; Pink Pirouette patterns DSP.-Ink-Palette black, Pink Pirouette -Accessories-blender pen, offray ribbon, paper piercer, mat pack.

-Stamps-Season of Joy, PTI Take a Bough -Paper-Real Red, Old Olive and Very Vanilla cardstock; Dashing DSP -Ink-Real Red, Old Olive -Accessories-Old Olive 1/4" grosgrain.

Oh, and I got two blog awards. I always forget about these things. Normally when I get one, I just keep telling myself I'll post it later, but by the time later comes, I forget !

I got The Kreativ Blogger award from Cheryl. Thanks Cheryl! You can check out her blog HERE.

Tiffany sent me the I love your blog award. Thanks Tiffany! You can see her blog HERE.

Make sure you check them out! I'm tellin' ya, their blogs are great! Okay, so now I'm supposed to pass each of these on to five other people, but I'm gonna be lazy instead haha. I'm tired, and I think most of you have already received these anyway. Besides, it's way too hard to pick my favorite blogs! My favorites grow like everyday!

Stamp Something Challenge

Good morning! TGIF! You know what Friday means! This weeks Stamp Something Challenge is sponsored by Queen Kat Designs. They have a great sketch for us. I love sketches!

I couldn't get a good picture of this card. The background is stamped in Real Red with the polka dots from Itty Bitty Backgrounds, but it won't show up. All of the penguins hats are paper pieced with the prints paper from last year. Whoops...I just noticed that I forgot to color in the penguins noses. I also meant to put some stickles on their hats, but I got distracted and then forgot. I guess it's just one of those days .

-Stamps-Inkadinkado Christmas Characters, SU Itty Bitty Backgrounds and Many Merry Messages.
-Paper-Real Red, White and Old Olive cardstock; Real Red, Pretty in Pink and Soft Sky Prints DSP
-Ink-Palette Black, Old Olive and Real Red
-Accessories-Sewing machnine, Pewter brads

Make sure you check out the Stamp Something Challenge blog to see what the rest of the team came up with!

All Done!

Good morning! Wow, I don't think I've ever actually posted this early before. All of my early morning posts have been scheduled . I'm so not a morning person! Anyway, I still haven't decided if I like the way this one turned out. I started with a totally different layout, but I screwed that up and came up with this .

-Stamps- Inkadinkado Dogs and Christmas Characters and Papertrey Take a Bough
-Paper-White & Kraft cardstock; Certainly Celery and Real Red prints DSP (retired)
-Ink-Palette Black, Certainly Celery and Real Red marker
-Accessories-Scallop circle punch, 1 1/4 & 1 3/8 circle punches and white grosgrain ribbon.

I am all done with my Christmas cards (36)!! Woohoo! I don't think I've ever gotten done so early! I'll probably still make some more though. Christmas cards are my favorites to make! Didn't I tell ya I love Christmas! Seriously, I'm listening to Christmas music right now.

Oh, I mentioned in a previous post that I already have my Christmas tree up, and someone asked if I take it down early, since I put it up so early...Nope! It will be there till at least new years, but it might be even longer than that.

Well I'm off to watch Desperate Housewives online. Once again, I forgot to watch it last night when it came on! Seriously, I can't for the life of me remember to watch it when it's actually on, and it's my favorite show!

Hope you all have a fab day!

Stamp Something Challenge

Good morning! This weeks Stamp Something Challenge is to Stamp Simply. Make a one layer card! I love one layer cards. They are so easy! I thought this would be a good one for a man.

-Stamps-A Wish for Peace, PTI Take a Bough
-Paper-Whisper White
-Ink-Dark Chocolate Palette, Old Olive, Close to Cocoa
-Accessories-Sponges, Aqua Painter, Chocolate Chip twill ribbon

Make sure you stop by the Stamp Something Challenge blog and see what the rest of the team came up with and to play along!

Christmas Ornaments

I just finished putting up my Christmas tree!! Yeah, I know, I'm weird, but I love Christmas decorations. I put it up before Halloween one year. It was kinda funny, carved pumpkins on the porch and the whole inside decked out in Christmas =).

I made some ornaments last night! The first two are done with reinkers and glitter. Amy Rysavy has a great tutorial on her HERE.

By the way, the spots on the ornaments are just the reflection of the lights on the tree.

The first one was done with Riding Hood Red mixed with a little water and Martha Stewart White Marble glitter.

This one didn't quite work out right, but I think I like it anyway =). I used Blue Bayou mixed with Soft Sky and a little water.

This one uses Pearl Ex and Crystal Effects. I've seen these done with acrylic paint before, but I didn't want to do that, so I thought I'd experiment with crystal effects instead. I basically just followed Amy's tutorial, only using CE and Pearl Ex instead. I will tell ya, this takes almost a whole jar of pearl ex. These are also very tricky. I tried 3 more after this one and none of them even looked halfway decent. The back side of this one actually looks pretty bad, but at least the front looks good =)!

A wish for peace

Hello! I got this stamp set a week or two ago and still haven't made anything with it, so I thought it was time =). I'm really happy with how this card came out! I know my
dove looks kind of funny flying off the card, but it just looked too off balance
when I had him on the other side =). I stamped my image in Palette brown (I can't remember the actual color name) and then colored it with old olive and going gray. Then I just covered the whole thing in versamark and used heat and stick powder and Martha Stewart glitter. Am I the only one that all along has been using heat and stick and holding the paper with tweezers or my fingers? OMG, this is so much easier!! I just taped a little tab to the back of the paper. It worked wonderfully, and there are no spots where my fingers or the tweezers knocked off powder.

Oh, I had another idea today too! I was trying to figure out how I wanted to layout this card, so I was just kinda sketching it on my grid paper, but I was getting all aggravated erasing lines and all that, when I though, why not use acetate and a marker for this? So I cut two pieces of acetate. One is 4.25 X 5.5 and the other is 4.25 X 4.25. I colored the edges with a sharpie (so I can see them easier and not lose them) and now that's what I'm using to figure out how I want to lay my card out. I just put it on top of the grid paper so I can still see the lines and draw on it with a non permanent marker, and when your done just wipe it off!

-Stamps-A Wish For Peace, PTI Take a Bough
-Paper-Kraft, Whisper White and Riding Hood Red cardstock; Riding Hood Red patterns and Summer Picnic DSP.
-Ink-Palette brown, Versamark, Going Gray and Old Olive
-Accessories-Stampin' Dimensionals, Heat and stick powder, Martha Stewart crystal fine glitter.

Stamp Something Challenge

Good morning! This week There She Goes is hosting the Stamp Something Challenge. Their challenge theme is 'For the Birds'. So anything with birds goes! I still have a few more Christmas cards to do (can you believe I'm almost done?!) so I went with this cute little penguin =).
-Stamps-Inkadinkado Penguin Pandemonium and Christmas Characters
-Paper-Riding Hood Red, Whisper White and Basic Black cardstock; Pink Pirouette patterns DSP
-Ink-Palette black and Riding Hood Red
-Accessories-Martha Stewart Glitter, Elmer's glue and paint brush, Offray ribbon

Head on over to the Stamp Something Challenge blog so you can see what fabulous projects the rest of the DT came up with and to play along with us!

Another acetate card =)

Good afternoon! Here is another acetate card I made last night. I am lovin acetate cards! I think I've finally got the picture taking thing down. I know a lot my pictures don't have true colors, or they are too dark so I've been trying to figure something out. Anyway, the first part of my problem is the colors on my screen weren't right. I remembered that Dawn McVey always has amazing looking pictures, so I found a card on her blog that used all SU colors so I could compare my paper to it and adjust my screen around that. Worked pretty well. Hubby has an nivida video card, and it gives you a lot of options for adjusting your monitor color. Then I decided I needed a new way to take pictures. Outside never works for me for whatever reason. I've been taking them in a chair, but they just don't look very good and normally I have to do a good bit of editing to make them even look halfway presentable.
So here's what I did. That light you see is part of one of those Japanese paper lanterns. I took the paper cover part off, since it didn't match my stamp room and it blocks too much light. It looks pretty bad this way, but it gives me a lot more much needed light. Anyway, so it hangs right next to the top of a bookshelf that sits on my stamp table. I just set my card up on top of the bookshelf and pulled the light away from it a little bit to reduce the glare. It worked like a charm! The colors probably still aren't perfect, but I think it's an improvement at least. All I had to do to the picture was lighten it a tiny little bit to make the white brighter. I had no idea how much difference a little bit of close light makes! I think I may make something a little more permanent to put up there.

-Stamps-Inkadinkado Christmas Characters
-Paper-Old Olive, Real Red and Whisper White cardstock; Dashing DSP
-Ink-Palette Black, Old Olive-Markers-Real Red, Creamy Carmel and Old Olive
-Accessories-Acetate, Retired Silver ribbon

More Inkadinkado Christmas cards

Didn't I tell ya I love these stamps =). Especially this penguin from Penguin Pandemonium. I just can't get enough of him! The layout of this card was cased from THIS gorgeous card by Lauren Meader. -Stamps-Inkadinkado Penguin Pandemonium
-Paper-Real Red and Whisper White cardstock; Summer Picnic DSP
-Ink-Palette black, Versamark. Markers-Summer Sun, Only Orange, Close to Cocoa and Real Red.
-Accessories-White embossing powder, White grosgrain ribbon, Elmer's glue Martha Stewart glitter.

-Stamps-Inkadinkado Christmas Characters
-Paper-Ballet Blue, Night of Navy and Whisper White; Summer Picnic DSP.
-Ink-Ballet Blue and Night of Navy
-Accessories-White grosgrain ribbon

Inkadinkado Christmas cards

My new Inkadinkado stamps came Friday, so I've been stamping away =). I just love these stamps! They are so adorable!

-Stamps-Inkadinkado Penguin Pandemonium
-Paper-Real Red, Whisper White and Bashful Blue
-Ink-Palette black, Real Red-Markers-Summer Sun, Only Orange, Real Red and Close to Cocoa
-Accessories-Elmer's glue, Martha Stewart glitter and Bashful Blue grosgrain ribbon


-Stamps-Inkadinkado Christmas Characters
-Paper-Real Red, River Rock, Old Olive and Whisper White cardstock; Dashing DSP
-Ink-Palette Black, Real Red -markers-Real Red, Old Olive
-Accessories-White Grosgrain ribbon

I hope your all having a great weekend!