Wine Tasters

I had stamped this image some time ago, and coloured it up with Copic markers a few weeks ago.  This is the Wine Tasters set from Art Impressions - one of their amazing Girlfriends sets.

I've actually done this stamp set with this paper pack before!  I knew how well it worked, and didn't need to reinvent the wheel, so decided to do it again.  I'm using the Art Angel Mini Deck from Cosmo Cricket.  I pulled out colours from the papers to colour up the gals, then fussy cut them and mounted them onto my background with 3D foam adhesive.

I used strips of the different patterned papers in different widths, and cut a square of a brick toned paper to go under the image.  The sentiment is from the Get Corked stamp set by My Favorite Things.  A few champagne pearls finished it off.

Fusion & Inspired By challenges

I am combining a couple of challenges today with a quick card that I've made to send to my sister.  I used the sketch on the Fusion challenge, and the inspiration photo from Inspired By All the Little Things on Lesley Croghan's blog:

I was inspired by the dots & stars, as well as the colour combo in the inspiration photo - it started out being as crisp and cool as the photo, but I added some warmer tones, and softly distressed the edges of my papers.

Patterned papers are Odds & Ends Mini Deck by Cosmo Cricket; Cardstock is Colonial White & Flaxen, CTMH; Stamp set is Hello, Life - CTMH;  Inks are Bamboo & Cocoa, CTMH; Stitched Square STAX die by MFT; Seeing Stars die, Taylored Expressions.

Wine Sipping Girlfriends

I know you've seen this image on my blog several times (coloured exactly the same!)  When I first used it about a year ago, I stamped it four times, and coloured them all up to go with these Cosmo Cricket papers.  Now I'm finally getting them made up into cards, just enjoying doing them differently each time.  So here is the Art Impressions set, Wine Tasters (Sku #4383):

Patterned papers are Art Angel by Cosmo Cricket; Ink is Tuxedo Black, Memento; Copic Markers; Stamp set is Wine Tasters Set (Sku #4383) by Art Impressions.

March One Crazy Stamper challenge

The start of a new month brings us to a new challenge on the One Crazy Stamper blog - and the theme for March is "Anything Goes".  You can use any stamps and products that you like, just no digi stamps, please!  I am using one of the popular Art Impressions Girlfriends stamp sets today Wine Tasters (Sku #4387):

I've coloured the gals with Copic markers, sponged the edges with some warm brown ink, and added a few cute little wine glass die cuts.  Head on over to the OCS blog to see what the rest of the Design Team has to share today, and link up your creations to our challenge.

Products found in the OCS store: Art Impressions Wine Tasters (Sku#4387)

Memento Tuxedo Black Ink

Copics - Greens G46, G43, G40

Greys - W7, W5, W3, W1

Reds - R59, R27, R24, R22, R20

Skin tones - E11, E00, E000, E37, E34, E31

Browns - E55, E53, E51, 

Hair - Y26, Y23, Y21, E08, E07, E02, W5, W3, W1

Java Love Challenge

We have a fun new challenge starting on the Art Impressions blog today: Java Love!  We want to see your coffee themed creations, either a stamp set, a great coffee quote or you can even use coffee colours.  I've used the fun Girlfriends set: Girlfriend Blend (Sku#4132)

You don't have to use Art Impressions stamps to participate in the challenge, however the design team came up with a list of over 20 Ai stamps that would work - so dig into your stash and see what you can come up with!  Be creative!  There are always wonderful prizes to be won, so we hope you'll play along.

Copics used: Skin - E13, E11, E00, E000, R20, E37, E34, E31, E53, E51, E50

Greens - G46, G43, G41

Browns - E57, E55, E53, E51

Reds - R24, R22, R20, E18, E07, E04, E02

Greys - W9, W5, W3, W1, B24

Yellows - Y28, Y26, Y23, Y21

Messy House

I am posting on the Art Impressions blog today!

I am using one of the newly-launched Try-fold stamp sets in a different way.  The Try-folds all come with three different images that fold over each other to make a truly unique card... but all of the images work perfectly well on their own, so here I've used the 'base' image from Messy House TF(Sku# 4452) along with the sentiment included in the set, to make a regular card:

Our current challenge is to make Operation Write Home cards, and you can link up your creation here.  We will have a brand new challenge for you starting on Thursday.

Copics used: Skin E11, E00, E000, R20

Hair and greys: W9, W7, W5, W3, W1

Greens: G43, G41, YG97, YG95, YG93, YG91

Reds: R59, R27, R24, R22, R20

Browns: E57, E55, E53, E51

Happy Stamping everyone!

(This is my second post for today, scroll down to see my OCS post!)



Two cards for three challenges.

I've had a couple of evenings to just enjoy playing along with a few challenges, and have both cards ready to post tonight.  The first is for the Verve blog's May inspiration challenge "Font Focus" so I've used one of my all time fave Verve sets, Words of Wisdom with a few hints of the newer Better Together set stamped around the edges.  I've used the sketch from The Challenge #6 by Lesley Croghan:

 

My second card is using the sketch from the current "Seize the Sketch" challenge, using an Art Impressions Coffee BFF's image:

 

First card: Patterned papers are Baby Jane, Cosmo Cricket; Cardstock is Tulip, CTMH; Inks are Whisper, CTMH and Tuxedo Black, Memento; Stamp sets are Words of Wisdom & Better Together, Verve; Twine is American Crafts.
Second card: Patterned papers are Woodland Park, October Afternoon; Ink is Tuxedo Black, Memento; Copic Markers; Twine is American Crafts; Verve Pennant Trim die.

2014 Girlfriends Blog Hop!

 

 

The Art Impressions Design Team is hopping today to launch the 2014 Girlfriends sets on the Ai website!  These are always hugely popular, so you're going to want to check out all the blogs on today's hop (see the list below!).   I am sharing  Wine Tasters Set (Sku#4383) which was an instant favourite with me when I saw the sentiments that come with the set:

I chose "You had me at Merlot", but the set also includes "Wine a bit...you'll feel better!" and "Remember age gets better with wine".  I already have a bunch of these coloured up and ready to go, since I know how often I'll be using this set!  There are four new Girlfriends sets being debuted today, so follow the hop list to see them all, and scroll down to see the amazing prize being given away.  Your next stop along the hop is the wonderful Cheryl Valadez or you can start back at the beginning:

Art Impressions
Marie-Pierre Capistran

Reneé Matarese

Sherry Eckblad

Judith Gowdy

Karen Day

Cheryl Valadez

Kerry Kung

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway
There is a new challenge starting today on the Ai Blog - check it out!  We'd love to see your creations!

Copic Markers used: Skin tones: E11, E00, E000, E31, E34, E37

Outfits: G40, G43, G46, E11, E13, E15, W1, W3, W5, E51, E53, E55

Hair: Y21, Y23, Y26, E18, E15, E13, W7, W5, W3, W1

Wine & stools: R20, R22, R24, R27, R59



Sweet Sunday Sketch #202

I'm needing to build up my stash of generic birthday cards for my daughter to give to friends, etc... so I made up two of these using this week's Sweet Sunday Sketch:

Patterned papers are Girl Friday by Cosmo Cricket; Cardstock is Chocolate & Colonial White; Stamp set is A Little Everything, Close To My Heart; Ink is Chocolate, Close To My Heart; button, CTMH; American Crafts twine.

 

Mojo Monday #279

I haven't been able to play Mojo Monday for a few weeks, so I was happy to squeeze in a little crafting time this evening to try this week's great sketch.  I used one of my new Plain Jane's, too!

Patterned papers are Tea for Two Mini-Deck, Cosmo Cricket; Ribbon, Cardstock and patterned paper are all Key Ingredients; Sentiment is Simply Irresistable Plain Jane, Verve; Vintage oval die & stamp, Verve; Inks are Olive, Hollyhock & Desert Sand, CTMH; Prima flower.

Inspired By #52 & Deconstructed Sketch #79

Well how 'bout that?  Two Inspired By cards in two days!  I new immediately what papers I would use when I saw Laurel's inspiration photo... and decided to use the Deconstructed Sketch flipped up on it's end:

 

Patterned papers are Dear Mr. Claus, Cosmo Cricket; Cardstock is Colonial White, CTMH; Martha Stewart twine; Ink is Desert Sand, CTMH. 

Sketchbook Saturday #83

Chupa has a very different sketch this week for Sketchbook Saturday!  I wasn't going to do a Christmas card, but these cute Cosmo Cricket papers caught my eye, and I thought they'd work nicely.  I have a real thing for retro papers, especially Christmas ones - and CC does it so well!  Here's what I put together:

Patterned papers are Jolly Days, Cosmo Cricket; Cardstock is Vanilla Cream, CTMH; Sentiment is A Very Merry Christmas, CTMH; Ink is Black, CTMH; Buttons CTMH.

OSC Guest Designer!

Well, this is a pretty exciting post for me!  I was asked to be one of the Guest Designers for the month of September for One Crazy Stamper!  If you're not familiar with OCS - it is a fabulous online store with hundreds (thousands?) of stamps, plus all the papers, inks and doo-dads you could ever want.  They also have a full range of Copic products, with great prices, so check out the store here when you get a chance.  Now, lucky me lives only a short drive from their bricks & mortar store, so I get to go and peruse the goodies whenever I like :o)  The OCS store blog has a monthly challenge, and for September we are doing projects using Red/Black/Kraft.  I decided to do a little gift set of six 4 1/4" square cards, plus a cute little file holder to put them in:

This cute little stamp set by Inky Antics features 3 little baking penguins, and Christmas/Holiday sentiments.  And even though I fully intend to use these a few months from now, I wanted this set to be just for birthdays - so I did some creative cutting with the acrylic stamps to remove "Christmas" and just stamped a "Birthday" in it's place.  When I want to make holiday projects, I'll just position the word that I cut out back in position on the block before stamping.  Here are individual pics of the cards:

And a shot of all three:

Products available at the OCS store:  Stamp set is Baking Penguins by Inky Antics; Ink is Tuxedo Black by Memento; Patterned papers are Baby Jane Mini-Deck by Cosmo Cricket; Copic Markers; X-Press It white cardstock;

Other products: Kraft and Black cardstock is CTMH; Buttons, Brads & Ribbon all CTMH; Mini Chalkboard clips, Studio 18 at Michaels;  White pigment ink, CTMH. File Folder is the Cricut Artiste cartridge, CTMH.

 

 

Happy Anni-Verve-sary!

One of my favourite stamp companies - Verve - is celebrating their 5th Anniversary this month, and as part of their celebrations, they are having a Card Carnival for fans (like me!) to link up a card using some of their fabulous Verve products.  I decided to do a celebratory type of card using the sweet "Carpe Cupcake" stamp set - the sentiment on the inside of the card cracks me up!  This also works for this week's Paper Player's challenge to do paper piecing on a CAS style card:

Patterned papers are Baby Jane Mini-Deck by Cosmo Cricket; Stamp set is Carpe Cupcake, Verve; Ink is Rich Cocoa, Memento; Baker's Twine, The Twinery; Button, CTMH; Copic Markers; Cardstock is Kraft & Colonial White, CTMH.

A Couple of Challenges

I haven't had my Copics out for a while, so I combined this week's colour challenge at The Paper Players with the current Sweet Sunday Sketch - and used a cute little image that I got in a stamp swap.  I tweaked the sketch a little, but hopefully you can still see it in there somewhere:

Patterned papers are Tea for Two, Cosmo Cricket; Stamp sets are (boy-unknown), and Plain Jane, Verve; Ink is Tuxedo Black, Memento; Dies are Verve & Taylored Expressions; All papers Key Ingredients July Kit.  Copic Markers.

Mojo Monday #253

This week's Mojo Monday sketch is an interesting one... and took a while to plan out.  I love the end result, even though this is WAY more fussy-cutting than normal for me :o)

Patterned papers are Tea for Two, Cosmo Cricket; Stamp set is Bloom & Grow, Verve; Circle Flower Die, Verve; Inks are Rich Cocoa, Memento and Blush, Hollyhock & Olive, CTMH; Mocha Opaque Pearl, CTMH.  Cardstock, paper & ribbon, Key Ingredients kit.

August SFYTT for CASE Study

Well after just getting the July Sketch For You To Try done in the nick of time... I'm jumping right on the bandwagon for August and getting it done early!  I had my new Key Ingredients kit to work with, and since Verve is the SFYTT August sponsor, I pulled out some Verve goodies to make it all happen.  Now this week also marks the start of the CASE Study Challenge blog's 2nd Anniversary... and in addition to a great blog hop (check it out!) they asked us to show everyone our Signature Style.  I definitely like colour & patterns in my cards, with a fairly clean style, nothing too overly embellished.  But one thing that is definitely a trademark of mine, is to do several little "X" stitches using hemp or waxy flax - I can't tell you how many times I've added little x's to my cards - I just love the look of them?!  So here is my Aug SFYTT showing my signature little x's:

Patterned papers are Tea for Two, Cosmo Cricket; Cardstock is Colonial White, CTMH; Stamp sets are Words of Wisdom & Bloom & Grow, Verve; Floral Circles die, Verve; Inks are Rich Cocoa, Memento, Olive & Honey, CTMH; Natural hemp, CTMH; Cocoa button, CTMH.

Three's a Charm

Told you I liked this sketch!  This is the Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge making it's third appearance this week - and this time I tipped it over:

Patterned papers are Baby Jane Mini-Deck, Cosmo Cricket; Cardstock is Kraft & Tulip, CTMH; Stamp set is Words of Wisdom, Verve; Ink is Rich Cocoa, Memento; Mini Paper Blooms, Kaisercraft; Spellbinder's dies.

May Sketch For You To Try

I was recently in a swap where we received a bunch of new images to practise our Copic colouring skills on - and this is one of the sweet images that I received in my package.  I paired it with some fun Cosmo Cricket papers and the May SFYTT:

Patterned papers are Baby Jane Mini Deck, Cosmo Cricket; Ink is Tuxedo Black, Memento; Cardstock is Kraft & Cranberry, CTMH; Copic Markers; Charming Oval dies, Verve.