Freshly Made Sketches Christmas card

I haven't made any Christmas cards for a little while, so I whipped up four this weekend, using some old Bella Blvd papers in some lovely holiday pastels:

I've used the current Freshly Made Sketch:

Pumpkin Spice

'Tis the season... so I had to pull out my Lawn Fawn Pumpkin Spice stamp set and make up a few cards.

 Papers are Flea Market by Doodlebug Designs, and Hello Autumn by Bella Blvd.

I have linked this up with the Lawn Fawn Stamptember giveway on the Simon Says Stamp blog!

Ai Holiday Mansion

 Have you seen the fabulous Holiday Mansion Set (Sku #4926) that Art Impressions released this summer??  It is the most brilliant idea to have a sweet little house that comes with shutters and a full set of dies to cut out the window panes, and two doors on hinges:

 How cute is that??  The other brilliant part of this set... is that there is a companion set of stamps & dies called HM Accessory Set (Sku #4927).  If you notice the tree, wreath, bells, reindeer & Santa - these are part of the accessory set, each designed to peek out from between or behind the windows and doors.

 After stamping and colouring with Copic markers, I positioned all the dies on both the house and all the accessories.  One quick pass through my Cuttlebug, and everything was cut out and ready to assemble.  I added some Stickles to sparkle up the snow a little, and added some sparkle to the background as well.  The sign was created by cutting it out from a piece of patterned paper.  Here is one of the sentiments that comes with the set that I added to the inside:

 Now - what I haven't mentioned yet, is that these are only 1/2 of the accessories that come in the set - a whole set of Halloween images (ghosts, pumpkins, boarded up windows, monsters) mean that you can colour the mansion completely differently to make a spooky haunted house.  I love when you can get an entirely different look from the same stamp set.  Head on over to the Ai website to pick up your own Holiday Mansion!

Copics used - Pinks R85, R83, R81

Reds - R37, R35, R32

Blues - B02, B01, B00, B000, B0000

Greens - G63, G61

Yellows - Y26, Y23, Y21, E50

Greys - C5, C3, C1

Browns - E55, E53, E51

Inspired By All The Little Things #52

It's April showers time (oh, did we have a downpour today!) so I've picked a very apropo photo as the inspiration for Inspired By All the Little Things this week.  I am the hostess for this week's challenge, and I have invited my Ai Design teammate Renee Matarese to be my Guest Designer!  Renee does such amazing, unique cards, always thinking outside the box, and she has a real flair for masculine cards, too!  Here is this week's photo that we worked from:

 Back in my clothing designer days, I lived in New York for a few years - so I loved this photo, with her glam raincoat & boots, and the rainy NY skyline behind her.  My inclination was to do something with a bit of a chic flavour to it... but when I really looked at the photo, I got kind of fixated on the taxi behind her!  I knew that I had this great taxi-printed paper, and decided to do something a little more fun & lighthearted.  Plus, my son graduated from University this week and has headed off to Europe to travel, and I felt like making more of a motivational card.  So here's what I came up with:

Till You Wobble!

The Art Impressions Design Team is helping to launch the new Ai Mini Shaker sets that come with a Mini Action Wobble!  If you're familiar with Action Wobbles, you're going to love the adorable mini ones - and wait till you see all the great Mini Shakers that are designed especially for them!  Here is Santa Mini Shaker (Sku #4798):

I love that he is a simple, easy-to-colour image!  The set includes the moustache die, which I adhered to the Mini Action Wobble, and the Ho! sentiment which I stamped three times - or, there is a Ho! die that you can cut out, too.  Head on over to the Ai blog to see what the rest of the DT has to share today, and while you're there, you can link up your creation to our "Till You Wobble" challenge - there are always great prizes to be won.

More Art Impressions at Michael's

 Today I am sharing another image from the third new Art Impressions set from the brand new sets that are available in Michaels stores this spring (Sku # SC0678):

 I made two identical cards that are 5 1/2" square, featuring two different skin tones.  The stamp set includes two images, and seven great sentiments.

 Copics used: Skin - E37, E34, E31, E11, E00, E000, R20

Hair - E57, E55, E53, E18, E07, E02

Blues - B97, B95, B93, B91, B07, B05, B02, B00

Pinks - R89, R85, R83, R81

Yellows - Y26, Y23, Y21, Y13

Greys - W3, W1, W00, C1

InLinkz.com

Brand new High Hopes & OCS challenge

Both the High Hopes Stamps and One Crazy Stamper design teams are helping to launch the brand new Spring 2016 High Hopes collection on the company blogs today!  It's a really fun selection of images, great sentiments and the cutest little owls with some fun accessories.  I'm sharing the very fun "Shake Your Booty UU001":

 This is a treat for me to be using this stamp set today, because I got to name it!!  The design teams had a fun contest a few months ago, and all submitted possible names - and Shake Your Booty won.  The sentiment is Get Your Happy On HH018.  Here is a close up of the ladies:

 Today also marks a new month on the OCS blog, so we are starting our April challenge, which is anything goes - you can link up your creation at the bottom of todays post, and while you're there, have a look at what the rest of the design team has to share with the great new release!  I'll be back tomorrow with another HH card.

One Crazy Stamper products used: High Hopes Stamps "Shake Your Booty UU001"

High Hopes Stamps "Get Your Happy On HH018"

Xpress It Blending Cardstock

3D Foam squares by Scrapbook Adhesives

Versafine Black Onyx Ink

Memento Tuxedo Black Ink

Your Next Embellie Gumdrops - Apricot, Kiwi, Strawberry, Pumpkin, Blue Raspberry

Copics - E11, E00, E000, R20, W5, W3, W1, W00, B38, B34, B32, B30, R25, R14, R13, R10, BG18, BG15, BG00, E57, E55, E53, E51, Y26, Y23, E50, YG05, YG03, YG01, YG00, YR16

Am I Skinny Yet?

 I have a card using one of the newest Ai People sets today, here is Skinny Yet Set (Sku #4672:

With such a busy background paper, I kept the rest of it fairly simple, with just a few die cuts as an embellishment.

I enjoyed colouring her up with my Copics - especially the excercise ball, it was a good chance to practise colouring a sphere.  I don't have an overly blended style of colouring, so it's a bit streaky, but I like the effect!  Don't forget that our current challenge on the Art Impressions blog is "Shake, Rattle & Roll" - we would love to see your creations with movement.

Copics used: BG18, BG15, BG13, BG11, YG07, YG05, YG03, YG01, YG00, YR18, YR15, YR12, E11, E00, E000, R20, E31, E34, E37

InLinkz.com

A Cup of Kindness

Verve has released a fabulous digi stamp set with a coffee/cocoa/holiday theme... so I could hardly wait to get it made up into a card!  I'm combining a couple of challenges - the sketch from The Challenge #54, along with the December Verve Inspiration challenge.  And of course, I'm playing along with the Coffee Lover's Holiday Blog Hop:

Patterned papers are Christmas Cheer, Bella Blvd; Santa Express, Doodlebug Designs; Stamp set is Cup of Kindness, Verve; Let it Snowflake dies, MFT; Copic Markers; Lagoon Cardstock, CTMH; Flamingo Dots, CTMH.

Polar Hug - High Hopes Blog Hop

The One Crazy Stamper and High Hopes Design Teams are hopping today to share all kinds of inspiration with the High Hopes holiday stamp line!  If you want to start back at the beginning, head over to the One Crazy Stamper blog to see the entire list - you should be coming here from my talented stamping friend, Cheri Bury's blog.  I'm using the sweet #SS001EZ Polar Hug stamp:

 I decided to make a little banner to decorate my card, then I added a few tiny snowflakes, some Stickles and then sprinkled some chunky glitter on top to add a little extra sparkle.  All of my supplies are listed below... and now it's on to your next stop: Carolina's blog!  Happy hopping!

High Hopes #SS001EZ Polar Hug

Xpress-It Blending Cardstock

Memento Tuxedo Black Ink

Bazzill Cardstock

Stickles - Diamond

Copic Markers: Bear - B000, B0000, R20

Penguin - C7, C5, C3, C1, RV14, RV13, RV11, Y38, Y35, Y32, V06, V04, V01