Balloon Animals

 I'm ashamed to say that I've had this cute Balloon Animal stamp set for years - and have only just pulled it out now!  But I've always loved the images, and they stamped beautifully in Distress Oxide inks - I used a couple of colours on each one to give them a little added dimension.  I stamped and cut out a whole bunch, and pulled out some (even older!) papers - then made up a couple of cards.  The sentiment and die are from Photoplay.

Birthday Love

 I have a card featuring one of the 2014 Ai People, Birthday Love Set (Sku #4529).  This is actually a CASE of a card that I found on Pinterest!  You can see the original here.

 The Ai Design Team is enjoying a product swap this week with Scrapbook Adhesives, and I have used their wonderful 3D Foam Squares to pop up my main panel to give my card a little extra dimension:

 I love that they come in two sizes!  They're available in black, too.

 I've also used their E-Z Squares permanent adhesive to put my card together:

 Copics used: Skin - E11, E00, E000, R20

Blues - B02, B01, B00, B000

Reds - R24, R22, R20

Greens - YG03, YG01

Hair - Y26, Y23

Greys - W5, W3, W1, W00

Dotty

I am posting on the Art Impressons blog today!

I have a square card to share with you, using the lovely Dotty (Sku#U2778)!  My paper choice (pink & peach chevrons?) is a little out there... but then Dotty is a little out there herself.

I have a wonderful new Wink of Stella marker that I coloured over her bloomers and hair bow to give her a little shimmer, and I added a few pink pearls around her, too.

There is still time to participate in our Trips Ahoy! Challenge... we want to see your nautical or travel themed cards - you can link up your card here.

 

Happy stamping everyone!



Dotty

 It's my day to post over on the Art Impressions blog today!

I have a square card for you, featuring Dotty (Sku#U2778) along with the gorgeous, shimmery At Last paper pack from Ruby Rock-It:

Dotty is a fairly large image, and I wanted to show off the pretty floral collage background paper, so instead of cutting her into a large rectangle, I used my old Coluzzle circle template to cut her in a circle shape, leaving her hands, feet and skirt hanging off the edge:

I paper pieced her outfit using two subtly patterned papers, and cut out a rolled flower with my Cricut:

The sentiment is Fabulous (Sku#F3563). 

 There is still plenty of time to play along with our Pretty Papers challenge - you can link up your creation here.   Happy stamping everyone!

 



A Rainbow Celeste card

Well, it's been a slow few weeks on my blog, as we had two weeks of vacation, followed by one week of getting our son ready for University, followed by a week where I worked 3x my normal shifts while I filled in for others on vacation!  Yesterday we got Adam all settled in at Western, and with a little luck, life will now settle down into the new normal :o)

It's my day to post on the Art Impressions blog, so I am sharing a bright & sparkly Celeste card, which features one of our newest Ai People stamps from our recent release (sku #4326):

Celeste is one fun gal to colour!  With her spunky outfit, just about anything goes... so I cut strips of different polka dot papers to create my own rainbow background.  I coloured and cut out Celeste a second time, and pop dotted her up along with the sentiment for a little extra dimension:

A close up to see the layers:

Here are the Copics that I used:

Happy Stamping everyone!

 





A Colour Dare

I am happy to be playing along with the Colour Dare challenge today - with this week's featured colours: Lagoon, Pear & Buttercup!  I used one of the fun little M sized stamps, A True Thank You, and used my Copic markers to give it an ombre effect to match our colour palette.  I used this week's Deconstructed Sketch:

 

Patterned papers are Dotty For You; Cardstock is Lagoon, Pear, Buttercup, Black & White Daisy; Ink is Black; Licorice Opaque Pearls; Just Blooms Paper Flower - all CTMH; Copic Markers.

Seize the Birthday #20

I'm using Yoga Yolanda today from Art Impressions for the current Seize the Birthday sketch challenge.  I tweaked the sketch a little so as not to cover up Yolanda too much:

Here was our sketch:

Patterned papers are Dotty For You, CTMH; Stamp set is Yoga Yolanda, Art Impressions; Cardstock is Black & White Daisy, CTMH; Ink is Tuxedo Black, Memento; Copic Markers; Seeing Stars Dies, Taylored Expressions.

 

Graduation Thank You's

A few weeks ago I posted some 'bulk' birthday cards that I'd made using the Polka Dot Alphabet & the Dotty papers... well here is the 'Thank-you' version!  My son graduated from high school earlier this week, so he needs a number of thank you cards to send out, and these were quick & fun:

And here's my graduate, who we are SO proud of!  He was on the honour roll for all 8 semesters of high school, and his top 6 marks have earned him an entrance scholarship to Western University next fall:

 

Patterned papers are Dotty for You; Cardstock is Black & White Daisy; Stamp set is Polka Dot Alphabet; Inks are Moonstruck, Gypsy, Pear, Tulip, Sorbet & Creme Brulee.

Sing - Dance - Laugh - Love!

It's my turn to be up on the Art Impressions blog today, and I have a set of cards using the versatile Sing Dance set (sku#4227) from the Say It Loud! collection.

I started out by stamping the image on four colours of polka dot paper:

I had only intended to do one paper pieced card, but once I started cutting, it seemed obvious that I should keep going and make four.  Here's what my armchair looked like while I was watching tv the other night:

 

I stamped the image again on white paper that I had sewed onto a black mat, and then started gluing:

I added paper flowers, a little Baker's Twine and some leaves that were die cut from the green polka dot paper:

Patterned papers are Dotty For You; Cardstock is Black & White Daisy; Just Blooms Paradise paper flowers; buttons & baker's twine - all Close To My Heart; Stamp set is Sing Dance Set #4227, Art Impressions.

 

 

Rainbow cards

I have LOVED this stamp set ever since Close To My Heart came out with it a few years ago.  I've seen a lot of rainbow themed cards lately, and thought that this font would be perfect to do up a bunch of fairly generic birthday cards for my kids to give to their friends.  I did up a few different versions with different accessories:

 

and the plain & manly version:

 

Patterned papers are Dotty for You; Cardstock is Black & White Daisy; Stamp sets are Polka Dot Alphabet & Happy Birthday; Inks are Tulip, Sunset, Creme Brulee, Pear, Pacifica & Black.

Dynamic Duos #48

We have an interesting colour combo for you this week at Dynamic Duos: Bashful Blue & Pumpkin Pie!  These colours aren't the norm for me - but I loved working with them, and had several other ideas that I was wanting to try...  Anyway, I stayed with a fairly bold, graphic style (typical me!) and used one of my new fave sets from Art Impressions:

My colours are a little bolder than our assigned choices, but that's okay - if you don't have the exact shades, just use something similar, like me!  We ask that you use just our two colours, but neutrals are welcome.  Check out all of the inspiration from the design team over at the Dynamic Duos blog, or you can see them listed on my sidebar.  Hope you'll play along!

Patterned paper is Dotty For You; Cardstock is White Daisy & Indian Corn Blue - all CTMH; Stamp set is Stayin' Afloat, Art Impressions; Ink is Tuxedo Black, Memento; Copic Markers; Twine is American Crafts.

Blue Valentine?

There are a few males in my life who I will be giving valentines to in a few weeks... so in an effort to make something a little more manly, I decided to use this week's colours from The Paper Players challenge #128.  It was all going rather well, until I decided to use some shiny Sassy Strands as a ribbon, and then added three little blue gems to the heart!  Oh well, it may not be the manliest card out there... but it is a valentine after all?  I used Chupa's Sketchbook Saturday sketch #87 quite literally.  The funny thing is that everything on this card (inks/papers/doo-dads) are all retired... always feels good to use up some old stuff:

Patterned papers are Dotty For You; Cardstock is Dutch Blue & Grey Flannel; Ink is Dutch Blue; Stamp set is Card Word Puzzle; Summer Celebrations Sassy Strands & Mini Medley - all CTMH.

Dynamic Duos #34

We have a bright & spunky colour combo for you this week at Dynamic Duos!  Oh, what a welcome change from Christmas colours... I've used Close To My Heart's Pacifica and our retired Watermelon of which I still have a couple of sheets kicking around.  And does anyone remember Sassy Strands?  Well I had an entire package of Summer Celebration Sassy Strands that I had NEVER cut into!  I think they were retired about 5 years ago - pretty funny to be finally using them.  Here's what I came up with:

 

We would love to have you play along this week - we ask that you use just the two colours provided, but neutrals like black, grey, skin tones etc. are welcome.  For all the details and a peek at what the other Dynamos have to show you, check out the Dynamic Duos blog, or you can see their blogs listed on my sidebar.

Patterned paper is Dotty For You; Cardstock is Pacifica, Watermelon, Black & White Daisy; Inks are Grey Flannel & Black; Stamp set is Art Philosophy; Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge; Bitty Sparkles; Watermelon Sassy Strands - all CTMH.

CAS Butterflies

When I saw both The Paper Players colour challenge and Chupa's Sketchbook Saturday sketch today, my card idea came together pretty quickly.  I have my Dotty patterned papers and my new (to me!) Taylored Expressions butterfly dies, so I didn't stray too far from Chupa's sample:

Patterned papers are Dotty for You; Cardstock is Colonial White; Stamp sets are Universal Backgrounds & Card Word Puzzle; Ink is Desert Sand; Mocha Opaque Pearls - all CTMH; Charming Oval dies by Verve; Butterfly dies, Taylored Expressions.