Artistic Birthday

This week's challenge at Pile It On is sponsored by Dude Time Doodles/Bonibleaux Designs (DTD) so our theme is "Birthday Card for a Man".   

DTD has tons of images that are perfect for this theme, and I used Pierre Painter.
 

click to enlarge

The picture frame is a digi from TLC Creations (I colorized it in PhotoShop), and the "Splat" is from a sheet of free digis from Issue 101 of Simply cards and Papercraft magazine. I colored the splat with a green Sakura gel pen, adding detail with a PITT artist pen, and coloring the "canvas" with a Frost Blue Copic. I generated the text using Adobe Garamond.

I had particular fun making the paint stripe on the background. This is way more difficult then one might hope! I plopped down a few drops of orange acrylic paint, spread it with a small scrap of cardstock, added a bit more paint and let that drip naturally. I kept the results by giving a quick dry with my heat tool, although I mostly let it dry naturally.

Kimbee's Creations Sketch #9

Inspiration/Challenges:
Brown Sugar - Anything Goes

Crafty Catz - Male Card

Digistamps 4 Joy #53 - Anything goes + masculine bonus

Flourishes #192 - Birthday Card

Frosted Designs Fabulous Friday - Paints/Mists/Inks
Kimbee's Creations October Challenge - Sketch (they need MORE ENTRIES, so try this great sketch!)
Tandastamps - Masculine

Update: This card was a Runner-up (Top 2) for Digistamps 4 Joy #53, woot!

Thank you for visiting,

Trick or Treat ... You're so Sweet!

I'm trying not to get caught up in the Frankenstorm hoopla, but I am trying to get caught up with my blogging just in case!

Here's another little reminder that the current "Too Cute" challenge at Card Cupids is running through October 31st. I hope you'll join the challenge and send in a card (it doesn't have to be the card you enter in the challenge). We're also have a bunch of Special Requests right now.


You may remember my DT card for this challenge, featuring a image from our sponsor Di's Digi Downloads. But I wanted to share another "Cute" card I made, with a Fresh Brewed Designs digi (our sponsor for Card Cupids' November 1st challenge, hint hint!):

I cut the card base on my Bigshot with Sizzix's Circle Flip-its Movers & Shapers die, which is actually Mom's but I cut a bunch of bases when she visited earlier this month. In fact, this is sort of a team project: Mom had cut the pumpkins from an October Afternoon DP using scalloped scissors, and she left some for me. She made the cutest Halloween cards with them, and I sent her this card! 

The "trick or treat" sentiment and green spotted paper are from the same DP, and I cut them out with dies. The "you're so sweet" sentiment is stamped in blue chalk and also cut out with a die.

I flipped one of the Pumpkin Fairy images, and colored them both with Copics. My husband helped me pick her colors, especially the red wings.

I stamped the pumpkin candy holder, colored it with Copics, and took a tip from Mom and cut it out with my scalloped scissors. Thanks Mom!!! I used the same scissors to

Inspiration/Challenges:

1. 2 Sisters Challenge #115: Halloween or Fall colours
2. A Gem of a Challenge #58: Polka dots/spots
3. DL.ART Thankful Thursday Challenge: Pumpkin
4. Freshly Brewed Challenge #119: Sweet not spooky Halloween cards 
5. Just Some Lines: Anything Halloween
6. Moving Along With The Times: Cute Halloween
7. My Time to Craft Challenge #194: Halloween
8. One Stop Craft Challenge #202: Halloween
9. Speedy and Friends Challenge #131: Pumpkins
10. Speedy TV Mark's Finest Papers Simple Salutations: Fruit/Veg (Thanks Melissa "Sunshine HoneyBee" for inviting me!)
     

Thank you for visiting,

Simply Autumn

The leaves are changing & falling in a major way, but I rarely have luck portraying the beauty of this season in a card. So I decided to try my hand at the "Autumn" challenge at Less is More (but I entered 6 challenges, not 5 (I thought it was 5 plus theirs) so it's ineligible, which always happens to me over there).

I used a "letterpress" technique to stamp/deboss the fence; the shape is actually a wooden shape (which I received from Linda as part of a City Crafter swap). Basically, I inked the wooden shape with brown chalk ink, carefully taped it, ink-side-down, onto my cardstock (with removable tape), and ran it through my Bigshot using the sandwich of: multipurpose platform, wooden shape, cardstock, extra piece of cardstock, one embossing pad, and a clear plate on top. Because the wood is so thick, I had trouble with getting a good embossing without the paper cracking, but it "stamped" great!

The leaves are embossed/cut with Spellbinders dies. I used craft foil for the copper leaves. The sentiment is stamped with brown StazOn, using a stamp from an Adam Prescott/Cardmaking & Papercraft magazine set.

The stamped portion is adhered to the card base with foam tape, so that it pop up a little bit (like I see the pros doing). I'm very happy with the results; just because it's "clean & simple" doesn't mean it was easy!

Inspiration/Challenges:
Cardabilities Sketch #61: Sketch
Critter Sketch: Embossing  
Divas by Design Challenge 58: Use some Orange
House of Gilli: Embossing, wet or dry
Simon Says Stamp: Autumn Leaves


Update: I ended up sending this, along with a completed repair order, to the State Police. Hey, working in Traffic can't be fun; and everyone deserves a card!

Thank you for visiting,

Más vale tarde que nunca

I had so much fun making my framed Sugar Skull and Halloween/Birthday Card that I just had to make some cards using the same mix of paper-piecing and glow-in-the-dark glitter.  
I used orange and yellow flocking for the flowers, and colored the pieces with my Copics, using a lot of shading. 

I used the lovely Framed Sugar Skull & Flowers by Dilly Beans, and made the backing by printing it on shiny blue Recollections cardstock and then heat-embossing it in Glitter (Stampendous Kaleidoscope powder). The eye socket, nose hole, and teeth are actually a shiny white paper.

click to enlarge

As I'm sending this to my husband's Aunt in Mexico, whose birthday was earlier this month(!), I used the "Más vale tarde que nunca" ("Better late than never") & one of the birthday sentiments from the Queremos Pastel set by Dilo en Español Stamps. I think she'll appreciate the humor!

I used Spellbinders dies and another sentiment from the Dilo en Español set for the inside:

Here it is, glowing in the dark:

Our aunt owns & runs Arcos Del Atascadero Bed & Breakfast in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico, and she taught me a lot about Día de Muertos traditions, as she's an expert in Mexican history and I like to ask a lot of questions! I'm really hoping that we can visit them during the All Saints holidays one of these years. Actually, the glowing skull sorta reminds my of this photo I snapped during our last visit to San Miguel de Allende, of the light show on la Parroquia in their main square:

Inspiration/Challenges:
Alota Rubber Stamps: Birthday celebrations
Cupcake Craft: Paper Piecing
MarkerPop Coloring Challenge #9: Paper Piecing + Shading
Natalie and Amy's Challenge: Birthday bling
Poisoned Peas Please Challenge #8: Sugar Skulls and Day of the Dead (This is my 2nd entry; my 1st is here)


You can see all of my Día de Muertos projects here in my archives.

Thank you for visiting,

Winter Wishes to Card Cuties

I'm slowly working on some cards for our Card Cupids Winter Wishes card drive for the children at Cole’s Pages.

I decided to make two cards — one for a girl and one for a boy — using this week's Merry Monday holiday card sketch.


****** 
For the girl's card, I used First Snow by Karen's Doodles, which I won from Karen's Doodles last year, and was very much inspired by this week's recipe/photo inspiration challenge at The Ribbon Reel.

The Ribbon Reel

Inspiration/Challenges for this card:
Merry Monday #38: Sketch
Stamp and Create: Winter Wonderland
The Ribbon Reel: Photo/Color Inspiration + ribbon/burlap + Shabby

It's difficult to see, but the white background is lightly embossing with a Snowflake pattern (same goes for the boy's card).

I heat-embossed a snowflake pattern (from Raisin Boat) onto the large metallic brads (from Michaels), and wound a white leaf ribbon around them.

The sentiment is stamped on a scrap from a canvas bag (if you follow my blog, you know I've gotten a lot out of that bag ... and there's still more left!), and I left on the seam because I thought it looked, well, "shabby chic." I finished it off with a white snowflake brad.


******
For my second card using this week's Merry Monday holiday card sketch, I used Tastes Snow Good by Dearie Dolls Digi Stamps.

Inspiration/Challenges for this card:
Digi Makeover Challenge: Weather + digi
Merry Monday #38: Sketch
My Heart Pieces Digital Stamps Challenge: Monochromatic
For the banner, I made a tiny "scarf" by stamping onto stiff felt. I added some detail to the end with embroidery floss; the fringe is difficult to see in this photo, but it's so cute.

The blue strips were scraps from my endless stash, and the snowflakes were cut with a Martha Stewart punch using the same cardstock as the embossed background (shiny white Core'dinations).

The image was colored with Copics, and there's blue shading although it's also difficult to see. I used my Marvy Snow Pen (heat-activated puff-paint) to add some more "snow".

Update: This cards was the random prize winner for Digi Makeover Challenge #59. Thank you!

******
Hope you'll send some Winter Wishes cards for the children at Cole’s Pages; the deadline is December 1st. The cards don't have to be winter-themed, just any sort of non-religious "Happy Mail". You can get all the information at Card Cupids.

Have a super day,

Free Digi Fun

Oh my heavens I've had too much fun making "Sugar Skull" cards this year (see all my Día de Muertos projects here)! I thought I had it out of my system but ...

I goofed and entered a card into Digi Haven's Halloween Challenge forgetting that the focus of their fun challenges is to use a Free Digi! I really like the concept, but I completely spaced and entered a card using a Stitchy Bear/Ike's Art image. The Digi Haven team has left me some wonderful comments, but I did want to take up the suggestion to try again!

This time, I decided to use one of the funky freebies available at Wonderstrange, and when I saw their Valentine Sugar Skull I just had to make a shaped card:

I used kraft-core, patterned paper (Recollections for the skull & the paper-pieced bits. My husband says the "orange" looks leathery, and we both approve! I added detail to the image with Sakura gel pens and brads.

I decided to use my Dilo en Español sentiment stamps again; I hadn't used the "Dia de las Brujas" ("Witches' Day") sentiment yet, so I decided to make a Halloween/Día de Muertos card. Nothing like a little cross-cultural design!

The sentiment is heat-embossed in shiny blue, and the jaw is attached with one of the star brads.

I cut out the eyes on the skull to reveal a cute witch from a scrap of Graphic 45's Happy Haunting / Jolly Jack-O-Lantern DP (does anyone recognize this brand?! - found it, thanks to Papersniffer!)

Inspiration/Challenges:

• Art With No Boundaries October Challenge: October/Halloween
• A & T Emerald Faeries Challenge #34: Anything Goes
• Digi Haven "Free Digi" Challenge: Halloween (I used the Valentine Sugar Skull that is FREE and available at Wonderstrange)
• Going Grey With Scrap-Creations: Halloween
• Make it Monday with Kraft Outlet: Inside & Out (I've decorated the inside & outside of the card, plus the sentiment is hidden "inside")
• Papercraft Star Challenge #118: Witch

Update: This was chosen as a Top 3 for Digi Haven's Halloween Challenge. Plus, I sent it to my dad he and loved it. So double-thanks, Digi Haven!

Many thanks to Digi Haven for the inspiration ... twice! Thank you for visiting,

3D Caramel Apple

Hi all! Just wanted to remind you about this week's Pile It On challenge: Holidays. We have a special sponsor this time, Flavorlopes, the Flavored Envelope Company! I ordered a pack of their Caramel Apple-flavored envelopes, so I wanted to make a card that would work well with them. 

The envelopes come with coordinating notecards, so it will make a fun gift. I had already decided to make something caramel-apple shaped to send in with envelope, but I hadn't quite decided on the design ... then I started flipping through the Australian Simply Cards Christmas Special magazine from last year, and saw Ellen Kharade's wonderful 3D Christmas Pudding (here's a photo of the page and my little hindrance helper, Allen):

Here's my Treat closed flat, for mailing:

I made the "stick" with coasterboard & the woodgrain embossing plate from a•muse studio. All the pieces (except the ribbon & tag) are edged with Antique Linen distress ink.

I cut the circles from shiny paper (Recollections) with a Spellbinders die on my Bigshot, and hand-cut the "drips". The sentiment was a scrap from my recent Chups Chups card, and I stamped a tag frame and attached it to the ribbon with a flower-shaped eyelet (and with help from my Crop-O-Dile).

Many thanks to Flavorlopes, Ellen Kharade, and Australian Simply Cards magazine for the inspiration!

I'm entering this into the following fabulous Challenges:
MilkCoffee Challenge: Your favourite treats (When my husband saw this, we both agreed that we'll be making caramel apples in the near future!)
Winter Wonderland: Anything BUT a card + must be Christmas (This isn't obviously Christmasy, but I do plan to use it for the holidays, hence the red ribbon.)

Hope you'll join us at Pile It On! Thank you for visiting,

Chupa Chups

When I saw the unusual theme of Chupa Chups at The Lollipop Ladies, I just had to enter the challenge. I was also inspired by the Photo Inspiration at The Paper Girls (below), with its overlapping circles of colors and patterns.

I've always loved the fact that one of the versions of the Chupa Chups logo was designed by Salvador Dalí, so I used that to inspire my design.

I cut the circles out of tissue paper using a Sizzix die in my Big Shot, and then ran them through my sticker machine. I stamped pattern in watermark ink on two of the circles.

The "Happy Birthday" sentiment, from a Dilo en Español stamp set, is heat-embossed in shiny blue. I generated the "Sweet Wishes" sentiment myself, using the font Dolphins. I adhered some tissue paper onto cardstock (using my trusty sticker machine, of course!), printed the sentiment on it, and then cut the shape with a die from a•muse studio's Cupcake Toppers set. The ribbon is something I've had in my stash forever. 

Inspiration/Challenges:
The Lollipop Ladies Challenge #56: Chupa Chups + Curves
The Paper Girls: Photo Inspiration
Skipping Stones Challenge 150: Sketch
Stamptacular Sunday Challenge #186: No Rules! + stamping

Update: Woot! I won a Guest Designer spot at The Lollipop Ladies for this card.

Update February 2017: The website Artsy reached out to me, asking if I would include a link to their Salvador Dalí page. Thanks for asking, I was happy to do it! They also have a Facebook page that shares lots of great art information.

As you can tell, I had a ton of fun making this! I totally over-thought it, but I'm happy with the final result. I made it for a dear friend, the only person I know that would get the reference right away. Let me know what you think, I appreciate it. Thank you for visiting,

Birthday Sugar Skull

I had so much fun making my framed Sugar Skull that I just had to make some cards using the same mix of paper-piecing and glow-in-the-dark glitter.

My dear friend form college has a birthday coming up, on Halloween. It's always a fun challenge for me to incorporate that two events into one card, and since he moved to L.A. recently (and loves Mexican culture), I used the  Framed Sugar Skull digi stamp by Dilly Beans to make this acetate-flap card:

For the presents in the eyes, I grabbed a clip art image off the web. The flower & leaves are colored with Copics, but the flower on the skull is covered with yellow flocking & the leaves are covered with green.

The nose & skull are covered in blue glitter. I adhered the glitters & flocking my running the cut pieces through my sticker machine. So easy, and it really sticks!

I used a Spellbinders die to cut the banner from copper foil, and heat-embossed the Dilo en Español sentiment stamp in white.

I couldn't get a good photo of the skull glowing, so please see my other glow-in-the dark card.

There are three layers of paper on the inside on the card, and although I glue the acetate to the paper (with a flap), I machine-sewed it all together with glittery thread.

Inspiration/Challenges:
Celebrate the Occasion Challenge #84: Male Birthday (must be a tall card)
Dilly Beans: Cute & Creepy
One Crazy Stamper: Clear or acetate

Update: This card was chosen as one of the winners for Celebrate the Occasion Challenge #84. Thank you!

Update: I won a free stamp from One Crazy Stamper. Thank you!

Thank you for visiting,

Pile It On for the Holidays

Flavorlopes

This week at Pile It On we're celebrating Holidays! This doesn't include birthdays or special occasions, but actual holidays (this includes funny holidays).

We have a special sponsor this time, Flavorlopes, the Flavored Envelope Company! I ordered a pack of their Caramel Apple-flavored envelopes, so I wanted to make a card that would work well with them.

I used a digi that I won some time back from Make It Crafty, Home Sweet Home:

The patterned "wallpaper" is paper-pieced onto white cardstock, and I colored the image with Copics. I made the "butterscotch candies" by wrapping yellow tissue paper around a stack of cardboard circles cut on my BigShot (big piece) and a round adhesive foam pop-dot (small piece).

I generated the sentiment myself, using the free font Janda As Long As You Love Me. I embossed the white backing piece with a Cuttlbug Texture Folder, and cut the arches with a Sizzix die. The image is cut with a Spellbinders die, and distressed with TH ink.

I first heard of Flavorlopes from the always-hip Stephen Colbert:



Flavored Envelopes‽ Thank you Stephen! (I always enjoy a good Phish joke too!) I saw Flavorlopes mentioned several places after that, and contacted them via FaceBook because, well, one of the perks of being part of the Pile It On Challenge team is that I get to pick some awesome sponsors! They are generously offering one random winner a box of his/er choice of their Holiday Flavors, so you know you want to enter this one!

Inspiration/Challenges:
ABC Christmas Challenge: Anything goes
Crafty Boots: Home
Fussy and Fancy: Anything Goes
Love to Create: Trick or Treat OR Something Sweet
Merry Monday #37: Sketch
Totally Papercrafts: Christmas (I know the sentiment is "New Year" but the color scheme is Christmas)

Hope you'll share your Holiday cards with us this week at Pile It On, and maybe even go grab some Flavorlopes to make the season a bit more delicious! Thank you for visiting,

Pretty Spooky

This week at OSAAT we want you to Use a Digi; so easy, with all the great choices out there!

I used Witch 1 by Ike's Art to make this Acetate card:

Her dress glows in the dark, thanks to a Recollections-brand glitter:

I saw this font, Spinstee, at Spyder's Corner, and downloaded it at Urban Fonts [update 4/2/14: I had linked to this free font site, but was just informed that I needed to remove it due to Google compliance issues. A great reminder that you should always research a font before downloading a free version.]

Here's the opening credits from The Munsters, which I used for my design inspiration:


My husband tells me that CBS is coming out with a Munsters-inspired TV Movie, Mockingbird Lane. I'm sure it will be fun, but there's nothing like the cheesy original.

Inspiration/Challenges:

1. Crafting for all Season Challenge #38: Spooky (2nd entry)
2. Eureka Stamps: Halloween and/or Spooky
3. Lexi's Creations: Halloween 
4. Simon Says Stamp: Eerie Inspiration
5. Sketches by Carly #67: Final Sketch :(
6. Sparkle & Glitter Challenge #2: Cute or Spooky Halloween
7. Stampin' for the Weekend Challenge #19: Something spooky
8. Stempelsonne Challenge #75: Halloween
9. Victorine Originals: Halloween

Thank you for visiting,