Pilin' on the Die Cuts

This week at Pile It On we're challenging you to use your Die cuts and/or Punches.

I used Mad Hatter from Doctor Digi's House of Stamps, along with dies from Elizabeth Craft Designs. I adore this "Happy Unbirthday" stamp from Rogue Redhead Designs, as I all-too-often want to send a birthday card to someone that I know will arrive late!

I dry-embossed the teapot & cups on a shiny cardstock, fussy-cut them, and heat-embossed them with metallic gold powder. The top layer was cut with the dies from a gold-foiled cardstock. I used the same shiny cardstock to make the little sugar cubes, which I heat-embossed with Holographic powder.

The background is a watercolor paper. I heat-embossed the sentiment directly onto it, and made the tea-stain with a TH stencil and distress inks.

The Mad Hatter was colored with Copic markers, fussy-cut, and made into a tag. I backed it with a White Rabbit image from a Graphic45 Wonderland-themed paper, and added a scrap ribbon piece that's been floating around my craft table for some time!

Challenges/Inspiration:
Creative Knockouts: Die Cuts/Punches
Dies R Us Challenge #23: One for the Boys
DoubleClick Skittles #18: Punny or Funny Sentiment
The Male Room Challenge #7: Metallic Embossing Powder + Card for a Man
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Happy Birthday (this is technically a birthday card, just a belated one!)
Sister Act Card Challenge #100: Anything Goes
Try Stamping On Tuesdays #212: Sketch (flipped)

Thank you for visiting & inspiring my crafting! Hope you'll join us at Pile It On,

Happy Unbirthday - TLC Progressive Challenge Day 8

I'm having fun with the Progressive Challenge at TLC Creations (here are my first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh cards). Our freebie for the eighth day is a classic image from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland combined with a sweet sentiment.

I colorized the digi stamp to change it from black to brown, printed it on regular cardstock, cut it with a Heartfelt Creations die, and painted it with Crackle Paint.

I have a rubber stamp set of some of these classic Wonderland images, so I used the White Rabbit one to create a Shrinky Dink embellishment and I stamped Alice on the inside.

The papers are from Bo Bunny & October Afternoon. The sentiment, from Rogue Redhead Designs, was heat-embossed in gold on a piece of the opposite side of the darker, dotted paper. I cut it out with scalloped scissors.

The watch in the teacup is a wood die-cut that I heat-embossed with more gold powder. 

Sketch #74

Inspiration/Challenges:
Create with TLC World Cardmaking Day: Progressive Challenge Day 8
Seems a Little Sketchy: Sketch #74 (I altered it a bit, but was still inspired by the original sketch)

Update: I was the prize winner for Seems a Little Sketchy #74!

Thank you for visiting & inspiring my crafting!

Bookish

As I've mentioned before, I just purchased some of my favorite Tiddly Inks digi stamps; including the wonderfully complete SchoolGirl set, which includes three complementary images. For color inspiration, I looked to the combo at Scrapmaster's Paradise, which seemed to lend itself well to books: Daffodil Delight, Sahara Sand, Rose Red. I used the "leather" texturing plate to emboss the yellow and beige papers before printing the digis on them. I've found that starting with the Fiskars texturing tool and then going over it with my bone folder results in a really nice, durable paper.

I kept my color palette very simple, playing off the color combo challenge. I'm very pleased with how my copicing came out. For a final touch, I used the two titles that came in my Alice in Wonderland rubber stamp set for the front book. Ah, is there anything more beautiful than a book spine?!
Inspiration: SPCC #88

Digi stamp set: SchoolGirl by Christy Croll for Tiddly Inks

Supplies: Stampin' Up! paper (Subtles Patterns 2010), Paper Studio, XPress Copic, and Recollections cardstocks, Fiskars papercutter, deckle scissors, and texturing plate & tool, HP printer & ink, ZipDry glue, MS detailing scissors, Adobe InDesign, Memento ink, rubber sentiment stamps from Alice in Wonderful set, Offray ribbon, stash glass bead

Copic markers:
pages: E51, E33, YR00, E50
skin: E51, E33, YR00, E50, RV21
hair: E37, E17, E08, R59, E35
socks & shoes: E50, C-1, 0, C-5
dress & bow: RV29, R59, R29, R27
books: RV29, R59, R29, R27, E08, E17, 0
background: E50, E02
edging: E17

Shroomin'

As a personal celebration for my Pink Hedgehog card winning Freshly Brewed Designs Challenge #32 (Thanks so much!), I decided to make something really wild with the image I chose as my prize. I love all of FBD's stamps, but I just had to get my hands on the groovy Mirror Mushroom digi from their "Alice in Wonderland" series. As soon as I saw it, I knew that I'd be making little clay mushrooms!

I was inspired by the current Delicious Doodle, and the Crafty Cardmakers Spotlight Challenge to use "something you add water to, or water has been added," and I hardly need an excuse to pull out my spray inks and watercolor pencils! I wanted to play with the green made by mixing yellow and blue inks again, so I cut a couple of borders with a PaperFacesDesign cut file and used them as masks to make some patterned paper. I went ahead and used the well-coated borders so the front and inside. While my tiny clay mushrooms were cooking, I threw together a little "Groovy" sentiment.
Digi stamp: Mirror Mushroom by Freshly Brewed Designs
Cut file: Flower Border by PaperFacesDesigns

Inspiration:
Delicious Doodles Challenge #11
Crafty Cardmakers Spotlight: Water

Supplies: Hammermill, ColorBok, and Recollections cardstocks, Tattered Angels glitter mist, Inkadinkado spray ink, Fiskars papercutter, corner punch, and scallop scissors, Loew-Cornell watercolor pencils, MS detailing scissors, Sculpey polymer clay, Cricut & SCAL, HP printer & ink, Adobe InDesign, Frosty font (all caps)

Happy Unbirthday to You

I've been itching to try my Copics with the Alice in Wonderland stamps Mom found for $1, so it seemed especially fortuitous when I ran across the groovy challenge blog Oh, Alice! This week's challenge is Icy Blue, and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to mask the stamp and give it a background with my "Jack Frost" glimmer mist. Can't believe how well that worked!

I'm not particularly familiar with the Alice stories, beyond the Disney version and the poem "Jabberwocky", but I do recognize the beautiful and slightly haunting illustrations of John Tenniel. I Googled the artwork for color ideas and help with story background (I had no idea what some of those critters were at first), and ran across a great online gallery of the book. Apparently, the cute tea-partier stamp is from Chapter XI: Who Stole the Tarts? and the one with Alice and the critters is from Chapter XII: Alice's Evidence.

I couldn't decide on a sentiment, so I made one myself. Happy Unbirthday to Me You!

Inspiration:
Alice in Wonderland Challenge Chapter 45: Remembering Holiday Dreams
Aud Sentiments Challenge #19: Two Words
Card Positioning Systems Sketch #200

Supplies: Recollections and Core'dinations cardstocks, Memento ink, Cling-mount rubber stamps, Cricut Expression, SCAL, Adobe InDesign, HP printer & ink, Folkard™ font, Fiskars papercutter, stamp press and corner punch, ZipDry glue, Tattered Angels glimmer mist, Copic Ciao B color set


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Oh, Alice! is also asking people how they keep their Christmas memories, so I just have to share the Christmas book Mom made for us this year (she always makes two and we put in our own photos, which I'm slowly in the process of doing). She made large pages with "Little Town of Bethlehem" cut files from the Christmas Village Cricut cartridge and, because she's been to Bethlehem, made religious symbols for the buildings. I guess this caused a bit of a stir in her crafting group, but it's so beautiful and joyful: