Más vale tarde que nunca

I took a break from holiday cards to make an early (or late‽) Día de Muertos card featuring Dilly Beans Stamp #340, Frida's sugar skull. I practiced my Spanish (well, sorta!) and was inspired by two of my favorite Spanish-language blogs, Dilo en Español and Latina Crafter.

The sentiment is from the Queremos Pastel set by Dilo en Español Stamps. My husband picked out this cool sugar skull Washi tape for me at the craft store and I have had so much fun using it. The 3D skull was a gift from a friend. The patterned papers are all from Graphic 45's Fashionista collection.

Mom sent me some colored embossing markers (Marvy) and I just had to try them out! I colored the image with those markers (black, red, green, white) & Copics, and heat-embossed it with clear powder. I like the raised effect.

We're hoping to get to Mexico next year, for our family's semi-regular get-together. I really need to practice my Spanish!

Inspiration/Challenges:
Dilo en Español: Día de Muertos (+ DEE stamp)
Latina Crafter: Sketch #53

Thanks for visiting & for inspiring me!

Feeling Cool - Pilin' on the Penguins

This week at Pile It On, our challenge is Feeling Cool (Winter theme and/or Cool colors). We're sponsored by Dilly Beans Stamps, so I used Digi #524 - Three Penguin Blocks to to make this doubly-cool card (theme & colors!):

The front of the card is a piece of embossed vellum. The base card is a pretty DP that I scored at about a half inch and attached to the vellum. I covered the overlap with a grosgrain ribbon that I fringed at one end is make a little scarf! The piece of blue DP on the bottom of the card helps to stabilize the vellum.

The tag was made with a Cuttlebug die and stamped with one of my favorite holiday sentiments. I used a little glittered brad to attach it. The Penguin Blocks are colored with Copics and gel pens, plus I added some Sparkly Fluff to the hat on the bottom buddy.

Instead of having the message on the inside of the card, I put it on the back. I used a different shade of the same DP from the the front of the card (this was part of a paper pack; I can't remember who by); I actually cut a scalloped circle out of the DP and made a frame the blue DP so that I could just use the white base of the card instead of using another piece of paper. Then I can keep the extra cut-outs for another project.

Challenges/Inspiration:

1. Christmas at Sweet Stampin' October Challenge: Snowflakes
2. Crafts 4 Eternity Recipe Challenge #200: Tags & Tickets
3. Crafty Ribbons: Tags n Ribbon
4. Delicious Doodles #108: Baby, It's Cold Outside
5. Graph'It Colour Challenge: Water/Ice or Blue/Purple Tones (images colored with Copics)
6. Jingle Belles: Christmas Card with a Creature
7. Moving along with the Times: Winter or Game of Thrones
8. Really Reasonable Ribbon Challenge #105: Anything with Ribbon/Trim
9. Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes (2nd entry)
10. Stempelsonnen Challenge #127: It's Winter

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

Green Summer - Flowers + Dilly Beans

Our theme this week at Pile It On! is Flowers, sponsored by Dilly Beans Stamps. This isn't my week to play along at Pile It On as a DT member, but I couldn't resist participating.

I made a relatively simple shaped card using Dilly Beans Digi #541, Doodle Flower 1:

click to enlarge

I printed the image on two different green papers, in two different greens (I colorized the image in Photoshop), and printed it again on a lighter green, which I folded in half and used as the base.

I couldn't resist adding my own doodles to this Doodle Flower. I used Sharpies for the thicker lines, and TEKwriter gel and glitter pens for the coloring and smaller details. For the middle, I added omse Liquid Pearls, green Stickles, and one dot from a VIVA pearl pen.

Inspiration/Challenges:
Craft Room Challenge: Inspired By A Tattoo art + pen work of your own
Digistamps 4 Joy #95: Shaped Card
Dilly Beans Challenge: Summer Lovin' (inspired by my still-green summer yard)
Fitztown Challenge #41: Shaped Card
Kraftin' Kimmie Challenge #237: Doodling

Nutcrafters #71: Anything but Square
Sisterhood of Crafters: Monochromatic
TokBobok July Challenge: Monochrome

Update: Many thanks to the Craft Room Challenge team for offering this badge to all the entrants to their Tattoo + Doodle Challenge! 

Thank you for visiting, and hope you'll join us this week at Pile It On,

Naturally Spooky

This week at Pile It On! we're celebrating Halloween & Day of the Dead & all things Cute & Creepy. Our sponsor is Dilly Beans, and she has some of the best digis out there for this theme. I used Witch Hat Skulls Stack (Dilly Beans digi #465):

I printed the skull image on shiny white paper (Recollections) and heat-embossed it with black power. (There's a simple tutorial on how I heat-emboss digi stamps on the bottom of this post.) The corner spider webs were heat-embossed as well, using a rubber stamp from All Night Media. I fussy-cut the skulls and hats separately, and ran the pieces face-down through my sticker machine. I covered the skulls with different glitters from a sample pack in my stash (I wish I had super ultra-fine glitter!). The hats were colored with Copics before adding the adhesive, and then covered with glow-in-the-dark glitter for a late-night surprise!

The little skullie guy is from a pre-colored Dilly Beans set that I've had for a few years. I colored his outfit with Copics.

Card Recipe:

Stamps:
• Dilly Beans digi #465, Witch Hat Skulls Stack
• Dilly Beans digital collage sheet #C02, Girlie Skellies
• Corner spider web rubber stamp from All Night Media
• Sentiment rubber stamp from stash

Embellishments:
• Adhesive Pearl Swirl & tiny pearl, colored black with Copics
• Brads from Recollections
• Prima flowers
• Fine glitter from my stash
• Cuttlebug spider web embossing folder
• Stampendous detail black & white embossing powders
• Clear Shapes adhesive corners from Making Memories 
• Doodlebug Designs button
• Baker's twine by the Twinery
• Copic markers

Papers:
• Shiny black & white papers from Recollections' Metallics collection
• Recollections vellum
• Graphic 45 spider web-patterned DP
• Spider strip from a DP I bought at Michael's (sorry, cut the info strip off!)

Tools:
• BigShot die cutting machine
• Provocraft zig-zag scissors 
• Fiskars papercutter
• Tim Holtz & Martha Stewart scissors
• Zip-Dry glue & Glossy Accents
• 3M foam tape

Inspiration/Challenges:

1. 2 Creative Chicks Challenge #7: Halloween
2. A & T Emerald Faeries: Sparkle
3. Country View Crafts' Challenge: Something Spooky
4. Crafty Creations #244: Sparkle and shine
5. Crafty Sentiments: Halloween
6. Dream Valley Challenge: Halloween
7. Everybody Art Challenge: Ribbon (behind the spiders)
8. Oldie But A Goodie Challenge: Spooky + Stash (I've had the spider web stamp is almost 2 years, and this is my first time inking it up!)
9. Paper Pretties Wednesday Challenge #280: Lots of embellishment
10. Ribbon Carousel Challenge: Halloween (ribbon & baker's twine)
11. Sketch N Stash: Sketch + Pearls & Swirls + Stash (the embossing folder and spider web stamp are new-to-me; the glitter & spider-web paper have been untouched for almost a year!)
12. Sparkle N Sprinkle: Anything Goes with Glitter, Embossing Powder and/or Flocking
13. Stamp and Create: Halloween

Thank you for visiting,

Pilin' On the Color Inspiration

This week at Pile It On, we're challenging you to use this beautiful color combo that I found on Design Seeds.

Pile It On #16

Our sponsor is Dilly Beans Stamps,  so I used her Daisy Girl Framed digi stamp to make this floral easel card:

Here's the message section, on the back:

I'm entering this card into the following fabulous challenges:

1. Crafts 4 Eternity Recipe Challenge: April Showers Bring Spring Flowers (lots of flowers)
2. Crafty Ribbons #43: Green and Pink
3. Digi Galore: One for the Girls
4. Digistamps 4 Joy #65: Easel Shaped Card + Bling
5. Dilly Beans: Flowers + image (10 challenges only)
6. Scrappy Frogs April Challenge: Think Spring
7. Scribbles Designs Challenge: Shaped or easel card
8. Shelly's Images: April Showers Bring May Flowers...must have a flower
9. Stempelsonnen Challenge: Easel Card
10. Wags 'n Whiskers: May Flowers

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,

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,

Green Graffiti

I was totally blown away by Agnieszka's gorgeous Monogram card using green sprinkles. It reminded me of the cool Moss Graffiti that people have been doing (what did we do before Pinterest‽) Both are on my "Must Make" Pinterest board, and this is first project inspired by both.

I cut the letters out on my Cricut using the Cursive cartridge, ran them face-down through my sticker machine, and covered them with green Sparkly Fluff from Our Craft Lounge.

For the fence, I embossed kraft paper using the Woodgrain Impression Plate from a•muse studio. I bought it via a•muse consultant Chris Franco and she's been so wonderful about answering my questions! Like when I used this Impression Plate for the first time last night, and didn't make my stack right and ended up bending the plate way too much! I freaked out and emailed her...she got right back to me and helped me out, and happily the plates are made quite well and mine has bent back into a more usable angle!

I cut the embossed piece into 1/2 inch strips, notched them, added dimension with TH Vintage Photo distress ink, and added some "nail holes" with a ball-tip embossing tool.

I was inspired by the Strips of Color/Pattern challenge at CAS-ual Fridays. This is about as CAS as I get, I guess! I'm also entering this into the Sparkle & Shine challenge at Dilly Beans.

Do look up Moss Graffiti ... the recipe is basically sugar, dairy culture & moss, and folks are doing really beautiful things with it. Next time I find moss in the yard, I just might have to try it myself!

Thank you for visiting,

Happy, down to my bones

Man, I am getting my pennies' worth from Dilly Beans' Girlie Skellie digi collage sheet; I rarely buy pre-colored images, but they are fun! For this card, I printed the Sugar Skull image on vellum, then reversed it and printed it onto a thin metal sheet (Making Memories). I wasn't sure how well that would work, but I dried it with my heat tool and sprayed it with a matte coating, and was able to handle it fine. The flowers are made from the rest of the same metal sheet; more on that later. The backing piece is a red vellum that I cut in my Big Shot, using the same die set as I used for the sentiment, which I made by combined the flowers from the collage sheet and the wonderful sentiment from Create with TLC.

Fetch-a-Sketch #17

Inspiration/Challenges:

Aud Sentiments: Happy (digi sentiment provided by sponsor, Create with TLC)

Fetch-a-Sketch #17 (right)

Shopping Our Stash Challenge 39: Metal Mania sponsored by Dilly Beans Stamps

This card is more fun in person, because there's so much texture:

I bought the Spellbinders Flower Creations die to use for my sister-in-law's wedding invitations (which turned out great!), and of course it just went on super-sale at Jo-Ann's! But I'm still glad I bought it from CropStop; the big box stores get enough of my money!

After cutting out the skull, I had exactly the right amount of metal left for the die plate. It embossed like a dream, but I didn't get a great cut even after running it through my machine many times, so I ended up cutting them out. Then I heat-embossed each piece with a different color and put the flower together with a brad (the top, purple piece is glued onto a small brad).

I gave this to my husband last night...he came home with a new laptop, which in our house is a little like getting a pair of feet! He's been saving for it for so long; I'm so happy for him!

CPS Day 10...Glittery silly Dilly

CPS Sketch #26

I'm having so much fun making my way through all 15 sketches of Card Positioning Systems' 5th Anniversary Celebration! (All my cards for the CPS Celebration are archived here.)

I'm so tickled (and honored!) to have made the Top 3 for the Dilly Beans Freaked Challenge. Megan's images are so much fun to create with, plus my husband is also a big fan!

Thank you all for the awesome inspiration!

CPS 5th Anniversary Day 10: Sketch #26 (top right)

Dilly Beans Challenge: Love is in the Air

Can You Digi It? Stock Spotlight Saturday: Glitter Paper

I think it's pretty obvious that I had a blast coloring this image (Framed Zombie Hearts 4 by Dilly Beans) with my Copics! I added the stripes on the hair myself -- my first time being so bold! I had originally colored the face in yellows, but it felt too washed-out, so I went over it with Celadon Green (YG25). I used the colorless blender added shading to the neck. I used the Copic "dotting" method on the backgrounds and the wings. The hearts are actually cut out & popped up with adhesive foam.

The heart images on the right side are from Dilly Beans' Girlie Skellies pre-colored digi collage sheet. I made the wings from a coated glitter paper, using an angel-wings chipboard template from Maya Road.

The wavy paper in the middle looks so much cooler in person; it's Prismatic paper from Colorbök. Can You Digi It?'s Stock Spotlight Saturday inspired me to use this lovely blue glitter paper that Mom just sent me. Thank you! (Be sure to check out their DT's awesome projects and tips on coloring glitter paper with Copics.)

For the sentiment I used the "Rock and Roll" stamping technique I learned from Sami at SP&Company Stamps. I drew the cloud in pencil and then traced & embellished it with my black Copic (I really want a multiliner, but I can't decide which width I want to start with...any suggestions?).

A little freaky

I'm totally crushin' on Dilly Beans Stamps...they are both cute and funky, and use great patterns. I splurged and bought one of their new pre-colored Digi Collage Sheets, Girlie Skellies. The hanging hearts are from the same set, but I printed them on Shrinky Dink plastic and shrunk them in my toaster oven. The heart brads are red, but I heat-embossed a black enamel on the tops.The charm is from Stamp and Create.

This card was inspired by several challenges:

Dilly Beans Designs: Freaked

i[heart]2stamp January Challenge: Sketch

Crafty Ribbons Challenge: Love is Red & Black

HIMCR #31: Nontraditional Valentine's Day Project

One Stop Craft Challenge #167: Stitching

Ruby's Rainbow #20: Red & Black/Valentines

Inside (image from same set):

Update: Wow, this card made the Top 3 for the Dilly Beans Designs Freaked Challenge! Be sure to check out all the cards, they are freakishly amazing!

Warding off the snow

I don't want to go jinxing things by saying that it's been a fairly mild winter so far, so I won't. It's bitterly cold today -- at least by my standards -- but sunny. We got a little bit of snow on Monday (exactly during rush hour, thanks Universe), which was very pretty and just enough, thank you. But 'tis the season, so I'm expecting we'll see a bit of the white stuff before Spring; hopefully I'll get to witness one of my favorite sights: a red cardinal in snow. The current theme at the Dilly Beans Challenge Blog is "Frosty," so I decided to make my own version of that scene, in card form!

December's Silly Dilly Beans Stamp Club freebie was their cute Winter Birdie (thank you Megan!), which I thought would be perfect for the "Paper Piecing" challenge at DRS Designs as well as the Totally Papercrafts "Spots & Stripes" and the Fussy & Fancy "Let It Snow!" challenges. I used the sketch from Repeat Impressions.

I paper-pieced the Winter Birdie digi with 3 papers onto a light blue; I added some details with Copics and then ran the whole piece through my embossing machine. I lightly sanded it to show the white core and create "snow".

For the base, I stamped and heat-embossed the grass and sentiment in jade green and white respectively. I picked up this old rubber Sea Grass stamp by Posh Impressions at a church rummage sale and I think I'm going to have lots of fun with it! I cut around the grass blades so that the image piece would fit behind it.

Stamps: Winter Birdie and Girlie Skellies digital collage sheet by Dilly Beans stamps, Sea Grass stamp by Posh Impressions, sentiment from Build-a-Snowman set

Paper: DCWV, Paper Company

Tools: Zip Dry & tacky glues, Fiskars papercutter, Versamark ink, Marvy heat tool, stamp block, Big Shot, MS detail scissors, Recollections double-sided tape, sandpaper, HP printer & ink

Embellishments: Recollections embossing powders, stash eyelets, Copic markers, stash ribbon, Polar White FlowerSoft