New Home gift tag

So at the last minute I decided to make a tag for my gift of the new home notelets I made earlier this week. How could I resist the great sketch from Mad for Markers?!

The friend for whom I made the gift is a real ornithophile, so I used a TLC image I've been saving and colored it like an American Robin, with its red breast (I wanted to keep to the color palette I used for the notelets). When I gave it to her, she said It's an American Robin! Which made me happy.

I colored the ribbon and the red button with copics. I used brown StazOn for the brown button and actually heat-embossed the white one. I sewed them onto the card with coordinating bakers twine, and backed them with matching buttons.

Inspiration:
Mad for Markers Tag Sketch Challenge (pic on the right)
colourQ combo #86: Real Red, Daffodil, So Saffron, Early Espresso + white

Stamps: Vintage Bird on Holly by TLC Creations, flourish from Regal Greetings set by {ippity} Stamps, sentiment from stash stamps sent to me from Mom from Nepal
Paper: Hammermill, Recollections
Tools: SCAL, Cricut, Marvy heat tool, Sizzix Texture Boutique & paisley embossing folder
Other: ZipDry glue, Stampendous embossing powder, StazOn and InkItUp inks, bakers twine
Copics: E08, E47, R27, Y17, Y13, Y000, E33, E31, YG03, YG63, YG67, BG93

Easter Fun

I couldn't resist trying the Copic Family Challenge at Mad for Markers: you can only use YR, RV and BG Copics. I have 12 markers that qualify, and I really like the resulting combinations.

I also couldn't resist combing the CDAC Sketch challenge (sponsored by Shelly's Images) with the Easter challenge at Catch the Bug (Bugaboo's challenge blog). I wanted to use the freebie Shelly offered for the CDAC Embellishment challenge (sponsored by Bugaboo), so I did a little swapping. I'll post my other project soon.

Although this isn't my card for the Embellishment challenge, I did keep with the theme of Favorite Emebllishment and used eyelets. This is also my first try with plastic tape. Worked great!

As you can tell, I had some fun with the backgrounds. The edging was done with the chisel tip of a Copic against a ruler. The bunny's background was a new-to-me technique: using the Copic Colorless Blender liquid to create texture on colored pieces. Eek, what a cool technique!!! Instead of coloring the background with my marker, I applied BG10 solution with sponge (I've ended up with two big refills for that color!). I used terrycloth for the texture. For get a similar look on the bigger piece without using copic ink, I applied Marigold Distress Ink (thanks for the candy Stampin' Dymonz!) with the same kind of terrycloth.

I actually learned quite a bit making this card; thanks to everyone for the continuing inspiration!

Inspiration:
CDAC Sketch Challenge (sponsored by Shelly's Images)
Mad for Markers Challenge: YR, RV and BG Markers only
Catch the Bug Challenge: Easter

Digi Stamps (thank you!):
Easter Bunny with Tulips: Bugaboo Stamps
Eggs: Shelly's Images

Copics: BG10, BG49, FBG2, RV29, RV04, RV23, RV21, RV42, YR01, YR00, YR09, YR12

Supplies: Colorbök decorative tape, Hammermill cardstock, flower brads (Oriental Trading Co.?), Crop-O-DileII, ruler, terrycloth, Copic Colorless Blender Solution, Scotch foam tape, ZipDry glue

...be sure to wear a flower in your hair

I've been super-excited about this fortnight's Crazy Hair Colour challenge at Mad for Markers. To say that I've obsessed about what image to use would be an understatement; I knew what hair color scheme I wanted to use, however. See, I once decided to color my own hair some crazy colors, and after much, much thought I chose blue and purple stripes. Seemed like it would go with my clothes and my eyes. My partner-in-crime since age 5 (we were 18 by this point) helped paint on the color, which is the reason it came out so nicely. Of course, the sink in my folks' house is still a slight violet, but for the most part it worked out great! There were several cultural issues with my changed hair color, and in my advanced age I much prefer calling attention with cute cards than my own appearance!

I found this cute Clara digi stamp by Gayle Cook (Fairydoodler) on sale for free, which was just within my budget and was TOO perfect for this card. Because I'm not particularly confident with doing all of my own shading, I enjoy working with images that already have pre-shading. I'm so glad I found her art; I'll definitely be a customer.
So I started by coloring the hair and skin (since I had lived with the real thing), but for the "petal" dress I asked my wise and handsome husband for help. He suggested turquoise, which was perfect. I found a lovely turquoise-ish cardstock in my Core-dinations stash, and actually used the shimmer side for the inside of the card. For the outside, I stamped alternating blue and purple flower-themed border blocks to create a striped effect. Don't you just love when a card comes together? I had just obtained this border stamp, a Valentine's gift from that awesome husband I mentioned earlier. The stamped lines came out pretty well, considering I just eyeballed it.
I had figured I'd use a mix of bright purple and blue for the accent pieces, but then I discovered a piece Raspberry Cordial cardstock from Core'dinations' Chocolate Box collection. Yum! Really wish I had something better than my Hello Kitty foam-core emery board to sand with, however.

I used a yellow, textured Core'dinations cardstock for the flower, and covered the back with orange ink before running it through my Cricut (I used a raindrop shape to create the petal pairs.) I wore a flower in my hair when I went to San Francisco/the Haight for the first time (picked for me by a fellow traveler at an Oakland gas station) and that famous song actually came on the radio. I like to think they play it all day long...




Inspiration: Crazy Hair Colour challenge at Mad for Markers

Digi Stamp: Clara by Fairydoodler

Supplies: Core'dinations, X-Press Copic, and Recollections cardstocks, HP printer & ink, Cricut & SCAL, 09 KutUps dingbat font for flower shape, Fiskars papercutter, CraftSmart ink, Recolletions brad, emery board, flower border stamp by Inkadinkado

Copic Ciao markers:
E33, YR00, E11, E50, E51; B05, B23, V17, V06
YG41, BG49, BG15, Y04, Y08, Y02, Y06
BG10, 0