Happy Spring, with Penny Black

Mom sent me a bunch of Prima wood embellishments, including this cute little plane, as well as this adorable stamp by Mo Manning (from Penny Black), and putting them together on a card seemed like a great idea. Come on, who could resist this sweet face‽

The image is stamped on Hammermill with Tuxedo Black ink (Memento) and colored with Copics. I added the tiny flowers with a stamp from a Candi Stamps set (Craftwork Cards) and orange pigment ink (VersaColor). I blinged him up by using a silver pen on his front pin, a clear glaze pen on the rubber parts of his shoes, and Glossy Accents on his goggles.

The light blue background paper (Jo-Ann's) was embossed half-way with clouds in my BigShot with an embossing folder (Darice), and then I inked the clouds with SU! Whisper White Craft ink using a finger dauber. 

I stamped the dandelions in a row, plus a few little flyaways (both stamps from Clear Art Stamps' Wildflowers set), and colored them with shiny, yellow and green glaze pens (Sakura). The stems are filled with a green glitter pen (Elmer's).  

I added just a touch of color with a ribbon from my stash. The background piece is edged with deckle scissors, and I backed the whole thing with a glittered, flower-themed DP (Colorbök).

The wood plane was colored just a bit with gray Copics, and then heat-embossed in Translucent Yellow (Stampendous).

I heat-embossed the sentiment (from a Penny Black set) in white after lining up the little plane.

Inspiration/Challenges:
Crafty Ribbons: Anything goes with a Ribbon
Mo's Digital Challenge #174: Bling (it's a little difficult to see, but there's a lot of shine & glimmer on this card)
Penny Black Saturday March Challenge: Spring
Sparkle & Glitter, a Rick St. Dennis Challenge: Spring is in the Air
Stampin With The Dragon: Anything goes
Sweet Stampin: Embossing + stamping

Thank you for visiting,

Mo's Wonderful Time of the Year

How has it already been another year ... I guess time goes fast when you're crafting! I've had a great December full of traveling and visiting family, and now I'm looking forward to a new year full of ... well, all those things that come up when you're an adult!

I thought that the current challenge at Mo's Digital Pencil would be a nice way to both reflect on 2012 and welcome in 2013: We're to pick our favorite Mo's Digital Pencil project of 2012. I was sort of surprised to see that I only made four projects in 2012 (You can see all of my projects using Mo's images here), but I just had to choose Silky Puppy Love:

Silky Puppy Love, February 20, 2012

As you can tell, I had too much fun making that card!

Last year I used Mo's Fan's Cricket to make a Chinese New Year card, so figured I should do the same for 2013. Didn't get this in the mail in time for Western New Year's, so maybe I can send it to someone for the Chinese New Year! 

I printed everything (including the sentiment by TLC Creations, which I inverted) onto shiny Recollections papers (gold, charcoal, white). I was inspired by the lovely sketch from The Sketch File. I used the font Silentina Movie for the Charlie Chaplin quote ("Nothing is permanent in this wicked world, not even our troubles."), some beautiful Graphic 45 paper, and added a bit of white leaf ribbon. 

The Sketch File

Inspiration/Challenges:

1. ATCs & Cards With Attitude: Celebrations
2. Brown Sugar: Happy New Year
3. Fat Pages With Attitude: Celebrations
4. Kenny K's Krafty Krew: It's Party Time (NY celebration card)
5. Little Claire's: Happy New Year
6. Paper Pretties Wednesday Challenge #238: New Year Inspired
7. Polka Doodles: Happy New Year
8. Pixie Dust Studio: Any Celebration will do
9. Sunny Challenges: New Year's
10. The Sketch File: Sketch

Update: This was awarded a Top 3 spot at Brown Sugar. Thank you!

Thank you for visiting,

Delightful Dancin'

Wow, Christmas is only a week away! I think I have all our gifts and cards together ... but I always find myself making a few extra things at the last minute.

I couldn't resist making a penny-rocker with Rosa, one of my favorite images from Mo's Digital Pencil.

I'm entering this into the current "D is for..." challenge at Mo's Digital Pencil Too. My Ds are Dots, Dancer, and Doily.

Thank you for visiting,

Silky Puppy Love

Since I spend the majority of my days with our two sweet dogs, I always feel almost obligated to enter dog-themed challenges! There are at least two such challenges out there this week: Can You Digi It? Challenge #3 and Crafty Ribbons Challenge #13.

I don't have either of those company's images / ribbons (yet!), so I "made due" with a Mo Manning polymer stamp I acquired from Stamp and Create and a homemade silk, paw-print ribbon. Oh, and a bunch of other stuff!

I used the Faux Silk technique for the circles (see tutorial). I colored the image after adhering the tissue paper to the cardstock and cutting out the shapes with Spellbinders dies in my Big Shot. To be honest, I really expected my Copics to bleed quite a bit on the tissue paper, but they actually blended beautifully.

For this card, I used my new Tea Dye distress ink pad; love this color. The base cardstock is a two-toned Core'dinations piece which I embossed with one of the embossing folders from a Tim Holtz set I just bought (Gift Cards + 50%-off coupons + Tim Holtz = One Happy CG). I sanded it and added some design with a background stamp from a Prickly Pear set. The sentiment on the inside is from the same set. The sentiment on the front is from a Hero Arts set; I heat-embossed both in Zing! copper.

I used the Fork technique to make the bow, a must for one-sided ribbon!

You know I couldn't resist the Joy Fold Challenge at Mark's Finest Papers:

The back, message portion:

Inspiration/Challenges:

Can You Digi It? Challenge #3: Puppy Love

Chocolate, Coffee & Cards Challenge #6: Brown, Orange, Teal

Crafty Ribbons Challenge #13: Paws for Thought

Mo's Digital Pencil Challenge #122: "My Sentiments Exactly"

Mark's Finest Papers Challenge #95: Joy Fold Card

Faux Silk technique tutorial: Annabelle Stamps blog 

---

I just want to take the opportunity to thank Crafty Ribbons for their early-Sunday-morning contest! The first 14 emailers are receiving some of their new Baby ribbons and then get to make two projects! I'm so excited to be one of them! The the contest was posted around 10:30AM UK time, and I've never been so happy to be up at 5:30AM on a Sunday!

And since I'm sharing good news, a very special thank-you to Christi for offering her great blog candy, which is on its way to me thanks to her husband Mickey who picked my name out of his proverbial hat!

Here's my thank-you to you all: one of my favorite photos of my Allen & Walt:

Thanks for visiting, and have a great day!

Kitchenalia

My followers know that I have a little niece whom I absolutely adore, and one of her many talents is making cookies with Nani (my mother-in-law). So I made this card for them!

The little cutie is the What's Cookin? digi stamp by Mo Manning, and I paired it with this sweet background rubber stamp from Art Impressions Stamps.

Inspiration:

• Digital Pencil Challenge #119: All My Favorite Things + Mo Manning image
  
  • This celebrates two of my most favorite activities: crafting and cooking!
• Daring Cardmakers: Kitchenalia
  
  • I love Kitchenalia. I love the word & I love filling my kitchen with pretty tools!
• iCopic Challenge #66: BV Color Family
  
  • I only have 4 Copic markers from the BV family: BV000, BV00, BV02, BV04. I colored the main image with this build, and colored the flowers with the set as well. The flowers are from a white ribbon; the netting on the sentiment piece is from the same ribbon.
• Art Impressions Stamps Challenge #48: A Card for a Child
  
  • I know a four-year-old who's going to be getting her sticky little hands on this!
• Mad for Markers January Challenge: Use a New Color Combination
  
  • What a fun challenge! Since I already had chosen a lavender scheme, I paired it with the color Teal to make a combo that I for one have never worked with!

Copics: BV000, BV00, BV02, BV04, BG000, BG10, BG15, BG49, BG09, B000, G00, YG25, YG67, G07, B32, Y08, YR12, YR31, R29, R59, RV02, C-2, C-5, C-7, E50, E51, E33, E11, E13, E17, E37, E47

Happy Chinese New Year!

I wanted to make a card this evening, so I whipped together this Chinese New Year card with help from the following challenges:

Mo's Digital Pencil Challenge #117: Clean & Simple w/Mo Manning Image

CAS-ual Fridays Challenge #35: Clean And Simple project with scallops

clean&simple Fall-to Layout #173

I used InDesign to combine Fan's Cricket by Mo Manning and the sentiment by Create with TLC, and printed it onto the smooth side of a banana/coffee bean paper Mom bought on a trip to Ecuador. The backing paper is actual Joss Paper that I bought years ago at a local Chinese market. After coloring the image with Copics & gel pens, I glued the pieces together and ran the whole thing through my Big Shot with a Spellbinders emboss/die. I cut the bottom off of the top piece to reveal the ruffle. It's simple, but very textural.

Have a lucky day!

Everything Nice

A craft-y friend recently had her second child, a beautiful little girl, just the excuse I needed to participate in Really Reasonable Ribbons' I Got You Babe Challenge. I was so intrigued by this week's Triplicate Trials Tuesday Challenge (TT) that I had to use it as well.

The TTT theme is Fun & Games, so I chose a "Candyland" theme. I don't much about kids but I know I played "Candyland" a scant kagillion times with my niece. I was partly drawn to this sketch because I wanted to use three of my favorite Mo Manning images. The other thing I know about kids is that they love tutus (even the boys, if they're allowed to)!

Inspiration:
Really Reasonable Ribbons Challenge #31: I Got You Babe
Triplicate Trials Tuesday Challenge #7

Stamps: Two Tasha, Done! & Kiesha's Curtain Call by Mo Manning, Candyland background, Fiskars, sentiment created with Euphorigenic typeface
Paper: Hammermill, Recollections
Tools: Fiskars papercutter & punch, MS scissors, Marvy heat tool, HP printer & ink, Adobe InDesign
Other: Tacky glue, Glossy Accents, red tape, tulle, Recollections  embossing powder, Versamark watermark ink, Offray ribbon,
Copics: BV08, V17, BV02, E13, E31, E33, E51, R37, R29, RV29, RV02, RV11, YG03, FY1, YR12, E50

Happy Wishes with Birthday Sundaes and DP2

I made this card pretty quickly since it's for a friend who's birthday was yesterday! Whoops!

Inspiration:
Birthday Sundaes Challenge #24: Inspiration photo (left)
DP2 Challenge #98: Sketch (right)

Stamps: Done! by Mo Manning, Bunting by  Ellephantastic (thank you!) Studio G, Fiskars, SP & Company
Paper: Hammermill, Core'dinations, Recollections, stash DP
Tools: Fiskars papercutter & punch, MS scissors, Marvy punch & heat tool, Cricut & SCAL, HP printer & ink, Adobe InDesign
Other: Tacky glue, red tape, Pink Paisley twine, Recollections & Stampendous embossing powder, Versamark watermark ink, stash brads
Copics: BG10, B00, B23, Y02, Y06, Y17, YR01, E13, RV04, E35, E37

Puppy Kisses & Fancy Stitches

I spied Bronte Kisses by Mo's Digital Pencil, and I just had to have it! All proceeds from this $1 digi will go to Pet Orphans of Southern California. This special set includes 3 lovely quotes, and I used one as part of the main image for this card. As you can see by the photo on the right, the resulting card was a big hit. (What you can't see is Allen, the white one, licking and then sitting on the card. It's fine though!)

I wanted the challenge of a color combo, so I chose SPCC's: River Rock (I used Kraft), Bashful Blue, Whisper White. For a sketch, I chose Mojo Monday. I was blown away by Julia's paper-pierced card, so I decided to try my hand at the Sew challenge at Do You Stack Up? (DYSU). I found all sorts of inspiration & tricks at Mel Stampz. Seriously, Mel's tutorials are so good that you totally believe you can do it!
I created piercing templates by putting a dotted "stroke" on a square (with the digi) and a circle. I did this in InDesign, but you can do it in Word too. I drew the "thread" with a gel pen and then used my awl to create the holes.

For a little extra something, I glued white ribbon to cardstock, and ran it through my sewing machine with 2 colors of thread. Funky! I love how my thread collection is a story of items hemmed...Curtains, bedspreads, slacks. All hemmed by Mom, I'm sure. She visits once a year, and it's still faster than waiting for me to do it!

The dogprint paper is simply stamped with watermark ink. The white background was embossed in my Sizzix. It's a happy accident that my only light blue ribbon also has a stitching theme!

I distressed the edges of the inside pieces; I like how the brown piece kinda looks like leather. I've never understood making dog collars out of leather, though: if you have more than one dog, it's like putting a chew toy on them!

Inspiration:
Mojo Monday #200: Sketch
DYSU Challenge #28: Sew, Faux or Real
SPCC #109: River Rock, Bashful Blue, Whisper White

Faux Stitching tutorial: Mel Stampz (with lots of great links)

Stamps: Bronte Kisses by Mo's Digital Pencil, StampCraft
Tools: Fiskars papercutter, Tim Holtz scissors & paper distresser, HP printer & ink, Adobe InDesign, awl, Sizzix Texture Boutique
Other: ZipDry glue, Elmer's gel pen, stash button, Celebrate It! & Offray ribbons, Versamark watermark ink
Copic markers: YR01, E13, FBG2, B0000, BG000, B05, RV02, E11, E31, E000
Update 6/25/11: This card won SPCC #109 as well as the random drawing at Mojo Monday. Thanks everyone! I love my Verve stamps from Mojo, and look for my SPCC Guest DT project in the coming months.

Trouble-Free

The challenge this week at Mo's Digital Pencil is "Black and white with one contrasting color." A perfect opportunity to use The Tramp by Mo Manning herself. I'm loving everyone's take on this challenge.

I made a Shadow-box card, which I learned about through the Stampin' Dymonz Cardmaking group. The oval is traced from a plastic template and hand-cut.

I was also inspired by Crafty Ann's Dry Embossing challenge. The black and white pieces were embossed on my Sizzix; the paper for the back (photo on the right) was pre-embossed.

Inspiration:
Mo's DP2 Challenge #91: black & white with one contrasting color
Crafty Ann's Challenge #45: Dry Embossing
Stampin' Dymonz Scrap Shack Cardmaking Group: Shadowbox card

Shadowbox Card tutorial: Splitcoast Stampers

Stamps: The Tramp digi by Mo Manning
Paper: Recollections, Core'dinations, Hammermill, DCWV, Relax
Tools: Marvy heat tool, Fiskars papercutter & deckle scissors, Tim Holtz scissors & paper distresser, HP printer & ink, Adobe InDesign
Other: ZipDry glue, Versamark & Memento inks, Copic markers, Sakura gel pen

Distressing Friendship Card

This week's theme at Mo's Challenge Blog is Distressing, and I wasn't sure if they meant paper distressing or ink distressing, so I incorporated both. Like I needed an excuse to use her adorable images!

I was introduced to this "Joy Fold" technique by the ABC Christmas Challenge blog, and although I didn't make their deadline I did use the idea (& their super tutorial) for this card.

The smaller card is actually a modified version of my tent card template, but my original idea didn't go as planned so it ended up like this!

I ink-distressed the paper with Ballerina Pink dye ink and a handy-wipe, and also used an emery board to distress the edges of the paper. The rose bouquets were stamped in blue and colored with Copics.
Digi stamps: Kiesha's Curtain Call and Two Tasha by Mo's Digital Pencil
Supplies: sentiment stamps from Pick a Peck set by Raisin Boat, Rose bouquet stamp by Stampin' Up!, Recollections and Hammermill cardstocks, K&Co. designer paper, Memento, InkItUp! and Versamark inks, ZipDry glue, MS scissors and border punch, Cricut & SCAL, Marvy punch

Copics: rv11, rv23, rv42, yr01, e51, e11, e33, e35, e17, e37, b23, b32, b00, b0000, yg03

Dancin' and Twirlin''

I'm not sure exactly what it is I've been accomplishing, but I've been fairly busy this week. Between things, I've worked on this festive card. I really wanted to try the Scrapmaster's Paradise Combo of Perfect Plum, River Rock and Melon Mambo, or whatever version I could make with my stash paper & copics! I actually spent a fair amount of time working on flowers for this week's theme at Delightful Challenges, but I just wasn't feeling it I guess, so I ended up making very simple "bursts" with tulle. I'm not sure how much they resemble flowers, but I did make this card with that challenge in mind so I'm gonna enter it anyway.

I've wanted to make a Center Step card ever since seeing Jeannie's beautiful version, so I finally took some time and followed her link to the super instructions at Creative Moments with Sandy.

I've had lots of fun of making Penny Slider (or Spinner) cards, so I was really excited to see instructions for the even easier Penny Rocker (or Tilting) card in Quick Cards Issue #82. I found some instructions on Splitcoaststampers (of course), and you should really check out their hula skirt idea! It's not like this card needed one more thing, but this adorable digi stamp from Mo's Digital Pencil just had to move!

The red corn-husk calla lilies in the background are from Puerto Peñasco, Mexico, and I hope someday to get some for crafting.

Inspiration:
SPCC #93: Perfect Plum, River Rock, Melon Mambo
Delightful Challenges: Flowers

Digi stamp: Rosa by Mo Manning

Supplies: Brazzill and Core'dinations cardstocks, XpressPress Copic paper, Martha Stewart border punch and detailing scissors, Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist (Concord), ZipDry glue, tulle, pop-dots, and, of course, two cents
Copics: E17, E52, E31, E33, RV21, E51, E000, E11, E50, BV00, V06, BV04, RV04, RV29

Phenomenal Lady book

Last week I received one of my favorite kinds of instant messages: Want to make a book?

Kapricia, also the author for my Wing Book Series, gave me this poem to work with:

"Remember what I told you"
she would shout and say
"We must always be ladies
even at when play."
Kapricia Williams ©2010

I was further influenced by her comment: "When you know better you do better. I love the phenomenal women in my life that showed me to act like a lady, be a lady, speak lady like and some day you too will be a phenomenal WOMAN!!" I know that we both grew up influenced by Maya Angelou, and I defy you to read her poem "Phenomenal Woman" without feeling a surge of power! So I added the title "Phenomenal Lady" as a little shout-out to our shared inspiration.

Having been raised as a lady (however fruitlessly), I really felt this poem! In my experience, such advice was given when the little lady was voicing her opinion... I immediately thought of the wonderful Tantrum images from Mo's Digital Pencil and used this project as an excuse to buy Two Tasha from the set. I contrasted that image with the sweet ballerina from Mo's Kiesha's Curtain Call, and finished the book with four color of tulle.


Digi stamps: Kiesha's Curtain Call and Two Tasha by Mo's Digital Pencil

View all of my mini books here.