Pink Princesses

Mom lent me her Circle Flip-its Sizzix Movers & Shapers L Die, and I'm having so much fun with it. For example, I made these Birthday cards for our nieces! [Sorry that the photos aren't great; it's been gray here and I just couldn't get good lighting!]

This first card was inspired by Lili's Little Fairies Pretty In Pink Challenge, so I used one of my precious, long-hoarded, pre-colored die cuts from Lili of the Valley. Using Diamond Glaze, I added shimmer to her bow and FlowerSoft to her boa & tutu.

Mom also sent me some yummy SU! papers she got from a friend of hers who's a consultant...she uses it for rosettes, so I took that tip from her. I cut the rosette with my TH die, and used my Swirl Sizzix die for the flourishes. The sentiment is heat-embossed with a Stampendous stamp on Core'dinations cardstock, and is cut/embossed with the wavy banner die from a•muse studio's Cupcake Toppers set. 

I created borders for the circles with pink Liquid Pearls. For the flip-side, I stamped the crown in pink & heat-embossed it in Kaleidoscope. The "Princess" sentiment is heat-embossed in a coral red.

My second card was inspired by the fact that our niece's birthday party is going to have a "luau" theme. I totally hoard my mulberry-paper flowers, but I sure had fun with them here! I strung the small flowers onto thread, and then carefully glued it down.

The black-and-green card base is actually a black-and-white DP that I sprayed with "Meadow Green" Tattered Angels glimmer mist. I sprayed the white pieces, ribbon, and lizard with "Iridescent Gold".

I heat-embossed the flowers in shiny green onto this great hot-pink, textured Core'dinations cardstock, then colored them in with my Copics (I know, I know, I shouldn't be using my Copics near colored embossing, but I just can't help myself!). The large hibiscus and lizard stamps are from a Recollections set, and the small hibiscus stamp is from Dilo en Español's Que Siga La Fiesta set. The sentiment is from Hero Arts, I think.

I'm entering this card into Shopping Our Stash #59: Extra Fold or Pleats [(much of this uses stash items).

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!

Shopping my Stash with MelJen's Designs + CPS Day 12

I bet you're getting tired of me bragging, but I'm on a roll! Well, who could resist the Jug Band set from Bonibleaux Designs/Dude Time Doodles that won my card a top 3 spot at Shopping Our Stash's People Who Need People challenge?! The boys are very excited, and egged me to make a last-minute card for their current challenge. Although the challenge is officially Valentine's themed, we also have the option of using one of their sponsor's images instead, and I just had to use my newly-acquired Robot Boy digi from Meljen's Designs! I wanted to make this a boy's birthday card for Card Cupid's February Drive, so no hearts, just a lot of love:

CPS Sketch #118

Oh, and you didn't think I'd pass up the opportunity to use another sketch from the CPS 5th Anniversary Celebration did you?! Today's it's Day 12, Sketch #118! (All my cards for the CPS Celebration are archived here.)

The shiny K.I. Memories papers are from my stash; actually, I took them from my mom's stash in Arizona, so they went a long way to make this card! I printed the sentiment (a freebie from MelJen's; Thank you!) directly onto the star paper, then paper-pieced the balloons and tiny stars on top (that I printed on white and colored with my Copics, same as the main image). I filled the sentiment in and added detail with gel and glitter pens.

The two stars on the bottom right are actually punched out; the punched pieces are the red stars on the top left. The lavender flower brad in the middle star has been in my stash for at least 4 years!

Happy unbirthday to you all!