CPS Anniversary Sketches 2-5!

The sketch challenge at Card Positioning Systems (CPS) is one of my favorites, so I'm excited to participate in all 15 sketches of their 5th Anniversary Celebration! I've already posted my card using their Day 1 sketch, and here are Days 2 - 5 (in order):

Day 2 / Sketch #166
Featuring digi stamp from MelJen's Designs

Day 3 / Sketch #54
Featuring digi stamp from MelJen's Designs

Day 4 / Sketch #220
Featuring digi stamp from MelJen's Designs

Day 5 / Sketch #38
Featuring digi stamp from Tiddly Inks
Candy Heart SVG set from Denise's Scrapbooking Room

I'm entering the card above into the following challenges:

Tiddly Inks Challenge #79: Valentine

iCopic Weekly Challenge #68: Hearts


Okay, off to work on the rest of the CPS sketches!

Felicidades

I made this card for my best friend, who's birthday is coming up, and was inspired by the following:

• Sketch Saturday
  I rotated the sketch 90 degrees.
• Lili of the Valley Challenge #116: Warm & Cozy
  I love this stamp by LOTV! Few things are as cozy as curling up with a book. I also added a bookish surprise on the inside (see photos below).
• Die Cut Dreams Challenge #100: Use a Poem on your card
  I couldn't pass up this challenge! The poem I chose, In the Desert by Stephen Crane, is my friend's favorite.
• Use It Tuesday Challenge #17: Metal
  Brads & nameplate are long-hoarded and metal!
• Paper Crafting Journey Challenge #21: Orange, Black & White
  I had lots of fun with the paper. The striped & dotted papers are Echo Park, and the embossed/sanded layers are Black Magic cardstock from Core'dinations. The white linen paper I used for teh mini card, newspaper piece, and sentiment is actually the card I got with gift cards from AC Moore (a lovely present from my awesome mother-in-law!). Talk about upcycling!

Stamps: Lili of the Valley, Dilo En Español, Tiddly Inks

Paper: Recollections, Core'dinations, Echo Park, Hammermill

Tools: Cricut, SCAL, Cricut markers, Fiskars papercutter, HP printer & ink, InDesign, Tim Holtz paper distresser, Sizzix Texture Boutique, Sizzix & Cuttlebug embossing folders, awl, sandpaper, Martha Stewart scissors & punches

Other: Copic markers, Sakura gel pens, metal brads & nameplate from stash

Linking Up for Pink

I'll be the first to admit that I've become a bit jaded when it comes to Pink for Breast Cancer Awareness, as I'm not sure how many mammograms I have to have until everything I purchase stops coming in Pink packaging, but it's worth it if one person gets the treatment they need. Breast Cancer has of course touched my life: my grandmother had a mastectomy, a coworker has treatments every morning before coming to work, and many other people close to me have battled it and other such illnesses. I can't even begin to imagine their courage.

So, in that spirit, I made a Pink card for the Link Up for Pink blog party hosted by Celeste, Gaby, and Yolie. For layout & image ideas, I looked to this week's Deconstructed Sketch, sponsored by Tiddly Inks. The sentiment is a freebie from Create with TLC. Thanks for the inspiration, ladies!

I'm going to take the suggestion at Link Up for Pink and send my card to the PA Breast Cancer Coalition. 

Friends are always giving me a hard time for not putting a label on my cards, so I made one for this card. Not only does it have links to this blog and Link Up for Pink, it has a QR-Code that will take you to this post. Hi there!

You can generate your own QR-Code here. Thanks for checking out my card, and many healthful wishes!

Hello Fall!

Well, I wanted to splurge on a couple of $1 stamps at Michaels yesterday, but someone must have beaten me to the bins because there was barely anything to reject! So when I got home I made myself feel better by buying a couple $1 digis from Tiddly Inks. Worked out well! I've been really bad at keeping up with my blogs recently, so I missed her new cute school-themed digis. I have her SchoolGirl set, which I love, so I'm excited to have more school- and book-related elements. I have several ideas for these digis,but first thing I wanted to use them for the current Tiddly Inks Challenge. The theme this week is Say GoodBye to Summer, Hello Fall! so I decided to make a back-to-school/Autumn card. I always liked going back to school...at least until homework time!

Inspiration:
Tiddly Inks Challenge #64: Say GoodBye to Summer, Hello Fall!

Stamps: School's Out & Teacher by Tiddly Inks, Frame by TLC Creations, Stampendous! (tiny book), stash (leaves & sentiments)
Paper: Recollections, Hammermill
Tools: Crop-O-Dile, SCAL & Cricut, EK Success corner punch, Marvy heat tool
Other: ZipDry glue, Recollections embossing powder, Versamark ink, Celebrate It! ribbon, shrink plastic, Copics

Back to School, primarily

So have you heard yet about the upcoming blog hop and party at Feline Playful? Let me tell you, it's gonna be amazing. I save so much time being able to consult their challenge lists, and am always finding new blogs. Someone pointed out that expecting sponsors & followers is nothing but vanity, which may well be true but I'm not quite sure what part of participating in challenges isn't a soft form of vanity, so put your makeup on & fix your hair up pretty [ref.] and meet me & the fantastic group there on September 21.

Anyhoo, I have a huge list of cards I should be working on, but I wanted to make a back-to-school card for our teenaged nieces. 

For the images, I pulled out some of my favorite digis from Tiddly Inks and Just Some Lines. I was especially pleased to see that the current challenge at Just Some Lines is Embossing: I love me some embossing, any kind! The chair was printed on yellow cardstock and dry-embossed with my Sizzix. The sentiment frame is heat-embossed in ruby.

I paper-pieced the book image with matching papers. Love Graphics 45!

Inspiration:
Just Some Lines Challenge: Embossing
Fairy Tale Challenge #22: Back to School
Delightful Challenges: Back to School/Primary Colors

Stamps: Schoolgirl set by Tiddly Inks, Amber Reads by Just Some Lines, Let It Shine set by Verve Stamps, the Paper Studio
Paper: Graphics 45, Hammermill, Recollections
Tools: Fiskars papercutter, Martha Stewart scissors & border punch, HP printer & ink, Adobe InDesign, Marvy heat tool, Sizzix Texture Boutique, Tim Holtz embossing folder
Other: ZipDry glue, Scotch foam tape, Versamark & Memento inks, Recollections embossing powder, Copic markers, Sakura gel pen

Virtual Rainbows

Another week, another Tiddly Inks challenge! I'm so hooked. This week the theme is Color Me, meaning to use as much color as possible. I've been crushin' on Roy G. Biv for years, so I kinda surprised myself with the relatively soft color palette I ended up using.

I was intrigued by the mostly-pink-and-purple Rainbow Forest digis that Tiddly Inks offered as a freebie through their Group on PaperCraft Planet, so I used that as a starting point. I'd purchased the Gamer digi from Tiddly Inks a bit ago, and the idea of the the "forest" being the game was too good to pass up... My husband really liked the effect, so I'm glad that I listened to my instincts and made this a wheel card. I created a circle with the forest digi in Adobe InDesign.

I used the Distressing technique for the sentiment pieces, wheel background, and the "hill" that the gamer is on. By distressing, I mean rubbing ink onto the paper with a handy wipe. WOW, that came out better than I had anticipated. In fact, the "hill" matches the printed background way better than I ever thought it could; I had planned on more contrast, but it's so pretty I couldn't not use it!

For a final touch, I sewed on a straight-stitch border in blue and orange; my machine's tension's off, so I used the the bobbin thread peeking through to my advantage.

Because I'm still not very good at shading, I wanted to fill up the T-shirt with some sort of logo...and the Human Rights Campaign logo seemed especially appropriate. What a cool kid, right‽


Tiddly Inks Challenge #40: Color Me

Digi stamps & backgrounds: Rainbow Forest and Gamer by Tiddly Inks

Supplies: HP printer & ink, Core'dinations, X-Press Copic and Hammermill cardstocks, MS detailing scissors, ZipDry glue, Fiskars papercutter, deckle scissors and finger knife, emery board, Versamark and ColorBox inks, CelebrateIt! ribbon, sentiment stamps by gstudio, sewing machine & thread, handy wipes, Michaels brad (hidden), Marvy circle punch
Copic markers:
furniture: BV08, V17, V06
shirt: B23, B05, B39, 0, FY1
jeans: B23, B05, B32, E47
skin: E35, E33, E11
hair: G21, G07, G02
dog: C-1, C-5, C-7, E50, 0

Robot shaker card

I'm beginning to feel a bit like a Tiddly Inks groupie, but I just couldn't rest until I had tried their Shaker Card Challenge with Christy's adorable Dr. Love Boto (the digi stamp that led me to Tiddly Inks in the first place!)

This is my third shaker card, and it's certainly my most complicated; I was really inspired by the DT examples for this challenge, plus the many shaker cards I've been seeing around the craftosphere. Note to self: try not to make the window frame 1/4 inch and rounded. I mean really, what was I thinking. I colored the edges of the foam with matching copics, which helps it look clean. I cut the interiors by hand, which seemed faster than trying to do it in SCAL, my usual favorite trick.

For the sentiment, I did something I've been threatening to do for some time: I used CSS/HTML code instead of real typography. This isn't a new thing (see poet Jenny O'Grady's fantastic series Homepages), but I chose to use in-line CSS and colored the text as it appears in HTML editors. If you read code, you'll see that some of it is redundant and some things are missing, but the HEX code is in fact the text color. And yes, I was nerdy enough to use Courier New for the 1s and 0s I cut out with SCAL and my Cricut. Oh how I love a good binary joke!


Inspiration: Tiddly Inks Challenge #39: Shaker Card

Digi stamp: Dr. Love Boto by Tiddly Inks

Supplies: Core'dinations, X-Press Copic, and Recollections cardstocks, clear plastic, emery board, Fiskars papercutter, finger swivel-knife, and deckle scissors, HP printer & ink, Adobe InDesign, Cricut and SCAL, ZipDry glue, Tim Holtz & MS detailing scissors, Recollections eyelets, Crop-O-Dile II

Copic Ciao markers: R27, RV29, C-1, C-5, C-7, B32, BG10, B23, B39, 0


Update 2/4/11: This card placed in the Top 5 of Tiddly Inks' Shaker Card Challenge. Wow, thank you!

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

So Mama, don't take my Kodachrome away

One of my newest discoveries is Tiddly Inks digi stamps (and their great blogs); I've been eying their work for a while now on cards around the craftosphere, but I could never find where the images were from. So once I discovered them, I bought four sets of stamps! I simply couldn't pass up their adorable doggy-balloon set, because it reminds me of my own dogs, Allen and Walt (left to right in this photo).

Then I decided that I wanted to use the image for this week's Tiddly Inks Challenge, and since their theme is Monochromatic, I found myself using a palette of black and white / gray and silver, to match my puppies. I just couldn't help myself! I'm not sure if it meets the challenge exactly, but I'm totally tickled with the result!

I started by pulling out my three gray copic markers for the Walt/black dog and the balloons. I used the blender to remove a shine mark on the balloons; I need a lot more practice, but they came out okay. I decided that silver was just like gray, so I added glitter with gel pens to make the balloons more fun. I went ahead and cheated just a little bit more on the color theme by blending in a bit of pink to the dogs' noses.

For the Allen/white dog, I simply used a Marvy snow pen; I painted on two thick layers before puffing it up with my heat tool. (There's no way my 35lb Allen could get airborne, but he is this adorable!)

I was very excited to have an excuse to use some of my Black Magic Core'dinations cardstock, but the project almost ended tragically when I realized I didn't have a good emery board to use for sanding...But then I discovered a 1000Flowers.org "Shape the Oval Office" emery board in my makeup bag. Can you believe it's been waiting for this moment since 2004‽​ At least I got something good out of that election...

I simply couldn't pass up the opportunity to use the Party Balloons font I had downloaded ages ago. I printed the wordart on Recollections silver paper, added some detail with silver and glitter gel pens, and tied a strip of black-glitter ribbon to the balloon shape. I broke out my SCAL software to create the frame (using "basic borders.svg", an online freebie set, but I can't find the link now...) and the clouds. I may have obsessed a bit about the clouds...I finally ended up using the Talk Bubble 7 shape that comes in SCAL2 because it gave me three shapes. I cut the clouds onto a linen-textured white paper, and then created a shadow layer in silver.

For the background paper, I stamped a curly design in silver onto white cardstock, and heat-embossed it in white. Like little, silver-lined clouds....

Have a great day everybody!


Digi stamp set: Whaz'Up....or Down? by Tiddly Inks
Font: Party Balloons by pizzadude

Inspiration:
Sketch: Card Positioning Systems #206
Color/Theme: Tiddly Inks Challenge #38: Monochromatic

Supplies: DCWV, Core'dinations, Hammermill, and Recollections cardstocks, emery board, HP printer & ink, Adobe InDesign, Cricut & SCAL, ColorBox silver ink, silicon stamp by the Paper Studio, Stampendous! white embossing powder, Marvy snow paint pen and heat tool, Offray ribbon
Copic Ciao markers: E04, RV21, C-1, 0, C-5, E50, C-7

Blog title from the Paul Simon song