Yo ho, yo ho...

... a pirate's life for me! This is the last Billy image in the set from Pink Cat Studio and I think he's too cute with his peg leg dog as a sidekick.

The layout is from yesterday's sketch challenge on splitcoast (SC171). I thought Lisa's off-kilter oval was pretty cool looking and perfect for this image since Billy is so much taller than the dog.

I stamped Billy on Papertrey Ink's white cardstock and colored him in with my watercolor wonder crayons and an aquapainter. Then I decided to flock his little dog to make him fuzzy. I couldn't stop there though, so I flocked Billy's hat, boots and belt as well.

I know that real pirates don't have fuzzy hats, but I figured that Billy's dress up clothes probably would be made of felt and could definitely be fuzzy. It adds a little bit of fun to the card!

After the dog was all fuzzified, I had to make his nose shiny too with a little crystal effects. I used crystal effects on Billy's sword as well to give it a little shine.

Then it was time to add a sentiment. Taking a cue from Lauren's post the other day on what makes a card a wow, I decided to pop-up every layer as well as the skull and cross bones in the sentiment.

Stamps: Billy Plate 1 from Pink Cat Studio
Ink: Palette Noir Hybrid Ink, Black Marker
Paper: Papertrey white cardstock, Elegant Eggplant, Certainly Celery, Almost Amethyst
Accessories: Crystal Effects, Brown & Black Flocking from Stampendous
Tools: Aquapainter, Watercolor Wonder Crayons, Stampin' Dimensionals, Coluzzle, 1 3/8" & 1 1/4" circle punches, corner rounder punch

Cowboy Kid

Can you get enough of Billy from Pink Cat Studio? I certainly can not!

For this card, I wanted to try Toy's sketch #7. I just found Holly McMillen's (aka Toy) blog recently after stalking her splitcoast gallery for years. So I just had to try one of her sketches! This card is 5.5" square.

The burgundy layer was embossed with the new paisley Cuttlebug folder and then swiped with Brilliance white moonlight ink. The patterned paper is from Chatterbox (really old). Billy was colored with watercolor crayons and an aquapainter and cut out with the coluzzle.

Stamps: Billy Plate 1 from Pink Cat Studio
Ink: Palette Noir Hybrid Ink
Paper: Papertrey white cardstock, Ballet Blue, Bravo Burgundy, River Rock, designer paper by Chatterbox
Accessories: Twill Tape
Tools: Aquapainter, Watercolor Wonder Crayons, Stampin' Dimensionals, Coluzzle, Designer Tag punch, 1 3/8" circle punch, ticket corner punch

Super Kid

When I made the happy forest card yesterday, I pulled out another sheet of sweet designer paper, but couldn't make it work on that card. So I decided to use it as my basis for a Super Billy card.

I also wanted to use the black Martha Stewart glitter that I bought around Halloween time and hadn't opened. Billy's costume and boots are sparkling black and his lightning bolt and eye mask gained their shine from Dazzling Diamonds. On a side note, if anyone has a tip on how to open the lid on the Martha Stewart glitter without breaking it, please let me know. The inner and outer lid system was too much for me to handle today.

To make it pop, I stamped the sentiment in VersaMark and applied heat & stick powder to adhere the black Martha Stewart glitter. In real life, this card is all sparkle!

The layout is from Lauren Meader's Saturday Sketch #32.


Stamps: Billy Plate 1 from Pink Cat Studio
Ink: Palette Noir Hybrid Ink, VersaMark
Paper: Papertrey Ink white cardstock, Basic Grey, Basic Black, Green Galore, sweet Patterned paper from Stampin' Up!
Accessories: Dazzling Diamonds, Martha Stewart black glitter, black grosgrain ribbon
Tools: Aquapainter, Watercolor Wonder Crayons, Stampin' Dimensionals, two-way glue pen, 1 1/4" and 1 3/8" circle punches, Classic Rectangle Nestabilities from Spellbinders

Happy Nap!

Nap time is great! Now that the kid is taking longer naps during the day, I have a little more free time. And since this is my last week of maternity leave, I'm really going to try to make the most of it!

I fell in love with this whimsical scene from Stamping Bella a few months ago and had to add it to my next order. Everything about this scene, from the cute little birds to the lollipop trees, makes me happy!

I stamped the image on Papertrey Ink's white card stock with Palette Noir ink and then colored it in with my watercolor wonder crayons and an aquapainter. I pulled the color scheme (orchid opulence, yo yo yellow, green galore and tempting turquoise) from the retired sweet designer paper from Stampin' Up! I originally planned to use several different patterns from the pack, but in the end it looked too busy to me. Bold Brights are not my go to color family, so I decided that less was more for this card.

Stamps: happy forest from Stamping Bella, sentiment from A Muse
Ink: Palette Noir Hybrid Ink
Paper: Papertrey Ink White card stock, Orchid Opulence, sweet Patterned paper from Stampin' Up!
Accessories: Yo yo yellow grosgrain ribbon
Tools: Aquapainter, Watercolor Wonder Crayons, Classic & Scalloped Rectangle Nestabilities from Spellbinders

Blogger's Challenge #41 - Layout Challenge

Finally some stamping time just for fun! I fell in love with the Billy & Lilly stamps from Pink Cat Studio after seeing them on Lauren's blog. My Billy stamps just came yesterday and I couldn't wait to ink them up!

The blogger's challenge this week was to use the long note layout on page 65 of the Stampin' Up Spring/Summer Collection. I didn't have any long notes, so I made my own out of a 12x12 sheet of Tempting Turquoise. All of the paper and stickers I used came from the retired Party Pieces Simply Scrappin' Kit, except for Billy himself. I stamped Billy on watercolor paper and then cut him out and popped him up with dimensionals.

I hope you enjoyed my entry this week. Don't forget to check out the other Blogger's challenge entries! You can find links to all of their sites in my sidebar.

Stamps: Billy Plate 1 from Pink Cat Studio
Ink: Palette Noir Hybrid Ink
Paper: Watercolor Paper, Party Pieces Simply Scrappin' Kit
Accessories: Bold Brights Brads
Tools: Aquapainter, Watercolor Wonder Crayons, Stampin' Dimensionals

Thanks again

I fell in love with this clothesline stamp from Karen Lockhart after seeing what Debbie Olson had done with it. So when I realized that I ran out of thank you notes again, I ordered this stamp and made some more. :)

Once again, I went the easy route. No layers, no embellishments. Just a beautiful Arturo note card and a little watercoloring.

I made six of these and it only took me 15 minutes. Perfect nap-time stamping.

Stamps: Clothesline stamp from Karen Lockhart, Sentiment from A Muse
Ink: Palette Noir Hybrid Ink
Paper: Arturo Buttercup Note cards
Tools: Aquapainter, Watercolor Wonder Crayons