Mystery Image Swap

This month's mystery image swap was a doozy! Not only did Sue send us this cute little Boxer Penguin from memory box, but she also sent us a piece of patterned paper. We had to use a piece of this paper on our card as an extra challenge. I was a little nervous at this prospect until my envelope came in the mail. When I saw the red lined paper though, I knew I had gotten off easy!

I decided t make a Valentine's Day card since the penguin's boxers have little hearts on them So I pulled out Hugs & Kisses from the Kim Hughes collection at Cornish Heritage Farms. I embossed the Xs and hearts with clear embossing powder onto the red panel. For more shine, I used a Sakura clear gelly pen on each of the hearts on his boxers and I filled in the i love you heart with crystal effects.

The layout is from Lauren Meader's Saturday sketch #19. I just love Lauren's sketches!

I hope my partner likes it! I was pretty pleased at the end.

Stamps: Boxer penguin from Memory Box, Hugs & Kisses from Cornish Heritage farms
Ink: VersaMark, Palette Noir; Going Gray, Real Red and Basic Gray markers
Paper: Basic gray, Basic Black, Real Red, Mystery white and Mystery patterned paper
Accessories: Crystal effects, clear embossing powder, Sakura clear gelly pen, Dimensionals
Tools: Hearts cuttlebug folder, Circle nestabilities

Hey thanks

Yes, I am a child of the 80s, why do you ask? Seriously though, this is a challenge card for the SSUS group. We were to make a thank you card using current Stampin' Up! stamps. Sounds easy enough, but most of my sets are retired at this point. I figured I could spell out thanks using the Jumbo Outline alphabet and was inspired to do it in rainbow colors by the name frame I made before Christmas.

Once I made that decision, I rifled through the new catalog to see what else I had and when I saw that Seeing Spots was still current, I figured I had found the perfect match! I inked up each ring of dots with my marker to mirror the rainbow colors in the thanks sentiment. The whole card has a Punky Brewster vibe to me. Totally out of my comfort zone with the bright primary colors, but I was really digging it. I hope my challenge partner likes it too!

The layout was adapted from a Verve sketch, VSHR2 that I found on splitcoast stampers. The thanks panel came out so large that I had to drop the ribbon, but I think it works.


Stamps: Jumbo Outline Alphabet and Seeing Spots from Stampin' Up!
Ink: Real Red, Only Orange, Yo yo Yellow, Green Galore, Brilliant Blue, Lovely Lilac, Palette Noir
Paper: Shimmery White, Real Red, Green Galore
Accessories: Bold Brights Brads, Dimensionals

Fairy Lily Revisited

I decided to make a second Lily the fairy card. She is just to fun to play with. This time I had her sprinkling pixie dust on a field of flowers. If you look closely you can see that the flowers on the left are sparkly, but the one of the right that she hasn't gotten to yet is not. Too fun! I thought this sentiment from Verve stamps was just too perfect!

The flowers on the bottom of the card are from the Dress up Lily stamp set. All of the images were colored with watercolor crayons and an aquapainter. To make it look like Lily had been flying, I created a fairy dust path behind her by dry embossing the flourish from the Priceless classy brass template by Stampin' Up! I then wiped the embossed part with a white ink pad and highlighted it with icicle stickles. I love this brass stencil because it also had holes to paper pierce.

In the end this card was just what I pictured in my head. I love it when that works out!

Stamps: Dress Up Lily from Pink Cat Studios, Starlight Starbright from Verve Stamps
Ink: Palette Noir
Paper: Whisper White, Regal Rose, Vellum Cardstock from Stampin' Up!
Accessories: Taffeta Ribbon from Stampin' Up!, Dimensionals, Iridescent Ice embossing powder, Icicle Stickles, Dazzling Diamonds
Tools: Two-way glue pen, Wavy Cutter from Creative Memories

Pink Cat Challenge

I am so excited about the upcoming Lily & Billy Sweethearts set from Pink Cat Studio. To celebrate, Melissa had a contest. She gave us this sweet little Lily fairy as a pdf file so we could print it out and make a card.

For my card, I wanted to have Lily the fairy grant the frog his wish of becoming a prince. I just love the way the frog is holding his scepter. To attach the crown to the metal frame, I used some Tombow Metal glue. It worked perfectly!

This Howdy paper from American Crafts was the perfect match for my little fairy tale setting.

To make Lily, I printed the Lily image out twice, once on Whisper White cardstock and once on Vellum cardstock. While the ink was still wet on the Vellum cardstock, I sprinkled it with Iridescent Ice embossing powder and embossed it. Then I cut the wing section out of the vellum to give them a more delicate look. As a finishing touch, I blinged it up with some stickles icicles.

Don't forget to check back on the Pink Cat Studio blog for the official release on January 15!

Stamps: Dress Up Billy & Billy Plate 1 from Pink Cat Studios, Fairytale sentiments from Starvingartistamps
Ink: Palette Noir
Paper: Whisper White, Basic Black, Vellum Cardstock from Stampin' Up!, Howdy from American Crafts
Accessories: Ribbon from May Arts, Pewter Hodge Podge Hardware, Dimensionals, Iridescent Ice embossing powder, Icicle Stickles
Tools: Koh-i-noor pencils, Gamsol

1st Birthday

Can you believe my little guy is a year old already? In some ways it feels like just yesterday that we brought him home, but at the same time I can hardly remember what life was like without him. His first birthday is coming up, so I need to send out some invites for his party.

I found this cute paper from piggy tales at a local scrapbook store over the summer and was so excited that the dump truck from the Dress Up Billy set was a perfect match! I had trouble deciding on a color scheme for the rest of the card though. In the end, we went with the orange card because it pops a little more.

Does the sentiment's font look familiar? I really loved the open numbers from the new Number Fun set from the Kim Hughes Collection at Cornish Heritage Farms, but I am on a voluntary post-Christmas spending moratorium. So I opted to buy a couple of Kim Hughes' CK fonts for less than half the price of the stamp set. The number one is from CK Ed and the rest of the lettering is from CK Brandy B. I love Kim's handwriting and am tickled that I have a couple of her fonts now to really customize my cards. The inside of the invitation is also in the CK Brandy B font so it matches perfectly!

The sketch was posted by Lauren Meader a while back for a Pink Cat Studios challenge. I guess it is fitting that I used a Pink Cat Studio stamp on my card. ;)


Stamps: Dress Up Billy from Pink Cat Studios
Ink: Palette Noir
Paper: Whisper White, Night of Navy, Pumpkin Pie, Wild Wasabi from Stampin' Up!, Tortoise & Hare collection from piggy tales
Accessories: Striped Wasabi Grosgrain Ribbon from Stampin' Up!, Dimensionals
Tools: 1 1/4" and 1 3/8" circle punches, Koh-i-noor pencils, Gamsol

Twiddle Bug Mystery Image

I am a terrible Mystery Swapper! This card was supposed to be in the mail before Thanksgiving and instead I just mailed it out this past weekend. I'm so sorry Sue! I hope it was worth the wait...

When I first looked at the Balla Weensie images that Kim sent from Stampotique, I immediately thought of the Twiddle Bugs from Sesame Street. So cute!

Anyway, I thought the thin doodled lines from this patterned paper from Pebbles Inc. would go perfectly with the balla weensie. I colored her in with Koh-i-noor pencils first and then covered her green body with Fun Flock and her tutu with blue glitter from Stampin' Up!

The layout is from a Verve Stamps Sketch (VSHR3).




Stamps: Balla Weensie from Stampotique, sentiment by Stamping Bella
Ink: Palette Noir
Paper: White cardstock from Papertrey Ink, Chocolate Chip from Stampin' Up!, blue glitter cardstock from DCWV, Theodore Paisley and Stripe patterned paper from Pebbles Inc
Accessories: Chocolate Chip Tafetta ribbon from Stampin' Up, Blue glitter from Stampin' Up!, green Fun Flock from Stampendous, Dimensionals
Tools: Threading Water punch from Fiskars, Koh-i-noor pencils, Gamsol

Christmas Thank Yous

For my little guy's Christmas thank you notes, I knew I wanted to include a picture of him playing with the toys that he was given. He's obviously too young to write his own thank you notes and since most of the gift givers weren't here to see him open the gifts, I thought it would be nice if they could see him enjoying them.

Anyway, when I saw Jennifer's son's thank you note on the Hero Arts blog I knew it was the perfect layout!

I did change a few things. First, I didn't have the Hero Arts sets that Jennifer used. But I do have this cool He Said She Said punch from Fiskars. So I paired it with the Thank You stamp from Family Phrases from Stampin' Up! Also instead of stamping the background, I used the Cuttlebug Snowflake folder and then wiped the card with Brilliance white ink. These cards were so fast to make! I made 18 of them in an hour and a half from start to finish.

Stamps: Family Phrases from Stampin' Up!
Ink: Palette Noir and Brilliance Moonlight White
Paper: Confetti Tan, Real Red, Whisper White from Stampin' Up!
Accessories: Dimensionals
Tools: He said She said Squeeze Punch by Fiskars

Recipes

As part of his Christmas gift this year, I made my husband a recipe box. I had intended to copy all of our favorite recipes down as well, but I ran out of time. I know you are probably scratching your head right now trying to understand how this could be a gift for my husband. Well, he works from home and makes dinner every night so I don't have to start cooking when I get home from work. He's been complaining that our favorite recipes are scattered through several cookbooks and printouts from the internet and that it would be much easier to have them all in one place. So, the recipe box was born!

I was so excited when Papertrey Ink came out with the Recipe Box stamp set and recipe cards. I love their long skinny dimensions and the fact that they fit perfectly in the egg box.

When it came time to decorate my box, I pulled out some patterned paper from Scenic Route that looks like college ruled paper and stamped images from the retired Mix & Mingle set from Stampin' Up! and the Little Gal, Baked with Love and Hugs and Kisses sets from the Kim Hughes collection at Cornish Heritage Farms in the perfect match ink colors from Papertrey Ink. I wanted the box to have a doodled look to it so I didn't color in the images.

On the inside, I lined the box with patterned paper from October Afternoon and used the Recipe Box stamp set to make dividers for each section. I also used the Polka Dots backgrounder from Cornish Heritage Farms on the dividers.

To make Recipes plural on the lid, I used the s from the Quirky Alphabet set.

Now, I just have the long task of copying over all of our recipes!

Stamps: Recipe Box from Papertrey Ink; Baked with Love, Hugs and Kisses, Little Gal and Quirky Alphabet from Cornish Heritage Farms; Mix & Mingle from Stampin' Up!
Ink: Aqua Mist, Ocean Tides, Berry Sorbet, Lemon Tart, Summer Sunrise, Plum Pudding & Spring Moss from Papertrey Ink, Palette Noir, Palette Burnt Umber and Palette Charcoal
Paper: Scenic Route and October Afternoon
Accessories: Matte finish Modge Podge
Tools: Foam brushes to apply the modge podge

Emily frame

I love making name frames for new babies. I think it makes such a fun and special gift. For this frame I used VersaMagic chalk ink in rainbow colors and the monogram stamps from A Muse. The frame was $3 at WalMart. The clear stamps and clean design made this a much faster project than some of the other frames I've done.

More baby shoes

For some Christmas gifts and my church's holiday craft fair, I made some more baby shoes. For these two pairs, I used metallic and pearl fabric paint from Tulip so they were sparkly and festive. The ornament is from the Heart warmers set by
Kim Hughes at Cornish Heritage Farms.

I absolutely loved this rainbow pair too. Aren't they fun and girly without having to be pink? he rainbow is from the Little Gal set by
Kim Hughes at Cornish Heritage Farms.

The last two pairs weren't stamped at all. I just loved the print on this corduroy from Joann's, so I just had to use it.

That's all I had time to finish before Christmas. I did cut out, stamp and paint several more pairs, so you haven't seen the last of these yet.

For details on how I made these, see my previous post on the subject.

Happy New Year & New Doodlefactory!

Happy New Year to all of you! I know I've been silent on the blogging front lately, but I have lots to share with you (more baby shoes, Christmas presents and thank you cards!)

In the meantime, I wanted to let you know about the awesome new Valentine's Stamps from Doodle Factory. Check them out here!

They are so cute! I especially love the little monkeys!

Anyway, enjoy your holiday! I'll be back later this weekend to share some stamping goodness.