Stuck on Orange for a Bit

Hi, hope everyone had a blessed Easter with family

and friends.

I have been playing around with inks and noticed that

I was kind of stuck on orange.

So I will share 3 cards I made recently.

This first one I created the orange background using Distress Oxides inks.

Then using the feather from the Unity Stamp set Feathersoft Love 

I stamped and heat embossed

with white sparkle embossing powder.  Then using the same

Oxide colors, I colored the feather.  

I took a plain piece of white paper and then using waving Gina Marie 

dies I cut off the top and the bottom. 

 I stamped it using the sentiment from

the Unity Kit of the Month Aug 2018 Never Be Afraid.

I hand cut out the feather and popped it onto the white added

some sequin and that's it.

I had bought some Yupo paper a while ago but didn't

really play around with it much.  So I pulled it out and using

some of my Copic refill inks I started dripping colors on and

then moved it around to create the pattern I got.  I was

pretty happy with the turnout.  I cut out the happy birthday several

times out of white using a die and then glue them on top of each other

so they would have some dimension.  I added a die cut flower

that I colored with a matching Copic marker.

And finally, I was cleaning up a bit and ran across this digital

stamped image of these poppies and decided

to color it and make a card from it.  I used my Copic markers

and Prisma pencils, to color it. 

 The happy birthday is a stamp.

Thank you so much for stopping by, I would love to hear what

you think of my orange streak. 

Unicorns & Rainbows

Boy am I behind on posting.  I made this card for my 

great-granddaughters 8th birthday and did not

get it posted yet.

She loves rainbows & unicorns, in fact she had the underside

of her hair dyed "unicorn" style.  It was really cute

but worn off quickly.

The unicorn and the rainbow stamp is from a set from

Simon Says Stamps called "Magical Birthday".

They had sent it to me for my birthday several years ago. 

I created the background paper using my Distress Oxide inks.  I colored

the unicorn and rainbow using my Copic markers then added some

sparkle to them, but you can't see it in the photo.  I die cut the clouds and sun using Gina Marie dies.  The oval is also a Gina Marie

die.

This week over at Retro Rubber the challenge is to use a

rainbow or rainbow colors, so I will enter this in 

that challenge. 

Thanks for stopping by, hope you have a fabulous day.

Challenges entered:

Crafty Sentiments - For girls only 

Lemon Shortbread - anything goes

Through the Craftroom Door - anything goes

Happy Birthday Cutie

Hi, sorry I have been so absent in posting lately.  I think

I lost my mojo a bit.  Hopefully, I will get'back on track soon.

Today I have a card to share with you using a 

          SherriBaldy - Bestie stamp.  I had belonged to her monthly club for a

little bit so a have quite a few sets.  

I have had these stamps for several years and I have never

stamped and colored one  (hanging my head in shame😧),

so I finally did one as this one reminds me of my

great-granddaughter.

She is so much brighter and vibrant in person.  

I colored her using my Copic markers and details with Prisma

Pencils.  I framed her with a Gina Marie die.

The striped background paper is from DCWV Nana's Kids

stack.  It worked out perfect because this week over at 

the Retro Rubber Challenge is "Mad about Stripes".

Well, thanks for taking the time to stop by.  I will try and

get things posted more often.

Midnight Dahlia

Hi, today I have something to share with you that is

not a card.

Every month at Vanilla Arts, Amy Shulke does a live stream 

to teach coloring and she is am an amazing teacher.  I love

her style of teaching.

It is always a Power Poppy image so this month

the image was Midnight Dahlia.

I so could not color this without Amy's help.  I am pretty happy with

how it turned out, except for my stars in the background😏.

The background is made on Cryogen paper using distress inks,

Faded Jeans, Peacock Feathers, Dusty Concord.

It measures about 6 1/4 so I am not sure what I will

do with it.

Well, thanks for stopping by. 

Hot Air Balloon - Dreams

Hi today I have a card to share with you using a 

Close to My Heart stamp and pack of paper.

Over at the Outlawz they have a challenge every Sunday

that is called Songs & Rhymes, this week the song is

"Up Up & Away".

I knew right away what I wanted to do, I had had this

hot air balloon stamp and paper pack called Balloon Ride

for several years and it was perfect for this theme.

I stamped the image and then colored it with my Copic

markers trying to match the colors in the paper.  I cut it out using a

Gina Marie Die.  This card also follows the sketch this week

at the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge.

I kind of flipped the sketch a bit to make it work with my image.

The sentiment is a Unity stamp and thought it went well

with the image.

Thanks for stopping by hope you are having a great weekend.

Tulips for Your Birthday

This was a fun card to color and design.

Over at The Outlawz message board, they have a freebie

every month for you to use and if you post a card using if you

will automatically get the image for the following month.

This is my first month playing along and our fabulous image

is from SheepSki Designs.

I colored this using my Copic markers and then did a little

detailing using PrismaColor pencils.  Something I have

learned from taking the monthly Livestream class from

Amy over at Vanilla Arts.  She is a fantastic teacher, I love her

approach to things. 

I knew right away when I saw this tulip border image

that I wanted to cut it out using the fancy frame die from Gina Marie dies.

I stamped the happy birthday using a Stampin Up stamp from the

Rose Wonder stamp set, added a few sequins and that is it.

Thanks for stopping by I hope you enjoyed my card.

Challenges entered

Aud Sentiments - Flower + Sentiment - ends 7/16

Crafting with Attitude - anything goes - ends 7/29

Cute Card Thursday - anything goes - ends 7/17

Little Miss Muffet - anything goes - ends 7/24

Sieze the Birthday - birthday option +sequin - ends 7/17

A Teddy Bear and His Poppy

Hi, I have a quick post for you today

as I am trying to sneak in at the last minute for

the challenge this week at CASology

Their challenges are always clean and simple style

with an added element.  This week that element 

was BEAR, so I hauled out my Wild Rose

stamps and stamped this cute little guy.

Isn't he cute?  I wanted to try and add some texture to

him to look like fur but it didn't go well, so I had to color it all

over again.  I have had this stamp for years but rarely use it

even though it is one of my favorites.

Well thanks for stopping by hope you had a wonderful weekend.

Paper Piecing Daises

Hello, hope everyone had a great weekend.

Today I have a card to share with you using paper piecing.

I love to do it but often forget about it, so when the

Thursday challenge over at The Outlawz was

anything goes with a twist - paper piecing. 

For my card, I chose to use one of the Unity stamps

from the "Free Your Dreams" set for the daisies and the

sentiment came from the "Be My Bird" set. 

I use some small polka paper for the flowers and

colored the stems with Copics.  I love the way it turned out.

Thank you for stopping by. 

Hello, today I have a couple cards to share with you 

that came from 2 different sheets of 

K & Company paper from the Floral Dreams stack.  This is one

of my favorite K&Company stacks. 

Here is the first of the two cards.

 I made this card following a sketch, so when I cut the two pieces

of background paper on an angle, I thought well I may as

well, make another card right way with the other 2 pieces.

This one I used a couple Gina K stamps, for the flowers and the sentiment.

I colored the flowers with my Copic markers and die cut them out

using a Spellbinder die.

And here is the second one using those leftover papers.

I stamped the flower using a Stampin Up stamp and

then colored it using my Zig Clean Color pens.  The flower and the

circle sentiment was cut using a Gina Marie die.

I really like the way both of these turned out.  I am thinking this may be a great

idea to mass produce some Christmas cards this year.  I think I may

have to make a couple soon so I don't forget.

Thanks for stopping to take a peak.

Pocket full of Posies - Bugaboo

Oh geez, am I running behind, but I have

a good reason.  We had been out of town for my son's

                       wedding, now I have to get cracking of getting some

                                                  of my projects done.

It was time for the Bugaboo Crafty Challenge on the

15th of February so here is my project.

I chose this cute image from Bugaboo called

Flower Pocket.  I colored the flowers using my Copic markers

and they are much more vibrant in person.  I cut the image

out using one of my Gina Marie dies, then cut a mat

layer with my Cricut Explore.

Yellow and purple are one of my favorite color combinations, so I

just went with plain colored paper and embossed each side.

I will put a sentiment on it when I decide how I would use it, I thought it would make a great get well card or thinking of you.

So that is it for my card.

And for all those wondering the wedding was awesome. 

I have never seen a couple so happy and so very much in love, it just lit 

up the whole room.

Head on over to the Crafting Circle and join in the fun.

Layered Birthday cake

Hi, I am really excited to share this card with you today.

Sometimes I play along at PowerPoppy's blog (they always have many different challenges going on) and the 

Hues to Use challenge, well I was so thrilled when I got an email

from Julie at Power Poppy asking me if I wanted to be a guest

designer for this week's Hues to Use.  Of course, I said yes!

So here are the colors I was to use for the challenge.

Magenta, White & Gray.

I chose to use the Layer Cake that Marcella drew.  Marcella is a fabulous artist, you will have to go take a look around her shop PowerPoppy.  She has some
fanstatic flower images then she generally draws from flowers in her own garden.

I was worried a bit about getting the gray in there bu, in the end,d I think I pulled it off.
And THEN something else happened (I think me being a guest designer was meant to be), I get monthly emails from Amy Shulke at Vanilla Arts witha free image and the "recipe" for coloring it.  Amy also has monthly instructional Livestream for a small fee, well wouldn't you know it this months video was on coloring this exact PowerPoppy Layer cake image.
YIPPIE!!!!!! I signed up immediately and boy am I ever glad I did.
Her Livestream instructions are the best I have ever seen.  Her approach to coloring is great and helped me tremendously because she
doesn't concentrate on "light source" which I have always had a hard time with.
However, following her instructions you can see how much dimension you
can add and this was my FIRST class of hers.
Thr background was done using Distress Inks and the image was colored
primarily Copic markers.  Then she uses Prisma pencils and
Staedtler triplus fineline pens to add in details.  Just the small details she teaches you makes all the difference in the world.
So working together with a Power Poppy image and Amy's instructional videos
it was a win win for me and I am sure it would
be for you also, so check out PowerPoppy images and then head on over
and see what is going on at Vanilla Arts.

Oops, sorry got sidetracked a bit.  I made the card by cutting out a
rectangle in the center of the front panel because I wanted to
mount the image behind the cut-out.  Then using a Gina Marie die
I cut the magenta loopy rectangle, then had to cut the center part out.
I embossed the white panel using a Cuttlebug folder and added a few sequins.
The sentiment is also from PowerPoppy that I printed and cut out using
my Cricut Explore.
Thanks for stopping by and taking a look around and reading
through my long-winded post.

Sparkly Bettie Bow

Hi, it is that time of the month again over at the 

Crafting Circle for this month's Crafty Awesomeness Challenge.

This month our challenge is Digistamps4Joy and I have to tell

you I had never heard of them till they came to be our sponsor.

There is pages and pages of images to chose from, make sure you

go check them out.

So here is my project using the Bettie Bow image, she is

just so sweet.

I wanted to do something a bit sassy so I chose some bold

colors.  I love the combination of red & turquoise.   I knew I wanted

red and something, I tossed around yellow or blue in my head but I

am glad I decided on this combination.

I colored her using my Copic markers and then add some sparkle

to the bows with my SpectrumNoir Sparkle pen, unfortunately,

 it does not show up in the picture.  I stamped a Penny Black sentiment

using Catherine Poolers ink called "All that Jazz" and then heat embossed it with sparkle embossing powder on the circle die cuts.  I then cut out the image using a wonky stitched die and mounted it on to red & turquoise paper which

I distressed the edges.  The base of the card are papers from an

old DCWV pack. 

Thank you for stopping by and visiting my blog, make sure you go

and play along with the 

Crafty Awesomeness Challenge.

Happy Birthday Mom

Hi, I am back to share another card I made using

a PowerPoppy image.  It is actually for their

January Power & Sparkle challenge.

For this month's challenge, PowerPoppy teamed up

with CardMaps so you had to use one of the sketches

over at CardMaps. 

Here is the sketch I chose to use for my card.

 As many of you know I love following a sketch so this was the

perfect challenge for me, PLUS there is a $50 gift card to 

the PowerPoppy store up for grabs. 

Here is my card.

My Mom's birthday is coming up next month so I thought I would

make a card for her.  I colored the Pansies digital image using

my Copic markers.    I also created this card using the colors

this week over at the PowerPoppy blog for the 

Hues to Use challenge.  This week the colors were really challenging

so I thought the best way to use them is on flowers. 

So I was lucky enough to combine the 2 challenges.  There is always

something going on at the PowerPoppy blog so be sure and check it out. 

Well thanks for stopping to take a peek, hope you have a 

great day.

Fall Candles

Hi back to share a different kind of project for me, it is

not a card...................

I had done this many many years ago when I first started on my stamping journey, probably around 1996 and had forgotten about

it till I recently seen someone make one.  

So the challenge right now over at the Unity Stamp Facebook

Show & Tell group is to create something other than a card and thought

well, this is the perfect time to make some of these again.

I stamped on tissue paper using a couple of the stamps that were in

the August 2017 Unity Stamp KOTM.  I then colored the images

using my Copic markers and trimmed the tissue paper so there was not a whole bunch of extra around the image but not as close as fussy cutting.  You have to be a little gentle as to not tear the delicate tissue paper. 

 I had bought a two pack of plain white wax pillar candles. Using my Ranger heat tool I gently heated an area of the candle them placed the colored

image over it, it will not all stick down yet I just do this so it stays

in place till I move to the next step.  Then once it is right where I

want it to go, I continue to heat over the image moving around the heating tool because you do not want to over melt the candle.  Just keep heating

and moving around the heating tool till the tissue paper edges seem

to disappear into the candle.   Then I placed my second leaf and repeated

the process and that is it.  It is actually pretty easy.  I suppose

you could use a hairdryer if you don't have a heat tool.

I added some twine and buttons to the bottom to dress them up a bit.

I will take these to my daughters for Thanksgiving so she can

use them as decorations, or burn them if she wishes to.

          They would make great gifts for the holidays and so easy to make,

 the possibilities are endless.   In fact, it will be

on my gift giving list this year. 

               Unity Stamps is having a huge sale right now so if you have

had your eye on now is the time to pick up those stamps. 

Snowman Couple

Hi, it is that time of the month again (oh no not that time lol)

for the Bugaboo Crafty Challenge over at the 

Crafting Circle.

Each month starting on the 15th we have a challenge that is 

sponsored by Bugaboo where you just need to color up a

Bugaboo image and enter it in the challenge. 

Don't have any Bugaboo images, no problem Bugaboo offers

                         a freebie every Friday and if you look around I am 

                                sure you will find some images you like. 

So for my card this month I chose to use this adorable little

Snowman Couple.

 Aren't they just the cutest?  Well there is a reason I chose this image

beside their cuteness is, recently my son got engaged and I thought this

would make the perfect Christmas card to send them for their

1st Christmas as an engaged couple. 

I struggled so much on how I wanted to do this card, first I was going to

put them in a snowglobe and make a shaker card, but decided not too

because I didn't want them to be covered with things.

I was trying to keep it rather simple.   I randomly stamped on white paper

with a couple of snowflake stamps from the October 

Unity Kit of the Month and also some Hero Arts stamps

then I heat embossed them with white glossy

embossing powder.  

I colored the snow couple using my Copic markers and accented with some

glitter pens on the ornaments.  Her hat I added white fluff to

the band and the ball on the top, a couple details that are hard

to see in the picture.  Then I cut the image out using a

Gina Marie die that actually embosses the edges.

I then created a label in Cricut Design Space and wrote

out the Merry Christmas using my Explore and a black

Pilot Precision V5 pen.  Then fit right in your Explore

and I love the fine line they write with.

I pop dotted both the image and the label to give it some dimension.

Well thanks so much for taking the time to stop by and visit my

blog.  Head on over the Bugaboo Crafty Challenge and join in

the fun. 

Fall Wheelbarrow

Sure wish Fall would show up here is Arizona.

The temperatures around here are just awful for this time

of year, we are breaking records.  Next week is suppose to 

get up to 98 degrees, HELLO Mother Nature hasn't anybody

told you yet that is is suppose to be cooling down. 

So I had printed up this image from Power Poppy's 

Fall Haul digital stamp set and thought maybe coloring it would make

it feel like or at least remind me that it is Fall.

My daughter was born on Thanksgiving day so I thought this

might make a good birthday card for her.

I love how it came out, I have to admit I followed the very good instructions

for coloring this image from Julie Koerber from the Bloomin Brigade DT.

I had to adjust the colors a bit since I was coloring on kraft and Julie was

coloring on white.  This is my first time coloring on kraft with my

Copics, I liked it but there are some adjustments.

The sentiment is from the same Fall Haul digital stamp set

and I had printed it out side by side so I made this card the size

that will fit into a #10 business size envelope. 

I mounted it on a couple layers to bring out some of the colors and popped

the top layer for dimension.

Well that is it, thanks for stopping by.

Challenges entered:

Power Poppy - Hues to Use (Sept open-ended)

Crafting with Attitude - anything goes - ends 10/29

Creative Knockouts - Fall - ends 10/26

Moving Along with the Times - Autumn Fall - ends 10/25

Hot & Spicy - Color Challenge

What a fun challenge this is.  Over at Less is More color challenge

this time the colors are "hot & spicy".  As soon as I saw this I knew exactly what

stamp I wanted to use. 

We recently took a trip over to Hatch New Mexico to pick up some chile

peppers (they are the best from there), once you see those strings of

red chile you know that Fall is here.

First off this challenge is all about simple or less is more as the

name states so I kept these cards as simple as possible. 

The string of chiles is a stamp from Mark's Finest Stamps, I bought this several years ago with the intention to use it on a Christmas card.  Living in Arizona I thought it worked well.

I colored the chiles with my Zig Clean Color brush markers, I tried

to leave some yellow showing but got a little too heavy handed with the red but it still looks good.  The Merry Christmas is a Hero Arts stamp

that I stamped in black and then heat embossed clear.

The second one I wanted to try and add a little more sparkle or elegance

to it, so I stamped it and heat embossed it in gold. I colored this

one using several Copic markers.

I fussy cut out the peppers but am going to work on trying to

scan in the image and cut it out with my Cricut Explore or Silhouette Cameo.

I would like to mass produce these so it would be very helpful if I can

get that figured out.

So what do you think, is that Hot & Spicy enough for you.

Leave me a comment and let me know which you like better.

I am so sad to say that when I went to link up Mark's Finest Stamps I

discovered that they have closed, such a shame but glad I

have the stamps I do have.

Challenges entered:

Less is More - hot & spicy colors - ends 10/13

Aurora Winds - clean & simple - ends 10/14

Color Inspiration - hand-colored image - ends 10/31

Scrapbook Stamp Society - anything goes optional Autumn - ends 10/22

A Start on my Christmas Cards

Well it is that time of year to start trying to figure out what

I will do for my Christmas cards.  I usually try and pick one

style and then make that is bulk (I send out about 40 cards) and

then always have some odds and ends that I have made.

So when it was time to do my Bugaboo image for this month's

challenge at the Bugaboo Crafty Challenge I decided to go

with a Christmas image, Winter Circle 

In fact, I made 2 cards using this image.

For this one, I went with more traditional Christmas colors.

The second one using the same image I went with Wintery colors.

I really like this image and it is fairly easy and quick to color.

On both cards I used a scallop die to cut the matting, I wanted it to be

a little bigger mat than usual. 

And that's it, fast cards.  This might just turn out to be my

mass produced card.

Thanks for stopping by and be sure and check out the 

Bugaboo Crafty Challenge at the Crafting Circle.

The challenge runs from the 15th of the month till the 14th of the next month. 

Go OWL Out

Hi, time for the new Crafty Awesomeness Challenge over at

the Crafting Circle. 

This month our sponsor is Rick St Dennis whose images are

a bit different than most out there.

This month I chose these owls because I knew I had the

perfect sentiment stamps to go with it.

LOL, funny huh?  I colored the lil owls using my Copic markers then cut

them out with a Gina Marie cross stitched die.  The sentiement is from

a stamp set I bought many years ago that is Pink by Design stamps.

The web site still comes up but don't think they do business anymore since

nothing has been posted since 2013.  Such a shame because there were so

many pun stamps.

Don't these two owls already look like the went "owl out".

I actually made this following a sketch from Sweet Sketch Wednesday but didn't get to enter it since the challenge ended on the 29th. I made the triangle piece using

my Cricut Explore and Design Space.

The ribbon banner I cut using another Gina Marie die and then stamped the

sentiment on it.  The corner is a die from

My Little Paper World. 

So come on over and join in the 

Crafty Awesomeness Challenge.

Birthday Shaker Card

Hi, back to share my DT project for June over at the

Crafting Circle, Crafty Awesomeness challenge.

This month we were challenged to make a shaker card using

some dies from Gina Marie.   Although I don't make then very often I

do like making shaker cards.

For my card, I stamped the cupcake image from Inky Antics, then

colored it using my Copic markers.  The sentiment is from the same

stamp set.  I used my scalloped edge oval die from GinaMarie and

then using another oval die I cut the center out so I would have

a die cut frame. I cut several layers from chipboard with the

oval whole cut from the center to build up for my shaker card.  

I added various sequin for my "shaker" parts.

I also used a GinaMarie die for the pink bow. 

So come on head on over and join in the challenge at

the Crafting Circle, I believe there will be a prize.

Challenges entered:

4 Crafty Chicks - Birthday ends 6/6

CCEE Stampers - anything with a hole - ends 6/7

Crafting with Attitude - anything goes - ends 6/25

Crafty Girls Creations - anything goes - ends 6/30

Seize the Birthday - birthday something sweet - ends 6/6