BOO to YOU!



Happy Halloween, everyone!

This is one of my favorite holidays.

Even though I don't do much to celebrate anymore (does working all night count? No? Didn't think so...) I still love it.

 

 

I actually made this card months ago, when I first bought this Halloween Mimi stamp set by Penny Black.  It's so stinkin' cute!  You can tell that I colored it months ago because I used my Copic markers... before they all ran out of ink.  Heh.

 

Each section of the card is popped up on dimensional adhesive so it all really stands out.  I added some highlights with a white Gelly Roll gel pen.

 

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Don't forget:

 

 

Tonight is the last night to enter my

{BLOGIVERSARY GIVEAWAY}!

Leave a comment on {that} post by midnight (MST) tonight for a chance to win.

I'll be entering all of the names into a bowl and will pick randomly.  The winner will be announced within the next few days... so stay tuned!

 

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Supplies:

InLinkz.com
 

{ANYONE FOR ANYA?} Sunday Challenge



The challenge for you this week at {ANYONE FOR ANYA?} is to include an animal in your creation!  Pick your favorite stamps/images from The Greeting Farm or CCDesigns and get creative.

 

I chose to use "CUDDLE ANYA" from The Greeting Farm:

 

 

It might look a bit familiar -- I used the same sketch that we had for last week's challenge.  I love it!  I think it fits perfectly onto the smaller, square cards like this one.

 

I water colored her with Distress Inks and paper-pieced her hat and teddy bear with Kraft card stock.  I love the texture it gave her hat. It looks super soft and teddy bearish. :)

 

I've decided to start using the InLinkz tool to list all of my supplies.  I'm more of a visual person and I love seeing supply pictures on posts so now you can see them on mine!  :)

 

Be sure to stop by {ANYONE FOR ANYA?} to play along!

 

 



Supplies:

InLinkz.com

Rockin' October Guest Designer - Your Next Stamp

Today is my last post as the October guest designer for {YOUR NEXT STAMP}.

This month sure went by quickly!  I've had a lot a fun and I hope you have gained some inspiration or found some cute new stamps you just had to own.  :)

 

This week's challenge is a sketch.

For my card, I used the newly released "SUPER HERO ETHAN" set:

I love his expression.  :)  I stamped him onto watercolor paper and water colored him with Distress Inks.  His mask and super cape are paper-pieced.  All of the paper came from Authentique.  I drew some stars, cut them out and adhered them to the card with tiny black brads.

 

 

It kind of looks like the circle was cut around him, but he was actually cut out completely and glued onto the circle afterwards.  The star on his chest and the lightning bolt belt are covered with Stickles, so he gives off a bit of sparkle. I added white stitching lines around the outsides with a gel pen.  This sentiment is one of three that come in the set!  Awesome.

 

 

 

Be sure to stop by the {YOUR NEXT STAMP} challenge blog to see all of the design team creations and to play along!

 

Challenge Rules:

 

1. Every Thursday we post a new YNS Challenge

2. You have the entire month to play along

3. Link your challenge entry to the YNS Blog post and/or to the SCS challenge thread

4. If you would like to post your challenge card in the SCS gallery please use the code provided for that challenge - YNSC21

5. You do not have to use YNS Stamps but if have some of our stamps we would love to see you ink them up!



Pa-Rum-Pa-Pum-Pum: a holiday card

I wanted to work on my Distress Ink water coloring skills this weekend and I had the perfect stamp to work with.  I recently won this stamp (and two others!) from the Penny Black Inc blog.

 

It's called "JOYFUL NOISE" and he makes the cutest Little Drummer Boy!  He was illustrated by Mo Manning.  Had I not won him, I would have purchased him for sure -- he looks just like my nephew. :)

 

 

It's a large cling-stamp, too!  This card is a standard A2 size (4.5"x5") and he fills almost the entire card.  A perfect image to practice coloring and shading techniques.

 

I grabbed all of the Distress Ink colors I wanted to incorporate into the image and got to work.  He is stamped with Ranger Archival Ink - Jet Black, on thick watercolor paper.

 

 

There's definitely an improvement to be made, in regards to shading, but overall I think it's pretty cute.  I especially love his cold rosy cheeks, nose and ears... you'd get kind of cold playing the drums outside in Winter!

 

Since the image panel is so large, the actual designing of the card didn't take much.  I used designer paper from the FESTIVE collection, by Authentique.  I added some red Distress ink around all of the edges to tie it all together.  The "JOYFUL WISHES" sentiment stamp is from Your Next Stamp's "Joyful Wishes" cling stamp set.

 

 

And, miracle of all card-making miracles... I remembered to finish the inside of the card BEFORE I put away all of the supplies and sewing machine. Hallelujah! :)

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 I'm entering this card into the current {SIMON SAYS STAMP AND SHOW} challenge to be inspired by Wendy Vecchi. I used my beloved Distress Inks.

 

 



{ANYONE FOR ANYA?} Sunday Challenge

This week, we have a SKETCH challenge for you over at

{ANYONE FOR ANYA?} and it's a good one!

We would love to see your take on it.  Just be sure to use a stamp/image from THE GREETING FARM or CCDESIGNS to play along.

 

For my card today, I used one of the three Anya stamps that come in the newest "MISS ANYA SCARVES" set by The Greeting Farm:

 

I absolutely LOVE this Anya!

She might be my favorite...

Shhhh... don't tell the others! :)

 

I stamped her onto watercolor paper and water colored her with Distress Inks.  I paper pieced her scarf with matching paper used on the base.  The papers are from Penny Black's "Madison" paper pack.  The sentiment die and stamp are from My Favorite Things.  I added some flat-back pearls and some dimensional adhesive and the card was finished!

 

 

I added some Stardust Stickles all around her as snow. I shimmered up her hand muff with some sparkles, too.  I inked around the edges with Distress Ink to tie everything together.  I love the look of Frayed Burlap Distress Ink on Kraft paper.

 

This is the sketch for you to work with this week:

 

 

I switched it up a tiny bit to fit my square card a little better, but I think you can still see the sketch in it.  So... have fun with it!  Make it your own and come link up with us. :)

 

 

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I'm entering this card into the following challenges

{SIMON SAYS STAMP AND SHOW} - Your Favorite (stamp)

{OOZAK CHALLENGE BLOG} - Die Cuts

{TGF FARM FRESH FRIDAY} - Faux Pearl



 



Rockin' October Guest Designer - Your Next Stamp

The newest challenge is up and ready for you on the

{YOUR NEXT STAMP} blog.

This week, it's ANYTHING GOES!  Everyone loves that, right?

 

For my card today, I used "ELLIE BUILDING A SNOWMAN" and the Be Jolly sentiment from the newly released "JOYFUL WISHES" stamp set.

 

The designer paper I used is the "Madison" paper pack from Penny Black.  It features red, blue and green snowflakes so I took my coloring cue straight from that.  I stamped the image onto watercolor paper and water colored them with Distress Inks.  I added a few highlights with a white gel pen.

 

 

 I added stardust Stickles on all of the "snow" to make it sparkly. :)

I went around all of the edges with Distress Ink to create an aged look.  I used my favorite EK Success border punch along the bottom of the card base and distressed that as well.

 

The blue ribbon is from The Ribbon Carousel.  The button and twine are from my stash.  I popped everything up on dimension adhesive and it was good to go.  I'm just now realizing that I forgot to give her pink, rosy cheeks!  I'll be adding them on before she heads out the door, for sure! :)

 

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Be sure to stop by the {YOUR NEXT STAMP} challenge blog to play along!

 

Challenge Rules:

 

1. Every Thursday we post a new YNS Challenge

2. You have the entire month to play along

3. Link your challenge entry to the YNS Blog post and/or to the SCS challenge thread

4. If you would like to post your challenge card in the SCS gallery please use the code provided for that challenge - YNSC20

5. You do not have to use YNS Stamps but if have some of our stamps we would love to see you ink them up!

 

 



Woo-Hoo! - an Autumn card

A couple weeks ago I won a Lawn Fawn stamp set from the Lawnscaping challenge blog (thank you!) and I have just now gotten it inky!  Don't you love the feeling of inking up brand-new stamps?  It's probably more thrilling for me than it should be. :)

 

The stamps I used are from the "Critters In The Forest" set.

 

 

I used a new-to-me technique of stamping/coloring the images on the inside of the card and cutting out a frame on the front to see it.  This technique probably has a name... if you know, please tell me.  heh heh

 

 

I stamped the images onto a watercolor paper panel and water colored them with Distress Inks... my favorite coloring technique at the moment.  Helpful Hint:  wait for the black stamping ink to dry a bit before erasing any pencil marks... otherwise you'll get black inky streaks that are pretty hard to disguise.  Just take my word for it. :)

 

 

I finished the front of the card with paper from Penny Black's "Madison" paper pack.  The two-tone shimmer ribbon is from The Ribbon Carousel.  The sentiment comes with the stamp set.  I cut it out in a word bubble shape and inked around the edges of it, and the entire card, with Distress Ink.

 

 

I really liked this new technique!  It's pretty fast, too.

You'll probably be seeing more of it from me. :)

 

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I'm entering this card into the following challenges:

{SIMON SAYS STAMP + SHOW} - Favorite (Distress Inks)

{SIMON SAYS STAMP} - Dies or Punches (Circle die)

{LAWNSCAPING CHALLENGE} - New Technique





{ANYONE FOR ANYA?} Sunday Challenge

 

This week's challenge at {ANYONE FOR ANYA?} is a photo inspiration challenge.  We'd love to see how the photo (below) inspires you.  Be sure to use an image/stamp from THE GREETING FARM or CCDESIGNS to play along.  :)

 

For my DT card, I used "Wild Sprouts - Chelsea" from The Greeting Farm.

 

 

I love her little foot poppin' up as she dances to her music.  :)

 

I stamped her directly onto an A2 size watercolor paper base and paper-pieced her hair and dress with papers from October Afternoon.  I colored her skin with Distress Inks.  I cut strips of paper in rainbow colors to tie the card into this inspiration photo:

 

 

Obviously, I went with the rainbow theme.  :)

 

There's so much you could do with this photo!  I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with this week.  Be sure to stop by the {ANYONE FOR ANYA?} challenge blog to see all of the DT creations and to play along!