Happy Memorial Day 2010

Wow!  What a weekend with the Operation Write Home blog hop!!  It took me two days to complete the hop, I looked at 148 blogs full of wonderful inspiration and left a comment at almost every one, whew.  I feel like I'm on creative overload and need to make some cards!  How about you?  

I want to give you my heartfelt THANKS for all the wonderful comments you left for me at my stop in the hop, the last time I looked there were 99 comments, oh my...  Also a big THANK YOU to the people who decided to become followers, I'm honored to think you'd like to come back and visit with me again.  

I think a really big THANK YOU needs to go out to Sandy at Operation Write Home Stars & Stamps for organizing this blog hop,  it was a huge success!  I put a link in the blog name so you can go thank her personally if you'd like ;). 

And then, if you didn't know anything about the Operation Write Home blog hop here's a link so you can see all the fabulousness for yourself starting at the very beginning!

On to our cards for today,

Sandy created her first set of digi stamps and offered them to us on the OWH Memorial Day weekend blog hop, she also issued a challenge.  The challenge was to use her new digi stamps for cards for the troops.  Here's a link to her blog It's A Colourful World so you can check it out!

I re sized and printed Sandy's cute pup and added the Love You sentiment from her set.  It's colored with Copic markers, who knew it would be so hard to get a good color combination for a golden lab!  I used the fun cobblestone pattern created with a C2 Copic marker and the chisel tip of a blender pen and added a little grass.  I used a Spellbinders square die to cut my finished image out and matted it with Carnival Navy Blue card stock.   I made the background paper using a Stampendous United We Stand word stamp with SU Night of Navy and PTI Pure Poppy inks.  I wanted it to look like a flag, I think it worked!  The stars at the bottom are punched from the navy card stock and I applied SU Crystal Effects carefully after I had them attached to the card with foam tape. 

My kids thought Sandy's digi stamps were pretty cute too!  

My youngest son Michael loves animals (and they love him too!) asked if he could color the dog so I put him to work making a card for our troops.  I had a printed image of the dog that I thought was too big for a card, I was wrong.  

Michael  went to work coloring his chocolate lab and wanted me to show him how to make the cobblestone path and grass.  He was a quick study and picked it right up.  His idea for the card body was to make a flag using the Copic markers, he used the negative part of the card stock I punched the stars out of to make the stars for his card using them as a template to color with.  He asked if I'd cut out his dog for him so he could put it on his card.  I'm really proud of him, he's 8 years old and made his card with little help from me.  

I think it's time to go work on some cards!  Happy Memorial Day!

Operation Write Home Memorial Day Weekend Blog Hop Today!!

Today is the day!!  If you're arriving here from Stamping With Grandmalee you're in the right place!  If you had no idea there's a blog hop going on  you should start at the beginning HERE.

Welcome to the Operation Write Home Memorial Day weekend blog hop!  I'm Jan and I get to work on the Operation Write Home Stars & Stamps blog team.  My job is to take care of Operation Write Home Stars & Stamps blog Midweek Throwdown Challenges.   Which means I'll be choosing the challenges for each Wednesday's Midweek Throwdown at the OWH Stars & Stamps blog, finding a card maker to make a sample for the challenge and writing up the blog post for the challenge.  Then... I get to go to each of your blogs who've linked a card for the challenge and leave comments and lift a copy of your card so I can show it in the slide show at the following Midweek Throwdown challenge!   Now you know just a tiny bit about what goes on behind the scenes at OWH, trust me, there's a lot more!  

The theme for this blog hop is red, white and blue - I miss you!

This was such a fun card to make, the little guy is a digi stamp from Pixie Dust Studio.  He's colored with Copic markers, the stars paper is a digital download by Rene Bross Designs, the Missing You sentiment is from Papertrey Ink and I cut the tabbed border using my Quickutz Silhouette. 

I have a link to the Operation Write Home mail room for you.  They have good information about what kind of cards they're looking for, what size cards they prefer, things you should NOT use on your cards for Operation Write Home and addresses for the shippers when you're ready to send your box of hand made cards.   I'm sure I didn't even scratch the surface so go check them out when you have time.

Today I'd also like to thank all our troops in every branch of service for their bravery, dedication and service to our country!  My Dad was a veteran of WWII serving in Japan in the 1940's.  I enjoy being part of Operation Write Home in his memory.

AND NOW.. FOR THE BLOG CANDY!!!

I'm giving away this 8 drawer box I made that's filled with all kinds of embellishments for your cards and scrapbook pages!

From ribbon and flowers to assorted Dew Drops, hardware and half pearls.  All you need to do to enter for the blog candy is leave a comment on this post.  I will announce the winner Tuesday June 1st in my blog post!

I have a link to the tutorial for a 4 drawer version of this box in one of my previous blog posts HERE.  The cute Marine is a digi stamp from The Stamping Boutique.  Hey! I'm one of their newest design team members!  The paper is from my stash and the drawer pulls are made by Tim Holtz.

Now, on to your next stop at Courney's blog  Back To The Drawing Board - http://www.courtneykelley.typepad.com, enjoy!

School's Out in Parker

Today is the first day of summer vacation for my kids, we have eight short weeks of freedom.  I'm happy to have them home with me, wondering how we're going to keep them occupied and happy there's not going to be daily homework... for them anyway!

My post today has to be quick, I'm working on Welcome packets for our church and need to have them ready very soon.  Here's what they look like finished.

I've also stolen a few moment to complete a tutorial I found at Whimsie Doodles.  She's included a download so we can practice coloring, how cool is that?!

I scanned the sheet after coloring it for you to see all the eye color combination's.  Go check out the Whimsie Doodles blog for a full tutorial. 

...and the last thing on my mind today!!  I found out Sunday that I'm a new design team member for The Stamping Boutique!!  Whooo Hoooo!  My blog candy for the Operation Write Home blog hop features one of their stamps.  

Now, I have to get back to work so I can play!

Pearls, Sketches, Design Teams...

I have some really exciting news to share with you today!!  Have you noticed my side bar... an In Style Stamps design team member badge?!  I'm one of the newest design team members for In Style Stamps!!  I'm totally excited and can't wait to start using their images to design cards and other fun projects very soon!  In Style Stamps also has a challenge blog where there will be monthly challenges, blog candy and a blog hops!   

My card today is a challenge for Pixie Dust Studio and Sweet Sketch Wednesday.  The Pixies are using pearls, after coloring this cute digi stamp I almost forgot.  My half pearls were too big so I used Perfect Pearls on her dress.   This digi is a new release called Pearl Of Wisdom, I couldn't resist!  She's colored with Copic markers and I used designer papers from the Basic Grey Ambrosia 6 x 6 pad. 

Happy Stamping my friends!

Happy Birthday

I was asked to make a card for our Pastor's birthday  big enough for  the congregation sign.   We had a nice after church lunch for him yesterday so it's safe to show his card today!  Happy Birthday Pastor George!

The image is a digi stamp from Fred She Said Designs that I colored with Copic markers and air brushed part of the background.  I hadn't worked with this range of Olive pens yet and really like how this turned out.  The card stock is Papertrey Ink Ripe Avocado and the diamond plate panel is aluminum foil with card stock under it run through the Cuttlebug.

After talking with his wife I discovered he liked to BBQ so here's what I did with the inside of the card:

Another digi stamp, but this one is from Mo's Digital Pencil, he's part of her big guy collection.  He's also colored with Copic markers.  I was able to merge the digi stamp and the verse for the inside of the card in my Microsoft Publisher program.  I'm learning new stuff all the time!   I don't remember where the verse came from, I've modified it somewhat from the original version. 

I'd like to also enter this card in the "For The Boy's" challenges at Dare U 2 Digi Stamp and The Creative Cottage.  

Have a good day, I hope you have time to create something fun!

OWH Stash Challenge - Bring out your stars

This weeks Midweek Throwdown at Operation Write Home Stars & Stripes blog is a stash challenge.  The object is to go through your stash of goodies and bring out your stars to use on your card!  I couldn't think of any stars I had so I made some from the Stars Spellbinders dies I have.  

I had to take a few days to think about the Stars challenge...  I actually made a dozen to help fill my OWH box, it's getting closer to the beginning of the month again!  When I discovered Operation Write Home I set a goal for myself to send one box of cards a month for our troops.  

I found the printed paper at The Cutting Cafe, it's a digital download.  I printed one in red and one in navy blue.  Here's the same card using the navy printed paper.

In my travels around blog land I found a Memorial Day theme challenge at Pals Paper Arts so I'll enter these there too.  They have some gorgeous entries!  I think this is my new favorite color scheme, red, white, blue & kraft.  That's a good thing with the OWH blog hop coming up Memorial Day weekend, the theme is Red, White & Blue I Miss You!  That reminds me you need to check in with The Spotted Chick too she's having a color challenge using kraft!

Edited to add:  I found another challenge over at Crafty Cats , the challenge - stars & stripes - we have those!  ;)

Operation Write Home Stars & Stripes Sketch Challenge #17

I've been holding this one back for a few days to let it grow on me!  I made this card Sunday afternoon for the OWH Sketch #17 and for the Stamptacular Sunday Challenge to use a tree on your card.  

It's a digital image from Dustin Pike at Doodle Dragon Studios, if you haven't checked out his blog and store you really should.  Cute stuff!  I colored it with Copic markers and air brushed the background trying to make beams from the sun in the background.  I'll keep practicing!  I also feel like I've been using a lot of the same colors so I wanted to try something different there too.  The green panel is stamped in Memento Cocoa using a Cornish Heritage Farms Montana Tree Bark background stamp and I ran the Sorbet Ice Blue panel through the Cuttlebug Argyle embossing folder for a little texture.  

I don't mean to complain but I just don't think it has the normal WOW factor I've grown accustomed to.  

Oh ya, it's only paper, I can make another one~

Purse-onally Perfect Purse

Today's project is a thank you gift I made for my daughter's teacher.  Her favorite color is yellow so I've been working on cards with yellow in them to fill it.  They aren't pictured here today because  you've already seen them!  

This little purse was designed by Becky Roberts at Inking Idaho, I purchased the template from her a few months ago.  This is only the second one I've made but I'm sure I will be making lots more for gifts in the future.  Hope she likes it!

Hey - this qualifies for the anything but a card challenge of the new blog team I'm on at Stamps R Us!

With Love Sprinkled On Top

For those of you who have kids, have you ever wondered how they can make such a big mess in so little time?  The only thing I can think of is ... they're related to me...  

This is what my table looked like when I finished the card I have for you today, I even tried to put some stuff away as I went along and had to bring it back out because I wasn't done with it!

I don't have a separate craft room or studio but I was lucky enough when we remodeled our kitchen to add a desk and bank of cabinets to the wall you can see in the photo for craft supplies.   The table was custom built to be 8' x 4' with lots of craft storage under it and I must admit I'm infringing ever so slightly in the kitchen cabinet area.  Ever so slightly!  

I had every intention of working on my air brushing skills today and needed a project.  I checked some of the challenges to get inspired and had a mixture of Tiddly Inks NO designer paper, Tuesday Taggers Birthday Tag in Brown & Cream colors and Tuesday Morning Sketches Your Favorite Color Combo and glitter on my mind.  

Hey, I think my favorite color combo is Brown and Cream today!  I started trying to air brush a Spellbinder's embossing stencil on cream colored card stock.  I've bent the thing so badly it didn't work out, plan B.  I decided I'd try sponging the ink from a stamp pad and it worked pretty well.  

I should probably add I made the card body first.  My friend Julie was over the other day and she brought the cutest card she'd made, it was a tri-fold she'd come up with.  She told me she'd used every technique I"d shown her so far, she had and it was so cute!   I took her tri-fold idea and made a tag shaped card body because that was one of the elements in the Tuesday Taggers challenge.

The image I used is from Tiddly Inks which I re-sized and printed so it would fit in a rectangle Spellbinder's die.  This digi stamp comes on one sheet with other images around it as part of a set.  I'm not very good with Photo Shop Elements yet and enjoy using Microsoft Publisher for digi stamps.  I had some parts of the other images on the right edge of my cut out rectangle.  I remembered what Marianne Walker said in the Copic Certification class I took in April, "the only difference between a professional artist and an amateur is a professional knows how to hide their mistakes."  

I'm not a professional but, to hide my lack of skill using Photo Shop (mistakes) I decided to use my Papertrey Ink ric rak die on the edge of my focal image panel.  

The cupcake fairy is colored with Copic markers and I air brushed around her to take the white off the card stock I used.  I also added Stampin' Up! Dazzling Diamonds glitter to her wings and cupcake.

Can you see the glitter?  It's was everywhere!  

Next I added a punched circle in Papertrey Ink Dark Chocolate and used my eyelet setting tools to make a hole in the middle of it.  It needed balance so I added three Dew Drops after coloring the bottoms using E59 (Walnut) and attached them with SU Crystal Effects.  

As you can see from the photo I used the Spellbinder's embossing stencil on the inside flap too.  I did go back and spray it with the air brush and E53 marker so it matched what I'd done to the focal image a little better.  I added an brown organdy bow to finish the front.  I don't have a Bow Easy so I asked my husband if he'd hold two of my sketch markers so I could tie a bow around them.

All that was left was finishing the inside, I used stamps from Papertrey Ink's Birthday Basics set and a little more rick rack.   

I hope you have some time today to do something fun too!

C.A.S.E.ing The Spotted Chick

I'm back with another card using patterned paper by Basic Grey Granola.  In this case I C.A.S.E.d Jeanie over at The Spotted Chick.  She made the cutest Mother's Day card and her sketch layout really intrigued me so I had to try it. 

This cute image is from Di's Digi Downloads that I colored with Copic markers and instead of air brushing the background I added a Cool Gray outline around almost all of it.  Have you noticed I seem to be into square cards right now?  If it lasts too much longer I'll have to start making my own envelopes, hey...  what a good way to use up some of that patterned paper that's been around such a long time! 

Enjoying More Paper Crafting Challenges

It's Pollycraft Monday and I'm on my second blog post for the day.  That's okay I've been having fun making cards and there's one challenge that ends tonight, I really want to get my entry in before the deadline!   For my card I used the Tuesday Morning Sketch #45 but missed that deadline, it's still a great sketch!  

Anyway the Pollycraft challenge is Summer Blooms.  I chose this cute digi stamp of theirs and colored it with Copic markers, cut a mask and air brushed the background.  This card is kind of out of my comfort zone, I don't feel like I'm good at using patterned papers.  Mostly because I don't have the card stock that matches or sometimes it's the markers.  I used the Basic Grey Urban Prairie paper pack I bought when I was a design team member with Clear Dollar Stamps two years ago.  Stepping out of your comfort zone is the challenge over at Tuesday Taggers and the deadline to enter is later today.  

Then there's a challenge over at The Crazy Challenge that started today and you're supposed to use something new.  Look what Mr. Brown brought me today!

I don't have to use air cans anymore for my air brush - yea! 

I can't believe how nice this air compressor works.  I'm not used to having the same air pressure through out the process, it sure gives a nice even spray.  Quiet too.

Have a happy Monday and I'll talk with you again soon~

Stamps R Us Challenge Team

I joined a neat group of designers over the weekend called Stamps R Us, here's how it works:

Each month the designers will host a new challenge for everyone to complete. Please feel free to use whatever products inspire you!  To enter the challenge, simply post your project on your blog or any online gallery then link back using the Inlinkz widget.  (I copied & pasted this right off their blog).

Sounds like fun to me!  I've posted the Stamps R Us designers blogs in my sidebar so you can check them out anytime.  

The current challenge at Stamps R Us is ANYTHING BUT A CARD, I have a picture of the prize package for you:

I hope you'll play along with us!  I have a project in mind for the challenge, I'll be posting it May 29th during the Operation Write Home blog hop.  Have you signed up?  Here's a link to OWH Stars & Strips blog if you still need to.

Have a great day.  I need to go make some cards!

Happy Armed Forces Day & a OWH Lightning Challenge

I wasn't planning a blog post today but as I was having my coffee this morning I noticed a challenge at Operation Write Home Stars & Stamps blog I had to check out.  The challenge is good till midnight tonight.  Talk about creating a sense of urgency! 

Did you notice where I have my morning coffee?  I have a bunch of blogs on my Google home page so I can check in and see what's happening at my favorite places.  Something else caught my eye, did they say use stars, they did say the colors to use were red, white, blue and kraft at Just Us Girls #33, hmm.  And didn't I see a sketch last night at Just Christmas & Birthday Cards that I can't get out of my mind?  It only took a moment for all of this to come together in my mind.  I had to make the card... 

Am I the only one who has this happen?  I feel this creative frenzy going on inside of me that I have to do something with, I need to get it out of my mind and made out of paper. 

I really enjoyed making this card today!  It will qualify for the Operation Write Home Stars & Stamps Any Hero challenge, the Just Christmas & Birthday Cards sketch challenge and the Just Us Girls Color Challenge #33 - and I wasn't going to do a blog post today!

Have a nice weekend~

Scrappy's Sketch With Flower Power

Today's card completes two challenges for Bug A Boo stamps challenge blog.  Last Saturday's challenge was to make a card using flowers, the challenge was titled Flower Power, then Sunday Scrappy had a sketch challenge.  I find it hard to resist a sketch challenge and I love Bug A Boo's digi stamps so I had to play!

Here's the sketch:

My post has to be a quick one today, there's lots to do - my little girls turns 10 today.  Happy Birthday Jenny!!

Talk with you again soon~

Cute & Cuddly Polly Craft Kittie

How's that for the title of my post today?  This is my entry for this weeks Polly Craft challenge and I also found a challenge at The Crazy Challenge that I couldn't get out of my mind - Cute & Cuddly, so I wrapped it up into one card.

This cute little digi stamp made it's way into my basket the last time I was browsing at the Polly Craft store, I thought she'd be perfect as the cute & cuddly part of my card.   The challenge for Polly Craft is actually a sketch challenge, I added Lynsey's sketch for you to see below: 

After I printed a sheet of kitties it occurred to me that if I re-sized this image I could use the daffodils as the embellishments where the flowers were on the sketch.  Did I ever tell you I really like making my own embellishments?

It was totally fun coloring this image, I had the larger one to try out colors on before I used them for real.  The Kittie is colored with Warm Gray 0, 3 & E 21, the daffodils Yellow 13, 15 & 19, leaves and flower stem YG 11, 13, &17, the terra cotta pot YR 14 & 18 the dirt inside E 29 and the cobblestone path C2 and my blender pen. 

I wanted the Kittie to have texture so I soaked  a scrap of an old wash cloth with blender solution and dabbed it onto the colored Kittie.  Next I cut out a mask to cover the Kittie and under the flower pot and used the air brush with a Blue 45 sketch marker for the background.  After peeling the mask off I colored around the flower pot and under the grass with the C2 marker, then went back and used the chisel tip of my blender pen to make the cobble stone path, next I added the grass and dotted some yellow on the dandelion.  I also colored the big daffodils and cut them out and applied Stampin' Up! Crystal Effects to them and set them aside to dry.

The Kittie image is cut out with a Spellbinders rectangle die and matted in SU Really Rust using the scalloped rectangle die.  I had a really difficult time getting the colors for the card to look right to me, sometimes the simplest looking sketch gives me the biggest challenge!  The green panel looked too plain so I used a Hero Arts swirl background stamp, the black panels have been embossed with the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder and matted with SU Really Rust.  I used two SU Oval punches and the Papertrey Ink Mixed Messages set for the sentiment with two of those wonderful little black half pearls from my stash.  To finish it, I attached the almost dry big daffodils to the corners of my focal image.  I like it - hope you like it!

I've been having fun with the air brush since going to the Copic certification class last month.  I've been using air cans with an air adapter and air grip, (ABS 3) those little cans don't last very long!  Well today...  I ordered an air compressor so I don't have to buy anymore air cans.  It shipped today, I'll be stocking the UPS man soon...

Accordion Purse

I had to try the Christmas Stampin' All Year Long tutorial on how to make an Accordion Purse, it took about 45 minutes!  So quick and fun I made two.  This first one is for my already printed digi stamps that were piling up on my desk.  

...and the second one is for the rest of the digi stamps that didn't fit in the first one!  

Click on the link above and from there you can get to the tutorial by Maria Bell.  She did a fabulous job as usual!  This weeks challenge is to make a Christmas themed purse and card.  As you can see I'm not eligible for the challenge but I learned how to make the cute accordion purses!

Have a great day!

Oh my, I'm having a good day!

Boy, do I have a lot of stuff I'm excited to tell you about today!  Let's start with the card:

I made today's card using Operation Write Home's Sketch Challenge #16 and I wanted to enter the Pixie Dust Studio blog challenge to use Kraft card stock.  So here he is!  This image is a digi stamp from Pixie Dust Studio that I colored with Copic markers and added a little air brushing to the background and white half pearls.  I think I "need" an air compressor so I can keep practicing! 

Speaking of Operation Write Home, have you signed up for their Memorial Weekend blog hop yet?!  Click on their name and you're on your way!  I'm signed up and working on my projects,  I'm also offering BLOG CANDY that day!   Along with the blog hop I'll be celebrating my 3rd year of blogging, so I suppose you could say it's my Blogaversary.   I hope you'll participate in the blog hop it's going to be a lot of fun!

One more thing about OWH to tell you!  Sandy contacted me recently and asked if I'd like to help with the Midweek Throwdown and I accepted her offer!  I'm part of the Operation Write Home blog team now and I'm so excited!  I have a lot to learn, there's a bunch of work that goes on behind the scenes that we aren't even aware of... and I get to help!!

And then... I had a really good day yesterday...  I entered a few challenges last week and discovered that I'd been chosen at Polly Craft as one of their top three favorites.  Wow!   I have a cute new badge for my blog now ;)   Then I went over to check out what was happening at the Tiddly Inks blog and found I'd won a prize from their blog hop, oh my I was having a good day!

I need to go now,  I have a Copic coloring class to prepare for and I'm still in my p.j.'s.  I hope your day is even better than mine was yesterday!  Talk with you soon~

Life's Lessons

It won't be long and my two youngest kids will be 4th and 5th graders, oh my.  Sometimes I wish I could freeze time for a little while.  This card is for my daughter's teacher.

Another super cute image by Tiddly Inks and it  is a digi stamp that I've resized and cut out after coloring with my Copic markers.  The colors are pictured below:

Supplies:  Paper - Papertrey Ink Summer Sunrise, Plum Pudding, Neenah Red Linen & Neenah Solor White.  Stamps - Cornish Heritage Farms School Paper backgrounder, Spellbinder's Nesties Labels 4 & Want2Scrap black half pearls. 

Oh!  I made a light box a few days ago, the Catch The Bug Challenge blog will take you to the tutorial if you'd like to see it.  I think it works pretty well!

Thoughts on being a Mom...

 Digital stamp by Tiddly Inks

 A z fold, I got the idea from the In Style Stamps Method Monday's 4-5-10 blog post.

Copic marker colors used-

Happy Mother's Day!  I've been thinking about my Mom, being a Mom and Mother's Day for several days and thought I'd get a little more personal here than I usually do.

Mother's Day is something I've tried to avoid for the last ten years, I realized a few days ago I need to enjoy and embrace this day because it's about being a Mom and I am one.  

My Mom died ten years ago when I was six months pregnant with my daughter Jenny.  It was a difficult time to get through but I know God's timing is perfect.  If I would have had a new baby I wouldn't have been able to spend those last few weeks at the hospital with my Mom.  I didn't realize she would be gone from my life so quickly and I treasure those last days I had with her.

My daughter was born late in the afternoon on Mother's Day 2000.  I remember my brother thanking me for turning such a horrible day for him into a day to celebrate.  Again I think God's timing is perfect.  But I've allowed Mother's Day to be a reminder to me of how long my Mom has been gone and that she never got to meet the little granddaughter she wanted so much.  Let alone the extra little boy she had no idea about. 

Things need to change...  Jenny will be ten years old in a couple of days, Michael will be nine and Daryl, Mom's only grandchild that she got to know and loved so much will be twenty one soon.

I need to celebrate being a Mom,  I've been one for almost 21 years.  I've been a married Mom, I've been a single Mom, I've been a working Mom, I've been a stay at home Mom, I've been a good Mom, I've been a bad Mom,  most of all I've been a blessed Mom.

The unconditional love I receive from my children means the world to me.  I love being here when my two youngest get home from school and hearing about their day.  I don't love the struggle over homework after they arrive but I love getting the progress reports and going to the awards assemblies to celebrate their hard work and achievements.  I love listening to my daughter practice playing her flute as only a Mom can.

I thank God that He entrusted me with two more children when I was 40 and 41 years old to love and raise.  I feel like I've had a second chance to slow down and enjoy them and to enjoy doing the best  job I've ever had, being a Mom.  Hey, I'm a Mom!

Hey There, Sunshine!

I started to do my blog post and realized I hadn't taken a picture of the card yet, oh duh...  It's a beautiful morning here in Parker, Arizona currently 75 degrees with an expected high temperature of 96 degrees, the sun is shining brightly so I went outside to take my picture.  The theme of today's challenge is "Here comes the sun" challenge #42 by Pollycraft Monday challenge blog.  As I walked back in the house waiting for my eyes to adjust I thought, how appropriate I'm blinded by the sun for a moment! 

I made my card late yesterday afternoon.  The kids were home from school and would take a peek at my progress every once in awhile.  Their eyes got big when I brought out my air brush system for the blue part of my background but they weren't impressed enough to stick around.  Probably a good thing because they'd want to use it next and I'm working with air cans, very small air cans!

I've had this Polly Craft digi stamp for some time now and didn't know who it was created by.  I was browsing their store and spotted her, she's from the Cherry Kisses collection.  I have to admit I "added" a few more to my collection while browsing.

This was such a fun card to make.  I started by making her the size I wanted in my Publisher program and printing her.  I didn't have a clue what colors to use coloring her so I started with her skin and it all kind of came together for me.  Before I colored her jeans I made the block wall she's sitting on using my Copic C2 marker to scribble the color around her needed for the wall.  Then I went back and used the chisel tip of the Blender marker (0) to push the color out of the way to make the bricks.

Here's my inspiration for the block wall, it's in our yard.

After coloring her with Copic markers I cut her out with a Spellbinders Labels 1 die, the biggest one.  It's such a big die I decided on a 5 1/2" square card and cut a card body out of Carnival Navy card stock and a second 5 1/4" square out of Via Vellum Leaf Green.  I had a scrap of the navy so I cut it on the diagonal thinking it might add visual interest to my card.  I thought I had a sun stamp or die and found the Quickutz die in my sadly unused QK folder, I used  Papertrey Ink Summer Sunrise card stock to cut that from.  The Hey there sunshine is a stamp made by Verve Visual stamped on a Spellbinders tag die with a little May Arts dotted organdy ribbon attached.  I air brushed again to "get the white out" of the tag using the die as a stencil.  I had all the pieces and arranged them and re arranged them until I was happy with my layout enough to glue it all down, double sided Scotch and foam tape to be exact.

Copic markers used:  C2, B21, B97, B99, R02, R24, R29, E30, E31, E50, E51, E33, Y13, Y15, Y18, Y32, Y38, YG11, YG13, YG17, oh I wish I would have taken a picture instead...  

Thanks for stopping by, I hope your day is filled with sunshine~

I really like this sketch layout that I used last Wednesday  from Scrappy at Catch The Bug challenge blog. After coloring this cute digi stamp from Pixie Dust Studio I had to try the sketch again, the only things I really changed are a few colors and shapes. I rounded some corners and made the focal point an oval instead of rectangle.

Supplies:  R02, E51, E50, Y13, Y15, Y18, YG11, YG13, YG17, V12, V15, V17, C0, Y35 & Y38, Spellbinder's Nesties Oval & Scalloped Oval die, Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder, Card stock - Neenah Solar White, Papertrey Ink Plum Pudding & Summer Sunrise, Via Vellum Leaf Green, Gingham digi paper, Want2Scrap half pearls, Papertrey Ink Signature Greetings stamp set.

Have a great day!

Operation Write Home Stars & Stripes Color Challenge

I was asked to come up with the Color Challenge for Operation Write Home Stars & Stripes blog for today, how fun!  Karen e mailed me about it Saturday and I jumped at the chance.  I really enjoy doing different challenges and sometimes freak out because I can't think of what to do right away, it usually comes to me though.

I used OWH Sketch #15 by Bev E.  I was stumped for a moment and then got busy sizing my digital stamp from Tidly Inks so it would fit on the side panel.  I thought I'd take advantage of the polka dots on her dress, hair bow and gift by using this digital paper I knew I had.  I'm sorry I looked  for who it's by but couldn't find a name.  That's also where I got the colors for today's challenge, Pink, Turquoise & Yellow-Green.  This little girl's name is Annie, I colored her using the Copic markers pictured below.

 Next I matted her on my turquoise then yellow-green card stock, I also matted my polka dot digi paper with the yellow-green because if you look very closely the pink dots have that yellow-green around them.

My card looked like it needed something.  There's pretty pink ribbon on her gift box so I went looking for some of my own.  The long strip of ribbon is attached to the card panel and tied in the middle with a piece of thread to gather it in.  I used my kids again as my "bow easy" and stuck the bow to the ribbon with foam tape.  Before I attached the panel with Annie on it I carefully stamped the happy birthday under her.  To finish my card I added tiny white half pearls to the buckles of her shoes.   The only stamp used on my card is the sentiment from Papertrey Ink's Delightful Dahlia set.  I'm loving the digital stamps.

I hope you have time today to create something fun!

My Retreat - Raising The Bar

I've been visiting different challenge blogs for inspiration and came across the challenge for today's card at Raise The Bar challenge #16.  The challenge is to make a card inspired by a room in your home that you consider to be your retreat.  I spend most of my time in my studio, oh I mean at the kitchen table...  When I really thought about it, our entire house has the same color scheme except the hallway bathroom.  It's purple, I mean Wow, purple!  It's only paint.   The rest of the color scheme is the fall palette, I think it all started with forest green carpet.   Joni asked us to show an inspiration picture if possible, mine's below.

For my card I used a cute digital stamp by MelJen's and the sketch is #59 from Eat, Sleep, Stamp blog.  I colored the image with Copic markers pictured below, I also air brushed the hearts with R39 to match.

and I had help with all of this today...

Have a great day, I hope you have some stamping time~

In Style

I've been practicing coloring hair again, this little gal is a rubber stamp from In Style Stamps.  My oldest son has copper red hair so I had to try with my Copic markers.  It's a little more orange than his but that's okay it's only paper. 

This is such a large stamp that my card size is an A6.  I cut out the colored image with Spellbinders circle dies and thought the SU Top Note die might be fun with them.  The patterned paper I won while from a great lady during the last Operation Write Home blog hop.  I also tried a new technique I learned in the Copic certification class on her shirt.  I used blender solution on a scrap of terry cloth fabric and dabbed it onto her shirt after I colored it adding texture to make it look more like a sweater.  I also added sparkle to her eyes with a Copic Spica clear glitter marker.  She has a brother I haven't colored yet. 

I hope you have some time to do something you love, see you soon.

Pixie Dust Studio Challenge #20

Pixie Dust Studio challenge blog has an inspiration challenge going on!  The picture spoke to my girlie side with the pink gingham, greens, yellows and neutrals.  I love design and wanted to be an interior designer when I grew up.  That didn't happen (the interior design part) and I'm a lot older, raising kids and enjoying art in a different way.  I'm happy with that ;)

Back to the card...  did I say how fun this was to color and put together?  Challenging too!  Fitting the pink gingham in there was the challenging part. 

I printed this free April digi image from Pixie Dust Studio on my new laser printer and colored it with Copic markers.  Here are the colors I used:  C2, R2, E50, E51, E30, E33, E37, E29, E34, E31 & E29.  I told you in another post that one day I'd get brave and put some grass with my cobble stone path, I think it turned out pretty good!  Next I cut out my colored image with the Spellbinders Nesties Labels 4 die and set it aside. 

Now the hard part, figuring out how to incorporate the pink gingham...   I'd printed the pink gingham digital paper before I started coloring and wanted to use it on my card.  I also noticed an interesting scrap of green ribbon that I'd won as blog candy and thought that it might be a nice match to my paper and markers.  I put it all together several times before I decided it needed a pink card body.  The pink is actually Stampin' Up! Pale Plum.  I still needed to tie the pink, yellow and green together and thought about coloring some silk flowers then remembered my mini flower punch.  Perfect, I can get an exact match with the flowers punched from my card stock.  When I put the card together I used foam tape to pop my image panel and the mini flowers then added a couple of self adhesive half pears to the centers. 

That was fun!  Have a great weekend~