What is up with the weather?

So, after the deep freeze we had we are now having quite mild temperatures.  It's 13 degrees today.  That's celcius.  It's raining!  And holy moly is it windy.  Any snow we had left is dwindling away.  I have a huge puddle in my backyard which usually only happens in the spring.  Look:

Crazy!  Then tomorrow we go back to more seasonal temps like -7.  Weather this warm is just a tease and makes me long for Spring.  Hopefully, the power doesn't go out.  It's flickered a few times already.

On a different note I thought I would share with you an ATC (artist trading card) I made for an exchange I'm participating in.  I'm new to ATCs and it has been a bit of a struggle.  The small size for one.  You think that with all the ornament spoon painting (see here) I've done it wouldn't be a problem but for some reason it was.  However, I think I just needed to play around a bit and I'm having fun now.  I think it turned out pretty good.  :-)

So, I've done some paper piecing with the flower after I coloured it.with my Spectrum Noir markers.  First it stamped the clouds and then the flower.  Paper pieced then added a butterfly embelly.  Layered it on some green grid paper and kraft card stock.

Anyway, I hope you are all having some warmer (but dryer) weather too.  Here's to hoping Spring will come early this year!  :-)  Have a fabulous day!

Supplies:  Card stock: (kraft, white) Recollections, Patterned Paper: (green grid from Dear Lizzy Neopolitan Collection) American Crafts, Wood Stamps: (K5431 tall flower, K5400 vertical clouds) Hero Arts, Embellishment: (butterfly) Jolees Boutique, Markers: Spectrum Noir (see picture below for colours used).

"Ted" Card Challenge

A new card challenge at Red Carpet Studio begins today!  The theme is "Ted", make a card with a Teddy Bear in it.  So, break out those cute bear images and create!  The sponsor for this weeks challenge is Squigglefly.  The prize is 3 digital images of the winner's choice (including sets).

They've got some cute images like the one I used in my card below. (Balloon Bear)

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This bear image is so darn cute!  Loved it first time I saw it.  Here's how I made it.  I printed off several of the balloon bear images and coloured in 4 of the balloons with my Spectrum Noir markers. I coloured in one of the bears.  I fussy cut everything out and attached some thread to the back of the balloons and then the bear.  This was a bit fiddly but worth it.  I stamped the cloud with a light blue/grey chalk ink and attached the balloons and bear with foam tape.  Except one balloon is flat instead of raised.  Attached panel to dark purple panel then attached to card base.  Really like how this turned out.

I hope you all can join in the fun!  Have a fabulous day!

I'm also going to enter this into the current CAS-ual Fridays Challenge "Make Your Mark".

Supplies:  Card stock:  (white) Recollections, (purple) Bazill Basics, Digi stamp: (balloon bear) Squigglefly, Wood stamp:  (vertical clouds) Hero Arts, Markers: Spectrum Noir, Ink:  (grey/blue chalk) Studio G.

All A Flutter

Well, today I have a card that I made for two different challenges.  One is for CAS-ual Fridays "make your mark" challenge.  You have to use markers on your card.  The other is CAS(E) This Sketch challenge.  Here's the sketch:

So here's my card.

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As you can see I've coloured in the butterfly with my Spectrum Noir markers.  I really like how it turned out.  After fussy cutting it out I attached some wire for the antennae.  The chevron paper is from the box of goodies I won at the PaperCrafts Connection blog.  Did I ever get a lot of good stuff! A bunch of embellishments, stickers, paper and even a stamp.  All from the Dear Lizzy Neopolitan collection.  It was like Christmas!

Anyway, that's it for me today.  Hope you all have a fabulous day!

Supplies:  Card stock: (white) Recollections, Patterned paper: (chevron from Dear Lizzy Neopolitan 

collection) American Crafts, Digi Stamp: (All A Flutter 3) Floppy Latte's Digital Designs, Wood 

Stamp: (sentiment) Stampin' Up!, Ink: (black) Stampin' Up!, Markers: Spectrum Noir (see picture below for colours).

Love is in the Air Blog Hop

Welcome to Day 1 of the Love is in the Air Blog Hop, brought to you by the card design team from Red Carpet Studio!

This weekend the Red Carpet Studio design team would like to share with you love-themed projects to inspire you during this Valentine's Day season. Throughout the hop you'll see a variety of projects and we hope one or more of these wonderful creations inspire you to create. :-)

If you've come from Candice's blog, you're in the right place. If you'd like to start at the beginning of the hop, please visit Red Carpet Studio.

For today's hop I made...

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This little bunny stamp is my husbands favourite.  He finds him funny.  I think he's cute.  (Both the bunny and my husband.  LOL)  Here's how I made it.  I die cut the hearts, stamping the bunny on the white one.  I coloured in the bunny with my Spectrum Noir markers then attached the hearts to a white panel.  Layered that on the red patterned paper and attached to white card base.  I stamped the sentiment, added the button with some twine and then the rhinestones.  The sentiment is part of a bigger stamp but I just inked up the words.  

Supplies: Card Stock:  (white) Recollections, Patterned paper:  (pink heart from Dear Lizzy Neopolitan collection) American Crafts, (red) Stampin' Up!, wood stamps:  (sentiment) Craft Smart, (bunny) Stamp Craft, button came from Michaels, rhinestones from the Dollerama, and the twine was given to me in a card exchange.  Heart die cuts done with The Slice digital die cutter using Basics 1 design card.

We also have some fabulous sponsors giving away prizes to those who comment on every stop of both days the hop!

The Cutting Cafe

3 digital stamp sets of the winner's choice

SK Digis

$6 gift certificate

"Whooo's Your Valentine?" Kit from Close to My Heart

Sponsored by CTMH Consultant Janet Royer

LoveBug Creations

12 yard ribbon set - Winner's choice of Red Hot Lover or The Yummy Collection

Please make sure to comment both days on every stop of the hop AND leave your contact information to be eligible to win. Winners will be announced on Tuesday January 29th at Red Carpet Studio along with the winners of our "Sparkle" layout challenge.

This is the end of the hop for today.

Thanks for hopping along with us!

And here's the entire lineup:

Red Carpet Studio - http://redcarpetstudiochallenge.blogspot.com

Dawn - http://dawnsworldnz.blogspot.com/

Tara - http://craftindesertdivas.blogspot.com/

Sandra - http://crea-sandra.blogspot.com/

Tonya G - http://scrappingfunwithtonya.blogspot.com/

Anneliese - http://queen-of-the-crop.blogspot.com/

Candice - http://candiedcards.typepad.com/

Kim - http://www.artkeepsmesane.blogspot.ca/

Happy Hopping! 

Don't forget to come back tomorrow for Day 2!

Disappointed But Not Discouraged Part 2

Okay, this is another card I made that didn't get picked up by PaperCrafts Mag.  The theme was Sunshine.  Had to make a encouragement type card.  I really like how this turned out but it was really time consuming since I didn't have a die or anything to do the work for the sun part.  Here it is:

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1. Cut card base.  2. Cut black mat and adhere to card base.  3. Cut sun and rays from 3 shades of yellow card stock.  4. Stamp dot flourish on sun rays and adhere to card.  5. Stamp sentiment on sun circle and adhere.  6. Die cut two flowers from pink and green paper, cut flower part from green and replace with pink, attach to card.  7. Die cut two butterflies from black and orange paper, adhere small orange pieces into black butterfly.  8. Adhere flocking powder to butterfly.  9. Attach wire to butterfly and adhere to card with foam tape.

I love the flocking on the butterfly.  Need to get more of this powder.  I think that'll be it for me for now.  Have a fabulous day!

Card stock:  (black and yellows) Recollections, Patterned Paper:  (pink from Blush collection) Basic Grey, (green designer series) Stampin' Up!, (orange) Color Bok, Clear Stamps: (flourish from Dot Flourish set) Inkadinkado, Wood Stamp: (sentiment from Sweet little Sentiments set) Stampin' Up!, Pigment Ink: (watermark) Tsukineko, (black StazOn) Tsukineko, Accents: (black flocking powder) Recollections, Tools: (The Slice digital die cutting machine) Making Memories, (Vintage Findings design card) Making Memories, Other: (wire).

Disappointed But Not Discouraged

So, I submitted 3 cards to Paper Crafts Magazine when they had their last submissions call.  They sent out the acceptance emails Friday.  I did not receive one.  :-(. I am disappointed as I thought I had  made some neat cards but I'm not discouraged!  It's only the beginning of the year and if I keep trying I know that someday one of my cards will get published.  :-). Anyway, I thought that over the next few days I would share the cards with you all that I made since I can now.  The first one was for their "Just add water" theme.  You had to use a water based product or actual water somehow on the card.  Well, let me tell you I thought about this for days before I came up with this idea.  Yes, I actually put real water in my card.  Take a look.

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Here's how I did it:

1. Make card base, set aside.  2. Vacuum seal bag on three sides.  3. Mix water, food coloring and glitter, pour into bag and seal opening.  4. Adhere bag to bottom end of card base.  5. Draw and cut puddle shape from card stock.  6. Cut and colour raindrops from card stock, cover with glossy accents, let dry.  7. Cut clouds from card stock and adhere white glitter.  8. Attach clouds and raindrops to panel with puddle with foam tape.  9. Stamp sentiment.  10. Adhere panel to card base.

Who knew you could use a FoodSaver vacuum sealer in cardmaking?  :-). Anyway, that's it for today.  Remember, "just keep swimming"!  Have a fabulous day!

Supplies:  Card stock:  (white) Recollections, Clear stamp:  (sentiment from Road Trip set) Inkadinkado, Solvent Ink: (black StazOn) Tsukineko, Colouring Medium: (IB3 blue marker) Spectrum Noir, Accents: (dazzling diamonds glitter) Stampin' Up!, (white glitter) Elmer's, (glossy accents) Ranger, Tools:  (craft knife) Making Memories, (vacuum sealer machine) FoodSaver, Other:  (bag for water) FoodSaver, (blue food colouring) Wilton.

Little Boy Blue

Two posts in one day!  Amazing!  Managed to sneak in some card making last night and created a card for CAS-ology's challenge #27.  Their cue card word was BLUE.  I needed to make a card for my best friends son.  It'll be his 4th birthday. Why not kill two birds with one stone?

Really enjoying the CAS style even though I do find it quite challenging to accomplish.  Sometimes I get it, sometimes.....not so much.  LOL.  I think this one turned out pretty good.  It's a pretty straightforward card.  I stamped the whale then layered it on the blue and brown papers.  Then I attached it to the card.  I die cut the 4 and used 3D dots to adhere it.  Then stamped the happy birthday.  This layout could be done in different colours, animals and milestones.

Well, I'm hoping to get some more card making done today so I'm going to sign off for now.  Have a fabulous day!

Supplies:  Paper: (dark brown) Bazill Basics, (blue from LilyKate collection) Basic Grey, (cream, kraft) Recollections, Stamps: (Whale from Animal Stories Set, Sentiment from Plane & Simple set) Stampin' Up!, Ink: (Brocade Blue) Stampin' Up!, Die Cut:  (number 4) The Slice digital die cutter, Basics 3 design card.

10 Minute Dash Card

So, I decided to try my hand at a 10 minute card again and join in the fun at Pretty Pink Posh's 10 Minute Dash Challenge  # 10.  You had to use the colours rose, grey and sage.  Let me tell you this is no easy task.  I have a tendency to take my time creating a card.  I may have a design in my head but it rarely turns out exactly how I envision it.  Usually, things change as I'm working which eats up time.  So, after a few attempts I finally managed to come up with a card that I not only liked but created in 9 mins and 23 seconds!  Yay me!  LOL.
Here it is!

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I stamped and coloured in my gift bag image then layered it on the green patterned paper.  Took my roller stamp and rolled it across the card base.  I used 3D dots to attach the image to the card. Voila!  Most of my 10 minutes were taken up colouring in the image.

Well, that's it for this post.  Hope you have a fabulous day!

Supplies:  Paper (cream) Recollections, (green patterned from LilyKate collection) Basic Grey, Stamps: (gift bag from Birthday Bakery set) Stampin' Up!, (flourish roller stamp) Stampin' Up!, Ink: (Dove Grey) StazOn, (black) Memento, Other: (pencil crayons) Prismacolor.

Eat Cake!

So, I managed to get my son to have a nap the other day.  This let me wash some dishes, bake some cookies and most importantly, make a card!  I made this birthday card for the Cas(e) This Sketch challenge.

Here's the sketch.

I was trying to brainstorm and while looking for a stamp for something else I ran across this set and thought it would be perfect for this.  I got to use my spectrum noir markers too and that's always a good thing.  So here's the card.

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Love the sentiments that come in this set.  It's called Birthday Bakery.  So cute.  Well, hope you all are had a good weekend.  Have a fabulous day!

Supplies:  cake and sentiment stamps by Stampin' Up!, flourish by Inkdinkado, Spectrum Noir alcohol markers, black ink is Memento.  Pretty sure the rhinestones are from the dollar store. Sometimes you can find great stuff at the dollar store.

Red Carpet Studio Card Challenge

So, it's time for the next card challenge for January at the Red Carpet Studio Challenge blog.  I'm a guest designer so I made this card to inspire all our challengers.  Hope it does the trick!  Here's all the details of the challenge.  It's called the Butterfly Effect (create a card with a butterfly) and runs from Jan. 13th to Jan. 19th.  The sponsor of this challenge is Floppy Latte's Digital Designs.

 

They have been kind enough to provide a prize for the winner of the challenge which is a $10 gift certificate to their online store.

On to the inspiration!  I used one of their digi stamps (All A Flutter 3) to create this card.

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After printing off the image I coloured it in using my Spectrum Noir Markers (colours used:  IB3, BT8, CG3, GB6, LG5, LV1, LV2, BGR3, True Black and Blender).  Then I fussy cut it out.  I added some wire for the antennae.  Next I used a cream card base (Recollections) and layered purple (Stampin Up) and black (Recollections) on top.  Using same kind of cream card stock, I embossed with damask design (Sissix:  Medallion, Frame and Damask set) and adhered to black.  I attached butterfly using 3D dots.  I'm quite pleased with the results.

Hope you all can play along!  Have a wonderful day!

Key To My Heart

Hello all!  It was a mild day today which was a nice change from the cold weather we've been having.  It's supposed to last through the weekend which will be nice.

So, I've created a Valentines card that I based on my snowflake card that I made.  See 10 Minute Dash post.  I really liked the design and simplicity of it and tried to recreate it but with a Valentines theme instead.  Here's the card....

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I used a key stamp (from Michaels 1.50 bin) I got a while ago that I never used yet.  I like it.  Heart swirl stamp is from Rubber Stampede.  The small heart stamp is from Crazy Stamps Inc. and the flourish is from the the dot flourish set from Inkadinkado.  Inks used: perfect plum, brocade blue, razzleberry from SU.  Dove gray is StazOn.  The sentiment is from Craftsmart.

I think it turned out okay.  Fast too.  Could be replicated quickly.

So, I'm entering in a few cards the the recent call for submissions to PaperCrafts Magazine.  I think I've come up with some neat cards but I guess we'll see.  I can't show you however until later.  :-). They've got rules about that.  So I'm crossing my fingers!

Anyway, that's all for me.  Have a fabulous day!

Winter Blues Challenge

So, it's a new year and I've decided that I need to enter more challenges.  I found a new one on a blog I'm pretty excited about.  It's the Spectrum Noir Challenge Blog.  I'm loving my new markers and they've got all kinds of tutorials for colouring with their markers and even a FREE accreditation program.  Very cool.  Lots of great inspiration there too.  So, their challenge is called Winter Blues, create a project using blue.  So, I searched my stamps and found the very first stamp I ever bought.  I think I've only used it a couple of times but I've always liked it.  Its perfect for colouring with alcohol markers.  Here it is:

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Now it is actually more of a spring/summer stamp but with a few adjustments in colours and some snowflakes it is now a winter fairy. :-)  The markers I used were obviously Spectrum Noir and the colours used are as follows:  IB3, BT8, GT2, GT3, LV1, LV2, BGR1, BGR3, EB1, and the Blender).  I used a silver marker (Recollections) to add a bit of shimmer to the fairy's hair.  Hard to tell from the picture but the fairy is raised with some 3D foam dots.  I fussy cut the fairy too.  Took a while but so worth it.  Glitter (Stampin Up dazzling diamonds) added to fairy wings, flowers and snowflake wand.  Card base is white cardstock (Recollections).  Layered on top is a blue paper (Provo Craft) then a snowflake patterned paper (Basic Grey-Figgy Pudding).  Large snowflake die cut (The Slice, design card Noel) using a white shimmery paper (Recollections).  Smaller snowflake die cut (The Slice, design card Noel) is coloured blue using IB3 marker and then blended a bit with a blender.  Not sure who makes the snowflake embellishments but I got them at WalMart.  I coloured one of the smaller ones blue using IB3 marker.  The wand is made from some wire and a small paper snowflake using a punch I have.  Also coloured with the IB3 marker then glittered.

 

I really like how it turned out.  It will probably be the last wintery card I make for a little while.  I'm getting enough winter with our weather here.  WAY too much snow.  At least my son is enjoying it.  :-)

 

Well, I hope you're all have a fabulous day!  Bye for now.