A JUMBO Birthday Card

Hi all - I went to Scrap Mania at Archiver's on Saturday night.  6 hours of fun, including eating, coffee drinking, shopping and crafting.  I went with a group of 6 so there's always a lot of visiting too.  And helping each other - Sayo, who has been mentioned in previous posts, needed help with a scrapbook for her son so I made 2 pages.  Also made some cards, including this one for my sister's upcoming birthday:

Hero Arts August scene contest may have ended but I'm still "into" it - lol!  This elephant digi cut was the first Hero Arts one I bought with my Silhouette subscription.  My sister loooooves elephants so I thought she would enjoy this card.  The white card is 5 1/2 square.  All stamps are from Hero Arts.  I stamped the Clouds design block, kissed with the Magical Background Cling (Sky Blue Brilliance ink with Stormy Sky Distress Ink for the kiss).  I stamped a spare strip of green Out of Print Basic Grey paper with the Magical Bg inked with Peeled Paint.  Cut the elephant on the Silhouette using Indie Bloom Basic Grey pink and gave him a black outline for definition and a googly eye for fun.  Added some hearts in lieu of the paper water droplets coming out of the trunk.

Mind you, when I left Archivers, the sentiment was just a white circle and there was no birdie on the ellie's back.  By Sunday morning arrived, I was busily changing things.  Don't we all do this??  I scrapped the white sentiment for the orange patterned one then decided to turn it into a flower.  Stamped and cut out the leafy stem from the Watercolor Petals (CL431) clear set. 

Hmmm - something still was missing so I decided to add the birdie (from CL276 So Sweet, a valentine set).  I stamped her on a scrap piece of light purple HA layering paper stamped with the Hello Luscious grid (not very visible in photo).  The birdie had a lot of heart plummage which I cut off since I already had some hearts on there.  Decided to stamp the musical notes (from CL354 Let the Angels Sing Christmas clear set) after the thing was all together - the birdie is me singing!  Vicky over at Lily Pad Cards does this all the time, so why can't I??  Well, you can see why - my inky fingers put a couple little spots on the ellie's back - boo, hoo.  Oh well, those are his battle scars... Other than the extra ink, I'm happy with how this turned out. 

Thanks for stopping!

September Card Chain Challenge - Friendship in Pool (the color!)

It's time for another Card Chain Challenge over at Lily Pad Cards!  While there were some lovely colors and a fun sketch this time, I was already working on friendship cards so I used that theme.  Here's my card:

I still have some gorgeous Pool materials from Hero Arts - designer papers, envelopes and folded cards - they make beautiful cards quickly!  I stamped the Friend Definition (cling from Hero Arts) on the lightest shade in the pool folded card package (there are 3).  The sentiment panel is stamped on Pool designer papers - besides the french writing, there's a magical background and a bicycle pattern in the package.  Very fun to use!  Sentiment is from an older clear set from HA called Fancy Frendship.  The butterfly from the HA/Basic Grey Lauderdale cling set is stamped on patterned paper from Basic Grey's new Indie Bloom paper.  Just love the patterns in that line!

Thanks for stopping - I hope you're having a wonderful Labor Day weekend!

Winner at Hero Arts!

So excited to be selected as a Fab 5 winner over at Hero Arts first 1/2 of August contest.  The themes are scene cards, kids cards and creature cards.  I combined them all for this card for my little niece Grace who has a birthday coming up in September:

The caterpillar and smiling sun came from Hero Arts digital die cut collection for the Silhouette.  I bought a Silhouette SD this spring when I was lucky enough to get some digis from Hero Arts - many thanks!!  A friend suggested getting a monthly subscription at Silhouette which I promptly did.  And I found plenty of Hero Arts images to tickle my fancy, such as this caterpillar and sun.  When HA announced this month's contest theme, my brain started thinking how to use these new faves in a scene card. 

The new Basic Grey Oxford 6x6 paper pad had the amazing paper for the caterpillar body.  I cut one in white card stock and one in the Oxford green pp.  Cut the antenae and legs off the patterned one and popped with foam tape onto the full body one after I sponged it with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.  Couldn't resist adding a googly eye from Michael's and lots of Hero Arts gems.  The smiling sun actually has darling curlicue ends on some of the rays but my paper was too fragile and a couple of them tore - my solution was to snip them all off, much as I hated to do it!

The "grass" came free with my Silhouette and I added texture with Hero Arts Envelope Pattern design block.  The "sky" is blue card stock stamped with Hero Arts Magical Background Cling stamp - so versatile!  The Hero Arts sentiment is from a darling speech and thought bubble clear set called Message Bubbles.  It has dots on it but I covered them up with some metal decor from Hero Arts.

Thanks for stopping!

August Card Chain Challenge at Lily Pad Cards

Here's my card for the August CCC over at Lily Pad Cards.  I always enjoy creating and sending a card for this exchange.  You still have until August 17th to sign-up, so give it a try!

The colors this month were aqua, hot chocolate and lipstick red.  I liked the sketch too but rotated it for my card.  Used the theme of friendship again this time.  Here's my card:

I started out with Hero Arts new Pool designer papers - just love this one with the Magical Background pattern in several different shades of aqua.  Added it to a Pool folded card.  Added a dotted stripe layer from Basic Grey's new Indie Bloom paper pad.  Stamped the friend definition from a Hero Arts clear set with four definition stamps CL479 - very handy.  Stamped onto another Pool designer paper with some French writing very lightly on it.  Overstamped with Hero Arts' hydrangea in Fired Brick Distress Ink - loved the look.  Used the same ink for the bitty Hello sentiment.

Hope you're having a wonderful weekend of creating!

Make it Mini - Archiver's class

I attended a new class at Archiver's today - Make it Mini.  Darling little 3x3 cards that come in handy for many occasions.  Actually quilled for the first time!!  Wasn't too bad but it's not something I'll be taking up as a craft.  As usual, we used lots of different stamps from various companies but I was glad to see a few from Hero Arts.  Here are my versions of the 9 cards we made - three at a time:

On the left - the tree stamp has a circle stamp on the end so you can get a perfect circle for your "leaves".  Center one has the quilling, otherwise it came together quickly.  Love the pinwheel on the right and what a yummy big pearl in the center!

Center one is colored with Copics and on the inside there's one of those honeycomb details - cute.   The Yippee on the Micky Mouse card was supposed to be stamped in VersaMark and embossed in yellow - oops I didn't read directions!!

Left and center have some (not all) Hero Arts stamps; one on the right has Tim Holtz.  Love the little bee with Stickles on the left.  The Hero Arts bicycle is stamped on a 1" circle with some Tim Holtz writing for texture, then set into a bottle cap - very fun!  Love the gears on the right - stamped on acetate and then colored on the back using gold and silver Ranger daubers.  All these in a 2 1/2 hr class, cleaning up as we went along.  Thanks to Megan for a fun class!



Christmas in July

Hi all - Last Sunday I played in a Hero Arts Flickr group Scramble hosted by Natalie with the theme of Christmas in July and non-traditional colors.  Couldn't resist using some purple and some fun colored trees.  Here's my card:

The trees came from a clear Hero Arts set "Tree-Mendous" and the "Big Holiday Words" is a Hero Arts design block.  I made the snowy hills with some Basic Grey Out of Print paper.  Added some gems and enamel accents and some May Arts ribbon - done!  This was a fun challenge and maybe I'll make a few more of these for the holidays.

Hero Arts recently released its 2011 Holiday catalog and I couldn't resist ordering some new stamps!  Ordered a darling mouse in a mitten, a car with a tree on top, and a holiday version of the music background.  They all came in the mail today so I immediately went to work with the Mitten Mouse and made this 3 X 3 mini:

The dotted paper is from Basic Grey's Oxford 6 x 6 paper pad; card stock from Bazzill.  I colored the  image with Copics and embellished with some layers, gems and metallic decor.  Well, July's almost over but maybe I'll get one more Christmas card done....

I'm taking the new Archiver's mini card class tomorrow which looks like a lot of fun.  That's probably why I had minis on the mind today.  Thanks for stopping!

Summer Card Camp wk 4

Sad to say, Summer Card Camp ended on Friday!  But we still have today to upload our final week's card.  Here are the colors:

Named pear, teal, turquiose, sky blue and white - these colors are soooo pretty!  I had need of a thank you card for my sweet neighbor who, knowing how the heat bothered me, mowed my lawn for me!  That's in addition to doing her own - what an angel!  Thanks Brenda P!!  So here's my card:

I used the technique of rubbing ink (ColorBox teal) on my embossing folder (Cuttlebug) as Jennifer showed.  While I tried to ink it fairly solid, when rolling it through my Epic Six I got a more textured effect.  Just love the teal ink on the pear Bazzill card stock.  Sentiment is from a Hero Arts Thanksgiving Set CL466 So Thankful.  Punches:  Fiskars circle, Marvy scalloped circle.  The turquoise butterfly came from my friend Heather and the embossed border came from Angela who sent it with her July CCC card.  Thanks to you both too!  And thanks to you for visiting! 

And a HUGE thanks to Jennifer McGuire and Kristina Werner for a wonderful four weeks of camp!  I learned a lot and had a great time, even if I only managed to upload one card a week.  Hope we do it again next year!!