For Michelle

I'm dedicating this posting to my friend Michelle H. . . . . . blah, blah, blah. . . . (can you believe she finds my postings boring???? LOL! Love ya Michelle!

Now onto serious business! I think my loss of mojo isn't actually lost mojo but rather over whelming stimulus because there is so much inspiration that I become unable to decide which sketches and stamps and colors and. . . . . Well, I'm taking the first steps to wade through and craft again.

Here is a close up of the butterfly.


I started with sketch #47 from 2Sketches4You and decided to make a butterfly my central image. I chose a butterfly from IBFS Things With Wings. Copics Color Challenge #53 provided the colors for the butterfly; Y17, YG03 & C7 (I added YG00.) I sprayed Shimmerz Spritz Babys Breath to give it some shimmer.

Here is the complete card.


The background layer uses the Rainbow Double TJ technique. (You have to be a TJ member to have access to this technique.) The stamps used with this layer are from Sweet N Sassy Stamps called Dream Silhouettes and is a retired clear stamp set. I'm not sure if Korin offers it as a digi.

Stamps: (IBFS), Dream Silhouettes (SNSS); Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento), VersaMarker, Certainly Celery; Whisper White Craft (SU); Paper: Wild Wasabi, glossy, So Saffron, Solar White (Neenah); Accessories: Doily Lace boarder Punch (Martha Stewart), Night of Navy Grosgrain ribbon, white embossing powder, pearl dew drops (generic).

Kaitlyn's Card

My husband's eldest neice is graduating so we are heading to MA tomorrow. (So this is a quick upload!) :)

This set is from Hero Arts. The sketch is from 2 Sketches 4 You. I used Babys Breath Shimmerz Spritz. (I won three bottles and got this and two bottles of Shimmerz! Awesome!) Colored the owl with my Copic markers.


Stamps: Hero Arts (set name unknown); Ink: Rich Cocoa (Memento); Paper: Tempting Turquoise, Yoyo Yellow, Pure Luxury 120 lbs (GinaK), Sweet DP (SU); Accessories: Circle and Pinking Circle Nestabilities, Swiss Dots CB folder, CB, various Copic markers, Babys Breath (Shimmerz Spritz).

Another Fairy

Ever have one of those days? Yes, one of those day! Saturday I made two online purchases, then went to pay my credit card online. I am checking out my account and see two charges that I did NOT make. So I call my credit card company and yes they were fraudulent charges so they closed that credit card and will send me another one. Well, one of the orders I made hadn't been processed yet so I had to call the company and ask them not to run the charge. Well, all this info just to explain why I made this card! I didn't want to wait for my new card so I could call the company to process my order, instead I used the old fashioned way of writing a check and mailing it off! LOL! (PS: the charges were pretty small, $1 and $10; you'd think if you were going to steal someone's credit card at least do it in a big way! Fortunately I caught it fairly quickly and the charges weren't much!)

Since I decided to send a check I had to have "something" to send it in and this is what I came up with. One of my first fairy stamps was from Stamp Francisco. Here is Fairy. The background is this Flourish stamp. I was in a purple mood, having used it for another card I made so I just stayed with it. Besides, purple is the color of royalty and with that crown I figure she is a princess fairy. :)

After I finished coloring her I thought she needed some extra shimmer so I added Lilac Shimmerz to her dress and crown and Opal to her wings. Ahhhhh, lovely!

Stamps: Fairy & Flourish background (Stamp Francisco), Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento), Lovely Lilac, various Copic Markers; Paper: Lovely Lilac, Classic Crest White (Neenah), Accessories: Scallop Rectangle (Nestabilities), Shimmerz Lilac & Opal.

One More Valentine

Yesterday David asked me to send a Vday card to his mother. (Yes, yesterday was Valentine's Day, yes he forgot to ask me earlier; oops!) So this is what I came up with:

I used the OCC Challenge for the sketch and SCS CC205 for the colors: Perfect Plum, Pretty in Pink & Old Olive. I sponged Old Olive around the base of Pretty in Pink to tone it down a bit. I'm not a pink kinda girl. :)

The large butterfly is from Provo Craft's Cuttlebug Butterflies. I've had this for awhile but just used it for this card. After the butterfly was die cut and embossed I brayered Perfect Plum over the top to highlight it more. The brayering added soft texture as well. I colored the antennae black. The Pretty in Pink layer is embossed and Old Olive lightly sponged over it to help it pop. The small butterfly is a Martha Stewart punch that is embossed with the Swiss Dots embossing folder and Perfect Plum sponged over the dots. I probably should have added some texture to the Perfect Plum scalloped edge to help it out too or perhaps that would have just been too much??

The flowers are from the Prima Eire Collection 2 that I colored with Celery Shimmerz (link to Shimmerz). The flowers started out olive and cream. The designer paper is from the Old World Stack (DCWV).

The only stamping on this entire card is the sentiment from ISC. I embossed the sentiment to help it stand out more.

Stamps: Flair of Summer (ISC); Ink: Perfect Plum, CRAFT Basic Black, Old Olive; Paper: Pretty in Pink, Perfect Plum, Old World Stack (DCWV); Accessories: Martha Stewart butterfly punch, CB, CB Butterflies, Swiss Dots & Textile folders; sponge daubers, Scallop Edge punch (SU), Pretty in Pink button (SU), Black hemp (SU), Black detail embossing powder (SU).

Another CPS Submission

When I first uploaded my AI Duck I didn't realize I was entering it into the CPS contest. Well, since you can upload two cards I decided to try my hand at this sketch again. This time I wanted to try a new TJ technique called Background Burst. Only thing is that I didn't do it as a background. Oops! Sorry Pat! ;D The technique is actually the heart itself. Well, it was until I needed it to stand out more and I clear embossed the heart. I actually did a good bit of tinkering with this card. Here is the first rendition.


I used the heart from Gentler Times (SU retired). Now I don't have a fancy scallop heart punch. I actually used a trick to add the scallops around the edge. (I would LOVE to give credit, but now I can't find the source, if you know please let me know so I can include proper credit!) Basically you punch a scallop circle and then punch the inside out so you are left with a thin scallop border. Clip the scallop border and now you can add the scallops around any shape you want. Probably clear as mud! I've got to find that tutorial!

The flowers were painted with Shimmerz! I have seen this done several times and I love the look IRL. In fact, I think I prefer the flowers painted over painting an image! You can visit Shimmerz here. I added little pearl (generic) drew drops to the center of the flowers using my Mono Multi.

The base Old Olive has another stamp from the Gentler Times VersaMarked to add some depth and interest to that layer. The first card also uses VersaMark on the Lavendar Lace layer as it just needed "something". Famous last words, I know! You guessed it, I really wasn't happy with this card so I removed the Lavendar Lace layer and replaced it with Lavendar Lace with Swiss Dots embossed and swiped with Craft White for interest and texture. Please let me know what you think of this new card! This is the final version and what I have uploaded to the CPS contest.
Stamps: Gentler Times (SU, retired); Ink: Craft White, VersaMark; Paper: Old Olive, Lavender Lace, Elegant Eggplant; Accessories: Prima Flowers, Shimmerz: Cleery, Lilac & Opal; Scallop circle punch (SU), Colozzle circle (to cut out the center of scallop punch), Swiss Lace folder, CB, pearl dew drops, chalks (SU).

SNSS Dragon

I wanted to share this card that I made using the sketch at Card Positioning System using the retired Princess stamp set from Sweet N Sassy Stamps (SNSS). There are some of these stamps sets left if you "need" one for your little princess! ;D (Nope, not an employee just a happy customer.)

The dragon is colored using Shimmerz: Mocha, Celery, Spiced Cider & Opal (over the Celery to mute it a bit) so it has lots of shimmer (go figure, LOL!) When Troy (my 5 y/o DS) saw this on my desk he immediately wanted it! He loves this dragon! (He especially liked the green wings.)

Stamps: Princess (SNSS); Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento) Broken China Distress Ink; Paper: Soft Sky, Tempting Turquoise, Wild Asperagus DP; Accessories: generic dew drops, Nestabilities Scallop Circle, sponge, Shimmerz, paint brush, C1 7 W1 COPIC for shading.