I have always thought that this Inky Antics image was cute!  The little critters on the mushroom rooftop just make me smile!  :0)  A few months ago I purchased the Sizzix Caterpillar die and it seemed to go well with the image so I knew I wanted to work it into the card somehow.  I tried to use a marker and dot him some eyes but it just didn’t look right.  Sometimes those little mess-ups make the card better in the end though.  I remembered that I had some teeny tiny wiggly eyes….and they fixed it up perfectly!  Then I used a black marker to color the antennae and the tips of his feet.  The sentiment is from the C.C. Designs Sentiment Set.  You can’t tell in the pic, but there’s Stickles on the ladybug’s wings!  I also added Stickles to the dots on the roof and the center of the flower.

stamps- Caterpillar Cottage- Inky Antics, Sentiment Set- C.C. Designs

paper- PTI white, dp- KI Memories, Turquoise, Lavander Lace, Green Galore, YoYo Yellow, Only Orange

ink- Palette Black, Lavander Lace

accessories- Copic markers, Circle Nestabilities, gel pen, Sizzix Caterpillar, wiggly eyes, Prima, Stickles

As I was creating this card I thought it might be a good design for a sketch.  Would you like to try it?  I would love to have you play along! 

 If you create a card (or scrapbook page, 3-D item, etc.) using this sketch, please use the keyword PCSC4 when uploading to SCS (for Paper Cookies Sketch Challenge 4).  And don’t forget to link back here and let me know!  :)  I would love to see your creations! 

Have a great week and stay cool!  It’s supposed to be a hot one here!

Well, I did it again.  I used one of my least favorite colors, YoYo Yellow!  eeek.  That’s twice in a week!  And I hate to say it, but I actually liked this one too.  LOL.   I wanted to use the cute little bees from the Bear Hugs set and they were just screaming “black & yellow”.  The bright, bold combination makes it a fun card to create!  I started by stamping the bees and layering their heads with dimensionals.  This is such a simple technique yet it always gives the card some “wow”.  The bees’ wings were glittered with Stickles.  And the yellow layer was machine stitched, varying a straight stitch and a zigzag for some whimsy.  I hope you like it!  Check out the ATS blog for some more review previews and more blog candy!

Do you have fun plans for the weekend?  I’ll be getting a new dishwasher- yay!

stamps- Bear Hugs

paper- Birch, Black, YoYo Yellow, dp- DCWV   

ink- Palette Black

accessories- Copics, Stickles, pop dots, gel pen, sewing machine, ribbon

A few days ago I was invited to stamp with some friends and this is the card I made to share.  I wasn’t sure whether I was fond of this monkey, but I think he’s growing on me.  LOL.  He was colored with Prisma pencils and Gamsol and then I paper pieced his body and tail.  It looks cute IRL.  The circle with the cupcake is suspended on a piece of SU linen thread and there’s another circle on the opposite side with the party hat image.  Directions on making a Suspension card can be found here.  The fake dew drops around the monkey were a gift….I thought they would be cute here to finish off the corners. 

stamps- Sock Monkey

paper- Celery, Non-SU yellow & Birch, Cocoa and Rose Red dp

ink- Black

accessories- Prismacolor pencils & Gamsol, faux dew drops, circle & oval punches, red-line tape, linen thread, glue dots, paper piercer

Last night I got my sewing machine out and did a little stitching.  It’s been a while since I’ve done that!  I seem to go in spurts so you will probably see a few stitched cards before I put it away again.  On this one I used the Sarah Kay stamp called Margaux is Painting.  She is such a cutie creating on her easel!  Once again I colored her with the Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol. 

This card is larger than I normally make.  I found a pack of 5×7 cards stashed away in my drawer.  The pretty designer paper is by The Paper Company and I hated to turn over such a large chunk of it to the plain side so I turned the top corner down a bit.  At least you can see a tiny bit of the pattern on that piece.  LOL.  The ribbons were a gift from my friend Tracy (thanks, Tracy- I finally used some!).  The pink heart is a Sizzix die and it’s hard to see but I embossed it with tiny hearts (Cuttlebug). 

I hope your Monday is a good one!  Check back in a day or two….I have another Sock Monkey card that I will share.  :0)

stamp- Sarah Kay- Margaux is Painting

paper- 5×7 Ecru Greeting card- Paperbilities, Birch, Black, Regal Rose, dp- The Paper Company

ink- Black, Regal

accessories- silk flower, Primas, Liquid Pearls, Stickles, sewing machine, Prismacolor pencils & Gamsol, Sizzix Primitive Hearts die, Cuttlebug Love Language/Vintage/Heart #1, ribbon- O’Scrap!

Happy gorgeous Sunday!  Wow- can you believe August will soon be over already?  Yikes…the summer sure flew by!

Here’s another card made with C.C. Designs’ new Scenery and Sentiment Sets.  I also used Lulu from the It’s My Birthday set.  She was colored with Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol, then cut out and popped up for some dimension.  The pink border is a new Cuttlebug embossing folder.  The double lined border around the main image was hand drawn.  And to finish it off I added a bit of Stickles to the image to match the sparkly striped paper.  I’m not sure why I grabbed the YoYo yellow paper for my card base….I rarely use that color!  But I really liked the end results.  There are a few colors that I never seem to go for.   Is there a color that you rarely use?    

Enjoy the rest of your day!

stamps- It’s My Birthday, Scenery Set, Sentiment Set- C.C. Designs

paper- white, YoYo Yellow, Pixie Pink, dp- DCWV

ink- Palette Black

accessories- Prismacolor pencils, Gamsol, Stickles, Cuttlebug Frills Border folder, SU Word Window punch

Sorry this pic is so yucky!  I was trying to get the shimmer to show up but it was difficult.  This one layer card was made for All That Scraps’ review preview Friday.  Today we are using the set Olivia’s Birdies and this time I wanted to try sitting the birds on a wire.  I stamped the post image sideways to create the wire, then masked it before stamping the birds.  The images were colored with Twinkling H2O’s and really shimmer IRL.  The only added embellishment is a clear sticker over the words.  Sometimes it is nice to make a clean, simple card without all of the added layers and fru-fru.  Hopefully this card shows how versatile the set really can be. 

Be sure to check out the other samples on the ATS blog….one of the links has some blog candy!  Also, would you like to be a guest designer?  Check out the info here!

stamps- Olivia’s Birdies, Scenery Set- C.C. Designs

paper- Birch

ink- Palette Black

accessories- Twinkling H2O’s, Crystal sticker

Happy Wednesday!  Today I have two cards to share.  I found a box of DCWV cards and envelopes that I never used so I pulled some cute patterns out and used them for both of today’s cards.    The first one is for the Dirty Dozen/DD Alumni monthly challenge.  This month it was hosted by Jen (genie1314).  She has a birthday this month, so she based her rules on that.  Here’s the info. we were given:

Challenge Focus: BIRTHDAY!

Required Element: NUMBERS!! You can use stamps, die cuts, embossing folders, chipboard… whatever kind of number you can get your hands on!

Restricted Element: You can’t use the word “birthday.” Be creative in wishing someone a happy birthday!

I made a pattern for the number 29 (the two and the nine are connected) and I originally wanted to cut the card base into the shape of the numbers.  But I decided that it wouldn’t leave much space for writing a message so I layered it onto the cardfront instead.  I carefully embossed only the number 2 with the Cuttlebug Number Collage folder.  Then I embossed the 9 with the Spots and Dots folder, being careful not to overlap the embossing already done on the number 2. 

I thought the Inky Antics bunny would look cute as he wonders about the number.  Hmmm….29….again? 

stamps- Inky Antics- Bunny Wonders, SU Typeset Alpha U & L

paper- DCWV, Celery, Shimmery White

ink- Black, Cocoa

accessories- circle punch, Twinkling H2O’s, Cuttlebug Number Collage and Spots & Dots folders 

My second card is for Jen Ofiana’s sketch challenge over at All That Scraps.  I strayed a bit, adding the piece of red with the sentiment….hope that’s ok!  I just couldn’t get it how I liked it otherwise.  This is another DCWV card base and I used the set Olivia’s Birdies with the branch upright for a tree.  The leafy branch on the left is a Sizzix diecut.  And I just had to pull out some of my huge stash of eyelets and use some! 

stamps- Olivia’s Birdies

paper- White, DCWV, Cocoa, Celery

ink- Palette Black

accessories- Copic markers, eyelets, Sizzix leaves

It’s been an uninspiring week so far and I’ve had no time for stamping.  But I have a few projects I’ll be working on!  This is a set of quick, simple cards I made last week with some more of the Sell-A-Bration rubons.  The little girl was colored with Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol.  Not a lot to say here….they are very simple!  I didn’t even add any faux stitching…gasp!  ;)  Have a great day!

stamps- And Everything Nice

paper- PTI white, Lav. Lace, non SU Blue (similar to NQNavy)

ink- Palette Black

accessories- Love & Happiness rubons, paper flowers (Walmart), Stickles, Prismacolor pencils & Gamsol

Today Christine at All That Scraps is having a Review Preview Friday of her new set Bear Hugs.  This set is just too stinkin’ cute!  Be sure to check out the ATS blog for more info.  Cyndi has a project for you to try and Renee will have some blog candy- an ATS gift certificate!

I really didn’t need a wedding card, but I thought the bears would make a super cute bride and groom!  So I’ll be ready when the next wedding invitation arrives.  ;)  I started with the Pink Pirouette card base and layered some white that was embossed with the new Cuttlebug Houndstooth folder.  The bears were cut out with Nestabilities dies and colored with Copic markers.  The flowers are from the C.C. Designs new Scenery set and the word is from the new Sentiment set.  You can check them all out here.  Which is your favorite?

In this close-up you can see the details of the bears a bit better.  I made the bow tie for the groom with some tiny ribbon.  I don’t think I’ll be doing that again anytime soon!  LOL.  It was fun though.  I had to cut the mini glue dots in half so they were small enough to stick the bow together.

The bride’s veil was made with a bit of sheer wide ribbon which was gathered slightly at the top and stuck down with a mini glue dot.  Then I added the flower from the Scenery set.  If you look closely you can see a bit of bling on her finger (Stickles- love that stuff!). 

Have a super fun weekend!

stamps- Bear Hugs, Scenery Set, Sentiment Set- C.C. Designs

paper- White, Black, Pink Pirouette

ink- Palette Black

accessories- Cuttlebug Houndstooth folder, circle punches, Copics, gel pen, Nestabilities, ribbon, glue dots, Stickles

Happy Wednesday!  I hope your week is going well!  I’m back with another card featuring the cute Olivia and her birds.  This is for Jen’s challenge over at the All That Scraps message board to make a suspension card.  What fun!  I think I only ever made one of these and it was so long ago.  I need to try this again!  You can find a tutorial on how to make one here.  When I saw this particular birdhouse image in the new C.C. Designs set, I thought it might be symmetrical enough to pull off putting them back to back.  And it worked pretty well.  I only needed to do some minor trimming.  Yay!  Then I found a Circle Nestabilities die to cut the openings in the front to hang my birdhouse.  I wanted the die big enough to fit the house inside but not too big that it would cut away a lot of the pretty paper.  I think this size worked pretty well!  Then I used some old SU linen thread to hang it.  The back of the birdhouse has a different bird on it but it looks pretty much the same so I won’t bore you with another pic.  ;)  On the left of the card is an embossed piece from one of the new Cuttlebug folders….check them out here!  And don’t forget that Christine has free shipping at ATS for orders over $25! 

stamps- Olivia’s Birdies by C.C. Designs

paper- Celery, Saffron, Pixie, DCWV Blossoms and Butterflies

ink- Black, white craft

accessories- Cuttlebug With Love border folder, circle Nestabilities, SU linen thread, Red Line tape, Copics, gel pen, Stickles