We'll miss you!

One of my co-workers is losing his job due to his program closing, so we're all pitching in to give him a good send off. He's a real sweet guy who has been a pleasure to work with, so I thought I'd make him a nice cheerful card to show him how much we'll miss him.

I couldn't find an image that fit, so I decided to combine 3 Tiddly Ink images (Bo, Ellie, and Wild Thing) for a "from the group" card.

Before printing, I erased Bo's balloons, and replaced them with some of Ellie & Wild Things' heart balloons so they all matched. After coloring the image with copic markers, I carefully cut out my balloons, and used a bit of silver jewelry wire to make my balloons float above the main image.

Once the card was put together, I used some paper glaze on the balloons to give them that nice shiny finish (which, of course, did not show up well in the photos).

Copic markers used:

Challenges I participated in with this card:

Tiddly Inks - sketch challenge (I rotated it 90 degrees)
Papertake Weekly - animal magic
CES Challenges - animal antics
Charisma Cardz - anything goes

Fall is in the Air...

Looking out my craft room window here in upstate NY, I can see the maple tree out front is already painted with red and yellow leaves. It got me in a mood to make a fall card, and what better image is there for a fall card than Tree Hugger by Tiddly Inks?

When I printed the image, I printed a second copy of the leaves on the tree with the plan of popping it up for some dimension. I cut out the 1st (full) image with a circle Nestabilities and left it in the die when I airbrushed the image to get a nice white boarder. I used the copic airbrush system to airbrush the sky, ground and leaves on the full image, and then went back and airbrushed my second set of leaves to match. The second set of leaves was then cut by hand and layered back onto the image with pop-dots. I purposely misaligned the leaves so that some of the bottom layer sticks out and gives a little more dimension.

The orange designer paper is from last fall's Bo Bunny line, I forget the name, sorry. I ran the white side through my Cuttlebug with the Swiss Dots folder to match. The sentiment is a Studio G $1 stamp. The original layout wouldn't fit in a circle (and so would mess with my circle theme, LOL), so I inked up each word with a different color SU marker and stamped them in a more useful (to me) shape.

Copic Markers used:

Challenges I participated in with this card:
Digital Tuesday - It's all about the girls
A Spoon Full of Sugar - anything goes
Midnight Madness - sketch #72
Creative Card Crew - autumn or fall

Thanks for stopping by!

The Frog Prince...

The hubby and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary on Friday, and I thought I'd share the card I made for him. My hubby likes funny cards, so when I saw Kiss Me by Tiddly Inks, I knew I had found the perfect image to use for his card. Isn't she the cutest?

I wanted to airbrush in the background, so I printed an extra copy of Kiss Me on plain copy paper and cut it out to use as a mask. To get the cloud effect, I cut a cloud shape out of my paper scraps and randomly moved it around my paper while airbrushing. The ground was also airbrushed, but then I went in with my copics to add some grass and flowers. The image itself was colored with copic markers. For the dress, I only colored the sash, and then added a bit of V93 in the corners of the dress for some shadow before filling the whole thing in with Stardust Stickles. I added a bit of gold Stickles to the Frog Prince's crown as well.

The pretty designer paper is from a K&Co Wedding paper pad I got as a gift ages ago. You can't really tell from the photo, but it has a really nice texture to it. In fact, the hubby wanted to know if it was wallpaper. LOL. The purple ribbon was originally white sheer which I airbrushed to match the card. The pretty heart dangle was hand made using some of my beading supplies. I've had those little heart charms for 5+ years, and I think this is the first time I've actually used one.

Oh, yes, this inside of the card. I forgot to take a photo before writing in it, but the greeting printed inside of the card is:
I'm so glad I kissed you!
Happy Anniversary!

The hubby got a good chuckle out of it. :)

Copic Markers used:

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Birthday Ryan!

My nephews 2nd birthday is this coming week, so I decided to get a head start on his card. Ryan has a doggie, so I thought the adorable Bo by Tiddly Inks would be perfect for Ryan's card. This week's challenge on the Tiddly Inks challenge blog is all about Our Pets, so this card will do double duty. :)

Bo was colored with copic markers, and has a bit of white gel pen on his eyes to make him pop. I used a little Aleene's Paper Glaze on the balloons and Bo's nose for a bit of shine. When I printed Bo, I printed the balloons separately so that I could layer them on my card.

I wanted to do something a little different, so I decided to go with a shaped card. To make the base, I cut my card stock with the largest Nestabilities Labels 6 die and then folded it in half to make my card base. The patterned paper was cut to match and layered onto the front of the card. 

Copic markers used:

Thanks for stopping by!

Falling leaves, a venture in jewelry making...

*Gasp* I have a non-paper crafting project to share with you today! Can you believe it? LOL.

I got addicted to making jewelry a little over 5 years ago when I was a crazy bride-to-be who fell in love with a gorgeous beaded tiara that was very much out of her price range. Crafty(and stubborn) girl that I am, I promptly taught myself the rudiments of working with wire, beads, and gemstones and made a similar tiara (and necklace, earrings and bracelet) for a fraction of the cost of the one I had been drooling over at the bridal shop. And a new craft addiction was born. LOL.

I haven't pulled out my jewelry kits in a while, but while browsing through a gift shop while on vacation I came across a lovely necklace with fall leaves and berries and immediately started itching to make one for myself. This is the result:

I'm a gold girl, so I used 14k gold filled wire for the project. The "berries" are real seed pearls, and the leaves are all made from lustre glass.

What do you think? I have plans to make a matching bracelet, and maybe some earrings, and will be sure to share them once they are finished.

If you aren't interested in jewelry making, never fear. I have a cute little witch all colored and waiting to be made into a card and will get her up soon!

Welcome baby Emily!

My sister had her second child, Emily, this week, and I was finally able to visit them today!

I've had this adorable image of baby taking a bath in my box of pif's and rak's for a while now, and decided it would be perfect for Emily's card. Isn't she cute? The image was colored with copic markers, and has stardust gellroll pen on the bubbles for a bit of sparkle.

For the card itself, I decided to use some scraps I had leftover from making a name frame for Emily's big sister, Anna, to make a quilted background. The image was cut out with a scalloped square Nestabilities, and hand stitched to a piece of PTI Sweet Blush card stock (I used DMC thread #3713 if you are interested. It is a perfect match for the paper.). The bottom layer was also cut out with a scalloped square Nestabilities, and then run through my Cuttlebug with the Swiss Dots embossing folder. I curled up the edges of the bottom layer before attaching the stitched layer with pop-dots.

Copic markers used:

Challenges I participated in with this card:

Moving along with the Times - in stitches
Craft your Days away - girly n glitter
Stamp Something - Something cute
Paper Play - in stitches
Allsorts - new beginnings

Thanks for stopping by!

Attitude is Everything

Today's project was a special request by a co-worker. One of her dear friends turns 90 today, and she wanted to give her something special to celebrate.The birthday girl in question is one sassy & feisty lady, so I was asked to make a card to suit her personality. Fun, huh?

For my image, Tito-Mosquito on deviantART kindly agreed to allow me to use his drawing, Mari the Flapper. Isn't she fabulous? What could be more perfect for someone who grew up in the roaring 20's than a feisty old flapper who is still flaunting her stuff?

Mari was colored with copic markers, and has clear spica pen over her outfit for a bit of sparkle. I added white Fun Flock to her boa for some textural interest (close-up below). I wanted to use a real feather for her headpiece, but since I couldn't find one in my stash, I substituted a bit of wired white fringe that I airbrushed to match her belt & garter.

Think she'll like it?

Autumn Falls

I don't know about your neck of the woods, but here in upstate NY we've been having unseasonably cool weather for the past 2 weeks or more. We were doing yard work this past weekend, and I noticed that the leaves on the neighbor's maple tree are already starting to change colors. Oh, my! The colors stuck in my head, so when I got in the crafty mood, it was a no brainer to play with Sweet Pea Stamps Autumn Falls. Isn't she gorgeous?

Autumn Falls was colored with Copic markers, and highlighted with a white gel pen. I colored over her tail with a clear Spica pen, and added star dust Stickles to her outfit and the leaves for a bit of extra sparkle. The pretty dp is from the DCWV Pocket full of Posies matstack, and the rest of the paper is all SU. I picked up the leaf gems at the dollar store ages ago, and touched them up a bit with my copic markers to make the colors match my image.

Challenges I participated in with this card:

Stamping for the Weekend - anything goes
Stamp with fun - card for a girl (this is already on it's way to one of my girlfriends)
Paper Cutz - anything goes

Quick and Easy Christmas

I'm trying to get a  head start on my holiday cards this year, so I've decided to try to play along with the ABC Christmas Challenge to help get me motivated. I don't know about you, but I find it awfully hard to get to work on Christmas cards when the heat makes me want to spend some quality time in the pool! LOL.

This weeks challenge is Q for Quick and Easy, so I decided to pull out one of my favorite holiday sets, SU's Snowflakes. I must admit, I've gotten a bit out of practice with quick cards, since most of the images I've been using lately require quite a bit of coloring, so this was a nice change for me.

I wanted a bit of depth to my snowflake, so I started out by inking the whole flake with Bashful Blue ink, then rocked on some Brocade Blue ink, and finished off the edges by rocking on some Night of Navy ink. I added a bit of sparkle with Star Dust Stickles (I finally got a bottle, yeah!!!) and added a pearl to the center for my final touch. You can't really tell from the photo, but I also outlined the swirls on the paper with a clear spica pen, so this card sparkles like crazy in real life.

Thanks for stopping by!

Artwork for Anna...

I thought I'd share the artwork I made for my niece, Anna, for her 2nd birthday a while back. Little Anna is really into ballet (pronounced "bah-way" LOL) right now, so her mommy and I decided on some of the cute digital images by Mo's Digital Pencil.

First, we have Anna's name frame for over her bed:

Anna loves giving kisses, so the adorable "Kissy" was perfect for her name frame.

The image was colored with copic markers, and then carefully cut out to layer onto the background. I added a bit of star dust Stickles to her tutu and a gold Spica pen to her crown for a bit of sparkle. The background itself was made by cutting pieces of Nitwit's Buds n Blossoms digi paper into little squares and layering them quilt-like onto my base paper. I printed "Anna"onto PTI Sweet Blush paper, carefully cut out each letter and ran them through my Cuttlebug for some added texture.

My apologies on the horrid photos of the other 3 pieces in this set. I forgot to take photos of them before giving them to Anna, and so was stuck taking the photos in her not-so-well lit room after they were hung on the wall.

Thanks for stopping by!