Friday, 23 March 2012

Fleur Anya



Hi everyone! Happy Friday! Is it Spring yet? I can't tell because we just got another 6 inches of snow yesterday. A few days ago I saw and heard a few Harley's on the road though, so I'm a little confused.

 I just wanted to post this cute little card using a Greeting Farm stamp called Fleur Anya. A few weeks ago my bff, Jan came over with her collection of cling stamps, and I stayed up through the night stamping up about 30 sheets of my Copic paper with images.(Jan lasted till about 2:00 A.M and crashed) Little Fleur Anya was one of the 60 images I stamped. Funny how when I was stamping most of  Jan's images I was thinking to myself...I'm for sure buying this stamp for my collection!! And I don't know why because out of my hundreds of mounted and unmounted stamps I own I've rarely stamped the same image more than once or twice. I'm thinking that out of all my stamps more than 50% have never even been stamped once!.  I just find my style changes so much from the time I'm collecting certain stamps to when I actually start creating with them. This year I'm going to try to stamp every single stamp I own! Plus all the new ones I'm sure to buy! (insert delusional laugh here) Well they do make a great display in my craft room and are great drawer fillers :) I'll post a few pictures so you can see what I mean.

I just started taking an online Copic color classes with Suzanne J Dean over at Color Me Creative Classroom and this week she's celebrating the 2nd year of her site with a birthday party bash. Lots of games and prizes to be won. The gand prize being a Sizzix Vagabond machine. Yeah, that would be sweet!! One of the birthday events was to do a sketch challenge so this is the card I made using the sketch that was provided.
I thought little Anya was going to be too little for one of my regular 6x6 cards so I decided to put her on a standard 4A size card.(4 1/4x5 1/2) Wow was I wrong.  That little body is really an illusion because her head took up half the card.  I used papers from Teresa Collins Canvas Fabrications. At first I had colored all the flowers in Anya's hair orange and didn't know how I was going to pull in the turquoise color that was in the paper, so I stamped out another image and colored the flowers with orange and teal, cut it out and pasted it over the original stamped image. She's so sweet she just puts a smile on my face!

This is how I store my wood mounted stamps...the chest of drawers are chockablock full of SU stamp sets. All double layers.



I'm entering this card in the following challenges:
Crafty Purple Frog #37 Anything goes
Scrapbook Sisters Anything goes #76



Copics used:
Skin:E50,E01,E13,R20
Hair:C3,C5,C7,C9
Dress:V12,V15,V17(then added some RV's to match the paper better)
Flowers BG23,BG72,BG75

Monday, 19 March 2012

Kraftin' Kimmie Gadget Girl






















I just love the Kraftin Kimmie Moonlight Whispers stamps! This image called Gadget Girl is one of my favorites. It might have something to do with my love of masks, shiny thigh high boots, and black evening gloves! I may be a superhero in my own head. I'm just going to blame the whole mask fetish on watching too much Batman as a child. I wanted to grow up to be Cat Woman. Didn't we all though?

Over at the Krafty Girls blog there's a sketchy challenge going on that I wanted to take part in.
I'm amazed at how much faster a card comes together when you have a sketch to follow. The hardest decision I had in making this card was choosing the papers.  After about an hour of contemplation I just decided to use some of my favorites that I had been hoarding for a while. The lovely leopard print paper has a velvety embossed texture to it. The sparkly magenta is a heavily sparkled,thick card stock that just makes me happy looking at it! The purple background panel is paper that I made using my dye inks and a page protector.  
I used crystal effects to shine up Gadget Girl's mask, gloves,and boots. When I started to sponge up the oval Spellbinders die, the ink was a little darker and heavier than what I was going for but it ended up having a furry appearance so I decided to just go with it. I glued down a piece of map overlay on the sponged die cut with some crystal effects to give my Gadget Girl a global feel.
I hadn't intended to sparkle up her super hero suit but one of the pink Copics I used was really dark and I was having a hard time blending it out. I believe you can never have too much sparkle and bling so it was all good in my world. All good until I realized I didn't have the sentiment I wanted to use on my card. This rubber stamp set comes with a generous 4 sentiments. "LOL"," Text Ya Later", "TTYL", and "Byte Me".  When I mounted this set on cling foam, along with a bunch of other Kraftin Kimmie stamps I must have thrown out "Byte Me". Ugh! I remember thinking that I better be careful that I don't end up throwing a piece of mounted rubber sentiment away, but that's exactly what happened! And of course it had to be the sentiment I really wanted to use!  Yeah, Byte Me!

My husband thinks I'm a freak because he caught me taking pictures of my mask collection on my lovely leopard bed spread. I told him I wanted to share it on my blog and he just shook his head and walked away...haha! Blogs are for sharing... and  I just wanted to share my mask collection with you.
 





I'm entering this card in the following challenges:
Kraftin Kimmie Stamps Sketchy challenge #120
Make it Monday Anything goes #81
Simon Says Stamp and Show Handmade background
CMC challenge blog Anything goes#39
Jellypark Friends Friday Challenge Fave technique copic coloring
4 Crafty Chicks Chicks rule
Cute Card Thursday Happy Birthday
DYSU #63 Favorite color-Purple/magenta
The Sisterhood of Crafters Birthday
Papertake Weekly Bingo Gems.Diecuts.Flowers



Copics used:
Skin: E000, E00,E11,R20
Hair: E50,E31,E25
Super Hero suit: R89,R85,R81
C5,C7,C9,C00
Cushion:V12,V15,V17
PC: RV00,R81,R85, C0,C2

Friday, 9 March 2012

Born To Ride- Harley Boy








Hi everyone!  Today I'm excited to share a card I made for Prairie Fairy Fridays as a guest designer . Last week one of the cards I made and entered into a challenge at PFF won top spot and I was honored with the privilege of designing a card using one of the three PFS digis I won. That's pretty exciting stuff for me! The theme this week is Distress.  All Roberta's images pull at my heartstrings. They are so adorable and cute!  Harley Boy was one of the images I chose because my husband and I love to spend as much time on our Harley in the summer as we can.  Here in Canada the season is short and we usually only have about 5-6 months to ride so we make the most of it. You know when Spring has arrived here by the sound of all the bikes rumbling down the roads.  We've been on 4 big bike trips in the last 4 years since we bought our Electra Glide Ultra Classic.(That's the chariot of Harleys.) We've rode to San Fransisco, Montana/Wyoming, Vancouver/Victoria, and last summer to Vegas where we got married.  I'm not sure where we're going this year, I guess wherever the wind takes us.  Even though I ride on the back of our bike and have no desire to ride my own.  I love everything about riding. Bikes, bikers, and the culture.  I was definitely Born To Ride!
Here's a picture of me and the Harley. Coming home from Vegas last September.


I'm entering this card into the following challenges:
Paper Creations Ink Spring is in the air 
Divas by Design Favorite things-Copic coloring and Harleys
Creative Craft Challenge Boys will be boys
Make it Monday Linky party #79
ATC's & Cards with attitude #8 Anything goes 
Jellypark Challenges Favorite technique-Coloring with copics
Polka Doodles Let's hear it for the boys
Totally Paper Crafts  favorite things-Harleys and copic coloring

Copics used:
Skin:E000,E00,E11
Bike/lid:YR23,YR24,YR31/C0,C1,C3,C5,C7
jacket/boots:T5,T7,T9
jeans:B93,B95,B97,B99,B91
shirt/glovesBG72,BG75,BG78




Thursday, 1 March 2012

Kraftin'Kimmie Alice in Wonderland









Today I'm sharing a card I made using a Kraftin' Kimmie image called Alice in Wonderland. I'm playing along with the Krafty Girls and this weeks challenge is a sketch.

When I got this stamp I just couldn't wait to color up her hair.  She was a lot of fun to color with all her wisps, folds, and pleats.  I had this really kewl Halloween Wonderland paper that I wanted to use for this image so I used the colors in the paper. Even though Alice is traditionally blonde I love her with this fierce red hair. Once I had her done, she reminded me so much of my youngest darling daughter, Stevie with her beautiful red flowing locks and freckles.(yes that's her given name and named after Stevie Nicks) My Stevie is turning 21 on the 21st of June this year. She's a Summer Solstice baby and I always told her that made her extra special. Sharing the sun signs of both Cancer and Gemini. I decided I'd make this her birthday card and save it until then. Wow, I feel so ahead of the game! Maybe I should get started on birthday cards for my other three kids, and 5 grandchildren.  Ohhh that's a whole lot of Birthday cards coming up.
Here's a picture of my Stevie.


I'm also entering this card in the following challenges:
Alota Rubber Stamps Black Jack 21 pnts (2die cut 16, Rubber 5)
The Emerald Faerie Garden Dry embossing
Aud Sentiments Happy Birthday
Paper Crafting Journey Paper anything
Paper Play Challenges Something old something new(new paper and stamp/old ribbon/embellishment
Divas by Design Stripes/spots
Penny's Paper Crafty challenge blog Photo inspiration
The Pixie Cottage Sketch/anything goes
Simon Says Stamps Challenge Anything goes
Perfect Sentiments Challenge Anything goes w/diecut
Celebrate the Occasion Birthday Bling
Ribbon Carousel Challenge Anything goes
Always Crafting Anything goes 
 Party Time Tuesdays #57 Anything goes
One Crazy Stamper.com Birthday








Copics used:
Skin:E000,E00,E11
 Hair:YR04,YR18,E09,E18
Dress:B91,B93,B95
StockingsV12,V15,V17/B91,B93,B95
Eyes:YG13,YG17

Tuesday, 28 February 2012

Tickled Pink Happy Birthday Pippa









G'day!  I'm back today with a Happy Birthday card featuring a little Pinkette cutie from Tickled Pink Stamps called Pippa.  Isn't she sweet!  I love her long braided hair.  I think I'm a little jealous of it since I just had my hair cut a couple of days ago and I ended up with something totally different than I asked for.  I've been growing out a bad cut for the last 6 months and now it looks like the haircut I just grew out.  Ugh!  Well like my husband says..."It's just hair...at least you still have some on your head." That was said just before he asked, "What are you crying about now?"  Men...just don't understand the psychology of hair...a woman's crowning glory!  As a hairstylist myself I just have to wonder how, what, why, this happened?!  Why did I move so far away from my awesome hairstylists who always knew exactly what I wanted?!  How did this new hairstylist give me such a great trim last time, but seemed to struggle this time?  WTH?  There's nothing I can do about it so I just have to remind myself that everything happens for a reason, and who am I to judge a situation as good or bad?...it just IS.  And this too will pass.  In the mean time I'll just keep my head down and keep coloring.
A special thanks to Kellie for sweet little Pippa...hope you like her.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:
Celebrate the Occasion Birthday Bling
Clear it out Challenge Birthday/use your bling 
Tuesday Throwdown Paper tearing 
Bunny Zoe's Crafts Celebrations 
Stampin' or the Weekend Bingo flowers/glitter,sparkle,/ribbon,bow 
DYSU Distress
Simon Says Stamp 3 Different Papers 


Copics used:
Hair/Boots: E25,E31,E50
Skin: E000,E00,E11,R00,R20
Overalls: BG10,BG11,BG23
Shirt: Y13,Y15,Y17,toned down with N1
Sleeves/headband: R20,R22,R24







Sunday, 26 February 2012

Tiddly Inks Sugar Kisses




















I made this card with an image from Tiddly Inks Stamps called Sugar Angel. Isn't she sweet with her bat wing heart kisses?!  The first Tiddly Inks digi I've colored. I love these images!
 My friend Jan stopped by the other night and as we drank green tea and chatted, I colored up Sugar Angel while Jan joined a blog hop at Totally Stampalicious(she won 3rd prize on that hop ! Yayyy Jan!). I also won one of the new images of Stella Peeker, released that weekend by sharing a link on my fb page! Yayyyy me!  Jan left some time after midnight as we were both pretty tired, and she had to work the next day but I decided I just needed to stay up and try to color Sugar Angel again in monochromatic colors. I was surprised how well that turned out even though I stayed up coloring until 2 A.M.
Besides using my favorite colors, I added a lot of sparkle and bling to this card because
Tiddly Inks Stamps Challenge Blog has a challenge going on right now that I of course  needed to be a part of...Sparkle It Up.  
I originally colored up Sugar Angel to play along in a challenge at Corrosive but I missed the deadline. When searching for challenges to enter this card into I was extremely happy to see that I could still enter my card and play along with Corrosive's challenge Blog going on right now...It's being sponsored by Tiddly Inks! Too kewl!



I'm also entering this card in the following challenges:
Scrappy Frog Challenge Blog Die cut 
The Craft Place Anything goes 
Crazy 4 Challenges 2 layers 
Die-ing for a challenge Anything goes
Crafty Catz  Something with B
Forever Night Challenges  Keep it dark
Craft Us Crazy Favorite colors
Delightful Sketches Pattern Paper 
Simon Says Stamp 3 pattern papers 
The sisterhood of crafters Getting digi with it 
Always Crafting Anything goes 
Moving Along With The Times Layers 
Truly Madly Crafty Bling and ribbon




Copics used:
Skin: E000,E00,E11,R00,R20
Hair: BV00,B02,BV04,T3
Shirt: YG00,YG01,YG03
Shorts: RV00, RV63,RV66
Bat wings: RV55,RV63,RV66,clear Spica pen
Bat hearts: BV23,BV25
Boots/stockings: C3,C5,C7

Thursday, 23 February 2012

Tickled Pink Nadine
















This digi stamp is called Nadine from Tickled Pink Stamps. These cute stamps are really fun and quirky! My friend Jan has a daughter named Nadine so that makes this fairy even more delightful. If you want to add some of these images to your collection, now is a good time as Kellie has a 24 hour-30-50% off sale going on!  Don't miss out.
I had so much fun creating this frosty, sparkly card with all the bling and shimmer.  I made my own background paper using dye inks, a metallic silver pen, white board solution, and a page protector.  I'll be adding a tutorial for the paper as soon as I get some time. It's so easy and so fun!
I was also excited to try out my new Memory Box dies and was elated that I could actually get them to work in my Cuttlebug. There were a few spots where the die wasn't cutting through but I just added a few strips of scotch tape over the back of the die to build it up in the low spots and it worked great. 
I added some sparkly ribbon, acrylic snowflakes, German glass, glittered brads,and lots of rhinestones to this card.


Challenges:
Cooking it up with Katie Favorite things 
Divas by Design #23 Bling it up 
Flutter By Wednesday #191
Paper Pretties #194 
The Sisterhood of Crafters Getting digi with it
DTC Make it sparkle
Tip Top Tuesday Magical mystical fantasy
Tuesday Throwdown #86 Blue
Paper Creations Ink #19 favorite technique
The Corrosive Challenge Blog Another Dimension #143
Allsorts #142 Anything Goes 
Digi Design Snow
One Stop Craft Challenge #170 your own background 
Craft Us Crazy Favorite things(bling) 
Christmas Crafting silver white blue
Crafter's Companion #21 Anything goes 
Cute Card Thursday Winged things








Copis Used:
Skin: E000,E00,E11
Hair: C3,C5,C7, C9
Wings: Boo,E11, B41,B45
Snowflake/Breath: Boooo, Boo 
Booties and eyeshadow: V12,V17,V15
Dress: RV10,RV55,RV66

Thursday, 16 February 2012

Kraftin Kimmie Monique Pins and Pearls















"I'll sing you of Hochtaler as we share a glass and whenever I sip it I'll say this wine's got class!"
Every time I look at this glitzy card, that jingle from the Hochtaler wine commercial plays in my head!
I designed this card for a challenge at Kraftin' Kimmie's stamps Blog and I couldn't wait to blog about it and share it. This week's theme is Pins and pearls.
This image of Monique was stamped with good o'l rubber!  I've been so captivated by my newly discovered and downloaded digi stamps, but these adorable Kraftin Kimmie stamps are just too fun not to want to color up.  I love my ever growing collection of them.

 I love the two tone hair color on Monique and I learned to do that by watching Amy from A thousand sheets of paper, color. You can watch this youtube video where she shares that technique. Very kewl!  Amy always seems to find the perfect paper to tell the story of her stamps, that I'm now calling her the Paper Whisperer!  I'm glad there's so many wonderful Copic artists out there wanting to share their knowledge because I am very willing to learn.  I really appreciate when artists share what colors they used. That was so useful to me as I started to build my Copic collection.  Another awesome artist who's work I admire is Cheryl Valadez from The Ink Trap.  Her layering and shading are awesome. Just amazing!  Just recently I stumbled across Melanie's blog from Paper Blessings.  I love the rich vibrant colors she uses to color up her images. Very striking!  Melanie colored up Monique with the little black tails on her red skirt, and when I saw that I knew that's how Monique's ruffles must be colored...because that's when the Hochtaler song first popped in my head. "Hey that's some kind of wine!" 
So back to my card, which I can say was inspired by all three of these talented artists!
I love pins in my cards and I made the two crystal and red ones. They really sparkle.  The swirly flowers were from a ribbon that I cut apart. The pearl and rhinestone star burst and acrylic hearts were embellishments I had been hoarding for a few years in my scrapbooking stash. It was fun to finally use them!  The paper is Bo Bunny Enchanted.
Monique is so Steampunk I just love her. I think this is my favorite of the three cards I posted this week.
I found a great quote on Pinterest that said,"Inspiration exists but it has to find you working" Pablo Picasso~ I found that out to be true.  I'm enjoying finding challenges to play along with because they're very motivational and most inspiring.



Challenges:
Kraftin Kimmie Pins and Pearls
Stampin With The Dragon #3 photo inspiration 
Allsorts Free and Easy 
Divas By Design Wings And Things 
DYSU Layers 
Simply Create Too Red Hot
One Crazy Stamper Love Is In The Air
Anything Goes Challenge Blog Bingo Board(distress,mychoice-bling, ribbon and lace)
Little Darlings Favorite Embellishments(bling)
Crafty Purple Frog Flower Power 
Papertake Weekly Black White And Red Allover 
Cute Card Thursday #204 Flower Power 
My Mums Craft shop Swirls And Pearls



Copics:
Skin: E00,E13,E21,,R00,R20
Hair: E50,E51,E53,W3,W5,W7
Reds: R27,R46,E59
Blacks: C3,C5,C7,C9
Cane: Y14,Y17

Kiss Me Darlink! Kenny K Mae Western















 Hi again!  I'm back with another card.  Isn't she a gorjuss image?!  Mae Western...A Kenny K downloads digi stamp that was so much fun to color.  Once again I really got in some good practice coloring the skin.  I love the Kenny K digis!  And I'd love to color up all the Krash Kittenz, as well as almost every other image Kenny has on his site!  I hadn't planned on making her bra straps sparkly but I had colored one strap brown thinking it was part of her hair and couldn't fix it so I just covered them both with stickles and ended up loving it better.  Well once I get the glitter out I just want to keep going with it but I restrained myself and only put a few highlights on her boots.
I designed this card for the challenge going on at Kenny K's Krafty Girlz. The theme this week is Three Red Hearts.
 The sentiment, "Kiss Me Darlink" was part of a Rocky and Bullwinkle rubber stamp of Boris and Natasha.(I taped over Boris and Natasha) It's one of the vintage stamps that I've had in my collection for over 20 years.  I was sorry I wasn't able to collect the complete line before they were discontinued by Rubber Stampede.  I'll never get rid of the 4 that I have as they're probably priceless by now!  I wasn't even able to google an image of the stamp to show you.  Was Rocky and Bullwinkle ever shown in the USA?   It was a very "Canadian show" and it rocked!...and when I say Canadian show, I'm not saying that like it was a good thing...lol.  Canadian T.V. has improved a ton in the last 15 years though...now that I'm coloring and blogging I rarely watch Television anymore.  If it wasn't for fb and Two peas in a bucket I'd never know what was going on.
My daughter Ashley took me to Michael's last week and I found that awesome pucker lip ribbon.  I knew that would be too fun to use on this card.  The paper is Echo Park Yours Truly.  The three little red heart brads were silver but I colored them with a red copic.  The metal piece is from SU.  I found the sparkly pink tulle on a spool at the dollar store.  Bunched up like that on the edges of the image made me think  Mae looked like a wrapped up delicious piece of candy.  So I decided this would be the perfect Valentine to give to my husband.  He's working away from home right now so it will still be a few more days till I can give this to him.  I hope he loves it!!

Challenges:
Kenny K's Krafty Girlz Three Red Hearts
Cooking It Up With Katie Metal Spooled
Crafting For All Seasons #20 Love Is In The Air
Crafts'n Me #71 Distressing
Fussy and Fancy Friday Show Some Love
Card Makin Mamas #38 Valentine
One Crazy Stamper Love Is In The Air
Allsorts 
Crafty Katz Valentine
Prairie Fairy Friday Let Me Call You Sweetheart
Digistamps4Joy Do It For Love
Totally Gorjuss #118 Lurve


Copics used
Skin: E00,E13,E21,R00,R20 W3,W5,W7
Hair: E50,E31,E25
Clothes: RV00,R81,R83,R85,R89
Gloves, gun, boots: C3,C5,C7

Wednesday, 15 February 2012

Make Mine Dirty! Stella Peeker











Hi again!  I haven't been feeling well for the last couple of weeks but I'm back finally and ready to blog up a storm.
First of all I just wanted to say thanks so much for all the delicious comments that were left for me!  I received so much delight in reading each and every one of them...a few times over!  So who knew that would be the best part of having a blog?  And of course just being able to share the things I've created is a ton of fun for me.  I'm a sharer.  I think most Cancers are.


This is the 5th image I've colored so far and  you were all so gracious with complimenting me on my coloring. I in turn want to give a shout out to the woman who I can say taught me how to color just from watching her Youtube videos.  Her name is Amy from Sweet November Stamps... and I'm sure most of you already know and love her!  Her blog is A Thousand Sheets of Paper. I've watched a few Copic artists color...kind of  leaving me feeling overwhelmed, but Amy's coloring method just made sense to me.  Her technique made all the blending almost effortless. You can watch her color here.  Sweet November Stamps Channel.  So a huge thank you, Amy... for getting my coloring to where it is now in such a short time!  I continue to be a sponge!


 I finally have a card to blog about again and I was so happy that I remembered how to make and  attach my watermark.  I think the pictures I took this time turned out a little better. I set up a little make shift photo booth...with very collapsible objects including  2 uneven box like things for my Ott light to balance on...because that's what I had available that was handy... and of course it all came tumbling down like a house of cards. I was trying to juggle cards, camera, display stand, and the Ott lamp but the only thing that didn't hit the floor was the camera. I'm going to have to come up with something to make that process all go a little easier for me next time.


I've been busy coloring for the last few days and I wanted to keep coloring now that I'm on a roll but decided I better stop to get these cards on my blog and enter them into some challenges.
This is a Bugaboo  digi stamp called Stella Peeker...Another Drink.  The Bugaboo character stamps just crack me up! The humor is just stupendous!  Ever since I made that card with the Bombshell diva in the cocktail glass it's become my momentary ambition to collect women in drinking glasses. I'll have to remember to post a picture of the fun gift I got from my girlfriend, Jan for Christmas. It's a large martini glass with a sassy diva sitting in it called a Hiccup Girl. One of my favorite things.  Like all great girlfriends, Jan is quite the enabler!  She's also the one who introduced me to Bugaboo and to this hilarious image of Stella Peeker.  As soon as she sent me the link for the stamp I bought it...then had to wait for it to arrive in the mail.  The digi didn't come with the great sentiment, "Make Mine Dirty" so I ordered the rubber edition from Totally Stampalicious. The rubber image of Stella was a little smaller than what I like to work with on my 6x6 cards so I also bought her as a digi stamp which is what I used here. Then I had to wait a couple of weeks to color her up because I didn't have the wonderful dark yellow green copics that I wanted to use on the olives. So finally here she is...  Stella Peeker in all her olives and  glory!

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:
Catch The Bug Challenge
Simon Says Stamp And Show Anything Goes
Craft Us Crazy #20 Anything Goes
Allsorts  
More Than Favors  #65 Circles
Pennys Papers #73 Anything Goes
Digital Tuesday Challenge #137 Use Your Stash
Stamp n Doodle Food/Drink
Stamps R Us Anything Goes
Truly Madly Crafty Ribbon and Bling



Copics used:
Skin: E000,E00,E11,R00,R22
Hair: W1,W3,W5
Shoes: E59,W9
Dress: E07,E09,E18
Olives: YG93,YG95,YG97,  E07,E09
Glass: BG0000, 0
Booze: E81, 0