Birthday Girl

Happy Sunday. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and a fun "Black Friday" weekend! I ended up getting sick on Thursday night. So...shopping was NOT part of my Friday morning. Although I will honestly say...I am not a big fan of Black Friday shopping. Especially since you can get most of the store door busters on the store's website. I did go out for dinner Friday night and stopped at a couple stores, but most of the craziness was done by then. That, and how many people seriously shop at Harbor Freight Tools? lol...which by the way is a super scary store! I felt so out of place there. Well, I did get some projects done this weekend. I cut some more of the trees for the project for my MOPS group, and made my example for that. I also got this card done... I made this using the Buffalo Stamps and Stuff sketch challenge. So this is the first of MANY birthday cards you will see from me over the next couple weeks. We have 5 birthdays in the month of December just on my side of the family! I of course volunteered to make cards for both my dad and mom to give each person, and I need some from me. Oh, and there is an anniversary in December too. Now the best part...they are all in the same week! lol So for the first of many b-day cards, I used this adorable Birthday Girl image from QKR Stampede. I started with a yellow CS base, and layered the PP from Cosmo Cricket onto that. I used a piece of yellow CS and some yellow felt ribbon (from SEI) on that. I colored the image with colored pencils and layered it onto a purple CS circle. Last, I added the sentiment, which is from the Happy Birthday set from QKR Stampede. This set comes with 4 different sentiments.
Well that is all for now. Thanks for stopping by!

Bathing Frog

Here is a card I made for two different challenges. First, I used this week's Buffalo Stamps and Stuff Sketch. I also am using this card for this week's Cupcake Craft Challenge, which is 2 papers, 2 ribbons, and 2 flowers. Notice the 2 of everything...well that is because they are celebrating their 2nd birthday! They are offering all sorts of extra prizes this week, and a little DT blog hop. Check it out HERE. Well here is my card.I used this adorable bathing frog image from QKR Stampede. I just think he is so cute. I colored him with markers and souffle pens. I layered him onto some green checkered PP. For the background, I used some swirly green PP from the same stack as the checkered PP. For the middle of the BG, I used 2 ribbons that I layered onto one another. Last, I added 2 green flowers, and used a green crystal to the center. So...2 papers, 2 ribbons, and 2 flowers!

Well that is it for now. Thanks for stopping by!

Creative Belli Challenge #97 - Paint

Hi there! Today is a new challenge over at the Creative Belli Challenge Blog. This week our challenge for you is "Paint"...yes paint. Now...how you paint or what you paint with is what we want to see. HOWEVER, keep in mind the "spirit" of the Creative Belli Challenge...to use something you already have in your stash...we are all about grabbing that thing you bought months ago and never used, or haven't used in a long time. It is so easy to buy the latest and greatest new embellishments, stamps, or papers...but forget about last years new greatest. Believe me...I saw lots of new stuff I "need" from previews and photos of CHA from last week! Well here is my version of "Paint". I also included a little how-to in today's post. This is one of the first times I have done a step-by-step photo how-to. I usually forget to take my camera down to the craft room with me...lol. Here is my finished product. I started by stamping this adorable image from QKR Stampede with black ink. I then got into my painting. So here is my "how-to"...lol. This first photo shows everything you need to do this painting technique (which I learned at a class at my LSS). I haven't used my liquid pearls in a while, so I thought this would be a fun way to use them...and paint!So...a paintbrush, a ceramic tile, ink pads, liquid pearl, and a mister bottle.Step 1: Add some ink to the tile by pressing the ink pad to the tile. You don't need a lot of ink, just depends on how big the area you need to paint. Step 2: Add a small drop of liquid pearl to the inked up area. White liquid pearl seems to work best...since you already have the ink color.Step 3: Using your mister bottle, lightly spray the tile and liquid pearl. Do not over spray...it will wash out the color. Probably 1 or 2 light mists is plenty. You can always add more if needed.Step 4: Using your paint brush, mix the ink and liquid pearl together into a nice water paint like consistency. Step 5: PAINT!!!!!Here is a close up of a small painted area. As you can see, the mixture adds sparkle to your painted area. It is a was to add shimmer without glitter.
I used this technique to paint the balloons on my image. For the rest of the image, I used this technique...
I used ink pads and aqua painters. Once the image had dried enough (which really doesn't take long), I layered it onto a pink piece of CS that I ran through the cuttlebug. I added some ribbon, and some glittery brads too. The sentiment is also from QKR Stampede.

I thought I should add that this sketch I used was from my LSS's Blog. They have a new sketch challenge every Friday. This is the one from 7/23, so I am a little late...lol.

Fluffy Flower

So I was going to wait until Thursday to share this card with you, but I forgot I already had another card ready for Thursday...lol. So...I made this card for 2 challenges...both of which are from my LSS's blog Buffalo Stamps and Stuff. On Fridays they have been posting sketch challenges, and on each Monday they post a technique type challenge. Well I was able to combine both challenges for this week into one card. The technique this week was to make a crimped boarder. So basically, punch with a boarder punch and then run it through a crimper. I have a crimper, but haven't used it in a very long time. I had to dig for it actually...lol. Well here is the card I came up with.I started with this flower image from QKR Stampede. It is actually just part of a stamp...I just trimmed the other flowers off. The image is called smiling flowers. It is actually one of the first stamps I picked when I was chosen to be on the QKR Stampede DT. I thought it would be fun to change it up a bit, and just use one of the 3 flowers on the stamp. I colored it with marker, and instead of coloring the center, I covered it with flower soft. The PP's are all from TAC's Miss Moxie collection. You can see the crimped boarder on here too! The sentiment is also from QKR Stampede. Well that is it for now! Thanks for stopping by....OH and don't forget, if you are not a fan of QKR Stampede on Facebook yet...now is the time to do it! Each week in August, Maribeth will be giving one lucky fan a free stamp of their choice!

Congrats on the Engagement

Well we got some good news this past weekend. My sis-in-law got engaged! Her and her fiance have been together for 6 years, so we know him very well, and we are very excited for them. My girls are also very excited since this means they get to be in another wedding. Well I wanted to make a cute little card for her to congratulate her on the engagement. I decided to use the sketch from my LSS's blog (Buffalo Stamps and Stuff). The just started posting sketch challenges, which I just love sketch challenges...lol. They also have other challenges on Mondays that are more of technique challenges. I don't always get to play along, but I do like to see the ideas and what can be done with them. Well here is my card using the sketch from Friday.
I purchased the daisy PP to use for a gift back in April. I liked it so much I bought 2 sheets of it. I stamped the sentiment from a SU set with green ink to go with the center of the daisies. The bottom squares are images from another SU set. I stamped with pink ink, and colored them in using the aqua painter and the same ink pad. I also colored the center green with the aqua painter. I used my cricut to cut the "congrats" out of the same PP. Well that is it...very simple! Now...I need to start thinking of wedding invite ideas...she wants me to make them! I am sooooo excited. I have a couple ideas, but need to start putting together a few to show her. Any ideas from you guys are greatly appreciated! I am thinking vellum and ribbon and flourishes. Just gotta put it all together now. As I come up with ideas I will probably be sharing with you, and asking for thoughts. Thanks so much!