Fairy Tabia

Hello All! We just returned from another trip back to NY. This weekend our task was to complete the painting of our son's old room and it looks great! Funny how everything comes together when you decide to move on and yet while you're there you have a never ending "honey do" jar. I completed this card for my niece's birthday before we left in the hopes that I could deliver it in person but I was only lucky enough to leave it with her parents.

I had been cruising my regular blogs last week and came across a gorgeous image on PaulaBella's blog. She explained that she had visited Mo's store The Digital Pencil Too. Mo sells digital images. She is an illustrator of children's books and has made images available for you to download, color and incorporate into your art projects. Be prepared to ooh and ahh. The images are gorgeous. So lifelike and full of spunk! I quickly got my credit card out and bought a few. Here's my first...Fairy Tabia.



I simply downloaded the digital image into Photo manager on my computer and then copied it into word. I sized it so that I could fit four to a 8 1/2 x 11 inch page. Then I printed it onto my Neenah Classic Crest Solar White. I was concerned how Copics would work with the HP ink but I was very impressed. There wasn't any bleeding and the printer gave a nice crisp image without the mess of inking a stamp, cleaning it, possibly rocking it and smudging the impression, and then storing them. Loved it!! I was leary at first but they've got me sold.

Now onto the details. Tabia was colored with Copics but I highlighted her wings and bubbles with Angel Wings Shimmerz. How perfect is that? The stars on her skirt were filled in with a Silver Gel pen. Here's a better look at all the sparkles.



A shimery bow, sparkly DP and silver embossing powder complete the glittery effect.

Are you sold yet?

Have a great week and thanks for stopping by!

Cath

Details:

Image: The Digital Pencil Too - Fairy Tabia, Sentiment by Stamping Bella
Ink: HP printer for image colored with Copics
Paper: Neenah Classic Crest Solar White, AC colored cardstock, Me and My Big Ideas DP
Accessories: Nestabilities Classic Squares, Angel Wings Shimmerz, Gel Pen, Silver Dew drops, silver brad, VersaMark and silver embossing powder, heat gun, dimensionals and organza ribbon

Sparkly Thanks

I bought some new paper from my local Scrapbook store Destination Marysville last week. They were still celebrating their Grand Opening and I wanted to see what else they might have gotten in. I hit the jack pot with some sparkly paper, Cosmo Cricket, and some great red and opaque snowflakes. My reciept was entered into their gift give away and I got a call on Friday that that receipt won. I picked up my gift but believe it would be better used for Scrapbookers so it looks like my Sissy gets another Chirstmas Gift.

This card uses two complimentary sheets of design paper from Piggy Tales. They're from the la belle et la bete collection. One side is a plain color and the other is glittered. The back of the pink is orange with hot pink glittered flourishes. The back of the orange is the hot pink medallians with orange glitter. I simply cut circles from the repeating pattern, added a scrumptuous hot pink satin ribbon, a Stampin Up! sentiment on Nestabilities Labels 1 and raised the medallians with dimensionals. Pretty simple and very little stamping. Love the bright colors - the photo does not do the glitter justice.

Card Details:
Paper: Piggy Tales, Neenah Solar White
Stamps: Stampin Up! Sincere Salutations
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: Double Faced Satin ribbon dimensionals, Nestabilities Labels One and circles

Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy your day!

Thank Yous Galore

Hello Everyone! I can't believe another week has flown by. I had intended to do a midweek post but I just didn't get there. I even had the pictures taken but by the time I get home, get dinner going and finally sit it's almost time for me to hit the hay. Anyway, last weekend I spent a great deal of time on some much needed thank yous. I was so excited about all my birthday gifts and wanted to express my gratitude to everyone. Of course, I couldn't do it the easy way and create just one, that gets boring, so I made a few different ones. Some were mailed last week the rest will be this week. You won't know which one is coming your way so I'm not totally spilling the beans.

Tranquil Turquoise



Silke Ledlow does alot of white on white cards. I was inspired by a card I saw on her blog to give it a try. I love the result. It's simple looking, not a lot of layers or colors, and yet there is alot going on. First, I used my Scor-pal to create the indentation lines at the top of the card. Next, I used my paper piercer to create the line at the bottom. I used a vintage brad inside a one hole button to create the embellishment at the top. The flowers were all hand cut and placed on dimensionals. Not a lot of coloring for this one - yet there is color. I purposely used a flower stamp that would fill with color rather than me coloring since I knew that I would have a great deal of cutting. And that's the jist of this one!

Grapefully Thankful



This is another Silke inspired card. I again used the Scor-Pal to create the embosed weave at the top of the white insert. I used this tuitorial from Amy Sheffer and it made this daunting task VERY easy. I used my Fiskars leaf border punch for the bottom. I little stamping for the grapes and sentiment as well as a little coloring with my Copics brought your eye full circle between the background, ribbon and main image.

This was my first try at doing a decorative hat pin. I loved the way they embellish a card, bought all the parts a while ago, but just never found a project that it fit with. I thought it would be great with this one. Besides, Silke used one on her card and I thought it looked yummy! It's pretty easy to do. You just layer beads and silver accents and clip it with a bead crimper so that it doesn't slide apart.

ThankFALLy



This is a duplicate of the previous card but I used fall colors and an EK Success punch. The pendant image is from Hero Arts and I just stamped it three times - once in Memento Tuxedo Black, once in Pumpkin Spice Versa Magic and the top layer is ColorBox Amber Clay Chalk Ink. I then cut the top two to layer this and make it look more like a real flower. I simple brad is holding it all together. The Thank you sentiment is from a larger SU sentment stamp. I simply inked only this portion and stamped it using my Stamp-a-ma-jig. (First you stamp on vellum, place the stamp-a-ma-jig (SAMJ) up to your stamp, remove the stamp and mark the outline of it so you'll know where to place the SAMJ the next time - then place the vellum over the area you want, put your stamp-a-ma-jig down over the stamp outline, slide the vellum out and place your stamp down. It should fit perfectly. Ok this sounds pretty easy but executing is a little tricky! I had never actually done this before but again had all the tools to do it. Yesterday was a day of trying new things. I've learned that I am great at buying so that I have all the latest and greatest tools but I'm frightened to try them out. It took me three times before I got it somewhat right - don't look too closely. Linda, I know that you will anyway so this excludes you. But at least I tried and am happy with the result.)

Ok - this is way longer than I intended. See, I should have had the mid week post. I'd like to get to some more stamping so I'll return to update all the supplies a little later.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cath

Dual SFYTT

Hello everyone and Happy Sunday - again! Do you see the pattern here? Guess you could say I'm more of a weekend warrior. Anyway, hope you all are enjoying your weekend. I spent a great deal of the day yesterday making cards. After being on the road last weekend I had some catching up to do.

We recently had a new Scrapbooking store open in town (Destination Marysville) and I wanted to send a card to the owner to wish her well. I turned to Jen del Muro's SFYTT to give me the bones. It's much easier to have a layout to follow and just pick the papers, embellishments and stamps. Another great tip I've learned searching my favorite blogs, is to use the papers that coordinate from paper packs so that they automatically go together. It saves a heck of a lot of time trying to find the right color shade to compliment single sheets.

Flowahbella was colored using Copics and touched up with Prismacolor pencils and gamsol. The little shamrock in the good luck sentiment was colored with Green Apple Smooch. Smooch is a Pearlized Accent Ink that looks like nail polish and comes with a very thin applicator. I love it! I've seen these forsale on some internet sites but I was lucky to have found this one at Photo Scraps while I was on vacation in Maryland last weekend. I'm sooo glad I bought it - it's very fun to use.

Here's a peek at the inside...



I generated the sentiment panel on my computer using the LD QuickNote font. The scallop border was made using a Fiskars scallop punch that also had circles punched out but the turquoise paper covers them up.

Onto Card Number 2



I made another card using the same layout and it has a totally different feel. This is a Halloween card that I started with my niece McKenz last weekend. I bought a clear Halloween set from Impression Obsession while at the Novi Rubber stamp convention. I thought it was so different and would be great for my bigger kids. Wait till you see some of the other images that I haven't inked up yet! Anyway, for this one, I remembered some feather "flowers" that I picked up from Hobby Lobby last year for 90% off at the end of the season. I bought them because I thought they would look great in a vase for the fall season. But I also believe they look neat with this image. The stamp has tendrils that flow down from the pumpkin and it reminded me of feathery masks and such. I simply stamped the image twice and cut the bowl out to place over the feather ends to cover them up.

The papers are from Martha Stewart and we got these for 50% off last weekend from Michaels. I love traveling simply to visit new stores...it seems that each region carries its own merchandise patterns and lines. I miss all the choices and feel very limited in Michigan. UGHH. I guess that means that I'll have to travel more frequently. He he! Ok, on to the card.

The bats came from my EK Success Bat Border punch. I simply recycled some for this card. The Halloween sentiment is from a pack of Holiday Clear Sentiments I picked up from Target last year. They say by Marcella K but if you look at the back they are really by K&Company and that must be the name they use to distribute for Target stores. A strand of paper cording I purchased in the jewelry section is wrapped around a brad to hold the sentiment panel onto to the card. I had to use Black StazOn ink for the sentiment to get the full image to transfer to the paper. That's the one thing that I find hard with clear stamps, sometimes ink has a hard time adhering to the whole image and it leaves an impression that looks splotchy. The StazOn had a nice clean transfer - yeah!

Anyway, I like the way this turned out and can see me making this card again for the rest of the "girls" this halloween.

I also have a few more pictures of my new nephew Jack that I thought I would share.

Here he is with my niece McKenz holding him on Labor Day.



Here he is all on his own - 4 days old and sleeping soundly. He did alot of that while we visited. I guess being born is pretty exhausting!



Hope you enjoy the rest of your day and thanks for looking.

Cath


Card Details:

Flowahbella
Stamps: Flowahbella and Good Luck sentiment from Stamping Bella
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black and Copics (along with Prismacolor pencils and gamsol for blending)
Paper: Neenah White, Bazzil Gold cardstock, AC Turquoise cardstock, K&Company Wild Raspberry DP
Accessories: Green Apple Smooch, Brenda Walton adhesive rhinestones, dimensionals, Nestabilities square, large and small circles, Labels 4, Fiskars border punch, computer font LD Quick Note

Halloween Wishes
Stamps: Impression Obsession and Marcella K
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black and Copics for the main image panel, Jet Black StazOn for the sentiment
Paper: Neenah White, Bazzil Black, Martha Stewart DP
Accessories: Nestabilities large and small circles, EK Success bat border punch, feathers, brads by the Paper Studio, Bella paper cording by Darice, dimensionals, Art Glitter glue

New Baby Jack is Here!!!

Hello everyone and Happy Sunday. Our Labor Day visit with my sister Linda has had an added bonus - my younger sister went into labor and Jack arrived at 5:30pm on Thursday, September 3rd. We went to the hospital to see the newest nephew yesterday and I thought I would share a picture of my niece Madison holding him along with the card I made for his arrival.



We didn't know what sex the baby was going to be so I had both pink and blue stuff packed and quick made this while drinking a margarita on the back deck Friday afternoon. I was quite pleased with the result! Linda brought me to a great scrapbooking store outside of Baltimore in the town of Eldersburg, MD called PhotoScraps. As a card maker, I was stunned by how much stuff was available for me. There were Unity stamps, Stamping Bella, Hero Arts, Smooch, Glimmer Mist, Copics, Nestabilites, tons of My Minds Eye paper, Cosmo Cricket, Bazzil cardstock in about 100 colors...it just took me away. We only got to play for about an hour as the men were with us. They found a gin mill in the same plaza but we also had to get back to pickup the kids from school. Anyway, I picked up the papers for this card there since I brought so much more of my pink supply.

The Booties stamp is mounted wood from Inkadinkado. I purchased this from the new Scrapbook store in Michigan called Destination Marysville. Connie just opened on Tuesday, the 1st and of course I had to check it out. She had a small selection of stamps and I bought this to use for my newest niece or nephew's card. I loved the size of it (about 2 1/2 x 2 inches). The sentiment tag was made from a round wooden stick from Judith (also purchased on clearance just for Jack from PhotoScraps - they only had one and it just happened to be the Boy stamp - Yeah!) Linda used my Blue Sky Glimmer Mist to add some color and texture and then highlighted it with Jumbo Java VersaMagic. I loved it!

On to the details...

Paper: My Minds Eye DP, Bazzil cardstock, Neenah Classic Crest Solar White
Stamps: Inkadinkado, Judith
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copics, and Jumbo Java VersaMagic
Accessories: Creative Cafe Fuzzy brads, Nestabilities Large and Small Ovals, and Tags 5, dimensionals and hemp twine from Close to my Heart, Blue Sky Glimmer Mist

Hope y'all have a great Holiday weekend and thanks for looking!

Love Ya,
Cath

Arghhh....Ahoy Matey!

Hello Everyone! Happy midweek or over the hump day. I have a quick card to share with you. I needed a birthday card to send to my nephew. While he loves skulls, I'm not so fond of them. I caved and decided that I could settle on a pirate theme. I had picked up some glitter rub ons after the Halloween season last year. I am definately more of a stamper but these looked irresistable. Remembering where I put them was more of a challenge. Armed with rub ons I only had to play with paper. I saw this color scheme in blog land and just loved it.

The black glossy design paper is from Me and My Big Ideas but the red and green papers are from Martha Stewart. My sentiment is from Stamping Bella and I used Close to My Heart white craft ink. To give the sentiment "flag" some extra love I used dimensionals. This card was pretty easy once I had the colors picked. On the inside I stamped a tall ship and colored it with my Copics. I would have shared it with you but I had already signed it and I didn't think you would want to see my personal birthday wishes.

Hope you enjoy the rest of your week.

Love Ya,
Cath