Happy Tree

I just love this tree stamp! This is in the Unity September kit of the month, and it's one of the larger stamps in the kit. This card is a 5x7. Which I don't make often, but sometimes you just have to! :)

I made this card following a Facebook sketch challenge, which is now over. Even though this image came out with other Autumn stamps and sentiments, it can be used year 'round depending on how you color it. I think it's just darling, with it's simplistic style and those sweet stars hanging from it's limb.

This is stamped onto watercolor paper, colored with markers, then a wet brush to blend the colors out. I went with a yellow outline to make it look like the sun setting behind it. The papers in the background I bought last year, and is in my 'fall colors' stash. I had to add some rustic twine for texture, and a few enamel dots to finish. The spots in the background were made by tapping my paint brush when it had brown ink on it.

Now I need to make or buy some 5x7 envelopes so I can get to mailing this!! Thank you for having a look!

Messy Watercolor

I haven't been posting much as of late, so I thought I should do some catching up on some of the art I've been making. My job has kept me busy this month, working nights, overnights, and back to mornings then nights again. There has been so much to do, and we still have some catching up to do. Many changes have been going on, and now my home life may be taking a huge change. Now, I like changes, change is a good thing. But it's those abrupt changes that throw me off, and it takes me awhile to adjust. I will get there eventually, just have to keep my head high!

Anyway, this 8x6 page was made for fun. Just playing with my watercolor paints one day. This large leaf/feather image is from Unity, and I began this page by stamping it with a blackberry color ink. Then I just painted on some watercolors in various colors all around. I spritzed the stamped image with water, and well....it just spread out leaving hardly any image remaining.

So, I stared at it for awhile, and decided to stamp the image again on top of the mess, and heat emboss in white. I didn't use a stamp positioner, just a very large block, so it didn't quite line up perfectly. But after I heat embossed it, it created a bit of a shadow, and I thought that was a very happy accident!

Then I added some washi tape to the one corner, stamped around the edge, and then stamped a matching sentiment, both from Unity. Another page done to add into my journal!

Thanks so much for your visit!

Pumpkin Kitty

I'm playing with the Your Next Stamp Box Full of Cuteness stamp set again! I've followed the sketch for the YNS challenge #73:

There are so many uses for this cute stamp set, because each image only has it's head and feet, so you can make them pop out of anything. I knew the kitty would be perfect for a Halloween card, so I made a pumpkin with a circle and oval punch. The kitty is colored with Tombow markers onto watercolor paper, and fussy cut out.

I die cut an oval from a retired C.C. Designs set, sponged on some oxide ink, and die cut the grass border from YNS. I glued the grass across the oval, then hand cut off the rest. I chose some Fall themed paper, and went with a darker yellow card base.

I don't have any YNS sentiment stamps that would go with this, so I used the YNS hello die. I die cut it four times, glued them all together, then clear embossed it all with two layers. After I assembled the card, I added some YNS gumdrop enamel shapes.

I think it's really cute, and perfect for the Fall season. Thanks so much for your visit!

Laugh Out Loud

Isn't that sentiment cute?! I made this card following the 'Animals' theme for the monthly Paper Smooches challenge:

I watched a video from Jennifer McGuire where she stamped on acetate and used it as a window on a card. I thought it was fun, and something different to do. My acetate window isn't stamped though, they are positive and negative die cuts from the PS Birch Trees die, and I glued them on top. The stitched frame dies are retired from C.C. Designs. This was the easy part...

The cute animals are from the PS Party Posse stamp set. My original plan was to color them with alcohol markers. Well, it wasn't a good coloring day for me, so I decided to go with my tombow markers. I made the mistake of not stamping onto watercolor paper, so that was a failure too. Oh, and in between all that I was trying to mirror stamp the dino so they would be facing each other.

So after an hour of messing with that, I decided to just stamp onto some cute papers, emboss them, and no mirror stamping. So I stamped and fussy cut, and paper pieced the turtle. Since I didn't have a mirrored image, I played around with how they were going to sit in that window area. Stacked up was it, and I think they look so cute that way :)

Then it was time to look for a sentiment, and this one from the PS Group Hugs was perfect! Now it was time for assembly. I chose the blue paper for behind the trees, and glued it to the acetate piece. It looked very cold and winter-like, so to warm it up, I chose a soft yellow card base. I glued down the window layer.....upside down!!!! So I had to cut it off and make another card base.

And finally I had the card done! It didn't go smoothly at all, but I was determined to finish it!! And I am very pleased with the end result. So all the frustration was worth it :) Thanks so much for your visit!

Sweet Hello

I made this card following the sketch for the Your Next Stamp challenge:

This cute Girl is from the YNS stamp set called Ellie Loves Lattes. I used YNS Black Olive ink and stamped her onto Bristol 300 paper and colored her with Copic markers from the Floral Favorites set. I stamped the to go cup all over the card base, and layered on top a piece of patterned paper from the YNS Crazy for Coffee paper pad. The sentiment is stamped with Vintage Photo Distress Oxide ink and punched out. I popped that up on foam squares and added some matte YNS gumdrops at the bottom.

I won all these products from the YNS blog hop when they were sponsoring the Coffee Lovers Blog Hop. I love all these! And I can't go without my coffee in the morning! :)

30 Day Coloring Challenge

I have seen many people join the 30 day coloring challenge at The Daily Marker, but this is my first time joining in. 

For my first entry, I have used this cute image from C.C. Designs called Autumn's Mum. She is stamped onto Canson XL watercolor paper using My Favorite Things black hybrid ink. I wanted to use my Tombow markers, and I am still learning the shading and blending with them. I don't have any dark blue, so I used Faded Jeans Distress marker on her pants. They react very similarly to the Tombow's.

I had a little trouble getting her hair just right, but I'll keep practicing! Once I dried her, I fussy cut her out. I kept the card very simple with few embellishments. I did break out my Cuttlebug stitching border embossing folder. I haven't used them for years! There is buttons, dots, florals and vines that came in this set, and I need to use them more often ;)

The sentiment is from the C.C. Designs Happy Sentiments set, and put it at the top to take up some blank space.

Thanks for visiting, and I will try to add some more images for this challenge!