Thursday, January 30, 2014

Card Factory

Stamp, stamp. Cut, cut. Glue, glue.  Assembly line card making can be very relaxing!  It is also just the thing when, all of a sudden, you find yourself needing lots of cards very quickly!  I followed a video tutorial here and made just a few alterations (colors, sentiments, etc). 


All products are from Stamping Up.  It's a pretty and versatile design.  

Have a good night!  I'm looking forward to the weekend!  How about you?

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Let's Play!


Another snow day, another card!



Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday challenge is to create something humorous and use Paper Smooches stamps (yeah!!).  So, thinking about the stamps that I had, this is what I came up with.  Yes, I know it's another "buried in snow" scene, but have you looked out your window??


Here is poor Kitty buried in the snow and feeling pretty unhappy about the whole thing, while Fido is totally ready to play. I can just see him barking and wagging his tail wondering why Kitty won't play.  Kitty is thinking, ' Ugh! Get me out of here!'  

 I used Paper Smooches' Chubby Chums but altered the kitty's eyebrows to show a bit more displeasure.  Fido's hat is from the PS set Merry Motifs.  Both are colored with Spectrum Noir markers.



 Here is kitty getting her eyebrows altered.
 She was looking way too happy.  I tried masking but it worked best to just wipe the ink off before I stamped.  Then I just drew an angrier version on!


I will enter this in both the SSS Wednesday Challenge and the Paper Smooches Anything Goes SPARKS Challenge. Please stop by each of these awesome sites and check out the fantastic work there!
 
Thanks for stopping by!

Sunday, January 19, 2014

Card in a Box

I finally finished this card for the wonderful young woman who works as our assistant in my grade level.  She has been an enormous help since our class sizes are large this year. I saw a few of these kinds of cards on Pinterest and viewed this tutorial. I wanted to make something bright and happy and sunshiney! All of the products, except for the card stock card base (SU) are from Lawn Fawn.   I water-colored with Distress Markers and cut out each critter.  The dies are on my wish list! I will make a custom envelope for this but it does fit in a standard card sized envelope.  Pretty cute, huh?!


Winter Blues...

Happy Sunday!
I wanted to show you my new little space.  I had to get out of our basement.  It was just too chilly and there is very little natural light.  At this time of year the lack of sunshine really gets to me.  Recently, our oldest daughter moved into an apartment so I grabbed the opportunity to move a work table into her empty bedroom.  There is a double window that overlooks our backyard and the room gets wonderful morning sunshine.  I'm thrilled to be able to have a happy spot to work in!

Monday, January 6, 2014

Tickled!

What do you know?  I was chosen as one of the "Featured Players" on the Paper Smooches Anything Goes Challenge for last week.  Check out my entry here (and below). I'm just tickled pink about the whole thing!

Friday, January 3, 2014

Warm Thoughts on a Snowy Day

We woke up to about seven inches of snow and very cold, windy temperatures!  We were lucky compared to many people. My husband and I were fortunate not to have to work today, but my son had to get in.  We all bundled up and, with shovels in hand, went to dig him out of a very long, snowy driveway.  

You can guess my inspiration for this card.  We are all thinking warm thoughts today!

                                     WARM THOUGHTS



 I am entering this card in the Paper Smooches Sparks Challenge, Anything Goes.

The boots are from the Paper Smooches set, Green Thumb.  I tried a technique called 'mirror stamping' so that I could have a pair of snow boots!  The snowflakes are from two different Paper Smooches sets, Swanky Snowdudes and Merry Motifs.  The sentiment is from Sentiment Sampler.  





Mirror Stamping Technique
 Basically, you use another stamp and place it on your block wrong side up.  You have to use a stamp with very little empty spaces.  I used another Paper Smooches stamp from the Promenade set.  It took a couple of tries.You have to be careful not to let it slip.  Coloring and outlining the image after stamping covers up any imperfections! 

The image on the bottom right is the original stamped image.




Stay warm!
Mary

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Smile! Pillow Box Gift Card Holders

Happy New Year, everyone!

One of the presents to myself this Christmas was a bunch of stamps from Purple Onion Designs.  I fell in love with Stacey Yacula's designs when I saw them on Kay Miller's blog.  They are so sweet! Since I also was good enough to order new Distress Markers as well, I felt I owed it to myself to purchase some of the winter stamps titled, The Sweetest Season, to practice coloring!  



It was so much fun coloring and creating these little gift tags.  I'm totally sold on these stamps!

Hope your new year is filled with good things!
Mary