Awesome to the Core Teacher Appreciation Card

While I've been traveling and moving a lot of things kinds of fell by the wayside. One of those things was Teacher Appreciation Week. I'm so grateful for the teachers my boys have been lucky enough to learn from, and I figure late is better than never... 

I started off with the new sketch from Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge. I combined it with some inspiration from this week's Muse Challenge: I pulled the grey from the elephant for the apple basket, the yellow and pale blue elements for my color combo, the stars which I moved into the washi tape, and I added the leaves scattered about the main image like the original stars. The stamp set I used is a sneak peek of the June Stamp of the Month, which isn't quite available yet.

I colored the apples with my Shin Han Markers. I used the fine tip of the Pastel Green marker to pull color from the Leaf Green and Carmine markers to make the speckled apple surface. I paper pieced the basket of apples with papers from Central Park (blue grid and yellow sunburst) and Fresh Air (grey wood print) paper packets. I couldn't capture it with my photos, but the sunburst paper and the AWESOME sentiment banner are outlined with shimmer pen for a little extra something something. 

I hope you'll hop on over to Atlantic Hearts to play along with this week's adorable sketch!

Day 278: Joyous Holiday Santa Card

Today was a fun day! We rook the boys out to our neighborhood Turkey Trot. Nothing like a brisk 3 mile walk in the freezing cold to remind you how very, very grateful you are for the restored electricity and heat in your home. The boys alternated whining about being tired with requests to climb the rock wall at the end of our route. We finished dead last, but this year we did finish, with no boys peeling off to head home halfway through the trot, so I'm calling it a success! 

After the Trot, the boys helped decorate our living room with the snowflakes we cut last week - literally every wall is covered with them. Then after preparing (and eating) a lovely gluten free Thanksgiving meal (roasted turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, roasted brussel sprouts, homemade cranberry sauce, and onion gravy) I found a few minutes to play with this week's Freshly Made sketches challenge.

You're going to see more from me with this adorable Reindeer Bells stamp set. That Santa was so fun and quick to color!I added a few snowflakes around him, and some clear Wink of Stella to his coat fur trim. I couldn't resist fussy cutting him out and popping him up with a bit of thin foam tape.

This is my sweet family at our morning Turkey Trot. So much to be thankful for today...hope you had a great day too, Stampin' Friends!

Day 147: Sweet Koala Card

After getting back from our Disney adventure after Convention I was excited to clear off my table and get my fingers inky. 

I saw the new sketch from CAS(E) this sketch and thought of that sweet Cute Koalas set with the koala climbing the tree. I embossed a White Daisy Panel with the Hearts folder. I mounted the embossed panel onto Desert Sand Cardstock. I stamped him onto a panel of White Daisy Cardstock using brown memento ink, then I colored him using Shin Han Markers and a Spectrum Blender. I added a touch of woodgrain washi tape and a quick bit of machine stitching. 

You might be wondering where my posts are on what I made for my Convention presentation or what we made for create and take... and I am planning on sharing. However, CTMH has asked us not to share artwork using new products until the new idea book goes live September 1st. So you can take a peek at my Facebook or Instagram for the sneak peeks, and I'll be blogging my secret projects soon. 

In the meantime, don't forget about this awesome Jump On It July special where you can get Hostess Rewards stamp sets that are usually only available for party hostesses for just $5!

Day 88: Oh Snap Graduation Card

I'm getting ready to ship off a graduation gift for my niece. The fact that I'm doing this before her graduation alone is a small miracle. I'm notoriously bad at going to the Post Office for anything. Tonight I whipped up a quick but snappy graduation card to include in the package. (I love puns. I'm sorry...but not. Mostly I'm chortling all by myself in the basement stamp room. Ahem.)

I didn't have a lot of stamping time today, so I used the new Freshly Made Sketches #187 as a shortcut to a cute card fast. This week's Friday Mashup Challenge was to make a card for a celebration using orange, navy, and teal. Check and check!

I thought that this Artbooking Cricut cut was perfect for my niece, since she's a bit sassy herself. I colored each piece with Shin Han markers for an ombre fade. I painted the back with some Clear Wink of Stella, then I mounted the top layer with foam tape. I used this tutorial and a fork to create the mini tassel for the "hat". I added the metallic stripes in the background using nail striping tape, which is fast becoming one of my favorite things! I'm linking this grad card up to the Paper Issues Let's Get This Party Started linky.

Now the package is ready to hit the Post Office... 

tomorrow...right...tomorrow. Or soon anyways, I'm sure, right, sis? 

Day 76: Friend You're Berry Special Card

Here's the third of my Taste of Summer cards. I am fully craving strawberries at this point, and it is not yet strawberry season here!

Working off the cute new Freshly Made Sketches challenge, I laid down a base banner of smoothie stripe washi tape. then I used some patterned paper to make the second banner. I stamped the main sentiment panel with the BERRY special sentiment in Cranberry ink repeatedly before adding the berry vine in Topiary ink. Then I dotted in a yellow border using the bullet tip of my Shin Han marker.

I inked each berry body in Hollyhock ink, then rolled it in Cranberry ink. My team plans to demonstrate this technique (amongst other things) at the Heirloom Pro show booths we are doing in Hillsboro, OR all day Saturday and two days in Puyallup, WA next weekend. It's one of my favorite solid stamp techniques. I topped off the berries with Topiary ink caps, and nestled some paper flowers around the berries. They are attached with Brads that I gave a quick coat of glitter polish. I like to stand my sanding block on one end and push my brads into the block to hold them while I paint on the glitter. Once they are dry I just pop them out!

I made a couple extra of these and stamped out the word TEACHER instead of Friend for our teacher appreciation gifts today. We feel very lucky to have such wonderful teachers working with our boys - they are BERRY special to us indeed.

Day 69: So Cool Card

I'm off to Seattle for the CTMH Making Connections Event! I was up late working on Heirloom Pro stuff and swap cards, and this is one of the cards I made while burning that midnight oil.

I was cruising Pinterest and I found this cutie little ice cream card by Kymona Tracey.  I thought of the June SOTM immediately, and within minutes I had this cute card completed on my desktop. I had a lot of fun shading the popsicles with my Shin Han Markers, and then I topped them off with some glitter gel. The sentiment is from the May SOTM.  

You can find a ton of May SOTM ideas on this month's blog hop. See ya back here tomorrow after I get home from Seattle!

Day 65: Have a Happy Day Card

Happy Monday! The sun is shining...the grass is green...it's like I woke up in a Disney movie today! In honor of Springtime actually being here, I've got a bright and cheerful happy day card for you.  

I loosely based my card on the CASE this Sketch #120. I went a little out of the bounds with my flower background behind the birdie. I hope you'll forgive me. Must be the sunshine!

Update: Check out this card by Lilian YF. She made this months before I made mine - freaky, right? I couldn't find it in my pins, but I pin a lot of stuff, so maybe I saw it somewhere and filed the inspiration away until I finally got around to using this set? In any case, she's got a fab use for that feather image in this set, so go check her super cute blog out!

 I colored the focal flower and bird with my Shin Han markers. Have you seen my quick tip infographic on alcohol marker blending? I use a lot of blender pen when working on these guys, I also used the bullet tip of my marker to add that dotty outline to the sentiment!

Hope you have a fabulous HAPPY day!

December SOTM Blog Hop

Good morning, Stamping Friends! I almost can't believe it, but it's time for the December SOTM blog hop! December's Stamp of the Month is a super adorable set of 11 cuppie themed stamps called Cutie Pie. If you've arrived here from DONNA'S BLOG, you're on the right path!

I've made two cards this last week with good intentions of getting them posted, but instead I had a bunch of acupuncture to help with the migraines that have been plaguing me for the past month or so. Blogging, laundry, and lots of other things slid to the wayside while I rested a bunch and worked on getting healthy. So this first card I'm sharing is based on a Retro Sketches sketch from last week.

 I masked and stamped the cuppies across the background cardstock, then colored them with my Shin-Han markers. I was inspired to try coloring them in candy colors by a instragram I saw from the ever fabulous Karen Pederson. I lightened mine up by stamping the cuppies in Blush ink (I know, it's not colorfast with the alcohol markers, but it worked well enough). I thought I was stamping and masking because I didn't want to be fussy cutting any little cuppies...

Then I saw last week's Mojo sketch and I thought, "oooh, that cuppie would be so cute popped up..." and we were off. I did my coloring and fussy cutting while watching Max play at the local children's museum. I masked the frame image from one of the Artbooking Cricut sets. Then I stamped over it with second generation lagoon ink to fill it the outer frame with cuppie outlines, I titled the frame banner image on Kraft CS for the background, and trimmed the card with a bit of Lagoon washi tape and sparkly baker's twine.

I'm linking up to the Heart 2 Heart No Rules Challenge. Next up on the hop is JILENA'S BLOG. I can't wait to hop through all 60+ SOTM ideas for this adorable set! If you are ready to get your set now, you can ask your consultant or CLICK HERE to order. Hope you had a happy Thanksgiving!  

Marvelous Marker Workshop Kit

Yesterday I shared this cute and simple little doggie card made with one of the new Hostess Exclusive stamp sets called Cuddly Salutations. Today I'm sharing a fun workshop kit to recreate this card series using the new Shin Han Alcohol Markers!

This sweet little card kit will have a card for each of the five adorable animals in the Cuddly Salutations Stamp set. Each card will focus on a different aspect of coloring with our new Shin Han alcohol markers. Please note I am not a super cool party people copic certified teacher - I'm just an inky pawed gal who loves to color with simple quick alcohol marker techniques. My goal is to make it look good fast without using 8 million markers...No fuss, just fun!

You can order a precut and prestamped basic kit with full color instructions that makes 10 gift sized cards for $15, and provide your own alcohol markers. Or you can take advantage of a limited time only I Want It All Kit for $45 that includes double the precut cards for extra practice, full color instructions, all five markers used, an Archival Black ink pad, and the adorable stamp set! We will be sharing the hostess rewards to achieve that goal, as it's only available to purchase for hostesses, so you must order the kit via Paypal instead of through my website. The I Want It All orders will be grouped for placement on the 15th of October and shipped to you by the end of October with all your goodies, including that hostess exclusive stamp set.

The I Want It All kit order will close October 15th, after which only the basic pre-stamped kit will continue to be available.  You can also optionally add the sweet new mini stapler I used to accent the cards, which staples with the teensiest wee baby staples ever! 

P.S.: Consultant Kits for this workshop are available HERE, including a new Volume 7 collection.

Marvelous Marker To Go Kits shipped right to your home!

(1) Basic Card Only Kit $15.00 USD (2) Basic Card Only Kits $25.00 USD (1) I Want It All Kit $45.00 USD (2) I Want It All Kits $85.00 USD Add the new Mini Stapler $14.00 USD

Comments

Retro Sketches Bear

As I was making yesterday's card I knew I wasn't quite done with that adorable bear. I saw the RetroSketches sketch for this week and I knew where we were heading next!

I pieced another combo, this time simplified to have just three layers instead of five like yesterday's post.  I stamped him twice in black, and once in cranberry to get his little scarf. 

I gave him bitty sparkle eyes, colored with a black alcohol marker. His nose is Liquid Glass for a raised and shiny look. I used a red alcohol marker to color an old grey button and a random sparkle gem for the center of a glitter button, all of which I had just hanging around in my stash bin, Finally I ran an array of mini staples across the bottom of the card. I'm kind of still on the fence about the staples...sometimes when I look at it I LOOOOVE it... and sometimes I think I went too far. Oh well, one more adorable gift card holder done!

Joy, Love, and Laughter

I'm so excited, because tonight is my monthly team meeting. I love the evenings when my team is here! We will stamp this card together tonight, using next month's Stamp of the Month (SOTM) called Poster Tidings.  I used the new sketch from Retro Sketches to get my creative juices flowing. I wanted a fresh color combo for my holiday card, since I'm linking this card up to the Moxie Fab Holiday Card Challenge, and traditional red and green didn't seem like it was cool enough for Moxie Fab. Then I saw this color combo over at ColourQ, which was not meant to be a holiday color combo, but I knew it would be fab for my modern snowflake card idea! I used Dutch Blue, Lagoon, Pear, Chocolate Distressing, and White Daisy for my ColourQ colors. 

I did some creative inking of my chevron In The Background image by swiping my Dutch Blue pad lengthwise along the chevron image, which adds a lot of texture to the stamped image. I did a similar motion when I was inking the Poster Tiding stamp. It's all one big stamp, so first I inked and swiped the Pear across the center of the image. Then I inked and swiped Dutch Blue at the top, slightly overlapping the Pear Ink. I did the same thing at the bottom third with Lagoon Ink. Finally, I huffed warm air all over the image and stamped it onto White Daisy CS. A quick scissor trim gave me a ton of adorable little banners, which I inked on the edges with Chocolate Distressing ink. I popped up my main sentiment pieces with Foam tape, and added a Green Glitter Paper Artbooking cut snowflake. I topped off my snowflake with a sparkly faceted gem and a row of Sparkles that I lightly colored with a blue alcohol marker.

My "Stampin' Ladies" (as my boys call them) should be arriving in another couple of hours, so I'm going to get to work on my SOTM Blog Hop post project for later this week, since we spent the morning goofing around at the Zoo. Hope you're enjoying the last of your summer, too!

Dakota Pages for Scrapbook Club!

Good afternoon, ladies! I meant to post this yesterday for my Monthly Memories Club gals, but was feeling a little under the weather. So no pics got added (sad!) but I'm feeling much better (glad!) and I'm posting as is (phew!) On the first two pages I used the Foil My StickEase to make the faux "bows". I also used a Twilight Alcohol marker to tint the resist pattern on my Houndstooth Irresistibles Alphabet, making my letters Blue and Black! 

I used patterns from the new Make It From Your Heart book for all the pages, which I am so LOVING!!  One of our favorite things to say around my boy-infested home is, "There's no extra charge for awesomeness." Make It From Your Heart sure proves that! So much awesome tucked into one $7.95 book! For this second set of pages I embossed stars in the background (which is black distressed with Black ink, but I pumped up the contrast to bring out the shiny stars). 

Finally, I stamplifted one of the actual samples from the Make It From Your Heart book but twisting it to fit my Dakota papers. The original had rainbow colored banners and  hand stitched clouds - as in every cloud was stitched all the way around the edges. We just went to the State Fair (ONE FAIR DAY, lol) and this year for the first time the boys rode this suspended chair ride that s...l...o...w...l...y... drifts across the fairgrounds. Of course, my train obsessed boys insisted on calling it the air tram. I'm planning an 8x6 Photo Collage of all the random fair pics (including tractors, an actual tiger, and a great big pickle) on the left and the awesome "air tram" pics for the right page. 

My clouds are not stitched...yet...I'm holding back for now! I did stamp them with third generation Slate ink using the swirly flourish in the Dakota Stamp set and added a glitter glitz "silver lining" to each cloud. I felt that the Dakota colors (and the Whisper Grey CS color) were a better fit for our typical Oregon weather. 

Although Gabe did say to me, completely earnestly just a couple of days ago, that something must be wrong with the sky. when we asked him why he explained, " 'Cause there aren't any clouds. The sky is supposed to have clouds!"  So John and I may be transplants, but our boys are Oregonian through and through!

Catch ya back here tomorrow to post the Friday Favorite Things Alcohol Marker Give-away. Good luck, and may your sunny summer skies be full of clouds. Just the way they should be!

September SOTM Blog Hop & Friday Favorite Things!

Welcome to our CTMH Stamp of the Month Blog Hop!  We will be featuring September's SOTM, which is called Fall Favorites, a homey, country tribute to fall with 11 stamps.  If you have come here from HELEN'S BLOG, you are on the right path! She also has a list of all the hoppers if you get lost. This month we have over 60 Close To My Heart Consultants sharing their creations using this month's SOTM (and other great CTMH products) on their blogs. Hopping is simple to do - just click on the link at the end of the post on each blog to move to the next one! Here we go!

This month I used a beautifully simple sketch from Retro Sketches to create my project. this set screams scrapbook to me, so I wanted to stretch and see what I could do that's not super Fall/Pumpkin Patch. I used a bit of the Woodgrain B&T from the new Dakota Paper Packet - I could buy a million sheets of this! I inked just the sunflower portion of the scarecrow image using my Whisper Pigment Ink square and colored it using my new Alcohol Ink Markers in Sweet Leaf, Goldrush, Honey, and Autumn Terracotta and Juniper (for a touch of blue in the grass at the bottom). Then I stamped my sentiment (from the National Stamping Month Special stamp set) in Autumn Terracotta Pigment ink over top of my frame image. I love how quickly these vibrant pigment inks dry!

My fancy frame is an Art Philosophy shape that comes in two layers, so I applied Almond Glitter Glitz all around the skinny outer layer. I trimmed a strip from the center of the fabulous new Burlap Ribbon and tied on a hemp bow. Did you know we can separate our hemp into strands pretty easily? I love the look of it all shredded apart and tied into a bow!

Now "Hop" on over to LISA'S BLOG to see her amazing work or scroll down for our Friday Favorite Things giveway for this week! Be sure to visit all the Consultants Blogs to soak in the great crafting and SOTM ideas! Remember, this SOTM can only be harvested until the end of September!  Contact your CTMH Consultant (or click here) to see how you can get this stamp set for just $5 - and get your National Stamping Month Special Set too!!

I got really busy last week with canning, so I did not blog much,and I really missed y'all! So this week's Friday Favorite Things giveaway will be something I've been spending a lot of time with - a set of the new CTMH Alcohol Markers! Did you catch my tutorial on Alcohol Marker Blending?

If you win, I'll email you for your color choice and send you a 2 marker set of these fabulous new pens. They come in a two pack for less than the cost of one of those other, more famous alcohol markers, and color like a dream! Be sure to enter using the Rafflecopter below - each week's giveaway is a separate contest, and the winner is picked by the Rafflecopter widget.!

I'm also linking this card to 52 Card Pickup!

Good luck - and don't forget to hop onto LISA'S BLOG when you are done entering to win!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Alcohol Marker Blending & the next giveaway!

I am off to Bend this weekend, and here's the swap card I did for my upline's fab team meeting. I used yet another completely adorable sketch from Freshly Made Sketches - I love their style! I also chose my colors from the new Play Date Cafe Color Challenge, so for me that's Autumn Terracotta, Honey, and my new favorite neutral, Slate. 

I used my It's Your Day National Stamping Month special set and my shiny new CTMH alcohol markers to add the stripes to my beloved Shimmer Tape. I stamped the tape with the bold strip image using a light pigment ink to mark the stripes, then colored it with my Honey (bottom) and Autumn Terracotta (upper stripes) markers. You can see that the top stripe is darker, and for that I just colored the striped three times instead of once to layer on the additional color. How fun is that?

The main sentiment image is from one of the Cricut Artiste coordinating sets. I inked it in Slate ink, then stamped it onto the Dotty background image from It's Your Day to add the texture before stamping it onto White Daisy CS. Of course, I couldn't resist adding that little giggly [Tee-Hee] to my Hello bubble. [Tee-Hee]

Like my new Infographic? Pin me to win!

I used some tips from this fab You Tube video by Aimee Noel  when shading my butterflies for this project. If you are new to Alcohol Markers, watch the video. I learned that we need to shake the markers before coloring! I added three or so layers of color to each butterfly, using both Autumn Terracotta Markers and the Honey Marker to shade them. Each time I added color I used the lightest color as a blending pen to smooth the color across the image. When I was happy with the shading, I stamped over the top with the scripty corner image from the Scroll WOTG using Sunset Pigment Ink. I used the Autumn terracotta Marker to color in my plain sparkles as well, changing them to a soft coordinating orange glow!

And since I'll be in Bend this weekend, I probably won't be blogging much, so I thought I'd better announce the next Friday Favorite Things giveaway today! I'll be giving away a brand new C1511 Love Blooms Stamp set for one lucky Stamping Friend next Friday. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

That's it for me, as I've got a 6:30 a.m. carpool to Bend...hope you have a giggling good time this weekend - I know I will! [Tee-Hee]