Thursday, July 31, 2008

A Very Hanna Halloween

Can you believe it's the end of July already?! Boy - this summer sure has flown by!! I suppose it's about time to start making those Halloween card though, huh? Hanna Stamps is releasing an AWESOME Halloween mini-set tomorrow (Aug. 1st) - I have a couple of previews for you to check out tonight - I made these in conjunction with the challenges going on over at the Hanna Stamps release party tonight...the first challenge is a sketch challenge and what a cool sketch it is - you can check it out here - http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=368876 - Frances did a great job on this sketch! I hope you will play along with the release party challenges - you could win one of the new sets!! Here is my card for the sketch challenge - I used the new scarecrow image from the Halloween mini-stamp - I love this guy!! I had a blast coloring him - I used my Copics plus I did a little colorless blender work on his overalls to give them a washed-out faded effect. The second challenge of the night is to make a card using scallops - I LOVE scallops!! I went crazy with my circle nestibiltiies on this card - I used the biggest scalloped circle nesitbilitie to make the card base and then just started layering from there. I always like to use a white gel pen to dot the scallops around my circle - I just like the little finished touch it adds. The bat is from the new Halloween mini-set - as is the sentiment and also the bat shadow image I used to stamp the white circle backround of my card.Thanks so much for stopping by - don't forget that all the sets you have seen previewed this week are available at http://www.hannastamps.com/ immediately following the release party tonight at 11 PM EST - have fun shopping - you are gonna LOVE these new sets!!

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Do the Hula with Hanna!!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful week!! I have another sneak peek for you today of one of the new Hanna Stamps sets being released this Friday - it's Luau Hanna!! Look at that skirt - isn't she a total babe!? I wanted to show off the cute little piggie stamp that is included in the Luau mini-set as well - this is a really adorable little set!! Both Hanna and the pig were colored in with Copic markers. I used a white gel pen to do the polka dots on Hanna's bikini and I put a dot of Liquid Pearls in the flower in her hair. The sand underneath her was done using the little sand stamp from the Route 66 Hanna Stamps set and the blades of grass were done with Copic markers. The sentiment is from the "Just What I Meant to Say" set. The background paper is from the Die Cuts with a View Summer stack. I added some raffia to the card as well to give it a little Hawaiian touch - the raffia actually came from a Hula skirt from a Luau party we had at my sister's house last year - I just cut little strips off the skirt - lined them up in the center of the card front and then put some strips of paper on top of them and machine stitched across the paper and the raffia. Thanks so much for stopping by - don't forget about the Hanna Stamps release party this Thursday night from 9-11 PM EST - there will be fun challenges and prizes - you could win one of the new releases!! Hope to see you there!!

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Look out Captain Jack...

...it's Pirate Hanna!! Check her out - isn't she awesome!? I am not sure Captain Jack Sparrow would stand a chance against Pirate Hanna!!

This is a sneak peek of the new Pirate Hanna set being released by Hanna Stamps this Friday, August 1st. Hanna was colored in with Copic markers as were the brads in the center of the flowers - I altered my little silver brads with a Copic marker to match my card. The paper is from the Die Cuts With a View Old World stack and if you look closely on the red background - you can see I stamped the background with a French Script background stamp. I machine stitched a little path to the "x" at the top of the card - which I added some bling to with my Burgundy Stickles. The flowers are Primas and I used a Cat's Eye Chestnut Roan Chalk Ink Pad for the inked edges. Be sure to check out the other Hanna Stamps Design Team members' blogs for more awesome sneak peeks of the new Hanna releases and I hope to "see" everyone at the release party this Thursday night over on the Hanna Stamps Members Forum on SplitCoast from 9 - 11 PM EST. Thanks so much for stopping by - check back for more Hanna sneak peeks tomorrow!

Monday, July 28, 2008

Teach! Inspire! A Hanna sneak peek...

Happy release week everyone!! It's that time again - Hanna Stamps will be releasing four new stamp sets this Friday, August 1st - two regular sized sets and two mini-sets and they are just to die for!! Here is the first sneak peek I have for you - it's Teacher Hanna!! Isn't she beautiful?? I think I used just about every stamp in the set for this card - LOL!! All of the little images above her are from the set - I colored them, cut them out and then popped them up on pop dots above her. The sentiments are from this set as well. I colored all the images on this card in with Copic Markers. The background paper is from the Die Cuts with a View Grade School stack (I am in love with this stack!) and I used the Cuttlebug Numbers Embossing Folder to emboss the circles behind the image. Here's a close-up pic so you can see how I did all those images above her...
I just fell in love with this set when I saw it - when I was little - I wanted to be a teacher when I grew up and I used to drag my little brother all over the house forcing him to play school with me when we were little - LOL!! I was a pretty bossy little teacher too - but hey - I taught him how to read before he went into Kindergarten so he got something out of it too, right? Hee hee...those were the days, weren't they? I hope you enjoy all the Hanna Stamps sneak peeks this week - be sure to check the other Hanna Design Team members' blogs for more sneak peeks as well and I will have some more for you this week here as well. The release party is this Thursday night (July 31st) over on the Hanna Stamps Members Forum on Splitcoast Stampers - hope to "see" you there! Thanks for stopping by!!

Sunday, July 27, 2008

What a fun day at Papertrix!

Happy Sunday everyone!! Hope everyone has had a wonderful weekend! I had such a fun day today at Papertrix teaching my very first Copic class - wow - can I just say that I am going to love teaching? I had a great class today - 6 very wonderful ladies came to take my class and we had such a great time! I do hope I didn't overwhelm them with too much Copic information today - it was a Beginner Copic class - I taught them basic coloring and then a couple of beginner blending techiniques. We talked about the Copic Color System and what all those letters and numbers on the markers mean. I taught them a little about the colorless blender and then about what inks and papers to use. They left the class with 3 finished cards - I did all the paper cutting and stamping of the images in their card kits - so we could really focus on coloring the images well and then putting them on the cards was just the icing on the cake! Here are the cards we made in class today...I used the "But I Need It" Hanna stamps set for this card - this was a great image to learn how to do even coloring and then a little shading as well - there is so much area on her dress to color in. We were also able to talk about things like coloring lips, skin, cheeks, eyes, etc. with this image. We did some paper piecing on a couple of her bags (which they LOVED) using paper from the Die Cuts with a View Glitter stack. The sentiment on this card is from the "Things Hanna Would Say" set.We used Hula Sophie G for this next card - I taught them lots of cool techniques with this image. We did basic marker to marker on paper blending - but we did some tip to tip blending work on the flowers in her lei. We did a little work with the colorless blender as well on the sand and I taught them how to do the blades of grass using the Super Brush tip of the marker. The paper on this card is from the My Mind's Eye Magnolia stack and the sentiment is from the Hanna Stamps "Just What I Meant to Say" set.This third card went over really well. I used the biggest scalloped circle nesibilitie to create the acutal card and then just did a lot of layering with the circle nestibilities. I used a bird from the Penny Black "Fresh New Day" clear stamp set for the main image and the sentiment is from the "Things Hanna Would Say" set. I did more marker to marker on paper blending with this one and we did some halo work around the bird with the colorless blender. I also showed them how to alter objects with the Copics - the little dew drops in the center of the flower were clear and we used a dark purple Copic to color them to match the paper - this was another very popular trick!

Overall - the class went really well today and Cindy and I are already making plans for the next class. I am going to check my oldest son's school schedule - but the current plan is that I will be teaching another Beginner Copic class in August and then we think we may add an Advanced Class in September - so as soon as I have info on my upcoming classes at the store - I will be sure to post them on here. Thanks so much for stopping by and be sure to check back tomorrow - it's that time again - sneak peeks for the August Hanna Stamps releases start tomorrow - which will be released this coming Friday - August 1st. And let me tell you - you are going to LOVE these new releases - they are fabulous!!!

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Wish me luck!!

Hope everyone is having a great start to their weekend!! I wanted to pop in and post really quick and apologize for my lack of projects lately - between vacation and CHA - I haven't had a lot of time to stamp. Plus - I have been preparing all week for my first Copic class that I am teaching tomorrow at Papertrix - I am going to be teaching basic coloring and shading with Copics (with a few little tricks thrown in) and we will be creating 3 finished cards in the class - so I promise to come back tomorrow and post pics of the cards from my class and let you all know how it went. Please wish me luck though - I haven't taught a class since my days at Gymboree - and well - that was to toddlers and their parents - LOL!! I am a smidgen nervous - but excited too! Oh - and I'll have sneak peeks for the August Hanna Stamps releases starting on Monday - so check back for those too - it's gonna be an exciting release! Have a great weekend and I will be back tomorrow afternoon with pics from my class!! Thanks for stopping by!

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Adventures at CHA!

Happy Wednesday!! OK, OK, so I know this post is a little late - but better late then never, right? LOL!! I was going to post this over the weekend - but the weekend got crazy - then I decided to post it yesterday and well...yadda, yadda, yadda - it's just been crazy getting caught up around the house from being gone for so long - which included a trip to the grocery store with my 2 boys yeseterday - thank God for TV Carts is all I can say!! ;) So anywho - I am glad to be able to get some time this afternoon to blog about my wonderful and AMAZING experience at CHA! After spending last Wednesday in the Copic Certification class - I was so lucky to get to spend Thursday afternoon and all day Friday with some of the awesome Hanna Stamps ladies - here is a pic of Kristi Ferro (our fearless leader), Vicki Garrett (our design team coordinator), and I in front of the Hanna Stamps booth - isn't the booth amazing?? It was so exciting to see all the stamps and cards from the design team displayed like that - it reminded me how lucky I am to be able to work around such inspiration on this team!! I can't say enough about Kristi and Vicki - they are both AMAZING - I loved working for Kristi already - but after I met her - OMG - I love working for her even more - she is the real thing - I just love her SO much!! And Vicki - not only is she incredibly sweet - but she is an absolute riot - I SO want to go to Canada and hang out with Vicki - she is the bomb!!! I had SO much fun hanging out with these gals - I was so sad to have to leave on Friday!! :(
I also got to meet Bev Gerard (TexasGrammy on SCS) - OMG - Bev is the best - she has got to have the biggest heart on the planet and is incredibly talented to boot - if you are reading this Bev - I am so honored to have gotten to meet you and hang out with you - I can't wait until we can all get together again!!! I got to hang out and meet Sherry Cheever (AKA BadSherry) and Jeanne Streiff too - WOW - I was so honored - not only are these two SO uber-talented - but they are a hoot!! I can't even tell you how excited I was to be able to meet all these gals from the Hanna Stamps team - it was really the best part of CHA!!

Oh - and yes - of course it was exciting to see all the new products!! As some of you may know - I am a huge fan of my Cricut machine - it's my #1 all-time scrapbooking tool - so you can imagine my excitement getting to spend some time at the Provocraft booth at CHA checking out all the new cartridges and accessories coming out for the Cricut! I LOVE the Disney cartridges - they are my favorite cartridges - I am probably a glutton for punishment but I love piecing the characters together -so I was so excited to see more Disney cartridges coming out this Fall! Even though I have two boys - I was thrilled to see the new Hello Kitty and Tinkerbell carts! I was even more thrilled when I saw the Sesame Street cart coming out - these cuts are adorable!! And then if it was possible - I was even MORE excited to see that they are coming out with a Disney Pixar Cars cartridge - OMG - YAY!! This is one of our all-time favorite movies - the boys love the cars and I love the scenery in this movie - the recreation of the Route 66 feel was just amazing - this is definitely the first new cartridge I will be buying when they are released this fall! Here is a pic at the Provocraft booth - Vicki and I posed with Cricut and Cuttlebug - aren't they adorable?? They were so nice and posed for a couple of pics with us - and boy those costumes looked hot! These guys wearing these were real troopers!!
Here is a pic of the Friday make-n-take from the Provocraft booth - what a make-n-take, huh? I actually had to come home and finish it - there was such a long line for this project and I wanted to give someone else a turn - so I decided to take mine home and finish. Just look at those Sesame Street cuts - I am SO buying this cartridge!!
I just had a ball walking the floor on Friday and seeing all the new product coming out - it gave me a better idea just how broke I was gonna be this Fall - LOL!! I stopped by the Ranger Booth and got a chance to see the new Designer Stickles coming out - the Distressed Stickles look awesome! One of the gals at the booth described them as having a more matte glittered look - sort of like the look of antiqued glitter that has been aging for awhile - sounds cool, doesn't it? Die Cuts with a View has a new Sweet Stack coming out which is so pretty - it's done in browns and pastels with cupcakes and other sweets printed on it - VERY cute! I stopped by the Stampendous booth to see the new Changitos and other stamps coming out - the Christmas Changitos are to die for and there is a new clear Pirate Changito set coming out that I will be stalking Archiver's for - LOL!! The Imaginesce booth was very cool - the new Halloween and Christmas stamps and papers are so cute! Rusty Pickle was a cool booth - not only lots of great new product - but they had a chocolate fountain at their booth - how cool! Penny Black has some beautiful new Christmas stamps coming out that I am excited about. The Spellbinders booth was directly across from the Hanna Stamps booth - which was very cool - I love their products and the new Nestibilitie shapes look very neat! The Copic booth was just awesome - Marianne Walker and Debbie Olsen were giving demos when I stopped by and the Copic eye candy was just to die for - OMG - all those Copics in that booth - I was like a kid in a candy store - LOL!! I literally could just go on and on - it was just an amazing experience - thanks to Kristi, Vicki, and all the Hanna Stamps ladies for such a wonderful time!!

Monday, July 21, 2008

Christmas in July!


Happy Monday!! Hope you all had a wonderful weekend! I had such an amazing time at CHA this past weekend and I have some pics to share - I promise I will do a blog post about my CHA experience - I am still soaking it all in - so as soon as I get my pics re-sized and my info organized - I will share will all of you! :) I have spent the morning trying to get caught back up from being out of town for almost a week - I got back Friday night from CHA and we were up again on Saturday morning driving out to my sister's house for a family gathering - so I spent Sunday just relaxing and now we are back to "normal" life this morning - LOL!!

The card above is a card I made for the Friday Hanna Stamps challenge over on SplitCoast Stampers - better late then never, right? ;) Frances (Stamp Owl) made this really awesome sketch for the challenge - which can be seen here - http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=364868 - and then also challenged us to made a Christmas card in July - what a great challenge! I had fun making this card - I used Perfect Package Hanna for the main image and practiced some of the new techniques that I learned in my Copic class when coloring her in. The bows are also from this set - I did the Paper Toile technique on them. I added some bling to the present and the bows using Stickles. I wanted to use ribbon for the bottom of the card - but didn't have any just plain old red ribbon - so I decided to use curling ribbon (out of my wrapping paper stash) instead to keep with the wrapping presents theme of the card. The sentiment is from a Hero Arts clear Christmas set I bought at Archiver's last fall - it's one of my favorite Christmas sentiments. The paper is from the Die Cuts With a View Christmas glitter stack. Thanks so much for stopping by - be sure to check back tomorrow - I am gonna work on my CHA post tonight!

Thursday, July 17, 2008

I'm Copic Certified!

Greetings from CHA!! OMG - what an experience this is - I am having an absolute blast up here in good ol' Chicago! My CHA experience started yesterday with my Copic Certification course - and WOW - it was truly one of the most fun and informative classes I have ever set thru. The fabulous and insanely talented Marianne from Copic taught the class and I have to say BIG BIG BIG thanks to her for sharing her knowledge and love of these markers with us - not only is she extremely knowledgeable about Copics - but she is an absolute riot - so BIG thanks to her for a wonderful experience! The class was technique driven - we learned so many different blending techniques and you truly begin to see just how much you can do with Copics. I thought it may be fun to share some of the images that I colored in the class yesterday so you can see the techniques we learned about. This first image is a Whipper Snapper stamp I colored in class - this is some shading done with marker to marker on paper - Marianne taught us the key to nice even color is to really saturate the paper with the marker by coloring in small circles and keeping your edges wet - this will give that nice even color. To do the shading - go back in with a color 2-3 shades darker and put in your shadows - then go back in with your original base color and blend two shades together. The halo around my little Boo Boo bear was me playing with the Colorless Blender...

Here's a Penny Black image I did with the same marker to marker blending technique - and notice the little bit of sparkle on the flower leaf and stem - that was done with a Copic Spica glitter pen - OMG - LOVE these!!!

One of my favorite blending techniques we learned in class was this feathering technique - I LOVE this technique - it's done with 2 different colors - you start each color on opposite ends and then feather them together - I am describing it terribly - so I will show you some images I did using this technique and if you want more info - Marianne has a entire post about it on her blog (http://www.ilikemarkers.blogspot.com/) - here's another Penny Black - I did some feathering on the belly (pink into green) and then I did some feathering on the flower (yellow into pink)...
Here's an unfinished Hanna I wanted to share with you - I apologize I didn't finish coloring her in - but I wanted to show you the feathering I did with the orange and yellow on her towel - check it out - doesn't it look like flames??

Oh - and did I mention the goodie bag?? Copics galore!! Here's a pic of the goodies I got at the class - this is very exciting to me because there are some different Copics that I hadn't tried before - the wide marker is just too fun, LOVE the Spica Glitter pen - and they even gave us a couple of multiliner pens - I am VERY excited to have the black multiliner pen!


We also learned how to use the airbrush system (so now I can go home and really get the full potential out of mine). One of the most interesting parts of the class was learning about the colorless blender and all the fun things you can do with the colorless blender solution - Marianne does some very neat special effects with this stuff - she showed us a pic of a pair of burlap pants she had colored on one of her Manga characters that literally looked like real burlap - she had done it with a piece of burlap and the blender solution. We also did some altering on items like dew drops, flowers, etc. - basically just really emphasizing the fact that the ink in Copics is an alcohol ink and you can do all the same things you can with other alcohol ink. Overall - I would give the class 2 very enthousiatic thumbs up (I think that's from a movie - just can't think which one - LOL) - anywho - it's an AMAZING class - well worth the money and the trip up - I can't wait to get home and try out all these fun techniques!!

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

CHA or Bust!

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!! I thought that since I don't have any cards to share today - I would share some pics from our vacation this past weekend to Frankenmuth, Michigan - these are my cutie-patooties posing for some pics around town - we had such a wonderful time - it was so incredible to spend such an amazing weekend together as a family!! Here is a pic of my two boys posing in front of the Cass River - we had a great view of the river from our room at the Bavarian Inn - you could walk out onto our patio and watch the birds and the riverboat go up and down the river - it was really neat!!Here's another pic with the giant Santa outside of Bronner's...
And one more pic of the boys on the Bavarian Belle Riverboat - they LOVE this boat ride!
I probably won't have any cards to share with you for the rest of the week either because I am CHA bound this afternoon!! WOO HOO!! This is my very first trip to CHA and I am just busting at the seams with excitement! The kids and I are leaving later this afternoon and heading to South Bend, Indiana - where they are gonna spend a few days at Grandma and Grandpa's while Mommy has some CHA fun - LOL!! I am getting up first thing in the morning and heading into Chicago for the Copic Certification class being held tomorrow - then I am gonna stay Thursday and Friday to take in a little CHA - so check back this week - hopefully I will have some fun pics to share with you all from CHA!

Friday, July 11, 2008

Adventures in Acetate


Hope everyone has had a wonderful week!! We are in beautiful Frankenmuth, Michigan for the weekend - hopefully by the time you are reading this we will be Christmas shopping at Bronner's! Here is my card for the Friday Hanna Stamps challenge over on the Hanna Stamps members forum on Splitcoast. The challenge this week is to use acetate on your card - and what a challenge it was for me!! I used acetate for the front of my card - I cut a piece down and then stamped the bouquet from the Hanna Stamps Bridal set in moonlight white Brilliance ink onto the acetate piece - that was the tricky part!! I messed up on a couple of pieces of acetate - my stamp kept sliding all over the place - I finally steadied my hand and got some good images on this particular piece! The main image on the card is the Bridesmaid from the Bridal set - she is colored in with Copic markers and I added some Stickles to her as well. I added the "Thank You" sentiment from the "Things Hanna Would Say" set - I figured this would make a pretty card that a Bride could give to her Bridesmaids - it's so versatile too - just change the colors to coordinate to your wedding! The ribbon is from Hobby Lobby as is the pink cardstock. Thanks for stopping by - have a wonderful weekend everyone!!

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Trying something new...

I always love browsing thru the daily challenges over on SplitCoast - there is a lot of inspiration in the challenge galleries and I love seeing all the new techniques and card sketches that the gals over on SplitCoast come up with...so...I thought I would bite the bullet today and play along with today's sketch challenge - SC184!! It's a very cool sketch - you can view the challenge thread with the sketch in it here...http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=362331 - here is my card for the challenge...



I used Campfire Riley for my main image and colored him in with Copic markers - I also added Stickles to his little fire. The background is handstamped using some little stamps from a couple of the recent Studio G clear $1 stamp sets from Michael's - I love these little stamp sets and I always use the sentiments in them - so this time I decided to use some of the other great little stamps in the set too. I used the same stamps for the images in the little squares as well. All images in the background and the little squares were colored with Copics as well. The sentiment is from the "Things Hanna Would Say" set and cut out with circle nestibilities. The flowers are Primas. Thanks so much for stopping by!!

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

A Blog Award!

Check it out - the oh so sweet and incredibly talented Deb - gave me this blog award...




Check out all of Deb's wonderful creations on her site - IttyBitty InkSpots - here's the link..http://ittybittyinkspots.blogspot.com/ Now the rules state that I have to nominate 7 other blogs for this award - ohmigosh - I am not sure I could pick just 7 blogs to nominate - there is just SO much inspiration out there - so in the spirit of the award - I am gonna bend the rules a bit and nominate all of my fellow Hanna Stamp Design Team members!! The reason for this is that before I was a member of this extraordinary team - I was a Hanna Stamps customer who would stalk these ladies blogs like you wouldn't believe - counting down the days until their sneak peeks of the new releases - these ladies are not only inspirations - but enablers as well - LOL!! I am truly blessed to be part of this amazing team - I love working with all of them - big "MWAH's" to all of you!!

Oh - and I am going to go ahead and give an Honorary Blog Award to my dear friend - Jennifer - who does not have a blog - but should - she is an extraordinarily gifted and talented scrapbooker and cardmaker whose blog would most definitely be award-worthy!! ;)

Thanks for stopping by - and big thanks to Deb for the blog award!!

Monday, July 7, 2008

Samples for Papertrix

Hope everyone is having a great start to their week! I spent this morning trying to finish up my last couple of sample cards to send down to Papertrix - if you are ever in the Nashville/Brown County area - you MUST stop in and see this store. It is such an awesome little stamp store - and you should see all the lines that Cindy (the owner) carries - Hanna Stamp, My Favorite Things, Crafty Secrets, Stampotique, Lockhart, Penny Black, Cornish Heritage Farms, Judikins - the list just goes on and on...and last time I was down there - Cindy shared with me all the new lines she will be getting in soon and trust me - you will not be disappointed - she does a GREAT job keeping up with all the hottest trends in stamping too...Here is a Crafty Secrets card I made for the store - I used stamps from the "Coffee & Tea" set. I colored the teapot in with Copic markers and then cut her out using my circle Nestibilities. The teabag sentiement is also from this set - I stamped it - cut it out and then attached a little piece of white embrodiery floss to it for the little string. The paper is from a My Mind's Eye paper stack from Hobby Lobby and the ribbon is from HL too. I used the Fiskars Threading Water Punch for the scallops on the bottom. The felt flowers and buttons are by Making Memories.
Here is a My Favorite Things card that I made to send down as well - this is using the "How Sweet It Is" set. I colored her in with Copic Markers and then cut the image out and popped it up on Pop Dots before adhereing it to the background. I made the background for the image using my rectangle Nestibilities. I cut 2 same size rectangles out - one in the striped paper and one in the wood paper and then trimmed down the striped paper and adhered it to the wood paper to create a wallpaper and floor scene for her. The paper is from that same My Mind's Eye stack. The ribbon is Stampin' Up and the sentiment is from the "How Sweet It Is" set also...here's a close-up of the image so you can see the dimension...
I have a big box of samples to send down to the store - I will be sending her down lots of Hanna Stamps samples (of course) along with some more MFT samples as well - so be sure to stop by the store if you are ever in the area! ;) Hope everyone has a wonderful week - thanks so much for stopping by!!

Saturday, July 5, 2008

It's Country Western Day!

Well - not really - but you would think that it was by the look of the cards I have for you today - LOL!! I have this really pretty western inspired paper by Chatterbox and decided to pull it out and use it with these images...the first card is for the August My Favorite Things guest designer challenge over on SplitCoast stampers - they are some AMAZING entries already!! Since it's Kim's birthday this weekend (Happy 40th, Kim!) - the challenge this month was to make a birthday card - so this is my birthday card I made...I used the Punny Farm set from MFT for my card - I stamped three of the cows from the set - then masked them and used my Copic airbrush system to do the sky and the grass. I then went back and colored in the cows with Copic markers. I also used the "Moo" stamp from the set on the blue background of the card. The green flower is a Prima and the blue felt one is by American crafts. The sentiment is also from the Punny Farm set. The fence was cut with my Cricut and I took a close-up shot to show how the fence is popped up on Pop Dots. My second Western card I have for you today features my favorite little moose - Riley!! I LOVE cowboy Riley - the little arrow thru his hat just cracks me up!! I did some more masking work on this card - this is what happens when I get a roll of Eclipse masking tape - I can't stop myself from masking - it's just too fun - LOL!! The cactus stamp I used for the background behind Riley is from the Hanna Stamps Route 66 set. I used Copic Markers on this image as well. The sentiment on this card is from the "Thing Riley Would Say" set - I thought it would be cute to use with Cowboy Riley since he looks so tough - tee hee...thanks so much for stopping by - hope you are all having a great weekend!

Friday, July 4, 2008

Happy 4th of July!!

Happy 4th of July!! Hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday! Are you ready for some fireworks? We are - well - we will be when this rain lets up - we've got a rain-y start to our 4th of July - but it's supposed to clear up and we are in for a beautiful and cool night to watch some fireworks!!

This is my card for the Hanna Stamps Friday challenge over on Splitcoast Stampers - here is a link to the challenge - http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=360957 - the challenge is to use flourishes or doodles on your card - so I decided to use my Cuttlebug Swirls Embossing Folder for my flourishes on my card - I embossed the blue background and the red star. I thought the swirls background was perfect to go with that little curl on Super Riley - that little curl is the best and an awesome tribute to the original Superman!! ;) I colored Riley in with Copics and used my rectangle Nestibilities to cut him out. The sentiment is computer generated. The ribbon is from Hobby Lobby (one of my favorite rolls I have) and the little star brads are by Making Memories. Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope everyone has a wonderful and very safe holiday weekend!

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Cocktails Anyone?

Do you want to win the fabulous "Lazy Day" set from Hanna Stamps?? Then pop on over to the Hanna Stamps forum over on SplitCoast Stampers and participate in the July Release Party challenge! One lucky participant will be chosen randomly to win the new Lazy Day release from Hanna Stamps! How awesome is that!? The challenge is that you must create a card or project with an outdoor or summer theme. Here is my card for the challenge...




I used the Lazy Day set on my card - the main Hanna image is from this set as well as the table and the tray of drinks. The sentiment is from one of the new $1 Inkadinkado sets. The patterned paper is from the Die Cuts with a View Summer Stack from JoAnn's - and it's what really inspired this card - I just love those fruit slices and the colors in it! I used a small piece of it for the background paper and then cut one of the lemon slices out of it to hang on the edge of my card. I embellished the lemon slice with a couple leaves and some crystal Stickles. Thanks so much for stopping by this week and sharing release week with me!! Hope you all have a safe and wonderful 4th of July!!

Gnome Sweet Gnome


Here is one more sneak peek from me of the new Hanna Stamps sets before the big release party tonight over on the Hanna Stamps forum at SplitCoast. This little gnome is from the new Patio mini-set - and I am just in love with this little guy! The little mini-set he is in is so cute and I think you will see how versatile it can be too when it is relased after the party tonight! I stamped three of him - cut him out with my Nestibilities and then colored him in with Copic Markers. The sentiment is computer generated. The paper is from a My Mind's Eye stack from Hobby Lobby and the flowers are all Primas - I did the white polka dots on them with a white gel pen. Thanks so much for stopping by and don't forget about the release party tonight - 9-11 PM EST over on Splitcoast - there will be a fun challenge from one our our new design team members, prizes, contests, and the winner of the Anthony challenge will be announced as well - see you there!!

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Here Comes the Bride...

Isn't Bridal Hanna just beautiful?? I think she is one of the neatest Bride stamps I have ever seen! This is another one of the new Hanna Stamps sets being released this Friday, July 4th. The Bridal Hanna set includes her attendants as well - a flower girl and a bridesmaid - and they are both oh so cute - it's a perfect set for all those wedding card and project needs!

This card is one of those cards that is prettier in real life than in the picture - it's more sparkly in real life - I added drops of Stickles to her dress and earrings. I also did some decorative scoring with the Scor-Pal on the white background - but it's hard to see in the picture. Hanna was colored in with Copic Markers - I used the VERY cool tip that Marianne posted on her "I Like Markers" Copic Blog - http://www.ilikemarkers.blogspot.com/ - she did a great post on how to color in a "white" image - like a bride's dress - I used a Cool Shadow (BG10) Copic marker to go around the inside of her dress and veil and then went back over it with the colorless blender - I think it really makes the bride image pop! The sentiment is from an old clear Wordsworth stamp set that i have had forever - and the little charm is from Oriental Trading Company I believe (they were a RAK from a very dear friend). I did a little machine stitching around the image and some Cuttlebug embossing on the background - I used both the Swiss Dots and Paisley folders.

Thanks so much for stopping by!! And don't forget about the Hanna Stamps Release Party over on SCS this Thursday night - see you there!

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Ahh - the Lazy Days of Summer...

Don't you just love summer? This is our first summer vacation from school - my oldest son finished Kindergarten this past May - so we survived our first year of school and are now enjoying those lazy days of summer - and boy are we being lazy!! LOL!! I am not sure what is going to happen come mid-August when school gets started - back to alarm clock mornings and dragging kids out of bed...hmm...I think I'll just focus on enjoying summer for now!! ;) Anywho - I have another sneak peek from Hanna Stamps for you - this one is of Hanna enjoying those lazy summer days too...this is a card I did with the new "Lazy Day" set that will be released this Friday, July 4th - and boy - does she look cozy!!
The main image and the little bricks that form the patio her hammock is on are both from the Lazy Days set - all images were colored with Copic Markers. The sentiment is from a Stampendous stamp I got from Archiver's $1.99 Hot Spot bins - it's such a cute saying and I specifically got this sentiment with this Hanna set in mind. The background paper is from the DCWV Summer Stack - as is the little lemon slice that I placed on the edge of the circle - I just cut it out from a different sheet of paper from the same stack - pieced the leaves on and ran some Stickles along the edge to give it some sparkle. You can get this set at http://www.hannastamps.com/ on Friday, July 4th - and don't forget the big release party at the Hanna Stamps forum over on SplitCoast from 9-11 PM EST this Thursday, July 3rd - it's gonna be fun - challenges, contests, prizes, etc. - come join the fun!! Thanks for stopping by!