A quickie post!!

I have to work all day tomorrow, so I better get my butt to bed! I just wanted to post a couple of cards I've made today. One I love, one is "meh..."

This is the one I love... I didn't do the best job on the rolling hills (they're more like lumps...) but I just love the colour scheme. This is a scene made with a few different Technique Tuesday stamps.

This is the "meh..." card:

It's not horrible, it's just plain... I like the clouds, though.. I think this will be a great card for a birthday my son's going to next week! I used a brand-new quick card sticker for the sentiment.. It's being flaunted at CHA (Craft and Hobby Association.. the best trade-show ever!!) and I get to play with them now! 

 Okay.. bed time! Have a great day!

Ian....

No, not my husband, but cute none-the-less:

What did I tell you? Darling, isn't he? His name is Ian and he's from The Greeting Farm. And, if you think you spotted a new SRM Sticker, you're right! There's a new set of Express Yourself stickers for boys, (and one for the girls too.. I'll show that soon!) 

(click on the image to take you to the store)

Lots of great saying for cards and layouts for those men/boys in your life! Just too cute!

Stamps: the greeting farm

Paper: basic grey (purple), American Crafts (yellow trim), coredinations (green and yellow base), bazzill, pti

Ink: ranger - lamp black

Accessories: ribbon, srm sticker, copic markers, nestabilities

On a colour kick

While I was working at Clipper Street the other day I had a stack of Bazzill cardstock in my hand and I could not get the colour combo out of my head!! Three shades of a blue-green and three shades of olive swam around in my brain until I finally created....

And then I made a little notecard set with some Cutting Cafe goodies:

(just print the template out on cardstock, cut, score, voila!)

Then I made some cards with some long-neglected fish stamps:

Okay, I think the combo is out of my system, but MAN I love those colours together. Could they BE any prettier?? 

Stamps: whipper snapper, very punny, amuse (other fish) DRS designs (bubbles) PTI (fresh alphabet)

Paper: bazzill, pti

Ink: ranger - lamp black

Accessories: clear glass dew drops, ribbon, copic markers, nestabilities, srm stickers

Don't you just love summer??

Even though this is technically my "summer vacation" I am still working a lot. Almost every day... But I am able to steal away to do some great summer activities with the fam'. In the mean time, I have been crafting a little too... I've been trying out a few different styles, so stay tuned for some variety!!
Here are some projects that I've completed:

There you have it!

Cards 1&2:

Stamps: elzybells

Paper: melissa frances, MME, PT

Ink: melissa frances, MME, PT

Accessories: button (jenni bowlin), ribbon, copic markers, glitter, chipboard

Card 3:

Paper: crate paper, PTI

Accessories: tattered angels mist, MM Slice, eyelets, srm stickers

Card 4:

Paper: ep, bo bunny, pti

Accessories: ribbon, srm stickers

Card 5:

Stamps: whipper snapper, amuse

Paper: basic grey, pti

Ink: ranger

Accessories: flower soft card an accessory, flower soft, copic markers, MM Slice, button, ribbon

Prepare to be inspired.. and want to spend money

*thud... That's me on the floor. I want these soooooooooooooooooo bad! (I'm whining like my 8 year-old right now..) Aren't they gorgeous?? Click on the image to bring you to "Georgie Love." It's kinda like an Australian Etsy.. So awesome.. Anyway, I made this card based on the bangles:

Stamps: beautiful blooms (papertrey ink)

Paper: papertrey ink

Ink: ranger - lamp black

Accessories: srm sticker sentiment, buttons

A couple challenge cards..

A quickie post! I wanted to share a couple cards I've been working on...

Stamps: the cutting cafe

Paper: luxe designs, pti

Ink: (images printed on my printer)

Accessories: foam squares - a lot of them..

Techniques: colouring with copics

Stamps: elzybells, amuse

Paper: cosmo cricket

Ink: ranger - lamp black, memento - london fog

Accessories: glitter, pearls, copic markers, nestabilities

Christmas in July!! Phew!!! 

Take care!

Three Ways.... actually 5.

We're having a lot of fun this month as we dive into a Clean & Simple style. We challenge you to use stickers to create a card, layout, altered item (whatever you like!) with a Clean & Simple feel. Please provide your entry at the bottom of this post. The challenge winner will receive a SRM Stickers Prize Package along with an invitation to Design for SRM for the month of September. Please load up your creation(s) by the end of the month.

As a side-challenge, the DT were charged with the task of using the same sticker 3 ways.. This is how the story went:

So I was sitting at my craft table churning out some cards and I proudly sat back to show Ian (my husband) my same-sticker-three ways final product:

He said, "Oh yah! Those are cool, I like them!"

I told him, "We were supposed to use the same sticker three different ways!" 

Then he said. "Oh... well... You didn't really use the stickers 3 different ways, they kinda all look the same..."

After giving him the evil eye I said, "THEY ARE NOT THE SAME, THEY ARE DIFFERENT!!" and then looked at them again and realized they kinda do look the same.. hahaha.. 

So I made two more cards that make a totally different trio:

So now that I've used all of my Quick Cards "Love" stickers, I think I have proved a point: There are infinite uses for these darling little stickers...

*Check out today's blog post at the SRM Stickers Blog for a possible sneak peek of the new Quick Card stickers.. I've seen 'em, they're great! 

Library cards... so much fun. Really!!

I've been admiring some library card stamps lately and man was I thrilled that The Cutting Cafe came out with some in a variety of colours! Just open the PDF and print! Or, to do what I did: open the PDF in Photoshop, adjust the size and then print.

I printed the library card out on kraft cardstock, then stamped "Dad" with a couple letters from a Papertrey Ink alphabet set. My dear ol' Dad is turning 60 in a few days. My present for him is my talents as a chef and I will be "catering" his party. I cooked for his retirement party last year and all of his friends loved my food, so I hope to wow them again.. anyway..

Here's the card. I played along with today's Sketch Challenge at Splitcoaststampers..

The "Happy Birthday" is also from The Cutting Cafe. It came in a set called "Birthday Fun." 
Have a great day!

Stamps: Park Avenue Patterns, Everyday Alphabet (PTI), the cutting cafe digi stamps (happy bday and library card)

Paper: pti

Ink: ranger - lamp black

Accessories: foam squares

OD-ing on Embossing

Trying new techniques is like adding new tools to your proverbial belt. The "Technique Lovers Challenge" at SCS today challenged us to do embossing twice, any kind of embossing. So I chose to heat emboss, then dry emboss. This is one that is a little cumbersome, but the final result has that "wow factor," for sure. Here's what I did:

1. Stamp image on slightly patterned paper and colour with copic markers. 
2. Go over coloured areas with versamark pen and cover with clear embossing powder. Heat to set. (for those of you that don't know what that is, it's the stuff that makes it shiny)
3. Rub a little oatmeal coloured ink around stamped images. (Emboss resist technique)
4. Dry emboss whole panel with a cuttlebug folder to give it that tile-like texture. 
5. Heat embossing powder again to make it shiny. (it lost some of its luster when I dry embossed.. 

6. Finish it off with an SRM Sticker and you're done! 

Stamps: PTI "In Bloom"

Paper: crate paper, PTI

Ink: ranger - lamp black

Accessories: versamark pen, clear embossing powder, copic markers, PTI ribbon, SRM sticker

Having a little fun...

Did I tell you that while I'm on "summer vacation" from teaching I am working at Clipper Street, the store I teach the occasional card class at! Besides being hard on the feet and back from standing for 8 hours straight, I am loving working there. The customers at Clipper Street are like no others! I get to help with projects and "talk shop" and the working environment is relaxed and fun... It's a huge change from teaching, but it's exactly what I need. It's inspiring to be around all the pretty papers and "stuff," so when I got home from work tonight I sat down and starting on this little image.

Onto tonight's card... Sometimes having fun and experimenting while colouring yields wonderful and unexpected results. Case in point: the card I made tonight.. This paper I've been trying to love (Neenah Solarcrest white in 80lb weight) is a little weird when you take the blender pen to it. (I'm talking Copic marker language right now..) The colour gets eaten up and leaves little waves behind. Well, to cover the inconsistencies I dotted some medium/dark green around the image and HELLO! I LOVE it!!

Then... to be totally serendipitous, it goes perfectly with the patterned paper I'm using! yay. (that was a sarcastic yay, but really, I'm glad it worked out because I could never PLAN for things to go this well...)

Thanx for stopping by! 

Stamps: pure innoncence (from digistampcharacters on etsy, and sentiment by pink cat studios

Paper: crate paper, PTI

Ink: ranger - lamp black

Accessories: copic markers, twine, sticker by crate paper