Lazy Weekend Coloring

I decided that I wasn't going to do anything today.  Ok, not nothing, but just fun stuff.  It was one of those Saturdays that doesn't happen too often, but I managed to avoid putting anything on the schedule that required me to leave the house, with the exception of a very quick trip to the grocery store.  

I saw a card on Pinterest as I was killing time earlier this week that used a Polaroid die and washi tape to create the front of the card.   I noticed it again this morning as I was looking through some challenge blogs.  So this was born.

I used the inspiration from the Muse challenge and went with the photo card and the keyword green from Addicted to CAS

My youngest thought the dinosaur was "so cute" and wanted to hug it.  I really liked how the card turned out.  It's amazing how much more I like the cards that come when I'm relaxed and just playing.  No pressure.  

I also added this to Kathy's 30 day color challenge at The Daily Marker on indtagram.  Go check it out.  She's pretty inspiring.

Have a relaxing weekend.

Wishing for Spring

I was scrolling through blogs looking at others amazing creations and I noticed a reoccurring theme.  Spring.  We've had a pretty interesting winter in my area; snowier than some, not as bad as Boston :).  They might still be digging out come 4th of July. 

The Simon Say Stamp Wednesday Challenge blog had the same idea.  Think Spring.  They had this very colorful idea board that led me to the Cherry Blossoms that will be blooming here soon.

So I went through my recently reorganized and re-sized stamp collection and found a stamp that looked similar to Cherry Blossoms.  I wanted to do some water coloring and just play. It's been one of those kind of weeks here.  This is what I came up with.

I washed the background with a very watered down blue from my water color set.  I stamped the flowers in staz on black and just started adding color.  I heat set it a few times so that I wouldn't end up with a muddy mess ;)  I thought about adding a third, but decided to leave good enough alone.  

Loving My Mama Elephant Stamps

I've been spending my time this week sewing a dress insert for my daughters dance, and of course, because of the weather we've been having, the dance is postponed.  I think I might need to improve my sewing skills if I'm going to stay sane in these projects.

Today, after I cleaned up the sewing mess,  I decided to relax and play in my craft room.  I made valentines for my kiddos last week and that got me excited again about the Mama Elephant stamps I have collected.  

 The one in the middle is the valentine.  The other two are the product of hiding in my cleanish craft room.  

I wanted a look of a sun set sky, so I used some yellow, orange, blue, and purple inks and a inking tool to add color to a piece of card stock.  I colored the super hero, from Mama Elephant's Tiny Hero's set with Copic markers. I fussy cut her out because I don't own the dies, yet.   The shape behind her, is a die cut I cut with my Cricut.  I stamped some extra stars and the sentiment and embossed them with gold embossing powder.  The sky line is a cut from the same Cricut cartridge.

This is one of the valentine's I made for my kiddos.  I used the same stamp set to make cards for teachers and the bus driver.   Have I mentioned that I think these are the cutest and the sentiments are awesome!

I don't own circle dies because I have a Cricut.  So I made this card background with my Cricut.  I stamped a background stamp over it roughly.  I didn't want it to look too perfect.  I think I should have used a pattern paper instead maybe.  The stamps are from Mama Elephant's Thinking of You stamp set.  I think if I'm going to make many round shaker cards, I might need to invest in circle dies though. Foam paper would have been way easier than foam tape to get around the circles! ;) I added some sequins, beads and stars from my stash to the shaker windows.

I'm in love with these stamp sets!

Not A Color Combo I Would Have Picked

In my blog reading and challenge looking this week I came across the Always Playing with Paper challenge.  It is a color combo/ sketch challenge and the colors intrigued me. Could I make a card with those colors that I likes? I decided to use the sketch too, just because.

The card came out better than I anticipated.  I did make an oops when I dropped the stamp on the image panel, but I used the sentiment to cover it up. No mistakes in paper crafting, right. 

Here is the sketch:

Thanks for looking!

Can it be Valentine's Day Time Already?

I made this card as a Valentine's Day card after I saw the challenge at the Addicted to CAS blog.  

The word "world" opend up some posibilities.  So I looked in my stamp sets and found this globe from the Stampin'  Up set, World Traveler.  The sentiment is also from a Stampin' Up set, Perfect Words.

The tone on tone stamping of the map background stamp was to give some depth.

I added a small heart covered with glossy accents.

Winter Birthdays

My family is huge. My husband and I both have lots of siblings and they have spouses and children.  But for some reason, January and February have the fewest birthdays. I do have a nephew with a birthday coming and colored this guy just for him.  

I used the sketch from the SimlyLessIsMore challenge for the layout.  

The image is from The Greeting Farm "Fuzzy Wuzzy" stamp set.

Back in the Saddle

My biggest problem in making cards for the men in my family is color.  It seems that on days like today when I'm looking for inspiration there is no color.  I wanted a masculine card that had color and I wasn't finding what I didn't know I wanted.  You know how that goes.  You're looking for something to jump start your creativity but don't know what you're looking for.

I decided to try a reflective technique.  I wish you could see it better in the photo.  in real life it looks just right.

  I stamped the ship in Memento black and then stamped it again on the plastic sheet of my stamp a ma jig in a blue green ink and before it dried, flipped in over and pressed it onto the cardstock with my finger tips.  It looked a little too crisp until I added the ocean colors.  I added some water color first and then, with an inking tool off my desk that had some blue green ink, without re-inking it.  I added some color to the sky the same way.

I added more color with copic markers; reds on the white parts and greys on the black parts.

I added the world map stamp on top with a light grey ink that I stamped off first.  I matted the stamped image on a piece grey card stock also stamped with the map set.  Then added them both on a red card front.